![]() Right now, he’s navigating the restaurant’s recovery: “like everyone else, we’re struggling to find people to work.” But he’s also thinking of other cookbooks his future might hold. While Snackbar had its share of pandemic troubles, “we survived,” Bhatt says. So do we have to necessarily wait three, four, five generations? The answer to me is clearly no.” The book’s title says as much: it serves as both a declaration of belonging and a challenge to those who would question it.īhatt wrote I Am From Here during a period of unparalleled hardship and uncertainty for the restaurant industry. “What I was trying to say is, this is where I live, this is my home where I make a living. As he wrote, he thought about “why some foods are more popular here, and accepted more readily than others, and then you realize actually, that’s not necessarily the case.” Sicilian food, he points out, took awhile to be accepted - “so there’s a process, and slowly, slowly you become accepted and assimilate.” Even so, “how long does one have to wait to be accepted?” Bhatt asks. “I want the food of my childhood, the flavors I grew up with, to become a part of the Southern culinary repertoire - just like tamales, lasagna, and kibbeh have become.”īhatt, who was 18 when he immigrated with his family to Texas from Gujarat, India, has filled his book with recipes that carry on a lively, nuanced conversation between India and the American South: stewed Gujarati-style black-eyed peas sit next to savory black-eyed pea griddle cakes garam masala is added to succotash okra, a staple of Indian cooking that was first brought to this country by enslaved people from West Africa, gets its own chapter.īy the time he started writing the book three years ago, “the idea that I wanted to tell my story had been brewing for awhile,” Bhatt says. “I want people to see me as I see myself: an immigrant, a son of immigrants, who chose to make the South his home, and in doing so became a Southern chef,” he writes. Out today, the book is a collection of recipes that reflect not only Bhatt’s own history as an Indian immigrant to the American South, but also the ongoing evolution of the region and its cuisine. You can find Bhatt’s eggplant and okra caponata in his debut cookbook, I Am From Here. “As soon as it went in, it made sense,” he says since eggplants, tomato, and okra all grow in the same season, “they should work together, and they did.” But more recently, Bhatt says, “I asked what would happen if I added a little something.” After experimenting with green beans and asparagus, he landed on okra. When he did, he didn’t stray too far from tradition - while there are numerous versions of caponata, it typically consists of fried eggplant, capers, and olives in a sweet-sour agrodolce sauce. As a lover of eggplant, Bhatt was so smitten by the Sicilian dish that he decided to put his own version on the menu at Snackbar, the Oxford, Mississippi, restaurant where he has been the executive chef since 2009. I tend to use the frozen baby okra that I find at my local Middle-Eastern grocer.The first time Vishwesh Bhatt ate caponata, it was at Susan Spicer’s New Orleans restaurant Bayona. However, if you cannot find baby okra, you can use larger varieties and chop them to about 2 inches in size. I almost always use a pressure cooker to cook beef stew cubes or bone-in beef because it cuts the cooking time by at least 45 minutes!Īs for the okra, baby okra is most commonly used. ![]() You can use either bone-in meat or bone free, depending on your preference. I use beef shanks but, you can use whatever beef you use for stew. In this okra stew, beef cubes are always used. ![]() You can also opt to skip the protein and use vegetable broth to keep this dish vegetarian. Next, homemade broth is made by boiling the protein, and added with the tomato sauce, beef stew cubes or chicken and simmered all together. The base is made by sautéing crushed garlic with fresh chopped cilantro in any neutral oil, followed by adding the main vegetable (okra, white beans, green beans, peas and carrots or potatoes). The Lebanese technique of making yekhnes starts out pretty much the exact same way every time. ![]()
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