Vyanjanaa

2008-02-07T22:34:00.000-05:00

Hello & a recipe for Makhni Dal

Hi everyone. This is L here and I am finally taking my first step into the world of food blogging!! A big thank you G - both for introducing me to food blogs and encouraging me to start writing myself.

Food back at home in India has been predominated by Punjabi and Tambram cuisine as my mom and dad belong to these two regions. Also as the family moved every few years to different places, my mom had the opportunity to sample and try make regional specialities in her kitchen. In short, I had a lot of fun eating a whole variety of yummy dishes (and now making them too) and through Vyanjanaa I want to share my experiences and recipes that have been given to me by my mom and extended family and recipes that are the result of experimentation [that's where G comes into the picture :)]

And moving on to today's recipe - Makhni Dal, this is a dish that my Mom makes during the winter months. It is wholesome, warming and delicious. With the prefix makhni attached to it, one would immediately start thinking about the oodles of butter and fat that one would expect to see in the dish, but surprise, surprise !! The only fat in the dish is the really miniscule amount of oil that goes into a tadka. Another surprise element - this dal does not use any of the dry masalas normally used in Indian cooking.

Ingredients:

Whole black urad dal - 1 cup
Rajma - a handful
Onion - 1 large
Tomatoes - 2 small
Garlic - 6-7 cloves
Ginger - 2 inch piece
Green chillies - 6-7
Jeera - 1 tsp
Heeng - a pinch
Milk - 1 cup
Salt - to taste
Oil - for tadka

Method:

(1) Soak the two dals together overnight in about 4-5 cups of water.
(2) Grind the onion, tomatoes, ginger, garlic and green chillies into a smooth paste.
(3) Pressure cook the dals until one whistle.
(4) Add the ground masala paste to the dal. Pressure cook for one whistle. Lower the heat to the minimum and cook for 20 minutes. At the end of 20 mins, switch off the heat and let the steam release from the cooker by itself.
(5) Do the heeng-jeera tadka and simmer the dal until it starts thickening.
(6) Add the milk and simmer again for about a minute.
(7) Add salt to taste.

Garnish with coriander and ginger juliennes.

Couple of points - the proportion of onions must always be more in the paste compared to the tomatoes, its always better to use fresh ginger and garlic for this recipe as these are the major flavour contributors and do not cook the dal too much after adding milk as it tends to split.

The dal goes well with naan, parathas and jeera rice. I love coriander chutney as an accompaniment. Refer to G's two-minute ginger pickle, it works well too. The dal is a little time consuming, but the results are totally worth it.

2008-01-01T18:52:00.001-05:00

Happy 2008 everyone!

I hope everyone is doing well and looking forward to the new year! I have been MIA for sometime. There were some not-very-good reasons for that but I am now returning to blogging refreshed and full of ideas. Thanks a lot particularly to Shyamala for not only trying my recipe but also giving me a gentle nudge to re-join the blogging world!

Part of my blogging hiatus was because I started watching my carb intake and I was having a hard time dealing with it. I had always thought that my vegetarianism and sugar aversion ensured that I ate healthier than most people. It was only when I started controlling my carb intake did I realize how restricted my diet was - too much carbs and too little protein. It took quite a bit of time and effort to, essentially, restructure my life (no potatoes!!! arghhhhhhh! what does one eat?!). I feel better for it and I did manage to loose some unwanted pounds before the.........wedding.

Which reminds me - I am married now! It was a wonderful experience and surprisingly, a whole bunch of fun. I was definitely not looking forward to the rituals etc........particularly since my mother had decided that instead of taking a subset of common rituals from 4 regions (Rajasthan, UP, Punjab and Tamland!), we would do EACH and every ritual from each and every region!!! Still, I survived, had amazing fun and totally reconnected with my extended family. Also, I discovered that things that you covet are not necessarily for you (toe rings, anyone?).

I begin this year by blogging about a simple lunch that we ate today. It is spicy and wholesome and very protein-eous (word?). Black chickpeas, stuffed baby brinjals, rice with peas, corriander chutney and yogurt. The 'kala chana' curry was wonderful and filling and so instead of the usual second serving of rice, one automatically went for the second and third serving of these.

For the chickpeas:
Black chickpeas----------------1 cup (soaked overnight, drained)
Oil ---------------------------1 tsp
Cumin seeds--------------------1/2 tsp
Heeng (asafoetida)-------------1/4 tsp
Green chillies-----------------4 (slit length wise)
Corriander pwd ----------------1 tsp
Tumeric pwd -------------------1/2 tsp
Red chilli pwd-----------------1/2 tsp
Tamarind paste-----------------1.5 tsp (dissolved in warm water)
Salt

1. In a pressure cooker, heat oil and sputter the cumin seeds. Add heeng, wait 30 secs, add green chillies, wait 30 secs, add the black chickpeas.
2. Add the powders & salt, saute 30 secs, add 3 cups water. Close the pressure cooker and give 3-4 whistles until chickpeas are tender.
3. Open the pressure cooker, put the burners on low and stir in the tamarind paste. Give a boil to the dish, garnish with fresh cilantro and you are ready!

A note on consistency: In many north Indian homes, this chickpea dish eaten with a thin-ish gravy which is what you will get if you follow the proportions above. In other homes/on other occasions/depending on accompaniments, you can reduce the amount of water so that you have a thick gravy wrapped around the chickpeas. This is especially good with puris/chapattis.

This dish is a great go-to dish for large gatherings (almost everyone I know has happy memories of eating this during Navratri!) and its an amazing stew to eat for lunch (along with a hunk of whole wheat bread).

On this note, I would like to introduce two new things to you.

1. A new theme: Nutritious, vegetarian, home-style, mommy-based Cooking For One. As you know, I have had issues cooking for just myself particularly wrt not wasting stuff, eating healthy, eating a variety of things etc and this year I will focus in particular on this issue.

2. A regular, guest blogger! L is a grad student, an avid eater, a HUGE helper and totally game for any crazy cooking adventure that I suddenly throw at her! She will be a regular contributor here. Also, she eats sugar........so some sweet recipes might be coming up!

2.1 S (the husband) took umbrage that I did not invite him to blog here. So you might see him lurking around too. But seriously, having seen him through grad school..............i am a doubter.......... :)

2007-08-08T01:12:00.000-04:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! And a Request finally fulfilled - TAPORIA/BESAN MIRCH

Hi everyone! This is G reporting from India where plenty of eating and experimenting has been indulged in the past few weeks. However, the rains have disrupted my internet connection hence the delay in posting. I hope all of you are doing well and are ready to wish me and the blog Happy Bday.

Yes, yes. The B-day was 29th July. But remember the rains. And I have been soooooo late in responding to S's very patient request for the recipe below that I guess I was well served when I missed the JFI after my own heart - chillies! I guess its only fair.......

(Taporia served with Rice and Masoor Dal)

TAPORIA / BESAN MIRCH

This is one dish that I absolutely love and that I think epitomizes Rajasthani cooking - simple ingredients, short cooking time and immense flavor and heat.

As I have mentioned in an earlier post, this dish has also been one of my Waterloos - neither did I manage to get the taste right, nor the texture. This time I made it in front of Great-Aunt Shiela (as opposed to her talking me through it over the phone) and then I tried it again at home. I am pleased to announce that the taste is SPOT ON! The texture could use some work, though.

Ings:

Green Chillies - 4 large (large, not very spicy variety)
Oil - 1 tblsp
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
Heeng - 1/4 tsp
Besan/gram flour - 1 large tablespoon

Powders:

Corriander pwd - 1.5 tsp
Red chillie pwd - 1 tsp (adjust this to the hotness of the green chillies. The idea is to attain a balance of flavor and heat)
Amchur pwd - 2 tsp (again, the more hot the green chillies, the more amchur can be put to ameliorate the heat)
Haldi - 1 tsp
Saunf pwd - 1 tsp
Whole saunf - 1 tsp
Salt - to taste (efficacy of Indian salt is different from that of salt in the US so I wont hazard even a guess)

Method:

1. First, take besan in a vessel with a thick bottom and dry roast over a low flame till the color of the flour has changed (see pic) and a raw smell has gone (say 5-7 mins). Remove besan from the vessel. While this is happening you may cut the green chillies into large chunks.
Hint: The besan starts burning in a flash. So you cannot leave it unattended for long. Constant stirring may be needed.

(Roasted Besan)

2. In the same vessel, heat oil, sputter the mustard seeds. Then add cumin seeds and heeng. Saute for 30 seconds. Add the green chillies and step away (this thing splatters like crazy). Maintain your safe distance, add 2 table spoons of water and put a lid on the vessel.

(Green chillies after cooking for 3-4 mins)

3. After 3-4 mins, remove lid and add all the powders. Dry roast for a bit. You can add another 2-3 table spoons of water to make sure the spices are done.

4. After 3-4 mins, add the roasted besan and stir. Any residual water that is left will be absorbed by the besan. Keep on flame for 30secs-1 min until everything is fully incorporated. Serve

In 15 mins you have a delicious side which uses the most minimal and common of ingredients. Thats what I call cooking.

You may wonder why it was so hard for me to make it all this time - well as you can see from the pic above the texture of my dish did not come out right even this time. The main problem was when and how much of water is to be added (in the current attempt I have added too much water). If you add too much......its a gooey mess. Too little means nothing is cooked and fully incorporated. For your reference I am also posting a picture of the 'perfect' taporia below made by great-aunt Shiela.

(The Perfect Texture)
This dish may take a little time to master but its a wonderful, quick side to keep in ones arsenal for those days with nothing much in the fridge and Rajasthan on the mind.
Btw, there is something else also that has kept me busy over the past fews weeks in India. I am getting married in November and my mom has been dragging me around on endless rounds of shopping. This despite the fact that she has been preparing(i.e. shopping) for this for years!

Which brings me to a question: Were any of you driven MAD by all your wedding preps? Most of my appalled reactions to the preps are along the lines of " Are you crazy spending so much money?!" or "I would rather die than sit on a stage!" or "How cheezy!" !! Is that just me? Or were you too like that? I havent attended an Indian wedding in about 10 years so I really have lost perspective on the entire wedding circus :)

2007-07-05T11:40:00.000-04:00

Bad Girl Round Up

Its been a long long time since I posted anything. I have been cooking new things a lot in the meantime but somehow, the camera, the laptop and I were never in the right place at the right time together. Plus the last parts of the Spring semester are always really hard and time-consuming. So I took a bit of break....and welcomed my brother for a visit! So its been a hectic and fun time the past month. We rushed through the East Coast, have been back on MO for the past few weeks and are off to India in the next couple.

I have been reading all of the blogs that are bursting with new recipes and interesting ideas! I started visiting the local farmers market and marvelled at the freshness of the veggies (they last twice longer in the fridge), I discovered a great (though pricey) all-natural store in town, I ate at a wonderful all-vegetarian(!) south-east asian restaurant in NYC (Gobo is the name, if you are visiting NYC), I failed at making Bitman's no-knead bread (any tips?), I excelled at frying tofu (thanks to Barbara), I hosted two barbeques and 3 dinners..................phew!

Here is a list of the high points of the past 2 months cooking. I am not posting the entire recipes....just the source's that I adapted from and the changes that I made.

Early Summer BBQ: Farm-fresh zucchini, Eggplant, Green peppers, Onions and Tandoori cauliflower. I marinated the cauliflower in yogurt, ginger, garlic, garam masala and salt - was relatively successful. Any tips about grilling cauliflower?

One thing not in the picture was wildly successful - grilled portabella mushrooms marinated for 2 hours in am emulsion of dijon mustard, honey, soy sauce and olive oil. The paste coated the shrooms and gave a really lovely, crunchy, slightly burnt crust when grilled (10 mins, high heat).

Grilled Strawberries!!!

They were wonderful! I washed, thoroughly dried the berries, removed the leaves and threaded them on skewers. A little brush with butter (salted butter actually tasted better), 5 mins on the dying embers of the grill and serve with whipped cream and/or mascarpone cheese. My new absolutely favorite dessert - soft, light and not too sweet.

Ina Garten's Lemon Cream Sauce - very versatile and insanely easy.

This is a keeper recipe. The cream may make one slightly wary but you can put in any amount of veggies in this to ameliorate your conscience!

Try 1: Used baby spinach (not arugula), normal tomatoes (chopped in large chunks). I also added some basil leaves (roughly torn) and mint leaves on top of everything, right before serving.
Try 2: A zinger - while the garlic was infusing into the olive oil I also added some (ok, a lot) red pepper flakes. I think it adds another dimension of flavor: cream, lemon, heat.......can you ask for anything more?

Orzo with Oven-grilled veggies and a light, mint-cream sauce.

This was Try 3 of the basic lemon cream sauce (above) but with half the amount of sauce. Since I didnt have any spinach or basil or arugula I tossed orzo with the cream sauce and slightly crushed mint leaves. And oven-grilled veggies, of course. I think this is light and healthy summer dish. Plus it has the advantage of helping me use up all those tiny amounts of veggies that somehow always get left over (eye's rolling).

Asian Adventures! Tofu stir fry

Its prolly stupid to be excited about a stir fry dish but it took me FOUR tries and a long long post from Barbara of Tigers and Strawberries to finally be able to shallow fry tofu!

Learning curve:

1. I learnt that sesame oil handles better if you drizzle tiny amounts over nearly-cooked dishes, rather than in a hot, smoking wok.

2. Thanks to Barbara I think I will also use shallow fried tofu in Indian dishes though till now I have thought it a very bad sub for Paneer.

3. Another lesson: In my grocery I found small packets of mixed veggies in various combos (not in frozen section, they were near the fresh veggies) which are PERFECT for stir fry's. I usually dont like to 'waste' packaging by buying small servings but these are perfect cooking for 1 or 2 people and when you do not want to buy huge bunches of carrots, large zuchinis and pounds of snow peas! Particularly if you are capricious like me and do not want to see the same veggies again for at least 2 weeks :)

4. New & exciting ingredient in my pantry! Dried Mushrooms! They taste amazing and last long and they are very easy to use (woe be the amount of fresh 'shrooms I have shoved into the fridge, forgotten about and had to throw away!). I wonder why they seemed so intimidating before? Oh! And the recipes to use them on the back of the package are great too.

PS: The dried oyester mushrooms werent so great. Main problem was a fishy smell during the rehydration process. It is my pet peeve but may be ok with you.

Light Summer Pizza - adapted from Micheal Chiarello

I wanted to try out store-brought pizza dough and this seemed like a great summer pizza. I didnt have feta cheese (so skipped it) . I used hummus made in a local restaurant (yummy!) AND my twist was to use some new ings.........I raided the grocery store salad bar for olives, sun dried tomatoes and capers. I dont usually use these ings and so it seemed wierd buying whole jars for 1 recipe. Me thinks raiding the salad/olive bar is great idea to use new ingredients without having to buy them.

The last sinful entree! Three Cheese Mac and Cheese

Why, you ask...why this heavy comfort food in the middle of summer. Well readers, I wasnt well for pretty much the entire month of May. Nothing major, nothing urgent.....just dull, gnawing malaise. Horrid!
This version of M&C was inspired by Ina Garten (as you can see, I have been a model TV viewer!). And I have to say, a combination of cheese (rather than the normal cheddar) makes a world of a difference. I am a huge fan of comfort food but after three bites of mac and cheese, I am already bored....and looking around for condiments. Well, you wont need any with this version.

Ings:

Basic Bechamel sauce---------------- 1 cup (see my recipe here)
Assorted cheese----------------------1 cup.
I used a not-so-gourmet store brought mixture with mozzarella, cheddar and .....something else!
Grated Romano and Parmesan --------1/4 cup
Cooked Pasta-------------------------3 quarters of box
Hot sauce (only Cholula!)-------------2-3 dashes

Method: Pre-heat oven to 350

1. Once Bechamel sauce is almost done, stir in the cheese and hot sauce on low heat. If the sauce is too thick you can use some milk to get the consistency to that of dosa batter.

2. Put a layer of pasta at the bottom of baking dish. Drizzle liberally with half the sauce. Put in the rest of the pasta and then layer with the rest of the sauce. Top with grated Romano and Parmesan (they gave a good crust and color).

3. Put in oven for 15-20 mins till there is a brown colored crust.

Phew! That was a long post and I hope that you enjoy these recipes and forgive me for my long sorjourn from blogging :) I promise (to try) to be more regular from now on.

Makkai Palak

2007-04-26T20:30:00.001-04:00

Makkai Palak
Originally uploaded by g_food.

Second time's the Charm

It prolly sounds really wierd to everyone (particularly since I am a vegetarian).....but I have not had much experience dealing with *fresh* veggies. Of course I eat veggies ....but *fresh* eating happens in India. And there, I do not have to deal with the cleaning, cutting, storage etc of the veggies. In the US, till now I have not had the time or the money to buy (particularly) fresh greens. The boxed spinach and frozen methi were good enough.......especially since I was cooking for 5-8 people.

But now I do have the money (time is debatable). A few months ago I bought a bunch of delicious and beautiful chard. Stupefied by the beauty I quickly rinsed and sauted it. The flavor...the smell.....the grits of dirt in my mouth! It was horrid! Still, I have tried to get over that and made 'Makkai palak' (Corned Spinach) with farm-fresh spinach. Only this time I remembered that farms (and hence the greens) have dirt and that I need to remove it.

So I used the great Alton Brown's trick --- wash the sink *thoroughly*, fill it with ice cold water, dunk the spinach and let hang out with occasional stirrings. Then drained the sink and ran the greens under running water for a full 5 mins, rubbing vigorously with my hands...........Excessive, I know......but realise that I have been burnt!

So here is a recipe (with due credit to Lalitha who provided crucial inputs).

Ings:

2-3 cups ---------------------very very washed, roughly chopped spinach (thawed if using frozen)
1 inch -------------------------ginger root
2-3 cloves -------------------peeled garlic
1 -------------------------------Bay leaf
1 stick ------------------------Cinammon
3-4-----------------------------Big cardamom
3-4----------------------------Green chiliies, washed and 'tail' removed

Method: Put all the above in a deep pot and put just enough water so that half the spinach is covered. Turn on the heat to medium-high and let come to boil. let the boil continue for 5-8 minutes. The lesser the water you can use, the better.

Turn off the heat and cool a little bit. Then dunk a hand blender into the same pot (deep sides useful now!) and puree away. I have also used the plain old blender for this. However, this takes away the texture of the spinach too much for my liking. But its still *totally* edible.

Once pureed, put the puree on a low flame (same pot). Add the corn. Season to taste.

In the meantime:
1/4 ----------------------------red Onion, chopped
1/2 inch----------------------ginger, cut into long, thin strips
1/2 cup-----------------------Frozen corn, thawed
1/2 tsp-----------------------Cumin seeds
1/4 tsp-----------------------Red chili pwd
1/4 tsp-----------------------Garam masala
1 tsp--------------------------Oil

Method:
*Heat oil in a small pan. Sputter the cumin seeds, saute the onion for 3-4 minutes.
*Add the red chilli powder and ginger. Swirl around. Pour this over the spinach-corn mixture.
*Sprinkle the garam masala....and some lemon juice.

Ready to eat! with sides of turmeric rice and a simple zuchinni curry

What would I have done different? Well, before puree'ing I wanted to fish out the dry spices (cinammon, cardamom). I really should have put them in a cloth bundle (or tea infuser) to save some time.

I was watching Emeril the other day and he demonstrated a really great way to clean leeks. Made me think that one of the intimidating (bok choy!) things about using fresh (and unfamilar) veggies is that you dont know
a. how and what part to wash?
b. which part to use? and for what?

I realise that this sounds very stupid. But it is true for me. So it would be great if we can share ways and methods to clean, cut and store fresh veggies as well as recipes.

Pasta Bechemel

2007-04-14T19:08:00.001-04:00

Pasta Bechemel
Originally uploaded by g_food.

To Long breaks, New beginings, Less Dishwashing and Emeril - I have conquered my Waterloo!

Hi folks! Its been a long time since I posted anything. I was a regular reader and commentor during this time. But somehow, posting seemed.......an effort. So I thought it would be better to wait until I was ready.

Whats been happening in the meantime? Tons and tons of cooking and exploring new territory. In fact I conquered one of my cooking Waterloo's -- white sauce. Thanks to Emeril for providing the inspiration and THE trick to get good Bechamel sauce everytime.

It began as a simple evening meal (which I also wanted to eat for a light-ish lunch). So I boiled some pasta and made some sauce. Excited by the success (!) I completely forgot about the vegetables. Routed around in the fridge for veggies (peppers, mushroons, zuchinni and garlic)......oh no! I would need another pot to saute them!

Inspiration in the form of an oven. I decided to roast the veggie in the oven and now I am not sure whether I will ever saute them again. So here's how it goes.

Ingredients:

Red bell pepper--------------half, long slices
Mushrooms ------------------ 1 big portabella, long slices
Zuchinni ------------------------half, long slices.
Garlic ----------------------------3-4 cloves
And anything else you fancy. I tried this with red onions and that worked great too.

Lay out some foil on a baking tray. Put in the veggies, drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper. Hold the foil like a sack and give a few shakes to distribute everything evenly. Then unfold the foil flat on the baking tray, put veggies in one layer. Pre-heated oven 400F, 10 minutes (sometimes 15). Thats it.

Sauce:

Milk+cream --------------- half cup (in any ratio that you want, can be 1:0)
AP Flour -------------------2-3 big spoons
Olive oil--------------------half tsp
Bay leaf -------------------1

1. Set the milk-cream mixture on low heat on one burner with the bay leaf in it.

2. On another burner, put the olive oil and the AP flour, and keep stirring the flour. Now according to Emeril, the time you do this varies with the kind of sauce you want. A 'blond' Bechamel roux will need 2 sips of wine/beer/water to get done (while the duration is a bottle of beer for a gumbo).

3. Now grab a WHISK -- nothing else will do. Steadily pour the warm milk-cream mixture into the flour, whisking continuously. Once fully incorporated you have ---------Bechamel!!!!

Put together:
Mix the sause with cooked pasta and your oven broiled veggies. Season carefully since you already seasoned the veggies. Some fresh basil and you are good to go.

FAQ: So WTF was it so hard for G to do all these years?
Ans: After many many trials with this method, I think there are 2 keys tips. First, the temperature of the milk-cream should be similar to that of the flour. If not............LUMPS! Secondly, only a WHISK can be used to make this. Believe me, a wide variety of kitchen instruments were tried and none worked. This was the first time that I had an actual, legit excuse to buy one more kitchen thingie!

Btw, the creation was so good that I was able to circumvent my natural tendency to "Indianify" -- no cumin, dry red chillies, green chilliesm Maggie hot and sweet etc.

My exploration has now taken me into Oriental territory. Inspired by Barbara of Tigers and Strawberries (as well as by the bottle of MSG that I smuggled in from India), I have been trying out Chinese dishes.

Oh and btw, MSG..........not so bad. Latest research says so, NYT said so and Mom (scientist) said so.

2007-03-16T11:11:00.000-04:00

व्यंजा में आपका स्वागत है!

Here's to blogger in Hindi. Hope other langauages come soon.

2007-03-05T12:37:00.000-05:00

A Little Something for Home-sick Souls

Sorry couldnt embed it but click here to see it!

2007-03-04T15:39:00.000-05:00

Happy Holi to all of you!

Holi (the festival of color) is my most favorite festival and so it is even more depressing that I can not celebrate it.................sigh.........all the colors; the chemical smell of the goop that your brother smears on your face (which will NOT come off for weeks unless you take some precautions); the first hit of cold water as a friend catches you unawares; the trying to avoid being drenched while trying to drench someone else; the trying to find a patch of sunlight to dry off and get a little warmer; the trying to recognize people by squinting your eyes (they are colored out of recognition usually..but mostly becos of the fact that you are not wearing your specs); the every-year "surprise" visitors who come at 3 pm just as you have bathed and who color and drench you all over again; the listening to Papa's sermon about how India is a water scarce nation and so we should not play Holi with water; eating Mom's super-famous Holi spread, the continuous stream of visitors from 7 am to 10 pm...................God, I miss it sooo much!

Actually this post was supposed to be about some of the items in Mom's famous Holi spread. Things like gujiya (empanada-like entities with a sweet filling), kannji (a sour fermented drink, made with carrots, beets, water, mustard seeds, salt and water and left in the sun for at least a week), potato chaat, rice kheer, kachoris......................However, this post is NOT about these things. Why? Because I am SUPER home-sick right now.........maybe a little later?

To cheer me up, I am sticking with very simple comfort food these days. The items on the meal in the pic are exactly that - simple, filling and comforting - Mangori Aloo in yogurt gravy, punjabi tinda and paranthas.

Punjabi Tinda

Ings:

Tinda (fresh or frozen) 500g
Oil 2 tsp
Cumin seeds 1/4 tsp
Onion 1/2 cup chopped
Tomato puree 1/3 cup
Ginger-garlic paste 1 tsp
Corriander pwd 1 tsp
Red chili pwd 1/2 tsp
Turmeric 1/4 tsp
Garam masala 1/4 tsp
Salt

1. Whether you are using fresh or frozen tinda, steam them in the microwave for about 10 minutes or till they are soft-ish. The "ish" is there because they dont become super soft ever. The best way is to bite into a piece and if your teeth dont encounter too much resistance, you are fine.

2. While this is happening, heat the oil and put in the cumin seeds. Once they are brown put in the onion, lower the heat and sit back. Let the onions saute on medium-low heat for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. This is the key aspect of this recipe since in Punjabi cuisine, onions are slowly browned until they are soft and mild and totally mind-blowing.

3. After about 8 minutes (oil will be seperating from the onions now), add the ginger-garlic paste and let go for another 2-3 minutes. If the onion starts sticking to the pan then you can pour more oil OR a splash of water. It should be just enough to prevent sticking because the main aim is to remove all possible moisture from the onions.

4. Now put in the powders, stir till incorporated and add the tomato
puree. Again stir and leave alone for 5-7 minutes. After that add the tinda, cover and cook for a 5 minutes. Garnish with some corriander and serve with rice or bread.

Now this does seem like a pretty time consuming dish to cook (that too for a simple veggie like tinda). However, the proper browning of the onions is the key feature of this dish and of Punjabi cuisine in general. The sweet, smoky flavor of the done product is more that worth the time. Also, you can go about your business for the most part and need to stir only once in a while. Deccan Heffalump at Cooks Cottage has a great little essay about the proper treatment of onions here.

Another little trick is to actually make big batches of roasted onion-ginger-garlic masala and use them for various dishes or over time. Once fully cooled, you can refrigerate the onions and use them easily for upto 2 weeks.

2007-02-23T19:18:00.000-05:00

Rajasthani Papad ki Subzi - Extraordinary out of the Ordinary

There are many days when I am so hungry and tired when I come home that the idea of a hot, fresh dinner that is ready to eat in 10 minutes is ........AMAZING. The dish that I am going to talk about today is like that. It also has a plus point - it is made out of the most common, ordinary ingredients that I am bound to have. So there is no planning required - this is almost always the mark of a classic recipe to me. Plus, with the calcium in yogurt and the protien in chickpea flour.....you are getting the most out of comfort food.

North Indian Papads are crisps made out of besan (chickpea flour) and spices. The flour is kneaded to a dough using some oil and water ( and spices). Then it is rolled out into really really thin taco-like entities. These are then dried in the sun for a few days. After this, they are storable for centuries (almost). How are they eaten? Well, you could fry them....but the healthier, and in my mind tastier way, is to grill them for 30 seconds (each side) on an open flame. But today we are going to use them 'un-cooked' to make a delicious and super-fast curry.

Ings:

Oil 1/4 tsp
Cumin seeds 1/4 tsp
Heeng (asafoetida) 1/5 tsp

Buttermilk 1/4 cup (You can use watered down yogurt) - the tangier the better.
Water 1/2 cup
Tumeric pwd 1/3 tsp
Red chile pwd 1/3 tsp
Corriander pwd 1/3 tsp

Papad (poppadum) 2-3 cut into small pieces
Garam masala 1/3 tsp

Salt

Method:

1. Heat the oil in a pot till hot, put in the cumin seeds and asafoetida. Let be till cumin seeds have popped.
2. Remove the pot from heat. Wait for 1 minute and then stir in the buttermilk/yogurt. Stir continuously and put on low heat. Add the water now. Stir continuously!
3. Add the powders ( NO SALT yet)
4. After 4-5 minutes of off-and-on stirring, you can turn up the heat to medium. Go about your other tasks....but stir every 2 minutes, until the sauce is bubbling. (Yes, yes I do increase the heat at some point to make it quicker). Once it boils, you can let it boil away for another 2-3 minutes (no stirring required now).
5. Lower the heat and add the papad pieces. Let simmer for another 2-3 minutes until the pices are translucent. But you dont want them to fall apart. So taste. In fact, now would be a good time to taste and add salt. Sprinkle with garam masala and serve!

You can go wrong in two places. First, the buttermilk/yogurt could split if the pot is too hot when you put them in. We have a rememdy for that - 1 tsp of Besan (chickpea flour) will bind everything together again.
Second, if you salt too soon the buttermilk might split and/or the dish is toooo salty to eat. This is because Papads have a lot of salt. It is wisest to wait until the dish is done, taste and then add salt (if needed).

Here is my simple meal of Papad subzi, paranthas and green chilie pickle.

2007-02-18T12:46:00.000-05:00

Lesson Learnt! The Hard Way!

Ok, dont get me wrong. Its not like I am stupid or I think you are........but I could not understand why most of you have comment moderation etc enabled on your blogs. Then I started recieving some things like "Hey, liked your blog. Buy a house from me...". Theek hai......can tolerate that.

Then today, I was checking the keyword analysis for my blog in StatCounter......and apparently a pretty dirty phrase - when searched- was coming up with my blog!!! OMG OMG OMG. I nearly fainted! There were dirty comments posted on my blog but on really really old posts........so I never saw them.

So anyway, I appreciate your use of the tools more now - I guess you could think of this as a "coming-of-age" ceremony in the blogging world. Sigh........ :)

2007-02-17T11:33:00.000-05:00

Garlic Chutney - keeping the chills and home-sickness at bay

As I mentioned in a previous post, Laxman makes one of my MOST favourite things to eat -- garlic chutney. There are many variations of garlic chutney across regions and cuisines. This one below is a pretty typical Rajasthani version, adapted towards my preference for extremely high spice levels and preference against actual pieces of garlic. Smooth, spicy, packing a punch and making any thing (even slices of Wonder bread!) interesting. Also, depending on how much you spice it up it can really keep the chills away! Plus it stays in the fridge FOREVER.....so make a huge batch once and enjoy for months.

Its a pretty long-ish post for a pretty simple thing. But its quite easy to go wrong with this (pro'lly cos you didnt listen to Laxman or thought yourself too clever) and I have learnt from many mishaps. Hope I can save you some of them.

Ings:

Garlic pods 2-3 cups (!!), pealed
Green chille 3-4 (optional, but Laxman uses it to bump up the spice level so that you dont have to use too much red chille powder)
Cumin seeds 1 tsp
Red Chile powder 4-5 tsp (or to your taste)
Water 2-3 cups water.
Salt
Oil 4-5 table spoons (yes, its a lot)

method:

1. Grind the garlic and green chille to a smooth paste. The definition of 'smooth' is really yours. I prefer mine without any solid garlic pieces. You can add water to ease the grinding process.

2. Start heating the oil on medium heat. In the meantime, take the garlic-green chile paste and mix with the red chile powder and salt. Add water.

Note: since you may have added water during grinding, but dont worry too much about the quantity. The consistency should be like dosa batter.

3. The oil must be heating up now. Add the cumin seeds. Once they sputter, SLOWLY add the mixture. The SLOW is essential since we are adding a lot of water to a lot of hot oil......so there is going to be spattering!

FAQ: So whats up with the quantity of oil?
Ans: Good question. You NEED it. Skimp...and regret. But here's a trick that Laxman taught me. After a 20-25 minutes cooking time, there will be a thick layer of oil over the chutney. You can leave it there (for maximum flavour) or skoop it out and use it for tempering for dal or veggies. Basically, the oil is garlic-chile infused oil and packs a HUGE flavor punch which can be used for anything....even for dipping bread in.

4. Cook on low flame for ...............20-25 minutes! Yes, it takes that long to cook. Basically, the combination of water and oil will gently cook the garlic and this needs to go on till ALL the water (from the garlic as well as the extra water we added) evaporates.

FAQ: Can we skimp on the time needed? Can we not add so much water when making a paste so that we dont have to cook the mixture for so long???
Ans: Absolutely NOT. Yours truly thought herself very clever and tried doing that a few years ago and ended up with raw garlic goop........and nearly got booted out by room mates 'cos of the smell. You need both the quantities of water and oil for the mixture to cook thouroughly and to have a wonder, coooked-garlic aroma waft through your home.

After about 15 minutes, the mixture will look like..................the picture at the top of the post. As you can see the water is almost evaporated and everything is starting to look (and smell) cooked. But dont give up.......Let things go for another 10-15 minutes on low flame.

Unfortunately, I dont have a pic of the final product - I ate it all!

FAQ: How to eat?
Ans: My favourtite method is to put one big heaping tablespoon in to one bowl of yogurt, swirl and eat with hot, steaming rice. But can and should be eaten with roti's, dosas (out of the world) or on slices on bread (very convenient and the best sandwich ever).

2007-02-11T10:22:00.000-05:00

Non-Food, yet Important Post

Hi all, I have been meaning to blog about this for some weeks since I saw this video on YouTube.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Tr1qee-bTZI

Please do watch the video as well as the responses that have been posted. It was very eye-opening and a little scary even to me ( I dont have kids). I guess it really points to the importance of being involved in schools and not taking anything for granted. In this age of super-specialization we have a (natural enough) tendency to defer to the opinion of "experts". However this should not be at the expense of using our own common sense and experience.

2007-02-10T16:17:00.000-05:00

From Russia, with Love - Beet and Pineapple Salads

I colleague and friend of mine (O) is Russian and through her I have tasted some really great unusual Russian dishes. Of course, there is a lot in Russian food that I can not eat and O's constant nag is that she does not know what to cook for me since I dont eat meat! However she herself says that this pushes her to be a little more adventurous and out-of-the-box..........yeah, vegetarians!

Last Fall, O and her husband invited us to their home for a lovely dinner. I fell in love with these two salads to go along with Borcht. Both are super-simple and super-quick to make. Also, they dont require any "special" ingredients.......so no planning required -- always a plus point to me!

I introduced my parents to Russian food this time and it was a huge success. They were demanding Borcht pretty much every evening. Of course, beets were in season in India and so it was an ideal soup for cold, winter nights. But for sunny winter days, the salads were in great demand too. So much so that I made them for the 50-60 people lunch party (which eventually became a 90-100 people party!). Again, huge success for very little effort. These pictures are from India.....hence the huge quantities. However, I have scaled down the quantities in the recipes.

O's Beet-Pickle Salad

Beets 1 cup, chopped into small squares
Carrots 1 cup , chopped into small squares
Dill pickle 1/2 cup, chopped (I used the normal, bottled variety)
Garlic 6-7 cloves, grated/pressed finely
Olive oil 1 tsp (dont remember if O adds it or not. I prefer to add)
Salt
Corriander leaves chopped, handful
Cheese for garnish (optional)
A twist of lemon juice (optional)

1. Steam the chopped beets and carrots till tender-to-your-taste.
2. Mix everything and garnish.

It is THAT simple and immensely tasty.

O's Pineapple Salad

Pineapple 1 tin (this turns out to be one of the dishes where tinned is actually better than fresh)
Sour cream 1/4 cup (I substituted home-made yogurt in India)
Cream 1/4 cup (optional, can be tried with milk too)
Garlic 4-5 cloves finely pressed
Cheese 1/2 cup (any kind that grates easily) grated not-too-finely
Salt to taste

1. Do not drain all the syrup from the tinned pineapple. Take out the rings and chop into desired size pieces.
2. Mix the sour cream, cream, garlic, salt. Make sure fully incorporated.
3. Put in the grated cheese and pineapple peices. You can add some of the syrup from the tin until you reach the sweetness level that you like. I would suggest that you dont make it too sweet.

The slight tartness of the pineapple, the sweet from the syrup, the punch of garlic....its a whole bunch of flavors packed into a really simple salad.

At O's place, we had the most scrumptious dessert! Hows this for Russian candy?!

This is O's daughter, Z -- the most adorable scamp ever!

2007-01-31T19:41:00.000-05:00

Bajre ki Khicchdi - Millet Mish-mash
Note: was posted on 9th Feb

Hello everyone. Thanks to everyone for visting and revisiting in the past 2 weeks....and basically waiting for me to get over a major bout of home sickness. I have been dying to post stuff for some time. But everytime I look at my pics from home........everything here seems to suck!

Anyway, no more whining. I promised to show you some of a 40-50 people bash (which eventually turned into a 100 person bash) at our place on Sankranti. Well, we had some cooks from outside come to our place and make some stuff...but mom insisted on doing the 'crucial dishes'. One most important one was Bajre ki Khicchdi- that is a mish-mash stew of a millet. This is an interesting crop since

a. it is perfectly suited for production in semi-arid regions of the country. Basically, it requires 1/3rd of the water that normal staples like wheat and rice would require.

b. It is highly nutritious vis. minerals. But not so much wrt to carbs. And hence it has been termed an inferior good- one whose consumption declines as people get richer and can shift to the more expensive wheat/rice.

c. It is making a huge comeback in the diets of middle-class (and above) Indians-- for both the above reasons. The reasoning that the Green Revolution that occured in Indian agriculture during the 1960s (which basically involved in large scale use of high yielding varieties of wheat and rice) is draining a lot from the soil and environment is starting to take root. And all of this is exacerbated as a renewed interest in rural and small town India that I have mentioned in a previous post.

Anyway, since we belong to a semi-arid (actually, plain arid region) of India, the use of bajra in various forms has always been part of our cuisine and rituals. Particularly during winter, since this millet is supposed to be very 'hot'-- it raises your body temperature when you eat it.

The way to make the stew is pretty labor intensive. The grain needs to be de-husked. That basically means either pounding it in a mortal or pestle or whirling it in a mixer for a few minutes, then removing the displaced husk by winnowing & sieving. And then repeating this process ad infinitum...........ok, at least 4 times. Here is Balbeer doing the dehusking.

Then you bung in the grain with triple the water and put it on a reaaaaaaaaly slow flame. In our case, this was a real, live, wooden stove in the backyard. The pot was coated on the outside with mud-water slurry in order to slow the cooking even more.

And after about 3-4 hours......you get Bajra Stew. It is traditionally eaten with Kadhi and mixed veggies in the winter. In the summer, instead of stew bajra is pounded to flour and flatbread (roti) is made.

Again, thanks for the great comments and thanks for checking in. More stuff soon..........hopefully. I wish I could shake this homesickness off.

2007-01-12T23:45:00.000-05:00

KACHORI AND KADHI IN AJMER

Special things deserve their own space. A few days ago when I posted some of my favourite food/food related things, I did not mention this breakfast. Its just tooooo special and needs its own space.

For as long as I can remember, every morning we were in my grandparents house there was struggle. My grandmother who started cooking at like 6 am would want us to eat her breakfast while I only wanted to eat 'chakkar ki kachori'. Dont get me wrong -- I loved my grandmom's food. But breakfast was reserved only for kachoris. So my grandad would drive us to Chakkar (a cicular market in Ajmer, hence the name) and in a corner of that market is a shop about the size of a large crate of fruits (really).

In that sits a very fat, sweaty, immensely polite man and he serves the most divine kachori's ever!! To go with kachori's, there are also samosa's, crisp pakora's made of ground lentils, tamarind and ginger sweet chutney, coriander chutney and ......Kadhi! Kadhi is something like the standard chickpea flour-buttermilk stew that we know but the proportion of flour and water is really high and spices seem to be present in equal proportions to the flour (!!!) and bits of potato and other veggies are floating in it.

This time we got take-away breakfast from Chakkar and here's how it went.

1. First you feast your eyes and nose

Clockwise: Kachori's (filling of ground fried lentils, liberally spiced), lentil pakora, Kadhi, Dona (bowl made of leaves), Ginger-tamarind chutney, samosa.

2. Then you grab one 'dona' (bowl made out of dried leaves and twigs, oldest known disposable utensil environment friendly), place a kachori in it. Then break it up in the middle. Fill the depression with pakoras. Top with tamarind-ginger chutney.

3. Top this concoction with the 'kadhi' and enjoy.

The interesting feature of the Chakkar-kachori guy is that he has a very clear business model which involves only 3 business hours a day, every day irrespective of anything! He arrives at the shop at 7 am and is packed up for the day by 10.30-11 am. His day starts at 4 am when he and his entire family wake up to make the dough, filling, kadhi etc fresh. He brings the prep-ed ingredients to the shop, fries and assembles everything there, sells to his only clientele- the breakfast crowd and is done for the day. His business during those 3 hours is so brisk that he does not even bother to stick around for afternoon or evening business (hence I have no picture of him this time). His prices hover around Rs. 3 (7 cents) per heaped 'dona' and many poor villagers only buy 1 serving of the kadhi which they eat with home-cooked bread.

Here's to comparative advantage, super-specialisation and knowing-your-customer.

2007-01-11T06:47:00.000-05:00

TWO POSTS IN ONE DAY!

What can I say? Words have been bubbling for days but either there was no time or no net connection. The "broadband" that we get in Delhi is like an Indian 'babu' (officer) -- temperamental, slow, very sarkari (beaurocrat-y).

So this past week, we visited Ujjaini-- an ancient and holy city in the state of Madhya Pradesh. It has religious claim to fame and is mentioned in the Purana's as one of the holiest sites in India. It is on the banks of the river Kshipra that is supposed to have originated from Lord Shiva's finger. And it is the home to a HUGE number of temples the most well known of these being the Mahakaleshwar Shiva temple. This is the only 'Swayambhu Jyotirlingam' in the world. That is, it is the site of a 'lingam' (one form in which Lord Shiva is worshipped) which originated by itself. That makes it a place where "....god came and stayed by himself and did not need an invitation from us..." in the words of our priest.

The town has many other interesting temples and traditions. Given the location of Ujjaini in the Malwa region bang in the middle of the country, this city has been at the cross-roads of all major cultural, religious & political movements in India be it marching armies or marching 'sadhus'. In order to get from the North to the south or from the east to the west, you have to pass through this region and this city.

This confluence is reflected in everything in the region! Rajathani, Gujrati and Marathi (the region has borders with all 3 states) cuisines, languages and cultures have come together in a different, softer avatara. Since my 1 day visit there largely consisted of a long puja on the banks of the river and then dashing from one temple to the next, I was not able to take many notes or many pictues. But I will share one really tasty snippet with you. And that is a popular breakfast dish 'Poha' or beaten rice.

Firstly, the region is one of the biggest and best producers of poha and secondly, I have NEVER eaten such a dish nor seen any recipe for poha like this. Our train stopped at 7.30am in a small town called Nagda, a few hours from ujjain. There was a huge crowd around a tea stall on the platform and the sight of a huge urn of fluffy yellow poha, topped with fresh corriander and served with a topping of fresh 'sev' namkeen......I just could not resist. Not only did I gulp down 2 helpings, I also had a conversation with the owner about how to make this divine variation of a standard dish. In the picture below, note the unique way in which the dish is kept warm over a huge pot of boiling water. If kept on direct flame for too long, the poha lose their fluffiness and are quite hard to eat.

Here is Govind's (guy in picture) recipe:

1 cup Poha, 1.5 tblsp sugar, oil+mustard seeds+turmeric powder+green chillies for tempering+tons of 'besan ke sev' and corriander for garnish.

Soak the poha in water for 7-10 mins till soft. In the mean time, heat 0.5 tsp of oil and add the mustard seeds. Once they pop, add everything else. Stir till incorporated- will only take 1-2 mins since the poha is already soft enough to eat due to soaking. Garnish with coriander and then with a heap of sev. Serve. The gujrati sweetness of the marathi poha interacts really well with the savoury rajasthani namkeen and the universal freshness of coriander.

Talking of namkeens......they are awesome here! I am sure you might have heard of "Ratlami sev'....well Ratlam is an hour from Ujjain.

There are many reasons for visiting/re-visiting Ujjain -- religious, cultural and culinary.......in particular one curry that I was dying to try out but could not -- Poppy leaf curry! The state of MP has quite a large cultivation of poppies (primarily for opium, unfortunately) and during season, this vegetable is very popular both for its taste as well as for ............other things! Reason to go back? Absolutely!

2007-01-07T00:44:00.000-05:00

EATING MY WAY THROUGH INDIA

The latest Outlook magazine has a whole feature on food and foodies in India. But they are not talking about the usual suspects in Delhi, Bangalore or Chennai. The whole feature is about food specialities in 'mofussil' (rural, far away) areas. Its is well written feature and they really try to capture the essence of eating and living in small town India. If you have time do give it a dekko.

It also raises an interesting point - 'Bharat' is as fascinating to 'India' as it is to foreign tourists. Even a casual reader of Indian news or views will tell you that this distinction between the urban, upwardly mobile, globalized, as-comfortable-with-basil-as-with-coriander India ('India') and the rural/small town, benefiting-but-not-much-from-economic-reforms, basil-worshiping India (called 'Bharat') has been in the news quite a bit over the past few years.

There has been a recent resurgence of curiosity about and respect for regional cuisine and lifestyles. In the early 1990s there was a renewal of interest in handicrafts and hand looms and that has continued and in fact, has been incorporated into high fashion as well. People like me who studied in Delhi University or JNU in the late 1990s will remember the khadi or hand loom kurta's, kolhapuri chappals and jhhola's that were the mark of a true intellectual, a symbol of empathy for those worse off than us as well as a symbol of their empowerment through the use of traditional arts.

But in this century, as economic reforms have started fructifying into massive economic gains the movement is about more than clothes. It is about awareness that a train ride away lies a land that may as well be foreign to you. It is about awareness that ignoring either India or Bharat can have electoral consequences (the last general elections were lost by the incumbent BJP and one of the reasons that is propounded is that the party did not pay as much attention to Bharat as it did to its traditional, middle class constituency in urban India). It is about awareness that the massive economic gains are leading to a fast, permanent shift in Indian society. The extent of social and geographic mobility has increased ten-fold just in the past 10 years. Places like Pune, Bangalore, Gurgaon are the new melting pots and it doesnt matter whether you are from the posh GK-II locality in Delhi or from Balia district in UP. But the fact that GK-II and Balia is squished together in space-starved cities means greater curiousity about what Balia has to offer the world.

As I undertook my own bi-annual tour of 'mofussil' places this winter, I could not but help think about how important and relevant this movement is right now. I hope that it is not just a fad that will pass away. I hope that we (India or Bharat) continue to be curious about each other and respect each other. And yes, here I do presume that the distinction holds. You may have your own views about this and I would love to hear them.

So what have I been up to the past few weeks? Eating my way through India and Bharat alike! Here are some of my FAVOURITE things ever to eat ordered by the time I took their pictures.

Lets Begin!

Favourite 1: Bengali Sweet Shop (South Extension Market) Chaat 'Bhaiyya' (brother). This guy makes the best roasted potato chaat as well as tikki's ever. And the 'gol gappas' (little balls full of spicy water) are as tasty as ever (despite using bottled water and gloves :)). My most-favorite chaat shop used to be in Khan Market but unfortunately, it closed last year since Khan market is getting “too cool” to have a sweet shop! Much as I like upmarket coffee shops and Italian bistros, they do not have chaat!!!

Favourite 2: Simple home-made lunch of potato-pea curry, dahi vada (lentil dumplings in yogurt), home-made green chilie pickle and 'Bathua' paranthas. Bathua is a green that is quite nutty in taste and really comes out well in paranthas as well as in raitas. Clean the leaves in cold water and then blanch in boiling water for 3-4 minutes. Grind to a paste. For parantha's, incorporate this into the flour while making the dough. For raita: cool the paste and mix in yogurt. Sprinkle salt and ground, roasted cumin seeds.

Favorite 3: Mughlai food the way it is supposed to be at Minar resturant, Outer circle, Connaught place. Clockwise: pudina naan, chicken kadai (for best friend Malini) and Malai Kofta for me! And of course the mandatory pickled onions and papads. Reasonable (by Delhi standards) prices and really good food.

Now we proceed to Jaipur. Here is Bai making a delicious stew for me. She and my grand-aunt thought and thought and thought about what to make for me that I had not tasted. And they came upon this really traditional Rajasthani stew called 'Rabdi'. It was delish! It is a variation of the traditional 'Kadhi' made out of chickpea flour. Here instead they use 'bajra' flour. It is made into a paste with water. Then it is incorporated into buttermilk and cooked for hours on a low flame with constant stirring! It tasted perfect for a winter night. Plus all those wonderful minerals in bajra. Kudos to Bai and grand-aunt.

New favorite: Bai in Jaipur making 'rabdi' for me!

But of course, that was not the evening meal! There was a proper dinner to be had which included my MOST favorite green chili dish ever (which is saying a lot since I love chiles in every form known to man). And also, the dish that has been my Waterloo for years. No matter how hard I try, no matter how many times I try, no matter how many tricks I use I can never get my 'Besan Mirch' to have the right taste and consistency. But hope is still alive...........maybe one day mine will taste and look just like my grand-aunt's did.

Super – Favorite: Green chillies in Chickpea flour

Favorite: Dinner at Grand-aunts home. Very simple, very very rajasthani. Clockwise: chickpea kadhi, besan mirch, potato-green bean curry, potato-cauliflour curry and a thick fat masala roti.

Non-food! Picture from the busiest market in Jaipur. Hustle bustle, color, rickshaws and traditional turbans (look at the red things above the shop). These turbans called 'saafaa' are worn by men and are made of meters and meters of beautiful, tie-dye cloth.

And now Ajmer – my mom's home town. My grandparents are no more yet the house and the place has so many memories of them and all the fun that we used to have their as kids. A large part of those memories involve food (my grandmother was an awesome cook)-- eating it, cooking it, shopping for it. My grandfather was a food enthusiast and a botanist to boot! So it was really informative going veggie shopping with him. Going there now is a treat because we get reminded of my grandfather and the vegetable sellers remember him and us! Like Bai in the picture below......she allowed me to take a picture because she had seen me since I was a kid.....and only on the condition that I print it out and bring it for her the next time I came! Also, 'Bai' means lady and is used to refer to women respectfully.

Favorite: Vegetable market in Ajmer, Rajasthan. Tons of colorful personalities and beautiful, fresh, totally unmodified veggies.

Favorite: Fresh red chillies.

Favorite: Ugly and small.........but immensely tasty baby Brinjals.

Absolute favorite! The basket right in the middle (next to the scale) is an awesome kind of bean thingie called 'Mogri'. Its basically wild radish greens. Its chopped up and sauted in oil-cumin with potatoes with a sprinkle of powders.

Only favorite fruit; Guavas!

And now I will let you into the secret ingredients in my cooking. Yes, yes...its the Indian spices that you know all about. Just their source is Prithvi Masala Store, Gol Market Ajmer. I always take spices from here and almost never need to buy them from the Indian stores in the US.

For me, its like a treasure trove. Everything is fresh and he will grind, pack and seal in front of you so that you know that you are getting the real stuff.

Favorite and healthy: Fresh, unground turmeric. That is the real color, no digital tricks.

Sample box 1: Unground 'khadda' spices. Left to right, top row: Cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, cumin. Second row: Javitri (red flowers), ..............., star anise, Kalonji. Third row: White pepper, Big cardamom, dry mint leaves, dry methi.

Sample Box continued: Top row, left to right: Fenugreek seeds, mustard seeds, black pepper, cloves. 2^nd row: Ajwain seeds, cumin, anise (saunf). 3^rd row: Red chillie powder, Coriander poweder, Turmeric powder, white pepper pods.

Fresh, Dried Mango before being ground into 'amchur'.

Pickle Masala all mixed and ready to go. Am planning to try this when I get back.

Back in Delhi, it was time for new years. And a north indian favorite was our first major meal of the year.

Yum-o: Makke ki roti (corn flour bread) with Sarson ka sag (Mustard leaves curry) accompanied with home-made butter, green chillie, Potato-Dill (!) curry and Onion curry. The recipe for all of these a little later in the season.

Favorite: Laxman in Kitchen making makka rotis.
He has been with us since I was born and pretty much brought up my brother and I. We used to spend so much time with him that both our tastes in food are more like his- totally Rajputi, Rajasthani, super-spicy, very onion-y, garlic-y – rather than like my parents ( very little spices, onion, garlic). In the next post, we will talk about my most, absolute, super favorite thing that he makes......Yes, I am repeating myself but there are only so many adjectives!

Next stop on this journey is going to be Ujjaini – the holy city of the Malwa region. Also, this coming weekend we have a huge (50-60 people) party at home. And since it is 'Makkar Sakranti' / 'Pongal' on Sunday, Mom will be making a traditional favorite – Bajre ki Khichdi with Kadhi. More on that closer to Sunday!

2006-12-17T10:02:00.000-05:00

Guess where am I?!

A lazy winter afternoon, a bed in the sun, tons of sunday newspapers to read and tons of food............HOME! During day time hours, the garden with its bed and moodha's (cane and jute chairs, as seen in pic) is going to be my haunt. It is not that cold here - nothing compared to MO. But it is still immensely pleasureful to sit out in the sun and get totally baked. Once the sun sets and its gets colder......well somehow you seem to have a heat source inside of you after absorbing all that sun!

A lawn, a bed, sun and Sunday papers -- heaven ?

Today someone we know sent over 'typical Delhi breakfast' for us. It consisted of 'bedain' (a puri-like bread that is stuffed with chilli flakes, anise and other spices), tomato-pea stew, chana masala, methi (mustard) chutney and pickled carrots. Then comes the dessert -- hot jalebis dipped in milk and halwa!!!

Sunday Breakfast!
clockwise: jalebi, halwa, bedian (puri), chana masala, fenugreek chutney, pickled carrots, potat-pea curry.

The thing on the left side...I dont what it is! It was like baby puri's meant to be eaten with halwa. But I think it is different from puri.........will find out soon.

A 'bedain' : puri-like structure full of coursely crushed spices

The King: A Jalebi dipped in milk

The location: Haunt for next 4 weeks!

Note the bed in the background of the picture above. It is sorely needed! Because the breakfast above was preceded by a "light" (my mom's words) snack of peas & poha and succeeded (within 3 hours) by a lunch with 5 items!!!!! I have been back about 48 hours yet I swear I have eaten more than I usually do in a week!!! Given my sonambulistic state right now, I wont share any recipes today. I will just say that there are simply wonderful things happening here because winter is the best season for veggies in north india. Plus we have many many traditional winter foods (like bajre ki khichdi) and we have many many people whose sole aim is to feed me!!! So this is going to a culinarily interesting few weeks!

2006-11-11T12:00:00.000-05:00

I got Tagged! Here's what I would cook if my favourite food bloggers came for dinner!

Thanks to Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen for tagging me! I love cooking and I LOVE cooking for people other than me (as recent readers would know). So here is a dinner that I would cook for my favourite people and I hope that all of you enjoy the very very non-fancy, home-cooked feel of this meal. As we say in Rajasthan, 'Padharo mahre ghar, sa' (Please come into my home, sir)!

Appetizer: Baked sam's with home-made corriander chutney. This was my entry for the Diwali special JFI. Recipe is here!

Entree 1: A bowl of rice topped with super-simple chickpea curry topped with (store-brought) hot kerela mix namkeen, further topped with cucumber-red onion-corriander 'raita' . The heat in the chickpeas and the namkeen is wonderfully balanced by the cool yogurt relish!

Ingredients:
1 cup chickpeas (soaked over night). You can also use the canned variety.
Oil 1 tsp
Ginger chopped 1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds 1/2 tsp
Pepper corns 5-6
Big cardamom 3-4 (these provide a huge kick to the recipe)
Corriander pwd, red chili powder and Chana masala powder 1 tsp each
Tomato puree 1/4 cup (You can also use chopped tomatos)

Heat the oil, add the pepper corn and big cardamom. Once they pop, add cumin seeds. Once they brown, add everything else! Oh, and salt. Pressure cook till the chickpeas are done but not falling apart. Garnish with corriander and serve!

This is a really down-home recipe used for chickpeas in large parts of north india. A lot of people do not use onions and garlic in home food in UP, Rajasthan, MP. Yet everyone loves chickpeas so this is an adaptation of the popular Punjabi preparation that we all know and love. What I like about it is the lightness of the dish! The proper use of onions and garlic means that they need to be slow roasted in oil. And the quantity of the oil needed is not insignficant!

For the yogurt relish: 2 cups yogurt (beaten so that it has a creamy texture), 1/4 chopped red onion, 1 large cucumber chopped. Mix everything together. Add water to obtain the consistency you like. Season with salt and dried mint. I use my mom's raita masala. Will have to wiggle the recipe of that out of her soon.

Entree 2: A bowl of steaming Mangori-Methi in a yogurt gravy, home-made parantha's (in ghee!) and red chili pickle.

To balance tomato-based curries, I like to use yogurt based curries. This one uses 'Mangori'- a small nugget that is made from ground lentils, seasoned and then sun dried. These are quite nutritious and really great dry ingredients to have on hand. The typical mangori curry has potatoes and/or peas. But I added 'methi' (Fenugreek) greens and they provided a lot of depth and interest with their slightly bitter taste.

Ings:
'Mangori' 2 fistfuls
Buttermillk 1 cup
Chopped potato 1 big
Green chillies 2-3 (just remove the tails)
Ginger chopped 1 tsp
Methi greens (i used one handful of the frozen variety that you get in Indian stores)
Cumin seeds 1/2 tsp
Heeng (asafoedita) 1/8 tsp
Corriander & red chili powders 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder 1/4 tsp
Garam Masala 1/4 tsp

In a pressure cooker, heat 1/2 tsp oil. Put in the cumin seeds and the heeng. Once they roast properly, add the mangori and fry it on medium heat. The idea is to fry away some of the 'un-cookedness' of the mangori. This is how mom describes it. At some point, the yellow mangori nuggets will start turning brownish red.

At this point, add potatos and green chili, and the powders (not salt!). Stir for 45 seconds and add the buttermilk (you can also use beaten, watered down yogurt. The idea is that the more sour the yogurt, the better the curry). Lower the heat to low and stir! Add the methi. It does take some time to get the buttermilk up to a boil.....but too much heat too soon means that the buttermilk will split and that is not good. If it does happen (and it will!), 1 tsp of besan (chickpea flour) keeps the thing together.

Once the curry has reached boiling point, add salt. Close the lid and pressure cook for 2-3 whistles. Garnish with corrainder and some garam masala. Ready!

Sides:

Raw papaya curry (adapted from the wonderful recipe at Cookerific)

Monday is Fruit-day for me. That is, I eat only fruits. The main reason why I had to institute fruit day two years ago is that I realised that I dont eat any fruits at all! My parents love fruits and our home is usually stocked with seasonal fruit but somehow I have not developed a love for fruits. To the extent that I realised that my fruit intake was starting to be restricted to 3 months a year (when I go home)! Obviously, I was losing out on a lot of good nutrients and hence I started fruit day.

I try (within time and budget constraints) to eat many varieties of fruit. And this one time I picked two papayas. Unfortunately, I forgot to eat them on monday and there they were sitting in my fridge. Good thing too, since they were quite raw! At times like these you appreciate the blogger community.Within minutes I had a wonderful recipe from Cookerific that I was able to adapt since I did not have kala chana at hand.

Sauteed carrots and carrot greens:

At home, we almost always cook the greens associated with several root/tuber veggies. One of my favourites is Radish and radish green saute. The next best is carrots with carrot greens. Just that what I got here werent really greens.....more like green stems. But whatever. They have a slightly pungent (citrus-y?) taste and it really balances the sweetness of the carrots well.

Simply chop up all available parts of a carrot. Heat some oil, season with cumin. Put in everything else plus corriander pwd, red chilli pwd, salt...........anything that takes your fancy.

Dessert: Home-made Mysore Pak (adapted from several recipes, including Indira's)

2006-11-01T18:47:00.000-05:00

Kitchen Sink Tragedy!

Well, I have given it a try. For 3 solid months! But I HATE cooking for myself! There is no getting around it. I HATE it, i HATE it, I HATE it!

Whew. With that out of my system, let me tell you the reason for it. Because there seems to be no way that I can avoid throwing away food/ingredients.........and to satisfy my cravings! I brought some mushrooms abt 2 weeks ago and didnt get around to doing anything with them. Why, you ask? Well, because I had left overs from previous meals and I keep planning new meals around them so that I can finish everything. Good thought, you say. Yes! But if you are cooking for yourself, left overs last FOREVER! And you never get to the new ingredients!!!

What to do???

2006-10-30T10:59:00.000-05:00

Happy Halloween, All!

For all you parents out there..........is it ok if I give your trick-or-treating kids fruit on tuesday? I dont really believe in handing out candy to kids who are probably already over-dosed on over-processed, over-sweet, over-salted food(not YOUR kids, precisely. just in general).........but according to this post on slashfood, it would make me a party-pooper! I am not!!! But I also dont think that "one night of the year you can binge" is a good message to give!

Help!

2006-10-27T18:43:00.000-04:00

Really, what are good manners?

This is my first non-food post and I now realise how hard those are to write! Particularly when you dont know who reads your blog! But anyway, I have an issue that I would like to share. Or rather get all of your opinions.

What are manners anyway? Is it really a big deal if your guests start eating before you come to the table? If you wont do it to other people....does that mean that you cant be (a teensy-meensy little bit) mad when some one does it to you? And most importantly, if your guests were waiting for you, you would SURELY pop your head into the dining room and tell them to dig in! Then why feel wierd when they do it without you telling them? Is it cos your mom would probably box your ears (over the phone, that too!) if she knew you had started eating without the host there?

Anyway, it happened to me. And it was wierd since it was the first time. I dont know if it was a cultural thing. I assumed that in almost all cultures ( and age groups) there was this thing of waiting for the host. Not in mad, grad-student pot luck parties maybe.............but even then usually the appetizers that had been kept out disappeared....the actual food was eaten in a more civilized manner. The funny part is also that I have a friend who is exactly the other extreme and that is also disconcerting! She just wont start eating until you are eating too. Well, sometimes as a host you have to not eat, get up to serve, to get fresh bread etc etc. So the other extreme is quite uncomfortable too.

Which brings me to smthg else- is it the nature of serving Indian food that makes it difficult for the host to join in? I mean, if you ferrying hot bread (parantha, roti, puri or dosai) from the kitchen to the dining room, doesnt that automatically exclude you from the gathering? I realise that in western cuisines there are courses and the host needs to get up to bring in the salad, soup and entree. But they can eat with their guests within a course.

Which brings me to the issue of Indian cooks (all women, mostly) have managed over the ages. But if you think about the way food would be served in a traditional Indian house (say grandmom's generation) there are ways in which the person cooking and serving can feel part of the process. In the north indian households that I know, either the kitchen was large enough for everyone to sit or food was served in a area very close to the kitchen. Most old houses have courtyards and almost all rooms of the house open into the courtyard. Because its really hot in the summer, part of the courtyard maybe be shaded and that is where the family would sit to eat. So could it be that the architecture of old houses was partly designed to make sure that everyone (including women who were cooking and serving) could see and hear everything during the meal and hence felt part of it? If you have any stories about how food is/was served in your house/part of the country/country then I would love to hear those.

So.........I am unreasonable to feel a little cheesed-off? Or maybe its just unreasonable to think that there are some universal elements to manners? Or maybe I just need suggestions about how to serve Indian breads (hot and fresh) without making them right there and then. I have tried aluminuim foil+ oven, damp towel+oven, damp towel+microwave...............they dont work that well, do they?

2006-10-15T14:33:00.000-04:00

Diwali Goodies!

Spurred on by this month's Jihva for Ingredients hosted by Vee of Past, Present and Me, I am posting TWO (and a half) Diwali goodies that are made in our home. Before I jump into the recipes, let me heartily thank Vee-- THANK YOU. I have been away from home for the past 5.5 years and I always felt that I was keeping up, remembering, not forgetting anything because I go back home every few months in a year. My frequent visits are much-needed infusions of sanity in my life, full of great times with family and friends......... and also a comfort to me because I feel that I am still totally connected with India. I can talk about a new shop opening or a new play that I saw in Delhi as well as in the US. I moan traffic laws in India and here, I watch soaps in India and here (soaps are cool! you can not watch them for 4 months, yet still catch up on the happenings in a jiffy). So I thought I was soooo cool...........until this month's JFI got posted. Then I realised that I had not been home for Diwali for 5 years. I didnt remember what we cook on Diwali. A time-and-money-pressed student existence in the US wasnt conducive to making Diwali goodies.......so I forgot. Dont get me wrong- we always managed to do something for Diwali like pot-luck dinner or something. But neither time nor resources ran into making anything other than entrees that would feed 10-15 people.

I have to say, it was not a pleasant realization. My little bubble of connectedness was burst.
Maybe I would become a distant 'NRI' whose idea of India is through Bollywood movies..............but maye not! In swoops Vee ( and Mom) to the rescue! So thanks Vee, for giving me the opportunity (and incentive) to re-create Diwali and all its attendant rituals in my home here.

So what I am plan to make are 2 sweets and 1 savory dish. The savory is an old favourite with pretty much everyone I know. The much loved, much eaten, much made.........Samosa! But theres a twist here. Its a SUPER-HEALTHY, SUPER-BAKED SAMOSA. Thanks to both Indira and Shammi for putting the germ of the idea in my head. And since it is a festival ( and anyway I am a good girl) I am not lying or exaggerating at all when I tell you that they came out fantabulous! They were the best samosa's that I have ever made.........and they tasted like ones that you get in the St. Stephens caffe, or the chaat-walla on Chaura Rasta in Jaipur, or Bengali Sweets in New Delhi! Funny how hard one has to try to re-create shop-made tastes at home. So here it is- my twist on home-made 'sams'.

Ings:
1 Boiled, mashed Potato
1 fistful Lightly cooked Peas (de-frosted if frozen)
3-4 Red & green chilies chopped
4-5 sprigs Fresh corriander
1/4 tstp Cumin seeds
1/4 tsp Corriander powder
1/4 tsp Red chili powder
1/4 tsp Garam masala
1 tsp Corriander seeds

Sputter the cumin seeds in 1 tsp of oil. Put in all the above ingredients and roast on a gentle flame until a nice smell comes from the filling. Mash in all together nicely while this happens then set aside to cool for a bit.

Surprise Ingredient! 1 Frozen puff pastry! I let it defrost on a plate for about 30 minutes before doing anything. It becomes very pliable after that. Since it was little thick, I powdered it with a little AP flour and rolled it (just a little) thinner. Then take a butter knife and cut it cross-wise into 4 triangles..

Use one of the triangles and roll it into a triangular cup. In order to seal the edges, you can pinch the edges so that they stick together. Fill this triangle with the stuffing and seal the top part.

Line up all the little stuffed triangles on a baking sheet and put in a 400 degree pre-heated oven for 15 minutes. Then turn the samosas over and bake on 400 for another 10 minutes. Serve!

These little babies are delicious! Then I got a little adventurous and tried out a store-brought frozen Malaysian paratha for the crust and these turned out wonderful as well! In fact, I preferred these over the puff-pastry but you can judge what you liked bet ter yourself. There is absolutely no need for any kind of oil in this recipe. In fact, if you want you can not use any oil at all in the filling. Just mash boiled veggies together and put in the spices- a different, earthy flavor.

The recipe from start to finish took about 1.5 hours. The most efficient order of things was to
1. Put the puff pastry/ Malaysian paratha to thaw.
2. In the meantime, make the filling.
3. At the time that you are ready to roll and cut the pastry into pyramids, set the oven to pre-heat.

So here is a Diwali treat served with home-ma de corriander chutney, tomato sauce and a piece of home-made Mysore pak! Happy Diwali everyone!

Wait! There's more! My curiostiy with what all I could do with this new, healthy, light technique to make sam's was almost unbounded! I wanted to try making Dal(lentil) Samosas. These are very popular in Rajasthan and UP particularly since they are almost indestructible and can last months. However the way to make these is a little cumbersome since one has to soak the lentils and then grind them...and then fry them. Wasted effort when someone else has already doe most of the work! Who, you ask? Why, Haldiram of course, God bless his soul!

I used Haldiram's Moong Dal namkeen and seasoned it with salt and spices. Then I used this as a stuffing. Excellent!

2006-10-10T20:00:00.000-04:00

Home-cooked Goodness on a cold, cloudy Monday

A bowl of hot Potato & Peas curry flanked by Sauteed Radish, fresh hot 'Parantha's' and red chili pickle. In the backgroud, gourmet, all natural sea salt from Utah, courtesy of Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen

2006-10-08T15:06:00.000-04:00

Practice makes Perfect

It was lovely Fall day and a saturday when I had an enlightening encounter with food bloggers in the St. Louis area (and some from quite far away). Thanks to Alanna of Veggie Venture for organizing this event. Part of the proceedings was lessons on plating by Bruno of Zinfully Delicious! And lessons in food photography from professionals! So I was dying to practice all that I had learnt and here it is.

Again, there was scramble in the fridge for ingredients. Unfortunately other than wilted corriander and some relatively fresh tomatoes and big green chillies, I didnt find anything substantial. Plus I was dying of hunger. So here is a super quick rice recipe. I think the only innovation here was using a huge block of ginger to flavor the water while the rice was cooking.

Corriander-Tomato-Pepper Rice

1.5 cups Rice
1 bunch Corriander (chopped roughly)
1/2 Red onion chopped
2 Tomatoes (chopped big)
1 Big green chili (choped big)
3-4 inch Ginger
1/4 tsp Turmeric powder
1/2 tsp Sambar pwder
Salt
Oil
2-3 cloves
2 dried red chili
3 Big cardamom pods
1/4 tsp Cumin seeds

How to?

1. 1 tsp oil+ dry spices. Once the cumin seeds pop, put in the onion. Fry on medium for 3 mins
2. Bung in tomatos, chili, ginger, corriander. Stir for 1 min.
3. Bung in the rice, turmeric, salt, sambar pwd.
4. Put 3 cups of water, cover, cook till rice is done.

Above pic shows some of my Indian cookig vessels. Beautiful, black, anodized metal, easy-to-clean, much-healthier-than-non-stick, much-cheaper-cos-I-bought-them-in-India vessels! Last spring there was this huge article in the NYT and the author was basically on a mission to find alternatives to non-stick cookware since there have been recent studies that point to some hitherto unknown concerns with non-stick vessels. It is common knowledge that once the black coating gets chipped, one should use the non-stick pan anymore. But new research cast some doubts about using non-stick on high heats. And since quite a few parts of Indian cooking are done at very high heat levels, I decided not to buy non-stick stuff anymore.

Plus the article in NYT pointed out two alternatives (these were tested on ease of cleaning as well as amount of oil required to prevent burning, among other things). One was a ceramic type material (European, super-expensive) and the other was anodized metal. I already had a gun-metal (!) vessel from India that I loved but it was really big and I was looking for cook and serve type things. So this summer when I found the two pots shown above, I was very happy! I plan to slowly buy all the pots and pans in this series (they have reduced weight allowances on airlines!!!!) They are available in quite a few places and in a variety of sizes and shapes. They are quite heavy and stable and awesome to cook in and to clean. I also got a new pressure cooker (nice shiny black anodized) to match all these.

Back to plating!!!!!!

The rice was ready. Another scramble through the fridge revealed 5-day old curry and yogurt. Thus a plate was created.......I guess it isnt that original. But it loooked darn good.
Here it is-Spicy Tomato-Corrainder-Chili Rice, flanked by hearty vegetable curry and 'boondi' raita.

2006-10-06T20:37:00.000-04:00

HELP!!!!!!!!

Can some one tell me how I can put a blog roll on this thing?!!! I am ANNOYED!

2006-10-04T19:27:00.000-04:00

Forget the spice box, where's the camera???!!!

Hello, hello hello! New camera! New enthusiasm to cook! Not much ingredients :( But still I tried my best and it came out WELL, even if I say so myself! I call it the One Pot East West Hot Pot. Its a mix between a curry and a hearty soup and uses some Indian ingredients in a western way.

Which brings me to something that I have always wondered. The Indian methodology of 'tadka' or seasoning a dish with mustard or cumin seeds popped in smoking hot oil......whats up with that? Why is it done? And more importantly, how come this tastes soooo different from simply putting in cumin or mustard seeds?

Another question/observation on which I would love feedback. I have noticed that sometimes for people who are new to Indian food, this seasoning can be really strong. They might be fine with the hot-ness level of the dish............but the seasoning can really push it over the edge. Has anyone else noticed that? Also, is that why you dont see/taste 'tadka' in Indian restaurants?

One-Pot East West Hot Pot

Ings:
Any and all veggies (I used frozen stew veggies (carrots, celery, potato, pearl onion))
1 Jalapeno pepper, chopped
1/4 Red onion chopped (just for a fresh flavour)
3 cups Veggie stock
2-3 inch Ginger
3 Garlic cloves
1/4 cup Tomato puree
1/4 cup Yogurt
1/4 tsp Cumin seeds
1 Bay leaf (mada
2 Dried red chillie
1 tsp Olive oil
3 springs Cilantro
How to?

1. Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in pot, put in the chopped onions and jalapeno, fry on medium for 3mins.
2. Bung in the veggies (defrosted, if frozen), tomato puree and veggie stock. Put in hte bay leaf and cumin seeds. Add water, if needed (depends on what consistency you want this surry=soup+curry).
3. Let cook for 15 mins on medium-low heat. Cover if you are using fresh veggies that need to cook. Keep adding water as and when needed.
4. Turn off the heat. Let sit for 5-10 mins. Once the surry is a little cool, add and yogurt and cilantro. Keep stirring till the yogurt is fully incorporated. Serve with old, crusty bread!

Pssssst! When I did the last step, the surry was still too hot and the yogurt started splitting. Not nice! So I added 1 tsp all purpose flour to keep it together :P

So what is east-west about this? Well, I did not pop the cumin seeds or the bay leaf or red chili in hot oil. I simply put them in. Then the addition of the yogurt right at the end with almost no cooking. To my knowledge (and DO correct me if I am wrong), this is not done in Indian cooking. Either yogurt is seved chilled as raita or pachadi or it is cooked properly in a curry (See rajasthani 'gatte' recipe on this blog). Upshot: it tasted Indian......yet not quite. Interesting.

Next post- my BEAUTIFUL cooking vessels from India! Sneak peak! Its a 'Dhania Daani'. Literally translates into Corriander/Cilantro holder. The holes are deliberate and admit the fact that cilantro needs to breathe like crazy in order to survive.

2006-09-30T21:17:00.000-04:00

Hello All! My NEW CAMERA is here! I know that I am un-naturally excited but its becos I have missed it SOOOO much while blogging!!!! How do you explain 'drips off a spoon..........but not too quickly'? Well..........I neednt anymore! Its here!!!!

So my first few pics are of Egg Masala Chaaru, courtesy of Latha of http://masalamagic.blogspot.com.

There arent poppy seeds at home.......but I am making the best of it!

Expect more pics soon! Also, any suggestion for camera names?

2006-09-27T18:26:00.000-04:00

Almost-there Beans Tempura

So you buy a bag of fresh green beans thinking that you will make something delicious out of them soon. Then the bag gets pushed further and further back into the fridge plus you have a deadline+ an exam to make. What do you get? An almost-gone to heaven bag of beans! What a tragedy!
So you turn it around! Like a true heroine, you take on the challenge and come up with.......this!
Note: I thought of this BEFORE a major chain started advertising a similar 'new' item on TV.

Ings:
1 bag almost there beans
2 tblsp Gram flour
1 tsp Corriander powder
1/2 tsp Red chili pwd
1/4 tsp Garam masala
Salt to taste
Oil to fry

Ok---oil to fry doesnt sound too good, does it? But there was a solid reason behind the frying decision--since the beans were almost gone, I needed to make sure that they cooked really well so that I killed all bacteria and other evil stuff that might have escaped my cutting and scrapping.

How to do?
1. Put all ingredients (except beans and oil) in a bowl and mix. Add some water and make a batter of thick-ish consistency. The kind that will drip off a spoon...but not too fast.
2. Dip the beans into the batter and then deep fry till light brown.

So basically these are bean 'pakora's. Unsual but really good! The beans were nice and crisp despite the frying and I am seriously thinking of adding beans to my library of things to fry.

2006-09-22T20:52:00.000-04:00

On-pot 'Shahi' (Royal) Khichdi (hotch-potch)!!

So as readers may know, I am having trouble cooking for one person. I have realised that it is quite difficult to eat balanced meals when one is alone, for 2 reasons. 1. It doesnt seem worth it for 1 person. 2. Optimal allocation and use of fresh veggies! So taking Mom's (and Nupur's) suggestion, I am trying out various one-pot dinners. This is my variation on Mom's recipe of khichdi (the word literally means a hotch-potch or a mish-mash of things). Simple and nutritious and easy.

Ingredients

1 cup Moong dal (yellow in color) or any lentils that you may have.
1/2 cup Rice
1/2 cup chopped Onions
1/2 cup assorted veggies (anything in the fridge or the freezer)
1 tsp Oil
5-6 Pepper pods
2-3 Big(black) cardamom seeds
2-3 Laung (cloves)
1/2 tsp Jeera seeds (cumin)
1/4 tsp Red chili pwd
1/4 tsp Corriander pwd
1/8 tsp Garam masala
Oil or ghee

Method:

1. In a pressure cooker, heat the oil/ghee, put on the pepper pods, big cardamom seeds, cloves and cumin seeds. Once the cumin seeds have popped, add the chopped onions and saute for 3-5 minutes.
2. Add the assorted mix veggies to the pot along with the powders. Saute for 2-3 minutes.
3. Put in the washed lentils and rice, add salt to taste and 4 CUPS OF WATER (yes, it sounds like a lot....the whole idea is to get a consistency of baby food, almost).
4. Give 2-3 whistles in pressure cooker. Ready!

It is usually served with yogurt, poppadums and any hot pickle. For the ultimate comfort food, pour some hot 'ghee' over the serving and dig in!

Note: It looks quite wierd once it cools down! It totally sticks together, kinda like .....goo! But not to worry cos with a sprinkle of water, it heats up really well for lunch or next-day dinner. I took it to work and was amazed at how a 2 minute microwave turn changed its personality as well as edibility (that a word?).

2006-09-17T12:33:00.000-04:00

Work Picnic Salad

I had to go for a work-picnic thingie and signed up to get salad. Didnt want to do the usual potato thing and had the foresight to soak some chick peas, black beans (rajma) and black eyed peas. Coincidently, on the morning of the picnic I was watching Ellie Krieger on the Food Network and saw this great dressing called Tzatziki. Traditionally it dresses grated cucumber but ince it was so interesting I decided to try it with my combinatio of beans and peas.

Ingredients
1 can each Chick peas, black beans and black eyed peas (or dry peas and beans, soaked for 2 days)
1 cup hung yogurt
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp minced garlic
1/4 tsp lemon zest
3 tsp lemon/lime juice
6-7 chopped mint leaves (or corriander leaves)
salt and pepper

In a big bowl, put the hung yogurt and olive oil, combine. Put in everything else, sprinkle with salt and pepper and toss. You can make it as garlic-y and as lemon-y as you want.

It really came out well and I love the combination of yogurt and lemon. Very refreshing and it set of the beans and peas very well.

Also, hanging yogurt always seems like such a pain and hassle. But the way Ellie did it was really simple. A bowl with a fine colander lined with a paper towel. The paper towel was a really good trick which didnt demand a cheese cloth (i never have it on hand) or the use of one of my dupatta's (ever had pink yogurt?).

2006-09-07T18:02:00.000-04:00

Pindi Chana
Hello All! Its been some time since I blogged. Sorry about that. Am facing several living-alone issues. One of them I have already mentioned---since I am used to cooking for 6-8 people (at least) on a regular basis, its VERY difficult getting up the enthu to cook for one! And now another issue---I love using fresh veggies + I dont have a car so dont go grocery shopping regularly=A lot of the veggies I buy go bad before I get around to using them. If you use a whole cauliflower then you get stuck eating it for at least 7 days.....if you use half, then what to do with the other half? Shove it at the back of the fridge until it starts to smell and you need to throw it away............?

So food management is a big problem. I dont like wasting stuff but I dont want to shift completely into frozen things either. Any solutions? It would be great to hear from people about their ideas.

Today, I am a little enthusiastic so I am going to make Bhatura's with Punjabi Chana. Usual preparations of chick peas are usually what we call 'Chhole'. Punjabi or Pindi chana, on the other hand uses different spices, is dark in color and is quite dry. The perfect pindi chana will have the exactly right consistency--there is enough moisture to wrap the spices all around each and every pea.........and no more. Lets see if we can achieve it today.

Ingredients:

Chick peas- 1 can or 1 cup soaked overnight and pressure cooked till they are soft but NOT falling apart.
Pindi/Punjabi Chana masala-2 tsp store bought
Onions- 1 big red one, chopped
Green chillies- 4 sliced long
Bay leaves- 2, Big cardamom 4, Cinammon stick 1, Pepper corns 15
Haldi 1/2 tsp, Red chilli pwd 1/2 tsp, Dhania pwd 1 tsp, Garam masala 1/4 tsp, Amchur 1/2 tsp

1. Heat 2 tsp oil in a big pan. Add the "khadha" masala (literally translates into "Standing" spices, means all non-powder spices). Once the oil is infused with all the flavors, remove the pieces of spices. Put in the onion and garlic and on medium heat, saute for about 10 mins stirring as and when. Put off the heat when the onions smell nice and roasted and have left pretty much all their water. Leave to cool.
2. One the above is cool, put it into a blender and pulse a few times until you have an imperfect paste (not tooooo smooth, should have a home-made touch). Heat the used pan on lowish-medium heat and put in the roasted, ground onion-garlic paste. Put in the powders and green chillies. Stir and roast, stir and roast, stir and roast....until the spices start giving a nice, done smell (about 15 mins). If it starts sticking, you can sprinkle a little water from time to time.
3. Put in the boiled chickpeas, stir thoroughly, sprinkle half cup water and cook on medium-low flame. Season to taste. Cook till it reaches the perfect consistency................DONE! Oh! And its NECESSARY to put lots of lime/lemon juice on top before serving.

Serve with...: Chop some onions and green chillies finely, dress with lemon juice, salt, red chillie pwder and vinegar (if you like).

As I mentioned earlier, Pindi chana are quite dark in color. Usually the ingredients of the store-bought powder (in particular, pomegranate) should darken the chanas. But in case they dont, substitute some cooled-down tea water in Step 3 for normal water. Tea water=water in which tea has been brewed for about 7-8 minutes.

2006-08-19T16:27:00.000-04:00

Two-minute Ginger Pickle

Its been a really really long and hectic fortnight. I moved from my university to my new place of work....an exhausting and scary event. I relish the fact that I have attained a milestone and am moving on to another phase of my life.........but that doesnt mean that its not scary! I really like the new place where I am at......but I miss familiar faces , places and friends like crazy. Am back here to visit them all this weekend.......But once that craving got satisfied, another arose- I miss home! I want my mommy!

But since mommy can not be had right now, a close substitute is something she makes for me. Continuing my series about my favourite things that I am fed before I leave home for here.....here comes Two-minute ginger pickle! Super-simple and great to eat with ANY kind of food (I have even mixed it in pasta!).

Ingredients: Fresh Ginger, lime/lemon juice, salt, red chili pwd, green chillies (chopped fine)

1. Scrape the skin off the ginger. Trick: use a spoon! Saves precious ginger and juices.
2. Cut the ginger into small pieces. Can make them thin and long (juliennes) or small cubes....whatever you like.
3. Mix the cut ginger with chopped green chillies, salt, red chilli pwd and lemon juice. keep tasting and adjust these ingredients till to achieve a taste you like. Really, its that simple and that individualistic. Just remember that the main taste is that you ginger and lime. This can be eaten now and it tastes better and tastes better and better with time. Can be stored in the fridge for 10-14 days.
Variations: Can put in some white vinegar for an additional kick. Also, can do all this with julliennes of 'mooli' (horse radish).

Now that I am living on my own, I have discovered that I dont like cooking for myself! I am soooo used to cooking for at least 6-8 people that it seems pointless doing it for one. But I do know that I need to eat properly so I am hoping that this blog provides me the excuse to continue cooking and experimenting even on my own.
Ciao from the middle of the country.

2006-08-02T08:27:00.000-04:00

I am back in the US after 7 weeks at home....and am struggling with a major bout of homesickness :( . It seems so pointless being so far away from family sometimes. Anyway, now I will count days till december and cook my heart out.

The last few days at home were really really crazy food-wise since one person after another was vying to feed me their goodies! So one recipe at a time, I will share with you some of my most favorite recipes. Today, I wanted to try out 'kachori'. Basically it is a stuffed, fried bread. The stuffing can be ANYTHING that you want....as complicated or as simple as you want to make it. The easiest stuffing is potatoes or peas. Mom makes a stuffing out of soaked, ground dal.....she will post that recipe soon.

Note: these are fried....but I am in need of major comfort food right now.
The simplest order of move that I follow is
a. Make the stuffing first. b. While this cools, put the oil for deep-frying on medium heat. c. While the oils heats up and the stuffing cools, make the dough. d. Make stuffed dough-balls and deep fry.

Ingredients:
For the stuffing:
Boiled, roughly mashed potatoes 4 (or boiled mashed peas)
Red Onion, chopped finely 1
Green chillies chopped 4-5
Oil 1 tblsp
Corriander leaves chopped to taste
Corriander pwder 3tspn
Red chilli pwd 1 tsp
Amchur 1-2tsp
Garam masala 1/2 tsp
Salt to taste

Take 1 tblsp on oil in pan. Once it is hot, put in some jeera seeds. Once they pop, saute the chopped onions and green chillies for 1-2 mins. Now put in the mashed potatoes (or peas). Saute for 1 min. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix until integrated. After another 1 min, the smell will tempt you to eat the stuffing right there and then! Remove this mixture from the heat and let cool.
Note: A 'healthier' way will be to simply put all the stuffing ingredients together without sauteeing them. A slightly different taste. Also, you can use any leftover veggies for the stuffing. Further, you can add or leave out any ingredient for the stuffing.....no hard and fast rules.

For the bread:
Flour 500 grams
Oil 4 tblsp
Salt to taste
Ajwain seeds 3 pinches
Water

Mix the flour, salt, oil, ajwain. Use water to make a dough (just like roti dough). This dough should be relatively flexible or loose since we need the elasticity in order to put in the stuffing. Make small balls of dough, diameter apprx 1inch.

Pulling it all together:

To make the actual kachori, take a clean dry rolling surface and brush it gently with oil. Now roll out one of the dough balls until it is big enough to the stuffed (do not make the this too thin, otherwise these are hellish to deep fry).
Take 1 tblsp of stuffing, put in the middle of the rolled out dough and pull together the edges of the rolled out dough until you get a round smooth ball with no trace of the stuffing showing outside. (I need to buy a camera soon! It is so hard to verbally describe some things!).
Now roll out this stuffed dough-ball into a small, round disc.

Note: this is a slightly tricky part. If the disc is too thin then the stuffing might spill out into the oil while deep frying. If it is too thick then the taste after frying is predominantly of the dough, not the stuffing. A little experimentation is needed until you find what works for you.

Deep fry this stuffed disc in hot oil on medium heat until it is golden-brown on both sides. Repeat until you run of the stuffing and the dough.

Note that while rolling out the dough we do not use loose flour to dust the dough. Instead, we use a little oil to grease this rolling surface so that the dough wont stick to the surface.

You can serve these as appetisers or snacks or a meal. Usual accompaniments are pickles or/and chutnies (corriander, mint, tamarind, 'saunth'....anything goes). Kachori's are also great as a picnic or travel food--easy to pack, taste good even when cold and do not need too many accompaniments to go along. I hope you enjoy these as much as I do.

2006-07-29T10:25:00.000-04:00

One of my most favorite dishes is Rajasthani 'gatte'. These are basically gram flour nuggets cooked in a yogurt based gravy. These are really tasty, go well with rice or with any Indian breads and depending on the time available, can be made as complicated or as easy as one likes.

We make a lot of yogurt-based curries at home and I always feel that yogurt provides a good way to present strong, flavourful spices. Another reason is that yogurt is the most common souring agent used in Rajasthani cuisine (tomato and tamarind and relatively new entrants). No prizes for guessing that we belong to Rajasthan.
Mom: There is a scientific reason for the extensive use of yogurt in Rajasthan. The water contains a lot of flourides and the calcium in yogurt helps to precipitate this flouride and so helps in avoiding flourosis.

We wanted to submit this recipe for the Jivha for Ingredients event being hosted by Santhi of http://santhiskitchen.netfirms.com/nfblog/?p=78. I apologise-- I dont know how to put URL's within the posts yet. But I dont have a digital camera yet and no scanner either so I cant take a picture of this dish. But I do hope that some of you will try this great dish nonetheless and I look forward to joining the next JFI event.

Ingredients
For nuggets:
Gram flour 100 grams
Oil 2 tbsp
Saunf pwd 1/2 tsp
Ajwain seeds 1 pinch
Red chili pwd 1/2 tsp
Corriander pwd 1/2 tsp
Garam masala pinch
Salt to taste
Turmeric pinch
Warm water

For gravy:
Yogurt 100 grams (beaten gently with a spoon)
Turmeric
Corriander pwd 1 tpsp
Saunf (fennel) pwd 1/2 tsp
Red chili pwd 1/4 tsp
Salt to taste

Instructions:

1. Set some water to boil.
2. For the nuggets, roast gram flour slightly till the raw flavor goes away. Take it off the flame, add oil and mix well. Add all the dry spices listed above and mix well.
3. Use a spoon to stir the mixture (in a folding motion) while you gradually sprinkle warm water over this mix. You need to do this until it is lightly bound (not watery and not totally bound like roti flour).
A word of warning here: Do NOT knead the flour mixture since we need for air to be present in the mixture in order to get soft nuggets.
5. Use wet hands to shape the mixture into long cylinder (diameter approx. 1/2 inch).
6. The water must be boiling by now. Drop in these long cylinders gently into the water and simmer till the cylinders turn white and float up in the water.
7. Remove the cylinders from water ( do not throw the water away) and cut them into bite-sized nuggets.
8. For the gravy, take 1tsp of oil in a vessel and do the 'tadka' with cumin seeds, heeng (asafoetida).
9. Once the seeds have popped reduce the heat, add the yogurt and continuously stir this mixture. Add the dry masalas (not the salt) and keep stirring till fat seperates from yogurt.
Note: This may take some time but it is worth it. Also, if you dont stir then the yogurt might seperate. That is also the reason why on most yogurt based curries, we add salt right in the end. Salt encourages the yogurt to seperate and the resulting mixture is not pretty.
10. Add the water left over from boiling the nuggets. You can add more water if required. Bring the mixture to boil and then keep it on a low flame for 5-7 minutes.
Note: This is another trick to keep the yogurt from seperating. Basically, the leftover water from the nuggets contains some gram flour which also acts as a binding agent in the gravy.
11. To pull everything together, add the nuggets to the gravy and bring to boil. This is the stage to season with salt. Garnish with corriander leaves and green chillies.

A richer version of the gravy involves onion-garlic paste. In a vessel, heat 1.5 tsp oil and do the tadka with jeera and heeng. Once seeds have popped add 2 tblsp of onion-garlic paste and roast slowly on a low flame. Once the oil seperates from the paste (when you can see lace-like formations aroung the paste in the vessel) then follow the instructions from step 9.

Some people also like to fry to the nuggets once they are boiled. We dont do that at home for everyday eating.

And in my version I do a seperate 'tadka' with jeera and red chilli powder on top of the dish right before serving. Its a great dash of color on the yellow dish and an extra layer of spice.

Ok, so it seems long and complicated. But I swear to you that its not! I have made it n-number of times in about 15-20 minutes after a long hard day struggling with my thesis! If I can do it, so can everyone else! The burst of protein (from the gram flour) and spices gives a great feeling that even removes despair arising from feeling that you are going to be in grad-school for the rest of your life!

New beginings.......and Happy Birthday!

2006-07-29T02:51:00.000-04:00

Hi All!

After many many months of thinking about it and trying to get up my courage, I am starting a blog....that too on my birthday! But of course, being the baby that I am, I am doing it with my mom. I am Gunjan and my mom's name is Vinita, hence Vyanjanaa.

We are two very very different people, living on two different continents. One a scientist, another an economist. One a total spice freak, another more balanced. One in Delhi, another in the US. One with 4 servants, another with none! But we both love food, love the theories and the science behind food, love the almost house-to-house variations that exist, particularly in Indian cooking. We hope to share a little bit of our love of totally 'desi', down-to-earth, vegetarian 'ghar ka khanaa'. Much as we love 'makhani' paneer and 'malai' kofta curry, we dont (and cannot) eat it everyday. And there is SOOOOOO much more to north indian food than these. In fact there is so much more to Indian food now with previously "exotic" dishes now a part of everyday menus. Be it pizza, pasta or burger, once your neighbourhood "thele-walla" starts selling it.....you know its here to stay!

So welcome to our blog! This is a chronicle of experiments in trying to create totally new tastes as well as to recreate the illusive ones that always remain on your tongue and remind you of home.