The Mistress of Spices by Chitra Banerjee Divakarunu. Recipe by Dina Begum
Foodie Book Club read for July. The Mistress of Spices by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Welcome to the new look Foodie Book Club Recipe & Book Review Page
This has been an exciting time for Foodie Book Club and I hope you find the new look page, fun and exciting too.
July starts with a foreword by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni , author of this month’s Foodie Book Club book - The Mistress of Spices, and a recipe using spices, this month’s ingredient, in a delicious Chicken Korma by Dina Begum.
A big thank you to them both for supporting Foodie Book Club in helping us to grow our groups and for their amazing generosity.
Sit back, put your feet up and enjoy the book and the food.
Check out next month’s book title on the Foodie Book Club Upcoming Reads page.
The Mistress of Spices: An Introduction by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
I’m delighted that Lee and the Foodie Book Club has chosen my novel Mistress of Spices for their July selection! Thank you. Here’s a little bit about the novel:
The Mistress of Spices is my first novel. It seems like a long time ago that I wrote it—I now have 18 books. I wrote this book because I wanted to interweave things that I knew and loved about India with the things I was learning and thinking about in the United States, the country to which I had immigrated some years back. I also wanted to bring to a novel everything that I knew about poetry, (I was a poet before I became a novelist) and how images can tell a deeper truth than prosaic explanations. The novel also exemplifies my belief that the world is a magical place, and that it is filled with many things that defy logical explanation.
The Mistress of Spices is a novel of magic, love, heartbreak and finding happiness in unexpected places. It is also a novel about immigrant communities and their challenges. Though it is set in the United States (California, where I lived at the time), my hope is that diverse communities in many countries will relate to the joys and sorrows of the characters—many of them from an Indian or Indian American background. Because after all, as the Mistress of Spices tells us, as human beings, “It is the same things we want, again and again.”
In this novel, Tilo, the heroine, has a special power. She owns a spice store and, if you walked into it, she would be able to look into your heart and see what your deepest needs and desires were, and she could then give you a special spice with special powers to help you. (I did a lot of research on spices and the ancient science of Ayurveda as I was writing this book). Tilo loves helping her customers—but there’s one catch: she has promised never to leave the store (she lives there), and she has promised never to fall in love.
When a mysterious Native American man walks into her store, she starts to break both promises. And things get very complicated!
I continue to be interested in writing about myth, magic, the immigrant experience—and food. You can check out some of my more recent books at http://www.chitradivakaruni.com/books
I hope you enjoy Mistress of Spices and try some of the recipes mentioned in it. If you are interested in easy Indian recipes, check out my blog, http://www.chitradivakaruni.com/blog for some of my favourite creations.
Bio: Chitra Divakaruni is an author of 18 books and the winner of numerous awards, including an American Book Award. She teaches Creative Writing at the University of Houston.
Her latest novel is titled The Forest of Enchantments, and is a mythic retelling of the ancient epic The Ramayan, from the main female character Sita's point of view.
http://www.chitradivakaruni.com/
https://www.facebook.com/chitradivakaruni
on Twitter: @cdivakaruni
on Instagram: divakarunichitra
Dina Begum’s Recipe for Chicken Korma
Recipe for July Foodie Book Club by Dina Begum
Chicken korma cooked at home is unlike any restaurant version (which I would never eat). Originating from Mughlai cuisine, a real korma is rich, decadent and very special. It’s usually made with a mixture of whole spices, yoghurt and ghee, and cooked slowly to create a depth of flavour you really can’t get in a hurry. There are none of the colourings or sugar you get when you order the curry house version. Sometimes a little nut paste is added which makes the dish even more opulent and perfect for feasting. There are many variations of korma across the Indian subcontinent and I’ve based mine on the ones I’ve grown up eating. I use Greek yoghurt for a mellow, creamy flavour, less tangy than natural yoghurt. Whole green chillies are used for fragrance instead of heat so don’t be tempted to cut them as korma is meant to be mild. I find that a mixture of thigh and breast meat gives the best result, but you can use one or the other if you prefer.
Chicken Korma by Dina Begum for July Foodie Book Club.
Chicken Korma by Dina Begum
Ingredients (serves 6)
6 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
5cm piece ginger, roughly chopped
100ml oil
2 tablespoons ghee
1 teaspoon panch phoron
3 medium onions, finely sliced
1½ teaspoons salt
3 dried red chillies
2 bay leaves
8 cardamom pods
4 cloves
6 black peppercorns
2 cinnamon sticks
1 star anise
1 1/3 tablespoons ground cumin
1 1/3 tablespoons ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon chilli powder
1/8 teaspoon ground turmeric
800g skinless chicken breast and thigh meat, chopped into bite-size pieces
300g Greek yoghurt
6 whole green chillies
Method
Crush the garlic and ginger together in a mortar and pestle.
Heat the oil and ghee in a large pan on medium-high heat and add the garlic, ginger and panch phoron.
After a minute add the onions, salt, dried red chillies, bay leaves, cardamom, cloves, black peppercorns, cinnamon sticks and star anise and sauté until golden – around ten minutes.
Add 200ml water, cover and simmer on low heat for 20 to 25 minutes, until the onions have broken up and the oil has separated.
Keep checking regularly and if the mixture gets too dry or catches at the bottom of the pan add a dash of water and continue cooking.
At this point stir in the cumin, coriander, chilli powder and turmeric and turn up the heat to medium. Cook for two to three minutes until the spices are fragrant and have separated from the oil. If the mixture gets too dry, add a dash of water so the spices don’t burn then cover and cook for a few minutes.
Now take the chicken pieces and add them to the pan. Stir this around for a couple of minutes to seal the meat, then cover and cook for ten minutes, checking now and then to make sure nothing’s burning.
Towards the end of the ten minutes you’ll notice the chicken releasing moisture – which indicates that it’s almost fully cooked.
Take the pan off the heat, wait for a minute and then gradually add the yoghurt, a little at a time so it doesn’t curdle.
Finally, toss in the green chillies, return the pan to a very low heat and simmer for another eight to ten minutes, stirring occasionally, until the chicken is tender and the gravy is thick and silky.
Serve with pilau rice.
Cook’s tip – to ensure the very best korma it is absolutely essential that you take your time over the onions. They should slowly soften, until they almost caramelise and disintegrate. Add a dash of water now and then if they brown too quickly and be patient!
