Rup’s family had a driver named Srikanto. Srikanto didn’t know a word of English but sure knew how to drive. Whereas the streets of Calcutta terrify me if I am even glancing at them in a picture, thousands of miles away, Srikanto had the kind of navigational prowess that grizzled NYC taxi drivers can only vaguely dream of achieving. Srikanto’s wife and children live in Orissa, a state bordering West Bengal. He gets to see them once every few months, when he has several days off in a row. I could never live like he does, away from my family and in a little hut and hunched over the wheel of a cramped car in the hottest summer days of Calcutta.
As if his mad driving skillz weren’t enough, Srikanto can also cook (he’s a real Renaissance man). One night he made a vegetable stew that was just about the best thing I’d ever tasted. I tried to replicate it the other night, eight months after I had it originally, using the meager recipe notes I took in my journal. The end result was pretty good, but I can only hope that someday it will measure up to Srikanto’s.
INGREDIENTS
• onion
• tomato
• oil
• garam masala
• 4 whole cardamom pods
• 4 whole cloves
• 1 cinnamon stick
• vegetables, various (cauliflower works well… so do peas, beans, carrots, potatoes, cabbage… whatever)
Slice up the onion and tomato. Put some oil in a pan and let it get hot to the point of causing an unsightly burn if you touched it. Add the onion and some garam masala. “Some” is a technical term meaning anywhere from 1/4 tsp to 1 full tsp. Use your judgment. Toss in the cardamom pods, cloves, and cinnamon stick.
When the onion starts to get brown, add the tomato. Wait a bit. “A bit” means one to five minutes. Then put in all your vegetables. Hopefully you’ve found some time between tossing in the onion and waiting a bit to slice them all up. Saute the vegetables for a while. “A while” translates to six or seven minutes. Then put in some water, but not quite enough to cover your mound of vegetables. Cover the pot and simmer the stew until all the vegetables are soft. I let it go for an hour but I don’t think it takes that long. Anywhere from a half an hour to 45 minutes should be OK.
Serve with basmati rice. Or regular rice, whatever’s your thing.
