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from THE BOOK
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Mangoes & Curry Leaves
Culinary Travels Through the Great Subcontinent
by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid
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Cooking •
Random House Canada •
Hardcover, 384 pages •
November 2005 •
$70.00 •
0-679-31280-3
To view the entire article, dowload the PDF
A new cookbook by Jeffrey
Alford and Naomi Duguid is always a treat. Together
they have won the prestigious James Beard Cookbook of
the Year Award (for Flatbreads and Flavors
and Hot Sour Salty Sweet) and the Cuisine
Canada Cookbook Award (for Seductions of Rice
and HomeBaking). The stunning Mangoes
& Curry Leaves is a roadmap, for cooks
and armchair travellers alike, to one of the world's
richest and most diverse culinary regions.
There's a shared sensibility
in the Subcontinent when it comes to matters of eating. People almost
always eat using one hand (the right hand), and they very seldom use
utensils. This may not sound like a big deal, but we think it is. Time
after time we watch foreigners come to the Subcontinent and have a
very difficult time at first, eating without utensils and using only
one hand. But interestingly, almost everyone breaks through, and when
they do, they are entirely converted. Eating by hand influences how
food tastes and how we relate to it. It's so sensual, so direct. But
when we go back home, no matter how hard we try to resist, out come
the utensils. Eating is a very culture-bound tradition.
One of the
great pleasures of eating in the Subcontinent is that styles of eating
by hand differ from place to place. When northerners eat rice, they
pick it up with the tips of their fingers and then use their thumb to
push the small amount of rice into their mouth. In southern regions,
people eat rice using the entire hand, forming a ball of rice
(approximately the size of a golf ball) by gathering the rice into
their palm, flicking the wrist sideways to shape it into a mass, and
finally tossing the entire ball into their mouth.
As a foreigner, it's
fun to watch and learn, to try to imitate (though a style doesn't come
quickly). After a while, when you think you've got it down, the style
itself feels somehow crucial to the food, as if that particular food
has to be eaten in that particular way. And if you eat by hand, when
you're finished with your meal, you still have tasty little bits on
your fingers, and then later, even after you've washed your hands,
there's a delicious aroma that lingers. As foreigners we find all this
wonderfully addictive, and so we can only imagine how important it
would feel if we'd been eating this same food in this same way all our
lives, and how unsatisfying it would feel to eat with
utensils.
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Recipe:
Sweet Yogurt Sundae with Saffron and Pistachios
Yogurt makes a simple and attractive sweet course or cooling
snack-treat. This version of sweetened yogurt from Bengal is called
mishti doi, doi being Bengali for "yogurt." The yogurt drains for an
hour to lose its bitter whey and to thicken a little, then it is
blended with jaggery (palm or crude sugar) and flavorings. Use good
whole-milk yogurt, preferably organic. Serve in small bowls or tall
sundae glasses and top with pistachios, or with pomegranate seeds or
chopped toasted almonds.
1 quart plain full-fat yogurt
Generous 1/4 teaspoon saffron strands
(optional)
1/3 cup whole milk
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom or freshly
grated nutmeg
1/3 cup finely chopped jaggery (palm or crude sugar), or
more to taste, or substitute honey or brown sugar
About 1/4 cup coarsely chopped pistachios, pomegranate seeds, or chopped toasted
almonds
• Line a large sieve or colander with cheesecloth or coarse cotton.
• Wet the cloth with water, then place the sieve or colander over a bowl.
Place the yogurt in the sieve to drain for 1 hour in the refrigerator.
• Turn the yogurt into a bowl and set aside. Use the whey for another
purpose (it makes a refreshing drink and can also be used in place of
lemon juice to curdle milk for making chhana and paneer), or discard.
• If using the saffron, lightly toast the strands in a small dry skillet
over medium heat, until brittle. Add the milk and cardamom or nutmeg,
or if not using saffron, heat the milk and cardamom in a small
saucepan; bring to a simmer, and simmer briefly, until the cardamom
releases its scent (and the optional saffron gives off its color).
Remove from the heat and stir in the sugar or honey until dissolved.
• Whisk the mixture into the yogurt.
Use a ladle to pour the yogurt into
glasses or bowls. Top with a sprinkling of nuts or pomegranate seeds,
and with a little more sugar if you wish.
• Serves 8
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