The space between us and mint chai

I was on hold for a while for Thrity Umrigar's The Space Between Us and got the book yesterday. Since I was already past the deadline to submit this review I stayed up late to finish off the book. Well, the delayed deadline was not the only thing that kept me up. The book grips you with the trials and tribulations of two women from different strata of society.
Sera Dubash, a Parsi upper middle class housewife, is haunted by the demons of her tumultuous marriage with a physically and mentally abusive husband and an equally "monster" of a mother-in-law. The aging Bhima, has worked for the Dubash's for a long time and is not only trusted with cooking and cleaning the house but is also a confidant of Sera.

The two women live in worlds as apart from each other as a silk sari and a torn, faded cotton one. But they share an inexplicable bond over cups of mint tea which Sera likes light and milky and Bhima prefers strong and sugary.
Thrity weaves a beautiful tale of the two women who have been betrayed by the men in their lives and their only hope and reason for living is their progeny. For Sera it is the promise of a grandson her daughter, Dinaz, is carrying inside her. Bhima's light at the end of the tunnel is her intelligent college going grand daughter, Maya, who, hopefully, will escape the squalor of the slums.

The story comes to a head when 17 year old Maya gets pregnant with the handsome but callous Feroz, Dinaz's husband. Bhima's and Sera's loyalties towards each other and their families are tested when the secret comes out in the open.

Thrity shines a bright light on the arrogance of the rich, the tenacity of the poor, the sense of entitlement that comes with money and the desperation of having no money.

Is it any wonder the book kept me up till I finished reading it? A couple of cups of mint tea helped along the way. Now, if only I had the batata vada with chutney on the side to go with them. Hmmm...

I had never made mint tea before but gave it a try and here's the recipe.

Ingredients:

2 cups water

1/4 cup milk

4 tsp sugar (or to taste)

2 tsp tea leaves (i used a mix of Vagh Bakri and Brook Bond Red Label)

4-5 mint leaves

Method:

Combine all the ingredients except the mint leaves. Boil till the sugar dissolves and the bubbling liquid turns a reddish brown color.

Add the mint leaves and boil for another minute. Turn off the heat and strain into tea cups.

Sip the minty goodness.

PS: I would like to nitpick just one tiny point. For a talented writer like Thrity I did not expect to read the word 'unconscious thought' when she meant 'subconscious thought'. There is a huge difference between the two words. The former means comatose or passed out while the latter means intuitive. And she used the phrase not once but twice.

Sol Kadhi for the soul

My earliest memory of sole kadhi is of my Kaki (aunt) squeezing the coconut milk out of grated coconut while kokams soaked in warm water in a bowl. She was born and brought up in Bomaby and to this day she makes the best sol kadhi and fish fry in our family. I remember drinking glass after glass of it when we went to her home for dinner.
Years later, as a single girl working in Bombay, India, I found another outlet for seafood and sol kadhi – Gomantak or seafood restaurants. For a couple of years, our Indian Express offices moved to Lower Parel (W) and we had a couple of hole in the wall Gomantaks in its maze of alleys. Since Lower Parel has a lot of mills and advertising agencies, these Gomantaks were frequented by the mill workers and a lot of junior level advertising employees. And once we moved there, my colleagues and I too became regulars at the nearby Gomantaks.
For me, given a choice between a thali and a fried Bangra, I always chose the bangra accompanied by at least two glasses of sole kadhi. It cost me about Rs 25, about 12 years ago and it was a bargain even in those days.

After coming to the US, sole kadhi slowly slipped out of my mind, mainly because it is hard to find fresh Bangra or good quality kokam. Four years ago when my in-laws were visiting from India, my MIL was fascinated with the ready availability of coconut milk, even though it is canned. In fact, she liked the thickness and taste of it better than going through the process of extracting it from grated coconut. We decided to make sole kadhi as a surprise for my FIL, who had grown up drinking it on the coastal town of Honavar but had not had it in years since moving to Gujrat. Here’s the recipe we came up with and it is pretty close to my Kaki’s as well as the Gomantak’s recipe.

Ingredients:

1 can coconut milk
1 can water
5-6 kokum
1 clove of garlic
1 tsp of cumin powder (optional)
1-2 green chillies
Sugar to taste
Salt to taste

Method:

Soak the kokum in ¼ cup of warm water for at least 30 minutes. The water will turn a lovely lavender color. Squeeze the kokum out and retain the water.
In a blender, combine the kokum pulp with the rest of the ingredients and blend. The kadhi will assume a pink hue* especially if the kokum is fresh.
Serve chilled.

*The only kokums I am able to get in the US are dry and so I never get the lovely pink color in my kadhi.

I am sending this sol kadhi for the soul to PJ's Go Nuts event and also to RCI -- Udipi and Manglor event.

Refreshing Lassi / Yogurt Smoothie

In India lassi is the official drink of hot summer months. A tall glass of icy cool lassi refreshes the body and spirit and gives relief from the hot winds and an even hotter sun.

Lassi is usually made with full fat yogurt but I make my yogurt with 1% milk. I don't think it alters the taste very much but there is no doubt the full fat yougurt lassi tastes better. Of course it is also not as thick. A friend living in Haryana tells me the milk and yogurt there is the best in the world.

Like all things Indian, the method of preparing lassi also varies from state to state and family to family. Some prefer meethi (sweet) lassi, some charkhi (salty) lassi. Some like it so thick you have to scoop it with a spoon. Some prefer a thiner version you can gulp down.

My aunt in Bombay puts crushed ice and vanilla essence in it. My mom always made it with roasted cumin powder, black salt and sugar.

For a spicier version she would add a green chilli and a piece of ginger. One may contest that at this point it stops being lassi and becomes mattha (buttermilk). But as the bard put it so precisely -- "what's in a name? Lassi by any other name is still lassi." And tastes as good.

So here is to tall refreshing glasses of lassi to tide us over the summer months. Cheers!

Ingredients:

1 cup of yogurt

1/2 cup of cold water

2 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp roasted cumin powder

pinch of black salt (optional)

pinch of salt

Blend all the ingredients in a blender for two mins or till frothy. Sprinkle cumin powder on top.

For charkhi lassi

Add 1 green chilli and 1/2 " inch of ginger root

Blend all the ingredients in a blender.