Memories of Apple Thokku

As an immigrant you learn to adapt in all ways including with recipes. When I first arrived in Toronto, Canada, most dinner party conversations at Indian homes were around cooking innovations using local substitutes to make famous street foods and delicacies. These days we are re-learning to cook with the real thing, because you can get everything that is available in all parts of India in our fair City. The downside is you no longer have the thrill of experimenting in the kitchen and wowing your friends with your latest discovery of an apt substitute for an ingredient, to get that authentic taste.

I had long since suppressed that desire for creative cooking and was going about my routine, when recently something changed that. I realized I needed to give my life a kick-start with new experiences and one thing led to another. This newly discovered sense of adventure took me apple picking last weekend. I loved being outdoors and enjoyed watching young families stomping around picking, tasting and playing, and wistfully wondered why I had never shared such experiences with my daughter when she was young and open to these experiences. In those initial years as an immigrant, I was keen on educating myself and getting ahead in my career. This left me little time for leisure. More than that, I was so steeped in my longing for India and my family back home, that I could not dredge up any interest in the pleasures of Canadian life and living. It has taken me many years to truly enjoy Canada, and now I plan to make up for lost time. I picked the apples with great gusto and brought them home with plans to bake and innovate making pickles, chutney and pakoras with them. I remembered then with great fondness my aunt’s cooking. She and her husband were our only relatives when we arrived here, and we lived together for a year, while we struggled to settle. My aunt taught me everything I know about cooking today. She was the one who showed me how to substitute a traditional mango recipe with green apples to come up with apple thokku. Even though you could not tell them apart, I used to mock the apple thokku then, saying it symbolised Canada, which substituted for the place where my soul continued to reside, India. Today, as I made the thokku I realised that the symbolism had changed. It represented innovation and the opening up of my mind to new possibilities in every sphere of my life. Canada, which has been a catalyst for my personal and professional growth, has definitely secured a permanent place in my heart.

Recipe
Peel six tart apples medium and grate them
heat half cup of sesame oil and add apple with salt, turmeric powder,asaefotida and chilly powder to taste
let it cook nicely till oil separates
Now add a teaspoon of cumin powder (my addition) and about half teaspoon of fenugreek powder
mix nicely - let it cool
I roasted and added some curry leaves just to kick it up
Enjoy with rotis, crackers (as a dip) and with curd rice (if you like sweet and sour pickle with it - some people like my husband do not!)