Rao ranjini - Around the world with the tadka girls

Around the World
with the
Tadka Girls

westland ltd

61, Silverline Building, Alapakkam Main Road, Maduravoyal, Chennai 600 095

No. 38/10 (New No.5), Raghava Nagar, New Timber Yard Layout, Bangalore 560 026

93, First Floor, Sham Lal Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi 110002

First published by westland ltd 2013

First e-book edition: 2013

Copyright Ruchira Ramanujam and Ranjini Rao 2013

All rights reserved

ISBN: 978-93-83260-42-3

Design: seema sethi { design }

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, circulated, and no reproduction in any form, in whole or in part (except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews) may be made without written permission of the publishers.

Food is our common ground, a universal experience

~ James Beard

To our mothers and the lessons we learnt in their kitchens

There is no sincerer love than the love of food

~ George Bernard Shaw

Preface

W e are two Indian foodies steeped in kitchen poetry. While that sums up the essence of us, there is a whole world beyond to be divulged. We have known each other for years now and aside from swapping bakeware to bowls of delectable fare, we have also travelled and savoured some amazing meals together, seen each other through some of the most trying life situations, and shared fears, tears, smiles and dreams. Food has brought us together in the most manifest of ways and we are rather delighted about the fact that our approach towards it is affirmatively old-fashioned, as we strongly believe that there is a certain captivating classicism in the workings of the Indian spices, and in the Tadka that tops most of our dishes. Which is why it is at the core of our endeavour in this book: Around the World with the Tadka Girls .

Indian cooking has indubitably been defined by its Tadka and it is unlikely that anyone entering an Indian home with an active kitchen wont be greeted by the warmth of this consummate Tadka. The soft hiss of ghee melting in a kadhai, in which mustard and cumin crackle with a tat and a tad , and into which an array of appointed spices leech their smoky, woodsy, bittersweet edges, warrants an entire chapter unto its own glory. And in our quest to diversify all kinds of cuisines and make them our own, we came up with a Tadka Pasta creation, infused with a few Indian spice fixings, thus raising the peg on plain old pasta. And our initiative to break multicultural barriers through culinary trials was born, revolving around it.

Having traveled across continents before momentarily seeking refuge in the United States, we have sampled some of the choicest cusines and our book is a tribute to those cuisines in more ways than one. Even as we continue to ride a world citizen whim, taking slices of our own palates and culinary instincts along as we traverse global kitchens, we always stop to take in the smells of their herbs and spices and the pattering of their pots and pans. Our food is fresh and imaginative, not like any contrived combination or hurriedly curried up fusion fare, but the blissful results that come about when a home cook is suitably intrigued by ingredients, flavours and pairings from a different world.

Inspirations for these recipes and the food stories woven around them are culled from chapters in our own lives. A dessert served at breakfast in an American B&B that prompted a sweet take in our own kitchens; the savoury aroma from a simmering borscht in a neighbours kitchen inspired a non-beefy Tadka version; the samples of Irish bakes during St. Patricks Day in Chicago led to a home-bred recipe for Irish Soda Bread, the African Jollof that appeared in a book in the aftermath of having dined at an Ethiopian restaurant in Washington D.C., only to be re-created with Indian flavours later, and exotic home-baked goodies tasted at an international potluck at school that metamorphosed into nectareous cardamom-speckled pastries in our ovens.

While some dishes were created as an antidote to the disappointing first taste of a famous dish a pasta sauce that desperately warranted a peppy seasoning; a supermarket bread infused with a lengthy list of preservatives traded for a healthful home-baked loaf; an alien vegetable that waltzed its way rather comfortably to our dinner table after the veritable Tadka treatment some others are simple, everyday recipes we've cooked for our families, with a new-world twist. Furthermore, our creativity goes into overdrive at the mere whisper of a celebration our childrens party spreads are designed to be a feast for little eyes and appetites, and we have driven home some food for thought about our planet through our Earth Day fare.

Last but certainly not least hailing from extensively different cultural backgrounds (Ruchira is from the North and Ranjini, from the South) and bearing distinct professional objectivities (Ruchira is a techie, and Ranjini, a writer) each of us brings a unique, creative and recondite edge to Tadka. In essence, we simply love to cook, eat, read and write. And our book, all things considered, is a perfect synthesis of all of those things, save for the part where, when no one is looking, we toss our sauce-speckled aprons and break into a kitchen cavort, screaming, We are the kooks.

• ~ Our dishes are based on wholesome, healthful ingredients, food that we cook every day for our family and friends. You will find a range of recipes in here from our favourite weeknight staples to crowd-pleasers that warrant encores when we entertain.
• ~ Looking for out-of-the-box ideas? Our Fiesta Fare and Funnibbles sections are packed with snacks, mains, sides and desserts that we created just for that special person or occasion.
• ~ Our recipes are accompanied by helpful tips, variations, substitutions and serving suggestions. Well tell you when you can make something ahead of time, how to store leftovers or freeze the food for a busy night.
• ~ We suggest that you read through the complete recipe and have all the ingredients prepared and measured before turning on the stove or oven especially when trying your hand at a dish for the first time.
• ~ Most of our recipes can be easily doubled or tripled, with slight adjustments to the cooking and baking times. Do try the recipe once as written before you make substitutions or changes.
• ~ We find it more convenient to measure our ingredients using cups and spoons rather thandrag out the weighing scale. All liquid quantities are measured using a liquid cup measure and dry ingredients using common nested cups. To measure a dry ingredient like flour or sugar we spoon it into the cup and then level across the top with a knife. Teaspoon and tablespoon measures are also leveled unless specified otherwise.
• ~ Most of our dishes are moderately spiced. We encourage you to adjust the salt and heat levels to suit your taste. Do remember to sample your dish before serving to ensure that it will meet with your familys approval.
• ~ The baking times in the recipes are indicative, given that ovens tend to work differently. Weve added notes on what to look for when youre pulling the dish out of the oven.
• ~ Ingredients are listed in the order that they are used within the recipe.