Hot on the spice trail

With some good cooks, cooking is an elective passion. With others, it is as natural as breathing. Nalini Shivprakash belongs to the latter group. Her expertise has been arrived at without design. Perhaps you could say the journey and the destination are equally thrilling to her.

Nalini and Shivprakash, her husband, both hail from the southern state of Tamil Nadu in India. But when Nalini got married and set up home in Mumbai, the first few dishes she learnt were not typically south Indian. With neither a mother nor a mother-in-law to help her, Nalini took her cooking lessons from friendly neighbours.

From one, she learnt the dal dhokli of Gujarat, from another the prawn curry of Maharashtra and from yet another the butter chicken. But, when she went back home to Chennai, she made sure to bone up on Chettinad cuisine which was the speciality of the cooks at her parental home.

While all Indian cuisine liberally makes use of the indigenous spices, it is the Chettinad variety that makes your senses go zing. Of course, in keeping with the dictates of the times, Nalini goes the low-fat route.

In traditional Chettinad cuisine, the 'sappad' or food is served on a banana leaf. The top half of the leaf is reserved for accompaniments. The lower half for the rice. The lower right portion of the leaf may have a scoop of warm sweet, milky rice payasam, which should be lapped up quickly. While the top left includes a pinch of salt, a dash of

pickle and a thimbleful of salad, or a smidgen of chutney. In the middle of the leaf, there may be a number of fried items like chips of either banana, yam or potato, deep-fried vadas or crispy papads. The top right-hand corner is reserved for the heavies – the curries, hot, sweet, or sour, and dry dishes.

If it is a vegetarian meal, the vegetables are carefully chosen, between the country ones – gourds, drumsticks, brinjals – and the 'English' ones, which could be carrot, cabbage, and cauliflower.

If it is a non-vegetarian meal, in some cases, a separate leaf is provided for the fried meats, chicken, fish, crab, and so on. But again, the variations are presented carefully, one dry next to gravy. While the rest of the regional cuisine is predominantly vegetarian, the Chettinad has a fair portion of meat, poultry and fish too. Each using a different combination of spices.

When Nalini landed in Dubai 14 years ago, her repertoire turned international. Eating out is quite a hobby with the family and they switch to different varieties of cuisine periodically. Currently they are into Mediterranean cuisine.
The couple entertain quite often at home. "When I have guests of other nationalities, I like to give them a taste of Indian food because they really love it.

"Of course, you have to tame the spicy flavours a bit. Even the innovations go down quite well with our friends – sometimes they call up and say they are coming over for a meal of whatever they have eaten earlier and relished. I like it when this happens.

"The secret of a good hostess, after all, is to think of what will please her guests."

Chettinad Mutton Milagu Chukka

Ingredients
1 kg fresh mutton with bone, 4 onions, finely chopped, 2 medium-sized tomatoes, chopped, 2 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
2 tbsp whole pepper, 1 tbsp cumin seeds, 1/4 tsp chilli powder, 1 tsp coriander powder, 1 tsp turmeric powder
4-5 tbsp oil, salt to taste

Method
In a pressure cooker, cook till half done the mutton with 1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste, 1/2 tsp turmeric powder and a little water.
In a heavy-based pan, dry-roast the pepper and cumin till they turn aromatic. Cool and grind to a powder.

In a saucepan, heat the oil and fry the onion till light brown, add the remaining ginger-garlic paste and fry for a few more minutes. Add the cumin-pepper powder to taste, and the other powders. Stir-fry well. Add the tomatoes and fry till soft and the oil starts to leave the mixture. Add the cooked mutton pieces along with the stock and then the salt. Fry till the mutton is well coated with the masala.

Cook the mutton uncovered over a medium heat, stirring, regularly till it is well cooked and dry.

Vanjaram Meen Varuval

Ingredients
6 slices medium-sized kingfish , oil for frying

Grind to a paste, 1 small onion, 1 tsp aniseed, 3/4 tsp chilli powder, 1/4 tsp turmeric powder, 1/2 tsp ginger-garlic paste, 2 tbsp tamarind pulp, salt to taste

Method
Wash and pat the fish dry on a kitchen towel. Marinate the fish in the paste on both sides and leave aside for at least
2-3 hours. Heat a thick-bottomed frying pan, smear oil all over its surface and fry the fish on medium heat on both sides till it is cooked through.
Note: You will have to add a little bit of oil to the pan as and when required during the frying process.

Prawn & Bottle Gourd Curry

Tomato Rasam
(A spicy soup-like preparation)