Things are starting to come to fruition now. While that is a very good thing here in Palampur, where nothing is planned and everything is made up on the spot, it is a bit unnerving. Let me explain. I have had one day at KLB College for Girls with the principal. The principal Ramdev and I are focusing my work on the girl’s hostel that is run by the college. Around 45 students board here, and they are served three meals per day by the one staff cook. Their menu rotates on a weekly basis, which tends to become a bit boring for the girls after awhile. My project, as assigned by Harmit and Ramdev, is to spend much of my time in the hostel’s kitchen to see what can be done to improve both the taste and quality of the food.
The taste of the food is the most important area. Let me tell you, I’ve spent over a week in India, and every single meal that I’ve had here has been absolutely, without a question, some of the most delicious I have ever eaten. Everything is fresh, strongly flavored, spicy and rich, yet all of the ingredients are very simple. Unfortunately, I tasted the food in the hostel kitchen, and it leaves much to be desired. It is more like tepid, weakly flavored broth soaked up by lots of rice.
One of my first jobs will be to analyze the weekly menu and calculate the micro- and macronutrients that the students receive on average: total kilocalories, percentages of fat, carbohydrates, protein, vitamins and minerals, the works. At first glance at the food and the foodies, I can tell that the girls aren’t being starved or malnourished, but all of them have told me that they would prefer better food. Next, I need to learn as much as possible about Indian cuisine from Shammi, the man who will be cooking for me and teaching me this semester (his food is amazing). Then, I should be able to apply what I learn to revise the menu in the hostel.
There are several reasons why it’s unnerving and very, very awkward. For one, I’m not a professional cook or dietician. Forgive me for this break in modesty, but I am a damn good cook and I know a decent amount of nutritional and fitness knowledge, not to mention some experience working in a cafeteria kitchen and MSU’s bakery. Yet the amount of knowledge that I lack is much more significant than what I already have, at least to me.
Another reason is that I feel absolutely awful coming into this kitchen and trying to get this cook to change the way she is doing things. I’m just the dumb white kid after all. I don’t tell Cristeta Cromerford how she should cook for the president. To me, the arrogance is overwhelming, but I am continuously assured by Ramdev and Harmit that my “help” is greatly appreciated. For right now, I’m just going along with it.
Thirdly, Ramdev and KLB are selflessly funding all of my exploits. I’m starting by making fudge and vegan brownies for the hostel to see if the recipes are good for the college, and I the plan is to continue trying things in the hostel kitchen, using it as a launching pad for a larger business-type thing. Ramdev won’t let me pay for a thing. I’m using as many local and cheap ingredients that I can, but it just seems wrong for him to buy things to experiment with vegan recipes and other snacks with no concrete return on their investment. Hopefully a business venture will be able to pan out so that the college can at least break even while funding my baking exploits.
Finally, there is nothing more awkward and unsettling than the 30+ girls for whom I am cooking. They are all over 18 years old, but the diet and living in the mountains has produced a generation that looks and acts much younger than they really are. They also are thoroughly fascinated by white people and the interesting things that they talk about. So, when I go to the hostel to cook and bake, I am confronted by a gaggle of 10-15 year old (looking) girls who are all incessantly fawning over me and intently following whatever I do.
Don’t get me wrong, I love female attention as much as the next red-blooded American male, but this is just creepy. Robbing the cradle, you know?
So. Fudge and brownies. The vegan brownie recipe that I tried turned out very well. I cooked apples into applesauce and was able to find the rest of the ingredients in the local markets. Using a small toaster oven that Ramdev found in storage (Indian cuisine requires very little baking), I was able to bake them and they turned out very well. The fudge, on the other hand, was a bit of a challenge. I’ve made fudge and other candies that require precise cooking of sugar before, but here I find myself woefully lacking in much of the necessary equipment: thermometer, solid pot, reliable heat source, spatula, lid… It was old school the whole way. Without a thermometer, I was forced to rely upon the “ball” method of checking the temperature. It requires taking a small amount of the cooking sugar and dropping it into cold water. The various shapes that it forms upon cooling – soft ball, hard ball, soft crack, hard crack, etc. – will let you know the general temperature of the sugar.
Let’s just say that there’s a reason why candy makers today use thermometers.
Also, there isn’t any corn syrup in India, at least not in smaller towns. Corn syrup is a crucial ingredient in candy making because it contains sugar molecules that have already crystallized, which will disperse through the mixture and prevent the whole thing from seizing up. Without corn syrup, candy making is a very precise venture, and the littlest disturbance will ruin the whole recipe.
Like when you make fudge and the mixture nearly seizes up just as you pour it in the pan. In the end, the fudge definitely did not turn out as expected (it was very grainy), but it was still delicious and chocolately, and the girls went nuts over. Especially since I added walnuts in the fudge. Nuts… get it? Whatever, I’m funny.
Next on the agenda? More vegan recipes. I need to come up with more snack-like items that the students can purchase and take with them on their way. Plus, some of them should be non-desserts. We don’t want to make the whole town fat. Harmit and Ramdev have also suggested that I hold some classes on diet, nutrition and general fitness. Again, I’m not an expert in any of these things, but they still insist.
Very exciting, very challenging, and very intimidating. I’ll keep you posted.
No comments:
Post a Comment