Festive Fare – Diwali

I know its diwali, cant feel the pulse of it yet. I wonder why.  i look forward to Diwali mostly because I love the oil lamps.  I eagerly look forward to this time of the year to take them off the attic, wash and dry them, make wicks of cotton and light them. the beauty of a flickering gentle light is something to behold….This year with the recent floods in Andhra Pradesh and karnantaka, looks like everyone is feeling sombre. Its sad to see the plight of the people who have lost everything. Relief work isn’t reaching the ones who need it and whatever efforts are being made, aren’t adequate. The stories of donated clothes, most of them unusable, food being dumped or thrown at the displaced people and little or no medical aid reaching them dominate the newspapers. In the midst of all of this, one wonders what kind of celebrations we will have. Should we move on and forget, or be prudent with our festivities and donate what we would have otherwise blown up? I know if I was affected, I would be hoping that people open up their hearts and purses to help in whatever way they can.

K seems to have lost interest and he almost always urges me to treat the festival as yet another day. He cant understand why one needs to be / do something extra special just because its a festival or an occasion. I have stopped trying to reason with him!! I try as best as I can to make something special with as less effort as I can manage!! Am sharing some simple festive fare that I made for dasera last month. As I keep on saying here, I loathe to cook stuff that involves several steps of cooking and elaborate preparation. There’s nothing worse than slaving so much to do something and not having the energy to enjoy it. So here’s my quick fix festive cooking. All done in less than an hour, cant get better than this!

I made gutti vankaya kura. The ultimate Andhra vegetarian celebration dish. The recipe is from Sailu and I didn’t make any changes. There are many recipes for gutti vankaya and I have tried a few, I love this one, it’s never failed me and each time I make it, I can’t even wrangle a picture because everyone wants to polish it off before I can brandish my camera.

The second dish is a potato version of Sanjeev Kapoor’s mutton urndai kuzhambu which translates into mutton kofta curry. This is a south Indian spicy curry and I just swapped the meat ball koftas for boiled potatoes and reduce the quantity of spices to 2/3 of the original recipe. This too is a regular item I make when I am entertaining because the flavours are awesome and it pairs up fabulously with pulavs and other flavoured rice dishes.

The rice is what we call baghara rice. It translates into tempered rice. And though it sounds odd, it has the most fantastic flavour of the whole spices it is cooked with. No vegetable additions to distract you from savouring the rice as it is!

So what are you doing for Diwali? We planned a nice cards party for tonight but called it off last minute. The phirni is already sitting in the fridge, so come and dip in if you are around this side of the world. Also sitting on the counter is a not yet frosted sinister chocolate cake that i made earlier for Aunty E.

All those who are celebrating, have a wonderful and safe Diwali. May you always enjoy the love that surrounds you.

Now for the rice recipe.

Baghara Khana/ Rice (Spiced pulav) – to serve 4
2 Tbsp ghee
2 whole bay leaves, 5-6 cloves, 5-6 cardamoms, 2-3 one inch pieces of cinnamon, 1 tsp shahi jeera (caraway seeds), 2 star anise
½ cup finely sliced onions
2-3 slit green chillies
10-15 mint leaves
1 tsp ginger garlic paste
2 cups basmati rice (I used regular sona masuri), washed and soaked in 4 cups of water for 10-15 minutes
Salt to taste

In a pressure cooker pan, heat the ghee and fry the whole spices for 30 seconds till aromatic. Make sure they do not burn, there’s nothing worse than burnt spices to ruin the delicate flavours of this preparation. Add the sliced onions and green chillies and fry till the onions are just turning golden brown, add the ginger garlic paste and fry till the raw smell disappears. Drain the rice and add to the pan. On a medium flame, fry till the rice turns opaque. Ensure you don’t overdo the stirring bit, cos the grains of rice will break. So gentle is how we do this! Add the salt, mint leaves, 3 cups of hot water and stir gently. Cover with the lid and place the whistle and cook for one whistle, lower the flame and simmer for 4-5 minutes. Turn off the heat, let the pressure release. Open and gently fluff with a fork. Serve with gutti vankaya Kura, potato version of mutton urundai kuzhambu and raitha.

Mamidikaya Pulihara – Raw Mango Rice

Raw Mango Pulihara

Pulihara or Pulihora is one of Andhra’s most prized possesion in its culinary bouquet. infact, perfect pulihora is a way of checking the skill of the cook. While it wasn’t my favourite rice dish to eat, as a kid and the fact that we didnt make much of it at home either, suited me just great. I saw an abundance of it in the lunch boxes of friends and wasnt very thrilled at the bright yellow rice being boringly eaten by schoolgoers. All that changed a few years ago when i tasted a very exquisitely made pulihara at a place i least expected it, a Temple!! the spices, tart and texture were so finely balanced.

Pulihara is an integral part of festive cooking and its blasphemy if it does not make an appearance at any festive occassion. It is a tart and tangy rice dish made in many versions with lemon juice, tamarind pulp or as in this case raw mango. i have to admit, Raw mango is my favourite.

Raw Mango Pulihara

i made this when raw mangoes were just getting into the market at the beginning of summer. With the summer on its way out, nostalgia hit and i reached out for this forgotten picture in my archives to urge the summer to stay on a little more. i will admit, the heat drove me nuts this year. i ranted about it enough on social networking sites and here too…. but am always a little sad to see it go!!

Chakkara Pongal

This is coming late, but this is a dish that can be enjoyed anytime. Without fail I make it at pongal to celebrate the earth’s bounty and be grateful for the food on our table. I believe that festivals are not about religion, mostly they are symbolic of hope and thankfulness and love and celebration. A time to be together with the people that matter and sit together as a family and enjoy the fun and festivity.So when Makar Sankranthri comes along, which is the festival of harvest, I make the sweet and savoury versions of pongal and give thanks.

I’ve posted the savoury version of pongal and the only thing that changed this time was the consistency. I made it a little softer than what I posted earlier with the addition of an extra cup of water.

I used a mix of moong dal with and without the skin. But essentially this is a quick way of making it, I don’t know if the purists will bay for my blood!! If the proof of the pudding is in its eating, then this is a winner all the way!!

Fiery Tomato Chutney

Friends….. I make them quite easily…. And mostly… they stay for life…. Collected and cherished like life’s most precious experiences…..some of my closest friends are the ones I made in school….. later, in college, in the hostel and each of the firms I worked for I met some of the most wonderful people I know….. sometimes I don’t talk to them for years and months, yet they remain closest to your heart….counted as those I can call upon in my hour of need…..sometimes I talk to them and spend so much time together, that I cant make out if I picked up their habits and mannerisms or vice versa……some I love working with because they are just so damn good at their work…and there’s so much to learn…. Some I share common interests with… with some I just cant explain how or why the relationship sticks…..some with whom I shared good times and moved on…. Some I rediscover after a period of time…. Short or long…. Some I cant relate to anymore….. some I wish I still had in my life….. Sometimes friendships humble you…..Each one has taught me something…. Knowingly or otherwise….. I know I will always be grateful for this…. For what they add to my life….

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine, who shall be called B, spent the weekend with me….Someone who’s trying to find her spot under the Sun…. To be the best she can…. To better herself and all that she aspires for each day….I’ve seen her change…. Over the 6 yrs now that we’ve known each other…. Sometimes I didn’t quite understand what she was trying to do, and where she was trying to go….because in her pursuit of whatever it is she is chasing, she needed time to tame her own demons….

It’s a difficult thing to know that you may be a casualty along the way….we take ourselves far too seriously to recognize this….and sometimes in anger and sometimes to poke at her I would shoot barbs…. I came to realize, that if I put a premium on myself, I would lose her friendship…..that i should recognise what was on offer, and take it or leave it….. that not all relationships can be the same…. that not all people are the same…. and this is why we pursue them the way we do…atleast for me…. She’s one of the most giving people I have seen….. she gives of herself freely that sometimes you wonder what’s left for her…. One moment this hardnosed woman of the world, and all at once a child….if I have to put it down to one word, ENDEARING it will have to be ….

Why am I writing all this?? Because I have a story to tell…. This blog isnt all about food….if you know me, you know everything comes with a story…. Some more elaborate than the other…. A couple of years earlier, at B’s home, we had this amazing tomato chutney her mother made…. hot as hell, we lapped it up as much as we reached out for the tissues to blow our noses…. It was pretty awesome…. The heat in the chutney is as much a part of it as its awesome flavour…..having tasted it once, B didn’t hear the end of it…. I hounded her for the recipe…. Two years later, her hubby landed up bearing a box full of it…. her mom was in town, and after all this time, she remembered and got her to make some for us…. It was 5 days of bliss….. idlies, dosais, rice, roti and sandwiches…. All were slathered by this drool inducing chutney….

The weekend she spent with us, she made it for me …. Surviving all the questions I threw at her…. The end product was as before…. Again it didn’t survive a photosession….. I tried my hand at it this weekend….its never easy trying to remake something that’s near perfect…. Again I was blown away with the results….

How do you explain tangy fiery marriage? A flavour so unique, that you keep dipping your finger into it and licking at it while transferring it to a storage box? That even though it spits fire on your tongue, you cant have enough of it?? I realized, this was so much like B….. No matter that you weren’t able to compartmentalize it correctly, you loved it anyway!! Thanks sweety!! I know for sure, that no matter where life takes us, there will always be things that remind me of you.

this is my entry to Suganya’s Vegan Ventures

Khageena – Eggs Hyderabadi Style

Khageena and roti was a breakfast staple….its a typically hyderabadi breakfast….khageena is very much the masala scrambled eggs meets egg burji….only better!! Even if I say so myself!! What can I say about eggs that have been scrambled into a spicy onion and tomato mix?? It is a good accompaniment for rotis and rice, awesome on a toasted sandwich as well!!

if you havent had khagina for breakfast, you can bet your last rupee you havent been to the right places to eat in hyderabad. while the biryani gets so much coverage, i cringe when these lesser known dishes, which are part of the culinary landscape of hyderabad are dying obscure deaths…. plus with the landscape and demography of hyderabad changing the way it has been… a lot of the “typical hyderabadi” stuff is perishing…slowly…but very surely… including the cuisine…. while multi cuisine is the way to go to attract the crowds….north indian fare ( i am not even sure it is authentic north indian) is much more easier to find / sell than regional…..and while andhra cuisine with its fiery trail has managed to lodge itself by way of speciality restaurants….it is sad that authentic hyderabadi fare is now relegated to the gallis of the Old city….where one can still find khichdi and khatta on the breakfast menu…..

i digressed…. not surprisingly…..anyways…. here’s my version of khageena…. am sure there are other’s as well in cyberspace….each one as authentic as the next!!

Beerakaya Tholu Pachadi – Ridge Gourd Peel Chutney

 

Give me a traditional south indian thali meal, and I will surely overdose on steaming hot rice with ghee and pachadi or/and chutney podi…..this is a given. I once took a visiting friend and my mother to a famous typical Andhra style restaurant in hyderabad, amma sat open mouthed as I heaped rice with ghee and gongura pachadi onto my banana leaf, not once or twice, but three times…..i obviously had a tough time reconciling with how much I ate for the next few weeks!! But my mother always recalls that incident whenever we swap stories of excesses….she’s never going to let me forget!!

A short walk away from my last work place, there was a modest Mess that served up terrific Andhra style meals…..we’d look forward to our monthly visits there and dread the amount of food we’d collectively eat….again for me, the pachadi would decide how miserable I felt for the rest of the day. We obviously quickly learnt to indulge in this on a day when our group had a relatively lesser workload, because it was humanly impossible not to feel like a beached whale once we were done eating.

Though chutneys and pachadis or a vegetable based relish of some kind is a must at most indian traditional meals, I haven’t been very inquisitive with them. Somewhere stuck in my head is the feeling that these are extremely difficult to make items. You need to be able to get the right blend of all the spices and delicately balance all the flavours. While I take my baby steps in pachadi making, this feeling is reinforced…that you need to balance everything…although I am now somewhat beginning to discover that they aren’t very difficult if you learn to use your tastebuds as a guide!!

Beerakaya  tholu pachadi is made by using the peels of the ridge gourd. Said to be rich in iron content, it’s a good way of using a part of the vegetable that would otherwise get binned. We eat ridge gourd quite a lot when its available (I wonder why I haven’t posted about it here yet!!) and each time I peeled the skin off I wondered when I would get down to grinding it to a chutney….while chatting with Srivalli one day she sent me a link to the one she had on her blog and a few days later, I made my version of it. while I try my best to follow a recipe, I cant but help make modifications. Sometimes because I don’t have the same ingredients, but more likely because I cant recall the exact recipe (I try and write them down in my big black book!!)and then resort to improvise .

This pachadi is great with steaming hot rice with ghee (clarified butter), dosas, idlies and even as a sandwich spread. The flavours are subtle and makes it very difficult to stop licking it off your fingers!!

The return of Recycle Rani – Rasam Soup

The picture is a bit hazy….but the flavours of this one are anything but!! they are full bodied!!

For k, rasam is “sick food” to be had when you are really under the weather…..and for me….i can eat rasam and rice practivally every day…..problem is on the rare occasions that I make rasam, it remains in the fridge for a couple of days…..even in the smallest of quantities, I cant seem to finish it…..and my loathing for wasteage is legendary………a couple of things from the pantry and I was slurping on the most surprisingly wonderful soup!!

I don’t think this will be made again only if I have some leftover rasam for the soup…..with some rasam powder on hand, this can be whipped up anytime…..and with the rains coming on full blast here…..this is perfect food for this time of the year…throw in some boiled pasta…or pair it with some crusty bread….and dinner is served!!

country bumpkin beans in a stir (fry)

Stringing beans is one of the things I loathe doing…..i can find the best excuses in the world to not do it…so imagine being married to a bean crazy guy…..K loves his veggies, and amongst them, beans occupy pride of place….I ensure to make an extra half portion when I cook them (eventually) so that I can accommodate his love…..(for the beans I mean) …. Tender French beans you can get away without much stringing, but cluster and gavar beans are the ultimate test of my patience…..

Gavar ki phalli (in pucca hyderabadi) translates to country beans also called mattikayalu in telugu is one of those things that takes you back in time and place….reminds me atleast of my childhood when they were easily available and made atleast twice a month when in season…..its slightly bitterish aftertaste is an acquired one and I have seen only two kinds of relationships people share with gavar beans, they either love it or hate it!!

I made it the usual poriyal way, steamed after tempering with minimal spices and a tablespoon or two of fresh grated coconut…all this changed on one of my mother’s stays with us…she puts this coarsely ground masala on it instead of the coconut, and K loved it so much that he requests for it to be made this way ….. The masala is a mix of roasted groundnuts, garlic and jeera….all of which really escalates the flavour….once you string the (damn) beans, the rest is pretty simple to do….

It goes well with rotis and rice….

tindora stir fry

This was a veggie we didn’t eat very often as kids….not because it wasn’t tasty, but amma thought it was “a waste of time and energy, not to mention precious oil and gas”….infact her exact words used to be “chaar anna ke bandhar ke liye, barah anna ka rassi” which when literally translated means the rope to tie the monkey is more expensive than the monkey itself and in the case of dondakaya, it was a very inexpensive vegetable and she felt it was not worth the time and energy and oil and gas it would consume to make it….

That apart, I find chopping this vegetable painful …..but since I love it, I buy and make it pretty regularly….i find it takes more than the usual 10 mins to cook to the stage that I like it at, and to hasten that on, I steam it for about 6-7 mins in the microwave oven. Again this depends on the time I have on hand to cook this.

This tastes best with chapattis or rice. my favourite is to have it on the side with curd and rice!!

Dosakaya pappu

After the sophisticated orange zest cupcakes with chocolate ganache…all dressed up to party somewhere hip, i crash land back to earth with the very earthy and comforting dal….in one of its many avatars………….I was always amazed at the array of lentils that would be cooked in our home as a child….and thought my mother and peddi were some sort of magicians who could stun us with their cooking….

Packed dabba lunches mostly meant rotis and vegetables, lunch times on Saturdays used to be special. Sunday lunches were usually more fancy cooking, the pulavs with a non vegetarian side dish lavished with a rich gravy….but on Saturdays, it would be basic and almost rustic…as we would have some kind of dal along with steaming hot rice and ghee, with papad on the side, we’d never even miss a vegetable if there was none….comfort food at its best….

Dosakaya pappu or lentils cooked with cucumber is a hot favourite…..spicy, tangy and absolutely yummy….paired to perfection with steaming hot rice, ghee and pickle…..whats even better, is that it is very easy and fuss free to make……that makes it a dish after my own lazy heart!!

Packed with protein, this Dal is my entry to eat healthy – protein rich hosted at Art of Cooking Indian Food.

For the dosakaya pappu

2/3 c tuvar dal (arhar or kandi, washed and soaked in water for 10 mins

2 cups of cucumber the oval and yellow indian variety/ dosakaya, deseeded and cut into one inch cubes ( I cook it with the skin, peel if you prefer it skin less)

1 t red chilly powder

¼ t turmeric powder

A pinch of asafetida

Salt to taste

2 T tamarind extract

For the tadka

1 T oil

¼ t mustard seeds

10-12 curry leaves

2-3 dried red chillies

In a pressure cooker, add the washed tuvar dal, cucumber pieces, red chilly powder, turmeric, asafetida and 1 ½ cups of water and cook for 3-4 whistles or till the lentils are cooked.

Open and mix well. Use the back of a spoon to mash the lentils. In a small vessel, heat the oil and splutter the mustard seeds, add the red chillies and fry for a few seconds till they are beginning to turn brown, add the curry leaves. Add this to the cooked lentils, add the salt and tamarind extract and simmer for 3-4 minutes. Add a little water to get the consistency of choice, though it is best when slightly thick. Enjoy with steaming hot rice and ghee.