Thalipeeth

I have always felt a little Maharashtrian.
For that matter, I've even felt a little Manglorian, Gujrati, Punjabi, and Goan. In fact, I can work my way from one tip of the country to the other and honestly say that I have felt a little like every kind of people India is home to.

Perhaps it was growing up in Bombay (and then in Mumbai) that makes one feel this way. You grow up in the midst of such diversity. Your friends hail from different parts of the country and you spend your childhood sharing rituals and religions, festivals and food.

Of course, food was most important - the one thing that bound us all.
Truly. It did.

Whats more it wasn't even the fancy delicacies we craved, it was the every day stuff. Simple delicious dishes which your friend brought to school for "tiffin" and traded with you for your own lunch (that is provided your own Mum had packed you something of value).

My Mother worked full time and then some, so my lunch box often featured Bread, Butter, and Jam.
I probably don't need to tell you this, but BBJ has very low trade value. So when the recess bell rang and the floor was open for business, my lunch was passed over like bad stock no one wanted to touch with a ten foot pole.

Then there were those kids whose lunches seemed packed by airline caterers. Their food came packed in insulated, compartmentalized boxes. I swear, sometimes there was more than one course - for a 20 minute recess! I was moderately jealous of these kids, but the ones that almost done me in were the hot homemade deliveries. Not only were these lunches piping hot, they were hand delivered by mothers in crisp cotton sarees, smelling of food and talcum powder. I was always so jealous. And let me tell you, jealously makes a BBJ sandwich even harder to swallow.

At this point, I want to tell my mother (if she ever reads this) that I appreciate everything she did and does for me, that I love her, and that I know whatever I might have felt it was infinitely harder on her to leave me and go to work everyday, but she needed to because we needed the money. And that if we were rich, she would have never left my side. I know Amma, and I love you.

Anyway, back to my story, which eventually leads to the recipe and my initial ponderings on my multicultural-ness.

I had a friend back in school Kanchan Phadke. Kanchu was the sweetest thing. She came to school in pigtails and a neatly ironed dress, she wore glasses and was prone to colds. Kanchu also had one of those crisp cotton saree, talcum powder mothers who brought piping hot lunch to school on occasion. And on one such occasion, Kanchu and her mother shared a certain crisp pancake like thing with me which had me drooling for more in every class after recess. I went home and tried to explain it to my mother...

... It is like a chapati, but its a lot harder and thicker
... you can't tear it like a chapati, it breaks
... it has onions and green chillies in it
... I ate it with curd...
... please make it for me amma!!

My dear mother tried in vain but couldn't decipher the dish and over time, I forgot about it completely.
Until I was 21 years old and doing research at the National Institute for Research in Reproductive Health, Mumbai when I sat down to lunch during a PCR run and was handed the same - like chapati but harder and thicker with onions and green chillies by Shilpa Pathak.

"What is this??? What is this called??" I pounced on her.
"Thalipeeth" Shilpa said, taken aback.
"I love this stuff"
She laughed and sat back, letting me devour it, "Eat, I'm not that hungry... besides, I had the same thing for breakfast."

I returned home and told my mother - "Thalipeeth!! Amma, it's called Thalipeeth!!"
She looked perplexed.
I explained, and since then she must have made it for me dozens of times.

I can now honestly say that I really do know lots about The Peeth (as my husband and I call it) so I can tell you about it. 

Thalipeeth when literally translated means plate (thali) and dough (peeth). It is quite possibly one of the simplest Maharashtrian preparations and one of their most nutritious staples at that.
In many ways Thalipeeth is nothing more than a multi-flour pancake with onions, green chillies and some spice, but goodness is it delicious or what! The only challenging thing as far as I can see about making it is patting down the dough on a hot skillet... I suppose it takes some amount of being tolerant to heat to do that.


Here is how you make it...

Blend together the following flours:
1/2 cup of Garbanzo bean/ Chick-pea flour (besan)
1/4 cup of Black Gram/ Urad Dal flour
1/4 cup of Moong Bean flour
1/2 cup of Whole Wheat flour
1/4 cup of Millet flour
1/4 cup of Rice flour
2 tbsp Cream of Wheat/ Rava
1 tbsp Cumin Powder
2 tsps Coriander Powder
1/2 heaped cup full of very finely chopped onions
Chopped green chillies - you decide how hot you want it
1/4 cup chopped Cilantro/ Coriander
A few mint leaves chopped
Salt

1. Mix all the different kinds of flour in a bowl and add the chopped onions, green chillies, cilantro, mint, salt and spices in.
2. Add water and knead with your hands till you get a very stiff dough.
3. Heat a pan/ skillet and grease it slightly with oil, ghee or butter.
4. Take a small handful of the dough and pat it on the skillet. Spread it around.
5. Drizzle some more oil/ghee/butter on top of the pancake and flip it over.
6. Press down on the cooked side so the side you patted down gets evenly cooked, this side is bound to have some indentations from your fingers.

Eat it hot... with chutney and yogurt.
As for me, I think of Kanchan and Shilpa every time I make this. And of course, I celebrate the little Maharashtrian in me.

Banana-Nut Oatmeal

Serves two.

1 and 1/2 cup milk

2 ripe (or overripe) bananas

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 cup quick cooking oatmeal 

1/2 cup of chopped walnuts

Approximately 1/2 a cup of water

Sweetner: Sugar, raw sugar, agave

Sliced bananas as garnish... if you so desire. 

Pour the milk into a saucepan and start it out on low heat. Mash the bananas (I usually do this in a cereal bowl with a fork) and add to the saucepan along with the vanilla and cinnamon. Let this come to a slow simmer. 

Once the smell of cinnamon subsides a little (takes about a minute from when it starts to simmer) add the oatmeal and about half a cup of water and cook till ready. 

Dish the oatmeal out into two bowls, sprinkle 1/4 cup of nuts in each and a drizzle of honey, not too much because overripe bananas are sweet to begin with. 

You can even add an extra sprinkle of cinnamon and some sliced bananas on top.

Chèvre-Honey-Walnut Sandwiches

This is a recipe in which I take great pride. I didn't read about it, I didn't see it be done, I just came up with it. Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean it hasn't been done... it probably has. Like most other things I believe I created only to be told by some insufferable know-it-all that it has been done before.
Nevertheless, whether it was I or anybody else who made them, these sandwiches are delicious. 

Ingredients to make six half sandwiches:

Cinnamon Raisin Bread, sliced (toasted, if you prefer) - 6 slices
(If you don't have Cinnamon Raisin, any other bread will do. Just not sourdough!)
Goat Cheese, crumbled - 3 tablespoons or soft goat cheese - 1/4 cup
Honey - 2 tablespoons
Walnuts, chopped, 2 tablespoons.

Making the spread: Mix the goat cheese, honey, and walnuts together in a small bowl. The honey will hold the nuts and cheese together. It also does a fantastic job of complementing the saltiness of Goat cheese with its deep sweetness. Do not use goat cheese packed in brine for this recipe.
The walnuts add a new texture and flavor dimension to the spread.

Spread this between slices of Cinnamon Raisin Bread and cut diagonally.
If you used soft goat cheese, you could even cut it in strips.

Goes very very well with black coffee or tea.

Makkai ki Roti & Sarason ka Saag

I did not grow up eating much corn. In fact, our only corn consumption at home was limited to bhutta, which is what we call roasted ears of corn we buy from street vendors who roast them over red hot charcoal. That, and pop corn. 

No... Makkai ki Roti, which are essentially roti's made from makkai (corn/maize) is something I began eating only once I moved to the United States. What with the US being the largest producer of corn in the world and all that, I suppose it was inevitable. But the truth is, I wouldn't really have tried making Makkai ki Roti, if I hadn't first fallen in love with Sarason ka saag! 

So really, thats the recipe I really do want to share with you. 

Sarason ka Saag: 

Ingredients: 

Mustard Greens - 1 bunch

Spinach - 1 comparably sized bunch 

3 cloves of garlic 

A small onion copped fine

A one inch piece of ginger - shredded 

3 green chillies (or more) I've actually used 6 :) 

Lime juice - approx. 3 tbsps 

Cumin - 1 tsp (because I add cumin in almost everything)

How I went about it... 

1. I cleaned the mustard greens and spinach and set them aside. 

2. In a large pot, I added about a tablespoon of oil and added the cumin, ginger, garlic, green chillies, and chopped onion and sauteed them till the onion was translucent. 

3. I then lowered the heat and squeezed some lime juice into the pot before adding the clean leaves in. 

4. I covered and cooked the leaves until they were limp, the lime juice keeps them green. 

5. I blended the whole mixture until it looks the way it does in the picture and added some salt. 

6. I personally love serving it up with slivers of fresh ginger... mmmmm... it really is delicious...! 

 

The nuances of Sarason ka Saag in my opinion come from the texture and the complexity of flavor despite the simplicity of the ingredients that go into it. Unlike spinach puree... the mustard greens add a slightly more fibrous texture to this dish making it a perfect balance between the silky smoothness of blended spinach and the coarseness of mustard greens when eaten alone. Besides, the spinach goes a long way in dulling the bitterness of the mustard! The onion adds some piquancy, the green chillies pack some heat and the lime juice brings them all together... oh so well...! 

Makkai ki Roti: 

1/2 cup of coarse corn mean (the kind we use for polenta)

1 cup of fine corn meal

2 green chillies chopped very fine 

1 tsp of cumin (lightly crushed) 

1 tsp salt 

Mix these ingredients adding only enough water to make a stiff dough. 

These taste best when consumed minutes after they're made. 

Dum ki Lauki

The bottle gourd is high on my list of favorite vegetables.
However, when I tell people how I like to eat it, they usually look at me like I'm a total nutcase.
I like my bottle gourd boiled. No salt. Nothing. Just boil it and give it to me and I will eat it. Whats more I will be grateful and happy.

Now try that with my husband. I guarantee he will have ordered a pizza so fast your head will swim.

And so I conjure up ways to introduce this harmless, almost tasteless gourd into his diet. For you see, the health benefits of it are many.

According to Ayurveda this particular gourd (aka opo squash or calabash) helps to:
1. Alkalize the body
2. Cool our bodies in the summer months
3. Detoxify (high fibre and liver cleanser)
4. Acts as a diuretic

And while I do suppose the best way to get these benefits out of it would be to eat it the way I do, or possibly make juice out of it ... let us for now focus on getting the good stuff into the picky eater.

Dum ki Lauki 

I discovered this recipe in India Cookbook by Pushpesh Pant and modified it to a point where it might seem more appropriate to call it "inspired by" as opposed to "adapted from". The original recipe calls for Garam masala and dry ginger powder (soonth). It also does not include the dry mango powder (amchoor). The proportions of the spices added are different too.

I have used:
1. A 10 inch long bottle gourd cut into bite sized pieces
2. Coriander leaves (Cilantro) - Chopped fine
3. Green Chillies - 2

Spices:
1. Cumin - 1 tbsp
2. Fenugreek Seeds - 6 little grains
3. Coriander powder - 1 tbsp
4. Grated Ginger - 1 tsp
5. Asafoetida - 1/2 tsp 
6. Turmeric - 1 tsp
7. Paprika - 1 tsp
8. Dry mango powder - 1 tsp 

How I went about it:

I took my trusty ol' frying pan (kadai) and added cumin seeds to 1 tbsp of hot oil. Followed this up with the grated ginger and asafoetida.
Fifteen seconds after the ginger and asafoetida, I added the gourd and stirred them around.

Then came the spices.

With everyone in the pot, I covered the whole thing with as tight-fitting a lid I could find and turned the heat on as low as possible. It was ready in about 30 minutes at which point I added the chopped coriander leaves and tossed them around once again. 

Grilled Asparagus with S & P

This is one of the simplest and most delicious things you could do with Asparagus.

The first time I made it was when I was a grad-student doing quick-improv cooking. However, I soon learned that this is in fact one of the most popular ways of serving up asparagus!

All you need is Asparagus, salt, pepper, and oil (Olive oil or Sesame seed oil work best)

How it's done...
1. Adjust your oven rack close to the broiler and turn it on low (LO).
2. Wash and trim the asparagus and arrange them, non-overlapping, on a cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil.
3. Drizzle oil over the asparagus and hand toss if you'd like (just so long as you re-arrange them to not overlap)
4. Broil for approximately five minutes on low, and then crank up the heat to high (HI) and give it a few minutes.
5. Get it out of the oven, and sprinkle salt and pepper. Grated Parmesan cheese would also be fantastic! 

I eat these straight out of the oven... by itself... But on looking over other recipes, I find that these would taste wonderful on a bed of polenta. It also makes an excellent side-dish.

This is what I am nibbling on... Grilled Asparagus topped with coarse grain salt and freshly ground black pepper.

:)

Classic Bundt Cake

Cleaning out the house had me gone completely mental so I was thrilled at the prospect of a night out with the girls... giggling, overeating, talking about things that mattered and other things that really didn't.

In fact, I was so delighted that I decided to bake a cake for us to have for dessert.

We would all go to Big Star and eat, after which I would invite them home for some bundt cake with sliced strawberries and chocolate sauce. I had imagined much gushing and praise. Not over the cake so much, but more over the herculean task of cleaning out six years of ... well... crap.
A woman would get it. A woman would appreciate me and the sheer perseverance it took... over weeks....
Okay, so I really wanted to be appreciated... but I made the cake out of love... and excitement.... and anticipation.


You can see something coming, can't you?
Well, I didn't!

I pull the cake out of the oven at around 2pm and log into my email to announce dessert - when I realize our girl's night out now includes the most undesirable element of all - BOYS! THREE WHOLE BOYS!
So dismayed!

I slice the cake into smaller bits, because now we have more mouths to feed.
That too boy mouths! The hungriest kind.

My woebegoneness aside, this cake really is delicious. It is almost exactly the same as featured in The Family Baking Book, except I've decreased the amount of sugar and butter.