30th May 2010 - Dinner - Aloo Mutter

What?

This was the first time I was making Aloo Mutter. I mean, it's hardly different from aloo rassa/jhol/whatever, but, well, a new dish's a new dish.

How did it look?

A posteriori

• No onions in the gravy this time. Just tomatoes and some puree (which I use all the time because it is so much more convenient and makes stuff richer). Tomatoes here are pretty costly, so I normally put half a tomato for the texture, and puree for the actual gravy.
• I added some dry garlic chutney I have gotten from home. It is pretty useful and can be used directly on sandwiches too!
• As some improvisation, I added some Paav Bhaaji masaala too at the end. Not too much, half a tea-spoon maybe. But it deed help in imparting good fragrance.
• The quickest and the most convenient way to make it would be using a pressure cooker, but since the cooker I have is too small for making enough for 4 people, that's ruled out. Cooking potatoes with the gravy takes too long. So, I normally put the whole thing in the µWave after the chhonk and then just cook it for like 6 minutes. Nomw the potatoes are about 3/4th cooked. Back to the pan and I can now add water for the gravy and let it boil once. Bingo.

27th May 2010 - Lunch - Pasta

What?

This was the third time I made Pasta here. The first two times, I had some weird macaroni sort of pasta (purchased primarily for its low price) and I didn't have much stuff for the gravy either. This time, I had Rotini. Without peppers and oregano and cheese, you end up just putting onions and tomatoes in everything and it all just tastes the same, so the first two attempts were just stomach fillers, so to speak.

This time, however, I had all I needed, and some (pretty) fresh oregano too, aah the smell!

How did it look?

A posteriori

• The first time I made it here, I dunked too much pasta into too less water, so it ended up being very mushy and messy. The second time I was more careful, but I still boiled it more than it needed. This time, however, I had gotten an idea of the timing and the quantity of water needed, so I actually split the pasta over two sauce pans so that they got boiled in sufficient water.
• I also didn't make the mistake of adding oil while boiling the pasta (something I had done the first two times). You do put oil when you boil noodles for stuff like Hakka Noodles, but here, it only leads to terrible results as the sauce just won't stick if there is too much oil.
• A bit of oregano (that's looking gorgeous in the pic too) was all we needed for a pretty satisfying pasta.
• Since I was making pasta, I did not want it to taste unnecessarily Indian, so I did not put any of the Indian tadka stuff in it - no haldi, no laal mirch, no jeera/rai. Only salt, pepper, garlic and oregano. The tomato puree was good enough for the sourness too. Hopefully, this one would look less Indian to Mukund than last year's :P

25th May 2010 - Dinner - Paat Vadi

What?

I had made Paat Vadi last year too, and there was an entry on the blog, but since it was the first time I made it in Canada, I thought I would post a new entry. I am generally nervous with Besan dishes - Besan is a relatively precious commodity here, so I don't want to screw a Besan dish.

How did it look?

A posteriori

• Since I don't have a blender here, I had to make a plain yoghurt gravy with finely chopped onions. My mom tells me that the original gravy has lots of coconut - another thing I don't get here very easily.
• I was afraid that the vadi would disintegrate once put in the gravy, but luckily that didn't happen!
• Pahle jo gravy thee, wo kam lagi, so Sangram was like - make more gravy!, so we made more of it in another pan and poured it on top and mixed the whole thing.

20th May 2010 - Dinner - Rasam

What?

I have been lucky enough to have been introduced to all kinds of Indian food all through my childhood. We are Maharashtrians, but my mother was raised in Madhya Pradesh, and both my parents have spent a few years at Bangalore. So, at home, we make all sorts of stuff - dishes from all over the country. I am glad I have had this exposure - it does make one open about cuisines and appreciative about cooking in general.

On the list today was Rasam, a very delicious preparation from down South. Spicy, sour and tangy, it is an great accompaniment to rice. I remember that, when our hostel mess manager Prabhu ji retired, they had this special Kerala themed lunch for which they had also prepared Rasam. It was pretty tasty and it was quite disheartening to see most of the Marathi junta scowling at it.

I had made sure I carried some Rasam powder from back home. As for daal, I had made a bit extra yesterday and had saved half a cup for this. The recipe was sort of a hybrid of what Rohit Kiran's mom supplied via him and what my mom had given.

This was one of the most satisfying dishes I have made, simply because it turned out so well and tasted very authentic and exactly as desired.

How did it look?

A posteriori

• Many versions of Rasam do not use daal at all. When we make Rasam at home, we generally add just the teensy bit of daal to carry the whole taste, so that's what I did.
• I don't have a blender here, so we simply used chopped tomatoes instead of boiled, blended ones.
• The part I had most fun with was putting the taDka on top, called Talimpu in Telugu. Of course, you need need Kadi Patta/Meethi Neem also for the whole effect, but I used what I had. Pouring the hot mixture on the fully prepared Rasam was a real treat!
• I also had those dried masaala mirchis that you fry in oil and eat. At home, we love them. A red chilly is traditionally used for garnishing and also for the tadka, but I used this one, and it looked good enough.
• I had forgotten to add garlic in the beginning, so I crushed some and added it to the tadka itself.

19th May 2010 - Dinner - Chhole

What?

It's been around 17 days that I am here, and I thought it was high time I made chhole. My mom's recipe (using which we get chhole less spicy but tastier than the Punjabi chhole type dish) has never failed her, nor did it disappoint me last year, so I set about making it with the same gusto.

How did it look?

A posteriori

• This time, I had also gotten tamarind (imli) for home. I soaked it in water in the morning and added some of that tamarind water in the dish. Gives it a nice sour flavour.
• The rest of the stuff was pretty copy-book style, though I could have added some more water at the end.
• It does help to mash some of the chhole so that it slightly thickens the gravy and makes it, erm, substantial.

18th May 2010 - Dinner - Corn Paalak and Daal Fry

What?

Playing on with the spinach theme, I tried a corn-paalak dish, whose gravy is quite like the gravy in Paalak Paneer. Along with it was a version of Daal Fry.

How did it look?

A posteriori

• For starters, I was unsure of how much water to add when cooking the spinach in the pressure cooker. I figured it would be safer to add more instead of less, so what we got in the end after mashing the boiled spinach was loads of "spinach water". First we thought that we should put it with the corn, but on seeing that adding even a bit of that water made the final result pretty watery and lame, we just took the water separately, added lemon juice and salt and Ramu had some "Clear Spinach Soup"
• This dish is flavoured just with ground pepper, some red chilly and lemon juice (apart from salt, of course). So, the "Indian Curry" taste is not there, something I prefer with a subtle dish like Corn-Spinach.
• Despite removing the water, we had ended up adding enough to make the thing more watery then we had desired. Anyhow, that is a lesson learnt for the next time I make this, and that will be soon enough; the spinach here is amazing.

17th May 2010 - Dinner - Palak Daal and French Beans

What?

This time I have planned to try lots of Daal varieties that I couldn't or didn't last year. Also, I was able to get spinach here easily, so, this week has been devoted to it. Friday brunch (before leaving for Toronto) was Aloo-Paalak and Onion Paratha and today's dinner had Palak daal. Sabji was French beans primarily with some mixed veg and potatoes.

How did it look?

A posteriori

• It was the first time I was making this daal, so I was a bit nervous, especially because my Daal attempts often go slightly haywire. Luckily though, it turned out the way I wanted, hallelujah!
• Paalak gets cooked (and burnt) incredibly fast, so it pays to be wary when putting it initially in the chhonk.
• The chhonk in kadhaai and cook in microwave routine works very well for stuff with potatoes in it. You get all the taste you want and it is cooked very uniformly at the same time.