Spiritual stirfry

Artist Baba Anand moved from New York to Gurgaon to be closer to the true flavours of his favourite foods.

Baba Anand, the artist best known in the West for his kitschy take on Krishna iconography, old Bollywood posters and Ravi Varma-style paintings, has recently shifted base from New York to Gurgaon. Apart from arty compulsions, however, there were practical reasons: food, for instance. "The food in America is terrible," he says, stirring the curry for his (vegetarian) khao suey. "The vegetables are all pumped up with water and there are no flavours in anything. That's why I have moved back," he says. As he chops up the babycorn and the broccoli and orders his Man Friday to pluck up some curry leaves from a garden pot, we can't help but agree.

Friends who have sampled Anand's cooking "" his tofu steaks and Burmese khao suey are party staples when Anand entertains "" will vouch for the fact that food figures as prominently as art in his life. And both take on the form of a prayer. If Anand has done a series of 108 paintings (the number of prayer beads in a rudraksh string) with his lips (lipstick instead of paint!) to signify "my silent prayer" to Krishna, cooking too takes on a spiritual dimension. Anand says that whatever he cooks, it is an offering, prasad or seva, a labour of love made with "good intentions". "But don't say that, I'll sound like a nut!" he adds. We reassure him and Anand warms up to his subject. "Even near the ISKCON temple in Tokyo, there is supposed to be a guy who makes these amazing doughnuts and no one knows why they taste so special. But he says it's only because while he is making them, he is chanting 'Hare Krishna'." In the Anand household, the cook now listens to spiritual strains while stirring and frying.

But if religion has inspired this foodie, so has Harold Robbins! As a schoolboy, Anand "" whose father owned the restaurant Capri in Srinagar, serving up Continental food, caviar and India's first softie ice-cream "" confesses to reading the books and trying to recreate the exotic-sounding dishes mentioned. "I would bake eclairs and scones, and in fact I didn't go to school for one whole year in Srinagar because I was so obsessed with cooking." Being a chef was an ambition; in a traditional Punjabi household that wasn't allowed but Anand went on to do another unconventional course in those days. A fashion designer by training, he graduated from the first NIIFT batch before moving out of India, to Paris and New York and venturing into art.

This khao suey recipe has been borrowed from the Burmese mother-in-law of a friend and "ever since we tried it, my sister and I have stuck to it". It's the most authentic that you will get, or so promises Anand.

Favourite Recipe - Khao Suey

For the curry:

2 big onions, sliced
1 cup vegetable stock
400 litres coconut milk
1 1/2 tbsp besan
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp Maggi seasoning sauce
1/2 tsp haldi, lal mirch, zeera powder
A few curry leaves
1/2 cup each of broccoli, babycorn and mushrooms, chopped and boiled till al dente

Accompaniments (served alongside curry in separate bowls):

3 onions, sliced and browned (fry them in a little oil)
1 onion, chopped
1 big pod of garlic, chopped and fried to golden brown
100 gm green chillies, chopped
5 tbsp roasted peanuts, roughly pounded
100 g spring onions, chopped
3 eggs, hard boiled and sliced
Juice of 4 lemons
Some chilli flakes
Fun Food chilli-garlic sauce
A little Nam Pla (Thai fish sauce), optional
2 cups crispy noodles
2 cups egg noodles, boiled

Roast the besan on a hot tava till it changes colour. Put it aside and make a paste in some water. Make the curry by frying onions in oil. When they turn pinkish, add the stock, the masalas and seasoning sauce and coconut milk. Stir in the besan paste gradually. The curry should not be too thick. Add the veggies and the curry leaves. Bring to a boil. Take out in a large bowl and serve along with the accompaniments. To eat it, take some noodles in an individual bowl, add the broth and the toppings of your choice.