Holy Moilee

Art professional and now food entrepreneur, Prima Kurien likes cooking up a storm.

One-time art gallery owner and now a food entrepreneur, Prima Kurien has managed to cut and burn her index finger during the course of her morning. On most days, after starting her catering business, Kurien can, by her own admission, be found in her tiny kitchen cooking up a storm for her clients. She says, “Though we are from Kottayam, I grew up in Nepal where my father was posted. My mum as a new bride would get these inland letters with recipes from my grandmother.” Every winter Kurien’s family would come to Kerala for their annual holiday and her paternal grandmother’s house would be filled with several adults and as many as 25 children. Remembers Kurien, "My grandmother, who is my inspiration, would be inventive and dynamic in her cooking. She would rustle up all sorts of things.”

But Kurien transformed from being an eater to a formidable cook only after her own marriage to a Punjabi. She recalls, “I started feeling miserable. Food is such a central focus of my life. So every time I would go to my mum’s house I would learn to cook.” Kurien concentrated on Kerala cuisine and that is what she is offering her clients. Says Kurien, “I love cooking when I have lots of mouths to feed.”

Her other love, art, too helped her pursue cooking for large numbers. While running a cutting-edge art gallery in the capital, Kurien would organise long, lavish Sunday brunches as part of a show opening. The city hasn’t seen anything like that since. Says Kurien, “Those openings were unusual.” Also unusual is her unerring eye for great art which still makes her sought-after even though she now refuses to do that commercially. Says Kurien, “Art is now more about business than about art. We are not a nation of collectors, we are a nation of speculators. I will always design art shows. I will never stop doing that.”

In her current venture, some friends, she says, stepped in so that she does turn a profit. But for Kurien, cooking is pure joy. Kurien says with deep happiness, “I love going to the subzi or fish markets. It’s heaven.” And then adds, “I didn’t start with a plan. I live and do things by instinct and heart.” Kurien’s heart, without a shadow of doubt, is in food. As we sit in her living room, talk invariably returns to that subject. At one point she says, “My favourite food is at the Cochin station. Even when I just think about it, my mouth starts watering.” So does mine when I take one look at what she offers me to eat.

FAVOURITE RECIPE

FISH MOILEE
1/2 kg fish (rahu, soormai or pomfret)
11/2 tsp garlic, chopped finely
1 inch ginger, chopped finely
1/2 cup diluted coconut milk
1/2 cup thick coconut milk
1 dry red chilli, de-seeded
Some curry leaves
2 medium onions, sliced
3 medium sized tomatoes, cubed
1 tsp lemon juice
4 green chillies, slit
1/4 tsp turmeric
Salt to taste

Grind the turmeric, red chilli and half teaspoon of garlic. Keep aside. Heat a flat pan and saute onions till brown. Then add the ginger and garlic. Then add the paste and stir gently. Now take the diluted coconut milk, salt and lemon juice and add and then bring it to a boil. Now add the fish, and after the first boil, turn down the gas to simmer and cover it with a lid. Cook for about 30 minutes. Finally add the thick coconut milk and the chopped tomatoes. Bring to a boil and take it off the fire. If the gravy is too thin, add one tablespoon of maida mixed with water and stir it in.