Morning:
A cup of ragi ganji without sweetener
A small bowl of leftover apple-cherry salad

Noon:
About half cup of Paneer tomato. Very tasty and flavorful. Parents also liked this paneer curry.
A cup of yellow vatana(peas), soaked overnight, pressure-cooked and then sautéed with onion and cherry tomatoes and seasoned with hing, salt and black pepper. Generously doused with fresh limejuice.
A glass of tomato rasam

Evening:
A glass of delicious buttermilk with homemade yogurt

Night:
2 chana dal based vada in a cup of sambar soopa
Small serving of carrot-cucumber raita
Few cherries

Workout:
Friends came over for a visit and stayed for dinner. Did a ton of house work. Cleaning, cooking, then cleaning again. On my feet almost the whole day. I believe in a way this is also a form of exercise.

In retrospect:
Should have something at least by 9 in the morning.
Exhausting yet excellent day.

Paneer Tomato
(for four or two, for one or two meals)

Paneer tomato tastes as heavenly as it looks. It captures some of the delectable flavor of summer season and puts the summer tomatoes to good use. Paneer provides added interest and some nutrition but without all the heaviness associated usually with paneer based curries. The recipe is from Sunitha’s website on recommendation from Kay. Thank you both for this wonderful recipe.

Ingredients:
6 big tomatoes (about an orange size)
12 to 15 half-inch cut paneer cubes
1 shallot or red onion – finely chopped
1 tablespoon ginger-garlic-cilantro paste
1 tablespoon – coriander powder
1/2 teaspoon – salt
1/4 teaspoon each – red chilli powder and turmeric
1 inch piece cinnamon, 1 bay leaf, 1 cardamom, 4 cloves
From masala dabba: Tadka ingredients

Preparation:
Step 1: Cut tomatoes into big chunks. Take them in a pot. Add cinnamon, bay leaf, cardamom and cloves. Also a cup of water. Bring to a boil and simmer. When tomatoes reach mushy-soft stage, turn off the heat and remove the pot from stovetop. Wait until cool, and then take them all in a blender and puree to soft without adding any extra water.

Step 2: In a pan, heat a tablespoon of peanut oil. From masala dabba, add a pinch of cumin and a sprig of curry leaves. Toast to fragrance. Add onion and sauté to soft. Stir in ginger-garlic paste and fry for couple of seconds. Next goes the pureed tomato and the seasoning. Salt, red chilli powder, turmeric and coriander powder. Mix and cover the pot. On high heat, cook the tomatoes until the sauce thickens. Add paneer cubes. Simmer on low heat for another five minutes.

Serve warm with rice or roti or pasta. Good on it’s own too.

Paneer Tomato ~ for Meal Today
© Recipe and Photos Copyright 2009 Indira Singari.

Morning:
Thick ganji like ragi malt without sweetener.
A cup of brown chickpea guggullu

Noon:
1 cup of dal in rasam consistency
1 cup of brown chickpea guggullu with plenty of backyard cherry tomatoes
small cup of homemade yogurt

Evening:
Glass of cold buttermilk from homemade yogurt

Night:
Cup of toordal rasam with key lime pickle
A big bowl of apple-cherry salad with homemade yogurt. Delicious and sweet, loved this refreshing and light salad for meal.

Workout:
About an hour walk on sightseeing day trip.

In retrospect:
Didn’t feel deprived in anyway and surprisingly no hunger pangs.
Busy but beautiful day.

Apple~Cherry Salad
(for two servings)
1 Fuji apple
12 Bing cherries
1/2 cup homemade yogurt
Pinch each – salt and crushed black pepper

Peel the apple skin. Cut and remove the seed part. Dice the apple to bite-sized pieces.
Make a cut in the middle and remove the pit from cherries. Chop each half into two.
Take yogurt in a cup. Add salt and black pepper. Combine well. Add the cut fruits. Mix and serve.

Apple~Cherry Salad for Meal Today

© Recipe and Photos Copyright 2009 Indira Singari.

In a fit as fiddle family, an awkward acoustic guitar aspired to be fit as flute.

So made the year 2009 “Fit as Flute” Year.

Started working out regularly and paying attention to the meal portions. It was going well but the passing time brought a no-progress plateau.

Then came the inspiring Kay to the rescue with a workout vratham.

Just like any venerable vratham, there is a time limit (duration) and food restrictions. July 18th – 31st, two weeks. No grains and no sugar. Allowed are legumes, lentils, greens and vegetables. Exercise regularly and eat sensibly. This is the plan and join in, she invited us all. Kay’s workout vratham sounded promising to overcome the plateau. She also has a detailed list of do’s and don’ts, which was very helpful for meal menu planning.

So here I am, my first ever vratham of this nature and naturally little bit apprehensive. Mainly because I intend to maintain a food dairy during this time. Hoping it would go smoothly without any hungry hiccups.

Peace and quiet are part of the vratham sampradayam. Follow if you must but keep the comment obnoxi-noise down. I would appreciate that very much.

Breakfast (7 AM):
A cup of Ragi Malt sweetened with jaggery
One slice of toasted whole wheat-nut bread with strawberry jam

Lunch (12 PM):
One chapati
Small cup of Palak Chole
Small glass of Tomato Rasam
Small spoon of refreshing and cooling Dadhojanam
Sweet and Juicy Mango, two pieces

Evening (4 PM):
A cup of Ginger tea sweetened with honey.

Dinner (7 PM):
One chapati
Small cup of Palak Chole
small spoon serving of Chickpea Guggullu
Small spoon of refreshing Dadhojanam
Sweet Mango, two pieces at 8PM.

Morning Workout (9-11 AM):
Walked an hour. Weights class, an hour at the gym.

Evening workout (3-6 PM):
Did some yard work. Spruced up the front yard and planted 6 hibiscus, 12 tiny periwinkle plants.

In Retrospect:
Pleasant day.
Missed taking photos of palak chole for the Mahanandi. Next time.

I don’t remember exactly how I stumbled upon this melodious song from the movie Subramaniapuram, on YouTube. The music, characters in it and the picturization caught my immediate attention and searched for more. I found part-1 of the movie on YouTube. Watched it and went to next, part-2 and so on. I am now addicted to watching this movie.

I enjoyed watching because this movie brought back all the experiences I had from my childhood days. The narrow, tight street passages reminded me of my home and the streets where I lived. The bell-bottom pants and lungi-clad characters were reminiscent of my elder cousins who I played and grew up with. The rickshaws and jatkas reminded of the travel means we frequently used in those days. The bicycles brought back those good-old bicycle riding days to school. The movie made me relive my yesteryears.

Though I don’t speak or understand Tamil, I had to read the subtitles only few times to understand what was going on. It’s made with such a sophistication that you would seldom think you are watching a movie. You’d feel like you are living with the characters.

A real movie!

Mango and Majjiga ~ Meal Today

Share your meal time fruits.

Maybe you always thought that pickling at home was complicated and time consuming. Maybe you assumed that you wouldn’t be good at it. But neither has to be true. You already know what you love (lemon, mango, tomato etc). Learning to preserve is simply a matter of finding new ways to put these ingredients in the form of a pickle.

How you ask: Master one new recipe each month. One time it might be lime pickle, another it’s carrot. There is no shortage of sources for simple, straightforward pickle recipes that anyone can do in very little time. Opt for the simplest and the best tasting. In a year, you will have 12 delicious, homemade pickle preserves in your kitchen shelf ready to satisfy your cravings.

My favorite among easy pickle recipes is lemon pickle. The success of lemon pickle depends on lemon juiciness, skin (rind) thickness and size of the fruit. Key limes are perfect for lemon pickle because of their small size, thin skin and ample juice. Pickle and wait for two weeks. They would be ready for consumption. They also look similar to the limes we get in India. With regular US limes, we have to wait much longer because it takes time for them (rind) to get softened.

Key limes are in season right now, and I bought 50 key limes for two dollars at Canino’s farmers market, last weekend. A tasty, traditional pickle that doesn’t use tons of oil or sugar sounded like a great use of these fresh key limes. And that is exactly what we did with them. The recipe directions are from my mother-in-law. Here is my humble attempt with bota boti inglepeesh translation of the directions. Hope they are clear enough for you to follow. Join “Pickle a Month Sangham”, prepare pickles at home and enjoy.

Key Lime Pickle (నిమ్మకాయ ఉరగాయ)
(Quantity is for a family of two, for three to six months)

Ingredients:
50 key limes
15 regular sized limes for juice or 3 cups of limejuice
1½ cups iodine-free salt or sea salt
3/4 cup red chilli powder
1/8 cup methi (fenugreek) seeds
1 tablespoon peanut oil
1/2 teaspoon hing (asafetida)
—–
Clean glass jar, big size (2 to 2.5 quarts) and muslin cloth

Preparation:
The preparation is four steps. Cut some, juice some, grind some and finish off with popu touch.

1. Key Limes: Wash key limes thoroughly. Pat them dry with a clean kitchen towel. Place them under afternoon sun on a clean cotton cloth for sun drying. After about 3 to 4 hours, bring them inside. Rub and wipe off any moisture with kitchen towel. Cut key limes into halves and quarters. Remove seeds as many as possible for clean flavor.

2. Limes: Wash, dry and cut into halves. Squeeze juice and keep it ready in a cup on the side. For 50 key limes, we need at least 3 cups of limejuice.

3. Methi seeds: Dry roast methi seeds in a hot skillet. Cool and grind into fine powder.

4. Pickle Popu: Heat a tablespoon of peanut oil. Add hing. Toast for couple of seconds to fragrance. Turn off the heat. Keep aside to cool to room temperature.

Pickling:
Take the cut key limes in a big vessel suitable for mixing.
Add limejuice, chilli powder, salt, methi powder and pickle popu.
Mix thoroughly.

With a clean spoon, add the pickle to a glass jar. Remove the lid and cover the glass jar opening with a muslin cloth. Keep the jar on the counter-top, and mix the pickle once a day for a week. Always use clean and dry spoons, and take caution not to add any water or moisture. After a week, remove the muslin cloth and cover the jar tightly with lid.

In two weeks, the lime rind will be softened and key lime pickle will be ready for consumption. We love to have this pickle with rice and dal/sambar/rasam or yogurt rice. Also tastes great with breakfast items like upma, pongal and applied on bread sandwiches.

Cut:
Key Limes to Quarters

Bring the Ingredients Together:
Lime Juice, Red Chilli Powder, Sea Salt, and Methi Seeds

Mix:

Preserve:
Key lime Pickle in a Glass Jar

© Recipe and Photos Copyright 2009 Indira Singari.

If you are from Bharath, you know how the general markets are. You will find vendors selling vegetables, fruits, grains and utensils etc, all at one place. It would not be a giant, gleaming supermarket where you would be silently staring at row after row of sticker-clad shelves. A market would be full of live people talking to you. You would be inquiring about things, bargaining on prices, paying in cash and counting the change. A whole lively experience is what you would get in those markets.

Last weekend, we visited one such market here in Houston called Canino Farmers Market. It was really an entirely different experience. The place hums with well-stocked, reasonably priced stalls that carry a variety of produce and one of a kind items from South America. Chaotic and endearing, what it lacks in polish it makes up in personality. It is a lively place to shop for fruits, vegetables, grains and kitchen stuff. There are also few stalls selling plants and fruit trees. We bought a flowering shrub called Nandi vardanam from a young lady. Her name is Cilia, and she was friendly and knowledgeable and has excellent collection of plants. If you are into gardening, don’t miss out her stall.

The other very fabulous finding was dear mangoes. We were surprised and delighted to find relatively tasty and large size golden mangoes. Dozen for $9, they were the best tasting mangoes we ever had here in the USA so far. If you are into good quality mangoes, go soon and get a dozen before the summer ends. There is a variety of other fruits available as well, like cantaloupes, watermelons, oranges, papaya etc. at low prices.

The market opens at 6AM everyday. If you are planning a Saturday trip, go early in the morning for the first pick. In the front, you will see a large covered shed with “Canino Produce” board. Go to the back of the shed into the open area, where you can buy fruits like mangoes directly from the wholesale traders. Keep some dollar notes ready. They take only cash and no credit cards. There is also a busy bakery opposite the farmer’s market where you can get a variety of Mexican desserts.

Canino Farmer Market makes a nice, half-day getaway for produce-pilgrims. If you are planning for a trip, I wish you fruitful and cheerful experience. If you make it, do let me know how you like the whole deal.

Here are some photos of the Market from our recent visit.

Canino’s Farmers Market

Bought key limes 25 for $1 here

Bought Mexican Squash two for $1 here

Tempting Chilli Varieties

Friendly People

Beans and Grains

Kitchen Stuff

Cilia’s Plant and Fruit Tree Stall

Any day I could buy such sweet Mangoes is a good day!

For those of you interested to go, here are the address and the directions:

Canino Produce
2520 Airline Dr.
Houston, TX 77009
Phone: 713-862-4027
Map it

Directions: From Sugar Land – Take 59 North and to 610 North. On 610, take exit 17A to Airline Drive. Turn right on Airline Drive, and you will see Canino’s produce immediately to your left. Parking is very crowded but free, in front of Canino’s or to the sides of the open stalls.

It’s afternoon in June. Kids are on summer vacation, and not a single person out on the streets. It’s so hot here I wish it would rain – not so much for us because we have seen it.:) But for the in-laws, who came all the way from Nandyala to escape the heat and expecting some cold US weather.

Well, what can we do? Instead of moping around mumbling “it’s hot, it’s too hot …”, we decided to put the sun power to some culinary use. We started making traditional majjiga mirapa, vadiyalu and appadaalu.

What is that you ask? Let’s begin the series with Majjiga Mirapa. Telugu to ingleesh translation: sun-dried yogurt chillies. In Hindi, dahi mirchi.

How to: Pick slender and straight looking green chillies. I used fresh cayenne peppers for today’s recipe. with a sharp knife, slit the chilli in middle on one side. Keep the ends and the stem intact. Prepare all the chillies this way.

Take homemade Indian yogurt in a wide vessel. Add salt to yogurt. For a cup of yogurt, at least two tablespoons salt is needed. Add the slit chillies and soak them in salted yogurt for three to four days. Chillies should be covered completely with salted yogurt.

Stir the chillies two or three times a day for uniform coating. Do not cover the vessel at any stage. The acid in yogurt preserves the chillies and bleaches them to white. Chilli taste also changes from pure hot to a mix of sour, salty and spicy.

On the fourth day, remove the chillies from yogurt. Place them on a thick cotton cloth, under hot Sun for drying. It would take usually one or two days for them to completely dry. Bring the chillies inside during night, and keep under Sun during day time. Sun-dry until they are completely moisture-free. Store in a jar. They stay fresh for upto a year.

To Cook: Heat a cup of peanut oil and deep-fry majjiga mirapa to golden. We usually enjoy them with rice and dal /sambar/rasam or yogurt.

The taste: Sour, salty and spicy… very flavorful and addictive. One can’t help but say, “Salutation oh supreme Sun. May your shiny rays warm upon on our food always.”

Here are the Majjiga Mirapa Making in Images:

Chillies in Salted Indian Yogurt

Chillies Drying Under Hot Sun ~ Day One

Do you have this type of traditional culinary sun salutations? Do you practice?

Summer in Houston seems similar to summer in Andhra. If you venture out in the afternoon, you’d sure get a blinding headache from the radiant heat. It is so hot right now, even Tabasco sauce would seem milder. One could cool off with a drink of Tabasco sauce… weatherman joke on local TV. But anyway, to counter the heat with something hotter, I made mirchi-ka-salan with banana peppers from the backyard. Bharathiyan way to keep the cool during hot months. 🙂

Mirchi Ka Salan with Banana Peppers
(for four adults, for two meals)

Mirchi (Banana Peppers)
10 medium-sized banana peppers
Slice into half and remove the stem, white pitch and seeds. Cut the peppers to bite-sized pieces. (Wear gloves for sensitive skin.)

Salan:

To prepare salan, we need the following ingredients.
1/4 cup peanuts – roasted and skins removed
1/8 cup sesame seeds – toasted
4 dried red chillies (Indian variety)
1 tablespoon – coriander seeds
1/2 teaspoon – cumin
4 cloves and 1 thumb length piece of cinnamon
1×1 inch piece of ginger and 2 garlic cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons thick tamarind pulp
Fry the spices to fragrance on low heat. Take the roasted spices and other ingredients mentioned in the list above in a blender. Add about a cup of water and grind the ingredients to smooth paste. I usually add about a tablespoon of jaggery/sugar to this mix, to bring a mild-sweet flavor to salan paste.

Making of Mirchi ka Salan:

In a pan, heat about a tablespoon of peanut oil. Add the banana peppers. Saute to tender. Add the prepared salan paste. Add about half cup of water and mix. Have a taste, and adjust salt, sour(tamarind), sweet(jaggery) levels to your liking.

Cover the pot and simmer for about 15 to 20 minutes on medium-low heat, stirring in-between. The color of salan sauce darkens and thickens. Mirchi ka Salan will be ready. Taste great with chapati or rice.

Mirchi Ka Salan with Chapati ~ Meal Today and For JFI:Mirchi at Vysh’s Cardamom

© Recipe and Photos Copyright 2009 Indira Singari.

Recently, when I was looking for some material suitable for pillow slipcovers, I came across an old cloth in one of my suitcases. I had brought this piece of cloth with me seven years ago from Nandyala. It was supposedly for kitchen curtains, but I have never gotten to use it. I stitched four small pillow covers out of it this weekend and they looked very nice. This has been the first project with my new Singer sewing machine.

Avocados from Chile

Small, grape like tomatoes from our backyard, Texas

Chilli-Garlic powder from home, Nandyala

Key limes from Mexico

Himalayan crystal salt probably from Himalayas

This is such a culinary bounty from different parts of the world. The moral to this melting pot: It does not matter who you are, what your origins are, or what you imagine you can do. Destiny awaits and you will be rewarded for embracing complexity through simplicity of flavor.

With this nugget 🙂 I wish you a sensible weekend.

Guacamole ~ My Version

2 ripe avocados
1 dozen grape tomatoes
1 teaspoon garlic-chilli powder
2 key limes for juice
4 sprigs of fresh cilantro, finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon salt or to taste

Cut avocados to half, and remove the flesh from the pit. Place the avocado in a bowl. Add the garlic-chilli powder, lime juice and salt. Mix and mash the avocado with a fork or spoon.

Add grape tomatoes and cilantro. Combine well. Chill the guacamole to preserve before serving, if prepared ahead. Serve at room temperature for best taste.

© Recipe and Photos Copyright 2009 Indira Singari.

Avocado Summer:
Jalapeno Guacamole from Sreelu