Memories of a Grandmother

Dorothy Hartley wrote Food in England. It is a beautifully illustrated magnum opus. It was the result of 33 years of research on disappearing food traditions in England.

If there is any equivalent in India, I am not aware of it. But as the world is getting more homogenized, one cannot help but wonder about lost food traditions. As the smell of baking pizza waft through my open bay windows from the local pizzeria, I yearn for the smell of my grandmother making sweet meats at home.

These were a family tradition. Rich full cream milk sweetened by sugar and slowly condensed over low heat. It is an art form to ensure that the milk thickens and stays as white as freshly fallen snow without the slightest hint of caramelized sugar. This condensed milk is then shaped into a variety of animals, fruits and other artistic creations as wide and wild as the human imagination.

The molds were specially made out of burnt clay as opposed to the common stone or wood and in today’s world – plastic! These molds were 3 dimensional rather than the usual 2 dimensional, which meant that an animal would look like an animal in a sitting position rather than the impression or outline of an animal on the sweets as is prevalent in present day.

My grandmother’s specialty molds were rats and fishes. Odd choice one may wonder! But not quite… in Hinduism, rats are associated with Ganesh, the Lord of prosperity, and fishes are the sign of good fortune among Bengalis. One of the Bengali wedding rituals is to gift a big fish dressed as a bride.

The hundreds of pristine white rats with two dark cardamom seeds for eyes were a sight to behold. Fishes in all shapes and sizes with red eyes were spread out on ornate platters. These fishes were dressed with ornaments like a new bride. Alladis (the adorable) are 6 inch high aged couple dolls made of kheer. The dolls were hand molded. The eyes and dressed were outlined on the dolls – the bride in sari and the groom in dhoti and kurta. As real clothes would not sit well on the dolls, the clothes, therefore, were painted with food edible coloring. Imitation jewelry added the wedding splendor to the dolls. The idea is to bless the wedding couple with a hope that they too will grow old together as splendidly as the Alladis. The rush to eat part of the beloved Alladis is a major event at the weddings.

There would always be baskets of fruits – litchi, mangoes, bananas and so on. The litchis would be texturized with colored semolina to a point that there was no difference between the real one and the sweet meats. The leaves of the litchis would be hand crafted along with the stems and colored accordingly. The whole fruit would be joined with its stem and leaves with more kheer. These carefully hand crafted gift baskets would roll out by the dozens around holiday seasons and weddings. No wedding in the family would be complete without these ornate sweet meats of my grandmother.

The variety of molded kheer does not end with these. She would make hand crafted vermicelli out of kheer and then make Chushi payasam with this vermicelli. The resultant payasam is as rich as one can possibly imagine. The taste fails to be described in words. The remaining kheer which is by now too lame to be molded, is mixed with loads of dry fruits and stuffed into the world famous Chandra pullis. (These Chandra pullis are nowadays made of semolina or coconut filling.) These Chandra pullis were fried and soaked in sugar syrup. The dried Chandra Pullis with its sugar coat is then further decorated with dried cashew and almond cover. This is then served drenched in sweetened cream. The air would be filled with smell of rich cream and vanilla essence.

The clique around my grandmother would compete to beat her craftsmanship but the artistry of my grandmother was unparalleled. She took a special pride in decimating her competitors. At local fairs, fetes and festivals, she would out sell all food stalls with just her simple and delectable sweet meats and payasam. She would actively challenge establishes gurus in the field and outshine them with aplomb. The sweet success would be then be further sweetened with more sweets from the cauldron. Such was her touch!

The last time she made her famous sweets was at my aunt’s wedding. She is my father’s first cousin. My cousin brother and I were the apprentices. But I was too young to appreciate the heritage in 1990. The sweat and toil over cauldrons of milk at the height of summer was all that was needed to drive us off the kitchen fires. The beautiful outcome was too expensive a proposition for us to consider. When she would encourage us to pick up her crafts, we would be more interested in a new phenomenon called computers. After, all it was a lot easier to hire a wedding co-ordinator or just buy them from a shop nearby.

I think it saddened her the most in her old age that her craft went unnoticed by the next generation in the family. Today, we mourn not only her passing away but also the passing of an era in family traditions and customs. Never again, has family weddings been so unique or so personalized. These stories have remained as reminiscences of a bygone era. I believe, they deserve more accolade than this. A revival perhaps?