Panfusine

I'm not sure how a food related 'Jiminy Cricket' conscience would look like in real life but imagination tells me it would be brandishing a wooden ladle for sure and would probably speak to me in my mother's voice. Admonishing me for not keeping up on my writing for my blog posts (I realize that is my weak link) I seem to be quite happy creating recipes and  Instagramming  them daily. A sudden shuffling of photographs & backing up (for fear of the new worm virus crossing the net) suddenly put me into a shocked gasp mode.. (I have about 1/2 a terabytes of just photographs, of creative ideas that never made it past the hard drive, leave alone minor editing to tweak the images), ideas that were forgotten half way and never revisited again, only to flood my brain with taste and olfactory memories - which are superbly forceful when they come gushing back - and I realized that  I'm in need of serious organization in terms of my laptop. It will be a work in prog...

Grill baby grill is my motto during summer. (of course I can cheekily say so given that its in the comfort of my kitchen with the stove vent on at full blast.) Uber simple to assemble, Grilled paneer slabs cut into cubes, Black beans from the can, corn off the cobs grilled on the stove top, and fresh blueberries. spiced with smoky ancho chile powder, and lime. mmm... mmmm... Good!

Fresh strawberries personally handpicked, the inherent pride ensures that you want to showcase the berries at their purest. This recipe is nothing short of genius, and is included as part of Kirsten Miglore's book 'Genius recipes' . I did play around with the ingredients. Instead of using lemons, I preferred kumquats (cut and de seeded). Here's the link to the recipe,  use a cup of de seeded kumquats instead of the 2 - 3 lemons for this particular version.

I prefer salads with body any day to those 85% lettuce offerings, no matter what exotic greens you added to the mix, I still don't find those leaf  heavy bowls filling. When I make my salads its usually filled with a lot of the toothier, chunky vegetables, nuts and cheese. I love adding sunflower sprouts , since the tiny leaves are almost cactus like in thickness and have a fantastic burst of flavor. A generous sprinkle of crumbled Feta and avocado slices dispenses the need for adding any added oils to the salad as a dressing. Simply drizzle with honey, a crack of salt and pepper does the trick.

Pulling out one of my older recipes I'd posted on Food 52 (shoring up all the dishes I made in June for July  posts! This dry chutney is a staple condiment for classic Indian street foods like Vada Pao, & bhajias (tempura made with almost any vegetatable coated with a spiced chickpea batter . 2 tablespoons shredded fresh coconut (OR) 2 tablespoons dessicated coconut 1/4-1/2 teaspoon Cayenne pepper powder 1 teaspoon Aleppo pepper flakes 1 clove garlic Sea Salt to taste In a Mortar, combine all the ingredients & pound till the garlic has completely been minced & incorporated into the powder.

When it comes to new kitchen gadgets, I make no bones of it, I have a weakness. I love them, some fall by the wayside ass I fall out, and with some, its an enduring relationship as I depend upon them for my daily cooking. I's not often that I get to extol about kitchen gadgets used in daily cooking, because this blog is not about what I cook daily for my family (although my Instagram feed does take care of that). Oxo's latest product campaign just upped the ante in the utility category and I ended up using the products on a regular basis before the recipe actually became a reality. The package arrived with a colander bowl, a hand held mandoline and a grape/tomato cutter. Since rice is a daily staple, I put the rice & grain  colander to full use from day one. the perforations on the gadgets are small enough to hold in the tiniest of seeds such as quinoa and the wining feature is the perforations added on the pouring spout that drains of residual water with a...

The New Year's here and that of course means that the festive finale of the previous year comes to a grinding halt. The Christmas tree is cleared of its ornaments, the ornaments are wrapped up, and stashed back into the big storage boxes, and said storage boxes are then dragged back down to the basement to hibernate until next December. In most households this definitely means a lull in the happy mood that prevails, the sinking feeling of nothing to celebrate until the weather warms up, and of course, the snowstorms and  bitter cold weather that inevitably marks February. And no, a corporate invented festival like Valentine's day does not count. In Indian homes, we just get ready to celebrate the next celestial event that makes its turn, In this case, the return of the sun to the northern Hemisphere, known as 'Uttarayan' in Sanskrit. every state and community has its own way of celebrating the impending arrival of spring / hot weather (for all practical purpo...

Kumquats and Kale - an interesting combination which really do not have much in common except for the common first letter in their names. But when I opened up the box sent to me from Melissa's produce , the visual beauty of the colors just struck a chord, the bright golden kumquats and the regally purple Kale sprouts.

My 'burn out' from daily recipes is yet to dissipate, but I think I still plod on. Quickly scribbling down ideas as they pop into my head and before they disappear, like the same flash with which they crossed my train of thought. My support system comprising of fellow bloggers gave me a much need 'kick in the pants' last weekend when we met up at home for a casual lunch. Siri, the bubbly author of ' Cooking with Siri ',  Radhika   ( Food for 7 stages of life ) and Latha ( A Peek into my Kitchen ).  (L to R: Siri, Me, Radhika & Latha) As is with all the food bloggers I've met so far, there was no ice to break whatsoever, the conversation just flowed, along with the wine & food! Quinoa, roasted corn & Black bean tabbouleh with pomegranate Motivation all fired up, I decided that I was going to surprise my son by making him Pizza for Dinner. My standard go - to failproof recipe for the dough is from Food52 - in particula...

I'm an ignoramus when it comes to the philosophical complexities of mythology, but the fact is that all these parables are completely applicable to social life as well as the laws of nature, provided you have the fortune of having it interpreted from various frames of reference. If not, all they will remain as, are tales to be amused by for an hour or two before dissipating from the cerebral cortex without ever having the fortune of getting registered as a memory. Even worse, if interpreted by someone with their own personal egoistic agenda, you're finished, what could have been a learning experience turns into a roiling puddle of fear that has the potential to turn into a cesspool of ignorance and hate. And so it is with these nine days of 'Navratri'. To me it represents the spirit and valor of the feminine aspect of nature, the same force that drives a girl to defend herself tooth and nail against those who seek to strip her of her dignity, a mother who would go ...

And before you know it, Navratri is almost over. Just 2 more days (or three, if you want to include the 10th day Vijaya Dashami) of celebrations, after which the festival season is officially open. The next three days are the most significant of Navratri. Ashtami (8th day) is regarded as especially auspicious, especially in the Eastern Indian states such as West Bengal. The last day of the festival, the ninth is regarded as a rest day when all implements & tools of the trade are worshiped as Saraswathy, the goddess of wisdom & knowledge. This was a favorite day for us as kids. It was one day when parents would actually tell us to skip studying! The last day is known as Vijaya Dashami (Vijaya means victory in Sanskrit), and is regarded as a favorable day to commence any new endeavor in life, be it music / dance lessons, or a new business, basically anything new endeavor in life.. Kind of puts a positive spin to life doesn't it Although religious in spirit, the extend...

Its already half way though the festival season and I see plenty of posts on Facebook about how sacrilegious it is that people still cannot give up their craving for meat during these holy days. A couple of years ago, I would have been tempted to agree although I would never openly say so. Turns out that the scriptures spell out something quite different. The Mother Goddess  is a manifestation of nature which changes with the seasons. In Spring, she is Gauri, the gentle maternal figure who nourishes and coaxes life to bloom. In autumn, once the sun begins its journey south, the harvest and consequent destruction of the crops begin in order to hoard and save grains for the cold months of winter ahead. In order to successfully prepare for the monts of possible hardship, it was crucial for early man to fortify himself with energy giving proteins in the form of meat. And that was the bounty that  was provided for him and hence offered to the Almighty as a thanksgiving.  ...

The next 9 days starting from today are dedicated to fighting the forces of evil. The actual 'fighting' will be left to goddess Durga, I'll just worship this awe inspiring mother figure with the best possible 'prasad' I can make. Have I ever mentioned that a number of the goddesses in the Hindu pantheon are supposed to be worshiped with meat? And that the 'meat' has simply been substituted cleverly with protein rich offering thanks to the waves of the Ahimsa (non-violence) movement that was introduced by the Buddha to counter the spate of butchery of animals in the  ritualistic sacrifice? Navratri (the festival of Nine Nights) commences the string of festivals that are celebrated when the sun makes its southward journey and winter sets in (in the Northern hemisphere). From a mythological POV, this signifies the turning of the tide to the 'dark' forces, the plants shedding their leaves and going into a non productive mode, of fruits droppin...