Taylor Simpson, a University of Chicago student spending the summer at Nirman, decided earlier this week that she’d try to make eggplant parmesan in the Nirman kitchen. Eager to cook after a month away from a kitchen, I decided to give her a hand.
This morning we went to several small grocery stores and streetside stalls in the area to try to find ingredients. I was really surprised at how much we could find - eggplants, tomatoes, oregano, olives, mozzarella (granted, it was really weird mozzarella), parmesan.
Cooking the eggplant parmesan took about four hours from start to finish. A power outage (these happen for 6-10 hours each day) slowed us down a bit, and we did some improvising in the way of ingredients and kitchen tools, but otherwise things went pretty smoothly. We were lucky to have the help of Subash and kitchen worker Pushpa-didi. They laughed at us for testing out the food as we were cooking, because in India “we taste once food is all done.”
All the students staying at Nirman came together to eat the meal. After a month of Indian food, the combination of tomatoes, oregano and cheese tasted like heaven. (Also, the constipative affects of cheese could provide a welcome change for some members of the group). We made Subash take some, but we’re pretty sure he fed it to the dogs. I’ve come to expect everything in India to take longer than I expect it to, and to be a little more confusing and frustrating, so it was nice that this experience went a lot more smoothly than I anticipated. It was really fun to get to know Pushpa and Subash, and it makes me feel even more at home here. I’m glad that I’ve figured out how to find ingredients and cook here in Varanasi. Although learning to cook Indian food will be a PRIORITY during my time here, it’s also nice to know I can make things that taste like home from time to time.
Photos: The finished project, Pushpa grating cheese, Taylor and Pushpa, cooking on the floor in the traditional Indian style
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