v. gautam
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Posts posted by v. gautam
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Dear Bong,
You are too kind to an utter idiot. But speaking of the palmyra, that ripens in August, did your family happen to enjoy the ripe pulp as hot fritters fried in mustard oil or the tala-kheera, the pulp congealed with a bit of slaked lime plus a soupcon of grated coconut and cane jaggery? Brings back many memories; Vidyapati hits the right note of pathos and melancholy with the lines “ e je bharaa baadara/ maaha Bhaadara/ sunya mandira mor-a”
[Once, with great hope, i tried the canned tala-shansh, the unripe locules of the palmyra fruit, but they tasted terrible. Have you tried this canned product? I was so disappointed, that i would not venture in the direction of canned ripe jackfruit; although the litchi/lychees in cans are not bad. One day an Indian acquaintance treated us to artificial lychees
] Also, did you relish the kvath-bel [Feronia limonia, wood apple, kapithva], its aromatic sour, seedy pulp mashed with cane jaggery, salt, mustard oil and green chilies?
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BTW, the Sanskrit for rock sugar, khanda =chunks, has given us our 'candy'; it is claimed that the ancient name for a part of Bengal, Gauda, is derived from the word 'guda', gur, illustrating the centrality of gur and sugar manufacture in the economy of Bengal. There is no doubt that sugar refining developed here [and I have spent 30 years of my life delving into the palm -rice economy of central Bengal] probably first in the world, but what do Bengalis call refined sugar but 'chini' or 'chinese stuff'.
Let me digress a bit further; whereas all the Asian sugar palms are harvested through a simple tapping of their inflorescence, or emerging flower bud, the sugar date palm of the sub-continent is the sole exception, requiring the sophisticated elaboration of a carefully contrived wound tissue. This was the outcome of far greater effort than mere serendipity, that is suggested in the tapping of a burgeoning flower bud. Sugar manufacture apparently received a lot of thought and effort in this benighted corner of the chiliocosm
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That's because of all the unrefined fraction left in, allegedly to create tal mishri's distintive aroma, AND HEALTH-GIVING PROPERTIES[baloney] and so distinguish it from run-of-the-mill mishri. The Tal Gur Mahasangha, a palmyra gur cooperative in West Bengal, had many such semi-cockamamie sales ideas, and Bong probably will remember their stall/outlets in the unlikeliest of places, e.g right smack amidst busy tram lines in Gariahat!
In south-east asia, Gula Java/Melaka [note the same word 'gur'; also thai 'nam tan beep'= liquid/sap (nam) from tala (tan, palmyra); beep is pipa or barrel, Portuguese] can be manufactured from palmyra [there are entire island societies in Indonesia that subsist on palmyra sap as their primary source of carbohydrate; instead of meat and potatoes, think palm sap and fish!!];
The other interesting sugar palms of south-east Asia are Nypa fruticans and
Arenga saccharifera, the major sources for Malesian [sic] palm sugars.
In peninsular India, coconut and Corypha [the talipot palm, so-called because it actually provided the palm leaf for manuscripts, wrongly attributed to the palmyra or tala] also supply a part of the palm sugar used.
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Episure,
We should tease Percy and ask if he is already married; if not, then are all eGulleteers to be invited to his wedding feast for a real lagan nu custard? What a pity that the Mittals are not Parsis; given their [Mittal's] wedding extravagance and largesse, surely we might have prevailed upon them for a real lagan nu bhonu for all eGullet.
My aim in posting, of course, is utterly disingenuous. Should Percy be a scion of the Tatas or Godrej, the hint above is meant to guilt-trip him into including us all in a grand feast!!
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Laksa,
you are correct; mishri= rock sugar, recrystallized from raw sugar. In Bangladesh, sap from date or palmyra palm was boiled down to a caramelized form known as jaggery in Indian English, and gur/goor in the vernacular. Now, the traditional way to refine sugar from gur was to drain the latter of excess moisture, pack it in baskets and cover it with a layer of pondweed. Gur consists of a crystallisable fraction and a non-crystallisable fraction; the former would effloresce into raw sugar crystals on the surface of the gur just underneath the weed cap, while the non-crytallizable fraction would drain from the basket, due to the particular conditions created and maintained by the pondweed cap.
This latter sugar crystal fraction[~90-93% sucrose; modern refined sugar is minimum 96% sucrose], in eastern Bengal, was known as dholo. It could be subjected to adulteration. To guard against this, it was dissolved and recrystallized as rock sugar, the purest form known in traditional Bengal. This is what mishri means, rock sugar. Tal denotes its origin from palmyra. Now here is a twist; tal mishri is often really a form of 'dholo', or contains a fraction of dholo and is not totally the recrystallized product. the reasons for this are as complex and contrary as Bengal itself; please don't ask!!!
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Would you recommend some lower-salt shoyu/tamari, other than the Kikkoman lo-salt variety? thanks much
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Could anyone shed some light on the quality of Indian cocoa beans, and their use in Indian chocolate? Any lines [e.g. Amul ingot, cooking etc.] primarily from Indian beans? One hears that several foreign nationals are now growing cocoa, in addition to Indian cultivators, and it would be interesting to learn if any are cultivating the 'forastero' types so esteemed in central/So. America?
one's suspicions are aroused by Valrhona which has Sankrit/Indian names for some of its premium lines, e.g. Manjari, which are supposed to be grown in some secret island in the Indo-Pacific. Is the Andamans group producing cocoa, and the source of this premium chocolate? Why would a European company suddenly indulge in a string of not-too-common Sanskrit names, and poetically evocative ones at that. Is an Indian the source of these names or is India the source of these beans?
Episure, do you have any sources that can shed light on this mystery? My obsession is with value-added agriculture for India, and it would be wonderful if we could add premier grades of cocoa to our agricultural base. Thanks much.
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GG Mora is right--neither wasabi nor kangkong, Ipomea aquatica, can survive upstate winters.
Tanabutler is also correct in saying that wasabi is not an easy crop to grow, especially as attempted in Washington state and North Carolina outside [e.g. streambed cultivation in the latter state]. However, Ms. Butler may not necessarily be intimately familiar with the type of flowing, nutrient film techniques relevant to the greenhouse cultivation of lettuce which also would wasabi very well indeed, especially wasabi grown for its leaves.
I have given the matter close thought for a decade, and remember, we are not confined to the two Japanese strains currently common in the trade. Wasabi sets seed easily and breeding for greenhouse strains can be useful, just as ghse strains of tomato and lettuce, to say nothing of other vegetables, have been developed through targeted breeding.
Regarding livestock, yak, reindeer, chicken-guineafowl hybrids, in addition to the well-researched alpaca, are new meat crops that are being assiduously developed elsewhere [idaho, Mass., TN , but not reindeer] while NY is not yet alive to the remarkable possibilities these new industries offer. Sad but strange in a state that pioneered the Hudson valley duck liver industry, and the cool climate winegrape revolution!
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Docsconz,
Sorry for this belated reply—actually I had not seen your query at the time you posted.
If you are still interested: wasabi is a streamside plant, thriving near [or rooted in] flowing water, shade, high humidity, and temperatures above freezing.
Coming from an Eastern Margin Maritime/Monsoon climate in Japan, I suspect that it tolerates summer heat, provided the conditions above are met, better than do most strains of lettuce [which are inherently cool season plants]. Cooling the greenhouse in summer to temperatures low enough for successful bib/boston lettuce growth in areas of high humidity like NY with a pad/fan [i.e. evaporative] system is energetically not very sound.
Additionally, the 6 months of winter we experience accompanied by low insolation requires lettuce to be supplemented with artificial lighting. The metal halide and sodium vapor lamps that are used together are less than 33% efficient in converting electricity to light. When we factor in the sides and corners of the growing space, the net efficienct for lettuce growth drops to less than 25%, given the type of greenhouses used. Add to that heating to maintain Active growth for lettuce for the winter crops, and the thermodynamic account book begins to look questionable. Finally, the spectral quality of the supplemental lighting [highly enriched at 589 nanometers] leaves much to be desired for efficient growth in terms of lettuce production and disease resistance.
The spectral quality, fluence levels and ambient temperatures we experience in New York recommend themselves to a polyculture that includes wasabi and Barbarea, much in the same way that polyculture of carp of different species as practiced in India and China are more’efficient’ for the prevailing conditions than monoculture. In this context too, the several tilapia aquaculture ventures in the Fingerlakes region would be better served by including a vegetable crop, either wasabi, Cambodian herbs, or Ipomea aquatica, as part of their operations for much higher feed conversion efficiency, fish health and improved water quality.
Lastly, consider that even if wasabi is a 8-24 month crop, it sells for $35/lb; its leaves sell for 25 cents each, and it may be most useful as a leaf source.
But nuff said- the powers-that-be [re the Cornell pilot project] seem reluctant to admit the principles of thermodynamics, growth and yield physiology vis-a-vis lettuce monoculture, and so be it.
As a plant physiologist with a lifetime passion for value-added agriculture, I feel most discouraged by all the opportunities we are letting go to waste in upstate NY. In a decade or two, meat prices will rise to at least 4-6 times the present rates at current dollars, owing to the large demands of both grain and livestock in emerging Asian economies. We just seem to sit back and blame the whole world for its competitive ferocity but do not care to investigate the fabulous bounties present at our very doorstep. Please PM me for details re NY ideas, if interested. Sorry for the rant.
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I think Hiroko Shimbo offers a recipe for curry [shrimp] from scratch. She instructs cooking the base for 2 hours! My question: has anybody prepared this recipe exactly according to the directions and is 2 hours overkill? Thanks.
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Edward Feb13, 2004 : “I'm pretty clear on the meaning and order of serving the chatni in Bengali cooking, but would not mind hearing more. Some recipes would be great too.
One thing that I have never been totally clear on though is the differences between chatni and ambal in respect to their preparation and order of serving. Can you elaborate? Would love it.”
Edward,
As mentioned in the post on cold soups, green mango and dry zizyphus ambal are generally served at the end of a meal in the families I know. An ambal is much thinner than a chatni, and is not finished off with the roasted, powdered panchphoron/cumin, as far as I know, and they are not generally served with papads, nor at formal meals such as weddings or feasts where a chatni is a must, before dessert.
Would like to venture a recipe for a Bengali tomato chutney, that provides the basic outlines of chutneys from West Bengal Rarhi and DaksinatyaVaidika foodways.
The proportions are vague, because I feel embarrassed to include the amount of sweeteners used in this sugar-sweet cuisine. Note too that a chutney is a bit of a luxury food, not an everyday item, and is meant to be eaten almost as dessert at the end of a meal along with some toasted /fried plain papads, plus a good squeeze of lime juice.
[a note on mustard oil: I use Korean + Indian mustard oils sold n the US. The latter possess the requisite viscosity and mouth feel; the Korean adds flavor/pungency. Or, use vegetable oil, and after it has heated up, put in about a teaspoonful or two of the Korean and immediately throw in the panch phoron. The bitter quality afforded by the inclusion of Fenugreek seeds is very much a part of the taste. Also note that panch phoron is allowed to sizzle/temper very briefly, in order to avoid burning.]
Ingredients:
Tomatoes washed and quartered if of modest size, coarsely chopped if very large: 4-6lbs; [the large varieties may sometimes be seedy, and low in solids and acids: average 4-5% solids; grape/plum/cherry tomatoes 6-9%.]
[other ingredients can be added to the tomatoes, but do that the next time if you should like the flavors of this style of cooking: amsattva or aam papad [mango leather], dried sour plum[alu bukhara, not dried prunes], dried apricots, dates etc.]
Fresh ginger, grated very coarsely or julienned, 1-2 Tb, or according to taste; place on tomatoes
a) Phoron: initial whole spices to be sizzled in hot oil: 1tsp panch phoron + 1 dry red left whole [the medium-long sort from India]
b) Plus 2tsp panch phoron gently toasted & powdered for the last touch
Salt to taste : ½ tsp? Or more to taste
Sugar 2-3+ cups; use your own discretion; the aim is to create a runny syrup relatively quickly, within 1/2hr-45 min, before the tomatoes/ginger begin to smell overcooked—herein lies the delicate art of Bengali cooking, this is something which requires a light touch and mindfulness so as to give the correct taste/texture. Sadly, the smell/textures/visual cues cannot be adequately conveyed through writing]
Lime: 1-2
Method:
In a heavy-bottomed non-reactive pot, add 1tb vegetable oil; heat till it shimmers; tilt so that oil pools and spices can ‘swim’ to best release their flavor [a heavy-bottomed non-reactive wok is ideal, as it minimizes the amount of oil needed for the spices to take their ‘swim’in] add 1-2 tsp Korean mustard oil, followed by dry chili pepper; as soon as it puffs up and begins to turn brown add 1tsp whole panch phoron , fry 10-20 seconds until just fragrant, add tomatoes, ginger and salt; stir, cover briefly, cook on moderately high heat, until juice begins to exude,
Uncover, stir, breaking up tomatoes. Add sugar, cook at low/moderate boil until the thin juice changes to a thin, fairly transparent, red tomatoey syrup [note that it will thicken a bit on cooling but remain relatively runny, much thinner than ketchup, a little thinner than maple syrup]; the skins will have come off and curled into little twirls.
Add more sugar at your discretion, depending on what else has been added to tomatoes: e.g. dates, mango leather, apricots [Chutney should be a bit over-sweetened because the the finishing touch of lime juice will balance out the taste]. Should finish cooking in about an hour-regulate your heat/sugar accordingly; do not cook too long: although the tomatoes should disintegrate, lumpy masses will remain.These and the skin provide a textural element.
Let cool, but while still warm stir in toasted powdered panch phoron starting with ½ tsp, and going up according to your taste. Then add the juice of a fresh squeezed lime, mix well. These two provide the essential ‘Bengali’ touch, and will temper the sweetness. You could also adjust salt according to your taste.
Serve at room temperature, chilled, or slightly warm. [With plain papads!!!!, toasted or fried]
Will keep 5 days in refrigerator.
Same method for:
green mangoes, sliced with skin on, no ginger
pineapple, preferably no ginger
papaya, green, using amada or mango-ginger, Curcuma amada.
Peaches, fresh or canned [use ginger if you wish]
Canned fruit cocktail, an innovation that is a boon to hosts in the US!!!
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With deep diffidence for venturing yet one more ‘Bengali’ dish--- this class is called ‘ambol’ derived from the Sanskrit ‘amla’ =sour. Traditionally ending the meal, ambols are sipped straight from a bowl or mixed with a very small amount of rice. However, the sweet-sour flavor might well fit modern tastes for a cold ‘soup.’
A free-hand recipe: Green mango- hard, unripe, peeled and cut into chunks; include whole ‘stone’ /seed too, if you wish. In hot mustard oil, sizzle 1 whole dry red chili [not the very hot type], black mustard seed; add cubed mango, stir, add water, sugar, salt to balance [faint hint of saltiness]; simmer until mangoes just tender and fragrant. This is a thin soup, very light. Chill lightly; serve with lukewarm jasmine rice on the side. In a bowl, place a tablespoon of rice, add a cup or two of the mango ‘soup’, enjoy.
To place this in the Bengali food calendar, March, April, May and June are hot and dry. The sour jujubes [‘topa kool’, sour round ber, [Zizyphus spp.] that ripen late February-March are sun-dried, and made into this ‘ambol’ and various sweet-sour cooked pickles. In ambol, their slightly viscous texture, aroma, amber skins and rough hard seeds play on all the senses and contribute to the delight of this dish.
By late April, raw mangoes replace the jujubes, first very young and soft-seeded, then another texture, more dense, as the seed hardens. A very wonderful chutney, is made from unpeeled, raw green mangoes, but that is for another thread.ng made with
There are few other common ‘ambols’, one is made with tamarind, jaggery and ‘maurala’ fish, [Amblypharyngodon mola] a tiny whitebait sized relative of carps. On of the earliest examples of the Bengali language mentions ‘morali maccha, nalita gaccha [jute greens]’ as part of a satisfying meal! There is at least one more fish dish prepared with green mangoes in Bengal; as the fish, shol, belongs to a group of air-breathing fishes [shol, shal, leta] unfortunately proscribed to certain classes, have no personal knowledge of this dish, and do not know the taxonomical binomials of these fishes.
Another preparation consumed cool/ room temperature may conceivably be used as part of a summer soup; experiment evolve!
Urad dal: washed and simmered till done. Paste soaked fennel and gingerroot in a blender, add to dal with salt. Season with a light hand. Sizzle in hot oil/mustard oil a whole dry red chili and whole fennel seeds, add dal, simmer briefly, adjust seasoning, cool or lightly chill. This dal is slightly viscous and the consistency should be fairly thin.
Make Bengali mashed potatoes: russet potatoes scrubbed, skin left on, boiled and mashed with sea salt, mustard oil [use mixture of Korean and Indian], lime juice, thai green chili crushed. Some also add chopped raw onion.
Or, Posto/white poppyseed dishes: potato or potato-ridged gourd or zucchini:
Soak white poppyseed overnight—blend using the small jar of blender, if you have this, set aside. Cube russet potato; in hot oil sizzle whole cumin or better [ whole seeds all: cumin, fennel, fenugreek, nigella, radhuni or mustard]; add potato, stir, add salt, sugar, turmeric if wished; cover until nearly tender, add paste, cook briefly, top with drizzle of mustard oil.
To eat: in bowl, place large quantity of cool urad dal, a little rice, top with cool/room temperature mashed potato or potato/squash with poppyseed paste. Squeeze of lime? Enjoy; for more expert directions, ask Bong; direct all vituperation at DR. MONGO!!
Regards,
gautam
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Ben,
Would you please consider creating a new thread describing your favorite Chinese restaurants in Toronto? Your experience and knowledge would make this most valuable for those trying to choose among Toronto's many good Chinese places.
Thanks in advance
gautam
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Sorry, I misspoke. What i meant to say was a tortilla press like Tortilla Chef, which has a non-stick [?] surface and is similar to a roti maker[?].
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Bong,
Some Bengali housewives resident in the US aver that the tortilla press allows them to form large numbers of luchis [100+] very conveniently. If get-togethers and pujas require your family to turn out similar numbers, a press may be useful for this purpose.
regards,
gautam
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Gary,
Interesting article; however, it seems that the restaurants are precisely what "south Indian" restaurants are NOT. In idiomatic usage, a south Indian restaurant is usually [but not necessarily] thought to be vegetarian, but ALWAYS serving genuine Tamil/Udupi dishes such as dosai, idli, vada, utthapam, uppuma etc. Here in Ithaca, for example, there is a Sikh-run restaurant that claims to serve dosa and sambar; their offering truly is abomination, a term I otherwise NEVER use in regard to food.
The SF Tandoor-loin restaurants, especially those run by Pkistanis, would generally seem NOT to fall under the category of "South Indian" restaurants.
regards,
gautam
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Episure,
The anise-scented avocado leaves supposedly come from 'wild type' highland avocadoes. One is led to believe that there are possibly 3 ecotypes for avocadoes: highlands of Guatemala, Mexico; the Atlantic/Caribbean lowland and the Pacific coast lowland. Assume many of the Kerala, Bangalore avocadoes would be Atlantic lowland, but could be very wrong. Also am interested in the Nilgiri ones: are they high or lowland ecotypes? many Kerala plants have cross-hybridized, another interesting twist. Do you think that the Lalbagh folk can cast any light on these issues?
regards,
gautam [ aka pita = pain in the ...]
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Thanks very much. Had heard that the Korean cultivars were a bit more heat tolerant than the Japanese; no problem otherwise.
regards,
gautam
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Jschyun,
would you know if the korean store you mentioned carry Korean cultivars of spinach? Any other sources in US of Korean vegetable seeds? I know about Evergreen, which has great Korean cucumbers, but not spinach.
Thanks a bunch.
gautam
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A preparation enjoyed by some Bengalis uses the very tart and aromatic green tomatoes we used to get before the current spate of hybrids. In hot mustard oil, pop panch phoron [nigella, cumin, fennel, fenugreek, radhuni], add green tomato thickly sliced, turn a few times til opaque, add [stone ground] mustard paste, turmeric, scant red pepper powder, salt, cover. When boiling and releases water, add slit green chilies for flavor, cilantro, few drops mustard oil, remove.
Above a variation of shorshe begun, eggplant with mustard paste, this can also be cooked with half eggplant-half green tomato. Small shrimp may be added to green tomato dish.
gautam
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Green papaya chutney 'bengali' style a specialty at some Bengali weddings. paper-thin slices blanched in alkaline solution to transparency, cooked in bengali chutney style, eaten with fried plain papads and a sqeeze of lime at the end of wedding feasts, before the sweets. Delicious, and prepared almost exclusively at wedddings or catered feasts. The only bengali chutney I know of that can also include 'amada', Curcuma amada [amba haldi?]
gautam
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Gingerly,
You are so right about the bottle! a sure sign of its genuine-ness; plus the very 'basic' labeling style with equally 'basic' printing on 'basic' paper; rather refreshing considering the overpackaging seem elsewhere.
gautam
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Dear Bong,
I have wondered about this point myself; now I fall back on mixing prepared yogurt with condensed milk, with caramel added . Yogurt is the end result of a ‘cooperative consortium’ of several strains of bacteria. In such a consortium, the biochemistry of individual strains are greatly modified, to reflect the prevailing ecological conditions and the resultant effects on competition.
Homogenized and 3.5% fat are 2 ways that American milk is different than the Indian, which for lal doi is anyway concentrated by boiling and further evaporation in the unglazed clay container. With the addition of relatively large quantities sugar, can it be that sugar-fermenting strains [like lactic acid producers, and even wild yeasts] get an extra fillip and lower pH to the point that gelling is disrupted? I do not know, and I am not a dairy chemist. Have you noted the thick layer of cream [matha] which forms over the best examples lal doi? Wonder what effect that has in the gel formation and regulation of consortium chemistry?
The National Food Technology Center at Hyderabad used to sell different strains of yogurt cultures, but I do not think that that the Bengali lal doi cultures have ever been studied in depth [re modern techniques of stabilizing strain mixtures, preventing mutations etc. standard in dairy technology]. The lal doi is especially rich in diacetyl-forming strains.[in this regard, if you melt some Muenster cheese and extract the fat, you will find yourself with some fairly creditable gawa ghee!]
You could try an experiment: fortify whole milk with some non-fat milk powder, add sugar and see if this has any bearing on your success. Let us know!
Regards,
gautam
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rummate has described 'aam kashundi' , green mango mustard, which is characteristic of East Bengal. A pure mustard kashundi is widespread in West Bengal and is the one commonly eaten with amarathus, red or green, [shak]. Kashundi is made from brown mustard, Brassica juncea, and rarely nowadays made at home. Some good bottled types can still be purchased in the College Street market, Kolkata, and of course, elsewhere.
gautam
Strange Bengali sugar stuff
in India: Cooking & Baking
Posted
the kvath-bel [Feronia ] is not the same as the yellow, true bael [Aegle marmelos]. The stuff i am referring to is encased in a hard, whitish fruit like a bel, but when ripe its interior is dark brown with many tiny seeds about as big as tomato seeds. probably more prevalent in rural areas.