Of traditional maharashtrian food, love and memories

[ I had written this post on the occasion of my mum's birthday a couple of days ago. I had also written about food memories earlier  here - http://dsaidso.blogspot.com/2017/07/of-food-love-and-memories.html?m=1 ]

"Curry is a little less today" , my mum said as she looked over the kadhai. " But there is enough solkadi " she continued. Growing up in a GSB household ,having rice with curry was anyways not enough. Once you finished eating curry rice (or amti bhat as it is fondly called) , it was mostly solkadi rice or buttermilk and rice . Contrary to the rice heavy meals in my house, I predominantly chapatis  at meal times. 2 chapatis, bhaji , and then a bit of rice with curry or buttermilk was my thing.

 " You should not only have buttermilk rice , but  have both curry well as buttermilk. Nobody has rice with only curry in our house ", my aaji used to say. I ate so little rice that how could I have it with curry first and then buttermilk , I always wondered.

Coconut laden food is my memory of traditional maharashtrian food that I grew up with. Even if it were a simple thing like varan bhat, it was garnished with fresh coconut. Both meals in morning as well as evening comprised of chapati, bhaaji, curry, rice, kadi/buttermilk to the bare minimum. The special thing about curries in GSBs is it's not only yellow dal curry, but also curries of other pulses like chana dal, Kala vatana, moong, masoor etc. Kala vatana curry is a special one that lot of people like. Apart from the curries of pulses, there are heavy coconut gravy /coconut milk curries like sadhi amti, kairichi amti, golyachi amti. Fish curry was reserved for Sunday's in our house.

One of the things I remember vividly and that was followed throughout is the love and respect with which not only family members but also guests were treated. And food was one of the ways of conveying that. Mum made sure guests were well fed, she found  out what they liked beforehand and designed and cooked the menu accordingly. No matter how much food had to be made, no matter how time consuming it was, mom made it full love and a smile on her face . In fact if guests came, there were even the additional accompaniments like pakoras, koshimbir, raitas etc apart from the basic menu.

For the first 26 years of my life I had only one kind of food. We didn't eat out much and my mum's and dad's side of the family had very similar cooking styles. So even when I visited relatives, I had the same kind of food. This changed post my marriage.  I got married into a Kokanastha Brahmin family which has different variant of Maharashtrian cuisine.

Now I have a 3 year old daughter. Feeding her healthy and tasty food comes naturally to me. That's what's my mum did to me always. Passing down traditional cuisine to her has been effortless at least by intent because its what I have been eating all along. Getting married also exposed me to a slightly different variety of maharashtrian cuisine. The current food that my daughter eats is a blend of two types of maharashtrian cuisines and hence of cultures. As much as the intent of cooking traditional food is effortless, actually cooking isn't even if you have family members and external side help. As a management professional, I looked at a this as a problem which deserved attention and solution.The problem being trying to make the healthy and delicious meals in the time and energy that I have. It was like an optimization problem. To solve this I used the following

1. Plan your meals and menu in advance. It has to be as detailed as possible. This might seems obvious but if not done can cause problems like missing ingredients.

2. Try to use parallel processing as much as possible and sequence tasks well. So if you have two dosa pans then make dosas on both of them simultaneously so that they get done quickly for everyone. Use as many gas stoves you have in parallel.

3. It may so happen that while the veggies are getting cooked, maybe another gas has cooker and you have to be in the kitchen for checking the veggies in between. In such a situation, do things which are pre- prep for the next day like soaking pulses in water. Keep all vessels that you require for next day on the kitchen platform. So morning you spend less time on decision making as much as possible.

4. Use as much automation as possible by  making use of food processor , vegetable choppers and the like.

5.And yes, if I still have some mental bandwidth I listen to TED talks or youtube videos while in kitchen so I feel fully productive .

As Kaumudi Marathe has said in her book Shared Tables " From a young age, love was given to me tenderly on a plate so I also see food as memory and comfort. It is my muse ,  my inspiration, my way to give love"

I was lucky enough to have received this form of love not only from my mum, but also from grandmother and aunts. It's my mum's birthday today and as I write this my mind is flooded with memories of the delicious food she cooked for me.

To my mum and all these Annapurna's I dedicate a poem

I was a little girl
Who always felt hungry
"What's there to eat?", I used to  ask while looking at the pantry

" Your  poha is ready ",my aaji used to say
" I am making favourite kaapi" , my mum would tell

Every morning before my 6 am classes, there were fluffy chapatis being made
I can't go empty stomach was the rule unsaid

Every evening I got late, atya called
"Did you eat anything?" Please eat well that is all

In the midst of all competition,  and what you are doing in your career  calls
These annapurnas still care if I ate well after all
My health matters to them , I am a child in their eyes after all

 Cheers to food, tradition, love and memories.!

- Dhanashree Joglekar
Https://dsaidso.blogspot.com