Monsoon Magic It's Raining Recipes!
Monsoon Magic It's Raining Recipes!
The best time to enjoy some good food, drink some good wine, drink some good whisky neat, is when it is raining outside, the weather is cool and the air fragrant. When the feeling is pure nostalgia. When childhood memories assault your senses and you wonder if growing up was the right thing to do!!
Monsoon anywhere in India is a magical time. But it is extra special in the hills, where everything is green and lush and fresh. Moss on the trees, leaves drenched in rain water, where even a rusty tin barn looks so perfect. But a beach is just as good. Especially because that is the one time you will find it deserted. And if you are like Chef Vicky Ratnani, who has a home in Goa and who loves walking in the rain, the situation is idyllic.
Yes, this issue is a chefs' special. We invited a few UpperCrust chef friends to share their recipes with us, so that you, our dear and loyal reader, may get to try some wonderful recipes, in this lovely season. The recipes have been curated by them, keeping the rain in mind, with each one dipping into their favourite food memory.
We also asked them to mention where they would like to be during the monsoons, what they would like to eat and what their favourite pastime at this time was.
Most chefs have reminisced about their childhood. Almost all of them talk about the earthy smell that comes with the first rain and that fried food is de rigueur! And all love to do what they love to do, COOK!
Chef Ranveer Brar who grew up on a farm in Punjab and whose job was being a cowherd, walking the buffaloes, remembers distinctly, the petrichor, as well as his grandmother's jaggery pancakes, the aroma of pure ghee, sweetened by jaggery permeating the entire house.
Chef Ashish Bhasin talks about floating paper boats and playing in the rain as a child, little wonder then, he still thinks of monsoon as fun, an emotion, and an adventure. Fried items and rain is a match made in heaven, he says. Chef Ajay Chopra has nostalgic memories of his hometown, Faridabad and thinks being there in the rainy season is for him, the nicest. He brings us hot, fried and soupy recipes.
For Chef Vicky Ratnani, monsoon is a time to get into the kitchen and start creating new recipes for use in the next season. And he can’t do without eating bombil, our famous Bombay Duck. Chef Ananda Solomon, too, is happiest in his Thai Naam kitchen, cooking for his customers who will have turned up braving the rains, perhaps wet and in need of piping hot, good food! Anything to keep his customers smiling, he says. Likewise, Chef Abhijit Saha, who loves the rain because it puts an end to the scorching summer and also because it’s a joy to cook, as well as eat during this season.
Chef Sarah Todd uses this season to spend quality time with her young son, making hearty soups. She loves to use stone fruits – plums, peaches, apricots – much underused, she thinks. Chef Paul Kinny, who has given us some twists and turns in standard recipes, escapes to his house in Gorai and walks on the beach, a pleasure, he says.
Lastly, but not least, Chef Husna Jumani, the young pâtissiere, tells us how she was made to have bone soup in her childhood, during the monsoon and how now, she loves to eat warm cake with ice-cream. Crazy about cinnamon, she uses it generously. We can't agree more, cinnamon is for the soul and a great combination with the rains!
