Many years ago I used to work for Sur La Table. During my first month I worked on a project that was their first company wide effort. A theme based promotion of kitchenware, products and cooking classes. The test run of this concept happened to be India. Even though I was Indian, I hadn’t done much Indian cooking at home. It seemed to complicated to me and besides my mother was an amazing cook and satisfied that portion of our lives.
The woman Sur La Table reached out to to help in this effort was Julie Sahni. Her cookbook “Classic Indian Cooking” was being reprinted and it seemed like a win-win for both parties. She designed the menu and class parameters for the six classes that would be taught in all of the stores that Sur La Table had a kitchen.
As we were preparing for this promotion, I picked up a copy of her book and started reading through it. The India centric focus made me smile. We Indians think we are God’s gift to this world, especially when it comes to food and cooking. Julie has a lengthy introduction to the various different cuisines of India. There seems to be this general perception that there is only one style of food in India and it was nice to have her detail out that there isn’t. She also provides a detailed section on herbs and spices used and there are many.
I would spend my evenings reading through these sections and taking a peek at the recipes. Working full time and having two young kids didn’t give me a lot of time to spend making elaborate dinners. One Saturday I decided to give one of her recipes a shot. The first recipe I made was Moghul Braised Chicken (Mughalai Korma). “This delectable and very finely flavored korma of chicken takes no time at all to prepare,” Julie said. So one Saturday, I gathered the ingredients and decided to go for it. I followed her recipe religiously. I measured out the spices and placed them in little bowls next to the stove, like she recommends. I counted out the 12 cardamom pods and the 24 whole cloves making sure it was exactly what she asked for in the recipe.
The dish begins with the frying of the onions, ginger and garlic. The aroma immediately transported me back to my Mom’s kitchen and had the family snapping their heads towards the kitchen. Adding the spices to this mixture had us all salivating, unfortunately the dish was 40 minutes from completion. The dish was easy to prepare, the hardest part being letting the dish rest for 1 hour before being devoured (to which my husband said, “she’s crazy!”)
The dish was incredible. During the hour long wait I made rice and spinach raita. As we sat down to dinner on that Saturday evening, I had an epiphany. I was creating food memories for the kids. Important memories whose aroma would one day transport them back to my kitchen.
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