whose food we eat, their song we sing

Tarlaji in the centre at the Felicitation of “Cooking at Home with Pedatha”

In March 1991, I wrote a letter to Smt. Tarla Dalal. By then, I was convinced that if angels have to be granted existence, she was one of them. I was then an ordinary housewife, a young 26-year-old woman struggling to find a self-identity within the four walls of the kitchen, since I spent the maximum time there, trying to get things organized for breakfasts, lunches and dinners for an extended joint family.

In that rather stifling scenario, her books were a breath of fresh air. I spent so much time with them that they turned greasy and yellow much before wisdom dawned that I better write down whatever I want to cook from them on a scrap of paper instead of using them while cooking. At home, everyone remained amused by my obsession with her books. Once, I was making tea for a many guests and the water was taking time to boil. Bored, I pulled Tarlaji’s “The pleasures of vegetarian cooking”, and leafed through it as I stood by the stove. My brother-in-law walked into the kitchen, looked at me by the stove with the book in my hand and exclaimed, “You are actually making tea from the book! ”

Always wanting everything precious to be recorded, including my thoughts, I penned down my gratitude to Tarlaji and actually posted the letter to her. Those were days when even photocopying was not such a common practice, hence I sent her a neat fair copy of my letter, keeping the rough one for my records. Years later, I keyed it into a file on my laptop. Here it is.

March 1991, Chennai
Dear Ms Tarla Dalal,
I am one of your most ardent fans and for quite a long time have had the pleasure of being known as a very good cook. However, the credit for this mist go to you because honestly speaking, I don’t do anything, other than follow the instructions from any one of those innumerable Tarla-Dalal-Heaven-Sent recipes. Your books are an eternal source of inspiration and contentment – I know this statement may seem unreal, but it is true. To cook well, serve well and be praised for the food one makes is the source of utmost happiness to any cook.
I am 25 years old and belong to a Marwari family. I was given away in marriage at the age of 20 when I was freshly out of college and had been so absorbed in my studies that I did not have any time to explore my culinary potentials. Luckily, extremely so, I received two of your books as a wedding gift and was saved by the miracle of your books. Your books became my bibles, so to speak, and inspired me to bring about a change in the usual style of serving. I started trying out your unusual recipes, served differently and presented quite unconventionally. For the last 5 years, I have hosted innumerable parties for groups of 20-30 people at a time and have been very satisfied with the results.
I am still dizzy from the excitement of a last night’s “Tarla Dalal supper” and the flow of compliments I have received!
Thank you, once again, madam for being a guardian angel in my life, and I’m sure in the lives of many others too. You are a blessing from above.
Respectfully yours
Pratibha Jain.

I always wrote letters to those who inspired me. Some of them include Linda Goodman, Hindi Novelist Shivani, actors Dharmendra and Meena Kumari, Cookbook author Smt. Chandra Padmanabhan and my best friend who broke up with me in school. But I never received a response. Therefore, when I received Tarlaji’s response, my joy knew no limits. For days I showed her letter to everyone who came home. I even framed it in a photo frame and kept it by my bedside. Just 4 simple lines saying she was happy to receive my letter, and that if I am ever in Mumbai, then she would be delighted to meet me. May be she responded to all her fan mail which speaks highly of her indeed! But this one was special…it was for ME.
Anyways, life moved on, and then one day I found myself authoring and publishing a cookbook along with my friend Jigyasa Giri. I felt like connecting with Tarlaji again. Here is the letter I wrote 15 years later:

Chennai, 30.01.06
Dear Tarlaji,
Warm greetings. Enclosed please find my letter to you dated way back in 1991. It has been retyped and therefore may appear slightly different from my original letter, but the content is exactly the same. I received your warm response within a few weeks which also I am enclosing herewith.
My admiration for you and love for your recipes has only enhanced over the years. The proof is the fact that I have preserved my one-time correspondence with you over such a long span of time. Your books were a tangible milestone in my journey of love for the culinary art, for cooking, for feeding near and dear ones…and today I am happy to present to you yet another milestone in this journey - “Cooking at home with Pedatha“, a cookbook co-authored by Jigyasa Giri and myself.
Hope you like the book, a product of love and affection for a senior aunt. If you have a little time, do visit our website www.pritya.com.
Also hope that like in 1991, I will have the honour of your response once again. Looking forward to your comments and suggestions.
With warmest regards,
Pratibha Jain
(94440-20011, pratibha@pritya.com)

Enclosed:
1. Cookery book “Cooking at home with Pedatha”
2. Letter from Pratibha to Ms. Tarla Dalal, 1991
3. Response from Ms. Tarla Dalal to Pratibha, 1991

She again responded immediately and sent us a lovely comment that we were honoured to print on the dust jacket of our book when it went into its second edition.

“A very well researched and aesthetically presented book. The recipes are easy and self-explanatory. A must buy for all food lovers.” Tarla Dalal

Pratibha, Tarlaji & Jigyasa

Later, she came to Chennai to attend a felicitation event organized by Karuna International when the book won the Gourmand Award. She shared two lovely days with Jigyasa and me. Her warmth continues to flow.

When I called her and told her about this website for tribute recipes, she was delighted with the idea. She sent us the following recipe as a tribute to her mother, who she says has always been her inspiration and from whom she learnt the art of cooking, serving & managing family.

TARLA DALAL’s MALAI PEDAS

- Makes soft 18 Pedas with a grainy texture

Ingredients
1 litre full fat milk
A few saffron strands
½ cup sugar
2 pinches citric acid
4 teaspoons milk
1 level teaspoon cornflour
¼ teaspoon cardamom (elaichi) powder

For the garnish
A few chopped almonds
A few chopped pistachios

Method
1. Boil the milk in a heavy bottomed pan, stirring throughout, until it reduces to half.
2. Warm the saffron in a small vessel, add 2 teaspoons of milk and rub until the saffron dissolves. Add to the boiling milk.
3. Add the sugar and cook for a further 4 to 5 minutes.
4. Mix the citric acid in 3 teaspoons of water. Add this mixture very gradually to the boiling milk until it curdles slightly. This may require anything from half to the entire quantity of the citric acid mixture.
5. Mix the cornflour in the balance 2 teaspoons of milk and add to the boiling milk.
6. Continue stirring till the mixture becomes thick and resembles khoya.
7. Add the cardamom powder and mix well. Allow to cool.
8. Shape into 18 small balls.
9. Place in paper cups, decorate with chopped almonds and pistachios and serve.

Thank you Tarlaji for the wonderful author and person that you are.

POSTED BY PRATIBHA

Being a Gujarati who married into an Andhra family, I just automatically turned to Mrs. Sarala Surya Rao, my father-in-law’s sister to learn the basics of Andhra cooking. She was ever willing to teach and quick at sharing traditional recipes. Sarala Athaiyya also happily sent me dishes after dishes in her tiffin dabbas. Recipes using easy contemporary methods, yet retaining the flavours of yester years. That’s the secret of her popularity with family and friends.

When years later, Pratibha and I wrote “Cooking at Home with Pedatha”, Sarala Athaiyya who is Pedatha’s younger sister was equally delighted and wrote the foreword to the book.
Year after year, when the season is right, and the tamarind trees are lush with new fruit, Sarala Athaiyya makes her special Kotha chintakaya pachchadi and sends it to us. Lip smacking and eye-wateringly spicy, it is simply delicious with plain rice

This is Sarala Athaiyya’s recipe:
Fresh, raw tamarind – 150-200 gms.
Sesame oil – 2 tbsps
Salt to taste

The 1st Tempering:
Mustard seeds – ½ tsp
Fenugreek seeds – ¼ tsp
Dry red chillies (optional) – 3-4
Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp
Asafoetida powder – ¼ tsp
Green chillies – 8-10
Fresh coriander leaves – 1 heaped tbsp, finely chopped

The 2nd Tempering:
Mustard seeds – ¼ tsp
Cumin seeds – ¼ tsp
o Wash the raw tamarind and scrape off the outer skin. Roughly pound the tamarind with a pestle so as to expose the seeds from within. Remove all seeds. (Once the seeds are removed, the quantity of tamarind should amount to 1 cup).
o In a wok, heat 1 tbsp oil for the 1st tempering. Pop the mustard and then add the fenugreek. With the browning of the fenugreek, lower the flame and add the red chillies. As they turn bright red, switch off the flame and stir in the turmeric, asafetida, green chillies and coriander leaves. Allow to cool.
o Grind this tempering into a coarse paste along with the tamarind and salt. Do not add any water as that will spoil the taste and consistency of the pachchadi..
o Heat the remaining oil for the 2nd tempering. Pop the mustard and then add the cumin. Switch off the flame as soon as the aroma of the cumin rises. Garnish the pachchadi with this crunchy tempering.
Serve with steaming hot rice and a dollop of ghee.

Sarala Athiayya says:
o Be sure to buy the tamarind when it first hits the market. Those will be the ones that are very raw and with hardly any seeds at all.
o Make sure that the tamarind is sour, otherwise the fenugreek will make the pachchadi bitter.
o The shelf life of this pachchadi is 3-4 days without refrigeration and 10-14 days with refrigeration.

Today is UGADI – The Telugu New year. Ugadi shubakankshalu - Warm wishes to all of you on this auspicious day of new beginnings. Today is also yet another beginning for me – my first tribute recipe as a blogger.
One of the first persons I want to pay a culinary tribute on this site for ‘Jihva for Love’ is Mrs. Sarala Surya Rao, my father-in-law’s sister. The tribute recipe is Ugadi Pachchadi, a befitting dish, since it signifies the importance of Ugadi and also since I learnt it from Sarla Athaiyya.

To stand tall and resolute like a candle in the wind we will learn from admirable Sarala Ammama…these words are from a poem my children, Avani & Arnav, wrote to honour the elders in our family.
By nature, I am not a very ritual oriented person, but on Ugadi day, I religiously make this Ugadi Pachchadi. Perhaps what Sarala Athaiyya told me many years back about what this pachchadi signifies caught my attention and stayed with me. Ugadi pachchadi is a combination of the six rasas as described in Ayurveda (shadarasa) – sweet, bitter, salt, sour, astringent and hot. It reminds us that life is a combination of good and bad, sadness and happiness, ups and downs and we have to take it all in our stride always.
What a beautiful way to remind ourselves on this first day of the new year about the natural law of life!

Sarala Athaiyya’s was barely 36 years old when her husband passed away. She had four young children to bring up all by herself! At that point, her father, Dr. V.V.Giri was the President of India. Her parents tried hard to convince her to stay with them at the Rashtrapathi Bhavan so that they could help her with the upbringing of her children. She simply said, “No, I want to bring them up my way, affording whatever I can.” From what I have heard and from logical inference too, this was not an easy task. Yet, when you look at her and speak to her you can only see a cheerful, strong and happy woman.

One can only be filled with inspiration and admiration in the presence of this beautiful human being. As one of my friends commented about her, “ She is like a majestic lioness.” In another post, I would like to talk about her children, each one of them wonderful, successful and simply the most witty and loving people I have met.
Stunning even at 75, Sarala Athaiyya is truly dear to me. We share the same birthday on June 1st. She is a true Gemini, with her quick silver charm and witty conversations. She is unintimidated by the ups and downs of life, straightforward in her approach to any situation. Aptly therefore, we call her a candle in the wind.
So do make your Ugadi Pachchadi today and feed a pinch or two to all your near and dear ones. Ugadi Pachchadi, unlike any other, can only be eaten in pinches. Every ingredient has rich medicinal value too. Here is the simple recipe:
You will need:
Tamarind pulp – 1 tbsp
Powdered jaggery – 2 tsp
Fresh neem flowers – 2 tsp
Raw mango – 2 tsp, chopped into small bite-size cubes
Green chilly – 1tsp, chopped fine
Salt to taste

Mix all the ingredients together and place in a bowl.
Tip: You can add 1-2 tsp of bite-size pieces of ripe banana and sugarcane to this Pachchadi as these fruits also signify the new harvest crop.

First of all, kudos to Indira not just for hosting a fabulous blog, but also for inspiring many of us to do so. It was her constant encouragement coupled with the enormous void we felt with Pedatha’s passing away that led us to thinking of a culinary tribute in Pedatha’s memory.

JFI or Jihva for Ingredients is a beautiful concept by Indira started on her blog. Online culinary events create strong frames of references among food bloggers. It has been a pleasure to see the enthusiasm and participation on these innumerable blogs. A virtual space where affection is so real. It is tough to believe that we have never met many of them (Indira, have we really not met ) whom we consider such good friends today.

It is fascinating to note the similarity of sound between the words Jihva & Jiva. The former means palate and the latter means life. Jiva in most philosophical schools refers to the embodied soul or self while also meaning ‘life.’ When the prana or life breath leaves the body, it is said, “The jiva has left (the body)”. Since there can be no life without food, Jihva and Jiva have a factual connection. It may be said that of the five sense organs, the jihvendriya (the sense organ of taste) is indispensably related to living because one can continue to live without seeing or hearing, but none can live without food.

We are glad to pay a tribute to Pedatha with JIHVA for May 2008. Pedatha’s birthday is on May 2nd, so the special ingredient we have chosen in her memory is that without which no food can be relished and cherished - Jihva for love. We have chosen this ‘love’ as an ingredient although it is completely non physical, but is still the very soul of cooking. This is the reason why it is believed that when food has been cooked with pure thoughts and loving feelings, its consumption purifies the one who consumes it. As Pedatha always said, “If you cook with love, you cannot go wrong.” It is a necessary and irreplaceable ingredient. You can replace beans with capsicum and black gram with red gram, but love can only be substituted by other expressions of itself such as affection, inspiration, devotion, ‘prema’, ‘mamtaa’, ‘paasam’ and the like.

Jihva and Jiva also have an aesthetic connection. The sustenance of stomach is food, but the food of life is love. To be nurtured is not just a physical need, it is emotional. The palate of the heart can never be satisfied without affection and warmth, the need for which is always aesthetic.

We welcome all of you to participate in Jihva for love. Pay a tribute to that moment in your life, to that person, to that recipe when you experienced the feeling of being ‘nurtured’. There would be many such moments, many such persons, many such recipes in your life. Open the doors of your mind and you will find many such moments, persons and recipes in your memory. Share them with us, in this space where Pedatha’s ‘muddha’ ( see the pic. below) will be remembered forever.

Here are the guidleines for participating in Jihva for Love.

• Write a tribute that you would like to pay to someone in your life, in the form of a vegetarian recipe/s, even a culinary health tip/s. That person could be:
  • Someone who is dear to you;
  • Someone whose cooking you have loved;
  • Someone whose cooking inspires you either to cook, or at least to share the recipes with others.
• A small writeup about that person followed by a recipe/s; what that person means to you; any anecdotes, what that interaction meant to your life and growth.
• In your write-up, focus on what is special about the recipe! Even if it is a very simple recipe, what made it special for you (may be a childhood memory).
• POST THIS RECIPE ON YOUR BLOG IN THE MONTH OF APRIL, LINKING TO THIS EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT AT THE BEGINNING OF YOUR POST.
• Include photographs of that person, preferably with you as well as photographs of the recipe, if possible (yes, since it is a tribute recipe, the focus on the person is greater than the recipe).
• Send us the pictures after enclosing in approx. 100 x 100 pixel size with your e-mail.
• If you don’t have a blog, just send us an email and we will post it here.
• Kindly send us an e-mail notifying us of your entry at pedatha@pritya.com, with “JFI” as the subject, and your full name.
• Send in the entries by April 28, 2007. The round-up will be posted by May 2.

Looking forward to your involvement in this.