Stay a While, Won't You?

I know I've been gone a while and you want to know what I have been up to. Life has been brimming with excitement, as always. But, hang on. Let me put the kettle on, first. There! So much better!


But, what's the hurry...

A good cup of tea must be shared between friends, no? Let me get the teapot ready because I hear the tea kettle whistling.

Steaming - my entry as a judge for Click - Metal.

Get on with it, you say? In a minute! Let me pour the hot water into the teapot first.



Ah! Much better. Now sit back and enjoy that cup of tea and tell me which of the three pictures you like best. As usual, I can't make up my mind about which picture to send to Click. Not that it matters because I am a judge for the March event. But it's always nice to get your opinion. Me? I like them all but I do lean most towards the third one for many reasons. I love the little swirl of steam escaping from the spout, right under the whistle, and I also like to think that the picture represents me: ready to come back! So put your thinking caps on and let me know.

Update: The people has spake! #2 is it!

Swept Away

That's how I have been feeling ever since the year began. Swept away and spun around.
But before I get to the unnecessary details that I sometimes share through my posts on Indian Food Rocks, only to have those esteemed hecklers show up and say "where's the recipe", I do want to say a huge Thank You to all the wonderful feedback and terrific support for my entry for Click: Liquids in January. And, to Nupur, for letting me use a phrase from her comment as the title for the image: A tsunami in a martini glass. And, to Jai and Bee, for all the excitement they bring with each post, especially the event Click.

I raise a toast to you all! In Martini glasses, of course!


The winning image was this photo of a lemon splashing into a martini glass:


It won the following awards:




Yay! Yay! Yay! And one more Yay!

Many of you wanted to know how I managed this. It can be rocket science but I managed it with a worse-than-amateur setup. A detailed post is on my Inner Lens for your perusal.

I apologize for the delay in writing that post as I simply did not have the energy to do so. You see, I was hit with - no! not writer's block - but some really nasty looking numbers in my blood work. Together with my BMI, and my age, there was only one thing to do: get serious about becoming active. I had a session with a lovely personal trainer way back in October but no matter what I did, I just couldn't get excited about working on those machines three times a week. Come November, my resolve dissipated like a fast vanishing point in a clever photo. My sister - remember her? the one who memorizes recipes? - suggested that I try a new fitness rage that has been sweeping the nation. One that she herself was hooked onto. She's never one for fads and I am so glad I took her word for it and found drop-in classes in my 'hood. I now go to Zumba fitness classes twice a week and have a blast moving to throbbing Latino beats and working out all the muscles in my body. It's not just Shakira's hips that don't lie anymore...

The good news is that I will probably live a little bit longer as my numbers are normal again. And, no, it wasn't my cholesterol - that is like out of a text-book or whatever those medical tomes are called. Maybe it was a lab error. Maybe it was taking becoming active more seriously. Maybe it was eating smaller portions and drinking lots more water. Maybe it was all of the above. I don't know. At this point, I really don't care either as what matters is that this was a huge wake-up call for me and thanks to my good fortune, I found a fitness activity that I enjoy so much that I am ready to drop everything and rush off for the class. Excuses are a thing of the past.

The lesson to take away from this: don't wait for a wake up call. Find something you enjoy first, the motivation will follow. But become active as soon as possible. It only gets worse as the years roll by. Zumba, to me, takes aerobics and jazzercize to a new level. I get to shake my body with abandon and it's perfectly fine to have my hands go up when everyone else's are going down. Or to do a swirl when everyone is just doing a half turn. The instructor can make or break the class. I am lucky. I found Helene.

My other woes included a leaky roof. Luckily it didn't leak inside the house but over the front door. Every roofer we called told us the same thing; that the roof should have been replaced about 5 years ago. And this, for a roof, that was given flying colors - "excellent condition," I have it in writing - during the home inspection a little over 2 years ago. The drip edges probably vaporized, the tarp must have shrunk and the shingles magically nailed in since that fabulous report. All the roofs in our neighborhood had been replaced after a huge hailstorm hit Louisville 4 years ago. All but ours. It's hard to believe that our house, which was not ours then, escaped unscathed. We had no clue.

Replacing a roof is not a small job. We had contractors streaming through our house and then there were decisions: 30, 40 or 50 year shingles? What type of shingle? What color? What about ice and water shields? What about the ventilation? How much more for covered valleys? What about heat tape in specific areas? It was endless. Once this hammering on the head stopped, the real hammering began. But the good news is that we now have a new roof, with new ridge-vents instead of the old box vents. We also have soffit vents, which we didn't earlier.

The roof was installed but the gutters couldn't be because of high winds that were harbingers of a major storm that was headed our way. We were all very stressed and we have no idea how the winds let up, how the contractor - the gutter-walas as I called them - managed to be here that early in the morning and installed them within that short time frame. I literally had no nails left and I would have started pulling out my hair if all this had not fallen into place, just like that!

The lesson to take away from this is, of course, don't fret about what you cannot control and deal with the consequences, if any. The larger lesson being: get up on that roof with the inspector during the home inspection. We couldn't as we were over a 1000 miles away. Also look up past weather reports in the area to see if any major emergencies had been declared for your city, area, neighborhood: a severe hailstorm, a tornado, flash floods, anything. And find out the effect it had on your new home to-be.

In a way, it's all ended well for us. We now have a roof of our choice. One that is well ventilated and has quality shingles that meet code. I can sleep well at night. Especially tonight, when we have a high wind warning and wind gusts of up to 80 mph.

Through all of this, food took a back-seat to the extent that we were eating healthy meals but they were put together quickly and were nothing to rave about on this blog. Well, at least I didn't think so till I saw khichadi and kadhi doing the rounds. I'm sorry that I have no recipe yet again. Life is still a roller-coaster ride and there are new situations every day. But for every situation, there is a solution and then dawns a new day.

And with this, I am going to announce another NaBlo event, close on the heels of NaBloWriMo and NaBloPoMo. It really blows! It's called NaBloSiMo and I made it up! National Blog Silence Month.

It's totally rad! The rules are like no other event ever. Here's the low-down:

1. This event can begin whenever you want it to begin and it can end whenever you want it to end. It says month but it could be a week, two weeks, a month, a year...you get the picture!
2. You don't have to link back to this post. OMG. Imagine that! No need for linky-love.
   
3. You don't have to use the logo.
4. When you join this event, you stop posting for a specified or unspecified length of time.
5. Going on vacation? Sign up for NaBloSiMo.
6. Feeling burned out? Sign up for NaBloSiMo.
7. Bored of blogging? Sign up for NaBloSiMo
8. Got a writer's block? Sign up for NaBloSiMo.

It's a great event and it's one I am signing up for right now!

So, my friends, Indian Food Rocks is going NaBloSiMo. See you all next month! And don't forget to enjoy that extra day in February.

Menu for Hope Winners Announced!

This year, Menu for Hope raised $91,188.00. It's a 50% increase from the total of last year. That's just mind-blowing, isn't it?

Our campaign couldn't exist at all without the help of my food blogging friends from around the world. This community has what made the campaign what it is today. Thank you so much everyone, you deserve a big round of applause!

says Pim

A Big Huge Round of Applause, please! Thanks to all of you who donated, contributed in kind, spread the word and cheered the effort. None of this would have been possible without any of you. Thank you!



And, deep bow of recognition to all the regional hosts, especially Kalyn, who was the regional host for the US Central region.

UC12 - Grains, Greens, and Grated Coconuts, Recipes and Remembrances of a Vegetarian Legacy by Ammini Ramachandran from Indian Food Rocks

And the winner is...CL Boileau! Congratulations!

UC13 - Handmade bead necklace and matching earrings from Indian Food Rocks

And the winner is...Gayathri Venkitachalam! Congratulations!

The winners will receive an e-mail from Pim shortly to confirm this.

Please write to me at polarmate at gmail dot com with your mailing address so that I can make arrangements to mail your prizes to you at the earliest.

Winners of prizes offered by bloggers from the US Central region are available at Kalyn's Kitchen.

A complete list of winners is available at Chez Pim.




I was thrilled when Meeta invited me to write for The Daily Tiffin a couple of months ago. I will be writing a monthly column on a topic close to my heart, Parenting. My articles will focus on parenting an immigrant child, resources for gifted children, resources for parents of gifted children, girl cliques and a bunch of other stuff that is based on on my experience as an immigrant parent in the US.

I posted my first column for the month of January today: Girls Are Mean. So drop by and let me know what you think!

Tunisian Lamb Stew

I have raved about my sister's refrigerator before. She's a maniac in the kitchen. Otherwise, too. Just like my other sister. Our husbands seem to think that it's a trait that runs in the family. It's amazing how corny and tired that conversation is but they never fail to rewind and replay every time they talk. Each has a story that they are sure will win them the award of having married the craziest of the lot - like it's some sort of competition or something! - and that tells me who is totally off his rocker. But after I tell you this story, you might agree that it is my eldest sister who is truly nuts.

She got a call from her podiatrist insisting that she come in to show them the toenail she hurt while playing tennis. They said they would squeeze her in. She shuffled her own patients and went for her appointment. While she waited, she says she started salivating as she read a recipe for a spicy stew, a Tunisian lamb stew. She read and re-read the recipe. 15 minutes passed. She went back to it and read it again. More time went by. She closed her eyes and started testing herself on the ingredient list and method. Soon, she could recite the recipe backwards. After 45 minutes, she couldn't wait any longer as she had patients of her own to see; so she left without seeing the podiatrist, but with a recipe imprinted on her brain. To this day, she insists that she was called to the podiatrist's office just for that recipe.

If you are like me, you might be thinking: why didn't she ask for a pen and paper and copy it down? But she's not like me or you, so she memorized it. It's a skill that works well for her patients, too, because she remembers obscure information that helps her make a pre-diagnosis that the specialists only confirm.

She also left the podiatrist's office in a very calm frame of mind. Again, not like me or you.

The last time we visited her, she had made this Tunisian lamb stew specially for me. I recreated it over six months later and it's vying with marag for the spot of the ultimate comfort food. It's that good!

Tunisia is in North Africa with a coast along the Mediterranean Sea. Tunisia has a rich cultural heritage as well as history, having been conquered by the Romans, the Arabs, the French, and the Turks until the country finally won its independence from the Ottoman Empire. Its people are known for their hospitality and they also have a deep regard and love for spice. Tabil is a popular Tunisian spice mix of onions and garlic dried in the sun. I am still looking for the original recipe as a project for the summer of 2008.

Tunisian Lamb Stew

• 2lbs lamb meat, trimmed and cut into 1-inch chunks
• Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 tbsp grated fresh ginger
• 2 tsp cumin powder
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp dried red chilli flakes
• 3 tbsp tomato paste
• 6-8 cups chicken broth
• 1 bunch spinach, chopped
• 1 cup bulghur (cracked wheat)

1. In a large bowl, season the lamb with salt and very liberally with fresh coarsely ground black pepper. The more black pepper you add at this stage, the better it tastes. But don't add more than you can handle, of course!
2. Dust the lamb with flour so that it is well-coated.
   
3. Heat olive oil in a large kadhai at medium-high heat.
4. Add the lamb, shaking off excess flour.
5. Cook the lamb, turning occasionally, until the meat is brown on all sides. This takes between 10-15 minutes depending on how tender your lamb is.
6. Transfer the lamb to a large platter or bowl. What you will be left with in the kadhai is a thick dark brown roux.
7. Reduce the heat to medium-low and add chopped onion, minced garlic, grated ginger, cumin powder, coriander powder, and red chilli flakes.
8. Cook for 5-10 minutes to toast the spices and soften the onions.
9. Add the tomato paste and 2 cups of the chicken broth and stir well.
10. Return the lamb to the pot, increase the heat to medium, cover, and cook until the lamb is fork-tender. It took about half hour for me.
11. While the lamb is cooking, cook 1 cup of bulghur in 2 cups of chicken broth. Adding more broth, if required.
12. Also, clean, chop and steam the spinach and set aside.
    
13. Add the remaining 2 cups broth (4 cups, if you want a real stew, one that is not dry) and bring to a boil.
    
14. Turn off the heat, add the spinach and bulghur and stir well.
    
15. Cover and let stand for 15 minutes.
16. Taste and adjust the seasoning.
    
17. Serve with warm whole wheat pita bread.

Notes:

• It helps to do your prep work in advance and have everything ready for use. Mise en place, if you want to get all French and fancy.
• I used low sodium organic chicken broth, sold in tetrapaks. Usually there are about 4 cups in each tetrapak. Using 6 cups of broth would have left me with 2 cups of chicken broth languishing in the refrigerator, so I decided to use it. It was a great move because the stew thickens and the bulghur also absorbs a lot of the liquid as it expands further after adding it to the stew.
• I roasted 1 tsp of whole coriander seeds and 1 dried red chilli (byadgi), allowed it to cool and then pounded it coarsely in my mortar-pestle. Don't do this if you prefer coriander powder to coarsely ground coriander.
• I added 1 tsp of red chilli powder in addition to the red chilli flakes.
• I followed Anita's recipe for whole wheat pita, except that I did not use any all-purpose flour (maida). I used 2 cups of King Arthur's whole wheat flour and 2 cups of King Arthur's bread flour. That bread flour is so smooth and silky, it's unbelievable! I needed more than 2 cups of water to knead the dough. I used my convection oven at 475F and the pitas puffed up every time like a charm! These are the best whole wheat pitas I have ever had! I am going to be making them over and over again! Not only are they easy to make, the clean up is a snap. Nothing compared to the mess that goes with making rotis, even though the pitas have to be rolled out.
• I wondered whether we really needed the whole wheat pita when there was bulghur in the stew. I tried eating it without pita and you have to believe me when I tell you that there is something very wholesome to dipping a piece of warm pita in that stew, and carrying it to your mouth. It makes the dish complete on some levels that I cannot describe or explain.

I found the original recipe and I am not surprised at what a great job my sister did at memorizing it. After all, you have to be a muggoo to get into med school in the first place. More so in India...

Happy New Year!

It's 2008!

I like to light a diya for the New Year but this year, I thought I'd bring it in with a splash and raise a toast to all of you, my readers!

A tsunami in a martini glass - caption by Nupur

May this New Year be filled with journeys that take you to new levels of excitement and fulfillment.


And I hope you enjoy the abundant sunshine along the way.

Happy New Year!

I would like to send in one of these images to the Click: Liquid event. But I am not sure which one to send in. My personal favorite is the third one which heavily post-processed but I am not sure it will fly with the audience for Click. And with at least one of the judges, for sure! So...what to do? What to do? Let me know what you think!

Update: Pic #1 is going to Click: Liquid. Thank you all so much for your response! I am really overwhelmed!