India on My Platter

by Saransh Goila

  At 28, Saransh Goila is an Indian chef, TV show host, author, food consultant and columnist. He set a record in the Limca Book of Records, 2014, for ‘the longest road journey by a chef,’ when he hosted India’s biggest food travelogue show, Roti, Rasta aur India on FoodFood Channel.

  Saransh became a food enthusiast at an early age. He made his first jalebi, for his family, when he was only 12. This interest in food made him pursue his Bachelor’s in Culinary Arts from the Institute of Hotel Management, Aurangabad.

  His first taste of television success was when he won the FoodFood Maha Challenge in the year 2011, hosted by celebrity chef, Sanjeev Kapoor, and film actress, Madhuri Dixit. He is also popular for his online food and travel show, The Spice Traveller, and Health Challenge, where he makes favourite Indian dishes healthier.

  He is a passionate traveller and has dedicated himself to promote regional Indian food across the globe.

  First published in 2015 by

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  Text copyright © Saransh Goila

  Cover picture by Pallavi Gupta

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  ISBN: 978-93-83202-04-1

  Printed in India

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  For butter chicken…my soulmate

  For Grandpa’s special dum aloo…I still miss

  both every Sunday

  For my forever hungry family

  For India…because we have chaat

  Foreword

  I first met Saransh Goila as a contestant on my channel FoodFood’s reality show, Maha Challenge. He emerged as a winner in that show and I wasn’t surprised. I was impressed with his age (at 24, he was the youngest of all the contestants), his enthusiasm, his attention to detail, but most of all, his ability to perform beautifully under pressure, the hallmark of a good chef. Another notable point was his passion for chocolate-based desserts; he was a magician with chocolate. For one of the rounds, he made a chocolate brownie; the lovely taste of which still lingers on in my mind! It impressed fellow judge, Madhuri Dixit Nene, so much that she placed an order for it at the end of the show.

  Soon after winning the show, he joined the channel as a Chef cum Food Editor. Through him I realised a dream and this book is all about that dream. Saransh did the show Roti, Rasta aur India, where he went all over India, chronicling the food and the recipes of that region. Needless to say, he did a brilliant job of it. It changed the way he looked at food and the world in general; I could see that change in him at the end of the show. He has age on his side, is dedicated and has a passion for Indian food—qualities that will take him far.

  This book is not merely about food and recipes. He gives us a rare glimpse into the psyche of the people, the region and the story behind a dish. His experiences are scattered like glittering gems across the pages; it shows us how vast a country we live in and how varied a culinary treasure we possess. It is a fitting tribute to the unsung and undiscovered culinary geniuses.

  Roti, Rasta aur India was just a stepping stone. It was indeed a pleasant surprise to see that he based a book on the show. I wish him many more journeys through which he can learn more. I also wish he achieves all that he has set out to do. This book, a kaleidoscope of the richness of Indian cuisine, is but a tip of the iceberg!

  Chef Sanjeev Kapoor

  The Inception

  Life is not about reaching your destiny but about the journey travelled.

  —Anonymous

  Hello everyone! I am Saransh Goila. I really got lucky and learnt the lesson mentioned above early on in my life. How often does one get a chance to travel all across India to explore its vast culinary traditions and cultures and their symbiotic relationship? Very rare… So, I got an opportunity to try the most authentic dishes Indian cuisine had to offer by visiting local homes. In the process, I also got to meet new people who shared my love for food. It was like my ticket to the chocolate factory!

  The statistics of this journey were epic. The mission was to travel 20,000 km within India, covering 25 states in 100 days, non-stop, and not to forget, all this had to be done by road! When the programming head at FoodFood channel (a 24-hour TV channel about food), narrated this concept, I couldn’t fathom the scale of the project. My jaws dropped and what came out was, ‘Woah! Really? Are you serious? You’re willing to take a chance of shooting for so long with an inexperienced host for a TV show?’ And he said, ‘Yes.’ He had this unshakeable faith in my passion to learn about food, perhaps, more than I did. The producer wanted a person without any ‘baggage’ to travel and express what he really felt.

  So, I’ll be frank. This is not only a recipe book; it is a lot more than that. There are about 50 recipes from 25 states, but then, it is a book written by a chef, hence, recipes are important. But, it is about India—the beautiful landscapes, the deserted roads, the changing colour of the skies and the food memories that I built while sitting on the corner of the road, on the highway, in an old age home, in the middle of the Ganges and more unique places. It is also the story of a shy and an introvert 12-year-old boy, who later went on to living his dream at the age of 25. This is the story of that chef who is independent now, travels like there is no tomorrow and hopes that he can bring the best of Indian cuisine to the world.

  If you are a person who loves food—whether it is a hobby to cook, a love for eating or tasteful appetite—being a chef today has a lot of glamour. I was a chubby kid for whom food was the meaning of life. I cooked and I ate, and that’s about all I did. My father wanted me to be an engineer; my mother wanted me to be a biotechnologist. My grandfather was the only one who wanted me to join the hospitality industry. And I wanted to be an actor. I come from a household where being a chef is not really on the cards, that is, if you really want to achieve something in life. And here I am today, writing a book about my love for food, travelling through India to eat and experience the culture and history around cooking.

  Has my dream come true? Yes… More than that! Life has brought me to a point where I live and breathe food and I couldn’t be happier. I started cooking when I was 12, not to be boastful, but it came to me very naturally. While other kids played football, or boys his age then chased after girls and spent hours trying to look good, I would be in the kitchen, following my mother around, asking her about spices, temperatures, dough and sweets.

  I spent my college years getting a degree in Culinary Arts, pursued the career of a hotel chef, and learnt how to be part of the industry. By then, I had a lot of support from my family. They were the only ones who believed I was strong enough to endure the long routine hours of banquet kitchens. I quit because I had had enough of being part of only one dimension of food.

  I didn’t have a job for two years. Everything I tried—catering, food companies, publishing—they all failed me. And then, I found my way into the world of television. FoodFood channel, one fine evening in 2011, auditioned me for a reality show about chefs. I went on to win the show, and as a prize, I got the oppor
tunity to make my own television show. I did a show called Roti, Rasta aur India, which was what the concept, mentioned earlier, materialised into. I was appointed the chef traveller. I was going to learn and travel and share my experiences with India through television. I would like to pause here and thank FoodFood and Chef Sanjeev Kapoor for giving me this opportunity. Just when food channels became a craze, I found the courage to combine my love for food and my dream to be an actor. I love being on screen, talking, laughing, sharing and learning. I have finally reached a place in life where my skills as a cook and my personality can be educational and entertaining.

  I am not going to pretend that I know everything about food. I am just 28, and the idea is to learn every day. Allow me to finish by saying that I love movies, entertainment and drama. If at any point in the book I get emotional, please bear with me. I get carried away with stories and deeply involved in the minute details. On a side note, I must confess that I come from a vegetarian family and I prefer being a vegetarian. Having said that, I discovered such great meat dishes in different parts of the country that now, I stand converted. I have a special corner in my heart and undying love for butter chicken. This dish was cooked and fed to many people across India and it sort of went viral on Twitter as #GoilaButterChicken.

  Without taking much time and endorsing myself… Here goes… Lights. Camera. Action.

  DAY 1

  6 August, 2012 / 5 a.m. / Delhi

  It was still pitch dark outside; so silent in the Goila household that it felt strange. I barely slept, or let’s just say I had too many butterflies in my stomach to get any sleep.

  It was the day I started my 100-day journey. Mom had made sure, thrice, that everything was packed. Dad had ensured I had enough cash on me. Grandma had made me promise her several times that I won’t, at any point, compromise on my health. My sister seemed to be the only sane person and was being totally casual about me leaving, although, I knew she was just trying to be cool because she felt sad. I had been staring at an empty wall, with the lights still out, for 15 minutes now and that was the moment. This was it! I had gone through a sea of emotions and skipped multiple heartbeats and everything was going to change for good from that day on. I clenched my fists, zipped through my past and got ready à la Anthony Bourdain to discover parts unknown!

  The first leg of the journey was to cover the entire northern India in 22 days. Thereafter, we would make way towards the west. I bid farewell to my family, and as clichéd as it may sound, they fed me dahi chinni (yoghurt with sugar) for good luck. The car that I was travelling in was pretty jazzy. It was completely covered with stickers of tomatoes, hence, we decided to call it Tamatar—tomato in English—for the same reason. I say ‘we’ because I was not the only one travelling, there were another eight people travelling with me, including two drivers who played the biggest part in this journey, I guess. So, the first destination on Day 1 was Karnal. I learnt that it had earned an epithet for itself: the Land of Cows. Before we reached Karnal, we stopped at Murthal, about 50 km from Delhi, for a desi (local) brunch.

  Murthal is a big village in the Sonipat district of Haryana. It is really popular for various kind of stuffed paranthas (flatbread made of wholewheat or flour dough): aloo (potato), mooli (radish), gobhi (cauliflower) and other varieties. That was our prime reason for stopping here. These paranthas are thick, filled with generous amount of stuffing, crisp on the outside, hot and soft on the inside. They’re mostly wheat based and taste divine with dollops of freshly made white butter. The other favourite accompaniments are dal makhni (popular dish made with whole black lentils and kidney beans), yoghurt, pickle and raw onions. We decided to stop at my favourite dhaba (roadside food stall) there, Ahuja No. 1. I was feeling quite a hero today with my camera crew next to me. So I proudly went up to the owner and explained to him what I did, took permission to enter his kitchen and the action began. The kitchen was spacious but slightly dark. What distracted me was the number of tandoors or clay ovens! I met Santosh who was their tandoor specialist. First thing that Santosh said, even before I could shake his hand, was, ‘I can make 120 paranthas in one hour; no one here can beat my record.’

  These guys really don’t need to spend any money on marketing; word-of-mouth praise from customers suffices, to say the least. Almost unbelievable if you ask me, we’re looking at making one parantha in 30 seconds flat! I patted Santosh on his back and after his permission, tried and made one or two myself. Trust me, operating a tandoor isn’t as easy as they make it look. The temperature is almost 350-400°C. There is no light inside the tandoor to actually spot a corner to stick the paranthas on its surface. It is purely a skill-based job and requires a lot of practice.

  Being in the kitchen I got a few of my own ideas and wanted to experiment with those yummy paranthas. I also wanted Santosh to try something new as he’d been in the same kitchen for the past eight years. I churned out a very basic and simple Satpura Parantha.

  SATPURA PARANTHA

  (Traditional potato-stuffed flatbread with a twist.)

  Ingredients (For the parantha)

  3 cups wheat flour (atta)

  1¼ cup water

  ⅔tsp clarified butter (ghee), per parantha

  ½ tsp dry fenugreek leaves (kasoori methi), per parantha

  1 tsp salt

  Method (For the parantha)

  1. Make dough by kneading the wheat flour—to which salt is added—with the help of water. Make soft dough; so be careful with the quantity of water you add. Less water is manageable, more will spoil the dough.

  2. After kneading the dough, divide it equally to obtain golf ball-size dough balls.

  3. Flatten it into a circular disc. Lightly brush the whole surface with ghee and spread dry fenugreek leaves on it. Cut this circle into seven equal strips. They will be equal only in width not in length.

  4. Sprinkle some flour on the rolling surface or chopping board. Place the tallest strip on the floured surface with ghee side facing up.

  5. Stack all layers on top of one another with tallest at the bottom and shortest at the top. Press lightly so they stick together.

  6. Roll this stack like a pinwheel. Close the loose ends by tucking them in the centre. Lay it flat on the surface and then flatten it out again into a circular disc.

  7. Cook it on a hot tawa (griddle) and as you see layers getting crisp and more visible, add ghee. Parantha is ready.

  Ingredients (for railway aloo)

  2 big or 3 small boiled potatoes

  1½ tbsp clarified butter (ghee)

  1½ tsp whole cumin (jeera)

  ⅓ tsp turmeric (haldi) powder

  2 tsp coriander (dhania) powder

  Salt as per taste

  1 cup yoghurt

  Coriander leaves (dhania patti) for garnishing

  Method (for railway aloo)

  1. Peel the potatoes and cut them into small cubes.

  2. Heat the ghee in a pan. Once hot, add cumin and let it splutter.

  3. Add turmeric, coriander and chilli powder to a small bowl and then add one tablespoon water; mix it nicely.

  4. Add this wet spice mix to the ghee. Let the spices cook on medium heat for a minute.

  5. Now add the potatoes to this mixture and toss gently. Add salt. Saute potatoes for two to three minutes on medium heat.

  Final Dish

  1. Cut the parantha into pizza-like quarters. Top each of them with potatoes and a spoonful of yoghurt. Garnish it with coriander.

  ∼

  Well, it definitely looked new and very different from anything that was being served at the dhaba. Santosh couldn’t get enough of it and made one for himself, whereas the owner didn’t seem very convinced, more confused about why I had done that to his parantha! But he did end up saying, ‘Swaad toh hai’ meaning it was tasty nonetheless.

  After having a soul-satisfying meal at Ahuja No. 1, it was time to move on. The next destination was a bit unusual. I wasn’t told that we were going there, because my producer thoug
ht I’d refuse. The place in question—an ‘akhada’—for professional fighters, or rather wrestlers, it is a religious place where they train in front of the God that they believe in. The motive was to find out what do these wrestlers eat to stay fit and in what quantities. I won’t lie but after reaching there I was impressed to see how naturally these wrestlers are trained, so different from the confines of a gym. The men here had perfect bodies by doing exercises like rope climbing and kushti (wrestling) and lifting clubs. Pretty soon I was out in the field, a ring made out of moist mud, which felt like a surface of a semi-kneaded dough. I was given some lessons in wrestling and also thrown around three or four times like some action figure!

  The general diet these people follow is pretty interesting. They have four to six bananas everyday with at least 10 paranthas. They prepare a special almond milk called badam ras. They grind almonds in a mortar and pestle with a little water until the almonds release their goodness into the water. Once they’re ground to a very fine paste, a litre of water is mixed with 250 gm of almond paste and then passed through a muslin cloth to get the purest extract from these almonds. By the way, all this is for just one wrestler! As these people made badam ras for me, I too prepared a very traditional chaat (an Indian savoury snack made of boiled vegetables or raw fruit with spices) for them. It was super healthy and had all the elements of a Delhi-based chaat. It was sweet, tangy, sour, spicy and savoury.

  DAY 2

  7 August / karnal

  The fact that the journey had begun was still sinking in and I was doing all these crazy things just because I felt like doing them! No questions asked. Our car, named Tamatar, started again and our next destination was a gaushala (cowshed where handicapped or disowned cows are taken care of) in Karnal. The whole day was spent there learning how it functioned. The most beautiful thing about this organisation, that ran the cowshed, was that they ran the sheds purely because they wished to take care of the cows. For a city dweller like me, to think of such a place is a little amusing with a tinge of nonchalance. But then when you visit them and see the real scenario you realise how tough it is. All this was part of my learning at the Radha Krishna Gaushala in Karnal. After speaking to Ajit, the concerned head there, for about 30 minutes I realised that they take care of 470 cows. They didn’t make any profit and most of the cows didn’t give milk anymore. Since I had come a long way, Ajit made sure I learnt how to milk a cow. Just imagine trying to milk a cow for the first time in your life; it is a little awkward and a lot terrifying. There is a specific technique about it and if you go wrong, sometimes the cow might try to kick you too. So one has to be careful.