Panfusine

I have lettuce and curly mustard growing sporadically on my back lawn and at some point of time really felt that I should use it in food, since my yard is completely pesticide free. there was a mix of spinach, chard, sorrel, curly mustard and lettuce. Sauteed the Green Black eyed peas (I know it sounds like a color clash, doesn't it?) with sliced onions along with some plain garam masala. Then steamed the greens, pureed it and stir fried it into some cooked rice along with spiced Green black eyed peas. The end result? an incredibly flavorful lunch offering. straight up from Nature.

This is officially 'Modak' week in India (the week in question actually stretches out for 10 day's but who's counting?) The festival of Ganesh Chaturthi marks the birthday of Lord Ganesha, that happy, cheerful elephant-headed god of good luck and fortune. Its such an entrenched part of the Indian culture (especially in western and South India) that it may be hard to believe that this magnitude of celebration and devotion goes back only to the last century. What was once a single day festival celebrated in the privacy of individual homes was redefined as a public display of devotion and community as a way of allowing freedom fighters to mingle freely without arousing the suspicion of the British officials. I had blogged about the main 'prasad' (offering ) two years ago, with recipes included and I don't plan to repeat those in this post. but one of the three recipes there underwent a serious Panfusine change. The last part about the tiny amm...

The Holiday season is officially upon us. As the manic 'shopping' season get underway, I just got over clearing out all the dishes from my food coma inducing Thanksgiving feast. Thanksgiving must be the most festive non-denominational holiday in the US, irrespective of religion, social status, geographic location, Everyone gathers around as a family to celebrate and eat. and eat, and then fill up on dessert and coffee!  For me, Its an opportunity to shift to high gear and get cracking on experimenting with the flavors of Fall ingredients - Pumpkins, cranberries, apples. This year, I volunteered to test a 10 cup stack n'snap food processor from Hamilton Beach and I received a package last Monday. While my kids had a little spat over what the packaging carton would be converted into, (a cloning machine vs. a car), I took the opportunity to explore the new gadget..  My first food processor was a Hamilton Beach which was a perfect workhorse until a little pi...

Sometimes, there is no excuse, the brain just does NOT want to sit down and get down to writing a post. And I believe in giving myself that luxury. As much as I enjoy whipping up dish after dish, getting the ingredients ready, Taking notes down to the last pinch, tweaking, trying to make it presentable even within a low maintenance 'plonk & shoot' configuration. There are recipes that linger on in a rough copy format, chicken scribbles that only I can make sense of. This recipe is one of those comfort food dishes that finds a place on my table multiple times (Perhaps the familiarity of the dish is the reason why It hasn't found its way to the blog). The dish by itself is one of those elegantly easy dishes that defies being categorized into any one particular cuisine, a touch of Mujaddara from the Middle East, spiced with Harissa , a generous chunk of Indian Paneer cheese, and the star ingredient and the chief flavor: Traditional American Pumpkin puree. I pa...

I hate negativity, I'd much rather spend my time in the Lab doing what I love best, running my experiments, taking measurements,  analyzing & visually recording  the results. Or, in blogger-speak, create a recipe, clear my kitchen counters,  prepare the dish, take photographs & then tuck into my creation. I'd rather not have written up my last post, my response to Martha Stewart , but there was something so smug about her tone in the interview, non verbal, that my pre-frontal cortex just had to sit back and support my lower brain in lashing out. It was not easy, for every 2 sentences I put down, I had to erase one. It was a learning experience, one that made me determined to never let my self imposed guard down when it came to to the quality of the recipes I post and never be stingy on listing references & inspiration, however insignificant or indirect.  Today's recipe was both an example of something hurriedly cobbled together into a one pot dish th...

When I was about 6 years old,  I once remember asking my mother for fried rice. It must have around 1975,  the first time I heard about new dishes  such as Falafel (which my dad, fresh from a 2 month posting to Kuwait, pronounced as 'Filafil' ) and Fried rice. Amma's repertoire of recipes at the time was restricted to traditional South Indian dishes with the odd Punjabi choley & Alu Mutter thrown in.

 I'm going through one of those phases where I have a million ideas for recipes buzzing in my head, and in a contradictory way, that IS the problem ,since I'm at a loss to decide on what to make, when to make it and trying to figure out what it was about the set of ingredients that drew me to it in the first place. ..Net result.. Bury myself browsing through the Internet searching away,  for something I cannot even  quite define. Simply had to take a week's  break to get back into a routine.

Q. How do you know when you've completely morphed into a true full blooded Foodie? A. When you look forward to making something from your native Indian cuisine as a special treat, and when you begin, you can't, just cannot refrain from reaching for those spices that normally have no connection with Indian food. My traditional Friday evenings for the longest time, have involved making dinner from different cuisines and in the process, its been a great way to master some favorite classics from all over the world. Of late, its become pretty ingrained to whip up Thai curry rice or a Mediterranean Pasta with such ease that I've had to pause & think when it comes to traditional Indian  food . So when the other half suggested North Indian, I set out resolutely to make some traditional Rajasthani dishes. Determined to keep it authentic, I decided on making Gatte ke pulao ( using a link from the late Jayashri Satish's blog Kailas Kitchen ) & a 'launji'...

For those of you unfamiliar with the name Birbal, here's a quick primer. Stories of the third Moghul Emperor Akbar & his grand vizier Birbal are the stuff of legends, and almost every kid growing up in India will have heard at least one or  two of these delightful folktales. Birbal's sense of fairness & justice brought him the undying faith & trust of his Emperor along with jealousy & intrigue from the other courtiers who envied his proximity to Akbar. The Khichdee story illustrates Birbals quiet quick witted way of getting his point across to Akbar. During the Winter season in Delhi, Akbar was strolling along the banks of the Yamuna river, when he noticed how bone chilling cold the water was, and wondered if anyone would dare spend the night standing in the river. When Birbal responded that if the reward was good enough, someone who needed the money would step up. Sure enough, the announcement (and a reward of a 1000 gold coins) was made, and an impove...

'The Turmeric Trail' by Raghavan Iyer is one cook book I'd love to get my hands on. except, its no longer in print & the only available copies are sold online at black market rates, which I will not pay(its not the price, its the principle!). But the title endures, in another avatar, as the brand name for a set of spices launched last month. Turmeric Trail is the brainchild of Chef Raghavan Iyer and focuses on 4 spices representing 4 distinct regions of India. Garam Masala, the predominant spice blend used in the Northern states,  Madras Masala, A heady mix of toasted split  dal & spices, thats a mainstay of the signature South Indian stew 'Sambhar', Mumbai Masala, a vibrant mix with dried coconut & sesame, and Chai Masala, a blend of 5 spices, with a potential to sizzle up 50 different dishes, from tea, to hot chocolate to cookies. They're packaged beautifully in natural looking brown boxes tied  with raffia grass and...