Vegan express

Down footpath

I was born and brought up in Thailand in a small town named Phathalung situated in the south of Thailand and close to the sea and the Malaysian Border. My father was in the Indian National Army and posted at Burma (now Mynamar ) during the Second World War from where he travelled to South of Thailand and settled in Phathalung. Therefore, though being an Indian by origin, I grew up amongst Thais as we were the only Indian family in this town. Our family virtually lived on Thai food, which we cherished.

Following my marriage to an Indian, I settled into India in the year 1980 and ever since then I have been living in India. We had a small restaurant in Thailand and as mentioned above, we were virtually living on Thai food. It was, therefore, easy for me to learn about commercial Thai cuisine. My husband and my two children also developed a palate for Thai cuisines and thus cooking Thai food at home has also become a pleasure.

I joined Holiday Inn (Now The Lalit) at Babar Road near Connaught Place, New Delhi as a Thai food consultant during the year 1994 for their Thai Restaurant, Silk Orchid.
Thereafter I was sent to England for a couple of months by the management to train for their new restaurant, Blue Elephant to be opened in place of Silk Orchid in the year 1996. After the Blue Elephant was opened, I left the organisation to join Hotel Imperial as their consultant chef for the yet to be opened Spice Route – The South Asian Restaurant, in the year 1996.

Ever since then I have been attached to the Spice Route kitchen as their chef de cuisine creating various menus for different seasons and occasions all round the year. I also continue to create different versions of the cuisine for the neo-thai food lovers owing to the ever increasing popularity of the cuisine.

I was also awarded the Best Lady Chef by Ministry of Tourism in India for my outstanding achievement and contribution to the promotion of tourism in the country. I was presented with this dream award by the former President Pratibha Patel.

Looking at the surge in healthy habits among food lovers, I am sharing vegan recipe Tauhu Nerng (chilled silky bean curd with basil). As we will be offering vegan
special at the Spice Route from March 12-20, this easy recipe is a window to what lays in store for food lovers.

Recipe

Tauhu Nerng
(Chilled silky bean curd with basil)

Ingredients

Bean curd silky: 1
Lemon grass: ½ tsp
Basil: 5 gms
Light soya sauce: 5 ml
Gelatin: ¼ sheet
Kaffir leaves: 5 gms

 Method

Soak gelatin in water and heat it
Blend the bean curd
Blend the lemongrass
Put kaffir leaves into a  very thin thread
Mix all the above ingredients and light soya
Take a mould and line it with clean wrap and pour the above mixture
Chill it for 3 hours and serve it on a bed of basil.




Chef Veena
(As told to Shilpa Raina)