While we're both Indian, my husband and I come from different cultures - he's south Indian, a part of the Bunt community specifically; and I am north Indian, from the Sindhi community. From the outside it may look like the communities are similar, there are many many differences. Both are communities are small compared to some of the others like the Gujrati community (common last names: Patel, Mehta, and Desai) or the Punjabi community (common last names: Singh, Sharma, and Chopra), but each is very distinct. More than communities, these are subcultures - each with it's own language, traditions, customs, and sometimes even religions.Since I grew up in Austin and was surrounded by very few Sindhi people, I identify more with the broader term Indian-, or more recently, South Asian-American. I still know of and follow some of the Sindhi traditions and customs, but can't speak Sindhi (though, I do understand it). It makes me sad at times that I probably won't be able to pass on significant parts of this culture to our next generation, but I guess that's why it's important for me to retain and maintain more generalized Indian values and practices.
I don't think that you can necessarily call this a 'value' per-say, but this is why I make it a point to be comfortable with cooking Indian food. One of my favorite dishes growing up was Sindhi Curry...actually for most of my childhood, Mom called it "Shilpa's Favorite Curry"! Not only does it remind me of fun dinners at home, but making it helps me feel less guilty about the less Sindhi/more Indian culture I follow. And these days, I have a new reason to love this curry - my husband actually requests it (and he usually doesn't make food requests)! It makes me feel great that Sindhi Curry has become a regular part of our 'blended' family.
I am sharing the recipe and invite you to share my culture as well...enjoy!
Enough for 4 servings
Ingredients:2 potatoes
2 small eggplants
2 cooking spoons of besan (gram flour)
2 spoons* jeera (cumin)
5-6 cups water
2 spoons* salt
1/4 spoon* haldi (tumeric)
1/2 spoon* mirchi (red chili powder)
1 spoon* whole methi seeds (Fenugreek seeds)
1 cup frozen or fresh peas
2 small tomatoes - chopped
1 cooking spoon of imili (tamarind) pulp - make sure there are no seeds!
2 spoons* sugar
A handful of cilantro - chopped
6 spoons* oil (olive, vegetable, or canola - your choice)
*by spoon i mean the masala dani (container) spoon...not a regular spoon...but if you only have a reg spoon...then I guess it's1/3 reg spoon = 1 Shilpa's masala dani spoon
Making the food:
Peel and cut potatoes and place in bowl of water
Cut eggplant and place in water with potatoes
Heat the oil in a pressure cooker on high heat
Add jeera
Add besan and mix on medium heat
Continue mixing so that besan and jeera look like dough
Allow mixture to turn a golden-red in color
Add water, salt, haldi, mirchi, methi seeds and let everything marinate on low heat for about 3-5 minutes
Drain the potatoes and eggplant and then all of the vegetables (fresh and frozen), and cilantro then stir
Add imli and sugar and stir again
Seal the pressure cooker and set on medium-low heat
When the whistle goes off change to low heat for 5 more minutes
Allow the internal pressure in the pressure cooker to be released before opening the pot
Serve this with rice and enjoy!
