Whether it is avarai uttakka - local beans cooked with potato, tomato, onions, garlic and tempered with mustard seeds, or sandagai - roasted tomato sauteed with small onion, garlic and coconut ground to a fine paste - the "masala made carefully after dry-roasting 17 spices and not bought off the shops" is the key, Indira says.
Where would German food be without the potato, Italian food without the tomato, or Thai food without chilies, all originally products of the New World?
Another time, he taught me to load a boule of country bread with the guts of an over-ripe tomato, a stream of olive oil and a thick slice of potato omelet to make the world's best vegetarian sandwich.