As a scientist, S. “Murali” Muralidharan — a University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute researcher and native of southern India — knows that experimentation is the key to discovery.
What is good for the lab, reckoned the Northwest Baltimore resident back in his graduate-school days, is good for the kitchen.
» Serves two
1 cup of Cream of Wheat
1 medium-sized onion
6 green chilis
1 large chunk — about 1 ounce — fresh ginger root
1 tablespoon cooking oilÊ
1teaspoon black mustard seed
1/4 teaspoon tumeric
2 cups water.Ê
» In a wok, dry roast Cream of Wheat for four or five minutes until it acquires a brownish tinge. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Finely cut onion, ginger and chili peppers. Heat oil in wok. Add mustard seed, cover wok and cook until the seeds “sputter.” Add onion and saute for two to three minutes. Add ginger and green chili. Cook for two more minutes while stirring. Add water, salt to taste and bring to boil. Turn off heat. Slowly add Cream of Wheat, stirring vigorously. Once entire cup of Cream of Wheat is added, turn heat back on, stirring occasionally until all of water is absorbed.
Yet Murali, 47, and a vegetarian from the age of 8, never imagined that his kitchen experiments would take place on board a double-decker bus on a month-long journey from London to Moscow and back.
On that 1990 tour, the travelers shared communal duties, including a round-robin of cooking for the other 30 people on the bus.
When it was Murali’s turn, some complained that they weren’t interested in a vegetarian diet while Murali wondered what he was going to be able to pull off to satisfy himself as well as the others.
“I remembered how my mother made things in Kerala and started thinking that I didn’t need everything she used in the exact proportions,” said Murali, whose discipline is photochemistry. “Some people liked it so much that they took my clean-up duties if I would take their cooking assignments.”
That experience led to “A Short Course in Culinary Experiments: Vegetarian Indian Cuisine for Innovative Non-Experts.”
From his book, Murali recently prepared a spicy porridge dish — known as uppumav (think of Cream of Wheat with chili peppers) — that was heavy on the ginger.
“Ginger works well as a decongestant,” he said.
In traditional Indian herbal medicine — known as ayurveda — ginger root is often used as a digestive aid and anti-flatulent. In the west, it has been used as an anti-nausea aid for chemotherapy patients.
[More information on his experimental approach to the kitchen and getting a copy of his cookbook can be found at www.simpleistasty.com www.simpleistasty.com.]
He is happy when “mistakes” lead to a new and satisfying culinary discovery and asks, if you give it a try, to get in touch.
Writing on his Web site, the naturally curious cook said, “It is my belief that the collective cooking skills and insights of [my] readers will be much greater than mine.
“The purpose of this forum is to provide a venue to report the results of your vegetarian culinary experiments . . . perhaps in an unanticipated and interesting way.”
Rafael Alvarez can be reached at [email protected]
