Class Room 2017 - The Classes

Last year has been quite busy with three classes going all through the year. However, I have not been as organised with blogging.

New Year and New Resolutions! I will add the recipes for two classes one is the beginners and the other for students who feel a bit more accomplished! I am glad to say that people coming for these classes have started to cook Indian meals for themselves as well as for family and friends, which is a credit to them and the confidence they have gained.

The format for my classes remains the same. In the class I try to teach students not only various recipes but to prepare a meal. I tend to choose dishes which compliment each other and the end result is a preparation of meal which could be an envy of many an Indian homes. Here students learn to combine different dishes, present them and eat the food in an Indian way.

I hail from the Delhi, which is a very foodie place and the food served in the homes and the Restaurants there is synonymous to Indian food as is known to most in the world. I am lucky because of that, however I have travelled vastly in India and believe that regional food from all parts of India is as good if not better. In these classes I would like to introduce some of the dishes which I have learnt during my travels. I hope to bring a variety to and fusion of various regional dishes.

My previous blogs helped people to refer to and prepare a dish of their choice but what it lacked was to prepare a meal which for most Indians would be preparing two or three dishes. In my classes I stress what goes well with one main dish and hence we prepare three items in each class. One would be the main dish and others side dishes which for me is presentable meal.

To reflect this I intend to change the format of this blog from just being a recipe scrap book to a reference site where uninitiated could just follow each class  and prepare three dishes which would be a complete meal for a family or a group of friends.

Sorry, I haven't been active for a while

Hi All

I am sorry for not being active for a while. It is not just laziness but I got way laid as I was trying to develop this site into something different and in the process got lost. OK I am not perfect I admit. Well you may ask what have I been doing with my quest for exploring new dishes and old!
I continue to travel the length and breadth of India once a year. I have eaten and learnt some regional dishes which might interest some of you, these certainly interest me and some have become regulars on my menu. I have also started some teaching classes. These are interesting as well, as I call these Cook & Eat. These are just as the name suggests, people come and cook in my kitchen, in my presence and follow my prepared recipes and at end we eat together. We generally cook 3 dishes and it takes about two hours just enough to finish a couple of glasses of wine while cooking!
I thought it may be of interest that I publish some of these recipes on the net. I am doing this for some giving ideas to prepare a complete meal for yourself or a small group.
After that I intend doing some regional dishes and variations.

Welcome to some of the Cook & eat Classes.......

The Journey - Exploring the streets of India for that taste of India

I have such beautiful memories of having the most wonderful food in what we refer to as Purani (Old) Delhi. Delhi is well known for its Bazaars, full of street vendors and small restaurants, famous for a ‘one-dish’ speciality. Some of these vendors became so popular that people would come from far off places and insist on eating at these joints. It is not only Delhi which has such famous and popular food dishes, but there are other towns and cities in India which are equally renowned for their cuisine. These are often referred to as Street food. Sometimes one can even get that perfect Tarka Dal or Mutton curry on the road side at one of the communal tandoors on the main road near villages often catering not only for the villagers but for the passerby's!  

For a long time now I have been thinking of revisiting the streets of India for just that exquisite Indian food. This would be a big undertaking, but something if I can achieve it, would be dream come true.

When we were young we didn't travel much, so I know mainly the streets food vendors of Delhi and some of the cities in Uttar Pradesh. However, we know that every region in India has some classics loved world over. This in mind I have undertaken that I spend longer time in India. I am not sure how I would cover this vast nation of ours, but I do intend to give it a good go. I would have liked to cover one region at a time but, with meagre resources I may just cover different areas opportunistically.

In undertaking this task, I recognise that I would need much help from friends and family. I would also need friendly vendors who would share their stories and occasionally the recipes. When I can’t get the recipes I would like to tell a story which may explain why I think a particular dish deserves to be on my blog. I would also get some local ladies and maids to replicate some of the fabulous dishes which are sold in their villages or towns.

I would love to hear from the hundreds of followers of this blog about their memories from childhood or present. They may have eaten something memorable near to their home or while visiting a place on holiday. I would try my best to visit such places if I can.

In my pre-retired life I was neither a cook nor a blogger. At best I enjoyed a good meal and and a lot of entertaining. I could cook a handful of preparations. However, since I took up cooking I have learnt and am enjoying preparing new and wonderful dishes, which is perfect for entertaining.

Unlike some big and not so big names who come on the TV programs I have undertaken this task independently. This poses great many hurdles. Some like camera handling I have to sort out at the outset and hope with experience I would get better. My friends on the blog have already advised me on the choice of camera, which I have invested in. Now I have to ask someone to help me use these modern cameras to their fullest potential. I am sure there would be many hurdles which I would only come across as I start my journey. 

My enthusiastic friends and family members site professionally made websites of well know chefs and TV personalities to shape my blog on. What they don’t realise it is that neither am I a great cook, nor do I want to copy anyone’s style. I am just a chap who is exploring Indian Street food at its best, and I am trying to write about the story behind these fabulous places. I am sure all my friends mean well and are being helpful. So keep up with the suggestions, I will listen to all but do as I see fit.

This in mind I have booked myself a working holiday for five months in India. My base would be Delhi but I hope to travel to different parts of India and I would hope to bring some colourful sights and recipes. 

A Request for a Vegetarian Meal without Onions and Garlic

I was requested to post recipes for a meal without any onions and garlic. This was because the person who has requested is attending a wedding in a Kayastha family. Initially I was surprised by this request as most Kayastha’s I know are meat eating and few if any dishes are prepared without onions and garlic. However, I was wrong as there are many vegetarian Kayasthas who would not eat meat, but I am not sure about the onion and the garlic (which I had mistakenly considered mainly a Brahmin trait!). When one thinks about it there are several dishes which are equally wonderful without the onions and garlic. With this in mind I took a trip to our local vegetable market.

We are lucky in Newport, Wales in having a Saturday morning market, which is not as buzzing as the Sabzi Mandi (Vegetable market) in Delhi,

but at least we do see lots of fresh fruit and vegetable. Some grown locally and others imported from various parts of Africa and Asia. I wanted to prepare this meal with as fresh ingredients as possible.  So here I was in the market and found fresh tomatoes, garlic (which I can’t use for this meal!), lauki, mushrooms, cabbage, gajjar (carrot), muli (white Indian radish), beans and arbi. I thought I should be able to make enough dishes from these ingredients.

With the above fresh vegetables I thought of the following menu for my friend who wants a vegetarian meal without onions and garlic:

1. Starter

• Stuffed Mushrooms (recipe already on the blog) 
• Cabbage Kofta Pakora (recipe already on the blog)

1. Main Dishes

• Lauki rasedar with jeera
• Sambar (I didnt use onions which I know a lot of people use)
• Fried Arbi (recipe already on the blog under vegetarian dishes)
• Gajjar methi

1. Sweet

• Gajjar ka halwa for afters.

I hope this would go down for my vegetarian Kayastha friends as well. I am sure I will get some feed back.

I have already posted the recipe for Fried Arbi, stuffed Mushroom (for this meal I did not add garlic) and Cabbage kofta Pakora which are all under vegetarian dishes, but the next entries would be the above dishes. So here we go for the next few posts!

Mrs.Mishra My Guru

My mother and then my sister have and remain my biggest source and muse when it comes to traditional and inspirational Indian cooking. However, my journey would not be complete without the inspiration and guidance from Mrs.Mishra. I think I could take the credit for spreading the word around in the South East Wales about the talent of this simple but wonderful person. Many had been treated at her home with some mouth watering vegetarian meals, but it was not till I inspired her to take part in what became very popular evenings at the India Centre in Cardiff, called ‘Banao aur Khao’ that her incredible dishes got the praise and recognition they deserve. 

Mrs.M was a hidden jewel in her family. Like in so many Indian homes, wives often stay in the shadows of their husbands, so did Mrs.M, till I felt she had so much to offer to the Indian community in our area and people need to laste her dishes. It was she who made it possible for me to venture the ‘Banao aur Khao’ evenings. These evenings gave the rightful status to Mrs.M, of a brilliant cook in our community. It was this association which I exploited to learn from a self taught cook. She is the only one, in my experience, who cooks same dal in five or six different styles and people actually praise her dal over and above some very nicely cooked novelty non-vegetarian dishes made by her husband. I actually feel sorry for my friend Dr.M who in his own rights is an excellent cook, but his dishes often are dwarfed in comparison to Mrs.M’s vegetarian dishes.

Mrs.M hails from an upper middle class family in Bihar and married as expected into an upper middle class family just before coming to the UK. Like so many other youngsters she was cosseted by the army of Bawarchis (cooks) and servants before marriage.   In one of her teaching sessions, narrating her story of earlier years in the UK, she remembers, on her maiden trip back to India her father asked her ‘How many servants has Dr.M employed for you?’ Her father must have been horrified to learn that she had to learn not only to cook, but to clean, wash and in fact do everything herself!

Mrs.M started attempting to cook only after her marriage and coming to the UK. Her style is very much Bihari and Eastern UPite, but she doesn’t hesitate to adapt and learn dishes from other regions and countries. Not only is she great at making main dishes but she has created many lovely snacks, using vegetables which are not even seen in India, like Brussel sprouts. She can pickle almost anything or converts surplus fruits from one’s garden into finger licking jelly. Once roaming in our garden she saw a crab apple tree loaded with fruit which would have really gone to waste. She asked me to bring a carrier bag and two days later these were converted into jars of jelly.

In the next few weeks I would like to introduce some of her dishes for people to try the wonders of Bihari vegetarian dishes which I would suggest are second to none and only available in Bihar or a Bihari home. If you haven’t been there than I don’t believe you would have tasted it. Well worth trying I would say!

Who is inspiring who!

This blog is in its second month and doing well. When I reflect why in the first place I wanted to develop a blog or as was my initial feeling, to write a recipe book (I am so glad that my children persuaded me to develop a blog instead), I think it was for several reasons. One of the reasons was to inspire, even the novices to try out their favourite dish. We are at an age when our children have left the nest, but still crave for that home cooked meal, which they can't get it in restaurants.

My daughter, like so many other things I have done in my life, is my inspiration for this blog . Once she left home to set up home in the big city of London, she started to entertain cooking for several friend. I suspect she always bragged about her dad's prowess in Indian cooking. Initially she would ring me asking for recipes or stay on the phone as she would prepare a meal, I on the other end giving step by step instructions. She even used some of my recipes to give to her bosses at work, I am sure there was no anticipation of a promotion! I am glad to say she has developed her own niche and is preparing cakes and afters. I hope to put some of her recipes later in this blog.

In the very first month my son rang me asking for the Lamb Kofta recipe. Instead of just telling him such a complicated recipe I put the recipe on the blog. I did warn him that it is not the easiest item to start cooking Indian food. Against my advice he went on and made it and his words were, "it tastes just like Koftas you make"! I don't believe there could be any better testimonial.

Last night I noticed that the blog was getting hits from Hong Kong! This turned out to be from another young man who is some 6000 miles away from his mum in the South Wales. He fancied some easy to do home food, so in these days of cheap telephone calls he rang his father, who told him about this blog. He I am reliably informed, went on to make the Prawn Curry! A first for him and wonderful it turned out to be.

Then I was sent a recipe of Mushroom starters by my nephew, which were a hit ahead of the fried fish at a dinner party at my place!

I guess these stories gives me immense pleasure and hopefully give the right incentive to continue to write. Unfortunately, this blog doesn't let viewers interact unless they have a gmail email account. I would request that viewers contact me at my email address which is rajivskitchen@gamail.com

Kayastha & Meat

Kayastha is a caste of Hindus. Kayastha means ‘scribe’ in Sanskrit, reflecting the caste’s traditional role as record-keepers and administrators of the state. During the many changes of Indian occupancy by Hindu Maharajas, Mughal and British, they continued to serve the rulers as administrators and Ministers. They are the descendants of Chitragupta Maharaj, who was according to Puranas responsible for recording the deeds of humanity (ref Wikipedia). Kayastha were ranked between Brahmins and Khatris. For the non believers of the caste system like I am, this history is only of interest so that we understand how Kayastha being almost Brahmins starting eating meat. There are regions in India where the Kayastha will not only, not eat meat, but won’t even let anyone cook meat in there kitchen – as happened at my mother’s family, yet other Kayastha - as was the case in my father’s family, meat was eaten everyday barring Tuesdays. Kayastha families, hailing from Delhi (Father’s family eating meat almost everyday) are very different in their eating habits from their brethrens in other parts of North India. I wonder whether this was due to the fact that Kayasthas from Delhi and surrounding areas were often in the employment of the Mughals when they were subjected to the non-vegetarian cuisines and method of cooking, and started eating meat. You will note from the forthcoming meat recipes of our family, we use a lot of spices and cooking methods used by the Mughals, which today is referred to as Mughlai food. In Delhi there are many restaurants which became famous and popular because of their Mughlai food. The current popularity of North Indian food dishes like Korma and Murgh Mussalam are just a few examples.

It is interesting and perhaps a topic for investigating that in the UK Korma is referred to a mild version of curry, where as in truth the Korma is a meat dish made with yogurt and nuts. In the recent years one is starting to see the true Korma even in the UK.

It is interesting that though my Ma never ate meat (my big sister thinks I am wrong as she believes our Ma started eating meat after her marriage), yet she started to cook for my dad. Whatever the truth, I am glad she was introduced to the non – vegetarian cooking as she made some legendary meat dishes. Unfortunately, she died at a very early age, before I became interested in cooking as a hobby. My sister has now become my biggest source of all Ma’s and indeed her own recipes, which in her family have in turn become legendary. Hopefully, I will be able to share most of these with you all in this blog!

The first recipe I will write is the everyday Kaliya. Kaliya is the term used in Delhi and UP for Goat meat; here in the UK of course it is difficult to get goat meat so we use lamb.

The Beginnings

I have such wonderful memories of eating as a child. My big sister, brother and I used to sit in a semicircle whilst our Ma fed each one of us in turn. She often told us a story (Hirmala Jogi) at the same time and I remember, it usually was the same one probably because one of us would insist she told the same story again and again. If my memory serves me right the meal always contained dal, vegetable and plain rice. I thought it would be most appropriate that my recipe is my Ma’s dal.

Rajiv

Welcome to Rajiv's Kitchen

Food can bring people together and that's what has led me to write this blog. 

While eating food is a necessity, I have been fortunate enough to enjoy good food for most of my earlier life. Things changed when I came to the UK in 1970’s. There was not a single place which served good Indian home cooked food. You really appreciate the good when you've experienced the not so good!

The recipes this blog shares are all designed for cooking at home and enjoying with family and friends.  I'm no restaurant chef, the meals I cook are homely meals that I have picked up from those closest to me and over time have added my own personal touch. Each recipe has a story of where it came from which I would like to share with you here at Rajiv's Kitchen.

Some of my earliest and happiest memories are of the food my Ma made as a child. Now maybe I'm biased, but for me (and most of the extended family circle!) my Ma was the best cook ever... Throughout this blog you will see the influence of those memories of food with my Ma, writing this blog is my way of thanking her and ensuring her legendary cooking style continues. 

I hope you enjoy making these recipes as much as I have over the years and get in touch to let me know how it goes!

Rajiv

Rajiv's cooking lessons!

The formula is simple: on an evening of your choice a group of you and your friends and family get together, I will come to your kitchen and teach you how to make delicious home cooked Indian dishes of your choosing and then I will leave you to enjoy what you’ve cooked.  And, of course, you get to keep the recipes!

Price: £20 plus ingredients for the evening

Contact: 07709042155, rajivskitchen@gmail.com, www.rajivskitchen.blogspot.com
(only for South East Wales UK)