Growing up in New Jersey, first generation Indian-American Hetal Vasavada longed for the fudge brownies and chocolate chip cookies commonly found at her friend’s houses. That’s not to say she didn’t love the traditional cardamom-laced custards and puddings her mother made. It’s just that her sweet tooth wanted the best of both cultures.
Just in time for Diwali, when families share sweets, or mithai, to welcome a sweet new year — this year’s festival of lights is Oct. 27, but Bay Area celebrations fill the month of October — Vasavada has released a new cookbook that explores and fuses her two dessert worlds. Turns out you can have your kulfi and eat your French mango-lassi macarons, too.
Based on her blog by the same name, “Milk & Cardamom” (Page Street Publishing Co; $22) features 73 recipes that range from traditional — think nutty ghughra, which Vasavada presents as a frangipane-laced galette — to bold fusions, like Kopra Pak Macaroons and Caramelized White Chocolate and Toasted Milk Cookies, inspired by the instant milk powder commonly used in many Indian kitchens.
We recently caught up with Vasavada, who lives in Belmont, to chat about everything from her favorite Diwali desserts and Bay Area Indian markets, to the modern Indian culinary movement — and where she takes her parents out to eat. (Hint, it’s a fellow Gujarati’s restaurant in San Francisco.)
Q: What are the essential dishes that you make for Diwali?
A: Since college I’ve been doing a lot of cakes and cookies, like macarons, at my Gujarati parties, since most Indian people didn’t grow up with those desserts. Another common complaint among Indians is that our desserts are too sweet, so I like to scale back on the sweetness and make them smaller than the baseball-sized ladvas we grew up with.
Q: How did you come up with the Caramelized White Chocolate and Toasted Milk Cookies?
A: One of my favorite flavors is penda. It’s a fudge made with khoya, which is created by cooking down whole milk until the liquid evaporates and you’re left with solid milk fat. A lot of Indian families use milk powder as a time-saver. I wanted to turn this flavor into a cookie so I started by toasting the milk powder — and was inspired even more when I met Christina Tosi of Milk Bar. She was one of the judges when I was on MasterChef, and (she) uses milk powder in her recipes.
Q: Where do you eat out when you don’t feel like cooking?
A: (San Francisco’s) Rooh, August 1 Five or Besharam when I want fancy and to show off to my parents. Besharam especially, because it’s food from the Gujarati region, which is where we’re from. When we want something casual and don’t feel like spending the day making it, we’ll go to Vik’s Chaat House in Berkeley or Red Hot Chile Pepper in San Carlos. Or sometimes we’ll just go to the market, buy a Maaza mango juice and a samosa and sit outside and eat it.
Q: What are your favorite Indian markets in the Bay Area?
A: Vik’s (in Berkeley) recently expanded its grocery store and has great staff that can help if you can’t read the signs in Hindi. In San Francisco, there’s a new store, Indian Spices and Groceries, that’s really good for organic spices and flours, and also for ordering anything and getting it the next day. In the South Bay, I like Trinethra Super Market, which is a large, legit South Indian market. They have locations in Cupertino, Santa Clara, San Jose and Sunnyvale.
Q: Thoughts on the modern Indian culinary movement in the Bay Area and beyond?
A: I love it. It’s really a mixture of Indian and American cuisines. I think for a long time people didn’t like the idea of having to pay more than $8 for Indian food. But there’s so much technique, effort and intuition involved in cooking Indian food and sourcing the ingredients. And these chefs, like chef Manish (Tyagi) at August 1 Five, who describes his food as modern California Indian, are finally putting Indian food on a pedestal as a fine dining cuisine. The time is now. People are more open to trying new flavors, and Indian food is also a gateway cuisine to vegetarianism. Whenever I eat at August 1 Five I think, ‘This reminds me of [insert food from my childhood], but better.’
