The first thought I had while leafing through Australian-Sri Lankan restaurateur and celebrity chef Peter Kuruvita’s new vegetarian cookbook, Lands of the Curry Leaf, was that I could actually cook from it; many of the ingredients were already in my pantry or could be made available at short notice. And that is what the chef wants. Early on in his book, he asks readers to make its recipes their own, mixing, matching and substituting as we see fit.
Part travelogue and memoir, it is filled with family recipes and tales of visits to local markets, highlighting regional vegetarian cuisine from the Indian Subcontinent. Kuruvita starts with a story about how, as a four year old, he and his family set off on an overland trip in a secondhand, blue Austin Minibus from London to Sri Lanka, where his family wasrelocating to (he is of Austrian and Sri Lankan heritage). En route, his mother kept a lively diary, and food was often the central theme.
Kuruvita’s definition of the Subcontinent is expansive; he includes recipes from Nepal, Bhutan and Afghanistan, in addition to highlighting the flavours of India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh. And this is where the book shines, because we do not need another recipe for rajma chawal, medu vadas and Mumbai frankies, but we are fans of the Bhutanese kewa dashi (potatoes and feta cheese spiked with chillies), the Nepalese bhuteko bhaat (a take on egg fried rice) and the Afghani kimish panare (fresh cheese, raisins, olives and grapes). Kuruvita is not a stickler for authenticity: he even offers helpful substitutes ( paneer instead of Afghan cheese, parsley if you cannot find Sri Lankan pennywort). Excerpts from an interview where the chef talks about writing a vegetarian cookbook, and how vegetables are having a moment.
Why are humble vegetables the superstars of this book?
As a traveller to India, I was always impressed that the first question you’re asked in a restaurant is “veg or non veg?” To an Indian, this must seem normal, but in the West it is the opposite. When I first began my apprenticeship, I recall chefs going crazy when someone asked for a vegetarian meal, and the dish that was served was usually a bowl of pasta or boiled vegetables. It must have been terribly boring to be a vegetarian in those days.
My life growing up in Sri Lanka was the opposite though. Every Sunday morning, I would tag along with my aunties or grandmother to the local market, right outside our home in Colombo. It was called the polla , and the variety of vegetables were amazing. I was constantly asking questions about the different fruits and vegetables, and the answer would start with “Do you know what this is good for?” [The ingredients] were not only food, but also medicine. If you span the globe, there are far more varieties of vegetables than there is meat and seafood. So, it is an impressive palate to choose from, and I wanted to showcase as many dishes as I possibly could.
Why did you decide to include recipes from Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan?
The main reason is that these are all part of the subcontinent, and my mission was to find out about the vegetarian side of these countries. I really had only to scratch the surface to start finding vegetarians in all these countries, and speaking to people there as well as researching online, I started to find an almost underground movement when it came to vegetarian and veganism. I started looking at what goes as the base of some of these countries’ favourite dishes and found an amazing amount of great flavours and colours sitting under the protein, be it fish or meat, and then I was spoiled for choice.
Why did you decide to step away from completely authentic recipes?
This is a base: a book of recipes that I want you to make your own. What is in the book is my version. I am asking everyone else to then either follow it with the twist, or adjust it to their flavour, because we are talking about seven close but also very diverse countries. And as for India, you have so many varying cuisines that change from state to state, I’d never be able to satisfy everyone. If I wrote a book simply quoting recipes, it would not be enjoyable. These recipes relate to my story and my experience as a chef of 40 years.
Some of your favourite dishes from the book?
Gotu kola sambal [Sri Lankan pennywort salad] is one of my favourite recipes. Pennywort is such a healthy food and is now being sold in tablet form in the West, but it has many memories for me. I love the kulfi and gulab jamun. T he street foods of the Subcontinent, the tamatar shorba and the mango rice excite me. The Sri Lankan ridge gourd curry [ watakolu vanjanaya ] is definitely one of my favourites, as is the Afghan okra stew.
Lands of the Curry Leaf: A Vegetarian Food Journey from Sri Lanka to Nepal by Peter Kuruvita. Published by Murdoch Books. ₹1,918. Available on amazon.in.
