Ladled

When I looked at  Cooking for Gracie , it was familiar from Keith Dixon's humorous 'Alternate side cooking' Man with a Pan  where he has trouble coming to terms with a leak of his power on what his infant eats, once his wife starts cooking and his daughter starts liking the new food. He also compares cooking no-nos and kitchen to road and its rules. His dismay in losing control of being the sole food maker for his little daughter is just one of the difficult things that new parents have to deal with. As a child, we might just answer very easily to the question of who our favourite parent with all the taking sides that happens in the family. I wonder how the parents feel pitched against each other for their children's love. Touchy, as the subject is, I appreciated the author's honesty. For new parents theres ton of preview into the 'horror show' of not only sleepless nights but also days and nights merging as well. I learn that you dont feed a baby und...

Delicious memories

In the kitchen with a good appetite

My husband wanted something spicy for an evening snack. There are many great tasting Indian snacks but they require frying which is not easy for me. I landed upon these baked chips  and baked manchurian  recipes. Oh and the mint chutney. Finally after having it so many times in the restaurant and thinking that I should make it someday. New dosas to try bajji dosai  and spinach oat dosai

Sweet magic I am making Cherry Clafouti from this book. The rest didnt appeal to me due to the use of corn starch or xantham gum. I thought I saw fresh cherries like last week at he grocery store. And now, theres none. I went with frozen dark cherries. What a relief Maraschino is not the only way to treat cherries. I look at Julia childs cherry clafouti . The procedure is slightly different. she puts some of the batter in first, after a film is set, she adds the cherries and then the remaining batter. Its more cherries but the sugar to flour ratio is 2/3:1/2. My main reason to crosscheck with another recipe is to see if the 1hr time makes sense. It must be the low temperature of 325F. Also, I have divided the portions into 2/3 and 1/3. I hope 40 and 20 min will do. Or that I exactly know when the center is still jiggly and outside crisp. What a help it is that Julia Child suggests 'stick the fork to done' method. Another recipe  bakes it for only at 30min as the oven is se...

Man with a pan Gullah  - red rice Steak Diane Sous vide  in Jesse green's 'Who the man?' Mt Ararat Pilaf Food mill  for  removing seeds from tomatoes

Reading of Balzac's childhood hardships in Balzac's omelette , regarding the bad food he had to live on, I was reminded of my relation with food at hostel. The students who ate meat were seated in a different section. under the tubelight, the chicken pieces glistened with tiny hair. Lemon cucumber  curry was our least favorite. My sister would throw some of her share under the table.  Sappadi pappu was my favorite. Its a simple runny version of boiled lentils with salt added. My love for it had made rounds. seniors asked me if I liked it, I said "yes". Then they dumped all their food into my plate. I had already had my fill. when I said yes, I meant in general and not limitlessly. Thats my first gorging unpleasant memory. Goduma rava upma in huge quantities turned out perfectly dry with no icky sticky business. Tamarind chutney with its red tantalising color and red chili pepper seeds in it, I wasnt grown up yet for that taste. Before being sent to the hostel, my p...

A southerly course Bread and butter pickles This morning my friend sent me the recipe of lazy chiles rellenos  by Pioneer Woman, that she had made. In the evening, I came across Easy Chiles Rellenos by Martha Hall Foose in her book. I was curious to see how different they were. MHF added 1/3 cup flour in the egg whites and milk and only 1 cup whole milk, 1 can tomato sauce and baked at 25F higher and 30 min longer. PW used all of the eggs and 2 cups whole milk. A purple sweet potato recipe

At Juanjaimes, I ordered chicken tacos. I skipped the cheese as I dont like it. What I had was grilled bits of chicken with no sauce. When I was eating the rice, my colleague informed that it was made by mixing salsa with rice. He said that was how a Spanish rice is made. As the salsa was mixed after the rice was cooked, the flavors didnt seep in. I prefer the rice cooked in broth. As always I liked the beans.

I was watching chopped on food network where one of the mystery ingredients was Burdock root . Looking at it, I faintly recalled eating something smoked which after removing the brown peel had a woody white substance inside.

 As kids, we learnt of medi pandu or cluster fig as an inedible fruit. I dont like the Newton fig bars. I read about figs last year around this time, when they were in season. I got to have fresh Black mission figs from my friends backyard. We decided on the kind using a 'Trees of North America' book. I hadnt seen a fresh fig until then and never wondered why they were always available dried.  I bought dried Calymyrna figs a while ago, but didnt get to eating them. The main reason was that they still retained their whole tiny pear form and light jaggery colour. I am used to seeing figs in their pressed to a circle and dark brown form for ultra packaging reasons. On a trip, I had the figs. But when I bit into the Calymyrna figs - the peel wasnt too dry or scaly like that of a date, it was still soft to the chew and the inside with the tiny brown-yellow seeds tasted like jam.

The baby and toddler cookbook

Big book of cupcakes Dreamcakes Most recipes in this book use soft wheat flour sanding sugar  - another sugar for bakers. Pink champagne in a cupcake. The decorations on the cupcakes urge you to get creative. The sorting hat with its sparkes of wizardry. The fondant birds with their wings peaking out like the meringue they are in. A world on  cupcake - A train on a fenced ground Fruit slice candies Dragees sugared dog and cat faces Wedding cake - white furls of cream, pearls and roses in a white cupcake liner. Strawberry Milkshake - A striped straw tipped against the alternating pink and white creamcheese like a smoothie in a glass Monet cupcakes

Today we made peanut chutney  and had it with vermicelli upma. From the familar smell, I knew it worked out right. Before I could process what it was, the eagerness to have it took over. It could be the seasoning. I found a recipe for Vermicelli dosa . and there's sabudana dosa to try too. I have some ground sesame powder. sesame flavored rice  and beerakaya nuvvu kura  for lunch then. Just when I woke up I had this faint remembrance of a dream where I was going up the stairs and turned back to try some snacks which were laden in some chutney. I made the beerakaya nuvvu kura and liked the sesame flavor. I also had quinoa upma. While some is good, after some bites I cant ignore the curly white commas in it. 9.17.2011 Today we had the vermicelli dosa with onion coconut chutney . We enjoyed the trial. I added water to the chutney while blending as we prefer it to be runny.

Tandoori grill  , Santa Clarita buffet on monday, had soft gaarlic and plain naans. We went around 2pm when the closing time is 3pm. The tandoori chicken dish was empty by then. Halfway it did get filled with appetising sedona colored chicken. I passed a piece to my husband who found that it wasnt cooked inside. Chole, chicken tikka masala had their usual taste. spinach was mundane, nothing out of the ordinary. Some customers had a bad taste at the end when they were charged 8.95 of the weekend rate, instead of 6.95 while it was a monday. The person who charged the bill explained that it being a labor day, their workers needed an off as they are people too, which still didnt explain why they should be charged extra without prior notice. While leaving this place, I found a pointer for our next meal - Thai Dishes. China Delight , Oakhurst. Here I first ordered a hot and sour soup expecting soup like in Thai place. The soup turned out to be too strong and spicy for our tas...

Mahogany cake My friends said that the cake tasted good. I had a taste of it but my altered taste didnt appreciate the coffee in it.

Today is Ganesh Chaturthi . I made sundal  and paala undrallu  for the first time. Following my mom's tradition I should have made botimela payasam and tummi kura  made exclusively on this day. This is made by making tiny balls in the size of boondi, dry them and cook them next day with milk, sugar and nuts. I never got to it. In villages, handmade vermicelli  is common. Heard this Ruth Reichl  interview. Its funny how/why she laerned to cook. Yes like most food stories, theres mom in it.

Recently, I made okra curry. If I havent made it ever, it is because of the stickiness. Well, I didnt have to do much to make a decent curry. Okra had to be cut into small pieces, a stir now and then. I am not that scared of it now. I have used frozen okra before, that doesnt count. Speaking of first time curries, I made Gongura  curry yesterday. My mom likes it but my dad doesnt like its tanginess. Soak a fistful of chana dal the night before. Pluck out the leaves. Put it in a bowl. Add very little water such that the bed of leaves is 1/3rd in water. Add the soaked chana daal. Add around 8 cloves of garlic. after 5 min, add oil, green chili paste and salt. Cook for another 10 minThat is all it takes. I enjoyed the curry. While I had another serving of spinach curry which lost its taste because of too much water from the soaking, I kept leaning to this curry, for the rare and distinct taste of this curry. My mom-in-law just told me about how to make Gongura daal. After next ...