India on My Platter by Sanjeev Kapoor, Saransh Goila Read Free Book Online Page A

Lord. So, we thanked God for this lovely meal, played some music, and made some great memories.
    T HUKPA
    (Spicy soup with hand-rolled noodles.)
    Ingredients
    2 tbsp mustard (sarson) oil
    3 spring onions, chopped
    8-10 garlic (lasun) cloves, crushed
    3 tomatoes, chopped
    1½ tsp cumin (jeera) powder
    1 tsp garam masala
    1 tsp freshly cracked black pepper (kali mirch)
    1 cup spinach, chopped
    3 radishes, chopped
    4½ cups water
    3 cups wheat flour (atta)
    1 egg for making paape (kind of wheat pasta)
    ¼ cup spring onion greens, chopped
    ¼ cup coriander (dhania patta)
    1 tsp lemon juice
    Salt to taste
    Method
    1.  In a heavy pan, or preferably a copper pot, heat lots of mustard oil until hot and smoky.
    2.  Add the onions and garlic and sauté until onions are translucent. Then add the chopped tomatoes and cook for three to four minutes or until the tomatoes are soft and mushy. Now add cumin powder, garam masala and pepper.
    3.  Add the chopped spinach and radish and sauté for two minutes. Top it up with four cups of water and bring to boil. Immediately lower the heat and let it simmer. Meanwhile, prepare the pasta-like paape.
    4.  Mix flour with egg and half cup water. Add water in parts while kneading to ensure there isn’t too much of it. When it is nicely kneaded, roll out the dough like a roti and then, just like Neema’s grandmother, try to make 100 paapes in a minute (and fail miserably like I did). Keep adding these irregular bite-sized dough strips into the simmering broth, as you tear them. Add about 30 pieces. Cook for another 10 minutes.
    5.  Neema’s grandmother mentioned how they add less salt in food so they can taste the ingredient as it is supposed to be. So finally, add a little salt, garnish with coriander and spring onion leaves and have it hot.

D AY 15
    21 August / Ladakh
    If you’re a food traveller, you must always try figuring out the basic foundation of a cuisine, like what kind of spices and herbs are used, what’s the vegetation like, what kind of meats or seafoods are popular. A lot of the food that people eat also depends on the climate, soil and water of the region. Ladakhi cuisine, as we tasted, is not high on spices; it relies more on the fresh herbs and produce available to them. A few traditional Ladakhi dishes like thukpa, gud-gud chai (butter tea) and thenthuk (soup made with handmade noodles) are found easily in the city and people are willing to share their thukpa stories and family recipes if you ask, like Neema’s grandmother did.
    The Leh journey was almost coming to an end and there was one life lesson yet to be learnt. I came to Leh in search of good food but this city had given me more than that. Apart from people there was this deep sense of spirituality that was omnipresent here. There was one such example of spirituality in Leh, which was recognised as ‘Mahabodhi.’ This was a school/institution where students were taught spirituality and even special courses were designed for common people interested in it as a subject. So today was all about spending time with the students in the kitchen, learning a thing or two from them and teaching them a thing or two about cooking. It was a fun exercise to see 12-year-olds cook as well, it made me nostalgic and reminded me of my cooking days when I was a kid.
    Guru Bhikkhu Sanhasena, who founded Mahabodhi, was present there when we visited, so I did not want to leave without his blessings. The spot he chose to meet me at was so spectacular that time stood still. I was sitting next to the prayer flags on a small plateau above Mahabodhi which was overlooking the sun. People travel all over the world for beautiful sunsets and I’ve had my fair share of travel too, but I can tell you this, I had never seen a sunset like this before.
    As Guru ji arrived he sat down right next to me with his legs folded. Before I could say anything, Guruji spoke, ‘Saransh, we are very happy to know that you are headed on this journey,