Suvir

The art of letting go - Slice of Life/Indian Express

When I was 20 I fell in love with an Australian artist in NYC. He moved in with me, and five months later I came home to an empty apartment. I began looking for clues to his disappearance and soon realised my student loan and any meagre savings had vanished with him. He left me broken, betrayed, and full of anger and regret. New emotions for me. He also left me with a choice. Would I allow this one person and one moment in time to become the lens through which I observed life and love? Would I opt to live in a body and mind drowning in a cesspool of depressive emotions? Or would I choose to let go of the hurt and move on to love again?

Rase Ke Aloo (Potato Curry)

I was often called Kamla Bobo’s Chadi (walking stick to my paternal grandmother Kamla Bhatnagar). My grandma ran the house. My parents, siblings and I lived with her in New Delhi. This dish was one of the couple of potato dishes that she loved. This was mostly made in the evenings. She enjoyed it with Chapatis, pooris and parathas. Equally. 

 

On those days when we were observing festivals, this was the recipe that was followed to the tee. On rare occasions, the recipe could be made a tad bolder with the addition of some Garam Masala in the end. Sometimes some cumin seed powder, amchoor and ground mustard seeds were added as well. Those Rase Ke Aloo’s would be had with Kachoris, a special puffy bread that was stuffed with ground hulled and spiced black beans.

Pooris - Fluffy Puffy Bread

 

A poori is a most beautiful edible treat to behold. In the kitchen as it is made and fried, and as it arrives on the table, to be consumed. Puffy and light, crisp outside and chewy in its bite, it is a miraculous invention and one that always pleases. 

We grew up eating pooris on tyauhaars (religious festivals) and at special dinners where a "fancy meal" was being served. Channas (chickpeas), rase waale aloo (potatoes), khatta meetha kaddu (sweet and sour pumpkin) and halwa (semolina pudding) are some of the dishes I associate with the making of pooris. 

They are delicious. Easy to make. Its all about practice, practice and practice when it comes to the making of pooris. 

 

Chanda Aloo - Moon shaped potatoes

 

Chanda Aloo cannot be made in enough quantities at our home. Two people can finish what a dozen people might eat at a fancier meal where everyone is being a tad more formal. Such is the beauty and comforting deliciousness of this simple potato dish. It goes back to my grandmother’s family’s table in Kurwaar. A recipe that has been passed down generationally. It now has fans across the continents. Friends and family members have taken it with them.

Lauki Tamatar (Bottlegourd & Tomatoes)

This is a dish I saw at our table more often that I wished for it to be there. A favorite of my grandmother. It was made almost daily. It also grows in abundance. Is as local as local can be. It defines the epitome of what it means to be local and sustainable. Vegetables that grow together should stay together. Both bottlegourd and tomatoes grow in abundance. No wonder that this dish was abundant at our table.

 

Make this your foundation and add to it as you wish. This is a basic form that is wonderful as a side dish. Light and flavorful. A wonderful contrast to other richer flavors. 

Mili Juli Dal

 

You can use whatever lentil you have at home, and in whatever mix you want. Today I used arhar, chana, dhuli moong and urad, and moong chilka.

Dal is something most Indian homes eat in some way, shape or form daily. It is a staple in our homes. Inexpensive, nutritive and delicious.

Soul Kitchen: Birbal Ki Khitcheree

Locked in, with grim scenarios spelled out across television screens and mobile apps, no place to run or hide? Under these circumstances, it almost seems facetious to say, don't worry, so we won't. But what we can do is bring you a series of comfort food recipes put together by some of the most celebrated Indian chefs in the world. These may qualify as comfort food, but it's definitely not ordinary. Our star chefs will tell you the magic ingredient that will nudge it up a notch to qualify as gourmet. 

This recipe of mine is the first of a series. Follow the series here and the recipe below. 

Cold Love In The Time Of Corona & Social Distancing

As tricky as these times are, there is nothing remotely tedious about the enjoyment of comforting foods. It is most natural to feed ones cravings and find deeply satisfying satiety. 

Nothing brings Charlie and me more pleasure than a bowl or two, or even a pint of delicious ice cream. 

Real ice cream isn't easily found anywhere today. New Delhi is no better than New York it seems. Might only be worse. 

Hence it ought to be no surprise that I have hoarded up on 10 plus kilos of deliciously indulgent and brilliantly crafted Cold Love ice cream. Ice cream that is all natural. A rarity in our times. Made with the finest of ingredients, and with painstaking care given to every detail, in small batches, labeled and marked personally. 

This is ice cream fit to be intimate and in contact with during #SocialDistancing. 

Life: A Loot of discoveries

Click here to read my Slice of Life column in Mail Today for India Today for March 7, 2020. Or read below.

Faith, hope, courage & love

My column for 25th January from Mail Today by India Today.

Twenty Twenty - Facile discernment and the beginning of a new decade and year

2020 couldn’t begin on a better note for us. We find ourselves safely at home in New Delhi. Surrounded by loved ones. Pooches at our side. Living in a new home, built on land where the home of my birth existed before. Finding ourselves comfortable in the city that I left at 19, when I went to school in Manhattan. The city to which I came back yearly when going back home to family. A city that is as old as history and as richly diverse and full of opportunities as the best in the world. New Delhi is the capital of India, it is a cultural hub, and it is now home to my new baby, The House of Celeste, my restaurant in Gurgaon.