“Indian cooking is about the right balance of salt and chilli. There’s not much else to it,” remarked my husband when encountering yet another subtly salted and chilli-less dish. I had been cooking for the children and for us all together, in one big pot, for months. That meant no chillies – no cayenne pepper…
Month: July 2011
Red bell pepper chutney
I love red bell peppers. Although they are available all year round, for me, the most exciting time of the year is when they show in big piles at my farmers market. I like to stick a whole bunch of them into my oven and roast them until they are charred and black. Then I…
Savory toast topped with chickpea flour and vegetables
Every week I think about vegetable pakoras. Deep-fried, piping hot chickpea flour (besan) fritter like creations that are full of minced vegetables. Served with a side of Maggi tomato ketchup. I had some delicious pakoras in Jersey City recently that were stuffed with chopped methi and coriander leaves and green chilli. I will attempt to…
Dosakai pachadi: a creamy cucumber relish
We had hot steaming rice for lunch today with a most unexpected side – a cooling cucumber relish made with a paste of black mustard seeds and white sesame seeds. Not much else was needed for a satisfying meal. I was surprised by how good the relish tasted rubbed into the rice – it was…
Dahi vada
Vadas are savory lentil doughnuts that are made entirely with urad dal. You can eat with them as is with coconut chutney or sambar or both or even just plain old ketchup, but my mother-in-law serves them dipped in salty yogurt that is flavored with a paste of green chillies and coriander leaves. There’s a…
Spicy tamarind rice: pulihora
Last night I found myself mixing plain yogurt into my rice and then spooning it into my mouth with mango pickle. It tasted soothing, nourishing, spicy….and incredibly delicious. My husband always ends his meals in this traditional South Indian manner. He also eats his meals in “courses” – first plain rice mixed with the vegetable…
Baghare Baingan
What’s on the menu today? Baghare baingan, meaning tempered eggplants, from Hyderabad. Agastya fondly calls this dish “eggplants in peanut sauce” but to be fair it also has an equal quantity of coconut and sesame seeds in it. My husband’s cousin, Kasturi, made this richly flavored eggplant dish for me at our first meeting, about…
Tomato Dal, Andhra style
My mother-in-law, a sweet bespectacled lady with an infectious chuckle, arrived last week. She stepped into my fifty square foot kitchen and immediately transformed it into her own space. The spices were rearranged, the lentil shelves were cleaned out and essentials like garlic, ginger, onion and cilantro were restocked. We went shopping for bags of…
Making aloo parathas
“You haven’t cooked even once the entire time I’ve been here,” my mother sniffed, as her ten-day visit came to a close. “I think you like to eat more than you like to cook.” I protested “But mom, if you cook I get to taste your cooking. Then I know what to make, how to…
Chilli cheese toast
Amul cheese, the medium cheddar kind that comes packaged in a canned tin in India, was my first love. I remember creeping to our white fridge at night to steal slices of comforting white bread and cheese for a midnight snack. It was the only cheese that was readily available when I was growing up…
Dahi aloo: potatoes in a yogurt curry
Recently, my mom and her sister, my masi, came to visit me for a few days from India. On the morning that they were about to arrive, I knew that I had to make lunch for them. What should I make, I wondered? My mom I’d seen nibbling on lettuce leaves and other bits for…
Calcutta Chow 