TRADITIONS tastefully TRANSFORMED
Bay Area Diwali experts dish on sweet and savory treats for the fall festival
“We order boxes of sweets for everyone, do prayers to Lakshmi (the goddess of wealth), light up candles and make special dishes for the staff meal.” — Vikram Bhambri, co-owner of Rooh
As a little girl growing up in Mumbai, one of Amisha Dodhia Gurbani’s earliest memories is holding the end of her mother’s sari while watching her cook for the family in the wee morning hours. Aromatic dals. Mouth-watering chutneys. And perfectly round rotis for a full Gujarati thali meal, which Gurbani mastered by the age of 10.
The weeks leading up to Diwali were a particularly exciting time, when rainbows of rangoli brightened the home, and Gurbani’s mother, Hema, made cardamom-tinged gajjar no halvo, or carrot halva, rose-scented cashew brittle and nutty, fudge-like mohanthal to celebrate the Indian festival of light celebrated by Hindus, Jains, Sikhs and Buddhists.
Those were just the mithai, or sweets. Like most families who observe Diwali, which starts Thursday, the Gurbanis feasted on potluck-style curries, vegetable koftas and paneer dishes at dinner parties throughout the month.
“It was a cornucopia of food,” recalls Gurbani, a Fremont computer engineer. She’s also the creator of TheJamLab. co, where she shares her drool-worthy food stylings, photographs and fusion recipes, including jaw-droppingly gorgeous passion fruit kaju (cashew) katli blondies that could be added to this year’s epic Diwali cookie box.
Gurbani’s new cookbook offers more inspiration. “Mumbai Modern: Vegetarian Recipes Inspired by Indian Roots and California Cuisine” (Countryman
Press, $35) features not only traditional and innovative sweets for Diwali — hello, peacock macarons with apricot saffron jam — but a total of 100 recipes for breakfast (pear and chai masala cinnamon rolls), appetizers (aloo tiki arancini with saffron aioli), mains (vegetable koftas in tomato cashew curry) and even drinks (kumquat and ginger caipirinha).
Through her cookbook and classes — Gurbani has a book signing on Nov. 13 at San Francisco’s Omnivore Books and is teaching a virtual Mumbai Street Food cooking workshop with Milk Street on Nov. 17 — she wants to help Americans cook more Indian food at home. Don’t be intimidated by the long lists of ingredients, she says. They’re usually just spices. And having a handy dabba, or spice box, will keep them and you organized for success. That idea of mise en place is one of many lessons she learned from Hema, who died in 2007. The book is dedicated to her.
“All I know about cooking I learned from her,” Gurbani says. “My mom was extremely generous and kind-hearted and loved sharing her food. This (cookbook) is sharing her legacy with the world.”
That love of sharing home-cooked Indian food is what led Archana and Mohit Nagrath, engineers and self-proclaimed foodies, to open Desi in Campbell in 2019.
“The idea (behind the menu) is to bring out the similarities between different global dishes,” Archana says. “Every culture has a type of pizza or empanada, we just don’t call it that.”
Think grated paneer “bhurji” tarts made with peppers, tomatoes and Indian spices, panko-crumbed yogurt rice ball poppers with spicy pickle dip, and gujia empanadas, a savory twist on the sweet, half-moon dumplings native to India. The Nagraths stuff theirs with mushrooms, garlic, cottage cheese and green peppers.
For Diwali, they plan to decorate the restaurant with tea lights and bright rangoli patterns to symbolize light, joy and abundance. They’ll be giving away a free dessert — a creme brulee of gulab jamun, the classic mithai — to every diner on Thursday. And they’ll be launching a new dish, a naan pizza topped with paneer or chicken tikka and all the fixings.
“It’s very nostalgic, we used to make it at home as kids,” Archana says. “And it’s a fun shareable dish, perfect for Diwali.”
Rooh owners Anu and Vikram Bhambri commemorate Diwali every year with their 90 staff members at their progressive, Indianinspired restaurants in Palo Alto and San Francisco.
“We order boxes of sweets for everyone, do prayers to Lakshmi (the goddess of wealth), light up candles and make special dishes for the staff meal,” Vikram says. “It’s a tradition that everyone looks forward to.”
From Thursday to Nov. 7, Palo Alto guests will be able to order kebab platters ($55) — with a choice of salmon tikka, lamb chops, duck seekh kebab or chicken malai tikka — and the option to add a popular northern Indian Diwali sweet called chenna malpua. These deepfried, golden brown pancakes are typically served with a thickened cream called rabri. Chef Pujan Sarkar is doing a rabri ice cream.
In San Francisco, Sarkar is planning a Thursday Diwali dinner ($70) that includes a butternut squash and parsnip shorba, lamb burrah cutlet and paneer malai roll. For dessert is mishti doi, a caramelized yogurt that hails from Sarkar’s native region of Bengal. It is traditionally served during festivals and other celebrations. He tops his with house-made sesame black rice granola.
“For crunch, and a modern twist,” Vikram says.
“My mom was extremely generous and kind-hearted and loved sharing her food. This (cookbook) is sharing her legacy with the world.”
— Amisha Dodhia Gurbani, author of “Mumbai Modern”
“The idea (behind the menu) is to bring out the similarities between different global dishes. Every culture has a type of pizza or empanada, we just don’t call it that.”
— Archana Nagrath, co-owner of Desi
DETAILS » Find inspiration, as well as details on the Omnivore Books signing and Milk Street cooking class at TheJamLab.co.
Desi is open for lunch and dinner Tuesday-Sunday at 501 E. Campbell Ave. in Campbell; www.eatatdesi.com.
Rooh is open for dinner TuesdaySunday and lunch on weekends at 473 University Ave. in Palo Alto, and dinner Tuesday-Sunday at 333 Brannan St. in San Francisco; www.rooh restaurants.com.