Suvir Saran Spins Indian Home Cooking

By JULIETTE ROSSANT TIME Magazine's founder Heny Luce wrote famously in 1941 that the 20th Century was "the American Century": to whom will the 21st Century belong? Will this be the Indian Century or the Chinese? Typically, analysts measure success or gain by computer chip production, population "growth" (explosion), or oil and gas consumption. I recommend that we measure dominant civilizations or countries like the French do: by cuisine. Following the long-time dominance of France (see previous article for a measure of French culinary pride), a number of cuisines among leading economic nations came to the fore in the latter 20th Century, among them American, Italian, and Japanese. Among recent experiments in cuisine have been various Asian takes, including Asian fusion, but what is the next major cuisine to gain global prominence? Suvir Saran may have the answer -- Indian -- and in this aspect he is clearly a native son and follower of Mahatma Gandhi. To unify India, Gandhi rejected anything other than the humblest symbol he knew for his newly emerging nation: he made sure that the spinning wheel became the emblem on the flag. Among his epigrams is "The charkha (spinning wheel) is intended to realize the essential and living oneness of interest among India’s myriads." In fact, in 1947 he told India's Constituent Assembly, "If the flag of the Indian Union does not contain the emblem of the spinning wheel, I will refuse to salute the flag" (see article in The Hindu). Suvir has read Gandhi: his food philosophy seems to embrace another Gandhi epigram that "Hunger is the argument that is driving India to the spinning wheel." As he said in an exclusive interview to superchefblog, Suvir has a mission: I want to give Indian cuisine the pedigree it deserves" -- among fellow Indians as well as others -- rejecting fusion cuisine (by which he means using Indian ingredients with French techniques) in the quest for perfect Indian technique to elevate humble home cooking. In the process, he may have created the first "Pan-Indian" cuisine. Although (like Gandhi) a Hindu and vegetarian himself, his cooking embraces the whole Subcontinent, from the Moghul meat-based cuisine of the North to vegetarian dishes of the South. In elevating Indian cuisine, he underscores the same pride and sense of economy which Gandhi promoted with the symbolic spinning wheel. All this is by way of preface to his first cookbook, Indian Home Cooking: A Fresh Introduction to Indian Food (Clarkson Potter 2004), which may soon help mark the Indian Century to come. Suvir uses the same game plan as the French Nouvelle Cuisine Chefs who were the students of Fernand Point: reinvigorate Cuisine Grand-Mere. In his case, Suvir harks back to his early lessons in New Delhi: "I got my first and most important training in the kitchen of my New Delhi home from a man name Panitji" (p. 5). But he adds to this foundation with a stay in Nagpur, where his mother rather than a family cook did the cooking. "My mother's food was always delicious, and she didn't spend all day making it." (p. 6) He traveled all over India with his father, a bureaucrat; years later, he taught cooking in New York. Even if you have many Indian spices, after reading Indian Home Cooking you will want to buy fresh, whole spices and Indian ingredients specifically for the recipes in this book. Ground spices loose fragrance and flavor quickly. Suvir recommends a dedicated spice grinder or hand grinder because so many of the recipes call for freshly ground spice mixes. Flip through the pages and the colors of India, the browns and creams, the greens and reds of Indian spices almost waft up from the pages. The first recipe for Black Pepper Rasam with Tamarind (p. 11) is an invitation to a different kind of dining. Rasam is a spicy, invigorating broth-like drink that are made from a spice mixture added to a sour-based broth, with a flavored oil added at the end. The dals, made from legumes like lentils or chickpeas, cooked as a stew flavored with aromatics and spices, are perhaps familiar to most of us who visit Indian restaurants. Suvir's recipes start simply with Simple Lentil Dal with Cumin and Dried Red Chiles (p. 27) and then evolve into "Kwalitys" Chickpeas (p. 36), an exotic dish of humble chickpeas flavored with 15 different ingredients from cardamom pods to dried mango powder and pomegranate powder for extra sourness. Since Suvir is a vegetarian, I turned to the vegetable chapter and landed a perfect July recipe: My Sister's Favorite Corn Curry (p. 61), combining a green paste, milk, spices and corn to form a spicy stew. It goes well with Indian Cheese in a Herbed Green Sauce (pp. 80-81) which uses ricotta, spinach and plenty of spices. Suvir has wonderful meat dishes (like Lahori Chincken Curry with Whole Spices and Potatoes, p. 113), raitas (the yogurt salads that remind me of the refreshing yogurt dishes of the Middle East), and recipes for breads, snacks, and crackers, then the pickles and chutneys. Last week, Suvir was in Washington, DC, for a demonstration at the Smithsonian's 2005 Folklife Festival. In a sweltering hot tent, before an audience that included Chef Michel Richard of Citronelle, he prepared a green chutney and a tamarind chutney (pp. 209-10), two basics of Indian cuisine, that he combined with some rice puffs and noodles to form a snack. Despite the fact that the stove barely worked, the tent filled with the fragrant smell of cumin, fennel and garam masala. Suvir went out of his way to praise co-author Stephanie Lyness: he credits her as a great writer, recipe tester, and Indian cuisine expert. As a twosome, they are indeed impressive. At the Folklife Festival every last book sold: I was happy to have my signed copy to go home and cook with. Previous articles: Biro: European-Inspired Cuisine July 4: Paul Gayler's The Gourmet Burger July 4: East Meets West Robert Klein: The Amorous Busboy of Decatur Avenue Christy Campbell: The Botanist and the Vintner Kathleen Daelemans: Getting Thin and Loving Food! 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