The rigours of the army had instilled immaculate lifestyle discipline in Major Anil, of which he was understandably proud.
Even after he retired, he would be up at five in the morning to breathe the dewy air, do his suryanamaskar and water the plants. Amit, his son, my pal, was a smart youngster and an avid bird watcher, whose body clock was, funnily, wired completely opposite to his father’s! Amit’s waking hours matched those of the collared scops owl, and the major’s mission was to re-wire his son!
Whenever Amit and I returned home from our late night jaunts, uncle would be there to welcome us and enquire how our day was. But like I said, he would beat the clock by the second and be up at five for he had a wayward son to wake. “Wake up Amit,” he would say. Amit would pull a pillow over his ears, uncle would yank it off, “wake up — it’s morning”, Amit’s hand would rove around and pull whatever it found over his head: the jeans that he had flung next to the bed, sometimes even the bedsheet on which he was sleeping! Those were yanked off as well, and the windows opened to let the cold air in, then Amit would start negotiating for time.
“Five more minutes please!” Uncle would count the seconds down. On occasion, it wasn’t beyond uncle to pour a mug of water over Amit!
This was almost a daily ritual but by half past five — the whole family would be up! Uncle, happy that he had made progress, making mental notes that he had only thirty more minutes to chip off, Amit and I, with sleep deprived heads, would invariably find ourselves watering the plants or washing the car!
The pain of getting up early, however, came to nought, when Aunty Sunila would call us all to the table. Her mastery of the breakfast was what folklores are made of: fluffy poha, crisp but melt in the mouth aloo paranthas or namak ajwain ki roti with dollops of soft melting butter and chilled maa ki daal, homemade gajar gobhi shalgam achar (carrot, cauliflower, turnip pickle), thick cumin lassi, incredibly ballooned puris with a potato rassa, an ate ka halwa (whole wheat pudding) that would bring us to our knees and a devastatingly good but secret recipe of creamed onions and tomatoes!
Discipline was easily installed by uncle with a little help from his culinary wizard wife. It paid to be up at five in the morning!
PS: Last month we visited Amit at his beautiful home in Trivandrum. Amit and I were up waking our kids while our wives were busy with the paranthas. We knew, in an instant, as long as there was breakfast on the table, all was well with the world.
Piping hot paranthas with dollops of ghee
This yummy recipe takes the better part of two nights to make.
These paranthas are a justifiable reward to all the hard work you put in. As parantha recipes go, this one is a winner from my friend Inder. But it takes the better part of two nights. If you plan to eat these on a Sunday morning, you need to start on Friday night. Cook the daal on Friday night with water for about 25 minutes or until completely done. The daal should be thick.
Heat the ghee — add the other tadka ingredients and temper the daal with this. Allow to cool and let the flavours develop overnight. Keep refrigerated.
Next afternoon, remove from the fridge and add sieved whole wheat flour to the daal by the handful. Add a tablespoon of ajwain (bishop’s weed), some red chilli powder, some chopped onions and chopped coriander leaves and a bit of salt to taste. Knead well. Add more flour if required — our aim is to get a dough that is soft — like a baby’s cheek.
Just make sure that when you pinch the neighbour’s baby’s cheek, you do it gently. When done, cover the dough and rest in the refrigerator overnight.
Now comes the D day, take out your precious dough and carefully observe the texture — there is a good chance that you may need to add a little more of the whole wheat flour as the dough would have become a bit sticky over the night. Dust the work surface with some whole wheat flour, roll the dough into a ball and roll out flat into a disc.
Apply ghee over the surface and fold the dough into a semicircle and then a quarter. Roll out again, using a soft-firm pressure on the roller. Roll into a triangle about 6” long. Heat a flat non-stick pan — brush on ghee and slide in the parantha. Add more ghee from the side, don’t be squeamish. The parantha literally needs to cook in ghee.
Press the parantha down ensuring full contact with the pan. After a few minutes, turn to see if a beautiful browning has been achieved. Flip and cook the other side to brown similarly. Flip and cook again till the brown develops into a delicious red tint. Ditto for the flip side.
At this point — you have two choices. Eat and be elated or serve and get praised.
I prefer to eat; the praise can wait! ;-)
PS: Fresh yoghurt, fresh butter and mango pickle complete the picture!
Moong daal ke paranthe
* Raw yellow moong daal 150 gm
For the tadka
* Ghee 2 tbsp
* 1 chopped onion (medium sized)
* 2 chopped tomatoes
* Chopped garlic 1 tbsp
* Chopped green chilli 1 tsp
* Red chilli powder 1/2tsp
* Whole wheat flour 200 gm and more for kneading and rolling
* Ajwain (bishop’s weed) 1 tbsp
* Chopped onion 1
* Chopped green chilli 1
* Chopped coriander leaves 1 tbsp
* Red chilli powder 1 tsp
* Salt to taste
Treats to make you have a great day
If any meal has the power to decide your mood for the day — it’s got to be breakfast.
The English got their formula right when they paired a double sunny side up with bacon, sausages, hash browns and toast. Even today it remains one of the world’s most preferred breakfasts with the customary cup of the English breakfast tea with a spot of milk.
The Spanish love their pan-con-tomate-y-amon — bread rubbed with garlic and topped with fresh tomatoes and ham. The French and the Italians, from whom one would expect high culinary virtuosity in this regard, actually just manage with croissants and coffee but then again, they take the croissants to a whole new level and while on the subject, how can we leave the mighty American spread out?
Thick homemade pancakes with maple syrup or honey, bacon rashers or home-made ‘biscuits’ with honey and butter, ham and blueberry muffins.
Each country has its own quirky breakfasts, the Polish kielbasa, the German wurstel and potato pancakes, the Danish rolls, the Russian oladi (pancakes with kefir), the Iranian haleem, the Ghanaian waakye (rice cooked with beans and prawns), the Tibetan momos, the Korean kimchi, rice and clear soup or the Egyptian/Lebanese foul medammas for example.
But in all honesty the whole world of breakfasts can be weighed against the South Indian breakfast. Its amazing versatility, variety and flair make it stand out — soft and luscious idlis, dosas that redefine crisp, pesarattu, vadas with a myriad flavours, chutneys, sambars, pachadis, the laciest of lacy appams or the spongy vatayappams — the list and repertoire is endless.
You can make your breakfasts interesting with the following ideas
1. Do a Welsh rarebit style breakfast — like a cheese on toast, experiment with different types and see what works for you. Any soft or semi-soft cheese would be interesting on toast.
2. Try pancakes flavoured with avocado, pour over maple syrup in a generous measure, serve with crisp bacon, and a strawberry whip (strawberries blended with ice and a little milk).
3. On a cold morning — make momos with a spicy chilli relish.
4. Cut oranges, sweet limes and grapefruits into wedges, arrange in a single layer in a bowl, sprinkle with wine and brown sugar and grill till the sugar caramelises. Serve with a chilled glass of tomato juice stirred with a slit green chilli.
5. Top a toast with sliced pears, emmenthal cheese and bacon — grill.
6. Make vadapavs and have them in the lawn or in the balcony with spicy chutney.
7. For no special reason. Open a bottle of chilled champagne, make mimosas (champagne and orange juice) at the table. Serve with toasts and a really strong blue cheese like a stilton or gorgonzola.
8. Pour equal measures of chilled pineapple and tomato juice into a glass. Enjoy with war
9. Make a Viennese style coffee — pour strong coffee and hot milk into a cup. For two parts of coffee, pour one part of milk. Sweeten and top with a dollop of whipped cream.
10. Get up early, make sandwiches and coffee and call friends over. It’s not always about the food — sometimes it’s about the conversation!
Mandaar Sukhtankar is Executive Chef, The Park, Hyderabad
