It amazing how reading a well researched piece helps us organize our thoughts into a coherent chain. I say this because fresh on my mind is Rushina’s post about use of spices in Indian cooking. Bengalis are legendary for their shorshe bata (wet ground mustard) but it is as prevalent in Odia cooking and fairly…
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Continue ReadingWhen we met Sharmistha and Samrat over the idea of Anondomela, I didn’t think long before agreeing to be a part. I instinctively knew that it would be fun and fullfilling. While we were discussing, Sharmistha suggested that I do Odia food, which I was more than amenable to and my heart was set on…
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Continue ReadingLast week my maître d’home, Rekhadi, landed with a huge bunch of sojne shaak that was given to her by her neighbour, to be passed on to us. In the passing, Rekhadi mentioned that her neighbour, Habila, a Bengali Muslim from Malda in West Bengal makes a sojne shaak chhana. A lot of us urban…
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Continue ReadingOne fall out of the lockdown and social distancing has been my recollection of all those people who have showered me with affection and taught me cooking. One such person was Uma da. I had began my career in the development sector in Odisha. One early morning of August, eighteen years back, I had landed…
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Continue ReadingI was on a work trip to Chennai and Trichi when I first met Aheila. Petite, dusky, large fluid eyes, ever smiling with a garland of fragrant jasmine on her long plaited hair. As she greeted me at the arrival section of Chennai airport, my first thought was that her personality and face matched her…
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Continue ReadingOne of the first women chef’s I fell in love with (hook, line and sinker, if you may) was Kylie Kwong, the Australian-Chinese chef. I have followed her for years now and much of my Southeast Asian and Chiniese flavours are influenced by her. One of her recipes that stuck to me is of stock…
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Continue ReadingI see a lot of people who have become interested in bread making during this lockdown! One reason being our limited mobility to step out, familiarity of bread on our breakfast tables and the finally having the time that most people associate with bread making. Well, it does need time but most of it doesn’t…
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Continue ReadingSafed maash ki daal or Phareli daal is a western Uttar Pradesh speciality, common mostly in the Muslim households. The daal is also part of the repertoire of the Punjabi community from Pakistan. This unique and very fragrant daal is made with dehusked, whole urad or white lentil, boiled with salt and ginger paste till…
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Continue ReadingWhy do we offer food to the Gods? There would be a lot many reasons assigned to this based on the lens we don while answering the question. One way of looking at it is that our Gods are anthropomorphized forms of our fears and uncertainties. For the primitive society dependent completely upon the elements…
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Continue Reading…or as minions say, “Mughlai Parantha”, to which my response is that there is no such thing! There only exists The Moglai Porota. The tongue twisting finesse of ‘Mughlai’ has long been subsumed by the rounded sweetness of the Bengalified ‘Moglai’! Do not undermine its pedigree. It was born in the royal kitchen of Emperor…