Vegetarian

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

Pratibha Jain (left)and Jigyasa Giri (right)are the authors and publishers of Cooking at Home with Pedatha which won the Gourmand award for Best Vegetarian Book in the World 2006. Jigyasa is a Kathak dancer, choreographer, and teacher. Pratibha Jain holds a Doctorate in Philosophy of Language from the University of Madras. Their website is www.pritya.com, and their email address is communicate@pritya.com.

This recipe is from our book Cooking at home with Pedatha, a tribute coffee table cookbook. Pedatha (short for Peddha Atthayya, which means eldest aunt (bhua - father' sister) in Telugu) refers to Mrs. Subhadra Krishna Rau Parigi, the eldest daughter of the former President of India, Dr. V.V. Giri.

In the book's Foreword, her sister wrote:

Pratibha Jain (left) and Jigyasa Giri (right) are the authors and publishers of Cooking at Home with Pedatha which won the Gourmand award for Best Vegetarian Book in the World 2006. Jigyasa is a Kathak dancer, choreographer, and teacher. Pratibha Jain holds a Doctorate in Philosophy of Language from the University of Madras. Their website is www.pritya.com, and their email address is communicate@pritya.com.

We have grown up believing that cooking is all about being quick, clever, and creative. Readymade powders, instant purees, and our freezers are now our salvation. We learnt something different from Pedatha, (short for Peddha Atthayya, which means eldest aunt (bhua - father' sister) in Telugu) - Mrs. Subhadra Krishna Rau Parigi, the eldest daughter of the former President of India, Dr. V.V. Giri. She is the protagonist of our book Cooking at home with Pedatha.

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.

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.

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.

Sushma Nagarkar got her M.Sc. Maths, Honours School from Panjab University. She lives with her husband Dhanesh in Nagpur. Her daughter is an ophthalmologist, and her son is a mechanical engineer.

I got married in 1979 and came to my in-laws' place at Nagpur. My husband has two brothers and two sisters, three of whom live in Nagpur.

We are a religious family, and celebrate Ganesh Chaturthi and Mahalaxmi Puja in Bhadrapada (Hindu lunar calendar month, usually in August-September).

The preparation starts about a fortnight before the Puja day as about 100 people dine on the Puja day.

Every day, the women gather at my husband's older brother's home, where my late mother-in-law, Shrimati Gangabai Nagarkar, lived.

Sweet modaks are made on the first day. These are sweets and Prasad for Ganpati.

We make lots of sweets and snacks, such as laddu, shev, karanji, chakli, and anarse. Nobody ­­- not even small children ­- are allowed to eat them until the Puja is over.