The Question

Men are born to answer question. Questions posed by the self in search of "whatever you are in search of" are sometimes very easy to answer since you are the only judge of your answer. If the opinion changes, no one else needs to know what the answer was and you can still get good food on your plate the next day. But there are situations in life when the answer determines what happens next! The very first time as a boy, the questions is asked, is mine better or you prefer it grandma style? Well, if the answer is "yours", then safe. If the answer is grandma's and if grandma was the cook's mother, still safe. However, tip it towards the mother-in-law grandma, then begins the first red eyed look! A little over time, the comparison changes, "do you like it this style or how I make it at home?." Even if the restaurant you are dining in has a Michelin star, and unless you live alone, the answer is always "as in home." The real challenge begins after marriage! "So, how was it?!, better than my mother? better than yours?." As always there is just one right answer and we all know what it is!

 

Jokes apart, the issue on hand is understanding how to judge food. For a majority part of my life, I have had fireworks in my mouth, complex spices working synergistically to create flavor. The one stand out spice that I have enjoyed in singularity is the chili. Be it red, green or dried, chili has been the one stand out that could be enjoyed without the support of other spices. Almost throughout Indian cuisine, we seldom limit ourselves to the use of once spice. It was this factor which made me judge of European cuisine otherwise in the beginning. However, after 6 years of tongue conditioning in the EU, I have started to now pick up subtle flavors and appreciate the influence of individual spices.

 

So, how do we judge it then? Taste, visualization, texture, appeal, smell and probably mood. The factors are just innumerable. Sometimes, food tastes good just by a factor of nostalgia or by the understanding of how much the person has put themselves into cooking it. Passion is the answer. Passion in cooking it and passion in each bite. Great food should never put you in a spot where you have to think for an answer. The answer has to be spontaneous, whatever the consequence it might bring about!

Divine combinations I : Ladies finger and Rasam

There are several combinations when it comes to Indian food. We never cook just one dish alone. Every thing we cook needs to be accompanied by yet another and hence the terms, main dish and side dish. A "thali" consists of several items which are served together and usually they are good combinations. But one cannot have the luxury of cooking or eating the several items served in the thali, unless one wants to eat everyday at the restaurant! So, everyone finds their own divine combinations. Some are complex and some are simple and many are just out of the ordinary (trust me, there are combinations unbelievable!!). Here I present to you one of the most beloved combinations and voted favorite by so many of my friends, Ladies Finger (Okra) fry and Rasam. And the magic lies in keeping the dish as simple as possible to attain the closest mother made taste.

Lets start with the Rasam. Take a vessel and add 2-3 cups of water. Into this, drop some chopped tomatoes, crushed garlic (optional), a pinch of turmeric powder and hing, 2 table spoons of Rasam powder, salt to taste, curry leaves and chopped coriander. If using tamarind paste, then dissolve into this mixture little tamarind paste (depending on taste levels, optimum would be half of as much that goes on a toothbrush :P ), else extract the first juice from grape sized ball of fresh tamarind and add it to the vessel. Finally switch on the heat and let it boil for 5-6 minutes until all the mixture boils. It is essential that the tamarind loses its rawness. Some people would like to add a little cooked lentils into this mixture. Do so at this point, else just remove it from the heat and temper it with mustard and cumin seeds popped in hot melted butter or ghee. 

For the Ladies finger (Okra) fry, chop the okra after removing its crown, into half centimeter pieces or more finely if you prefer. Heat oil in a frying pan and pop some mustard seeds, cumin seeds and broken dry red chillies. Add some broken urad dhal, a pinch of turmeric and some hing. Do not let the red chillies or the urad dhal burn. So, immediately add the cut ladies finger (Okra), sprinkle the necessary salt and allow it to get cooked. If you close the pan, then you end up with cooked Okra. But then, keep if open and reduce the flame heat to medium and keep stirring carefully (from time to time) to obtain nicely fried vegetables.

Pour some hot Rasam over cooked white rice and serve with the fried ladies finger!

Pumpkin in coconut milk, Parangi Paal Kootu or Kurbis mit coconusmilch

The sweet pumpkin is a delicacy and there are several recipies from it. Western civilizations just carve it for decoration or make pumpkin soup but rarely use it in regular cooking. The only prominent time it is cooked is during the Halloween month. But true south Indian kitchen utilizes this magical sweet pumpkin (Parangikai in tamil) in various recipies. Let me start with the most fascinating one for me.

Essentially, to make a Paal Kootu, one would require an unripened sweet pumpkin. In India one can get it immediately but in Germany, it is easy to find this sweet pumpkin only as ripened "Kurbis". Still, when purchased with a thick flesh it is perfect for this cuisine.

Sweet pumpkin - coconut scrapping - coconut milk - green chillies - curry leaves - cumin - hing - mustard seeds - salt

Cut the sweet pumpkin into thick cubes (it gets cooked really fast). Pop some mustard seeds, cumin seeds, few green chillies cut length wise and some curry leaves over oil and saute the pumpkin in this. Add salt and a pinch of hing and close the vessel for 2 minutes. Check if the pumpkin is cooked and sprinkle a handful of fresh coconut scrapping and stir for a minute. Turn the hear off and add a cup of coconut milk and mix into the pumpkin. Close the lid on and leave on the switched off hot plate for a minute. Don't let the coconut milk boil too long or on too much heat as it would destroy the entire dish. Serve with hot plain rice.

Kathrika kara kuzhambu - Aubergine in Spicy Tamarind Sauce

The brinjal lover is back! The cloudy cozy days in Germany are at its peak and so is the craving for something hot and tangy and what better would be than good old brinjal with this effect?! This is one of the fastest and tastiest "kuzhambu" that one can make in spite of that panging hunger. Far from home, the mind often pushes you to be lazy and quick with food and this results in take outs which in turn results in an unsatisfied soul. So, to be in peace with the inner self and feast upon, here is a simple recipe.

Cut the Aubergine into 1 inch pieces. Heat oil in a pan and pop some mustard seeds. Add some channa dal, urad dhal and a pinch of hing and turmeric. Add a few curry leaves and immediately the cut pieces of brinjal. Once the brinjal hits the pan, it will soak up all the oil and this would result in charred lentils. So, a quick addition of the following is required. Sprinkle salt, chili powder and sambar powder and stir. Add a cup of tamarind juice (pre soak a lemon sized ball of tamarind in water and extract the juice or dissolve a spoon of tamarind paste in 250ml water). Reduce the heat to medium, cover the cooking pan and let the brinjals get cooked in the tamarind juice. It is essential that the mixture boils well to eliminate the rawness of the chili and tamarind. Chopped coriander is optional at this stage. Check for taste. In case of excess tanginess, dilute with water and let it boil for some more time.

One is always worried about the consistency during preparations like this. But since this preparation does not contain any cooked lentils, it will not be like a soup. However, the tamarind juice will thicken up with the sambar powder to provide a consistency denser than the rasam (minestrone soup) and ligher than a sambar (cream soup). Enjoy it with white rice!

Festival necessitates: Aviyal

Sometimes too much is still too less! Especially when it is Aviyal. A real long list of vegetables go into making this coconut confluence and it requires quite some skill to get it done without the vegetables losing their identity. But the patience and practice is worth. Almost every festival in South India is incomplete without Aviyal on the menu and the traditional marriage food on the banana leaf should include this too. 

Potatoes - 4 to 5 - washed (peeled if required) - cut into big pieces

Raw banana (vazhaikai) - 2 - peeled - cut into similar size as potatoes

Carrots - 2 to 3 - peeled - cut into thick and long strands

Colocasia (Sepankezhangu) - a few - cook separately - peel after cooking.

Beans - 200g - wash and break into 2-3 pieces per beans

Broad beans (Avaraikai) - 200g - wash and remove the tips. Retain as whole or just halve them.

Peas - half a cup

Aubergine - 2 or 3 - cut into big pieces

Pumpkin (Sweet) - 200g - remove thick skin, dice into big pieces

Yogurt - 1 cup

Green chillies, half a coconut, cumin, curry leaves and coconut oil.

Scrape half a fresh coconut and make a fine paste of it along with 4 or 5 big green chillies and 2 spoons of cumin seeds. Make sure the paste is really fine and homogenous!

These are some basic vegetables required to make Aviyal. It is very difficult to write the amount/weight of vegetables required. Cooking and flavor are tongue specific and the vegetable proportions can be varied according to personal interest. For example, I would always expect every vegetable in the Aviyal would magically transform into Colocasia! Other vegetables like cluster beans, banana stem, yam and drumstick can also be added. Strict NO-NO vegetables are ladysfinger (okra), bitter gourd, snake gourd and the likes.

First and foremost, the most important rule in cooking Aviyal is the right stacking of vegetables during the cooking process. Excepting colocasia, all the other vegetables have to be cooked together, but at the same time, they should not get over cooked! Aubergine and pumpkin cook really fast and the beans take more time. So one needs to follow the right order of adding the vegetables.

Fill 1/4th the level of the vessel with water and start to heat. Just before the water starts to boil, add the potatoes and carrots. After a minute, add the beans, broad beans, peas and the raw banana. Finally after a minute more, add the aubergine and pumpkin. Add the required salt around and shake the vessel carefully. DO NOT stir mix at this stage. Close the vessel for a few minutes until the aubergine and pumpkin is 70% cooked. Reduce the heat to medium. Now add the coconut-green chilli-cumin paste and stir it into the vessel. Also add a few curry leaves. Check for salt and add more if necessary. With the heat still in medium, close the vessel again and cook until the raw smell of coconut-cumin disappears. Add the pre cooked and peeled colacasia at this stage. Add 2 table spoons of coconut oil and stir well with the vegetables. Remove from heat. After 5 minutes of cooling down, add a cup of fresh yogurt and mix.

Just eat if fresh out of the cup or serve along with any type of rice (Sambar or coconut or lemon or tamarind)!

The God of simple food: Dosai

The Dosai or the Indian Rice Pancakes (Indisches Reispfannkuchen) is one of the most important innovations that has been probably passed down since the time of cooking itself. Rice and lentils were in abundance in ancient India (oh, so it is now, take a look at 1kg for 1 Rupee :P) and so one can only imagine how the magnificent dosai came into existence. Living in India with parents, we always look upon dosai as the tasty miracle conjured by mothers in an attempt to fulfill the undying appetite. Mothers are kind and they would propose that we should eat them hot as soon as she prepares and that would only after sometime lead to frustrated looks and the statement that she needs to have the batter to feed others in the family! But the moment we guys move away from dear India (only to miss India more), we start to miss dosai. Yes, the lucky ones in America have Saravana Bhavan, but in Europe, Indian food is always the North Indian Punjabi cuisine. I have absolutely nothing against it, just an observation! And yes, we start to crave for the simple yet godly dosai.

For quite some years (4 to be precise), I have never attempted to may my own dosai. I have of course purchased the instant MRT dosai mix and scribbled away on the pan, making no where near round dosai and feeling proud that I have still not grown up. But as craving increase, one has to step up. Unless you take care about yourself, no one else is going to! So I began my dosai making and frankly, I have never felt so happy and satisfied. And oh, it is simple. Long live Bachelors !!!

Break the rules or Strictly No Rules (Thala!!!!!). I have made dosai with (a) Raw rice (b) Par boiled rice and (c) Basmati rice. And I have not let the batter ferment for a few hours. But still, the dosai is as tasty as it can get!! 

Rice ( par boiled/raw/basmati) - 2 cups

Urad dhal - 1/4 cup

Fenugreek seeds (optional) - count of 5 to 10 (just a little little, I like a strong flavor and so I added one table spoon)

Soak the Rice, Urad dhal and fenugreek seeds for 8 hours. The easiest way is to just soak it overnight and wake up just a few steps before the most satisfying breakfast! Drain the water and transfer the contents to a blender. I used a hand held blender and it does the job to satisfaction. So, if you have a bigger powerful one, you are guaranteed to have a better batter. Blend until smooth. Add water to aid in blending and to reach the consistency. It is a bit tough to describe the consistency with words, but all I can say is that, neither too thick nor too thin. It is always to start with a thicker batter and slowly add water and blend more to reach the best consistency. Add the required salt at this stage. Dosai perfectionists would prefer to wait until this batter ferments. Living in Germany, I can only dream that it would ferment when left outside. But still, if you prefer, you can pre heat your oven for sometime, switch off the oven, wait for 2-3 minutes and then place the batter inside for a few hours! But oh, who has the patience?! Once you smell batter that is ready at hand, it is impossible to resist making dosai from it.


Place a non stick pan on medium heat. Pour 1 - 2 ladles of the dosai batter and spread gingerly without applying too much pressure. Sprinkle finely chopped onions (optional), add a table spoon of oil around the dosai and wait for few minutes until one side is golden brown. Flip over and let the side with onions cook for a minute or two. Eat hot with chutney, sambar, yogurt, gun powder, yesterdays rasam, todays rasam, pickle, etc. !!!!

Deep rooted traditionalism: Kathrika sudal (Grilled Aubergine)

श्रीमान वेंकट नाथार्याह कविथार्थिक केसरी |

वेधान्थाचार्य वर्योमे संनिधात्तम सदह्रीदी ||

Salutations to shri vedantha desikar, he remains the greatest devotee until eternity.

No disrespect, but when I think of what Shri Vedantha Desikan would have had for lunch I can imagine mor kuzhambu, parupu usili and kathrika sudal! I think kathrika sudal dates back as long as Vaishnavism itself and until now I havent seen an Iyengar family that does not relish this traditional dish. The methodology of preparation is simple, very simple. When I think about this dish now, I am surprised how I could have hated Aubergine so much during my pre-teens. I used to give away my share of aubergine to my sister and she would be the happiest child ever. Unfortunately now, I even steal away her portion. Every time mom used to cook this, she had to make sure world war III would not start in Mylapore just over a portion of Kathrika sudal.

Kathrika sudal can be translated as Grilled Aubergine. Though grilling is only the first step and not the only step, its referred to as this. What I present here is the traditional way without variants (the variant using tamarind is equally amazing).

Aubergine/Brinjal/Kathrika (huge) - green chili - mustard seeds - cumin seeds - broken urad dhal - hing - salt - yogurt - oil.

Smear a drop of oil over the Aubergine. If you have a gas stove, then grill the aubergine over the naked flame (keep the flame on medium, place the aubergine over it and turn it occasionally so that its cooked uniformly). Else, set your microwave in the grill mode and toss it in for 10-15 minutes. In a conventional oven, the aubergine takes 15 minutes at 200 C (heat from top and bottom). Once the aubergine is grilled, allow it to cool before peeling off the skin. Remove the crown of the aubergine and transfer it to a bowl. Heat a table spoon of oil and crackle the mustard and cumin seeds. Fry 1 table spoon of broken urad dhal until golden brown. Add chopped green chillies and a dash of hing and pour this over the grilled aubergine. Add the required salt and a cup of thick yogurt and smash the aubergine finely. For the best taste, use clean hands so that you can squeeze the chili into it. (Ooooo, hands?! People who think like this, just go ahead and use your vegetable smasher :-) )

Garnish with fresh coriander leaves. Serve with hot sambar rice.