Eating

I was recently asked, “Do you get to eat Indian food all the time?” The answer to that is that I do as long as I learn to cook it myself. The truth of the situation is that there are essentially no restaurants in Rakkar and Sidhbari. Those that there are only serve chow mein and momos, the Tibetan name for Chinese dumplings. (A side note- fans of “Avatar: The Last Air Bender,” I would bet that those dumplings are where the name for the lemur came from.) The Knowledge Center is only a minute down the road from my house, so I have the luxury of eating at home for all of my meals if I am around.

For the first two or three months, there was really one dish that I knew how to make, and I made it several times a week with different variations. This is called subji (literally meaning vegetables). Around here, it is usually eating with a plain flour and water flat bread called roti. I usually have it with basmati rice instead. A few miserably failed attempts at roti early on discouraged me. As I am gaining more culinary bravery, I think I might try again, perhaps with supervision.

To give you an idea of what I have been eating, and to give you a chance to eat like I do, here's how I made subji. This recipe is based on what Anya taught me early on and my own experimentation. This serves two. You can do this with really any kind of vegetable. I use whatever is in season at the local stand. You can do just one vegetable or combine different types together. For my portions, a small to medium head of cauliflower or cabbage, two medium eggplants, or the equivalent is a good amount. I have done this with green beans, peas, squash, potatoes, carrots, and other vegetables as well. All measurements are approximate as I just use plain kitchen spoons to measure.

Basic Subji:
1 small tomato, diced
1 small onion, diced
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
3 cardiumum seeds
1 tbs. cumin seeds*
1 tsp. garm masala**
1 tsp. salt
a pinch of red chili powder to taste
½ tsp. Turmeric
vegetable(s) of choice

1.The basic idea of Indian cooking is to start with spices in the oil before adding other ingredients. As such, put some oil (I use soy oil or mustard oil) in a wok and swirl to coat the sides. Once it is heated, add the cumin seeds and cardiumum seeds until they begin to crackle.
2.Then add the onion and garlic and fry until it begins to turn brown. Add the tomato and fry until the mixture begins to become a paste.
3.Add the remaining spices and stir them in. Add the vegetables with about a cup of water. Stir them around until coated. Reduce heat, cover, and let simmer until the vegetables are soft. Remove the lid and let the remaining water boil off. Serve hot with rice or roti.

* If you only have cumin powder, add this with the spices later on.
** garm masala is a common spice blend found in Northern India. You might be able to find this in the Asian food section of your grocery store or at an Asian market. Otherwise, you could duplicate this by combining the spices yourself.

Another staple of the north Indian diet is daal, lentils. At first, I didn't like daal very much, but when Kelly visited us in November, she introduced me to the secret ingredient she had discovered: soy sauce. I can't pretend that this is authentic daal, but it's how I like to make it.

A pressure cooker is a staple cooking tool here for everything from potatoes to rice to beans. Lentils are no exception. There are ways to make lentils without a pressure cooker, but it will take much longer. There are many types of lentils. I use the smallest yellow kind. As a rule, the smaller the grain, the shorter cooking time it takes. Without a pressure cooker, soak the lentils for two hours or so, then boil for a long time, covered, until they're tender. This again, serves two.

Daal:
½ cup lentils
1 small tomato, diced
½ small onion, diced
3-5 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tbs. mustard seeds
½ tsp. turmeric
2 tbs. Salt
1 tsp. garm masala
½ cup soy sauce (I've never measured it, this is just a guess at how much I pour in. It may be more.)
(Optional: some small vegetables like chopped green beans, corn, peas, or Japanese eggplant)

1.Cook the lentils. Put in a pressure cooker with 1 cup of water. For tiny daal, eight whistles should be enough. For average and larger daal, you will need between twelve and fourteen whistles.
2.In a wok, heat oil (soy oil works very well) and add mustard seeds, frying until they crackle. Add the garlic and onions until they begin to turn pink, then add the tomatoes and other vegetables, if any. Add the spices and mix thoroughly.
3.Add the lentils with 1 ½ cups of water. Mix it in with the other ingredients, then add the soy sauce. Reduce heat and cover for a few minutes until vegetables are tender. Uncover and boil off the remaining water. Serve with rice or roti.

As I mentioned, I have recently become more culinarily adventurous, but these two dishes still remain staples for me.

Last night, I wound up in McLeod Ganj for dinner with Anya. As we were both craving miso soup, we headed to my personal favorite restaurant, Lung Ta, the Japanese restaurant. The food is entirely vegetarian and very authentic, plus their service is very fast. As we settled into one of the corner tables where you sit on the floor on cushions Japanese style, we started to notice that we understood the language that the group of tourists was speaking next to us: Japanese.

We half-eavesdropped for most of the meal, both lamenting how our Japanese has gotten weaker since coming here and colored with Hindi words. By the end of the meal we worked up our courage and said hello to the tourists. We had a brief conversation in Japanese with them, and I only slipped into Hindi a couple of times. My Japanese came back pretty quickly, but for Anya who hasn't used it for nearly a year, she had a harder time. It was fun to practice as well as remind myself that I'm not a language dunce. It is frustrating after being good at a language to start over completely. Admittedly, I don't understand much Hindi in conversation around here, but I get by.

A recent discovery of mine, thanks to the shopping genius of Sonia, is the Monday Market in Dharmsala. Most stores are closed on Monday in Dharmsala. However, lots of private used and new clothing sellers line the street with tables or tarps, piled with clothes. The shoppers become a traffic hazard as they dart across the street looking for the best deals. As I somehow managed to get to India without any sweaters, that was my mission. I picked up one for 100 rupees and another for only 50 rupees. I passed a table full of sweatpants, and picked up a pair for 50 rupees, figuring they would make good pajamas when it gets colder. For under $4, I am now much better outfitted for winter.

The sweatpants had a tag still on them from Goodwill in the USA. Just how they got from Goodwill to Dharmshala, I will never know, but they would have cost me $4.50 in the US by that tag. I think I got a good deal.