The great chef’s life in Delhi.

[Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi]

Meet the Julia Child of Civil Lines, a genteel neighbourhood of bungalows and apartments in north Delhi. Passionate about writers like Oscar Wilde, Mark Twain, George Bernard Shaw, Anita Desai and Qurratulain Haider, Ms Child, 55, lives in a book-lined ground floor apartment with her author husband, Irfan Habib, and two sons, Mehran and Farhan. She tweets under the handle @atiyaz. There she describes herself as “publishng head@leading pblshr, pasionate abt edu n gndr isues.Fierce nationalist, bigoted secularist. Luv poetry.Luv criket whn India is wining.”

Ms Child grew up in various cities of India; her father had a transferable post in the Reserve Bank of India. The family always had cooks though mother, Razia, would guide the preparations of meals. Ms Child too has a kitchen assistant: Bela, a young woman from Jharkhand.

A Shite Muslim from Oudh, a region east of Delhi, Ms Child describes her homeland as the cradle of Ganga-Jamuna civilization, referring to the two holy rivers that flow through the area. In Oudh, Islam and Hinduism influenced each other more extensively than in Delhi in terms of custom, dress, language and food.

“Our dishes are very different from what is found in Delhi,” says Ms Child. “It’s not on-your-face kind of cuisine. Flavors are subtle. There are less spices and less oil. The meal infuses you with warmth, and not leaves you with a sense of bloated stomach.” Here is the recipe of Ms Child’s ‘chana dal ghosht’.

Each time I cook chana dal gosht, I’m reminded of Chehlum. It’s the 40th day of the martyrdom of Imam Husain in Karbala. Processions are organised and majlis, or gatherings, are held to commemorate the tragedy. The events of that sad day are narrated and elegies known as marsia are recited. In the morning, some Shite households in central and eastern Uttar Pradesh – formerly parts of Oudh – make chana dal gosht. It is first taken to the in-house or neighbourhood Imambara, where a prayer is offered for the redemption of the martyr’s soul. Only then is the dal distributed.

Chana Dal Gosht

Garnish with chopped green chilies, fine slivers of ginger, mint leaves. Sprinkle garam masala at the top. Serve with roti.

Julia’s empire

Masalas are ready

Dal is soaked, meat is washed

Cooking the meat

Cooking the dal

Tweeting break

Newspaper break

Kitchen wealth

Tea?

Dal is done

Meat is done

Add dal to meat

Fry the onions

Dishing out

Salt to taste

Chana Dal Gosht, garnished

Proud of her creation

Serve with roti

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

Related posts:

1. City Food – Julia Child Makes Aloo Salaan in Nizamuddin East
2. City Food – Julia Child Makes Badaam Pasanda in I.P. Extension
3. City Food – Julia Child Makes Egg Curry in GB Road
4. City Food – Julia Child Makes Moongphali Cheewra in Vasundhara
5. City Food – Julia Child Makes Rumali Roti in Nizamuddin Basti

This entry was posted on October 23, 2011 at 11:42 PM and is filed under Food, Julia Child's Delhi. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.