Oh! Nooo! mother just said, "Let's see"!

Paneer coconut burfi

Late Sixties…Hyderabad...

The bright fluorescent orange colosseum like structure made of stacked nariyal burfi (coconut rough) perches on the little glass shelf on the hand cart. The shelf helps prop up the round coconuts piled up neatly against it on a bright red rexine sheet. At the far end where the vendor pushes the cart, shelled coconut halves are piled up very artistically, with their dark backs and white cups contrasting sharply. The vendor takes pride in his cart and keeps everything spick and span and looking fresh all the time. He even sprinkles water from a little pail on the coconuts every now and then.

How come his burfis are so nice and well formed? What a lovely colour they are- why don’t you make such colourful burfis? Why can’t I have a piece of the coconut? The cart looks so clean, why don’t you let me have just a piece? Why are you dragging me! Wait! Will you make coconut burfi at home today? I want coconut burfi!

The barrage of questions I had asked mother still rings loud clear in my mind.

So do her answers.

Because they use too much sugar.  These colours are harmful, they cause allergies. The coconut has been washed in water that I am not sure is clean, Let’s go now, don’t stand here and stare. Let’s see… Let’s see…

Over the years... in various countries...

I think all children hate this phrase- “let’s see”. It’s a sure shot indication that you are NOT going to get whatever is being contested or coveted…

But over the years, watching mother making all these sweets and learning from her I know she not only kept her promise, but exceeded her commitment… she taught me how to make and love these sweets, so I could make them for my children and loved ones!

And foster another generation of foodies…

Present day ... Melbourne...

“What shall I make for you on Rakhi Poornima?” asks the indulgent sister!

“Coconut burfi!” says the loving brother.

“Why not add paneer to the coconut burfi? Suggests his niece with the incurable sweet tooth and a wild imagination.

“Great idea!” says her adventurous mother.

And a nice new sweet dish with rich flavours and textures is born!

Like this Coconut Paneer Burfi

1 ½ cups grated coconut( keep the grates as white as possible)

1 cup grated paneer

2 cups sugar

½ cup water

¾ cup milk powder

2 tbsp or more powdered sugar (as reserve)

6-7 green cardamoms, powdered

A pinch of saffron

Grease a high rimmed 12 inch stainless steel thali liberally with ghee and keep aside.

Mix the sugar and water in a heavy bottomed stainless steel sauce pan and heat it. Stir the solution and let it come to a rolling boil until it looks thick and syrupy.

Add the coconut to the syrup and mix it well. After a few minutes add the grated paneer and mix well. Keep on stirring. The mixture will start thickening after about 10 minutes but will still look sticky. Add the cardamom powder and saffron and mix well.

As the mixture thickens, you will need to concentrate on it and keep on stirring it constantly. The mixture should reach a stage where the syrup has dried up, but the moisture can be seen on the bottom of the pan. Add the milk powder while continuously stirring. The mixture will dry up instantly and leave the sides of the pan and start gathering and sticking together.

At this stage, a tell tale sign to look out for is the drying up of the mixture on the sides of the pan. If it looks opaque and candy like, it’s time to pour the mixture into the thali. If it is not ready and starts to brown at the bottom of the pan, remove from heat and add the powdered sugar and mix quickly but thoroughly. Quickly pour the ball into the greased thali and compact it firmly and uniformly with a silicon or rubber spatula. You can use a flat bottomed bowl to pat the surface as well. Cut into squares after the burfi cools down, but before it hardens. When completely cool, it will be easier to separate the squares.

Store all the squares or burfis in an airtight container. Store the box in the fridge if you want to keep the burfis fresh for a few days. In my house the burfi does not need to be stored in the fridge, for obvious reasons.

You have to make this a few times before getting it right, but don’t worry, the mixture NEVER goes waste! You can eat it at any stage, like a jam out of a bowl, scraping semisolid mixture off the plate with a spoon or like coconut brittle- popping handfuls in your mouth! And if by chance the mixture sets and you are able to cut squares, they will not have a fighting chance of being stored in a box- they get gobbled up right away!

I am happy to post this as my entry to Sangeeta's Celebrate the month of shravan! and on the original event on Jagruti's blog!

And I must share this with you- something that makes me very happy and proud! 

Eminent blogger and my friend Suranga Date is a phenomenal poet writer! Minutes after I posted this - she composed a poem in Marathi - our common mother tongue - and then minutes later translated her own thoughts into English!

Oh! I am so honoured! So happy! Thank you Suranga Tai!

Kavitalihi- Suranga Date's take on Paneer coconut burfi! 

• बघायला आलेल्या पनीरला
  आग्रहाने बोलावतात ,
  आणि
  इलायची इलायची खूप खेळल्यावर ,
  ओलसर उबेत चिंब भिजल्यावर,
  दुधाच्या कोरड्या पंचाने
  पिठी साखरेच्यासह पुसून
  एका मउ गुळगुळीत ठिकाणी
  सगळे आरामात पहुडतात .....
  
  आणि कधीतरी
  सोनेरी क्षणात ,
  निरांजानासाम्वेत ,
  ताम्हनात बसून
  कोणा एका हसर्या चेहर्या समोर
  शेवटची गिरकी मारून
  आत्मसमर्पण .......
  
  तसे क्षणभंगुर ,
  पण किती परोपकारी हे
  बर्फीचे आयुष्य !

बघायला आलेल्या पनीरला
आग्रहाने बोलावतात ,
आणि
इलायची इलायची खूप खेळल्यावर ,
ओलसर उबेत चिंब भिजल्यावर,
दुधाच्या कोरड्या पंचाने
पिठी साखरेच्यासह पुसून
एका मउ गुळगुळीत ठिकाणी
सगळे आरामात पहुडतात .....

आणि कधीतरी
सोनेरी क्षणात ,
निरांजानासाम्वेत ,
ताम्हनात बसून
कोणा एका हसर्या चेहर्या समोर
शेवटची गिरकी मारून
आत्मसमर्पण .......

तसे क्षणभंगुर ,
पण किती परोपकारी हे
बर्फीचे आयुष्य !

Have you bean here?

Flat beans in an Indian flavoured white sauce

Just when you think you have cooked a dish or vegetable in all possible combinations and styles, or just when you feel a dish can't be cooked in any other way, a light bulb moment, triggered by an inspiration or memory illuminates new possibilities!

And sometimes the ingredient or condiment itself finds its own recipe!

The other day, while making a beans poriyal with the not very commonly found flat beans, the-out -of-this -world aroma of flat beans cooking sent me on this spree and made this rather iconoclastic bhaji that mother used to make. Second day in row eating beans, but this one is unusual.

Yes, it’s beans in a white sauce, but of an Indian kind!

A beauty of a bhaji, best with breads, it looks unusual and tastes interesting! The saucy smooth texture of the sauce provides a great contract to the crispy tenderness of the beans, while the soothing milky flavour is spiced up by the spices. What more, it is absolutely low fat!

The flat beans I used are Italian flat beans, quite different in taste and texture to green beans.

Ingredients

2 cups flat beans, ends chopped and cut into 1 inch pieces (tender beans shouldn’t have strings)

1-2 green chillies

2 cups low fat milk

2 tsp corn flour, mixed into a paste with 4 tbsp milk

1 tsp oil or ghee or butter

A pinch of shah jeera

1-2 cloves

1 bay leaf

2 inch piece of cinnamon or cassia

A few seeds of black cardamom

Salt and black/white pepper to taste

A pinch of nutmeg

A handful of fried/roasted cashews for garnishing 

Method

Microwave the cut beans till done or cook till tender with some water on stove top. In a pan, heat the oil/ghee and then the spices and the green chillies. Once the spices are lightly fried introduce the beans. Stir them to coat them with the spices and then add the milk. Allow the milk to come to a rolling boil. Then add the cornflour paste while stirring continuously. Once it cooks like custard, add nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste.

Garnish with cashews.

Serve hot with phulkas, rotis or garlic bread.

Doll it up with some butter and cheese if you want to serve it at a party!

FryDay Story!

Kadbu!

Photos by Apurva Nargundkar.

One of my earliest memories of frantically searching for something to read is from one of the many times when we stayed with amma our paternal grandmother, when our parents had to go away for some reason.  Having recently learnt to read complex words and sentences, I was a precocious bilingual reader. A locust for reading anything from labels, brochures, manuals to articles, stories and comics, I would read on and on whether or not I understood it all.

Finding nothing interesting, I resorted to browsing through the almanac called “Datey panchang”. Flipping through the landscape style, impeccably fine printed book and feeling very important, I picked up bits and pieces, sunrise and sunset, dates of festivals and some zodiac forecasts- much before Linda Goodman came on my scene!

Then my eyes fell on ammas’s religious books and discovered a whole treasure trove of stories there! There were stories from the puranas, the story of Sadhu the merchant, the story of the Sun god Aditya  and his wife Ranubai, Seetala Saptami, Sola Somvar and the Shukravar Katha.

Tucked away in the well-thumbed pages of the Shukravar Katha Sangraha, with its thick print and large font text on yellowing pages smelling of the incense from the altar, was a picture of Goddess Jara Jeevantika. It was a pen and ink sketch of a female figure clad in traditional nine yard saree, surrounded by little girls in ikat skirts and blouses, called ‘parkar polka’ and little boys in Victorian style Eaton suits and embroidered silk caps. It was such a heart-warming and comforting sight to my little self who had already begun to miss my mother!

The Jara Jeevantika vrat was a festival of children observed for their well being and safety during every Friday during the Hindu month of Shravan.  Mother would fast during the day and break it only in the evening after a pooja  and naivedya offering to the Goddess and after celebrating us children with an aarti. She would prepare the most delicious fare, savouries and sweets like sheera, puran poli, kheer and kadbu! Going home from school on a Friday would be most exciting! Our hunger pangs would be intensified with the anticipation of the feast that lay ahead of us. And did we enjoy being the centre of attention on Friday evenings when mother fussed over us and pampered us with goodies.

As I grew up, I understood the significance of this feast, Mother’s way. The month of Shravan saw heavy rains which brought with them illnesses such as dysentery and other waterborne diseases, malaria, coughs and colds, influenza and children were easy prey in the days of high infant mortality. The rains also brought out snakes, scorpions and other insects that could kill people, especially young children with their venomous bites. Jara Jeevantika was considered the mother goddess, the epitome of mother hood. Praying to her was a mother’s way of protecting her kids.

She was not one bit superstitious, but Mother observed this Friday feast very religiously long after these dangers had ceased! She explained she wanted to wish us well and celebrate us as well as pray for our well being.  And I believe the strong, positive vibes she sent us reached their mark! Conveying one’s feelings is just as important as having them! ‘Show and tell’ is an absolute must when it comes to expressing our love...

Mother inspired us to follow suit- whether we make puran poli and kadbu or not, we do make it a point to meet and celebrate our kids and even pets with a pooja, aarati and a feast!  Cat, Sharad, Ginger, Rajah and Shadow, our family pets, have enjoyed this blessedness along with all family kids!

And I am sure a foodie dog like Rajah actually knew just like the kids that Shravan Shukravar was a veritable FryDay!

Kadbu

This is a dish popular in Maharashtra and Karnataka. It’s like a gujiya, made with whole wheat flour pastry and a chana dal  and jaggery/sugar puran. Although fried, it is still served with dollops of ghee!

For the puran stuffing

2 cups chana dal

2 cups soft Kolhapur jaggery

½ cup white sugar

1 cup fresh grated coconut

¾ cup milk powder or khoya

1 ½ tbsp poppy seeds, dry roasted and coarsely ground

1 tsp cardamom powder

¾ tsp ground or grated nutmeg

For the pastry

2 ½  cups wheat flour

1 cup plain flour

1 tsp poppy seeds

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

¼ cup oil/ghee

Water to knead

Preparation

Pick, wash and cook the chana dal in a pressure cooker. When done, drain in a colander. Do not discard the water, it can be used in dals, soups or in a clear soup we make called ‘katachi amti’.

Grate the jiggery and grind the chana dal and jiggery in a kitchen food processor or what is called the ‘puran machine’ till all the grain is mashed and the dal and jiggery get mixed. Remove the mixture in a thick bottomed pan. Heat the mixture and add the coconut, sugar, milk powder/ khoya, cardamom and nutmeg powders, and coarsely ground poppy seeds. Mix well and when the sugar melts, remove from heat and cool. It should turn into a soft doughy matter that can hold its shape.

Make smooth and stiff but pliable dough using the wheat and plain flours, salt, sugar, poppy seeds and the shortening (oil/ghee). Keep covered for at least half an hour.

Shaping and frying the kadbu

Divide the dough into equal balls the size of large marble or a gooseberry. Roll them into discs with thicker centres than the sides. Fill a tablespoon full of the puran mixture and fold the disc into half. Now you will have a crescent shape.  Press the edges of the disc together and starting from one end, press a portion and fold it over, repeating this till the end, resulting in a decorative edge as seen in the photos.

Make a few and slow fry them in oil till golden brown. Continue to make more while these are getting fried. Keep the folded kadbus covered with a damp cloth till it is time to fry them.

Serve warm or cold with dollops of ghee!

I have just discovered a whole new world of fellow bloggers who have fun sending their entries to various events graciously hosted by some of their ilk!inking this The month of Shravan" on Sangeeta's Spicytreats -Celebrate the month of Shravan! and Jagruti's Shravan event !

 I am also entering this in the "Walking down the memory lane" event graciously hosted by Archana Archana's Walking down the memory lane  and Gayatri's page!

Time for oil change!

Nepalese Alu Pyaz Sadeko

We need an oil change from time to time. Just like cars. Not only for maintenance and protection of our parts like vehicles do, but also for opening our minds, exploring new avenues, experimenting with new dishes, embracing novel experiences and tastes! But most importantly, an oil change is an absolute must to get rid of all the rust from prejudices and misconceptions!

After nearly four decades of disparaging mustard oil, I bought a small bottle of it- albeit the smallest in the shop- for the fear of wasting it if I didn’t like it!

New friends, new ideas and a newly revived spirit- I am so enjoying this cooking and blogging and making and sustaining cyber friendships!

My friend Atul Sikand has inspired me to break the barriers and muster up enough courage to cook with mustard oil. I couldn’t resist taking a sniff-whiff of the oil and sneakily unscrewed the cap- the legendary zing hit straight through the nose- up the middle of the skull and reached the top of the head!

Not a fan of heat, I tempered it down- but this rendition Alu Pyaz Sadeko was equally delicious!

Based on the recipe by Atul Sikand…Nepalese Alu Pyaz Sadeko

3 medium potatoes, boiled and peeled
1 small onion, diced large
1 teaspoon mustard oil
Salt to taste
Chilli powder to taste
½ tsp Sichuan pepper
A generous pinch of turmeric
¼ pinch of methi seeds
2 tbsp mustard oil
2 green chillies

Smear the boiled potatoes with a teaspoon of mustard oil and salt. Keep aside for some time. Then add the cut onions and mix. Sprinkle the haldi and chilli powder on the potatoes. Heat mustard oil till it smokes and add the methi seeds, sichuan pepper and 2 green chillies. Remove from heat quickly and the methi seeds will continue to brown lightly in the heat. Pour the hot tempering over the turmeric and chilli powder. Mix well and adjust the tastes.

Serve cold or at room temperature like a salad.

Peel repeal!

Doodhi/Lauki (Bottle Gourd) Peel Chutney

One of the most interesting phenomena of the present times is the groundswell of people- men, women and children – evincing a keen interest in food shows, reality cookery shows, blogs, food photos on Pinterest and Flickr, YouTube videos, presentation shares, and what have you!

I am amazed by the journey we have travelled, starting with Sanjeev Kapoor’s Khana Khazana on the new exciting Zee TV in 1993 and Star TV's Yan Can Cook. Anyone can cook now! Watchers have now become presenters and their repertoire of dishes is astounding. Some tread where even the most experienced cooks would fear to! Food has gone viral and global, changing the coordinates and blurring the lines between the foreign and the local.

But my pet peeve is that a lot of food enthusiasts make dishes in isolation, taking the dishes out of their real life/time context?

Cooking is after all an organic process wherein one step always leads to another or one dish is a result of another or has been a cause of or impetus for another.

In real life/time, cooks have so many things to take care of such as the mise en place and workflow (there is no way we can afford the luxury of getting everything chopped, measured, pre-made/mixed/fermented/baked, etc.)

And not to forget the packing/ putting away or storage of dishes and the punitive, gruelling cleaning up! This is the only part of cooking that most of, and certainly I don’t like! And so, we glare in disapproval when presenters casually use pot after pot and discard pan after pan, use and throw scores of spoons of various descriptions into the sink and yet lick their fingers! No, no, no!

And we frown hard at presenters discarding the whey from hung curd or paneer, the water from boiled pasta, the seeds of continental cucumber, the peels of bottle gourd and ridged gourd, stems of herbs and greens! How we cringe when clean washed potatoes are peeled without a reason!

Yet, do we actually save, wash and dry pumpkin seeds on the kitchen window sill, so we could munch on them when dried!

Brought up in a family of great cooks who also firmly believed in the maxim ‘Waste not, Want not’, I follow quite a few of the family tips and recipes for making most of every things that’s available in the fridge or the pantry. Rarely would people go shopping for ingredients just for one dish or one cooking event. The shopping lists were not dictated by what was cooking; instead what was cooked was geared around what was available, in season or grown at home! 

Maharashtrian cuisine has chutneys made of stir fried peels of vegetables like doodhi (lauki), ribbed gourd (tori), lemon or yellow cucumber and raw peels of green cucumber and ripe banana peels, to name a few. These peels are an excellent source of nutrients, chlorophyll and dietary fibre. Not only do they add to the variety of fare, but they taste delicious, too!

I wonder how many people still make these dishes.

I dread the day I have to watch a demonstration of the making of peel chutney and worry about what the chef will do/ has done with the lauki flesh! 

Lauki/ Doodhi Peel Chutney

Ingredients

1 cup chopped tender lauki peels, chopped into small pieces

2 tablespoons chana dal

2 tablespoons urad dal

2-3 red/green chillies, chopped (you could use more!)

2 tablespoons freshly grated coconut

2 tablespoons dry roasted and skinned peanuts

½ teaspoon cumin seeds

2 cloves garlic

2 tbsp chopped coriander

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 tablespoon oil

Salt to taste

Sugar to round off the taste (optional)

Tempering/ tadka made with 2 tsp oil, ¾ teaspoon mustard seeds and a pinch of hing (optional).

Method

Heat a tablespoon of oil in a kadhai, add the lauki peels and sauté on a medium flame for a few minutes. Add the dals and the peanuts and allow them to fry on low heat till they turn a light golden brown. The moisture from the peels will not burn the mixture quickly and in the time it takes the dals to brown the peels will also get cooked. Add the chillies and cumin seeds just before removing from the heat and allow the mixture to cool.

Place the cooled peel and nut mixture in a blender and add the fresh coconut, lemon juice, coriander, garlic, salt to taste and sugar (optional).  Add half a cup of cold water and blend into a slightly grainy paste. Add the tempering.

This chutney goes well with idlys, dosas, pesarratu, adai or anything that needs a chutney!