No wonder Melbourne is reeling under a cold
wave – yesterday’s Google doodle told us solstice is upon us. I wake up to discover I
haven’t kicked off my bed socks, and know it’s going to be a cold day. My early
morning cuppa loses its heat so fast that I have to reheat it in the microwave
by the time I switch the news on and settle down in front of the TV.
Hot meals are the mandate. Breakfast moves
from cereal in cold milk to warm
porridge - or better still raisin
toast with peanut butter. Dinners are mostly hotpot type one-dish meals like
hearty- creamy - buttery or tomatoey pastas, piping hot soups, stews, varanphal, bisi bele bhaat, khichadi saar…Even
lunch needs to be hot – especially a work lunch - to warm the cockles of our
hearts and to thaw our brains.
Working from home yesterday gave me a day
of dalliance with the pretty pink borlotti beans - my first time with these
most spectacular beans I had only seen on supermarket aisles so far.
I wondered if the pods were edible for they looked too good to be true. Google showed me many recipes and photos – but the pink skins weren’t anywhere to be
seen.
I gathered cooking tips on the Internet just like I shelled the seeds, delighting as each pod parted to reveal a surprise configuration - speckled pink on cream or cream on pink.
I mulled the myriad recipes just like I casseroled the stew, adding spice here and herb there until I came up with the most perfect soup.
The girls were somewhere in the vicinity of
our downtown home and had said they might come home for lunch. But when lunch was
ready I tried to call and SMS them without any luck. Then I did what I should’ve done to begin with, what
most of us Facebook junkies do these days… posted on FB – mentioning their names
and exhorting them to- “Come home for lunch - piping hot beroltti beans soup
and sourdough toast on the menu!”
I was teleported instantly to the busy,
noisy, gully playtime of my childhood – in the cold dusks made dusty by our
barefoot play. We would try to take in as much of the shivashivi (Catch’N Cook) tokkudu
billa (Hopscotch) or lapachhapi (Hide’N’
Seek), beating the lengthening shadows to being “it”.
Amidst our yells and screams, matched only by
the chirping and crowing of birds landing on trees to roost for the night,
would come mother’s call – loud and clear – Munna,
Babi – jevayala chala!
Our rumbling tummies would decisively overrule
the hesitant hearts still at play - dinner was ready and we would drop
everything we were doing – quick goodbyes to friends were flung over our
retreating shoulders as we rushed home.
In retrospect, I think this was one cry we
would respond to very obediently, at first call. And I seriously- I mean really
seriously and almost guiltily - wonder why we couldn’t really hear her calls to
come home to study or help her with chores or any other perfectly valid reason
– until we finally heard the non-negotiable stern “Come home – NOW!”
Chala has been a pet word even with our dogs and cats. Our cat Ginger
used to be the first one to jump onto “his” chair at the dining table the
minute he heard me call everyone for dinner. Rajah our dog wagged his tail till
it almost fell off his behind, for this was the word that signaled time
for the leash free park. His chow time signal was a whistled tune, which Shadow
the cat also learnt by association. To this day, 11 years later Shadow comes running
from wherever he is, in response to this tune.
Jevayala
chala जेवायला चला –
come to eat (in our Hinglish) are words that are music to our ears – like
mother’s description of jimana padharo, the
booming call of the town crier extending
a very warm and cordial invitation to a wedding feast to the entire Marwadi community in the
neighbourhood of her childhood home.
Those simple folks wouldn’t stand on
ceremony and accepted the invite on face value, without waiting for a 10-page
gilt wedding invitation card decadently reposed on a salver of expensive dry
fruit and lavish and lush “advance return gifts”.
And what a feast these simple folks would
be treated to - sitting down on stretches of satranji rugs and eating out of patravals
or pattals of Sal leaves - hot ghivar, jalebis, dal moth, spicy dal
lapped up with ash-encrusted baatis
dripping ghee, churma laddus… mother
was as skillful at describing these foods as she was at cooking and so many
things she excelled at…
Words have such affective power! A
vicarious memory of a wedding feast more than seventy years ago, described to
me some forty years ago. It is still ringing in my ears, just as my call out to
the girls resonated with twenty of my FB friends, sending them off on
their own wistful trips…
Borlotti Beans Soup
These beans are a new discovery for the
family. The pretty pink beans don’t retain their colour, though. As if to
compensate- they are so buttery and soft when cooked well. They absorb the
flavours of the soup while retaining a distinct acerbic undernote similar to
the hyacinth or papdi beans or lilva.
And that makes me think this soup can be
made with any bean you can lay your hands on!
Ingredients
¼ cup + 1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
2 carrots, diced
1 large red onion, chopped
2 bay leaves
4 large cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp oregano
2 tsp dried parsley
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp chilli powder/flakes
2-3 cups vegetable stock (if available) water will do too
200 gms canned chopped tomatoes/ fresh
tomatoes/ passata
200g fresh borlotti beans in the pod,
shelled (you can use any lentil/bean- really!)
Salt and pepper to taste
Chopped coriander to garnish
Crusty sourdough bread, to serve
Method
Heat oil in a large pan over moderate heat,
add the bay leaves and after a few seconds, add the potatoes, carrots and onion
and cook for about 5 minutes stirring frequently. Stir in garlic and the spices
and cook for 1 to 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes and sauté for another 2-3
minutes.
Pour in stock and bring to a simmer. Add
beans and season well with salt and pepper. Simmer for 30 minutes, or until
beans are tender. Throughout this process, adjust the consistency by adding water.
Remove from heat.
Add a tablespoon of olive oil and garnish
with chopped coriander.
Serve with crusty bread on the side.
Appears simple but tasty recipe.Must try it.
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