Ladled

Bhindi and Karela from our garden.                       Have you ever been in a cooking situation, where you know its not your first, but you dont know the trick employed last time to say avert the stickiness of okra. I dont remember doing anything different than cooking it longer, but this time, I read a tip - Add yogurt to prevent the stickiness. I havent cooked bitter gourd much. Fennel in   Kakarakaya vepudu  sounded promising. While pounding the fennel seeds, the smell took me to my childhood. during holidays, we would spend time in he fields. Fennel happened to be a stray, here and there. we plucked the tender fennel stems. In the curry, I had to add jaggery. I had some  tilkut . Since is essential jaggery and sesame seeds, I added it to the curry. When it was finally done, I saw no lumps.

Indian salmon curry Salmon fry

This Diwali, we had Pheni.

Today I learnt of Mohanthal from a neighbor at community potluck. One of the dishes was a malai kofta made from mexican squash. Another neighbor spoke about how hard she found to make batura. She said that as she would shape the dough, it would spring back to its original shape. That makes me appreciate the complexity of dishes and the act of cooking. My neighbor impressed with my interest in he sweet, shared some Mohanthal with us. It is truly a sweet from heaven. I was reminded of a sweet from my marriage. Another neighbor quipped about the satisfactoin of eating when very hungry and not as much when you eat on time everyday, which resonated in the following lines of Charles Bukowski in  Wandering in the cage. "the best thing about near-starvation and hunger is that when you finally eat it is such a beautiful and delicious and magical thing. people who eat 3 meals a day throughout life have never really tasted food… "

A friend said that we cannot eat/prepare food during eclipse, and if you made something before, if you add darbalu to it, then its fit for consumption.

I was thinking about  how water drops evaporate  and came across  Leidenfrost effect . A line in that article about dipping wet hands into molten lead made me ask if this is the effect that lets some people dip into boiling vat of oil for picking out pakoras with bare hands  .  Sure enough

Today a friend shared a Rosehip & Hibiscus Tea from Teekanne. He suggested that it tastes great with honey and hsowed me a jar of honey with the comb in it. I have never seen it before.