Gram Dal chutney and A Tribute to Chef Jacob

 Earlier this week, the day dawned like any other and with my morning dose of caffeine in hand, I picked up the newspaper to catch up with what is or rather what went about in the world. The supplement of the paper is the one I read first and this header caught my attention –Jacob’s Kitchen No more .

 For those of you who are new to Jacob’s kitchen, here‘s what it is. The Chef – Jacob hosts a cookery show in one of the regional channels and he is quite famous for cooking in some exotic or shall I say, rather unusual sites. I have seen him cook near water falls, inside a cave, on a railway track, in a plantation, in a orphanage, a temple and so on…, with local people watching him cook in front of the camera. I never miss this show that is aired on Saturdays at 1pm.

 So when I saw this title, I assumed that the show came to an end. But I was shocked when I read the news piece that followed. Chef Jacob passed away on Sunday due to a heart attack. What jolted me even more was that he was just 37 years old! Fate sure is cruel.

 I was distraught. Perhaps it was because I loved his show, or maybe we share a foodie passion or perhaps I could not digest the fact that he is not around anymore….
A couple of years ago, dad got the chance to watch him cook at a restaurant nearby . Dad called me up to say how it went about . I had missed him then and wanted to see his show live sometime later but now I know that can never happen…

The thing I loved about his show is that he is bubbly personality and involves the local watching his show in tasting and commenting on the dish he prepared in front of them. Also there is a diet section where a Doctor shares with us some medicinal value of an ingredient and cooks a simple dish in his kitchen. Then comes a segment with little ones cooking. He gives them some ingredients and shows them how to go about and demonstrates while the kids cook side by side listening and watching him. Then he visits a hosts home and the host cooks a dish and he gives his comment…

Chef Jabob is not only famous for this TV show but also holds the Guiness record for the longest one-man barbeque. He did a lot of research in ancient cuisine and never backed out from experimenting new techniques as well.

As a tribute to the person whose death moved me so much, I am cooking a dish inspired by this personality for this week’s Blogging Marathon with the theme – Cooking with chickpeas / chana dal / Indian brown chick pea.

This recipe , a chutney , prepared with gram dal / kadalai paruppu / kadale bele / Bengal gram / channa dal  and is taken from his book – which is written in Tamil.

In this recipe, the chef’s note says that Green chilies are good for health and also helps reduce the body heat. Gram dal chutney goes well with steamed rice with rasam and also curd rice.

 I used : 

Gram dal- ¼ cup
Green chillies- 2
Grated coconut – 2 tablespoons
Garlic- 4 cloves, chopped
Asafoetida powder a pinch
Tamarind – a small piece / ¼ teaspoon extract
 Curry leaves – a few
Salt to taste
Oil- 1 teaspoon

1. Heat oil in a pan and sauté the garlic till soft. Drain the garlic and keep aside. 
2. In the pan pan roast the dal till light brown, add coconut, green chilli, curry leaves and switch of the flame and mix everything together. 
3. Once cooled, grind to a coarse paste with garlic, tamarind, asafetida and salt.Add water while grinding but take care not to make it watery. 

 Serve with steamed rice / curd rice…

 Note :

 In the original recipe the ingredients are ground as they are i.e. raw. Since we are not a fan of raw galic I sautéed that and also roasted the dal.

This tastes good with steamed rice and rasam too…

Hop over to the  Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#21