Going for the lean look!

Charming and vivacious, Karen Anand, the salad queen, should quite predictably! have written a cook book, perhaps a thesis on the innum...

Charming and vivacious, Karen Anand, the salad queen, should quite predictably! have written a cook book, perhaps a thesis on the innumerable exotic salads that she is famous for. Instead, she launched a book on lean cuisine on the afternoon of February 20 in the city, titled Lean Cuisine Curries.

But the brunch invitation to Holiday Inn turned out to be a full-fledged lunch, astutely combining health food with a taste and flavour that was creditable, since everything was made without a drop of oil! There was a lovely spread of salads, masala prawns, Goan fish curry, mushroom and potato curry, Madras pumpkin curry, baingan masala curry, two kinds of rice and a tomato rasam to start off with. But sans oil and with dollops of care.

It was not easy for Karen to maintain her smiling disposition throughout the brunch, considering her house had been burgled just a day before and her jewellery stolen. She points out to the pretty beaded necklace that adorns her picture on the book cover and says, 8220;That was also stolen8221;.

Wasn8217;t it natural for her to write a book on salads, considering the revolutionary salad bars she began in Pune and Mumbai? She says, 8220;The publishers were keen that I cover cuisines that are lean and Indian8217; and close to our hearts. Salads are alien to us. Indians still believe that many foreign ingredients are required to make interesting salads8221;.

Thus began a compilation of traditional regional recipes. 8220;I found that most North-Indian dishes,8221; says Karen, 8220;are heavy while Maharashtra, the Konkan belt and South India offer lean curries. On weekends, I8217;d try out at least six such dishes.8221; Last summer, she finalised the recipes. About 50 per cent are traditional ones while the rest are originals. The stress is on vegetarian dishes. But recipes on sea food also dot the book, with Fish wrapped in mustard8217; being a 8220;Bengali inspiration, though not typically Bengali,8221; she says.

Karen makes it very clear that 8220;by lean, I don8217;t mean that I have not used oil or coconut. It depends on the way you use oil. Frying ingredients involves a lot of oil absorption. But tadka on top of a raita or a dal is not heavy.8221; Karen has replaced roasting8217; with frying,8217; which according to her, also enhances the taste.

What8217;s gone into her book is the goodness of many vegetables, not just cauliflower and potatoes. As she began compiling her book, she discovered 8220;jackfruit, raw bananas, banana flowers and pineapple as vegetables.8221;

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The book is not about taste alone 8211; it focusses on a lifestyle where fitness rules. As she states in her introduction: 8220;I am interested in bringing about a change of lifestyle, which will lead to a healthier, more wholesome life. I am not interested in temporary fads as a solution to weight problem8230; I consider oil-free cooking just one step in the right direction to a more healthy, vital lifestyle without making too drastic a change too quickly.8221; And after a while, you won8217;t miss the oil at all!