BackPassing the pasta
Cooking from Kunal Vijayakar's new book 'Made in India'
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For about 20 minutes, we were going to have chicken pasta curry for dinner. Attribute it to the fact that my kitchen had all the ingredients ready for use. Or that we’d never had that specific dish before. Or even my inherent aversion to ‘fusion’ (unless it’s undertaken by an expert chef, which I most emphatically am not), influenced by the ‘Saturdays are for adventure’ poster I’d seen earlier in the day.
Or, perhaps, attribute it to the fact that the recipe was one of the 60 compiled in Made in India, a collection by occasional actor and TV food show presenter Kunal Vijayakar. I can’t claim to be a fan, but whatever I’d seen of him on his food shows always conveyed a certain credibility: This was a guy who didn’t claim to know everything (pomposity is magnified several times on screen) but had more than a pretty face to show: He was curious about food and its processes, asked the right questions and approached his plate with an indulgence-worthy mix of greed and admiration that’s immediately identifiable.
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A work-plan of this nature is usually template for a singularly personal book, a compilation of favourite dishes strung together by memories of food experiences. It is a forgiving model, allowing for all kinds of dishes to come together under the generic ‘Indian’ (a case in point: the chicken pasta curry). It can be whimsical and eccentric or quirky and fun or serious and snobbish—but the biggest factor here is the personality of the author; that is what holds the structure together. On paper, this is a fail-safe model, especially for a celebrity and/or a TV face.
Unfortunately, that’s where Made in India falls short: There just isn’t enough of Vijayakar in it. Without a distinct ‘character’ to drive it, the book ends up as a rather soulless collection of disconnected Mumbai/Maharashtra-centric recipes. They are divided under Vegetarian, Egg, Chicken, Fish, Mutton, Beef, Dessert, Sides and Masalas. And if you’ve been thinking it, you’re right: There isn’t much in here for the vegetarian. Each recipe is prefaced by a short write-up, but not many of them are insightful and certainly not all are personal.
And if the laidbackness is characteristic of the author, well, it doesn’t reflect too well on the recipes: They presuppose considerable experience and instinct on the part of the cook and there are omissions and commissions that may significantly impact the final dish. Consider, for example, the pasta curry. The recipe makes no mention of a cooking medium, either in the ingredients or in the instructions. That oversight, coupled with the long-buried memory of a turmeric-yellow spaghetti in an Ahmedabad restaurant years ago, compelled me to turn the pages back to Esperanza’s Chicken Curry.
“In the early 50s and 60s of Bombay, even up to the 80s, most well-to-do non-Hindus would have a Pedrina, an Emrencia, a Magarida, an Aida or at least a Rosy in their homes, cooking up great feasts for meal times. My friends had an Esperanza. Her chicken curry was half Goan, half Chira Bazaar and wholly delectable."
I tried it out and it didn’t quite live up to expectations, I’m afraid (and I promise, the only ingredient I skipped was the saffron, since this was a regular dinner-at-home kind of meal and not really worth the investment, IMO). My curry was rather pallid: I realized later that I should’ve sautéd the onions longer, but the recipe said “till golden-brown" and mine were in danger of burning and becoming unpalatable. But here’s the recipe: May you have better luck!
ESPERANZA’S CHICKEN CURRY
Serves 4
Ingredients
1 kg chicken
4 onions, finely sliced
3 garlic pods, crushed
1 tbsp ginger, chopped
3 tbsp roasted almonds, sliced
2 tsp cardamom
4 cloves
1 tbsp cinnamon powder
1 tsp black pepper powder
1 tsp red chilli powder
¼ tsp saffron
2 cups thickened coconut milk
2 cups plain yoghurt
2 tbsp oil
1 tsp salt
Method
Heat oil in a pan and add in the onions, cinnamon, cardamom, black pepper and cloves. Fry the onions and spices till they turn golden-brown. Then add in the chopped ginger and garlic. Fry them also until golden-brown. Add the chicken and cook till the chicken changes colour.
After the colour of the chicken changes, mix in the red chilli powder, yoghurt, salt and saffron. Mix well by stirring continuously. Cook till the chicken is tender, pouring in a little water if required.
Once the chicken is tender, pour coconut milk over it and add in the almonds. Cook for another five minutes and allow the sauce to reduce. Do not overcook as coconut milk tends to curdle.
Serve hot (with steamed rice or hot pav).
This weekly series, which appears on Tuesdays, looks at what’s new with food and drink, and how we are interacting with it.
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