Jampot In My Kitchen

Jamshedpur, aka Tatanagar, Jampot, the city that Jamshedji Nuserwanji Tata built on the banks of the Suvarnarekha and Kharkai rivers. This is where my husband grew up and this is 'home' to him. Though Jamshedpur has changed in many ways, it has also remained the same. The slow and simple way of life and the quietness is much the same. Sure, there are way more traffic lights, cars, coffee shops, and the like but the charm of places like the Bistupur market remains intact.
My daughter created this Wordle to try to capture what Jamshedpur means to us and some of the places and people we associate with it.

RinaDidi's Tomato Chutney
Whenever I see recipes titled 'Matty's Scones' or 'Mrs. Johnson's Vegetable Stew' I can't help wonder about the people in the recipe titles especially since there isn't always any information about the people and the reason why we should care about these particular scones. In the case of this recipe, RinaDidi cooks in my sister-in-law's kitchen in Jamshedpur. She is more like a multi armed Goddess straight from Hindu mythology. Only this Goddess wields cooking utensils and operates kitchen gadgets. RinaDidi is equally at ease making Burmese khao suey as she is making maccher jhol, sattu-ki-roti, or varan-bhaat.

Ingredients
4-5 medium tomatoes, finely chopped
3-4 dry dates, finely chopped
2 tsp oil, preferably mustard oil
1 tsp panchphoran
1/4 tsp red chili powder
1 tsp grated ginger, loosely packed
salt, to taste
Method
Heat the oil to the smoking point and add the panchphoran. If not using mustard oil, do not let it smoke.
When the mustard stops popping add the ginger. Cook for about ½ a minute.
Add the chili powder, tomatoes, and dates.
Cook uncovered over medium-low heat till the tomatoes and dates soften; about 8-9 minutes.
Add the salt.
The resulting chutney should be sweet, sour, and slightly spicy.
If the tomatoes don't bring in enough sourness, add just a bit of aamchur or tamarind extract.
Cool completely before before serving.


Idli Dosa Chutney
This chutney is a fixture in my kitchen after tasting it first in Jamshedpur.
The recipe is courtesy my sister-in-law.

Ingredients
½ cup chana daal
A small knob of ginger 1 tablespoon oil
Phodni kit (mustard seeds, turmeric, and asafetida (hing))
1 (or more) green chili
Juice of ½ a lemon
Salt to taste

3-4 stalks of cilantro (optional)
4-5 curry leaves

Method
Roast the chana daal till it browns slightly.
Transfer the roasted daal to a bowl and add about a cup of water. The water should cover the daal so add more if required.
Let the daal soak for 2-3 hours.
Drain the daal but retain the water. Grind the daal, chili and the ginger using just a bit of the 'soaking' water.
The chutney should retain just a bit of texture and shouldn't be pasty smooth.
Make the phodni/ tempering: heat the oil, add the mustard seeds. When they stop popping adding the turmeric, the hing, and the curry leaves.
Pour the phodni/ tempering over the chutney. Add the lemon juice and salt.
Enjoy with dosa or idli.

If you have any questions or comments, please write to me the.best.cooker@gmail.com. Thanks for stopping by.

Variations On A Theme

Though this is a recipe for a 'basic' vanilla cake, there is nothing basic about it. Sure it is easy to prepare and uses ingredients that you probably already have, but this is a flavourful and a deeply satisfying cake.
Over the years I have baked it umpteen times and each time with a slight flavor variation.
This post lists some of our favourite variations.
Here is a picture of a loaf baked by my daughter. She added grapefruit zest to the batter.

Basic Vanilla Cake - a template
(Minimally adapted from The Joy of Cooking.)
Ingredients
1 cup all purpose flour (or whole wheat pastry flour)
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
1 stick (8 tbsp) butter, softened
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice

Method
Preheat the oven to 350F.
Grease a nine-inch round pan or a loaf pan and set it aside.
Mix together and then set aside the flour, baking powder, and salt.
In a large bowl, beat the the butter till creamy.
Add the sugar and beat on high speed for five minutes. You may occasionally need to scrap the bowl.
Beat in the eggs, one at a time.
Beat in the vanilla extract and the lemon juice.
Add the dry ingredients and stir only till combined.
Pour the batter in the pan and spread it evenly.
Bake for 25 minutes (30+ minutes for a loaf pan) or till a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake come out clean.
Oven differ and so will the baking times. Regardless, do not open the oven to test for doneness before 20 minutes.

Spiced Apple Cake: 1
To the flour mixture, add ¼ tsp each of ground cinnamon, ground cardamom, ground nutmeg, and ground allspice.
Add in one cup grated apples (Fuji, Cortland, or Golden Delicious).
Bake in a nine-inch round pan for 35mins or till a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake come out clean.

Reduce the quantity of the spices to suit your tastes; we prefer a heavily spiced apple cake.

Spiced Apple Cake:2
Replace ¼ cup of the all purpose flour with an equal quantity of oat flour.
To the flour mixture, add ¼ tsp each of ground cinnamon, ground cardamom, ground nutmeg, and ground allspice.
Add in one cup apples (Fuji, Cortland, or Golden Delicious), cubed.
Bake in a nine-inch round pan for 35mins or till a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake come out clean.

Reduce the quantity of the spices to suit your tastes; we prefer a heavily spiced apple cake.

To make the oat flour, I run regular (not quick cooking) oats thru the food processor.

Lemon Poppy Seed
To the cake batter add in 1 tbsp lemon zest (packed) and 1 tsp poppy seeds.
Bake as directed above.

Orange Walnut
To the cake batter add in 1 tbsp orange zest (packed) and 1/3 cup finely chopped roasted walnuts.
Bake as directed above.

Upside down cakes
This batter can be used to make pineapple, apple, pear, peach, or plum upside down cakes.
Grease the bottom of the pan, sprinkle a little bit of sugar (about 1 tbsp), arrange the fruit slices, pour the batter and bake for about 25-30 minutes.
Sometimes I mix in flavors that go with the fruits, such as cinnamon & nutmeg with the apples, a bit of citrus zest to go with the peaches and plums. If the fruit is flavourful, I skip any additions.

Bananas Foster upside down In an 8/9 in iron skillet melt 3-4 tbsp butter, add in about 3 packed tbsp brown sugar, a splash of vanilla extract, some rum (optional). Cook this sauce for about a minute, turn off the heat, arrange the sliced bananas, pour over the batter and bake the cake right in the skillet.

Citrus loaf
Mix 1 tbsp citrus zest into the sugar. Use the back of a spoon to rub the zest into the sugar, applying slight pressure.
Any citrus zest will work. We've tried oranges, lemon, lime, pomellos, and grapefruits.

Fruit & Nut Cake
In ½ a cup of warm apple or orange juice, add a cup of chopped nuts and dried fruits. If you let the fruits and nuts soak overnight, the flavour will be deeper but an hour of soaking time will do.
Gently fold the fruit and nut mixture in the cake batter and bake as directed above.
For a boozy version, substitute part of the juice with the spirit of choice; think Grand Marnier, rum, etc.


If you have any questions or comments, please write to me the.best.cooker@gmail.com. Thanks for stopping by.