By Christine Salins.
Jody Vassallo has written such a long list of cookbooks even she probably wouldn’t be able to rattle off all their names. She began her career working with Donna Hay, writing recipes, styling and testing, and was Food Director at Murdoch
Books in the late 1990s. She authored seven Marie Claire best-selling cookbooks and won a slew of awards for 18 additional books.
From 2004 she authored 15 regional food books for Hachette which were published internationally, and more awards followed. In total, she has written nearly 40 books, but none are quite so personal as her latest, The Yogic Kitchen, which takes a food-as-medicine approach to health, based on the ancient Indian practice of Ayurveda (published by HQ, rrp $39.99).
On her Facebook page, Vassallo says The Yogic Kitchen is the first book in which she has written so openly and honestly about herself and her journey with success, failure, depression and anxiety. “It is the first time I’ve spoken about how I came to Ayurveda and all it has done to enrich my life,” she says.
“I want what I write to make a difference but not in a pushy way but a soft gentle ‘here let me help you’ kind of way. … I intend for my recipes to become good friends, things you will share with those you love again and again and again. I also want you to take soft steps into the world of Ayurveda for there is magic healing medicine in there.”
Ayurveda is the sister philosophy of yoga, which Vassallo also practises and teaches. (The book has lovely photos of her on her little farm in Central Tilba, NSW.) According to the Ayurvedic way, human beings are made up of fire, earth, air, water and space, each element occurring in different levels in the body.
People can be classified into three simple “doshas”: vata, pitta and kapha. Vatas tend to be creative types, pittas are more competitive and kapha are more moderate. All doshas can be imbalanced. Vata types are encouraged to eat grounding foods like root vegetables and dairy foods on unsettled days, pittas will find relief if they add cooling foods to their diet in hot summery months, and kapha types will benefit from adding warm spices like cinnamon, pepper, turmeric and ginger to their diet on cold, damp days.
In The Yogic Kitchen, Vassallo shows how you how to identify which of the three main doshas you are and how you can support it with the right medicine. She stresses that it is not her intention to preach … “life is not an exam, we are here to enjoy it and feel good in it”. And since the bulk of the book is recipes, that’s easy to do … “once you know which dosha you are predominantly and that it is in balance, you could simply skip to that section and eat from there, confident that you are doing yourself some good”.
This delicious Marinated Chicken With Coconut Lime Dressing recipe comes from the Pitta section, which Vassallo says anyone who has trouble staying cool will benefit from.
Marinated Chicken With Coconut Lime Dressing
Serves 4 to 6
1.5 kg chicken drumsticks, scored 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 cup (125 g) coconut yoghurt
1 teaspoon each of ground coriander, ground cumin, sweet paprika and garam masala
1 small red onion, grated 1 tablespoon lime juice
Coconut lime dressing:
2 tablespoons desiccated coconut
zest and juice of 2 limes
1 teaspoon coconut sugar
1 small green chilli, seeded and chopped
2 tablespoons finely chopped coriander
3 tablespoons avocado or coconut oil
2 tablespoons water
Place the chicken, turmeric, garlic, yoghurt, spices, onion and lime juice in a shallow bowl and mix well to coat the chicken. Cover and refrigerate for as long as time permits; overnight is ideal.
The next day, combine the coconut lime dressing ingredients in a bowl, add the water and mix well. Bring the chicken drumsticks to room temperature 30 minutes before cooking.
Preheat oven to 200 deg C. Line a baking tray with baking paper and place chicken on the tray. Cook the drumsticks, turning several times, for 40 to 50 minutes, until cooked through. Serve the chicken topped with the coconut lime dressing.
From: The Yogic Kitchen, by Jody Vassallo. Published by Murdoch Books.
