Food

As a young girl, I wasn’t brought up eating a whole lot of hot, steaming, parathas, chapattis, dosas, or vadas for breakfast. As is the case in most Indian households even today. Being Goan, it was more like hard, and soft pao or bread, from one of the three bakeries that surrounded our home in Bandra. This bread was topped with either butter, jam, or eaten with an egg. Anything else was a treat for festivals or special occasions.

 On weekends we had plenty of time to play and it was usually when mom prepped meals for the entire week. She worked long hours and would spend most of her Saturday mornings doing so after dad was back from the market. On one such Saturday, as I opened the front door to our home, all sweaty, dirty, and hungry, I was hit with what I then considered the funkiest smell on earth. The smell of butter being clarified. Mum would heat it till the water evaporated and milk solids separated, to form liquid gold otherwise known as Ghee. 

Making Ghee was a process. It involved mum patiently collecting the ‘malai’ or thick cream that surfaced to the top after she boiled the milk. Every few days, I would watch her tuck away that cream into a little glass container and place it in the freezer. When she had collected enough, she would go on to make some butter, that was then clarified to make homemade ghee. It sat proudly on her kitchen counter. No refrigeration is required. Improving with age just as long as one didn’t use a wet spoon or let any moisture get into it.

Ghee has been know to be preserved in some cases for many years. Ayurveda uses ghee aged over a hundred years mixed with herbs to treat various conditions and in the past people passed it onto the next generation.

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Art/ Heritage

 

Before Parel surfaced as a viable location for the Seminary and became the subject of prolonged discussions and negotiations, other sites were considered and eventually abandoned by Archbishop Lima and his team. Some of these included St Stanislaus, Bandra; Kushroo Lodge, Mazagaon and a plot in Salsette midway between Malad and Kandivili stations atop the mining hills.

So when and how did Parel emerge as attractive possibility?

We receive a glimpse of this negotiation in August 1931. Fr Joaquim Villalonga, the Jesuit Superior attempted to persuade Archbishop Joaquim Lima to convert the two-storeyed Kushroo Lodge into the Bombay Seminary. But Archbishop Lima refused as he had his eyes fixed on Parel.

A quick throwback about the Parel property – As mentioned earlier, the Parel grounds, had been purchased by Bishop Fortini, the Vicar Apostolic of Bombay, way back in 1841. These nine acres were to serve the Bishop as a quiet country-place to withdraw from the bustling Fort and its pressurizing state of affairs. The property popularly came to be recognized as ‘The Bishop’s Villa’. Over the years, the serene villa and its surroundings, was put to several uses.

First in 1851- 1852 it housed the old Bombay Seminary amidst it’s many peregrinations. Soon the Seminary was transferred to Surat and the Bishop’s Villa came to cradle the little orphanage which later developed into St. Mary’s and St. Stanislaus’ High Schools. In 1865 the Parel property was made available to the Nuns of Jesus and Mary.

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Faith

This text must be seen in its large context. Chapters 14 -17 present us with the growing acceptance of Jesus even though his very own reject him. (13:54-58) This acceptance of Jesus is often a process and not merely a momentary revelation. The text of today highlights one such narrative.

It took the apostles too, a long time  to accept who Jesus really was (14:33). Even today’s narrative which might seem like a culminative faith expression, is only one more stepping stone towards their complete understanding of Jesus

For the moment let us get back to where Jesus is. The narration tells us that Jesus and the apostles are in Caesarea Philippi which was located outside the region of Galilee, twenty-five to thirty kilo meters north of the Sea of Galilee. It was situated on a trade route that connected Tyre in the West to Damascus in the North West. This made this place an important city for trade and commerce.

But Caesarea Philippi was also a religious centre. The highlight of the city was a cave from which sprung one of the sources of the rive Jordan. This cave was considered by the Greeks as the birthplace of the god Pan and a sanctuary to other gods. It is in this city that Herod the Great had built a temple to Caesar August. This temple in white marble stood on top of a hill and dominated the skyline.

It was Philip the tetrarch, son of Herod the Great who had inherited this city and made it his administrative headquarters. In his attempt to please the Roman rulers he added his name to Caesars renaming the city Caesarea Philippi.  

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Food

Ingredients

For cafreal masala
Coriander leaves- 1/2 large bunch or one cup chopped
Green chillies – 10
Cardamom – 6
Cumin – 1 teaspoon
Turmeric – 1/2 tsp
Cinnamon – 2”stick
Cloves – 3
Ginger – 1.5 inch piece
Garlic – 10 cloves
Vinegar – 2 tbsp
Salt – 1 tsp

The above ingredients for the cafreal masala can be ground and stored on the refrigerator and used as desired

Other Ingredients

Breadfruit- one large
Cafreal masala – four tablespoons
Ginger and garlic paste- one tablespoon
Vinegar – one tablespoon
Curry leaves – three handfuls
Garlic – four cloves
Mango powder – one teaspoon
Salt – to taste
Oil to fry

Method

Grind the ingredients for the cafreal masala. Remove the outer skin of the breadfruit and slice it into thin slices if you want it crisp or slightly thick if you want to eat it a bit soft. Apply the ground cafreal masala with the ginger and garlic paste, vinegar, salt to taste and marinate for two hours.

Heat some oil and shallow fry the marinated breadfruit. While frying them in batches add a handful of curry leaves and a clove of garlic. You could also fry a green chilly if you want to infuse the oil with a little more spice.

To serve – place the breadfruit in a dish and pile it over with the friend garlic and curry leaves and sprinkle mango powder.

#Padreinthekitchen

The blog has many more recipes, look them up and please leave a comment.

 

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Faith

This memorial to our blessed mother is celebrated a week after the Assumption. Reflected in the fifth decade of the Glorious Mysteries, the crowning of Mary as Queen of Heaven was a feast originally celebrated on the 31st of May which explains why many of our traditional hymns sung to our lady in the month of May speak of her crowning.

It was in 1954 that Pope Pius XII  who in the centenary year of the proclamation of the Immaculate Conception  instituted this feast with his encyclical Ad coeli reginam  and from 1969 this memorial is celebrated a week after the Assumption of Mary.

The crowning of Mary as Queen of all creation is the culmination of all the privileges granted to our Lady; the Mother of God, assumed body and soul into heaven. Our Lady’s role in the history of salvation is unique. The same is true, however, for each one of us in a smaller scale. The Lord is with each of us and we have found favour with God and he has a mission for us to fulfil.

There is much to learn from Our Blessed Mother

Like Mary, in our lives too, there are turning points where we may experience an invitation to embrace something difficult rather than discard it. Something which wrecks our dream for ourselves or for our loved ones.  Yet like Mary, we too say yes to God’s will and in doing so we become the ‘hand- maids’ of God.

This call to saying yes requires a predisposition to being in tune with the many invitations of God, if not we would find ourselves fighting the will of God in our lives. The angel said to Mary, ‘You will conceive and bear a son,’ not ‘Are you willing to conceive and bear a son?’ That is how God’s will comes to us; in the things that happen to us; more than in the things we choose!

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