Mango Pickles / Uppinakayi

Recently I figured out that I am very bad at managing time. Never in my life until now did I feel that there are fewer hours in a day than I actually need. Now a days, drafts lie in my inbox for weeks before seeing the light of the day, books pile on my work table still to be read and digested. My 'to-be-done' tray is filled to the brim and I need look into all those assorted papers before marking them as 'done' and of course the usual routine, vacuuming, cleaning and Sunny boy-sitting etc phew. I do not seem to have enough time at all. I am jealous of all the people who get might things done in like a matter of minutes!

Back to some more pickles. This time it is the universal favorite 'mango', the king of fruits. We manage to eat this fruit in a variety of ways- sweet, savory and tart dishes, which makes our palate jump up  in joy. I happen to adore this variety and this is how exactly my grandmother will make. In fact it is so good that some times I just pop a piece of pickled mango as a snack, and keep rolling it over my tongue. Heaven. I would not feel like eating anything else. Hey! that gives me an idea..heard of cookie diet, brownie diet, paleo,primal and what not..How about mango pickles diet? Pop a small piece of pickled mango and keep rolling it over your tongue and bingo! you get thinner? No thank you, I still need my rice, saaru, yogurt after everything :) By the way raw mangoes always reminds me of old Kannada movie cliche.. When a character is pregnant, she is shown craving for raw mangoes or she is shown eating then like she is just out of Somalia. Ha, prude movie makers and puritanical audience, now a days probably audience will not even get the point of such connotation.

We will need,

Green raw and firm Mangoes 3 cups chopped
Koshar Salt 1 cup
Byadagi chillies 20 (more if preferred spicy)
Mustard seeds 1.5 +0.5 tsp
Fenugreek Seeds 1.5 tsp
Hing
Peanut oil 1/4 cup

Method:

• Choose firm and fresh mangoes without any blemishes for pickling. Clean and wash the mangoes with plenty of water and wipe it dry using a kitchen towel. Air dry for a few hours.
• Chop the cleaned mangoes. Reserve the seeds and the flesh clinging to the seed for another use.(I usually make Mango Tokku with it;It can also be thrown in Mossoppu ).
• In a clean jar canister, place about two tablespoon of salt at the bottom. Start layering the chopped mangoes followed by tablespoons salt. Using up all the mangoes.
• Cover and set it aside in a cool place for a couple of days till the mango is shrunk and wilted all over.
• Stir the mixture using a wooden spoon and cure it for a couple more days.
• Toast the chillies and 1.5 tsp of mustard and fenugreek seeds on a medium hot skillet and allow it to cool. Once cool, grind the spices into a slightly coarse powder. 
• Open the canister of mangoes, toss in the spices and stir well using a wooden spoon. 
• Prepare the Oggarane. Heat the oil, throw in the remaining mustard and hing. Allow it to cool very well. Pour it on top of the pickled mangoes and stir again using a wooden spoon. If making a large batch, take out small batches of pickles and prepare small quantities of Oggarane. Oil in large batches of pickles will make the pickles smell rancid after a while.
• Cure the pickles for a few more days, stirring it using a wooden spoon every two three days.
• Serve it with any Indian meal or if you are like me, toss some cooked pasta, butter, a generous helping of mango pickles and some cilantro. Slurp! That is Sunny Boy's favorite way to eat pasta too..

Mixed Pickles

Is modern life complicated for no apparent reason? I think so. There can be a dozen variety of salt! Something as basic and simple as salt found  in the supermarket next door comes in as many as 6 varieties.  Sea salt, coarse sea salt, kosher salt, table salt, iodized salt, gourmet salt..gosh!I am flabbergasted.Years ago I was researching on the sales of vanilla ice cream and I found at least a dozen varieties as well..vegan, vegetarian,french vanilla, vanilla, extra creamy vanilla, home-made vanilla,all natural, organic, raw etc. For a minute I started thinking that my years of learning economics where every theory starts with the assumption of homogeneous goods, was just a big joke. What! homogeneous products? you must be kidding me! I cannot find as much as a simple pack of salt or pick up a box of vanilla ice cream without much thinking. After these many years of shopping I am on the way to shopping-nirvana, I believe I can read the labels, understand the ingredient list and decipher the bombardment of so called 'information' on the box. 

The next question that comes to mind is the length of the ingredient list, some goes on for ever. One vanilla  ice cream had a list of ten ingredients where as I make excellent vanilla ice cream at home using as little as 4 ingredients. Indeed we have complicated our lives beyond need, beyond our imagination. It is funny too. When ever I ask Honey to pick up something from the supermarket and send him with as detailed a list as possible, he still gets lost, calling up time and again for more information, for there are so many options to choose from. Indeed I have stopped shopping at a regular supermarket and started buying more and more at our local price club. They offer only one or two options. If I want vanilla ice cream, there probably will be just one brand, one variety. Salt yes, may be two brands, two variety, still much better than to navigate the aisle filled with twenty brands and a dozen variety. 

Actually this problem of variety has such a great consequence with respect to my current post. Pickles are something we all love and make with a great deal of gusto. I always make mine using my grandmother's recipe. I have followed the same recipe but used different variety of salts to end up with perfectly distinct results. There is no way we can have a perfect pickles recipe without having mentioned the variety and brand of salt used. This is where my grouse start from :( If there were fewer variety of salts that were more consistent in taste, pickling would have been much easier.But then that is not to be and General mills, Kraft, Unilever and P&G each wants us to see at least one variety of salt that they sell in our pantry taking the number to at least four in each kitchen . (not that they all sell salt, just for the sake of argument!) Sadly a chunky proportion of the four will end up in the dustbin after months of sitting idly in the pantry. But who cares, as long as they get us to buy their stuff, the General mills, Kraft, Unilever and P&Gs are happy. In fact they did be happier if we brought their stuff and threw it straight to the dustbin but returned to buy more of it. Come on, how fast can the 'Fast Moving Consumer Goods'  move? We cannot be buying more than one tube of toothpaste, or one pound of plain old salt each month. So here comes variety. The more the variety, the more we want to buy and the more we add to their bottom line-top lines. Grr...I hate it, more so when my pickles do not turn out the way it is intended...

Thankfully this turned out alright and here we are, we will need,

Lemons 2.5 lbs 

Bitter gourd 1 lb

Green Chillies 1/2 lb

Salt 1.5 cups  (Morton Koshar salt)

Dried red chillies 20-25

Mustard seeds 1 tsp +1/2 tsp

Fenugreek seeds 2 tsp

Peanut oil 1/4 cup

Hing a generous dash. 

Method:

• Wash, preferably using warm water the jar to be used in pickling. Air dry it overnight. 
• Wash the vegetables and wipe it dry using a fresh and clean kitchen towel. Allow it to air dry for a few hours.
• On a clean and dry cutting board, chop each lemon into 6 or 8s, the bitter gourd into 1/4" thick rounds. The  green chillies can be left whole or can be slit lengthwise into two.
• Take the jar, make sure it is thoroughly dry. Place a bed of about 2 tsp of salt at the bottom. Place a layer of chopped lemons followed by another tsp or so of salt,followed by the bitter gourd and then salt.
• Repeat  the layering, throwing in the chillies in between. After using up all the vegetables, finish with more salt on top. Cover the jar and set it aside in a cool dry place.
• After 2-3 days the vegetables would have shrunk. Open the jar and stir the whole mixture using a wooden spoon. Cover and set it aside for another 3-4 days. 
• 3-4 days later, toast the dried chillies, 1 tsp of mustard and fenugreek seeks on a hot skillet one after the other and allow it to cool down completely. Grind it in a coffee grinder till the spices are coarse and fragrant. Set it aside.
• Prepare the Oggarane, heat the oil, throw the remaining mustard seeds and the hing. Once the spices stop sizzling, remove from heat and allow it to cool down completely.
• Once the oil is cold, open the jar of pickles and throw in the ground spices and the pour in the cold seasoned oil. Stir using a wooden spoon. Set it aside for 3-4 days.
• Every 3-4 days stir the pickles using a wooden spoon, till the vegetables are cured  and has attained the desired texture. I prefer mine to still have a bite, so I cure it for 2-3 weeks. If you like your pickles to fall apart, I would say may be 2-3 months is a good time.
• The pickles can also be refrigerated at  this stage and once refrigerated, the pickles need not be stirred. But it is absolutely essential that we use a dry spoon every time we dish out the pickles.

Enjoy as a part of any Indian meal.
P.S: Sunny boy loves his pickles even with his pasta. "Khara! Amma Khara" he would say between gulps of water and goes back to eating his pickles.

Pineapple Pacchadi

Indian meals is all about the paraphernalia I mean the pickles, raitas, tokku, chutneys, pacchadis, papads and assorted fried nibbles like Sandige, Balaka etc. Even though the modern times have taken a lot of things away from us, we still are diligently making pickles and tokkus and papads. Women still wake up at unearthly hours be able to cook delicious meals complete with all the paraphernalia, men help out women in the kitchen on days calling for elaborate meals and the whole family comes together to make the annual papad and pickle making  ritual. A lot of us are getting help from super markets and sometimes lucky folks find people to make these for them. I end up making all the pickles, tokkus and chutneys at home but papad or 'Happala', not my department. I have been asking mom for the recipe but she does not bother giving me one because she knows right now I will not be able to make them with Sunny boy all over the place.

For this season it is lemon-bitter gourd pickle and mango pickle and then mango tokku with the leftover parts of raw mango.

Pacchadi is loose term which assumes a definition depending on where the recipe hails from. In Karnataka it is salad dressed with spices and generous amounts of yogurt, in Andhra it is a sort of  quick-fix pickles with oodles of spices and oil, in Tamil nadu and Kerala it is somewhere in between, might be spicy. Here is a recipe for Pineapple Pacchadi which is a version of the pineapple pacchadi by Priya Sreeram. Loved the original recipe and when Radhika paired me with Priya for the bloghop, I got to my favorite very easily.As always I tweaked this recipe a bit to work it bit faster. Substituted canned pineapples for fresh ones and coconut milk for fresh coconut. Thanks for the wonderful recipe Priya.

We will need,

Pinapple  1- 8 oz can chopped

Coconut milk  3 tbsp

Mustard seeds 1/4 +1/4 tsp

Turmeric a generous pinch

Jeera 1/2 tsp

Peanut oil 2 tsp

Green chillies 3 slit length wise

Curry leaves a handful

Yogurt 1/2 cup

Salt to taste

Method:

• In a mortar pestle, crush the 1/4 tsp of  mustard seeds and Jeera into a coarse powder. Set it aside.
• Place the coconut milk with half a cup of water in a thick bottom saucepan and heat it gently. Throw in the turmeric, a  generous pinch of salt, pineapple bits (reserve the juice for another use) and one green chilli. Bring it to a gentle boil.
• Throw in the crushed spices and cook for a few more minutes till the spices are fragrant and the pineapple are tender. Remove from heat and set it aside to cool.
• Prepare the oggarane or tadka. Heat oil in a small pan, throw in the remaining mustard seeds, green chillies and curry leaves. Once it stops crackling which is a matter of seconds, remove from heat and pour over the pineapple mixture.
• Once the pineapple mixture is cool, stir in the beaten  yogurt and adjust salt. Serve it at room temperature. 

Sending it to Bloghop 18 
 

Pudina coconut Chutney

Have been thinking of dropping a word here supporting my Gay friends. So President Obama has decided to stop federal opposition to Gay marriages. A small step but sure enough to make a lot of people happy. I am one of them. Well in the first place why should  a court of law or an elected government decide who we should be in love with, who should be partners for life or even marry? If two adults are happy being together why should any individual or a court of law or a government have any problem? If it is simple enough to say I love oranges and you love pears, It should be simple enough to say I am Gay and you are not.

Disgracefully in India it is criminal offense to be gay. A country which has celebrated diverse eroticism from times immemorial, accommodated such ideas in mainstream temples and has had historical instances of homosexual behavior, and a country which has learned to live with a great deal of diversity decides to embrace the Anglo-puritanical stance on something that was always a part  of our ancient fabric only to prove how mindless we have become. It is indeed sad that it is a way of life  in India to live with cruelty of various sorts, baby-wife battering, female infanticide, sexual assault, eve-teasing, homophobia.

Like all the other cruelties mentioned, Homophobia violates the basic of all principles, 'Live and let live'. If only we knew to appreciate it better being gay would not have been criminal in India.

Coming back to food, many of my comfort foods are quite simple, Tovve , Tili Saaru etc. Comfort breakfast are things like Idli, Kadubu, mostly steamed foods.Somehow steamed foods make my mornings fresh and easier. I have never been a person eating say Chitranna for breakfast,  that is my sister! Pudina coconut chutney goes so very well with any of the steamed breakfast offering. For Idli my favorite accompaniment is Sambar. But sometimes I ache to eat my Idlis with some good flavourful Pudina chutney.  All these days I was not all that happy with the chutney my blender churned out. It was way to coarse for my liking but last month I got Magic Bullet and it works like a charm grinding coconut chutney. Ever since it has been chutney and more chutney.
I still miss the stone grinder so ubiquitous in south Indian kitchens. It makes the perfect chutney. The fibers in the coconut would have broken down, the spices fresh and fragrant and the chutney right consistency and texture. If only we could get the result with much less hard work.

We will need

Coconut grated 1/2 cup
Roasted Channa dal/ Putani/Hurikaddale 2  tbsp
Green chillies 3-4 (adjust according to taste)
Curry leaves a handful
Pudina  1 big  bunch
Tamarind  1" piece
Garlic  1 clove (small)
Salt to taste

Method:

• Tear the Pudina leaves from the stalk, discard the stalk.Wash it in plenty of water and drain well. Reserve.
• Heat a heavy pan on medium heat. Puncture the green chillies using the tip of the knife and toss them onto the hot pan. (If not punctured, the chillies might explode!)
• Toast till there are blisters on the skin. Remove from heat and set it aside to cool
• Throw the curry leaves on to the hot pan and turn off the heat. Keep it moving so as to not burn them. Once the edges are brown, remove from the pan and set it aside
• Combine all the ingredients in a  blender and pulse till well combined and smooth.Add a little water if necessary. Serve it with hot Idli/Kadubu/Poori etc.

Mutton Saaru Gowda style / Mutton curry

Well, I do not like to cook meat, nor do I eat it. But Honey is very fond of meat and I do not have a problem with that.I have cooked meat for him, after all I wanted to find a way to his heart, but it was always problematic. I was so averse to the idea of cooking and eating meat. But once I started a blog and identified myself as a foodie, my horizons broadened. After all it is food right. One man's delicacy is another's poison. The first question was, how do I look at the meat part of the food? Vegetarianism in India is pretty recent considering the length  of our history. There are instances in Mahabharata and Ramayana where meats/ games were served on various occasions. Bheema prepares a feast consisting of a variety of animals for the  coronation ceremony of Dharmaraya. Then the  Ashwamedhayaga where the butchered horse was roasted and consumed. Look at Sushrutha Samhita, it is full of remedies calling for venison, turtle and god knows how many more animals. It was only after the Ahimsa theory of Budhism and Jainism that vegetarianism started to become mainstream.  The Jains were so thoughtful that they refused to eat root vegetables which have been harvested after 'killing' the plant. But what about rice? or wheat or any other grain for that matter? Are they not living beings? We sure know they are, equivalent to the embryo in the animal world. So when ever we eat rice or any other grain, we are committing 'Himsa'. My question therefore is,is it alright to subject plants to violence and still be committed to Ahimsa in the animal world? Or do I stop eating all live foods and starve myself? How do I go about it? It is a dilemma. For a foodie like me, who loves to look, eat, write about, read about food, is it not a torture to go through such dilemma? I have not found a solution yet. I kinda brushed it down the carpet. The only way to be ethical and be committed to Ahimsa is to follow what Ayurveda suggests.

• 'Mita bhuksh' eat little -always eat only to fill half your stomach, fill the remaining quarters with air and water;
•  'Hita buksh' eat food at the right temperature neither too hot, nor too cold. Sorry ice cream you are out;
• 'Kshuta buksh' no idea what it is. got to call mom.
• 'Rutu buksh' eat what is in season. Basically it says eat local.

So lets gather everything  now. Eat fresh and local, eat food at the right temperature and eat moderately. According to me this is the best philosophy for a foodie. It is good for our own physical health, will reverse the epimedic of obesity, reduce carbon footprints, causes less 'Himsa', and brings no ethical baggage with it.

With this premise, I have stopped looking down upon meat eaters. Well it is one's choice. I am sorry that I bulldozed a dear friend's idea of bringing hamburgers for a barbeque party. (Not that I will allow it another time, but at least I am feeling bad about it!). Sorry Mr Zimmern cannot be your party either!

For now it is just mutton saaru the popular  gowda style courtesy a dear friend Shilpa . Shilpa and her hubby were at our place the other weekend for a friend's birthday (Sri, hope you are reading this). She was charming enough to dish up this rich and spicy gravy. Honey and Sunny boy enjoyed it very much. Imagine this, I wanted to raise Sunny boy a vegetarian!

 We will need,

Mutton 2 lbs
Ghee 2 tsp
Onion 1 medium
Green chillies 20 (ouch)
Garlic 7 cloves
Ginger 1/5"
Cloves 6-10
Cinnamon 1" piece
Coconut grated 1 cup
Cardamon 2
Coriander 1 bunch trimmed and ends discarded
Mint 1 small bunch trimmed and stalk discarded
Salt to taste
Sugar a generous pinch
Lemon juice for serving

Method:

• Wash and clean the mutton in several changes of water and set it aside.
• Place the ghee in a pressure cooker and heat it. Throw in the mutton and brown it for a few minutes. 
• Meantime, combine the rest of the ingredients except the  lemon juice salt and sugar in a blender and pulse till the mixture is smooth. Add a little water if necessary.
• Pour the spice mixture into the browning mutton, add more water and cover. Cook till the mutton is tender about 2-3 whistles.
• Remove from heat adjust salt, throw in the sugar and lemon juice.
• Serve hot with Ghee rice.

Avarekalu Kadubu / Indian Beans Kadubu

It is going  to be a long rant on a contentious topic... the latest Time magazine's cover page depicting a mother nursing a toddler. Somewhere inside me there was a voice that kind of made me nod my head in disapproval that TIME had to resort to sensational photos to be able to sell more. But looking at all the resentment and disgust the photo generated, the other part in me got up vehemently to defend both TIME and the women in the photo.
I personally nursed my sunny boy well past two. In fact I weaned him without much protest (sort of baby led weaning) a couple of months ago. It was a very fulfilling experience for me and nourishing for my baby.I knew I was giving him the best while he knew his Amma is always there for him. It was such a blessing when we were traveling, when  he bumped into something and got a boo-boo, when he was sick, when he was tired, when he woke up hungry in the middle of night. I did not have to worry about a thing. Nursing comforted him, satisfied his hungry, reassured him that things are alright and he did not have to keep howling though long hours on international flights. I have nursed him in public areas, airports, train stations, trains, flights, bus, subway, Central Park, malls, kerbside, in the parked car, even while he is strapped in his car seat in a moving car(that was quite an acrobatic feat,but it was better than his nerve wracking cries). I have nursed him with cover as well as without cover. Nursed him even as people smiled at me in appreciation and also when some jerks smirked. I was just feeding my son. If I could eat my food in full public view, so should my baby. It is just the way nature intended. What can be wrong about it?

But strangely in the modern world, we find nursing especially older babies disgusting, even if it is something very very natural. The very fact that people talk about it is strange. No one talks about the urge to eat when hungry, nobody is judgmental about cauldrons of coffee people carry with them in the morning. Why even talk of breastfeeding?or worse why be judgmental about it? It is just a baby eating his food. Even with teeth babies are entitled to the food that the nature designed. Why should a baby stop nursing soon after he has his teeth? Just because he has his teeth does not means he knows how to use it. A few babies teeth pretty early, does that mean you wean them at 4-5 months? a few babies do not teeth till they are 15 months old, so are they entitled to a much longer nursing routine? Why should we even decide how long it is appropriate for a baby to nurse? Should it not be decided by the baby and the mother? If it is OK for adults to have choice and control over what they eat, should not a baby have a say in what it wants to eat (errrr apart from coins, tiny toys and every little thing that comes in the grip of their tiny hands.I mean only the edible stuff). So it is OK for me to say I hate broccoli, I love Carrots, but it is wrong if my baby wants 'Amma's milk' and not 'cow's milk'. Is it not unreasonable?

About the cover, great! the model is attractive, the baby is cute. So what? should not a nursing mother have a positive body image? Should not she feel that she is attractive. According to the public psyche, she should not. Just look at the choice of nursing clothes available at any major retailer, It is woefully boring. So a nursing mother is supposed to be boring, be discreet about nursing and not nurse in full public view. Is it fair?
Would not the world be a better place if we lived and let other live their life!!

Back to the food part now..I have always been fond of rice based dishes for breakfast.  Idli, Dosa, Kadubu et al. On days I run out of Idli/Dosa batters, it is going to be Kadubus, sometimes spiked with Averakalu, some times mixed vegetables and sometimes greens. It is Avarekalu for now.

Serves  2-3

Idli Rawa/ Rice Rawa/ Cream of Rice  3/4 Cup
Avarekalu 1/2 cup
Green Chillies 3-4 (adjust according to taste)
Ginger 1/2" minced
Curry leaves a handful
Coriander a handful
Jeera 1/2 tsp
Hing a dash
Salt to taste

Method:

• Bring 2 cups of water to boil. Throw in a generous pinch of salt and the Avarekalu. Cover and cook till the Avarekalu is tender. Remove from heat.
• Place the cream of rice in a mixing bowl.
• Mince the green chillies. (If serving the Kadubu to kids, slit the green chillies length wise so  that it is easy to fish it out later). Chop the curry leaves and coriander fine.
• Throw in the green chillies, curry leaves, coriander, Jeera, Hing,ginger and salt into the cream of rice.
• Fish out the Avarekalu out of the water. Toss it with the cream of rice mixture. 
• Set up a steamer to steam the Kadubu. I set up a pot of boiling water and place a steel  colander to steam my Kadubu. A bamboo steamer or a Idli steamer will also work.
• Make a well in the center of the cream of rice mixture. Pour about 1/4 cup of hot water used to cook the Avarekalu. Stir the mixture. It should resemble bread crumbs. If not add little more water. Upto 1/2 cup of water might be needed. The mixture should resemble  bread crumbs but should come together if patted into small balls. But  it should not be as soft and moist as say a chapati dough.
• Bring together about 1/4 cup of the mixture and pat it gently into small balls using both your palms.
• Place the balls in the greased steamer and steam for 7-10 minutes  till the Kadubus are cooked.
• Remove and serve it with coconut chutney.

 Busy little hands..Sunny boy loved it.
As prosaic as it might sound, this is my Doddamma's- (my aunt-my mother's only sister) recipe.  When I got married, break fast was a hard time. I had no ideas for breakfast except Idli and Dosa. My Dodamma gave me a host of recipes including this one. She makes the cream of rice herself using the stone grinders which makes amazing upmas and Kadubus but I get things done from the super market :)
Sending it out to Cooking with love series hosted by Torviewtoronto

Huli Pudi / Sambar powder

Sometime I come across categorical statements declaring the 'curry powder' to  be the innovation of creative British babus posted in India. I feel very sorry for such authors. They have absolutely no clue as to  how diverse India is and  how diverse the cuisine is. I am pretty sure that a north-Indian cook can very well assume it to be the fact. May be no 'Indian' ever made curry powder. But a south-Indian would rather jump into a well than accept the statement. We always had a variety of spice blends to make our life easy in the kitchen. It might have been that the recipe for such blends were not seriously published until after some Brit did. The turmeric based concotion that the standard curry powder is, on the other hand might just be a corrupt version of our own spice blends, that was mild enough to be on the bland British table.

My own grandmother had at least 3 spice blends - one the Huli Pudi, Tili Saaru Pudi and Palya pudi.I also have Rasam Pudi in my pantry. These apart from the assorted Chutney pudis!

My grandmother is an expert  when it comes to spice blends. This last season, the batch she made turned out to be a spice-gold! Everyone is  hoarding them. Mine own supplies reaching the  bottom of the jar very soon, I reached out to several  people in the family,  to check if they have some  to spare. Well, everyone is polite but firm in turning me down.May be I will have to make my  own this later this season. I have made it  before, and will make it once more. Hope next batch my grandmother  turns out will be just as delicious and hopefully I should be getting my quota too.

Long long ago, many summers and springs ago, my grandmother spent a week with me at my place. I made sure that I get most of my recipes from her. She was younger then and she had the energy to show me her signature recipes. This one is also from that session. Most often than not all her measurements were in terms of 'paavu-ser' or even eye-balled. I kind of took to standardize it.

We will need,

Dried red chillies (any combination of Byadagi (for colour and flavour) and Guntur (for heat) chillies) ½ kg

Dhania  ½ kg

Jeera 1.5 pav

Black pepper corns 1 chatak (about 12 grams)

Cinnamon 50 gms

Marti Moggu 2-3

Turmeric  1 chatak  (about 12 grams)

Hing 1 chatak (about 12 grams)

Channa dal ½ pav (30 grams)

Urad Dal ½ pav  (about 30 grams)

Fenugreek Seeds upto ½ pav (about 30 grams)

Mustard seeds upto ½ pav (about 30 grams)

Jaggery  1/2 Cup (crushed)

Curry leaves dried roasted 2 big bunches

Coarse sea salt a handful 

Method:

• Toast all the ingredients except Jaggery and sea salt, one by one till fragrant and toasted. Remove and cool completely. 
• In a clean dry grinder combine all the toasted spices, salt and Jaggery and pulse till smooth. Else it can be done at one of the flour mills. The flour mill version tends to be smoother because we do not have control over the texture. If the spices are milled at home, I did prefer the blend to be slightly coarse. 
• Store in an air tight jar. The blend stays good for years! It can also be packed in multiple layers of plastic bags, tightly sealed and store in the crisper tray of refrigerator. I personally prefer to make smaller and more frequent batches of Huli Pudi.

Thanks onlyfishrecipes for thinking of me. Very sweet of you indeed. I need to share a random story about myself.I hate the cream that forms on top of the milk. I have tried eating it several times,but make me sick. Guess it is the texture. But I love cooking with it!

Passing it on to Nagashree, Sushma , Tina, Radha and Priya

Cauliflower roast

The weather though sort of gloomy and raining is growing warmer.. My sunflower seeds are now saplings , so are my mums. Sadly, the coriander did not want to be with us. Guess the seeds were irradiated and therefore sterile. I think I will get a sapling from the supermarket this week end. Well I should say chilli flakes are keeping my young green friends happy, the squirrel and the other rodents  are some how put off by the pungency of the chilli flakes. The other day I read in Wall Street Journal that even  Elephants are put off by the chillies, no wonder the tiny squirrels are. I am so much looking forward to pick our own vegetables! What better can it get, vegetables off the patch, delicious and fresh. I love having a vegetable patch but living in an apartment is not exactly vegetable-patch-friendly. Probably the only time I regret not owning a house is the spring when the entire city is full of potting earth, pots, seeds and saplings. May be one day my dream will come true.

As the warmer season kicks in, I am gradually bidding good-bye to our winter favorites -chard, kale,  cauliflower, cabbage etc. Have not had the chard and kale in more than two weeks now and this is the last of cauliflower for this season. I can barely wait for the squash, fresh greens and all the delicious vegetables, two-three more weeks and I will be jumping up and down with joy. Well the Strawberries are already here.

So the Strawberries are here,can the squash and beans be far behind? I bet P.B.Shelly is rolling in his grave!

It is roast cauliflower for now. The deal with cauliflower is that, it needs to be cooked just right, cook for too long, it will turn into a mush, if uncooked it smells sulfurous and very tough. Stove top cooking is not really the easiest way to cook cauliflower. I never seem to get the desired results on the stove tops these days. May be the new stove cannot crank up the heat like the old one did. So I take a little help from my oven. It is easy and needs no baby-sitting. So here it is.

We will need,

Cauliflower 2 lbs cut  into florets
Peanut oil 2-3 tbsp
Chilli powder 1/2 tsp (Adjust according to taste)
Jeera powder 1 tbsp
Juice and zest or half a lemon
Salt and pepper to taste
fresh coriander a handful


Method:

• Pre-heat the oven to 450F.
• Place the oil in a large mixing bowl. Throw in the chilli powder, Jeera powder and salt into the bowl and combine it well.
• Throw the cleaned and cut cauliflower florets into the mixing bowl. Toss well.
• Arrange the cauliflower in a single layer on a cookie sheet and pop it into the oven for about 15-20 minutes till the cauliflower is tender crisp. Keep a close eye, for the time varies with ovens.
• Remove the cauliflower into another bowl and throw in the coriander, lemon zest. 
• Squeeze the juice of the lemon to taste. Adjust salt and pepper and serve immediately.

Arrabiatta ? nah...It's Jeera-abiatta!

I have always been fascinated by Italian, French and Spanish cuisine. The dream combination would be Spanish tapas, Italian main course followed by a French dessert. Slurp! That sounds delicious and is sending my brain into a tizzy. Before I loose myself, Italian food is good if eaten at the right place and right time. For me, that meant one of these chain restaurants here or the specialty restaurants back home that would charge an arm and a leg for a simple dish of pasta. Of late I have stopped relishing the standard pasta fare served at these restaurants. They are loaded with grease and cheese and hardly any thing to address the need of my palate so long used to complicated spices and their flavors. May be it is aging too. As I grow older I realize I cannot be eating the way I used to anymore. Now a days, If I need my stomach to be peaceful, I need to avoid all those grease laden food these chain restaurant serve. So I started making my own sauces to enjoy an Italian inspired-Kannada dinner!! I find Marinara very boring. Alfredo, love it but yes, it can be way too rich. So say Hi to Jeera-abiatta sauce.

Serves 6-8

Extra-Virgin olive oil 1/4 C
Cardamon 1
Bay leaf 2
Jeera 1/2 tsp
Garlic clove 2
Green chillies 2 (Add more if you like it hot)
Italian herb blend   a generous pinch
Tomatoes 14 oz  can  2
Sugar as desired
Salt to taste

Method:

• Heat the oil in a thick bottom sauce pan. Throw in the cardamon, bay leaves and Jeera.
• Once the spices start to sizzle, Throw in the garlic and slit green chillies. Saute till garlic is fragrant about 10 seconds.
• Throw in the herb blend. Once the herbs are fragrant , throw in the tomatoes along with their juice. Bring it to a boil and simmer for 20-30 minutes till the sauce kind of thickens a bit.
• Once the sauce is slightly cool, transfer the sauce to a blender and pulse till the tomatoes are slightly chunky but sauce-like.
• Adjust salt and sugar and remove from heat. Toss with desired cooked pasta and serve.

Badanekayi Sukka

It is pickling season back home. I can actually smell the salty air, as the mangoes, limes and a variety of other vegetables are brined and left to settle down a bit before they get doused in all the spices. When I close my eyes, I see my grandmother sitting the way she does while working on time consuming processes like pickling, folding one of her legs while the other remains out stretched as she cuts the carefully selected vegetable with her 'Eelege Mane', a sharp rather large cleaver life knife fitted on to a wooden plank. She would get very upset when we as kids would run into her right after our hours on the dusty streets playing and yelling. She was so very finicky about keeping her kitchen clean, more so while pickling. Probably that is why, her pickles last so long, at least two years. She would not touch the huge pickling jar on Tuesdays, Fridays and assorted other occasions. I do not remember then any more! All I remember was the being shoed away during the pickling process and being enticed for the watching over the Happalas.

The 'Happala' or Papad process on the contary was something she could not do with out us! She would lure us with tasty treats for watching over her Happalas set to sun dry on the terrace. We would arm ourselves  with long sticks and drive away birds, monkeys, squirrel  and  other unwanted intruders. I might not have appreciated her efforts as a kid, but now I look back and see how much of an effort it was for the poor soul. Was it enthusiasm for life or love for family I do not know. All I know is when I do have grand kids of my own, I want to be just like her.

 Serves 3-4

Eggplants 1 lb (The slender green Eerinagere variety would be perfect in this dish)
Peanut oil 3 tbsp
Mustard seeds 1/4 tsp
Jeera 1/2 tsp + 1 tsp
Fennel 1/4 tsp
Green Chillies 5-6 (adjust according to taste)
Garlic cloves 2
Kopra  1/4 cup
Dhania seeds 1 tbsp
Cloves 4
Cinnamon 1/2"
Jaggery 1 tbsp (crushed)
Tamarind concentrate 1/2 tsp
Salt to taste

Method:

• Chop the eggplant into lengthwise and then into 2" strips. Soak it in water and set it aside.
• Heat oil in a wok. Throw in the mustard seeds, 1/2 tsp of Jeera and fennel seeds. 
• Once they stop spluttering, drain the eggplants well and throw it into the wok. Stir gently and saute till they are slightly tender about 5 minutes.
• Throw in the chillies and minced garlic. Saute for a few more minutes till the garlic is fragrant.
• In a spice grinder, combine the remaining Jeera, dhania seeds, Kopra, cloves and cinnamon. Pulse till the mixture reduces to a meal.
• Throw the spice mixture into the eggplants along with the turmeric. Stir well. Saute till the spices are fragrant another 5 minutes or so.
• Throw in the tamarind concentrate about 1/2 cup of water and Jaggery. Simmer till the eggplants and tender.
• Adjust salt and serve warm with Akki Rotti
Sending it to Healthy diet event created by dear Priya

Hagalakayi fry / Bitter gourd fry

It is again a cloudy and gloomy looking day. I am a sunny gal! Love it when it is bright and sunny outside and would not mind it if it is a little hot either. But rains and clouds, take the spirit of my soul away. All I want to do is curl up in bed and sip something warm, cuddled up with a book or my laptop in my favorite blanket. Obviously that is so much of a luxury to expect especially with Sunny boy home with me all the time.  Thankfully I did not have to cook much today as we are sitting over lots of left over from earlier in the week. Thanks to my maniacal shopping bouts. I just make a quick soup for Sunny boy and fixed a salad for myself. Dinner is waiting for us in the fridge for now.  Part of it is the Hagalakayi fry that I made yesterday.

Me and Honey both love bitter gourd. I always buy them when ever I see them fresh and inviting. We also pick them up from the farms during the growing season. I can barely wait for the season to start though. I always make the Gojju . Of late I wanted to try it in a different dish, may be with potatoes just the way they did back in Sabarmati, JNU. Not that they were great by any chance, but it was one of the few things they served that made me happy. It was during those days that I realized people either loved this vegetable or hated it to the core. There were people like me, fighting with out mess staff for more bitter gourd, and then there were others fighting for the potatoes. I think it would  have been a better idea for the cooks to make two different dishes, one entirely of bitter gourd and the other of potatoes, that way both the camps would be happy. 

Last night was our movie night. We watched Kannada movie called Milana and had a TV dinner of Pulkhas, bitter gourd and a few other things. Sunny boy still does not appreciate bitter gourd as much as his parents. Let alone bitter gourd, I did be happy if he eats any vegetable at all. He is a thorough protein boy which makes me sad. Wonder when at all he would start loving vegetables as much as I do.

Serves 2

Bitter gourd  3 medium sliced 

Potatoes 3 medium chopped into cubes 1"

Peanut oil 4 tsps

Mustard seeds 1/4 tsp

Jeera 1/2 tsp

Green chillies 5-6 (adjust according to taste)

Onions 2 medium chopped

Jeera powder 2 tsp

Dhania powder 2 tsp

Amchoor to taste (optional, omit this if the tomato is tart)

Tomato 1 medium chopped

Sugar 1 tbsp

Salt to taste

Method:

•  Heat 2 tsp oil in a wok. Toss the bitter gourd in and fry it till the bitter gourd is brown. Do not move them much in the wok, else it will take for ever to brown. Remove from the wok and set it aside.
• Heat the remaining oil in the same wok. Throw in the mustard, Jeera, chillies followed by the onion. Once the onions are golden brown, throw in the potatoes. Add a pinch of salt and cover. Cook till the potatoes are almost cooked but still is firm. 
• Throw in the Jeera powder, Dhania powder and Amchoor if using. Stir fry for a few seconds. Throw in the tomatoes and cover. Cook till the tomatoes are tender.
• Return the bitter gourd back to the wok and mix everything. Adjust the salt and throw in the sugar. Cook for a couple more minutes for the bitter gourd to heat up nicely. Remove from heat and serve hot with Phulkas or any other bread of choice.

 

Kumbalakayi Kayirasa /Pumpkin coconut curry

I am very fond of my vegetables. I am so lost without them. My brain stops functioning if I do not have at least 5 vegetables in my refrigerator-pantry. That makes me greedy. When ever I go shopping for vegetables, I end up buying way more than what the three of us can finish. My previous vegetable shopping trip ended similarly. I had run out of onions midweek and though I will just pick up a couple of bags of onions at the Indian stores. As usual I picked up the shopping basket, went into the vegetable aisle not wanting to make eye contact with any of the vegetables sitting on the shelves, lest I fall in love. Sunny boy who was with me started with his mischief, he picked up one huge cabbage in his tiny hands and came running to me. 'Amma cabbage togoli' and with that his tiny hands dropped the beast of a cabbage into our shopping basket in one loud thud! 'No baby' I said as I tried to figure out where to put the cabbage back. We had had cabbage that very day and there was enough in the fridge to last for a couple more meals.But before I could find a place for the cabbage, me eyes caught the sight of this very beautiful and fresh hunk of Pumpkin, beckoning me. Ah! it was perfect piece of pumpkin, the flesh was bright orange, the rind shinny and green, the seeds were still moist. My eyes devoured half the pumpkin right then and there. Thankfully we are not charged for doing that. I had to get that pumpkin. Sunny boy helped the piece of pumpkin into our shopping basket. My love affair did not end with just pumpkin that day. It continued with two different types of mushrooms, some ash gourd, spring onions, a red bell pepper and more. Now after coming home and opening the produce tray of my fridge, I came out of my stupor. I already had so many vegetables to be finished in the next couple of days. 

This is the story every week, sometime even twice a week; that is how many times I go shopping for food. I guess that is part of being a foodie. I never go shopping for clothes, shoes etc. I always shop for food, from farmers' market to super market.

So once I had the pumpkin home, I kept thinking about what to make out of it. Somehow I could not get my head to stop thinking about Kayirasa. A very simple curry with very mild spices. If people find Indian food spicy, they should start with Kayirasa. It is a silky smooth, rich broth of coconut, chillies,ginger and some herbs, mild and slightly sweet. The silkiness possible only if the coconut is ground in an old fashioned stone mortar. I have tried various blenders, food processors, none of them come close to the old fashioned stone mortar in terms of efficiency. It is indeed not a bad idea to use some coconut milk instead. But this time I did use the coconut ground up sort of coarse.

Serves 4

Pumpkin 1.5 lb

Coconut 1 cup

Green chillies 5-6 (adjust according to taste)

Ginger 1" piece

Turmeric a generous pinch

Coriander fresh a handful

Jeera 1 tsp

Ghee 1 tsp

Mustard seeds 1/4 tsp

Hing a dash

Salt to taste

Method:

• Clean the pumpkin, remove the rind and discard it. Scoop out the seeds and chop it into 1" cubes. Wash it and place it in a thick bottom pot with about 3 cups of water and cook on a medium heat.
• While the pumpkin cooks, grind the coconut, green chillies, turmeric, coriander, jeera and 3 tbsp water into a very smooth paste. Reserve.
• Once the pumpkin is cooked but still firm enough to bite, stir in the ground paste of coconut. Stir well and add more water to get the curry to the desired consistency, start with 1/4 cup of water at time and keep adding more as required. Once the curry comes to a boil, turn of the heat.
• To prepare the Oggarane, heat ghee in a pan. Toss in the mustard seed and hing. Pour the prepared ghee over the curry and adjust salt. Serve immediately with hot rice.

Goes out to the VFAM Pumpkin event.

Tovve

I have always been a daddy's gal. I went with him everywhere he went, rode pillion with him on his motorbike as he performed an acrobatic maneuver, went to pubs/bars and munched on chips and ketchup while he downed lagers, climbed Chamundi hills by foot twice a week and went jogging early in the morning halfheartedly. It was fun. Neighbours called us Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi. Cousins joked that I was my father's walking heart. But as I grew up, Pappa was posted to a far a place and we could visit him only during school holidays. It was arduous in the beginning without my trusted ally cum friend cum guide cum eveything.  That was the time, when just the three of us, me Amma and my sister stayed back  home and spent countless hours together and became the best of buddies.

My Amma, a petite woman, always had a problem finding the right footwear and bangles because no one makes them small enough for her. She might as well have better luck in a well stocked kids' store. But her size  does not say anything about the person she actually is, she is the emotional support -the buttress that holds all of us together. As me and my sister stepped into teenage, we became best of pals. We shared stories from college, gossiped and had great fun. She would help me with my Kannada papers as I was so poor in writing my mother tongue. She is a voracious reader and has an amazing memory power. Before we got internet at home, Amma was our go to source of information :) After all these years what do I have to say to her? Thanks for being there and standing all my idiosyncrasies. 

Amma is needless to say a fabulous cook, not as good as her mother but her Vangibath wins hands down my Grandmother's.Amma also makes awesome Tovve. I love it with just some hot rice and ghee. 

Serves 4

Toor dal 1/2 cup

Turmeric a generous pinch

Ghee 2 tbsp

Mustard seeds 1/4 tsp

Jeera 1/2 tsp

Hing a dash

Curry leaves a handful

Red Chillies 2 (Byadagi variety)

Green Chillies 2  add more if preferred

Salt to taste

Lime juice to taste

Method:

• Wash the dal in several changes of water. Combine it with 4 cups of water, turmeric and a drop of ghee.
• Set the mixture in a pressure cooker and cook till the dal is done.Remove from heat and allow it to cool.
• Once the pressure cooker is cool enough,  open the lid.
• Prepare the Oggarane. Heat the remaining ghee, toss in the mustard, Jeera and Hing in quick succession. Once the spluttering stop, throw in the curry leaves and chillies. Once the mixture is fragrant, pour it over the cooked dal.
• Adjust salt and lime juice to taste and serve with hot rice.

Goes to CC #10 Mom's recipe hosted by dear Sravani.