Climate Cookery
June 27, 2021/ Photo: Courtesy of Shreema Mehta
Shreema Mehta had been a sustainability advocate for years — but a report from the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) helped kickstart her calling to create food that celebrates climate-friendly crops.
Last year, Mehta read the FAO’s report on “underutilized” crops like millet, pigeon peas, and tamarind. The report explained that low investment and demand has prevented the restorative, environmentally-friendly crops from featuring more regularly in food systems around the world.
“With my background in sustainability and storytelling — and my love for cooking and food — I thought about what I can do to change the narrative around these foods,” she explained. “What if I create new, modern foods that generate demand for these overlooked crops?”
The idea led Mehta to create Climate Cookery and its inaugural product Kick+Tang Tamarind Sauce, which spotlights the underutilized ingredient.
Native to tropical Africa, tamarind trees produce been-like pods with a pulp that develops a sticky, sweet/sour flavor as it ripens. According to the FAO report, tamarind species are very resistant to draughts and are a great source of vitamin C as well as tartaric acid. Used in many South Asian, Caribbean, and Mexican cuisines, the fruit can be used in sauces, sweets, and to tenderize meats.
The Climate Cookery’ website suggests using the fierce, flavorful sauce to make marinades, spice up stews and curries, or add extra flavor to eggs. While developing it, Mehta stuck to two primary principles — “make it hot and make it garlicky.”
“I knew I wanted to create a sauce with tamarind, garlic and hot peppers,” she said. “I made several versions of the sauce with a variety of hot peppers — this was in the late summer and fall of last year, so I had a good range of hot peppers to choose from. I decided the heat from habaneros matched best with the other ingredients.”
In the coming months, Mehta hopes to develop a more mild version of her inaugural sauce and expand its presence in stores around the city.
“This scaling will enable me to build a more direct supply chain for the tamarind, which is the ultimate aim of Climate Cookery — putting money in the pockets of the smallholder farmers who are still cultivating these amazing foods, despite relentless industrialization,” she said.
More about Mehta and Climate Cookery can be found here.
