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Of Sunday ke Sunday and railway aamleets!

Meri jaan, meri jaan, murgi ke anday!
Omlet khilaoon, fried khilaoon, boiled khilaoon!
Khilaoon murgi ke, murgi ke, ande hi ande! 
Sunday ho ya Monday, roj khaayein ande

Has anyone growing up in the India of the 60s, 70s and 80s not heard this song?? Well, for the longest time I had no clue that this – an ad  from the National Egg co-ordination Committee (hmm!!) was a take off on a Hindi film song from a 1947 movie called Shehnai! I thought the jingle was an original! 

aana meri jaan meri jaan sunday ke sunday
aana meri jaan meri jaan sunday ke sunday
meri jaan meri jaan sunday ke sunday
aana meri jaan meri jaan sunday ke sunday
I love you
bhaag yahaan se tu
oo yaya I love you
bhaag yahaan se tu
tujhe Paris dikhaaun
tujhe London ghumaaun
tujhe brandy pilaaun whisky pilaaun
aur khilaaun khilaaun
murgi ke murgi ke
ande ande
aana meri jaan meri jaan sunday ke sunday

 
Well, if you’re feeling I’ve got too many eggs on my mind in the last couple of weeks – with TWO egg recipes AND an eggplant recipe, too bad – you’re in for more….!
Growing up in a vegetarian household where my doctor mom decided that eggs were “GUDDU” (good pronounced the Telugu way also means egg in Telugu – sorry couldn’t resist that one!!) for growing children, we fell completely in love with everyday ke ande! My brother has already raved about our master chef Panda’s omelettes in an earlier post – check it out at http://anuchenji.com/blog/ode-best-omeletter-world but other than a leathery “guddattu” ( egg dosa in Telugu) which i was once served at a friend’s house and nearly gagged on – it was full of turmeric and green chilies and curry leaves and cooked to within an inch of it’s life – I will eat pretty much any omelette . Even the ubiquitous “Railway aaamlet” which you find on every tiny platform in India makes me drool with anticipation. Once, when my aunt and I were traveling together, we lost our dinner bag – with roti, currry  and dessert! The disappointment was made up for – hugely – by the bread-aamlet we had on the Nellore platform – loaded with onions and green chilies and bread slathered with butter!
 
My kids have inherited my love for eggs and should I, by any chance, order less than a dozen or two eggs from my grocer’s every third day, he very kindly inquires after our health – in case we are sickening for something! 
 
I thought I’d eaten almost every kind of egg dish there was in the South of India till I came across the deep South “kothu paratha” on a road trip – a totally out of this world egg and paratha scramble. Here’s one of our favourite breakfast dishes today.
 
KOTHU PARATHA
  • 3-4 left over parathas – preferably laccha, or layer ones. The Tamil barotta is brilliant in this. If you’re calorie-conscious, we’ll make do with phulkas – torn into little pieces.
  • Onions – chopped – 3
  • Tomatoes – chopped – 2
  • Green chilies – chopped – 3
  • Curry leaves – 2 sprigs – chopped
  • Capsicum – chopped – 1 (optional)
  • Garlic pods – minced – 2 (optional)
  • Ginger – minced   1/2 tsp
  • Eggs – well beaten with salt and a tbsp of milk – 4-5
  • Red chili powder – 1/2 tsp
  • Chopped coriander /mint – to dress
  • Oil – 2 tbsp

Heat the oil in a large saucepan. Add the onion, curry leaves and green chilies and fry for 3 minutes. Add the minced garlic, ginger, tomatoes, red chili and capsicum and fry for another 3-4 minutes. Add the eggs and keep stirring. When the eggs are beginning to set, drop in the pieces of paratha and mix very well – beating the mixture with TWO ladles to the tune of ” “Meri jaan, meri jaan”!! When the eggs and paranthas are well incorporated, sprinkle the herbs on top and serve immediately. 

 
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OF skinned knees and cycling lessons!

“Remember, just keep going straight. There’s only one large rock – and you’re NOT in line with it. That’s all you’ve got to avoid. C’mon, you’ve got your balance, just keep the handlebars straight and you CAN’T go wrong” – encouraging words from my friend Neeroo – trying to teach me to cycle. 

“Yes, I can do it. I can do it… i can do it… ” deep breathing… count to three… push off… and head straight for the ONE large rock on a 40-feet wide road with NO ONE else on it! BANG! CRASH! THUD! OUCH! Owowoowowow – that hurts! Skinned my knee (still bear the scars!); My unsympathetic friend nearly falls over, laughing… makes me get up and go at it again again and again until that magic moment when you’re FLYING on wheels! Thanks, Neeroo, for teaching me to fly!

I came to cycling rather late in life for someone my generation – didn’t get on to it till i was almost eighteen. My brothers Anand and Arvind had got their cycles when they were still quite small but for whatever reason (most likely their budget ran out!) my parents did not get me a cycle too. Also possibly because my school was within walking distance of home whereas the boys’ school was some miles away. I finally got on to a cycle only because i wanted a bike – a scooter. 

With the clear gender-differentiated roles of those days, it was the “boys’ job” to got to the mandi – the wholesale vegetable market every Sunday morning armed with the princely sum of TEN rupees and come back with their saddlebags – ooops, cycle bags – loaded with veggies. For this sum, we got a whole week’s supply of vegetables for a family with a large appetite – the list went something like this:

  • 10 kg potatoes
  • 7 kg onions
  • 5 kg tomatoes
  • 1-2 kg each of beans, carrots, bhindi (okra), eggplant, drumsticks, gourds of many kinds
  • Several bunches spinach,  coriander, curry leaves, ginger, green chilies etc.

TEN bucks!! I’m going to now be that boring older generation person who grumbles about the 20 bucks i have to pay for ONE measly bunch of coriander!

Potatoes in any form were and are a favourite for all of us – including the plain boiled variety with salt and pepper. Come to think, have you ever met anyone at all who doesn’t like spuds?

One of my weekly staples at home is new potatoes – in many forms – as a roasted South Indian curry with curry powder (koora podi – but that will be another post), as a salad with mayonnaise, just tossed with Mediterranean herbs or what we have today for lunch – a simple roast baby potato curry.

ROAST POTATO CURRY

  • Baby potatoes (somehow the word baby here makes feel like a cannibal!) – 1 kg – scrubbed well and halved.
  • Turmeric – 1/4 tsp
  • Mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp
  • Onion – 1 – chopped
  • Tomato – 2 chopped
  • Cracked pepper – 1 tsp
  • Minced green chil1es – 2
  • Asafoetida – 1 large pinch
  • Oil (or if you are feeling sinfully indulgent) – butter – 2 tbsp
  • Salt

Pressure cook the potatoes with the turmeric for one whistle. Switch off while they are still firm. Let cool and then leave them in the frig overnight without covering or in the freezer for 1/2 an hour – This dries them out a bit so they don’t fall apart.

Heat the oil or butter in a LARGE flat saucepan. Add the mustard seeds. When they pop, add the asafoetida, green chiles and onions and fry for a minute. Add the tomatoes and fry for a couple of minutes more. Add the potatoes and the salt and roast slowly without a lid for about 20-30 minutes till crisp. Add the cracked pepper and mix well. You don’t really need a mealtime to eat this – snack on it, eat it as a “sidish 😉 ” with rice or generally because you’ve lost weight and need to put on “personality” as they say in our beautiful country!! “Manchi (meaning good in Telugu) personality, boss” usually refers to a fat sod!!

 

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Of horses’ nosebags and irritating younger sisters!

carrom seed rice

“Anu, thinanu, pleeezanu, thinanu” (Anu, pleeeze eat) my brother Anand’s voice pleading with me every morning as I stuff  my mouth full of food in an attempt to oblige! I would slowly masticate my way through the food matter stored in my cheeks all the way to school in the rickshaw – a distance of some four – odd kilometres…

I had just joined school and since my school was close enough to my brothers’ school, we used to share a rickshaw for the ride. I am sure that till the littler sister joined, my brothers were nearly always on time to school – them not being “problem” children to get ready, have breakfast and so on… I, on the other hand, being three years old, neither knew nor cared what time was… and so the resultant pleading from older brother…

My parents coaxed, yelled, cajoled, bribed, punished, had ‘serious talks’ and the like over the years  in an attempt to get me eat faster. “I’m going to tie a horse’s nose bag around your mouth so you can graze,” my dad used to hold out over me. Other than an interesting speculation on how I would look at school with a nose bag hanging around my neck and also whether it would get my parents off my case, the whole thing slid right off my back!

I don’t think I ever managed to finish my lunch at school. The school taps used to be shut off after lunch leaving me with no way to wash my hands – and thus I discovered a new use for the pockets in uniforms!

Sundays at home were easier – there was no bell to ring at the end of lunch hour and I was left to finish off while my parents went off for their much-prized once-a-week afternoon nap; the brothers went off to play cricket or whatever. People would wake up, cricket matches would get over and family would trickle back home for high tea to find me at the table – still eating lunch!!

The only thing that I could eat faster – in a matter of two hours rather than three being considerably faster – was various mixed rice combinations – “kalanda saadams” as they are known in the part of the country where I now live – coconut rice, tamarind rice, pulao or even the humble ghee and appadam rice combo – have always loved these.

My leisurely camel-hump regurgitating, cud-chewing life came abruptly to an end – with the birth of my first child. It was either eat before baby wakes up/spits up/poops/wants a feed or not eat at all! Well going by the pounds I’ve put on, you don’t need to phone a friend / poll the audience to guess which I chose!

For some reason, “kalanda saadams” tend to taste better when they are made with leftover rice rather than the freshly cooked variety. Great way to use up the previous day’s rice for a yummy breakfast… presenting one of my family’s favourites – omam rice.

OMAM / AJWAIN/CAROM SEED RICE

Left over rice- 3 cups – separate with your fingers

Peanuts – roasted – ½ cup
Onion chopped – ½ cup
Omam seeds / ajwain/carom – 1 tsp
Mustard seeds – ¼ tsp
Chana dal – 1 tsp
Urad dal – 1 tsp
Curry leaves – 1 sprig
Asafoetida -1 large pinch
Pepper – ¼ tsp
Green chiles – slit – 4
Chopped mint and/or coriander – 2 tbsp
SaltOil- 1 tbsp

 

Heat the oil in a pan. Add the mustard seeds and when they pop, add the chana dal and urad dal. Let the dals turn golden brown. Add the peanuts, omam, onions, curry leaves, asafoetida and green chilies.. Turn over a couple of times. Add the rice, pepper and salt and mix well. Sprinkle a little water on top.Cover and cook for 5-6 minutes on a low flame till the flavours are blended. Switch off and sprinkle the herbs on top.

Take your time eating it. Take a couple of hours… what’s the hurry?

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Of salad sambars and unfussy kids!

 

“So what if there’s too much salt? It’s not going to kill you!”

“And so what if the vegetables are a little raw? Think of it as a salad – it’s good for you!”

The exhorter is my mother and the dish in question is our everyday food – sambar. My mother took the adage “necessity is the mother of invention” quite literally to mean herself  – as the mother of three hungry growing children! (That my brother and I still continue to grow – though not vertically anymore – is another matter altogether!). And so we ate “salad sambar” and many other interesting things which landed on the mound of rice on our plates – including things not “normally” put in sambar like beans and beetroot (resulting in an interesting deep red sambar!).

“Good for you” was the cornerstone of our existence – even today, if I hear the words, i tend to gulp it down fast – except if it’s oatmeal porridge – which no matter how good it may be for me – is not food fit for humans! 

The same was not true for cousins and aunts who came to visit  – my mother made no distinction between her children who were used to “mingu!” (“Swallow that!”) and cousins brought up by mothers who were more indulgent (and better cooks!) – with the result that there would occasionally be tears at the table as a cousin decided that she just couldn’t swallow that!! We three had developed survival strategies for just such situations – like sneakily hiding the nth paratha (my mother also believed in quantities!) under the plate and carefully carrying it to the sink where the maid who washed the plates the next morning never tattled on us – how i loved that woman! Also dunking the despised Threptin biscuit at the bottom of the evening glass of milk so it was drowned in it and invisible from the top (so we thought!). 

The result of this tough and “mingu” upbringing was a set of kids who can eat anything – well, almost anything – i was forgetting the oatmeal! 

And so presenting today the dish that made us grow strong and healthy – we ate SO much of it!! – Sambar!

 SAMBAR (the Tamil arachavittu  -coconut- ground -variety)

To fry with a few drops of sesame oil and grind to a smooth paste with a little water:

  • Dhania – corainder seeds – 3 tbsp
  • Red chilies – 6-8
  • Asafoetida – a little lump the size of your pinkie nail (gorantha in Telugu!)
  • Methi  – fenugreek seeds – 1 tsp
  • Chana dal – 1 tsp
  • Urad dal – 1 tsp
  • Coconut – 2 tbsp

Set the paste aside.

  • Cooked toor dal (kandi pappu/thoram pappu) – 2 cups
  • Tamarind paste – 2.5 tsp
  • Jaggery – 1 marble sized lump
  • Vegetables – drumstick or radish slices or gummadi kayi (yellow pumpkin) sliced or carrot or shallots or well lots of things possible – i DO NOT recommend beetroot and since my mother is following this blog – Mummy, PLEASE NOTE! – 1.5 cups
  • Salt
  • Water – about 3 cups
  • 2 green chilies – slit

To season:

  • 1 tbsp sesame oil
  • 1/2 tsp  mustard seeds
  • 1/2 tsp urad dal
  • Karepak – curry leaves – 2 sprigs
  • Asafoetida – 1 large pinch
  • Methi seeds – 1/4 tsp – optional but i love the smell and taste.
  • Coriander leaves – 2 tbsp

 Heat the oil in a pan. Add the mustard seeds and when they pop, add the methi, urad and asafoetida. Add the curry leaves and then the vegetable you are using. If shallots or okra, fry for a few minutes. If colocasia, boil first, peel and cut into slices and then fry. If you INSIST on using beetroot – please ask my mother! 

Then add one cup water and cook for about 5-6 minutes till the vegtables are three-quarters done. Add the tamarind paste, jaggery, the ground paste and salt. Add two more cups of water till the consistency is reasonably thick but can be poured. Cover and simmer till done – about 5-6 minutes more. Add the green chilies and let it come to the boil. Switch off.

Add coriander leaves and serve hot with plain rice, ghee, appadams, a dry roast vegetable on the side (potato, green plantain, beans……ok, ok, beetroot is also good here! )

And there you have the quintessential South Indian (invented by a Maratha!!) dish – also called “hot and sour sambar soup” – honest to goodness that’s what some chef called it on an American TV show once!!

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Of gorillas, budget birthday parties and cakes…

“Let’s figure out how much this is going to cost us, okay?” Two very interested kids – at 8 and 4 – sitting in front of me while i outline how we’re going to do a budgeting exercise – for a birthday party. Having just bought a new flat, we’re neck deep in debt but birthday parties are high on the list of priorities!  And so starts a budgeting exercise aimed at teaching the kids about how to manage money and how much stuff costs. Once they figure out what this is about, suggestions flow in fast including one from Kanch who suggests placing her tiny , black gorilla doll – one of the freebies we used to get in the Binaca toothpaste cartons – on the cake – to save money on icing!!!

Food items are listed – potato patties, burgers, watermelon juice instead of Coke, sprout chaat (from Kanch again who has a ‘thing for sprouts!), devilled eggs (from Arch who has an equal ‘thing’ about eggs!), fruit trifle, the all-important return gifts chosen and so on..birthday cakes having always been home made and home-iced, we only have to decide on a theme- based on Kanchu’s helpful gorilla suggestion!

Armed with papers and pencils, we traipsed off to the shops. Much calculating – with help from Amma – happened. Some things were dropped as “so costly”! Others added. A couple of hours later, we returned home, with the kids feeling very grown up – after all, they had helped to run the household budget! Obviously much showing off happened in school over the next few days!!

Party day dawned and much slaving over the stove with even Kanch “helping” with sandwiches and laying out food and generally putting away stuff – for which i had to do some major hunting later on! The gorilla took pride of place on the cake – a lemon sponge. And so….on a budget of 800 rupees, we had what was voted one of the best birthday parties ever!

Presenting today’s dish – the gorilla’s throne :

LEMON SPONGE

  • 180 gm plain flour
  • 160 gm sugar – powdered
  • 100 gm butter (I used Amul table butter)
  • 50 ml sunflower or olive oil
  • 3 medium eggs
  • Baking powder – 1.5 tsp
  • Vanilla essence – 1 tsp
  • Yogurt – 2 tbsp (optional)
  • Grated zest of 2 lemons or 1 LARGE lemon
  • Juice of 2 lemons with 2 tbsp sugar dissolved in it

Put everything except the lemon zest and juice and mix up a storm. Add the zest, swirl it in and pour into a baking tray. Bake in an oven preheated to 180C for 25 to 30 minutes till golden brown on top and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Switch off. /while still hot, brush the lemon-sugar syrup over the top of the cake and return to the warm oven. Serve when cool. Super light, super tangy and altogether very gorilla-ey!!

(pics courtesy internet)