Kitchen Garden thrives under care of the people who have green thumb. The plants dance on their palms and can even sing for them on gloomy days. How easy it is for them to just borrow few Basil leaves off the stems and use it in their Pesto sauce or as a topping on a baked dish. Its nice to see their garden bloom with Cherry Tomatoes, Micro greens, Chillie Pepper grow side by side with Lemon grass, Mint, Bay leaves . When she throws off few of Coriander/Fenugreek seeds, soon will see those nutritious leaves, a carrot or spring onions or even a Radish, such joy it is to see fresh veggies cooked and served during daily meals.
Talented home chef will just pluck off the Maghai leaves, crush with Rose petals and Fennel seeds and prepare Paan Shots and serve for easy digestion after dinner, she is the one who can fold the Colocasia leaves to prepare Aloo wadi, or wrap it around Bombay Duck to prepare Bombil Pathwad. Or wrap it around Prawns and call it Kolambi Pathwad.
Miracles happen everyday.! A new joy each day!
Such is the luxury of delicious meal, warmth and love at the pop-up with Home Chef Kalpana Talpade.
Kalpana Talpade cooks, shoots, edits and uploads her food video regularly and has popularised her cuisine through her U-tube channel called Kalpana’s Kitchen, which was initially started by uploading authentic community food for her daughter who craved for home-cooked food when she went for higher studies to Netherlands. Four years ago, when she participated in Master’s Chef as a contestant, people recognised her from her u-tube videos.
She regularly hosts Pop-up at her home with a capacity for 12 persons.
The menu that you are likely to enjoy is mind blowing. It is Authentic Pathare Prabhu cuisine and you are likely to get transported to another world (as far as 13th Century) where earlier settlers enjoyed their meal.
It begins with a Sanskrit prayer loosely translated as "May this food be a blessing for all of us " you are served Welcome drink Kokum Sherbat: This drink is prepared from fresh Kokum fruit.
This is followed by Starters of Cauliflower che Bhanavle. Baked dish with shrimps or prawns, An authentic dish which is shared by Lufthansa Airlines in their Indian Cookbook on flight.
And you settle down to enjoy the meal, the food appears on your table one by one with Main dishes :
1. Chimbori che Khadkhadle Crabs cooked in spicy garlic gravy.
2. Rawas / Bangda / Pomfret Fry Subject to availability of fish. The fish is fried with minimum spices.
3. Tomato chi Sheer with fresh prawns. This is a tomatoes & coconut based dish, yummy and light. Chef’s favourite!
4. Bombil/Prawns Methkut Fresh bombil/prawns cooked in pickle masala. An all time favourite with the previous guests.
5. Bhujane (Ghol fish) An authentic everyday fish curry prepared in every pathare prabhu household.
6. Smoked Javla Kismur A typical Maharashtrian recipe of dried shrimps.
7. Phulkas
8. Varan, bhaat and Toop. Tur Dal, Ambe Mor Rice and homemade ghee.
9. Koshimbir - Khoman Kakdi Fresh salad prepared with crushed peanuts.
10. Spicy Green Chutney
11. Chunda prepared with jaggery.
Still hungry? there is more. Yes Desserts to follow
12. Pathare Prabhu Sweet dish
13. Kharwas : Milk Pudding . And finally
14. Paan Shots Home grown Maghai paan crushed with rose petals, fennel seeds, cloves, etc. to help you digest your meal.
You can chat while you eat and learn about the history of early settlers of 13th century. They seem to have travelled from one location to another, trying to protect their tradition and rituals. They moved from Rajasthan, going to Gujarat, then Maharashtra and finally settled in Mumbai.
Kalpana Talpade shares the food memory that she clearly remembers the time she visited Jejuri, a holy place near Pune.
“I am a city girl and had not visited any villages before marriage. Soon after we got married, we had to go to Jejuri, a holy place near Pune. My experience of sitting on the floor to have lunch was fun. And to add to it, they served puran poli, which I had never tasted anywhere else before. They were perfect! The chutneys served were also tasty. I did get the recipes from them later on.” She said
She is happy to share her recipe of Kelyachi Poli.
This is the sweet dish prepared during Shravani Somvar. It is sweet rotis made with banana stuffing, hence known as Kelyachi Poli.
1. Pressure cook 3ripe Rajeli bananas.
2. Mash the cooked bananas.
3. In a pan, take 3tbsp Ghee, 2cups Sugar and mashed Bananas.
4. Keep them on fire and keep stirring the mix.
5. When the mixture starts to leave the sides of the pan, put off the fire.
6. It takes 20 to 25 minutes to get the brown colored Halwa.
7. Do not cook the mixture for too long or else it will be difficult to roll.
8. Make dough with water and 3cups of Maida.
9. Divide it into 12 portions.
10. Form a cup of the dough (like we make of Modaks).
11. Place the banana Halwa into it.
12. Seal it.
13. Roll it lightly to 6 inch diameter, using flour to powder it.
14. Pick the Poli with rolling pin and place it gently on hot plate to roast.
15. Apply ghee on both sides and roast Keylachi Poli.
The good news is that Kalpana Talpade's book "Kalpana's Kitchen is soon to be launched, in which she has tried to cover 99% of her Pathare Prabhu recipes, some of them more than 100 years old, that was passed down to her by her mom and her grand mom. This book will be linked by QR code, so people can go on you tube and watch the recipes for more clarity. She has been sharing her recipes since 2011. watch out for her edition!
Like I said before, there is no restaurant in Mumbai that serves Pathare Prabhu Cuisine, but to enjoy the meal, you have to be invited to her house.
You can contact her by sending her a private message on her instagram.
Follow her Instagram handle at Kalpanatalpade
