Pather creates a stir
COOKBOOK: SOME OF THE RECIPES IN EAT GLOCAL HAVE RAISED EYEBROWS
Very different take on Indian cuisine from Masterchef SA winner.
Kamini Pather is the winner of MasterChef South Africa 2013 and host of the food-travel show, Girl Eat World, which was broadcast on The Food Network, Discovery World, and Netflix North America.
She visited local pan African food capital, Johannesburg, and also got to taste flavours from Bangkok, Tokyo, Sydney, Lima, Philadelphia, Berlin, Milan, Copenhagen and Dubai.
When you think of traditional Indian cuisine, you may think of the flavours of warm spices, elachi and cloves used to aromatise your lamb biryani, paneer and dhal.
You think of the delicacies that originate from the Indian subcontinent.
But Pather made these dishes her own by “breaking the rules” in her new e-cookbook Eat Glocal in pursuit of achieving the perfect blend of flavours.
She says the combination of tradition, heritage, travelling and where she finds herself now are integral to the unconventional recipes found in Eat Glocal.
“This is a collection of recipes that used the flavours I grew up with and combined them with techniques or ideas that I have experienced during my travels,” she says.
“These recipes were inspired by things that my maternal grandmother has cooked and still cooks. She helped me develop and cook a few of these recipes.”
While no one owns a cuisine or has the virtue of stopping that cuisine from being altered, Kamini is well aware that some of her recipes in Eat Glocal may be perceived as “controversial” because the base of the mixes is inherently traditional and conservative. However, the compounds in the e-book came naturally to her.
“The judges on MasterChef always said that ‘food was personal’ and ‘put yourself on the plate’ and that’s exactly what I have done. Flavours are something that come naturally to me,” she says.
In her bacon dhal recipe, she merges pork, a “disputable” type of meat, with dhal to create a conservative dish that results in a nutritious meal.
“This recipe caused a stir online when I posted its beautiful picture. The word ‘blasphemy’ turned up across all my platforms. I guess it’s because it marries the worlds of the most pious of dishes with the most divisive of meats, pork.
“It could be considered racy to some, but it’s simply perfect to me,” says Kamini.
For anyone who does not eat pork, Kamini advises substituting the bacon for chicken rashers since the smokiness of the rashers with the jeera seeds is a perfect combo.
In her cashew nut hummus, she adds cashew nut butter to her hummus mix instead of tahini. Bear in mind, tahini is one of the main ingredients in hummus.
“This recipe came about because my tahini was old and had turned bitter so instead I added cashew nut butter to the mix. And it was good,” exclaims Kamini.
One of the dishes she recommends as a “must-try” is The garam masala prawn risotto.
According to Kamini, the garam masala was never intended to pair with the Milanese cooking method but it worked really well.
The Gruberg cheese used in the dish is a local version of the Swiss Gruyère and has that sweet, nuttiness that Kamini adores. Risotto is easy to make but it takes a bit of time.
Reminiscing on the cauliflower rice lamb biryani, the modern traditionalist says that doubling up on carbs today isn’t necessary.
Instead, she uses cauliflower as a rice substitute to carry the flavours of the lamb biryani.
In addition to the authentic recipes, Kamini adds personal background stories to some of her preparation instructions, which not only makes for inspirational cooking but also for a great read.
She wants Eat Glocal to inspire people to think about tradition as part of their daily lives and not only save traditional food for those odd moments when it makes sense, but to enjoy it on a regular basis.
– Citizen reporter