Suvir

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.

Mushroom Biryani for Vani

It isn't every day that my friend Vani Tripathi Tikoo asks for something. Hers is a personality that gets glues to ones heart and being. She is what one calls "good people". Hers is an inclusive world in a world where we are all being torn apart into isms. She lives and loves with open arms and table. She gives herself with boundless empathy and a large heart. 

This biryani, a recipe from American Masala, is also bold, beautiful and soulfully flavorful. 

When Vani asked for its recipe just by looking at the photo, I had to oblige, and was fascinated at how similar. this dish was to Vani's own journey. Global and inspired. Inspiring and comforting. All at once.

Vani, this one is shared with you on my mind, my dear. Enjoy it! 

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. 

Beet Balls: A festive treat with comforting heft

At The House Of Celeste, my restaurant in Gurugram, Haryana, we cannot make enough of these crispy, smooth, oozing with cheese beet balls. We serve them tossed in Tamarind chutney. At home you can serve them that way, or with the chutney at the side. I know friends who would devour them as is, and others who would dunk them in ketchup and be in comforting heaven.

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. 

Sympathy be damned!!! Give me empathy!!!!!

Our human collaborative is a celebration when seen through the lens of plurality and diversity. Pluralism that cherishes and values diverse ethnic, racial, religious and social groups. Where all members are able to develop and maintain their cultures and special interests within the confines of one collective civilization, while proudly retaining their individuality. 

 

At Modern School, Vasant Vihar where I schooled, inclusion was a way of life in the ’70s, ’80s, and earliest of ’90s. We sang “ham sab Bhartiya hain”, celebrating as Indians our individuality and common destination. We learned that, “bikhare bikhare deepak hain ham, lekin jhilmil ek hain”, which shone light on our personal brilliance and bright flame of a personality, and how, when seen together, we shimmered like a galaxy of stars. 

 

Our eight fingers and two thumbs belong to our one body. Yet each one bears its own imprint, leaves a unique impression, and works differently and to varied outcomes. In one person we see such incongruity, and yet we expect sameness within our disparately individual human fellowship.

 

Click here to read my column from Mail Today, or continue below

Roasted Manchurian Cauliflower

From day one at my restaurant in New York City, Manchurian Cauliflower had been a huge success. It’s sweet and spicy, tender and satiny, and looks as sultry and seductive as cauliflower could ever hope to become. In the restaurant, we fry the cauliflower and then toss it with the sauce and finish it in the oven. Here, I’ve simplified and lightened the recipe by roasting the cauliflower and then tossing it with the sauce midway through baking. Healthier, easier, and more accessible, you could make a double batch of this recipe and still never have leftovers!

The Arts - An Easy Agglomeration of Happily Inspired People

Much in our lives today polarizes our human collective into disparate tribes. The climate is such that it is easiest to sit divided, blame the other, and find flaws in the views of those we deem different. Even within family units one can find utter lack of parity when it comes to the choices that define us most viscerally. We prefer to be deafened by silence rather than risk a dialogue, because we fear that we will be torn apart by the revelations these conversations bring forth. 

 

But when we indulge in culinary bounty at the table,  listen to the notes and pitch of music—vocal or instrumental, observe the bounce that dancers flaunt when on stage, enjoy the majesty of performers acting scenes that move our souls, read heartfelt emotions shared in the ant lines on pages, or wonder at the brilliance that colors, textures and imagery bring to us, we are drawn together from our separated perches and poles. Such is the power of soul-stirring art.

 

Click here to read my current Slice of Life column from Mail Today, or read more here below.