Patel - Prashad cookbook : Indian vegetarian cooking

CONTENTS

FOR MY GRANDMA, PREM MA,

who showed the world her love through her amazing food, her desire to feed everyone and the gentle, encouraging way she taught her skills to me all those years ago. She has inspired me and my cooking throughout my life, and it is as a result of the kitchen magic she so lovingly shared with me that I now receive so much joy sharing that magic with others.

INTRODUCTION

COOKING has been my world from a very early age. Preparing wonderful food is an expression of real love a lesson I learned from my amazing grandmother before I was even five years old.

Until I was four, I lived with my parents and three siblings in Ganesh Sisodra, a village in Surat, northern India, about ten miles away from my mothers parents, who lived on a large farm in a village called Pardi. My mother, a sociable woman with a strong sense of family and community, was a great cook. There were always a lot of visitors to our home, and her wide social network brought with it important contacts. It was through them that my father was offered an amazing opportunity to start a business in Zambia.

We were all excited, but my grandma was worried too, as my parents would be leaving India and starting again from scratch. Trying to settle in a foreign land with a young family would be difficult, so she suggested that they leave me behind in India with her, since we already had a special bond. This was true, but nevertheless I was devastated when my mother agreed. I cried for weeks after my family had left and I had moved to Pardi to live with my grandparents.

As it turned out, the next ten years would be the best of my childhood. I missed the rest of my family, obviously, but my grandma made me feel immensely loved, and I soon settled into her wonderful world. She was the most generous and loving person I have ever known, and her enthusiasm for life, food and laughter are still with me today. She believed in cooking with love, and she passionately loved to cook.

And she was always cooking whether for the family or for the hundred or so workers on the farm. She would get up at the crack of dawn to pick vegetables and prepare ingredients for the big cook making enormous pots of food for the workers before they started their day. I was fascinated by this, quickly got involved and found that I loved to cook. She was thrilled by my desire to learn and carefully taught me until, at the age of seven, I took over the responsibility of cooking for the family while she cooked for the workers.

Before school I would get up early to make the family meal, all the while watching my grandma cooking in the big pots. At the same time she would watch my progress, complimenting me when I succeeded and gently teaching me when I needed help. She impressed on me that the quality of the ingredients and the freshness of the vegetables were all part of the magic the same magic that we still cook up in Prashads kitchens and advised me never to cut corners and always to cook from the heart. When I was fourteen, my mother arranged for me to become engaged to her best friends son my soulmate, Mohan. I was to move to England to start my new life, and stay with my uncle in Loughborough (cooking and keeping house for him) while I settled in.

Leaving my grandmother was incredibly hard, but she told me she believed in me and that this was my opportunity to shine. So it was that I landed at Manchester airport in October 1966, not speaking a word of English, still tearful but warmed by her encouragement and blessing. I couldnt believe how cold and dark England was, and how early the sun set! I wasnt convinced that it was the place for me, but I knew that I couldnt disappoint my grandma, so I set out to overcome every obstacle and be a success.

Life was very challenging and not knowing the language was a major hurdle, but I started work in a needle factory as a machine operator and soon discovered plenty of other Indians working there. I picked up English as I went along and gradually things became easier. In 1968 Mohan came to England and we married and moved up to Bradford. I was very shy, but in marriage I found stability and security. With my charming, loving husband by my side, I knew I need never worry or be alone.

The Indian community in Bradford was just developing, and we soon got into a routine of having regular get-togethers with a handful of other young couples from the same part of India, each of us cooking our favourite meals. I loved cooking in my home for my growing family, and welcomed special occasions when I could lay on great feasts. There was scarcely a weekend when we didnt have guests to feed, and my kitchen was fast becoming my world.

Mohan is a fantastic mechanic and had steadily built up a reputable garage business, but by the early 1990s he wanted to try something different. So when he came home one evening in 1992 with a huge grin and told me that the University of Bradford had issued a compulsory purchase order to buy the garage, I knew that the exciting opportunity he had been waiting for had arrived. Knowing that cooking was my lifelong passion, he asked whether I fancied trying the food business. A family friend was selling his launderette, which my mechanical genius husband could run, and attached was a small Indian vegetarian deli from which I could sell my food what could be better? My eldest son, Bobby, was studying for his marketing degree at the time, so we asked him to come up with a name, and his suggestion of Prashad, meaning blessed food, seemed the perfect choice.

Mohan and I were determined that Prashad would have the same quality ethos that my grandma had instilled in me, with no corners cut. He got busy sorting out the building structure and launderette, and I got busy cooking. The more I cooked, the closer I felt to my grandma. Everything I was doing reminded me of her and the recipes she had taught me even the pot sizes at Prashad were nearly as big as the ones she used for her big cook! I was fulfilling my potential, using the skills she had taught me, cooking her food and making it my own. My food was bringing happiness to me and to many others, and my world started to sing.

The deli was packed with my specialities Bombay mixes, dhokra, samosas, spring rolls, kamree, handvo, pethis, vegetable pakoras and Indian sweets. Everything you would expect in a Gujarati home could now be bought at Prashad. The business grew, and soon we were being asked to cater for weddings with up to 2,000 guests. Suddenly it was as if I was back in Pardi, cooking for the entire farm with my grandma! We would get up early to prepare the wedding food, then Mohan would head out to deliver it and I would stay in the kitchen to cook for the deli. Once the doors opened for business, I would spend the day talking with customers and selling my food.