Cucumber Raita

[Suvir Saran]

yeah. i'm not too crazy about it either. i've looked through it several times and have never felt particularly inspired to try something from it.

:(

i had such hopes for it too. i imagined the food being able to transport us into an era, you know, where we could eat like maharajahs and maharanis. which is what had inspired my quest in the first place.

oh well.

i guess, the maharajahs rarely cooked their own dinners anyway.

:)

The book is very true to form and style and that era. But our lives are very different and especially in the US or for that matter any part of the world outside of the US.

In India itself, things are changing and those times are not always in synch with the pulse of the times.

My dear friend and fellow food lover Maharani Shalini Devi (Sally by birth, a caucasian beauty from Dallas, TX, who married the Maharaja of Holkar) is a great cook and food writer, cook book author, magazine publisher, textile expert and political activist has done an amazing amount for Indian food. She started Indias first food magazine and also made food chic. Sally is American by birth and yet more Indian than most people I know. Her food, cookbook and her love of India and its food is beyond what any Indian I know can have.

Her book written with Maharaja Richard Holkar brings to the reader the foods of these royals and their friends and relatives. But it also does a great job in making it accessible. It is an out of print book. Richard and Sally are separated. They have each done a lot for India. Richard is from a long lineage of powerful and prominent Indian royals. And it was interesting that for generations the maharanis have been caucasion women.

Maybe it is these women, and their cultural ability to document stuff that made their cookbook so much better than most other Indian cookbooks.

Not all is lost when being translated for simple home cooks. Some people care to give the reader what is poignant. And some do not care. I think for Sally and Richard the book was about sharing their great love for food and also the lore of their regions traditions. For some others, cookbooks are little if at all anything more than just an egotistical drive.

[indiagirl]

suvir, thanks so much. the Holkar book sounds wonderful.

can you tell me what it is called. my uncle owns a bookstore in nagpur and perhaps he could find me a copy?

[Suvir Saran]

suvir, thanks so much. the Holkar book sounds wonderful.

can you tell me what it is called. my uncle owns a bookstore in nagpur and perhaps he could find me a copy?

I have it in NYC... I shall get you the name once I am back.

What a lucky person you are have an Uncle that can find you such books...

[Monica Bhide]

Thanks for sharing the recipe Indiagirl!

What I love about some of these amazing Southern Indian recipes is the brilliant use of lentils and beans as spices.

In these tadkas (tempering oils), beans and lentils are used to flavor the oil and give the dish a flavor unique to these lentils.

What is also amazing is the crunch and "tooth" they add to the dish. 

Monica, what Queen were your parents friendly with?  Now I am all curious.  I am writing a story about the foods of the royal families, maybe I can use this particular family as well.  It is fascinating that they used mustard seeds for tadka.  How long has that family used mustard seeds for Raita?  It is a curious issue... I can imagine it being used in the last 20 years... but if they did so before.. they were way ahead of the trends.  Would you be able to get this information without too much trouble?  If you can, I shall be indebted to you greatly.  And certainly I will give you credit as well.

I shall ask my mom. It was over 20 years ago.. I know they still keep in touch with her family, though she is no more

[Suvir Saran]

I shall ask my mom. It was over 20 years ago.. I know they still keep in touch with her family, though she is no more

I am sorry that she is no more.

If your mom remembers her name, please do share... it would be great stuff for you and I to know... as Indian foodies, it would help us in our quest to understand it better.

This lady certainly was ahead of her times.

[FoodMan]

I do cut one end off, the stem, the other one is not bitter. I never seed them because I do not use those big fat common cucumbers instead I always buy what is called "English Cucumbers" they are the long ones with thinner skin, firmer/crunshier texture and minimal seeds. They are much closer to the Cukes you would find in Lebanon (or California ).

FM