At 8am on certain days each week, my door opens to reveal a small, dark lady with a dimpled smile. I’m usually waiting for her anxiously, and I breathe easier when I hear the doorbell ring. My morning has started much earlier and fairly reluctantly, with two bright-eyed and widely awake kids. Kirti behn is…
Month: April 2010
Vankaya Allam Karam
This Sunday morning we all woke up tired. My husband rushed Agasyta off for an early soccer class after breakfast while I pottered around the kitchen, thinking about what to do for lunch. Yesterday, I had found leggy thin-skinned purple Asian eggplant in an Indian grocery store. I pulled them out this morning, wondering…
Kali Dal
My South Indian mother-in-law makes this rustic and hearty North Indian-style kali dal which is a creamy buttery lentil dish made with whole black urad dal and rajma (red kidney beans). I’m always surprised at how truly North Indian this comforting dal tastes, as if it somehow arrived out of a cold winter evening in…
a little laddu
My maternal grandmother, nani, makes delicious besan ka laddus. Years ago I stood by her side watching as she transformed pale yellow chick-pea flour into a dark yellow gorgeously nutty and rich aromatic mixture moistened with a generous quantity of ghee by slow cooking it over the flame. Sugar and crushed cardamom was kneaded into…
Calcutta Chow 