(birds chirping) - Welcome back to The Great Minnesota Recipe.

Over the past two episodes, we've traveled to Vergus and Buhl.

And today, we're headed to Duluth.

Today, we're meeting Anusha Kannan and Kannan Kasturi, a couple that moved to the United States from India just over a decade ago.

My friend, Sharon, caught up with them in their home to learn more about their culinary background.

- Funding for The Great Minnesota Recipe is provided by Daugherty Appliance Service & Sales, The Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and viewers like you.

Thank you.

- [Sharon] Oh, this is beautiful.

(jovial music) - [Kannan] And even my earliest memories are, so there was a lot of love and affection that was put in the food, and so, we absorbed all of that.

- [Anusha] And my mom and grandma, their cooking will be smelling, the sambar and we're like, "Mommy, it's, is it ready?

Is it ready?"

And we'll be, you know, all those wonderful memories just come back.

(ladle scraped pot) - Both me and Anusha grew up in large, urban cities and we never had the chance to, like, literally grow our own food.

We never got the opportunity to do that.

And when we moved to Minnesota, and we saw this beautiful land that we have, we thought, "Oh, this is a great opportunity to grow our own food."

And the first year, I spoke to one of my colleagues at work, Jean, she mentioned about straw bale gardening.

So, she loaned me her book, and we went through it, and we chalked out a plan and we said, "Let's try it" and got it delivered.

We tried it the first year.

It was wonderful.

- [Anusha] Yeah.

We had plenty of vegetables, like.

- [Kannan] Produce.

- It was absolutely fantastic, and we kept doing it each year after that.

- Lot of tomatoes, squash, eggplant, whatnot.

Like cantaloupe, watermelon.

- [Kannan] Yeah.

- [Anusha] Oh my God.

That was, - [Kannan] That was amazing.

- [Anusha] Yeah.

It was a great experience to grow our own food in our garden, and, you know, cook and eat it, yeah.

- [Sharon] Anusha, Kannan, tell me what we're going to be preparing today.

- Okay, so we are going to be making a bunch of stuffs.

We're gonna make dosa, that's rice and lentil crepe, and we are gonna make some chutneys all to go with dosa, and we're gonna fill up the dosa with potato-based curry.

It's called a potato masala.

That's gonna go inside dosa.

- Oh, that sounds delicious.

- Yeah, and these are all from southern part of India.

Southern delicacies.

- Now, why did you say that specifically?

Is it, is it really specific to the region?

- Yes.

- Okay.

- In India, we have different states within India.

Each state has, have their own specialties, right Kannan?

- Mhmm, yeah.

- Yeah, like Kannan is from Mumbai.

It's very famous for pav bhaji, and what else Kannan?

- [Kannan] There's a, there's a lot of street food, street food component in, in, so Mumbai is on the west coast.

- [Sharon] Okay.

- [Kannan] And if you start off, see every region in India has its own specialty cuisine - [Sharon] Of course.

- [Kannan] The northern part has a lot of paneer and cottage cheese and dishes that go well with naan, bread.

The Western side of the country uses a lot of amalgamation between the North and the South.

- [Sharon] Interesting.

- [Kannan] And the southern part is mostly rice based.

- [Anusha] Yeah, rice.

(Sharon exclaims) - [Kannan] And a lot of tamarind.

- Makes sense.

- Eastern part of it has its own influences from China and the northeast part of the country.

- [Sharon] Mhmm.

- [Kannan] And so there's momos and noodles - [Sharon] Mhmm.

and a lot of variety in that region.

- Tell me, how do you like Duluth?

- We love it.

- Yeah, Duluth has been fantastic.

- Beautiful.

Yeah, beautiful.

We love living here.

We love the lakes.

Kayaking.

You know, going, biking in the trails.

Seven minutes drive to lake.

- [Kannan] Yeah.

That's, you can't beat that.

- [Sharon] So is Duluth long term home for you, you think?

- When we moved, we didn't think so.

When we initially - the first year.

- came in the first year, but now I think we have our roots deep into the soil here.

- Yeah.

- [Sharon] Now we're moving onto the, the dosa and the potato filling, right Anusha?

- Correct.

- Okay, now tell us what's inside here.

- Now I'm grinding green chilies, ginger and garlic into a fine paste.

If we, I really like to do it this way.

It brings in real flavors when you put it directly into the oil, into the, of the potato masala.

So that's, that's the thing that goes in there.

So ginger, garlic and green chilies.

Then, the other ingredients are mashed potatoes.

And then we need onions, carrots.

You can, like, use as many vegetables as you want here.

Like beans, green beans can go in here.

So, you know, to make it really healthy.

And again, curry leaves and cilantro.

That's all we need for the masala.

- Now masalas could mean the spice mixture - Mhmm.

- or in this case, the word is also used for this potato filling as well.

- Sure.

- Because it uses the masala spices in addition to mashed veggies as well.

- [Anusha] Yeah.

We called the spice mix, as Kannan said, the masala, so that's where the common thing comes in.

- What's one piece of advice that you would give someone that wants to start Indian cooking.

- It's, it can, like spices, like the list of spices, you know, sometimes when you take a recipe, it can look, "Oh my God, so many things goes into it," But it's actually not that complicated.

The steps might look, "Okay, oh my God, there are 10 steps involved, or 15," but it's actually not.

If you go systematically, step-by-step taking on a recipe, I'm sure, like, you will enjoy the whole experience of doing it.

- [Kannan] Right.

Spices is a big thing, and there could be 10 different spices on that recipe.

Now, that could come as pre-mixed and pre-ready mixed spices available right in the store, and you could definitely start by just that instead of trying to grind your own spices and doing it, the actual traditional way.

Start with using the pre-made spices.

- Every, you know, Indian house, they have their own like secret masala and everything.

It's not a secret, but every, like, you know, it passed on from my mom, like how she makes, maybe it's from her mom.

This is fenugreek seeds and some coriander seeds, turmeric, sambar powder, which we get from home.

Then, this is some lentils.

Urud dal and channa dal, all our lentils.

This is mustard seeds.

These are mustards and some red chilies.

So, you know, it's very handy, you know, I can just, like, use this very easily whenever I want to make masala, so.

- Now would you say, except for the one from home, you said in Southern India, would you say all of these could be purchased here in Minnesota, easily?

- [Anusha] Mm, actually, turmeric, you get here, easily - Correct.

But the other things, we get it from the Indian stores in Minneapolis, actually.

- Alright.

Alright, Anusha, so now we're preparing the potato masala - Yes.

- for the dosa.

The filling for the dosa.

- Yeah, so, then you need to add mustard seeds.

Again, that pop, splatter.

- [Sharon] Oh, look at that sizzle.

- [Anusha] I like to let it splatter before I add anything to it, to, so that it, you know, when it's splatters, it gives out a whole different flavor than when you not let it splatter, so.

(pot sizzles) Yeah, this point I'll add channa.

(food clatters) You can see that it's still in low heat.

I don't want to burn any of these dals.

Then you're gonna add turmeric.

- [Sharon] Is there an order that you need to add the spices?

- [Anusha] Usually we add the lentils of, the mustard goes in first.

Then after the mustard go, the lentils goes in next.

Then we add the turmeric to the oil that gives it more flavor and color.

when you activate.

- [Sharon] Okay.

- [Anusha] Then, the curry leaves.

(spices pop) Then, I'm gonna add in the ground chili, ginger, garlic.

You might want to smell this one, Sharon.

- I can smell it right now.

It's incredible.

- [Anusha] Yeah, so when you add this to the oil, it gives a whole new flavor, this whole thing.

(ladle scrapes pot) - [Sharon] I can smell the ginger.

- Yeah.

- [Sharon] The ginger is really nice and strong.

- [Anusha] Next, we're gonna throw in the onions.

Give it nice mix.

(food sizzles) (ladle scrapes pot) We're gonna saute all this for a couple of minutes.

- [Sharon] Okay.

- [Anusha] So the onion changes - [Sharon] Okay.

- [Anusha] color.

(ladle scrapes pot) - We follow vegetarianism.

Me and Kannan, we grew up in a vegetarian household, but we decided to stay as vegetarians by choice.

It's because of various, multiple perspectives: spiritual, health-wise, and environmental-wise.

- Mhmm.

- Of all these perspectives, we decided to stay as vegetarian.

- Correct.

Yeah, from a spiritual perspective, vegetarian diet in India is a, a type of Ahimsa, which is a word that literally translate to no suffering.

Ahimsa.

Himsa is suffering.

So, it tries to decrease as much suffering for the food.

And so, that type of food is considered more uplifting it from a spiritual perspective From a health perspective, there's, there's quite a number of studies that have shown that more fiber and less processed foods are, are quite a healthier alternative.

And from an environmental perspective of, we know about the studies that have shown decreased greenhouse gas emissions associated with the, - Yeah.

- with this type of a diet.

So multiple, multiple, - Yeah.

- multiple perspectives.

- Now, Anusha, I saw that you integrated all the vegetables and now you're just letting it cook for a few minutes.

- [Anusha] Yes, yes.

- [Sharon] Covered.

- [Anusha] We added every, we added onions and carrots.

- [Sharon] Mhmm.

- [Anusha] I'm gonna hold off on the potatoes and peas.

Everything is half cooked now, carrots.

At this stage, - [Sharon] Okay.

- [Anusha] I'm gonna add in the mashed potatoes.

- [Sharon] Okay.

- [Anusha] Yeah, you need to peel it, boil it, peel it and mash it well.

- [Sharon] So you never leave the skin on?

- [Anusha] No, not for this dish.

You know, mix it all up really nice together.

(ladle scrapes pot) And then, like, let it cook for a few more minutes, - [Sharon] Okay.

so that the potatoes get infused with the other flavors.

- [Sharon] Sure.

(ladle scrapes pot) - [Anusha] Then at this stage, I'm gonna add peas in.

- [Sharon] Green peas.

- [Anusha] So now, I'm just gonna.

let it all sit for like few minutes.

- [Sharon] Okay.

- [Anusha] Yeah.

- [Sharon] And then the last ingredient will be the cilantro?

- Exactly.

To wrap it up.

See how it comes in?

- [Sharon] Oh, it, it looks great.

Really, the colors, it's, good, they compliment each other.

(ladle scrapes pot) - [Anusha] Okay, so this is all done.

- Great.

- So I'm gonna turn off the stove, and we can move it aside.

- [Kannan] It's a wrap.

- Anusha, tell me about your profession.

What do you do?

- I work as a financial system analyst for Associated Press, and also apart from that, I love to sing and cook.

Those are my two passions.

- And I'm a pediatric, pediatric endocrinologist.

So I deal with kids and their diseases related to, related to hormones.

And so-so.

So that takes up most of my work and time, but in my free time, I enjoy straw bale gardening and, and traveling and spending time with my awesome family.

- Now, the dosa, is that something you made yesterday?

Did you prepare that already?

- Yeah.

Yeah, I started a batch yesterday.

Can show you the - Yeah, I would love to see it.

- I usually let it ferment overnight in the oven.

And let me show you.

(pot slides) - Now the amount that you told me, four cups of rice with one cup of lentils, how many, how many individual crepes or dosas would that, would you say that makes?

- Makes a lot, actually, let me see, like around 30, 40.

This one batter can be used to make dosa and the rice cakes, the idlis, and you can make - Oh, very nice.

- something called uttapam where you stuff the dosa with a lot of veggies.

So, it's very versatile.

- [Sharon] Very.

- [Anusha] You can make plenty of stuffs with this batter.

- And very traditional for Southern India.

- Yeah, yeah.

- [Kannan] And if you could see, it's sort of leaking out, because it gets, it gets fermented, and sometimes the, the fermentation process overflows.

- So there's no yeast?

- [Kannan] There's no yeast at all.

- [Anusha] No, it's natural.

For me and Kannan, food, cooking, it all translates back to home, and like, you know, everything, like, brings back fond memories of our home.

For instance, when we come back from school, we get reminded of, like, how me and my sister, we all sit around our grandmom, cross legged, right on the floor, and she will make sure that we eat.

And, and, we all used to make dinner together, all of us together.

Like, you know, me and my sister used to help roll the bread.

So food, the food is like the, it was the binding force, you know, for all of us.

So we get reminded of family and food whenever we talk about cooking and food, right Kannan?

- Correct, yeah.

More than nutrition, which was also an important role, as the old at age goes, "You are what you eat."

So, what goes into the food was what we absorbed.

So, there was a lot of love and affection that was put in the food, and so, we absorbed all of that.

- [Sharon] Now, speaking of family, tell me about your children.

How many do you have and were they born in Minnesota?

- We have three kids now, my older one, Madura, she's seven year old and Madhav is four years old.

And we have a four legged kid, Jay, (Sharon exclaims) who we got recently, and yeah.

- [Kannan] Jay was the one who was born in Minnesota.

- I see.

- [Kannan] The others were born in DC.

Perfect.

Alright, so let's start the dosa.

- [Sharon] Oh, I'm excited for this.

- [Kannan] Yeah.

- [Sharon] So, what kind of pan are you using here?

- [Kannan] So, this is like a, a flat griddle.

It's pop, it's called a Tava.

- [Sharon] Tava.

- T-A-V-A, yeah.

- [Sharon] Okay.

- And it's, it's just a simple, flat base skillet that you would get anywhere.

- Okay.

- And we just use that.

So the, the key to it is to keep the right, right temperature.

If it's too hot, it gets too crispy too fast, and you can't get it out.

If it's too cold, then it takes a long time.

So I, I almost just feel it from the top and just feel how hot it is.

(Sharon exclaims) - That is that is warm.

- It is warm.

So then, if I wanna make it a little bit less, less hot, I just take a little bit of water and just splash it out.

- So, cool it down a little bit?

- It just cools it down a little bit.

Wipe it off with a clean cloth.

And then, I then start the dosa now.

So this is the dosa batter, right.

So I take a spoon full of it or a ladle full of it and just go straight out in the center and just drop it right there.

- [Sharon] Beautiful.

- [Kannan] And now you just have to evenly spread it out.

- [Anusha] You might want a thinner edge.

- [Kannan] Right.

- [Sharon] Mhmm.

- [Anusha] Thicker center is okay, but the edges.

- [Sharon] You want thin.

- [Anusha] Yeah, thin, yeah.

That, that way it's different from pancake.

Its a thinner.

- [Sharon] Now Kannan, - [Kannan] Yeah.

- [Sharon] you added some, some sesame oil, is that right?

- Yes, I did add some sesame oil that, it gives it a nice oily base.

It sort of seeps right into the base of the dosa, - [Sharon] I see that.

so that I can easily just, like, take it off when I need to.

And I also move it around a little bit so that the heat gets evenly distributed.

So, just move it around a little bit.

And now, when I feel that it's starting to become a little bit brown there, I use this spice mixture.

Now, this is just a mixture of sesame seeds and some chili powder.

It's called pudi in Tamil, which is, just means powder.

- [Sharon] Okay.

- [Kannan] Now popularly, it's also called as gun powder.

- [Sharon] Interesting.

- [Kannan] Yes, and I think the term gun powder comes because of its explosive taste qualities that it has.

- [Sharon] Sure.

It's going to add some color I can tell.

- Yes, and, and some flavor and taste as well.

So, you just gently just sprinkle it all around.

And now, once we are done with that process, then we come to the filling.

- Oh I see, the potato masala - The potato filling.

- [Sharon] Here's the excitement here.

- Right.

- [Sharon] Okay.

- And now we add it right here in the center and just mainly, just even it out a little bit.

- [Sharon] And are we still on low heat here?

- [Kannan] We are still on low heat.

- [Anusha] I increased the heat a little bit while Kannan was adding that.

- [Kannan] Just so that it cooks a little faster.

- [Anusha] Yeah, faster.

But it's better to do, do the whole batter process in low heat, - [Sharon] Low heat, yes.

- so that you have enough time to spread it and make it thin and don't want to burn.

- [Kannan] Yeah.

I think you can increase the heat a little bit more.

- [Anusha] Yeah, yeah, sure.

- [Kannan] Just increase it a little bit now heat, now that you've added the, added the filling to it, and now you gently just start to move it up there, - [Sharon] Oh, it's beautiful, look at that.

- [Kannan] and so it gently just goes up there.

- [Sharon] It's just perfectly crisp, yeah.

- [Kannan] Yeah, right.

So, you just let it, move it around a little bit so that it gently evens up the surface.

And you keep constantly checking to see if you don't want to make it stick too hard if it gets burned.

So, you could gently just persuade it by gently moving it around.

- [Sharon] Mhmm.

- [Kannan] Just to make sure that you're not gonna end up with stuck dosa.

And then when you keep looking at it, until it takes just a gentle, caramel brown.

- [Sharon] I can tell you've done this many times.

- [Kannan] Yes.

Well with, with, like, many, like, attempts and failures, yes.

- [Sharon] Yes.

Like any sort of cooking, right?

- [Kannan] True.

Absolutely.

And then you just go ahead and you just gently place it.

- [Sharon] I see.

- [Kannan] One on top, and just give it a, a gentle nudge so that it sticks onto it.

And then the other side goes up on top here and that goes and sticks up on top as well.

- [Sharon] That's beautiful.

- [Kannan] Still a little bit.

- [Sharon] That didn't take very long.

- [Kannan] It didn't take too long at all, yes.

Just make sure that you get all the oil out of it and you just take it up and just gently, just slide it off.

- [Anusha] There you go.

- [Kannan] There you go.

- [Sharon] It's beautiful.

- [Kannan] Yes, and that is the dosa.

Alright, so I'll start making the rest now.

- So today I'm gonna show the coconut chutney.

- Beautiful.

- [Anusha] So, we have some roasted channa dal.

You get this in Indian stores.

And some cashews to add some richness to the chutney.

And then we have curry leaves, coconut, Thai green chilies, and cilantro.

And finally, I'll be tempering it with all, some spices from my masala box.

Mustard seeds and some lentils to give it an nice flavor.

- [Sharon] What does the tempering do?

- [Anusha] So it's usually added towards the end.

It kinds of, you know, aromatic.

Like, it kind of aromatically makes the dish very appetizing when you smell it.

It had some interesting dimension to the chutney.

- [Sharon] Absolutely.

Would you say the different chutneys are really for, some for cooling the palate, changing the, the different flavors of the dish?

- Yeah, just to bring in the main spice, the taste of mint, which has a very good flavor - Sure.

- in the mouth.

And this is like little bit of bland chutney.

You can spice it up with chilies, if you want, or what you want.

(Sharon hums in agreement) And the red chutney, to bring in more spice and color on the plate.

- Sure.

(blender spins) - How has it been so far being a part of The Great Minnesota Recipe?

Are you excited?

And has the process of picking out your recipe been difficult?

- We are super excited about it, and it's been a great experience, because this is the first time both of us are in front of camera - And cooking show.

- cooking show.

And, like, more than anything, we are very excited about sharing our recipes and about talking about our culture, about our home and everything.

So, it's been a great experience.

And also, like, we have been experimenting a lot, right Kannan?

- Yeah, this is great because this not only involves just cooking a dish, which is in most cooking shows where you choose any dish that you want and you cook it, but this is different, because you are inventing your own dish.

- Yeah.

- You're actually putting in your food with a traditional recipe from here.

- Yeah, hot dish is so traditional to Minnesota, so it's a lot of responsibility on us to keep it as close as possible and yeah, - Right.

- and still infuse, like, lot of Indian spices, but still keep the, you know, taste balanced to suit all the palates.

- Sure.

- [Kannan] That's great.

And we, we need to try to replace the meat and make it as close as possible to the non-meat, the non-meat, like, version of it.

And Indian spices could get a little hot on the palate, so we'll have to try to find the perfect blend - Yeah.

- when you can taste the spices, but not be too hot.

- [Sharon] Sure.

Now, what would it mean if you won the contest and the cook-off?

- We're not even thinking about it.

(Kannan laughs) - Yeah, we are, we will be happy, but more than that, as I mentioned, we are more excited about trying this new thing out and sharing our recipes with everyone.

And we really hope that everybody likes the hot dish that we make and we keep it as close to the traditional hot dish as possible.

(friendly music) - And then remind us here.

- This is the sambar, the lentil stew that we got it done in the instant part.

- [Sharon] Okay.

And we have the dosa here.

- With the potato filling.

- Potato filling, and our final dessert.

- [Kannan] Yes, the... - [Anusha] Kesari.

- [Sharon] Kesari.

It looks-- - [Anusha] Kesari halwa.

- It's beautiful.

Beautiful.

Alright, so I think we should taste everything.

- Let's do it.

- Take a piece of the, of the dosa.

You just basically - [Anusha] Tear a piece.

- tear a piece off.

- [Anusha] And then after you taste individually, you can mix them up.

- Mm, it tastes very good.

Oh, the flavor really comes out.

I can taste the coconut.

It tastes delicious.

- Thank you.

- It's very good, very refreshing.

- And you can dip it in sambar.

- In the sambar, okay.

That's what I was gonna ask you, too.

It's really incredible.

- Thank you.

- Lots of love in this.

- I don't know about you, but I would love to have been present for the tasting of that meal.

But this isn't the last we'll see of Anusha and Kannan, either.

They'll be back for the competition, and I can't wait to see how they will combine their traditional foods and turn it into a hot dish.

Wanna make their masala dosa at home?

We've got you covered.

This recipe, and all the others from this show, will be posted on our website.

Sharon, Anusha and Kannan also made a pineapple kesari for our companion series, Just a bite, only on Instagram.

Next time on The Great Minnesota Recipe, the competition is finally here.

I can't wait to see which cook will impress the judges with their new and exciting twist on the most classic Minnesota entree, the hot dish.

We'll see you next time on The Great Minnesota Recipe.

- Funding for The Great Minnesota Recipe is provided by Daugherty Appliance Sales & Service, The Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and viewers like you.

Thank you.