If someone has realized the worth of their native cuisine, this is the right place for them. Are you a vegetarian belonging to Udipi/Mangalore? Sia Krishna’s “Monsoonspice.com” is all for you. Missing the crumbly taste of Akki roti/ Dill coconut chutney/Jowar roti? Then, this is your space to get a hang of exotic, healthy South Indian food!
What was your inspiration to start “Monsoon Spice”? Apart from your granny and mom, who inspired you with such a humongous varieties of Indian cuisine?
More than inspiration, I would say it was the necessity that made me chronicle my food adventure. Monsoon Spice was born on the day when I couldn’t find the recipe scribbled in hurry on a piece of paper/back of the bills while making zillions of SOS calls at ungodly hours to my Amma and Atte. When it was needed the most, I found myself running around the house like some headless chicken, checking all the drawers and every nook and corner, while our smoke alarm made enough noise to wake half the neighbourhood! That was when I decided to catalogue all the recipes online and the rest, as we say, is history! Monsoon Spice has been up and running since September 2006!!!
Most of the recipes in my food blog are something that I learnt from my Amma who is an amazing cook who can whip four course meal for dozens with an equal ease as she is cooking simple meals for her family. She is my walking-talking food encyclopaedia and her huge recipe repertoire gives me inspiration to learn the traditional, long forgotten recipes from my native. Apart from my granny, mom-in-law and mom, I find inspiration from fellow food bloggers, books that trigger some food related memories, and my blog readers who keep me motivated to blog even after 7 and half years of blogging. My best friend and husband Krish is the main inspiration behind this blog. He not only eats what I cook in the name of cooking, but is also my food critic, sous-chef and patiently waits for the food, with rumbling tummy, till I finish taking photographs for the blog. :) And last but not the least, my 3 year old son Paarth inspires me to cook fresh and healthy food that has strong root in our Indian culture and still embraces the world cuisine with same passion.
What made you to fall in love with cooking? Personally, we like your chutney and pickles. Where do you get your ideas from?
I think I fell in love with cooking long ago even before I knew the techniques and methods of real cooking. I was introduced to authentic and traditional Indian cuisine by my grandmother, mom and half a dozen aunties at very tender age in a typical Indian joint family. I grew up in a typical family where the life revolves around food, love, laughter and good dose of gossips! I was never serious about cooking, but was a foodie all through my school and college days! The actual cooking happened only after I got married and moved with my husband to Britain eight years ago. With beginners luck and zillions of SOS calls at ungodly hours to my mother and mom-in-law, I reached a phase where I could cook decent pot of rice and Rasam. Slowly but steadily I graduated from cooking simple, everyday home food to exotic and exciting Indian and world cuisine. I continue to enjoy this exciting and adventurous culinary journey with few kitchen disastrous, some blunders and tears, and lot of laughter and good food on the way spicing up my life!
To us Indians nothing says ‘home’ in simple reassuring words as pickle. No Indian meal is complete without a smidgen of pickle adoring the thali or plate. Whichever part of the country you come from, pickle is most likely to be the part of your earliest food memories as an important and incentive part of your meal to make staid combination of dal and rice seems more appetising or adding zing to any boring meal. Spicy, sour, sweet, astringent or salty, pickle is one thing that has the power to awaken our taste buds and memories of hot summer days spent in the company of my grandmother, mother, and loving aunts in the palatial home kitchen who lovingly filled dozens of large ceramic jars with pickles of different kinds. The colour, the sight, aroma, and the whole process was pure magic to us little ones who were fortunate to be the part of this food memory with three generations before us working together a happy team in creating something that will leaving a lasting impression in all our lives!
I survived many years terrible food experiences of my hostel life by adding a spoonful of my mother’s chutney and pickles that made even the most bland food taste exotic! With busy life that we lead in 21st century, traditional pickles are fast disappearing as we depend on store-bought pickles for the convenience. But with so much of our culinary history at stake, it is worth every penny to forsake the shortcut methods of store bought convenience for the time consuming and painstaking, yet most rewarding experience of making our own pickles at home. Because in the end you are not just preserving the fruits or vegetables, but preserving memories, family recipes and the taste of home!
We sense your nostalgic presence in your Udupi –Mangalorean recipes as Kodubale, Akki Roti, gujje podi…What do you find as your signature dish?
When I was a kid, the everyday meal cooked using the ingredients grown in your own backyard was something that I considered ‘blah’, well, boring! There was nothing interesting in eating the food cooked using the ingredient that grew right in front of my eyes. It was only after I left my hometown I realised what I was missing! My love for traditional and authentic Udupi-Mangalorean has grown over the years as I find myself reliving my childhood days.
Apart from food memories and nostalgia attached to these recipes, Udupi-Mangalorean recipes are made using few ingredients which not only tastes good but also has many health benefits as they practice the age old food science of Ayurveda. Since I grew up eating fresh, light and quite healthy yet really tasty food all my life, I continue to implement the same food philosophy. Elders in my family have always made sure that every kid in the house ate meals which are not just good for the taste buds but also good for our stomach, body and soul and now I continue to practice the same with my little one. So my signature food is something that not only tastes great, but also has many health benefits.
Do you think that it’s easier to keep a track of our native spices, when we live abroad?
I feel blessed to live in a multi-cultural country that loves Indian food! Britain loves spices and curries and hence boasts many wonderful Indian shops selling wide range of native spices, herbs and vegetables. And then there are online shops that sell everything that I need for my Indian pantry. I was surprised to find even the rare herbs like Brahmi leaves ,colacasia leaves,banana blossoms , andbread fruit in the market!
After cooking all these years, I have learnt to substitute the ingredients whenever I don’t find the spice or herb used in original recipes. I keep experimenting with ingredients, a hint of this and a dash of that, which creates perfect harmony between flavour, aroma and taste buds.
Sia Krishna’s passion will go on in the 2nd part of her Interview…
