The dekchi of milk, golden yellow, sits patiently on the mud oven. The first rays of the nascent sun, yet Grandma is up, going about the house, reciting her chants while doing her regular morning chores. Gesticulating to the maid to clean a corner that has seen an overnight spider invasion. Arranging the pots and pans just returned from washing in a regimental array in the soot-blackened kitchen. Stepping out to the yard to pluck the fragrant jasmines that have bloomed overnight. Patting her favourite calf that has come bursting from the shed the moment she saw her.
Now she’s back in the kitchen and gives the milk a loving stir, scrapes the bottom of the dekchi to ensure there is no crust forming, signals to the maid to stoke the fire of the oven and disappears again to her morning chores.
These cycles of stir-back to chores-stir-back to chores continue uninterrupted till Grandmas experienced eyes are convinced that the milk is of exactly the consistency that she needs.
She now add some whipped curd into the bubbling milk. A stir again.
And then the magic starts.
The milk starts to curdle, tiny islands of pristine milk solids forming in the ocean of milk that gradually metamorphoses from its golden yellow to a pale grey-green. And a starry-eyed me, all of five years or even less, watches, enraptured and enthralled, as more immaculate white islands take birth, floating blissfully on the ocean of whey (My first brush with chemistry, to be my profession many years later, and for the next couple of years, I remember persisting doggedly with Grandma to wake me up, however early it was, if she were to curdle milk.)
With her deft hands Grandma drains the whey out, endearingly collects the milk solids, places them gently in a soft muslin cloth, ties a firm knot and hangs the cloth onto an ancient hook on the wall to drain any extra water.
I know that the homemade chana shall get into the Chanar Dalna or Nolen Gurer Sandesh which Dada and I had been pestering Grandma since last evening to prepare.
I smile in silent anticipation.
Grandmas an angel.
Decades later, as I go about the rituals of making chana at home, these images come fleeting back. Nostalgia. Memories honey-sweet. A life of blissful days and sublime evenings. No tensions. No worries. The innocent pleasures of childhood.
I pair the fresh chana this morning with cauliflower, Chana Phulkopi, a delectable curry Grandma used to prepare, in a tomato- milk gravy perfumed with whole spices and coriander.
Enjoy my Chana Phulkopi with a bowl of piping hot rice !!!
Divine !!!
Chana Phulkopi (Paneer and Cauliflower Curry)
Ingredients
- 200 g chana or cottage cheese cubed, home-made or bought from the market
- 1 medium cauliflower cut into medium sized florets
- 1/2 cup coconut milk
- 1 tomato pureed
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tsp coriander powder
- 2 tsps ginger paste
- 1-2 bay leaves
- 2 - 3 green chillies slit
- 2 green cardamom
- 1 inch cinnamon stick
- 2 cloves
- 1 tbsp mustard oil
- 1/4 tsp sugar
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Smear the paneer with a pinch of turmeric.
- In a separate bowl, sprinkle turmeric on the cauliflower florets and mix well.
- Heat 1/2 tbsp oil in a frying pan and saute the paneer pieces till they take on a tinge of golden brown. Remove from oil and keep aside.
- In the same oil, saute the cauliflower florets till they are just golden. Remove from oil and keep aside.
- Add the remaining oil and when smoking hot, temper with crushed cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and bay leaves. When the spices start to release their aroma, add the tomato puree, ginger paste and a couple of slit green chillies.
- Sprinkle in a little salt and cook over a medium flame till the tomato puree is cooked are oil starts to separate from the masala.
- Now dissolve the remaining turmeric powder and coriander powder in very little warm water and stir in this paste to the masala. Splash a little water if it's getting too dry and cook over a low flame for a further 3-4 minutes.
- Add 1/2 cup of warm water and coconut milk, along with the fried cauliflower and cook on a low flame till the cauliflower florets are cooked. Bring to a simmer and gently add the fried paneer pieces. Add the sugar and cook for another 5 odd minutes.
- Adjust the seasonings. Serve hot with rice.
What a lovely write up!!! Love your writing style. You bring back sweet memories with my thamma. Thank you Maumita
What a lucid and vivid write up … food indeed brings back nostalgia… you always amazed me