Food

Brinjals (Aubergines) cooked with dried prawns 

“To everything there is a season” – Ecclesiastes 3:1

The monsoons is that season for a whole host of lovely local produce. From white onions and garlic  braided and left hanging from the rafters to the dried fish that did its time on hot summer shores. Somehow there is magic when dried prawns are cooked on a rainy day. Yet, like caviar, this is an acquired taste.  

Jeera – 1 teaspoon
Onions – 2 large or 200 grams 
Curry leaves – three sprigs
Tomatoes – 2 
Ginger garlic paste – 11/2
Byadgi chillies – 5 
Groundnuts – 15
Turmeric – 1/4 teaspoon
Coriander powder – 1 teaspoon
Dry prawns – 50 grams
Moong dal – 50 grams
Potatoes – two
Binjals 400 grams 

Oil as required, salt to taste

Mise en place (Preparation) 

Wash and soak the dal and set aside for twenty minutes. Soak the dry prawns in water and wash it about three times. Squeeze out extra water and let it sit.Now cut the onions and tomatoes very finely but dice the brinjals and the potatoes. On a hot pan with no oil, roast the chillies and the ground nuts and let it cool.With a little water, grind the chillies, groundnuts, turmeric and corinder powder and set aside. NOTE: Byadgi chillies give your dish both heat and great colour which a kashmiri chilly may not. 

In a pot heat oil, add the jeera and let it lightly brown. Now add the curry leaves; carefully as they always splutter. Add the onions and cook till translucent. Add the tomatoes and allow them to be rendered down. Now add the ground masala paste  and fry for two minutes on low heat. Add two cups of water and the potatoes with the dal and let it cook till the potatoes are well done. Ground nuts add as a thickening agent to food besides giving the dish a distinct taste. Too much of it and your dish ends up bitter

Now add the brinjals and dried prawns and cook for another ten minutes. You garnish with fresh coriander or curry leaves. I added three more green chillies when the dish was done. Fresh green chillies added at the end of the dish release their oils while contributing mildly to the heat of the dish. you can take the chillies out before reheating. I like to allow my dishes to rest for a while before I reheat and serve. 

For more food recipes go to http://www.pottypadre.com/category/food/

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Art/ Heritage

THE BOMBAY SEMINARY: AT FORT

 The exact date of origin of the first Bombay Seminary is not recorded but the story starts in 1764. The Vicar Apostolic noted several intrigues among the priests. As the historian Hull quotes: ‘on account of the disloyalty towards him of priests ordained in Goa, the Vicar Apostolic began in future to select local subjects and ordain them himself.’

The English welcomed the Vicar’s decision in order to prevent the Portuguese Padroado influence. They allowed the Vicar, Bishop Dominic of St. Clare, to return back to his residence in Fort. And thus was inaugurated the first Bombay Seminary in 1770 as a one-room day school in the Bishop’s House attached to the Fort Chapel in Meadows Street (now called Nagindas Master Road, Kala Ghoda).

A quick reference to the Fort Chapel can be found in the Examiner dated September 17, 1910. It states: ‘When the Vicar Apostolic and his Carmelites arrived in Bombay…the Vicar Apostolic for his official residence soon took a house in the Fort and set up there a Chapel dedicated to Mount Carmel.’ In 1900, ‘the incommodiousness of the house and the inadequacy of the Chapel made it necessary to look for a new site.’ This was secured at Wodehouse Road (now Nathalal Parekh Marg).  No prizes for tracing the birth of the present Cathedral of the Archdiocese of Bombay!

 The most important institution connected to the Fort Chapel was undoubtedly the Ecclesiastical Seminary. Around half-a-dozen young native men reported daily to the ‘seminary’ and were trained in elementary theology. The first ordinations of the Bombay Seminary took place in 1775 when Bishop Charles of St Conrad, successor to Bishop Dominic, raised four seminarians to the clerical state. The Vicar also sent Fr Antonio Pinto da Gloria to Rome for further studies.

For the next seven years the Bombay Seminary would share its quarters with the Bishop’s residence. However, with an ambition to mission, did they manage to hold fort?

Stay tuned as we unravel the travel of the Bombay Seminary through the Fort precincts! Please feel free to share this story with others and your story of the Seminary with us! You will get regular updates at this blog site on this exhibition.

© – Archdiocesan Heritage Museum

#MapItOut – Discover the location of the first Bombay Seminary by clicking on the link https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Map_of_Bombay_from_maps_of_constable%27_1893_hand_atlas.jpg and navigating through the map dated 1893. Zoom into the Fort precinct and when you spot the Fort Chapel on Meadows Street, type a ‘yay’ in the comments section below. 

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Faith

Blood is not thicker than water- Matthew 12:46-50

Matthew Chapter 11 and 12 which speak of the rejection of Jesus is now winding down.  The attacks on Jesus have been relentless with its flash point in verse 31. The Jewish religious leadership crossed the line when they eluded that his powers stemmed from Beelzebul, thus blaspheming against the Holy Spirit.

The passage must be seen in the larger context of the rejection of Jesus in Galilee   This rejection comes from a number of quarters; the Jewish leaders, the disciples of John the Baptist, the people and  in the Gospel of Mark, even His own family. Yet peppered in all this is  the fact that the rejection of Jesus was not universal for many followed Him making it at times essential to find refuge in a boat or in His house.

Surely all these attacks were too much for his mother and brothers to bear, they who loved Jesus. They now arrive at the place where he was in order to “speak with him.” One can only assume which way that conversation would go down. In order to protect him from those who seek to destroy him and tarnish his reputation his mother and brothers land up with what most certainly seems to be a message to ‘back off a bit’.

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Food

Chicken curry cooked with curds

Chicken – 1 kg
Onions – 4 large sliced or 400 grams
Curry leaves – 5 sprigs
Ginger and garlic paste – 1 1/2 tablespoon
Chicken masala – 2 1/2 heaped tablespoons ( recipe given )
Sweet Curd – 200 grams
Fresh coriander – one fistful chopped

For the meat masala please go to http://www.pottypadre.com/home-made-meat-masala/

In a pot, heat some oil and add the curry leaves. Now fry the four large onions that have been thinly sliced and continue the cooking process for about ten minutes or till the onions are golden brown but not burnt. Turn off the gas and allow this mixture to cool. Blend the onion and curry leaf mixture in a blender. You may need to add a little water.

When done, place the mixture in the same pot that you fried the onions and turn on the gas. Once hot, add the ginger and garlic paste and cook of a minute. Now add the chicken masala and half a cup of water. Allow this to cook for two minutes before you add another cup of water. Allow this to cook for about five minutes. Now add the chicken that has been washed and cut into curry pieces. Stir well, bring to a boil and then drop the heat to simmer and allow the chicken to cook for the next ten minutes with a lid on top.. After ten minutes remove the lid and allow the extra gravy to evaporate as you continue the cooking process. This may take another five minutes.

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Food

Chillies – Too hot to handle ?

If you can’t handle eating chillies consider yourself normal. Heat is the chilly plants defense system to stop mammals from eating it. Birds on the other hand have no problem; unlike humans the capsaicin in the chilly does not bind to their pain receptors found in their nerves causing them to feel the sharp pain. The distinct burning that we talk about after biting into a chilly is really pain that we experience. And while birds simply crap out the seeds, helping another chilly plant to dandy out of the soil, humans can end up anywhere from a pleasant food experience to a hospital bed. But then again, if you cannot handle chilly, how sorry your palette must be, for nothing can replace the taste of this unique plant in its contribution to food.

Peppers would be the correct way to address a chilly; that is really the broad classification of these ‘domesticated’ heat seeking food missiles. Those peppers which have capsaicin are called chilies, the rest we commonly call bell peppers or capsicums. The bell peppers are sweet when ripe unlike their ‘hot’ cousins. These hot little things originated from Peru, Bolivia and Chile which were at one time part of a larger geographical location called the Tawantinsuyu  Empire or more famously the land of the Incas. Residuals of chilli seeds also go back to 3500 BC  and have been found in ancient cooking vessels in many archaeological digs in Mexico.

Chillies are not native to India! Like tomatoes and potatoes there is a long list of now well-loved Indian vegetables, fruits, spices, snacks and deserts (samosa and gulb jamun included) that made India their home.  Interestingly, potato in Portuguese is called ‘batata’, the same word for the vegetable in local Indian languages like Marathi and Konkani. The Portuguese, like all colonists, were principally interested in trade. Christianity and the Cross were really way down on their shopping cart list; a truth that is often found hard to digest and heavily bandied around by some religious fanatics. Among the items that Vasco da Gama was credited to bring into India was the chilly.

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