A Sunday Afternoon With the Rathores

I love food; eating it and cooking it. Both bring me pleasure. Having taking cooking lessons in Korea and Thailand, I was excited to try my hand at Indian food. So on a Sunday afternoon I went to the Rathores for a cooking lesson. The Rathores are relatives of the owner of a guesthouse I was staying at in Udaipur. They were gracious enough to have me to their home to cook some family recipes and eat with them.

The Rathore's cows

Mr. Rathore picks me up and we head to his home. Like most urban Indians they live in townhouses. I follow Mr. Rathore into the courtyard and am not surprised by what I see. The courtyard is run by cows. Mr. Rathore proudly shows them to me. They have one female and two calves. They get milk from them to make curd. “Plus they bring good luck,” Mr. Rathore states. We go upstairs and I meet the family: Kiran, the mother; Priyal, their daughter; and Rasheesh, their son. What's on the menu? A simple thali meal of tomato and eggplant curry, masala stuffed okra, dal, vegetable pakora, chapatti, puri, and pakothra, and, of course, masala chai. I can’t wait.

Okra, garlic and eggplant

I enter their apartment; it consists of two rooms. One is used by them to sleep and eat. The other is used to sleep and cook. In the first room there is a thin mat covering the concrete floor, we sit down side by side with the vegetables.  And so the cooking begins. Kiran peels and cuts everything in her hand. From her magic hands, potato peels fall to the floor and chunks fall in bowls. I'm not nearly as efficient and find it difficult to cut the vegetables without a cutting board.  Taking notice of my struggle, she puts me on garlic peeling duty with Priyal. While I crush garlic against the floor a "MooooOOHH," from the cow in the adjacent courtyard bellows in the room. Priyal and I giggle.

We chat and peel away. I drink chai with Kiran and she explains the recipes in Hindi while Priyal translates in English. If Priyal missed a step, Kiran is quick to scold her in Hindi and then correct in English. Kiran is a warm woman, but a stern mother. She insists that Rasheesh does his homework when he snoops on us. Priyal is a lovely young woman. At thirteen she knows she wants to be a teacher and plans to travel around India. I ask her if she wants to travel the world and she looks confused and replies, “No, I won’t travel the world. India is big enough and lots to see here, you know?” Yes, I do know. The vegetables are prepped and we move to the second room.  

Kiran picking cilantro leaves

The second room is crowded. There is a twin size bed which takes up most of the space. Kiran, Priyal and I have a small hallway of space between the bed and gas box burner. Cooking utensils emerge from under the stove and bed. Ingredients are kept on shelves built in to the concrete walls. They have no sink or running water so the dishes are cleaned in a big bowl. Water is poured from a traditional matka, a large clay vase.  I’m in awe of Kiran, as I see the two-burner gas box and the small space she has to prepare her family’s meals. 

Priyal and Rasheesh

Her ingenuity is artful. She uses a mortar and pestle to grind onion, garlic, chillies and spices into a masala paste. She uses the paste to flavour the eggplant and tomato curry and stuff the okra.  I help her make the paste and stuff the okra with it. We fry up the eggplant and tomato curry and put it in a bowl to rest. We use the same frying pan to cook the okra. “No space, no waste,” Kiran says firmly. Priyal smiles as she helps her mom. We use a pot to boil the lentils and, after a quick rinse, the same pot cooks the rice. We use flour, potato and cilantro to make a dough, and fry teaspoon size balls to make vegetable pakora. The same pan and oil is used to fry puri.

Vegetable pakora

Next we make the breads. One simple flour and water dough can make three breads. First, we make puri. We roll out a saucer size circle of dough, add some ghee on both sides and then deep fry it. It quickly puffs up and turns golden. Next, we make chapatti. We roll out another saucer size circle and then fry that without butter on the pan. It doesn't puff up but is still flaky inside and has nice dark spots on the outside. The last bread is pakothra. We roll out a saucer size circle but then fold it in half. Add some butter. Then fold it in a triangle. We roll it out so it looks like a rounded triangle. Add some more butter and then fry it on the pan. This one is flakier than the chapatti. All are delicious.

The never ending thali

Once our food is ready we had back to the first room. We set up plates for everyone and we eat Kiran’s food with our hands. Everything is delicious. It was finally my turn to impress the Rathores with how well I can eat with my hand. After eating, we drink chai and Priyal offers to paint my hand with henna. I agree and she creates a beautiful design. The cooking was great but it was the experience of being with an Indian family for an afternoon that was better.