Palak Panir

I have been cooking a lot of express-Indian these past few months. In fact, my usual cooking is reasonably Express, and predominantly Indian. But this was additionally challenging because I was looking for 6 ingredients or less. I am going to take some creative license and add oil to the list of not-to-be-counted ingredients. There is just a tablespoon of it anyway.

Yes, really. And, no cream. Sorry to have been the harbinger of this disappointing information but it is true that in the ‘real’ palak-panir (pah-luk-pun-nir) there is no cream. The creamed-spinach is likely the contribution of some restaurant-cook to fulfill the expectations of Indian food (quasi-Punjabi-Mughlai in most restaurants abroad) shimmering in that layer of floating fat. You do serve sarson-ka-saag makhan mar ke (splattered-with-butter) but not palak panir. Or, maybe, the name-change that this dish underwent when it was exported to the Western shores might have had something to do with this. Palak-(ka-saag)-panir got mixed up with the aforementioned saag and somewhere along the way became saag panir.  Saag is the generic word for ‘greens’ in Punjabi, but when used by itself usually refers to mustard greens. I believe I have come across recipes (on food blogs) for mustard greens cooked with panir. Inspired? ConFusion? I will keep my counsel.  Maybe Punjabi-kudi can shed more light on this subject…

Getting into Spring: Paneer Tikka

Spring is here and Delhi is a riot of colour. There are the myriad shades of green and now the blooms. To all this, Holi added its bright colours this week.

It has been a while since we joined in the revelry that Holi is but a party is always welcome. My MIL would always make fruit salad on this day. But who can handle all that cream in this day and age. One Holi we ate homemade pizza and ordered ice cream. If I feel like I will sometimes make gujiya, the traditional Holi sweet here in the North.  [Some other traditional Holi recipes here.]

This year all I did was cut up great looking purple carrots and start the process of preparing a cooling fermented drink… (yes, Pel are you listening?) As it turns out, it is a traditional drink for Holi second only to the frothy bhang! It is an apt one alright – with that deep purple colour…

While you wait for that recipe, here’s the one I promised last time – great party fare this one too.

Gimme Red!

Quick.  I need your opinion.  This one is my entry for Click: Red! To get these juicy tomatoes I made a trip to my local vegetable market so I could have tomatoes with their green bracts still attached!

(salad recipe here)

For Click: Red! I’m was leaning towards #2…liked the mood there.   But you are all right, the tomatoes are looking their best in #1!

Thank you all!  First one it is – the official entry for Click: Red!

You could call it Kootu, I suppose

At the end of a more-than-full work day we all deserve to put our feet up and get the much needed rest.  Recharge our batteries.  Good wholesome food contributes much to this recharge.  Many of us also admit to the therapeutic qualities of the act of cooking itself!

Roth – the baked kind. Crusty, you think?
This is my entry for the September edition of Click! the photo event at Jugalbandi.

The last couple of weeks have been more fast paced than ever for me.  Work, work related travel, sister’s visit, Ganesh Chaturthi and the Pun Pooza, and the continuing house renovation, all came to a head. As if I didn’t have enough on my plate already, the maid had to make a sudden visit to her hometown – an extended three week visit.  Which isn’t so bad actually.  Now I can multitask – plan the meal as I brew my evening cup of tea, have all the burners going and cook the veggies as I temper the dal, or roll out roti, and not have to deal with less-than-perfect food prep.  Much better.

Last night, after a grueling 11 hour work day (when I was lucky to have two additional people helping out!) I knew I needed a special meal.  TH brought me a Toro Bravo while I was still at my desk.  It needed to be a rice-night (that means, rice as the main starch for me), I could tell. Nothing short of the comfort of good old Kashmiri food would do.  Though it was late, I prepared dum aloo along with my nani’s special mung dal and served it with steamed rice (and roti – for the undiscerning).

Deep Fried Love: Batata Vada

If you have been seeing Batata Vadas appear in some of the food blogs you read and wondering what is up with that, here is what is at the root of it all – old fashioned indulgence.  A year ago, while discussing this and that on this blog, I and my readers decided a party was in order – an old fashioned yet not completely throw-caution-to-the-winds party.  Celebrating food without worrying about what went into it, or got left out; being intuitive instead of thoughtful.  It lead to a bunch of us frying poori last year, some for the first time!

This year we are experimenting with frying batata vadas, some of us for the first time!  The motive, again, has been to cook and share with friends and family, and remind ourselves that a little indulgence is a good thing.  And, of course, have some fun while we were frying!

Caronde he Caronde

Please don’t mention Caronda* for some time…it is in every jar I had spare!  There is no room for any more pickles or preserves…As I mentioned last time, I made some caronda chutney a week ago, to use up part of my Dad’d harvest from a bush I planted about ten years ago in the front yard of their house.  I used the idea of a sweet-tangy Indian chutney such as saunth (sweet and sour tamarind chutney) or a mango chutney made with unripe mangoes.  The effort was much appreciated. Since it was a trial batch I got just enough to fill two tiny jars that I sent off to my mum and sister.  The next batch was a repeat of the recipe and this time the effort yielded a big jar – plenty, I thought.

There were still some carondas left which then went into a pickle, pits and all, along with some unripe mango, lotus root, and green chillies. I keep that stoneware jar in the sun, what little there is of it at this time, bring it in every evening, and give it a good stir.  It is looking good.

So far so good.  My mum liked the relish a lot.  She doesn’t eat too much pickle because of the high salt content.  I told her that pitting the fruit was a pain in the rear.  She pitted about a kilo with the help of her maid and presented it to me.  I had thought more like: ok, here’s a recipe you might like to try… But I came home and made my third batch of caronda chutney.  This batch had fewer ingredients – I had already used up my dates; no gur – I couldn’t be bothered; less sugar – I had used up a lot of sugar in the past couple of weeks between the caronda relish and the mango jam, and was making statements with big exclamatory marks regarding the sugar content of the chutney.  The fruit for this batch had ripened further on the plant, was a deeper pink, and there was a subtle change in texture too.  What a pretty pink it turned in the pan!  And the texture – why, it reminded me of sour cherries in syrup!  The slight crispness as you bite into one was so similar!  That made me Google for recipes using sour cherries and I found a bunch that hold promise for next year!  I make no promises…but there might even be Caronda Liqueur on these pages one day!

These are a few of my new favourite things….

Most of us get addicted to reading blogs before we get one of our own. I wandered into the food blog world one fine day looking for some variety in my daily cooking. Nothing fancy, just everyday cooking that would show new ways with the same old ingredients.

Here are a few that have been added to our list of family favourites, and have been cooked more than once in my kitchen. Tried and tested…

1. Get your morning off to a good start with these scrumptious Pumpkin Cheddar Muffins from Manisha - (Indian Food Rocks)
2. Pel’s (Elaichi et Cetera) scintillating Thai soup Kaeng Thom Yam, and Nam Prik Pao, the secret paste behind it.
3. Bee and Jai’s (Jugalbandi) Kootu podi (spice mix for vegetables cooked with dal) from Southern India.
4. Bhinda ni Kadhi – Gujarati okra kadhi (Spice Cafe).
5. Bisi bele hulianna, a rice dish that was the essence of Karnataka cuisine to me (still is!) from Saakshi (Healthy Home Cooking), a serving of which can give you upwards of 20 varieties of food in one dish (including spices, of course)!

Check them out, if you haven’t already! Happy eating, and repeating!

The Old Faithful: Aloo Parantha

Usually, I love my time in the kitchen. More often than not, TH stays out, and is very appreciative of the food I put on the table (even when it is store-bought bread on days such as today when I am too rushed for even a 30-minute meal). But there are (many) days when I am not inclined to step into the kitchen at all.

One such day last year was my birthday. It is rather pathetic to have to cook yourself a special meal when it’s the perfect opportunity for others to show their love for a change. Yet, neither my son nor TH can be expected to bake a cake (not everyone is like Jai!). Every time I am not inclined to cook, the son is willing to order pizza and TH is only too happy to step out to get a fresh loaf of bread. But that day I insisted on a home cooked meal, and varan-bhaat was not going to cut it.

As it crawled towards dinner time and I showed no signs of getting off the couch, TH finally got the message and decided to grab the bull by the horns . Off he went into the kitchen and busied himself to prepare paranthas stuffed with my favourite vegetable – no prizes for guessing this time – potatoes. To bide my time till the paranthas were ready was a seasonal twist on my favourite drink – mango margaritas! Yes, he excelled himself.

Sarson ka Saag aur Makki ki Roti

Spring is upon us! Temperatures are climbing steadily – we are already at 27 degrees C. But a nip still lingers at night and in the mornings. Therefore, the mustard family gets to reign for a few more weeks. I have mentioned mustard fields and I have talked about Punjab…but I haven’t yet talked about their favorite winter greens preparation.

About Saag – sarson da saag (Punjabi) or mustard greens. When I first started reading food blogs a couple of years back, I was impressed by the familiarity of the Western world (the US-based blogs, in any case) with ‘saag’ which is the Punjabi word for greens in general. Just like Kashmiris refer to one specific kind of green when we say haak, saag too refers to sarson or mustard greens, unless specified otherwise – palak ka saag (spinach greens), bathuey ka saag, so on and so forth. Punjab has never heard of saag-paneer. The saag-paneer combination intrigued me till I discovered it was the American avatar of good old palak-paneer, which, I am told (by none other than our own desikudi, Musical) is not that traditional in rural Punjab.

Moongre ki Subzi (Radish Pods)

I seem to gravitate towards strong tasting vegetables – the pungent and very-brassica smells and tastes my husband likes to categorise as oogra. Nothing brings out the link between all the diverse members of the brassica family (such as broccoli, kohlrabi, haak, cabbage, cauliflower, radish, mustard, kale, and collard) like their flowers and seeds. All of them have the characteristic four-petal blooms (thus the name crusiferae – from ‘cross’ – for this group of plants, also collectively called the mustard family) and the brown-to-black oval-spherical seeds borne in tapering bean-like seedpods (a silique). Maybe now Nabeela will see why I first identified the mustard pods in her quiz as radish pods. The flowers vary in colour from white or cream to lavender or yellow, and are all edible!

Quinoa Soup with Spinach and Pumpkin

Snap, snap…blink, blink… Okay, I am really trying hard to snap out of it. The blog-lethargy that I have slumped into. Maybe it really is the cold (it was a freezing 2 degrees Celsius here in Delhi yesterday) and my brain has frozen over, in addition to my hands and feet. I have been sipping endless cups of tea everyday, hugging the cup in my hands to warm them briefly.

And it isn’t just cups of tea that I have been downing. Winter makes it hard to control calories. This is the time when peanuts (and all nuts and fruits that make up dry fruits) are consumed in large quantities in North India. The most popular way to consume peanuts is to throw a lot of woolens on and around yourself, huddle in a familial group, shelling and stuffing yourself while watching TV. They are the preferred snack at most Delhi bus stops where the peanut seller sits with his pile of peanuts-in-their-shells. He picks the nuts from just under the small earthen pot that has a gently smoldering piece of cow-chip in it, to weighs out hot peanuts that give sustenance and warmth, and also pass time while you wait for your ride to arrive.

Soups do that too – warm us up from the inside out. Winter is also particularly bountiful where vegetables are concerned. There is an abundance of greens: spinach, mustard greens, dill, methi, bathua, kohl rabi, and of course, haak and soutchal, two wonderful Kashmiri greens. Cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, beetroot, corn, carrots, and tomatoes, add to this bounty, and make this a great season for soup.

101 uses for Mystery Powder

Before Srivalli completely gives up on me, here I am with my experiments with the mystery powder I received through our very own Arusuvai Friendship chain last month. For all my professed past-life claims, the podi Srivalli sent me had me at a complete loss. I have already admitted I am not good at de-constructing spice blends; I totally relied on Manisha’s intuition for kanda-lassun masala.

After staring at the yellow-orange-powder sitting in a packet on my kitchen counter for two days, I gingerly wrote to Srivalli about my predicament… The yellow powder was going to test my self-professed Southie-ness. I could taste turmeric… dhaniya… and… the rest was a mystery. Now, I have made a few South Indian podis: kootu podi, bisibele hulianna podi, milagai podi; this was definitely not one of those. Well, that left only one other podi I knew: sambar masala! So, I prayed and sent an apologetic note to Srivalli asking if that was Sambar podi I had in my possession. It amused her that I was so unsure… but of course, it was! Whew! I heaved a sigh of relief. My reputation (rather, claim) was intact; at least, for now.

Sookhi Gobhi Aloo

I love my vegetables and am especially fond of gobhi or cauliflower. All through winter it is the highlight of our menu on at least three meals a week. If I had to pick my favourite way to serve this, sort of like the-first-amongst-equals, it would have to be the Punjabi sookhi goobhi aloo, dry (here meaning without curry) cauliflower with potatoes. I wonder how I didn’t share this sooner?

One of the reasons it is such a regular part of our winter meals is because this vegetable is an all-pleaser. Everyone in this family actually agrees on this vegetable. Thank God for small mercies. There were initial mutterings about the other recipe (before I joined the household) that I would never cook…but they settled eventually on their own. This is a star recipe, and comes together very quickly. While the vegetables are cooking, you can prepare the roti and you have a wonderful meal ready in 30 minutes! Dal with it is good; yoghurt, better. Slice some mooli (daikon radish) on the side, or maybe you have some leftover bharleli mirchi, and you have put together a delicious meal in a jiffy.

Fried Rice, Again!

At last I have a recipe using brown rice that the whole family will eat. I might also come out in the open about the fact that I love white rice. While I do on occasion cook brown rice, I find white rice is more suited to absorbing the curries we all love so much. You can mush it up with dal, or with dahi (yoghurt), and it feels right. Brown rice just refuses to soften up despite all the pressure-cooking I subject it to, and then it dares me to refuse. A lot like dalia (cracked wheat). But I put dalia in its place once I realized I could eat my cake and have it too, sort of. I needed a recipe for brown rice that would make it really sing instead of the forlorn ditty, “I’m good for you.”

I tried Musical’s mothaan di khichdi (using sprouted moth as Nupur had done) and reluctantly agreed with my teen son that it would have been better with regular white rice. My son will not touch brown rice with a ten foot pole. But lap it up he did with his 10 inch chopsticks when I made it into fried rice!

Now, who doesn’t like fried rice! I bet that all of us have our own favourite version of this classic Chinese dish. There are many traditional Indian avatars of this dish too using leftover rice – Maharashtrians have their phodnicha bhath (literally, rice with tempering), and the many South Indian rice preparations use the same concept too (chitranna, tamarind rice) – leftover rice mixed into seasoned oil, with or without the addition of vegetables.

While most of the dishes consumed in India under the “Chinese food” label have the most superficial of resemblance to the cuisine of that ancient country (Chicken Manchurian is as Chinese as Chicken Tikka Masala is Indian), I will wager that home-cooks serve a decent version of Chinese fried rice. That is because the home cook likely limits his Chinese pantry items to the generic soy sauce; and most Indian homes are never out of ginger, onion, and garlic. I have since also bought myself a bottle of hoysin sauce, and will be using it in this rice (and pray that it is not blasphemy); fermented beans are on my list next.

How many have you? Nine kinds of rice in my pantry: Clockwise, from bottom: Goan brown rice, fragrant white Basmati, black rice (a gift from a friend!), a mix of Kerala red rice (rosematta) and a dark red rice from Uttaranchal (from Navdanya) – I use the mix in soups, par-boiled rice for idli (from Madras Store, INA), short grain brown rice, brown Basmati; center -lightly fragrant short grain rice from Madhya Pradesh, which I have been saving for Ver)

The fried brown-rice happened quite by chance. I had (pressure) cooked a big pot of Goan brown rice, swearing to eat no white rice for a whole month. The following day I Google-chatted with a certain friend too late into the afternoon that cooking lunch on time was not likely.

My family will readily eat bread and butter, or bread and eggs, whenever I forget them on account of this computer affair. Only, I feel guilty if I do that more than thrice in a week. And there was that healthy bowl of brown rice sitting in the fridge…and since Kylie Kwong, I don’t ‘chop fine’ the vegetables for my Chinese recipes…Half hour later we were enjoying a delicious healthy lunch of fried rice – egg fried rice for the son.

Easiest Fried Rice
(Serves 3)

4-5 C cooked brown rice (if using leftover brown rice, pressure cook or steam again to refresh)
2 + 1 T peanut oil
1 medium onion, sliced
a few cloves of garlic, smashed
1 T fresh grated/julienned ginger
2-3 whole red chillies (fresh or dry), sliced thin, on the bias
2-3 green chillies, sliced thin, on the bias
2-3 C prepared vegetables of choice (shredded cabbage, sliced carrots, bell peppers, mushrooms, green beans, broccoli florets – I had only green peppers that day)
1 T soy sauce
1 T hoysin sauce (optional)
1-2 t vinegar (optional)
¾ t ajinomoto (or salt to taste) [yes, I do]
1 egg, lightly beaten (optional)

To a hot karahi or wok, add 2 tablespoons of oil. To the hot oil, add garlic and ginger and stir till fragrant but not browned. Add the red chillies and onions and stir it all around till the onions change colour (a minute or so). Add the prepared vegetables and cook, stirring all the time, for 2-3 minutes, till the vegetables have all brightened up. Add the hoysin sauce and the soy sauce and mix. Add the cooked rice and stir. Sprinkle ajinomoto (or salt), and stir till heated through. Mix in the vinegar before removing to a serving dish.

Add the remaining tablespoon of oil to the wok. Pour the beaten egg (to which you have added a pinch of salt) into the hot oil, swirl the wok around and lift the egg slightly to allow it to spread and cook. As it starts to set, break it up into large chunks. Tip a third of the fried rice into the wok and stir to combine. Serve this portion to the egg-lover in the family.

Other takes on Fried Rice:

Kylie’s Delicious Fried Rice
Manisha’s Leftover Chicken and Rice
Inji’s Indian-Chinese Fried Rice
Sig’s sunny Sweet Corn Fried Rice
Japanese Fried Rice
Thai Fried Rice
Chinese Fried Rice

Tags: brown rice, fried rice, egg fried rice, rice, Chinese, egg, under 30 min!, vegetarian

Spicy Nutty Cluster Beans

Yes, about that stunner gavar recipe. I never cared much for these beans. It may have something to do with the name – in Hindi the word also means ‘a country bumpkin’.

Haak Time – It’s The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

If you are surprised at how heavily the dice is loaded towards Southern India on our dining table, then I have also been amazed to meet non-Kashmiri souls that have haak-rus ( haak- broth) flowing through their veins. Some even wrote poetry in the praise of haak! But for them, I would have never thought of writing about this most favourite of our greens – haak. Haak is the Kashmiri equivalent of the term ‘greens’ or the Hindi ‘saag’. So, we have monjji haak (cohlrabi greens), mujj haak (radish greens), vopal haak (dandelion greens), and vast haak. But the greens we love the most, we just call haak.

My Continuing Discovery of Indian Cuisines

I mentioned earlier the likelihood of my having been a South Indian in previous life. I believe there are people who are offended by this title – South Indian. I know not why. I do understand though, the umbrage at everyone from Southern India being (once) called ‘Madrasi’ by self-centered North Indians. May I add that for my grandma’s generation all non-Kashmiris were Punjabi – likely the only other state they had heard of from their insular position. “So, you married a Punjabi,” she would say.

Southern India is not a homogeneous region; neither is Northern India nor, for that matter, the Eastern or the Western parts of our country. And, just as the cuisine and customs of the Northern plains have a lot in common, the people of Southern Peninsular India also share a long cultural heritage.

While I have established (some might say – followed my tummy to) the general region of my previous birth as Dravidian India, I have not yet been able to point to the exact spot. In my early teens I already knew that Andhra and Tamil food gave me as much comfort as did my mum’s cooking. I relished the everyday-kind dal-based vegetable preparations (which I may not know by their names) served with thick short grain rice; idli smeared with fiery milagai podi was as much ambrosia as was tayir saadam. I discovered Kerala cuisine a little later – in my twenties – though it was confined to the odd fish curry, thorans and pachadis, and the exotic (to me) appams with either avial or ishtu.

If you are in southern India be sure to wear some flowers in your hair…strung flowers sold by arm-lengths!

A Trip Down South

I haven’t gone into hibernation. In fact, I explored a whole new cuisine last week. Get a glimpse into what I did when I went southward…while I extricate myself from work long enough to tell you about how wonderful this gastronomic trip was…

 

 

Green Chilli Pickle

Almost every region of India boasts a chilli variety with its own unique qualities in terms of flavour, colour, and heat. Kashmiri chillies have a deep red colour but are otherwise mild; Andhra chillies with their bright colour and fiery heat are shown off to great advantage in their pickles; and now we’ve all heard about the bhut jolokia from Assam that holds the world record for the hottest chilli.

Athana in Rajasthan is also famous for its chillies. The long and fleshy Athana mirch is pickled whole and is favoured by the Marwari community. The chillies are slit and stuffed with a mix of spices that include fennel, coriander, mustard, methi seeds, turmeric, and amchoor. A similar large chilli, much like the Bhavnagri mirch, is made into the most delicious mirchi vadas the best of which are to be found in Jodhpur.

Express Cooking: Meal #2 (Punjabi)

So, we were talking about Express Meals…

After that generic ‘Indian’ pulao, let’s get region specific. Tonight it is going to be Punjabi, a cuisine that is second nature to me since I have been surrounded by the sight, smell, and taste of this cuisine since childhood.

Very early on, my mother adopted roti-subzi as the ideal packed lunch for all of us. You can’t beat the convenience of a roti or parantha with a sookhi (dry) subzi, sometimes perked up with a little pickle, for school tiffin. No spills, no mess, and no spoons or forks needed.

Since my mother learnt roti-making from her Punjabi neighbours, her rotis were the thicker north Indian kind. Punjabis prefer the flour much coarser than do Maharashtrians and Gujaratis, who make very fine rotis. Punjabi roti is at least double that of the latter in weight. And that is how I made roti till I got married…

Express Cooking: Meal #1

Mallugirl has thrown a challenge to prepare meals that take just 10-30 minutes from start to finish. Ten minute meals will naturally have to rely on processed foods or some amount of pre-prep. But 30 minutes is long enough to put together something decent from scratch. With the trusted pressure cooker, and a 3-4 burner stove, there are many meals you can put on the table in that much time.

For me it is deciding what to cook that is the hard part. Once that’s done, it’s all easy from there. In fact, I think most of my everyday cooking falls within that average of 30 minutes of active time (check the under-30-minute category).

A Strange Gourd…

I have another volunteer in my little patch of green – this time it is a strange little gourd. One time I had Malabar spinach with its rose tinted berries and leaves show up in a corner. No amount of uprooting could remove it – then I discovered I could use it in a Bengali paanch-phoran stir fry in a medley of other vegetables (beans, pumpkin, potatoes…) – yummy.

Greek Cucumber Salad

This is my son’s favourite salad. And it is, perhaps, the oldest recipe in my repertoire. I read the recipe in National Geographic Kid’s, NatGeo’s magazine for children, when I was about 13 years old, and have been making it since.

Yes, it is very much like the Indian cucumber raita. But with a twist. This raita includes lime juice, which I had thought odd, since dahi is already a little tart. But am I glad my young mind didn’t decide to omit it! I have a rule of sorts – the first time around I try to stick to a recipe as much as possible, substituting only if an ingredient is unavailable.

Punjabi Kadhi Pakode-wali

Punjab, the land of milk and butter, is also India’s wheat-bowl. Punjab has always been proud of its tall and strong puttars (sons). These brave sons (and daughters) of the soil have grown up on a diet rich with milk, butter, and other dairy products.

Punjab derives its name from its geography – punj: five (from Hindi/Sanskrit: panch – pronounced punch), and aab: Persian/Urdu for water – the land of the five rivers. The rivers Jehlum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej used to flow through undivided Punjab. All these five rivers are the tributaries of the mighty Indus river, or river Sindhu, its Vedic name. It is from this river that Indians get their name: Sindhu → Hindu or Hindi (it didn’t stand for a religion, but for the people of Hind or Hindustan).

Baigan ki Boorani (Eggplant in a Garlic-Yoghurt Sauce)

Difficult as it is for baingan (aubergine/eggplant) lovers to believe, there are many out there with an aversion to this beautiful vegetable. I have for you today the dish that will challenge this very aversion. It has the potential to effect conversion. Not only does TH eat baingan now, he counts this dish amongst his favourites, especially when served with another of his favourites – the Hyderabadi Qabooli (here is Bee and Jai’s version), a layered pulao of rice and split chickpeas cooked with garlic and yoghurt.

This is a very exotic looking dish from Uttar Pradesh that traces its origins to the milk and yoghurt favouring cuisine of Afghanistan where it still is on the menu of all restaurants serving local food. Shallow fried eggplant served in a yoghurt sauce flavoured with garlic and garnished with browned onions – how can you go wrong? Don’t the Greeks and Turks have something similar? Ah, it is such a fabulous pairing of flavours. And for once, I don’t miss the lal mirch (red chilli).

Axe Soup aka Bottle Gourd Peel Chutney

Kulhadi ka dalia is the Hindi translation of the Russian folktale Axe Soup that I read many summers ago. It is a version of Stonesoup, and a story that I find similar to this bottle gourd peel chutney.

You’ve all probably heard some version of the story in your childhood. In Stonesoup the message is more about the pleasure of sharing and the good that comes from cooperation. The Axe Soup carries a subtle lesson about human management – how to use the inherent greed in fellow humans, of wanting to get something out of nothing, to get out of others more than they are willing to give.

But little do we expect to ever come face to face with legends outside of books of tales.

Monjji Haak…at long last

For all their love for goat meat Kashmiri Pandits love their greens with an almost equal passion. There are many types of greens, wild and cultivated, that find their way to balance the daily meals.

If that be so, you might well wonder how come there has been no Kashmiri greens recipe on this blog yet. The fact is that the most common way with our most popular green, the haak, is also the least spectacular. In a matter of speaking, you may say they are just blanched greens. My non-Kashmiri side of the family didn’t think it was anything to write home about. So I didn’t. And my son and I continued to secretly also relish the fact that there would always be more for us!

A Delhi Summer – On the Streets

It is not easy to sum up an old city like Delhi, with all the layering, in one post. And I am not planning to attempt it.

In this city of 10 million people there is no getting away from the crowd. There are people everywhere, and they continue to pour in – from smaller cities and the villages. The biggest influx into Delhi was in 1947, during the Partition of the country, when many Hindus and Sikhs from West Punjab (now in Pakistan) sought refuge.

It is only natural that a city 3000 years old has imbibed influences from all over the world, and these are reflected in its culture – art and architecture, language, and of course, in its cuisine. The Persian influence is prominent in the Mughlai cuisine, though the Punjabi flavours predominate today. But whosoever came and settled here had to deal with the hot and dusty summers.

An Amaltas in all its glory

Not that that is an entirely bad thing. How else would the mango be so sweet? While the temperate world revels in its fall colours, we have a green green spring followed by the vibrant summer. The sun makes our greens shine, the reds brighter, and the yellows sunnier. Who can rival the Gulmohur (Delonix regia) or the Amaltas (Cassia fistula), when it comes to a show of colour?

Patode/Alu Wadi (Taro Leaf Spirals)

Taro leaves (also called not to be confused with Elephant’s Ears) from the garden

This blog has become a ready reckoner for the family and myself where I record family recipes and favourites. You will not find any disaster stories here (who can tell the future though? ).

We are quite a mixed bunch in the family, and now spread all over the world. There are mostly Hindus, one Muslim, a few Christians, and a couple of atheists thrown in for good measure , with skin tones varying from white to black through all the gold tones, in my extended family which now counts Kashmir, Maharashtra, USA, Gujarat, UK, Punjab, Karnataka, Uttaranchal, Bihar, West Bengal, and Kerala as represented. I am talking first cousins and Aunts and Uncles only. Since marrying into a Maharahstrian household there is much that has been added to my repertoire which is unfamiliar to some of the rest of the family (you’d think!). Over the years they too have developed a taste for this cuisine and enjoy cooking some of their favourites in their own kitchens. Maharashtrian banana koshimbir (a left-side item) getting mistaken occasionally for dessert by the Kashmiri relatives notwithstanding . And, I might add, some Maharashtrians have lunged for the mujj chatin expecting kheer! And this is not the half of it.

Aloo Palak (Spinach with Potatoes)

After the popularity (and blog success) of Shakuntala’s Aloo ki Ras Bhaaji, I had been trying to get her to teach me something new. She hails from Western UP in North India and I incorporate a lot of North Indian influence in my everyday food. This essentially makes my everyday food only a variation of hers. Last week I decided to try her version of Aloo Palak (spinach with potatoes) that is a variation on my Punjab-type.

Aloo palak is a popular no-fuss Punjabi dish. A long long time ago we lived briefly in West Delhi where the population is mainly Punjabi. On the way back from grocery shopping my Mom would sometimes pick a kulhar (a disposable terracotta take-away container) of aloo palak from Sardarji’s dhaba to serve at dinner.

Those were days when there were open, unbuilt-upon areas available where a woman could set up a make-shift tandoor, dug into the ground, and provide roti-making service to other harried housewives at lunchtime in the peak of summer. I remember my mom occasionally sending me and my younger sister with some dough, flour, and ghee to get them made into hot tandoori rotis. There was some nominal charge per roti for the baking and the lady also got to keep the dry flour and any ghee that did not get used up.

It used to be fascinating to watch the woman pinch off the dough and pat it into a thick roti, place it on a hand-held cloth padding for the final slap onto the hot surface of the glowing tandoor. One by one they would go in. She would then pick her hooked metal spike and dislodge one from the clay surface and flip it onto the hot coals to briefly cook the other side before pulling it out.

A Hearty Potato Soup

It is no longer hot-soup season in Delhi anymore. A rough draft of this post has been sitting all season. It is easily amongst my favourite soups and I have made it multiple times this past winter as well. There is just one problem – I have found it very hard to photograph.

Good picture or not, I am writing about this hearty winter soup so that those of you still in the cold can make a bowl and think of me. We are talking comfort food here.

If we talk comfort food, can potatoes be far behind? And this potato soup is a must try. It has a link to graduate school for me. There were some of us who would bring brown bags for lunch, usually leftovers from the previous nights dinner. No better way to unwind from a good day at school than to cook yourself a good meal (after that cup of tea, of course). And if you are, as I was, separated from your family by a couple of continents and an ocean, a good meal is what you need. Not microwavable frozen pizza.

On most days we want to cook simple dishes that are easy to prepare, homely, yet satisfy the need for change. Exotic dishes that require slaving in the kitchen for hours cannot be part of graduate school. And my impatient nature explains my affinity for dishes that look deceptively complicated.

Tomato Chutney

Tomayto-tomahto, tamahtar-timahtar. What a vegetable! Yes, yes, I know, technically it is a fruit, a berry. And a berry good one it is . So good that even Kashmiris have begun to include it into their traditional recipes, tamatar-baingan being among my Dad’s favourites. But there’s no Kashmiri recipe today. Let’s do another one for ‘the left-side’, the side reserved on the Maharashtrian thali for pickles, relishes, and chutneys.

There is this tomato chutney I make that uses just a few ingredients. I watched Sanjeev Kapoor make it many years ago on his very popular show Khaana Khazaana. I didn’t note down the recipe but since the ingredient list was short I was able to make a very decent chutney when I tried it soon after. I have made it many times since but always going by ‘feel’ as most of us who have been cooking for a considerable time tend to do. When you do that, it becomes hard to write recipes down. This blog is becoming a repository where I must commit to measurable units. Already, I check here for a couple of my own recipes! So, today I measured as I went about adding the ingredients.

Relishing the Radish

Here is another Kashmiri vegetarian recipe. It is special because it is one of the few accompanying dishes that make up Kashmiri cuisine. The rest of India has a mind boggling variety of things to be ‘served on the left side’ of the thali. Let me explain this. There is a specific sequence to serving food in Maharashtra. You start with a bit of salt on the left side. This is the side reserved for all accompaniments: chutneys, pickles, wedges of lemon, koshimbirs (salads) or raitas. Bhajjis (pakoras), if part of the meal, will also find room here. Next will be a katori of daal, and then to the right of the thali is the main subzi. Rice and roti are towards the lower centre of the thali. The sweet, somewhere in the middle, is always served along with the meal. Even for everyday meals you will have something served on the left, even if just a pickle, though chutneys are served frequently. It would sadden my MIL to serve just a pickle ‘daavi kade‘ (on the left side!).

I have no idea why the Northern most state of our country is so lacking in this category. Maharashtra, Gujarat and all the Southern states lay as much emphasis on this ’side’ to introduce a complexity of texture and flavour into their cuisine. It might have something to do with Kashmiris being obsessed with their meat or the harsh climate making cooking harder with women concentrating on getting the meat cooked in time for the unusually early meal times. Lunch, in most houses, would be ready and served before 10:00 in the morning. Everyone ate and went to work or school. Where was the time to sit and pound different things together in a pestle and mortar? The plentiful fresh fruits and vegetables such as radishes and cucumbers are perfect for snacking and getting the crunch that might have been missed at meal time.

Though there are just a few chutneys and raitas but these are much loved and used over and over. One loved vegetable is mooli (daikon radish). It is cooked with fish or nadur (lotus stem) to lip-smacking results. It is also the vegetable of choice for making our most popular raita – mujj chatin. For some reason it is called a chutney. Grated mooli added to thick salted dahi with chopped green chillies mixed in. Red chilli powder and a pinch of shah zeera (black cumin) is totally optional. This is the only Kashmiri dish in which I will use a garnish of coriander leaves. I love coriander, but it is not traditional to Kashmiri cuisine.

For the Love of the Potato

The potato, though sometimes maligned, is easily the world’s most popular vegetable. I totally know the meaning of this Irish proverb: “Be eating one potato, peeling a second, have a third in your fist, and your eye on a fourth.” We Indians consume a reasonably impressive 24 kilos per capita. My favorite are the starchy floury kind, which love to absorb all the moisture you will provide. Read more about the history and cultivation of potatoes in India.

All you skeptics believe me when I tell you that it is also one of the most nutritious vegetables: a 250gm serving of potatoes is under 200 calories, a rich source of protein, starch and fibre, as also vitamin C. It becomes less healthy only when served as deep fried chips, or cooked in oodles of fat. Cooking with the skin, or boiling and peeling are the best ways to preserve most of the nutrients.

Sookhe Aloo was the opening post on this blog followed by other favourite ways to dish up potatoes. I have stated my love for the spud with every recipe featuring it. Busy though I have been this month, I am not going to let go an opportunity to showcase it. People, welcome The Potato, to the JFI Hall of Fame. No vegetable deserves it more.

As I look back at the pictures of what I have been cooking this month (and never getting around to writing), I was impressed. I cooked it for breakfast, for lunch, and for dinner. As the main dish, for the one dish meal, and as the helper dish. Preparations from Northern, Southern, Eastern and Central India, and a few ways I learned on the other side of the world, half-way across. And it found its way into many combinations as well: gobhi-aloo, baingan-aloo, sabudana khichadi, mixed veggies…

Wholesome Burgers…Have Some Tonight

Indian students are a pampered lot: pretty much all of us are fully supported by our parents, with mothers only too happy to provide good nutritious timely meals. And we take all of this for granted, including the state subsidy, and the scholarships for grad studies. (I have an opinion on GATE scholars and scholarships, but it doesn’t go down well with dinner for some. Later. But I would like to state, for the record, that it is not birthright, and yes, you are supposed to try to get at least passing grades.)

Attending grad school in the US taught me a lot of things. It is hard work for most American students to put themselves through school. In my pottery class, which I was taking for fun (but getting grad credit for, nevertheless – I wasn’t going to let my credit hours not count towards my degree – every cent counts!) I met this young girl, who had a full time job, was a single parent, and was getting herself an arts degree taking evening classes. And I thought what a cushy life most students in India have. We think school is work enough.

With that kind of student routine, it would be a miracle to not want to reach out for packaged, microwavable ‘food’. And it is expected that you are going to gain 15 pounds as you start college – the Freshman 15, as they are called. And, believe me when I tell you, that I lost 15 pounds in the first semester of grad school! Being away from my little son and husband had something to do with it; having to multiply everything with 35 (the exchange rate at that time) had something to do with it ; not having spare change had something to do with it. Eating home-cooked food had a lot to do with it, as did living 20 minutes (walking) from the studio.

Winter Freeze

Old Man Winter is loosening his grip…soon the winter bounty will be over. Enjoy it while it lasts and if you put in some extra effort now, you could make it last longer. And I am not talking about pickle making.

Drying is one method which works on summer as well as winter vegetables, though dishes prepared with re-hydrated vegetables have a distinctly different taste. Like many people preparing for long hard winters ahead, Kashmiris too have a tradition of cooking with vegetables (and fish) dried in the sunny and warm summer months. Turnips and turnip greens, eggplant, bottle gourd, tomatoes, cauliflower, cooking apples (bum tchoonth), can all be seen threaded into garlands and hung up to dry by a sunny window all over Kashmir, and relished later in the winter. Everyone has seen pictures of Kashmiri red chillies strung similarly. And of course, you have all also heard of the prized dried morels or guchhi (kannguchh in Kashmiri).

I have experimented with sun-drying vegetable very successfully myself. I have to learn some Kashmiri preparations before I try my hand at turnips and eggplant. In addition to tomatoes, I have tried sun-drying cauliflower, and karela (bitter gourd) in the Delhi summers. Mint can be similary dried for monsoon-season and winter use when it becomes scarce. Just snip bunches of fresh mint, give it a quick rinse, shake of the excess water, and let it dry in shade. Once it is dry, crush it between your palms, throw out the stems, and store in air-tight glass jars. As the end of winter nears, I do the same to make my own kasuri methi (the more fragrant cousin of the regular methi/ fenugreek greens) for later use in stews and chicken curries.

Thai Chicken Soup

It was going to be a very cold New Year’s Eve – and hot soup and home-made bread were going to be the perfect foil.

JFI for this month is featuring the coconut, and I did want to make something specifically for the event. Thai soup with a coconut milk base seemed like the perfect solution. Except that, as mentioned earlier, TH has no taste for fish sauce. So I was going to have to make two versions: one (the real McCoy) with and one without the fish sauce. And since it was going to be so, there was no reason why the first one should not have some chicken as well.

Crispy Cabbage Pakoras

Everyone likes fried food. And all of us have our variations of batter-fried vegetables. Sometimes, even fruit. Sometime back, Melissa wrote in praise of pakoras on her blog. And I have been wanting to blog about these pakoras since.

I am not sure how many of you have made cabbage pakoras but these are amongst my favourite, second only to pyaaz bhajjies (onion pakoras).

Spicy Onion Rings at the K State Union cafeteria would hit the spot whenever I was homesick for pakoras, and definitely not in the mood for a sugar-kick. I have a very sweet tooth, but it was salt I really missed as a Grad student in the US. Giant muffins, mammoth cookies everywhere, but only fries to satiate the salt cravings. Like most Indians, I prefer a spicy savory snack with the mid-morning or evening cuppa. The sweet may follow; but first, the salt and the spice. It is to this hall of fame that the now well-known samosa also belongs.

Growing up, I never had cabbage in a pakora. My mum was quite innovative with the vegetables she batter fried – eggplant, tomatoes, cauliflower, spinach leaves, in additional to the usual suspects – potatoes and onions. And then one day I saw my MIL shred some cabbage leaves, throw them into the spiced besan batter along with a spoonful of sesame seeds and some left-over rice as well, to make the most delicious of pakoras. These would invariably accompany an elaborate traditional meal showcasing pooran-poli, the delicious stuffed sweet rotis, that are a Maharashtrian delicacy.

Carrots, Peas and Potatoes with Dill

At first I thought I should stay away from the normal and mundane. But I also know that more often than not I am looking for someone else’s normal and routine; something that will take the same-old-same-old out of my lunch and yet have the same simplicity and wholesomeness that comes from tradition; from generations of being tested in home-kitchens till perfect. Most of the ‘new’ dishes I have tried from other bloggers are what are obviously their everyday favourites.

So I present today the humble carrots and peas with dill. Dill (soa/soya ka saag) is another of our winter greens, but one that finds few none takers in this household. But I, fearlessly, feed them this dish at least a couple of time every winter, hoping it will grow on them. As for me – well – I simply love it.

Refrigerator Pickles

Fibre, over at 28 cooks, wrote about vegetable pickles. I bookmarked it and then let it slide (going back to drool on the picture now and then). And then Tea at Tea and Cookies wrote about her version of radish pickles and I thought I absolutely must make these. And then she posted about them again. What was I to do?

You may have had all kinds of pickles (and there is no limit to the variety in Indian pickles!) but, as far as I know, these are the best looking pickles. Ever. One look and you will not be able to keep yourselves from making them for very long.

Even that blog-her friend of mine who is on a diet plan . This is no oil-based Indian pickle, but more like a salad just waiting in a jar.

I looked at the other links from the above blogs and then tweaked the basic recipe to suit the ingredients I had at hand. Without further ado, let me get to the recipe. The pictures sell the pickle! It sits in my fridge like a glowing ruby, getting deeper every day.

Giving Thanks with Corn, Potatoes and Carrots

cornbread

Divali starts the festive season. Actually, Dussehra does. And now it is Thanksgiving, and all the blogs are reflecting this. Since most of the Indian food-bloggers are US based, it is all over the Indi-blogs as well, and we can safely assume, it is now another Holiday we can lay claim to. And Indians never shy away from embracing a Holiday – another day to goof off from work, another day to partay!

Holi, Divali, Eid, Ramzan, Gupurab, Christmas, and New Year – they are all as Indian as chai. And we are beginning to get attached to Valentine’s Day as well! The Government of India presently has seventeen (!) official Holidays in a year!

The first time I found out about this very American holiday, I was intrigued that it did not involve religion! It does involve ‘the Pilgrims’ though – but that is just another word for colonisers, no? Most of us associate this holiday with ‘giving thanks’, but the truth may have become ‘coloured’ over time. For some perspective you can look up No Thanks to Thanksgiving, and if it is too ‘coloured’ for you, this article in the Seattle Times tells us a bit about the real Thanksgiving menu!

Kamla got me thinking about what Thanksgiving means to me (and you can listen to the podcast interview!); I can tell you that it is about sharing what you have and also about accepting what is different in others. That is something I personally experienced in all the Thanksgivings I spent in the US. My friends shared their tradition, their home, and food with me. In fact, on my first Thanksgiving, I was a total stranger to the host family. And yet there I was, with my kheer*, featured on their hand-made menu cards, which we all signed at the end of the long laid-back lunch. I still have mine!

The menu today, authentic or not, featured potatoes (mashed potatoes), corn (cornbread with cumin and coriander), carrots (baked carrot fries), stir-fried vegetables, and mango relish. The turkey was missing, and I would have loved to use the drippings to make the gravy for the mashed potatoes. Since last year, turkeys have become available at the INA Market in Delhi. And one small turkey is my entire year’s chicken, mutton, and fish budget, combined! Thanks but no, thanks.

Bring on the food – it’s Thanksgiving! And thank you, America, for sharing your tradition with me.

All the Goodness of Eggs

I have never been into fad diets. Nor do I reposit my faith in pretend foods. Why would anyone eat I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter when you can have the real thing which is Butter. But when I was younger I did attempt ‘altering’ my diet occasionally.

To find an alternative to tasty butter-toast, I would quick-cook a bunch of ‘green’ things – onions, tomatoes, sweet peppers, sometimes mushrooms, lots of coriander, some mint and green chillies – season it with salt and pepper and serve it on toast. A delicious alternative you will agree.

WBB#6 Twisted Dalia?

Some like porridge. Some will not touch it with a ten-foot-pole. My family falls in the latter category. But dalia* is a healthy way to include fibre and when made into a porridge with milk can keep you going well till lunchtime.

But even I cannot have porridge more than once in a couple of weeks. And, so the packet of dalia lay woefully in the larder with no takers. Being the true Indian that I am, I am loathe to dump food that is not either totally infested or rotting.

Necessity is the mother of invention, they say. And this is the only dish I have ever created. Any resemblance to any other dish is unintentional and purely coincidental . Mostly I adapt recipes to suit what is available, or change a few proportion to suit my inclination, but this is something I put together all on my own, though I admit it has been inspired by couscous.

I had couscous once, a long time ago, when my sister prepared it in our university apartment. Couscous, which is partially cooked wheat that has been coarsely ground, requires only soaking in hot water to serve. Dalia, on the other hand, needs soaking and pan-cooking. But, the textures are very similar.

With the couscous in mind and that packet of dalia at hand I got an inspiration a couple of years ago. Today dalia is a happy breakfast at our table on many Sunday mornings. Filled with the goodness of veges and fibre, and looow in fat, this (I’m gonna call it Sunday Dalia Twist!) is amongst super-healthy-eating husband’s favorite breakfasts! Porridge? That’s history.

Maybe I should call it Dalia Ravivar! Ice cream that is even better is a Sundae…Dalia that is nothing like porridge is Ravivar! (Lame? You suggest a name…really!)

Paper Chef #22 and More Pumpkin

I had been wanting to participate in the Paper Chef event for some time now. This weekend I even remembered to check the list of ingredients posted by Owen at Tomatilla but there was only the running list. Then I checked again on Monday. Nothing. As I began to wonder if I really understood the rules…there was the list of ingredients on Tuesday, finally!

1. Barberries – or any berries.
2. Pumpkin
3. Spinach (or any other green), and since Paper Chef #22 had ended up starting on a slow note, the topical ingredient was going to be
4. Slow

One look at the ingredients and I thought ‘Dhansak’! The first time I cooked this was just a couple of weeks back using a combination of Nandita’s (of Saffron Trail, and someone who seems to be getting mentioned here all the time!) and this recipe. Curried lentils cooked with vegetables, served with rice, what else can you ask for. I knew this was a keeper.

And this time’s Paper Chef event seemed to be calling out for a version of the delectable Parsee Dhansak. The Parsees have contributed to the variety in Indian cuisine in no small way. Their food traces its uniqueness to its roots in ancient Persia (remember Mesopotamia?).

Baakar Bhaji (Pumpkin Curry)

It’s Divali time. Yes, I am spelling it with a ‘v’ because that’s how we pronounce it, and I did finally get the difference in the v and w sounds (thanks, Bruce) even if I don’t always remember while speaking.

And all of us have a lot to do: clean the house (the curtains, the slip covers and cushion covers, and…), even get the house painted maybe (what a chore that is). And there are all the Divali goodies to be planned and cooked. I am sure most of the Indian food bloggers are going to put up quite a show.

Is there time to put a good meal on the table? I read Nandita’s comment and how busy she has been and thought it was time for another post in the ‘under 30 min’ category. Something to help you along while you spring clean and still score with the MIL (or TH, or the wife?) .

You’ll need to have access to one Maharashtrian spice though, the goda masala aka kala masala. There is no time to make it at home at the moment but you can find a recipe here (though not the way my MIL used to make). It is to Maharashtrian cuisine what the garam masala is to North Indian. Every family has their own variation and every shop (in Pune or Mumbai) seems to have its own recipe as well.

This summer I had planned to re-stock in Mumbai but the shops failed me. None that I visited, carried the really black kind. Most were a deep brown and did not use any coconut. Now why would it be called kala (black) masala if it was supposed to be brown! So I am going to have to make my own. I now have all the ingredients but have been putting it off. I am down to the last few teaspoons full. So…anytime now.

You cannot substitute the kala masala with any other because of this one spice, the pathar phool (translated: ’stone flower’), a kind of lichen! It gives the goda masala its distinctive taste and aroma. So, talk to your friendly Maharashtrian neighbour (hopefully, they have the black kind) and ask for some. While you are visiting, don’t be bashful, and ask for a little amsul or kokum as well.

Quick and Easy Salad

This is a quick salad to make. A good companion to different cuisines whether Indian, Italian, American, or even Chinese. In fact, it is inspired by Kylie Kwong’s tomato salad from her TV show Cooking with Heart and Soul, which I love watching. I have already made it thrice for dinner this week–just tomatoes (yum!), tomatoes and cucumber (no onions, as requested by TH), and then as per this recipe.

The simple recipe is versatile. Today I added a few cabbage leaves (chiffonade) and some cilantro as well. The taste is in the freshness of the ingredients with the fresh cracked pepper being of essence. Do not use pre-ground pepper. You could add torn spinach, iceberg lettuce, carrots, radishes…Makes a wonderful colourful addition to the meal. Simplicity at its best.

Fat-free Potato Chips and Low-fat Kofta Curry

“Next, you’ll be telling me to boil poories”, is what my MIL had said in exasperation one day! Some of us take the low-fat thing to an extreme. I manage that myself sometimes. ‘Boiled poories’ may never happen but, recently, I have managed fat-free potato chips and low-fat ghia (bottle gourd) koftas.

Good enough.

For the fat-free chips you should go to 28 cooks. Her Microtato Chips taste exactly like the fried, out-of-bag variety! Absolutely unbelievable, but better believe it. Sorry, no pics. Nothing can hold off anyone from chips. Not even I. I kept my counsel and did not make outrageous demands like ” Hands off, till I shoot”. And these are fat-free chips, hello!

My guess is they may not store well. But you have to deal with that if there are any left over. If.

For the fat-free Potato Chips you need:

scrubbed potatoes
a well-oiled microwave-safe (glass) casserole dish (or wax paper)
seasoning (I used lemon-pepper salt + some of my own dry, crushed, mint)

Slice or peel (if you have a peeler that thick-peels) potatoes. Season as desired. Oil your casserole dish and spread the sliced potatoes in a single layer. Microwave for 5-7 min (5 if you peeled, and 7 if you sliced). You now have unbelievable crispy-brown potato chips. You do not need to oil the dish again tonight! Really.

The only drawback is that by the time (or before!) you make the next batch, the first one is gone. So you may not be able to feed an army peacefully. That’s all.

Now for that north Indian Kofta Curry. I made the koftas some time back, so the proportions are not exact, but those of you who have done some ’steaming’ should be able to manage quite well. Not the stuff for beginners, I’m afraid. I was using frozen ones today. These freeze well. I always make more than I need and freeze half of them.

Steamed Ghia Koftas
(all ingredients are approximate)

Peeled, grated ghia (bottle gourd)
1 1/2 C besan (chickpea flour)
1/2 C sooji (semolina)
garlic paste and grated ginger (to taste, optional)
1/2 t turmeric
2 t oil
salt
3/4 t baking soda

Bring water to boil in a pressure cooker or steamer. Mix all ingredients and pour into oiled pans for steaming. I use my steel pans that fit into each other. Steam (no pressure) for 25-30 min or till a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool. Remove and cut into cubes.

Appams with Avial

Kerala, God’s Own Country, has food fit for them immortals. The land of spices and coconuts uses both these in ways so different. The Kerala food that I have sampled has always been subtly spiced with undertones of sweetness from fresh coconut; a light hand with the red chilli pepper and a preference for the famous Malabar peppercorns.

As promised, I bring to you a family favourite- Avial with Appams. While I got an early start on food from Tamil Nadu and Andhra, Kerala cuisine was a later discovery.

My good friend Prati, a true Delhiite (meaning belonging to Delhi – it bugs her when people ask – “no, but where are you really from?” It is true, people lived here before the rest of us moved in ! The oldest city, Old Delhi – where the present Mehrauli is, dates back to late 12C. Mughal Shahajahanabad, the other ‘Old Delhi’ came much later in mid-17C. Delhi accomodates withing it 8 capitals of various rulers including modern democratic New Delhi), served this non-yellow curry at a dinner many many years ago. One spoonful and my eyes widened at the unbelievable taste of this innocuous looking dish. This was the Avial, my friends. If you have a spoonful, you cannot but ask for the recipe.

And I am not going to give you one. You don’t need one. There is nothing simpler, really. Take a bunch of vegetables such as potatoes, carrots, peas, beans, and green bananas (I always use potatoes, green bananas, and jimikand – Indian yam, with either peas or beans). Chop them into equal sized pieces (1cm) and cook/steam (I pressure cooked my tubers and the banana, and zapped the beans in the microwave). Grate half a coconut and grind to a paste with some cumin and green chillies. You are supposed to use only coconut milk but I hate to throw away the squeezed out coconut. Mix this paste into a cup or more of beaten curd/yoghurt (this should not be sour) and add to the cooked vegetables. Add some water so that there is sufficient ‘curry’. Simmer till heated through. Do the usual tadka of mustard seeds, whole red chillies and kadi patta in a teaspoon or two of oil and add to the simmering avial. Don’t forget the salt.
There, it’s done. Serve it with steamed rice or appams. Keep the breads away this time.

About the appam now. The first time I had this fluffy hopper was at Ashok Yatri Niwas’ Coconut Grove. We were celebrating a birthday with my aforementioned friend. Our kids were toddlers and they were with us. So we sampled Malabari cuisine for the first time – it was a long time ago but I remember there was a fish curry among other things. And Avial (who can forget that, now!) and the wondrous appams, with crispy crepe-like edges and a soft spongy centre, perfect to soak up the delicately flavoured avial and ishtew.

Al Yakhni (Bottle Gourd in a Yoghurt Sauce)

Agar firdaus bar ru-e zamin ast
Hami ast o-hami ast o-hami ast…If there is Paradise on earth, it is this, it is this, it is this…goes this famous Persian couplet

describing Kashmir, not the humble ghia (doodhi, bottle gourd) of course, or al (pronounced ‘ul’ as in ultra) in Kashmiri.

Let’s go back to Kashmir for a bit, away from the hot sultry environs of stuffy (at the moment) Delhi. While half the country is drowning in floods, there has been hardly any rain here in Delhi. The clouds come raising our hopes and then the winds just blow them away.

And the bottle gourd is the kind of mellow vegetable that sits well in this weather. Nature knows how to balance cravings with abundance. There is plenty of good gourd in the market. Cooked in a light sauce, not greasy, not spicy. Perfect with steamed rice. And I have been craving rice.

The other day my cousin’s wife was shocked that we, in this house, cook roti for both meals. Actually, I think she felt a little sorry for me…The only roti Kashmiris traditionally had was the breads from the friendly neighbourhood naanwai (baker). It is not that rice is not important in Maharashtrian cuisine. It is. In fact, in most homes, it is served as the first (with dal) and last course (with dahi) at all meals. But, as in my family here, roti is still the main course.

Kashmiri cuisine makes room for roti and breads only at breakfast and afternoon tea. And these are never made in the house. Rice is the main staple as it is in Southern India where all the dosas and idlis, so popular even in the North, are served only as tiffin, as ‘minor’ meals.

So, with all the roti around me at all meal-times, there are times when I need to get back in touch with my Kashmiri side. There is a deep satiation that can only be brought about by a meal of rice and curry. With nothing coming between you and your rice – mixing in bits of chunky vegetables or meat into the rice using your fingers and taking it from hand to mouth in a loving graceful move. It is an almost complete sensual involvement – the visual, the smell, the taste, and the touch.

The use of saunf (fennel) as an integral spice in Kashmiri cooking separates it completely from the other cuisines of North India. In fact, coriander, the most common of Indian spices, is not much used. And the coriander leaf (cilantro), never. I think the fennel is a Persian legacy, as are all the breads from the naanwai. The Mughals were in love with Kashmir as is obvious from the Persian couplet quoted at the beginning, and must have cooked up quite a Wazwan with their spices which, over time, got assimilated into the local cuisine.

Yakhni is the common name for all yoghurt based sauces. I don’t use the word ‘curry’ here because there is no such term in Kashmiri cuisine. This recipe for the bottle gourd is subtly spiced with fennel and dry ginger powder. It is mildly spicy without much heat since cayenne is not used (surprise, surprise). I do, however, like to add some green chillies (surprise, surprise!) which impart another degree of subtleness to the dish. Other vegetables that may be prepared in a similar way are the lotus stem (kamal kakdi – Hindi, nadur – Kashmiri) and karela (bitter gourd). The meat based yakni is different and uses additional spices.

Al Yakhni (Bottle Gourd in a Yoghurt Sauce)

Psyco-analysis and A Potato Curry

And so the vegetable drought continues…since pumpkin and taro root don’t count for my son. The rest of the family ate those while he got his meat dish. Since my mother makes it better, I’ll post the delicious matsch (spicy meatballs in gravy) recipe from Kashmir, once she cooks it under my all-seeing eyes.

We have this joke about my mother not telling us the entire recipe; she tends to leave out an innocuous ingredient and we keep wondering why our version can never match hers. Sometimes it is the magic in her hands, at other times…

Anyway, there is this simple potato curry that she would make which was a family favourite. But every time I would try to recreate it in my kitchen (after I got married and had to cook regular food instead of the fancy-shmancy cakes and stuff) it would never come out the same. Where I had potato pieces in watery gravy, hers would be these crumbly potato chunks in a creamy tomatoey gravy. I tried all tricks, sauté-ing the potatoes longer, letting them cook partially before adding the tomatoes, and much else. Always using a pressure cooker like her. It would come out delicious and was much appreciated by the ILs but the husband knew…it was not quite there.