Brilliantly smashing

Writing a recipe isn’t my thing. My husband relishes my cooking and whenever he tastes something that turns out extra ordinarily delicious he would request me to write the recipe down so I can make it exactly like that the next time. Alas! It’s too late by then because I never measure my ingredients but just eyeball them. This habit also puts me in uncomfortable situations when friends ask me for recipes. Most of my steps include the phrase “andaze se” (that’s Hindi for eyeballing), they might think I am not sharing!! Another person I know who can relate to this is my dear mum-in-law. As I posted elsewhere also, she is a fabulous cook but in situations where she is asked the recipe, which are many, she starts laughing! Once on my trip to India, we both were in the kitchen together making brunch for a family who came down to meet us. After tasting the food cooked with team effort, the visitors got interested and started asking questions that could reveal the quantity that lead to that particular taste she was enjoying. Both of us dumb founded, kept on looking at each other and were feeling like two frauds in a bollywood movie that were pretending to be chefs. Thankfully, she was right there when we were cooking or we would have been declared a team of mountebanks!
Though writing a recipe isn’t my thing yet but if I am given one I follow it well, tweaking here and there of course! Few days back I found a recipe in the blogosphere (Meera’s Enjoy Indian Food) that reminded me of my mum-in-law. The main ingredient in that was Kundru or Tendli as its called in some regions of India. I was introduced to this vegetable by my ma-in-law and right away fell in love with it. I am writing it down as a salute to her, the brialliant chef who never hesitated to share any of her kitchen secrets with me. Mamma, this one is for you. Konkani style kundru, The Smashing Kundrus! I have omitted the garlic because my ma literally hates them.


Ingredients
1. Kundru – About 250 gms
2. Tamarind paste – 1 and half cups
3. Red Chili Powder – 2 teaspoons
4. Salt – as per your taste J
5. Oil – One tablespoon
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Don’t grab that knife because this recipe calls for smashing them with a pestle or rolling pin! Don’t attempt this if you are angry with someone or your whole kitchen will be a victim with seeds flying everywhere. Once you are done having smashing fun, heat oil in a wok, throw in the smashed up kundrus and in few minutes put in the tamarind paste along with red chili powder. Now, cover it and let it cook for good 20-25 minutes at low heat while stirring few times in between. At the end, put the salt in as per your taste. And there you have the smashed up smashing kundrus which are bursting with flavor. This can be eaten on the side with dal rice, kichadi or like a pickle or when ever you fancy it! I hope you like it.

Bygone Pleasures

Spending zestful days with my preschooler energizes me, helps me take a fresh perspective and breaks the mundane adult thinking pattern. But many a times, it simply exhausts me. Not meaning to be disrespectful to all the preschoolers out there but every mom needs to get back to her prosaic way of thinking. She longs for her humdrum world that includes lackluster adults who have lost their capability of getting excited at everything they see. She craves to be with someone who can celebrate just her. And of all the heartbreakers my dear preschoolers, here’s the biggest jolt: She sometimes needs to be alone!! Boy oh boy, did I just say that? Whenever my daughter hears this, she takes it way too personally. She would keep on hovering around me with a courtesy smile and would say ‘I love you’ every two seconds. “Why do you need a break? Why can’t I come with you? I will always take you with me. I am a nice person. I don’t want to be quiet. I love talking to you”. To avoid all this drama, I use her naptime as my “Me Time”. Not that I can go anywhere but I really look forward to it. I can do anything I want and not be answerable. I also cater to sinful food cravings at this time which otherwise are left alone for fear of setting the wrong precedent. It’s a jolly good non-parenting time. But after many days of lingering hope when I was trying to fight with the inevitable, today I have come to the terms with the fact that my beloved naptime is over forever. This is my tribute post to ‘the nap’ that provided me the much needed seclusion and escape. You will be missed.

Palatable Pleasures

Chop chop, sauté sauté, stir and mix, shallow and deep-fry, let it steam! It’s so exciting to be in the kitchen and cooking food for people who eat no matter how it tastes and don’t share the bad reviews with anyone. For me, cooking for company is a pleasure but its not the case when I have to cook with company. I am a control freak in the kitchen, it pains me when someone else goes and stirs that pot on the stove. And one of the pleasures of living in United States is you get to do everything, even when it’s a pain in the neck, you still got to move your, you know what! Or your husband can come to the rescue but see it becomes an irksome issue in our house. Darling husband wants to help, so when I am sick he will lovingly ask me to stay in bed while he cooks up a concoction for both of us. Though he means well, he is limited by his culinary skills. So every time he offers help, the freak in me comes alive! I am a normal person when I fancy myself lounging in the bedroom while my sweetheart makes a grand entrance with hot steaming food lined up on the bed tray. It sounds so romantic!! But when I am me, the control freak kitchen owner, all I can think of while he being in the kitchen is everything getting messy and not going back where it belongs and a much much big load of dishes as everyone knows people who hardly cook use way too many plates and dishes. So while I wait for my food to arrive, I obsess about all things going wrong downstairs. Sometimes, when I hear a drawer opening, I yell, “Please don’t take those plates out, use the ones from the left”. But don’t let me lure you into believing that I don’t like what finally comes to the table. He knows my taste right to the T. He always manages to surprise me with his drool worthy innovations. One I can’t forget was when I was so upset about not getting to eat any Indian street food here. After about 15 minutes or so, he bestowed me with the best finger licking chaat ever, no exaggerations here at all. Haldiram’s little samosas crushed, slathered with tamarind chutney, which we always have in the fridge, few drizzles of yogurt, decorated with grapes all around! Delicious!
Now keeping in perspective the kitchen control freak, fast forward to the preschooler. Her age asks her to do everything all by herself and I mean everything. And that makes the two of us. Yesterday, she asked me how long she needs to wait before she can drive to school all by herself. Oh well! Many a times, it’s hard for me to let her do things at her pace. Preschoolers have no rush, everything is an interpretation, one thing leads to the other and they are in no hurry, they will attend to whatever comes their way. Growing up is a very hard thing to do, entangled in the arduous confusion of being a big girl but not so big yet! The control freak in me is loosening out to make the knotty process a bit easy here and there. And here we have, in our new let loose kitchen, a budding new chef who makes her own sandwiches.


This chef also boasts the skills of pouring her own milk and cereal and cleaning up before leaving the kitchen.

Who is cooking in your kitchen today?

Farm Fresh

After desirously waiting for who knows how many weeks, yesterday we finally went to our neighboring town’s Farmer’s Market. The preschooler and me, both were galvanized by the thought of buying farm fresh juicy fruits and nutritive vegetables. On the way to the market we kept on talking about all the dishes that we will bring to life using the succulent strawberries: fruit smoothies, fresh plump blueberries: loaded pancakes, firm juicy tomatoes, crispy cucumbers: great munchies, crunchy carrots: stir fries and are also great when hunger attacks at non meal times, sweet peas: well I don’t love peas but any fresh produces seduces me to just bring it to the kitchen and do something about it! But what an anticlimax!! It would be a sham to call it a farmer’s market when only 3 tents are selling produce a.k.a. Lettuce but where you could buy plenty of bagels, a tiny baguette for a princely amount, syrup flavored iced tea, hand painted glasses which cost more than a case of wine, though this painting tent had something which we enjoyed, I’ll come back to that in a bit. Let’s focus on the annoyances for the moment!! My preschooler’s first words after reaching the market were “This is funny, they don’t have any fruits and vegetables mamma. What are we going to cook now!?” This let down reminded of the times when I used to go with my mum to vegetable shopping. One side of the street were the vegetable and fruit vendors and the other side house the little shops like a halwai (sweets maker), spice store, a small bangles shop from where I occasionally could score a set for being a nice girl to mom. The street was a bustling with business while the traffic went on its pace in the middle. Cows who were looking to grab a prize from the occasional inattentive shopkeeper used to give us company too! Amidst this hustle bustle, mom’s hand with a tight grip on mine made sure that her girl is safe. And here I am taking my girl to a special trip so she can see that things can be bought in fresh open air as opposed to the “climate controlled stores”. The other day she said, “When daddy’s birthday comes, I will go to a surprise store and buy a surprise for him”. Anyways, overcoming the letdown, we made up our mind to make the little outing fun with whatever it has to offer. My girl did get to taste home made applesauce that she seemed to really like. Coming back to the painting tent. The preschooler got a chance to paint a towel hook that was shaped like a sailboat.She went on and on about what a nice job she is doing :-)and it gave her the much sought after "being important" feel as people were watching her do it. Of course, what else would people do at a farmer's market where the only produce they can put their hands on is lettuce. How many leaves can one eat after all! Though it being advertised as a mini art class, no one was giving any instructions or tips,but remember we made up our mind to enjoy, so lets not fret about that! On the way back we talked about sailboats, painters and the place where we can hang the masterpiece.


As for bringing farm fresh food to the table, we made a snack using ‘Pepperidge farm’ pastry sheets,inspired by a number of food blogs.It was eaten fresh out of the oven.

Waste or Waist?

My husband has found a new love and he can do anything for it. He impatiently waits like a teenager for a tête-à-tête and then shamelessly keeps talking about it when he isn’t around it. Before our phone starts cranking with sympathetic calls from people who are secretly drooling over the idea of a scandal, let me disappoint you as its no other woman. Lets reveal the mystery, shall we? It’s Banana Bread. Yes, ladies and gentleman, this man who once was a banana lover is a convert and is now a banana bread enthusiast. Up until past week, banana was the first fruit to get finished in our house and almost every other day I could be heard saying “Could you please pick up bananas on your way back” but now people here intentionally avoid eating them and keep hinting at how over ripe bananas are getting wasted. Oh yeah, instead of wasting them lets mix them with sugar and flour and let them go to our waists!! Here follows the recipe that I found a long time back, if you are the source, please claim it:

Wet Ingredients:
1. 2 bananas, mashed
2. 1/2 cup oil (I use canola)
3. 1/4 cup buttermilk (or regular milk with 1 tsp. vinegar)
4. 1 tsp. vanilla
5. 2 eggs

Dry Ingredients:

1. 1 3/4 cup flour
2. 1 1/2 cup sugar
3. 1 tsp. baking soda
4. 1/2 tsp. salt
5. 1 cup chopped nuts and raisins





Preheat the oven to 350 F / 180 C.
Mix and stir wet ingredients in a large mixing bowl; keep aside.
Stir the dry ingredients separately in another bowl and gently fold into the wet mixture.
Generously grease a loaf pan. Pour mixture into pan and bake at 350*F for around 1 hr. Let it cool down for about 30 minutes before taking out from the pan. Cut up a slice and serve warm with more waist enhancing butter or crème cheese.
Enjoy.
You can also make muffins with the same batter, they get ready in about 35 minutes.

Whats up in your kitchen today?

Smooth Operators

This was a great long weekend. We had our cousins from Connecticut who have an almost 6-year-old girl, big sister for our daughter. Both the girls had a gala time together. They arrived Thursday night that was spent reading books, munching mini pizzas and banana bread and watching TV. Finally, they called it a night at about 10:30 pm. The adults spent the night watching a movie while munching popcorns, eating gol gappas, relishing banana bread and washing it all down with spicy gol gappa pani and coke. I am not even going to look at the weighing scale this week! All of us caved in at about 2 am!
We welcomed the morning with cozy hugs from the girls. Both of them were so excited to be together but the rain did play a spoilsport for a while. They spent a good chunk of time making train station with the blocks. It was interesting to see how little ones speak their mind. Our girl who is typically shy among other kids was conducting herself very differently. “Can you bring the blocks here? Oh no, not those ones. I am asking you to bring the square ones”, said the big sister. “I want to put the triangle ones, that’s why I am not bringing the square ones”, said the little preschooler. “I don’t like those green triangles, they don’t look good here. Bring the red and yellow squares”, said the big sister again. “But I like those greens and I think they are making the station look nice”, said the preschooler. “I” was stressed to the fullest in this sentence. We, the parents were passively enjoying the show while apprehensively waiting for the dispute to begin. Contrary to our anticipation, the big sister calmly accepted and said “Okay then you can you use the yucky green ones”. It was remarkable that she made it a point to not to accept that the green ones do look good. The little one responded to this in the utmost sophisticated manner. “Yes, the green yucky ones do look good here so I am going to use them”. How suave were both in putting their thoughts across the table!! How much confidence would an individual need to possess so he can afford to indulge in this kind of conversation. The little one dared to speak her mind for once and was able to achieve the unexpected result while the big one, for once, let it go but not without expressing her dislike. She managed to leave a mark on the preschooler’s mind that sometimes even when we don’t like something we can let it happen just for the sake of it. So many disputes in our relationships could be solved without getting into ugly arguments if we can learn from the simple approach these two little girls demonstrated.
Once the sun was shining they made the sand art, did cycling where little one followed the two-wheeled big sister in her little tricycle. Then we all went to a golf driving range to try a hand and then a mini boating session. Finally we all were exhausted. Though it was hard for the big sister to bid goodbye to so much fun, a promise to meet soon did help in the end.

Great Expectations

How do you decide which book to read next? Does it depend on your current mood like if you are sad you pick up a saga, if you are happy you go for a light beach read and if you are angry you look for a murder mystery, oh boy! Are you sure you want to that? Just kidding! My book selections are guided by what I am not doing at the moment. Confused? Well, if my time is going too much in taking care of my daughter, I tend to stay away from parenting books or magazines and if I am having a cooking blast in the kitchen, I stay away from recipe books and if I am feeling lonely, contrary to the popular notion, I tend to stay away from self help books. I use books to escape the humdrum of my life and let me be involved in the life of strangers and extract a plethora of emotions and experiences that make me wiser and empathic. And what kind of a book I pick if I spend my time drooling over my new car? Well I just drool and opt out of books! On that, when the information reached the preschooler’s teacher about our new car, she said “Its just so you”. I couldn’t get the point but hoping it was a positive remark.
Back to books, Last night I finished the diary, Bridget Jones that is, before all you literary buffs out there squawk, remember variety is the spice of life and I like spicy things. Bridget Jones Dairy, considered a bible of chic lit, yes I am a chic lit fan, has failed to impress me. It didn’t do anything. It could be that I read other chic lits before picking this one and they became much more sophisticated after going through the learning process, if you will. It was like jumping up and down after spotting a book at the library claiming to be the best Indian cookbook and later on feeling wasted coz it failed to bring anything new to what I already know from my two beloved moms. They aren’t targeted towards Indians who know the manifold layers of a ‘garam masala’ but for the ones who are brave enough to try their hand at an alien cuisine.

Did your last book live upto its expectations?

To each his own

With all due respect I would like to be an audacious brat today. You are being forewarned. Thank you. Since we got that settled, here we go…
Yesterday was a very big day, it wasn’t being a nice mom day and it wasn’t being a nice wife day. It was a day that made me realize that I am not just a mom; I am I, a person of my own self. It was a day when I didn’t belong to anyone, when my delight wasn’t vicarious. The bliss was in me, I was feeling it, touching it, living it. The desire was mine, the fruition was mine and the felicities of it belonged to me. My dear husband presented the bug, the buggy, the dune, my dream car VW Beetle. This car, and me it wasn’t a love at first sight. Gradually, it worked its charm and turned my indifference into affection. Few years back I couldn’t understand how a car can enamor someone. Beetle did it for me. Cruising it out of the dealership and then on the road on the way home, I just couldn’t hide my pleasure. I wanted to open the windows and shriek with joy and let everyone know that I am living my dream, right here right now. And it seems that the grin on my face is going to be fixated for a while, coz it just doesn’t seem to depart.
While putting my preschooler to sleep, I asked her what was the best part of the day and she said “Walking on water in the pool”. To each his own!