Indian Cooking with Ria Mathews

For our fifth wedding anniversary, I surprised Eric with an Indian cooking class at The Kitchen Window in Minneapolis. He loves to make curries, daal and home made naan, but is sometimes disappointed with uneven results, and this class promised to help refine our skills.


Our teacher was the lovely Ria Mathews, who guided us through an elaborate menu in celebration of Diwali, the festival of lights, which is also the opening of the financial year in India. A big feast is a traditional way of welcoming wealth and light into your life for the year- who wouldn't want more of both?


The menu was quite ambitious for a two hour class with six would be chefs at each station and we all got lovely bound copies of the recipes at the end of the night.

First, we created a simple mango lassi with yogurt, mango, milk and sugar in a blender. Next up were a sort of spinach potato chip, made by dipping each piece of spinach in a light batter and quickly deep frying them. They were incredibly delicious- the cumin seeds in the batter were toasted in the hot oil and became nutty and rich. Though I usually shy away from deep frying at home, I'd be willing to make an exception for this crisp little snack.

A hearty curry was next- hers included tamarind pulp which made such a difference in giving the curry an interesting sour tang. I can't wait to try it again when we head back to Hawaii where it is easy to find this exotic ingredient.

Puffed fry bread was next. Little pancakes of dough are slid into the pot of hot oil and immediately begin to puff and turn golden brown. (They reminded me of the sopaipillas I fell madly in love with when I lived in New Mexico.) One can see why a wire strainer and drying rack are essential equipment in an Indian kitchen! Since our meal was entirely vegetarian, I didn't feel even the slightest bit guilty about using so much oil. It didn't feel heavy or greasy at all.

We finished the evening with a caramelized carrot dessert with candied raisins and nuts. It is meant to top ice cream- ours didn't quite turn out, but a sample of Ria's definitely made me want to attempt it at home at least once more.

Have you ever taken a cooking class? This was our first, but I'm looking forward to trying it again soon.

Book Report: The Namesake

I've just finished reading The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri. I'd seen the film ages ago, but wanted to read the novel that inspired it. In this case, the story was quite faithfully adapted from the book, but of course, the book had even more richness of detail and characterization. Why does this story move me so much?

It moves me because Gogol has been given something so rare and precious by his parents- a chance at an incredible life full of wealth, success, power. And yet. This life feels like a burden, not a gift. He resents them. He is ashamed of them. He abandons them. Denies them. Pretends they are not part of him. He cannot feel gratitude towards them. He does not see their sacrifices, only their failings and formality.

But his parents never stop loving him.

There is a beautiful scene after Ashoke dies, when Gogol is remembering a long walk he took on a beach with his father. Ashoke has forgotten the camera and tells the six year old Gogol that he will have to remember it instead.

"Will you remember this day Gogol?" his father had asked, turning back to look at him, his hands pressed like earmuffs to either side of his head. "How long will I have to remember it?" Over the rise and fall of the wind, he could hear his father's laughter. He was standing there, waiting for Gogol to catch up, putting out a hand as Gogol drew near. "Try to remember it always," he said once Gogol had reached him, leading him slowly across the breakwater where his mother and Sonia stood waiting. "Remember that you and I made this journey, that we went together to a place where there was nowhere left to go."

This brought tears to my eyes. It captures the essence of the parent child relationship so succinctly. Your lives are bound together so tightly but the child has to cut those ties to go and find his own way, a path the parent can no longer trod with him. There is love, but also something more complicated. Something painful. It can be so difficult to understand each other with so many expectations on either side.

Have you read any wonderful books recently? I'd love to have your suggestions about what I should read next!