Santa Maria - Indian Vegetarian Cookery

This perenially popular collection contains a delicious range of recipes collected from all over the subcontinent of India. They reflect a traditional view in which the most simple daily acts including preparation, cooking and eating form part of the divine gift of life.

The creative use of foods and spices, and the wide variety of vegetable cooking techniques in Indian cuisine will allow you to choose a delightful, exconomical and well balanced menu for every day of the year.

Jack Santa Maria is the pen name Jack Angelo has used for his series of vegetarian cookery books.

Jack is now a practising healer and runs a healing and retreat centre in Gwent with his wife Jan. He writes on a range of New Age topics and gives lectures and workshops internationally.

This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the authors and publishers rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

Version 1.0

Epub ISBN 9781448146116

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Copyright Jack Santa Maria 1973
Illustrations Copyright Rider 1973

All rights reserved

First published in 1973 by Rider
An imprint of Random Century Group, Ltd
20 Vauxhall Bridge Road, London SWl 2SA

Reissued in 1988 as a Century Paperback
Reissued in 1992 as a Rider Book
Reprinted 1992

Random Century Australia (Pty) Ltd,
20 Alfred Street, Milsons Point,
Sydney, NSW 2061, Australia

Random Century New Zealand Ltd,
18 Poland Road, Glenfield
Auckland 10, New Zealand

Random Century Group South Africa (Pty) Ltd,
PO Box 337, Bergvlei 2012, South Africa

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 0-7126-2409-0

OM. To the Mother of all cooks

May the Ocean of Salt, the Ocean of Honey, the Ocean of Wine, the Ocean of Ghee, the Ocean of Curd, the Ocean of Milk, the Ocean of Sweet Water sprinkle thee with their consecrated waters.

(From a consecration mantraMahnirvna Tantra, X)

The author wishes to thank the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, for permission to use the nineteenth-century Indian painting for the cover illustration.

The seventeenth-century English traveller, Ovington, wrote in his A Voyage to Surat that Of all the regions of the Earth (India is) the only Public Theatre of Justice and Tenderness to Brutes and all living creatures. He also found that, because of their diet, the Hindus kept a comely and proportionate body and lived a long life. The simple and meatless food made their thoughts quick and nimble, their comprehension of things easier and developed in them a spirit of fearlessness.

With the increasing interest in Indian culture there has grown up in the West, at the same time, an interest in vegetarian food. India, with her vast population of meat abstainers, has developed a rich and extensive range of vegetarian dishes. This book aims to present in simple terms a sample of this range especially for the vegetarian cook with the assurance that many of the recipes will tempt the meat and fish eater also. Cooking habits vary from area to area and recipes are included from all over the sub-continent to illustrate the variety of techniques and possibilities that are available to the vegetarian cook.

In former times, India was a land rich in the variety and quantity of its foodstuffs. Foreign visitors to India, from the beginning of the seventeenth century onwards, have noted with amazement the abundance and cheapness of an enormous number of foods and food products in the bazaars and markets of towns and cities all over the country. Poets of the Mughal era (15561784), such as Sur Das, describe the typical fare of the time. Morning breakfast (kalev) consisted of a variety of fruits and sweets, besides bread and butter, milk or curd. Bread was made of mixed wheat and gram flour. Also served at breakfast were pakoris, jalebis, laddus, malpuras, chironjis, raisins, almonds, pistachio nuts, coconuts, bananas, mangoes, apricots, cashew nuts, water melons and dry dates. Luncheon included kachoris (stuffed puris), luchchis (special fried bread), khichhari, milk, butter, ghee, honey, dry fruits, vegetables, papads, lemons, ginger, pickles, various pulses and grams. Out of such a rich and nutritious diet the basic dishes of Indian cooking had, by this time, already crystallised.

Both climate and environment have influenced cooking and eating habits, producing distinct regional variations. These variations are reflected in the cuisine of the four major cities of Delhi, Madras, Bombay and Calcutta. In the North, where wheat is grown, breads rather than rice form the staple part of the diet. The influence of Middle-Eastern neighbours can be seen in Mughlai cooking techniques such as pulau rice and tanduri baking. The tandur is a barrel-shaped mud or clay oven made out of doors. As well as bread, this oven is used for other special tanduri dishes. Rice or khichhari usually accompanies curries, one of the most popular of which is made from peas and potatoes. Vegetables are prepared as bhujias or bhartas. Dals are eaten at nearly every meal in a variety of forms. Curd (yogurt) is a nourishing addition along with pickles and chutneys. Desserts and sweetmeats made from milk may follow, especially firni and varieties of khir and halva.

South India is noted for its vegetarian and rice dishes which are hotter though not as rich as in the North. Coconut products feature prominently in the cooking and many typically Northern dishes may be found, changed only by the addition of some coconut. Towards the end of the meal the rice may be mixed with yogurt, which has a cooling effect. Pachadi, seasoned yogurt, like the Northern raita, may also be served. South Indian breakfasts include idlis, steamed rice cakes, and dosas, pancakes made with various flours, accompanied by chutneys or sambhar, a hot lentil soup. South Indian coffee, which is among the worlds best in quality, is drunk with milk and sugar and served at any time of the day.

In Western India, vegetarian food takes on a Gujerati or Maharashtri character. Here a sweet is served at the beginning of the meal and is eaten with a puri or chapati, followed by vegetable dishes and curried lentils. Some Western cooks like to sweeten lentils and vegetable preparations. The meal usually ends with rice though less rice tends to be eaten in the West than in the South or East. Popular desserts are milk sweets made from rice and nuts and shrikand, yogurt sweetened and seasoned with cardamon and saffron. In Maharashtra it is common to eat a vegetable dish and puris with shrikand. Bhel puri is a notable savoury snack sold all over Bombay and made a speciality by certain restaurants.

In Bengal, where rice and dals are popular, many vegetarians eat fish. This sometimes poses problems for Hindus from the South who go visiting in the East! Bengali or East Indian food is plainer, with rice forming the main part along with luchchis, a fried bread like a puri. Desserts are more simple, ranging from milk-sweetened yogurt (