main dish

Boroma, my great-grandmother got married, in the early 1900s, when she was fifteen to a member of a Zamindari family of Dharula, Chittagong District, in what is now Bangladesh. Boroma's Dharula home had separate vegetarian and non-vegetarian kitchens in the courtyard behind the house.

Here food was cooked on stoves run on kerosene and cow dung cakes. Her cooking vessels were all metallic: iron, brass and copper. Boroma's vegetarian dishes, flavoured with mild spices, were family favourites.

Ingredients

• 500 grams 1 lb tender Bottle Gourd cut into thin, short strips
• 2-3 chopped green chillies
• 2-3 bay leaves
• 1/2 tspn cumin seeds
• 1 tspn oil or ghee
• Salt to taste
• A pinch of turmeric powder
• A pinch of cinnamon-cardamom powder

Method

Heat oil/ghee in a kadai/wok/heavy bottomed saucepan.

Put in all masalas except cinnamon-cardamom powder and fry for a few seconds.

Put in gourd strips and mix lightly.

Cover and cook on slow heat until water dries up.

Sprinkle cinnamom-cardamom powder on top and serve hot.

© Manjula Mathur, India 2008

Lavanya grew up in Mumbai in an artistic environment. Her father, Pandit Narendra Sharma, was a renowned Hindi poet\; her mother, Susheela Sharma, painted with oil and water colour mediums. Lavanya started writing poems when she was 3 years old. Fir Ga Utha Prawasee (The traveller sings again) फ़िर गा उठा प्रवसी is her first book of poems. Her Hindi blog is Lavanyam -Antarman (Inner Voice of Lavanya ) लावण्यम्` अन्तर्मन्` She lives in the US and can be reached @ lavnis@gmail.com

In the early 1960s, when I was a school-going child, we lived in Bombay (now Mumbai) in a bungalow that had several fruit trees and jasmine shrubs in the back yard. My amma, late Shrimati Susheela Narendra Sharma, was an excellent cook. Her style of cooking was Surati (Surat is a city in Gujarat), which is spicier (using green chilies), oilier, and more elaborate than other Gujarati cuisine. A Gujarati saying praises this cuisine in this way: સુરતનું જમણ ને કાશીનું મરણ (meal be from Surat, death be in Kashi.)

I was born in England and raised in the US, but my soul and spirit are completely Indian. Most of my childhood summers were spent in India, soaking up the culture and traditions of my heritage and creating memories that I will cherish forever. One of my fondest memories is sitting around the traditional Indian kitchens, fascinated by the flurry of culinary whirlwind activity occurring around me.

This recipe is from my maternal grandmother, late Shrimati Annapurna Divekar (1920-1994).

She was only one of the seven girls who graduated from high school in Belgaum in 1938, with high scores in English and Mathematics. But what I remember most about her is her cooking!

As a Maharashtrian who moved to Bangalore after she got married, she was highly skilled in cooking from both regions. She prepared her own fresh masalas daily and cooked everything from scratch. Vaangi Bhaat is a delicious one pot meal, a wonderful combination of eggplant and rice combined with lovely aromatic spices. This is a typical Maharashtrian specialty but enjoyed throughout Southern India as well. My grandmother made this dish whenever we visited\; we would eat it with home-made papads (thin, crispy lentil wafers), a delicious combination.

For more of my recipes, visit http://indianfood.bellaonline.com/Site.asp.

Ingredients

Bridget was born and brought up in Kolar Gold Fields,Karnataka. She got her B Ed degree in Bangalore, taught for two years, and then joined Canara Bank, from where she retired a few years ago. She is a self-published author of five cookbooks specializing in Anglo-Indian cuisine, and works as a consultant on food related matters. For copies of her books, contact her at bidkumar@gmail.com or visit http://anglo-indianfood.blogspot.com

In the late 1950s to early 1960s, when I was a child, our Anglo-Indian family would gather every Sunday in my grandparent’s home in Robertsonpet, Kolar Gold Fields, Karnataka. My siblings, cousins and I would crowd around grandma Maud White, who was in her late 60’s, as she prepared Country Captain Chicken, a favourite of the whole family.

Anglo-Indian cuisine is a fusion of Western and Indian cuisine, in which the normally bland Western cuisine is given a dash of Indian flavour. Over many years, Indian ingredients and cooking techniques were assimilated into western cuisine, giving rise to a distinctive cuisine that comfortably straddles both cultures.

I was born and brought up in a traditional Telugu Brahmin family in Tamilnadu. I did my Masters in IT, and am currently settled in USA.  Cooking and entertaining are my passions. I want to share my recipes, so I have created http://neivedyam.blogspot.com:80/. Husband Venkat is a busy IT person and my best critic. I am a busy mom of two adorable kids, but do find time for my other hobbies: music, photography, travelling, gardening and cookbooks.

My memories still wander around my Nanamma's (father's mother in Telugu) lovely home, where her kitchen opened into a beautiful wide backyard with Tulasi madam (place where Tulasi plant is worshiped), hibiscus plants, and coconut trees. In 1990's I spent most of my childhood at my grandmother's.

Rekha has a Bachelor of Arts in Economics, and works for the Bank of India. She loves reading and travelling. At present she is studying Vedanta. She lives with her husband in Mumbai.

When I got married in 1974 I hardly knew how to cook. I am basically a vegetarian, while Prakash, my husband, loves non-vegetarian food. Unlike many other young couples of those days, we moved into our own house immediately after our wedding.  So I had to feed my foodie husband by myself, but I knew I couldn't do it. Initially, we ate with my in-laws, but how long could this go on? So, I decided to cook.

I remember the first meal I cooked. It was a simple potato bhaji, and yet it was a total disaster. We dunked it in the garbage and went out for dinner!  How long could this go on?

I asked my mother-in-law, Dr. Shakuntala Rege, to teach me how to cook. Besides being a doctor, she was an excellent cook! I do not know how she found the time, but she wrote down her favourite - or rather my husband's favourite - recipes. All I had to do was follow them exactly, and they would turn out fine. And, yes, they did - just YUMMY.

Here is our family's all time favourite recipe.

Serves 4-6 people

Ingredients

Rekha has a Bachelor of Arts in Economics, and works for the Bank of India. She loves reading and travelling. At present she is studying Vedanta. She lives with her husband in Mumbai.

This recipe has a very interesting history - that's what my mother-in-law told me. In the past, in Indian joint families, the men and children were served food first, and the women had to make do with whatever was left over.

The fish curry was made of the best fish pieces, and the head and tail pieces were not used. Most of the time, there would be hardly any fish curry left for the women after the men and children had finished eating. So the enterprising women would make this dish with the head and tail pieces for themselves!

This is a very simple recipe, but it has a unique flavour because of the ginger, green chillies and coriander. There is absolutely no garam masala, and yet it is very tasty. One of my favourites !

Serves 4 people

Ingredients

Shenoi, a civil engineer and MBA, rose to the rank of Deputy Director-General of Works in the Indian Defence Service of Engineers. He has also been a member of HUDCO’s advisory board and of the planning team for Navi Mumbai. After retirement he has been helping NGOs in employment-oriented training, writing articles related to all aspects of housing, urban settlements, infrastructure, project and facility management and advising several companies on these issues.

There are innumerable varieties of dosas. This is one type that my mother, B. Sharada Bai, used to make. My wife has helped me in putting together this recipe.

Veda, a Bangalore-based artist, is currently pursuing a Distance Diploma in Art from Penn Foster School in Pennsylvania. Earlier, she studied Microbiology and worked as a research assistant in Denmark. On her Iyengar's kitchen blog she writes about the food insights she got from her grandmother. On her Kai Kriye blog you can see her paintings and other creations. She and her husband enjoy travelling, and their aim is to see as many places as possible. Her little daughter, Parnika, keeps her on her toes all the time!

My paati (grandmother), A.S. Padma (May 9, 1924 - April 3, 2007) was always acknowledged for her remarkable cooking and stringent disciplinary guidelines. Her Guests, relatives, friends and even her neighbours never went home hungry or even empty handed. Such was her generosity.

Bridget was born and brought up in Kolar Gold Fields, a small mining town in Karnataka. She got her B Ed degree in Bangalore, taught for two years, and then joined Canara Bank, from where she retired a few years ago. Now she is a self-published author of six cookbooks specializing in Anglo-Indian cuisine, and works as a consultant on food related matters. Bridget has also published a nostalgic book on KGF entitled Kolar Gold Fields Down Memory Lane. For copies of her books, contact her at bidkumar@gmail.com or visit http://anglo-indianfood.blogspot.com.

MY MUM'S COOKING

I was born and brought up in a well-known Anglo-Indian family in Kolar Gold Fields (KGF), Karnataka, which had a large and predominant British and Anglo-Indian population.

Our lives were influenced to a great extent by British culture. There was no dearth of British goods in KGF during the 1940s and 50s. These goods were imported from England and sold through The English Ware House, Spencer’s Stores, the Clubs, etc.