In The Kitchen With Vinita, Part 1 of 2

You have to smile right back!

Vinita has an infectious smile and a charming extroverted personality. I am lucky to be able to call her a dear friend. Not just because she personifies exuberance but because she's beyond amazing. Vinita is an audiologist by profession but a food entrepreneur by choice. She is the mastermind behind Thing with a Zing, where she creates, bottles and sells Indian chutneys. These are not anything like British chutneys in which vinegar plays a key role in the flavor profile. As she puts it, her chutneys are a bold flavor for your senses in the true sense of the word. Her chutneys can be found in several stores in the Denver-Boulder area, like Whole Foods, Alfalfa's, and a couple of other natural grocery stores.

Under development

One of the privileges of having a friend who jars tradition with a unique twist into an edible treat, is being able to taste her creations before they hit the market. I love pineapple, I love mango, I love the combination of spices in this chutney and now, I have a problem. I don't know which of her chutneys I like best. This will be her third chutney, the second one being That Sweet Zing which is a cranberry-ginger chutney. All of them are truly excellent. Furthermore, since Vinita adheres to food safety guidelines, I never have to worry about the quality of her product, including the seal on her chutney jars.

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Sunday Snapshots: Bharat Natyam Recital

This weekend our friend's 15-year-old daughter gave a private two-hour Bharat Natyam recital at their home. Her performance was beyond brilliant as she wove stories through her graceful movements, gestures and expressions. The light was difficult and I wish I had the patience to energize the two doors in the background into oblivion using Photoshop. But I will not complain because this was a performance to be cherished.

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Sunday Snapshots: Isabelle Farm, Lafayette, CO

It's been a rough three weeks.

My carpool buddy developed sepsis from an undiagnosed infection and is in her third week of hospitalization. She is recovering but it will be a while before she can return home.

People went to watch the premier of a movie in Aurora not knowing that their lives would change drastically.

This morning a Sikh temple was the target for reasons beyond comprehension.

Life changes in an instant. We're here now. Make the most of every moment. Keep your loved ones close, enjoy your friends and reject all forms of negative energy.

I went to another Mile High Food Swap today, a welcome distraction. It was hosted by Isabelle Farm, an organic farm in neighboring Lafayette. Isabelle Farm leases the Thomas Open Space from the City of Lafayette where they grow tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, cauliflower, broccoli, kale, squash, okra and many other vegetables. The farm also has a CSA that runs for 20 weeks between June and October. Tiffany Carpenter gave us a tour of the farm and explained how the people of Lafayette had voted for an organic farm instead of yet another golf course.

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In a Chutney with Apricots

It's been raining apricots around here. Literally, so. It's a hazard to walk into some of my neighbors' yards. Or it might just be me that those trees are aiming for, as I have been the target of many an apricot in free fall.

Organic apricots from my neighbor's tree

These aren't your regular supermarket apricots. They are much smaller, less than two inches in diameter, and very sweet. When firm, they are quite tart and ripen quickly to near-mush, if not eaten immediately. I picked slightly firm apricots from the stash that was given to me and roasted them, strawberry-style. While that was tasty, roasted apricots weren't as popular with my family as balsamic roasted strawberries always are. I should have tried one of Suvir's suggestions at Culinary India: add a smidge of black pepper or hot green chiles to bring out the natural sweetness of a fruit. He recommends trying it while making roasted strawberries, to cut down on the amount of sugar one would normally add to sweeten them.

Apart from tearing the fruit apart and feasting on the ripe apricots, I made apricot chicken with a batch that I picked from my neighbor's tree. It's not your usual chicken curry and is sweet, sour and spicy, all at the same time. That set the tone for what I wanted to do with yet another batch of apricots that were delivered to my doorstep by another neighbor. Something spicy. A jelly or a jam would not do; it had to be a chutney of sorts—fruit and sugar cooked down in vinegar to a reduction. Anita's mango relish had triggered memories of gulchaat—green mangoes cooked with jaggery and spices—so I knew that I was going to use jaggery instead of sugar. But I had no recipe!

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Culinary India, a dream come true

Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success.

~ Henry Ford

It wasn't just the synergies and camaraderie between Suvir Saran, Ammini Ramachandran, Asha Gomez and myself that propelled this workshop towards success. We couldn't have done it without the foresight and vision of Ellie Scott and Ken Hause of Escoffier School of Culinary Arts, Boulder, Colorado.

It began with a heartfelt plea from me to Ammini to come to Colorado to teach Kerala cuisine. She and Asha had just completed a cooking tour of several Texan cities through Central Market Cooking School. Not one to pass up the magic of cooking with feisty women, Suvir insisted he wanted to be a part of the team. Who can resist Suvir's charm? Not that we would have said no to such a celebrated chef!

It finally came to fruition on a hot weekend in June, when the temperatures soared to over 95F in Boulder. Not many of the workshop participants noticed as they sat enthralled by stories that included memories, traditions, and regional diversity while we showed them, again and again, that Indian food is not exotic but very accessible. We cooked with as many local ingredients as we could. Dan Hayward of Savory Spice Shop sponsored all the spices we used for Culinary India, again underscoring the accessibility factor. And, contrary to what several cooking channels will have you believe, we did not use "curry powder" and used very little garam masala. Imagine that! Yes, it's true, we cooked Indian food without either of these two "essentials." Kelsey Nixon of Cooking Channel might have even learned a thing or three if she had attended Culinary India.

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