Happy Diwali!

It's my favorite time of the year! It's Diwali!

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दिवाळीचा पहिला दिवा लागता दारी,
सुखाचे किरण येती घरी,
पुर्ण होवोत तुमच्या सर्व ईच्छा,
आमच्याकडुन दिवाळीच्या हार्दिक शुभेच्छा!

Happy Diwali to you and yours!

Eat Me, Said the Cardamom Cake


Dearest Anita,

Every year, you call on us to celebrate your blog with a Mad Tea Party of our own. I tried my best to celebrate in the month of August and in the month of September but I just could not make it happen. Until last night. It all came together. And how!

A Mad Tea Party
Four mad hatters: me, me, me and me

Bappa Morya Re!

And so it's here again. That 10 day festival to celebrate my favorite God. Yes, it's Ganesh Chaturthi!

Ganpati Bappa Morya!
Jai Ganesh!

Crabby in a nice way

It's the last week of peaches and if you're looking for something to make with them where the overwhelming after-taste is not sugary, then give this chutney a try. It is based on my apricot chutney but I think I might like this better and I'll tell you why: the crabapples are so tart that I didn't need to use as much vinegar as was called for in the apricot chutney. The vinegar therefore takes a back-seat in this chutney!

I made this chutney in August when crabapples first appeared on the trees in our Open Spaces. I was far more bold this year than I was last year about "stealing" fruit from these trees. Labor Day last year saw me and my friend Lisa picking fruit from the crabapple trees at one of our several neighborhood annual picnics in a local park. I'm ashamed to say that I was not able to do much with them as I was slammed by work soon thereafter. I vowed that things would be different this year.

Crabapples
foraged crabapples

In The Kitchen With Vinita, Part 2 of 2

Happy Onam! And, thank you for the great feedback and comments on In The Kitchen With Vinita, Part 1!

One of the things I really like about Vinita is that she's always ready for a cup of chai no matter how hot it is, indoors or outdoors. Yes, rather like me!

chai in the makingbreaking bread

Vinita was brought up in the steel city of Jamshedpur but her roots go back to the Palakkad District of Kerala. The traditional ishtu or stew from this region is a simpler version of the Kerala Ishtu that Asha Gomez had made at my workshop, Culinary India, in June. This Palakkad ishtu is one of Vinita's father's favorite dishes, she explained as she quickly peeled the boiled potatoes. Onam sadya was considered incomplete without this vegetarian potato stew.