Presented by:
Anupy Singla
Journalist and author, The Indian Slow Cooker

Barbara’s Bookstore, 1218 S. Halsted, Chicago (south of Roosevelt Rd)

Podcast courtesy of WBEZ’s Chicago Amplified

Join us as Anupy Singla discusses the history of Dum Pukht, the original slow cooking in India. Only about two centuries old, this style of cooking stewed meats and beans over a very low flame in a container sealed with dough. The process enabled meats to cook in their own juices and bone marrow. The cuisine of Awadh introduced this cooking and now it is used in many areas including Punjab. Could this have been the original slow cooker?

Anupy will also tell us how her background influenced her culinary passion. She was born in India but came to the U.S. at three, where her family settled outside of Philadelphia. Yet every year she got back to her roots by visiting her family in Punjab. It was Anupy’s grandfather that gave her her first cooking lesson at the age of ten. A landowner from a small village, he appreciated the spicy, authentic tastes of Punjabi cuisine and insisted on passing along his love of food to his grandchildren.

Through the years, Anupy moved on to work on Capitol Hill, get her graduate degree in Japanese Studies and eventually work for Bloomberg News, WGN and CLTV in Chicago – but it wasn’t until her daughters were born that she realized her commitment to family – food – and cultural history. It’s this realization that led Anupy to quit her on camera job to write her first cookbook: The Indian Slow Cooker: 50 Healthy, Easy, Authentic Recipes, which was published late last year.