Chronicles Of The Sassy Fork

When you get home from work,you feel like having a quick snack.This is one option made with ingredients usually found at home :) BREAD UPMA 6 slices bread cut into squares and sprinkled with water 1 onion chopped 1 tomato chopped Kadipatta or curry leaves 1 stalk 2 green chillies split 1 tsp mustard seeds pinch of hing or asafoetida 1/2 tsp turmeric 1/2 tsp red chilly powder Oil Salt Heat oil and add mustard seeds,chillies,hing,kadipatta and turmeric and stir. Add onion and saute till transparent. Add tomato and saute till pulpy Then add salt and red chilly powder. Finally add the bread pieces and cook on a slow flame till crisp and coated with the masala Instead of bread,you can use leftover rice or chappatis

Yes,I am talking about the Cauliflower,a vegetable that we cook often.We see two varieties in our markets...the usual one and the "gavti" variety.The first is white and the latter yellowish white.Gavti means that which is grown wild or naturally.I tried making the same dish using both and that the gavti one turned out more flavourful.Abroad one sees other colours like orange,purple and green.There are many Indians dishes using cauliflower cush as Gobi Paratha,Cauliflower Korma and Gobi Masala. I will talk of a recipe that is made in homes and not found in recipe books.Simple but tasty. As I have mentioned before, the tadka is the determining factor of how the dish will taste.Cooking it for too short a time will cause the dish to have less flavour whereas overcooking will give a burned taste.The commonest tadka or phodni used in Maharashtrian cooking is mori,halad,hing or a combination of mustard seeds,turmeric and asafoetida.Hing comes from the mountains of Kashmir and I...

A Maharashtrian meal typically has a vegetable preparation and a sprouts or legume preparation (called usal).One of my favourites if the Vatanyachi Usal or Green Peas Usal. The key to this dish is to get fresh tender peas.Choose those which are green and bright and cook them at the earliest else they catch fungus even in the fridge. Recipe: 1/2 kg green peas (shelled and boiled with salt---for approx 10mins) 1 tsp Goda masala 1 sprig kadipatta/curry leaves 2 green chillies (split in the middle) 1 tsp mustard seeds pinch of asafoetida(hing) groundnut oil jaggery few scrapings few sprigs coriander juice of half a lemon grated coconut for garnish salt to taste pinch turmeric First heat the oil and add the mustard seeds and allow them to pop.Then add asafoetida and green chillies and curry leaves and stir well....this is the Phodni or Tadka and is the most important part of any dish as it sets the flavour. Then add the peas,goda masala,turmeric,salt and saute for few mins.Then add jagger...

My neighbours are from Kutch.Wonderful people...the Kenias.Surprise us now and again with delicious food made at home.Today Jayendra aunty sent a typical Kutchi meal.Kutch lies in Gujarat,which I am sure you know having heard about the Rann of Kutch from where flamingoes migrate to Mumbai and Bhuj,the main city which had a devastating earthquake in the early 90s but has since been built again.Kutchi has its own dialect and food.My first experience with Kutchi food was when my friend Priya Kapadia's mother gave me steamed muthiyas. Kutchi food is vegetarian.The first dabba had mugri which is from the radish family but looked like chopped french beans,lightly tossed in spices.This was served with large stuffed chillies,which don't have much heat in this season. The Kutchis have rotlas which are high in fibre as they are made with bajra or nachni (millet) Some even have rice flour bhakris and this reminded me of the ones I had seen in the Konkan.Gujaratis have whole wheat chappati...