Good Bye break time!!

i know..i know..I didn't really mean to take a break that long but then such are holidays..they have a longer lasting affect on you than you can perceive them to.My life itself is a whirlpool of things and activities,add to it children having summer vacations and moving an entire household to another address and i see a perfect excuse to get away from the chaos of my own life.

What i love about these breaks is being sorrounded by all the people i love ,visiting places that remind me of old times and eating the best food i can ever get;one that my mom cooks for us.I sometimes find it very relaxing  in just being embraced by all the sounds and smells that i relate with a happily regular life...the chatter of  people,clanging of pots and pans,the smell of the rain,the shrill cries of children playing all around and demolishing the entire household in doing so,the list is endless.No matter how exhausting these family gatherings can be,needless to say ;they are therapeutic for my soul.

Everytime i go to visit my parents i have to keep reminding myself to not laze around for more than a weekend  so i could spend the rest of the time catching up with friends and family in a more relaxed and a planned way and have a little more fun than i usually get.I almost expected this as i always do; the moment  i got into the grove of good things like sleeping late into the night;waking up only at noon to the wonderful aromas wafting up from the kitchen downstairs and making its way up into my room,eating till i actually burped,taking leisurely walks besides huge palm trees and freshly cut grass underneath our feet,chatting up late into the night with endless mugs of coffee pouring in,wondeful music and some more food;i was already a victim to my senses,and the feeling of euphoria slowely engulfed me in and transported me to another world where i simply could get more and more lazy and this actually is a huge understatement;-).


Obviously,there went all my "having fun"plans down into the drain.It didn't even occur to me  when that single weekend transcended itself over into the entire week and the week later.When there were left just the last couple of days;i came back to my senses(and thankfully i did!!) and did whatever i could do save my butt from being kicked by a lot of people and that includes my children(whome i had promised to take places).

Given all the lazying around i did,its obvious for anybody to think , that i didnt cook at all,but guess what..i did.I mean i still found some time to cook,because this is something i'd do even if i'm sleepwalking.What i cannot really do right now(and its a candid confession)is find the right things to say,i'm so out of sync,its getting difficult for me to write sense when it fails to make any sense to me.Surely i shouldnt be doing this very often(i refer to my absence here..wht else you thought!!).I took some pictures too,but i must say that some of them haven't really come out as well as i had expected them to.Nevertheless i intend to share them with you all.

Now,with mangoes having arrived in a big way,it would be rude and mean if we talk about anything else or try my hand on anything that doesn't include them simply because i'll end up feeling like you do when you have to sit out when all you want is to dance,when you've to do with just a  kiss  when you'd rather make love(i hope you get what i mean!!)because i am simply partial towards it so much so that my children call themselves"the mango of my eye".Only someone who loves mangoes just as much or more can understand my feelings when i say it...and i for sure know a few such people.

It's a recipe we all in our house loved as children and still do,only we didn't had a name for it.Recently a friend told me it was called "galka" and so here it is;the recipe.

Raw Mango Galka

Ingredients:

• Raw Mangoes,roughly a kilo

• Panchforan for tempering(includes nigella/kalaunji,fenugreek/methi seeds,Cumin seeds/zeera,anise/saunf,mustard seeds/Rai(optional))-half tspn each
• Garlic cloves(keep them whole)-5 or 6
• Whole dried red chillies(break and remove seeds)
• A few cloves and star anise(optional again)
• A tblspn of oil(any oil works but mustard oil works the best)
• dried ginger powder-1 tspn
• dried cumin powder-1 tspn
• paprika/chilli powder-1/2 tspn
• Grated jaggery-1 cup
• granulated sugar-1/2 cup
• salt to taste

Soak the raw mangoes in salted water for half an hr to remove the acid from the tip.Wash them well under tap water.Peel the skin off and prick the surface well using a fork.Keep it dipped in water till you prepare the tempering.

Heat the oil in the pan,add the panchforan/tempering and when it sizzles add the whole chillies ,cloves and star anise and then add the garlic and saute till it turns golden .Add the raw mangoes to the pan and stir well.add salt,cumin powder,ginger powder and a cup of hot water.let the water boil first before reducing the heat to minimum.cover and let the mangoes cook untill they feel soft to touch(it took me appx 20 mts for small sized whole mangoes).

Add the jaggery and the sugar and let the whole thing cook till they dissolve to form a syrupy base.Adjust the consistency to your liking by adding some boiling water if required.Cook on a low/medium heat untill the mangoes darken in colour and are perfectly cooked through.



Turn off the heat and let the galka stand in the same pot untill it cools down to the room temperature.It should be transferred to an airtight jar,kept in the refrigerator and it will last for about a week.If kept outside at room temperature it should be consumed within a couple of days.It goes well with paranthas/chapatis/ or toast.It can be eaten on its own as well...Yummy!! My mouth waters...  :-)

Moroccan feast!!

One rule to eat in my house is that no rules are followed.We can easily be found eating an Indian bhel for starters,a Chinese stir fry for main course and an a very English creme caramel for desserts.I guess this is how we Indians are...a potpourri of odd  things,flavors,colors and textures put together.We love to assemble up incongruous stuff in ways that it suddenly becomes meaningful.Food is one such thing...as long as it pleases people who are eating it,i give a damn about what the gourmets have to say.For me food has only one objective to fulfill and that is to seduce the senses and lure them to consumption and beyond.

Few days back Indian cricket had a rendezvous with one of its historical and glorious moment that I'm sure every Indian will remember for a long time to come.Now sport events are when all males of a particular specie are at their craziest best and need  a lot of food and beer to sober up(their female counterparts are left to do their own thing....cooking and cribbing!!)....but it usually peaks on the day of the finale and suddenly there are these innumerable trips to the kitchen,the refrigerator and the loo:-).Tired of playing stewardess the entire week i gave in and decided to make something that could be cooked without a lot of supervision and would still get me accolades from people(and also gimme the much needed time to do all the cheer leading right in my living room);I zeroed in on a moroccan Tagine with chicken,preserved lemons and olives.I usually make this and the Moroccan Herrera (spicy chick pea soup) when all of the family(including my extended family) gathers on holidays and are all hungry after long hrs of chit chat and gossip.

A tagine is an earthen pot with a heavy and flat bottom and a conical lid that creates a slow cooking environment for vegetables and all sorts of meats,rendering them tenderness and an earthy aroma that is reminiscent of flavors from "handi daal" or "handi chicken" or whatever.It is a great excuse to eat in togetherness,dipping each morsel of bread in the silken gravy and in conversation.

Moroccan food is actually very easy on the Indian palate because of the familiar spices and flavors.This dish is versatile enough to let you use whatever vegetables you have in stock including carrots,baby potatoes,aubergines,green peas, sweet potatoes and so on.Pickled lemon and sweet flavors like raisins or dried apricots are also added sometimes to give it a different dimension.It is also possible to make this dish entirely vegetarian and still retain its basic character.Here is the recipe:

Chicken Tagine with Potatoes,Raisins and Green Olives


Ingredients




Half a kg of chicken(i used only chicken thighs,6 pieces)It is alright to use regular curry cut chicken that we mostly get from the markets here.
Minced garlic cloves-4 or 5
Saffron threads or saffron extract ,depending on what you use-equivalent of 4 to 5 threads
Half a cup of extra virgin olive oil
Turmeric powder-1 tsp
Dried ginger powder-1/2 tsp
Cumin powder-1 tsp
cinnamon powder-1/2 tsp
paprika/red chilli powder(optional)
Preserved lemon(washed and pulp removed)-1 whole lemon
Green olives
Potatoes-2 medium sized,peeled and cut into thick wedges or baby potatoes,peeled -around 10 to 12
Golden raisins-two tsp /dried apricots-2(just cut them into two halves or it will render the gravy an overly sweet taste
freshly chopped coriander/parsley
Chicken broth,veg stock -1 cup
Salt to taste


Preparation:

• In a bowl mix all the spices and aromatics(garlic,grated onion,dried ginger powder,cumin powder,turmeric,cinnamon powder,paprika and saffron threads/extract and some salt).
• Add the olive oil and chopped coriander/parsley to this mixture and combine it to make a paste.

• Now coat all the vegetables,onion slices and chicken thighs in this paste and layer them in the tagine(or a flat and heavy  bottomed pan) with onion slices going in the first layer and the rest arranged above them.

• Throw in some green olives,apricots/raisins and the preserved lemon chopped or whole.
• cover the pan with some foil and let it rest in the refrigerator for about an hr before transferring it to a charcoal fire/gas top or oven.I cooked it covered on a low flame for about 15 mts,added a cup full of broth and transferred it into oven at around 180°C/350°F for about 25 mts.
• Serve it hot and still bubbling with either Bread ,Couscous or plain white Rice.

Health Fact:

The traditional Mediterranean diet is characterized by a high intake of vegetables, legumes, fruits and nuts, and cereals, and a high intake of olive oil but a low intake of saturated lipids, a moderately high intake of fish, a low-to-moderate intake of dairy products (and then mostly in the form of cheese or yogurt, which contain friendly bacterial probiotics), a low intake of meat and poultry, and a regular but moderate intake of wine.In other words, freshness, small portions, moderate quantity of wine along with such food and above all pleasure in food consuming, obviously make the winning combination for a long and healthy life.