If you know anything about me, you know that I’m also slightly obsessed with India.  So, this past week, when I received a copy of The Bengali Five Spice Chronicles – Exploring the Cuisine of Eastern India I was pretty excited!  This new cookbook is written by Rinku Bhattacharya, a woman I met when I took her cooking class back in New York.  I had asked her to write a blog post about food and culture a few years ago and needless to say, we have stayed in touch.

Grateful for the book arriving just prior to a long holiday weekend, I found myself nestled in my favorite chair reading about the inspirations behind the cookbook (her family – from the past, present and future) as well as the stories of how food plays into the daily life of Bengalis. Rinku grew up in Kolkata but has lived in the US for more than twenty years, so she brings the voice of a Bengali as well as the nuances that a US born American may need to better understand the tools in the cookbook.  For example, she provides modifications for shopping and cooking that recognize food preferences, yet still hold true to the important spice profiles of Bengalis.

There is so much to be learned about culture through food and perhaps Rinku describes this best in her remarks about her Indian husband. She says,  “I brought home a man who might fringe on satisfying the Bengali love for education but who unfortunately did not speak a word of Bengali.  Sadly his Bengali language skills have not progressed, despite being married to me for well over a decade.  He does, however, share my passion for food.  And I have taught him the joys of savoring a well-made morning cup of Darjeeling tea.  I feel that the closest and most practical way I could offer my husband an insight into the Bengali culture was through food.”  Thankfully, readers of this cookbook get to learn right alongside Rinku’s husband! (You can purchase it via the link at the end of this post.)

For those of you less obsessed with India than I, let’s begin the cultural lesson by defining where Bengal is! Bengal is in the northeast region of the Indian subcontinent.  It is often called the “land of the rivers” because of the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers  that flow through it. The region split apart in 1947 and 1971, first into West Bengal (still part of India) and East Bengal (East Pakistan), and then again when East Bengalis felt that culture and language were stronger than religion that tied them to Pakistan. East Pakistan is now the country of Bangladesh.

Key to Bengali cooking is what is called panch phoron, the Bengali five spice blend.  It is a blend of equal parts of cumin seeds, mustard seeds, nigella seeds, fenugreek seeds, and fennel seeds.  You can make the blend yourself or you can purchase the blend from your local Indian store.  Here is a blend that I purchased locally (which is spelled Panch Puram here) along with some other key spices :

Ironically, my first recipe from this cookbook did not include panch phoron.  You see, I had an abundance of radish and cabbage from the farmer’s market in the house and had been seeking a recipe for both – and this cookbook has one on page 113 called Mulor Chechra (Radish and Cabbage – with or without Fish Heads!)  I didn’t have a fish head handy, so opted for the “without!”

I’ll share with you the experience of cooking my first Bengali dish. Try not to laugh at me too much – it does get a bit silly and many lessons were learned.

As any experienced cook knows, you should go through the list of ingredients and pull everything you need out of the cupboards to ensure you are prepared. After a visit to the India store in town, I thought I was well prepared!  I even made sure to get the mustard oil required for the recipe.

Lesson #1:  Read the labels, even when the shop keeper brings you to the section for mustard oil.  Why?  Read closely:

Yup.  You see it.  The part that says “Spread oil on hands and use for massage.  Suitable for body and head.”  Seriously, I almost put that in my food!  So, be sure to read the label when you think you’re buying what is “obviously” a cooking oil!  Being the “agile interculturalist” that I am, I substituted canola oil. (Are you laughing yet?)

Before even going down the path of putting a pan on the stove, I did take the time to blend my first spice mix needed for this recipe called “Ada Dhone Jire Bata.”  This is a ginger-cumin-coriander paste that also includes some green chilies.

Lesson #2:  When the book suggests using a coffee grinder, be a big person and go out and buy one.  I decided that the blender would probably be “just fine.”  Ok, it really wasn’t.  My paste was rather lumpy because the blender kept spitting the spices up to the top of the lid and it really required much more work to keep pushing the unblended coriander and cumin back down near the blade.  But alas, it was sufficient enough to continue.

Lesson #3:  When putting hot chilies into a blender and opening it and sticking your face near it to see how blended it is, note that you may actually get some of the heat from the chilies into your nose and mouth, causing a slightly nagging cough for a few minutes.  Not to worry, lesson learned quickly and you will be fine after a couple of sips of water!

Moving right along, I got the “paste” ready and carefully followed the instructions.  Until I realized I forgot to pick up some squash.  I decided instead to double up on the spinach or Swiss chard, until I realized that I only some other fun (nameless) greens from the farmer’s market and used twice the amount of those instead of the recommended spinach or Swiss chard. (Don’t get discouraged here – it still came out delicious!)

I proceeded to heat the paste in the oil and then tossed in the vegetables.  I was so happy to see that there is a recipe that includes cooking radishes, as I had only had them before in raw salads.  Here is the spice mix and then the veggies before the cooked down:

I then set up another pan for the required ghee (clarified butter) and bay leaf combination, fried the bay leaves as instructed and poured them over the veggies.

This is where Lesson #4 occurs: Make sure you have a second set of hands available to take the photos when you are cooking – and especially pouring hot ghee into another pan.  While I didn’t spill it all over the floor, I did manage to take a pretty blurry photo!

Note that the veggies are absorbing the fabulous spice blend and they are softening as they cook over the fifteen minutes.  I so wish that WordPress would add an “insert scent” button next to the “insert media” button so I could share the incredible smell coming out of my kitchen!

The finished dish, despite my various screws ups was still delicious.  I’ve explored many ways to cook cabbage and this was, by far, the most tasty.  The radishes became comfort food – they lost that sharpness and instead absorbed the delicious spice blend (and tumeric, which the recipe also called for.)  I think it would have been even better had I been more generous with the chilies and pepper powder.   I will be sure to do so next time, along with purchasing an actual edible mustard oil!

This is the final dish, which I photographed alongside Rinku’s book: 

Like Rinku, I put my own spin on the recipe the following morning when I made breakfast. I added elements of a typical American breakfast by cooking a fried egg and some sausage patties to accompany the Mulor Chechra.  Since I didn’t have a fish head to enhance this dish, I used my own pantry of protein instead!

I’m looking forward to exploring this cookbook further, especially the chapters on eggs and sweets (apparently many Bengali  desserts utilize milk.) There are many stories of how food relates to Bengali culture peppered throughout this cookbook.  It is an education and a feast all in one well priced and well written cookbook.  I am especially grateful for it because there are few English language cookbook options about Bengali cooking that are as comprehensive as this one. As a person who doesn’t eat gluten, I can see that there are countless options for foods that I can cook and eat without worrying about gluten exposure.

Many thanks to Rinku for her contribution to the foodie/culture/education arena!  If you’re interested, you can purchase the book below.

(Disclosure:  I received a free copy of the cookbook, at my request, from the publishing company, Hippocrene Books.  However, I am not being paid to write about this book by Rinku or the publishing company.)

See larger image The Bengali Five Spice Chronicles (Paperback) By (author) Rinku Bhattacharya List Price: $18.95 USD New From: $11.57 In Stock Used from: $12.52 In Stock

Here is the trailer:

Click here to view the embedded video.

This film is about the life and work of Rajesh, a private detective with 15 years in the business. He is a lovable man – jovial, sincere, expressive, pensive and a doting husband and father. He investigates everything from cheating spouses to brand corruption to his first murder case during this period of filming. His team, a brilliantly funny group of men, accompany him to dance lessons as a way to help ease the stress of their work. The seriousness of the detectives’ cases juxtaposed against their attempts to ‘get down and boogie’ in their first dance competition is the stuff great films are made of.

This documentary is an excellent educational tool.  It touches on a three notable cultural lessons that are viewed through the overarching theme of crime and corruption in Kolkata:

1) Marriage: Rajesh is married to a woman that he deeply loves and admires. They have a beautiful young son who is the light of their lives.  Sadly, Rajesh’s wife is seriously ill with diabetes and he loses her during the taping of the documentary.  The film follows Rajesh and his wife to doctor appointments, where it is increasingly clear that she will not improve.  Suffering from complications of diabetes, she passes away, much to our disbelief.  Ironically, this happens while Rajesh is investigating a client’s concern that her husband is having an affair.  The woman, Deepti, describes her arranged marriage and the domestic violence that took place over many years.  Rajesh has to inform her that her husband is likely having an affair with her sister in law and that he likely also has a child from a previous relationship. Interestingly, Deepti decides to confront him and work on their marriage.  It is a sharp contrast to the love marriage that Rajesh had with his own wife, and one that sparks discussion about marriage in India. (Note: this is not mean to be a judgment about either type of marriage;  it is simply documenting the case that took place while filming.)

2)  The human condition: We see Rajesh and his team research crime in Kolkata, West Bengal, India.  We realize that the his cases are not unlike what we would witness in the US – people having affairs, random murders and corruption in businesses. However, in India, 70% of cases given to the authorities go unsolved, ensuring a long and successful career for Rajesh. Witnessing Rajesh’s “down time” from work with his wife and son, his passion for Bollywood dancing and his pain through the loss of his young wife, we learn that the gap, on a very human level, between those in India and those in our own country, is smaller than one may realize.  The human condition connects us all, no matter our place of birth or culture.

3)  Death rituals: Rajesh did not allow the filmmakers to document his wife’s cremation. However, he did provide footage that was used in the documentary.  These moments are particularly touching, as viewers have grown to love his family over the course of the film and the ritual of the cremation is particularly moving, as well as educational.

I personally found the serious tone of the film’s criminal investigations (especially the murder case of an only son and his two friends) and the death of Rajesh’s wife, balanced by the humor, to be completely appropriate. It felt like India to me: a place that I interpret to be a land of extremes (e.g. financial wealth vs poverty, bright colors of saris against more subtle landscapes, incredibly spiritual yet with undertones of corruption, etc.) It should generate conversation about the contrasts in daily living in India.

The Bengali Detective is a film that is fun to watch, full of engaging characters (led by Rajesh, who is incredibly lovable) and it will easily hold your attention. Despite all of the difficult situations addressed in the film, you will find yourself laughing, just when things are about to get too serious.  I applaud Phil Cox for managing to strike such a delicate balance.

“5.5 liters of blood;” Mr. Krishan could not have said it better.

Mr. Krishnan founded his nonprofit Akshaya Trust in 2003. He has served more than 1.2 million meals – breakfast, lunch and dinner – to India’s homeless and destitute, mostly elderly people abandoned by their families and often abused. “Krishnan brings hot meals and dignity to India’s homeless and destitute – 365 days a year,” CNN said.

Please share this video and may we all have the heart to give (and receive) as Mr. Krishnan does.  Please watch the first 3 minutes (After that is an interview with Mr. Krishnan):

Click here to view the embedded video.

SOLD by Patricia McCormick

The atrocity of sex trafficking is highlighted in this heartbreaking book simply titled “SOLD.”  I read it for a book club recently and was completely floored at the power of Patricia McCormick’s writing.  It is the story of Lakshmi, a 13 year Nepalese girl whose stepfather sells her to help with his family’s financial troubles. She is taken to India and forced into prostitution to survive.

McCormick traveled to Nepal and India to retrace the steps that a young girl like Laskhmi would follow as part of her nightmarish journey.  She interviewed aid workers who rescue girls from brothels as well as survivors, to ensure the authenticity of Lakshmi’s experience.  Girls are sold for a few hundred dollars and transported to brothels where they are forced to “pay off their family’s debts” through prostitution.  If they don’t obey, they are beaten, starved, intimidated, drugged and raped.

The U.S. State Department estimates that nearly half a million children are trafficked into the sex trade annually.  They are being taken from their families as early as 6 years old and are forced to have sex with men twenty to thirty times per day. Yes, you heard me correctly.  Take a moment to let that data soak in and to be really angry about it.

Then, when you’re ready to do something about it, visit Ms. McCormick’s link to web sites that combat sex trafficking.

The first organization Ms. McCormick lists on her site is Maiti Nepal.  The founder of this organization, Anuradha Koriala, won CNN’s 2010 Hero of the Year award.  What did she do to earn this honor?  She has rescued 12,000 girls from brothels and rehabilitated them.  Yes, you heard me correctly again:  12,000.  Twelve thousand.  TWELVE THOUSAND since 1993.

Here is an interview with Ms. Koriala (The video will require that you click to youtube – CNN won’t allow their videos to be embedded.  Please forgive any ad that plays prior to the video – it is beyond my control. But trust me, two and a half minutes of this video will move you to the core):

Click here to view the embedded video.

Educators around the world have a responsibility to share the truth of what is happening to girls around the world.  The book SOLD is an excellent vehicle for teaching our youth about the reality of what is happening to vulnerable girls, particularly when girls in many parts of the world think that their biggest challenge may be what color dress to wear to the prom or what to post to Facebook that day!

SOLD can be read by students as young as 13 years old (or 9th grade in the US.)  It is written in a free flowing manner – no chapter is more than three pages and there is much room for dialogue because there is a lot of white space to fill with your students’ imagination and questions.

Please read this book.  Find it at your library or you can purchase it here.  I don’t really care how you find it -  just make sure you read it and then share what you’ve learned and act to change it.

See larger image Sold (Hardcover) By (author) Patricia Mccormick List Price: $15.99 USD New From: $4.47 In Stock Used from: $0.01 In Stock Release date September 12, 2006.

Sita Sings the Blues

“Sita Sings the Blues” tells the tale of the epic Ramayana using three very different styles of animation in Flash technology. It is visual storytelling taken to an entirely new level.  The Ramayana consists of 24,000 verses in 7 books and 500 cantos, and tells the story of Rama, whose wife Sita is abducted by the demon king of Lanka, Ravana. Thematically, the epic explores the tenets of human existence and the concept of dharma. While it is clearly a story about Rama, the film focuses on Sita, his wife. There is a strong female voice and perspective throughout this feature film.

This trailer will give you a taste of the magical animation:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Filmmaker Nina Paley keeps the story moving by interspersing these animations with commentary by three modern day characters. They pop up periodically as shadow puppets to chatter about their ideas of how or why things unfolded as they did in this epic story.  These three characters represent the common voice about the Ramayana. Interestingly, they were not scripted at all! Their free flowing thoughts will make you feel like you’re eavesdropping on a great conversation between some strangers in a cafe who are reminiscing.  (One of the voices was that of 40 year old filmmaker, Manish Acharya, who sadly passed away today when he fell from a horse in India.)

Filmmaker Nina Paley made this incredible artistic film as a result of her own personal breakup. She was reading different variations of the Ramayana and accidentally discovered the music of Annette Hanshaw, who recorded in the 1920s and 1930s.  This music spoke so deeply to her that she incorporated it into the film to accompany one of the three animation styles, using the power of Hanshaw’s lyrics to emphasize Sita’s journey.

This film is not without its own challenges – there has been outcry by what Paley describes as “fundamentalists” who criticize this interpretation of the Ramayana.  They felt that the film showed too much skin and poked fun at Hindus in a derogatory manner.  Paley takes this all very lightly and feels that any creative act will be open to interpretation.

This film is also unusual in that is may be screened for free, anytime! Paley believes that information should be free and wants people to be liberated in their creativity without financial limitations.  What a gift to educators in these tough economic times!

“Sita Sings the Blues” is being used as an educational tool in high schools and colleges/universities to create dialogue about this epic literary piece.  Here is an example of one lesson plan that uses this film.

You may download this film for free or view it here.  You have Paley’s permission to screen it to an audience!  And if you would like to learn more about the making of the film, visit this page too.

Enjoy!

Shilpi Somaya Gowda, Author of "Secret Daughter"

I had the pleasure of hearing two incredible speakers recently: Nicolas Kristof, the New York Times journalist and Shilpi Somaya Gowda, author of the book “Secret Daughter.” Although I heard them speak weeks apart, their words came together for me like a beautiful mosaic, and I must share their wisdom with Melibee readers.

While many of you know who Nicolas Kristof is, you may not yet know the wisdom of Shilpi Somaya Gowda.  I read her debut novel this past summer and found myself returning to the many layers of her story. Secret Daughter is the story of a couple in the US who adopt a baby girl (Asha) and the equally moving tale of her birth parents in India. Gowda says that she attempted to compare the world that the girl was born into with the world where she is able to live her life out. The baby, Asha, is given a name at birth, a silver bangle and a chance at life because she is secretly taken to an orphanage.

Gowda was born in Canada, although her Indian parents (from Mumbai) had also lived in the Middle East and Europe.  She became a foreign student when she came to the United States to pursue her BA and MBA degrees.  During her undergraduate studies, Gowda traveled to India for a summer in 1991 to volunteer at an orphanage.  She expected the orphanage to be a sad place, but instead, she found it joyful.  There were 100 children and they had formed a family. There was pleasure in the simplicity. They made up games with dirt and sticks.  She became very attached to several of the children and wondered about them for decades. She especially wondered about the girls.

Interestingly, Gowda entered the business world and says she didn’t write more than a power point presentation for years.  But she kept seeing the faces of the children from the orphanage and knew that a story was taking shape.  The story took years to develop and required research about orphanages in India and why so many girls end up there.  Her research indicated that there is a tremendous imbalance in the population of girls and boys in India and that girls are killed, aborted and neglected to death. According to the UNICEF, 40 to 50 million girls have gone “missing” in India since 1901.  And while there is less infanticide today, there is still an imbalance in the number of girls and boys in India, largely due to sex selective abortion.

Nicolas Kristof says that gender imbalance is the central moral challenge of the 21st century. In his book, “Half the Sky,” Kristof reminds us that 100 million women are missing because of gender discrimination.  And like Gowda, Kristof doesn’t find the challenges of the women he meets to be the depressing thing about his work – in fact, he stated: “What is depressing to me, is to return here (to the US) and have people think there is no greater humanity than having the hottest car or latest cell phone!”

Interestingly, Gowda is an economist at heart who also happens to have written a stirring book. As a result, she completely agrees that what can best be done about the missing girls in India is to 1) educate women and girls AND 2) give them more economic power and choices. Data indicates that birthrates fall when women are educated. She firmly believes that these issues are rooted in economics, as does Kristof.  He stated that when cultures invest in education, it chips away at societies’ ills.  Women learn, work and lift communities.  And when they don’t, the sons get feed first, taken to the doctor first and invested in first, and daughters die.

In our field, we often wonder how an international experience impacts a life and career.  When I asked Gowda about her experience abroad and how it shaped her, she said that it broadened her horizons because even though she thought she knew the culture as a daughter of immigrants, she was able to experience a completely different part of Indian culture by volunteering.  She didn’t expect it to be an eye opening experience, yet it was one that evolved into her magical book.  She said that her time at the orphanage ultimately made her think of herself as a world citizen, not a Canadian or Indian.

I think that these books would be a terrific pairing for a course on gender studies, human rights, sociology, and more.  Gowda’s fictional tale beautifully mirrors the reality of Kristof’s read.  I would encourage you to explore these books further – they are easily two ideal options for your toolkit.  And the best news is that Gowda is able to participate in book club discussions via skype from her home in California!  She would be willing to do this with university students also, so be sure to reach out to her if you’re interested in hearing her perspectives first hand.

See larger image Secret Daughter: A Novel (Hardcover) By (author) Shilpi Somaya Gowda List Price: $23.99 USD New From: $10.95 In Stock Used from: $0.01 In Stock Release date March 9, 2010.

Question: Which of the following people was born in the United States?

Madeline Albright (former US Secretary of State), Andrew Grove (businessman at Intel), Jennifer Lopez (entertainer),Gene Simmons (from the band, KISS), Patrick Ewing (basketball player)

Answer: Jennifer Lopez (All of the others are first-generation immigrants to the United States: Madeleine Albright from Czechoslovakia, Andrew Grove from Hungary, Gene Simmons from Israel and Patrick Ewing from Jamaica.)

Immigrants.  Immigration. These are “loaded” words in the US. Oddly enough, unless your family was originally from the land that became the United States, you were an immigrant.

I recently had the pleasure of coming across an excellent 7 hour documentary entitled “The New Americans” that chronicles the immigrant experience of several new (US) Americans who are originally from Nigeria (Israel and Ngozi Nwidor/Barine Wiwa-Lawani come as refugees), The West Bank (Naima Saadeh Abudayyeh comes to marry an American), Dominican Republic (José Garcia and Ricardo Rodriguez come to play baseball),  Mexico (Pedro Flores and his family come for work) and India (Anjan Bachu comes as a tech worker on an H1B visa.)  Each of their stories is incredibly moving.  Here is a preview:

Click here to view the embedded video.

This film covers the immigrants over several years.  We learn about and see their lives prior to coming to the US.  We witness the pain of the Nigerians in the refugee camp.  We hear their ideas on what America will be like and how they cannot wait to experience a “hamburger.”  (Sadly, their first is from a fast food restaurant, and one cannot help but chuckle at Israel Nwidor’s expression as he takes his first bite!) We hear the hope in their voices, as José and Ricardo speak of their desire to make it in the big American leagues so that they can take care of their families in the D.R.  We see Naima and her family embrace and cry at the thought of her leaving her very close knit family. We feel their hope, their dreams, their pain.  And then we witness their adjustment, and those moments of confusion, elation, disbelief, sadness, and ultimately, some semblance of acceptance.  It is impossible not to root for these people and their families in the US, for their homelands and their new homes, for the families left behind.  Perhaps the mother of one of the Dominican ball players sums it up best when speaking about the challenges that her son faces:  “Poor people’s dreams are very deep things.”

This film is an outstanding educational tool that is supported by an excellent (and free) series guide and activity book.  The educator’s guide states that it is appropriate for 7th – 12th grades;  I personally think it will be an excellent tool for college level students also.  It is a film that allows us to talk about immigrants more deeply.  Now they have names.  We know their stories.  We see where they came from, what they had to leave (by choice or otherwise) and what limitations there are on their dreams in the US.  Students and teachers can spend hours discussing these films, given solid guidance by the tools provided on the PBS website.

The film also provides plenty of examples for the study of intercultural communication across cultures.  The toolkit also provides lesson plans for ESL students.

Here is the film, if you’d like to purchase it:

See larger image The New Americans (DVD) Director: Steve James, Gordon Quinn, Gita Saedi Starring: n/a Rating: NR (Not Rated) List Price: $49.95 USD New From: $33.32 In Stock Used from: $40.95 In Stock Release date January 27, 2009.

Guest Blogger, Rinku Bhattacharya

Today’s guest posting is by Rinku Bhattacharya.  I met Rinku several years ago when I signed up for one of her Indian cooking classes.  We had a marvelous time and learned some terrific recipes, however the best gift from that class is that Rinku and I stayed in touch over the years and have had some very interesting conversations about culture.  I recently asked Rinku if she would write about how she teaches her 2 beautiful children about her Indian culture while living in New York.  (Be sure to scroll down to the bottom of this posting for one of her delicious recipes!)

Can your memories have a scent? Can your culture and childhood have a taste? It is a matter of perspective, if you are like me, where your world and memories are composed of a heritage of food, a heritage of tastes and flavors that link your past to your children’s flavors you would say – yes! Like me, you would remember childhood cures for a cold and your mother’s nurturing touch in a pot of simmering soup spiced with ginger and tomatoes, you would crave traditional rice pudding on your birthday and your Thanksgiving meal would need some cranberry chutney to complete the all day long feast before it made it to the table.

Two decades ago, I made the US my home. It really was a more evolved rather than consciously planned decision. There is a lot of truth to the saying “home is where the heart is!’ Actually in my case, “home is where the “hearth is.”  I also do think you can have more than one home, I do not feel out of place when I go back to India, but also feel very much at sync in New York. Like most people with a foot in two cultures, there is a need not to want lose the richness of heritage and identity. In some ways this becomes more an issue when you are raising children. Our household does not even have a common language outside of English, since my husband speaks Hindi and I Bengali, but we do share a love of food both Indian and Global.

This is not surprising since this is the most basic element of heritage. My earliest memories and my most vivid ones of my childhood are of chatting with my grandmother while she ground spices carefully, used the freshest of ingredients and carefully created simple delicacies that graced our table every time we visited. People often ask me whether I learned to cook from my mother or grandmother – this is a tricky question because while my memories of shadowing them and observing them in the kitchen are deep and very profound, I never actually cooked when they were around. I never needed to. It was only after I left home that I missed home cooking and my own culinary adventures began.

It is to keep this sense of creativity and wonder, I started Cooking With Rinku, a personalized set of cooking classes designed to teach the interested learner a true taste of Indian cooking, in a practical and personalized way. I have been offering classes for groups and couples. We use the freshest of ingredient and students learn how to grind spices and season and flavor food the way I remember it being done growing up. The kitchen is a place of solace, wonder and creation for me. When I cook with my students, it is a very personal connection, the classes are very home style and designed to replicate flavors of simple and pure home cooking.

My classes also help me meet people from so many different walks of life and also allows me to learn the many ways people relate to India. I have students who have visited and lived in the country as curious travelers, others who have embraced the nuances of eastern religion and surprise and teach me the depth of traditional Ayurvedic cooking and other fellow kindred spirits who learn to savor and smell India through my spice box. Indian cooking is so much more accessible today; it never ceases to amaze me how close the world really is.

This is also how my children learn about the richness of India – spice by spice. Their high chairs were in my kitchen and from very early on, their memories of interacting with me are watching me cook and work with spices. My five year son, today calls me “the best cooker!” It is amazing how some things never change, like my grandmother, it is very important for me to both cook and feed my friends and family in a very personal way.

My husband and I also have a deep love of nature and try to grow our own produce, especially in summer. This is why I also like to think that I often cook Indian food with a New York accent; my summer zucchini is seasoned with cumin and turmeric, cherry tomatoes get tossed into a yogurt based salad and my beet greens are tossed and seasoned with almost any imaginable combination of spice. My recipes and food experiences are also shared in by blog – Cooking In Westchester. Keeping the blog has allowed me to also track my life as it relates to food. It often brightens a mundane day to look back and realize the first time you cooked a recipe was when your daughter took her first steps. I also think it helps me provide a real life medium to a food legacy that was passed on as an heirloom by my grandmother.

Recipe:

This recipe is an adaptation of my mother’s tomato chutney recipe. It is from the eastern part of India and is tempered with the classic 5 spice seasoning called panch (5) phoron. This is a mixture of cumin seeds, mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds, nigella seeds and fennel seeds. Most India stores sell the blend pre-mixed, it is used in small amounts and is supposed to bring the entire complement of tastes to the recipe. This recipe is a great use of summer tomatoes that are so plentiful these days.

Bengali Tomato Chutney

Cook Time: 25 minutes
Makes 1 cup chutney

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon oil
1.5 teaspoons panch phoron
1 tablespoon diced ginger
1-2 dried red chili
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 small can diced tomato
1/3 cup raisins
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
Papads or pappadums for serving

Method of Preparations:

1. Heat the oil and add the panch phoron and wait till the mixture crackles.
2. Add in the ginger and the red chili and saute lightly.
3. Add in the salt and the canned tomato mixture.
4. Add in the raisins and the sugar and simmer on low heat for about 20 minutes, till the mixture is thick and fairly sticky.
5. While the chutney is cooking, cook the papads by microwaving on  for 1.5 minutes.
6. Cool the chutney slightly and serve with the papads.

About the Author: Rinku Bhattacharya was born in Kolkatta, India and has had a life that has taken her traveling extensively to most places in the world. Rinku has been passionate about food from a very early age and loves to talk and work with food and people. She started teaching Indian cooking in New York about 5 years back to share her love for food and cooking. Her classes can be found at Cooking With Rinku. Rinku shares her food and life experience at her blog at Cooking in Westchester. Rinku live in Westchester County, NY with her children Deepta and Aadi, husband Anshul and her cat Benji. Rinku is trained as a financial professional and specializes with non-profit organizations. She has masters degrees in areas of finance and non-profit management. She is currently working on a cookbook – The Contemporary Indian Table – to be published by the Bryant Park Press.