Greed is good!

Diamond cuts

Caveat!

I am going to make a bold statement that seems a tad ungenerous, not at all in keeping with the season’s spirit! But do read on…

Children can be greedy- especially children of mothers who are prolific and good cooks! Mother often would reproach us. “One would think that such kids would be so satisfied with the fare coming their way that they wouldn’t be greedy at all!”

But alas! She had no such luck.

The adults in the family had all grown up in the tradition of at once rapping kids on the knuckles for gluttony as indulging in their cravings. It was customary to offer the first portion of any sweets made (without tasting) to the almighty as naivedya or offering in thanksgiving! All laddus, burfis, karanjis had to wait for the sprinkling of the holy water, before we kids could attack them. Oh, it was so excruciating to hold off our instincts to tuck in. But we were God-fearing children- well, almost always.  

However, if a tyke were inconsolably nagging a parent for a treat, hanging by the mother’s pallu, then a grandmother would intervene with some homespun wisdom and even reproach the mother – a younger woman usually a daughter or a daughter-in-law, “ Children are in the image of God, so if your kid wants the sweets so badly, God wants them to have the sweets!” This logic extended to family pets as well.

Now that was very convenient!

So by now you may have guessed, yours truly belonged to that greedy broods brigade. Legend has it that I once ate thirteen gulab jamuns in one sitting, but I still maintain that they were very tiny ones! And once I hogged a whole bunch of frosted diamond cuts or sweet shankarpali during one Diwali – but then, they were too delicious to stop with a few!

Greed, avarice, covetousness… no no no no – these are very unforgiving words – associated with sin – how can innocent kids be called greedy? Well, let me qualify the word – to assuage troubled or annoyed mums, much to the consternation of critical relatives and neighbours- and in self-defence!

Kids seem greedy, for they usually start early on their way to become gargantuan gourmands, finicky foodies and imaginative innovators. Only, since they haven’t developed a thermostat of social pressure, they may be freely expressing their feelings. Maybe all the greed is nothing but nature’s way of packing in as much sensory and experiential exposure as possible? Perhaps this avarice is not a sin at all, but a powerful motivator for people to innovate and create new things. 

And if kids act greedily when visiting or eating out, perhaps it's more to explore other people's cooking, diverse tastes rather than just plotting to embarrass their mortified parents! 

As long as kids are generous and grateful, why worry about their being greedy-except of course for health reasons!

Yes, greed can be good!

As good as these diamond cuts or frosted Shankerpali pictured here- which aren’t exactly diamond shaped because all the perfectly shaped ones were devoured – er greedily- before I zealously salvaged some of the stragglers for a photo shoot!

Frosted Shankerpali

1 cup maida

1 tbsp ghee or butter for shortening

A pinch of salt

Oil for deep frying

For the frosting     

1 cup sugar

1/3  cup water (approx.)

½ tsp ground elaichi or cardamom (optional)

Method

Sift the flour with a pinch of salt and rub in the ghee or butter. Add cold water, little by little and make a stiff dough. Keep covered for 30 minutes.

Melt sugar with 1/3 cup water (approx.) over medium heat. When the syrup starts boiling, add 1tsp of cardamom powder and check for thread consistency till you get a two string consistency. You will need to keep this syrup warm, or it will crystallise. Also, if you are frying several batches of shapes, you will need to adjust the syrup by adding a spoonful of water, scarping the sides of the pan and boiling it till the syrup is formed to two string consistency again.

Heat about 2 cups of oil in a wok.

Divide the dough into two balls and roll it out into a large disc, about 2-3 mm uniformly thick. With a fluted cutter or knife, cut the dough disc into diamond shapes or squares.  Fry the shapes in medium hot oil till very light brown and transfer them onto kitchen paper.

Dunk the diamond cuts into the sugar syrup and move them around gently to coat each one with the syrup. Remove with a slotted spoon draining all the syrup and arrange them in a plate to cool. Separate clusters, if any, when still wet.  As the diamonds dry the sugar hardens providing a lovely frosting. Dust with some coloured sugar, if you wish.

I think it is useless to tell you about the shelf life of these – for there isn’t any! Just remember to keep them in an airtight container- if ever you are required to store them. 

Unpolished, uncomplicated, unplugged!

Brown Rice Salad

My memories of brown rice are always associated with my friend Radhika’s mother. 

Her kind, gentle countenance smiles at me from across the years and miles of memories and I see her plying me with some more of her delicious food – the typical very savoury Andhra vantulu (cuisine) tradition, the vanakaya  kura (spicy slender eggplant), bendakaya vepudu ( fried okra) the allum pacchadis (ginger chutney) podis, sambars and a hundred things that lined up the large thalis like fielders in a cricket match with Pakistan bowling in the last innings! This was their daily spread, and since I was there as a guest, Auntie would fry some garelu (vadas) or papads.

More than 30 years later, I still remember this feast, and have tried (not without considerable success) to replicate her dishes several times. But one thing I can’t replicate is the very tasty, unpolished rice that came from the paddy from their farms in coastal Andhra. This fragrant and nutritious brown rice is called mudi biyyam or dampudu biyyam. The hull is preserved and that retains the vitamins, minerals and most importantly- the flavour. And to think of it, we pay to have the nutrients removed from the white rice we eat!

The Vedula family made it a point to eat their own home-grown produce, but Auntie would make an effort to make some white rice. However, once I tasted this unpolished brown rice, there was no going back.  

Course after course, from pulusu (soup) to perugu (yoghurt), the steaming hot, pale brown rice with a distinct flavour and aroma of its own, was scooped onto our plates. A dollop of homemade neyi (ghee) was splashed onto it before you could say no (why would you?) Sated and sleepy, we would retreat to the upstairs rumpus area or the lovely library and dream away like any teenagers would, without a worry. 

The unpolished rice is an integral part of those happy memories. So when I first moved to Australia and saw brown rice in the supermarkets, I eagerly bought a large bag, but soon realised that it couldn’t recreate the magic of Aunties ‘annam’. How I disposed of the rice, is fodder for some more stories….

Too coarse, easy to go rancid, hard to cook and not half as tasty, this brown rice -now bought in a very small pack -  is redeemed best a salad like this. 

Warm Brown Rice Salad

1 cup long grained brown rice, soaked for 20 minutes
A handful each of - finely sliced celery, diced red onion, shredded lettuce, shelled garden peas, roughly torn rocket leaves (use your imagination and resources!)
2 tbsps each - diced carrots, diced red capsicum, finely sliced green beans
A small block of low salt Danish feta (this is soft and creamy) roughly crumbled
2 tbsp black currant or any fried fruit
Balsamic vinegar dressing (you can make your own, with vinegar, olive oil and herbs)
Salt and pepper as desired
1 tsp olive oil to stir fry vegetables

Cook rice in water with a pinch of salt, using the absorption method.  Heat a pan and add the olive oil and quick stir-fry the beans, red capsicum and carrots. Remove within a minute to retain the crunch. Combine all the vegetables with cooked rice. Add rocket, currants and crumble feta into the salad. 

Pour the dressing on top, toss and serve warm or cold.

Makes a great lunch to carry to work and can be made the previous night and stored in the fridge. 

Graceful ambivalence

Upasachi Batatyachi Bhaji (Potatoes with peanuts)
उपासाची बटाट्याची भाजी 

The potato is perhaps the most ambivalent vegetable ever. First of all, is a potato a vegetable or fruit? Or a starch? Is it good for health or harmful? Is it a connoisseur’s choice or a commoners’ craving?

Is it a food meant for spartan sustenance during religious fasts or designed for a saturnalian spread during feasts?

Economies have been shaken and wars waged over potatoes. Every country has its own signature potato dish and every cuisine stakes a claim over the spud. The potato is equally a domiciliary of Japan as it is of Europe. And in India, a potato is at once an absolute essential in an alu samosa, as it is in an undhiu, a batata wada, a masala dosa or an alu posto.   

As a child, I loved reading mythology and read anything from Amar Chitra Katha to the old and yellowed pothis and purans - religious books with stories and illustrations - that were a part of my grandmother’s collection. I remember wondering and asking Mother if Lord Krishna was a Maharashtrian. I was understandably disappointed to learn that he may have been from the north or north-western parts of the country. Why did he seem so familiar? After all, the stories we were told about him or the stories we read didn’t seem to be narrated or set in any other culture or language other than Marathi!

One night after dinner, discussing and appreciating a Kishangarh miniature painting depicting a Maharasa dance, Mother explained how each of Krishna’s Gopis loved him and wished that he would dance only with her. Krishna would assume as many forms as the number of gopis assembled, giving each one the satisfaction that he had danced exclusively with her.

No wonder I felt that Krishna spoke my language - Marathi! Such was his grace!

Why did I remember this now? Maybe to stretch the celestial analogy a bit over the down-to-earth tater in appreciation of its versatility?

Hmmm… this upvasachi batatyachi bhaji is so Marathi that we can’t imagine or care to remember that the potato was introduced in the country not very long ago!

Ingredients

2 cups boiled, peeled and cubed potato (I also make this without peeling the potatoes and sautéing them rather than boiling)

2 tbsp roasted peanuts, skinned and coarsely powdered

½ tsp cumin seeds

2 green chillies- chopped (or more)

1 tbsp chopped coriander

1 tsp lemon juice

1 tbsp oil/ghee

Salt to taste

A pinch of sugar (a typically Marathi thing to do- but you can give it a miss!)

Method

Heat the oil/ghee in a pan and add the cumin seeds to crackle. Throw in the chillies and then immediately add the potato cubes. Add the salt, sugar (if using) and powdered peanuts and cook for a few minutes. Add the lemon juice and switch off the heat. Garnish with coriander.

Serve at any temperature, with any staple food like rice, roti or samo seeds, in a curry puff or toasted sandwich, with a dosa, or just by itself in a bowl.

Remember the potato’s graceful ambivalence?

Italian Jugaad!

Baked Arancini with Napoli sauce and salad

Jugaad, our trusted and foolproof Indian practice for managing a raft of sticky situations ranging from everyday problems to entrepreneurial practice, is fast capturing the imagination of a recession stricken western world as a growth formula.

Another ‘juggernaut’ sweeping the world?!

India should patent the concept before we have to defend it like we did turmeric! After all, the word owes its origin to the Sanskrit word ‘yukti’, meaning trick, and the practice has become second nature to Indians!

Now, I am sure it will meet all three legal criteria for patenting - of “Novelty, Non-Obviousness, and Utility”! For although the concept of jugaad is not new, every act  can be very novel! And the best cases of jugaad are non-obvious if you don’t tell, and every jugaad is just so useful.

Just like the jugaad I put into play, coming up with arancini balls with some leftover risotto.

You could actually cook some arborio rice with any stock and seasoning, and add some vegetables of your choice and some grated mozzarella cheese, or just used any cooked rice with seasoning!

For the arancini balls

2 cups leftover risotto (mine had some pumpkin, broccoli and mushrooms – and some white wine)

2 tbsp grated mozzarella cheese (or any other cheese- remember jugaad)

1 tbsp parmesan

Panko bread crumbs

Oil spray

Homemade panko crumbs

3 slices bread (I used multigrain bread) – use four if you have a small loaf

½ tsp garlic powder

½ tsp dried sage

½ tsp dried oregano

¼ tsp black pepper

½ tsp crushed red chillies

2 tsp grated Parmesan

Method

Place all the ingredients for the panko crumbs in a mixer and zap them roughly.

Remove onto a work surface.

Mix the risotto with the two cheeses. Make four equal portions and roll them with into a ball and then in the crumbs. Then shape them with both hands, adding crumbs to the hand and pressing them into the balls tightly. As you shape and press simultaneously, tilt one of your palms to give it a pear shape.

You can make small round balls to go as starters, too!

When the ball stops taking any more crumbs, place it on a tray lined with baking paper. Spray with an olive oil spray and bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 C till golden crisp – about 25 minutes.

Serve hot with a salad and some Napoli sauce.

Shredded lettuce, finely sliced red onion, sliced pink lady apple, rocket leaves, walnuts and low salt creamy fetta cheese with a balsamic dressing made a great salad.

Napoli was a can of chopped Roma tomatoes cooked in olive oil with onions, garlic, fresh oregano and crushed chilli.

Now that’s a sustainable (no waste) and healthy (not fried) jugaad!

Prominent and popular blogger  Suranga Date writes interesting, funny, sweet, thought provoking and rich poems inspired by varied things that capture her imagination in her blog Strewn Ashes. I have the privilege of her friendship and of the fact that often one of my dishes or posts inspire her to write a poem or two! In English and Marathi!

Quipped Suranga on the risotto- 

जागतिक भात संमेलनाला
जमलेले अथिरथी महारथी,
शेठ बिर्याणी , पुलावराव , 
सर बिसिबेलेभात
सौ चित्रान्न , मसियर रिसोटो ,
श्रीमती खिचडी आणि चि .दहीभात,
मधल्या सुट्टीत फुशारक्या मारत बसले होते .....

एकीकडे जुना रीस्सोटो, साध्या भाताला म्हणाला ,
:"तुझा फोडणीचा भात तर फारच यमी असतो,
ह्या बड्या लोकांमध्ये माझा कसा निभाव लागणार ?"

"त्यात काय आहे ? मी सांगतो तसा कर" असे म्हणत
भाताने मागे लाग्लेया मिरचीकढी पत्ता मंडळींना पिटाळून लावले,
.चीज ला हाताशी घेतले ,
आणि रीस्सोटो मधल्या भाज्यांना समज दिली .
सर्वांना व्यवस्थीत एकत्र केलं ,
आणि
छोटे छोटे गोळे करून, 
चविष्ठ ब्रेड्क्रंब मध्ये घोळून,
जरा ओव्हन मध्ये ठेवलं ....

चीजच मन पाघळल,
बाहेरील आवरणाने आपले मन घट्ट केले ,
आणि थोड्याच वेळात हि मंडळी सभेत आली.

हिरवे सलाड , लाल टोमाटो सॉस ,
सगळे गडबडीने हा चमत्कार बघायला धावले ,
आणि
आपला फोडणीचा भात धन्य झाला !

सर्व अथिरथी महारथी थक्क होउन विचारू लागले,
"ह्याला काय म्हणायच ? हे क्कुठ्ले क्विझीन ?"
आणि
फोडणीच्या भाताने रीस्सोतो च्या हातावर टाळी दिली 
काधीपत्त्याला डोळा मारला,
आणि गात गात उत्तर दिले ,
"ये चीज बडी ही मस्त मस्त, ये चीज बडी ही मस्त !"

.