[Sca-cooks] Sca-cooks Digest, Vol 7, Issue 39

[Lilinah]

>He was born in India, but his family came here not long afterwards. They have
>worked hard to stay a traditional Indian family. He told me once that they
>come from the North Indian area, and he once told me the state, but I cannot
>remember it.
>
>He is as strict a vegetarian as he can be, and still function-which means
>that he can eat dairy and he will eat eggs if he has to.
>He is a 'Do no harm' Hindu, which means if a bug appears, he will try to take
>it outside, while we would kill....

Gujarat! It is, or at least used to be, an entirely vegetarian state!

He might also be from Mahrashtra, but i'd bet he's from Gujarat. Cool!

I've got a Gujarati cookbook that was published in India for use by 
Indians. I could pass you some recipes, if you give me a hint.

Here's one, that's both "Thanksgiving"-y and Gujarati

Sweet Potato Dabada

500 grams long and thick sweet potatoes
1/4 coconut
1 small bunch coriander leaves
6 green chilis
1 small piece fresh ginger
25 grams roasted gram or dalia (Indian lentils)
a pinch asafoetida
sugar
salt
lime juice
chili powder to taste
1/4 tsp turmeric powder

Peel and cut each sweet potato into long slices.

Grind all the other above ingredients into a very smooth paste.

Apply this masala between two slices of potato.
Tie both slices together with a piece of thread
Heat 3 Tb vegetable oil in a pan and place the potatoes side by side 
in the pan.
Cover tightly.
Sprinkle cold water on the lid and cook without adding water over a 
slow fire till the vegetable is done.
[Urtatim notes: this is probably to encourage condensation of 
moisture inside the pan, so it will fall back down on the cooking 
vegetables and keep them moist]
You can also bake them in a moderate oven.

>In a way, I understand what your daughter has gone through. I'm a Southern
>Woman who will not eat certain traditional Southern foods. The usual responses
>that that generates is really getting tiresome.
>You would think that after 52 years, my own Mother would remember....

Naw, i've got a mother like that myself, and i'm older than you are :-P

-- 
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita