PADMA: Yes it is. Sometimes hunger is a great motivator. Like all of us, I come home very tired at the end of the day and I don’t have that much stamina to cook a whole meal so I’ll see what’s in my fridge. I also travel a lot and I don’t like to waste food, so I try and use up everything in the fridge before I go on a long trip.
SLOANE: So what’s in your pantry that’s shelf stable, that’s always around?
PADMA: I use many ingredients that are shelf stable like green mango powder, which is a great souring agent when you don’t want moisture. You can get it at Indian grocery stores (Here’s one in New York).
Persian Omani lemons are awesome. You just smash them with a mallet or a wooden spoon to release their flavor. These lemons are dehydrated and aged. They have a musty quality -- not unlike truffles, but they’re very acidic. It’s a strange, cool, groovy thing to use in stews. You need only one lemon for a big pot.
I also like cardamom, because it adds such a nice, delicate fragrance to any dessert dish. It’s gentle. Kids will eat it. You can use it in teas.
SLOANE: Speaking of children, many of your recipes recall specific childhood memories associated with places and flavors. How would you introduce children and teens to these flavors, tastes, or textures to broaden their palates?
PADMA: A lot of people say their kids will only eat one thing. I think the best way to get children to eat nutritiously is to get them involved in making their own foods. Once a child has participated in the process of making a dish, they feel invested and possessive of that dish, and they’re less likely to reject something that they’ve made themselves.
I think that why I do what I do: because I was cooking in the kitchen with my mother at an early age and it felt very grownup to be included in these tasks with the women in my family.
SLOANE: In India, you were brought up eating a vegetarian diet. When you moved to the United States what happened?
PADMA: Those were still the years when it was believed that kids should be eating liver and steak to make them strong. Our attitudes have changed, but back then this was still the prevailing thinking. My mother wanted me to be healthy and tall and smart and pretty, and she felt I needed more protein so she introduced me to meat.
