Food

Beetroot cooked with curry leaves and coconut.

I grew up averse to eating this super food. At best I would eat it raw with a lime on it. Cooked in any form, this dish was always a pass for me. I then came across this recipe made by one of my parishioners. The style and ingredients are very South Indian and the balance they bring about on the palette is a exotic.

Ingredients:-

Beetroot – 250 grams or roughly one large beet cut brunoise  or fine dices

Oil – 30ml (2tbsp)

Garlic – 2 cloves finely chopped

Mustard Seeds – half a teaspoon

Curry leaves – two sprigs

Onion – one, finely chopped

Green chilli – 2 or 3 finely chopped

Turmeric powder – ½ teaspoon

Cumin powder – 5 grams or ¾ teaspoon

Grated coconut – 50 grams

Method

Heat the Oil in a deep pan. Add chopped garlic and sauté till it turns light brown (on a medium flame). Add Mustard seeds and curry leaves and allow the mustard to crackle. Add Chopped onion and chillies sauté for a minute on low flame. Now add the chopped Beetroot and add salt to taste. Let this cook on low flame for 2 minutes and then add turmeric powder.

Continue the cooking process for one more minutes on a low flame. Finally add cumin powder which is the main flavouring agent. Turn off the gas and add grated coconuts and give this a stir and cover. Allow the beetroot to cook in its own heat. Garnish with freshly chopped coriander leaves.

Comments are welcome and encouraged

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Food

Vegetables cooked with chana dal in a roasted onion and spice gravy

I have been a great advocate of one pot meals. They are wholesome, often quick to make and can feed an army. While this dish is vegetarian you can always satisfy you meat craving by adding chicken along with the vegetables.

A few tips

  1. This is an onion based gravy with roasted spices. It has no coconut in it.

  2. Soak the chana dal or Bengal gram for at least two hours if not overnight.

  3. Use hardy vegetables to accompany the robust flavour of the gravy

  4. I used a combination of carrot, white pumpkin and ivy gourd or tendli. Another great combination is cauliflower, peat and potato or French bean, carrot and corn

  5. Avoid using vegetables which have a strong overpowering flavour, you want this gravy to show off a bit

  6. This dish requires your patience and is not one of those flashes in the pan and ready to eat

  7. The ingredients in this dish can feed at least eight people.

  8. Dice all your vegetables the same size and they will cook evenly. For this dish I cut the vegetables the size of my thumb nail. You want to be able to eat this comfortably and not stretch your mouth when eating.

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Food

Bharwa(Stuffed) Bhindi – Okras stuffed with coconut, mango powder and spices

So Bhindi is every amateur chef’s worst nightmare. Perhaps the thought of this dish also makes you recoil for the many times it has been served to you slimy. Bhindi, lady finger or okra as it is called requires the chef’s patience but the end results are fantastic.

Here are a few tips for this dish

  1. Separate the bhindi according to its size so that when you cook them in the pan you cook them according to the same size and they cook evenly.

  2. Wash the bhindi the night before and then wipe them. Let them sit out on the kitchen counter overnight. If you don’t have the luxury to do this then simply wipe the dry before use but make sure they are dry.

  3. Make sure you have a large flat bottom nonstick pan for this dish.

  4. While frying, ensure that the bhindi sit on the pan and not one over the other. Don’t over stuff your pan.

  5. I have used onion powder and garlic powder. If you don’t have this in dry form (which is easy to make at home) then mince the two together and I mean mince it. Fresh onions also lend a nice sweetness to the dish

  6. I have used coconut powder but this dish tastes equally good with desiccated coconut

  7. You need aamchur for this dish if not use dried pomegranate seeds as a souring agent but you can’t skip the souring agent. Souring agents also help prevent the bhindi from going slimy.

  8. If you are using only dry ingredients for the stuffing then you can make it and store it for as long as you like.

  9. Finally make sure your pan and the oil in it are super-hot when adding the bhindi and then follow the instructions given in the method

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Food

Spinach cooked with Moong Dal.

When most people think of spinach as a vegetable they think of a it in some pureed form with cottage cheese (paneer) or potatoes. Spinach can be added to chapatis and poori dough, batter fried or pan fried as a savoury, added to potato and turned into a cutlet or cooked with dal, as in this case. Raw spinach has a mild, sweet taste that can be refreshing when used in a salad. Its flavour becomes more acidic and robust when it is cooked. When pureeing it, always give it a light run in the mixture or else it tends to turn bitter.

This dish relies as much on the onions as it does on the spinach and dal. Do not reduce the quantity of onions as they provide a base and a bulk to the dish besides adding to a nice sweetness. Onions can be the Cinderella in your dish. Its strong pungent taste is transformed into a sweet flavourful component to any dish.  

Spinach – one large bunch

Moong Dal – one handful, soaked in water for two hours

Onions – two very large or four medium, and minced finely

Tomatoes – two very large or four medium, chopped finely

Green chillies – three to four

Garlic – four cloves

Turmeric – ¼ teaspoon

Jeera /cumin seeds– ½ teaspoon

Oil and salt as required

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Art/ Heritage

OBJECTS AND STORIES – The Choir Dress of H.E. Oswald Cardinal Gracias

December 13, 2006 – The buzzing engine of the fire-red Mumbai Rajdhani Express pulled into the ever-teeming Terminus of Mumbai Central. Amidst the chaos of coolies, commuters and compartments stood a familiar figure cloaked in a simple white cassock with a pectoral cross around his neck. The Archbishop waved and greeted the elated people with a beaming blessing. The homecoming of this native prelate will always be hailed by the Archdiocese of Bombay.

Born in Mahim, Mumbai (then Bombay) to Jervis and Aduzinda Gracias on the eve of Christmas 1944, Oswald Cardinal Gracias was raised in a warm and pious family. The early seeds of his vocation centered not only around the Church but also within the family with ‘priest in and out of the house’1. The dawn of the Space Age from Sputnik to Apollo intrigued his young mind with a quest to go beyond. The winds of change were blowing in the Church post Vatican II. Inspired and guided by the Parish Priest, Oswald Gracias joined the Bombay Seminary and was ordained priest by Valerian Cardinal Gracias on December 20, 1970.

Having served as Chancellor and Secretary to Bishop Joseph Rodericks S.J. of Jamshedpur from 1971 to 1976, Fr. Oswald Gracias was sent to Rome for further studies. By 1982, Fr Gracias obtained a Doctorate in Canon Law from the Pontifical Urban University as well as a Diploma in Jurisprudence from the Gregorian University. On his return to Mumbai, Fr Gracias, a sharp and brilliant theologian went on to serve his Archdiocese as Secretary, Chancellor, Judicial Vicar, Consultor of Canon Law and as an endearing priest.

June 28, 1997, Fr Gracias was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Bombay and Titular Bishop of Bladia by Pope John Paul II (now saint). He adopted the motto ‘To Reconcile All Things in Christ’ – a pledge he lives by till date. At the turn of the century on September 7 he was appointed Archbishop of Agra, the oldest diocese in northern India.

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