Desperate measures for desperate times

The last thing I expected to do was shape the sticky Narkol Nadu into ping pong size balls while studying Urban Politics, Policies and Persuasion and mulling over the future of Pinellas County from an Urban Planner’s point of view! Well, that is exactly what I ended up doing today in preparation of coming weekend’s Durga Puja.

Before I go any further, I need to explain few things mentioned here.

1. Durga Puja is the most famous festival of Bengalis, the East Indian habitants. What Christmas if for Christians, Durga Puja is for the people of Bengal. Life revolves around this one time of the year where essentially we worship the Goddess Durga. Anywhere outside of India, the ardent Bengalis celebrate it as per a convenient weekend not by the auspicious day as practiced by the people back home.

2. Urban Politics, Policies and Persuasion - I am presently pursuing my last semester in USF to get back to my previous career in Urban Planning. Hence, nowadays I am often found juggling kids, kitchen and homework, in that order. For this semester, my focus is on finding the politics behind everything that has happened or might happen in the urban space around me. Hence, this topic of my book. By the way, it does not mean that I have stopped cooking or teaching. It’s still on and is the reason why I get A- not A+ in my assignments. Not complaining.

3. Lastly, the Narkol Nadu, well, Narkol is the coconut and Nadu is a round cute ball. I sincerely believe that it is one of the many sweets that Bengalis should get a patent on. Made out of coconut and sugar, cooked on low heat till everything is gooey and sticky and then shaped into little balls. It’s every mother’s handy recipe for a delicious and quick sweet. It’s made easily, and can be stored at the back of the cabinet hidden from the reaches of those searching eyes for a rainy day of no sweets. It’s chewy and most satisfying to eat. Also it makes for an excellent filling for many other sweets, if someone ends up with some leftovers.

Now, going back to how I ended up making this sweet instead of writing the proposal for my project on Urban Politics. Well, it is said that one should not go to the temple empty handed. So, a little offering of fruits, flowers and sweets should be taken along. Not that Goddess will get mad at you if you don’t but might just fail you in your upcoming exams. Call it a bribe, if you look from my point of view. Given that, I sincerely did not get the time to go to the Indian sweet store to get some for the weekend. Fruits and flowers could be taken care of from the local grocery store but sweets are a different story altogether. Lot of driving involved here and too much to do in too short a time.

The memory of my mother’s secret stash of Narkol Nadu led me to my pantry where I found coconut flakes from one of my many previous cake mishaps. On a low heat, in a heavy bottom pan I dumped the coconut flakes. Confidently went to add sugar which brought home the realization of the acute shortage of basics of a pantry. But I am a chef and I am not supposed to stop if the ingredients are missing. So went on a search for an alternative. Found the light brown sugar. A little of plain white sugar and more of light brown sugar went into the slowly heating pan of dry coconut flakes. At this point the proportion was not the issue instead availability of the ingredients and a strong will power to achieve the perfect texture, no matter how, was the aim.

But after a few minutes of stirring, the mixture started getting drier instead of gooey. To bring out the gooeyness I decided to add milk solid, generally called khoya, from my freezer. I do not remember my mother ever using it for this recipe. I am sure no one does. But I was desperate to make it good. Even then, it did not work. It got drier and darker because the milk solids started to burn a little. In panic I added a little water. And suddenly the thing started to come together! In my excitement, I added a little more water and saw that Narkol Nadu consistency has finally been achieved. Now I needed some flavor, so I sprinkled a little ground green cardamoms. Stirred some more and took it off the heat.

Figured out the reason why it was getting drier. Back in India, coconut flakes that are used are always fresh which retains its water content so no water is necessary while cooking. To maintain their shelf life, here the flakes are practically dried like hay under the some kind of heat, I think. Hence the water was needed. The regular white sugar when melts with the oiliness of the coconuts adds to the gooeyness. The coconut that I was using not only lacked the water content but also lacked the oiliness. The white sugar content was also limited. So I added the milk solids hoping its fat content will help. Sadly, the milk solid was dry too which was not much of a help either. But it did create a soft bite in the chewiness of the final product. Back home, everything has its natural fragrance, even the coconuts, which gets transferred to the final product and gives the sweet its special character. Here the fragrance is absent from the hay like coconut flakes. Hence, the foreign fragrance of cardamom was a must.

Finally feeling very glad with my result, I let it rest until it cools off a little. To utilize the time, I got back to my studies. But just as I was about to concentrate a wave of anxiety swept over. What about the taste? Traditionally no milk solid, no water or no cardamoms are added to the recipe. And of course why forget the brown sugar? If my mother gets to know about all these extra ingredients, she will throw a fit. So I decided to taste test it. Another hurdle, since you are not supposed to taste the food before you offer it to the Goddess. The logic that can work here is, because the Goddess doesn’t actually ‘eat’ the offerings, it can taste anyway possible. No one will ever get to know. The counter argument to this is, technically it all gets back to us to be shared among friends and family after the ceremonies are complete. At that point everyone will get to know. My reputation will be at stake. So I had to figure a way around this.

Children are supposed to be pure and innocent form of life. They are the only ones who can get away with anything. When I say children, I essentially mean anyone who has not yet reached the teen years. I chose to exploit the innocence for my benefit this time. The target was my youngest 5 year old son to taste the Narkol Nadu and give me thumbs up sign. A big mistake. After saying ‘No’ for the first 2 times, he decided to taste and responded, "Yuck"! My heart sank. My 8 year old, very smart daughter volunteered for the taste. She gave me a smile and ‘all’s well’ sign. Now I was happy and satisfied.

Here after, begins the process of shaping each one of them like a small ball. It’s a sticky job but can be done anywhere while doing anything that doesn’t require your hands. Hence I ended up with a bowl of Narkol Nadu on my lap and politics on the table. Now the only hope is that my mixed up tweaked recipe made out of desperation will fare well. And the only wish is that Goddess Durga will be happy with me and get me good grades this semester for my efforts towards the Nadu without politics but with persuasion.

Shubho Bijoya to you all.

(Wish you all a very Auspicious Victory!)

Let's Cook

The following was sent out as my September newsletter. But I was too la.... umm busy to put it up on my blog. For the month of October I have already sent out the newsletter and this time I will upload it here right after this one. So enjoy.

Summer is almost over and Fall is round the corner. The past few months the focus of our lives was to laze and do all that we never get to do the rest of the year. This month we go back to our schedules. Kids are off to schools, home is decently clean and kitchen is sparkling once again, refrigerator has more of vegetables and raw meat, pantry holds all the healthy snacks, and I am back to my cooking classes.

Today I did my first workshop after the vacation. I was a little disorganized but the realization that I haven’t lost touch with good flavorful food despite the endless pizzas and chicken nuggets these past months, made me feel real happy. The menu was Lamb Korma and Chicken Biryani. Delicious food that will give us all a ‘healthy glow’ as per my grandmother’s standards but the family doctor might not agree with the old lady. Yet, for the sake of our pallet and need to create a masterpiece, both these dishes were the perfect beginnings to the upcoming Fall season.

Hence, we begin to cook and eat. Classes are open to anyone who calls with a desire to learn Indian food of all kinds, vegetarian and non-vegetarian. For the fear of spoiling the broth with too many cooks, I cannot take more than two students at a time provided they are learning the same dishes. Otherwise, it’s a single student each time. All the supplies will be provided and you get to take along the food that we will cook. There is no fixed lesson schedule as such. It is flexible based on individual requirements. If you have a list of dishes that you wish to learn, I teach you one to two dishes per session. If you are a beginner and know nothing about Indian food, I will be happy to provide you with a detailed list that you can choose from. Or simply visit our website for a detailed list. You can choose as many or as few classes as you want. Each session lasts approximately two hours. The classes are generally held during morning times all week long. Please call to make an appointment and for pricing at 727-388-3537. If I don’t answer back immediately, it’s probably because I am in the middle of a class. Be assured, I will call you back. We will decide on a mutually acceptable time.

Welcome to my kitchen.