The langur (community kitchen) at the Golden Temple serves 50,000 free meals a day to everyone, regardless of religion or class. More than 5,000 happy volunteers work round the clock, cooking up a full meal of tea, rice, vegetable, daal, chapati and kheer (pudding). A whopping 18 quantals (=18,000 kg) of daal and 50 quantals…
Tag: indian food
How NOT to make Dal Baati Churma
Friends in Mumbai told me I had to try dal baati in Rajasthan. It’s a typical desert dish consisting of, you guessed it, dal, and baati, a very dense dough ball that has been baked in ‘the oven’ (I will later find out that this ‘oven’ is actually smouldering cow dung). This version of the…
How to make Poha, from the king of breakfasts
Hasmukh was the king of breakfasts. It was his responsibility to make them at Sapna Ranch and each morning there would be something different – bhelpuri (a type of chaat, made with puffed rice and tangy tamarind sauce), poha jada (thin beaten rice), poha patla (thick beaten rice), upma (savoury porridge made using semolina and…
A recipe for khichidi rice and curd curry (khadi)
25 year-old Kunal is not your average guy, he cooks, massages people’s feet and makes flower mandalas. He is a co-volunteer here at Sapna Ranch, where he showed me how to cook khichidi , a simple ‘temple food’ invented by Saint Sai Baba. Khichidi is almost always served alongside curd curry (khadi). The mix of…
How to make delicious South Indian coconut chutney
A ridiculously easy recipe for coconut chutney, a tiffin-time staple across South India. Lakshmi’s “life started at 36”, when her two daughters had both started school and she was able to go out and get a job. Luckily for Lakshmi, her husband was liberal enough to allow her this freedom, many husbands would not be…
Alleppey special duck curry
This rich duck curry comes from Shaila, who was Bhagath’s mother. We could only communicate with smiles and head shakes, but over the four days we stayed with Bhagath, Shaila cooked us all sorts of delicious Keralan meals. This curry is an ‘Alleppey special’ and traditionally eaten on Sundays, much like the Sunday roast. The…
People I Meet and Food They Eat 