Kurma

(continued from My Early Days, below...)

Around dusk, Mark and I arrived at the Hare Krishna Temple, in Sydney's inner-suburb of Paddington, and entered the quaint little shop-front. The air was heavy with incense smoke.

After sitting through a lecture on Bhagavad-gita we were served refreshments from a large platter - chilled wedges of orange, dried figs, and little cups of warm, nutmeg and banana-infused milk. The philosophy had not really sunk in, but the taste of the food sure did. Despite it being so simple, I had never tasted anything so wonderfully delicious. The tastes seem to explode in my mouth.

A young English girl in a sari invited us back on Sunday to what she called "The Love Feast". During the next few days I could not get the taste of that food out of my mind.

At the feast on Sunday there were more taste sensations. Mark and I sat cross-legged on the carpeted floor in the tiny Oxford Street shopfront along with about fifty other first-timers and savoured the newly encountered flavours.

There were numerous dishes, but the two that remain in my mind were the warm, firm buttery pudding made from semolina called halava, and slices of eggplant dipped in a spicy chickpea flour batter and fried in ghee with a haunting elusive flavour that I had never encountered.

I asked a lanky, bright-faced monk dressed in saffron cloth if he could identify what that taste was, and he answered with a grin 'asafetida'. I had no idea what that was, but I was hooked on the taste.

Soon I started to make regular visits to the temple after school. One Friday evening, the young saffron-clad devotee, whose name I learned was Upananda, invited me down creaky steep stairs to help him in the dimly-lit temple kitchen.

He was rolling small balls of soft, milky-coloured dough that were to become a sweet called Gulab Jamuns. The task was a long one - at least 2 hours - but the time went fast as Upananda regaled me with the fascinating story of what we were actually doing in that tiny basement kitchen.

to be continued...

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Anonymous from Crow's Nest, Sydney asks:

"What is the difference between Durum Flour and Semolina and can you substitute them for each other?"

My reply:

"There is a great deal of confusion about the difference. What is referred to as semolina flour in Italy, for instance is not always the same as what is referred to in the USA. As far as in Australia is concerned, you would have to contact someone in the wheat industry.

There's a vast amount of question-and-answers on this topic - key in 'difference between durum flour and semolina' in Yahoo search, for instance.

In a nutshell:

Semolina (pictured above) is the coarsely ground endosperm of durum wheat. The wheels of the mill are set to produce coarser flour particles. High in protein, it is used to make the highest quality pasta. It is also used to make couscous.

Durum flour is a by-product in the production of semolina and is used (in USA) to make some pastas and some specialty breads. I would presume that if durum flour is made from what's left after the endosperm is removed from the durum wheat, it is lower in protein and a different product.

I would consider them generally not interchangeable for some recipes, and definitely not interchangeable for others, depending on whether you are making bread, pasta or something else. Hope this sheds some light on this etymologically-challenged subject."

By way of an addenda, here's some more wheat terminology:

Endosperm
This is name given to the interior of a wheat kernel and makes up about 83% of the whole grain of wheat. The endosperm, once it has been ground down to a powder, is flour.

Bran
This is the outer layers of the wheat grain which are removed during the milling of white flour. About 14% of the wheat kernel is the bran. Some bran is rolled to make it flaky and sold for human consumption with the rest being used in animal and poultry feed. Wholemeal flour contains all the naturally occurring bran.

Germ
This is the part of the grain which would sprout if it was planted as a seed. It is packed with nutrients and protein with which to nourish a new plant. During milling the germ is usually separated from the rest of the wheat grain because its fat content limits the shelf life of the flour. It is occasionally used as a dietary supplement or sold as animal feed.

Couscous
Couscous is not part of the wheat grain but a kind of precooked, dried pasta prepared from 100% Durum Wheat Semolina. The granular particles are about 1-2mm in diameter and require cooking.

Bulgar
Bulgar is a kind of pre cooked chopped wheat. It has been traditionally prepared for centuries by boiling the grain (sometimes for days) until thoroughly cooked, then drying before cracking the hardened kernels into coarse pieces. As bulgar wheat is pre cooked it only needs re-hydration before serving.

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