Made for Each other and a recipe for Shekhars Basic Crusty Sourdough.

 

Happy New Year!

Yes I know. I have not written in a long time! No year end recap, no New year’s goals. At some point in everyone’s lives, comes a time when all best laid plans fall apart. Thats what happened to me toward the end of 2011. The year didn’t end the way I wanted it to. Disappointed I decided to retreat into myself and just stop worrying.Well, I guess sometimes one needs to take a step back and breathe a little. So I did. But once I got back to Mumbai I got caught up in the whirl of events and appearances I had committed too. And everyday I would log in to my blog with the plan to blog and switch off after a while because nothing seemed right to post about for the first post of 2012. Well today I am determined to break through this blog block. 

And I could not have found a more appropriate topic to post on. 

Valentines Day is almost on us and that means that it will be 16 years to the day I held my husband Shekhars hand for the first time. (Yes I am soppy like that.) I remember some of our earlier Valentines days, I would get so upset because Shekhar neverdid any of the conventional things one would like to be at the receiving end of on the day. But relationships are like recipes, they take their time to reach the perfect results. Today I put Valentines day right up there with Instant coffee, heat and eat food, 2 minute noodles, 30 minute pizza delivery. Just like food is becoming less about enjoyment and more about being unavoidable. Valentines day has come to be a sort of fast food fix - one begins to feel like one is becoming a scrooge like person for not celebrating it. Full of clichés and symbols of love.

But these are not so important. What more important is showing your love everyday. Its in that cup of coffee he wakes you with when you have worked late at night, that smiley he draws with Sriracha on your omelette  when you are stressed out or the garnish he takes extra care to put on your plate to surprise you.In those lucious peach muffins honey drizzled over. And most of those who know me, know that I am utterly, passionately and hopelessly in love with my husband but he is a very private person and does not like too much attention. But he loves his food. He loves my cooking and most importantly he is the wind beneath my wings, the flame under my cooking pots, the olive oil in my pesto, the chilli in my chutney.... (ok. ok I'll stop!)

A while ago family dinner was becoming an endangered activity in our home until I woke up to the smell of sourdough bread baking one Friday morning last year. While I was not looking Shekhar  had given in to a long standing yearning to bake. Inspired I cooked up the best spaghetti and meatballs, ever to go with it that night. And ever since, cooking is something we do together for daily meals as well as more elaborate meals for friends and family. I know I drive Shekhar nuts cooking all sorts of exotic things, getting frustrated when they go wrong and struggle to juggle everything I do so I can get that post out on the blog on schedule. But I have made it my life's work to bring fun and creativity back to everyday cooking and he has been an equal partner in helping me do that. the many cooking projects we get into together that include our friends and family in our love. Because beyond a point a marriage grows to include families. The thing is, Shekhar and I held hands, and we have kept holding them through everything. I truly believe we were Made for each other.

And I am very excited to share that he has agreed to do a couples cooking class with me this Valentines day called Made for Each other in which we will showcase dishes we do well together. Look at our Class Schedule for details on that class here 

I have been mentioning Shekhars breads a lot and many of you have asked for his recipes. So here is his recipe for:

Basic Sourdough Bread Rolls in 4 simple stages

Stage 1: Making a Sourdough starter (10 minutes)

Take 1½ cups of flour (maida) in a large bowl (plastic or glass), and add 1 teaspoon of instant dry yeast. If using Blue Bird yeast (slightly bigger), you may want to add ½ teaspoon more. Make a small well in the middle and add 7/8 cups of water into it.

Mix by moving a (sturdy) fork from the center of the water well outwards in circular motion for around 2 minutes. The end result should be a sticky mess.

Cover the bowl and keep overnight (8-10 hours).

Stage 2: Making the Dough (10 minutes)

In the morning, the dough would have risen into a wet mass with lots of air bubbles. This will be very soft to touch, and sticky to manipulate.

Add another 3 cups of flour (you could do 1 cup maida and 2 cups of whole wheat flour) to the mixture.

Sprinkle another ¼ teaspoon (or ½ teaspoon of Blue Bird) yeast

Sprinkle 1 ½ teaspoon of salt

Mix 2 teaspoons of regular sugar into a bowl containing 7/8 cups of water, 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, and 2 tablespoons of milk. Stir briefly.

Make a well in the centre of the flour and pour the liquids into it. Mix the entire lot again, with a (sturdy) fork, until it starts coming together into soft but crumbly dough.

Pull out the dough out on a lightly powdered flat surface (a kneading bowl or thaali will also do) and start kneading this dough. This can be done by lifting one side of the dough, folding it and pushing it down with your knuckles. Sprinkle maida, as required, to keep the dough from sticking. Repeat this for at least 5-6 minutes until the dough is soft and shiny.

Return the dough to the bowl, cover it, and leave aside for around 10-15 minutes to rest.

Note: Kneading and resting are the most important steps in baking bread. Kneading is required for the gluten in the maida to start its linking process. Resting is required for the yeast create air pockets that help the bread rise.

Stage 3: Shaping the bread (15 minutes)

Pull the dough out on a flat powdered surface. Cut the dough into small equal portions with a knife. Gently, yet firmly, roll each portion into a cylindrical shape that tapers at both ends. Don’t press too hard, or all the air contained in the dough will be released. Place these rolls on a lightly powdered baking tray with enough distance between them to allow them to expand (usually 1-2 inches depending on the size of the roll). Use a knife to slice 6-8, 1-inch long diagonal strips on the top of each roll. Lightly powder the top of the rolls with maida.

Cover the tray with a piece of cloth, and keep aside for 1 hour.

Stage 4: Baking (30 minutes)

Pre-heat the oven (gas/electric oven or OTG) at 220°C for about 15-20 minutes before baking.  Place the tray into the oven quickly and close the lid. For a crusty bread, you should spray a fine film of water into the oven using a water spray at 5 minutes, 6 minutes and 10 minutes. This water should ideally steam quickly, so the oven has to be opened and closed quickly to maintain its temperature.

Bake for 20-22 minutes. The bread should have a nice brown crust on top at the end of the baking process. Remove it from the oven and transfer it to a wire rack for cooling.

Slow down to celebrate Terra Madre Day in India and win a prize from us! .

These days, when I am on a Masala trails through Grant rd. Market or even if I am just passing through, I make it a point to walk past this one vendor. He is a makaiwalla - corn seller and only one of two in the market that sells indigenous Indian white corn. And whenever he has white corn, I buy up all his stock. White corn has become the symbol of a changing food system for me and eccentric as it may sound buying up all of this vendors stock has become my personal way of “nazar uatro” ing or warding off the evil eye from Indian food diversity. And every time I walk away with bags of corn I hope I have done enough to keep white corn alive in that vendor’s farm for that day.

Makai ni Khichdi/Shaak was a breakfast dish I loved as a child, made of fresh white corn grated off the cob and simmered with buttermilk and chillies into a wonderfully savoury spicy textured porridge, studded with chunks of golden potato, flecked with mustard and aromatic with curry leaves. I particularly loved it on buttered white toast. And it can still bring me to my knees in thanks. But as much as I loved it I never really noticed when yellow corn replaced the white in this and other traditional recipes.

One day I was taking the Times of India team on a tour of the market to show them Gujarati ingredients for a story when I spotted white corn and stopped to buy some out of nostalgia. I was shocked to find that it was twice the price of yellow sweet corn! On asking why, I found out that this was because very few people grew it any more. Yellow corn was more in demand and easier to grow. He only grew it because he still found takers in this market in older Gujarati and Marathi consumers who still preferred to buy white corn for traditional recipes and religious occasions.

On thinking about it, I realised that I like the Makai ni khichdi of my childhood more, made with the less sweet white corn that allows the other elements of the dish to come to the fore. Consuming and using up the excess white corn is never a problem, boiling and keeping it in a box makes it a convenient addition to anything from soups and salads to rice and subzis. That day I also made a Spinach corn casserole with it. 

Just after this incident, I travelled to Italy to attend the biennial Slow Food convention, a biennial conference of the international Slow Food movement. While I was wandering about in the Salone Del Gusto, Safeguarding food biodiversity for the future is one of the fundamental principles of the Slow Food association and the entire Terra Madre network is engaged in defending local food in various ways. The Terra Madre Conference happens on one side where all the real talking takes place and the Salone Del Gusto takes place on the other side where producers of slow food from all over Italy and the world showcase their food and sell it.

Baby Methi

As I walked through the Salone Del Gusto, two things caught my eye, stalls dedicated to corn cobs in various stunning colors and lentils of different kinds. These, along with select cheeses, cured meats, breads, sweets, vegetables, fruits, grains and honeys belonged to presidia protected by Slow Foods Ark of Taste which is an international catalogue of heritage foods in danger of extinction. How amazing to see all the wonderful work people were doing to save food diversity around the world! And then I got down to thinking about how much diversity we have in India. Mind Boggling! Thoughts that were reiterated by my fellow delegates on the way home that night.  The Slow Food Presidia are concrete examples of a model for agriculture based on quality, the safeguarding of traditional knowledge and sustainability.

I came back to India resolving to do what I could about it. In my last post I wrote about Undhiyu and how I knew as a child that winter had arrived when Undhiyu was served up. But to put things in proper perspective Undhiyu was a very elaborate dish made a few times through the season. Winter also brings many other dishes that are dependant on vegetables that came into season at this time. I have been playing with all of these local ingredients with some delicious results.

Green leafy vegetables at their most tender, baby methi (fenugreek) I found that Baby Methi (very young fenugreek sprouts) used to make bhajji in the Gujarati and Maharasthrian communities, is also great in a mesclun salad (a gourmet trend abroad) and as a stuffing for Vietnamese style Rice paper rolls or as a crunchy topping for soups. Fresh green Bhavnagri chillies make a great salsa, when roasted and ground with garlic, fresh turmeric and mango ginger pickle is great with Thai Curry, green and red mogris (rat tail radish are so perfect lightly stirfried and tossed with noodles and peanuts. Dill (Suva, Shepu) eaten by Gujaratis as well as Maharashtrians as a vegetable and in dals is lovely in yoghurt based dishes with cucumbers, or added to salads and soupds and also lovely in lemony fried rice. Green peppercorns that come into season in the winter and are pickled by the Gujarati/South Indian communities, I use the fresh ones for an addictive pesto, pepper vodka, Lamb stuffing and can also candy them into peppery toppings for desserts. Green Fennel (Saunf) that is dried to make tradtitional Mukhwas is a an exciting touch in salads, or to flavour light seafood dishes. 

Here in India, we have a different sort of battle to fight. While the Western world has understood the dangers post the fast food revolution and is trying to return to traditional farming practices and resurrecting heirloom ingredients, we in India have a rich LIVING culinary tradition, perhaps the richest in the world that is slowly being eroded. We need to preserve this culinary tradition, not in books and papers to be sighed over in the future, but as a living culture. And in this can only be happen by practicing it. For us Indians, the slow food movement is probably easiest to implement. It means sticking to the old ways - of cooking, and eating. 

The Indian word for Kitchen “Rasoi” is rooted in the word “Rasa”. While transation dilutes it’s meaning, since “rasa” is “juice” juice in this case has a larger meaning, it is that quintessential flow of flavors that comes only from slow, deliberate cooking that follows the organic rhythm of nature. The Rasoi then becomes that special, sacred place in the home where these juices flow producing profound pleasure.  The Gastronomic Imperialism of fast food chains is a fly-by-night phenomenon in India.  Indians are linked to their tastes and culinary traditions in a very elemental way, and the low-quality food produced by fast food chains is no match for our rich food heritage.  Indian food is slow food, traditional practices of food preparation and cooking meet the manifesto of slow food. Indian food, with its diversity fits the bill perfectly with every region in India having its own unique cuisine.

Food is needed by everyone, everywhere, everyday; a small change in the way it is produced and marketed will have a great effect on health, the ecosystem and preservation of cultural diversity. Local food (also regional food) is a principle of sustainability relying on consumption of food products that are locally grown. It is part of the concept of local purchasing; a preference to buy locally produced goods and services. Shopping decisions favouring local food consumption directly affect the well-being of local food producers, improve local economies may prove to be ecologically more sustainable. You do not have to give up all food coming from other sources, just favour local foods when available. Support your eco system by buying local produce and supporting local farmers and food producers.

Mumbai and India are standing on the brink of a boom in food in every related business. But we need to strike a balance. Embrace the new but hold on to the old.

And we can start to do this is by celebrating Terra Madre Day is on December 10. Terra Madre Day is an annual event celebrated on December 10 every year by the Slow Food network around the world. The objective of this day is to underline the importance of eating locally. Activities to celebrate Terra Madre Day take place all over the world: in cities, rural areas, schools and community centers, cinemas or on farms, restaurants or at home. This year the Mumbai food bloggers community Come together to spread the message of Terra Madre Day across India., anyone who shares the Slow Food's philosophy, is welcome to participate. Spread the word amongst your circle of friends, speak to people you know in the food industry or simply mark the day by serving local foods, cooking up traditional recipes and promoting better food systems to your friends family and loved ones through the days of 9-19 of December. This is a very special celebration. That of food. Your food, my food, global food. You do not need to pay anything, you do not need to leave your house. All you need to do is cook local seasonal, regional, traditional foods because the only way to keep traditional foods alive is by cooking them. 

COMPETITION

Share what you are doing for Terra Madre Day in India with me in the comments of this post on A Perfect Bite. I would love to be part of your celebrations as well. The best entry will WIN an organic hamper from Navdanya and a selection of favourite cookbooks from me!

Moolies and Radishes

 

White Corne and yellow corn

The purple stringy things are Lal Mogri or Rat Tail Raddish

ANd thesse are Green Mogri

Lots of different eggplants that were under the GM threat from BT brinjal

White Corn and Spinach

Turdana Risi e Bisi with Methi Mesclun and Roasted chilli garlic oil

Water Chestnut Green Thai curry

Mayalyu Daal

Garhwali Paturis made with seasonal greens.

Undhiyu - Everything you ever wanted to know about it with a little help from my Mother Heena Munshaw

Somehow the Moroccon Couscous plate made the ideal platter to serve the undhiyu!

I love going to my Mom’s house on weekends when she is in town. It’s the one place I can leave responsibility at the door and let her take over for the few hours I am there. And this past Sunday’s visit was particularly looked forward to because I had not had my fix of my Mom’s attention since Diwali. She left on a work trip to Morrocco and Spain just the day after and the weeks she was gone had been fairly intense on the work and personal front. So I arrived at her place exhausted and prepared to eat and take a nap. But that’s not how things turned out. Mom had other plans. 

Whenever I am interviewed for stories one question that is always asked is “How does your family react to your work”. And I answer that there used to be a time when my family did not really understand what I did, but accepted it with a befuddled expression. But today, they are my biggest champions! And this lunch at Moms will show you just how much! Not only had Mom made Undhiyu for us - from scratch, which is a laborious task - albeit with delicious results, but she actually SHOT IT STEP - BY - STEP like I would for one of my blogposts! She has acquired a new Camera that she’s been playing with stunning results as you will see. 

And then even as I was recovering from that news she handed me a large cloth wrapped bundle. Intrigued I untied it to find a beautifully embellished Couscous platter she had carried back for me by hand! It was a fabulous meal, the undhiyu was one of the best we had ever eaten and after the meal, Mom proceeded to unpack all the foodie stuff she had picked up for me from Spain; Safforn  Iberico Ham and Chorizo and Morroco; Ras el Hanout, Argan oil, and so many new things to play with! I will share all that in a later post, right now let me share the Undhiyu with you! 

Amongst the vegetarian Gujarati community I belong to, we look forward to Undhiyu and congregate over Undhiyu parties like people in other parts of the world come together for barbecues or clambakes, ordering it by the kilo if we can’t cook it at home! Growing up, I remember knowing winter had arrived when Undhiyu made its appearance at the table. Undhiyu is a Gujarati dish whose name derives from “Undhu” which means upside down in Gujarati.  In the rural areas of the coastal region of Surat in Gujarat in Western India, where Undhiyu originates, farmers have for eons, filled earthen pots with fresh winter produce and buried them underground, lighting a fire on top so the dish cooks under a fire instead of atop it, hence the name!

The dish that we eat in Mumbai is a slightly more evolved version. While both versions burst with vegetables each of which contributes its own flavour, the sophisticated version is cooked in layers, with the flame under the dish. Vegetables are prepped by cleaning, cutting into chunks and stuffing with a paste of ground coconut, green garlic, chillies and green coriander. Oil is poured into the dish and tempered with spices and the foundation is laid with fresh Surti papdi, (a flat jewel bright green, delicate field bean that is only found in Surat in the winter and is essential to Undhiyu). This is followed by vegetables in progression of cooking time; Ariya kakdi  (a tough-skinned zucchini-like seedless cucumber), old potatoes, small aubergines, kand (round purple yam), sakhariya (sweet potatoes), and unpeeled, slightly unripe yellow Rajagiri bananas. The topmost layer is muthiya, spicy fried dumpling of gramflour and fenugreek leaves. All of which is smothered in more of the aromatic green paste.

The vegetables slowly simmered in their own juices, untouched until they are cooked to about 80 per cent, at which point fresh coconut is added. When cooked the entire assembly is inverted (making it true to its name in another way) topped with coarsely chopped tender garlic shoots and portioned out. And however one chooses to eat Undhiyu; with Poories (airy paper thin deep fried puffs of flat bread, steamed rice or just by itself like I do, it is ESSENTIAL to get one piece of each vegetable, even if it means you miss your next meal because every bite should taste different, depending on the vegetable it contains. In fact the sign of a good Undhiyu is being unable to eat the next meal!

The Undhiyu Man at Grant Rd. Vegetable market!

Traditional Indian Dietetics believes that the digestion is sluggish in certain seasons such as the summer and the monsoon. And according to this seasonal eating pattern winter means a celebration of the heavier spectrum of dishes of the Indian culinary repertoire. Consequently dishes like whole beans and pulses, red meats and meat curries for example are all considered hard to digest and avoided at other times of the year in different parts of India become ok to eat in the winter. Undhiyu is suited to the winter diet because all the vegetables in it are considered heat-producing. At Grant Rd. Vegetable market you know Undhiyu season is on when one vendor sets up a stall where you can buy all your Undhiyu requirements.

Undhiyu at Soam.

For those of you who cannot make Undhiyu at home, many place in Mumbai serve it including my fafourite - Soam restaurant at Babulnath which is as much my baby as it is owner Pinky’s. Pinky and I go back a long way and I  have been part of the research of many dishes the restaurant serves. And for me, Soam’s Undhiyu is second only to the one made in my mother’s house! Good enough that it is actually bought by the kilo by its patrons. Named after Soam ras, nectar of the gods and Saomvaar, special day of the ancient Babulnath temple opposite, everything about Soam, exudes a positive aura. It’s one of the few restaurants in Mumbai that offers a regional cuisine, home style Gujarati and Marwari fare. In fact it is a living showcase of that cuisine because in addition to its regular menu, it offers a rotation of seasonal menus round the year that display heirloom recipes fast disappearing from home kitchens of these communities. 

The culinary calendar at Soam follows the seasons and their winter festival featuring this superlative slow cooked medley of winter vegetables, that is Undhiyu, is already on! Soam goes to great lengths to keep the aroma of Undhiyu alive. Because purists consider Undhiyu authentic ONLY if the vegetables used in it are grown in Surat, Soam, sources all its ingredients from Surat daily in Undhiyu season (November to March). And because purists also believe that the proof of a good Undhiyu is the oil used to cook it (a single kilo of Undhiyu can contain more than 250ml of oil!) For the diet conscious Soam also serves two variations of it, a “steamed undhiyu”, sans oil and coconut, and the traditional regular version.

Thank you so much Ma, for supporting me in every way! 

 

Inspired by my friends and fellow food bloggers Moms; Kalyans AKA Finely Chopped whose mothers posts are such rich renderings of her life and travels (find them under the label “Mamma Knife” on his blog) and Jyotika AKA Followmyrecipe whose mother Chaya Purwars blogs about her school here, I have been telling my Mother for a while now to at least blog on my blog if not on a dedicated blog of her own, So we get a windo to look into her wonderful world of food and travel! There is a lot that our generation needs to learn from our mothers, including how to stay in step with progress and all of these Moms (mine included) are inspirations. I hope that I am equally inspiring to my children and grand children in the future! So do leave comments and encourage all three of them to continue to share vignettes of their lives and kitchen capers here on these spaces.  10th December is Terra Madre day when people all over the world will celebrate local regional and traditional foods in different ways. Watch for an Undhiyu tweetup at the time. Follow me on Facebook or on twitter as @rushinamg and also @Netra on twitter for news on that.

Undhiyu - (This recipe is a mix of my Moms and Pinkys recipes)
Serves - 8-12: Time 4 hours

Ingredients:
250ml oil
250g Surti Papdi
250g Green tuver
200g Green Peas
200g kand
200g suran
200g sweet potato
200g brinjal
4 semi-ripe bananas
50g surti kakdi

For Green Masala:
3 cup green coriander chopped fine
1 cup green spring garlic chopped fine
1 grated coconut
salt to taste
1 ½ tspn ajwain
½ tspn hing (asafetida)
2 tbspn oil for tempering

For the Muthia
1 bunch methi greens, finely chopped
1 ½ tbspn besan
2 pods garlic (crushed then finely chopped)
1 tspn ajwain
2 tspn dhania-jeera powder
1 tspn red chili powder
1 tspn haldi powder
2 tspn sugar (optional)
salt to taste
water for binding
absorption
Oil for frying

To make methi muthia:
Clean and chop methi fine, add besan and other ingredients, shape into dumplings using water and oil as desired. Steam  till soft an lightly pan fry to make outsides crisp. Set aside.

Preperation of veges :
String and halve split Surti Papdi.
Shell green lentils & green peas.
Peel purple yam and Suran and cut into big square chunks.
Cut off brinjal crowns and slit cross-wise.
Cut banana into chunks leaving skin on.

For making Undhiyu:
Halve masala and mix half with the prepared vegetables. Heat oil and temper with ajwain and hing, add rest of green masala ingredients (keeping a little on the side for garnish later) and sauté for five mintues, veggies in order of cooking time with the banana chunks and steamed/deep-fried muthias going in last. Cook on low heat with sealed cover. Garnish with the left over green masala ingredients.

Other Restaurants where you can get Undhiyu

Soam | Add : Satguru Sadan,Ground Floor, opposite Babulnath Temple, Chowpatty | Phone 6730-5369

Chetana Restaurant & Bar | Add : 34, Rampart Row, opp Jehangir Art Gallery, K Dubhash Marg, Kala Ghoda | Phone : 2284-4968/2282-4983 

Hiralal Kashidas Bhajiawala | Add: 2-4 Vithalbhai Patel Road, off Thakurdwar Main Road, CP Tank | Phone : 2242-3716/2242-8375  

Jain Biscuit Centre | Add : Shirin Mansion, opposite McDonald’s, Station Road, Andheri (W) | Phone : 2628-4125  

Regal Shop | Add : No 1, Lourdes Heaven, Pali Naka, opposite Punjab Sweet House, Bandra (W) | Phone : 2604-1204. 

Surti | Add : 1/3 Gurudev Caterers, Bhuleshwar Corner, Bhuleshwar Road, Kalbadevi | Phone 2240-0390/2241-2254 

Thackers | Add : 31 Thaker Bhojanalaya Building, opposite Kalbadevi Road, Dadyseth Agyari Marg, Kalbadevi | Phone : 2201-1232 

Thaker Bhojanalay | Add : Dadyseth Agiary Lane, off KalbadeviRoad | Phone : 2208-8035

Moms very organised Mise for Undhiyu!

The Root vegetables that go into undhiyu at the vegetable stall in the market. Sweet Potato, Purple yam and Suran.

The root vegetables prepared - peeled and sliced or slit down the middle.

Aubergines slit with a cross.

Potaoes peeled and slit with cross.

Bananas with a slit down their length.

Tendli or Ivy gourd with a slit down their length.

Papdi stung and split.

Green Tur Dal

Extra beans of the Surti Papdi (these can be bought like this) they pop with lots of flavour when cooked.

Fresh Fenugreek leaves cleaned and chopped

Fresh Coconut, grated.

Fresh Coriander and Coconut mixed together

Lemons and green chillies.

Green Garlic and Surti Kakdi (which we have not used today - it comes into season a little later.)

Chopped Green Garlic.

Garlic, coconut, coriander and fenugreek ground to a coarse paste.

Stuffing the Baby aubergines.

Stuffing the bananas.

All the vegetables stuffed.

The fried Dumplings called Muthiya

The deep vessel ready for layering.

The tender beans and legumes go in first.

topped by hartier root vegetables

and followed by softer vegetables

more greens go on top

finally the coriander and coconut

A large plate covers the vessel

and is weighed down - this is a three generation old Brass Mortar and pestle that is still used in our kitchen daily.

The cooked Undhiyu

Undhiyu on my platter.