While Delhi weather was getting cold by the day, we did something mighty cool! Goethe Institute was initiating the 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 sketches. They wanted apparently diverse components like food, travel, and art to come together and, to quote from the email, “offer a flavoursome dish to feed your soul, nourish your mind, and delight your palate“. They intended to explore the potential of the project in different cultures and cities around the globe and present their experiences on the Graphic Travelogues website. This exercise was being spread to many countries. Goethe Institute wanted us to be part of their “culinary travel” in India where we collaborate with a sketch artist in creating a food-story.

Truth be told, our first reaction was a lot of bewilderment. When we read their email we could barely understand what was cooking, pun intended. But a few phone conversations and we were all excited! It appeared, we had to prep for some dishes, cook those, and present them to the artist, who all this while would be sketching the process. 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 had chosen a syncretic approach for Goethe Institute Culinary 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.

Graphic Travelogues – Culinary Travel

The project had two distinct parts.

Chef Smart

This part of the project was about procuring the ingredients for our dishes. Indian food tastes best when cooked with fresh ingredients. We decided to go traditional and visited the wet market or a “sabzi mandi” at Chittaranjan Park, Market No. 1 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 dish Methi Chicken. Thereafter we headed back to our kitchen for the day.

Graphic Cooking

Once home, we showered, changed, and started preparing both dishes. 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 the chicken and cooking on slow flame. The recipes for Shukto and Methi Chicken are appended below. Once the dishes were ready, we presented these to Kritika for her tasting and critical evaluation. The whole process was also recorded on video.

Kritika all this while was vacillating between being the spectator and the artist. At the end of the session, she had to come on camera, taste the dishes and give her views. We used this opportunity to look at her sketches and our jaws dropped seeing how deeply she had captured the proceedings.

We are grateful to Goethe Institute for selecting us and giving us this unique opportunity. We can’t wait to see how the whole thing looks on their website.

Special thanks to Moushumi-di, home chef Mrs. Moushumi Moitra, for letting us use her kitchen and expertise while preparing the traditional dishes.

Simple recipes:

Shukto

Ingredients:

Vegetables –
1 karela
2 drumsticks
1 plantain
1 brinjal
1 potato
1 radish
Half cup grated coconut

Any other vegetable you wish to add.

Spices –
Ginger coarse paste
Mustard and poppy seed paste
Bay leaf
A pinch of Rnadhuni or its substitute Panch Phoron
Salt
Sugar

Other ingredients –
Crisp lentil drops called Bodi or Dal-vadi
Half to one cup of milk
1 tablespoon ghee
Vegetable oil for cooking

Procedure:
 – Chop all the vegetables to small or medium size.
– Heat oil in a big wok. Mildly fry all the vegetables one by one and set aside. Fry Bodi till it is brown and crisp and set aside.
– Add the bay leaf to oil. Once it is slightly brown, add Rnadhuni or Panch Phoron and temper till it releases aroma.
– Add ginger paste and temper till it releases aroma.
– Add the fried vegetables and mix with the spices.
– Add milk till it soaks the vegetables, 1 tablespoon mustard – poppy seed paste, grated coconut.
-Add salt and sugar to taste. Let the dish stew for a little while.
– Add fried Bodi.
– Top with a liberal helping of ghee.
– Serve with plain rice.

Methi Chicken

Ingredients:
Wet items –
1 kg chicken chopped in medium-sized pieces
1 bunch of fenugreek or methi leaves cleaned and coarsely chopped
Chopped onions

Spices –
Garlic paste
Ginger paste
Chilli powder
Cumin powder
Coriander powder
Garam masala
Salt

Other ingredients –
Char magaz or melon seeds paste
Cashew paste
Fresh cream
Vegetable oil 

Procedure:
– Warm vegetable oil in a wok. Fry onions till light brown.
– Add ginger paste and garlic paste. Temper for a while.
– Add cumin and coriander powder and cook for a while.
– Add salt to taste and chilli powder.
– Add chicken pieces and mix with the spices. Let it cook for a while.
– Add methi leaves, mix with chicken and spices
– Cover the wok and let it cook for a while.
– Check every few minutes and add some water if dry.
– Check after 15 minutes if the chicken is cooked. If still raw, cover the wok and let it cook again for further 5 to 10 minutes.
– Once the chicken is cooked, add melon seeds, cashew paste, and fresh cream. Let it simmer for a little while.
– Sprinkle garam masala and take wok off flame.
– Serve with roti or paratha.

Happy cooking! We hope you enjoyed our culinary journey as much as we did.