One of my favorite experiences in a new city is taking a cooking class especially in the home of a local family. We shared a wonderful meal with Karan and Sugan in Udaipur. While I love most all foods, I particularly love Indian foods. I love the color and smell of the spices. When you think of Indian food, you immediately think of spicy which isn’t true at all as there are so many different flavors in their food. Karan and his mother, along with their family, live in a beautiful home just off a busy street. It is amazing how quiet it is just a short distance from the chaos of the street – another wonderful surprise.
We began by sharing something about our lives and customs. We learned that when sons marry, it is customary for them to continue to live in their family home and raise their family there. Karan and Sugan enjoy sharing their cooking skills and joy of Indian food with people and we were excited to be the recipients! I also learned that Sugan did most of the cooking😊
We watched as they prepared two dishes for us. The first was a tomato and okra dish (did they know that Stratton loved okra and I loved tomatoes?) and a cabbage with fresh green peas dish. It was amazing how simple yet how flavorful they were. Each dish was prepared using several different spices with some spices used to maintain the color of the vegetables and some spices used to change the color of the vegetables. In India, a lot of the spices are used for medicinal purposes as well such as turmeric as an anti-inflammatory, cumin as a digestive aid and helps control blood sugar, cardamom for digestive and respiratory conditions, and many others. Side note – On our car drive to Udaipur I saw a field of cumin waiting to be harvested! So cool to see how it is grown!
Obviously Sugan had cooked all day to prepare a full meal which included a small stuffed eggplant, smoked chicken, mutton, black eyed peas with cooked cucumbers, potatoes, rice, a tomato chutney that was truly amazing and of course the okra and cabbage dishes and. And I cannot forget the wonderful naan. The meal ended with shirkhand which is an Indian sweet dish made using strained yogurt flavored with cardamom and nuts. It was light and delicious – a perfect ending to a perfect meal.
Thank you Karan and Sugan for opening your home and sharing such a wonderful meal with us!
Leave a Reply