Cooking with Ismail!

While growing up in Mumbai, Ismail Merchant seldom entered the family kitchen.

"I learned cooking out of sheer necessity," the filmmaker, who has authored half a dozen cookbooks, and gained fame for cooking quick yet delicious meals for his unit and friends, once said.

His culinary skills have been sampled by famed actors like Christopher Reeve, Anthony Hopkins, Vanessa Redgrave and Paul Newman.

"When I began making films, I had to make sure the costs were kept very low," he said, recalling the meetings with writers, actors and financiers he used to have in his tiny New York apartment and, eventually, in the sprawling country mansion he bought in the 1970s. "I could not bring myself to offer chips and other tasteless snacks. So it would be delicious home-made samosas, to start with."

His kitchen in Manhattan was very tiny, he said. "And that meant I had to cook very fast. I did not want to be sweating as the guests arrived. And I did not want the guests to come into the kitchen and watch over my shoulder. There was simply no room for that."

Merchant also claimed to having nudged famed cookbook writer and actress Madhur Jaffrey, who featured in many of his films starting with her debut in his 1965 Shakespeare-Wallah, to learn cooking.

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In his better-known Ismail Merchant's Passionate Meals: The New Indian Cuisine for Fearless Cooks and Adventurous Eaters, he offered recipes for traditional and not-well-known-dishes such as Machli Dam Masala (Cod in Tomato and Basil Sauce).

"Tony (Anthony Hopkins) who acted in three of my films, including Howards End, loved my ginger chicken," Merchant said. "It must have been very good for Tony had long been a lover of Indian food before he worked with me."

Merchant was never secretive of his recipes. "I can always invent a new one," he said. "I often cook non-traditional Indian food," he added, recalling how while shooting Mr And Mrs Bridge in a small town in Kansas, he was challenged to cook salmon the Indian way, and how he managed to do it with just about two or three ingredients.

The challenge came from Paul Newman, the star of the film, who had received a huge salmon from a friend in Alaska. Newman said he would cook half, and Merchant should cook the other half.

In the pantry, Merchant found Dijon mustard, some black pepper, salt and oil. He rubbed the mustard and pepper on the salmon, sprinkled some salt and baked his portion while Newman used the black pepper and cooked his portion.

"Newman asked me how I could call my preparation Indian," Merchant recalled with a hearty chuckle. "I told him I had prepared it the Bengali style. Bengalis just cannot cook without mustard!"

The following recipe for the ginger chicken Merchant made for Hopkins was adapted in the book The World of Curries that I wrote with food editor Dave Dewitt for Little, Brown and Company.

Ginger Chicken for Anthony Hopkins

Preparation: 10 minutes
Cooking: 20 minutes
Serves: 4

Ingredients:

3 pound (1.3 kg) boneless chicken breasts, cubed
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon ghee
2 large onions, diced
4 garlic cloves, chopped
1 small cinnamon stick, cut into small pieces
4 inch/10 cm ginger root, peeled and grated
Pinch of saffron, stirred in a little hot water
1 tablespoon freshly-ground black pepper
6 ripe tomatoes
4 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
Salt to taste
¼ cup coriander or mint leaves

Method:

• 1. Heat oil in a large frying-pan over medium heat, and add the chicken in three batches. As they turn brown, remove them and dry them on paper towels.
• 2. Stir the ginger, onions, garlic, cinnamon and ginger into the oil over medium heat and fry until the onions turn golden.
• 3. Add the chicken, saffron water, pepper, salt, tomatoes and cook for 20 minutes over low flame. Add the ghee and gently stir the curry. Add the vinegar, stir well and garnish with coriander or mint leaves before serving.