That 70's Show

The CC is absolutely obsessed with collecting recipe books that date back to the late-60's and early-to-mid 70's.

Why the 70's?

It's the first transformation of many of these societies into the modern consumer world and it set off a wave of rather "naïve" cookbook writers almost all women who were documenting the recipes of an earlier age.

The naïveté shouldn't be taken as a pejorative. It's actually a compliment. They were literally writing down what they knew without any filter. These are really amazing documents.

These cookbooks have been updated but they have never been bettered. They are actually the source of inspiration to most modern cookbook writers who all down to a fault refuse to acknowledge the immense amount of ideas that they have nakedly stolen from these earlier writers.

The CC is always collecting these things as he travels. (They tend to be rather cheap.)

There are a few commonalities which are just extraordinary.

One is that they all tend to be obsessed with a level of precision. It is very important to them that the reader make the dish perfectly. The instructions tend to be rather precise and detailed. (This, of course, just warms the cockles of the CC's cold analytical heart.)

The other is how they were marketed. Not through the traditional channels. Often via "nail salons" or "beauty parlors" which was the domain of women. It was word-of-mouth and viral marketing at its earliest and finest.

The third is the primitiveness of the publishing industry at the time. They are frequently published in indifferent editions. Pictures are rare. The print is not glossy. The binding is falling apart. Spelling mistakes abound. However, the passion just jumps off the page!

The fourth is a level of awareness of nutrition. It's not the modern gluten-free fat-free version but they are rather interested in the fact that in an era where budgets are tight that the food not only be delicious but also nutritious.

Last but not least is the obsession with the pineapple. No, the CC is not joking. Hawaii only became a US state on Aug 21st, 1959. There was a massive global marketing campaign to sell pineapple across the world. You can see the obsession everywhere from Life Magazine to newspapers and magazines in all the corners of the world. Think "Mad Men". These women were not exempt from the pull of the siren song. Rest assured that there will be a recipe or three for pineapple in these books!

The CC has had plenty of books go in and out of his kitchen but you will take these books out of his cold dead hands!

---

Here's an extraordinarily incomplete list — roughly going westwards:

Middle-East

Arto der Haroutunian (Middle-East at large)

Afghanistan

Helen Saberi

India

Tarla Dalal (Gujarati vegetarian)
Ummi Abdulla (Kerala Muslim)
Joyce Fernandes (Goan)
Kamalabai Ogale (Maharashtrian)
S. Meenakshi Ammal (Tamil vegetarian)
Katy Dalal (Parsi)
Minakshie Das Gupta (Bengali)

Sri Lanka

Chandra Dissanayake

Taiwan

Fu Mei-Pei

Philippines

Enriqueta David-Perez

Caribbean

Babette de Rozières

---

Panch Phoran

The CC has posted about this classical Bengali five-spice mixture before but the sheer beauty of the spices compelled him to post it again.

It composes of equal parts of cumin, fennel seeds, fenugreek seeds, nigella, and radhuni.

The CC is aware that most online sources suggest mustard seeds but this is wrong. The spices may be fried in mustard oil but you need to have radhuni which are arguably closer in flavor to celery seeds than anything else.

A Simple Bengali Meal

Okra

Most people have a love/hate affair with the vegetable. The CC naturally loves it.

When he was but a little child, he adored it beyond reason. (Clearly, the CC had advanced tastes even back then.)

The trick with okra that makes it "slimy" is that if it's wet, it has a tendency to leak slime. Cellular-wall decomposition and all that. It needs to be pan-fried at a high-heat and it's absolutely necessary that the okra not be wet. You will get spectacular reaults if you just ensure this simple rule.

You must dry it thoroughly with a piece of cloth or if you are lazy, pop it in a pre-heated oven at very low heat (without allowing it to cook.) Either way, the okra must be bone-dry.

The recipe below is a classic Bengali Recipe. As you might guess, there are similar recipes with variations in the spices all over India with much discussion about which is the "best".

The CC refuses to get into that particular Vietnam. He likes them all and the topic is a bit of a snooze-fest anyway.

This one is quite lovely (particularly because of the fennel and nigella) but why quibble over relative greatness?

Dharosh Chorchori

Ingredients

15 pods okra
1 large onion (sliced into thin quarter-moons)

1 1/2 tsp turmeric
1 green chilli (diced fine)

3-4 fresh green chillies

2 tbsp oil
1 tbsp panch phoran

salt (to taste)

Recipe

Slice of the stem and tip of the okra. Make a couple of length-wise gashes on the body of the vegetable.

Slit the 3-4 green chillies length-wise with a gash.

Pound the turmeric and finely diced chillies with a tablespoon of water and grind to a fine paste.

Heat the oil in a wok. Add panch phoran and cook till the spluttering stops. Add the okra. Stir-fry for about 6 minutes. Add salt, the masala paste, the sliced onions and the green chillies.

Stir-fry for about 2-3 minutes. Add about half a cup of water. Simmer till the pan is nearly dry.

(Note: This is a "dry dish". It would normally be served with rice, a "wet dish" and a daal.)

Panch Phoran

It's a classic Bengali spice-mixture. Literally means five-spices (although different from the Chinese five-spice mix.)

It consists of equal parts of cumin, fennel, fenugreek, nigella and radhuni.

The latter may be hard to get but it's necessary.

Although they ask you to substitute by mustard seeds, radhuni tastes nothing like mustard. It's closer in spirit to celery seeds than anything else.

Bengali Cookbook Authenticity Gauge-Meter

There's a shockingly simple way to gauge it.

Just peruse through and check their ingredients for panch phoran (five spices.)

If it features radhuni, it is authentic. If it features mustard seeds, it is not.

For the record, panch phoran consists of radhuni, cumin, fenugreek, fennel and kalonji.

Life can be so simple sometimes.

Bengali Five-Spice

The CC has trouble imagining Bengali food minus mustard and mustard oil but who knew that panch phoran (mixture of mustard seeds, nigella, fenugreek, fennel and cumin) didn't originally use mustard?

It used radhuni (wild celery) instead of mustard.