Cooking With Kurma

My Indian mother, Italian uncle, French brother, British teacher... The list goes on and sounds like an international mafia, but is not! These affectionate attributes belong to an Australian vegetarian guru, Kurma Dasa, to whom I’ve turned countless times in a need of cooking instructions. His book, Great Vegetarian Dishes, introduced me to the culinary field from boiling rice to making sweets.  I studied the book to the point of it falling apart. The pages became spilled with tomato sauce, syrup and pesto. When the binding failed, I cut the pages out and preserved them in plastic. Later I obtained his second book, Cooking with Kurma, which consists of equally versatile, simple but sumptuous recipes from all around the world. There are two other books published by him: Quick Vegetarian Dishes and Vegetarian World Food. Some of the recipes are available also as a stack of laminated tabletop cards!

Unlike the wicked TV-cooks and reality-chefs who promote competitive and frantic kitchen craft, Kurma presents cooking in the mode of goodness and beyond! In our yoga tradition cooking is held in the highest esteem. Attention is paid not only to the external cleanliness and quality of ingredients but, above all, to the state of mind, the consciousness, while cooking. It is a sacred act of enlightenment and upliftment.

Besides a renowned cook, Kurma is an educator. He has hosted three television cooking series seen in around 50 countries. He is giving gourmet cooking masterclasses, besides in Australia, Europe and the United States, anywhere from Peru’s Machu Picchu to an Indian village of Mayapur.  He is writing columns for various magazines and working on new recipes.

He has a website Cooking With Kurma and a blog Life And Travel With Kurma. Take a look at his delightful recipes, get to know his kind and approachable personality and check out his travel schedule: next time he is in town, enroll in his class! He is a gentleman of character and lifestyle that may pleasantly surprise you!

The recipes below I've learnt from Kurma. A good teacher is able to show the principle behind the subject. Once we grasp the idea of how something works, we can expand the details connected to it. In cooking it means we can be innovate, add or subtract ingredients and flavours as long as it is in harmony with the principle. An interesting recipe inspires to see the preparation in a new light and to combine it with something else than it originally was. The changes I’ve made to these recipes are under the title: NOTES.

AMISH APPLE DUMPLINGS

Kurma Dasa: In this monumental dessert, sweet red apples are wrapped in a rich pastry and baked in an even richer sauce. This recipe, originally from the Amish people of Pennsylvania, is definitely not diet food. The Amish are famous for their hard work. If you’ve been building barns or ploughing the fields all day, you won’t feel guilty returning home to these deliciously saucy, individually packaged apple pies.

PREPARATION AND COOKING TIME: 15-20 minutes

YIELD: 8 apple dumplings

The apples:

3 cups (750 ml) plain flour
1 teaspoon (5 ml) salt
1 ¼ cups (310 ml) cold butter
2 tablespoons (40 ml) buttermilk
2 tablespoons (40 ml) cold water
1 tablespoons (20 ml) lemon juice
8 sweet red apples

The sauce:

½ cup (125 ml) butter
1 cup (250 ml) brown sugar
4 tablespoons (80 ml) water

Sprinkle the flour and salt into a bowl. Cut the butter into small pieces and rub it into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Combine the buttermilk, water and lemon juice, and stir it into the flour mixture to form a soft pastry. Knead the dough briefly, then set aside for a few minutes.

Roll out the pastry on a large floured surface until it’s big enough to cut into 8 squares, each big enough to completely fit around an apple. Cut the pastry into 8 squares, place an apple on one square and wrap it, lightly sealing the pastry on the top. Repeat for all the apples. Place the apples on a lightly buttered 22.5 cm x 32.5 cm (9-inch x 13-inch) baking pan. Pre-heat the oven to 180 C (355F).

Combine butter, sugar and water in a small saucepan and bring to the boil over moderate heat. Pour the sauce over the apple dumplings, place the pan in the oven and bake for 40-50 minutes, or until the dumplings are golden brown and the apples yield easily to a knife. The Amish like to pour cold milk over their warm dumplings. Try cream or ice-cream. Happy ploughing!

NOTES:

I used half and half plain wheat and wholegrain spelt for the dough, for the taste and nutrients. Before baking I brushed the dumplings with a mixture of sour milk and water, and sprinkled them with caster sugar. I baked them on a regular oven tray without the sauce. I made the sauce by gently boiling cream and brown sugar (with molasses) until it became thick and saucy. Then I added a dab of butter, as if it was not fatty enough! I poured the sauce over the dumplings just before serving. Oh my! I wouldn’t mind giving a helping hand in the Amish community if such a treat was served after a day of work. Celestial!

I made a bit bigger dough, used the left-over for baking small tartlets with carrot & gooseberry jam and served them with vanilla custard.

ALMOND TOFFEE FUDGE

Kurma Dasa: I can honestly say that I've cooked more fudge than any other one preparation in my quarter-century kitchen career. Different versions of the same basic recipe, often prepared in 2,000-5,000 piece batches, have been devoured with delight at innumerable expos, food fairs, alternative life-style events and catering programs. I've supplied the recipe hundreds of times to "fudgeaholics".

Here's the original almond variety, immortalised in print. You should know that the best-tasting fudge requires top quality unsalted butter, premium quality cream and, most important, full-fat powdered milk.

PREPARATION AND COOKING TIME: about 30 minutes
YIELD: about 50 pieces of fudge

250g good quality unsalted butter (I prefer Danish style)
1 1/2 cups (375 ml) raw sugar
1 cup (250 ml) pouring consistency pure cream
1 cup (250 ml) whole unblanched almonds, oven-roasted or fried, and very coarsely chopped
About 3 1/2 cups (875 ml) full cream powdered milk
Extra toasted, crushed, slivered, flaked or whole almonds for decorating the surface of the fudge (optional)

Gently melt the butter in a heavy 5-litre/quart saucepan over low heat. Add the sugar, increase the heat to moderate and, stirring constantly, cook for about 3 minutes or until the sugar melts into the butter and becomes frothy.

Cook for a few minutes more until it develops a light caramel colour. The caramelised sugar will give off a light toffee fragrance. Be careful to avoid over-darkening the sugar at this point; excess caramelisation will give the fudge a bitter flavour. The butter will probably be completely separated from the caramelised sugar at this stage, but that's normal.

Remove the pan from the heat and allow it to cool for 2 or 3 minutes. Stir in the cream and nuts. Using a wire whisk, gradually mix in the powdered milk a little at a time, whisking vigorously to avoid forming any lumps. When the mixture just hangs onto the whisk, it is ready. If it reaches this stage before you've added all the powdered milk, don't add any more. If it's still too runny after adding it all, add a little more.

Very lightly butter a 25 cm-30 cm (10-inch - 12-inch) tray. With a spatula, scrape the hot fudge mixture into the tray. Smooth it out and sprinkle the top with the optional nuts. Allow the fudge to set in a cool place for 1 hour. Cut into approximately 3.75 cm (1-inch) squares, and stand back.

NOTES:

The full-fat milk-powder we get in Finland is grainy and unpleasant. I never use it in making sweets, or in anything, as a matter of fact! Instead I use non-fat, low-lactose one that is refine and gives a good texture. For the amount of butter above, I use a little less sugar and much less milk-powder, about 600 ml.

When making the fudge this time, I could’ve caramelised the sugar a little longer. It should have a darker colour. Oops...

If you make the fudge a little thinner and softer, you can use it as a spread in filling cakes, pastries and cookies. You might want to omit the coarsely chopped almonds and try vanilla or some other flavour. I had so much left-over fudge that I decided to fill cookies with the rest. Because both, the fudge and cookies, were rich, I accompanied them with black-currant & chokeberry jam. A match made in heaven!

Here is the recipe for the cookies. By Kurma, of course!

CHINESE ALMOND COOKIES

Kurma Dasa: These simple and tasty almond cookies are great served anytime.

PREPARATION AND COOKING TIME: 30 minutes
YIELD: 1 dozen

½ cup (125 ml) softened butter
1/3 cup (85 ml) raw sugar
1 cup (250 ml) plain flour
3 tablespoon (60 ml) ground almonds
A few drops almond essence
1 dozen blanched almonds

Preheat oven to 180 C (355 F).

Cream the butter with sugar in a bowl. Add the flour, ground almonds, and the almond essence and combine thoroughly.

Roll the mixture into 12 balls. Press each ball firmly in the palms of your hands to flatter. Press a blanched almond in the center of each cookie.

Place the cookies on an ungreased biscuit sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden around the edges. Allow cool before serving.

NOTES:

Again, I replaced half of the flour with wholegrain spelt and rolled out the dough between two baking papers. I used a cookie-cutter to get uniform size cookies. I omitted the almond essence and blanched almonds. Instead, I gave the dough a squeeze of lemon.

Once the cookies were cool, I piped a circle of almond fudge around the edges and placed a spoonful of jam in the middle. Finally I decorated the cookies with sugar-paste made with powdered sugar and a drop of jam.

Actually, I doubled the recipe and found myself, for the pleasure of my husband :-), with left-over dough again! I pressed the dough thinly on the tart forms and filled them with a mixture of thick quark, powder sugar, cardamom, and lemon zest and juice. I placed a thin slice of lemon on the top, pushed them in the oven (175 C) until they looked baked and beautiful. They were some fresh and tasty puppies!

ICED TAMARIND SODA

Kurma Dasa: This summer refresher makes an unusual change. Dark and tangy in flavour, tamarind drinks are popular wherever the tamarind tree grows. There are many varieties of tamarind in the shops. I have suggested tamarind concentrate for this recipe. It usually comes in small plastic jars – “Instam” and “Tamcon” are two common brands. You may wish to add extra water or sugar, and adjust the flavour of the drink according to your taste.

PREPARATION AND COOKING TIME: 15 minutes
YIELD: 6 cup (1.5 litres)

¾ cup (185 ml) raw sugar
½ cup (125 ml) water
3 tablespoon (60 ml) tamarind concentrate
4 cups (1 litre) soda water
Crushed ice

Stir to dissolve the sugar with the water in a small saucepan over moderate heat. Add the tamarind, mix well and bring the syrup to a boil for 1 minute, then remove from the heat and set aside to cool.

Place the crushed ice in your glasses, fill half with soda water, stir 2 tablespoons (40 ml) tamarind syrup per glass and mix well. Top up the glasses with soda and serve.

NOTES:

Instead of concentrate I used tamarind pulp that comes with the seeds intact. It has to be covered and soaked in boiling water for some time and sieved in order to separate the seeds. Due to its acidic nature, non-metallic bowl is used.

Tamarind fruit is a legume. The pulp is ugly as anything. It is sweet and sour in taste, and is high in sugar, B vitamins and, interestingly for a fruit, calcium. It is widely used in chutneys and jams, but also in soups, like rasam and sambar, to give a unique signature to the specific lentil dishes.

When you serve the drink, give the guests something to stir it with. I used cinnamon sticks.