Food People, Parent Picks: we ask the chefs, food writers, and industry insiders we interview in our Order Up! series to share the products, books, and bites they can’t live without.
Earlier this week in our Order Up! conversation, Heena Patel told us about landing in the Bay Area without knowing how to speak English, raising her now-grown children Vishakha and Ankoor partly in the back of the family’s flower shop, and why she named her San Francisco restaurant Besharam, meaning “shameless.” With Diwali this Sunday, she also walked us through rangoli, saris, and the round rotis her daughter still teases her about. If you haven’t read that full interview yet, you can find it right here.
In today’s Food People, Parent Picks, Chef Heena shares the Gujarati pantry staples she’d hand any home cook, the spice blend she reaches for again and again, the chai her family starts every morning with, and the kitchen jobs she gives kids first.
Your go-to fast vegetarian dinner on a busy weeknight?
Khichdi, which is made with slow-cooked rice, lentils, and ghee. It pairs well with every Gujarati chutney and pickle.
One basic, inexpensive kitchen tool you use all the time?
A rolling pin. We make fresh bread every day.
One bigger appliance that’s worth the money?
One spice blend that instantly makes a simple vegetarian dish better?
I have a lot of spices, but the blend I go back to again and again is equal amounts of coriander, black pepper, and fenugreek leaves, half-crushed.
Three Gujarati pantry staples every home cook should keep around?
Basmati rice, split moong dal, and beans. Any kind of beans. With those, you can cook an amazing meal.
A dish your kids always ate growing up?
Spicy mac and cheese with cauliflower. That’s the favorite.
The spicy part is chilies, a mix of Fresno, serrano, and Thai. My family loves Thai chilies.
How do you make everyday chai?
We start our day as a family. We live in a triplex, so my children come over in the morning and we all gather for chai.
We boil water with fresh ginger, fresh cardamom, lemongrass, and mint for a few minutes. Then we brew it with loose Assam tea leaves, a little sugar, and a little milk. That’s our chai.
When someone in your family has had a hard day, what do you cook?
Khichdi, again. This is my mac and cheese. It’s a one-pot meal of rice and legumes, and I can add whatever vegetables are in my refrigerator. It’s protein-rich, it has texture, and it’s amazing with the little sour pickle I make with peanuts and garlic.
I mix that with a little ghee, and I’m in heaven.
A cookbook or cook whose food inspires you?
Lion Dance Café. The couple behind it had a restaurant in Oakland, and now they’re based in Singapore. Their food is so tasty. They just published a cookbook called Lion Dance Café, and I’m a big fan. [Order the cookbook from them directly online here.]
An easy first job for a kid (ages 7 to 12) in the kitchen?
Folding samosas. That’s where my children started. Rolling out the bread, too. We have fresh bread every day, and making it with Mom is how I started. Washing the legumes or peas, peeling potatoes. Slowly introduce what you use the most.
And whenever you’re making something stuffed, like kachoris, samosas, spring rolls, or momos, everything where you hide a surprise in a bite, that’s when I need a lot of help. I always involve the children.
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