Michael has been shuttling back and forth from LA to Cambridge to study on a monthly basis for a year. We have another 7 months to go before graduation when we will all breath a collective sigh of relief at the amount of fossil fuels consumed to get him there and back, the expansion of the hole in the ozone layer I am holding him responsible for, and the end to our time away from each other when he travels to study.While the food scene has vastly improved in the UK over the past 10 years, fine cuisine is still no-where near where it is on the Westside in Los Angeles, with one striking exception - Indian food. But, the Indian food in Cambridge - at least according to Michael - is often inconsistent, never truly authentic, and missing as our kids would say "the secret ingredient" (the are big Kung Ku Panda fans, but that is another story). None other than Gordon Ramsay has done a fine sabbatical to India in the question to learn how to cook truly authentic Indian food, including his beloved butter chicken. His journey is chronicled in the ever popular BBC series and a wonderful book Gordon Ramsay's Great Escape. We'll work our way through some of his recipes during the next year.
Looking for something to bring us closer together during our Cambridge venture and our lives in general when things have gotten more hectic than usual, we've given birth so to speak to this project - "Project Paratha" - a year long expedition of our own to cook Indian food at least once a day - expose our children to this fantastic diet - and see what we discover about ourselves along the way.
There is a great scene in the Billy Cyrstal movie Throw Mama from the Train where Billy talks about writing and notes that every great novel has a great first line. "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." "The night was moist?" etc. You get the picture. We thought, or at least Michael thought, the same was true for food blogs. A good blog needed a good name. "The seven deadly samosas?" "It's a wonderful Lentil?" "Kurma Confidential?" On and on the list went. Finally, concluding some things require an executive decision, and I was in the best position to make it, I sent Michael off to the park with the kids and the name Project Paratha and this project were truly born. I hope you enjoy following our journey!
I suppose the pictures accompanying our first post should be of parathas. Except we ate them before we could take pictures! so parathas will be featured on subsequent posts. Pictured here (top to bottom) are: 1) some kind of gluten-free roti that I made a mistake with the recipe but it turned out pretty good anyway thing; 2) Red lentil curry from Gordon Ramsay's book; and 3) Dosa (inspired by GR but made with brown lentils and short grain brown rice. We really started our adventure about two weeks ago when Michael brought back Great Escape from England. I made the Red Lentil Curry, Pilau Rice, and Sweet Potatos with panch phoran from that book, along with some aloo paratha (based on recipes from the website Manjula's Kitchen). It was fabulous and we all enjoyed the experience. Since then we have eaten Indian foods pretty much every day. I particularly like the Dosas with chutneys. Our son likes them, too, but with jelly or chocolate ganache. Like a crepe but different. Michael loves the aloo paratha that I make with potatoes, peas, chilies, spices, and cilantro. Our daughter likes to help make them. Michael says, "where ever we go, what ever we do, you need to make these." See you next time.
