Sinful Curry

Whoever said life’s finer pleasures are in simple things couldn’t be more right. And when the adage is applied to food I would bold, underline and increase it to the biggest font possible. There are foods that I could eat anytime of the day and everyday if it were allowed.  And this, is one of them. The green chili chutney is what does it for me. As a child my mother served this chutney with all forms of boiled or steamed roots and tubers like sweet potatoes, yams, tapioca etc. And that was when I think I inherited my love for the sweet tangy and spicy combos. Note: You cannot replace shallots with onions in this recipe as it takes the taste to a whole different direction. Green chili Chutney Ingredients 10 shallots roughly chopped 10 hot green chilies roughly chopped 1/4 tsp of tamarind paste 1 tbsp coconut oil salt to taste 1  curry leaf Directions Grind shallots, green chilies, tamarind and curry leaf to a coarse mixture with a chunky texture. Drizzle wit...

Whoever said life’s finer pleasures are in simple things couldn’t be more right. And when the adage is applied to food I would bold, underline and increase it to the biggest font possible. There are foods that I could eat anytime of the day and everyday if it were allowed.  And this, is one of them. The green chili chutney is what does it for me. As a child my mother served this chutney with all forms of boiled or steamed roots and tubers like sweet potatoes, yams, tapioca etc. And that was when I think I inherited my love for the sweet tangy and spicy combos. Note: You cannot replace shallots with onions in this recipe as it takes the taste to a whole different direction. Green chili Chutney Ingredients 10 shallots roughly chopped 10 hot green chilies roughly chopped 1/4 tsp of tamarind paste 1 tbsp coconut oil salt to taste 1  curry leaf Directions Grind shallots, green chilies, tamarind and curry leaf to a coarse mixture with a chunky texture. Drizzle with co...

So, what do you think of my new bootylicious sexy acquisition from India? I can’t describe what joy it has been to cook in it. I have 4 of these meen chettis. One specially reserved for the meen curries, another for the thorans and mezuhuveratis and the remaining two will act as stand bys. That’s the only way I can keep my chettis from harms way. Oh, don’t sneer. That’s how things work in this cosmic world of providence! If you have a back up, nothing can/will go wrong. If you DON’T, things can go spiraling out of control. In this case, I can be sure to wake up, and find my chettis victims of a bizarre earthquake, with the epicenter  right under their butts. Leer and snicker all you want people, but I’m telling you, when it comes to fate, no-siree, uh-uh, I’m not taking my ch ances. I shall reserve my findings of Karma and the workings of the mystical world  for another day or may be another site. What do you suggest? Do you think  people coming here would be interested in more t...

The earliest memory I have of these red and green Amaranth are from my Mom’s vegetable garden, where they grew like wild weeds. As a child I often squinted at them from a distance, pretending  they were rubies and emeralds strewn around my palace during my make believe games of an Empress and her empire. Every time my Mom went on a spree of de-weeding we had Amaranth for lunch and my empire turned poor over night :(. Having come from the South of India where we ate some sort of greens every other day, the vegetable market in the US was a little disappointing to me initially. Other than spinach, a few other greens I found, I was not familiar with and had no clue how to cook them. The local Indian stores didn’t carry much either. They had the same spinach and sometimes the seasonal methi(fenugreek leaves) and the mustard leaves.  So when I discovered the Asian market that had ever so many varieties of greens all through the year, tons of them that I recognized and tons more that looked p...

  Ever since I came back from India having been thoroughly brain washed by my Doctor and health freak sister, Sony, I’ve been working hard to reduce the waist lines of my family – husband, son and yours truly. We’ve completely moved away from our most favorite, slurp slurp rice (sorry I can’t say it without doing that a couple of times) to whole wheat rotis for dinner.  The transition hasn’t been difficult like I expected though. On the contrary, I’ve been plotting on bringing the same change to lunch as well. Here’s why- When it comes to rice (slurp slurp), I usually have to make at least 3 dishes to go with it. A dal or the like that has some sort of gravy to wash the rice down, a side of sautéed vegetables(you can’t do without vegetables right?) and a piece of fish or meat to satiate the mallu carnivores in us. But with rotis surprisingly, just one dish does it for us!!! It has been saving me a hell lot of time and the lazy me couldn’t be more happy. If rotis had me making just...

My mother insists that every grand child of hers eat a small bowl of curd rice during at least one of the meals in a day. Apparently she’s heard it through the grapevine that it is the quintessential food for developing young brains. And the best part, listen to this – you can’t have the rice and the yogurt on their own. For it to work right, it has to be a combination of the two * eyes rolling *. Anyway I simply abide because, like I’ve said before, I don’t have any moral fiber left in me to face her wrath and scorn if I question her. Also, I’ve come to love this dish because, trust me, I was made to eat quite a number of these bowls through out my life time – by you know whom!! Look how bright and intelligent those bowls have made me ;)! Jokes apart, this is actually quite a refreshing treat on a hot summers day! With a little bit of grated carrots and ginger to bite into, some crushed nuts for the crunch and some fresh cilantro to add color this truly is a delicate eye...

My mother insists that every grand child of hers eat a small bowl of curd rice during at least one of the meals in a day. Apparently she’s heard it through the grapevine that it is the quintessential food for developing young brains. And the best part, listen to this – you can’t have the rice and the yogurt on their own. For it to work right, it has to be a combination of the two * eyes rolling *. Anyway I simply abide because, like I’ve said before, I don’t have any moral fiber left in me to face her wrath and scorn if I question her. Also, I’ve come to love this dish because, trust me, I was made to eat quite a number of these bowls through out my life time – by you know whom!! Look how bright and intelligent those bowls have made me ;)! Jokes apart, this is actually quite a refreshing treat on a hot summers day! With a little bit of grated carrots and ginger to bite into, some crushed nuts for the crunch and some fresh cilantro to add color this truly is a delicate eye and a palette...

A very long time ago, my folks converted some extra space into an independent house and rented it out to a young couple and their 6 month old baby boy. Little did they know then that this family would influence their 4 young girls (3 daughters and a niece) in the most unexpected manner and leave an unusually lasting impression on them for the rest of their lives. The young R couple moved in with very little baggage and a baby that looked as beautiful as the moon.  I was less than 4 years old then. And as my mother showed them around, I timidly hid between the pleats of her sari and gawped wide eyed at the good looking family. Auntie R with her fair milky white skin, silky auburn hair and spellbinding beauty could  easily pass for a movie star. Uncle R carried his chiseled features and tall personality with such refined grace that I felt certain he was a super model. Baby R gurgled in his mothers arms, tugging at my heart strings for he looked exactly like the blond, blue eyed doll I of...

Ok, I had to revisit this post only because I have a huge confession to make. Frankly, when Shilpa gave me the recipe for this wonderful dish that I had at her place I was pretty certain she had forgotten some key ingredient. It tasted so amazing that when she listed out what went in it, I was like  Umm—err are you sure?? That’s it??!! I mean where are the spices? Where does that kick come from?  Ok, agreed. Half of these words I couldn’t get out. I didn’t have enough mettle to irritate her further. She already was sufficiently annoyed at my constant pounding and unnecessary urgency (yes, that’s how she described it) in my calls for the recipes. So, I had to swallow my reservations and publish them in spite of all my doubts (and people call me the bully!! *eyes rolling*). But this morning when I made this dish, I had to mercilessly hammer the doubting Thomas in me (he totally deserved it!).  Never before have I been so satisfied with any dish I’ve tried for the first ti...

Ok, I had to revisit this post only because I have a huge confession to make. Frankly, when Shilpa gave me the recipe for this wonderful dish that I had at her place I was pretty certain she had forgotten some key ingredient. It tasted so amazing that when she listed out what went in it, I was like  Umm—err are you sure?? That’s it??!! I mean where are the spices? Where does that kick come from?  Ok, agreed. Half of these words I couldn’t get out. I didn’t have enough mettle to irritate her further. She already was sufficiently annoyed at my constant pounding and unnecessary urgency (yes, that’s how she described it) in my calls for the recipes. So, I had to swallow my reservations and publish them in spite of all my doubts (and people call me the bully!! *eyes rolling*). But this morning when I made this dish, I had to mercilessly hammer the doubting Thomas in me (he totally deserved it!).  Never before have I been so satisfied with any dish I’ve tried for the first time! It was lip ...

Apart from  the obvious 35lbs of sweets, guess what else I carried back from India? 40lbs of mud and stones!! Don’t believe me? Wait till you see my future posts where I plan to flaunt all my new acquisitions as subtle props in my pictures. You can’t even begin to fathom how happy I’ve been ever since each and every piece of them arrived into my kitchen untarnished to its last element! My mother frowned as I packed the 10 kgs of earthen pans and the 5 kgs of granite. What are you going to use them for? she grumbled. Like she didn’t know *eyes rolling*. Of course from now on I’m going to cook ALL my meen curries in the meen chattis and all my pounding will happen with the granite mortar and pestle. I have to admit (though reluctantly), my mother’s concerns are not totally baseless. I tend to go overboard at times. While people carry fine silks and jewelry back from India, I carried 5 kgs of copper khadais , cast iron unniappam pan, a brass idiyappam press, chirattas for puttu e...