Showing posts with label Easy Cooking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Easy Cooking. Show all posts
Tuesday, 7 April 2020
Dang it, I did.
And it's all because of them lentils. Other people hoard toilet paper. Apparently, I hoard lentils. It's the Indian in me. If everything else fails, there is always rice and dal. So it is a good thing that the family likes dal, because lately it's been dal with everything.
I never really had dal when I was growing up, per se. We tended to have the much lighter version of lentils, a soupy concoction called 'saar', which was a much tangier, watery version of the thick lentil dal that was usual in the North of India. It was either saar or rasam, which was a much spicier and brothier version that was traditional to Tamil Nadu and the South Eastern coast of India.
My taste for thick, creamy masala dal developed from my university days in Delhi, where a version was served with every meal in the hostel mess, as well as from my dad, who preferred this version from his army days. He described those days with a hint of nostalgia - the terribly cold nights when they staggered into camps at the very end (dad was an electrician in the army), carrying their heavy packs, huddled under thin blankets that barely kept out the biting mountain cold, the hard, snowy ground under which they made camp, the tents that did nothing to shield them from the cutting wind, the army days were not a good memory for my father - but he did describe the dal, straight from steaming cauldrons, eaten with rotis, a taste my dad has kept to this day.
Monday, 29 December 2014
And a peaceful holiday is what our family needed after a hectic year. It was a great year, for sure, and my life changed hugely from month to month. But it was when I was lying on the couch, absorbed in my Christmas present (for curious cats, it was a couch blanket and the Life with Archie series, best present ever) I realised that there is nothing like spending time with the child and partner, watching them build Lego and do puzzles, drifting in and out of sleep, and it made for a particularly relaxed end of the year.
However, I do enjoy socialising too, and I am lucky to be surrounded by incredibly supportive friends and colleagues. It has been a year full of ups and downs, and the ups were the friends I made and old friendships that blossomed into deep, enduring bonds. I can't believe that just about five years have passed since we upped and moved from England. While I still get homesick for both India and England, I love my life here and everything it has brought with it. So here is to another year, filled to the brim with memories and taking chances.
Monday, 25 August 2014
What do you do when your best friend shows up with a giant bag of fresh, crisp green beans from her garden? Well, first off, you give her a giant hug, cause everyone loves those beans. You then hand over the bag of beans to your mom and bat your eyelashes at her and ask her to make you the most delicious, super simple, vegetable comfort food of your childhood. I am lucky to have my mom visiting, and am aiming to make the best of having here here with me, even if it's for a short time.
Us Mangaloreans are not known for our love of vegetables. Every meal, however, does include a vegetable or two, usually as the sidekick to a main of meat or fish. More often than not, vegetables are an afterthought, designed strictly as filler food. Even though half of India is vegetarian, simple steamed veggies - like you find here at almost every meal - are a rarity. Veggies are jazzed up with spices and sauces, and cooked to within an inch of their lives. The results are usually tasty, but, hey, where is the distinctive flavour of the greens?
Friday, 27 December 2013
India, a land of contrasts. Every time I think I have a
handle on this extraordinary country, it throws me a curveball. From the first
step off a long flight, the smell of wood smoke, chill and the hints of dust in
the air... the cheerful faces of relatives, even at the unearthly hour of 3
AM... the sparkling lights of Christmas
time (any excuse for a holiday, here) and of course, the hot food at my aunts,
that she prepared for me, even though she works full time.
I loved the feeling of being home with my aunt Jessie. I've already spoken about my aunt, in this post here, but I have to reiterate, that she's an amazingly simple, elegant, down to earth person, who happens to be a super cook to boot. Lucky uncle and my cousin Jas.
The next morning brought back to me why I miss India so much. As Adz and I, bleary eyed, straggled our way downstairs - jet lagged and exhausted - the aroma of fresh, hot chai floated up and into our grateful insides. Along with sizzling, hot, buttered rotis and a crisp fried masala egg... well, to be honest, that's my idea of heaven.
I've been documenting my everyday adventures here on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, so don't forget to head over and ogle the beauty of my chais and chapathis :)
As it turned out, my aunt decided to take the day off, and along with another of my aunts, Aunt Justine and my cousin Jas, we decided to hang out in Bangalore, refreshing my memories of choking traffic and the sheer chaos of riding on roads without rules. I was mentally compiling a list of ten things about traffic and driving in India, and I will definitely share that with you all soon... trust me, it will make for exciting reading.
Meanwhile, when we got back from our meanderings, my aunt Jessie had been cooking all morning. On our way back from the airport, the driver of our car noticed that the vegetable trucks had just started unloading vendors loaded down with fresh greens and vegetables. A quick word to my uncle, and we stopped right there by the roadside, and off they went to grab some bargain fresh fenugreek, cilantro and spinach.
(Note: apparently, as the day gets on, prices go up significantly, so it does pay to be out at 4.30 AM)
Tuesday, 17 September 2013
I have always wondered why some people like gardening more than others. What is it that makes people perfectly happy to grub around in the dirt, get excited when talking about the differences between sheep and cow manure, look anxiously at the black clouds, hoping against hope that hail won't wreck this season's vegetables, spend hours researching tomato plant rot, guard their trowels and tools jealously, and rarely want to go on vacation because the garden might suffer...
Sounds familiar? These guys are the gardeners. I wrote a couple weeks ago about them in my post for the Canadian Food Experience Project.
One of the reasons that Kay gardens is because his memories of his mother's garden. Every time he sees Adz picking and eating a pea pod, straight from the plant, he remembers his own days of eating sweet, fresh peas, straight from his mum's garden. And I have similar memories of eating produce from my mother's garden too, though, not peas. Okra and eggplants, perhaps.
But we did have a good harvest of peas this year, and I even managed to save some from Adz's grabby hands :)
One of the reasons that Kay gardens is because his memories of his mother's garden. Every time he sees Adz picking and eating a pea pod, straight from the plant, he remembers his own days of eating sweet, fresh peas, straight from his mum's garden. And I have similar memories of eating produce from my mother's garden too, though, not peas. Okra and eggplants, perhaps.
But we did have a good harvest of peas this year, and I even managed to save some from Adz's grabby hands :)
Monday, 6 May 2013
So the Yeggies came and went, and as I predicted, I didn't win :) But I did get the opportunity to chat about food with CTV's Morning Live with host, Stacey Brotzel. I haven't been on TV since my Masterchef days, so I hated how I looked and sounded, obviously. Of course, I then had to go and have a look at my old MC video and I was kind of shocked how much my accent had changed and how blimmin' young I looked in those videos. Anyway I'll let you be judge, as the video is over here. Just try not too laugh too hard, will you?
Meanwhile, in other news, Aditi has been getting all cheeky on me. Today, I had a ladybird fly into my hand. So I got all excited, and told Aditi, 'hey, look, a ladybird flew into my hand... I am going to be so lucky' At which point, she deigned to look up at me from her game, all bored, like, and went 'yeah mom, you are lucky. You have me'... ooooh, that li'l monster. If she didn't have her moments like the one below, she'd be sold to the gypsies in a second (kidding, of course, no one would pay anything for her, in fact they'd probably pay me to take her back, haha)
So what did she say that made me bawl? Well, she's been getting an allowance of a dollar every Friday, and she has been saving up hard for a backpack toy. Every week she counts her coins and decides how many more she needs for the toy.
So she comes up to me a few days ago and said, 'Mom, I've decided not to buy the toy after all'. So I said, 'Why not, Aditi?' She then says to me, 'Mom, cause next Sunday is Mother's Day and I have two more Fridays to go before that... and I want to spend all my coins buying you the best present in the world!' I was stunned and asked 'Did Dad tell you to do this?' and she was like 'No, I just decided this, and of course Dad will be taking me to get you a present, but I want to spend my own money and its going to be the best surprise you ever had'.
I think I already got the best present in the world!
Tuesday, 19 March 2013
Well, piqued yet?
I was recently approached by my absolute favourite brand of frozen greens, 'Cookin' Greens' who threw down an intriguing challenge to me. Cookin' Greens may already be familiar to my readers. Last year, I made my Palak Paneer with their Flash Frozen Chopped Spinach, and to date, its one of the most popular recipes on The Tiffin Box.
This time round, the challenge was a different one. I was very excited to hear that Cookin' Greens were going to be on CBC's Dragon's Den and to celebrate this, they contacted their favourite food bloggers (ahem!) and gave them a rather fiery task... we were to create a recipe for a Dragon, using a Cookin' Greens product.
My pet dragon turned out to be internet mogul Bruce Croxon and I had to make him 'dinner' using Cookin' Greens Chopped Rapini. Yipes! Bruce turned out to be a pretty formidable challenge for this poor food blogger, but I went with mysword erm... knife, flying, and my pans all girded up.
I was recently approached by my absolute favourite brand of frozen greens, 'Cookin' Greens' who threw down an intriguing challenge to me. Cookin' Greens may already be familiar to my readers. Last year, I made my Palak Paneer with their Flash Frozen Chopped Spinach, and to date, its one of the most popular recipes on The Tiffin Box.
This time round, the challenge was a different one. I was very excited to hear that Cookin' Greens were going to be on CBC's Dragon's Den and to celebrate this, they contacted their favourite food bloggers (ahem!) and gave them a rather fiery task... we were to create a recipe for a Dragon, using a Cookin' Greens product.
My pet dragon turned out to be internet mogul Bruce Croxon and I had to make him 'dinner' using Cookin' Greens Chopped Rapini. Yipes! Bruce turned out to be a pretty formidable challenge for this poor food blogger, but I went with my
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