It seems like ages since I've updated this blog. Oh wait! It's actually been ages. Over two months and not an entry. Seems a little strange. It's not like I've not been cooking; I've been cooking like a maniac some days. It's not like I didn't have time; I've been a sloth quite a few of those days. It's just, you know, just not been going right. Just when I think, I have life figured out, I have something new to look forward to, it all seems to come crashing down. So much so, I don't think I should think so much anymore


I've been making this so often, but forget to take a picture every time. Yesterday for some reason, I got confused with the order quantities and had a ton leftover which I boxed up and gave to my sister in law. I also got her to model for me when she came over. Not an easy task with two rowdy boys, one who wanted the phone and the other who just want to go home or get banana chips!

This is actually the easiest thing to make. If you're from south of the Vindhyas you probably make Lemon Rice, this is just savvying it up using rice noodles instead of rice. I'm going to go ahead and call this Lemon Rice Noodles though in fact I'm actually using limes. Just the way it's been called so far and I'm no path-breaking trendsetter here.

Ingredients

Rice Noodles - 200g pack
Water to cook the noodles

1 tbsp - sunflower oil
1 tsp - mustard seeds
3 -  green chillis split long
1 -  sprig curry leaf
1/2 tsp - turmeric powder
Juice of 3 limes
Salt to taste

Method

1. Cook rice noodles till al dente. Follow instructions on the pack. Do not let it turn to mush.
2. Drain & run cooked noodles under cold water to stop cooking. Further drain in colander
3. In a wok, heat the oil and temper mustard seeds
4. Add green chillis & curry leaves to the temper. Stir around till the raw taste goes off. Take care to ensure the curry leaves don't burn.
5. Briefly take the wok off heat and add turmeric, back on heat and stir with the chillis and curry leaves. Again, take care the turmeric doesnt burn.
6. Take the wok off heat and add the drained and cooled noodles.
7. Sprinkle lime juice and salt over the noodles and toss to distribute evenly. (I used my hands to toss the noodles)
8. Place it back on heat and gently warm it through allowing the flavours to combine.
8. Et Voila! Lemon Rice Noodles ready.

What is comfort food to you? I can fairly say, to me, it is anything which has coconut milk as an ingredient. The flavours have become so ingrained to my senses, that anything which has coconut milk automatically reminds me of home and Kerala. And a vegetable stew is something made in homes across the length and breadth of the state. Besides the addition of an odd spice or a curry leaf here and there, I doubt it varies too much. Served with any kind of appams and bread, it makes its way to a breakfast table quite frequently.

Of late, I've been spending too much time at home. The excuse is I want time to think and clear my mind, which while true also leads to other consequences such as barely stepping out even for groceries. My excuse, it's too much effort in this heat to dress decently to go out and get groceries. I could always order them online you'd say, but then I'm a fan of the non digital and the touch and feel. Oh man! that probably made me sound like a chimpanzee in this tech age. But it is true, even though I know it's Danone yogurt I'm going to pick up and a bag of carrots are quite possibly the same everywhere, there is joy in going to the local grocery store and checking the product. Except not in this heat.

Last weekend, when I'd called my brother over for lunch, I made appams and beef curry. A beef curry which is so familiar to us, cos it's the one my mother made for us almost every Sunday back home. Normally I'm one for measuring out spices and powders and everything. This time, Jayashree looked at me in surprise when I started throwing in spices willy nilly. "Spoon! Spoon!' she kept saying and I kept ignoring her. It comes out right, no matter what I do. If there is one curry in the world I know I can twist and turn and still get right, it's that one. So I planned to make a veg version for you on this page, just so everyone could enjoy my favourite Sunday curry. Unfortunately, that is when I realised I dont have tomatoes in the house.

The good thing about this stew is that you barely need any fancy ingredients. It's all regular staple kitchen stuff. Onions, chills, ginger, garlic, whole spices, and veggies of your choice - potatoes, carrots & peas in this case. Sometimes we chuck the veggies and just add a couple of boiled eggs and then it becomes and egg curry. Any sturdy vegetable would do. You could make this a mutton stew by just adding mutton. There is one thing you need to make this stew a success though... and that is coconut milk. Freshly pressed coconut milk would be awesome. But who's got the time and energy for that these days and that too in tiny urban kitchens. I used a tetrapak this time. But I've also used those powdered versions and found it quite nice, though not exactly the flavours of fresh milk.


I have to tell you, when Jayashree saw me make this, she looked worried. It had no masalas, no tomato, what are you making was the unspoken question. Then she tasted it and said, ok, I'm making this at home for my kids. That's high praise indeed! :-)

Ingredients

2 tbsp coconut oil/refined oil
4 Cardamom pods whole
5 cloves
2 sticks cinnamon broken
2 onions thinly sliced
5 chillis sliced long
1 tbsp freshly ground ginger
1 tbsp freshly ground garlic
2 potatoes diced
3 carrots diced
1/2 cup peas
2 cups coconut milk/water
1/2 cup coconut cream (first press)
*1/2 tsp garam masala

Method

Heat oil in a wok (Malayalees use the wok quite a bit, we call it a 'Cheena chatti' or a Chinese pot)
Temper the whole spices to release their flavours.
Add sliced onions & chillis and gently sweat till the onions turn translucent.
Add ginger, garlic paste and cook till the raw flavour goes off.
Add in potatoes, carrots, peas and other veggies and stir to completely coat with the spices and other flavours.
Pour in water/coconut milk, cover and cook till the veggies are just done.
Add coconut cream and gently simmer for 2 mins without bringing to a boil.
Sprinkle garam masala on top just before serving.

*I sprinkle garam masala just after cooking and turning off the flame. Then I keep the dish covered till it's time to serve and the steam emanates the aroma of the spices when I open up the dish.
**My mum advises adding a spot of vinegar to bring in the sour flavour. I did not use it this time. I never have actually. Mum also says, the potatoes have a sourness of its own, which it lends to the dish.

I've been going to the stores at odd hours recently, which means day time around noonish. It's these times, when normal households shop, that are actually quite fascinating. One, it's a lot less crowded than shopping in the evenings. Two, you get access to far more ingredients than you would if you were running into a store just before closing time. Three, everything is a whole lot fresher. I've just suddenly realised I've been getting wilted veggies most of my life!

And I also realised, my local grocery store would carry a lot of the exotic stuff I read about online, if only I were to go at the right times. I'd been reading about Kale for a while online and I'd never had a clue as to what this leaf was. For a while, every recipe I looked up seemed to have kale, though I still fail to understand the kale chips part. But yes, even that seems possible. Perhaps, one day, even I'll try it out in my kitchen.

So I got this box of American Curled Kale, which surprisingly was not too expensive. I kept wondering what to do with it for a day or so and then decided to throw caution to the winds and do my own thing. Thankfully, it worked out fine. One thing I remembered from all the articles I'd read up was that kale takes a while to cook. I chewed on a leaf raw, and surprisingly it tasted sweet to me. Anyone else experienced that? It was also quite chewy, but that was something I'd been expecting.

So there is nothing much to this recipe. One day, someone's going to ask me why all these entries and instructions for the most basic things. But then, as I know it, it's for these basics that instructions are most needed. Building it up from there is an easy enough route after that. Maybe you'd want a pasta bake after that, or perhaps an egg custard using kale. But hey, everyone needs a starting point.




Serves 1

• 2 tbsp Olive oil
• 2 cups Kale (stalks removed, leaves torn)
• 4 cloves garlic sliced
• 1/2 red onion finely diced
• salt, pepper & red chilli flakes
• A drizzle of Extra Virgin Olive Oil

• 100g Dried Spaghetti

1. Cook the Pasta in salted water al dente. Drain and keep aside.
2. In a frying pan, heat olive oil on medium low heat
3. Gently saute garlic, onions till onions are translucent.
4. Add kale. Cover and cook for 10 mins and let it cook in its own steam
5. Remove from heat once kale is tender but still has a bite to it.
6. Toss with cooked pasta.
7. Add seasoning, chilli flakes & extra virgin olive oil.
8. Toss once again to evenly season.
9. Serve with warm crusty bread.

I picked up a red cabbage last week from the veggie rack at the food store. I didn't know what to do with it, but I thought I'd get it first and think later on. This is part of my initiative to eat more veggies (Uh oh I ordered chicken lollipop again tonight) and try new things.

I googled and found this on BBC Goodfood. It's really good. And the peanuts, they taste so good in this salad. So crunchy and so filling. The original recipe asked for groundnut oil, I used the toasted sesame oil I had at hand. It added a nice nutty flavour to the salad.

Didn't I have you at nachos. Didn't I? And aren't you feeling a bit bad that I don't really have nachos in this pic? Fear not. It's because nachos didn't really strike me at all! Not till dinner time and I just felt an extra crunch missing.

This salad is almost the same as a Pico de Gallo except I added peppers cos I was in the mood for them and I had a both red and yellow peppers at home. It's always been a little exotic, these peppers. We never had them when we were kids. And to me for the longest time, I really didn't think there was any difference. But slowly I can differentiate them in taste, though even now I'm really not that confident of a blind taste test.

For someone beyond a certain age, I sure order in a lot. That is despite having a cook who comes in daily and would make anything I'd ask her to. One problem I have is, I don't like warming up food. I'd rather have it fresh than from the fridge. Of course, there are exceptions. But most days it's either the local Chinese or Punjabi food which makes it to my dinner plate.

Then I realised. The one thing I order the most is something called Teppanyaki Noodles from Wok Hei. I have an unreasonable amount of these noodles. So I thought maybe I should try making it at home just to make myself feel healthier. Off I went in search of Teppanyaki Noodles.
 

Are you like me? Did you hear Pico de Gallo and think it was something really fancy? I'd read a lot and a lot and a lot about this and thought it was something really fancy. When I finally got to the ingredients and actually made it once, I realised its certainly YUM, TANGY, DELICIOUS.. all of it in capitals. But...it's a salad or what we call "Challas" in Kerala. Something most North Indians would have with their roti-sabji if they weren't munching through those god-awful, malodorous, thick, onion slices. Yes, I detest those onion slices...

This one was for my little baby Efrem who's allergic to ALL meat protein and dairy products. Being allergic to things most people take for granted is not easy. Luckily for us, he's not really known life another way. He probably thinks all milk everyone drinks tastes like Soy milk (ugghh!!) and he's never actually enjoyed an egg in his life (Sigh :( ). So this aunt went to work trying to make something which wasn't just sugared soy biscuits, but something a little more interesting. I wanted him to have a taste of home, a taste of our roots, land and country. What's more 'home' than Plantains, Coconut and Cardamom to anyone from Kerala?