Food and Identity

Ground beef kebabs

The early 1990s. My parents were back in India from Aden, and my brother and I lived at home again, out of our respective boarding schools. My brother went through some….er…rebellious years, shall we say?  For a couple of those years (and I know he’ll correct me on both the exact years and the amount of time; I shall leave those details to him) we lived in a house with a separate room at the back - what would have been a garage but converted to a room with an attached bath, and that was where my brother lived. Had its own separate entrance, which was everything for him.

My household was a strictly vegetarian one, and this, during these years, was one of my brother’s sources of angst. To be fair, my parents had (still do) a very carb-heavy diet. My brother firmly believed he wasn’t getting the sustenance he needed, and almost every night, after my mother had gone to bed, he’d venture out to Johnson Market, armed with a thermos. About a 15-minute walk from home, Johnson Market was home to many vegetable vendors in addition to numerous meat vendors. And Fanoos. A kebab shop. I still salivate every time I think about those kebabs. My brother’s thermos would be filled with three kebab rolls – fragrant, very well-spiced kebabs (I don’t know if they were lamb or beef) wrapped in very thin rotis  (flatbreads) – called roomali rotis, roomal being the Hindi word for handkerchief – so rotis thin enough to be folded like a handkerchief. The kebabs would be nestled in very thinly-sliced onion and chopped cilantro and wrapped tightly in these flour handkerchiefs. My brother would walk home with his nightly prize, and devour them in the comfort of his room. The separate entrance meant my mum couldn’t smell the delectable kebabs. And peace would reign.

I happened upon his escapade quite by accident one night – when I went in to borrow a book or something. Couldn’t believe the smell. Asked for a bite; was very reluctantly given one. And oh wow. After that, I’d go in frequently, and be rewarded, but with never more than a couple of bites.  You’re not working for it, he’d say. Fair enough.

Fanoos still exists, but is no longer a modest little stall. It is quite the restaurant today, has a large web presence, and its kebab rolls are reputedly the best in Bangalore. Didn’t have a chance to try them on my latest trip to Bangalore – definitely next time!

The old kebab shop - wonder if this is how my brother remembers it.

And Fanoos today. I like the old one better.

So why the trip down this particular lane today?

Well. When I ask people not too familiar with Indian food what their experiences with the cuisine have been, I am invariably met with standard responses: tandoori chicken; butter chicken. Sure, these might be followed by aloo gobi and tadka dhal.  And naan, of course. But India’s meat dishes in general, I’d wager, are more widely known than its vegetarian fare, which is, perhaps, not really surprising given that India has had a very long history of non-vegetarianism, despite most people’s perceptions about our cuisine. How? Well from the 8th century on, waves of Muslim invaders swept the hills and plains of mostly northern India. Our history classes (as I mentioned in a previous post) were full of studies of various Muslim dynasties – the Ghazni, the Ghori, the Khilji, the Tughlaq, the Lodhi, and of course, the Mughal. And along with the Muslim invaders came their cuisine, in which meat plays a more than prominent role.

Yet the most common myth about Indians is that we are, by and large, vegetarian. How people reconcile their ideas of chicken tikka masala being the Indian food they know and most Indians being vegetarians, I simply don’t know.

And here’s an important fact: though figures vary slightly in the sources I have checked, most sources point out that conservatively, 75% of Indians are non-vegetarian. Yes, you read that right, non-vegetarian. And this includes millions and millions of Hindus, even Brahmins. More on that in a later post.

Now as I began this project last August, in one of my first posts I mentioned changing national identities in india, and reasons for the changes – most, completely natural. But in the past couple of decades (longer, but I’ll focus on the past couple of decades), the changing identity has a lot to do with an identity that is being forced to change. An Indian identity that is being forced to align with a certain ideology. The Hindutva ideology: one that views India as homogeneously Hindu, and specifically upper-class Hindu, and vegetarian. No place for anything else; never mind the secularism that is written into the Indian Constitution.

So let me put this into some perspective for you. I currently live in Oman, where I have lived for the past nine years. The Sultanate, unlike India, is not secular; it is an Islamic state. Therefore, all pork is banned, as is alcohol. However, in the capital city of Muscat, there are numerous stores where a non-Muslim can very easily purchase both alcohol and pork. Restaurants can apply for a permit (like anywhere else in the world) to serve liquor. A basic respect for another’s way of life, isn’t it?

And India, supposedly secular, is going in the opposite direction. Specifically because of Hindu nationalists who are hellbent on ridding the subcontinent of Muslims, with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu supremacist organization leading the charge.

But. We are a country that is home to more than 213 million Muslims. We are home to the 3rd largest population of Muslims in the world, with large populations of Muslims all over India, and some states, notably Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and West Bengal being home to almost half of all Indian Muslims.

Just as I mentioned in the last couple of posts how educational institutions in Karnataka have called for the ban of hijabs on college campuses, and how in various states fanatical Hindu groups (backed by the government, of course) have called for the demolition of mosques that are centuries old because of claims of the existence of Hindu shrines in the exact location centuries ago, bigotry against Islam and Muslims also extends to food.

I want to talk specifically about two things: the ban on cow slaughter and prohibition of not just beef, but meat altogether. The banning of cow slaughter. The current ruling party, the BJP believes that cow slaughter should be illegal because cows are considered holy by Hindus. And to this end, they succeeded in banning the slaughter of cattle in many states in 2017. In 2019, they declared that they would ban cow slaughter in other states. Today, it is only legal in Kerala in the south and six of the seven states in the northeast (which I talked about several posts ago).

The sub-continent is home to 1.4 billion people. So millions and millions of people (including many Hindus) do eat beef. Never mind them.

And along with the ban on the slaughter of cattle, of course, come cow protection groups, cow vigilantes, who, with great self-righteousness take it upon themselves to kill people (I am not kidding) they suspect of killing cows. With government sanction.

A beef ban is one thing. But take that further to a total ban on meat. In the past couple of years, there have been calls for restaurants in certain cities to stop serving meat altogether.  In the city of Varanasi (a city considered holy for Hindus; the river Ganges flows through Varanasi; the city is believed to have been the home of Shiva), for example, a city in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, the government, led by a monk turned politician called Yogi Adityanath, very staunchly BJP, issued a total ban on all meat consumption within a 250m radius of all temples. In another city in Uttar Pradesh, the mayor ordered the closure of all meat shops in the city for the nine days during the Hindu festival of Navaratri. Also, many slaughterhouses have been closed by the government since the BJP won the state elections in 2017.

As I mentioned above, Uttar Pradesh is one of the states with the highest concentration of Muslims in the country, and most butchers are Muslim. You do the math.

Now wanting to be vegetarian for any number of other reasons is more than reasonable; nobody in their right minds today would argue that humankind desperately needs to move in the direction of vegetarianism for the health of our planet, let alone our own health. However, being forced to do by a government’s attempts to seize people’s rights to eat what they want…another issue altogether. Particularly when those people most affected belong to a certain community.

What does it say when a government spends more energy on protecting cows than its women? Statistics on violence against women in India are horrifying, to say the least. But sure, let’s focus on cows and Muslims instead. And shaping a certain Indian identity.

And the Taj Mahal, of course, will remain Indian.

Hard to move on from there, move on I must. So I turn to food. And again, I couldn’t not give you a beef recipe today – this time, my version of the Fanoos kebabs. Over the years, I have made these numerous times, always with beef, and think I come pretty close to how I remember them from all those years ago.

These are kebabs made of ground meat, and I like using ground beef with a good amount of fat in it – much like a burger mix. Fat is definitely flavor. The kebabs can be shaped any way you want. I sometimes shape the mixture around skewers, to get traditional log-shaped kebabs. Or sometimes make patties – like hamburgers, only smaller.

And I like grilling the kebabs – love the smoky flavor. But you can always make these without a grill – just pan fry them. And here’s a nifty trick: if you don’t have a grill/don’t want to grill, but still want the smoky flavor, here’s what you can do – without using liquid smoke. Heat a small piece of coal till it is white (I heat it on my stovetop) – exactly like you would do for your BBQ. Put the piece of coal in a little bowl, pour about a teaspoon of ghee or melted butter on it – and voila, here’s your smoke. Put the bowl on the platter on which your cooked kebabs sit, cover the plate with a lid for a few minutes, and your kebabs taste just like they’ve been grilled!

So here’s the recipe for my ground beef kebabs.

Ground Beef Kebabs

Ingredients (makes about 20 kebab logs, each about 4-5 inches long)

1.     1 kg (about 2lbs) ground beef

2.     2 heaping cups chopped fresh cilantro

3.     2 heaping cups chopped fresh mint leaves

4.     2 Tbsp finely chopped garlic

5.     2 Tbsp finely chopped ginger

6.     2 large scallions, finely chopped (if you have none, use ½ cup of finely chopped onion)

7.     4-5 red or green chillies, finely chopped (or to taste)

8.     1 tsp ground black pepper (or to taste)

9.     1 Tbsp ground cumin

10.  1 Tbsp ground coriander seed

11.  3 Tbsp chickpea flour (besan; this acts as a binder and also provides a slight nuttiness)

12.  2 tsp salt

Method

1.     Mix all the ingredients together well.  If you want your kebabs to be less pungent, reduce the amount of chilli and black pepper – but do use both – the combination is lovely.

2.     Just like with burgers, don’t overwork your meat. The cilantro and mint should be chopped well enough that they allow the meat to come together, but you should still be able to see bits of cilantro and mint through the mixture. This adds some texture as well as just looking pretty.

3.     Shape the kebabs. Shape the mixture around skewers – you can make them as big or small as you want. I make mine about 4-5 inches long and about an inch to an inch and a half in diameter. Alternatively, shape them into small patties. When I do this, I make the patties about ½ inch thick, and about 2 inches in diameter.

4.     If you are grilling the kebabs, I would recommend using a grill basket – so they don’t fall apart. Just makes cooking and cleaning a lot easier. Grill to your preferred level of doneness.

5.     If you are pan frying them, start with about a teaspoon of oil in a skillet (just to start them cooking). Cook on one side for 2 minutes on one side, flip over, and cook for an additional minute or so. Cook on medium to high heat so they sear and brown well. If you want them more cooked, cook them for an additional minute or two.

6.     Serve them with a bread of your choice. I don’t make roomali rotis, so we chose to eat them with homemade flatbreads. I serve mine, exactly like Fanoos did when I was a kid, with thinly-sliced raw onion, fresh cilantro, and a squeeze of fresh lime juice.

Enjoy!!