Meme: Cooking Challenges 2006

A few days ago, Kalyn of "Kalyn's Kitchen", who always impresses me with her beautiful presentation and interesting posts (not to mention the focus on healthy recipes!), tagged me for a very interesting meme: my five cooking challenges for 2006? Ever since I started writing this blog (almost a year ago!), I have taken on small cooking challenges, baby steps like making custard from scratch or cooking with some novel (for me) ingredients. But I have such a long way to go towards being the kind of cook that I would like to be.

My 5 Culinary Challenges for 2006...

1. Learn To Cook Classic Dishes. Don't get me wrong...experimentation has its own role in my kitchen, but one of my goals is to learn to make all of the world's classic dishes really well. I want to make a perfectly creamy risotto, tasty pad-thai and a mean macaroni-and-cheese. The same goes for Indian classics: I would like to make the perfect dal makhani, the tangiest rasam and an authentic aloo gobi. Luckily, I have access to wonderful recipes from fellow bloggers as well as cookbooks and this challenge is going to be really fun!

2. Make More Salads. Now here is a department where I am woefully lacking! Most of the meals I churn out don't have a big salad component at all. My idea of salad usually is to make a quick yogurt-based "raita" or to put out a bowl of baby carrots and a platter of cucumber and tomato slices. That just does not cut it! I want to start planning meals around salads rather than include them as an afterthought.

3. Cook More Whole Grains. Again, I started working on this last year by including oatmeal, whole-wheat pasta and brown rice in my cooking repertoire. But so many more grains/flours are available now, such as quinoa and teff, and I want to learn to cook them all. Whole grains have too many health benefits and learning to make some delicious dishes using these grains would make it easy to make small healthful changes in my diet.

4. Equip Myself With Better Cookware. I presently own a skillet, a non-stick pan, 3 saucepans and a pressure cooker. All three saucepans are non-stick and I want to replace them with others (the lining is prone to leaking into food, studies suggest). The problem is, I am unsure what kind of cookware to buy. Any suggestions? What do you all use and how do you get around the problem of food sticking to the cookware? Any suggestions would be very welcome in helping me meet my challenge to cook in safer cookware. In addition, I would also like to buy a cast-iron pot, and a good wok. I would like to buy quality items and use them over a lifetime.

5. Generate Less Kitchen Waste.This one means a lot to me personally. I try to live an environmentally-conscious lifestyle, and in my home (and I suppose, most others), the kitchen produces most of my household trash. I would like to reduce this trash to the bare minimum. Some things I currently do are:
a) Take tote bags to the store so that I save those grocery plastic bags.
b) Buy foods in bulk to save on packaging.
c) Try to minimize food waste by planning meals in advance and buying only the groceries I know I will use.
d) Cook beans from scratch to avoid buying all those canned beans.
More challenges:
a) I want to grow my own herbs (never have to buy herbs again) and start growing some other veggies.
b) Start a compost heap with my bio-degradable kitchen waste.
Any other suggestions to reduce kitchen waste would be very welcome. I will challenge myself to keep thinking of new ways to do this.
Thanks, Kalyn, for provoking me into thinking about this meme...it was a very useful exercise!

S is for SOLKADI and SHEERA

This article is part of a special series called "The A-Z of Marathi food". India is the land of diversity. Each of the 28 states in India has a unique cuisine but the Indian food served in restaurants represents only a tiny fraction of our culinary heritage. I come from the western Indian state of Maharashtra. Capital: Bombay (Mumbai). Population: 96 million (only 11 countries in the world have a population higher than Maharashtra). Language: Marathi. Traditional Marathi food is earthy and humble, diverse and very tasty. It also remains relatively unknown to non-marathis. Its time to change that. I invite you to join me on an alphabetical culinary tour of my state. We will go through the letters A to Z and make a dish with each letter to show-case Marathi cuisine.

S is for Solkadi and Sheera.

"S" is the Marathi letter of sugar, syrupy and sweet! It all starts with the basic pantry sweetener sakhar or sugar. The words in Marathi and English sound quite similar, don't they? The words for "sugar" seem to have ancient roots in different languages, and here is a very interesting study exploring those origins. Many Marathi pantry staples used to make sweet foods are also "S" words, such as saay or cream, which is often used to churn home-made butter, which is then clarified to ghee (and most Indian sweets are positively dripping with ghee!); shengdana or peanuts, used to make tasty "chikki" or peanut brittle; and shevaya or vermicelli, the only noodle I can think of that is commonly used in Marathi food, most often to make kheer. Another pantry staple is sabudana or pearl tapioca, used to make delicious khichdi and also to make a sweet kheer.
Other "S" desserts abound: the simplest one is called shikran, ripe bananas folded into some whole milk and sprinkled with sugar (one of those weeknight desserts that is popular with kids); shrikhand or flavored thick yogurt, and Lulu from the blog "Lulu loves Manhattan" gives a easy recipe for home-made shrikhand. More dessert, anyone? Sutarfeni is a rich besan-based dessert that vaguely reminds me of some mid-Eastern desserts; you can see a picture here.
An "S" snack is shankarpale, little fried diamond shapes that can be sweet or savoury. They are traditionally made for the festival of Diwali. "S" also stands for a whole family of beverages called sarbat, all fruit-based syrups that can be made and stored for months in the pantry, ready to be diluted with chilled water to make a quick refreshing drink. A great alternative to soda!
So what am I making for the "S" food today? Well, to be honest, all these endless desserts are cloying, and my tastebuds need a break: so I am going to make a beverage called solkadi. This is a drink made with coconut milk, flavors such as garlic, and an unusual fruit called "kokum"...the combination of which makes for a drink that has a unique sweet-spicy-sour flavor that is utterly and completely refreshing!
Now, most Indian dishes call for some sour flavor component that gives a slight tang: commonly these are yogurt or tomato or tamarind or lemon juice. The "kokum" is a sour tropical fruit. In its fresh form, it can be cut in half, seeds scooped out, the two halves of the fruit packed with sugar and stored in a jar in the sun. After days or weeks, the sugar dissolves into the fruit pulp, and the result is a tangy syrup...you guessed it, kokum sarbat. This can be made into a drink that is simply heavenly on a sweltering hot summer day (which in India, is almost three-quarters of the year). But another way to use the kokum fruit is to dry the peel, packed with salt as a preservative. It is used in this form as a souring agent in many curries etc. The "sol" in solkadi comes from the fact that kokum is also called "amsul" or "sol". The dark purple color of the kokum gives a pretty pale pink hue to the solkadi. This is what kokum looks like:

The two main components of solkadi are kokum and coconut, both of which grow abundantly in the hot humid coast of Maharashtra, and so solkadi is a coastal specialty. The solkadi can be served as a cold soup/appetizer, or in a small bowl along with the main meal. Some people also like sipping it at the end of the meal as a cooling digestive. My aunt CM in Bombay often serves the cool mild solkadi with spicy egg pulao. I simply love this combination and that is how I made it today.

Solkadi

(serves 4)

Ingredients:
8-10 dried kokum (about 1/2 cup loosely packed), shake off excess salt
1 can coconut milk
2 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
3-4 green chillies, each cut into 3 pieces
1 tsp peppercorns, coarsely crushed
4 tbsp cilantro, divided
salt to taste
Method:
1. Place kokum in a bowl. Pour 1 cup boiling water on the kokum. Leave to steep for 1 hour.
2. Add garlic, chillies, peppercorns, 2 tbsp cilantro and salt to the kokum-water and leave to steep for another hour.
3. Add coconut milk and mix well (either use your hands, or place the mixture in a tightly-closed container and shake vigorously). The idea is to flavor the liquid well with the spices and extract all the sourness from the kokum.
4. Strain the mixture through a coarse sieve into a fresh container. Garnish with cilantro. Serve chilled in small bowls or glasses.

That was our main course, but I just cannot end the "S" post without a dessert: so here is an easy dessert in which the amount of sugar can be adjusted to suit your palate. Sheera is a stove-top semolina pudding and is best served warm, making it an ideal winter dessert. Traditionally, sheera is made for religious events and served in little paper cups as "prasad" or an offering to the diety. I love eating it with sliced bananas as a special treat. The method of making sheera is similar to that of risotto in that hot liquid is added to grain and stirred constantly for a creamy result. You can find cream of wheat in the breakfast aisle of any US supermarket while the same product is sold as "rava" in Indian stores.

Sheera

serves 4-6

Ingredients:
1 cup rava (cream of wheat/semolina/farina)
2 tbsp ghee/butter
1 cup water
1 cup milk
3 tbsp sugar (or to taste)
1/2 cup chopped mixed nuts (any combo of almonds, cashews, pistachios, walnuts)
2 tbsp raisins
1 tsp cardamom powder
few strands saffron (optional)
Method:
1. Heat the ghee in a saucepan and saute the rava till it is toasty and fragrant.
2. Meanwhile, heat the water and milk together till it is simmering. Add the saffron strands, if using.
3. Add the sugar to the toasted rava and stir together.
4. Add the nuts and raisins and saute for a minute more.
5. Pour in the hot water/milk (carefully...it will bubble vigorously!) and stir constantly for several minutes till the pudding is thick and creamy.
6. Stir in the cardamom. Serve warm, topped with ripe banana slices, if desired.
I hope you enjoyed this sweet letter. We will meet soon with the letter "T". As usual, suggestions are appreciated!

Blog Party: A Retro "Cheesy" Fondue!

When Stephanie announced that the theme of this month's blog party is "Retro", one word screamed out loud at me: FONDUE! For one thing, it is a retro food that I actually love to eat (The same cannot be said about some other retro favorites like jello salad and spam). For another, I own a pretty retro-looking fondue pot, a small red electric one that I bought for a few dollars at a moving sale. A fondue is a delicious way to while away a cold winter evening...huddled around a pot of molten cheese, dipping in crusty bread and potato wedges.

A real fondue consists of cheese melted into wine to make a bubbly sauce. I better announce my disclaimer right now: this is not a real fondue recipe that I am about to share with you. My first attempt at making real fondue was an unmitigated disaster of cheese separating into a grainy awful mess. I turned to Harold McGee's "On Food and Cooking" for help, and learned that it is the acidity in wine that makes for a smooth cheese fondue (the alcohol has nothing to do with it). Any other stabilizing agent such as flour can also do the trick. So that is how I have come up with this faux cheese fondue recipe that works for me.

Easy Cheesy Fondue
(serves 2-4)
Ingredients:
1 tbsp butter
1/3 cup finely minced onions
1/3 cup finely minced green peppers
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 cup brie cheese, rind removed, torn into pieces
1/2 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese/ other cheese of your choice
2 tsp plain flour
1/2-1 cup milk
Pepper to taste
Method:
1. Place all the cheese in a bowl and toss together with the flour to coat.
2. Melt the butter and saute onions, pepper, garlic.
3. Add the cheese a little at a time on low heat, stirring to melt the cheese evenly.
4. Add milk to thin the fondue to your desired consistency.
5. Season with pepper (cheese is quite salty so no more salt should be needed).
6. Pour into a fondue pot if you want to keep the sauce warm at the table.
Serve with slices of crusty bread, roasted potato wedges and fruit such as pears, apples and grapes.

These baked potato wedges are great for dipping into the fondue, or just eating on their own, maybe with a dab of ketchup.
Oven-Baked Fries
Ingredients:
2 medium potatoes
1 tbsp vegetable oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Method:
1. Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees F.
2. Wash and scrub the potatoes. Cut into long wedges/fingers.
3. In a bowl, toss together the potatoes, oil, salt and pepper.
4. Spread the potato wedges in a single layer on a baking sheet sprayed with non-stick spray.
5. Bake for 20-25 minutes, stirring once or twice while baking, till wedges are crispy and golden.
Try these with other seasonings such as garlic powder, rosemary or chilli powder.

This cocktail is my idea of a tasty retro drink, salty and spicy, just the way I like it.
Virgin Mary
For each serving, mix together:
1/2 cup V8 or any other brand of vegetable juice
1/2 cup tomato juice
Dash of tabasco sauce
4-5 drops of lemon juice
Sprinkle of salt and pepper
Serve over ice, garnished with a celery stick. Delicious!
Thanks for hosting, Stephanie, and I look forward to the next blog party!

R is for RATALA KEES

This article is part of a special series called "The A-Z of Marathi food". India is the land of diversity. Each of the 28 states in India has a unique cuisine but the Indian food served in restaurants represents only a tiny fraction of our culinary heritage. I come from the western Indian state of Maharashtra. Capital: Bombay (Mumbai). Population: 96 million (only 11 countries in the world have a population higher than Maharashtra). Language: Marathi. Traditional Marathi food is earthy and humble, diverse and very tasty. It also remains relatively unknown to non-marathis. Its time to change that. I invite you to join me on an alphabetical culinary tour of my state. We will go through the letters A to Z and make a dish with each letter to show-case Marathi cuisine.

R is for Ratala Kees.

We are already at the final 1/3rd of the alphabet! The letter "R" is a sweet treat in many ways. It stands for rava or cream of wheat (coarsely ground wheat also known as "farina" or "semolina"), a pantry staple in most Indian households. Although rava has many uses in sweet and savory foods, the Marathi favorite is the rava ladoo, rava cooked with ghee, sugar and cardamom and molded into little balls. Rava can also be cooked into an easy stove-top pudding called "sheera", and we shall make this for "S" in a few days.
Ras in Marathi means "juice" and aamras, simply called ras is the thick pulp of the mango. In the summer months, mango reigns supreme, and the bright orange aromatic "ras" is served at most meals in a little bowl, to be scooped up with some hot rotis, or for festive occasions, with a hot puffy fried puri.
One "R" dessert that is loved across the length and breadth of India is rasmalai, where small cheese dumplings are soaked in a sweet flavored milky syrup. I love making and serving rasmalai, and will devote a whole post to this wonderful dessert soon.
Now on to the savory "R" foods. The most popular spicy "R" food is ragda-patties, and I have posted that recipe already. From "ras" or juice comes another word, rassa or juicy curry, and the egg rassa is an example of this popular Marathi curry.
In the produce section, we have the power-house of nutrition, the ratala or sweet potato. It is unfortunate that we don't eat this amazing vegetable more often...in the US, the sweet potato is almost exclusively eaten at the thanksgiving holiday, and in Marathi homes, it is eaten mostly on days of religious fasts. By all accounts, it ought to be a much more routine part of our diet because of its excellent nutritional profile. Religious fast days allow for some restricted foods such as tapioca, potato, sweet potato and certain spices like cumin but forbid garlic, onion and many other foods. The sweet potato recipe I chose to make today is called ratala kees ("kees" means "grated") and this is a traditional "fasting day" dish. Personally, I think the natural sweetness and beautiful color of sweet potatoes makes this a wonderful side-dish for any meal, Indian or otherwise, any old day of the year. This recipe can be made in exactly the same way with regular potatoes. I adapted the recipe from this one that I found online.
This recipe is also my entry for ARF/5-a-day over at Sweetnicks, an event geared towards helping us all to make better nutritional choices.

Ratala Kees (Grated Sweet Potato)

serves 3-4

Ingredients:
2 medium sweet potatoes
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp ghee or butter
1 tsp cumin seeds
4-5 fresh curry leaves
2 tbsp crushed roasted peanuts
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
salt to taste
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
2 tbsp minced cilantro leaves
Method:
1. Wash, peel and grate the sweet potato coarsely into a bowl (this can be done manually or using the grating attachment of a food processor).
2. Heat the oil and ghee in a skillet. Add cumin seeds and curry leaves and saute for a minute.
3. Add grated sweet potatoes, salt and cayenne pepper. Saute for a minute, then cook partially covered on medium heat for 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally, till potatoes are just tender.
4. Add the crushed peanuts and saute for a minute more.
5. Turn off the heat, then stir in lemon juice. Garnish with cilantro.

This dish can be served warm or at room temperature. The natural sweetness of the sweet potato is a very pleasing contrast to the nutty peanut crunch and the slight spicy kick from the cumin and red chillies. Note that the sweet potato tends to stick to the bottom of the pan, so I had to use a non-stick skillet to avoid this. Another note: If you work reasonably quickly, the grated sweet potato does not discolor as it sits around. If the sweet potato is grated into a bowl of water, this is one way to avoid discoloration, but you will lose some water-soluble vitamins. I would suggest getting your ingredients organized, then grating the sweet potato (not into water) and sauteeing it right away.
We shall meet in a few days to look at "S"...do let me know if you have any suggestions for this letter!

5-a-day: Spinach-Mushroom Soup

If its Tuesday, it must be ARF/5-a-day over at Sweetnicks! Today, I am playing along with a nourishing soup that wraps you with comfort like a warm fuzzy scarf.
Spinach and Mushrooms are quickly cooked into a simple soup. A little bit of butter, cheese and milk go a long way in making this soup taste rich and flavorful. It is fine to use fresh or frozen spinach in this recipe. I often find that mature spinach tastes gritty and unpleasant to me, so I am going with baby spinach which has a milder taste.

Spinach Mushroom Soup

(serves 4-6)

Ingredients:
1 bag baby spinach
1 10-oz package mushrooms (baby bella/white)
2 tbsp butter
1 small onion, sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 bay leaf
1 tbsp all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (optional)
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup shredded cheese (cheddar/monterey jack)
salt and pepper to taste
Method:
1. Heat butter in a large pot. Saute bayleaf, onions and garlic for a couple of minutes until transluscent.
2. Add the flour and stir it around to get it coated in butter.
3. Add 6 cups of water and bring it to a boil.
4. Now add mushrooms and spinach (it will wilt quickly) to the water and simmer for 3-4 minutes.
5. Fish out bay leaf from soup and discard. Using an immersion blender or a regular blender, process the veggies to a thick broth.
6. Season with salt, pepper, oregano and red pepper flakes, if using.
7. Finish the soup with milk and shredded cheese. Continue heating for a minute or two and then serve.
Sweetnicks, thanks for hosting!

Q is for QUICK BHADANG

This article is part of a special series called "The A-Z of Marathi food". India is the land of diversity. Each of the 28 states in India has a unique cuisine but the Indian food served in restaurants represents only a tiny fraction of our culinary heritage. I come from the western Indian state of Maharashtra. Capital: Bombay (Mumbai). Population: 96 million (only 11 countries in the world have a population higher than Maharashtra). Language: Marathi. Traditional Marathi food is earthy and humble, diverse and very tasty. It also remains relatively unknown to non-marathis. Its time to change that. I invite you to join me on an alphabetical culinary tour of my state. We will go through the letters A to Z and make a dish with each letter to show-case Marathi cuisine.

Q is for Quick Bhadang.

The letter "Q" presented me with a challenge...this is the first letter for which I am unable to come with any Marathi food, so I am treating as a "wild card" to look at some foods that we missed along the journey. Q certainly stands for "quick", and here is a quick post with a quick recipe. Almost every home in India is stocked with a few sweet and savory snacks, for unexpected guests that might drop in, and for snacking on when mid-meal hunger pangs strike. We already looked at one such snack, Chivda, and this one called bhadang is a close cousin. Bhadang is made with puffed rice and can almost be considered "Indian popcorn". In my home-town of Kolhapur, fiery hot bhadang is sold in small paper cones by street vendors, and can be spiked with chopped onions, cilantro and a squeeze of lemon juice on request. It is one of life's little pleasures to eat handfuls of this spicy crunchy mix while sprawled on the couch reading a good book.
I made this bhadang today as part of the "chai hamper" that I pledged for the Menu for Hope fundraiser. The winner of the chai hamper is none other than Cathy! In my original pledge, I promised some chivda as part of the hamper, but Cathy visited me recently and I had made chivda then, so for a change, I made bhadang instead. I hope she likes it! Cathy, your hamper will be on its way tomorrow morning so please keep an eye out :)
Bhadang

Ingredients:
6 cups puffed rice
4 tbsp oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 cup peanuts
5-6 garlic cloves
8-10 curry leaves
1/4 cup raisins
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp red chilli powder
Method:
1. Heat oil in a large pot. Add cumin and mustard seeds and let them pop.
2. Add peanuts, garlic, curry leaves and saute till the garlic is lightly browned.
3. Add salt, sugar, turmeric and chilli powder and saute for a few seconds.
4. Add the puffed rice and raisins and saute on low-medium heat, stirring often till all the puffed rice is coated. Turn off heat after 3-5 minutes.
Cool and store in an air-tight tin, where it keeps indefinitely at room temperature. The garlic and curry leaves can be eaten as part of bhadang, though of course you can pick those out if you like. To make instant bhel, add some fresh lemon juice, chopped onion and cilantro to the bhadang. Come to think of it, Rice Krispies cereal could be substituted for the puffed rice, those too are very similar.
We shall meet very soon with a look at "R" so stay tuned!

Street Food: Pani Puri

A few days ago I was wandering the aisles of a South-Asian grocery store that just opened right across the street from my workplace, and my heart jumped when I saw a bag of fat little puris: time for some pani-puri! Here is a street food that is wildly popular all over India although it might be called by different names; gol-gappa in Northen India, puchka in Bengal, and pani-puri in Maharashtra. Pani-puri literally translates as "water-puri" which in itself does not sound too appetizing, but here is what it is. A firm semolina dough is rolled into little "puris" and deep fried into plump tiny hollow balls. You take one of these puris, press your thumb into one side (one side of the puri is always more fragile than the other, and a little experience will tell you which is which, so you can pierce the right side) to make a little opening, and then proceed to stuff the puri with one of several fillings. Then you ceremoniously dunk the puri into a spicy watery chutney and stuff the dripping puri into your mouth, where it explodes into a crispy-spicy treat. In most cases, it is fiery enough that tears spring to your eyes, and in that almost-masochistic moment you know that you are addicted to pani-puri.
OK then. The first requirement for a pani-puri session is good puris: perfectly puffy and crispy and intact balls. Although I have a recipes for making these at home, I find it easier to just buy the puris and then take it from there. The puris do have a long shelf-life in the store, but that often means that when you bring them home, they are just a tad stale-tasting and not quite crispy. That will utterly ruin the pani-puri experience, so here is a tip for freshening puris: Heat the oven to 300 degrees F. Place the puris on a baking sheet, not touching each other. Bake the puris for 5-7 minutes (they will sizzle slightly). Cool for 5 minutes, and voila, you have fresh-tasting, crisp puris.
No one eats pani-puri as a health food (unfortunately) but other than the fried puris, my recipe consists of good healthy eats: the stuffing is sprouts and bits of boiled potato, with an optional addition of whipped yogurt, and the chutney is made with fresh herbs and ginger. Ordinarily, one might make a whole array of different chutneys, one spicy, one sweet and so on. I simplified the process by making a single chutney that contains all the different flavor components.

Pani-Puri


You need
a) A packet of "pani-puri" puris (about 40-50)
b) For fillings:
1/4 cup whole lentils
1/4 cup whole "moong beans"
1/4 cup whole white peas (or any combination of whole dals)
1 cup plain yogurt
2 potatoes, boiled
c) For chutney:
1 and half cups packed fresh mint leaves
1/2 cup packed cilantro leaves
3-4 fresh green chillies
1 inch fresh ginger, peeled
1 tsp toasted cumin seeds
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black salt
1 tsp chaat masala
2 tbsp jaggery powder (unrefined sugar)
1 tbsp tamarind paste
1 tbsp lemon juice
Method:
1. Prepare the fillings.
a) Cut the boiled potatoes into small cubes and set aside.
b) Add a pinch of salt and sugar to the yogurt. Whip the yogurt, spoon it into a bowl and set aside.
c) Combine the whole dals, soak overnight and sprout them for a day or two. Cook the sprouts till tender (stove-top or microwave). Mash them slightly and season with salt.
2. Make the chutney.
a) Combine 2 cups water and the jaggery in a saucepan. Bring to a boil so that the jaggery dissolves. Set aside to cool.
b) Grind together the mint, cilantro, chillies, ginger and cumin seeds to a fine paste. Add it to the jaggery water.
c) Add the rest of the chutney ingredients, mix together and taste to see if you like the balance of flavors. Adjust as necessary. Chill the chutney until ready to serve.
That is all the preparation one needs. Set everything out in bowls and people can make their own puris. Enjoy!

P is for PITHALE

This article is part of a special series called "The A-Z of Marathi food". India is the land of diversity. Each of the 28 states in India has a unique cuisine but the Indian food served in restaurants represents only a tiny fraction of our culinary heritage. I come from the western Indian state of Maharashtra. Capital: Bombay (Mumbai). Population: 96 million (only 11 countries in the world have a population higher than Maharashtra). Language: Marathi. Traditional Marathi food is earthy and humble, diverse and very tasty. It also remains relatively unknown to non-marathis. Its time to change that. I invite you to join me on an alphabetical culinary tour of my state. We will go through the letters A to Z and make a dish with each letter to show-case Marathi cuisine.

P is for Pithale.

"P" is a glorious letter for Marathi food. "P" is the letter of a whole lot of foods associated with feasting and in contrast, it also stands for one of the humblest foods that I can think of...we shall look at them all. First come a plethora of flatbreads: starting with the very simple poli (another name for chapati), a bread made with wheat flour and baked on a griddle. A more complicated version of the flatbread is the parotha or paratha, in which the dough is rolled into layers, separated by strokes of oil, resulting in a flaky puffy bread. Parothas can be enhanced by stuffing cooked spiced vegetables into them, for instance batata-parotha (or aloo paratha) is a favorite breakfast and lunch dish. The most festive flatbread, reserved for special occasions, is the puri or bread fried till is puffy and golden, often served with potato curry and a sweet yogurt dessert called shrikhand. All the above breads are savory, but one sweet flatbread reigns supreme in Marathi cuisine, the puran-poli, a bread stuffed with a delicious sweet lentil mixture.
Next come more feast foods: pulao ("pilaf") which not a single dish but a whole group of rice dishes; and a Kolhapuri specialty called pandhra rassa ("white curry") which is a very unusual coconut and yogurt-based meat stew that can be adapted to a veggie version. No feast can be complete with those wonderful fried or roasted papads, of course! In fact, the Marathi word for feast dishes is pakwann, also a "P" word!
One popular "P" food is actually a drink: panha. You take raw mangoes (tart!), cook them with jaggery (unrefined sugar), season the resulting pulp with a pinch of cardamom, and mix in with chilled water to make a refreshing beverage.
Two other "P" words are staples in the produce section: paalak or spinach and pudina or mint. So which of these delicious dishes am I showcasing for this letter? None, actually. I am going to tell you about the most humble "P" food. It is called pithale and is a curry made entirely of chickpea flour (besan) which is cooked into a kind of savory custard. Traditionally this is eaten with a flatbread called "bhakri" but I like eating it with rotis or rice or even with some crusty bread. The wonder of pithale is that about a 1/3 of a cup of chickpea flour produces enough pithale to become a meal that serves 4!

India is a land of great contrasts, where wealth and poverty, feast and famine are often painfully juxtaposed. The "P" letter foods show how this contrast is reflected in our cuisine. So here I give you the recipe for pithale, a food that uses a handful of flour to feed a family.
Pithale has numerous variations, such as these three recipes. I give you my own version, with precise quantitities that have worked consistently in my hands. As one reader said in a mail to me, "Pithale is one dish that is easy to make but easily screwable" :)

Pithale

(serves 3-4)
Ingredients:
1/3 cup chickpea flour (besan)
1 small onion, minced fine
2 garlic cloves, minced fine
4-5 curry leaves
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp red chilli powder
salt to taste
2 tbsp oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp cilantro, minced
Method:
1. In a bowl, mix the besan with 2 and a half cups water until there are no lumps (using your hands helps).
2. In a saucepan, heat the oil. Make a "tadka" with cumin and mustard seeds.
3. Add curry leaves, onion, garlic and saute for a minute or two until onion is transluscent.
4. Add turmeric, chilli powder, salt and saute for a few seconds.
5. Add the diluted besan and on low-medium heat, cook it, stirring often, till the besan cooks into a thick "custardy" consistency. (you might want to taste it to make sure that the "raw" taste is gone).
6. Take off the heat and then mix in the lemon juice and cilantro.
Serve right away with steamed rice/ bread/ rotis, with a dollop of ghee if desired.
We meet in a few days with the rather difficult "Q"!

Recipe Watch 1

I'm starting the new year with a new segment called Recipe Watch. Over the course of visiting all my favorite blogs, I always come across recipes that I instantly want to try out, and over the past weeks I have actually managed to try out quite a few of them. In the style of Cathy's "Dining with the Bloggers", I thought I would share these my favorite "discoveries" with you all. Every time I have 5 recipes that I have tried and loved, I will post about them.
This time I have three Indian entrees (two eggplant preparations and one dal) and two Italian entrees. All made for wonderful hearty suppers.
1. Stuffed Baby Eggplants from Indira of "Mahanandi". This is a must-read post for two reasons: (a) Indira shares her family recipe for stuffed eggplants, and it is a recipe to die for! The creamy richness of sesame and peanuts smothering the velvety eggplants is simply phenomenal. Indira also gives a great tip for cooking the eggplants to perfection. (b) Indira also links to other recipes for stuffed eggplants and lists variations on the theme. This post is your one destination for gathering many many recipes for this favorite Indian entree.
2. Eggplant with Wadi: From Mika of "The Green Jackfruit" I finally learnt about those mysterious dried "wadis" that I had seen in Indian stores for so long without knowing what they are. It turns out that the dried wadis are perfect for jazzing up humdrum subzis. They make the vegetable taste even better the next day.
3. Kara Sambar: This recipe from Shammi of "Food in the Main" illustrates the world of difference between using pre-made sambar mixes and making your own. The few extra minutes one spends are so worth it. This sambar was simply a flavor explosion, and also the first time I used shallots.
4. Instant Potato Gnocchi: Whenever I eat out at Italian restaurants, I invariably order gnocchi. Amy of "Cooking with Amy" makes it easy to try this comforting dish at home. It worked very well and the gnocchi turned out tender and absolutely melt-in-the-mouth. An impressive entree that can be thrown together using simple pantry ingredients.
5. Penne a la Vodka: Another classic Italian favorite. Mona of "Mona's Apple" shares a versatile and simple tomato sauce recipe, and the penne a la vodka turned out to be a memorable supper for us. Another keeper recipe.
See y'all soon...Happy New Year!

Good-bye 2005...with a favorite dish!

The past few days, a knee injury has kept me out of commission, but I am healing slowly in time to say good-bye to 2005 with one of my favorite dishes. 2005 has been an eventful year, and 2006 promises to be even more so. To bid farewell to 2005, I chose Idli-Sambar. A meal that is nutritious, wholesome and affordable. Idli-Sambar is a traditional Southern Indian breakfast recipe, but now finds its way into homes all across India, and indeed Indian restaurants all over the world. The recipe for the idli is from my mom and we make no claims to authenticity, but it is a tried and tested recipe that always turns out!
The idlis themselves are steamed dumplings made from a fermented rice-lentil batter. They are served with sambar, a tasty spicy dal that I add lots of fresh veggies to. There are other reasons why this dish is a favorite for me: the idlis can be made ahead of time and refrigerated or frozen. They reheat *beautifully* in the microwave and taste as good as new! The sambar can also be made ahead of time, making this an ideal brunch dish.
In fact, I had planned a New Years brunch for some of our friends today...with an international brunch menu including idli-sambar (India), huevos rancheros (Mexico), spinch-mushroom quiche (France?) and brownies (America). But the knee injury left me in so much pain, unable to stand for long, that I had to cancel the brunch :( Maybe next time...
For making idlis, you do need some special equipment in the form of idli molds, pictured here beautifully by Shammi. Of course, in a pinch, any greased vessel will do.

Idli-Sambar


(The pretty red serving dish was a thoughtful holiday gift from my lovely friend L!)

For the Idlis
Ingredients
1 cup urad dal
2 cups idli rava (coarsely ground rice)
salt to taste
Non-stick spray (such as "Pam") for greasing molds
Method:
1. Soak urad dal overnight in warm water. Grind it to a fine paste.
2. Soak idli rava for 30 minutes in warm water.
3. Mix the soaked idli rava and ground urad dal in a bowl, cover and leave overnight to ferment.
4. Once the batter is doubled in volume, use it right away or place it in the refrigerator until needed.
5. To make idlis, spray the molds with non-stick spray (or brush with oil). Add salt to the idli batter, mix lightly and scoop into the molds (half-full).
6. Steam for 10-15 minutes till a knife inserted into the idli comes clean.

Sambar
Ingredients
1 cup toor dal (split yellow peas), cooked
2 tbsp oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp mustard seeds
5-6 fresh curry leaves
pinch of asafoetida
1/2 small onion, minced
2 cups mixed diced veggies of your choice (I used eggplant, peas, carrot, cauliflower)
1 tsp tamarind paste
1 tbsp sambar powder (available in stores)
2 tbsp cilantro, minced
Method:
1. Make a "tadka" by heating oil and adding cumin seeds, mustard seeds, curry leaves and asafoetida.
2. Add onion, turmeric, salt, chilli powder and saute for a minute.
3. Add veggies and saute for a minute.
4. Add enough water to cover the veggies, tamarind paste, sambar powder and let the veggies simmer till just tender (5-7 minutes).
5. Add cooked dal, bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes.
6. Garnish with cilantro.

Here's to a wonderful new year 2006. My wish: a wholesome meal in every home on this planet and enough food and love for all!

O is for ONION BHAJJI

This article is part of a special series called "The A-Z of Marathi food". India is the land of diversity. Each of the 28 states in India has a unique cuisine but the Indian food served in restaurants represents only a tiny fraction of our culinary heritage. I come from the western Indian state of Maharashtra. Capital: Bombay (Mumbai). Population: 96 million (only 11 countries in the world have a population higher than Maharashtra). Language: Marathi. Traditional Marathi food is earthy and humble, diverse and very tasty. It also remains relatively unknown to non-marathis. Its time to change that. I invite you to join me on an alphabetical culinary tour of my state. We will go through the letters A to Z and make a dish with each letter to show-case Marathi cuisine.

O is for Onion Bhajjis.

We come now to the letter 'O" and unfortunately I can't really think of too many Marathi foods here. One possibility is "Olya naralachi karanji"; sweet turnovers made with a filling of fresh coconut (the literal meaning of "olya" is "wet") but that is a pretty complicated recipe that will have to wait for another occasion. Instead, I made a dish that is a favorite of people all over India, onion fritters/pakodas, called "bhajjis" in Marathi. Here is a dish that is found on the menu of every Indian restaurant, whether North Indian or South Indian. It is found on every street corner in India, often eaten stuffed between slices of bread (a way to convert a cheap snack into a filling meal). It is a favorite of all home cooks, a way of serving up a hot tasty snack using ingredients that are found in every pantry. Chai and pakodas is a match made in culinary heaven, and the perfect snack for Indian monsoons and North American winters alike.
The recipe is a mere guideline; go easy or heavy on the spices as you like. I love that the sliced onion forms these funky-looking odd shaped pakodas when fried. This is a very easy crowd-pleasing snack for beginner cooks to make. Making smaller pakodas will ensure that the inside gets cooked well. People who do not like the sharp pungent taste of onions might find that the onions cooked as bhajjis have a pleasant sweetish taste that they enjoy. A variation on these is to add some finely sliced spinach leaves to the batter...they add a wonderful flavor.

Onion Bhajji (Pakodas)

(serves 3-4)

Ingredients:
2 medium onions
1 cup chickpea flour (besan)
1/4 cup minced cilantro
3-4 minced green chillies
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp coriander powder
salt to taste
Oil for deep-frying
Method:
1. Peel the onions, halve them and slice them thinly (using a mandoline if you own one, or a sharp knife).
2. Mix salt into the onions and leave them for 10 minutes. This softens the onions and brings out their juices.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients (except oil) into the onions, add a little water to make a thick batter.
4. Heat the oil and add teaspoons of batter into the oil, fry till bhajjis are golden. Drain on paper towels.
Serve hot with tamarind chutney or mint chutney or even ketchup!
We'll meet again soon with "P" which is a letter with many many interesting possibilities, so stay tuned!

N is for NAARAL WADI

This article is part of a special series called "The A-Z of Marathi food". India is the land of diversity. Each of the 28 states in India has a unique cuisine but the Indian food served in restaurants represents only a tiny fraction of our culinary heritage. I come from the western Indian state of Maharashtra. Capital: Bombay (Mumbai). Population: 96 million (only 11 countries in the world have a population higher than Maharashtra). Language: Marathi. Traditional Marathi food is earthy and humble, diverse and very tasty. It also remains relatively unknown to non-marathis. Its time to change that. I invite you to join me on an alphabetical culinary tour of my state. We will go through the letters A to Z and make a dish with each letter to show-case Marathi cuisine.

N is for Naaral Wadi.

N does not stand for many Marathi foods. But that is totally compensated for by the one food that it DOES stand for : the naaral or coconut. The importance of the coconut tree to human life and culture in the coastal areas of India cannot be overstated. Every single part of the coconut tree is used, for food, clothing and to earn a livelihood: The tall trunk of the tree is used for carving out boats, the husk of the coconut is used as fuel, coconut oil is used as cooking oil and to make products such as soap, the tough coconut shell can be carved into many useful and decorative items. Here is a coconut shell cleverly crafted into a beautiful ladle, it was a gift from my darling friend M.

The coconut also has a very important role in religious rituals; a coconut is cracked open at every important occasion as an offering to the gods (an act reminiscent of the animal sacrifices of ages past).
But coming back to food, the coconut dominates the cuisine of many regions of India and is certainly well-represented in Marathi food. Tender green coconuts are sold at road-side stalls for their delicious coconut water, the most refreshing beverage in the tropical heat. At this stage the flesh of the coconut is very tender, almost transluscent, and delicious. More mature coconuts are used for cooking: the coconut is cracked open to reveal coconut water (which is quickly drained into a glass and consumed as a beverage) and a thick layer of sparkling white coconut "meat". It is the meat which is ground together to extract the coconut milk. People who have backyards often have their own coconut trees; here in the US, coconut is easily available in three main forms: as tinned coconut milk, as dry shredded coconut (available sweetened and plain) and "fresh" frozen grated coconut.
The most common uses of coconut are as a curry base, as we did when making egg rassa, and in several desserts such as narali bhaat (sweet coconut rice) and naaral wadi (coconut fudge), and the latter is what I decided to make today. The recipe is adapted from this recipe. The traditional way to make the sweet is to pour the hot fudge into a greased plate, let it cool and cut it into bite-size squares. Instead I patted it into muffin cups for a variation. I used condensed milk as I had some in the fridge, but you can totally omit it and add more sugar instead.

Naaral Wadi (Coconut Fudge)

(makes 15 small cups)

Ingredients:
1 cup frozen grated coconut, thawed in the microwave
1/2 cup milk
2 tbsp condensed milk (optional)
1/3 cup sugar
2 tbsp ghee
1 tsp cardamom powder
8-10 sliced almonds
Method:
1. Combine coconut, milk, condensed milk, sugar and ghee in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, then simmer over low heat, stirring often till the mixture gets thick and almost dry.
2. Stir in the cardamom and most of the sliced almonds, leaving a few for decoration. Turn off heat.
3. Spoon the mixture into mini muffin cups, decorating with a couple of almond slices. Let it cool. Serve at roon temperature.
This is a delicious sweet and so easy to put together! We shall meet again with a look at the letter "O".

Simple Dinners: Potato "Song"

Friday nights, I often plan my dinners around finishing stuff from the fridge, getting ready for Saturday (market-day). Last night, a quick peek in the fridge revealed 3 boiled potatoes (left over from a few days ago), some left-over crushed tomatoes, half an onion. Plus some ready-made rotis (Indian flat-breads). One easy recipe jumped to my mind: Potato "song", a Konkani (a coastal region of India) potato curry with a wonderful sweet-spicy-tangy medley of tastes. I have no idea why the curry is called "song"; it is a recipe my Konkani grandmom had taught Anji (our cook) to make, so it would be on the menu often.
This curry uses the simple trio of red chillies-cumin-coriander for its spice base, jaggery (unrefined/brown sugar) for the hint of sweetness, both tamarind and tomato for the tang and cilantro for the fresh note. The result is delicious. I am experimenting with a different way of writing this recipe, breaking it down, so to speak, so maybe it will be easier for readers unfamiliar with Indian cooking to see how a curry comes together. It might make a long list of ingredients seem less daunting. Let me know if it helps or not.
Almost all curries have these 5 components: a main ingredient, a tempering, spices, curry base and garnishes. The different permutations and combinations of ingredients and spices is what makes each curry unique.

Potato Song


YOU NEED
Main ingredient:
3-4 boiled potatoes, peeled and diced
Tadka (tempering)
2 tbsp oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 small onion, minced
5-6 fresh curry leaves (optional)
Spices:
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp coriander powder
salt to taste
Curry base:
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup crushed tomatoes
1/2 tbsp tamarind paste
1/2 tbsp jaggery (brown sugar)
Garnish:
2 tbsp minced fresh cilantro
METHOD:
1. Mix all the ingredients for the curry base and set aside.
2. Start with the tempering. Heat the oil in a saucepan, and then add all the tempering ingredients. Stir them around so that they flavor the oil, keeping the heat medium.
3. Add all the spices and saute for a few seconds so they toast and release their flavors.
4. Add the potato cubes and saute for a minute.
5. Add curry base, stir around, bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes.
6. Taste and adjust the balace of salt-spice-sweetness-sourness if necessary.
7. Garnish with fresh cilantro.
This curry tastes better if you let the flavors blend for 15-20 minutes after cooking. Enjoy with flatbreads/rotis or steamed rice, with a dollop of pickle and some yogurt.
There: a simple dinner and some good use of left-over bits of food!

Tea with Cathy!

Guess who came to visit me on Sunday? Cathy from my My Little Kitchen was in NYC briefly and took the time and effort to navigate the subways and come uptown to share a cup of tea with me. It was my first time meeting a blogger face-to-face and that made it so exciting!
We chatted non-stop about food and our holiday plans and can I just say that she is the warmest and nicest person ever? Cathy is the person who inspired me to start blogging...I was reading her blog for a while and timidly participated in an event (IMBB:Beans) that she hosted by mailing her my entry. Her kind encouraging words finally helped me take the plunge and start "One Hot Stove" and for that, I will always thank her.
Cathy came bearing gifts (which was TOTALLY unnecessary of course):

The box of home-made candy was a fantastic treat: chocolate-covered nut brittle. With supreme self-restraint, I managed to eat the candy over three days instead of gobbling it up in an hour (It tasted like a better grown-up version of "Cadbury's nutties" that I loved as a kid). According to Cathy, it is very easy to make so now I have to wheedle the recipe out of her :)
The other awesome gift is "Maida Heatter's Book of Great Cookies" which is such an appropriate gift coming from Cathy, because she is working her way through the whole book trying each and every recipe and getting it rated by a panel of cookie-connoisseurs. This is the perfect season for me to try some recipes from this book! Thanks Cathy, for being so thoughtful and coming all the way to meet me!

A Menu For Hope II: Chai Hamper

Food bloggers come together every holiday season to share their good fortune with people who need a helping hand: This year we are going to have a fun fund-raising event to raise money for UNICEF for their relief efforts in Kashmir, to help the millions of people affected by the massive earthquake in October. This event is a foodie raffle being organized by the wonderful Pim of Chez Pim. Many many food bloggers have come forward to make a pledge for the raffle. How does it work?
Step 1: Go to this web site this site to find a listing of dozens of amazing foodie prizes. Choose your favorite(s).
Step 2: Go to this site to donate. For every 5$ you donate, you can enter to win one prize. Be sure to specify your chosen prize as you donate.
If you win the raffle, your prize will be shipped to you. If you lose...hey, you never lose, because all your donated money will go to this worthy cause!

What I am pledging:
A Chai Hamper, filled with
1. All the ingredients to make Masala chai (and the recipe)
2. Two sweet snacks (one of them will be home-made Kesar-Pista Nankhatai , the other will be a surprise)
3. Two savoury snacks (one of them will be home-made Chivda , the other will be a surprise)

The lucky winner will get to sample a true Indian-style tea party in the comfort of their own home! If you want to win this prize, go on over and donate 5$ and specify "Nupur/Chai Hamper". If not, there are tons of other prizes you might like. Thanks in advance for your generosity!

DONATE NOW!

Happy Birthday V: An Indo-Chinese Feast

To celebrate V's birthday, some friends came over to join us for lunch. The menu: Indian-Chinese ! In decades past, Chinese cooking has become a major food trend in India, and as with all transplanted cuisines, there has been the evolution of a unique Indo-chinese fusion cuisine. Chinese food carts dot every city in India, and many Indian restaurants will obligingly include some Indo-chinese dishes on the menu. In the past several months, this trend has crossed over to NYC and if anyone would like to try it in a restaurant, I would suggest "Chinese Mirch" (28th Street and Lexington Avenue in Manhattan).
V loves Indian-Chinese and when you are the birthday boy, what you want is what you get, so this is the menu I made (I was a bit rushed with all the prep, so some of the photos are quite awful but they still give an idea of what the food looked like). All recipes are for 6-8 servings.
To start with, some Sweet corn soup, just perfect for this cold weather. It could not be simpler to make but is very hearty and comforting.

Ingredients:
3 boxes frozen cut corn
2 green onions (green parts only), chopped
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp white vinegar
1 vegetable buillon cube (I use "Knorr" brand)
fresh ground pepper
For chilli relish
1/2 cup white vinegar
6 green chillies
Method:
Make the relish by mixing chopped green chillies and vinegar. Set aside. Cook the corn in 6 cups water till tender (I used a pressure cooker). Using a blender/ immersion blender, puree the corn, leaving some kernels intact. Add the soy sauce, green onions, sugar, vinegar, buillon cube and freshly ground pepper. Serve hot topped with a spoonful of chilli relish.

The first appetizer:
Korean pancakes

This one is not Indian-chinese at all, but it uses all the ingredients of a spring roll and so fit in very well with the menu. I participated in blogging-by-mail 3 and Sima generously sent me a huge package of Korean Pancake Mix. I mixed 2 cups of pancake mix with 1 grated zucchini, 1 chopped green pepper and 2 chopped green onions, and added water to make a thick batter. Then I made mini-pancakes in a non-stick pan. For a dipping sauce, I mixed equal parts of red chilli paste (store-bought) and soy sauce. The result is a delicious appetizer just bursting with veggies!

The second appetizer:
Gobi Manchurian This is everyone's absolute favorite and I was so thrilled that it turned out tasting just like the real deal. I made it in the appetizer style, not very saucy, and the sauce given in the recipe just serves to coat the florets and make them really tasty.

Ingredients:
For florets
1 large head cauliflower, cut into neat florets
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cornflour
salt to taste
oil for frying
For sauce
5 cloves garlic, minced fine
1 inch piece of ginger, minced fine
5-6 green onions (green+white parts), minced
5 green chillies, minced
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp tomato ketchup
2 tbsp oil
1/2 cup minced cilantro
Method:
1. Toss the florets with soy sauce and ginger-garlic paste and set aside for 1-2 hours
2. Mix the all-purpose flour and cornflour with enough water to make a thick batter. Add salt to taste.
3. Dip the marinated florets in the batter and deep fry till golden brown. Drain on paper towels.
4. To make the sauce, heat 2 tbsp oil in a skillet. Fry the ginger, garlic, green onions, green chillies for under a minute. Take off heat, then stir in the soy sauce and ketchup.
5. Toss together the fried florets, sauce and minced cilantro. Serve immediately.

The entree ...
Mushroom-Egg fried rice This is a simple stir-fry of rice with veggies, with strips of omelet adding to the nutrition and the heartiness of the dish.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups basmati rice
1 green pepper, sliced fine
4 green onions, chopped
1 carrot, cut into matchsticks
2 cups mushrooms, chopped
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 veg buillon cube (I use "Knorr" brand)
3 eggs
salt and pepper to taste
Method:
1. Wash the rice in 3-4 changes of cold water. Add 2 1/2 cups water to the rice and cook till just tender. It is important that the rice is not overcooked and mushy.
2. Heat 2 tbsp oil and quickly stir-fry the green onions, green pepper, carrots and mushrooms. Add the rice, soy sauce, pepper, buillon cube and mix well till everything is heated through.
3. Beat the eggs with some salt and pepper. Make omelets with the eggs. Cut the omelets into strips and serve atop the rice.

Now for the sweet ending to the meal:
Dessert: Dulce de leche flan There are no authentic desserts in this fusion cuisine, so I went with a dessert that V loves. I normally make a very plain and easy version of caramel custard but this time I wanted to try something new, so I chose a recipe for Dulce de leche flan made by Angela of "A spoonful of sugar" for a sugar high friday many months ago (how I love these foodie events! I can always refer back to the round-ups for some great recipes.) I followed the recipe exactly, boiling an intact can of condensed milk for 3 hours to get the dulce de leche. This is what happens to condensed milk after that treatment:

Nice and caramelized! The flan was very easy to put together and the results were astounding! I don't have a picture of the flan (people gobbled it up before I had a chance!) but you can see it on Angela's blog. We all loved it...this recipe is a keeper!
That was a great party, and here's to V having a wonderful year ahead!

M is for MOOGAMBAT

This article is part of a special series called "The A-Z of Marathi food". India is the land of diversity. Each of the 28 states in India has a unique cuisine but the Indian food served in restaurants represents only a tiny fraction of our culinary heritage. I come from the western Indian state of Maharashtra. Capital: Bombay (Mumbai). Population: 96 million (only 11 countries in the world have a population higher than Maharashtra). Language: Marathi. Traditional Marathi food is earthy and humble, diverse and very tasty. It also remains relatively unknown to non-marathis. Its time to change that. I invite you to join me on an alphabetical culinary tour of my state. We will go through the letters A to Z and make a dish with each letter to show-case Marathi cuisine.

M is for Moogambat.

Following closely on the heels of "L", we come to the letter "M". It starts with a trio of spices, mohri (mustard), the similar-sounding miri ( black peppercorns) and the all-important ingredient of Indian food, mirchi (chilli peppers). These are generally added in small quantities to spice up foods, but mirchi is considered an ingredient in its own right...fresh chillies are ground up with salt to give a amazingly spicy paste called mirchi cha thecha (smashed chillies). The most famous M word is, without a doubt, masala which means the dry spice mixtures and spice pastes that form an integral part of Indian cooking, but is a word also used to describe spicy gossip and all matters of a tabloid nature!
M is the word for maida (pronounced ma-ee-da) or all-purpose flour, which has many uses in the kitchen but still is not as widely used as its healthier whole-wheat cousin, luckily for us. M stands for some popular vegetables including maka or corn, mattar or peas, and methi or fenugreek, a mildly bitter and very nutritious green leafy vegetable. The most popular M lentil is moong, often used in its sprouted avatar.
One delightfully sweet M is a dumpling called modak. These sweets resemble onions in shape, round at one end and tapering at the other; and are made by stuffing a coconut mixture into dough which is then either steamed or fried. Modaks are a special treat made at the festival honoring Ganesha, the elephant-god.
I know the "M" that everyone is waiting for is misal, a delightful snack made with a base of lentil curry, then sprinkled with all kinds of fried garnishes and chutneys and eaten with bread. This street food is my favorite too, but its not what I made today (wait! hear me out!). The reason is that the base of misal is a curry called "usal" and I am saving it for the letter "U", when I will make usal and misal together. So misal is coming around in just a few weeks!
The dish I decided to make for "M" is actually influenced by the cuisine of the konkan coast. It is a curry made with sprouted whole moong. The name moogambat is a combination word of moong+ ambat (sour) indicating that it is a tangy curry. A reader has kindly corrected me by saying that, "in konkani ambat means amti", so this dish actually translates to moong amti. My apologies for this error. My paternal grandmother was konkani and hence the influence of this style of cooking.

Moogambat


Ingredients:
3 cups sprouted moong beans (Primer for sprouting beans), cooked till tender
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp mustard seeds
pinch of asafoetida
1 tbsp tamarind paste
1/2 tsp turmeric
2 tbsp oil
salt to taste
1 tbsp jaggery (brown sugar)
For the paste
1 tbsp oil
1/2 cup shredded coconut (unsweetened)
1/2 cup onion, coarsely chopped
4 dried red chillies
1 tbsp coriander seeds
Method
1. Make the paste by heating the oil in a skillet and toasting all the ingredients for the paste together. Then grind into a fine paste and set aside.
2. In a pan, heat the oil. Make a "tadka" with cumin, mustard, asafoetida. Add the cooked moong beans and the rest of the ingredients and some water if necessary and simmer the curry for 5-10 minutes. Taste for salt and the sweet-sour balance of flavors. Garnish with cilantro.
This curry could not be simpler to make. It is very tasty with some plain boiled rice. Let's meet next week with "N"!

L is for LASUN CHUTNEY

This article is part of a special series called "The A-Z of Marathi food". India is the land of diversity. Each of the 28 states in India has a unique cuisine but the Indian food served in restaurants represents only a tiny fraction of our culinary heritage. I come from the western Indian state of Maharashtra. Capital: Bombay (Mumbai). Population: 96 million (only 11 countries in the world have a population higher than Maharashtra). Language: Marathi. Traditional Marathi food is earthy and humble, diverse and very tasty. It also remains relatively unknown to non-marathis. Its time to change that. I invite you to join me on an alphabetical culinary tour of my state. We will go through the letters A to Z and make a dish with each letter to show-case Marathi cuisine.

L is for Lasun Chutney.

We continue our journey with the letter "L". It is certainly the letter for spicy, fiery foods, representing lasun (garlic) and lavang (cloves). Cloves are not merely a spice, but an important part of the first-aid kit: toothaches can be relieved by chewing on cloves (the clove oil has a rapid numbing effect). Another fiery "L" food is laal rassa or red curry (the same concept as the egg rassa I made earlier. The most exciting "L" is definitely lonche or pickles, and these come in an infinite variety. In the days before refrigeration, pickles were an all-important way to store vegetables for the leaner months; the high salt content of pickles keep them from spoiling. Unlike "pickles" in the US, which generally refer to veggies packed in salt and vinegar, Indian pickles are choc-a-bloc with spices. They come in all flavors: sweet, spicy, sour and every combination thereof. If ever you are in an Indian home and someone mentions home-made pickles, I suggest you lay on the charm and get a bottle for yourself, for every family will have their unique recipe. What about "L" foods in the produce section: I can think of two, limbu or lemons (an important candidate for making pickles!) and laal bhopla or pumpkin, a hardy vegetable that is found in even the most arid regions of the state. Deccanheffalump recently wrote a beautiful post about this veggie along with a tasty, easy step-by-step recipe. After these spicy food, we need a sweet food to end with, and that would be ladoo, those sweet dessert balls that also come in infinite variety. Some popular kinds are besan ladoo, made with chickpea flour and rava ladoo, made with toasted cream-of-wheat.
For our "L" dish today, I had to go with the flow and make something spicy, and so I am making a signature rustic Marathi condiment, lasun chutney or garlic chutney. For many rural folk in Maharashtra, when food budgets are tight, the humble chutney is much more than just a condiment. When only thick dry flatbreads (bhakri) are available for sustenance, the lasun chutney and a side of raw onions makes the meal palatable. For helping millions of people through lean times, the lasun chutney gets pride of place in the Marathi A-Z.

Lasun Chutney


(makes about 1 cup)
Ingredients
1/3 cup dry shredded coconut (unsweetened)
1/3 cup peanuts
10 cloves garlic
5 dried red chillies
1 tbsp sesame seeds
1 tbsp poppy seeds
1 tbsp dry tamarind
salt to taste
Method: Dry roast each ingredient (except tamarind and salt) seperately on low heat till toasted. Grind all ingredients together to form the chutney. Store in a dry container.
This chutney can be served as a condiment with almost any Indian meal. I love it simply as a topping with bread and butter! See you next week for a look at the "M" of Marathi food.

Weekend Dog Blogging: Dale, the Fitness Freak

Move over, Yogi bear, Yoga Dog is here. Dale is maintaining his sleek figure by trying some yoga poses. Here he is practising his Ardha Matsyendrasana (Half Lord of the Fishes Pose).

Check out all the pooches hanging out with Sweetnicks!

An exciting day for One Hot Stove

Today, I am shocked to tell you, my picture won (!!) first place (it was a tie with the amazing Stephen of "Stephen Cooks") for "Originality" in the "Does my blog look good in this" (DMBLGIT), a competition for best food-blog photography every month. I *totally* don't belong in this gallery of talented photographers but am very grateful for this pat on the back. Thank you, judges, and thank you, Moira for hosting this event so beautifully. You made this girl's day!
Here is the winning picture: