Family and food

Husna Rahaman talks about the cuisine of her community, the Kutchi Memons, based on which she has recently rolled out the cookbook “Spice Sorcery”

September 14, 2014 08:44 pm | Updated 08:44 pm IST - New Delhi

Husna Rahaman has recently come up with Spice Sorcery, yet another cookbook of her community but written in an engaging personalised storybook format.

Husna Rahaman has recently come up with Spice Sorcery, yet another cookbook of her community but written in an engaging personalised storybook format.

Following in her grandmother’s footsteps, whose Hajra’s Recipes of Life for Life , published in 2010, perhaps became the first book in English on Kutchi Memon cooking, Husna Rahaman has recently come up with Spice Sorcery , yet another cookbook of her community but written in an engaging personalised storybook format. Bangalore-based Husna, an architect, says her “tryst” with the publishing world began when she set off “on a mission” to fulfil her grandmother Hajra Mohammad’s dream of creating a book on their cuisine four years ago. Her publisher, Harper Collins, this time, wanted her to “work on a spin-off on the traditional format.”

So Spice Sorcery is packed with characters typical of the community through whom the recipes are shared with the readers. The pages are sprinkled with as many as 69 sketches of the dishes, thereby opening to the outside world a closely guarded clasp of family recipes handed down from one generation to another. In an interview here, Husna talks about the speciality of Kutchi Memon cuisine and more. Excerpts:

Why is “Spice Sorcery”, a cookbook, written in the format of a storybook, a family saga?

The format was meant to be a narrative about Razia, a quintessential Memon girl. Her life traces the quirks and idiosyncrasies of a very distinctive community that is ridiculously food obsessive. As the story unfolds, if you perceive Razia as a subliminal enchantress, it is because she is. With her food artistry, she inadvertently but remarkably unveils the purdahs of hearts and lives with her mind-altering meals.

Characters like Bakhtavar, Razia’s mother, and her mother-in-law Shakira, are inspired by real-life people from the community. It encapsulates people as well as their food-centric lives. I remember going to the Kutchi Memon Union for weddings wherein the biryani was the star of the evening instead of the blessed couple. It was a frenzied food ritual that reached climactic proportions. I have never since that time seen so many people go into a state of ‘biryani arousal and satisfaction’ all at once. A real food orgy! This finds its way into the book’s chapter “May The Blessings Pour Down Upon You. Now, Can We Eat!”

What is the basic difference between Kutchi Memon cuisine and Mughlai food?

Kutchi food is not creamy and therefore rich. It doesn’t have nuts and raisins that create a certain sweetness in a dish. Also, it does not require a lot of oil to create lip smacking curries. I would say, it is more robust and honest.

But there is a lot of importance given to meat in Kutchi Memon cuisine.

Aah! Like I say in the introduction of the book, we may not know whether the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plains or whether Andalusia is in Asia but we do know, due to centuries of genetic coding, to greet our meat with profound reverence.

What changes have you noticed in the food during your mother and grandmother’s time and now? Many new ingredients and style of cooking have seeped into our lifestyle these days. How have they influenced Kutchi Memon cuisine?

There are people who still believe that the hand stone spice grinder is the best way to go when it comes to pounding spices. They’re right because it makes you create your blends just before you cook. I think today, the flavours are compromised due to ‘speed cooking’. Thankfully, packets of browned onions and packaged spice pastes are still frowned upon in most Kutchi Memon homes. Readymade or even ‘homemade but made last week’ and refrigerated spices do not hit the bull’s eye yet. Freshly cold-pressed coconut milk, freshly powdered spices and meat without freezer burn are luxuries we must allow ourselves. We are a community of food fascists except for the human exports to foreign lands!

What next?

Next will be another book. I have been working on it in my mind for a long time. I have to exile myself in a log cabin, someday. I will get it done!

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