CHILDREN TO INDIAN FOOD
With so many of us having access to international cuisine, it’s only natural that our children will be eating more and more world cuisines earlier in their lives. Still, you may not know how to introduce Indian food to children. In the West, babies are weaned on what’s appropriate for their age, so you wouldn’t feed a baby steak, for example. Similarly, with Indian food, think of Indian baby food and not curry. Indian babies are introduced to gentle spices quite early. Warm teas are made with fennel (it helps to keep colic away) and ajowan or carom seeds (to help the digestion).
Soft, slightly overcooked white rice is the traditional weaning food all over India. By the time babies are a year old, many are ready for a little lick of a mild curry.
Here are some tips for introducing your kids to Indian food:
Start them early. If you’re keen to get your kids to eat a variety of foods, it’s a good idea to begin early when their tastes and habits are forming. They’ll probably get used to variety if they’re introduced to it as soon as they’re ready to be weaned.
Start babies with a gently spiced drink. Even before weaning begins, you can gently teach babies to enjoy spices. Boil 1 cup of water with ¼ teaspoon of fennel seeds. Cool the drink to a safe, drinkable temperature, and offer it to your baby once every few days.
Cook a chile-free curry for toddlers. There are plenty of flavors that children can enjoy in an Indian meal, but chile is not at the top of that list! Instead, you can let them enjoy the tastes and aromas of cumin, ground coriander, cinnamon, and nutmeg, none of which is pungent.
Feed young children yogurt and rice. Lots of Indian children love this creamy combination. Add a spoonful of a mild curry or even a mild mango chutney on the side, and you may find that it becomes a much-loved dinner. If your little one accepts and appreciates yogurt and rice, try adding some vegetables to the rice — I added cooked peas and finely diced cucumber and tomatoes to my children’s meals.
Get older children to help with the cooking. Rolling out naans, pounding spice seeds in a mortar and pestle, whisking a batter, and sprinkling in spices can all be fun! If you get your kids involved in the kitchen and give them tasks that are safe and playful, they may want to eat the fruits of their labor!
Eat together and eat the same meal. With my children, I found that they accepted whatever was on the table because we were all eating the same thing, together. The meal was full of flavor, and they were encouraged to try everything. I don’t ever remember making separate meals when they were old enough to eat at the table.
Eating with the seasons
With the way food stores now work, we can buy almost any food year-round. We’ve somewhat lost the joy of looking forward to certain foods at only certain times of the year and having to wait for our favorite foods to come into season.
One food that comes to mind is the Indian mango, the Alphonso variety in particular. Considered to be one of the best in the world, it’s sweet, very fragrant, saffron colored, smooth, and very seasonal. Around the middle of April, markets in western India see the arrival of boxes of Alphonso mangoes. Always highly priced, they still sell very well because buyers know that the season is short. The arrival of the first monsoon in June marks the end, and Alphonso mangoes disappear from the markets as suddenly as they first appeared.
Ayurveda even has a name for this kind of healthy eating: ritucharya (ritu means “season”). Mankind has known about the benefits of seasonal eating for a very long time! I find seasonal eating quite exciting because it connects me to my surroundings and makes me look forward to different foods at various times of the year. Berries and nectarines only taste good to me in the summer, and winters are for Brussels sprouts!
It’s great for your health. Fruits and vegetables are more nutritious when they’re in season. Strawberries ripen well in the summer sun, and they struggle when they don’t have optimum growing and ripening conditions. Winter tomatoes are often watery and dull. Nutrient-rich foods hold the promise of good health, so why wouldn’t we choose them?
It tastes great. This is why farmer’s markets are so popular — seasonal food tastes like it should! If you’ve ever grown your own vegetables, you don’t need me to tell you any more. Fruits and vegetables are seasonal for a reason. Keep in harmony with the balance of nature, and you’ll give yourself the best chance of good health.
It’s great for the environment. You may argue that a food is in season somewhere in the world year-round. But transporting it to your local store means fuel emissions and a relatively long delay between harvesting and being on your table. You’re probably thinking that so many Indian ingredients are flown into our markets when they’re in season in faraway countries like India and Kenya. True, but in some recipes, you can swap some of those with what’s growing near you.
It’s great for your budget. When foods are in season, markets are flooded with them, so naturally, prices go down. You’ll know this if you’ve ever tried to buy apricots in the winter. As for Alphonso mangoes, thankfully, you can’t buy them out of season, for love or money.
Chapter 3
Tools of the Trade
IN THIS CHAPTER
For many people, setting up their first kitchen involves getting essential cookware as hand-me-downs from family or friends. Then as you expand your cooking skills and possibly have a little more disposable income, your tools become more sophisticated. You may hold on to a few of those original pieces for emotional reasons — I still own (and use) a bright orange plastic colander a dear friend gave me many years ago. Or you may add a nifty gadget that helps save time or do the job better. Buying the right tools and looking after them means that they’ll last.
In this chapter, I walk you through the tools you’ll need for Indian cooking. Many of these tools you’ll likely already have; others may be new to you. Either way, if you’re looking for an excuse to shop, this chapter is for you!
Making Prep Work Easy with the Right Utensils
You’ve decided to cook a curry. Devoting some time to do all the prep work before you even turn on the stove will make it easy and fun to prepare. And for this, you need the right tools.
