Mashed plantain fry (aratikaya fry)

I remember even when i was very little that i have been interested in new foods. Not as much the cooking as the eating part. And it helped that mom was a fantastic cook willing to experiment. She even had a recipe book where she had jotted down recipes that caught her fancy and there were all sorts of things from curries to snacks to desserts including jams, jellies and sauces. It used to be a good time-pass to go through that book and dream about all sorts of foods. I distinctly remember one such Sunday afternoon when i was twelve or thirteen. I was browsing through the recipes and found one recipe for 'potato latkes' that sounded easy enough to me and volunteered to cook it for the rest of my family. I did make those cutlet type snacks that evening but had undercooked the potatoes. The outside was turning from dark brown to almost sooty black but the potatoes refused to become soft. I was so disappointed. I don't think i ever offered to make a new dish again until many many years later.

Sankranti Subhakankshalu/ Happy Pongal

Wishing everyone a very happy and prosperous Sankranti. Here's a visual treat with a collection of festival pictures. Have a great time, everyone.

 My mother-in-law and i took a little more than an hour yesterday evening to make this  Sankranti muggu (design made with rice flour) in front of our house. The muggu is then decorated with turmeric, vermilion, some regi pallu, tomatoes or dosakaya (lemon cucumber?) and coins. The right side design was done entirely by me. I used to do these designs with mom when i was much younger, but have lost touch when i left my home town and state and country for higher education and then job. It was great to find out i could still do this. Though i have to admit that i practised thrice on paper before starting with the rice flour on the floor. It starts with 25 dots, continuing with 23, 21 so on up to 1 by reducing one dot on each side. The dots are then joined to make the design. The muggu made with lines as seen on the left is the more traditional one for Sankranti.

Bottle gourd kofta curry (Sorakaya Kofta kura)

Maybe I am getting lazier, or maybe i am taking mom for granted, or both. Why else, as one who stays at home all day, everyday, would i ask mom to type in the recipe and send it to me by email, when i was right next to her when she made this for me on my last trip there. I have surely become lazier. And taking advantage of the fact that moms are always trying to be there for their daughters, even when the said daughter has quit her job after a mere five years in the corporate world. And  then when the said mom is having a one week leave from her day job (one that she has kept at for almost thirty years), she is asked to kindly type in the recipe because her daughter is too lazy. OK, i hope you get the point that i am very guilty right now. But can i be forgiven, please? I am not saying i deserve it, I am simply asking you to be magnanimous. Its the season for that too, right? Pretty please?

Cauliflower Pickle - Andhra Style

I was sipping delicious sweet water with a straw from a fresh tender coconut a little while ago while staring into the sunset from a window at my home. And the idea of a tropical beach holiday described in some book or television or somewhere on the Internet flashed into my head. This was the not first time i had coconut water straight from a tender green coconut, nor was this the first time i admired a sunset at home (having even tried to capture it with my camera several times, precariously balancing the camera outside the third floor window), but it was the first time it struck me as something romantic. That a lot of things in everyday life seem interesting only when they are described in beautiful words by a stranger. That our perspective of everyday events can determine our happiness, not the events themselves. And i am surprisingly happy today, maybe just happy to be surprised at what my mind can throw at me to ponder.

Hello everybody and seasons greetings to you all.

Beerakaya Senagapappu Kura/ Ridgegourd Curry with Bengal Gram

Anybody like ridge gourd? I mean like, love ridge gourd. Jump and squeal when you hear that's the curry for the day. OK, maybe not jump and squeal but really love it. I for one had never been in that category. For as long as i can remember when mom was cooking our meals, i wouldn't turn to look under the plate that was was covering ridge gourd curry. I knew it was easy to cook, i knew it had great many nutrients and was light on the stomach (making it a perfect curry for convalescents). Those were just not enough reason for me to eat this green vegetable. I mean when made into a curry. Of course i would devour the chutney made with ridge gourd. That's because i am very partial to chutneys, but you already know that. So what convinced me to eat ridge gourd in curry form finally. Well, i have not one but two reasons. 

Plantain Skins Chutney/ Aratikaya Thokku Pachadi

Did you say "what?!" and read it again? I almost did a double take when mom mentioned what she was making for lunch three weeks ago. Green plantain curry and a chutney with the plantain skins. Really, they are edible? Turns out not only are plantain skins edible, they are also quite tasty when combined with yogurt, tomato and some curry leaves. To think of all the times i threw away plantain skins. Not long after i got my first taste of this plantain skins chutney at lunch that day, i was eager for second and third helpings. Much to my mom's amusement, i had hardly touched the actually plantain curry (hello, i can make that curry myself too, why waste my appetite on that age-old  curry when i have this delicious new chutney in sight). And i have already told you about my addiction to chutneys. So i took to this new chutney as fish to water. While i cannot guarantee that you will be as excited as i am with this new chutney, i can at least assure you that if you like yogurt based chutneys or raitas you will like this one. You have nothing to lose (you were going to throw those skins away anyway, right?) and everything to gain by giving this at least one try.

Peanut coconut chutney/ verusenagapappu kobbari pachadi

My favourite part of a south Indian breakfast is the chutney that accompanies it. While these chutneys are meant more as dips for the idlis and dosas, i eat them the other way round. I heap on double servings of chutney before i go for another serving of the actual breakfast course. And i love them so much that i bring them to the lunch table to enjoy with my rice and ignore the curries until the chutneys are gone. And i like them plain, like the picture you see above, without getting it cluttered by the zillion ingredients of tempering.

While i love all kinds of spicy chutneys, i especially love the white ones. The peanut chutney, coconut chutney, roasted Bengal gram chutney, and this one - peanut coconut chutney. Once its made, every visit to the kitchen will see me sneaking small spoonfuls. Its not just a delicious side dish to south Indian breakfasts, but goes perfectly with the deep fried evening snacks and if like me you can't get enough of it, pairs perfectly with rice too.

Mom's Simple Fish Fry

My mom makes the best fish fry. OK, i know that sounds like such a generic statement. Let me personalise it and say that only mom makes the kind of fish fry i love. Even i can't cook a fish curry that i can eat. My dad loves fish among all the non-vegetarian options and somehow that did not pass on to me, unlike the sweet tooth and the general foodie thing. While fish curry (chepala pulusu) is the Andhra favourite, i cannot eat it with any hint of enthusiasm. Even when my grandma lovingly prepares it  for me. 

Capsicum Fry/ Bell pepper curry

Of late i find my mother and mother-in-law both experimenting with foods, trying out new combinations of vegetables for curries, that is almost surreal. They have no access to the Internet and my mother is a working woman who rarely watches TV (she most definitely believes it is the idiot box). And i find them dishing out delicious curries with never-heard-before combinations, and i am the one reading through dozens of food blogs. I was talking to my mother during the week and after some usual chit chat, she generally asks me what i made for lunch and if i have nothing to blabber about, i ask her the same. And she shocked me with a curry she made with chukka kura (sorry, but couldn't find the English name for this. It is a sour leafy vegetable and usually cooked with lentils similar to spinach) and sorakaya (bottle gourd). Has anyone ever heard of this combination before? I know I never did. 

Bachali kura pappu/ Malabar Spinach curry

The weekend was hectic. I made mushroom pizza for Saturday lunch. Dad was in town on Saturday and i cooked him some dinner. I made him some plain Naan and served it with chicken curry. And later made myself some masala Naan that i had with the potato curry leftover from here. And since i also wanted to give him something special to take home to mom, i baked this cake again earlier in the day and packed it for him. On sunday, we went to a housewarming get-together and i got to eat my favourite Hyderabadi Biryani for lunch there. The recipes for the new stuff i cooked on the weekend will have to wait, because i have decided that i will first tell you more about what i cooked for lunch today.

Tendli Fry/ Dondakaya Fry

I used to eat this a lot when i was young, still do, but never knew what it was called in English. It was only after i started shopping in these huge supermarkets in Hyderabad that i was enlightened with the English and Hindi names of the vegetables for which i only knew Telugu names till then. And for the purpose of this blog i even did some google searching and wikipedia reading. My finding was that what i fondly called dondakaya in Telugu is called Coccinia grandis (ah, sounds grand!) or Ivy gourd in English and Tendli in Hindi and a lot of other names in other languages which you can search yourself, if really interested. Also, its supposed to contain beta-carotene. And my lesson on this vegetable comes to an end.

Don't go away yet. I am now going to tell you how you can turn the tender green fruits (vegetable actually, despite what wikipedia calls it) of this exotic tropical vine plant into delicious food. And how very simple it is too. You just cut them into whatever shape you like, shallow fry them for a while in a little oil, season them and you are done. You can eat it straight away based on the amount of seasoning you add, or like us Indians, add a lot of salt and mix it with rice as a curry. If you would like a little more specific instructions, below is my recipe for dondakaya fry, i mean tendli fry, i mean {insert whatever you call it in your mother tongue}.

Jackfruit seeds curry/ Panasa ginjala kura

We love jackfruit, finally a food that the husband and i both love. The ripe fruit in its golden yellow colour, and delicious smell beckons to me, every time i open the fridge. We eat little else for snacking any time of the day when there is jackfruit at home. And the jackfruit season is one time i feel lucky to be living in India (that's compared to the times when i can't get fresh rosemary or blueberries or leeks or fennel or basil or.. you get the point, things like that at reasonable prices) lucky to be able to buy a whole big fruit at the farmer's market, to be able to get the vendor to do the messy job of cutting it open and picking the juicy, fleshy, yellow, eatable bits out. All fresh, possibly organic and at totally affordable prices. You gotta love it.

Green Plantain Curry/ Aratikaya Kura

When i started this blog earlier this month, i started clicking pictures of everything i cooked, hopeful that i can put them up here soon. Still it took me almost 3 weeks to give you this recipe. That's partly because i have been busy re-baking the things i had already posted, chocolate cakes and chocolate chip cookies. My mom was in Hyderabad last week and who better people than parents to try your cooking experiments on, so i made a heap of chocolate chip cookies and one slab of chocolate cake to send them home with her. And now aunts, cousins, grandma, mom and dad - even if they are all the people obliged to like what i cook - have been telling me how wonderful my baked goods taste. And i am in heaven. This has given me renewed enthusiasm to take my blog forward, to keep a journal of what i have been cooking at the very least.