Climbing the Mango Trees: A Round Up of Delectable Indian Dishes

If ever there was a time to wish for a real potluck for our talented Cook The Books members, it would be after seeing all the delicious Indian food dishes that were inspired by Madhur Jaffrey’s “Climbing the Mango Trees: A Memoir of a Childhood in India.” With every post that came in, my mouth watered just a that much more! If only we really could sample each others cooking and enjoy a fabulous meal… I was happy to see and hear how many of you enjoyed Jaffrey’s tales of her childhood and especially the descriptions and recipes for some of the wonderful food she enjoyed growing up. Whether you chose a recipe from the book, adapted a family favorite, sourced one of Jaffrey’s numerous cookbooks, or searched the web, you were inspired to create some amazing dishes. It is my pleasure to round them up, and get the tissues ready for more drooling! 

An early entry came from Wanda from Poppyseeds and Tiger Lilies joining in her first cook the Book’s event and making Jaffrey’s Cheese Vali Gobi. Wanda says, “I remember my own childhood as a newcomer to this country, bringing my lunch to school where it was different from the lunches of my friends. Like Jaffrey, I thought their lunches were much more interesting than mine. I loved reading about the spices and flavors detailed in this book. I wanted to make one of her very own recipes rather than developing one of my own.I was particularly drawn to the cauliflower dish. … I especially loved it reheated the second day when the flavors had mellowed and blended.  When I make it again, I’ll prepare it the day before and reheat it for a meal.

Rachel, The Crispy Cook and one of my CTB co-hosts, used home-grown beans to make her dish  from Jaffrey’s “An Invitation to Indian Cooking.” Rachel says, “I found the perfect recipe to make: Green Beans with Onion Paste, which really deserves a much more glamorous name as it is redolent of so many spices. The beans are infused with so many levels of flavor as they slow cook in their tomato and onion gravy and it makes a hearty vegetarian meal over rice. Try it over basmati rice for extra fabulousness. I have made the recipe twice now to rave reviews from my family. It is a slow food dish, requiring a good bit of time in the slicing of the beans, the sauteeing of the onion paste and spices, and then a bit of simmering, but the result is exquisite.“

Andreas from Delta Kitchen chose to adapt one of the many delicious recipes from“Climbing the Mango Trees” for his entry, selecting Jaffrey’s Potatoes with Tomatoes, full of exotic, warming spices. Andreas says, “For the current edition of Cook the Books Club I chose yet another dish featuring tomatoes. Visually it’s a bit uh.. unpretentious, but it makes up for this on the taste side.“

Natashya from Living in the Kitchen with Puppies chose a recipe from Jaffrey’s “World Vegetarian” to soothe a sick hubby and says, “India is a milky country” Madhur Jaffrey… They also know a thing or two about cooling the body. Which is a good thing as I have one body at home with a cold and fever. To soothe his heated and parched throat, and in celebration of her autobiography Climbing the Mango Trees, this month’s Cook the Books bookclub selection, I made Madhur Jaffrey’s Kelay ki Lassis. Sweet banana lassi. Cool, sweet, and nourishing.”

Claudia from Honey From Rock chose a recipe from the book, Meatballs (Kofta) in Curry and a Potato Tamarind Raita from an old cookbook she owns. Claudia says, “The meatball curry turned out to be a good illustration of the one disadvantage of even great cookbooks, and learning by doing. Some things you can pick up by watching, which just don’t communicate in a recipe. … Now, doing that as prescribed, makes for a very runny curry.  Perhaps it is supposed to be.  Who knows?  The chef was not there to question. The taste was fantastic and full of spicy flavors, but next time I will know to adjust for what is perhaps a Western liking for more thickened sauces.“

And about the raita, “This dish makes a tangy, sweet adjunct to the spicy meatballs and crisp green and white salad.“

Foodycat made a bevy of delicious recipes for her entry and says, “This is what inspired the dishes I cooked. I made mutton and spinach curry following Ms Jaffrey’s recipe (very different from the one I usually make) which she describes as being like the curries her Muslim school friends had brought for lunch. I made her grandmother’s delicious spiced cauliflower cheese. I made dhal (she says that at a pinch you can substitute Mexican black beans for the whole urad dal. It really isn’t a great substitution and not one I would repeat). And I made naan. Delicious, homely food with a history. You can’t really ask more of a dinner; a fascinating story with wonderful recipes, you definitely can’t ask more of a memoir.“

Simona from Briciole knew immediately what she wanted to make, saying “It’s that as soon as I read the title, Grandmother’s Cauliflower with Cheese (Cheese Vali Gobi), I knew I would make it, because I like cauliflower and I am always looking for recipes where i can use my homemade cheese (formaggio fatto in casa). As you can see in the photo of the dish, I used some white and some purple cauliflower, so the dish was quite colorful (both cauliflower and peppers were acquired at our farmers’ market). I don’t know how different my rendition is from the dish mentioned in the book. What I know is that I loved what came out of my oven and will certainly make it again. In fact, I already have some peppers in the fridge that I have roasted with the idea of adding them to my next realization of this recipe.“

Joanne from Eats Well With Others chose the Chicken Cooked in a Yogurt-Almond Sauce (Murgh Korma) from the book and says, “The thing that I find hardest about cooking Indian food is finding an authentic recipe.  One that is not Westernized and completely altered to suit our maladapted American palates. This is where Jaffrey comes in.  Her reverence of her culture is so great and made so obvious in the book that I am sure the recipes she offers are no less than the real McCoy. And after tasting this Murgh Korma.  You will be too.  Never have I created a dish that is so rich in flavor, so spot on, so intensely delicious that you just.  Can’t.  Stop.  Eating it.  Whole chicken pieces stewed with a creamy yogurt sauce that, although rich in texture, is actually quite light.“

Heather of girlichef went for a sweet treat making the squiggly Jalebis along with someGaram Chai. Heather says, “I can imagine how perfectly a cold glass of milk tasted alongside the jalebis in the heat, but I was craving another treat mentioned in the book…one that I’ve only ever ordered from coffee houses…or tasted from a weak, boxed blend.  I definitely wanted a cup of homemade chai alongside my jalebis… I made the chai a day in advance, and then re-heated a cup to eat with my jalebis once they were hot and ready.  I also tried it with a cold cup of chai, which was equally good…but a whole ‘nother taste sensation.”

My other wonderful co-host Johanna of Food Junkie not Junk Food, although a a big fan of Jaffrey’s writing was enamored of the chicken dish in the book and says, “The recipes at the back of Climbing the Mango Trees looked really enticing, and I decided to try thechicken curry, as it is a staple in every Indian restaurant. I was intrigued by the use of whole spices instead of the more common powdered “masala” and since I had all the ingredients at hand I set off to bring Delhi into my kitchen. Thickened by yoghurt, onions, and garlic, this curry is relatively light in calories, although it feels and looks substantial. It made the whole kitchen smell delicious and tasted completely different from what I used to have in England.“

Kelly from It’s a Food Life found that she didn’t have servants or could order in food from her kitchen so she made up for it by cooking an entire Indian feast–Rotis, Cucumber Raita, Basmati Rice with Dill and Cardamom. South Indian Style Stir-Fried Green Beans, Chickpeas Cooked in Tea, and Salmon with Mustard Seed and Coriander. She says, “I find it quite ironic that Madhur Jaffrey has made such a success out of cooking and did not learn to cook until she had left home.  Her mother taught her to cook by “air mail” when she found herself longing for the tastes of home and had no kitchen or servants to order her food from.  She had to do it herself if she wanted to eat in the manner which she was accustomed. I tried to order some food from my “kitchen” but nobody listened so I had to do it myself.“

Finally over at Kahakai Kitchen, I made a simple dinner from one of my several Jaffrey cookbooks, “Quick & Easy Indian Cooking“–Fish Fillets in a Curry Sauce, Simply Roasted Tomatoes and Rice with Peas and Dill. Everything went together easily and tasted delicious. I used a local opah, (moon fish), which was moist and delicious, local tomatoes and fresh dill from my garden. Great flavors and a healthy meal that even my visiting Mom enjoyed.

What an incredible array of yummy dishes! Thanks to everyone who joined in this round of CTB.

For our judge for this round, I’d like to introduce you to a new friend and fellow blogger Ann from Split Pear-sonality  – A Cooking Journey, joining us from Texas. Ann is a member of  another great virtual foodie book club, This Book Makes Me Cook. Since her group read “Climbing The Mango Trees” back in January, we thought it would be fun to have her judge our take on this foodie memoir. Ann cooks a variety of International cuisines at her site, and  knows her Indian food so we can expect that she will use her discerning eye and passion for good food to pick a deserving winner of the coveted Cook the Books Winners Badge!  Go by Ann’s blog and read her “Climbing The Mango Trees” book club post and her funny story about spending Hurricane Ike, copying the recipes out of Jaffrey’s book! Then take a gander at her version of Cheese Vali Gobitoo.

We’ll have our winner posted at the end of the week (and we will get our next three book picks posted too!) before I turn things over to Jo with our next selection, Bill Buford’s “Heat.”

Hope you are enjoying your week!

“Climbing The Mango Trees” — Let’s Travel to India with Madhur Jaffrey & Cook The Books!

Time to pick up the hosting torch from Rachel and her wonderful pick of Erica Bauermeister’s “The School of Essential Ingredients.” For my selection, I am taking us on a journey to exotic India  with “Climbing The Mango Trees: A Memoir of a Childhood in India” by the multi-talented (author, cook, actress and Indian cuisine guru), Madhur Jaffrey. A huge fan of Indian food myself, I have several of Jaffrey’s cookbooks and was excited to pick up her beautifully written story of growing up in the large family compound in Delhi. I love books that allow me a glimpse into someone’s life, in another time, and in another place, and especially reading about the details of the food and culture. Jaffrey’s book transports the reader to India, in the 1930′s to the 1950′s, and what it was like being from a prosperous and large extended family there.

From the book jacket:

“Climbing mango trees in the orchard, armed with a mixture of salt, pepper, ground chilies, and roasted cumin; picnicking in the Himalayan foothills on meatballs stuffed with raisins and mint and tucked into freshly fired ‘pooris;’ sampling the heady flavors in the lunch boxes of Muslim friends; sneaking tastes of exotic street fare–these are the food memories Madhur Jaffrey draws on as a way of telling her story. … ‘Climbing the Mango Trees’ is both an enormously appealing account of an unusual childhood and a testament to the power of food to evoke memory.”

In addition to the evocative food descriptions in the book, at the back are more than 30 family recipes–each sounding more delicious than the next. Between these recipes and Jaffrey’s many cookbooks, we will have a treasure trove of recipes and ideas to choose from when deciding what dish the book inspires us to cook.

The deadline for reading “Climbing The Mango Trees” and cooking and posting a dish inspired by it is Friday, September 24th. I will post a round-up shortly after and a winner will be selected.

Anyone is eligible to join in the fun. If you are new to Cook The Books–Welcome! Please check out the tabs above (Guidelines and Books We’ve Read) to see what we have read, look at past roundups and check out some sample CTB posts.

Once you have read the book, cooked your fabulous dish and posted it, leave a comment here or email me (debinhawaii@gmail.com) so I can be sure you are included in the round-up.

Happy reading & cooking!

Announcing a Reigning Triumvirate of Cook the Books Winners

Our Featured Author and gracious guest judge, Erica Bauermeister, has read our Cook the Books entries about her novel “The School of Essential Ingredients” and the writing teacher and word addict in her has picked three top entries.  Read on to see what she has to say in her own words:

“What a fabulous, diverse group of blog entries!   I always say that reading is an interactive sport — books are not static entities; their words lift off the page and mingle with our memories and associations and thus become a new and different book in each reader’s mind.  But I have never had the chance to see readers take their interpretations of a book and turn them into food.  Brilliant!  And in many ways so much more “essential” than any discussion of the book in a classroom…

Winners, eh?  Well, that is tricky, as every judge before me has noted.  There were bloggers who replicated and enhanced dishes from The School of Essential Ingredients, bringing their own emotions and/or ingredients to the challenge, and bloggers who roamed far and delightfully afield in their culinary choices.  There were bloggers who cooked with chocolate or veggies from their own yards, those who utilized ingredients brought to them by loved ones, those who injected color into words through food, or made new creations when ingredients weren’t to be found.  Lillian would have been thrilled with all of them.  Which dish is best?  Would it be the subtle shift from cranberries to lemon in the stuffed turkey?  The pork with apples that had me yearning for autumn?  That gorgeous tower of a white cake? The loving recreation of Isabelle’s dinner? The cool eggplant salad that had me glad for hot weather? Or the figs with Grand Marnier and whipped cream that seemed like seduction itself?

In the end, because I am as addicted to words as I am to food (and as all the dishes had me yearning for the kitchen, in any case), my top three had as much to do with voice and literary creativity as they did with food.  Forgive me.  I do love the taste of good words in my mouth.   Here they are, in no particular order…

Girlichef –  I think if you can create both a dish and a new character for a book you get double bonus points.  Girlichef’s character, Heather, took me into her kitchen and her mind and had me craving limes and chiles and the sharp crunch of radishes.  Her pozole is a thing of comfort and beauty — and I agree completely that garnishes should NOT be optional.

It’s A Food Life did a gorgeous job of digging into the book and pulling out the quote or two that epitomized each chapter – but even better, she took the essence of the book and created her own dish, a lush and sensual gift to her husband in the form of a wine reduction sauce.  That last paragraph (“Notes”), with its descriptions of why she included each ingredient, was full of insight about the connection between emotion, memories, meaning and food.

Eats Well With Others — Truly, I am impressed by any medical student who takes the time to make pasta from scratch.  And I agree with some of the comments that suggested Joanne should consider a career in writing.  What an incredible voice!  ”Buy locally.  If you will.”  Just wonderful, and the pasta was perfect for this time of year, the zing of lemon playing off the saltiness of the capers, the sun-dried tomatoes and pine nuts and pasta holding steady underneath.  It could almost make you glad that it’s August and zucchinis are about to start exploding in gardens everywhere.

So thank you all — for reading, for cooking, for being so creative.  My next novel will be out next spring and is about seven women who all challenge one another to do one thing in the next year that is new or difficult or scary (and yes, one of the challenges involves food).   Perhaps you all could start a new blog club for challenges, culinary and otherwise?  “

Congratulations to our three Winners!  Girlichef and Eats Well With Others have already received their culinary laurels in previous Cook the Books rounds, and now It’s A Food Life will win the coveted badge of honor (winging its way to your blog after I type this up).

Deb of Kahakai Kitchen will now take up the hosting reins as we explore the pages of Madhur Jaffrey’s book, “Climbing the Mango Trees: A Memoir of a Childhood in India”.

The School of Essential Ingredients Roundup

There were so many stunning and creative entries this time round for our reading of Erica Bauermeister’s novel “The School of Essential Ingredients”.  I am happy that so many other of my Cook the Books friends enjoyed reading this evocative book and found time (one the MOST essential ingredients) to think, write and cook about their impressions about it.  I always hold my breath when I select a book for our little band of readers, hoping that others will luxuriate in it as much as I have, and I was gratified to see so many other readers fall in love with this special novel and its characters.

Join me now in exploring our different reactions to Bauermeister’s writing and see how we all interpreted what we read into words and food:

The book’s Valentine’s Day fondue cooking lesson inspired Foodycat to break out her fondue pot and skewers and regale us with a nutmeg and kirchwasser-perfumed pot of hot molten cheese.  A perfect dish to inspire leaning in together and chatting with your cozy fondue partakers, as she notes.

It was fondue of a different stripe for Claudia of the Hawaii’an food blog, Honey from Rock.  She understood the lesson that using prime ingredients was one of The Essential Ingredients in cooking and taking care of our family and friends. She turned to her own tropical garden for the freshest fruit and even her own homegrown and processed chocolate (whoa!) for a Chocolate Fondue with Pineapple.

Joanne of  Eats Well With Others wrote a very funny post about the book, taking away the idea that “Everyone falls in love.  In some way. Or another.  With each other.  With themselves.  With the process of creating something from scratch and being able to say.  Here.  Yes.  I did this.”  Her take on this essential lesson was to make pasta from scratch, with Linguine with Zucchini, Capers, Lemon, Pine Nuts and Herbs.

Undaunted by sweltering temperatures over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, Glennis of  Can’t Believe We Ate was motivated to recreate the Pasta with Bolognese Sauce that Tom makes in Bauermeister’s book.  A classic!

Tina, who lives  Life in the Slow Lane at Squirrel Head Manor, was taken with the passage in the book where young Lillian manages to pry her mother away from her over-obsessive reading with the smells, coolness and taste of a newly picked apple.  Tina’s ode to this book resulted in a Pork Tenderloin cooked with Apples.

This moment in the book when Lillian’s mother reconnects with her daughter was also a favorite bit of writing for Simona of Briciole.  A mention of mascarpone in another chapter of the novel inspired her to her to make a batch of this fresh cheese in her kitchen which she used in a gorgeous Crostata Con Crema al Mascarpone e Mirtilli, or Mascarpone and Blueberry Tart.

Let’s extend a hearty welcome to It’s A Food Life, who joins us for the first time at Cook the Books, and found our present book selection charming and provocative, and like others have mentioned in their CTB posts, found so many passages in the novel to be possibilities for kitchen inspiration.  Utimately, she decided upon making a sexy red wine reduction sauce for a romantic meal with her beloved, based on the passage in the book where one student bemoans the fact that his kitchen creation will be devoured all too soon:

“They’ll eat it, he said, and then it will be gone.  That’s what makes it a gift, Lillian replied.”

Over at The Seventh Level of Boredom, thinking about our CTB book pick produced the Italian-inspired Thanksgiving turkey breast prepared by cooking students Antonia, a kitchen designer, and Isabelle, an older woman whose memory is starting to fail.  Beth Anne says she was captivated by the novel and really felt connections to the various characters.

My Athens, Greece-based Cook the Books cohost, Johanna of Food Junkie, Not Junk Food, was also inspired by the Thanksgiving cooking class chapter, and made her own version of Stuffed Turkey.  Johanna found that reading our chosen book was the perfect bibliotherapy to help chase away some of the new mommy blues she is enduring, and we all wish her well in teaching her sweet baby girl to learn to sleep through the night soon.

Heather the Girlichef immersed herself inside our book pick and wrote a chapter of her own about falling in love with Mexican food and culture at an early age and finding the love of her life, who, as destiny would have it, was also from  Mexico.  It’s a magical and very personal bit of prose which finishes with a Pozole Rojo that she shared with her family and graciously with all of us.

Wendy, the brains behind Celiacs in the House, noted that she had been lucky enough to attend a writer’s workshop featuring Ms. Bauermeister and several other Seattle area food blogger/writers, and was delighted to read “The School of Essential Ingredients” anew.  She tackled a dinner of homemade gluten-free pasta with a garden-fresh sauce of homegrown tomatoes and zucchini.  How luscious is that!

My CTB cohost Deb, of the Hawaiian-based blog Kahakai Kitchen was inspired to create a dinner for Isabelle, one of the cooking club participants in Bauermeister’s novel, who is gradually suffering memory loss and shows up at the restaurant on the wrong night, when the restaurant is open.  Our heroine Lillian takes it in stride and seats her to dine on salmon over cannellini beans with some fried sage and a lemony tart for dessert.

Natashya, the mastermind behind Living in the Kitchen with Puppies, enjoyed this “magical” book and found herself ruminating about the lives of the characters in it.  When her husband showed up at home bearing two flats of fresh figs for his muse, she whipped this sensuous, book-inspired dish:  Baked Figs with Grand Marnier and Whipped Cream.   Love that sexy, anthropomorphic food photo!

We were joined by another first-time Cook the Books participant, Daphne, the Food Junkie from Texas, who showcases a lot of healthy food recipes on her delicious blog.  She took a break from being entirely a virtuous foodie (one must do so regularly, I say!) by whipping up a White on White Cake, the poignant metaphor in our novel about the longtime marriage between Carl and Helen.

Rounding things up is my own entry, an Eggplant Salad with Shallots, Lemon and Basil, (and the Essential Ingredient of Love) that I made to welcome home my hot, tired husband after a softball road trip.  The Crispy Cook really savored this book selection and was delighted to see that so many other blogger friends enjoyed the novel too.

What a splendid array of posts this was!  While no one dared attempt to cook up a pot of live crabs as I had hoped to see through a series of interesting blog photos, I think most all of the other food scenes in the book were represented here and it was a treat to see other interpretations of Bauermeister’s prose.

I would like to thank all of the bloggers who joined us this month in reading our delectable book pick and particularly welcome our first-time participants, It’s a Food Life and Food Junkie from Texas.   Welcome aboard!  I think we all have fun dipping into new books, especially ones that we might not have selected ourselves at the bookshop or library, and then using them for inspiration in the kitchen.

Thanks too to our featured author and guest judge, Erica Bauermeister, for agreeing to read through our musings.  I can’t wait to see what she thinks of all our thoughts.   I’ll be back with her judging comments as soon as I get them.  In the meantime, you can seek out a copy of our next two Cook the Books picks: Madhur Jaffrey’s memoir “Climbing the Mango Trees” and Bill Buford’s “Heat”, which will be hosted by my two dear CTB cohosts, Deb of Kahakai Kitchen and Johanna of Food Junkie, Not Junk Food.

**A little Cook the Books housekeeping note: I try to keep our “Books We’ve Read” tab above current so that first time participants can see what books we’ve dipped into and what other books are on the roster for future reading, so you can keep checking that.  Also, I add links to Cook the Books participants’ blogs once they participate at least twice in a Cook the Books roundup so let me know if I need to update this section with a link to your blog.

A Steamy Summer for Cooking

I don’t know about other parts of the world, but this summer sure has been a hazy, hot and humid one here in upstate New York.  While it is always the right climate for me to jump into a great book, I have been less inclined to cook things up in my hot kitchen, but I will be getting my very own Cook the Books post up in the next day or so.

Couple that with a computer that died on me this month and I’ve been somewhat behind in my duties here and on my own blog, but I did want to get a quick post in here to remind you all of our July 30 deadline for blogging and cooking about our wonderful Cook the Books selection, Erica Bauermeister’s novel “The School of Essential Ingredients.  Many of you have already let me know either through comments on the blog here or by emailing me directly, but if you haven’t done so, please do so in order that your post be included in our roundup.

Our featured author herself has graciously agreed to serve as the judge this round so look for the roundup and her comments after our July 30 deadline.