Chef Manisha Bhasin shares childhood memories and cooking experiments with her mother. By Uma Nair
Come Mother’s Day and we can recall a zillion memories in mom’s kitchens over the years, civilisations and trends. Award-winning senior executive chef Manisha Bhasin of ITC Maurya says it is the nostalgia and warmth of those days that shaped her as she is today. “I had a penchant for cooking from a very young age, says Chef Manisha. “I started cooking at the age of 12 and have not looked back since then. For me, the biggest inspiration and the world’s greatest chef is my mother. My maternal grandmother too nursed a kitchen that fed the entire joint family. Those were the good old times where meal time meant each family member’s presence at the table. My mother and grandmother’s recipes of typical Punjabi household had a great impact on my formative years.”
Manisha maintains that the aroma of ajwain parathas (flaky Indian bread with carom seeds), Basmati rice peas pulao and halwa takes her back to her summer holidays in her grandma’s house where she would be pampered endlessly.
In an age of ordering in and eating out, Manisha reminisces that food was a passion. “Those days people hardly went out to eat,” affirms Manisha. “Spending time with friends or relatives meant eating together at home. For most womenfolk the conversation centered around food and its expertise, be it the kind of cooking pots or its method of preparation. I was very much aware as an observer and as a participant while all this happened. While there has been an enormous learning through books and conferences, I fully confess that it was my mother’s kitchen that gave me my first informal induction into the larger world of pots and pans.”
It was from Manisha’s mother’s kitchen that her passion towards finer nuances of Indian food gained fire. “As I look back, I realise that my grandfather too had a sizeable contribution in my interest,” she adds with nostalgia. “I was quite clearly an apprentice under him as a teacher for choosing the best recipe ingredients while from my mother I learnt the virtues of patience and love for cooking. No matter how few the ingredients you may have, the liberal dose of passion for cooking goes into the preparation. This I call ‘soul cooking’ now when I cook for my guests.”
The weekly Sunday trek to the market with her grandfather to buy fresh vegetables and lamb perhaps subconsciously instilled in her the importance of finest fresh ingredients for a great meal. “little did I realise at that time that these excursions at such a tender age would later help me in my research of Dehlnavi food which is the first signature banqueting cuisine in India,” says Manisha as she shares a special recipe for cuisine lovers who want to try something different for the occasion.
Dehlnavi (Delhi) cuisine is an amalgamation of Punjabi, Vaish, Muslim and Kayasth communities of Delhi. In one way, these various communities reflected the large imprint of food preference in the city. What is visible is a very interesting confluence of taste. Hence one sees the cuisine influence of Punjabi settlers after Partition, to the business communities of northern India.
AMARANTH TWO WAYS AND PEA CUTlET
What you need
1 cup sweet peas
1/4 cup pan broiled amaranth seeds
1 bunch chopped amaranth leaves (if not available replace with spinach or kale)
1 chopped onion
1/2 tsp cumin
4 tbsp gram flour
salt to taste
1/4 tsp yellow chilli powder
1/4 cup toasted walnuts
2 tbsp ghee (clarified butter)
Method
Chef’s tip:
Use amaranth to thicken the soups, or broil and powder to be used as a flour for cake.