November 2018- California Walnut Month

November was quite a busy month for me. With Diwali season in tow and lot of commitments with relatives and friends, my social media interaction was at a pause. There were many events happening in my city but I was not able to attend any. .

November has also been observed as #Californiawalnutmonth by our food community The FBAI. There were many events held in different parts of Mumbai.

There were some 50+restaurants, bars, home chefs, delivery/cloud kitchens, home bakers that served fabulous California Walnut creations and The FBAI has played the bigger role in organising all the events.

At the launch at #CaliforniaWalnutMonth, a Sunday brunch was organised at St.Regis Mumbai, that was attended in large number by most of our foodie community.  There was a delicious cold spread- including cold cuts salads and small bites by Paul Kinny.

You can see the live coverage of the event at this link. 

I was not able to attend any events due to some reason or other, (I cannot even remember how the time passed me by) but finally at the end of the month, it was my friend's birthday and I got an opportunity to try some creations of California walnuts (how could I miss it?) at Indigo Deli in Bandra. I went with my close circle of friends to Indigo Deli to celebrate my friend s birthday and included Kale Salad with brittle California Walnuts on our choice of dishes. Walnut is normally used as toppings in salads for its crunchiness and it tasted good in kale salad that I had at Indigo Deli at Bandra.

The birthday cake was replaced by a pumpkin pie with California walnut in the centre that was beautifully personalised by the chef with birthday message

We really had a good time at the restaurant and it was memorable one too.

All my foodies  friends of Mumbai celebrated #CaliforniaWalnutMonth by getting together and enjoying different pop up and masterclasses held in different parts of the city. The basic purpose of this campaign was to incorporate the healthy California walnuts in daily diet. Various dishes were created by home-chefs and restaurants. The whole program was well planned and there was so much to learn.

Most interesting was the Diwali party hosted by Shital Kakad. She celebrated her Diwali in walnut way with her table full of delicacy made of California walnuts.

Visit her link to see her beautiful table 

There was a master class on chocolate brownies, red pepper and walnut dip, walnut and banana smoothie by Samir and Hemali, and another masterclass hosted by Rachna Shah Sony who made vegan banana walnut muffins and toasted basil walnut  pesto. Yet another masterclass hosted by Poonam Shahani was an interesting one whereby she taught her creation of lotus stem and lotus seeds in walnut gravy. chicken korma with walnuts and vegetarian puloa with walnuts.

Anjali Thadani masterclass was about mushroom leek soup in walnut milk while Nidhi Joshi had a great turnout at her masterclass where she demonstrated her creation of walnut butter and snack walnut balls.

During this #CalifornaiWalnutMonth we learnt different creations from walnuts that included banana and walnut smoothies, walnut brownie, biryani with cashew and walnut sauce, mushroom leek soup with walnuts, walnut butter, modaks with walnuts, and many more varieties of dishes. 

I saw all live demos from the links on their page ‘The Fbai’ at FB. You can see it too.....

Celebrating Chutney Day 2018

Today was a special day.

• First because I was visiting this restaurant #OpenSodaBottleopenerwallah the first time,
• Secondly that I was attending a IndianFoodObservation event at Powai and
• Third that It was also clubbed with a book launch of 'Chutneys Adding Spice to Your Life’ by Aparna Parinam 

Last year, I had done an elaborate research of chutneys my family enjoys around the globe. I had interviewed all my cousins, asking them the details of the culture and the recipes of the city they have adopted as their own. ...hope u read it...have you??? if not…..then you better stop here...go to the link..HERE .... and then come back here to celebrate this Indian food observance day with me this year.

Coming back to my discovery of this restaurant at Powai in Mumbai..#SodaBottleOpenerwalla

This is an interesting place and I loved the Irani chai..malai markey..it brought back my childhood memories of my Pune trip (that I used to make so often) and frequent visits to the Irani restaurants. I really loved it. The decor is also good with big wooden tables and chairs, the walls covered with interesting designs and colorful bottles. There is art everywhere and one can sit there for hours and still be happy eating Mumbai Chaat like Pani puri, bhel and sipping  Chai.

I arrived early at the book launch and got opportunity to converse with the author Aparna Parinam, who is pharmacist by profession while cooking is her passion, so much so, that she has self published her book on chutney, preserving the traditional dishes of her family. The plus point of this book is that all her chutneys are pure vegetarian and they contain neither onions nor garlic. Good news for Brahmakumaris and Jains

I was there on a special invite by gracious Rushina Ghildiyal, who can churn out a new dish at a drop of a hat.

She brought to our notice that foodies are observing an ingredient of the month, where in the chefs around the city are trying and creating recipes on those ingredients during the month. Bananas and sea buckthorn are the chosen ingredients for this month and many chefs are creating dishes and have introduced them on their menu.. Rushina decided to demonstrate a new recipe using sea buckthorn and raspberry. She said that she was trying for the first time (having brought all the ingredients with her)  The result was marvellous....so very delicious that I was able to taste only a half teaspoon (why you may ask??...well because it was so yummy that it was licked off the plate before I could reach the table..i was busy clicking picture, you see)

Aparna Parinam demonstrated a chutney from her book.

you can find the recipe in her book on page no 103.

"Chana dhal chutney can be used as spread for the roti" she said. “This chutney does not need seasoning and all the ingredients need to be roasted. It goes well with idlis and dosas and has a shelf life of 2 to 3 days.” She added while churning the chutney in a thick paste.

 Do buy her book. It can be a good addition to your recipe bookshelf and has great varieties that include all kinds of chutneys such as coconut based, Curd based, vegetable based, fruit based, seed based, nut based and pulses based recipes. There are some food memories too that makes it an interesting read.

However, you must be curious to learn about the recipe that Rushina demonstrated

Sea Buckthorn Raspberry Chutney

This recipe was done in two parts.

In part one

Pour oil in a pan and fry 1 cup chopped onions and 1tsp garlic. Stir fry till light brown. Add 2tbsp of jaggery, 1tsp sugar, 1tsp salt and 1 cup of sea buckthorn puree. Add 1tsp red chili powder. Cook till oil separates. Transfer in a serving dish filling half the dish.

Make part two

Pour oil in the pan and fry 1 cup chopped onions and 1tsp garlic. Fry till light brown. Add 1tsp rock salt, 1tsp sugar, 1tsp jaggery powder and 1 cup raspberry puree. Cook till oil separates and pour it in the bowl containing the first part.

Mix it lightly. Garnish with coriander leaves

Khichdi at Sindhi Homes

Khichdi..a comfort food, was a regular breakfast that appeared at our dining tables in my house during my growing up days. A combination of just rice and lentil cooked to very soft consistency, it was churned to mix it and then topped with a simple garnishing of burnt mustard seeds. We would eat with curds and fried papads or sometimes with pickle as accompaniment or would just sprinkle a spoonful of sugar and relish it.

Mom was very creative and made different breakfast everyday. Sometimes there was puri bhajji, other times masala loli or just salt n pepper loli, sweet sayyu, sweet wheat porridge. Bread, buns and oats were normally served to our NRI guests, mutton or kheema pav was for special occasions. Breakfast was always at home, nobody ever talked about eating out, except on very special occasions, that too never breakfast or lunch, it used to be only dinner in formal wear.

But did you know that Khichdi is as old as hills? It’s score: Nearly 2000 years!

Archaeologists have found burnt pieces of rice and green gram, aka moong dal, that were cooked together in Maharashtra in 1st century AD, indicating that the comfort food was equally savoured back then.    Source:  DNAIndia.com  

I still savor Khichdi but not for breakfast, now it’s for light dinner. It’s humble no more because I have altered the taste too. Sometimes I add vegetables and sometimes the left-overs meat too.

On my last visit to Chicago, my cousin made this breakfast that was spicy and tasty. I had liked it so much that I asked him for a recipe.

He had shared with me verbally then, but of course, my memory always plays tricks on me and it stayed back buried in my grey cells until recently I saw the picture of the khichidi in the family watsapp group.

And so I asked him again, making sure to try it out and noting it on my blog. So here it is.

Boiled 1cup small grain rice with ½ cup green dhal till tender. Mix it well.

In a pan, fry 1tsp mustard seeds till they crackle. Add 1tsp cumin seeds. fry finely chopped onion, add 1tsp crushed garlic and 1tsp grated ginger. Add curry leaves and green chilies.

Add this to the mixture of rice and lentil.

Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot. 

Cousin says don't put coriander leaves. "arrey why? I like it and its good for my kidney too.... kidney ki safai hoti hai kotmir sey"... I told him.