Jump to content

v. gautam

participating member
  • Posts

    632
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by v. gautam

  1. Shawn Matthews authors the following blog:http://korealife.blogspot.com/. He is a livewire, and extremely well-informed about food in Seoul. His partner is Korean, and that would help with addresses and such. Have a safe and happy trip.
  2. In some parts of Bengal, those returning from the crematorium where a relative has been seen off, are greeted by the women of the household, who ask you to bite into a neem leaf, touch iron, and then pass your hands over a flame, before entering the house. These customs are referred to as 'desacara' [deshachara], i.e. not sastric but folkloric.
  3. Maremosso, Bong is dead on; no curry leaves, but young neem leaves, before they turn bright green. Bengalis have a penchant for bitter greens; in addition to several ‘fruits’, here are some other leaves less commonly used to impart bitterness: Telakucho or Bimba, Coccinea spp. A vine bearing cucurbitaceous fruit that turn bright red on ripening. Shephalika or Shiuli, Nyctantes arbor-tristis. A tree blooming during September-October, the flower stalks are treasured for the osaffron Vasanti dye people used to employ during Vasant panchami. The leaves are faintly bitter, and are sometimes dipped in chickpea batter and fried, like spinach pakoras. Parwal or pointed gourd, Trichosanthes dioica. An important vegetable and sweetmeat, the leaves [palta pata] were used for bittering.
  4. The green pea filling Bong mentions is especially delicious, and the kachauri is then fancifully called Radha-ballabhi [‘of Radha’s lover] when rolled thin. You can also fill it thicker in a thicker crust of frozen puff pastry and bake for another type of kachuri traditionally made of two rounds of dough stuffed with filling and closed with beautifully fluted edges. Fresh green peas are best but frozen ones will suffice. They are pureed raw [food processor, not blender], and delicately spiced with a ginger-fennel paste, a bare hint of red chile powder, salt and sugar to taste, A very light touch with the spices .so as not to kill the pea flavor. In hot oil, add asafetida powder, then this raw, seasoned puree, cook until raw smell disappears. Cool and stuff. Potato tikkis can be stuffed with this filling. Now that I have stood in for Bong for the pea recipe, I shall leave that good gentleman to fill you in on pulir pithey and the Bengali redaction of malpua, something quite appropriate for Janmashtami, although tedious to prepare. It is one of the only sweet dishes where I have found this strange but good commingling of the following spices: coarsely crushed black cardamom, ditto fennel, ditto black peppercorns. Don't let him run away!
  5. I believe that the kabuli in aloo-kabli refers to chickpeas or kabuli chana, although in Kolkata, the chana [and of the desi, sprouted sort] all seemed to have run away to the fruit salad/rochak called ‘Vitamin B-complex’, sold from glass-sided cases of death festooned with bunches of bananas and shameless naked papayas casting come-hither looks at the unwary. Aloo-kabli, with nary a chana, but embellished with onions and delicious tamarind and masala was wonderful, served on sal leaf plates, using a bit of sal leaf as a spoon. A form called churmuri later evolved, where crushed phuchka shells were liberally incorporated into and on top of the aloo-kabli. Now that shells are available pre-packaged, you might like to try this variation yourself!
  6. About missing banana stems in US markets, the Bengalis here might recall that only some cultivars of bananas supply stems suited for culinary purposes. The Gros Michel/ dwarf Cavendish types predominant in the western hemisphere are not very edible, in the Bengali lexicon [think Singapuri kolar mocha and thor]. The mocha probably stores well without refrigeration, but thor turns a ghastly brown, although still good inside. Also, there probably are other major factors about which I am ignorant. In Bengal, the stem of the Bichi kola [seedy, wild banana] that had been harvested for its garbha mocha or unopened inflorescence was the first preference, both for mocha and thor. Kanthali [Pisang Awak group] stem and the remnant male inflorescence hanging below the bunch of precious banana fingers, was next, followed by kalibou Kanthali and Champa. Kanch kola or plantain supplied a mocha and thor that was quite bitter, if you remember, a deterrent to many, and lacked the sumptuous texture of the Bichi kola, being rather stringy. I was pretty non-plussed to find that the Thai and Vietnamese actually eat the banana flowers raw, in salads and wrapped up with other goodies in lettuce leaves. Whoa! Talk about mouth puckering astringency.
  7. Slimy caranamrta yes, shinni no; perhaps we are speaking of the same thing, shinni in my family being something from satya-narayana puja, similar stuff but Ma Saraswati, Kali-ma being orthodox,they have caranamrta. poor Satya-Narayana, smacking of suspect ancestry, has proclaimed his predilection for shinni, which i believe is derived from some Islamic term. It is written in the SN puthi that the pir, SN in disguise, called for shinni. For an after-school snack, my foster mother would mix muri with murki, add some peanuts, toss in a Kanthali banana or two, and some chunks of wonderful cane jaggery : Ambrosia. Dinner would be her inimitable soft chappaties, with just coarse salt; sometimes, the meal would comprise just boiled potatoes tossed with lime juice and crushed peppercorns. More ambrosia. So, was startled to learn from Kolkata folk that we were very poor indeed! About making cheerer moa, no; as you know, so much of the enjoyment lies in the associations attached to the foods; and now with almost everyone gone, it is too painful. Such fun to reminisce about times that were sort of hard, and hinting of desperation. Thank you very much.
  8. if you are thinking to use sweet potatoes in puli pithey, you may perhaps want to employ the ones from Okinawa. In the Bay area, a Japanese or Chinese greengrocer may have the requisite variety. If not, then the latino varieties will have to do.
  9. Chopping vegetables? with bontis, and on your first trip to India? Now that must have been quite an experience! That and the heat+ humidity, as i surmise by the presence of mangoes that you were there, what, July-August? Please do write about your phalar experience in detail in the poha thread. Were your parents ever at the famous Panihati festival in Haora, which had been initiated by Srimanmahaprabhu, and the very combination of mango. Banana, poha gur and yogurt you describe is de rigeur? That, and the fun of Harir Loot, where confections are thrown on the ground in joyous merriment, and everyone rushes to pick them up amidst much laughter. Friends on this forum probably suspect me of being a crazy Bengali making up outrageous claims for weirdo Bengali foods! You are my witness! By the way, did you ever reconcile yourself to the fried neem leaves and Neem Begoon or Eggplant with neem leaves? My very favorite, but certainly an acquired taste. Also, have you ever worked with Kurma? Too many questions, but am so excited to find someone who has visited Mayapur. I had written Monicaji, that the huge katahas/woks of Mayapur bubbling away with khichri and feeding thousands definitely are one of the wonders of traditional Indian kitchens. Would you have any photographs?
  10. In my part of Bengal 'gomer dalia' or wheat daliya is the commonest form of dalia, so much so that dalia is synonymous with cracked wheat. It is often usedin a delicious khichri to feed the children and those unable to fast on 'fast' days such as ekadashi or the 11 th days of the waxing and waning moons. Also, in the period between a death and the shraddha ceremony, rice is only eaten for the noon meal, and a light repast of milk etc. is prescribed for the evening. But children and such get hungry, and then again the dalia khichri comes to to the rescue. I love this preparation so much that i prepare it often, despite its sombre antecedents.
  11. Dear YajnaPatni, A very warm welcome. Hope you will write often about your experiences in the ISKCON kitchens. While i have never eaten there, have heard much good about them. Have you cooked at Sridham Mayapur? My foster mother, from whom I learnt everything in life, was very close to Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati and Bhakti Hriday Tirtha swamis, and would help cook at Mayapurat every festiva! I can surmise that you are an idli expert; hope you are a luchi and kochuri expert as well; we badly need people who can introduce more Americans and Indians to the delicacy of luchis and Bengali vegetarian cuisine. Oh yes, the wonderful khecharanna, as well! So please, do write often and start lots of new threads. Warmest regards, gautam.
  12. Bong, You are quite right about it not really being raw. I meant ‘raw’ only in the limited or qualified sense that can be used to describe an egg soft-boiled or fried over-easy. In a vague way, I was also responding to the query of a long-ago thread asking if Indians ever consumed their seafood raw. I think this is the closest Bengal comes to actually eating underdone seafood. Also, the ‘head’ of the golda chingri is often a bit larger and rounder than those of bagda prawns [striped tiger prawn, Penaeus monodon] within reach of the middle-class purse. This leads to a somewhat large portion of the ‘ghilu’ remaining in a more liquid state, adding to delectability as it is well-mixed in with steaming rice. Thank you so very much for your photographs. You should write a thread about the usage of fish roe in Bengali cooking. Of the smaller, whole pan fish, Koi [Anabas spp., walking perch], Bata [a minor carp], parshey [a mullet], topshey [binomial unknown to me] and Bele [scatophagus spp.] , and tangra come to mind as ones especially prized when bearing eggs. Crabs too. Of the larger fish, hilsa, rohu and catla carps would be most common, do you not think? Do you remember eating pomfret at home? I remember how much we all grumbled at eating pomfret, as at Rs.12/kg it was cheaper even than the horribly bony chara pona [immature carp]. So it was a choice between nyadosh fish and pomfret; guess which one won out? How funny that pomfret should be so prized by other communities. Some Bangladeshis told me that they hold Bhetki in scant regard, and could not understand why it was so prized in west Bengal. Anyhow, looking forward to YOUR thread on the fishes and fish cookery of Bengal! Seriously, please do start some threads, including one on puli pithey, which should go well with maple syrup.
  13. Dear Friends, Can you shed some light on how ‘lobster’/crab roe or tomalley are relished in various cuisines in India? Here is my experience from west Bengal. Most Hindu west Bengalis profess abhorrence for the slightest hint of ‘raw fish smell’ [shunning, for example, the east Bengal practice of using ‘raw’ (i.e. not pre-fried) fish steaks in various stew-like preparations]. Perhaps in western Bengal, with its greater reliance on pond-reared fish, odors contributed by muck and algal compounds like geosmin may lie behind such attitudes. There is one interesting dish, however, where this seemingly impregnable prejudice is set aside and the West Bengali comes closest to eating a raw piscine element. This is the case when ‘lobster’ bodies [as they are known in the US] or ‘golda chingri’ (Machrobrachium rosenbergii) heads in Bengali are prepared for occasional feasts, especially bridal showers (where only married women are present). [Why showers? As these things are very expensive, and showers involve a fraction of the guests attending wedding feasts, a number of excellent dishes are often showcased at the former. Also, marriages are more frequent in winter, and the egg-laden giant prawn is at its best then.] The lobster body, minus the entire meaty section or ‘tail’, is carefully extricated from the carapace, leaving its protective sheath undamaged. It is marinated in onion-ginger juice, with a bit of turmeric, salt and chili powder, then reinserted into the carapace. Dipped in a light chickpea batter, its deep-frying tests the cook’s skills. Served hot early in the meal, the body is extricated once more and dismembered delicately to reveal a layer of well-done roe giving way to another layer warmed through, with the consistency of very soft-boiled egg, and then at last the prize, a gush of saffron-vermilion, soaking the pure white of the rice, redolent of [and I quote verbatim] ‘fragrans feminae, the scent of woman, wild, fetid, saline”! Episure, the good Dr. Jones et al., looking forward to some pithy rejoinders!
  14. But Rushina, how would you describe the restaurant cooking served for several decades in Kolkata, and presumably Delhi, Mumbai etc. before Wang et al.? Would it not be called Indian Chinese? I do think that fried chilli chicken was a response to perceived Indian tastes that long predated Wang [who by the way, grew up in the Kolkata Chinese food service establishment] From my miserably limited knowledge of mainland Chinese foodways, the closest analogy to this might be Salt and Pepper Fried Shrimp/ squid etc., where I believe the pepper refers to green pepper. From dressing deep fried morsels with an oil/green pepper /onion topping, I can imagine [tho' w/o any real basis] how the eponymous chilli chicken might have evolved. Finally, and this has nothing to do with Kolkata-centric chauvinism, note the name of an Indian Chinese restaurant in NYC, 'Tangra China' [or something similar]. This is in fact, harking back to Tangra in Kolkata, the location of a formerly large Chinese settlement [the Kolkata-Haora area being one of the earliest landfalls of the diasporic Chinese in India]. Indian Chinese very definitely has Kolkata connections. Why else would a relatively unfamiliar ethnic cuisine in NYC take the added risk of saddling itself with the non-euphonius name of Tangra....,[not too easy for Americans to pronounce, relate to or love] if not to clearly signal its antecedents, roots, indeed, AUTHENTICITY? Employing the analogy of plant domestication, one could say that kolkata was the primary center, followed by the north and Mumbai a la Wang as secondary centers of both domestication and diversity in late 20th century India.
  15. [Dear Rushina, will you please forgive me for cluttering up your thread? Felt too embarrassed to start a new one, as this already involves Indian Chinese cooking] Dear Friends, Could you please shed some light on 2 issues in Indian Chinese cookery that has been puzzling me for a while. When/where did the term and item “Manchurian xyz” appear in India? Speaking of the Kolkata scene, the only comparable item seems to have been ‘Fish balls in tomato sauce’ which was served only at Peiping restaurant. The other well-known/venerable establishments, Waldorf, Jimmy’s Kitchen, Chung Wah et al. simply had no tomato ketchup based dishes c. 1955-1980 [ How Hua etc. had not been born, or were in their infancy] Two popular items were Fried Spring Chicken and Fried Chili Chicken, and each of the places mentioned served slightly different versions. The same can be said of Prawn rolls that exhibited even larger differences in style and content. Jimmy’s Kitchen supposedly had the best fried chicken, Waldorf the best Prawn rolls, and Peiping chili chicken. The chili chicken comprised a poussin blanched/parcooked in a lu of water, soy sauce and ginger, then dried and deep fried [Waldorf used to dust their chicken with starch, Peiping not, leading to quite different end results]. Then comes the finish, which was not revealed. Probably a tiny bit of sugar was caramelized in hot oil, soy sauce was splashed in, onion cubes and chopped green chillies followed, last the chicken, rapidly glazed and serves with scant clinging sauce. Note : no tomato anywhere. This chilli chicken had become so popular that by 1980 caterers serving Hindu Bengali weddings had devised a Chilli Bhetki [barramundi, a fish like sea bass], that retained quite a bit of the characteristic green chilli/soy sauce flavor of the original. Moreover, Bengali home cooks had created their own chicken/fish versions, faithful to the chilli-soy duo, with never a hint of tomato or any Indian spices. Googling ‘chili chicken’ recently, came across a range of recipes quite unlike anything remembered from Kolkata. Not a single Chinese restaurant ever used Indian spicing (save green chilli), not even cilantro. Although Peiping had an Indian section, none ordered from it ever, except once when I did, to be met with an incredulous response from the then-Chinese manager. Indian Chinese in Kolkata, in that time period at least, appeared not to have incorporated some of the Indian spicing associated with Indian Chinese in today’s India. What does fried chili chicken involve, according to the taste memories of eGulls? Wonder if somebody here knows Nelson Wang, the famed Chinese restaurateur of Mumbai, whose roots lie in Kolkata’s Chinese restaurant kitchens. Perhaps he could weigh in, although he is an exceptionally important and busy person. [it would be wonderful if egullet could have Mr. Wang for a Q&A session, given the growing interest in Indian Chinese dishes.] Thanks for your forbearance.
  16. Dear Doctor, I really could not say with any degree of certainty. Perhaps concurrently with Islamic rule, poppy [originally from the Turkish moiety of the Fertile Crescent], some poppy cultivation became established in UP, then made its way to Bengal. However, the intensity of use in Bengal presupposes an intensity of cultivation that probably had something to do with the British opium trade to China. You may recall the notable opium warehouses built in Patna, among other places. If you examine a poppy pod, even the largest breadseed poppy, the seeds mass relatively low. Per hectare, I would suspect not more than 200 kg would have been an enviable yield, and perhaps half that for raw opium. Now, if the poorer classes could rely on not-insubstantial amounts of the seed for regular consumption, circumstantial evidence would suggest that they were beneficiaries of a by-product with no real market value, much like chitterlings in the antebellum South. So, the real value lay in the primary product, which must have been opium [in traditional India there was no breadseed poppy apart from the opium types]. Note also that the Bengal region is not especially favorable for opium poppy, unlike the more temperate Afghanistan, Turkey, or the Golden Triangle. It would not be a natural choice for large-scale cultivation, especially if there was no significant export market. The East India Company came in attracted by drugs and dyes, high value commodities [later it would do a lot of grain trading etc. but that is another story]. Only during the British period do we learn of the extraordinary intensification of opium cultivation that warranted massive warehouses in Patna. I doubt that similar magnitudes of production existed during the Muslim period. In fact, Bengal’s major exports to north India and to the world comprised sugar and iron, about 20, 000 Megagrams [metric tons] of each annually during the final days of Mughal/Nawab rule c.1750. There is no mention of any significant/comparable level of opium production from the Bengal subah. [Prof. Sumit Guha, economic historian at Brown University, should be able to give you more cogent answers.] If you were to plot those areas of Europe –Hungary, the Balkans etc.—where poppyseed is an important adjunct to the diet, they would be co-terminous with the arc of Turkish influence. The relevance of this, I would submit, is that even in India, poppyseed as a common food item followed the path of Turkish conquest. Posto probably was not a common article of diet before the Turkish influx into the Ganga plain. Indians got their opium where they got their asafetida, Afghanistan. The Chaitanyacharitamrita [c. late 1400s] mentions in detail foods enjoyed by Srimanmahaprabhu, including the rare ‘pocha-machher bhaja’ or slightly rotten fish which to this day is a uniquely Bengali lunch item, fried till it breaks up into long strings; it does not mention posto, as far as I can tell. Of course, all of this is merely my conjecture, and I would be interested to hear your thoughts/critique. Warmest regards.
  17. Dear Ravanna, You are not alone. The western and south-western part of West Bengal, continuing down at least up to Mayurbhanj in Orissa dearly love their poppyseed/khus khus/posto in all combinations. one favored mid-morning repast for field hands is a large basket of puffed rice/murmura/muri, accompanied by a big dab of freshly ground poppyseed paste. Often, the puffed rice will be soaked in water. Also, in Bankura district, urad dal, accompanied by posto toasted over an open fire in a ladle, is much relished. I wonder whether the fondness for posto is an artefact of the intensification of poppy cultivation during the colonial period. Otherwise, poppy is not a natural crop for this agro-ecosystem. Any thoughts?
  18. Here are some of the ways Poha or cheera/cheerey is used in Gangetic West Bengal : Phalaar [ from the Skt. ‘phalahara’?]; at its simplest, it is known as doi-cheerey, yogurt mixed with poha, and sweetened, for a light meal during summer or when one’s stomach is recovering from an illness. Phalar is slightly more elaborate, involving fruit and various sugars/sweetmeats mashed in. It is often consumed on fast days, especially by orthodox widows. There are certain ceremonial occasions when the whole community partakes. The best known is the day after Vasant Panchami, when on the second morning of Saraswati Puja, a phalar is enjoyed; it includes poha, banana [cultivar Kanthali], sandesh, birkhandi/kadma/elachdana [forms of sugar appearing only for this puja], murki [puffed whole rice sweetened with jaggery] and yoghurt , amongst other things, all mashed up in a horrible-looking mess, but AMBROSIAL! Once, a Swiss lady made me some Bircher muesli mixed with vanilla yoghurt, chopped apples, raisins, and left to macerate for a while; there I was, enjoying phalar half a world away! [Less well-known nowadays, various Vaishnava festivals long have a tradition of phalar consumption. The one at Panihati, Haora district, made famous by Ramakrishna’s attendance, customarily included phalar prepared with mangoes, gur and yoghurt.] Another festival when poha commonly is consumed are the days immediately after Vijaya Dashami or Dussehra, when people would visit each other with sweets and exchange greetings. This is perhaps the biggest communal social event in Gangetic Bengal. Hosts, in turn, offer a range of coconut confections and other sweets. One popular savory is ghugni, whole field peas/ chickpeas cooked in a spicy base, often including potatoes and nuggets of fried coconut; sometimes, accompanying this is fried poha, cheerey-bhaja. As frying poha consumes a lot of oil, only the reasonably affluent include this frill. Sometimes, fried poha and fresh, boiled tender green peas, accompanied by a deep fried dry chile, would make a welcome appearance at teatime during winter in our family. Poha [murmura is an alternative] can be cooked with carp heads for a festive dish usually served at bridal showers, and similar happy occasions. A confection made with poha and jaggery, called cheerer moa, takes its place with other moas made of muri/murmura [puffed husked rice], and khoi [parched unhusked rice] and its sweetened form, murki. These sweets are especially enjoyed during the winter, usually purchased from itinerant vendors. The poha version is quite hard and brittle, and an especial favorite of mine.
  19. Dear Doctor, Having read your arguments on 'authenticity' with great interest, wonder whether you have strong feelings/notions on the matter of cultural appropriation? Does this idea ever raise its head in your professional/academic ventures with respect to food?
  20. Hi Soba, Would be very interested to know where you got your Bengali garam masala mix? My own interest in “Bengali” cooking is historical and social, attempting to understand its evolution between 1860-1960 among the Rarh gentry living along the Ganga between Mayapur, Nadia, and Harinabhi, South 24-Parganas. This narrow ambit anchors my pitiful intellect, education, first-hand experience and knowledge about India, helping me probe into difficult [ to grasp, for me] issues of “authenticity” and “cultural appropriation.” From this perspective, some of the arguments and discourse in this thread appear to possess, in addition to their many merits, a generational or evolutionary aspect that is quite striking to me; there is, additionally, another interesting social development. Both are relevant to the curry powder issue. Please pardon me for interjecting my ponderous, half-formed thoughts into this forum. First, the temporal or generational, depicting a scene from the very early sixties. Even a lower middle class family like ours would avail themselves of a part time maid who would come early in the morning and wet-grind [on a flat stone] the day’s spices [then wash the floors]. The spices were: whole turmeric and whole red chiles, both pre-soaked, fresh root ginger, whole mustard seed, and a mixture of whole cumin, coriander, black peppercorns. These would be artistically arranged on a small wooden dish, that the cook, a female member of the family, would handle quite like an artist’s palette. Note that all the lunchtime dishes included these ground spices, and no other; except for cassia leaves, asafoetida and whole spices for tempering or ‘phoron’. The ‘dinner’ entrée would be cooked as well after the lunch entrees were done , and would usually involve the all the above except mustard, and would include in addition, a few whole pieces of the very expensive garam masala, namely cloves [2-3], green cardamom [ditto] and cassia bark. I have never seen garam masala used powdered in my whole extended family/clan. By the late sixties, red chile and turmeric powder gradually entered our kitchens. Heretofore, while many of us lived cheek-by-jowl with “Marwari” families, who used a huge array of hand-pounded [note, not wet-ground] whole, dry spices. By this time, hired help also had become less willing to grind daily the hard turmeric and the chile that stung the skin. My sisters-in-law living with their nuclear families in various places in India made the switch to powdered spices much sooner and with relief, but in the ancestral seat [in rural Bengal] only coriander was the only other spice able to make its way in. I do not know the situation since 1985, but would be surprised if it did not reflect the good Dr. Jones’s experiences. Here is where the generational/evolutionary movement makes itself felt. Whereas even powdered garam masala would not be quite ‘authentic’ by my lights, the experience of my sisters-in-law probably reflects the adaptive response evident in Mongo’s mother’s kitchen, which then becomes his birthright of taste and authenticity. [Dear Doctor, pray do pardon me if I interpolate too much and so presume on your privacy.] And, this is why I am curious as to where you found your ideas for the ‘Bengali’ garam masala. If my forum friends will indulge me a bit longer, the paragraphs above help me explore some of the issues raised in the thread about Indian cooking teachers, that deeply trouble me. I hope that the forum will concur that there is not the slightest malice or ill-will on my part when I confess to being a little upset [my problem entirely] when, say Edward, in all innocence and enthusiasm, declares himself to be a teacher of Bengali cuisine. I would be much more comfortable with his describing himself as a teacher of the cooking of modern Bangladesh or Sylhet, (narrow-casting as I have done in my characterization of my native foodway as that of the Rarh gentry) to avoid exceptionally hurtful issues of cultural appropriation that I hope will die a natural death in a generation. It is similar to the appropriation by East Pakistan of the term ‘Bangladesh’ which transforms the common birthright of all Bengalis to a particular and circumscribed ‘ownership’. Food is a such powerful stabilizer of identity, especially to immigrants, that a forum of eclectic foodies is especially fertile for issues of cultural appropriation, that I find subconsciously very painful but have neither the intellect nor learning to quite express. The best I can would be to say that for many ‘natives’, ‘tickets’ are strictly one-way, that there is a sense of having paid undefined ‘dues [and then some]; there is that inchoate yet gnawing unease when one observes an influx of those with ‘round-trip tickets.’ Please, someone with good English, help me out of this mess of syntax and metaphor! Also, sincere apologies if I have offended anyone.
  21. Dear Percy, As you live in a fairly mild-winter climate, growing Alphonso mangoes in a plastic hoophouse is very doable. If you are going to be there long, and have a strip of land 14 feet x 25 feet, you could have 3-4 plants in 200 liter containers; the set-up should cost less than $1500 and last for decades. You would harvest at least 2-4 dozen mangoes. Plants are availble in the US. If interested, I would be delighted to provide you with detailed guidelines. Thank you for your kind offer but instead of wasting it on me, suggest that you should visit Dr. Richard Campbell at the Fairchild Tropical Gardens in Miami. He certainly has Alphonsos, or knows where to lay his hands on at least a few. Anyway, the garden has hundreds of mango varieties and in addition, truly is a magical place for a family vacation. Your library might be able to borrow for you Dr. Campbell’s Mangoes of Florida, wherein is a list of vendors that sell quality rare mangoes; nowadays some may even be cultivating Alphonsos, or similar types. The north Indian subtropical , monoembryonic mangoes have a tough time reaching high quality in the maritime climate of Florida. Fortunately, the tropical ecotypes from peninsular India, e.g. Mulgoba, do remarkably well under those same conditions. There is hope. Canada imports tropical fruit disallowed in the US; I do not know if Toronto gets Alphonsos, but if so, it is relatively simple to visit there and partake.
  22. Dear Coolest, Your Noida tikki man appears to have reinvented the Jewish potato latkes [minus onions] !
  23. Ms. Butler, Re: wasabi leaves, I quite agree with you; but check out the prices in NYC, ~$ 3.50 for 6 leaves. If that is what the famous and trendy are going to make famous and trendy, I would certainly advise small-scale ghse owners, of the type the Cornell pilot project was designed to serve,[ peri-urban, operated by 2 persons, like mom/pop] to consider wasabi for leaves. Note that I emphasize only operations corresponding to the CU pilot mission statement. You are right, it beats me why people would pay such exorbitant amounts for trendy produce like micro-greens, etc. but who am I to argue with sophisticated consumers. Docsconz, You are correct about guinea fowl being difficult to raise, but note that I mention INTERSPECIFIC hybrids of domestic chicken and guinea fowl. These share characteristics of tasty flesh, tameness plus hybrid vigor; they are raised in enclosed spaces. TN is one state actively pursuing this area. Re: goat meat; please google Empire State Meat Goat Producers Association or contact Dr. Tatiana Stanton at the Dept. of Animal Sciences, Cornell University for vendor info. Yak deserves close attention. Bos grunniens interbreeds with domestic cattle to produce exceptional [though sterile] hybrids. In upstate New York, cold-hardiness adds to efficiency; domestic cattle burn significantly more feed to keep warm than do yak hybrids; we are talking about the Adirondacks, Potsdam and places like these, which could use a higher value adjunct to ordinary cattle raising. Yaks store their fat subcutaneously, which means that their meat is low in intermuscular fat, and will satisfy a certain niche. [For value-added products like jerky and biltong, where marbling =rancidity, this lean muscle meat is especially desirable. And to say nothing about heart healthy beef. These hybrids have been around for hundreds of years in Tibet and india, and they are far, far better than the Beefalo hybrids, regarding tameness and ease of rearing] The milk is rich and the butter is fabulous; really needs some determined entrepreneurs.
  24. Dear Percy, You are on; I volunteer to help in cooking and prep. Where are you generally located on the East Coast? Having grown up with Parsis [as intimate family members in fact if not in blood] from infancy, and being steeped in the Vedic lore, one naturally has the utmost love and respect for all Zarathustris, of blessed memory. You know, the archaic Vedic language is so close to Old Persian that one reads it with hardly any problems; not so Avestan, though; it's later and different. One reads with great absorption the internet colloquies of various Zoroastrian groups, their American ‘convert(s)’ and disputants, and many thoughts arise. Vohu manah =vasu manas; the radiant, bright, unblemished heart; the imperative for a good heart, good actions is sorely needed in “Aryavarta’ now, and the Zarathustri ,to a disprortionate degree, remain the only group in Aryavarta [iran and India] to have maintained rectitude, remained loyal to the principles of the ancient common faith that abhorred droha, mithya and anartha [betrayal/treachery/breaking good faith, falsehood, and evil]. It now seems that the Indian half cares for nothing but droha in every aspect of its existence, drughvant to the core. Pray pardon this rant. Back to food. Have an excellent fish patia recipe, but sadly, our friend’s sister, a superb cook, would never part with her incredible dhansak and patrani fish secrets. For the dhansak, Mrs. Sutaria would make 2 masalas, one a sambhar type roasted masala, another a fried reddish powder. She generously would part with any amount of the prepared stuff, but not their ingredients! Also an incredible lemon–date chutney, the lemon macerated in salt and sunlight and then pulverized with dates. For being her most devoted hanger-on, was permitted the patia recipe in toto, plus the preliminary steps of the dhansak. I was quite intrigued that in the boiling phase, in addition to eggplant and pumpkin, she would use tur and masur half and half, plus for the aromatic herbs include some Calcutta parsley in addition to mint or cilantro. This parsley is peculiar to Kolkata as it looks like parsley but has a unique taste; nor is it oriental celery; have tried hard to fathom the mystery, but Bengal remains very opaque to investigation. Finally, one superb dish that I tasted just once, owing to the expense of Alphonso mangoes in Kolkata, was whole, unpeeled Alphonso mangoes cooked with chicken. Have you experienced this dish in your family? I was further surprised to learn of the differences between Parsi and Irani styles of cooking/seasoning, but have never tasted the latter. Sorry again for so much extraneous stuff; please do pardon me if anything is presumptuous or has offended you. Warmest regards.
  25. Dear Coolest, A big welcome to the forum; wonderful to have yet one more plant lover here! As regards bolting of the cilantro, seed from indian groceries have different daylength requirements than what obtains here. For the cool season California crop, say October-May, you will do well with a cultivar called Santo. For the warm weather crop, a variety called Sunmaster will resist bolting longer. Both are available from Stokes Seeds. my suggestion would be to purchase the pound pack, ~$12, each, and share with friends; most economical this way, if you happen to love bunches of cilantro. As an aside to Monicaji, the reason why your family gardener used to crush the cilantro seed under foot, is that the coriander seed is a fruit containing 2 hemispherical seeds; i.e. each round creature sown potentially will sprout 2 seedlings. Anyway, this separation is not necessary, although separated seeds are sold in the US as a specialty item by seed companies. For your Washington herb garden, please note the cilantro information above. Btw, have some great heirloom tomato, pepper seeds that will do well in CA; you, bong, and others are most welcome to contact me for some. Also, the Garden Web forums, esp. Toamtoes, Peppers and Asian Vegetables are great places to meet plant lovers and exchange stuff.
×
×
  • Create New...