Panfusine

Its a refreshing change to get back into the obsessive cooking mode after an extended slump brought about by a general saturation of food related over stimulation of the nervous system. At the same time I realize that since 2010, over three Diwali celebrations I may just have ended up 'panfusining' most of the traditional dishes that my family generally serves up. Here's a recap: Maa Ladoo: An unbelievably simple confection consisting of fresh ground Garbanzo flour, sugar and ghee flavored with a touch of Cardamom & Saffron. Lehiyam Truffles: The traditional antidote to heavy Diwali indulgence. Hazelnut and Almond 'Cake' : A burfi using hazelnuts, something that does not figure in any Indian Dishes. and somethings that are great just the way mommy made them, like the rice chakli known as 'Vella Thenkozhal'  Okkarai health bars was one of my earliest experiments for Panfusine and there was a phase when I kept making batch after batc...

I can never thank providence enough for givin me the common sense to prepare myself for the much touted Frankenstorm Sandy. Plenty of flashlights, spare batteries in bulk, Water, a back up sump pump for the basement, Firewood, the list could go on.. Nothing, NOTHING could have prepared me for the terrifying experience of living through those six hours.  It sounded like a  full payload Boeing 747 was taking off for a transatlantic flight right in the backyard. Sure enough, the lights went out, and we were left  hunkering down in total darkness with a diabolical, howling wind screeching through the house. And yet, it stopped almost as suddenly as it started around midnight, almost as if the trees had no more strength to even flutter a leaf. All that could be heard was a proverbial sound of silence, equally eerie. The next morning, the most visible evidence of the storm were the felled and leaning trees and the side of the house spattered with shreds of torn leaves h...

 Its right in the midst of fall, and my slacker self still lingers on  it seems, for the Panfusine posts alone. My daily blog A Dish a Day  steadily marches on towards the finishing line, hovering around the 300th post as I type this up. It was a great creative 8 days of making as many different 'Sundals' , (a South Indian Sauteed bean / lentils dish ), for the Festival of Navratri, The ninth day (today) having tragically cancelled due to the passing of a beloved cousin. Its hard to think of anything else today but the memories of  my loving caring brother. But force myself I must. With the change in season comes the bounty of squashes & pumpkins, one of them being the diminutive delicata squash. With a skin so fine that it slices effortlessly under the sharp blade of a mandolin, this variety of squash is perfect for tempura, bhajias and roasted salads. With thin slices, it was delicious to discover that the squash transformed itself into healthy chips, ...

 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.

The Date: Sunday Sept 16 The Venue: Junoon , New York City The Event: The Junoon Indiblogger Meet-Up First things first.. For those of you who are wondering who or what on earth Indiblogger is, its the biggest blogger network for Indian bloggers from across the globe. They've been up and running for the past four years and in that period have done wonders in bringing together bloggers from all walks of life. Discussions span relevant topics of common interest to bloggers, including that all pervasive scourge that hangs over all of us, the threat of plagiarism. (they exposed one such scumbag and its amusing to read the thread of comments including those from the shamelessly unapologetic culprit). Back to the event. It was a varied group of bloggers, with graduate students, a lawyer, a photographer, a couple of graduates from the Culinary Institute of America (the other CIA), All of us with one thing in common, we all blog, about life, food, arts & craft. ...

Ganesha, the Lord of auspicious beginnings is indubitably the most cheerful god in the Hindu Pantheon.Short, rotund and pot-bellied with an elephants head, he is regarded as the governing deity of intellect and wisdom. Hindus the world over celebrate his 'birthday' . I'm incapable of explaining the details of the significance of this delightful god, so I'm just going to direct you to this link from Dr. Devdutt Pattanaiks website . Ganesha is depicted as holding a bowl of 'modaks' in his left hand. These sweet confections resemble little bags of money. These modaks are basically a sweet filling with either a fried wrapping made out of wheat flour or a steamed variety with a covering made of rice flour dough. The word modak is thought to be a corruption of the Sanskrit Madhu golaka (Madhu- sweet/ honey; golaka: sphere / ball). Getting ready to make the steamed version always induced a low level anxiety in my mother every year. She used...

Last year at this time, I  bought (and fell head over heels in love with the idea of) a bushel of tomatoes (in two batches of about 25 lbs each). At this time of the year , my local farm sells these gorgeous plum tomatoes by the bushel,