I think the world is divided into two broad categories of people – the lauki lovers and the lauki haters. This poor gourd (bottle gourd or calabash) is much maligned for its insipid watery-ness, and uninspired beauty (or lack of it). In my family, when it comes to this green vegetable, the lines are drawn between my husband and me. Needless to say, I am a lauki lover <3.

I think basically lauki/bottle gourd/calabash is a clever vegetable, and can be snuck into all sorts of dishes in an expected sort of anonymity. Grate lauki into vegetable raita, grate it into chappati dough, grate it into cakes and muffins, and no one will know. Yet there are a few dishes where lauki shines like a beacon of hope for downtrodden vegetables. Lauki dhal is one such example, on the surface nothing more than a mixture of channa dhal and boiled lauki, but tangy tomatoes, cinnamon, and cumin transforms it into a devilish dish. Another is lauki kofta – my brother introduced this to me – he picked it up along with his studies in medicine. Its the home cook’s answer to fancy restaurant-style kofta with gravy, easy to make, and equally light on the stomach with minimal mess to clean up. This version is one step further into reducing the stage where one fries the kofta balls, instead if you have a steamer you’ve been meaning to use, this is it!

(serves 4)
Ingredients for the kofta

1 medium sized bottle gourd, peeled and grated
1 teaspoon ginger garlic paste
1 chopped green chilly
1/2 bunch fresh coriander, use leaves and stems, I usually save stems and use that here
1/2 cup besan/chickpea flour (Indian)
1/2 teaspoon bishop’s weed/ajwain (optional)
salt to taste

Ingredients for the gravy

1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 large tomatoes, finely chopped
2 teaspoons finely chopped ginger
couple of garlic cloves finely chopped
1 teasoon cumin
1 teaspoon kashmiri chilly powder/ or paprika to taste
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon coriander powder
1 teaspoon garam masala
1 teaspoon sugar
salt to taste
fresh coriander to garnish

Method

1. Put the grated bottle gourd/lauki into a cheecloth and extract (into a bowl) as much liquid as possible. You will be left with very mashed up and dry clump of grated gourd. The gourd juice will be used up later in the gravy.
2. Tip cheesecloth into a sufficiently roomy bowl, add the ginger garlic paste, chopped green chilly, chopped coriander, salt, besan, ajwain, and knead into a soft dough. If its not tight enough add some more besan/chickpea flour and adjust the salt accordingly.
3. Line your steamer with aluminium foil or banana leaf, place it over the gas – over a saucepan with a cupful of water.
4. Break of lemon sized balls of dough and roll into thick cigar shape and place in the steamer, if cigar shape is not your thing, just roll dough into balls – thats fine too. Cover the steamer, and from when the steam appears let cook for 10 minutes.
5. Remove the steamer from gas, open lid, and let the koftas cool, meanwhile fill the saucepan to compensate the evaporated water, when the koftas are cool (they’ll become a little hard) and you can easily pull them off and set aside.
6. Repeat till you use up all the dough.
7. When really cool, chop the cigars into bite sized bits.

Method for the gravy

1. Heat about 3 tablespoons of oil in a pan, crackle a teaspoon of cumin, saute onions, ginger and garlic. Add tomatoes, and cook until soft.
2. Add the masalas – 1 teaspoon kashmiri chilly powder, turmeric, garam masala, coriander powder, teaspoon sugar, and salt to taste, mix well and let cook on medium heat for about a minute.
3. Add the reserved gourd juice, and mix, add about half cup of water for the gravy, bring to a boil, then reduce heat and add the steamed koftas. Cover and cook for 5 to 6 minutes.
4. Remove, pour into a serving dish and garnish with coriander leaves. Goes well with chappatis, or rice.

I love the rich sweet and tangy taste of tomatoes in rice and curries. This morning as I looked into my fridge my mind was made up about lunch – it had to be tomato rice. The weather outside was looking a little bleak and I desperately needed something that’ll dissipate the rapidly descending clouds of gloom. I have blogged about tomato rice before, but this recipe is another improvisation, both methods are good. I added whole spices to this tomato rice, omitted coriander and added bayleaf and curry leaves for extra flavour.

I usually make some sort of raita to go with tomato rice, something with cucumber and buttermilk, but today I was craving something creamier – but yoghurty. Enter my friend the Labneh. Labneh is a local cheese and is basically hung curd, thick and creamy. I love fresh country bread slathered with generous amounts of labneh, topped with thin slices of tomatoes and a sprinkle of cajun spice, yum… my favourite mid morning snack. So I pulled out a tub of Labneh from the fridge, got a cupful of chickpeas to soak, and went about chopping a smorgasbord of ingredients for my lunch.

for the tomato rice you need:

2 cups of basmati rice
3 3/4 cups of water
3 large tomatoes chopped
1 medium onion chopped
1 tablespoon finely chopped ginger
3 pods of garlic chopped finely
1 inch piece of cinnamon
1 black cardamom, crushed
1 teaspoon of mustard seeds
1, 2 bayleaf
2 sprigs curry leaf
1 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon garam masala
1 teaspoon coriander powder
1 generous teaspoon sugar
salt to taste
2 tablespoons oil or ghee

Method

1. Wash rice and keep aside.
2. Pour oil into a preheated saucepan, crackle the mustard and add the spices – bayleaf, cinnamon and black cardamom.
3. Follow the spices with chopped ginger, garlic, onions, and curry leaves. Saute.
4. Add the tomatoes, give the whole thing a good mix, and after about a minute or so toss in the dry spices and seasoning – salt, turmeric, garam masala, paprika, coriander powder, and sugar. Combine.
5. Once the tomatoes have softened and the whole mixture begins to look like a chunky sauce, add the rice, and water. Stir to combine. And let the rice come to a boil.
6. Once the boiling point has been reached, mix once more and turn the gas down to really low, cover the pan and let the rice cook in solitude, giving it a mix after a good 5 minutes.
7. Basmati doesn’t take too long to cook, I didn’t really time it, but I think it was done in 10 – 15 minutes. When the water looks almost evaporated, but not completely, mix once, cover again, and turn the gas off. The rice continue to cook without becoming mushy.

While you are making the rice, you need to pressure cook the soaked chickpeas. Now usually you need to soak chickpeas for 5 to 6 hours, but since we don’t need very soft chickpea for a salad, just soak them in hot water for an hour or more. Put into a pressure cooker with double the volume of water and cook on high flame until the first whistle (the first time the steam is released). At this point lower the flame to a minimum, and cook for 30 minutes. Open the cooker only after all the steam has dissipated naturally. Open, drain the chickpeas and set aside to cool.

Other stuff for the creamy labneh salad:

1 potato boiled, peeled and chopped
1 carrot chopped finely, and steamed
1/2 cup shredded cabbage, (you need to soak this in 1 tablespoon vinegar and 1/2 cup water)
1 red onion chopped finely
ofcourse the chickpeas – about a cupful
dressing:
1/2 teaspoon of garlic flakes
200 gms Labneh
a little salt
lots of freshly crushed pepper
1/4 teaspoon carom/ajwain/bishop’s weed, lightly crushed (tastes like thyme)
a drizzle of olive oil

garnish (optional):

carrot shavings (I soaked the carrot shavings in a water, sugar and vinegar mixture for a kimchi-ish taste)
chopped fresh green spring onions for more oniony taste

Method

1. Combine all the ingredients for the salad in a large bowl. If the dressing is too creamy, you can lighten with buttermilk or laban. Serve on a bed of lettuce and garnish with carrot shavings and spring onion. The salad is luscious and hearty and can be a meal in itself, tastes great warm, and even better when chilled.

When Sarah wrote about organic eggs with air ticket vs. not so organic and local road weary eggs she hit the nail on one of my biggest quibble about life in the emirates – my ecological food-print. The ecological ‘foodprint’ that I was once so proud of has all but collapsed under the weight of the large pile of plastics I collect every time I shop for groceries. There are cans, cans and more cans, then there’s packaging, shopping bags, little bags to pick up vegetables in. Honestly, my waste doesn’t get separated and no I don’t make my own compost for the 4 and a half pots I grow on my window sill. No garden fresh vegetables so naturally no room for my 0 to 100 mile food ideology.

100 mile diet is a phrase familiar to anyone who has decided to make local food a larger part of their diet, and it refers to food that’s grown or sourced within a hundred miles of where you live. Local food systems are an alternative to the global corporate models where producers and consumers are on two opposing sides, separated by a sea of middlemen, manufacturers, shippers and retailers. If local food systems are in place there’s a return of a ‘relationship’ between the consumer and the producer, encouraging quality control not only in the product but also in the method of production. In the UAE it therefore becomes imperative that we as consumers acknowledge and encourage local growers. If local growers are encouraged, in time we can create a right market for ethically treated, organic products as well.

For me its difficult to take sides, while on one hand organic is good, importing food by airplane has a carbon footprint 6 times larger than getting the same food by road. When I cook my traditional meals at home, more often than not, the ingredients are sourced from more than 3 to 4 countries outside the Emirates. But yes living here in the harsh climates of the deserts it is a decidedly unequal battle we have to wage. But small changes can make our choices better for our environment and for us.

Go Vegetarian (of course I would say that!) The biggest thing you can do to reduce the environmental impact of your food consumption is to eat less or NO meat! I read somewhere that producing 1 pound of beef uses up 50 times more water than 1 pound of soybeans, and some more statistics which were quite shocking. Eating fruits and vegetables that are in season, locally grown or grown close to home, for all of us living in the emirates, could be a good place to start. Cooking more at home is another way of reducing your foodprint.

Environmental vegetarians call for a reduction of first world consumption of meat. According to the United Nations Population Fund “the ecological footprint of an average person in a high-income country is about six times bigger than that of someone in a low-income country and many more times bigger than in the least-developed countries.” UNPF goes on to say how the Americans consume meat 1.5 times the industrial world average, three times the East Asian average, and 40 times the average in Bangladesh. At the same time, Worldwatch Institute says, “massive reductions in meat consumption in industrial nations will ease the health care burden while improving public health; declining livestock herds will take pressure off rangelands and grainlands, allowing the agricultural resource base to rejuvenate. As populations grow, lowering meat consumption worldwide will allow more efficient use of declining per capita land and water resources, while at the same time making grain more affordable to the world’s chronically hungry.” And finally my favourite argument, from a 2010 UNEP report, “Unlike fossil fuels, it is difficult to look for alternatives: people have to eat. A substantial reduction of impacts would only be possible with a substantial worldwide diet change, away from animal products.”

In the Emirates it’s a challenging call for vegetarians who often have to make do. But on the flip side I’d say things are good in a convoluted sort of way, since we end up cooking and eating more at home. Here’s the recipe from today’s lunch, crunchy winter vegetables cooked in mustard oil seasoned with Bengali style five spice (paanch phoron) and methi dhal, my absolute favourite dhal to make.

ACHARI WINTER VEGETABLES (my own invention)
Ingredients
1 1/2 cup cauliflower florets, use as much stem as you can, I even chop up the stalk and leaf
1 carrot sliced
1 Indian radish/mooli sliced
1/2 cup of fresh green peas
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon ginger garlic paste
1 teaspoon paanch phoron (seeds of mustard, fenugreek, nigella, cumin, and fennel, in equal measure)
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon vinegar
salt to taste
2 tablespoon mustard oil to cook, or any oil of your choice

Method
1. Heat the mustard oil in a pan upto smoking point, then lower flame to cool down the oil a little – this is the general method followed while cooking with mustard oil I suppose its to reduce the pungency of the golden oil – splutter the five spices, add the chopped onions and ginger garlic paste, turn on the heat and saute until the onions turn pink.
2. Add the turmeric, paprika, salt, sugar, stir.
3. Add the vegetables and teaspoon vinegar, combine, cover and cook on high for 3 to 4 minutes. Then mix once more, cover and cook on low heat, until the vegetables are tender but still have a bite to them.

METHI DHAL
Ingredients
1 cup cooked pigeon peas/arhar dhal/toor dhal
1 small onion, finely chopped
2,3 garlic pods, finely chopped
1 tomato, finely chopped
1 teaspoon turmeric
3 cherry bomb dried chillies (or any dried chilly)
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 tablespoon Kasoori Methi (dried methi leaves)
1 tablespoon oil
salt to taste

Method
1. Heat oil in a pan, drop the chillies, splutter the mustard, and finally add the onions and garlic and saute on a high flame until the onions are pink.
2. Add the tomatoes, and cook until soft.
3. Season with turmeric, salt and kasoori methi, stir and combine.
4. Stir in the cooked dhal, and add more water if you want thin dhal, or leave it thick like I do. Cover and let boil for about 5 minutes on low flame. Enjoy hot, with rice or with chapattis.

Bisi Bele Huli Anna literally stands for hot, dhal/lentil, tamarind, rice – the four chief ingredients that make for this delicious meal in a pot that originates from Karnataka, South India. Also called bisibelabath, this spicy rice dish is a complete meal in itself. Red chillies, peppercorns, cumin, pulses, cloves, cinnamon, coconut and tamarind all work their way into the dish making it redolent with the rich flavours of the southern spice coast. The addition of lentil and vegetables make sure that this dish is high on proteins and fibre and could easily be on your kid’s menu as well.

I was introduced to it and various other out of this world kannadiga dishes by my friend and roomie when I was at university. Kannadiga cuisine is one of my favourite Indian cuisines, especially because each dish from Karnataka stands out with its own unique identity. Not surprising, considering the fact that this southern state shares its borders with Goa at the northwest, Maharashtra at the north, Andhra Pradesh at the east, Tamil Nadu at southeast, and Kerala at the southwest, as well as a long coastline on the west bordering the Arabian Sea.

I briefly lived and worked in Bangalore some years back, and have some of the most delicious  food memories of the place. While coffee and toast in smoke filled Koshy’s was good, nothing could beat the hot bhajjis and chai at the roadside thelawaala’s or the spicy gobhi manchurian on Commerical Street (wonder if its still there). Everytime I visited them my friend D’s mum Mrs. S would serve up one kannadiga favourite or the other, I was introduced to the joys of akki roti, gas-gase payasa, all kinds of gojjus, fat balls of ragi mudde dunked in ghee, hot gossips shared over crispy avarakkai kodubale, and a taste that I can never forget (I cannot for the life of me remember the name of this dish) large circles of roasted vermicilli (like kataifi) dunked in sweetened almond milk – heaven on a plate!

Ingredients
for the rice
1 1/2 cups basmati rice
1 cup toor dhal (arhar/split pigeon peas)
1 teaspoon turmeric
1/4 teaspoon asafoetida/hing

for the spice mix
4, 5 kashmiri lal mirch/red chillies
1 tablespoon channa dhal
1/2 tablespoon urad dhal
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/4 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
1/4 teaspoon of cloves, cinnamon, peppercorn
4 tablespoons grated fresh coconut

2 cups chopped mixed vegetables (potato, beans, carrot, peas), boiled

for the seasoning
2 tablespoons ghee/oil
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon urad dhal
1/4 cup cashewnuts
5 shallots, sliced thinly
2, 3 sprigs of fresh curry leaves

2 tablespoon tamarind pulp, or 1 lemon sized ball of tamarind soaked in hot water
1 tablespoon grated jaggery/brown sugar
salt to taste

Method
1. Wash and cook the rice, dhal, hing, little salt & turmeric powder together with 6 cups water, using a pressure cooker or cover and boil until cooked. If using the pressure cooker, after the release of the first pressure, reduce the flame to low and cook for 8 to 10 minutes.
2. Dry roast, one at a time, every ingredient for the spice mix, grind to a fine powder in your spice mill, and set aside.
3. Setting aside a little of the boiled vegetables for the garnish, mix it into the cooked rice and dhal, along with the spice mix, brown sugar or jaggery, and the tamarind pulp. Combine and let simmer on low flame. Check for salt and add if needed.
4. Meanwhile prepare the seasoning, heat ghee or cooking oil, and saute cashews until brown, remove and set aside. In the remaining oil, saute sliced shallots, and curry leaves, when partially caramelised remove and set aside. Finally crackle the mustard, and urad dhal and mix into the rice, spice, lentil mix boiling away on the other flame.
5. Setting aside a little for the garnish, combine the cashews, shallots, and curry leaves into the rice as well. Your bisibele huli anna is ready to be devoured, but do wait for it to cool a bit, or there might be battle scars.
6. Serve warm, garnished with the remaining boiled vegetables, cashews, shallots and curry leaves.

Its great with chilled yoghurt, I served it with pineapple raita, just to offset the spicey rice with something sweet.

Indiblogger has teamed up with Akshaya Patra and there was a mail about how blogging about Akshaya Patra can feed 50 hungry kids. According to Akshaya Patra for over 13 million children in India education is hardly the priority, eating their next meal is. How they help is by providing free meals at school thereby ensuring that “No child in India shall be deprived of education because of hunger”.

So this post is dedicated to Akshaya Patra’s commitment to removing ‘hunger’ from a child’s vocab. One of the things that really stood out to me about their work is the concept of centralized kitchens, there’s a video about that below:

About these centralized kitchens they say “Each kitchen has the capacity to cook between 50 000 to 150 000 meals daily thus achieving economies of scale. Cooking takes place in mechanized, steam heated custom built cauldrons…” and “Freshly cooked food is packed in stainless steel containers and transported to various schools in custom built vehicles (about 10 to 15 schools per vehicle). There are two types of menus prepared throughout the country: North Indian and South Indian. The North Indian menu consists of three items: roti, sabji and rice while the South Indian menu also consists of rice, sambar and curd.”

Akshaya Patra also runs community kitchens in remote areas where it becomes infra-structurally impossible to set up large scale kitchens. Such kitchens are run by trained volunteers from the community, while the raw materials are provided by the foundation. I thought it was fantastic that “… quite often, the women cooking the meals are the mothers of the children we reach out to. Hundreds of such mothers have benefitted from the program. Not only do they get to cook food for their own sons and daughters, but also gain a certain amount of financial independence from the employment created.” Do click on the links above and acknowledge the work done by this NGO, and if you wish to participate, you can donate here.

Tehri (not to be mistaken for Tehri Gharwal) is a native of Uttar Pradesh, its such a delicious one pot meal that, trust me, if you’ve had it once, its gonna catch you by your gullet for the rest of your life (in a nice way). It creates such a delicious craving in you, that you will need to get a Tehrifix every once in a while. I get my tehrifix once a month, sometime even twice.

Tehri is basically a biriyani for vegetarians, and is made with several vegetables cut haphazardly and a tantalizing combination of spices.  But really what’s so good about this rice is that once you’ve got the combinations figured out, its a fairly quick sort of dish to make. Tehrifix is great for kids as well, my daughter’s hooked for life I think. Here’s what you need,

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups Basmati rice

the vegetables
1 onion
2 potatoes (essential)
couple of cauliflower florets
10 green beans
1 carrot
1/2 cup peas
1/2 cup capsicum/bell pepper, in any colour, cubed (essential)
2 tomatoes, I used about 4 cherry tomatoes whole

the spices
1 teaspoon cumin
2 bayleaves
1 star anise, broken (essential)
1 black cardamom, crushed open
1 teaspoon garam masala
1 1/2 teaspoon coriander powder
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon red chilly powder/cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon ginger garlic paste
salt to taste
2 tablespoon cooking oil

Method
1. Wash the rice and keep aside. Wash all the vegetables. Peel and cube the potatoes, & carrots, slice the onions thinly, chop the tomatoes in large chunks, string the beans and cut them into inch long pieces. Get together the cauliflower florets, cubed bell pepper, and green peas.
2. Heat oil in a deep skillet, add the cumin, bay leaf, star anise, and cardamom, followed by onions and ginger garlic paste. Saute until the onions get lightly brown.
3. Now its time to add the spices, and one by one drop in the masalas – coriander, cayenne/chilly, turmeric, garam masala, and salt. Give the masalas a good stir.
4. Add the vegetables (except the peas and bell pepper) to the masalas, mix well, cover and cook on medium heat for about 4 to 5 minutes. The vegetables should have lightly wilted and changed colour.
5. Next, add the rice and mix well, its going to make a woosh woosh sound – that’s good! Go get the water to cook the rice with.
6. Add about 2 and 3/4 cup water (not exactly double because the vegetables will be having some moisture in them as well), mix, and let it come to a boil.
7. At this point, reduce the heat to a minimum, cover the skillet with a lid and do your dishes.
8. After about 10 minutes, check on your tehri, add the bell pepper and peas, mix and cover again. The flame should be at its lowest while cooking Tehri, and keep the skillet covered, basically the steam should cook it through.

Pretty soon an irresistible aroma will lure you back to the kitchen. Open the lid and fluff up the rice with a fork. You’re allowed an org**m!!

Serve with chilled cucumber raita and rice crisps or pappadams

GHOSTS OF SUMMERS PAST

Summer afternoons in Dehradun were filled with mysterious boredom. Ghosts of colonial folks moved imperceptibly around the old bungalow and its surrounding garden making the air thick, impenetrable, and inscrutable. Sometimes you could hear the ghosts whispering through the silver oaks, sometimes when they were playful, they would startle the parrots greedily engrossed in devouring sun ripened mangoes. These mango trees belonged to these ghosts, they lived there, they had been for centuries now. Sometimes my brother and I saw our swing, hung high on a strong branch, swinging merrily by itself. We didn’t mind it, after all the garden was as much theirs as it was ours.

In the afternoons there wasn’t much to do, we were banned from entering the house, our mum was on night duty so she would be sleeping inside and we were too noisy. So the garden, the mangoes, the ghosts and us, we were banished until evening. Right outside our house, on one side there was a Gharwal Higher Secondary School or maybe it was a college, I don’t remember it now, we were at that age when everything was atleast four times larger in size and comprehension. The college was still in session and the local ice cream vendor had taken his position outside our second gate.  The second gate was never used and it had a huge, rusted lock and chain around it. Decomposed leaves and dirt had already embedded the gate into the earth, so there was very little likelihood that the gate would ever be opened. The college kids liked to hang outside our second gate, maybe because it was the ice cream vendors favored location. We were always shy of the college kids and would play far into the garden hidden out of sight, but watching them from the corner of our eyes. They looked so big and fashionable. But more than that our eyes were always on the ice cream vendor who held the keys to a forbidden land. The land of cold ice creams, crunchy cones and juicy popsicles. We would greedily swallow dribble just thinking about the ice cream man’s house. But due to strict instructions regarding the perils of eating unhygienic roadside food we were practically banned from even thinking of the word I-C-E-C-R-E-A-M. But the real reason for our deprivation was that we had no money, all we needed was 2 Rupees and all we had was a big fat zero.

That’s when the mango ghosts put the idea into Raghu’s head, “Raji lets make a deal, I have a great idea!” he said to me. His ideas always put me into trouble because I could never lie. Raghu knew my weakness so he told me all I had to do was keep my trap shut, he would do everything there was to do, I just have to be an accomplice and I would get a nice milky vanilla bar for my work. The words ‘milky vanilla bar’ is all that I heard and I followed him like a lamb. Raghu stretched himself up to his full height, took a full breath, and without a single stammer made an offer to the ice cream man “you give us two ice creams and we will give you two bigggg mangoes, what do you think?” The ice cream man thought hard, and drove a hard bargain “I’ll give you two ice creams for 4 mangoes, deal or no deal?” Everything sounded fair for ice creams, Raghu ambled up the nearest tree and brought down 4 huge mangoes, they barely fitted into our tiny hands, still we managed to get it over to the gate. The ice cream man kept his word and pulled out two big vanilla pops and handed over to us.

Raghu and I settled under our favourite mango tree, the farthest from the house, from where no one could spot us, peeled away the paper from the pop and licked.

Aam Panna also called Kairi Panha (Kairi meaning raw mango) is a summer tradition at my home. Summer is incomplete without cool sips of iced mango panha. Deliciously cardamomy, sweet and tart panha usually looks pale green because of the raw mangoes in it, mine turned a little orange because the mangoes were almost ripening. Further, in addition to cardamom I also added saffron and jaggery, so orange mango panha it is – but tastes just like home!

I have to add here that my mum always peels and chops up the raw mango and its really a load of work, and that is one of the main reasons that deterred me from making panha at home. But I was recently going through a cookbook that talked about pressure cooking raw mangoes, and bingo!  So truly its really easy to try this at home and do give this traditional drink a shot – I am planning to spike some panha with vodka one evening, endless possibilities, I feel giddy thinking about it

Ingredients
1 kilogram raw mango
1 1/2 cup jaggery, shavings
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon saffron, soaked in a spoonful of warm water
1 teaspoon cardamom powder

Method
1. Wash the raw mangoes well, and pressure cook to one whistle. Remove and let cool.
2. The cooked mangoes would have slit open, remove the peel and scrape off any pulp on the peel using a teaspoon. Using your hands squeeze out the rest of the pulp from the seed. Discard the seed.
3. Pour the extracted mango pulp into a blender along with the jaggery, sugar (if using), saffron and cardamom and whisk until combined.
4. Pour into clean glass jars and refrigerate. I got about 750 gms of panha, filling 1 + 1/2 empty Horlicks bottles. I put one bottle into the freezer, will take out when the other’s used up.
5. To prepare kairi panha or aam panna pour a couple of tablespoons of the panna into a glass top with water and ice cubes, garnish with mint leaves, give it a stir and enjoy!

You can also make instant mango lassi with the panna sauce. Just pour a bit into a glass, and top with chilled milk and stir. The citric acid in the mango turns the combination into a thick mango lassi! double yum!

Srivalli from Cooking 4 all Seasons is celebrating 3 years of blogging with her Thanda Mela event. Here’s a glass of chilled Aam Panna for her!

Well if the story is the whole truth or farthest from the truth is something you’ll have to keep guessing, for now this post is also my entry to Aqua’s Of Chalks and Chopsticks, now being hosted by Bong Mom.

Two kinds of peechingya (ridge-gourd) are commonly available – one is the gourd thats allowed to be dried to make nice, exfoliating loofah, the kind that we pay couple of dirhams for at body shop, and the other is this one with proper ridges on its body. Its sort of like the armadillo of the vegetable world. Thick skinned, but once pared and cooked, incredibly soft with a delicate flavour. Although when it comes to flavour I prefer the other loofah gourd. With a prominent and permanent place in our kitchen garden, my grandmother used to chop them up along with potatoes and make a yummy subzi to go with chappatis and masoor dal. A few were allowed to dry for the loofah business, which was used everyday to scrub us at bath times. So I do like the loofah gourds a degree more than the ridge gourds, but then I find only the ridged ones in supermarkets here. Here’s a theeyal recipe.

Theeyal is a malayali favourite and has fried or sautéed vegetables in a thick gravy of roasted coconut, coriander, pepper and tamarind, all easily available ingredients in Kerala. The word theeyal probably has been derived from ‘theeyil’ malayalam for ‘in the fire’, and could mean its sometimes fiery taste (if its made too spicy) or it could be because the ingredients have been roasted over a wood fire. Theeyals can be prepared with a variety of vegetables like shallots (ulli theeyal), bittergourd (pavakkya theeyal), aubergines (vazhuthenengya theeyal) and so on.

In this theeyal recipe I have neither fried nor roasted the chief ingredient – the ridge-gourd. The gourd has been slow boiled, and the curry ingredients have been dry roasted on my gas stove. Nonetheless it tasted good.

Ingredients
3 ridge-gourds, pared, halved and chopped to 1/2 inch length
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
salt to taste
1 small ball of tamarind soaked in hot water

for the curry paste
1/2 cup fresh coconut, shredded and toasted
4 shallots chopped, sauteed
2 tablespoons whole coriander seeds, dry roasted
1 teaspoon peppercorn, dry roasted
1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds, dry roasted
2 torn pieces of dry red chillies, also dry roasted

for the seasoning
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 piece of dry red chilly, torn (optional)
2 sprigs of fresh curry leaves

Method
1. All the ingredients for the curry needs to be ground to a smooth paste.
2. Boil the ridge-gourd with a little water, salt and turmeric, until its just cooked.
3. Add the tamarind extract to the boiled ridge-gourd and allow to simmer for 2 minutes.
4. Next, add the curry paste, give it a good stir, adjust the salt and let it come to a boil, then simmer for 5 minutes, until all the tastes combine.
5. Heat the coconut oil in a saucepan and pop the mustard, red chilly and curry leaves, and pour the seasoning over the bubbling curry. Remove from heat.
6. Let the ridge-gourd theeyal sit it out for an hour before serving with mounds of steaming hot rice, pappadam and thoran.

Rice Porridge & Jackfruit Curry copyright 2010 eat.write.think

Happy Vishu to all my readers! Vishu this year was a complete success for me, everything went right! My daughter, who’s growing up so fast, not only comprehended what the early morning fuss was about but also appeared to thoroughly enjoy it. The previous evening we made the mandatory trip to the local supermarket and picked up most of the stuff that’s needed to celebrate Vishu in the most authentic way possible. We got Konna Poo, neat bunches, packaged in clear pastic bags with the price tag in place, we got a packet of pre cut sambhar vegetables, also a neat roll of banana leaves, to eat on – that was really our best buy. Perfect leaves, not a tear, no black spots, I have quite a few left over – so tommorow morning I am looking forward to making Elai Ada! Yum!

For any of my readers who are familiar with malayalam do drop by this post Vishu Ashamsagal, very nice write up on vishu celebration 50 years back in a hamlet in Kerala. My own celebration couldn’t be farther from that, no large family, no essentials like nellu, unnakkalari, uruli and so on, no river to run to and take a dip or enjoy the early morning fireworks which are much enjoyed part of vishu day celebrations.

We woke up at 4 am saw a beautiful Kani that I had set up the previous night, did the traditional game of checking the year’s fortunes, some roll a coconut – we tossed a shiny new rupee coin – heads means a great year; tails means the year has its lows, but you get two more chances – its the best of three! My daughter loved this the best

Vishu Kani copyright 2010 eat.write.think

To carry the traditional mood forward, I made Vishu Kanji and Chakka puzhukku for breakfast. I believe ordinary boiled rice is used to make this thick porridge, I didn’t have any so I made some with basmati rice. We had earlier picked up a quarter of a mature (but not ripe) jackfruit. And I spent 40 minutes just to cut, clean and chop it! The women in my family will be horrified, but the time it takes to clean it up is precisely the reason I pass up opportunities to cook with this fruit. All it takes is a practiced hand. If you feel inspired to try this yourself, remember to liberally rub your hands and the knife with some coconut oil (or any oil), unripe jacks release a very sticky gum, as you can see in the pic. below. Now for the recipe,

Right before the kill! copyright 2010 eat.write.think

For the Vishu Kanji (serves 3)
Ingredients
1 1/2 cup basmati rice, washed
4 1/2 cups water
1 cup coconut, grated
2 teaspoon salt or to taste
1 tablespoon ghee/clarified butter

Method
1. Cook the basmati, with the water and coconut in the pressure cooker for 1 whistle.
2. Remove from fire, add salt and ghee, mix and serve.

For the Chakka Puzhukku (serves 3 – 4)
Ingredients
1/4 piece of a large mature, unripe jackfruit, pitted & chopped
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup coconut, grated
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
2 sprigs curry leaf
1 tablespoon coconut oil
salt to taste

Method
1. Boil the chopped jackfruit, with 1/2 cup water, salt, & turmeric. After the first boil, reduce to sim, cover and cook. This should be done in 8 to 10 minutes.
2. Grind the coconut and cumin to a paste using a little water.
3. When the jackfruit appears cooked, add the coconut cumin paste and let it cook for 2 to 3 minutes.
4. Turn off the flame, garnish with curry leaves and a generous spoonful of coconut oil.

The lunch was also traditional, I couldn’t manage to make all the sadya dishes, but there was sambhar, avial, manga kaalan, thoran & puli inji (a traditional ginger tamarind sweet & sour chutney). I will be posting the puli inji recipe next.

copyright 2010 eat.write.think

Its been some time since I posted anything new, particularly from my trip home. I am back now, and hopefully in the coming weeks will be able to share my culinary adventures in the homeland. One of my all time favourites is Idiyappam (freshly made rice noodles), I’ll post a recipe for Idiyappams another time, its quite tricky to make and people report disasters all the time “its too hard” “its too sticky” etc etc… My mum though has mastered it to a fine art, and prepares the most silky soft Idiyappams I’ve ever had. As a kid I used to love eating it with sweetened milk, now I love the combination of Idiyappam and Kadala curry (super spicy chickpea curry). These noodles are pretty versatile though, and sometimes we have them with Ishtoo (Stew to those uninitiated to Kerala cooking terminology).

Ingredients
2 cups brown chickpeas, soaked for 6-8 hours

for the curry paste:
2 tablespoons whole coriander seeds
1 tablespoon peppercorns
1 cup fresh coconut, grated
4 dried Indian red chillies

for the seasoning:
1 onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, chopped or julienned
2 – 3 sprigs curry leaves
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 teaspoon garam masala
salt to taste
1 tablespoon oil/coconut oil

copyright 2010 eat.write.think

Method
1. Pressure cook the chickpeas until soft. (Usually 30 minutes on low flame after the steam point has been reached should be alright).

2. Dry roast all the ingredients for the curry paste in a heavy bottomed wok, saucepan or kadahi, we just kept adding each ingredient as we went along. When its all cool enough to handle, add some water and using a blender, grind to a smooth paste.

3. Heat oil in a saucepan and crack the mustard, followed by onions, ginger & curry leaves, and sauté until soft.

4. Next add the turmeric, garam masala and salt, mix well, and finally, stir in the curry paste.

5. Cook the curry paste on low flame for a couple of minutes, then add the cooked chickpeas to this, give it a stir, add water if necessary, cover and let the curry come to a boil. Simmer for 5 to 6 minutes.

That’s all! Enjoy a delicious and spicy Kerala style chickpea curry with home made idiappams or ready to eat rice noodles. Its a simple enough process and you can completely avoid lifting a finger to get this done, if you like my dad has an inspired wife cooking away in the kitchen!

copyright 2010 eat.write.think

I am also contributing at a new blog started by Cynthia and others called THE GREAT VEGA’N VEGETARIAN PROJECT, you can read my post on one my favourite sides Baigun Bhajas (Eggplant Fritters).

parikai, pavakkai, karela, bittergourd copyright 2010 eat.write.think

Ingredients
2 large bittergourds, finely chopped
3/4 cup tuvar/arhar dal, cooked
a lemon sized ball of tamarind dissolved in water
3/4 cup shredded coconut
3-4 red chillies
2 tablespoons corriander seeds
1.5 teaspoon channa dal
1 teaspoon urad dal
a few peppercorns

Tempering
mustard seeds
curry leaves

Method

1. Soak the chopped bittergourd in salt water and after a while drain it and squeeze out the pieces. This removes most of the bitterness. [If you like making faces, drink the drained out water...!!!!]

2. Cook the drained bittergourd in tamarind water. Add salt and turmeric.

3. Meanwhile, dry roast the red chillies, channa dal, urad dal, pepper and corriander seeds. Pop them into a mixie along with the coconut and grind to a smooth paste.

4. When the bittergourd is cooked, add the cooked dal. Combine well & add the coconut paste. Stir again. Let it simmer on low heat for about 5 minutes. Don’t let it boil.

5. For the tempering: Pop mustard seeds and curry leaves in a teaspoon of hot oil and pour it over the pitla. It’s spicy with a not so subtle hint of bitterness that I love!

Enjoy! With hot rice, a nice sweet potato curry and crisp appalams, it makes for a great relaxed lunch.

parikai pitla with rice, sweet potato, roasted pappad and ginger pickle copyright 2010 eat.write.think

Variation

You can do the same thing with finely chopped brinjal too – just add half a teaspoon of methi/fenugreek seeds to the roasted ingredients. Kathrikai pitla is a killer too!