Sindhi Curry

I love experimenting with food and think that India has an amazing repertoire of dishes. Every corner of the country has its specialties, every household has its own individual touches and flourishes which make for a unique food experience. We have two food weeks at home which everyone looks forward to. One is world cuisine week - each day I cook an all-vegetarian meal from a different part of the world - France, Italy, Middle-eastern, Chinese, Thai, British, Mexican...The other one is India food week - each day is devoted to a different part of India - Maharashtra, Karnataka, Bengal, Gujarat, Kashmir, Punjab...This event gives me and my family lots of pleasure and of course, I do learn dishes which are used through the year to add variety to the daily table.

Among the varieties of Indian cooking that I picked up is Sindhi food. On Saturday, as my in-laws were coming for lunch, I made Sindhi curry with Jimikand ke kabab. Both the dishes turned out great and are definitely on my list of daily menus for the future.

Sindhi curry
Ingredients:
1 cup of tur dal (I used mixed dals since I get a bigger kick out of that)
6-7 kokum, soaked in 1/2 cup warm water
2 tbsp tomato puree
150 gms guar phali (cluster beans), topped and tailed and whole/ cut into halves
100 gms lobhia beans (long beans), topped and tailed and whole/ cut into halves
1 inch Ginger, pounded fine
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp fenugreek seeds (methi)
Pinch turmeric
2-3 green chillies
1 stalk curry leaves
2 tbsp chickpea flour (besan)
Pinch asafoetida (heeng)
1 tbsp oil
Salt to taste
Chilli powder to taste
8 cups water

Cook the dal in 2 cups of water with the tomatoes. When done set aside to cool and then whisk/ run in the blender so the dal blends into a smooth mush.
Put the oil in a deep, heavy bottomed pan to heat on medium.
Add the turmeric, followed by cumin seeds, when the oil is hot. When they turn toasty, add the fenugreek seeds and asafoetida, followed by the curry leaves.
Then add the green chillies, followed by the ginger.
Add the besan and roast, stirring occasionally until the besan starts giging off its characteristically warm aroma.
Add the kokum, the dal, the beans and the water and set to simmer. Keep it cooking until the beans are done - about 45 minutes - 1 hour.
Then add the salt and chilli powder, adjusting to your level of spice.

I added a small lump of jaggery as I preferred it that way, though that is not traditional. This curry is typically served hot with rice, though it tasted good with rotis as well.

Jimikand ke kabab
Ingredients:
1 medium sized jimikand (Yam), peeled, chopped and boiled/ cooked in a pressure cooker with minimal water
1 tbsp dhania powder
1 tbsp cumin powder
2-3 green chillies, finely chopped
2-3 gloves garlic, minced
1 inch ginger, finely chopped
Salt to taste
Chilli powder to taste
1/2 cup breadcrumbs or 2-3 tbsp chickpea flour (besan)
2-3 tbsp oil

Mash the jimikand into a smooth paste.
Add the other ingredients and mix together to form a dough, excluding the breadcrumbs/ besan and oil.
Form the dough into 15 - 20 round balls, adding the breadcrumbs to help it hold together.
Flatten the balls into patties.
Shallow fry on a griddle/ frying pan at medium heat until browned on both sides.
Serve with a meal or as starters or a snack, with green dhania-mint chutney.

PS. I believe Yam is from the broad family of cacti and succulents. Succulents are among my favourite types of plants, they are so individualistic.

Chhole bhaturey

This weekend was a very foodie one. It was A's birthday so we went out to a new French restaurant, Terroir, for dinner on Friday. Then Saturday, his parents were coming over so I enjoyed cooking up a special meal for them. Finally, on Sunday, despite a rather hearty lunch at the club, I made Ali's favourite food - chole bhature for dinner.

It's a little weird that I should enjoy cooking so much, given that as a youngster, whenever my mom tried to teach me how to cook, I'd shrug it off as a 'girl' thing in my feminist avatar. Maybe it's the appreciation hound in me:)!

Anyway, I have always loved the chhole made at Bengali Sweets in Bengali market. There really is something special about those, and when A and I used to work in CP, it used to be a regular haunt for us and our gang of friends from office. A would always unwaveringly order the chhole bhature, and I always made him ask for a second bowl of chhole for me. Some years later, I discovered a recipe for Pindi chana which recreates the same taste, except, of course, that I'm not quite so liberal with the oil as the Bengali Sweets cook.

Pindi Chana
Ingredients:
1 cup chhole ( chick peas)
2 tsp ajwain (carom seeds)
1 inch ginger, cut into thin slices
1 tbsp tea leaves
3 tbsp besan ( chickpea flour)
Black/ rock salt to taste
1 tsp anardana ( pomegranate seeds)
1 tsp Amchoor ( dried mango powder)
4 cloves
2 tsp dried fenugreek leaves ( Kasoori methi)
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp chilli powder ( or to taste)
5 tbsp oil

Cook the chhole using the quick-soak method - soak the chick-peas for one hour. Then cook them in the pressure cooker for 1 whistle. Let them soak again for an hour. Then cook them with 1 tsp of soda-bicarb and 2 tbsp oil for 2 whistles, along with the tea leaves, cloves and ginger tied in a thin muslin bag. They'll come out soft, dark and mushy and the soda bicard reduces the 'gassy' quality of chhole. Discard the muslin bag. Reserve the liquid in case it is needed later.

In a wok, put the rest of the oil and heat on medium flame. Put in the ajwain seeds and stir.
After half a minute, put in the besan. Let the besan roast until it starts giving off a warm aroma and turns marginally darker.
Add the rock salt, amchoor, anardana, chilli powder, dried fenugreek leaves, pinch of turmeric and stir to mix.
Add the cooked chhole to this and stir. add a little of the reserved liquid in case the chhole turns too dry.
Garnish with sliced onion rings, tomato rings and slit green chillies.

This chhole has a tendency to keep drying out unless you add heaps of oil, which I don't dare to do, so I add the reserved water every time I re-heat it.

It tastes wonderful with bhaturey of course, but also goes well with rotis.

Bhaturey

Ingredients:
2 cups plain flour (maida)
1 cup semolina/ cream of wheat ( sooji)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup sour plain curds ( yoghurt)
Pinch salt
Pinch sugar
Warm Water

Soak the sooji in just enough water to cover it and keep aside for 10 minutes.
Separately, mix the salt, baking powder, baking soda and plain flour together.
After ten minutes, sift these ingredients into the sooji mixture.
Add the curds and just enough warm water to make it into a pastry/ roti type dough.
Put into a greased polythene cover and keep aside for 3-4 hours in a warm place.
Make 8-10 balls out of the dough.
Roll out into either an oblong or round shape (I prefer round because I have a small wok), approximately the diameter of the palm.
Deep fry by sliding gently into hot oil, then pressing down until it puffs up.
Serve hot.

I like a vegetable to join us for every meal, so yesterday I made some Indonesian eggplant to go with the chhole Bhature, and it accompanied the dish really well. This is from one of my favourite food authors, mMdhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian cookbook.
Ingredients:
4 long, slim purple eggplant, cut into 1/2 inch thick slices
4 shallots
5-6 dried red chillies
3 garlic cloves
1/2 inch ginger
2 tbsp tomato puree
salt to taste
1 tbsp oil

Grind the shallots, garlic, ginger and red chillies together.
Fry the eggplant - I prefer shallow fry though it tastes even better deep-fried.
Heat the oil. Add the ground paste to it and cook for 3-4 minutes.
Add the fried eggplant and the tomato puree and stir to mix.
Cook for 2-3 minutes so the paste infuses the eggplant.
Add salt to taste.
Serve hot.

This tastes great with rotis, puris, even crusty bread. It also provides a hot and spicy contrast to bland, creamy curd rice.

Stone Soup

I was thrilled when I saw that one of the foodblog events for this month is on soup. Soup is one of my favourite forms of nutrition, as a meal substitute, complement or just an in-between snack. In fact, in winter in Delhi, when the supply of vegetables is bountiful, soups are a part of every single meal for us, and there are endless variations on each theme that one could come up with.

Soup is also one of the easiest types of food to experiment with, and all one is limited by is one's imagination. One of my favourite fairy tales is the one about Stone Soup. A broke soldier is wandering around the countryside and begs a night-shelter at the home of an old woman. He is extremely hungry. She however is miserly and does not offer him any food. Then he entices her by saying that he can make stone soup - all it needs is water and a stone to make the most delicious soup. She is intrigued by this and sits by to watch as he puts water on to boil, adding a large grey stone to the pot, and a pinch of salt. Then he says it tastes delicious but some potatoes would make is superb. She digs into her larder and finds some potatoes. Then he suggests adding some tomatoes, then some carrots and so on. The gullible old lady readily supplies each new ingredient in her greed to discover a soup made of nothing until he finally dishes up a flavourful broth, 'made of nothing but stone and water'.

I have a version of stone soup too, born of ingenuity. All it requires is rooting around in the fridge and the larder and artful editing!

Stone Soup

Ingredients:

2 carrots, cut into 2 inch sticks

Handful of French beans, cut into 2 inch sticks

4 tomatoes, diced

Yellow bell pepper, cut into 2 inch strips

Handful of green peas, fresh or frozen

Cup of haricot beans, soaked over night and cooked until soft but not mushy

4-5 spring onions, cut small including the green

2 shallots, finely diced

2-3 cloves garlic, finely minced

1.2 litres water/ chicken stock

Bouillon cube

Salt to taste

1 tbsp olive oil

Sugar to taste

Paprika or cayenne pepper to taste

Mixed Italian spices

2 tbsp pesto/ arrabiatta sauce/ sun-dried pesto

Heat the olive oil in a deep saucepan.

Add the garlic and onions and stir. Cook until the onions are transparent.

Add the shallots and cook for 2-3 minutes.

Add the tomatoes, then the green beans. Stir and cook for a couple of minutes, then add 1.2 litres water and the bouillon cube.

Let it come to a rolling boil, then add the carrots and cook for a few more minutes until the carrots are al dente.

Add the bell peppers, then the peas and lastly the beans.

Add the spices and the seasoning and simmer for 10-15 minutes.

Turn off the heat and add the pesto/ arrabiatta sauce and stir to mix.

You can add a garnish of cut chives or scatter torn basil leaves on top before serving.

Serve hot with crusty bread.

This soup turns better with keeping, and works really well as a meal in itself, with a salad of greens on the side. You can add any number of vegetables - courgettes, diced pumpkin, cherry tomatoes or sundried ones, mushroom, baby corn, spinach or kale stir-fried in a little oil...You can also substitute the pesto with any number of things - rasam or sambar powder, thai nam pla sauce, thai sweet ginger-chilli sauce...

Another of my favourite soups, and a truly sophisticated and refined one in contrast to the rustic and earthy flavour of 'Stone Soup' is Red bell pepper soup. This one is always a hit with everyone whom I've served it to and makes a delicious accompaniment to a festive meal.

Red Bell Pepper Soup

Ingredients (for a 4 person serving):

4 Red bell peppers - count one pepper per person

3 Tomatoes, pureed - count 3/4th the number of tomatoes to the number of peppers

1-2 onions, diced

1 blob butter

2 Fresh rosemary sprigs (use 1 tsp if using dried rosemary)

120 gm heavy cream

Salt to taste

Sugar to taste

Paprika

1 tsp red chilli powder

1.2 litres water/ veg stock

Roast the bell peppers in an oven and then peel. The best way to do this is to stash the bell-peppers in a ziplock bag immadiately after roasting, zip it shut and put away to cool. This way you don't lose any of the delicious juices oozing out of the pepper. Once cool, the skin comes off easily.

Chop them roughly.

Puree the fresh tomatoes - I usually just grate them, using the finest holes on the grater, which gives me a good puree and saves me the bother of fiddling with the blender and skinning the tomatoes beforehand - the skin comes off while grating.

Put the butter into a heavy bottomed pan and let it melt. Add the onions and cook until translucent.

Add the bellpeppers, the rosemary and the stock. I like to tie the rosemary up in a muslin cloth, as the needles shed otherwise and it's a pain to fish them out.

Bring it to a boil, then let it simmer for 15 minutes.

Let it cool down, remove the rosemary and then blend in batches.

Put the soup back on the stove and add the tomato puree. Let it come to a simmer, and add the seasoning. The sugar is required if the bell peppers or tomatoes are not sweet. In India we tend to get more sour tomatoes, so I usually add a spoon or two of sugar. Add half of the heavy cream, stir/ whisk to blend and then turn off the heat.

Serve hot, using the rest of the cream as a decoration, delicately swirled into each bowl, with a sprinkling of paprika on top.

This soup has a lovely, elegant and rich taste, so I find it does best by itself, without any bread on the side. The quality of the ingredients really makes a difference to this soup, so shop for the ripest, sweetest tomatoes and bell peppers you can find. The soup should have a gentle, sweet taste, with no hint of sourness from the tomatoes.

I do have my shortcuts for this soup - I find it tastes just as well if I add just a tiny bit of the stock to the bellpeppers and blend after simmering, and then pour in the rest of the stock. This is mainly because I'm a disastrous blender of larger quantities of liquids ( mostly because I don't have the patience to process it in batches) and have learned my limitations after turning my kitchen walls parti-coloured over years of soup-making. Also, you can make it without the rosemary at a pinch, but its addition takes the taste of this soup from delicious to sublime.

Tip: I like the contrast between the soft, velvety sweetness of the vegetables and the punch of chilli powder but if you're not a chilli person, you can use just paprika for the flavour and for its colour.

Summer Perfection

I've been doing my usual lunchtime thing of trawling food blogs, and I noticed several entries about heirloom tomatoes. Which brings me to a simple recipe for an amazing salad that I came up with this summer. We were on holiday in Greece, Santorini, to be exact, and staying in an apartment, planning to cook some of our own meals. Santorini is an island that formed from a volcano, and something about the volcanic soil is meant to produce special tomatoes. So we bought a bunch of Santorini tomatoes to go with our meals. One bite and we were hooked - these are the more intense, flavourful, sweet, fruity, tomato-ey tomatoes we'd ever tasted. We wanted a side dish to go with a simple meal of moong dal and rice, and this not only met the requirements but became a staple for the rest of the week.

Ingredients:
Plum tomatoes - count about 6 per head, sliced in half
3-4 cloves garlic
Really good extra virgin olive oil
Salt to taste
Basil if you want to be naffy

Put the cut tomatoes into a bowl. Pound the garlic into pulp and add to the bowl and toss. Leave for about half hour. Add salt just before serving, else the tomatoes go all watery, and toss to mix. Drizzle the olive oil generously over the top. If you really want to, tear the basil leaves roughly and scatter on top. ( coriander leaves would taste equally great!)

This tasted great with a relatively bland Indian meal, but would go well with a cheesy pasta (Alfredo?) too. The tomato juices at the bottom of the bowl are lovely for mopping up with a bit of crusty bread.

Gorikai Palya

A, my husband, decided to start brown-bagging his lunch a few weeks back. This being summer, we are swamped with veggies like tinda, tori and ghiya, none of which he was used to eating before he got married. Though in my infinite nerdiness, I like all these veggies (wait, there's more, my favourite veggie is aubergine/ brinjal, followed by spinach!), he can only take so much of them before he rebels. And despite being an aloo lover, I can't have aloo every day. So the tug of war continues week after week, though he has redeemed himself and me at his office this week thanks to my afghani baingan and masala puris. So having catered to his whims, I thought it was time to take a time out for a health check with guarphali, known as gorikai in kannada, and cluster beans in angrezi.

Obviously I couldn't follow the easiest course and make a simple south-Indian curry out of it - mustard seeds+ karipatta choka + green chillies + coconut garnish - there was no way A was going to scarf that down without protest. So I had to innovate and find a way to make it less-guarphali-full. I tried adapting good old bhindi ki sabzi techniques to cluster beans and it worked a treat. Even I really enjoyed them this way, whereas usually I tolerate them, at best.

Ingredients:
1/2 kg cluster beans, washed, topped and taiked and cut into 1 inch segments
2 tomatoes, chopped fine
1 large onion, chopped fine
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 pinch turmeric
2-3 green chillies, chopped fine
1/2 tbsp oil
Salt to taste

Put the oil on to heat.
Add the cumin seeds and turmeric. Wait till the cumin turns toasty, then add the green chillies.
Add the onions and fry on a medium flame until they are brownish.
Add the tomatoes and cook till the tomatoes are mushy.
Add the guarphali and stir to mix.
Cover the wok and cook for 5 minutes on medium heat.
Uncover and check to see if the guarphali is done - they should be bite-ready but not mushily soft.
Add the salt.
Serve hot.

This veggie goes well with chapattis, with a cucumber salad on the side. You can also serve it wiht rice and a bland dal, e.g. moong. The trick is to let the onions brown so they are slightly caramelised. The sweet taste of these onions blends well with the sweet-bitter taste of cluster beans.

PS. I was surprised to see in Wiki that they say that though Guar beans can be eaten as food, their more important use is as a source of guar gum, which is a dietary fibre supplement and is used in ice cream and as a stabiliser for cheese. Who knew?

Janmashthami

Krishna is my favourite God, so any festival that celebrates him is joyous occasion, and what could be more of an occasion to celebrate than his birth? We have some interesting traditions to do with Janmashthami from my parents' home, and I try to follow the same as far as possible at our place too. Of course, the pooja is in the evening. On Janmashthami, we try and make the food that Krishna reputedly loved, so I try and keep a little home made butter or ghee on hand as part of the prasada. We don't eat rice or rotis on this festival. Instead we have an array of 'thindis' or snack-ey foods for dinner. One dish that is a must on this festival is avalakki mosaru anna - poha ka dahi chawal. It comes from the Krishna-Sudama story, where Krishna's poor friend from Gurukul days comes to meet him to beg a favour. He is so poor that he has nothing to offer Krishna as a gift but his wife makes some poha ka dahi chawal which Krishna was partial to. When Sudama reaches Krishna's palace, he feels ashamed of his poor gift and doesn't show it to Krishna. But of course, Krishna has divined everything and devours the dish with great enjoyment. Sudama finds that he cannot bring himself to ask a favour from his friend, and leaves empty-handed. but when he reaches home, he finds that omniscient Krishna has granted him prosperity, without his needing to ever ask. What a lovely paean to friendship!

At our place, I make it a point to tell my kids this story and the story of the birth of Krishna, among others, on this day. We also paint baby footsteps leading from the entrance of the house till the pooja ghar, as baby Krishna is expected to step into these and make his way in. Of course, my son, now being four and well-versed in birthdays was after me to make Krishna's birthday cake and wanted to stay up and play with Krishna when he came! After the pooja yesterday, my son, for the first time in God knows how long, gobbled up his dinner without any arguments - a testament to the deliciousness of non-food.

The menu:
Masala Puris
Shankarpoli
Uppittu
Sajjige
Shavige payasa
Kosumbri
Avalakki Mosaru Anna

Masala Puris
Ingredients
1 cup Thin semolina ( sooji)
1 tbsp oil
salt and chilli powder to taste
Water, as needed

Mix all the ingredients together, then knead into puri dough, adding water as needed. Keep aside for half hour. The dough should be a bit on the drier side.

Make 10-12 small round balls of the dough.

Roll out into thin puris.

Deep fry by sliding gently into the wok, then pushing the puri down with the slotted spoon till it puffs up, then turn over for the other side to cook.

Fry the puris until they are a gentle golden colour.

These taste good on their own, or with mint-coriander chutney or even Potatoes in gravy. They stay crisp for a long time, so they are good party food as well.

Shankar Poli ( a fried namkeen)
Ingredients
1 cup plain flour (maida)
Salt and chilli powder to taste
2 tsp Whole jeera seeds
2 tsp oil
Water as needed

Mix the ingredients and knead into a dough, using water as needed. Keep aside for half hour.
Make 5-6 balls of the dough
Roll them out into thin rotis.
Using a knife or a cutter, make diagonal lines on the rotis, then cross these with diagonal lines going the other way to make diamond-shaped pieces.

Deep fry on low heat till done. They should be a gentle golden colour. Store in an airtight container.

Sajjige
Ingredients
1 cup sooji (semolina/ cream of wheat)
1/2 cup ghee
1 cup sugar
Cardamom powder - 2 tsp
5-6 saffron strands
2 cups water or 1 cup water, 1 cup milk
1/2 cup raisins

Roast the sooji on a low flame in ghee till it gives off an aroma, then take it off the heat and let it cool. the sooji should turn a milk golden colour, not darker than that.
Boil the water/ water and milk till it comes to a rolling boil.
Put the sooji back on a low flame and add the water, stirring to ensure the water goes till the bottom of the wok (with a long-handled spoon to avoid getting splashed).
Cover the wok and let cook for 2-3 minutes.
Remove the cover and add the sugar, saffron and raisins. Stir to mix, cooking for a further minute or so.
Top with cardamom powder.
You can garnish with cashews roasted in ghee or slivered almonds.

An option I like to use is adding ripe banana pieces or pineapple. It imparts a uniquely fruity flavour to the dish. It's also a good way to use up over-ripe fruit. Just cut the fruit into chunks and add after the sugar.

It's greek to me

Over the weekend, A and I were feeling nostalgic about our vacation to Greece, so we decided to head for one of the 2 Greek restaurants in Delhi. It's Greek to me is a tiny place at the back of Safdarjung Enclave, near DLTA. The decor consists of mural-led walls with Greek-style pillars and greenery painted on them, and all the doors leading out of the restaurant are painted a bright blue - like that of the Greek Orthodox churches we marveled at in Santorini.

The restaurant had an extensive menu of starters, which they called Tapas, for some reason. We chose the Feta pie, in memory of our favourite restaurant, Volcano, on Santorini ( you can read all about it on my travel blog), and the zucchini fritters. Most of the main courses and the bulk of starters are non-vegetarian at this place. The starters came quickly and the portions were small but delicious. The service was very good - efficient and friendly. Little A had become fixated on sausages (which he has never tasted), for some strange reason, so we ordered those for him. A wanted to keep lunch light as we were going out for dinner, so he chose an omelette with spinach and feta cheese, and I didn't find anything Greek from the menu exciting as a main course so I ordered Pasta with pesto sauce and roast bell peppers.

The omelette was vouched for by A and little A enjoyed his sausages, but the pasta was not up to the mark. The pesto had way too much parmesan and as a result, was of a gluey consistency. I had to leave most of my portion, and was a little surprised that the waiter did not enquire about it when he cleared my plate.

We had fig icecream and Baklava for dessert. The ice cream was nice but the flavour could have been stroner. The Baklava was tasty and chock-full of nuts but not at all crisp. All in all, we were a bit disappointed with our meal and knew we wouldn't be going back there again.

A similar thing had happened the previous weekend with Tabula Rasa, a much in demand hotspot. A and I had gone there for brunch some time last year and enjoyed the experience. Last week we went there with friends for drinks. They have an interesting cocktail menu, with each cocktail highlighted on a separate page, and some exotic items were on the menu, including Cachaca which my Brazilian collague had told me about the same day. But when we ordered it, we were told that it was not available. The same thing happened with a couple of other drinks so we gave up and resigned ourselves to Martinis. The Apple martini was delicious and crisp, but the Pomegranate one I had ordered tasted like vintage cough syrup! It also cost a bomb, since it was made with Belvedere Vodka - about Rs. 1000, which I really thought was highway robbery, since a whole bottle of Belvedere costs about 2 K at a duty free.

The starters were delicious, especially some rolls wrapped in spinach and served with Thai chilly-garlic sauce.

We had asked for a separate table for the two of us, since the friends we were with were meeting another group for dinner, but the place was booked solid. "We'll see what we can do", was the best response we could manage, but eventually the manager did manage a table for us. The maitre d' was terrific, finding a really good table for us at the back. Later on he noticed me taking my inhaler and came over to tell me about a home remedy for asthma, which I thought was really nice - Only in India!

The music was good, and the place was rocking with Delhi's PYTs and wannabe HHs. Sadly, the food did not live up to the expectations we had from the restaurant. It was average, at best, and took a really long time to come. Moreover, while the waiters outnumbered the guests at times, they were ill-equipped to handle any request out of the ordinary. We had asked them to split the bill for drinks and starters from our earlier table, since we didn't want our friends and their gang to wind up paying for it. It took about 45 minutes, several repetitions of the request and the eventual appearance of the maitre d' for the transaction to go through!

A and I were discussing it last night and we thought that perhaps most retaurants are putting in so much effort to be different and innovative that those adjectives alone define the food experience. The delicious factor was missing from both these restaurants, and we most likely will not revisit either of them. (Well, maybe Tabula Rasa, for the music and the starters!) The only restaurants to which we have returned time and again - Diva, The Great Kebab Factory, Olive (now sadly closed), Tonino. All of them first and foremost have terrific food, followed by good service and ambience, not the other way around.