ANGLO-INDIAN CUISINE - A LEGACY OF FLAVOURS FROM THE PAST

News feature on my new book ANGLO-INDIAN CUISINE - A LEGACY OF FLAVOURS FROM THE PAST in THE HINDU NEWSPAPER on 21st NOVEMBER 2012

This is the link http://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/Food/colonial-cooking/article4115559.ece

CHRISTMAS PUDDING ON STIR UP SUNDAY

CHRISTMAS PUDDING ON STIR UP SUNDAY

Today the 25^th November 2012  is STIR UP SUNDAY. Stir Up Sunday is also known as Christmas Pudding Sunday. Stir Up Sunday falls on the last Sunday before Advent. Advent begins 4 Sundays before Christmas.

Christmas Puddings were traditionally always made on Stir-up Sunday which is the last Sunday before Advent begins.

The Christmas Pudding is traditionally made with 13 ingredients representing Jesus Christ and his 12 Disciples. The Christmas pudding is stirred from East to West in honour of the 3 wise men who came from the east to visit the Savoiur child

Every member of the family gives the pudding a stir and makes a wish. A coin, a ring or a thimble are sometime added to the pudding mixture. The coin and thimble  supposedledly brings luck and wealth to the person who gets it in his / her piece of the pudding on Christmas day, and the finger ring would foretell a wedding to the person who gets it.

So get your ingredients ready and everyone join in to stir up the Christmas Pudding .

An easy recipe is given below

SPECIAL CHRISTMAS PLUM PUDDING

Serves 6 Preparation time 1 hour

Ingredients

200 grams fresh bread crumbs                     

200 grams butter

2 teaspoons instant coffee (Nescafe or Bru) 

2 teaspoons golden or date syrup

½ teaspoon baking powder                            

2 eggs beaten well

¼ cup rum                                                       

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, cloves and  nutmeg                           

100 grams raisins

100 grams chopped sultanas                         

100 grams mixed peel

½ teaspoon salt                                              

100 grams sugar

Cream the butter and sugar together then add the eggs and mix well.

Gradually add all the other ingredients and mix well.

Grease a Pudding Mould or any suitable bowl with butter and pour the pudding mixture into it.

 Steam the pudding for about 1 hour on low heat till it is firm to touch

Note:  This pudding can be made in advance and refrigerated till required. Steam for 10 minute or microwave for 3 minutes before serving.

For a more exotic taste, when still warm make a few small holes all over the pudding and pour about 6 tablespoons of rum over it.

 This recipe is from my recipe Book THE ANGLO-INDIAN FESTIVE HAMPER

THE GRINDING STONE – AN INDESPENSIBLE PART OF LIFE IN THE OLDEN DAYS

THE GRINDING STONE – AN INDESPENSIBLE PART OF LIFE IN THE OLDEN DAYS

In the olden days, cooking would take up practically the whole day since everything had to be prepared from scratch. The masalas had to be ground manually on a grinding stone and the food cooked over firewood.

The grinding stone was an indispensable appendage in every home in the olden days. It was used on a regular basis to grind the masalas or curry stuff required for the daily cooking, The grinding stone consisted of a flat granite stone about two feet in length and one foot breadth. The wet or dry ingredients were placed on this stone and another stone about 10 inches in length that was shaped like a roller or cylinder was used to grind the masalas in an up and down direction. This grinding stone was known as “Ammi Kal” in Tamil.

The top of the grinding stone had to be rough and coarse so that the masalas could be ground easily to a smooth texture. However, due to continuous grinding, the grinding stone would become smooth, and it would take longer to grind the ingredients to the required consistency. This was when the ‘Grinding Stone Tapper’ was called in to tap the grinding stone to make it rough again.

The grinding stone tapper would use a small chisel and hammer to first make small pits in a star design in the centre of the grinding stone and then continue tapping the stone with his chisel and hammer around this design till the whole surface of the grinding stone was covered with small pits very close together. He repeated the same procedure with the top stone as well. The Grinding Stone Man had his own peculiar way of calling out ‘Ammi Kalu. Ammi Kalu’  to let people know that he was coming around. 

Some houses had yet another type of grinding stone which was used to grind wet masalas and  batter for Idlis and Dosas, or rice pancakes. This grinding stone was shaped like a small barrel with a hole in the centre. The dry masalas or the soaked rice and dhal with a little water, was put into this hole and was ground to a smooth batter with another cylindrical shaped stone in a rotary movement. When these grinding stones became smooth, the Ammi Kallu man would tap this stone as well to make it coarse again.

This type of grinding stone was known as ‘Rubbu Kal’ in Tamil which meant ‘to rotate’.

Using this type of grinding stone was actually a sort of exercise and it ensured a daily work out for the grinder as the hands and upper body of the person doing the grinding was fully exercised!

This old concept of the ‘Rubbu Kal’ is used in the modern day electric grinders.

Every house also had its own pestle and mortar of undressed granite which was used for pounding small quantities of dry spices. The action of pounding the spices and making them into a smooth powder was quite therapeutic and exciting at the same time.

Man has come a long way from the Stone Age. But its so amazing to think that we have come to adapt and innovate the most primitive of man’s tools for survival and use them to make our lives easier today amongst modern inventions and technology.  

Now with all the ready-made masalas and mixes available in the market and the modern and time saving gadgets, cooking has become so much easier and faster. The old grinding stones have now been replaced by Mixers / Blenders and Grinders