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.

Running a little busy with some writing assignments, and when you have to work you just can’t, I was supposed to announce the winner in a post yesterday but just didn’t get around to, I did put the name up on my FB status, so incase you didn’t notice the lucky winner for the Braun Multiquick Cordless is Abigail Caidoy from Dubai (I believe she has already received the package! that’s super quick!). These days we are on a salads only dinner diet. Basically trying to get in as much food in the raw as possible. I am also trying out going lactose free, I have kept the milk out of my daily chai, tried soy milk last week, this week having chai with rice milk. Ate no chocolates (only 1 on the first day) and biscuits (though I usually munch on Glucose biscuits with evening chai), but I can’t do without yoghurt. I did last week, but yesterday just had to have some. So its okay I guess, not having milk isn’t that difficult. I guess I might not go completely lactose free, but will aim to be 80% free of it.

Here’s one of my favourite ways to eat a green Papaya. Called Som Tam, its a Thai salad. My two most favourite Thai dishes happen to be pad thai and this som tam. I am kind of okay with the green curry and red curry, not that hot. Also always worried if there’s going to be fish or oyster sauce in the food. Many moons ago I had ventured to have soup at the Thai place in Ibn Batuta food court, that was the only vegetarian thing they had on the menu. I almost gagged because the soup tasted like rotten fish excavated from an underground sewage. So here’s Som Tam version completely suitable for vegetarians. Sorry if I have offended anyone with this description, flesh in any of its forms, for me, is cringe inducing.

Ingredients for Som Tam

1 small green papaya, peeled and shredded
1 large tomato, deseeded, cut into stripes
fistful of mung sprouts, for extra crunch
couple of spring onions, chopped
chopped green chillies (optional)
1 large handful of roasted, shelled peanuts
for the dressing:
juice of one lemon
2,3 garlic, pressed
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon honey, just to round off the sweetness
1 tablespoon soy sauce
salt to taste

Method

1. Assemble all the salad ingredients in a large bowl.
2. Add all the ingredients for the dressing over the salad, toss. Check for taste, it should have the right balance of spice, salt, sweet and sour.
3. Pile into bowls, garnish with more peanuts if you like.

Picked up a packet of tender, green Asparagus, from the supermarket… and had been thinking of baking flan. But in the end with the crazy weather outside, I thought rather than pamper my own desire to bake flan, which might have only limited takers, might be a better idea to make something the whole family can enjoy. So I made soup with the Asparagus, and for something crispy to go with it – I baked – Mathri. Mathris are Indian-style savoury biscuits which are traditionally deep-fried. Its often had as a tea time snack, and during winters in northern India mathri is a family favourite. Another popular way of eating Mathri is to dunk it in mango pickle, some of the best Mathri I have ever eaten in my life was in Meerut (Uttar Pradesh), made by Rani Amma. Rani Amma was our Dhoban – washer-woman – an extraordinarily beautiful grandmother. Its hard to say how old she was, but she was a study in contrast, her beautiful unlined face with a permanent yet toothless smile. Her sari, softly covering her frame and head, pale floral cotton, the permitted colours of widowhood. Her boys lived with her, and despite her soft visage she lorded over her daughters-in-law with an iron fist. For most of our time in Meerut, it was Rani Amma who bought in our freshly ironed laundry delicately balanced over her head. On request she would prepare her famous mathris, and one huge batch was reserved solely for me to eat when I came home on off days from my college in Delhi.

There are several kinds of mathris, salted plain, to peppery, spicy ones, mathri with fenugreek (methi mathri), but with one thing in common – its texture – uniformly crisp, yet melt in the mouth. Perfect to offset a mild soup.

Ingredients for Asparagus Soup

450 gms tender asparagus
2 cups water
1 cup milk
1 medium sized red onion, chopped
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoon Flour
1 vegetable bouillon cube
salt and pepper to taste
2 teaspoons butter/oil

Method for the Soup

1. Cut an inch and a half off the top of half the asparagus and set aside for garnish. Chop the remaining asparagus into slices.
2. Melt one teaspoon of butter in a large saucepan and gently fry the chopped onions until pink. There’s no need to brown the onions.
3. Add the asparagus and saute over low heat for about a minute.
4. Stir in the flour, and cook for a minute, and add the water and bouillon, lemon juice, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, cover and let simmer for about 10 minutes, until the asparagus is very tender.
5. Cool lightly and puree in a food processor or blender, until really smooth.
6. Pour back into the saucepan, and add the milk, stir and heat the soup for a couple of minutes.
7. Melt the remaining butter in a pan and saute the asparagus heads set aside earlier, these will soften in 3 to 4 minutes.
8. To serve pour into soup bowls and garnish with sauteed asparagus heads.

These baked mathris are tender and biscuit like in texture, and seriously so easy to make, I think I got this into the oven in 15-minutes, and minus all the fuss of frying. Its my own recipe, based on my CQ (cooking quotient) so if you wish to get the same result use the same instructions as below. Ofcourse you can play around with the flavour ingredients.

Ingredients for Baked Mathri – Indian-style savoury biscuits

1 1/2 cups self rising AP Flour
1 heaped tablespoon grated ginger
1-2 pods of garlic, grated
1 tablespoon peppercorns, crushed lightly
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon carom/ajwain/bishop’s weed
1/2 cup cooking oil (I used sunflower)
1 scant teaspoon salt (or to taste, but first check if your flour already contains salt)
3 tablespoon cold full fat milk

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 C and line a cookie sheet with baking paper.
2. Sieve the flour along with the salt, and place in a large enough sturdy bowl which you can use for kneading the dough. Add the ginger & garlic, pepper, cumin and carom, and mix, using your fingers.
3. Make a well in the center and gradually pour in the oil, in quarters, mixing the flour into the oil. The dough will start with being rough breadcrumbs in texture, to being like moist breadcrumbs – so if you squeeze some dough in your fist, it will hold shape.
4. Sprinkle milk one tablespoon at a time, lightly kneading the dough, the dough should just come together, in a flaky sort of way. Do not be tempted to over-knead.
5. Make egg yolk sized balls, and lay on the cookie sheet. Using a dessert spoon flatten the dough balls lightly. Mathris can be made smaller and flatter also, all depends on your mood that day.
6. Bake for 20 – 25 minutes, when lightly brown at the edges and top, keeping an eye on them after the first 15 minutes or so.
7. Once done, remove and cool on a wire rack – the most amazing crisp and flakey mathris await. Store in an airtight container, should last a week, if they do.

Sending the baked Mathri off to this week’s Bake-Off.

Canapé comes from the French word for a couch or an open sofa, and in culinary terms the couch would be a base of bread or pastry over which spreads, toppings and flavoured butters are slapped on. Well that is how it is usually, but I had bookmarked a recipe in one of my mum’s recipe books, it had mangetout/snap peas and cucumber as a base for a topping which contained something aquatic. This recipe is fresh, and cool, and very subtly combines crisp green vegetables with an incredibly light and flavourful filling.

Ingredients for the Mangetout Canapés

15 mangetout
3 tablespoon labneh/hung curd
2 pieces sun dried tomatoes, drained from oil and chopped very finely
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
a pinch of salt (optional)

Method

1. Wash and top and tail the mangetout, and string them if required.
2. Blanch them for 30 seconds in boiling water. Rinse in a bowl of icy cold water, drain, pat dry, and store in the refrigerator.
3. To make the filling, whisk together, labneh, chopped sundried tomatoes, salt and pepper, refrigerate.
4. To assemble, With a sharp, pointed knife, split the mangetout vertically, along its curved outer edge. Pipe the filling into the mangetout.

Both the vegetables and the filling can be fixed several hours in advance, and the canapés can be assembled an hour before serving. I was just reading in the book that the mangetout are regarded as a “greater delicacy than the insignificant pea”. Feeling bad for the insignificant pea, but such is the world of the culinary snobs.

Ingredients for Cucumber Canapés

1 cucumber
1/2 cup labneh/hung curd
2 walnuts, chopped very fine
1 garlic, grated
Juice of half a lemon
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
salt to taste
few fronds of dill

Method

1. Score the cucumber lengthways with a fork and cut them into slices of quarter inch thickness. Mix with lemon juice and set aside. After 15 minutes, drain and refrigerate until needed.
2. For the spread, whisk together, labneh, garlic, salt, pepper, and chopped walnuts, set aside in the refrigerator until needed.
3. To assemble, put a dollop of the spread on each slice of cucumber, top with a small frond of dillweed.

Sending these delicious canapés to February’s Monthly Mingle hosted by Paulchen’s FoodBlog.

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.

Somewhere during the rule of the Mughals in India, Awadhi cusine came into existence in Uttar Pradesh, Northern India. Awadhi cuisine has been shaped by three major influences – central asian, middle eastern, and north indian. The food of Awadh is what’s called Shahi or Nawabi meaning princely – rich not only in taste but also in texture. The dum style of slow cooking that’s so popular today owes its roots to the bawarchis (chefs of the Mughals) of Lucknow. The typical Awadhi platter would include elaborate dishes like kebabs, kormas, biryani, nahari-kulchas, roomali roti, warqi paratha (similar to Kerala parotta), and several thousands more dishes rich in meats and spices, as well as a few vegetarian ones developed by the vegetarian Hindu community that lived in and around Lucknow during the age of the Nawabs. The richness of Awadhi cuisine lay in the use of rich spices and ingredients. Even today you are likely to find, on the streets of Lucknow, kebabs that hark back to the princely days – Kakori Kebab, Galawati Kebabs, Shami Kebabs, Boti Kebabs, Patili-ke-Kebabs, Ghutwa Kebabs, Seekh Kebab… it goes on and on.

Now almost all of the great Lucknowi kebabs I can never eat because they’re made of meat – but a long time ago somewhere I had tasted a memorable vegetarian version of the famous Galouti/Galawati kebab, so called because of a toothless old nawab. Now these Nawabs of yore were an indulgent lot who never let things like age or lack of teeth come in the way of their decadent eating ways. So a clever Bawarchi of the toothless ruler decided to grind the meat over 30 times, and put over one hundred aromatic spices in it, to ensure further long life and happy digestion for the ageing royalty. The kebab was then cooked over a low charcoal flame – so that it not only tasted good but had an aroma that was typical of the kebab.

In my case, I have made redundant two annoying steps – done away with the meat and all that grinding, and avoided the charcoal and all that mess! The resulting patty is delicious, great in texture and the use of mace, a very important ingredient in this kebab, makes for an aroma that you don’t usually find in vegetarian kebabs.

So here’s my (melt-in-the-mouth) Galouti Kebab made with yam (zamikand/suran) and plantain (unripe banana)…

Ingredients
2 cups cooked yam (suran/zamikand/chena), mashed
1 cup cooked plantain, peeled and mashed
1 small onion, finely chopped
3 tablespoon ginger garlic paste
1/2 teaspoon mace, powdered
1 teaspoon red chilli powder
1 teaspoon garam masala powder
1 teaspoon crushed pepper
4 tablespoon besan, lightly roasted
2 tablespoons fresh coriander, chopped
1 tablespoon ghee
Salt to taste
Oil for frying

Method
1. In a large bowl mix together mashed yam and plaintain, along with the rest of the ingredients.
2. Divide the dough into golf ball sized portions.
3. Grease your palms with ghee and roll into balls, and lightly press to get a patty shape.
4. Heat oil in a skillet and shallow fry the Kebabs till golden brown on both sides.
5. Serve with roomali roti and sirke waala pyaaz (onion pickle).

serve with roomali roti and sirke waala pyaaz

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

Returning after a long summer break makes me feel like a stranger in my own home. Even the pots and pans in the kitchen don’t look particularly friendly… and it usually takes me a full week to fall into a familiar monotony. I was craving for some fries, perfectly feel good food as far as I am concerned, so made this version of potato wedges and a delicious tomato dip to go with it. Purrrfect…

for the wedges:
4 medium sized potatoes, washed & scrubbed
a large pot of water
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon garam masala
2 teaspoons coriander powder
1 teaspoon chilly powder/paprika
1 teaspoon garlic paste
salt to taste

for the dip:
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 large tomatoes, finely chopped
2 green chillies, chopped
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
salt to taste

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 200 degree C.
2. Cut the potatoes into 6 wedges.
3. Place the potatoes in the pot of water, bring to a boil and then simmer until the potatoes look just cooked. Drain well, and pat dry.
4. Mix the oil, garlic, salt, garam masala, coriander powder and paprika in a roasting tray. Add the potatoes and coat thoroughly.
5. Pop it into the oven and roast for 20 minutes, turning sides after the first 10 minutes.
6. For the dip, heat oil in a saucepan, saute the onion and garlic, add the tomatoes and cook until soft.
7. Stir in the chilly, vinegar, salt and sugar. Cook for another 5 minutes on low flame until the mixture looks reduced. Serve warm with the potato wedges.

]]> http://www.eatwritethink.com/2010/09/spicy-potato-wedges-with-tangy-tomato-dip/feed/ 5