I
was shooting for a travel show in Kolkata recently when I came across a hawker
selling peeled diced Shankhalu with black salt. The moment I got one for myself
a small boy immediately stood next to me asking for a piece. The sight and
situation took me back to when I had just returned to India in 2011 after a
long stint in the States and was doing food trials with exotic ingredients, I
grabbed a pack of jicama from a supermarket for a salad and introduced it as a
south American tuber only to be received by giggles from a few of my staff
telling me that they had been eating it ever since they were kids in Kolkata as
Shankhalu. Jicama lost some charm there and
left me with some questions that needed to be answered.
This
conch (shankh) shaped potato (aloo) that was offered to Maa Saraswati on pooja
is actually the only non poisonous part of the legume that developed poison as
a means of survival, humans found out the trick soon .The question still
remains how did it travel to the old world from the new. There's a widely
accepted theory that talks about the “Columbain Exchange” of crops; a trade that
helped the Portuguese bring Chillies and the British bring potatoes to India,
the Spanish however could only come as close as Philippines and from there it
spread to south asia and Eastern India. That’s the travel, now for the
benefits and the uses, this Mexican turnip is high in anti oxidants, vitamin C
and minerals. It's extremely beneficial for diabetics and weightwatchers.
Food
business is full of surprises and fond memories. As much as Jicama humbled and
surprised me with its “Indianness” in 2011, in 2014 it gave me fond memories of
a great chirpy team that would just say how they felt and make each other
better along the way.
INGREDIENTS
For
salad
½ cup
overnight soaked and boiled soyabeans
1 cup
juliennes of jicama
½ cup
chopped red bell pepper
1 tsp
chopped dill leaves
For
dressing
¼ cup
chopped coriander
1 tbsp oil
1 tsp
chopped garlic
½ cup curd
For
plating
3 thin
slices of cucumber
Method
To prepare
salad in a bowl add boiled soyabean, juliennes jicama , chopped red bell
pepper, chopped dill leaves and mix well.
To prepare
dressing in a blender add chopped coriander, oil, chopped garlic, curd and
blend well.
Mix the
dressing in the salad and add salt to it.
For
plating make rolls of the cucumber slices. Stuff the prepared salad in the
cucumber roll and keep the roll on the plate. Make such more cucumber
rolls.
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