BENGALURU: After 22 years, I still feel that my journey in the food industry has just begun. The journey would still be a beginning even after another two decades because every little corner on the globe has a story and all are so exciting that makes you feels ‘Oh my God, is this the beginning?’During research for my latest TV show, I came across the Indian fig which is commonly known as goolar. Goolar is also called the cluster fig or country fig. It is called the cluster fig as this red, furry figs grow in short clusters, directly out of the trunk of the tree.
It grows wild all over India. The goolar tree is commonly found in our cities and towns. They are actually inflorescences, meaning cluster of flowers, and this special type of closed cluster is called syconium and is as nourishing as the fruit fig and has a natural prebiotic fibre. It has a strong fruity flavour.
While working on creating recipes for the show, the focus was on seasonal food and foods that provide cooling effects for the hot summers. The goolar contains tannins and the soluble and insoluble fibres in it are prebiotic. My grandmother had made a semi-dry vegetable with it sometime in summer and told us that it is good for the stomach as it has the same effect as that of buttermilk.
So I thought of making a kebab since the raw fruit is fibrous and has lot of flesh, which once boiled has the ‘galawat’ properties.Goolar ka pickle is also something I learnt at one of the restaurants. The challenge is to find the Goolar in raw form in the midst of the city since it is not commercially cultivated.
— Chef Gautam Mehrishi, host of Hello Summer on Living Foodz