View: Preserve the diversity of the Indian thali

The past 18 months have seen many people not only rediscover their kitchens but also their cooking implements rather than sticking to just reheating appliances. Friends, family, colleagues and social media circles have been awash in consistently improved homemade versions of not only sourdough, focaccia and banana breads but also biryanis, tadka dals, rogan joshes and kadhis, not to mention everyone’s favourite Chindian and Italindian dishes.Thanks to the restrictions imposed by the pandemic Indians have finally had the time to stop and take a good look at their own regional cuisine and also those from elsewhere in India. Whether this happened due to watching more food related YouTube videos or online cookbooks or even recipe exchanges on WhatsApp groups, this could—and should—ideally lead to a far more discerning clientele as India opens up and ‘revenge spending’ gathers pace.No longer should ‘mother-father gravies’—as my cousin and food historian Pritha Sen calls the typical orangey-red slush that passes for curries in most commercial kitchens—dominate menus and be tolerated by diners. Even if people do not really know the difference between a korma and a kaliya, an avial and shukto or an undhiyo and a chorchori, their palates should be confident enough now to reject dishes that do not look and taste distinctly different.Last week, I saw Pritha’s campaign against generic gravies in action at her festival of Bengali cuisine at The Oberoi Gurugram. Each of her dishes tasted and looked different, but that was expected, given her vast repertoire. However, I was particularly enchanted by two gravies of the veg selection, (always more difficult to pull off than meat and fish dishes): matar dal dumplings in a golden sesame gravy and potol or pointed gourd in a creamy yoghurt gravy.That her vegetarian thali held its own (and even ‘won’) against her non-veg one which included an excellent rustic pulled chicken roasted in a sal leaf, is indicative of changing Indian and foreign tastes. ‘Five star’ Indian cuisine no longer needs to be only aesthetically plated brilliant innovations a la Manish Mehrotra or varq-coated Mughlai dishes. Rediscovering India’s regional – even subaltern – cuisines can be just as rewarding. And lucrative.This revival of diversity should now filter down to home kitchens as the pandemic has changed many preferences and lifestyles. After all, we accepted generic gravies only because we had far too little time to ‘spare’ on cooking. We also did not want to be like previous generations, ‘wasting’ time over stoves when those minutes could be better spent on something else. Besides, there was no cachet in knowing how to make a sourdough bread, unlike these days.So convenience took precedence over taste, and food companies pitched in with readymade gravy bases that just (apparently) needed the addition of protein (meat, fish, chickpeas, rajma) or vegetables to pass off for a curry. The key factor was speed rather than flavour. Even commercial restaurants got away with basic ‘curries’ for far too long.Till the pandemic made us homebound and cooking became a welcome diversion. ‘Mother-father’ gravies were blotted out for a crucial few months thanks to prohibition of home delivery of supermarket items and restaurant food in the initial days of the lockdown. And many people suddenly found themselves with lots of “extra” time at home to cook, explore new recipes and learn nuances. And more time to sit back and appreciate the fruits of their labour.It is truly a matter of shame that in a country with as many cuisines and micro-cuisines as India, an onion-ginger-garlic-tomato ‘base’ and dhania-jeera-garam-masala spice powders were ever allowed to become the default gravy ingredients in popular perception, with dishes separated only by ingredients and cooking times. The experience of the past 18 months should now stand in the way of us ever sliding back to the bad old days of homogenous food.The crowds that are flocking back to restaurants are hopefully substantially different from those who did so pre-2020. Many more minds and palates are now sensitised, aware and appreciative of the sheer variety of Indian food. This change will surely be welcomed by Pritha and others like her who are passionate about researching, reviving and preserving the diversities that have traditionally characterised India’s many cuisines.

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/3lDffPa