Eid Mubarak

Yesterday was Id ul Zuha. Id ul Zuha or Bakrid is a Muslim festival. The prophet Ibrahim (or Abraham) dreamt that God wanted him to sacrifice his only son Ishmael. This festival honours both this act of submission and his son’s acceptance to being sacrificed. God intervened and a ram was sacrificed instead.

Muslims around the world attend morning prayers at their local mosques. These prayers are followed by visits to family and friends where they exchange greetings and gifts. After this they have feasts, those who can afford it will sacrifice an animal and the meat is shared with their friends, family and the poor.

Shami Kebabs are traditionally eaten at Eid along with something sweet. Normally it would be Kheer Khurma or Seviyan but I love Firni so that’s my Eid contribution. I’ve been experimenting making both Shami Kebabs and Firni and I was quite pleased with how they turned out.

Shami Kebabs

I love Kebabs. My memorable kebab meals are Pathar Kebab at the Frontier Restaurant in the Ashoka Hotel (does the restaurant still exist?), Chapali Kebab in a dhaba outside Peshawar washed down with lovely Kahwa and Tunde Kebab in the Chowk area of Lucknow (2 plates of kebabs with 3 parathas shared by a friend and I think it cost Rs.19 which even 10 years ago was a ridiculously cheap meal).

But, my favourite kebab is the Shami Kebab. According to Wikipedia the Sham part of Shami refers to Syria or the Levant and Muslim immigrants from the Middle East introduced these kebabs to India during the Mughal period.

Ingredients

should make 12 patties

500 grammes goats’ meat minced

2 onions

1 tablespoon Bengal Gram

½ tablespoon ginger paste

½ teaspoon roasted cumin powder

½ teaspoon red chilli powder

½ teaspoon black pepper powder

¼ teaspoon cardamom powder

3 cloves

½ cup coriander leaves

¼ cup mint leaves

1 tablespoon Besan (chickpea flour)

salt to taste

oil to shallow fry

Method

Roughly chop 1 ½ onions. Combine the meat, the chopped onion, the Bengal gram, ginger and the spices. Add 2 cups of water , bring to a boil, turn down to a simmer and cook for anything up to an hour, till it is cooked and the water has completely dried up. You might need a bit more water. Also it can be cooked in a pressure cooker. On high heat for for 3 whistles and then turn the heat down to medium low and cook uncovered till the meat is soft and the water has evaporated (I know pressure cookers aren’t very cool but it is quicker).

Remove the cloves and discard. After the meat cools grind it in a blender till its a smooth paste. Put it away in the fridge for at least an hour. It can be left overnight.

Dry roast the chickpea flour in a frying pan till it gets a little darker. Add to the mince.

Dice the rest of the onion finely, chop the coriander and mint. Make a patty from the mince, an indention in it put a teaspoon of the onion, mint, coriander mixture into it. Fold over and turn it back into a flat patty. 

Put a little bit of vegetable oil in a frying pan and shallow fry.

Serve with-

Onions rings soaked in salt and lime juice.

Mint and coriander chutney and

Sheermal, baqarkhani or parathas.

Firni

One of my favourite desserts is Firni. Firni is a rice pudding made using ground rice (I cheated and used rice powder). The best Firni I’ve had is at Karims in Shahjahanabad or Old Delhi. You have this rich, delicious meaty meal and end with a cold Firni served in a shallow clay pot topped with pistachios. Perfect end to the meal.

Ingredients

2/3rds cup of milk + 4 cups of milk

3 tablespoons rice powder

½ cup sugar

½ teaspoon cardamom powder

2 tablespoons pistachios, chopped

Method

Put the rice flour in a bowl. Slowly add the 2/3rds cup of milk. Mix to a smooth paste.

Boil the milk and sugar in a saucepan over a medium low flame. Add the cardamom. Remove from the heat when it boils.

Stirring constantly with a whisk, add the milk to the rice powder and milk paste. Put it all back into the saucepan, place on a low flame and bring it to a simmer, stirring constantly. Cook for about 5-10 minutes until it starts thickening.

Pour into shallow bowls and cool. When it has set a little, refrigerate. Serve chilled, sprinkle with the chopped pistachios.

Delish…..

Dussehra

September to November are the months of the festival season in India – Ganesh Chaturthi, Dussehra, Eid and Diwali are the biggies. Its all a bit frantic, the traffic is terrible but there are lots of holidays and its all very colourful.

It was Dussehra two days ago. The word Dussehra comes from the Sanskrit Dasha-hara, which literally means remover of ten. This refers to Rama’s defeat of the ten-headed demon king Ravana. Ravana had abducted Rama’s wife Sita and taken her to his kingdom in Lanka. Rama, his brother Lakshmana, their follower Hanuman and an army of monkeys fought a battle to rescue Sita. This is the story of the Ramayana, one of the two great Hindu epics.

In northern India, for 10 days before Dussehra, a play called the Ramlila is performed. On the final day, effigies of Ravana, his brother Kumbhakarna and son Meghanad are filled with firecrackers and burnt. This burning symbolizes the destruction of evil.

In Maharashtra, people worship their tools of trade on the ninth day of Dussehra. They decorate these items with flowers, pray and distribute sweets. Flower sellers set up little stalls on the pavements and sell garlands made of marigold and leaves from the Ashoka tree. I love these stalls. All it takes is a mat spread on the pavement and garlands hanging from a string.

Flower stall on the pavement

Cars, Trucks and Auto-rickshaws with garlands

Durga Puja

In India on every day of the year there is almost certainly a community celebrating a festival. But most major festivals seem to come during the months of September to December. Despite the irritation of constant chaos its actually a lot of fun. There are holidays from school and work, fairs, parties, lots of dressing up and FOOD.

It was Durga Puja two days ago. Durga Puja is the celebration of the victory of the goddess Durga over the demon, Mahishasura. Led by Mahishasura, some of the demons (asuras), tried to defeat the gods (devas), and capture heaven. Mahishasura, took the form of a buffalo and caused destruction on the earth.

The gods combined their energies and created a powerful many armed goddess, Durga. Riding on a lion, Durga fought Mahishasura for nine days and nights. Finally on the tenth day he was defeated and killed.

In Bengal, it is this victory of good over evil that is celebrated as Durga Puja. Deities of the goddess Durga are worshipped for five days, and on the fifth day are immersed in a river or pond. Sweets are distributed and Bengali sweets are absolutely delicious.

Most Bengali sweets are made of sweetened cottage cheese or chenna. But they can also be made from the flour of different cereals like rice. They’re quite sweet but have a very delicate flavour and they’re very, very pretty looking.

 

1. Malai Sandwich 2. Mohan Bhog 3. Cream Chomchom 4. Kesar Sondesh 5. Nalen Gurer Sondesh 6. Malai Toast 7. Chomchom 8. Kanchagolla 9. Kheer Kodom

                                             

For more details about the goddess Durga
http://hinduism.about.com/od/hindugoddesses/a/durga.htm

Sweet Bengal

Kenwood Building

Ambedkar Road

Bandra West

Mumbai

022 26460621

– there are other branches of Sweet Bengal in Bombay

October’s Cookbook – Frame by Frame Baking

My cookbook of the month is Frame By Frame Baking. I love cookbooks and apps that have lovely images of every ingredient and stages of preparation. It really makes trying a new recipe so easy. One day I’ll put my recipes on with lots of similar pictures but until then…..

Oatmeal (and Sultana) Biscuits

Makes 30 biscuits

Ingredients

175 grammes butter or margarine, plus extra for greasing

275 grammes demerara sugar

1 egg

4 tablespoon water

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

375 grammes rolled oats

140 grammes plain flour, sifted

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoons bicarbonate of soda

100 grammes sultanas

Method

Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C and grease a large baking tray.

Cream the butter and sugar together in a large mixing bowl.

Beat in the egg, water and vanilla essence until the mixture is smooth.

In a separate bowl mix the oats, flour, sultanas, salt and bicarbonate of soda. Gradually stir the oat mixture into the creamed mixture until thoroughly combined.

Place well-spaced tablespoons of the mixture onto the prepared baking tray. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes, or until golden brown.

Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack.

Notes

Next time I’ll make half the quantity. 30 biscuits are too many at one time. I also added sultanas; they weren’t in the original recipe.

A little bit of Japan in India – Part 1 – Delhi

A little bit of Japan in India – Delhi

I was about 5 when my parents took my brother and me to visit Japan. My parents Rosemary and Jasbir Sachdev, were the architects for the Indian pavilion in Osaka for Expo 70. I still have a few memories of the trip; taking the bullet train from Osaka to Tokyo and being told it was the fastest train in the world, a Japanese temple and garden and a house with sliding doors and tatami. I remember some of the pavilions of the exhibition – the Indian pavilion, of course, with the Mughal inspired water falls, the slightly overlapping white roof, the split levels and the white tiger, Dilip. The others I remember were the Australian one, because it looked like a giant bird/crane, the brightly lit Swiss pavilion, the sun sculpture of a Japanese pavilion, the mono rail, the bubble car ropeway and the American pavilion.

This was just after the Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin moon landing and my memory is that the whole exhibition was about it. I remember walking along metal walkways, which were probably supposed to feel like a spaceship. And I remember seeing a lump of moon rock. It was very exciting.

My favourite memory of that trip was of a round, glass kiosk at a station that sold sweets; there were just sweets wrapped around the entire store. I had never (or even since then) seen so many lovely colours and beautifully wrapped confectionary. My mother said she had to drag me away from there. Have to take Naira to Japan before she gets too old for sweets.

I found a clip on YouTube and ¾ s of the way through you get a glimpse of the Indian pavilion-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NnxVGWzR_Y

My father who made most of the trips would bring back rice crackers or Senbei and at the age of 4 1/2 I developed a taste for them. My husband and daughter (and the entire family – parents, brother and his family) love them and my daughter started eating them at about the same age as I did.

A little corner of Japan in Delhi is a Japanese grocery store, Yamato-ya in Safdarjung Market, which is on our Delhi list when we visit my parents. It’s tucked away in a corner and I don’t remember how I found it. I’ve bought lovely pottery bowls as well as noodles, sauces and vinegars and of course my soy, salty, slightly fishy senbei yumminess. You also get sushi and sashimi grade fish.

The photographs are from a stash of senbei my husband brought back from a recent work trip to Hong Kong. My favourite is the one with the Nori (seaweed) wrap and my daughter loves the one below she calls sausages but we basically love them all.

Yamato-ya

Delhi store-

B-6/9, Local Commercial Complex

Safdarjung Enclave

New Delhi – 110029

+91 11 4165-0164

Gurgaon store-

SCO-19, Huda Market

Sector-56

Gurgaon

+91 124 4238 377

A little bit of Japan in India – Part 2 – Bombay

A little bit of Japan in India – Bombay

There are a few genuine corners of Japan in Bombay. The two old ones are the Japanese Temple or Nipponzan Myohoji in Worli and the Japanese Cemetery on Haines Road (Dr E Moses Marg), also in Worli.

In the 13th Century a Japanese monk, Maha Bodhisattva Nicherin, made a prophecy that humanity’s ultimate salvation lay in India and that Buddhism would spread to the rest of the world from there. In 1931, a follower of Nicherin, Nichidatsu Fujii arrived in India to fulfil that prophecy. He influenced Mahatama Gandhi who incorporated the main prayer of this school of Buddhism,“Na Mu Myo Ho Ren Ge Kyo” into his community’s daily service. In 1956 a temple was constructed for the followers of Nipponzan Myohoji school of Buddhism.

Today the temple is looked after by Bhikshu Morita, the resident monk, who’s been in India for over 30 years. In 1992, when there were communal riots in Bombay, Bhikshu Morita walked the streets with his drum chanting – Na Mu Myo Ho Ren Ge Kyo, a messenger for peace. This was same prayer that Gandhiji had been so moved by.

The other old Japanese pocket is the Japanese Cemetery on Haines Road. I haven’t got to the cemetery yet but it’s on my list. I looked it up and there were different versions of when it was constructed. One article said it was 1907 for Japanese traders and prostitutes brought over by the British, the second half of which doesn’t sound right. The other article puts it at 1952 and was for Japanese traders and their geisha. Two different periods in history. What I love is that the cemetery commemorates these women, whether geisha or prostitutes.

The more recent and less sombre addition to Japanese Bombay is the restaurant Kofuku in Bandra. Kofuku, which means happiness and good fortune in Japanese, opened on the 21st of September. Don’t be put off by the ugly building and surroundings; it’s a lovely space once you get in and you’re greeted by the staff crying out “irashaimase”, which means welcome and “arigato”, thank you when you leave. We sat at low traditional tables on pillows on the floor, the area is called zashiki and my daughter absolutely loved it. She said it’s like our own little house (she is a Bombay girl after all).

The food was delicious and there were quite a few Japanese families, which says a lot for the restaurant. We chose child friendly food so our 6 ½ year old would enjoy the meal. We shouldn’t have worried because she’s actually pretty adventurous and ate her first sushi at a conveyer belt sushi restaurant, Yo Sushi in London at the age of 18 months.

We had Cherry Blossom Makizushi – which was described as a flower shaped roll with salmon and avocado filled in the centre with a colourful outer layer of tuna, with flying fish roe. Naira chose it for the name and it was delicious.

After which we had Chicken Yakitori, grilled chicken and leeks in a caramelised sauce, Kushi Katsu, deep fried chicken cutlet on a skewer and Pan Grilled Fish with Spicy Lemon Sauce, some rice and we ended with really nice green tea ice cream. Delicious. Next time some sashimi, some nigiri, more sushi and some ramen or udon noodles. Can’t wait.

Nipponzan Myohoji

Opposite Poddar Hospital

Worli Naka

Worli

(Prayers between 6 AM to 7 AM and 5.30 PM to 7.30 PM)

Nipponjin Bochi

Dr. E Moses Road,

Worli

Kofuku

Second Floor, Kenilworth Shopping Arcade

Off Linking Road

Bandra West 400050

+91 22 6710 1101

Couscous with Roasted Vegetables and Manakeesh

Life’s a bit hectic so this will be a short post. We had couscous with roasted vegetables for lunch today and manakeesh or pita with za’tar. A friend of mine who grew up in Kuwait introduced me to manakeesh almost 15 years ago and I’ve been meaning to make it since then. We were in a Middle Eastern restaurant, I think it was Maroush, on Edgeware Road in London. She chatted with the owner in Arabic and asked if he had it on their menu. He didn’t, but he was so thrilled with this Indian girl that he went off and made us a feast. I don’t remember the other food he made, but this has stuck. I was planning to make the pitas as well but that’ll have to be another time. I had some in the freezer and used those.

Couscous with Roasted Vegetables

Ingredients

200 grams couscous

500 ml vegetable stock

½ a zucchini, sliced diagonally

½ a red pepper, cut into strips

½ a yellow pepper, cut into strips

2 small eggplants, sliced

1 large onion, sliced into wedges

few sprigs of thyme

olive oil

¼ cup flat leaf parsley

3-4 leaves of basil handful of cherry tomatoes, cut in half

2 limes, the zest and the juice

4 dried apricots, chop into large pieces

Method

Turn on the grill.

Put the couscous in to a bowl and add the lemon zest. Pour in hot stock and stir. Cover with foil, plastic wrap or a cloth. Leave it to absorb the liquid for 15 minutes.

Strip the thyme leaves and mix with ¼ cup of olive oil. Brush over the vegetables.

Grill the vegetables, turning over half way, till they start going a light brown. Remove and leave aside to cool.

Fluff up the couscous with a fork. Add the vegetables, lime juice, chopped up basil and parsley, tomatoes and apricots. Add salt to taste. Mix using a fork and serve.

Manakeesh

Ingredients and Method

4 pitas

Mix together-

1 tablespoon of za’tar

2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

or

2 teaspoons of dried thyme

¼ teaspoon sumac

2 teaspoons of sesame seeds

2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

till it looks like an oily sludge. Spread on the pita and put under the grill for 5-10 minutes, till the pita is golden.

Delicious