To Live or not to Live

Some weeks ago, NPR posted a video of the colombian harp player Edmar Castaneda as part of their tiny desk concerts. Castaneda plays alone and it is an amazing performance. Even after having watched it 20-30 times, the video still gives me the goosebumps.

So I went to iTunes and bought his new album Entre Cuerdas, which includes the two songs that he played live on NPR. On the album he is accompanied by Drummer Dave Salliman and Trombonist Marshall Gilkes and others. For some reason, I am not exactly sure why, the album disappoints. The live versions of the title track "Entre Cuerdas" and "Jesus De Nazareth" are so much better that I cannot bear to listen to their studio versions. The studio versions of these songs come across as tame and mellow whereas the live versions are full of excitement and fire.

Edmar Castaneda

I had no idea that the harp could be played like this.

Baby Eggplants in a Peanut & Tamarind Sauce (Bhaghara Baingan)

This is recipe comes to me courtsey of Mrs. Vidya Srivathsan. While this is a south indian dish, the flavour and aroma is almost Thai.

Ingredients

• For 8-10 small eggplants.
• 1/4 tsp mustard seeds,
• 1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds
• 1/4 tsp nigella
• 3 green chillies
• 8 curry leaves
• 4 tbsp oil
• 2 Tbsp sesame seeds
• 2 Tbsp coconut(grated)
• 2 Tbsp raw peanuts
• 1 tsp chopped ginger
• 1 tsp garlic
• 1/4 cup finely chopped onions
• 1/4 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp coriander powder
• 1 tsp cumin powder
• 1 tsp chilli powder
• 1 tsp tamarind paste
• Salt to taste

Instructions

1. Dry roast sesame coconut, peanuts, ginger, garlic and onion over slow flame till light brown.
2. Add the powders and tamarind and grind to a smooth paste with water keep aside
3. Heat oil. add the mustard fenugreek and nigella seeds till crackling. Ddd curry leaves, green chillies and saute.
4. Now add the coconut sesame paste. and cook tilll the mixture leaves the sides of the pan.
5. Make lenghtwise slits in the brinjals. keep stem intact. Add the brinjals to the cooked paste with half cup of water and salt and cook till eggplants are tender. You can use pressure cooker for 2 whistles.
6. Garnish with chopped coriander. Serve hot

Listening

1. Soul of Addis - Mahmoud Ahmed
2. The Köln Concert - Keith Jarrett
3. Historicity - Vijay Iyer Trio
4. Alive 2007 - Daft Punk

Watching

The Sandbaggers. To put it in literary terms, Ian Mackintosh, the creator of the show is to espionage on TV, what John Le Carré is to espionage on paper.

(Many thanks to Mike Denton)

Why I stopped watching the Food Network

Michael Pollan in a brilliantly argued essay about the state of cooking in America today, captures much of what I feel about cooking shows on television and why I have stopped watching the Food Network completely and never got into Top Chef. The only show I like to watch with some semblance of regularity is American's Test Kitchen.

We learn things watching these cooking competitions, but they’re not things about how to cook. There are no recipes to follow; the contests fly by much too fast for viewers to take in any practical tips; and the kind of cooking practiced in prime time is far more spectacular than anything you would ever try at home. No, for anyone hoping to pick up a few dinnertime tips, the implicit message of today’s prime-time cooking shows is, Don’t try this at home. If you really want to eat this way, go to a restaurant. Or as a chef friend put it when I asked him if he thought I could learn anything about cooking by watching the Food Network, “How much do you learn about playing basketball by watching the N.B.A.?

Hypnosis

Some years ago when I was a new graduate student at UCSD, I was walking around on campus to find some lunch one weekend afternoon. I heard a strangely melodious sound. It was a rich sound a combination of a piano, an analog synth, a guitar and some sort of a percussion instrument. I figured that there was a 3 person group playing some music at the saturday afternoon concerts hosted by the the coffee shop in the local food court. Walking into the cafe I realized that all the sound was being produced by a single man playing a strange electric sarangi like instrument, on which he was plucking, tapping, bending notes. The sign said, that the man was playing a Chapman Stick. Which is basically a guitar on steriods, invented a couple of decades ago.

Something similar happened a few days ago. I am not quite sure, where in my internet surfing I came across a reference to the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble. Literally, a band of brothers from chicago. Upon looking around some more, I realized that the buzz I was hearing was coming from a recent New Yorker piece on them by the New Yorker music critic Sash a Frere-Jone (yes I know there is a pattern here).

I have been listening to their self titled album, and it is hypnotic. One of my favorite songs is War, for which they have done a video too.

Kinsmen

Things have been quite busy lately, so, not much time to cook or post recipes. The flip side is that long hours in front of the computer screen means more time spent listening to music, and in some cases new music.

One of my first loves was guitar music and one of the first albums I remember buying is Joe Satriani's "The Extremist". That was followed by more Satriani, Steve Vai, Yngwie J Malmsteen and various other rock and metal guitarists. Along the way I discovered the world of Jazz guitar, and the fusion music of John Mclaughlin. His indian fusion group Shakti has had two incarnations. The original incarnation in the 70s and then a revival a few years ago. Searching for more John Mclaughlin music led me to "Friday Night in San Francisco", a truly magical live recording on which three of the leading gutarists of our time - John Mclaughlin, Al Di Meola and Paco De Lucia play acoustic guitar with no other accompaniment. It remains one of my favourite pieces of guitar music of all time.

But back to fusion music, and the reason for this post. Rudresh Mahanthappa is an indian american saxophonist who has been collaborating with Indian saxophonist Kadri Gopalnath to create a beautiful explosion of jazz fusion -- Kinsmen. I could go on about it, or I could point you to the new yorker article that introduced me to him.

Imitosis

After I was done waxing poetic about Quantum Cello, the most excellent Ms. Branson pointed me to the music of chicago based multi-instrumentalist Andrew Bird. One of my favorite pieces is this live performance of Imitosis.

Kidney Beans (Rajma)

After my parents got married, one of the first dishes my mother cooked for my father and my grandparents was a Garbanzo bean curry (Chole). It was a very rustic preparation done in the style of banias from western Uttar Pradesh. To this day my father remembers the flavor of that dish. Unfortunately that recipe has been lost to the sands of time. The recipe she uses these days has evolved over the years, and while it is perfectly delicious, my father continues to pine for the flavor of the years gone by.

One of the key differences between how she cooked then and how she cooks now is her use of Onions. In Ayurveda, Onion and Garlic belong to a category of foods know as Tamasic. Foods whose consumption is considered harmful to the mind or body. They promote the darker tendencies of the soul, thus many people in india, particularly the Vaishnavs, avoid Tamasic foods, and instead eat a Sattvic diet.

Onions and garlic were a big no-no in my maternal grandmother's house. Her daughters -- my mother and her two sisters learnt to cook without using these ingredients. My paternal grandparents were more liberal in these matters and while onions were allowed, garlic was still not permitted. So, over the years my mother learnt to use onions in her cooking and adapted the recipes she had brought with her from her mother's house to suit her audience.

Onions and garlic are ingredients with pleasant but intense flavors that can easily dominate the other ingredients present in the dish. This can be a good or a bad thing. Sometimes they offers a way for hiding bad ingredients and sloppy cooking, at other times they can mask the delicate flavors you have worked so hard to create. A look at the indian cookbooks around today will give the impression that no dish is complete without onions and garlic. So, it was a very pleasant surprise when I came across Lord Krishna'a Cuisine:The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking by Yamuna Devi. Yamuna Devi was a disciple of and the personal chef for A. C. Bhaktivedanta, the founder of The International Society of Krishna Consciousness. He was a Vaishnav, a strict vegetarian who did not eat any tamasic foods. The book is devoted to vegetarian cuisine from northern india, with a particular emphasis on the food from eastern India (A C Bhaktivedanta was from West Bengal), and all the food is sattvic.

One of my favorite recipes from the book is for Rajma (or Kidney Beans). A very popular north indian staple, which is usually presented as a punjabi dish. A cuisine not known for its timidity in matters of fat, onions or garlic. The recipe below trades onions and garlic for the deep flavor and fragrance of Ajwain seeds. I usually eat my Rajma with some Chawal (rice), but it can equally well be eaten as a vegetarian Chilli with all the usual fixings.

Ingredients

For the beans

• 2 1/4 cups dried Kidney beans
• 6 cups Water
• 1 Bay leaf
• 1/4 tsp Turmeric
• 1/4 tsp Cayenne pepper
• 1 Tbsp Ghee

and the rest

• 2 1/2 Tbsp Coriander seeds
• 1 Tbsp Cumin seeds
• 1/2 tsp Fennel seeds
• 1/3 tsp Ajwain seeds
• 2-3 Tbsp finely shredded fresh ginger root
• 1/2 cup Water
• 1 tsp Garam Masala
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1 Tbsp Salt
• 1 1/2 Tbsp Lemon/Lime juice
• 5 Tbsp Oil
• 6 oz Paneer cut into 1/2 inch cubes
• 4 medium ripe Tomatoes, diced.
• 1 Tbsp Ghee
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh Parsely or Cilantro

Method

• Wash the beans in a colander under running water, place them in a 3-4 quart/liter saucepan with 3 cups of cold water and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to moderate, cover and boil for 2 more minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and allow the beans to soak for 1 hour.
• Drain the beans, collecting the soaking water in a bowl. Add enough cold water to make 6 cups and put it, along with the beans and other ingredients for cooking them in a 3-4 quart saucepan. Bring to a boil and gently simmer over low heat for 1 1/2-3 hours or until the beans are soft and tender but not broken down.
• Mash 3/4 cup of the cooked beans to a puree. The cooking liquid should be quite thick. If not, ladle out the tender beans with a slotted spoon and transfer them to a bowl. Gently boil the sauce until it is reduced to about 1 1/2 cups. Remove from heat and set aside.
• Combine the coriander seeds, cumin seeds, fennel seeds, and ajwain seeds in an electric coffee mill and reduce them to a powder. Transfer to a bowl.
• Place the ginger root and 1/2 cup of water in a blender, cover and blend on high speed until the mixture is a smooth liquid. Pour it into the powdered spices and add the garam masala, turmeric, salt and lemon or lime juice. The mixture should have the consistency of thin cream. Add water if its too thick.
• Heat 5 tablespoons og oil in a 3-4 quart heavy nonstick saucepan over moderate heat. When it is hot, drop in the paneer and stir fry or 5-7 minutes, carefully turning the cubes with a spatula, till they are browned on all sides. As the cubes brown, transfer them to a dish.
• Pour the spice paste into the oil and stir fry for 1-2 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes and cook for about 8 minutes more or until the tomatoes are reduced to a paste and the oil separates from the mixture.
• Add the whole cooked beans, mashed beans, fried cheese cubes and 1 1/2 cups of the cooking liquid, reduce the heat to low and simmer for about 15 minutes. Before serving, stir in 1 tablespoon of ghee/butter and the minced herb.