Local Indian-cuisine expert in our midst – and that’s no ‘Phooey’!

Food fans are flocking to the new Delhi Belly on Broadway with its colorful, vibrant ambiance and Indian food.

We have our own American expert on Indian food right here in Sonoma.

With her husband Alan Berger, Kathy Gori writes and sells movie and television manuscripts in real life, while making herself a superb non-Indian American expert on Indian food, having discovered healthy Ayurvedic foods and practices to successfully cure her cancer decades ago.

Gori and Berger recently remodeled a local home, the main feature of which is a state-of-the-art kitchen for her cooking convenience and, I suspect, for future filming of cooking shows. She’s that good, funny and interesting. In fact, as a teenager in San Francisco Gori did radio voices for Dan Sorkin on KSFO, was the voice of Rosemary in the Hanna Barbera cartoon series “Hong Kong Phooey,” a rock jock in Los Angeles, voted one of the top 10 DJs in L.A. by the Los Angeles Times, has done lots of commercials and won a Clio award. She has also voiced Saturday morning cartoons, recorded voices and songs for “Sesame Street,” and dubbed many feature films.

In their backyard, the couple had planter boxes installed and have a kitchen garden growing like crazy, most of which plants are ingredients for her Indian cuisine.

Gori and her Colors of Indian Cooking company will debut her new Indian Spice Kit, a curated collection of recipes and 12 individual packs of Indian spices called “The Chaunk” at Steve Sando’s popular Rancho Gordo stores both in San Francisco’s Ferry Building and in Napa, as well as at J. James on East Napa Street in Sonoma on so-called Black Friday.

On a recent Sunday afternoon when a few of us were lucky enough to be invited to lunch at the Gori-Berger home, all seated at a perfectly square table so everyone has equal position, Kathy served us food typical of the Kerala region of South India including sweet and sour pickled shrimp in coconut vinegar; butternut squash, coconut and black eyed pea curry; mango chutney, radish and peanut salad, cashew rice with spices, banana raita; green bean salad with coconut and peanuts; orange blossom ice cream with pistachios; and one dish from Gujarat, dhoklas (steamed chickpea bread) with fresh coconut, mustard seed and cilantro.

Everything came from their garden but the coconut. Find Kathy Gori’s blog at thecolorsofindiancooking.com.

Here is a recipe directly from Kathy Gori for a tempting side dish with Thanksgiving leftovers, or by itself as an entrée.

“Cauliflower nu Bhanolu”

Here’s What You Need:

1 and 1/4 cups of finely chopped cauliflower florets

1 Tbs green chili and ginger paste

1 and 1/2 cups of coconut milk

6 Tbs besan flour (aka garbanzo or chick pea flour)

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp lemon juice

2 tsp of salt or to taste

3 and 1/4 tsp of vegetable oil for greasing and tempering

1/2 tsp mustard seeds

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

Here’s What To Do:

Preheat the oven to 360 degrees.?Lightly grease a pie plate or 6 inch cake pan with vegetable oil. Set it aside.?

Finely chop the cauliflower florets and set them aside.

Pour 1and 1/2 cups of coconut milk into a bowl, set aside.

Chop 1 serrano chili finely. Mix it together with 1 tsp of so of chopped fresh ginger and a bit of water until you have 1 Tbs of green chili ginger paste.

Add the besan flour into the coconut milk and mix it into a smooth batter.

Add in the finely chopped cauliflower.

Add in 1 Tbs of the chili and ginger paste.

Stir it in well.

Add in the sugar and salt, then the lemon juice.

Mix everything together well and pour it all into the lightly greased pan.

Pour the batter into the lightly greased pan and set it aside.

In a small skillet or pan heat 3 tsp of vegetable oil.

When the oil is hot, add in the mustard seeds and cumin seeds.

When the mustard seeds start to pop, pour over the top of the cauliflower batter.

Pop the whole thing into the oven for 25 to 35 minutes or until the cauliflower mixture is set and lightly golden.

Scoop into individual bowls and serve it up.”