I detest radish! It’s bitter, pungent and according to me serves no purpose in the culinary world. The Japanese use a lot of radish in their cuisine, and I always wondered what they do to it to make that pungent and mouth twisting bitter taste, disappear ?! Even after tasting that kind of radish, I could still not lift a piece of raw radish from a salad! Until – this lady made me taste her concoction.
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There is something about the farm in full bloom, the birds happy with themselves, bees humming, butterflies swarming around, and our two dogs furtively chasing away the monkeys (who want to uproot our vegetable patches!). The entire happy cycle of nature makes my soul sigh in satisfaction.
This season we got bushels and bushels of corn from our farm in Mahabaleshwar. And strawberries. And radish. And beans. And cauliflower!! And so many other small batches of pure organic vegetables. The taste and inherent sweetness of the freshly plucked organic vegetables is a world apart from what we get in cities.
We had freshly plucked corn, and we all decided to have Corn Pulao.
Fresh corn, fragrant rice, a one pot marvel.
This is a really simple recipe, very easy prep and damn tasty to boot! Just before adding the rice, you will realise that the corn looks so good, and it tastes and smells good too. At this point you can easily not add the rice and serve it as a veggies with any kind of roti! (we almost did that, as the smell was making us go crazy – and we were fast loosing patience).
Serve it with yoghurt and papad! Or eat it plain! You can easily increase or decrease the spices. What I have written in my recipe is not a very spicy version. The yoghurt, balances the spices.
Fresh rice Pulao, made with organic corn.
I hope you like the recipe as much as all of us did!
PS: here is the link to the youtube video to make your life a tad easier!
Cheers and Ciao!
Hare Matar ka Nimona
We were in Amritsar recently, and the fresh vegetables caught my friends eyes and she really wished to take some back home.
Fresh Peas
Alas! We had all shopped so much (and hey! it was cold, we had heavy jackets as well!), that our bags were collectively over weight. My poor bereft friend had to let go of the farm fresh vegetables. But to make things a wee better we had true Punjabi Warian with us.
Warian
Many years back I had Matar Ka Nimona at my cousins place. I remember eating bowl fulls much to her delight and finally to her dismay. She was worried I would get an upset stomach!!
Hare Matar Ka Nimona
This is actually a dish famous in Uttar Pradesh. It is mostly made during the winters when the peas are fresh and juicy. Wadi (Warian is Punjabi) in Uttar Pradesh, is made with fresh white pumpkin, urad dal, and garam masala. It’s dried in the heat of summer and remains intact for the year round.
I made this recipe many times last year. It’s very suitable to the Indian palate. Too alien for foreigners. It goes well with any kind of Indian Roti. Even tastes good with rice.
Hare Matar Ka Nimona
You can easily avoid the onion and garlic and reduce the spice quotient. But some amount of spice is definitely needed, don’t do away with it totally. I prefer to make this without the onion and garlic.
There is something about this dish, which appeals to me greatly. The mouth feel of the pea paste and a subtle hint of flavour left behind by the cooking wadi, and then of course the wadi itself, along with a soft pillowy taste of potatoes cooked in the simmering gravy. The gravy tends to thicken as it goes, and thickens even more when it’s left till it is consumed. So, adding enough water is essential, and just before serving (if made a little ahead of time) add a little salted water and cook till boiling and serve immediately.
Try and get small fresh peas. That will lend to the dish an inherent sweetness, which when combined with the garam masala of the wadi makes it resonate in your mouth.
one pot chole rice.
My grand mom made the best Chole in the world. It was a hand me down recipe from her mother who was according to me was an un hailed, un acclaimed legendary cook worth atleast a couple of Michelin Stars. Not only did she cook like her hands were blessed by the gods, but she also remembered amongst the dozens of grand and great grand children, who thronged at her home each summer, what each of us loved to eat. Our stomachs and souls were in heaven when at her home. Every morning, no matter how early we woke up, we would find her tinkering in the kitchen, singing bhajans to her beloved Krishna. I asked her one day if she has any recipes written down – and she looked at me like I was asking her if Krishna liked dance music. Every single recipe, and there were thousands in her repertoire, was stored in her head. And not once was there a variation in what we ate. Each and every time over the years the dishes tasted the same – tasty, heartwarming and soul stirring.
My nani, handed me this recipe of Chole, very casually over dinner one day. I scrambled up and wrote it down. Over the years, I have also perfected this recipe with trials and error. And while it still does not taste like how she or her mom made it, it stills holds good on it’s own….
Firstly – apologies for a late blog. I have been stubbornly trying my hand at making a video. (Sometimes a 7 sec video does the work of 70 words!) You will see the videos – its a clumsy first effort – but its there! And I refused to sit and refine it further as I was too impatient to get this post out!
It’s the monsoons in Western India, and corn grows like a rapidly thriving weed in this season. Our farm in Mahabaleshwar (Mahabaleshwar is known for corn) is throwing them out by the bushels. Unfortunately, my corn loving daughter is in the throes of digging our skulls and bones in the Caribbean. The husband travels around too much and the son and mom are not too fond of corn.
(Check out the anatomy of a cob of corn.)
Nevertheless, the way we roast the corn is something I wanted to share with you. (btw – I looked up the word roast in the thesaurus. It has a completely different meaning than what I am trying to do to the corn!!)
During the monsoon, every corner has a street vendor selling corn. We were in the market in Mahabaleshwar and saw this new technique. It takes longer, but the corn gets less burnt and tastes way sweeter.
The corn is peeled off all its layers, except the last. The silk (long strands) stays inside that layer. Then over hot charcoal, the corn is cooked, turning it repeatedly, along with the last layer of the husk (leaves). What happens is that the corn inside starts getting steam cooked, and the sweetness of the silk (the long thin strands) and the flavour of the husk (leaves) permeates into the kernel.
Once the leaf layer, burns off, you will start seeing the kernels. The corn might burn a bit if you are not careful and if the flame is too high (as it did when I shot the video!). So one has to be a bit careful here.
After the last bit of husk and silk are burnt off, and you feel the corn has cooked (press a kernel and check) you can manually peel away the rest of the (now semi-charred) husk.
Your corn is now ready to eat.In India, we rub this corn with a slice of lemon, dipped in salt and red chilly powder. While rubbing the corn, squeeze the lemon wedge into the corn. You can make it as tart and as spicy as you like. This is a typical street style corn on the cob.
I make this very often for the husband. But this time around I made Mexican style street style corn (next on the blog). The son had taken us to an excellent restaurant in San Diego, called Puesto. Mexican food bug bit me hard there. The menu was so very different from the typical Nachos, and Burritos. There is another dish that I have to put up on the blog soon – Street style fruits. I was very reluctant to let go of the water glass they had served it in. Bits of the spicy tangy mix was left over and I wanted to push my face in and lick it clean. I think letting go of the glass was as difficult as letting go of my kid when she first went to kindergarten.
Its the season to walk hand in hand with your partner or kid, get wet in the rains and munch on a hot spicy corn on the cob, straight from the street vendor. Go do yourself this favour – immediately!!
Then bring back home some corn and try roasting it my way too! How you eat it is up to you! 😛
I grew up next to the sea, where the fishermen cast off the unwanted pieces of catch and left it for the dogs and birds. A friend, who lived in the North of India, would reach Bombay, and put his nose up in the air, would take deep breaths with a grin on his face. He said that the salt in the air invigorated him. Next time when I came back to Bombay from a trip, I did the same thing. That’s when I knew what he was talking about, and that’s also when I realised that I cannot live away from the sea for too long.
The balmy salty air, the smell of drying fish, the clash of the waves, the grains of sand under my feet, the sea which answers your questions if you ask them of her. This is home, and that’s the reason why the smell of fish never offended me.
I am primarily a vegetarian. But I had to post this recipe for my meat loving readers.
Fried Fish
I have a friend. Actually, she is my best pal, and her husband is an amazing cook. I believe his mutton dish (which he slow cooks for hours) have actually made people lick their fingers till they had sores.
Finger licking good
They had invited our entire gang (our kids are high school mates). All our friends had gone deathly quiet while eating his fish. Other than looking up to take another piece, (and fresh, hot ones were being served continuously), I could not meet any of their eyes, or talk to any of them. “Such was the taste”, they said later. “We forgot you guys (who did not eat fish!) existed!”
Fried Fish – Indian Style
I was thrilled to see so many people sniffing (it can be spicy) yet stuffing their mouths with fish after fish. (Needless to say, they were all rolled home – no one could walk!)
The foodie in me was very excited, and on my recent visit to Bangalore (where my friend has shifted, much to my continued disgust!) I decided to get her to make some fish, so that I could take some pics and rob her recipe 😉
She has an amazing house, opening on two levels, to two different gardens. I clicked the pictures under the shade of a tree.
The recipe is disturbingly simple. The trick she says is, to marinate it for days and days. They wash the fish, then marinate it, put it next to each other in a dish, cling wrap it and leave it in the freezer for as long as they can. A minimum of 4 days to a maximum of 10 days or more. The longer it marinates, the better it tastes.
Yummy Indian Style masala fried fish
They mostly like to use Surmai, (Kingfish) as it has only one central bone. If Surmai is not available, they go for Pomfret. Indigenous fish like Surmai, Pomfret, lend better to this very Indian, desi recipe.
They buy a huge fish (when its Surmai), and cut slices, no thicker than half an inch. It is immediately washed, marinated and frozen, once it got home. When they want to fry it, they take it out of the freezer section and pop it into the normal refrigerated section for appx 2 hours. Once thawed it can be fried anytime you require. All it takes is a frying pan and some olive oil. The marinade splatters all over, while cooking, It’s a mess to clean up, so you can put a lid on the fish, while it cooks, then take it off and make it more crisp, at a later stage.
fried fish
Squeeze fresh lemon juice over the hot fillet, and eat it with freshly cut onions and green chillies. Pop a beer!! The combinations is amazing.
Cheers!!
It’s garlic again folks, and I am very excited to share this recipe with you.
This almost pedestrian cousin of onion (yes, it’s first cousins with onion, shallots and leeks!) can add flavour to almost any dish.
Freshly harvested garlic, drying in the sun.
It has its own health benefits too.
I love garlic, and it seems so does the world! There is a restaurant in San Francisco by the name of “The Stinking Rose”, which even serves garlic ice cream. I haven’t eaten there, but just for the sake of being a good foodie, I will definitely try it out once.
spicy fried garlic
This dish was suggested by my mother in laws, a gym instructor. It intrigued me to no end, so I decided to try it out the very next day. Simple, easy and one of the tastiest tidbits I have ever had with a drink. So much so that I forgot the drink and kept eating the fried garlic.
fried garlic. my new go to fa v cocktail snack
It’s one of the quickest most simple dishes to make. Try and get new garlic, with the pink/purple skin. It tastes much better, as it is fried with the skin on and the thinner the skin, the nicer it is to eat it.
Chillies can be added as per your taste – I love spicy food, and it tastes absolutely yum with whisky!
When you bite into it, its crisp and then the tender garlic hits your tongue and causes the taste buds to do a nice little jig. And then the salt and chillies ping inside your mouth and the entire taste makes you want to go on and on eating fried garlic.
on the rocks with fried garlic
I’m going to try these with scrambled eggs, cheese toast and pizza!
Try variations – With wasabi and light soy sauce. Black pepper and sea salt. Fry some green chillies with it!
Do let me know if you try any of these variations. I would love to hear from you.
fried garlic
