AEC English | Recipes for Life | Part 2 | EnglishSkillsOne |

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Unlike Papa, Ma was never the pampering kind. She told me much later that she read in the Chanakya Neeti that parents should envelop their kids in love till they are around five years old so that they are stable and secure; be tough with them between the ages of five and sixteen so that they learn to be disciplined and committed to hard work; and from the age of seventeen, parents should become their friends. Ma did exactly that. I remember when I was in boarding school, she would write me long letters about life, philosophy and how to lead a fulfilled life. She would write about the importance of good education, determination, commitment to excellence and integrity. Ma is the very foundation of who I am and what I have achieved in life.

Despite being the tougher parent, Ma was incredibly generous, especially towards her children. Milk was expensive for us back then and so was butter, but she made sure all four of us got a glass of milk every morning before going to school. She controlled how much butter we got to eat, insisting it was 'not good for us.

Later in life, Ma made friends with the wife of one of Papa's colleagues and learnt to make baked aubergines from her. Ma's Indianized version of the dish became a family favourite, and I looked forward to being treated to it every birthday. Ma is seventy-nine now and although she loves cooking even today, she ventures into the kitchen only on rare occasions. When my nephew visited from the UK, she made kaddu ki subzi, puri and baked aubergine for him, and all of it disappeared from the table in the blink of an eye.

MA'S KADDU KI SUBZI

Ma insists that this subzi is power packed with nutrition because pumpkins are rich in vitamins.

Ingredients

500 gm red pumpkin cubed, with tender skin intact

Lemon-sized ball of tamarind soaked in warm water and pulp extracted

3 tsp mustard oil for cooking

Red chilli powder, methi and mustard seeds, and haldi for seasoning and as per preference

Half a tsp of jaggery or as per preference

Heat the oil in a pan and splutter the methi and mustard seeds. Add the turmeric and red chilli powder and quickly add the cubed pumpkins.

Sauté for 5-6 minutes, cover and cook for a few minutes.

This subzi needs no water as the pumpkin must cook in its own juice.

Uncover when more than half cooked, add salt and jaggery, and mix well.

Now add the pulp of the tamarind and cook for another 5 mins, mixing well.

This sweet-sour subzi is delicious with puris.

PANYUCHA

This is an unusual traditional urad dal recipe that is served to baraatis during weddings and is both delicious and nutritious.

Ingredients

1 cup (small bowl) urad dal, washed and soaked for around 2 hours

2 cloves

2 pieces of badi elaichi and chhoti elaichi

3 to 5 black peppercorns

A small piece of dalchini

1 tej patta

Haldi, salt, red chilli powder and dhania powder as per preference

1-inch piece of ginger

Method

Grind the soaked urad dal to a fine paste with salt and ginger and tie it up

tightly in a piece of cloth. In a large pan, boil about 2 litres of water and when it is boiling well add the urad dal paste tied up in the cloth.

Continue to boil till the urad dal bag rises to the top and floats. The urad dal will be hard when you touch it. Put off the gas and leave the bag in the water.

Take a few spoons of water and to this add red chilli powder, haldi, coriander powder and garam masala. Mix them well into a paste.

In a hot pan, add 2 to 3 teaspoons of mustard oil or ghee and splutter the

whole spices. When the spices have spluttered, add the paste of the powdered spices and mix well.

Add adequate quantity of boiling water from the urad dal pan into the seasoning. Continue boiling the water.

Simultaneously, take out the urad dal cake from the bag and cut it into

barfi-shaped pieces and add to the boiling water.

When ready, the Panyucha will have slightly thickish consistency like the gravy of aloo tamatar subzi.

Serve with steaming hot rice and papad.






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