Dhuan and Pinky Lilani

[helenas]

The questions are triggered by the recent article in Wine Telegraph The spice is right.

Couple of quotes:

"...Pinky Lilani is a is an adviser to British manufacturers of Indian supermarket meals, but she has published a cookbook, Spice Magic and holds cookery demonstrations in her kitchen....

...Besides the recipes, Lilani’s book also offers a guide to the four basic techniques of Indian cooking. They are bhunao, whereby you keep spices simmering until they blend perfectly; dhuan, which is the tradition of placing red-hot charcoal in a dish of chicken or smoked salmon and then sealing the lid so that the smoke infuses the food; dum, in which rice is cooked in its own steam; and tarka, in which spices are added to hot oil to release their flavour...."

And now couple of questions:

Has anybody read her book or attended the class? What do you think?

Can somebody describe the dhuan method?

Thank you,

Helena

[helenas]

In the meantime i found this recipe for SMOKED SALMON TIKKAS by Lilani where she apperently is using the dhuan technique without naming it. I still have question though as to how to protect pieces of food from direct contact with charcoal: put it on some piece of foil?

[mongo_jones]

The questions are triggered by the recent article in Wine Telegraph The spice is right.

Couple of quotes:

"...Pinky Lilani is a is an adviser to British manufacturers of Indian supermarket meals, but she has published a cookbook, Spice Magic and holds cookery demonstrations in her kitchen....

...Besides the recipes, Lilani’s book also offers a guide to the four basic techniques of Indian cooking. They are bhunao, whereby you keep spices simmering until they blend perfectly; dhuan, which is the tradition of placing red-hot charcoal in a dish of chicken or smoked salmon and then sealing the lid so that the smoke infuses the food; dum, in which rice is cooked in its own steam; and tarka, in which spices are added to hot oil to release their flavour...."

And now couple of questions:

Has anybody read her book or attended the class? What do you think?

Can somebody describe the dhuan method?

Thank you,

Helena

this pinky lilani seems full of it. but hey if you've got an uninformed market willing to buy whatever exoticised claptrap you're willing to sell them ("greeted in typical Indian fashion, with a splash of saffron water on our foreheads" my ass) i suppose you may as well go for it. i'm beginning to think i should dust off some of my more colorful kurtas, get some beads and start advertizing swami jones' exotic indian cooking courses. my principle will be that you only need two ingredients: heat and dust. and i'll greet everyone with the traditional splash of cowdung in the face.

[Episure]

In the meantime i found this recipe for SMOKED SALMON TIKKAS by Lilani where she apperently is using the dhuan technique without naming it. I still have question though as to how to protect pieces of food from direct contact with charcoal: put it on some piece of foil?

Although she has neglected to mention, using foil will help. The objective is to let the charcoal smoke infuse into the fish.

[Episure]

We are greeted in typical Indian fashion, with a splash of saffron water on our foreheads. "I have one objection," she says, by way of introduction. "People say Indian cooking is complicated and makes you flatulent. That only happens if the food isn't cooked right."

One way to protect yourself is to eat with your fingers, which according to Lilani makes the food easier to digest - an idea that seems unlikely to catch on

Eating food with fingers reduces flatulence? Quick, where's my patent attorney!

Lilani is demonstrating recipes from her book. The dishes, most of which come from northern India, are designed to be quick, but impressive. "It was hard to write the cookbook, because I had to measure all the spices so precisely," she says.

Really now.

The important thing is to be in the right frame of mind. "The positive energy from the tips of our fingers transfers to the food,'' she says. "It's no good cooking in a bad mood because it will show." There is a snort from a corner of the kitchen where the novice chopper has narrowly missed his thumb.

Mandrake gestures hypnotically.

Next we are shown, dhuan, the smoking method. "This technique is excellent, particularly for men who are no good on the barbecue," she says, removing the burning lump of charcoal with tongs and putting it in a pot containing salmon marinated in garlic and coriander.

I've seen this before on Robinson Crusoe.

For perfect rice, this last technique is crucial.

"The water above the rice should measure up to the first knuckle of your finger,'' says Lilani. "Once the rice has boiled, you should cover it for 10 minutes and cook it on a low heat.''

I dont think we have fingers/knuckles that adjust to pot diameter.

Lilani will admit to only one drawback to Indian cuisine: it is smelly. "You have only to shut doors and open windows. If you have a scented candle, use it."

?????????????

Is it possible that she has been misquoted ?

[anil]

Can somebody describe the dhuan method?

I must admit that in all my extensive travels over the decades, I have not seen dhuan method as described in action. Either this technique died around the time Pinky came to UK as a new bride; or I wasn't travelling extensively for years on end

Simply put is it not similar to the smokers one sees at bbqs ?

[Edward]

Since when is dhuan one of "the four basic techniques of indian cooking"?

HELLO! What about talna, frying, I think that really belongs on that list instead. Maybe it was left out because so many people nowadays are scaredy-cats when it comes to frying.....

[BBhasin]

Pinky has been sent a link to this thread. I hope she responds as I am sure we have a lot of questions for her.

[bague25]

She has also forgotten our best-exported cooking technique i.e. Tandoori cooking!

[Vikram]

This Pinky woman is hilarious. I'm putting her remark on finger eating to prevent flatulence as one of the nuttiest comments on Indian food ever. Indian food is flatulent because much of the protein comes from pulses and no amount of finger action is going to reduce that.

We might as well acknowledge that flatulence has an established and even honoured part in Indian food, as this extract from a piece of papads written by a friend of mine in the Times of India indicates:

Pati, patni aur papad

It's been known to cause massive rifts in marriages.

By Namita Devidayal

MUMBAI: Among the most compelling memories of my childhood family

feasts  was the ritual that generally followed meals. The  elders

would  order  a  round  of papads,  polish  them  off  and  then,

inevitably,  a  couple of them would `let go'.  So,  papad  never

figured  prominently in my cuisine - that is, until I  married  a

Sindhi.

Before  the  wedding, my sister-in-law had said,  "You  know  the

Motwane tradition, right? We have `papad days' when all the bahus

get  together,  gossip,  and roll out  papads.''  I  was  briefly

mortified,  but soon realised that the real family tradition  was

to tease young bahus-to-be with such stories.

But  even  if  we  don't spend  our  afternoons  sharing  kitchen

confidentials,  it  became  rapidly  clear  that  every  Sindhi

household comprises a precarious trio of pati, patni  aur..papad.

For,  this innocuous dish, which is a must with every meal  (even

Chinese take-out), has been known to cause massive rifts  between

husbands and wives. God forbid it runs out at the crucial hour or

doesn't taste home-made.

So, in a pre-emptive move, I decided to acquaint myself with  the

flat,  fairly  ubiquitous food item (`poppadums' are  now  widely

available  in the West and have been favoured Clinton fare).  For

this,  I  turned  to  Sushi  didi,  a  77-year-old  human  food

encyclopaedia,  who  was  delighted that  at  last,  someone  was

interested in hearing about those long-lost, languid `papad days'

in Larkana.

In  the good old days in Sindh, everyone ate papads -  endlessly.

Papad for breakfast, papad at lunch, papad with dinner. The first

thing  you  served anyone who entered your home was  a  glass  of

water  and  papad. The reason was  impressively  scientific.  The

combination  replenished  the  body's water  and  salts  in  that

oppressively hot weather. And at mealtimes, it works as  blotting

paper to absorb the grease, which is plentiful in Sindhi food.

Papad was also staple wedding fare. This may be hard to  believe,

given  the  Sindhi  penchant for  diamond-studded  weddings,  but

before Hong Kong and Lagos took over, all that the baraatis  were

fed  was  a glass of sherbet and papad. To  serve  anything  more

lavish,  families had to get special permission from  the  Sindhi

panchayat.  "The idea was that rich people should not be  allowed

to do what the poor man could not afford,'' says Sushi didi.  The

conviction  has  long  since been forgotten, along  with  many  a

recipe.  Of course, they did have papad days. The  more  seasoned

women  would  be assigned the job of rolling  under  the  strict

supervision of the head-saas, while the younger girls had to  lay

the papads outside to dry, and to make sure they didn't fly away.

The  ingredients: Udad or moong daal, salt, pepper, sai jeera  (a

more  aromatic variety of jeera brought specially  from  Kashmir)

and sodakhaar (a preservative).

That other anecdote Pinki gives about the Shah saying eating with forks is like making love through an interpreter is so hoary, it should really be given a decent burial. But then I guess when it comes to playing the exotic Indian card to hoodwink foreigners, anything goes! Saffron water!

I think the writer of this piece also ended up feeling that Pinky was a bit too much to take. Maybe I'm imagining things, but there's a certain tongue in cheek quality about the piece.

Dhuan and dum (not dun) are both not that common techniques, hardly the basics that she's pretending they are. I associate them both more with restaurant cooking than home cooking. Its not that you can't do them, but they're too fiddly and awkward - who wants a kitchen full of smoke? - for daily home cooking.

Episure has made the best comments on the rest of the piece so I'm not going to add anything more other than to say to Helena that based on this piece, don't bother with her book. Stick to Madhur Jaffrey, Julie Sahni or some of the other classics,

Vikram

[Edward]

"This Pinky woman is hilarious. I'm putting her remark on finger eating to prevent flatulence as one of the nuttiest comments on Indian food ever. Indian food is flatulent because much of the protein comes from pulses and no amount of finger action is going to reduce that"

As funny as it does sound, the ayurvedic texts do state that "digestion" begins with the fingers! I think some research has shown the gastric juices can be stimulted by seeing, smelling or touching food prior to actually tasting it. Who knows?

[Episure]

I just noticed Mongo_Jones new signature:

"sahb, iska toh differential mein lafda hai"

~keshto mukherjee

I dont think I've laughed so much in a long time. Keshto lives forever in the big bar up there!

Edited March 23, 2004 by Episure (log)

[mongo_jones]

I just noticed Mongo_Jones new signature:

"sahb, iska toh differential mein lafda hai"

~keshto mukherjee

I dont think I've laughed so much in a long time. Keshto lives forever in the big bar up there!

you're welcome episure--"chupke chupke" is one of the great film comedies--surpassed only by "padosan", "jaane bhi do yaaron" and above all "chalti ka naam gaadi".

bringing this back to the topic of food, do you remember the poem keshto is trying to compose in the movie and how dharmendra finishes it for him?

[Episure]

No, I don't remember as it was a long time ago, but Keshto with his trademark heehaw stupor is too precious. You have selected the most classic Hindi con game statement.

Then there is some movie where the Southie is reffered to as 'Abay oh Nariyal' who retorts to the Punjabi as 'Maaaaa ki....... Dal'.

[rajsuman]

I just noticed Mongo_Jones new signature:

"sahb, iska toh differential mein lafda hai"

~keshto mukherjee

I dont think I've laughed so much in a long time. Keshto lives forever in the big bar up there!

you're welcome episure--"chupke chupke" is one of the great film comedies--surpassed only by "padosan", "jaane bhi do yaaron" and above all "chalti ka naam gaadi".

bringing this back to the topic of food, do you remember the poem keshto is trying to compose in the movie and how dharmendra finishes it for him?

I love all the movies that you mention there, Mongo. I would add 'Angoor' to the list. 'Jaane bhi do yaaron' has easily the most hilarious Mahabharata adaptation I've ever seen. I also love most of Hrishikesh Mukherjee films. Is he still making movies?

Is this the Keshto poem you're thinking of - Baang mein khilenga ek gulaab? Love it. And how about Srivastavaji PK aayen hain?

Suman

[mongo_jones]

I love all the movies that you mention there, Mongo. I would add 'Angoor' to the list. 'Jaane bhi do yaaron' has easily the most hilarious Mahabharata adaptation I've ever seen. I also love most of Hrishikesh Mukherjee films. Is he still making movies?

Is this the Keshto poem you're thinking of - Baang mein khilenga ek gulaab? Love it. And how about Srivastavaji PK aayen hain?

Suman

yes "angoor" is excellent as well if i'm remembering it correctly (that's the adaptation of shakespeare's : "the comedy of errors" right? with sanjeev kumar playing one set of twins?); "chashme buddoor" is another classic.

but the mahabharata scene in "jaane bhi do yaaron" with satish shah's corpse as draupadi may be the single funniest moment in indian cinema (can't imagine such a thing being done in the political climate in india today). there's a lot of food and food references in that movie ("thoda khao, thoda phenko").

about hrishikesh mukherjee's current activities i know little (hope he's still alive). you identified the keshto poem in "chupke chupke" alright:

"aaj baag mein khilenga ek gulaab

jaise ke pilaye de, pilaye de..."

which is where he gets stuck.

and dharmendra's solution:

"ek gilass julaab"

and so we're back on topic.

the one flaw in "chupke chupke" is that it inexplicably has gulzar doing the dialogues but the vastly inferior anand bakshi doing the lyrics.

[rajsuman]

I love all the movies that you mention there, Mongo. I would add 'Angoor' to the list. 'Jaane bhi do yaaron' has easily the most hilarious Mahabharata adaptation I've ever seen. I also love most of Hrishikesh Mukherjee films. Is he still making movies?

Is this the Keshto poem you're thinking of - Baang mein khilenga ek gulaab? Love it. And how about Srivastavaji PK aayen hain?

Suman

yes "angoor" is excellent as well if i'm remembering it correctly (that's the adaptation of shakespeare's : "the comedy of errors" right? with sanjeev kumar playing one set of twins?); "chashme buddoor" is another classic.

but the mahabharata scene in "jaane bhi do yaaron" with satish shah's corpse as draupadi may be the single funniest moment in indian cinema (can't imagine such a thing being done in the political climate in india today). there's a lot of food and food references in that movie ("thoda khao, thoda phenko").

about hrishikesh mukherjee's current activities i know little (hope he's still alive). you identified the keshto poem in "chupke chupke" alright:

"aaj baag mein khilenga ek gulaab

jaise ke pilaye de, pilaye de..."

which is where he gets stuck.

and dharmendra's solution:

"ek gilass julaab"

and so we're back on topic.

the one flaw in "chupke chupke" is that it inexplicably has gulzar doing the dialogues but the vastly inferior anand bakshi doing the lyrics.

Yeah Chashme Baddoor was another classic. I have a collection of all the movies you mention , except 'Chalti ka naam gaadi' (I know I've seen it, but can't quite remember the story). Unfortunately, I've left them all behind at my parents' place. Angoor , indeed, is an adaptation of Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors. It's being screened on Star Plus Europe on the last Sunday of April (I think) - can't wait to watch it for the umpteenth time. BTW, I can't remember Keshto saying 'Uske differential mein.....' in Chupke Chupke. When does he say that? I gather Hrishida is still alive (at least according to some websites I checked).

Here's one to ruminate upon: Gobhi ka phool phool hokar bhi phool kyon nahin hai?

Suman

[mongo_jones]

BTW, I can't remember Keshto saying 'Uske differential mein.....' in Chupke Chupke. When does he say that? I gather Hrishida is still alive (at least according to some websites I checked).

Here's one to ruminate upon: Gobhi ka phool phool hokar bhi phool kyon nahin hai?

Suman

it has been a while but it is the scene where he's supposed to drive omprakash somewhere but can't get the car to start--he pops open the hood, and it is clear he has no idea what the hell is going on. however, being keshto he quickly takes a swig from a bottle, lets loose his trademark chuckle and informs omprakash that "iska to differential mein lafda hai". i have the dvd--i'll take a look and confirm.

but the gobi ka phool question is a good one--i wonder if achaya or other experts on indian food have considered it . there's also the question of cabbage or "bandh-gobi" (or closed cauliflower); does cabbage in india need cauliflower to exist in order to have any meaning of its own?

[Episure]

Gobhi ka phool phool hokar bhi phool kyon nahin hai?

the gobi ka phool question is a good one--i wonder if achaya or other experts on indian food have considered it . there's also the question of cabbage or "bandh-gobi" (or closed cauliflower); does cabbage in india need cauliflower to exist in order to have any meaning of its own?

"sahb, iska toh difference mein lafda hai"