Home Chefs Of Mumbai – Part 5 Lipaa Ritesh Shah

Memories!! 

You may think that you have a good memory, but actually you remember only what is important to you. Unimportant memories fade away with time, superimposed by new experiences that we collect each day.

 But there are certain memories that never fade away, especially food memories. You will always remember that first tingling sensation felt while tasting something sensational. That really spicy dish that had raised the body temperature,  cheeks flush,  lips plump. Or that certain brand of Chocolate from a menu d’amour. But can food really have an aphrodisiac effect on us?

 

Whatever the reason, food that matter, memory clings for a life time.

 

 Home Chef Lipaa Ritesh Shah  (of Food Fiesta fame) remembers the rich flavours of a sweet dish that was prepared by her Grandmom. She was just 12 years old but fondly remembers her grandmom’s traditional Sindhi winter delicacy Khoya made of dates, dry fruits and coriander seeds.

 

She vividly remembers her lunch on a boathouse at Dal lake in Srinagar five years ago..  “I had two lovely Kashmiri dishes. One was baigan(eggplant) in kattha tomato and tamarind gravy and another was Lotus stem in mint curd gravy. Both so different but simply delicious. The Lotus stem was so so crisp and white as snow” she reminisces.

 

Lipaa specialise in Sauces, Pickles, Sindhi cuisine and Kutchhi cuisine.

 

Lipaa started cooking at the age of 12 inspired by her Sindhi Mom and grandmom, and by age18, she was cooking food for kitty parties. Early marriage landed her in a Katchhi home with Mom-in-law equally talented, who taught her Katchhi cuisine as well. Once the children were grown up, she started to write cook book for her daughter, it got published and sold 700 copies in first year itself. In the same year, (in 2015), she got her first smart phone. That opened Pandora box for her.

 

In 2016, she made Choonda (Sweet Mango pickle) for the first time, making 4 times the required quantity. She gifted the excess to her family and friends. They loved it and placed order for more. Out of excitement, she mentioned it on Social media. And Boom!! She was flooded with orders. She got connected to a lot of people from the food industry.

 

She is happy to share her recipe for Schezwan Sticks

 

 

1.     Mix 1 cup of finely chopped Carrots, Cabbage, Spring Onions, Capsicum

2.     Add 1tsp Ginger Garlic paste, 1 tsp Soya Sauce, 3/4 tsp Agnomoto(optional)

3.     Add 4tbsp Corn flour, ¼ cup bread crumbs, pinch of red food colour

4.     Add Schezwan Sauce (Food Fiesta product for best results) .

5.     The mixture should form a soft dough. If required add 1-2 tbsp of corn flour.

6.     Divide into 20 equal portions.

7.     Roll each portion into small finger size sticks.

8.     Deep fry till golden brown.

9.     Serve with chilly sauce and garnish using spring onion greens

Lipaa Shah was awarded Home Chef and Baker's award 2020 for the contribution to India's Home chef & Baking Industry in the category of 2-5years

 

 

Over the years, Food Fiesta has grown and evolved. Now she sells about 75 different products.  Recently, due to the pandemic, she has also ventured into weekly menus.

 

You can follow her on her FaceBook page Food Fiesta

 

Orders can be placed on her Watsapp number 9324195125.

 

Follow her on Instagram handle foodfiestabylipaa

Home Chefs Of Mumbai – Part 1- Introduction

Lockdown means stay at home, be with self and introspect, and do the unlimited household chores.. Lockdown is also an learning experience for me. It has taught me many things.  There have been many obstacles that has kept me on edge. But food has never be a problem at all. It has been available from day one itself. I am not talking about restaurant/hotel foods, not even street food that we love so much but it is about home cooked food. Ingredients were available almost everywhere, some of the shops had even changed their business. The kiosk that sold newspapers or fresh flowers were now selling vegetables. It is demand and supply mantra.

 Many people, specially home chefs, have devoted their time in cooking meals and sending it across the city to many families. During this pandemic, with no helpers at home and the family member always hungry, home chefs have been a God-sent angels, their food, cooked with care, hygiene and love is reaching every home.

 

I am so happy to start this series on 'Home Chefs of Mumbai'.   I have been thinking about this for a long time, we have so many talented home chefs in our city of Mumbai and still when we want to order food, we only select a few whom we know personally. Of course friends are always dear and we trust them the most, but I want to dig into the jewels of Mumbai city, the most talented home chefs, whose food is “Must Have, I don't Wish To Miss This” that kind of attitude. And I will be featuring them, their food stories, their recipe and some details with most honesty and sincerely, I promise…..

 

During my growing up days, I remember, there were always visitors in my house and food was plenty, mainly fried stuff to entertain the guests. Nobody cared about health issues, or the food they could eat or what they should avoid. Everybody cleaned off the plates, relishing good  meals and the food was always tasty (or so because everybody enjoyed it) nobody really cared about jotting down the recipes and reproducing the same....a verbal information was shared and people cooked to their own preferences of taste. 

 

Since food was always very tasty in my house (tasty meant spicy till the eyes and nose leaked) which I still enjoy  But my first eureka moment ( the taste is still fresh in my memory) was when I was in Hong Kong about a century ago. I was having a sleepless night and I was restless. It was 5am and everybody was fast asleep. I quietly woke up, changed into decent clothes and decided to go for a morning walk. I walked down the streets and hopped into a bus to enjoy the ride..Dawn was slowly creeping in. I alighted the bus at the last stop and there was a big crowd, a small distance away. 

That was a street food hawker selling a rice congee that was the most tastiest breakfast I had ever tasted in my life and its taste linger till now. It was a simple bowl of broth garnished with thinly sliced pieces of chicken, pork, fried eggs, spring onions and chiilie sauce. That was the day, I developed my taste for Chinese food....

 

I am no home chef, but I have great passion for food and I appreciate people who spend time in their kitchen cooking for their family and friends. From the little  knowledge that I have about food, I happily share my recipes to the last detail if they enjoy my food.

 

Like I always say, the taste is not in the list of ingredients that you use, it’s the thought process and the interest that goes into the food to give it a real flavour, being in good mood is the best ingredient for churning out a memorable food. Rest is the normal recipe that you can easily get on social media or on u-tube.

 

But yes, recipe is also important. I will share a simple recipe that I cooked for me last week

 

Hara Bhindi Aloo (In english you can call it Okra Potatoes in green Masala) It is cooked regularly in every Sindhi Home. (In Sindhi, this dish is called Sayal Bhindi patata in saoo masalo)

 

Main taste in the gravy.

 

1.     Grind green masala with 4-5pods of garlic, small bunch of coriander leaves, small bunch of fenugreek leaves, lots of green chilies, 1tsp of turmeric powder, 1tsp of coriander powder.

2.     In a pan, use one tbsp of oil/ghee, fry the masala that you had prepared in step i.

3.     Add 2 chopped tomatoes, cover and keep on low flame for 5 minutes

4.     Mash the tomatoes in the mixture, add 250 gms of Okra and 2 medium sized sliced potatoes

5.     Add salt, mix it well add 1cup of water

6.     Cover and cook till potatoes are tender.

7.     Serve with rice or chappatis.

if you don't like Okra, you can substitute it with cottage cheese or even with fish.

My journey with Home Chef is about to begin.....watch out for my next post......

Meeting My Foodie Friends During Lockdown On Social Media

 During this pandemic, life would have been very depressing if there were no technology to connect with outer world. I cannot imagine what my life would be? I would read books, yes, or sometimes sit by the window side and watch the skies (and the rains) but what else would I do.?  Luckily, food has been plenty, and cooking has been one activity that has kept all of us occupied and how!!

 Everybody has been innovative in creating dishes, some of them improving on their cooking skills and some learning new skills.

 

My most favourite activityon social media is picking out strands of knowledge from every field. I love watching my friends (on social media) who share their wealth of food knowledge and that has been very rewarding for me. From the comfort of my home, I have been able to catch some Instagram Live broadcast.

 

My foodie friends are really very talented and they have been my companions during this lockdown. I see them everyday, live on Instagram, and catch up on latest trends whenever I have some free moments to spare. On normal days (that is when we lived in a normal confused world) I would meet them only during food events but now, I can meet whenever I wish. I have learnt a lot during these five months in isolation, which actually is not an isolation at all. I am wiser now!

 

Although there are many live events happening everyday on various fields like art, poetry, travel, etc. but today I will talk only about the live broadcast by my foodie friends whom I follow on Instagram.

 

My favourite from this food world is this lovely couple Sam and Saloni Malkani, the founders of TheFBAI  (a social platform for food and everything related to it).. Both are ardent foodies and love to connect with everything food, drink and hospitality. Meeting them is a blessing for me because they have introduced to the inner circle of food industry.

 

 

Sam Malkani has great variety of  discussion on #InstaLive  covering different food topics. Each time I visit his page, there are different kind of topics he is covering, sometimes he is interviewing entrepreneurs, sometimes he is on food quiz shows, sometimes live cooking demos and sometimes a deeper knowledge on products available during pandemic.

 

 

Saloni Malkani is very caring friend and most influential person in food industry. I admire her for her warmth and in cementing everybody together. Last year she created a storm with her partner, Chef Ananya Banerjee by starting Wild Asparagus Table, (a potluck on international cooking) and this got me interested in different cuisines and cultures of the world.

 

Their very latest Newspepper is creating waves on social media.

 

 

ChefAnanya Banerjee  is very glamorous and talented person. Between food and being Chef, she is also a traveller, food curator, food consultant and ex-editor of #BBCGoodFoodIndia  She interviews Homechefs around the globe on #Instalive  (twice a week, Tuesdays and Fridays) giving us the insight on the homechefs’ life in general, their cooking methods, the utensils they use in their kitchen and much more.

 

 

I met Inderpreet Nagpal  at  Wild Asperagus Table, an SriLankan potluck organised at her own home at Vesova and was completely awed by her talents in cooking, art world and gardening. Inderpreet Nagpal of Rummy’s Kitchen is a multi-talented homechef who can develop a recipe with any ingredients.  Twice a week (Mondays and Fridays), she comes #Instalive to chat with foodies, where she discusses one particular ingredient with different participants and then she comes back with most exotic recipes.

 

 

 I met Rushina Munshaw first time at one food demo at Nature’s Basket some ten years ago and there is no looking back. I have learnt a lot from Rushina and she was the one who counselled me to get a food blog (Papadchai) if I was really serious about writing on food.  Rushina is a culinary expert, is very knowledgeable about ingredients, cuisines and history of food. Catch her on #Instalive at 11am everyday on her series on #SpiceChroniclesWithRMG where she is exploring the different spices used in different regions of India.

 

 

During one of events organised by Rushina for Women’s Day, I met Shubra Chatterji,  a very friendly and amiable person. She is an award-winning filmmaker and enjoys travelling and documenting Indian Culture and Heritage and in particular the vast Culinary Cultures of India, via travel-based non-fiction programming, visual essays, articles and curatorial projects. Shubhra, (known as Historywali) currently hosts an Instagram LIVE series, History On A Plate, which started off as a Lockdown passion-project but has gained quite a bit of eyeballs, and media coverage.

 

 

Kurush Dalal  is the most interesting person I have met, He is loaded with food knowledge folded under his charm of humour and stories.  Kurush is an archeologist by profession, also an historian, food anthropologist, culinary expert and a very friendly person. You can watch his #InstaLive everyday and listen to his stories on #Knowyourprotiens. You can also watch his recorded IGTV on A to Z series of ingredients, that he completed some time ago, where he spoke in details about all the ingredients found in the kitchen.

 

 

I met Kalyan Karmakar during one of his organised food trails (around Mohammed Ali road, a place that he calls as cultural unifier) and I had a great conversation on our drive back in his car. Kalyan is very well verse with food culture of Mumbai and is a good conversationalist. He has won the title of best food blogger three years in a row, and is very popular. You can watch his #instalive under the handle of  #Thefinelychopped where he talks to entrepreneurs of food industry about how they started their food biz and how do they go about with their business during these rough times of pandemic. A very interesting talk indeed!!

 

 

Who doesn’t know Amrita? She is Social media celebrity, was known for her OMG Bacon Jam which she stopped making after she turned vegetarian. I have met Amrita Kaur several times during food meetings.  She has wealth of food knowledge, specializes in Ayurveda nutrition. You can watch her #Instalive under handle #Amritaforlife where she discusses different interesting aspects of food, nutrition value, recipes and healthy eating habits.

 

 

There is wealth of knowledge on #Instalive and the best part it that it is possible to see the recorded version at IGTV (if you missed live sessions), which are equally good although you might miss the live conversation of the people who were watching that discussion at that time. I am interested in watching all sessions but sometimes I am unable to watch it live because of my first commitment  towards my #Specialchildren of my SBP, school for PWID. Special children need be kept occupied or else they will have behavior issues, so with the help of my staff and the parents of special children, we have been experimenting different methods to keep children busy too and I am glad that I could help them in some way.

During this pandemic my #SindhiCuisine book also went viral on Watsapp, travelling around the world (where I personally have never visited those places), and I was getting call from most remote places around the globe,  (I am told) many of them felt that my book is the treasure of sindhi cuisine and many have learnt to cook simple food, specially the beginners. Well, I was glad of that.  

 

But whenever I get time, I turn to IGTV to pick the missed sessions of #Instalive. It certainly is more interesting than watching those depressing news on TV or some series on Netflix or on Prime Videos….

 

And why not….Food is my passion too!!