Sangam…

. Sangam is a beautiful word, be it the coming of two people together in a relationship or ethereal scene of River meeting Sea.

Yesterday dinner saw a bit of here and a bit of their combination of fish curry, Sangam of three varied culinary flavours.

My kitchen help Mallika went away for her daughter’s wedding so we have someone new from MP.

She seemed scared of our daunting kitchen, at least that’s what a feeling I got from her yesterday.

Lost in the house of people who only talk about food, probably abnormal for her and worse it was a weekend festivity for no reason whatsoever.

I was planning to make fish curry for dinner, a good ole Maharashtrian style with coconut, tamarind and kokum, “Mallika calls it “Orange wali fish curry”. #fishpalm

Well, I am a very safe player when it comes to fish curries because it is only in the last 4 years I have started cooking it regularly at home.

And in my north Indian household, the flavours of fish curry are still getting settled so I don’t rock the boat till I really crave to make the change.

My new help said she knows a recipe; she has seen her Maharashtrian neighbour making it, eager to impress, I didn’t want to hurt her so said ok.

But in my head, I had Sumit’s face and his flavour’s, if he doesn’t like it #Quetionmark

He looks forward to every weekend as if there is a food festival at home #Strangefoodhumans

She made a traditional green paste with tender coconut, green chilli, coriander leaves, a ball of tamarind and garlic.

The fragrance was beautiful yet I was far away from sealing the deal.

In the evening we were at the office, I decided to cook food in the office so we can have a meal and also continue our work.

In my office/studio, the only options for oil were mustard or olive so I decided to fry fish in mustard, the way it is done for jhols.

I looked around the pantry, I had few whole spices so in mustard oil went shah jeera ( bleedy Bhopal and Lucknow does it to you – Shah Jeera comes out of our veins)

cinnamon, bay leaf, star anise and Kashmiri chillies.

Followed by onions, sweating it till it gets beautifully caramelized followed by the coconut paste I bhunoed it till eternity and then let it melt in warm water boiled with cooling spices (fennel and cinnamon)

The gravy was tasting delicious but something was amiss so after adding salt, I added fish pieces and finished it with a generous squeeze of lemon and Bengali Garam Masala.

I am biased towards it during my summer cooking.

So, From Maharashtra fish travelled to MP and UP and landed up in Bengal…

The Meal was delicious if I can say so.

And I am going to quote Flower Silliman here, on our show "Curries of India" she said her Baghdadi Jewish cuisine and on national unity, “ little we take from here, little we take from there and thus our curries get evolved and that’s how Baghdadi Jew kitchens flourished in the Indian subcontinent”.

So here is thoda idhar ka thoda udhar ka…par khaane main bahut maaza aaya.