Food

Garlic chutney

For quite a while now, friends have been asking me to blog about food; after all it’s one of my passions and that which I was trained and qualified in. My professors at HAFT (Sophia Polytechnic) who trained me in both hotel administration and culinary arts were masters in their own right.

So what finally pushed me over to blog about food? Ever so often, I come across people who just don’t know how to cook, mainly because they have never tried. Cooking does not require genius it just requires passion and most people would do well to flip open a cook book with simple recipes and experiment with small portions. Make a pickle, chutney or just a soup for starters and then let the magic take over.

My first tryst with teaching people to cook was in the seminary when I conducted a week long crash course for the professors and seminarians. The idea was to empower those who did not know how to cook to be able to rustle up simple dishes and not starve in their parochial houses. The seminary ended with the participants cooking “Indian Chinese” for the community of a hundred strong.

My first recipe is garlic chutney. It was made and sent to me by my neighbour,  Surekha, who prepared this with steaming theplas, a gujarati bhakri or roti which has finely chopped fenugreek leaves (methi) with coriander (dhaniya) turmeric, garlic, curd and sesame seeds.

I love garlic in my food but this hardy bulb vegetable also has a number of health benefits in its raw form; though I dare say you may not make many friends after consuming it raw. They say that “Shallots are for babies; onions are for men; garlic is for heroes.” The flavour of garlic when roasted or on a butter naan or bread is certainly one that sets any one salivating.” Careful though how much you consume, for they say that ” garlic makes a man wink, drink and stink”

Garlic chutney (to be eaten with thepla or bread or turn it into a salad dressing with olive oil)

Garlic (skin off obviously) 25 large flakes
Jeera (cumin) 1 table spoon
Chilli powder 2 tablespoons you could add half more if you like it spicy
Rock salt 1 tablespoon
Refined oil to mix

Begin by pounding the cumin seeds in stone or metal pounder. When coarse add in the rock salt and blend together. Throw in the garlic and continue to pound the ingredients, adding finally the chilli powder. To blend this all into a thick paste, add oil.You could make the chutney coarse or pound the garlic into a paste.

Resist the temptation to do all of this in a blender; it just does not taste the same. You could refrigerate the chutney but it always tastes better when made fresh.

Fr Warner D’Souza

 

 

Spread the love ♥
38      
38
Shares
Continue Reading
Faith

5      
5
Shares
Continue Reading
Opinion

Log Kya Kahege? ( What will people say?)

Over the past several years, I have come across newly married couples carrying a heavy burden; often well within several years after their children are born. It’s a burden that they either took upon themselves but most often one that was emotionally foisted upon them by parents and often distant relatives with the classic lines, “log kya kahege?” (what will people say)

Weddings in India are a multi-crore enterprise. Currently, the Indian wedding industry is worth over Rs 100,000 crore and is growing at 25 to 30 per cent annually. The estimated cost of a wedding with no expenses spared could be between Rs 5 lakh to Rs 5 crore. The pressure to conform and match up with the Jones is tremendous, leading young couples to enter into a whirlpool of debt in the first few years of married life; years that could well be the most testing for any newly married.

Yet this grave crisis is rarely spoken from the pulpit. If handled with tact it can become a great turning point among Christians who wish to scale down their weddings to match their bank balances with a realistic celebration rather than swipe their credit cards in favour of wishful expectations.

For the priest, the fear of addressing this contentious issue is realist. Congregations could always glibly misconstrue such a well-meaning suggestion as interference into their personal lives. Lest we catch the bull by its tail, the case being made is for celebrations that are debt free, celebrations where expenditure matches bank balances and where local customs (not Church requirements) do not contribute to making marital life a financial nightmare.

If I may use the license of my imagination applied to the Gospels, I would like to think of the wedding at Canna as a debt free marriage too. What if the bride and groom had spent all their money on the wedding and then the wine ran out? Six stone water jars filled to the brim and holding 20-30 gallons would total to 120-180 gallons of wine or about 680 litres. Jesus’ mother saw not just an embarrassing moment for the couple but the consequences of the future.

Many of my parishioners have often expressed their desire to marry but the reality of homes no larger than 200 square feet and the fear of wedding expenditures simply make what should be a natural calling into an impossible dream. Yesterday, the parish of St Jude situated in the suburb of Mumbai broke that glass ceiling.

Spread the love ♥
1.3K      
1.3K
Shares
Continue Reading
Art/ Heritage

THE COMMANDMENT OF THE CROSS: ‘The Pharisees Question Jesus’ by James Tissot

Jacques Joseph Tissot, later anglicized as James Tissot, was born near the busy port of Nantes, France in 1836. At the age of 17, he embarked upon his artistic mission. His career spanned three successful periods. In the first phase in Paris (1859-1870), he enjoyed great success as a high-society painter. His leisured and charmed life was soon skewered among the struggles of the French Revolution.

The fall of the Second Empire in 1870 and the bloody Franco Prussian war in 1871 compelled him to flee to London. After a successful 11 year sojourn, he suffered an emotional disaster. In 1882, his dearly loved mistress, Kathleen Newton died of consumption.

While working on a series of paintings themed, ‘The Woman of Paris’, James Tissot visited the Church of St. Sulpice in order to sketch the portrait of a choir singer. Here he encountered a vision of Christ tending to the broken and the down trodden. This was his route to Damascus; his Metanoia! The experience he had led to a renewal of his faith and a shift in his artistic focus.

He took off on a research trip to Holy Land, beginning his 10 year campaign to illustrate the New Testament. The result was ‘The Life of Christ’ popularly called ‘the Tissot Bible.’ It is a monumental series of 350 water coloured imagery with profuse archaeological observation and lucid realism.

Spread the love ♥
4      
4
Shares
Continue Reading
Faith

confessions of a pastor- Feast of Saints Simon and Jude, Apostles

Seven years ago, I was appointed as priest in charge to St Jude’s Church in Malad East. The parish lies bang smack in the centre of Mumbai’s growing suburb, but has a tiny Christian community as compared to the several sister churches on the west. We don’t call ourselves a parish for we believe we are a family; a family of 880 people, many for whom the daily necessities of life can be a challenge. This is my home, these are my family members and I feel blessed to be a pastor here.

It took me some time to get used to it all; after all the lifestyle of Bandra has a way of impacting your perspective. But something struck a chord in my heart when I got here; there was love. You could touch it, see it, experience it and most of all, it is freely offered. But soon I discovered that this love comes from faith in Jesus, a faith that I don’t dare glibly put down to a lack of a choice caused by poverty, as some suggest; Malad East has genuine faith in Jesus, for the parishioners are married to the Lord in good times and in bad. 

We were taught in the seminary to grow in awe and wonder of the mysteries of the sacraments that we celebrate. I can’t speak for others, but I can confess that at times my body was physically at the Eucharist while my mind was in space. Looking up I would become aware of a face lost in prayer or a tear fall from a cheek, a smile on the birthday child or the fear of someone about to lose a child to the clutches of death, and I would be reminded of what I am presiding over. 

We are never ordained only for personal sanctification but for the sanctification of the community. Without a faith community, the sacraments would be empty rituals; how poor is a priest without his people. The parish community has so often reminded me of these sacred mysteries that I am privileged to celebrate on their behalf. 

Spread the love ♥
118      
118
Shares
Continue Reading