Grandma's secret recipes: Michael Swamy and East Indian culinary heirlooms

The vindaloo you know is not the only vindaloo around. There is one for every ex-Portuguese precinct — whether in Macau or Latin America or India. In the Konkan itself, the Goan version is as different from the Mumbai one as the Christians of Goa are from the East Indians of Mumbai.

In fact, there isn’t one recipe for anything East Indian because it is a khichdi of many identities — the kolis or fishermen community, adivasis, farmers, Brahmins, among others. All of them pushed for a common identity to differentiate themselves from the Goan Christians.

So Cordon Bleu chef and food stylist Michael Swamy doesn’t take kindly to his recipes being called wrong ( Watch video ). “When I am told this is ‘not the right way to make fish’, I know the person comes from a different part of Bombay,” says Swamy, raised on the cooking of his East Indian mother in Central Mumbai.

Swamy travelled the entire North Konkan region trying to get secretive grandmothers to part with their recipes. Or at least share it partly. “I’d go to one person and she’d give me 24 ingredients, the other one would give me another 20. I’d have to figure out which ingredient they were not talking about and then find out what was common and what was missing,” says Swami.

He cleaned the stories of “complications” and standardised them. Now they are part of his book ‘The East Indian Kitchen’ (Westland Rs 395). “It is essentially a mix of very rustic and European cuisine. In my book, I have taken it to a higher level,” he says. Despite three years of research, though, most of the recipes come from his grandmother.

The divergence in the recipes is all about history says Swamy. “Even within East Indians, they say ‘I am Brahmin, you are scheduled caste.’ Even after the transition of religion, they are hanging on to old beliefs. Like the kolis have not changed their way of dress and still they go to church. That is reflected in the food as well,” says Swamy.

He points out that East Indians from Colaba in the south cooked differently from the people in Bassein in the north who were originally Brahmins before they converted to Christianity.

“They didn’t touch beef and pork while the ones in the south did,” says Swamy.

East Indian cuisine started out as spice-based Maharashtrian food. The Portuguese and the British added on meats like pork and beef. They also introduced techniques like poaching and sautéing. “Fish always figured in the Maharashtrian cuisine — but we poach it and deep par fry it; that was never done before,” says Swamy. The sourness in the dishes comes from the days when meats were pickled in tamarind, lime and salt.

The Arab traders in Bassien brought saffron and added new techniques of cooking lamb, mutton, and pulaos and biryanis. But the masalas stayed the same; the backbone of the cuisine still remains the Maharashtrian Bottle Masala — a mix of 29 sun-dried ground spices that was brought by the early settlers of Mumbai.

His book compiles this long, diverse history— from Ashoka’s empire to the fall of the British East India Company — through recipes of pork chops and fritters, suckling pig and fish gravies, breads and pulaos.

What has he learnt apart from getting old ladies to share their family heirlooms? “The learning is more because smaller cuisines have not moved across the country,” he says. “The young want to know about their roots and the old do not want to part with their recipes. It was like breaking and building bridges.”

Here are some recipes for a four course meal (and a cocktail) from his book:

• Capsicum foogath

A foogath is a regular at any East Indian dinner table as a side dish with the meats. It is made with a variety of vegetables, like capsicum, drumstick, pumpkin and French beans. View recipe .

• Chinchoni fish curry

In this recipe the ‘chinch‘ or the sourness comes from tamarind. The influences date back to the Portuguese who would pickle their fish and meats for long sea voyages. View recipe .

• Apricot chicken

This recipe uses Maharashtrian masalas, and apricots soaked in brown palm vinegar, which is Portuguese. View recipe .

• Khimad

Khimad is a spiced sweetened liquor with coconut liquor as its base. Once made it forms the base for cocktails like mojitos, martinis and the Khimad twist. View recipe .

• Guava cheese

Made with the season’s freshest guavas, this light chewy dessert is surprisingly easy to put together. View recipe .

Watch Michael cook two typical East Indian dishes: Chinchoni fish curry and capsicum foogath.