Ladies finger! Hmmn..Okra for you, Bhindi for me…

One of the things that I missed the most on my dining table in Spain was 'Bhindis'. This veggie was available only on certain days and that too at Indian Super-market which was far away from my home. These were imported from London and the stock would finish on the day it arrived. Since we lived in the rural regions of Tenerife, (at Icod de Los Vinos) going to Indian Super-market at Puertos de la Cruz was a weekly event, if we were lucky, then we would be able to grab just a kilo of it. We counted (4-bhindis-per-person) and cooked, the rest we stored in the freezer

I wished somebody would locally plant this vegetable so that it was readily available at all times. 

 Since we lived in rural areas, our clients were mainly tourists or farmers, who would visit our shop to buy some electronics from our store. The local natives of the place were very friendly with us and sometimes sold us veggies and fruits that they grew in their farm. One day, I asked them to bring Bhindi and he looked surprised. He had never seen it. I showed him and he looked at it curiously. I asked him to plant it in his farm, but Bhindis need warm climate so he was not sure if he would be successful. Nevertheless, he did plant for me in his warm nursery and brought a big basket full of bhindis for me. But it was just an experiment for him and since Spanish don’t have this veggie on their dinner table, it was not profitable for him. I enjoyed this veggie till his passion lasted and then back to Indian supermarket, once in a while........

Believed to be originated in African regions, it is enjoyed in stews in most parts of the world. In Africa, the bhindis are normally short, thick and quite hard, they are grated and put into chicken and mutton dishes to make stew or thick gravy.

During one of the chats on BlackBerry, my cousin sent me the picture of Bhindi that grows in his garden in Texas. They were quite long, some of them longer than spoons, and they weighed heavy, bending the branch. He said that it was quite tasteless and people just chew and then throw it away.They are mainly used for medicinal purpose.

Bhindis are chopped and soaked in water overnight and drinking its solution early in the morning is good for health, it reduces cholesterol level, blood pressure and it also helps to stabilize the blood sugar by curbing the rate at which sugar is absorbed from intestinal tract. (and Oh..I tried drinking this Bhindi solution too but yucks! I could not continue this slimy stuff, I puked..sorry!)

My cousin in Malaysia says her maid uses bhindi for stuffing fish, it is a part of young ‘tau foo’ cuisine whereby it is stuffed with fish paste and boiled with a selection of vegetables and tofu, interesting recipe I must say, and sometimes they use pork too...

The few years while we lived in Surinam, mom grew many vegetables in her kitchen garden. The soil was very fertile and the weather was warm. We had Bhindis, tomatoes, coriander leaves and also chillie and avocado trees. While she cooked I would go downstairs and pluck out bhindis, tomatoes and chillies, just enough for the cooking, during those days I didn't know how to make Gaucomali, so we just cut avocado and spread it with bread like butter with just salt and pepper (it was so delicious that I can still remember the taste).

In India, Bhindis are served at every home and everybody has their own unique style..

There are so many different ways that one can cook this vegetable that every time I buy it I am set thinking. There is finely chopped deep fried bhindis, stuffed bhindis, bhindi potatoes in green masala or in onion masala or just dumped in Sindhi curry.

In some restaurant they also serve thinly sliced crispy bhindi (have you tried those?, yum..!!)

Even if you simply deep fry it and add dry masalas, it makes a nice accompaniment with dhal and rice. You could add dry powder like coriander powder, mango powder, lots of red chillies powder, jeera powder and coriander leaves.(cough! cough!

My favorite recipe is Bhindi with potatoes. Why? because its easiest to cook......and its quickie like Masterchef's fifteen minutes pressure challenge..lol

I deep fry chopped potatoes and Bindhis till tender

Make an onion masala separately by cooking onion, tomatoes, garlic, green chillies, turmeric powder and coriander leaves.(dump them in the pan and let the low flame do its work)

Mix the fried bhindi and potatoes to the onion masala and cook on slow flame for five minutes.

Lunch is ready..... I have it with chappatis and chopped cucumber….. always tastes good and I love it.

 BTW did you know that the world's most beautiful women, Cleopatra of Egypt and Yang Guifei of China loved to eat Bhinids ??

Mirror, Mirror on the wall........

Food Accessory – The Chutney

During my travels abroad, I have noticed that many restaurants serve bread and bread sticks with butter before you can place your order, but every restaurant you go to in India, every table is always laden with assortment of pickles and chutneys, all free of charge.

Chutneys are the favorite dish for every Indian. The other day, I was walking on the Linking road and one old lady approached me. She used to be my Mom’s friend and was regular at my home when I was younger. In between our conversation, she suddenly wanted to know the recipe of the chutney I had made some twenty years ago. I was aghast! How am I supposed to remember what chutney she had at my place so long ago? I didn’t want to be rude so I casually asked her what chutney was she talking about and she told me the recipe of chutney that I had completely forgotten. She started to praise my method of cooking and said that she was following that same recipe ever since then and was asking me if I still make it the same way. I was impressed because she has named her chutney as ‘Pushee’s chutney’ hahaahaa!

Well, over the years, there has been a drastic change in my cooking styles and my taste, I have discovered many more different ways to make chutney and each time it’s different. Chutneys are my specialty. Most of them are created on the spot with whatever is at hand. The problem is when people ask me the recipes of those that I have created, I truly don’t remember and cannot even repeat the same taste but they think I am acting tough and that I don’t wish to share.

If we know the taste of every ingredient it is easy to create one.  This morning I made one too. Before I forget maybe I should write it down.

Grind the following ingredients:

100grams green chilies,

1 medium size capsicum,

50grams garlic,

10grams ginger,

1 tablespoon chopped onions,

Add 1 tablespoon lime juice, 1 teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon basil leaves, ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes, ½ teaspoon garlic-ginger powder.

Heat one cup of mustard oil to its boiling point and pour on the mixture. Eat after two days.

source:google

When in Spain, I used to regularly make Guacamole, an avocado dip which I used to relish in sandwiches. The recipe is not exactly the same the way that Mexicans make it, it has been a bit altered and suited to my taste, but whenever I make it, it is always enjoyed by my guests. I have shared this recipe with so many friends and family that I have now memorized it to make it taste the same way each time I make it.

For making this dip, I use ripe avocado (that has black wrinkled skin, I have tried with green avocado in India, but it comes out quite bitter)

Grind together one avocado, 4 tablespoon of coriander leaves, 6 green chilies, 1 tablespoon of garlic, 1 teaspoon lime juice and salt to taste.

Pour the warm 1 tablespoon of olive oil and mix.

Not sure if chutneys are good for health or not, but I usually eat it when the food is bland. When I am travelling I normally carry a tiny bottle of chutney in my purse, just in case……..

Steaming hot Idlis

Today is the day when I have to do some banking work. I know this will take several hours and I might not have the energy to come back and cook. But I can’t decide as yet what I plan to make for lunch. I walk downstairs and wait at the gate for auto-rickshaw and I am distracted by the aroma of the steaming idlis. There is a large crowd around the cycle hawker who is churning out freshly steamed idlis in a jiffy. His make-shift-bicycle has one big container of Sambar hooked at the handles, and another one of Chutneys. A big steamer is kept on the stove at the back-seat of the bicycle. He washes the serving plates from a bucket of water and throws away the dirty water on the unused side of the footpath, then rinses with more clean water from another bucket. It is unhygienic but people don’t seem to mind. They wait patiently as he arranges the steamed Idlis in the small steel plates, pours a ladle full of hot Sambar on it and add coconut chutney. At Rs12 a plate, it makes a complete nourishing breakfast.

I make a mental note of ordering that for lunch when I return back home. Living in Mumbai, eating road-side food doesn’t bother me, even though I am aware its unhygenic, unlike my NRI cousins who always report sick if they try such stuff. When I come back I enjoy my lunch at Rs 24 of two plates of Idli-Vada-Sambar-Chutney. The Idlis and Vadas are very tiny hence my plate had 8 Idlis and 8 Vadas, each the size of a walnut..

 That is the comfort of living in India.

I have known this Idliwallah as long as I can remember. He arrives at 10a.m on his cycle which serves as his mobile restaurant. Many times I just buy Idlis from him and make Chinese veggies and this makes a perfect combinations. Steamed Idlis and stewed Chinese veggies…howzatt? Yumicious!!

Back then, when I lived in Spain, this was the luxury that I used to miss the most. If I wished to eat Idli, sambars then I need to make it. We had to plan it one day ahead. Early morning I would soak rice and lentil for few hours.  After few hours of soaking, I would grind these separately, mix it and keep it for fermentation for more than 16 hours. In Spain, the fluffiness of the idli depended on the weather. In cold weather, we wrapped the bowls with large towels and kept them in oven for fermenting, but most of the time it didn't ferment well, the idlis were sticky and hard. But still we relished it and even invited friends over for this treat. Chutney and Sambar was cooked too and this would last for two days. We made enough batter, to make Dosas and Uttappas too.

For people who live abroad, fermenting of the batter is the experiment they have to try again and again to reach to certain level of perfection.  “Switching on the oven and turning it off, then hoping for the batter to ferment does nothing either, at least in this house. Well it does, but it’s more complicated than that.” Says Jugalbandi, a food blogger, who uses ‘Eno Fruit salt’ to make his batter light and foamy, (Strange, but I have never thought of that)

The best Idli will always be made by a South Indian friend and all my life, at different stages, I have always befriended one south Indian friend who will be kind enough to steam some Idlis for me and this fetish dates back to my childhood days when after school hours, I used to follow my friend to enjoy the meals at her home. . it’s a regular food that is made in every South Indian home. “The smell of savory sponges of heaven, fresh out of the cooker as soon, as I got up is what I grew up with, just like many of my south Indian friends.” Says another food blogger DK and she explains the method of making best fluffy Idlis in her recipes.

Back in India, I have never made Idlis ever again even though there are ready-made fermented batters available at food stores in Mumbai. Going to the restaurant is an easy option. Moreover, we have this Idli and Dosa hawkers at every street corner, so why make a big fuss…..?

Romance with Eggs

Source:Google

During my growing up days, every holidays Mom took me to her brother’s house in Pune. That used to be her favorite destination. She enjoyed meeting her relatives and travelling around the city. I accompanied mom only to Pune city, but once there at my mamma’s house, I was left at home with my cousins.

I was very close to my cousins and we used to play together all day and sometimes late nights. Many times, when the elder went off to sleep, we would sneak out and go eat egg burji during late nights as late as 1am. There was one such hawker near the Pune railway station who made very tasty burji. He use to make on a large tava, stir frying onions, tomatoes, green chilies and coriander leaves in spoonful of butter. After a minute of stir frying he would break open the eggs on the top of masala and harshly mash up and mix. He would serve with buttered pav. It used to be great treat.

Surprisingly, we used to be hungry at all times of the day, and with our limited pocket money, egg used to the cheapest non-vegetarian dish.

Sometimes during evenings we used to go for half-fried eggs with sunny side up. With salt and black pepper, we would relish this with hot cup of cutting chai.

Source:Google

The romance with egg has been deep rooted and when I migrated to Spain, I discovered tortilla. In Spain, tortilla is very common and can be had cold (many people even take it for picnics) and it is also served in Spanish bar as accompaniment with drinks. Tortilla is the egg omelets that is made of the deep fried potatoes, mixed vegetables and also include olives, fish and meat. I had learnt to make Spanish omelet from my maid and this is my favorite must-have egg dish which I serve when I have guests. The whites of the eggs are beaten till fluffy before adding the other ingredients. It is made in a big pan and it is flipped at least three times to enable to cook from inside. I have a special cover, which is slightly larger than the pan, and makes the flipping and sliding it back into the pan easier.

Even the simple egg dish with just salt, if fried like a pan-cake and stuffed between the toasted bread, tastes delicious. I still remember the egg sandwiches that I used to feast on at the arrival lounge of Santacruz airport.

During my national tours, whenever we stay in the hotels, I always look forward to egg omelets that are served during break-fast. There will be variety of food that will include cakes, croissants, and Indian spicy breakfast like Idli-Sambar, Puri-Bhaji, but I always head towards the live-egg-preparation-desk where I choose the ingredients while the chef prepares a perfect omelet for me.

Except for Spanish omelet, I have never really learnt to make an egg dish, I just fried it without any experience and it turned out fine, but there are many people out there who still don't know how to fry an egg. How do I know that? Well, why else would there be tutorials on egg recipes? huh!

Okay I am hungry again…maybe I should go for boiled egg salad……