Home Chefs Of Mumbai- Part 17- Rashmi Ahuja

Back in 70s and before that, most of the people hardly ever went out to a restaurant unless there was an occasion to celebrate. They enjoyed home-cooked food and were happy eating traditional food cooked by their elders at home. They did enjoy food at their friend’s house, (who belonged to another community), but they hardly ever played with ingredients in their own kitchen. Food lovers would pluck out a recipe from magazines and try out a leaf or two, but it was not a regular thing to do. Recipes were passed down within the family members, many of them remained undocumented and were considered as signature cuisine of that community. They never used any measurements, everything was ‘andaaz sey’, pinch of this and a fist of that. They did not taste the food while cooking (because it was first offered to Gods) but could understand the taste by its fragrance. A stew with no salt had different aroma, with less spices, meant it was bland. It was all about experience, they knew the taste of every ingredient and understood the resulting taste. Vegetarian people could cook the tastiest non-vegetarian food because of their experiences of knowing the techniques of cooking.

It was unimaginable for anyone to eat raw beef or raw fish. And then, there came the sophistication at the top end of the food market. Things like Sushi, Rissotto, Cappucino tingled the taste buds. Travelling became easier, people got exposed to strange foods. They shopped for rare ingredients and brought back home. Interest grew, cook-books flooded the market and traditional cooking took a back seat. The new version of food was available, most of them junk version of the real food. 

Indians became adventurous.

But there are still some families,  who have clung to their own traditional cuisine and are discovering the value of home-cooked food, and have realised that our family ate  food that was not only nutritious but also had a scientific reasons for healthy living.

There are some families where three generation of joint family still live in harmony, and all enjoy the food cooked by elders specially like at Rashmi Ahuja’s home.

Rashmi Ahuja was always a home-maker till she entered food reality show at ‘Sanjeev Kapoor ke Kitchen Khiladi’ on Sony TV and was announced as ‘Chef Rashmi Ahuja’ and then she got second chance in life as a participant of ‘India’s Digital Chef’ where she was the finalist. That was the day, at the age of 58 years, she got  her wings to fly. Rashmi believes that cooking is about creating something delicious for someone else. She nourishes the dream of writing a book some day.

Rashmi Ahuja specialises in Vegetarian Sindhi Cuisine and also in Indo-Chinese cuisine. She works only on pre-orders and the rates are fixed according to the availability of the ingredients. A set menu is fixed for Sundays that includes snacks, main course and dessert. Her service spans across western suburbs from Lokhanwalla (Andheri West) to Bandra.

She fondly remembers the taste of Aloo Paratha she had many years ago on her way to Vashnudevi Mata Temple.

“I don't know whether it was the cold season or was it the  taste of that particular Dhaba- that the crispness of Paratha still lingers -and mind you, it was not on a Tava, the half done paratha are roasted in kadai with Amul Butter then flipped on both side till light brown and is served hot with curds, little sugar is added in, it is accompanied by Papad and Achar. That taste I can never bring  it at my home and I still crave for it. “

She also talks about her MIL (now no more) who would prepare ‘Malai Ki Sabji’

“We all used to collect Malai (the cream) from the surface of the milk and make ghee (which we do it no more, because we now use Tetra milk packets). Some times my MIL would make  Malai Ki Sabji instead of preparing ghee. She would take one spoonful of oil.  In a thick bottom pan, sauté 2 or 3 chopped onion for few minutes, add chopped green chilies, chopped ginger, two chopped tomato, salt, turmeric powder, coriander powder, red Chilli powder and lots of coriander leaves. She would then add one big bowl of Malai, keep the kadai on tava, cover it for 5 mins and the delicious ‘Malai Ki Sabji’ was ready to eat with hot hot Sindhi Phulkas.”

She is happy to share her signature dishes Smokey Veg Galouti Kababs

1. In a heavy bottom pan, add 1tbsp of oil or butter. 

2. Add 1tsp Shahi Jeera and 1tbsp ginger, crushed green chilies. 

3. Add 50gms French beans, 50gms carrots, 50gms peas, 50gms capsicum, 50gms cabbage, 50gms Cauliflower. 

4. Add salt, 1tsp red chillies, 1tsp Garam masala, 1/2tsp jeera powder. 

5. Mix well. 

6. Cook till vegetables are tender. 

7. Add 100gms boiled and mashed potatoes. 

8. Add 4/5 tbsp roasted besan,  2tbsp crushed Kasuri Methi and 1tbsp Coriander leaves. 

9. Remove it in a big bowl. 

10. Make a well in the center. 

11. Keep a smaller bowl in the center.  

12. Put hot charcoal and pour oil. 

13. Cover the bigger bowl, so that smoke is trapped inside. 

14. Keep it for 10 minutes. 

15. Remove the smaller bowl of charcoal. 

16. Mix it well. 

17. Shape into round Tikkis. Shallow fry.

Rashmi Ahuja hopes to train youth who can succeed to follow cooking as a career.

You can follow her You Tube channel at RashmiAhuja

Follow her on Facebook

Follow her Instagram handle at rashmikitchenkhazana.rkk

She cooks on request (pre-order only)

Home Chefs Of Mumbai – Part16 – Kalpana Talpade

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.

Kalpana Talpade specialises in Pathare Prabhu’s cuisine. She belongs to a small Maharashtrian community called Pathare Prabhus, who were among the initial settlers of Mumbai. Their cuisine is different from others in the state.  The main ingredient in their food is the secret Sambar Masala that is shared within the family. There are no restaurants in Mumbai that serves this cuisine, therefore you have to be invited to her house to experience that. However, she did train two chefs some time ago, so that restaurant could have it on their menu for two weeks.

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.

However, you can watch her recipes on her You tube Channel. 

Hop on to - Kalpana’s Kitchen

You can contact her by sending her a private message on her instagram.

Follow her Instagram handle at Kalpanatalpade

Home Chefs Of Mumbai – Part 15- Binal Valand

In good old days, whenever the food was served, the first thing we did was to join our hands in gratitude to ‘Annadhata’ the Goddess of food and thank in our prayers for giving us our daily meals.

Today, what do we do?? We immediately scramble for our cameras.

Whether the food is delicious or bland, it is important that it should be clickable. If it is curry, we capture the right shade of reddish maroon ingredients swimming with glow of oil clinging the sides. If it is salad, then it is the artistically arranged, a balanced combination of colours carefully aligned, if it is a dessert, then we are excited by some drama of molecular gastronomy on the narrow neck of the glass, the props are rightly placed, we search for proper lighting, sometimes, might even want to take it to the balcony to drop a natural look, like a gift from the skies.

Hungry family members don’t understand this passion of a food photographers, they just want you to eat as soon as it is served. Granny is amused to see you bend down to click that rustic vessel (which seems quite ordinary to her) and that dhal and bhakri roti (what is so unusual about it?) She laughs at your foolishness and nags you to hurry up because the food is getting cold. And when you finally settle down to eat, you patiently explain to her about the latest trends of sharing the photographs on social media, and about how the lost traditional recipes are making a come back. She feels happy when you start to curse hamburgers and pizzas, french fries and sausages, and start appreciating her food that is cooked with love and care. You, then continue to follow your own passion because good food photographs really capture the banquet in their most artistic way.

If you have seen the photography-inclined, Home Chef Binal Valand, you are likely to drool.

Binal Valand is an artistic person and there is elegancy in everything that she does. She started off her career as a flight attendant on Lufthansa airways, got interested in food photography and food styling, liked the food that was behind her lens, fell in love with exotic spread, then learnt to bake the sourdough bread/desserts and finally, now a home chef, Wow!   

While growing up, she had never stepped into her home kitchen although her mom is an excellent Indian cook who cooks everything ‘Aandas sey’ the indian way of cooking. Her love affair with food started when, as a flight attendant, she started travelling internationally, she discovered new cultures, collected lot of food stories from the strangers she met on her flights, specially when she had lay-over for some days in strange places, she would go exploring the city on her own. 

She specially remembers the moment , when she was held back at the Paris airport (there is sometimes long wait for attendant to get discounted seats and have to wait at the airport) 

“The sad part is that we are always on wait-list, so I had to change two airports to get the flight that leaves,, I was almost in tears when I finally got a flight. But while I was waiting at the airport, I came across this beautiful ‘Laduree Champs Elysees’, very unique this shop that represents the ‘French Art de Vivre’. Till then. I had only heard of Macarons, never tasted one, This beautiful shop was kind of beckoning me, It was a french luxury bakery. I ordered a ‘Pistachio Macaron’ and a ‘Caramel Macaron’. I clearly remember, it was something I fell in love at the first bite. It was an exclusive experience, that I can say, that was the day I fell in love with French Cuisine.”

As a Home Chef, she specialises in cakes and French desserts that are rich in flavour, have rustic look and are not laden with too much cream and butter. She has got interested in Sourdough Bread. She understands the science and technique behind it, and the sheer joy of seeing it rise in the oven. During this lock-down she has perfected the skill of baking Sourdough bread so much so, that now she is confident of her product and is proud to add it to her menu.

It doesn’t end just there. (remember, she is multi-talented) She has been conducting online workshops on photography and food styling, and has clients from across the seas, as far as Europe and Middle East.  She keeps them engrossed with her tips and tricks of food photography and her experiences on food styling. As a food stylist, she pays special attention to the minute details of the products shown in the ad-videos.

She is happy to share her recipe of Butter Milk Biscuits

1. Cut 140 gms of butter into small cubes, and stick in the freezer till it rock hard. 

2. Chill 1/2 cup butter milk. 

3. Mix 2 cups all purpose flour, 1tsp baking powder, 1tsp castor sugar, 1/4tsp baking soad and 1/2tsp salt. 

4. In a food processor, add the all dry ingredients and chopped cold butter. (step 1+step 3). 

5. Pulse it a few times, till the mixture resembles bread crumbs and the butter is chopped in pea-size. 

6. Add the chilled buttermilk,(of step2) don’t add all at once, reserve a little and add only if needed. 

7. Your mixture will now look a little wet and a lot dry, flour still in dry form. 

8. Bring the mixture on a floured surface, and gently comb till it all comes together, 

9. DO NOT KNEAD  the dough. 

10. Get help from a bench scraper if need be to form a square from the dough. 

11. Touch it as less as possible. 

12. Cut the dough in half, that leaves you two equal parts. 

13. Mount one part on another and roll in a square again, very lightly. 

14. Cut the dough in one inch squares and Lay on a baking tray lined with baking paper. 

15. Stick the tray in the freezer and wait for 20 minutes 

16. Now this is where you can pre-heat your oven to 200 C or 400 F. 

17. Brush the tops with mixture of 1tsp Butter and 2tsp whole milk. 

18. Bake the square for 20-25 mins, or till you see a light golden top.

Binal Valand was awarded Home Chef and Baker's award 2020 for the contribution to India's Home chef & Baking Industry in the category of 1-2 years

Follow her Instagram handle at binal_valand

Watch her Food Styling Videos at

  Light Bulb Motion Pictures.