Gugi the Cook Strikes Again!

And so the cooking continues. It's a lovely rainy day and I continued my cooking spree. Today I made the following:

• Baingan Fry
• Peanut Korma
  
• Tomato Chutney

Baigan Fry is the simplest thing in the world to make. Well that's true for cooking as well I suppose. As long as you don't mind chopping and grinding and sauce making, and have a store of patience, cookings easy as falling off a buttered log.  

Baingan Fry 

(baingan/brinjal/egg plant/aubergine)  

The way my mom makes it, I think.

1. Take 2 baingans (medium sized), wash them, chop off the stem parts (off with their heads!), and cut them up into cubes of any size you want. The theory is the smaller the better.
2. Heat oil in a kadhai/vessel/saute pan on meduim high flame.
3. Once hot add mustard seeds/rai. Allow the rai to splutter, hold a lid close to the top of the pan and contain the splutters.
4. Now turn down the heat to lowest and add the following:
   
    - Hing
    - Curry patta
    - Haldi
    - Dry red chilli
    - Chilli powder
    - Cumin powder
    - Coriander powder
    - Amchur or Tamarind powder
    - Salt to taste
   
   
5. Mix all this up and increase the flame to medium high again. Give it a good browning and allow the fragrance of all the spices to permeate the air around you. Hmmm...
   
6. Now toss in the chopped baingan and give it a good mix up so all the spice powders coat the baingan pieces.
   
7. Add 1/4 cup of water to the kadhai, cover it, lower the heat to medium low and cook till the baingan is done. Check and add more water as needed. Don't add too much or it'll all turn to mush.
8. Once the baingan is done, take off the lid, dry up any residual moisture by turning on the heat to highest and stir frying the baingan.
9. If you want your baingan to be crispy, then add some more oil to the vessel and let the baingan roast in the open pan.

Tomato Pachadi/Raita

My mom's recipe

1. Take 3 medium sized tomatoes and blanch (add to boiling water) them in hot water till the skin comes off.
2. Remove the skin, and chop up the tomatoes.
3. In a tempering spoon (huge spoon/tiny pan), add 2 tsps oil.
4. Once the oil is hot, add mustard seeds, curry leaves, hing (asofesita), green chillies, dried red chillies.
5. Let it all sizzle and crackle and become fragrant.
6. The moment it becomes all fragrant, turn off the heat and pour it tempering on the chopped tomatoes.
7. Add curd or thick buttermilk to the tomatoes and you are ready to spoon the raita! 

Peanut Korma

Insipred from Chitra Amma's Kitchen blog.

The only changes I made were to use groundnuts/peanuts instead of avare kaalu, adding a tomato and cooking everything in a pressure cooker. I had to cook it for 15 whistles or so 'cause the peanuts took forever to cook. If you are one of those lucky people with a farm, or get your produce straight from a farm, you'd have to cook it much less.

P.S. - Add chopped coriander/cilantro on top of everything, it's a très Indian thing to do.

Gugi the Cook

And it’s yet another long weekend! So post the partying, eating out, reading, shopping and other such crucial holiday activities, I found myself with some time on hand. Hmm.. what shall I do after doing everything that has to be done during a long weekend? Ah! My much neglected hobby - cooking! 

The next question was, what do I cook? I sat down to think about this and even before I could sit I knew what I wanted to cook - my Momma's food. So, I made the following dishes, in my mom's Iyengar style:

• Parupu Korambu/Sambar
• Beans Karamedu/Subzi
• Simple Cabbage Leaf Subzi
• Pooshnika/White Pumpkin Kootu

Here are the recipes, if you want to try them.

Sambar

My mom's recipe:

1. In a pressure cooker take 1/2 cup toovar/toor dal/ tovaram parupu and wash/rinse it. 3 times thorough wash/rinse is what I go with.
2. Once the daal is clean, add 1-1.5 cups of clean (needless to say) water to it and a pinch of turmeric.
3. Put this on the stove, fix on the pressure cooker lid, fit in the weight (don't forget the weight) and cook the dal till its mushy fine, about 5-7 whistles.
4. After 5 whistles, remove from heat, let the pressure go down, open and see if its all mushy. If not, put it back on for a few more whistles. If done, take a masher or a ladle and swirl and make it a smoothish paste.
5. Next chop up 1 tomato, as many chilies as you like, and any veggie you want to add to the sambar. 
   Potatoes, pumpkin, beans, brinjal, carrots, any squash, capsicum are all excellent options. (I do not mention onions 'cause I don't like it in my sambar and I did say these ware a Iyengar recipes)
6. Wash some curry leaves/kari patta and coriander leaves/ dhania patta and keep them handy.
7. Mix 1-2 tablespoons of dry tam to 2 cups of water. You can also mix one lemon sized round of real tamarind to 2 cups of hot water and strain out the liquid.
8. Put on a stove a paatram/cooking vessel, turn on the heat to medium high, and add 1 tablespoon cooking oil.
9. Once the oil is hot, add mustard seeds/rai/sarson. Wait till it splutters. Holding a lid near the top of the vessel helps contain the splutter.
10. Now turn down the heat to low and add hing/perunkayam, 2 dry red chillies, 2-3 tablespoons sambar powder, the veggies, the tamarind water and salt to taste.
11. Turn up the heat to medium and cook till the veggies are cooked through.
12. Once the veggies are almost done, add the mushy toor dal, curry leaves, jaggery/sugar, and dhania patta/coriander leaves.
13. Boil for another 5 minutes or so and voila!

Serve with steamed rice and ghee. 

Accompaniments: raita/pachadi, applaam. 

Beans karamedu i.e. subzi

Mom's recipe

1. Chop up (French) beans into small pieces. If the beans and tender slightly bigger pieces are not bad, if isn’t too tender, I'd advice you to go for a fine chop.
2. Add 1 tsp of oil in a kadai/cooking vessel and keep on a medium high stove.
3. Add kadugu/rai/mustard seeds, allow them all to splutter.
4. Add a pinch of powdered hing/asafetida/perunkayam.
5. Add 2 broken dried red chilles to the kadai.
6. Add the chopped beans, salt to taste, sprinkle 1/2 cup of water and put a lid on it.
7. In about 10 minutes the beans will be done through, sprinkle grated coconut on it for an authentic Iyengar touch.

Super simple steamed cabbage

Hemu's mom's recipe (not an Iyengar recipe)

1. Take out all your anger on the leaves of a cabbage and tear them to pieces.
2. Take a deep breath. Exhale.
3. Put a vessel on medium high heat, add oil, rai/mustard seeds.
4. Once the seeds have spluttered, add a pinch of turmeric/haldi.
5. Add a slit chilly or two (optional).
6. Add some grated, or chopped ginger (non optional, this is what helps you digest the cabbage leaf).
7. Add the cabbage. Mix it around.
8. Sprinkle a tablespoon or 2 of water (cabbage releases water so watch out), add salt to taste, put a lid on it and say in 5-7 minutes, you are done with this veggie.
9. If there is residual water, remove the lid, turn on the heat to high and stir the leaves around, personally I love the water, it keeps the veggie moist.

Simplest pooshnika/ white pumpkin kootu

Mommy's recipe

1. Chop up some white pumpkin. Discard the seeds and the skin.
2. Put the pumpkin in a vessel with just enough water to cover it (it needs very little water), salt, and a pinch of turmeric powder. Cover the vessel and put it on medium high heat on the stove.
   Alternately, you can cook the pumpkin in the microwave. In a microwave bowl add the chopped white pumpkin with with some water, salt, and the pinch of turmeric. Cover it with a lid and cook till the pumpkin gets cooked (it'll kinda get translucent).
3. In a small mixer grinder (popularly called mixie in India), add some fresh coconut, jeera/cumin seeds, and green/red chilli to taste (say 1-2). Grind to a smooth paste with some water.
4. Add this ground paste to the cooked pumpkim and mix well.
5. In a tempering spoon or pan (any small pan will do) add 2 tsps oil, rai/mustard seeds, a few curry leaves. And once all the spluttering is done, pour this into the veggie mixture.
6. Give it all a stir or two and you can eat this hot or cold.

Now I'll go keep some rice and wait for dinner time.

Wiser by a year

What better time to party than a birthday. Since I've just come out of the celebrations, let me tell you all the action while it's still fresh in my mind:

The first night of party started on Thursday. Dips, my cousin, transited in Singapore on his way to Philippines. I started the evening by taking him first to Tapas Tree, Clarke Quay. I looove the menu in Tapas Tree; their portions are thankfully medium sized; neither huge nor skimpy. It was a lovely balmy night, we found a table by the river, and proceeded to order the house down. We feasted on the following items, washing it all down with White Wine Sangria.

After all that food, we wandered out for a walk to recon what else was happening that particular night in Clarke Quay. We found a Belvedere launch party at the Arena, with live music. This seemed like as good a place as any and we wandered in to listen more. The Belvedere guys fixed us with a more-than-generous splash of Belvedere Vodka and Lime drinks. We hung around watching the performance, sipping the cold cold drinks in the sultry heat. We lasted there till the performer was on stage and the drinks were drowned.

After which, I had to get Dips an original Singapore Sling. Where else but Raffles? Next stop Long Bar, Raffles Hotel, South Beach Road, where we ordered the mandatory drink and behaved in the mandatory manner, i.e. we slung back our Slings, ate peanuts, dutifully threw the shells on the ground (mandatory!). We also threw a few at each other for good measure, just in case someone mistook us for mature individuals. 

(We sat at the table closest to you in the photo. 

The drink on the right is the Singapore Sling)

Once we settled down after a few sips of the potent brew and our peanut throwing competition, we could hear some lovely notes wafting from somewhere overhead. Looking up we saw the cutest ornamental fan system (see photo), after which we realised the music was one floor above us. So we carried ourselves and our slings up a spiral staircase (like the sling is not enough) seeking the music. There we found an adorable old fashioned band, with amazing vocalists and an even more amazing saxophone player! We sat there sipping and applauding till the band wound up - all too soon.

The next logical stop from Long Bar has to be Chijmes! (For non Singaporeans, it's across the street). Since we didn't quite get our fill of live music at Long Bar, I decided Insomnia would be just the thing. Cjhimes is a beautifully (restored?) monastery which now holds bars, cafe, restaurants, spa, shops and night clubs. Insomnia has an amazing band, that belts out hits after hits! I cannot imagine how they have the energy to do this, and what state they are reducing their vocal cords to, but hats off to them for keeping us all dancing! We quickly got into the groove and continued dancing after the band stopped and the DJ came on. We'd have gone on till morning except we both thought Dips should get at least 40 winks before his morning flight. Thus ended the first installment of my b'day celebration.

The second installment was much tamer. Friday evening, I went to Takashimaya for the Bags and Shoes exhibition at Takashimaya, bought myself my favorite Royce Nama Bitter Chocolates, and did some window shopping. Then it was Chopper Chimney in Little India for dinner. It was supposed to be the wonderful Andhra restaurant Shankrati upstairs but they were full and I was famished. Dinner was very Comme ci, comme ça but the paan we had outside Anand Bhavan was lovely.

The third installment was on Saturday: Lunch with Pari and her parents at Shakuntala. Yummy! 

• sapaad 
• prawn masala
• mutton pepper fry
• spiced buttermilk 
• chicken biryani 

4 hours of spa treatment later I was ready to face my b'day Saturday night. Met Laksh at Renn Thai, Clarke Quay, for dinner. She got me bed linen in bright orange as my b'day gift. We worked our way through: 

• Chicken with Cashewnuts and Dry Red Chilies (very similar to the Indian version of dry Kung Pao Chicken)
• Chicken with Peppercorns and Basil
• Thai Green Curry with Chicken and Vegetables
• King River Prawns

Then it was yello jello retobar with Monu and Mukund. Nice band with lots of 60s, 70's and 80's music. Monu gave me Turkish headband and top as b'day gifts. We were joined by Sumit and Cee (my bro-in-law, remember?). Mukund got us a bottle of bubbly, Cee got us a cake, and the band played Happy Birthday! Awwww! What more can a girl ask for? I was happy as happy can be. And then of course, they made me drink a Flaming Lamborghini which spun my head sideways.

Lots of alco, dancing, and one street brawl (moi an innocent bystander) later we decided to go to OT, a rather risqué establishment, which someone mentioned during the evening, and I got a bee in my bonnet about visiting. We went with a hundred safety instructions drummed into our heads by Mukund, but thankfully found the place less scary than what we had anticipated (or maybe our ignorance was our bliss). So hung out there for a while, observing the women, the lady-boys, the clientele, and even managed to shake a leg or two. Afterwards we moved to Mukunds favorite haunt Krrish. After another drink and a few dances to Hindi songs I made my weary but very satisfied and happy way back home. 

The final chapter of my b'day was on Sunday. Met Cee for lunch @ Al Qasr in Holland Village. It took the better part of 2 pots of tea and a mezze platter for us to open our eyes after the excesses of last night. The mezze platter consisted of:

• Pita bread
• Hummus
• Baba Ghanoush
• Tabbouleh
• Falafal
• Salad
• Cheese cigars

This we followed up with Mutton Shewarma and Lamb Chops. We were as stuffed as 2 Boa having eaten 2 elephants. The weather had turned lovely with a cooling downpour and we slithered and slipped in the rain to reach Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf where we settled ourselves with tea and expresso to digest the elephant.

Dinner was home cooked by a talented colleague, Vegetable Sambar with Rice and Pickle. Followed by Wall's Carte D'Or Chocolate Inspiration Ice Cream and a discussion on Indian politicians. 

Thus ended my 4-part b'day celebration and much much thanks to everyone for making it such a happy and fun-filled one.