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Tuesday 21 February 2012

Vegetarian Mulligatawny Soup

There are some recipes that are a staple in our house. This vegetarian mulligatawny soup is one of them. I've been making this soup for a long time now, and I have no clue how I started making it in the first place. It could have been the damp, cold climate of England that may have kickstarted the idea for this warm and comforting soup. Or it could have been a desire to make a soup out of what is essentially an Indian dal. Whatever the origins of this soup, one thing that cannot be denied is that it's just utterly delicious, and unbelievably versatile. I have chucked vegetable odds and ends into this soup, along with beans or chickpeas. I have once, sneakily, thrown in some chicken when Kay was away, and I didn't want to bother with making full meals.

Mulligatawny is an interesting dish, from the perspective of an Indian. Its almost akin to the other Anglo-Indian dish, Kedgeree, in its nature. There are quite a few theories as to its origin. The first one claims that its a British corruption of the Tamil words 'milagu-thani' or 'spicy water'. However, the problem with this theory is that the dish that is being referred could well be 'rasam', the broth like spicy condiment from the South of India. And a classic Western mulligatawny soup is very different from a rasam.

The Western version of Mulligatawny is a thick soup, rich with soft lentils and ocasionally thickened with coconut milk. I once tasted a Mulligatawny soup in Terrace, BC with my in-laws and I was struck at how different it was to the one I make. For starters, it had rice in it, which for me has always been a no-no. The flavours were also very different to my recipe, and while it was decent, it wasn't what I was used to. I made my version for the in-laws, and they both said that they preferred my version better (yipppeee, success!)

Friday 17 February 2012

Dal Bukhara 43/366


When Canadian Lentils invited me to take part in their Recipe Revelations challenge, I totally jumped at the opportunity. Because, if you all read this blog fairly regularly, you'll know that I have a vegetarian daughter that needs protein. What better way to stuff her full than by using lentils?

I cook with lentils pretty frequently. From Masala Dal to Biscuit Ambade, lentils feature at least a couple of times in my kitchen. However, as the challenge required an original recipe, it took me some time to think of something that I hadn't already featured on the blog.

In the end, I plumped for this Indian classic, Dal Bukhara. Dal Bukhara is famous all over India. Its the signature dish of the Bukhara, a restaurant at the ITC Maurya Hotel in New Delhi. Famous for its tandoori (clay oven) dishes, the recipe for this slow cooked dal is a hugely guarded secret. I have eaten the original dal, and let me tell you, its an experience that can never be forgotten. Soft, creamy lentils almost melt in your mouth, and the mellow, yet fiery spicing takes a while to materialise on your tastebuds. Every bite, with a soft naan, is a sensation. Its truly an experience in itself and, as I can attest, unbelievably hard to replicate. I can totally understand all the rumours that swirl around this dish, from the one that says it cooks in a slow tandoor for twelve hours, to another that claims the use of almost twenty spices. All these rumours didn't make my task of trying to recreate this dish any easier :-)

Wednesday 15 February 2012

Update:

Congratulations to the winner of the Winefest tickets! It was comment number 4, who is Amanda H.


Please email me your full name and either phone number/ email address to michellepatriciapeters@gmail.com, so I can arrange for you to pick up your tickets at the 'Will Call' booth at Winefest on Saturday. I probably won't answer your email until late tonight, but I will have got it.

Thanks so much to everyone for taking part in this giveaway. I'll be doing more of these giveaways soon, so please keep your eyes out for them!

Thursday 9 February 2012

Phirni 3

Growing up, dessert wasn't something we ate very often. In fact, our eating habits in India were rather weird, particularly with my mum being a working woman.

We would always have a filling and hot breakfast, something I have no idea how my mum actually managed. She used to wake up at 5 AM so we could have hot breakfasts... I realise now how lucky we were! Then mum would cook lunch for whoever was at home, make up our lunchboxes and rush out to her school, where she worked as a teacher. Everything was sorted by 8.15 AM, cause she had an hour commute to get to work. And if you've ever commuted in India, you will know exactly how stressful it is with the heat and dust, and crowds all pressing in. My mum is a supermum, and now that I am a mum myself, I find myself appreciating her more and more every passing day!

Getting back to the point, we would end up eating lunch at school, and then have a heavy tea at about half past four when we got home. Tea usually meant snacks as well, and so we would be well filled up for when mum got home at about five. Dinner was around eight, and we never really had a formal 'sit-down-round-the-table' dinner. We'd get a shout when it was ready, and we went and served ourselves, got yelled at for not taking enough vegetables... grumbled a bit about 'fish again...? I hate fish... moan, mutter'... and usually ate in the front of the TV after a little fight with dad about what we were going to watch (dad usually won, unless there was something mum wanted to watch, in which case, mum won!)

So essentially 'family dinners' as we know it here weren't a big part of my life, growing up. Neither were desserts. The only time we got to eat sweets was usually at tea time when we would grab something from the local bakeries. Or when we had relatives over, in which case we would all pile in and head to the local (hugely famous) ice cream parlour and stuff our faces.

Friday 3 February 2012

Indian Spiced Scallops
There are a few things I miss about being in England. Good old Marks and Spencer's is one of them. In my pre-foodie days (and yes, I had pre-foodie days) I loved M&S ready meals. They are one of the few supermarkets who seem to have actually figured out the secret of ready meals that actually taste home cooked. The other thing that I miss about them is their incredibly well stocked fish and seafood section. They always had reasonably priced, decently fresh fish, and I used to buy some almost every week, especially if I hadn't had a chance to go to our local fishmonger. I've tried almost all variety of fish they sell, and I particularly liked their tuna, sole and trout. For a special dinner, I would treat myself to a pack of fresh scallops that I would then sear and serve on a simple lemon pasta. Bliss!

Fresh scallops, while available here in Alberta, are ridiculously expensive. I am talking about easily paying over $25 for a pound of fresh scallops. So essentially what was a weekly treat in England is now something that we can, sadly, only afford very rarely here. We do get frozen scallops as well, but there is something about the taste of fresh scallops that is truly a delight.