Back of the Book
Now in its second edition, the Konkani Saraswat Cookbook continues to celebrate a unique and enduring cuisine with its special flavours. It covers the range from basic recipes to elaborate ones, and those for special occasions.
From potatoes steeped in a tamarind sauce to the well-loved dal seasoned with chilli and garlic. From the delectable fried bitter-gourd salad to the aromatic blast of sprouted moong ghashi. From a chutney with ridge-gourd peels and khotte in jackfruit-leaf cups to sun-dried onion vadis. The book also has recipes for babies and new mothers, and a selection of herbal teas.
The photographs together with Asha Philar’s personal notes evoke the textures of Konkani Saraswat food, and of Konkani itself.
The book has a friendly approach with clear steps, notes and after notes which suggest variations or offer detailed guidelines.
About the Author
Asha Philar was born in Bangalore, India, and went to school and college there. She worked briefly with a finance corporate and moved to Surathkal after her marriage to Dr. Satish Philar, senior faculty of the Karnataka Regional Engineering College.
Asha’s early interests in cooking were inspired by her mother Sushila Aroor and her sister-in-law Padmini Aroor who had range as well as a passion for perfection. Later, in Surathkal, her mother-in-law Sumathi Philar enriched her repertoire of recipes, guided her in the intricacies of traditional food-making and extended her horizons beyond food as a kitchen-bound activity. Surathkal also gave her the opportunity to learn from friends on the campus, and to teach.
To help her sons Tarun and Nikhil and their wives Aparna and Shantal, she created a private website with food, remedies and housekeeping guidelines. Her other interests include painting, sewing and writing.
Asha and Satish live in Bangalore and periodically in the US. They have four grandchildren-Milind, Nidhi, Trisha and Shriya.
Introduction
The title of this book, The Konkani Saraswat Cookbook, is likely to invite debate. Which of the many varieties of Konkani does it refer to? And there are many Saraswat groups, including the community in Kashmir. There is also no defined cuisine that can be called Konkani Saraswat.
It seemed a good idea, however, to use a term that relied on sound and feel rather than on technical accuracy. Konkani Saraswat food has a distinct identity and while there may be differences in naming and making across groups, there is a shared cuisine, a large one. It is this common ground the book looks at.
There were many interesting challenges. The obvious one was gathering a range of recipes that most people would agree were representative. Another was nailing recipes that could be called traditional and authentic. What, for example, is the classic recipe for Vaali Ambat? We realised quite soon that ‘classic’ means different things to different people. Food-making is always layered over with practices which overlap but with variations, some of which are quite significant. There may not always be agreement about ingredients (Ammi tantu kottambari ghalnati – ‘We don’t use coriander seeds in that recipe’) or method (Phanna att nhai, maggiri ghalka-’The seasoning should be done last, not at this point’). It was therefore not easy to arrive at final versions that we could stand firmly behind. This is probably in the nature of all cookbooks related to a specific cuisine, and it took up a lot of our working time.
We hope the recipes will serve as a guide. The after-notes offer more ideas, especially for those interested in change. Except where stated otherwise, the recipes are planned with three or four people in mind.
As we took the book forward, we discovered that Konkani Saraswat food has a ‘whole-earth’ approach with its use of vegetables, roots, shoots, leaves, pulses and grain. Peels, pith, flowers and seeds have their place, as do traditional practices of storing food past the season. They represent simplicity, thrift, intentions to conserve limited resources, all of these with an eye to nutrition. The cuisine also has charming departures from the expected, for example a kheeri which is ‘cheppi’ (non-sweet) and a salad of broken pappads.
We hope you will enjoy using this book.
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