Ganpati Bappa Morya!

Every year we chant:
Ganpati Bappa Morya
Pudchya varshi lavkar ya!

And before I know it, it's here again! My favorite God, my second favorite festival, my favorite foods to be made but so busy that I have no time to make chavde or the more traditional modaks.

I do have a coconut waiting patiently in my refrigerator. I plan to use that to make the stuffing for karanji and offer that to Ganesh.

We celebrated Ganesh Chaturthi at Balvihar yesterday where some of our kids made clay models of Ganesh.

Ayesha's near-perfect Ganesh

Read on...

Rich like the Maharaja

Quick! Let's storm the palace!

I'm kidding, of course! The poor man was asleep in the heat of the day inside the City Palace of Jaipur, the capital city of the Indian state of Rajasthan. Rajasthan is India's largest state and most of it is desert. As it is in the desert, days are hot and nights are cool. In winter, days are hot—even if the local folks wear their woolen finery during the day—and nights are cooler, with temperatures dropping below freezing in parts of the state.

We tried to announce our arrival but who can reach those door knockers?

Sawai Jai Singh II, the Maharaja of Jaipur, built the City Palace in the mid-1700s using Rajput, Mughal and European styles of architecture.

If you're wondering which architectural style places door knockers that high up, I would hazard a guess and say it would be Rajput or Mughal. Visitors usually arrived on elephants and their mahouts used long sticks to beat those door knockers. Or maybe they had monkeys who were trained to...I jest!

Read on...

Time for the Louisville Street Faire

Yes, it's that time of the year when Friday evenings mean a convergence by the railroad tracks across from the library for some live music, local artists, good food and micro-brews. I've said it before that Louisville Street Faire rocks and I am going to say it again! It's grown bigger and more popular - something we really like!

His first Banh-mi

He bought it from the strEAT Chefs at the window of their Airstream trailer. He couldn't stop raving about the fresh flavors.

Read on...

A cultural thing, perhaps

Generally - which means in general, so don't jump on me all at once and show me examples of where it has been done - Indian food blogs don't entice you with pictures of empty bowls that once had delectable food in them. Or with half eaten food, with teeth marks showing on the food or a sizeable chunk of the food missing.


Therefore my question: Is it a cultural thing? You know, kind of like
- how you don't offer jhoota food to dinner guests.
- how you quickly do away with dirty bowls but proffer bowls filled to the brim with goodies instead

I wonder if that held me back from participating in a Dirty Dishes Challenge last year. This year is different. So much of what parades as tradition and culture is old ladies saying whatever they want and getting away with it. Some of it made up on the fly just before they spout it, that I thought Pfffft. Here's more anti-culture for you:

I ate half of that before I took the picture and I don't regret it. My hips and thighs do, but I don't.

The only part I do regret is that I may have been cursed in return, as I have a new affliction: shakinghanditis. No matter what I do, my hands tremble when I point the camera in any direction and then when I press the shutter, my hand moves downwards to assist the camera with that action.

Result: blurry pics all the time.
Proof: all the pictures in this post. I have cleverly masked the effects so that they are not easily apparent.
Attitude: I really don't care, the gajar halwa was perfect!

Gajar Halwa

There are several regional variation of gajar (gah-juhr) or carrot halwa. The further North in India you are, you will get grated carrots that have been cooked in ghee and mawa. I am biased to the one stewed in milk forever, with very little ghee. I also prefer gajar halwa that is not cloyingly sweet.

Sue Darlow's recipe seemed like the perfect way to have the carrots cook on their own without much fuss. That it is pressure cooked and uses sweetened condensed milk appealed to that part of me that likes to cock a snoot at the purists. My first attempt over three years ago was a hit with my dinner guests. The leftovers were frozen and flown like a trophy to the East Coast where they were shared with more willing mouths who now swear that I am best halwai, in the world. We won't shatter their beliefs or my ego; instead, we'll just ride on the positive feelings that ensue. But the sad part is that I was not completely satisfied and I kept tweaking this recipe until I hit the jackpot - just right for our tastes.

• 2.5 lbs fresh carrots, grated
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• 1.5 tbsp blackstrap molasses
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 2 tbsp ghee
• 10-12 pods green cardamoms
• crushed almonds (optional)
• crushed pistachios (optional)
  

1. Put grated carrots, condensed milk, molasses, and heavy cream directly into the pressure cooker and mix well.
2. Cook under pressure on medium heat and after the first whistle, turn the heat down to low and cook for at least another half hour.
3. Release the pressure slowly and safely. Be prepared to see some liquid in the pressure cooker when you open it, as it depends on how juicy your carrots are.
4. Crush the cardamom seeds, discarding the outer pod and add to the mixture. Also, stir in ghee
5. Heat on medium, stirring continuously until any excess liquid has evaporated.
6. Transfer to a serving bowl and decorate with crushed almonds and pistachios
7. Gajar halwa can be served warm or cold. We like the warm-cold thing and so I serve it warm with ice-cream!

Notes:

• I was dismayed by what masqueraded as carrots in this country, especially since I moved here when India was a luscious deep red into the carrot season. Supermarket carrots - because I did not know any better at the time - tasted like wood, and carrots were near eliminated from our diet. Those 'baby' carrots are just as bad. Until I discovered fresh locally-grown carrots and later, organic carrots. These are sweet and very juicy. Very orange, but still. So spend that extra 50 cents per pound and get yourself some real juicy carrots.
• Much as I espouse the benefits of stirring, I don't have the luxury of standing by the carrots, watching as they stew slowly in the milk since this has become a standard dessert when we have guests for dinner. I had to say that before the hoards of hecklers arrive to make smart comments on that, apart from expressing disbelief that this post actually has a recipe. So there!
  
• The blackstrap molasses adds a deeper dimension to the gajar halwa: to the flavor and to the color. It also serves to add a sweet tone without the added moisture of a medium like condensed or even evaporated milk.
• You could add more but remember that blackstrap molasses has a complex flavor and you might be better off adding some brown sugar instead, if you like it sweeter.

Screaming Cups and Orange Burfi

On Thursday, I awoke to a low moaning sound in the house. It became louder as it came closer and sounded like someone was being strangled, a kind of strange screaming.

If I hadn't been lying awake, waiting for the alarm to ring; so that I could snooze it and finally go to sleep...
If I hadn't heard the patter of little feet...
If I hadn't heard the water run...
If I hadn't attended Science Night at her school the previous night, I would have been frightened out of my wits.

But not me! I knew exactly what it was. It was a Screaming Cup, being used insidiously by an 8 year old, who doesn't quite get "die of a heart attack!"

With Hallowe'en coming up on October 31, the Screaming Cup experiment was the most popular at Science Night, and tied closely with Stab the potato with a straw without breaking or bending it, the straw that is.

Definitely try this one at home. It's a hit with the little ones as well as the older balding ones. All you need is

• 
  a 16 or 24 oz plastic cup - the ubiquitous red kind do really well
• a piece of string, about 18-24 inches in length
• water, or if you have a budding violinist at home, violin rosin

1. Make a hole in the bottom of the red cup and thread the string through it.
2. Knot the string well on the side that is inside the cup (my husband doesn't agree but this was the only way it worked for me. He insists it works better when you knot it on the outside and pull the string through the cup. These engineers...who cares? As long as it screams!)
3. Wet the string or rub it well with violin rosin
4. Hold the string tightly between your thumb and index finger near the bottom of the cup and start sliding it away from the cup. Squeeze the string really hard and as your fingers slip and slide along the string, you will hear the wistful moaning that filled my home at dawn that morning.

Why does this happen, the young inquiring mind might ask. Er...the older one, too. As your fingers slip and slide on the string, there are vibrations in the string. These vibrations make the cup vibrate, which bounce off the insides of the cup and end up creating an amplified sound wave. Or more like a scream that is perfect for Hallowe'en!

What does this have to do with food? Not much. Actually, nothing. I could lie and say that this experiment did not work till I came home and got a bite of my delectable Orange Burfi. But I would classify that act only as one to be abhorred.

I found this little gem in my mother's blue diary. I am not a fan of the Indian halwas and burfis, except for gajjar halwa but I changed my tune when I made this orange burfi. It's very different from any burfi I have ever had till date! I made it for Diwali; Bhau Bheej, really. To raise a toast to all those wonderful male cousins who get away year after year by not giving me that envelope stuffed with money that is rightfully mine!

Orange Burfi

• 1 cup maida
• 1/2 cup ghee
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 3-4 drops yellow food coloring (optional)
• peel of two oranges
  
  

1. Heat the ghee in a kadhai
2. Add the maida and cook on medium-low, stirring frequently, till the maida is golden in color
   
   
3. Take this out in another bowl and add the milk, sugar, orange juice and orange peels to the same kadhai in which you were cooking the maida in ghee.
   
   
   
   
4. Cook on medium-high till you have a syrupy mixture. It took about 12 minutes or so for me.
5. Add the food coloring and stir. Food coloring is another thing that I am not crazy about but I added about 3 drops nevertheless.
6. Add the maida and ghee mixture and cook on medium low till the ghee starts to leave the sides...just kidding! till the ghee starts separating from the mixture.
   
   
7. Put the mixture in a greased pan or casserole and spread. I used a small 6 inch by 6 inch casserole. If you use a larger one, the burfi will be flatter. I like mine thick!
   
   
8. Allow the mixture to cool and regardless of what the engineers may say, let it cool completely before attempting to cut it into cubes or diamonds. I let the engineer have his say - he had helped stir, you know! - so the edges of my orange burfi are not as smooth as they could be.
   
   
   Some burfi went AWOL when I was not looking!
   
   There it is! Orange Burfi!
   
   

The original recipe in my mother's blue diary calls for 2 cups of sugar. I thought that would be too sweet and used only 1 cup. The consistency of the sugar syrup therefore plays an important role in how firm this burfi will be. If you like it really sweet, go ahead and use 2 cups of sugar. I also think that since the weather is cool enough for to ghee solidify at room temperature in my home, using less sugar worked for me.

This Orange Burfi was given a rating of Yumilicious by both my family and my neighbors. The taste of the orange peel, followed by the orange juice dominate this burfi. The ghee makes it rich. Try it!

On a lark, I am going to send this to VKN's VCC Q3 2006, where the theme this quarter is Festival Foods from the world over.

Orange Burfi? Very festive. Very different.

Update: Even though she didn't taste them, this orange burfi has been to London to see the Queen! All kudos go to Shahpar Selim, of course!

Tags: Orange Burfi, orange peels, Diwali, Deepavali, VCC Q3 2006, sweet, festival food.

Jalebi

I studied this recipe from CuisineCuisine and this recipe from India Curry. I largely followed the latter for the batter but followed the former for the sugar syrup - I love saffron and rose water! My batter probably did not ferment as it looked no different from what it did the previous night nor did it smell any different.

I had to adjust the consistency of the batter a couple of times so that it flowed well through my marinade injector. Yes, that's what I used! It has a lid with a small hole in it, which was far too large. The diameter of the thick needle was too small. Something in between would have been perfect!

It took a while before I got even close to swirling anything that looked anything like a jalebi. Persistence paid off and soon I was making jalebi look-alikes.

Soaking the jalebi in the syrup for 2 minutes didn't work for me. The jalebis lost their crispiness and started dissolving in the syrup. Dropping them into the sugar syrup, ensuring that the jalebi got a good coating and also absorbed the sugar syrup worked very well instead. The jalebi was in the sugar syrup for less than 30 seconds.

It took me 2 hours. I have half a large dinner plate worth of jalebis and a whole bunch of moosh and over-fried things. I'm done with jalebis. I wanted to make them. I did. Dokya varche bhooth uttarle! I'm no longer obsessed about making those swirly sugary things.

What do they taste like? Delicious, of course.

My recommendation: Let someone else make the jalebis. Restrain yourself to enjoying them!

Tags:Diwali, jalebi, jilbee, sweet, Diwali faraal

Chavde on Ganesh Chaturthi

Ganpati Bappa morya!
Pudchya varshi lavkar ya!

Ganpati or Ganesh is my favorite Indian God. He's full of mischief yet he's the God we seek blessings from before we start new chapters in our lives.

In our family, we didn't really do much for Ganesh Chaturthi. My mother would make modak, karanji and chavde. The last, I think, was for my now Buddhist sister who was born on Ganesh Chaturthi many moons ago. Well, like Mom, I made chavde and they were nearly as good as hers!

Also known as mande in Konkani, chavde are like a crunchy puri that has been folded over a deliciously sweet sprinkling of sugar, cardamom and coconut powder. This was such a hit that naivedya went for a toss. I consoled myself in the same way my mother did: my family is my God. And, since I am part of that family, I crunched away happily on the chavde before offering them to my favorite pot-bellied God.

We sang Jai Ganesh Deva and Sukhakharta Dukhaharta and did a little puja. This was followed by a frantic trip to McDonald's to return a Redbox DVD before 7:00 pm. I don't know if they made it in time as I was busy making dinner. Dinner, offered to the Ganpati Bappa first, was waran-bhath, til alu, with lime pickle and, of course, chavda. A little finger was quickly dipped in the lime pickle and I saw it even though my back was turned. But I don't think Bappa really minds...

One Chavda, many chavde

My recipe is an adaptation of Shanta's recipe, Shilpa's recipe and what the birthday girl told me over the phone, which in this case, was not very much.

• 3/4 cup sugar, castor sugar or powdered
• 3/4 tsp cardamom powder
• 2 tsp sesame seeds, toasted
• 3 tbsp coconut powder
• Oil for deep frying
• 1 cup maida
• 2 tsp ghee
• 1/2 cup milk

1. Powder the sugar in a coffee grinder if you are using regular sugar.
2. Mix it with cardamom powder, sesame seeds and coconut powder. Taste the mixture and adjust it to suit your taste-buds.
3. Heat the oil
4. Mix the maida, ghee and milk and knead into firm dough. If the dough feels soft or sticky, add more maida till it is very firm.
5. Make small doughballs about the size of a quarter and cover with a damp paper towel so that the dough does not dry out.
6. Set up two stations: one to roll out the puris (rolling station), another by stove (deep frying station). Place the sugar mixture by the second station and also prepare a large platter with at least 2-3 layers of paper towels. Also keep an extra paper towel handy. You will need another empty platter for the chavde when they are ready.
7. Roll out thin puris about 5 inches in diameter. Make them in batches of 10 each, keep them covered with a damp paper towel till you are ready to move to the deep frying station.
8. Move to the deep frying station with each batch of rolled out puris and fry a puri briskly in the oil, but not for too long. The puri should be limp and soft when you pull it out of the oil.
9. The next few steps are where you have to move very quickly as soon as the puri is ready; so make sure that you do this one puri at a time. Place the fried puri on the platter with the paper towels. Use the extra paper towel to dab any excess oil off the puri. This may not be recommended by chavde experts but I recommend it as my puris were dripping oil when I pulled them out.
   
   
   
   
10. Quickly sprinkle about 1 tbsp of the sugar mixture on the puri.
11. Fold it about 1/2 inch from the top
    
    
    
    and then in half.
    
    
    
    
12. Place it on the platter for finished chavde and allow it to cool. Do not pile finished chavde on top of one another. The puri hardens and becomes crisp as it cools and you don't want to interfere with this process!
13. If you don't move fast enough, you end up with cracked chavde like so:
    
    
    

I never thought I would ever say: I made chavde!

I did! It wasn't all that difficult once I had the 'stations' set up.

1 cup of flour must have made at least 30 chavde. I didn't get a chance to count as Medha was stealing them from the platter as they cooled and eating them like there was no tomorrow. Then her Dad came in, famished after chopping down my favorite dogwood tree in the yard. I thought both of them might have a problem with the coconut but they loved it so much that I had to stop them from eating them all!

This was our first Ganesh Chaturthi here in Louisville. We celebrated it our own special way: a small puja, a new favorite food, followed by a very simple dinner.

Many Indian food bloggers celebrated Ganesh Chaturthi by making something special:
Shilpa of Aayi's Recipes made modak and her husband has written a wonderful piece reminiscing about Ganesh puja in his home

Asha of Foodie's Hope made besan laddu and cocktail idlis

Sailu made paala undrallu and kudumullu

Others went one step further and made their own Ganesh:
Luv2Cook of Cooking Medley and her friends made beautiful jewel-adorned Ganesh murtis

Mythili of Vindu also made her first Ganesh, displaying extra-ordinary skills at fashioning clay.

Tags: Ganpati, Ganesh Chaturthi, Vinayak Chaturthi, chavde, chavdamande