Of seeds and peels

Thinking of how seeds and peels were revered and always formed a part of our diets.

The philosophy of food at our place would be encompassed by the lines of grace we said before the meal:

Anna hey poorna Brahma –

That food is the manifestation of the Absolute 

It had to be respected, worshipped, honoured by enjoying it and never wasted!

Our Aji would explain that food is supreme because it manages to please all the senses at the same time. Even as it is cooking, the aroma of the food wafts on the air, how it looks on the plate, the feel of the different textures while preparing the meal and when eating, appeasing titillated taste buds, the mild sounds of a slurp of curry or buttermilk, the softest crunch of the papads, and often the crackling of mustard surely heard while cooking but also the sizzle of hot oil poured on a bhakri or khichadi. And she said the sixth sense too because you are what you eat!

This philosophy governed what was used for cooking and also how food was served. The first plating includes small quantities of all the different things that are made so that whether you like it or not, since it is served on your plate you ate it unless you were allergic to something. In that case, you informed the servers or the host beforehand. For the second helping you could exercise your likes and eat more of whatever one found appealing. 

Keeping with that philosophy of no waste, seeds and peels often formed a part of the cooking. Seeds are in vogue now but we always dried pumpkin seeds to be munched on with the afternoon tea. Jackfruit seeds were boiled and then chopped. You could eat them with salt and pepper or the boiled seeds would go into a brinjal-potato curry or tomato- potato curry. Sometimes they would be stir-fried with some salt, chilli-powder and turmeric  Chia seeds (charoli) were sprinkled on top of shrikhand. Ridge gourd and bitter gourd  seeds were planted in the garden.

The same with peels. Some of the non-edible ones like pineapple and jackfruit were composted in the yard. But some others like potato and bottle gourd were used to make chutneys. Cardamom peels were added to the tea powder for fragrance and flavour. Fresh lemon peels were used to rub all the brass lamps.

Similarly, stalks of coriander (after the leaves had been picked) were tied together in small bundles and added to curries for flavour,

We would feed the garden birds and the strays that came upto our place so there were hardly any leftovers. But there were times when we had guests and then maybe there was extra rice or extra chapattis and these would be turned to phodnichi poli and phodnicha bhat the next morning for breakfast. If there was leftover dal it was mixed with atta and paranthas were rolled out the next day. Sometimes if they were hot, dry months, leftover rice would be mixed with curd, a pinch of salt, a pinch of asafoetida and then spoonfuls dried in the hot sun the next day and fried at night to be eaten with the rest of the meal. 

Milk would be brought in fresh each day and on some hot sultry days it would spoil. There were couple of different things that would be done with the spoilt milk. It could be heated and reduced to milk solids and then sugar added to that to make a tasty dessert, kalakandha. Or atta can be mixed in it to make soft parathas and eaten with any curry.

Many of these practices are common and must be followed in most households! Indeed we do most of it except when we need to dry things in the sun and then use them as it can be a little bit challenging in urban spaces. So here's to more seeds and peels in yum ways!