While Delhi weather was getting cold by the day, we did something mighty cool! Goethe-Institut was initiating GT Culinary as a subtheme for their Graphic Travelogues project. Here, they were telling food stories, travel stories, culture stories, topical stories, but all using the language of art, or precisely, comic sketch.
Diverse components like food, travel and art came together to 'offer a flavorsome dish to feed your soul, nourish your mind, and delight your palate'. The idea is to explore the potential of the project in different cultures and cities around the globe and present their experiences as part of Graphic Travelogues.
Truth be told, our first reaction was a lot of bewilderment but nothing a few phone conversations couldn´t fix and for excitement to eventually kick in! We had happily dabbled in food all these years but had never been sketched while cooking. In fact, Kritika, the sketch artist who was part of this project, mentioned that an activity like this was first for her as well.
We chose a syncretic approach for the project to celebrate the diversity of India. Sundeep chose 'Shukto'; his favourite mixed-vegetable appetizer stew from Bengal, and Bedabrata chose Methi Butter Chicken, his favourite main course dish in Punjabi food. We decided to make these dishes.
the two distinct parts of The project
Chef Smart: For the first part of the project we procured the ingredients for our dishes. Indian food tastes best when cooked with fresh ingredients. We decided to visit a traditional market, a "sabzi mandi" at Chittaranjan Park for groceries. Given that this was winter, the piles of fresh colourful vegetables looked like a photographer's delight. We bought bitter gourd, drumsticks, potatoes, plantain, and some coconut for the vegetarian dish – Shukto. We also bought fresh methi or fenugreek leaves and chicken for the non-vegetarian Methi Chicken. Thereafter we headed back to our kitchen for the day.
Graphic Cooking: Prep for both the dishes started immediately in the kitchen. Vegetables were chopped with the traditional 'boti,' the chopping blade on a platform. Spices were soaked and some of it was freshly ground. Once all this was done, first went up the Bengali vegetarian soup dish – Shukto. The fresh aroma filled the kitchen while this was cooked. Then we made the Punjabi dish – Methi Chicken by adding freshly chopped fenugreek leaves to chicken and cooking on slow flame. The recipes of Shukto and Methi Chicken are appended here. Once the dishes were ready, we presented these to Kruttika for her tasting and critical evaluation.
Kruttika all this while was vacillating between being the spectator and the artist. At the end of the session, she tasted the dishes and gave her views. Glimpsing at her sketches, our jaws dropped seeing how deeply she had captured the proceedings.
Special thanks to Moushumi-di, home chef Mrs. Moushumi Moitra, for letting us use her kitchen and expertise while preparing the traditional dishes.
About Mrs Moushumi Moitra
Moushumi Moitra is a passionate home-chef. Her area of interest is traditional recipes. She maintains a beautiful kitchen and caters to homemade food in Delhi NCR.
