Gita Mistry

Valentines Day

2012-02-14T17:16:00.002Z

Valentine’s Day is the one day of the year when we can be really girly and kitschy

Its a day for champagne and this exotic Italian liqueur made out of wild strawberries.Also for sentimental ballads,chocolates hearts and of course roses.

My Valentines day usually starts with a love brew.
That made me wonder how the day was celebrated in India. This site suggests that the day is celebrated there very much as it is here. Even in Bollywood. Surprising, really, given that we have our Kamadeva and Kama Sutra which go back even further.

I googled St Valentine and came up with a late Roman martyr . I also came up with Scott’s novel better known as “Fair Made of Perth ”.

I spent Valentines day with Stephen Fry last year.We discussed how it all may or may not have got started. We also discussed language food and culture.After our chat I served him a delightful little potato dish with the aphrodisiac herb coriander...Unfortunately Stephen later told me that he doesn't like coriander.And he's not alone.There are a whole load of people around the globe who's think it taste like soap. There is nothing aphrodisiac about it to them....
Returning to roses the red rose was the favourite flower of Venus, the Roman goddess of love hence why its given to your loved one so much.
My dried rose petals come to gooduse to decorate and serve a byriani or even my strawberry ice cream with touch of cardamom.The queen of spice.

Although nearly every restaurants in the land has itsValentine’s Day special, it’s not the best day for eating out. It’s hard to get a table. It’s expensive. And unless you’re an item it’s not the day for diningout even with friend of the same sex. Remember that scene from “Sex and theCity.”

Your best bet is probably to dine in. Now if you have asweet tooth you will be spoilt for choice including my strawberryand cardamon ice cream which has cream sugar and fresh strawberries galour, butif your more “sweet than can eat” try the savoury alternative of potato and cashew nut with lime leaves servedwith cucumber raita.

Described by Kate Spice of The Times as “Better than sex” withmay be a song or two.

I was sang to with this lovely song L-O-V-E Nat King Cole by my sweet partneronce and still adore the song now.

What ever it is that your up to this year, make it a sweet treat and eat yourselves sexy from my list of aphrodisiac foods to help you to turn up theheat!

Asparagus the folic acid stirs up lust in man and woman

· Chocolate is known to touch the pleasure centre of the brain.Chocolate contains the antioxidants as does red wine.So the secret for passion is to combine the two.Try a glass of Cabernet with a bit of dark chocolate

· Almonds the aromas thought to induce passion in females

· Chilli is an invigorating spice, has an exotic reputation and stimulates endorphins

· Aniseed has been used as a aphrodisiac since the Greeks and Romans who believed sucking on the seed increases your desire.

Raspberries and Strawberries perfect foods forhanding to your lover.
Figs symbolises both sexuality and modesty
Mustard is believed to stimulate the sexual gland and increase desire.
Pine nuts prized for its ability to aid both male and female potency
Arugula the herb is thought to provide amazing energy to the body.
Oysters goes back hundreds of years as aphrodisiac food for more reasons than one, personally an oyster from the sea served to me, is just not for me.

ooh la la as the french folks of the sexy city of "Paree" would say x

Vindaloo, Bindaloo, Tindaloo- Oh what a Stew!

2012-02-09T23:29:00.025Z

The Brits love vindaloo. It was England's campaign song in the 1998 Football World Cup.
Maybe they'd have done better with Smug Roberts's "Meat Pie Sausage Roll". Another foodie song.
According to @southportgal (Professor Rochelle Almeida of New York University) in response to one of my tweets, vindaloo derives from the Portuguese word vindalho. The Portuguese brought the dish to Goa, their toehold in India.

I understand vindaloo was originally a pork dish cooked in chilli, garlic and vinegar. Now all that would appeal to Brits - especially after drowning their sorrows in the pub when their team loses - but not so much to Indians and even less to those countries in the south sub continent who see pork as unclean significantly, it does not feature on many menus in Bradford, Yorkshire where there are many people of south Asian heritage but it is available at the Maharaja in Bradford on Avon in Wiltshire where there are rather fewer
Now my friend, has just asked me for a recipe for vindaloo but I just can't as I have rarely, if ever cooked it, Ok... I relent. Heres goes my dearest

1 tablespoonful of chilli powder.
1 cup of vinegar.
A whole bulb of garlic.
Whatever spices you have at the back of the cupboard.
Any type of meat you fancy: bear, crocodile, kangaroo - doesn't matter because the marinade will tenderize any cut of tough, cheap meat from any animal.

Marinade the lot for 8 hours in a brass bowl.Then cook for as long as necessary. Serve with a towel and bog roll or two and be sure to be near your loo.Don't forget the microwavable boiled rice to calm things down a degree or two.
My lawyer warns me to be careful in case the good folks of Southport, Connecticut take this post seriously. Surely Americans have a sense of humour.
Don't they? and you Brits have been warned not to try this at home!

Left overs

2012-02-04T00:31:00.000Z

First, let me say that a leftover need never be left over! All food should be treated with love and respect right down to the last mouthful. And that includes leftovers.
Let me give you an example.

Tonight I cooked

Chicken liver with fresh ginger and coriander
Basmati yoghurt rice with toasted black cumin and onion seeds together with my prawn favourite curry
Vegetables in a a spicy black bean sauce.
Haddock pan fried in a delicate garamasla and tamarind paste
Roasted green garlic papadoms
Carrot cucumber and tomatoes wedges dressed with my special spiced olive oil
Followed by virgin sugar cane chunks

And here is what was left over. An edible tricolour.

When eating leftovers it is always more appetising to pack and present the excess food as though you were starting all over again. It's pleasing both to the eye and palate and far more appealing when revisiting the leftovers.
I do try not to waste food. I like to finish my plate, I take modest portions from the serving dishes rather than than the whole meal all in one go..
Spend a little time serving yourself so as to encourage eating with pace and pleasure. Judge how much you actually need. Then any leftover will be fresh and clean. Not something that has been pushed around someone's plate or even you own.

Grapes - an introduction

2012-01-31T09:54:00.000Z

Grapes are my sweetie substitute. They are the same size and serve the same purpose. They are less messy to eat than mangoes, oranges, peaches and pineapples. And they are good for you.
I learned that when I was a little girl. Whenever I was ill I was allowed to lie on a couch in the kitchen under a blanket as my mum got on with her cooking. It was about the only time I was allowed to rest. At all other times she made sure I always had something to do. My father would come home from the mill. He would stroke my forehead and ask me whether there was anything I wanted. With one eye closed I would answer દ્રાક્ષ ("grapes"), red or black ones - not the green grapes that my mother would bring home when the housekeeping stretched to it.

My mum also gave me brandy which is made from grapes when I was ill. She heated it up in a stainless steel bowl with a long spout that she brought from India. I can't remember the name but I'll take a photo of it when I return to the topic as I surely will because it is one of the reasons why brandy is now my favourite tipple.
According to Wikipedia India is the tenth largest grape producer. Much of it is used in wine making. Indian wines were almost unknown in this country until a few years ago but now it is gaining international acclaim,you can even buy Ritu Viognier and Zampa Syrah from Waitrose.
But grapes are also cultivated in my native county as well as the land of my ancestors. Writing for The Guardian Simon Burnton described Yorkshire as "prime wine growing territory". Clearly one of the advantages of global warming, some of the vineyards such as the one at Holmfirth, are in spectacular Pennine countryside. There is even a winery within Leeds city limits.
Instead of a recipe I shall leave you with a couple of tips. When choosing grapes try to buy them loose. Pick up the bunch and give it a shake. If a lot of berries fall off you know that the bunch is over ripe and best avoided. If you buy them you have eat them straight away because they won't keep. My other tip is that you can store grapes for ages by wrapping them in newspaper and keeping them in a cool dark place.

Why "Introduction"? It's because I shall return to this topic more than once. Next time I shall share my recipe for making fruit scones and some Indian recipes using dried green grapes.

Burns Night Bradford Style

2012-01-26T13:52:00.024Z

Yesterday was Burn's Night. It is the night when Scots the world over celebrate their great lyric poet. I am not Scottish but I love Ae Fond Kiss, Red Red Rose and of course The Address to A Haggis What could be more evocative than these lines:

"His knife see rustic Labour dight,

An' cut you up wi' ready sleight,

Trenching your gushing entrails bright,

Like ony ditch;

And then, O what a glorious sight,

Warm-reekin', rich!"

Eat your hearts out advertising copywriters.

Though India has plenty of links with Scotland haggis isn't one of them. Having said that, they do serve haggis pakoras in Scotland. I ate those little morsels in both Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Unless anyone out there can correct me, most haggis recipes include some king of offal - lung heart and liver from sheep.I did however find one that used pork lung that sung its heart out to me.

Personally I prefer veggie haggis because it is neat, sweet and tasty filled with pulses and barley without the internal operational drama. I for one would choose the veggie option although some may argue it defeats the object.
Its more about the occasion than whether one chooses meat haggis or a veggie haggis. They both use spices of pepper nutmeg and mace and at times home made recipes have dried coriander. I am sure Robert Burns would have loved the creation of the veggie haggis so that so many others could join in the fun of celebrations years after to come….

I visited my local Morrisons - a guid Scots name though Sir Ken is as Yorkshire as I am - on a haggis hunt. I say "hunt" because a Scottish lady once told me that a haggis was a wee beastie with two legs shorter than the other the better to run round Schieallion.They had a grand choice as you can see.One of the mangers asked me what the fuss was about so I told them all about Burns night drawing quite a crowd in the process. I was looking out for Grants haggis because an auld wifie told me she swears by it.

Yesterday evening we celebrated Burns night and on the menu: .

Japanese ramen for a starter
Pouting with red peppers in delicate spicy turmeric & tarmirand sauce
Vegetarian & traditional haggis bhajis,
Mushroom and potato bhajis
Steamed Basmasti rice
Spicy tomato dip
Fresh fruit and jelly because we love it!

So here is my recipe for haggis bhajias

Ingredients for the bhajia batter

450g of Haggis meat or veggie

170g of gram flour

2 teaspoon of garlic and ginger paste

1 teaspoon of salt

1/2 a teaspoon of red chilli powder

1/2 a teaspoon of gara masala

1/2 green rocket chili

2tbsp of chopped fresh coriander

Rapeseed oil to fry

Method:

1. Heat the oil and set the temperature to 160c

2. Make the batter for the bhajias by putting the gram flour, salt, red chili powder, gara masala, ginger and garlic green rocket chili paste, and chopped coriander in a bowl and mixing together well.

3. Then add some water to the mixture, to make a smooth batter making sure its thick enough to coat the piece so not too runny, leave to rest for 30 mins

4. Cut the haggis into small diced pieces, dip them into the gram flour batter, and deep fry until they go golden brown.

Serve, Eat whilst still hot and crunchy.

We didn't run to a piper but Nina Simone more than made up for that. Why Nina Simone? Her songs are very similar to Burns. We celebrated the immortal memory.

Kung Hii Fatt Choi

2012-01-20T18:37:00.003Z

These were the words with which I was greeted with when I celebrated Chinese New Year in Liverpool last year. According to Wikipedia they mean "Congratulations and be prosperous!". As you can see, the festival is celebrated by the whole community in Liverpool - not just those of Chinese heritage. The lady in the centre of the picture wearing a chain of office was mayor of one of the Merseyside boroughs. The mayors of all the other boroughs were also making merry. They really entered the spirit of the occasion.

As the Chinese New Year falls on Sunday this year I visited Manchester which also has a well established Chinese community. I had lunch at the Glamorous Chinese Restaurant on the Oldham Road where I took these photos.I am not a big fan of broccoli but I really love the way it was served today. Simply with a ginger and garlic sauce and straw mushrooms. I ate it with steamed rice and a touch of chilli oil.. One of my favourite dishes.

Part of the fun of a Chinese restaurant is the drama. What could be more dramatic than the picture of the dragon? I asked someone what animal it was this year as last year was the year of the rabbit. She replied "Dragon, of course! Do you not see the pictures of the dragons everywhere?" "But there are always dragons every year," I protested. "Isn't there always a dragon dance?"

However, I always feel sad when I see the Peking ducks hanging all in their shinny coats of sherry wine and honey glaze I imagine them crying as they were led to slaughter. Don't we do such terrible things to animals - all for our love of meat.And also those poor lobsters in their watery, condemned cell.

Just below the restaurant is the Wing Yip supermarket.

I bought all sorts of goodies such as sweet potato vermicelli, shrimp paste, lo mai kai steamed glutinous rice which I first got introduced to in China Town Manchester 25 years ago filled with pieces of pork shrimp and mushroom wrapped and steamed in a lotus leave, lilly flower stems and shrimp dumplings. I love experimenting with ingredients from other cooking traditions in my Gujarati dishes.

Today, for instance I made a 3 fish curry with smoked tofu and got creative with my spices to make a side dish of broccoli tossed in finely diced shallots,chilli, fish sauce, lime juice and sesame seeds which I shared with some of my friends. They all ate well.

I scream for ice cream!

2012-01-03T21:48:00.000Z

I like ice cream, me you know.

After handbags, shoes and earrings, a bit of sexy vanilla keeps this girl sweet.

I've tasted ice cream in at least 23 countires including Barbados, Belgium, Canada, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, India, Israel, Poland, Spain and the United States- Miami and Florida keys

After I had won BBC's Britain's Best Cook award I wandered around the West End in a daze trying to take it all in. Well after midnight I chanced upon Scoop Gelato in Shorts Gardens. I was amazed it was still open. I told the proprietor that ice cream was my favourite. He invited me in and let me sample almost every single flavour bar amaretto and green tea. He was really cute. I was on top of the world. The BBC trophy was in my hotel room. I bought the biggest tub on offer and took it back to the hotel with me. I scoffed it while soaking in the bath.

A week before the Royal Wedding I visited St. Andrews and saw where the Great Romance started. And I chanced upon Jannetta's in South Street. Mmm .... yummy. There is clearly more to St Andrews than golf and pier walks.

So what about ice cream in Yorkshire? Two of my favourite gelateria are farms near Holmfirth.

There's Dearn Lea in Shelley. The cone in the picture to the top right is one of theirs.

And then there's Yummy Yorkshire near High Flatts. This is one of their tubs. I had a scoop with a mince pie.

Both Dearn Lea and Yummy Yorkshire are working farms. You can visit the cows if you want though I'd prefer to visit the tea shop . The cows are very clean as are their quarters but even clean cows are a bit whiffy. If you must mither the moos sample your flavours first as you may not stomach it the other way round.

Last Christmas - this Christmas

2011-12-22T17:32:00.003Z

You can have just so much of a good thing: "Jingle Bells", "Away in a Manger", "The Twelve Days of Christmas". So I switched to the BBC Asian network. What did I find but Tav Bains who claims to have recorded the first Indian Christmas song. Really?

Anyway you can't have too many of my mince pies. Mmm ........ yummy!

Last Christmas I did a buy and try. I bought from ASDA, Bettys and our local baker

This Christmas I did a make and bake with an all butter, ground almond and cinnamon pastry, a filling of brandy and ginger spice mincemeat.

Brandy is my favourite liqueur.

Ginger is my favourite spice

According to Wikipedia mince pies have been around since the 13th century. Apparently Oliver Cromwell and his less than merry men tried to ban them. Why are they called mince pies when there is no meat in them? Not everyone knows that, incidentally, because one of my guests once asked "A Halal version for me, please?" I told him that he had missed the boat. Originally mince pies did have real mince meat and the spices had to be there to preserve or more likely mask the rancid meat. Nowadays we have fridges so we can enjoy the spices for themselves.

Why spice at Christmas? it's because its expensive, scented and special for this time of year.

Donkeys Deckchairs and Dinner

2011-12-20T15:19:00.001Z

The English – for which purpose I mean those of Anglo-Saxon and Celtic heritage - say that they love animals yet they eat them. Many if not most of us who hail from Gujarat are vegetarian but yet we do not make a fuss about animals. Very few of us keep pets and we certainly don’t kiss or cuddle them or speak to them in baby talk. The bond between man and beast was a mystery to me until I took up riding and communicated with a horse for the first time.

This particular cultural gulf between my community and our English fellow Bradfordian s was brought home to me when I was coming home from my first visit to my senior school. The school was some distance from home and the journey involved a change of busses and a walk through a park. It was a particularly hot day and I set off with another girl from my neighbourhood. Somehow we got lost and we wandered through a predominately white estate.

The neighbourhood seemed quite prosperous because the houses were red-brick semis so it seemed to me at the time rather than the Yorkshire stone terraced houses where my family lived. A family was sitting on striped deckchairs in the garden picnicking on sandwiches and beer. I had never seen anybody behave like this in my life and I was fascinated. I suppose I must have been staring at them because one of the shouted: “What are you looking at, you dirty Paki?” At that very moment a donkey emerged from the front door and the fellow who shouted at me began stroking and feeding the animal with the same hand whilst he was gnawing on his butty. May be the donkey may have liked my Carrot Sambora side dish too.

Ingredients serves 4

750g/1lb 10oz carrots – julienne
1⁄2 tsp black mustard seeds
2 tbsp ground nut oil
4 cm piece of fresh ginger mashed
1 medium green rocket chilli chopped
1⁄4 tsp salt to taste
1⁄2 tsp ground coriander seeds
1⁄2 tsp ground cumin seeds
1⁄4 tsp turmeric
1⁄4 tsp garamasala Juice of
1⁄2 a lemon
2 tbsp fresh chopped chives
1 tbsp fresh coriander

Preparation

Squeeze the fresh lemon juice and julienne the carrots.

Method

Heat the oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat.
Add the mustard seeds and when the popping has stopped, add the carrots, ginger, green chilli, coriander, cumin, turmeric and salt to taste.
Stir-fry quickly for 2-3 mins or until the carrots begin to soften; remove from heat.
Squeeze over some lemon juice and sprinkle over the garamasala, chopped chives and fresh coriander and serve.

Now I have to explain that to call someone a donkey is a particular insult in Gujarati. It is at least as bad as calling a woman a cow in English and possibly worse. When I was a little girl I was prevailed to take a ride on a donkey on the beach at Scarborough. It was supposed to be a pleasure but I was horrified not because I was afraid of the height or being bitten but because I was repelled by the animal itself. I clung to the leather for fear of being defiled by its fur.

My companion wanted us to make ourselves scarce but I was still transfixed. I said to her in Guajarati: “They don’t seem to know what ‘dirty’ means.” That was my first experience of racism.

Grub and Górecki

2011-12-11T12:54:00.000Z

On Friday 25 November 2011 the Warsaw Philharmonic performed at St George’s Hall in Bradford and I was in the audience.

St. George’s Hall is an intimate auditorium and I was in the second row - close enough to make eye contact with the conductor, leader of the orchestra and the outstanding young violinist Kuba Jacowicz. It was a wonderful programme – Brahms, Mendelssohn, Górecki and Beethoven’s Fifth.

Beethoven’s Fifth was one of my first albums. I remember walking up the cobbled back streets clutching it under my arm. It seemed as delicate as the papddoms we used to make once a year. The kids on the street were gob smacked. They could not understand how I could squander my pennies on such a luxury. And although they didn’t know it they had a point because we didn’t have a record player until several years later.

But it was worth it to me. I had first heard the music at our school assembly and remember the thrill as I listened to it. We had a different piece of music every morning and had to guess the composer.

After the concert was over, we were rewarded with an encore. The artists could see how much we enjoyed ourselves for we clapped and clapped as though we were pounding spices for a masala.

When I was younger I visited three Poland several times including a more recent visit and have a lot of friends there. I introduced them to curry and cooked for a large group who loved the spicing and they introduced me to some of their delicacies. Here is one of my favourites Gołąbki - Golumpki steamed cabbage leaves separated by dunking the whole cabbage into hot water for a few mins and carefully peeling off each layer, these cabbage leaves are then filled with mince pork or beef , onions, mushrooms, rice or barley,herbs and spices if desired and rolled up into parcels, the parcels are then baked in the oven with a tomato sauce topping.

Most people who are not from Bradford think that we only know about curry but we have had a very substantial Polish community in our city for many years. The Bradford Polish Club will celebrate its 50^th anniversary very soon.

There are of course lots of other communities in our City - Africans, Afro-Caribbeans, Chinese, Irish, Jews and of course folk from the Indian Subcontinent. Cultural diversity is not new to Bradford. Our city may have been even more diverse in the 19^th century when the textile industry was booming. For example, there must have been a large German community because a neighbourhood just a short distance from St George’s Hall is still known as Little Germany.

In this blog I shall celebrate the food of some of those communities as well as that of my own Gujarati heritage.

Tale of two kitchens

2011-12-07T12:19:00.003Z

Most days, inspiration for cooking comes to me from my travels but I also cherish memories of the food that comforted me when I was a child.

I remember trying to watch and learn in what must have been one of the world’s smallest kitchens at my terrace home in Bradford. The capacity of the kitchen was one and a half adults and I was the half. Into this space were crammed pots, pans and the usual utensils as well as more exotic items as such as the lowyou (a heavy cast iron deep frying dish) tawars and strong metal or stoneware dishes for grinding masala

Everything was stacked, stored and arranged neatly around a sink and cooker that doubled as a work surface. Finding one’s way around this kitchen was comparable to solving a Rubik cube or playing chess.

I used to watch my mum conjure up the family feast.

Sometimes she would pound ingredients into a paste with her full body weight until she judged the texture to be just right. How she managed to crouch in that tiny kitchen! Her agility was a wonder to behold. I had to recoil to make way for her.

Other times I would stand on the tips of my toes marvelling at combinations of spices, fresh lentils, masala and funny looking vegetables including a firm purple khun that simply amazed me. I tried to make khun puri at the age of 5 and wondered why it did not taste like purple violets sweets.

Although my mum, must have been constantly on the watch for and anything likely to fall on me she allowed me to see the battered flat round Khun puris frying.

These days I am bigger and so is my kitchen. Nevertheless, my kitchen is still orchestrated and brought alive with the same discipline, passion and creativity that brought my first kitchen senses alive. The only difference is that it is now my mood that governs my menu. Tonight fish is shouting out to me with a spicy tamarind and garlic marinate served with some zesty lime bananas and baby rotis. Sounds just the ticket…..

Manchester Christmas Market

2011-11-27T22:36:00.002Z

Magic rolled up at the Manchester Christmas market with a Christmas feast for its punters serving food beer and Christmas crafts, cheeses ranging from the humble regional Lancashire to Emmental for fondues and Dutch Goudas in about every flavour from sundried tomatoe & olives to black pepper. Stilton and apple cider pork pies .... a whole load of German and Swiss food. A cold evening but crisp and dry night all supported by his watchful eye of Sparkling Santa.

Cooking with love. Love your cooking.

2011-11-21T15:14:00.003Z

When I was asked this morning what I meant by "cooking in love"
this was my reply:

"Cooking with love means cooking with passion. But it also means cooking with care, attention, detail, patience, balance, a sense of calm and creative flow. It is a bit like listening to music and understanding the different elements that make up a a given piece Indeed, when I cook I often hear music in my mind's ear."

No matter how humble the meal you can still give it love.

"Loving your cooking?" That means accepting and enjoying the love. Whether the food is intended for a guest or for you. After all your body is sacred and it deserves your love.

Putting the "Cooking with love" and "loving your cooking" together means connecting with the food in the way that you might connect with someone or even something that you desire and really enjoy.