Tastes like home

My mum never cooked like this, but when I step into Sangita's kitchen at school, I feel like I've just come home after a long, hungry time away.

The fifth session of the Tastes of India classes has just started up. Sangita has been away in India working on projects and visiting family for six months, and she was missed. She and her husband, Arijit, form a great team, making the classes a multi-media presentation that stimulates all our senses, and enlightens and enlivens the evening.

This week she taught us to prepare Alu Makha (seasoned mashed potatoes, Bengali style), Moong Dhal (thick dhal soup made from split green gram), Sada Bhat (plain rice, also Bengali style), Mach Bhaja (Marinated spicy fried fish), and Ghoogni (Garbanzo beans cooked in spicy sauce).

The fragrances from the spices being heated, as well as the sauces and cooking rice were intoxicating. From the first bite to the last morsel cleaned from the pan, we were all glad to be home again.



I was inspired to try and replicate it a few days later at home. Practice, practice, practice.

Cooking with love

Tonight was the second class in our series with Sangita and Arijit, "Foreign Influences on Indian Cuisine." As usual Arijit gave us a variety of background information from historic, cultural and geographic perspectives, including a bit of music from a cross-cultural group called "Bhoomi," who epitomize in music some of the enriching effects foreign influences have had on India in the last 5,000 years. The class got to meet Arijit's charming father, who was filming during class. Sangita brought in appetizers, the Gobi Manchurian (Cauliflower Fritters in Spicy Gravy) and Chai, to whet our appetites for the rest of class. She spends the day preparing and organizing the food and handouts for each class, everything chopped and labeled exquisitely, so that the actual cooking sequences proceed smoothly and quickly. We also learned to prepare a Chinese-influenced dish of Mein noodles with mixed vegetables and eggs. This will be a great recipe for using a variety of seasonal fresh vegetables in a delicious main course.

Indian Cooking Class

What a treat! Sangita and Arijit continue their cooking classes, and I'm lucky enough to be in the series again. Last night was the first class, and the dish was one of my favorites...Murg Makhani (Butter Chicken), along with Pulka Roti, a type of fresh bread. Sangita treated us to a delicious appetizer of spicy fritters made with shrimp and lentil paste, accompanied by hot tea, while Arijit began the evening with an interesting multimedia presentation, discussing some of the threads of historic, cultural and anthropological influences that have shaped the tastes of Indian cuisine over the last 5,000 years. This aspect of these classes is incredibly fascinating, as well as enriching. When combined with the aromas wafting from the kitchen and the colors and flavors of the food, it's a feast indeed.

Sangita then began the cooking part of class. Everything is beautifully organized and labeled. She explains all aspects of the dishes, including nutritional, with possible adaptations based on market availability or dietary restrictions. At the end we are all rewarded with bowls of delicious, soul-warming Butter Chicken, and piping hot "magic" bread, as well as fresh-made raita as an accompaniment.
Fantastic! Now to make a shopping list and practice it at home.

Tell me why...

Why does this fascinate me so? I love to eat these "vanilla" mangoes, but strangely, I love it when I cut into one and find these strange cavitations. I cannot explain it, they are horrible to eat when they are like this, but whenever I buy them, I secretly hope there will be one that will hold these odd internal fibrous cells. What causes them?

Fit to eat

The cats were disappointed. The food all turned out edible. I made an extra dish with chicken, turmeric and arugula. The dal was a little milder than what we made in class, but still yummy. I also had fresh sliced mango to go with the meal; it was fabulous with the rice pudding. The only thing I was not happy with was the luchi. Although they rolled out perfectly round, they did not puff up into little pillows in the hot oil. We did manage to set off the smoke alarm, because I turned on the exhaust fan at the same time Sean was starting a fire... this sucks the smoke back into the house. Our smoke alarm is super loud, the neighbors up the street can hear it, and the cats all abandon the house as fast as they can. So much for them saving us, if there ever is a real fire.

Eating to live

The first episode of a wonderful class was last week; Bengali region style cooking. There are 10 participants, all of us receiving gifts of hands-on instruction, as well as an introduction into the history and culture of the region. All thanks to a lovely lady named Sangita, who has her degree in Nutrition Science from Calcutta University. Her charming assistant is her husband, a professor at the Naval Postgraduate School. The photo can not convey the delicious aromas produced in those three hours, nor the wonderful soul-warming flavors and satiety in the meal itself.

Yesterday I made the foray to the closest grocery store stocking Indian provender and bought some wonderful spices, green cardamom, onion seeds, dal and fresh coconut. I'm hoping to come close, well, at least something edible for tonight's meal. The next class is in ten days, so I can practice till I get it right. The cats may have to develop a liking for Bengali cuisine.

Home made bread

I used to make lots of bread from scratch, including grinding my own flour with a rickety grinder that was about 5 feet tall that I bought at auction soon after moving to the Ozarks. It looks like a miniature old Texas windmill, minus the blades, and made a horrendous racket. It was kept on the enclosed back porch, and eventually served as the roost for an orphan teenage chicken that survived the raccoon massacre of 1980. The chicken was an Araucana with feathery legs and the endearing habit of sitting on my head while I did dishes. Eventually the chicken discovered its hormones and decided to be a rooster and learned to crow. Whereupon he got moved into the hen house to keep the ladies company. But I digress. I made lots and lots of bread, and rolls and cinnamon rolls and pizza dough in those years. I haven't made homemade bread for years, so when I saw this article, I kind of got inspired. I guess with about a million other people. I actually went and bought a cast iron dutch oven, and gave it a whirl. It's all true. Easy, fun, exciting (the smoke alarm gets a workout at our house whenever the oven gets heated to more than 425) and produces delicious, tender bread. I used mostly whole wheat flour, slightly less water, slightly more salt, and added freshed chopped rosemary from the yard.

Maybe stolen fruit isn't the sweetest after all. These are from our plum tree that we planted three or four years ago. Every year we get a few more plums, these two fell off into my hand. Warm from the sun, fragrant, juicy, only one bird peck. Shared with freaky consort.

Oxymoron of honor

I guess this is another one in the category of: please tell me if I'm the only one, but having a locked "honor" box at the coffee shop? Shouldn't it be called the "dishonor" box? For years they had a basket with loose change and bills, and yes, we were all honorable. Better to be stolen from than to have to steal.

finished dinner of love

I have never cooked, or eaten potatoes more perfect. Olive oil, a tiny dash of avocado oil, coarse ground pepper and sea salt, fresh snipped rosemary from the garden, three kinds of artisan new potatoes from the farmer's market, and elephant garlic; all pan roasted slowly for about 45 minutes. Potatoes meltingly crunchy, tender, with surprises of crisp and creamy, gooey-sugary garlic. Tongasm. Sesame seared ahi tuna (fresh caught today), with a tiny bit of wasabi powder added to the press of sesame seeds, and fresh asparagus and beet greens, steamed, spritz of lemon from the tree in the back yard. And yes, I saved a few nibblets of inner tuna for the furkids.


Cooking and washing done, and now to go work some more on the second mountain goak sock.

Farmer's Market, or another day in paradise

What a gorgeous day today, several clients remarked on it, although they are all delicious in my view. I love the rare storms in winter, the fog (I've said it before) the sun...I'll take it all. After work I went to the Farmer's Market at the college parking lot. We have at least three farmer's markets here on the Peninsula, and right now it's a positive orgy of colors and delights. There were the most exquisite magenta radishes, I had to check to see if I had forgotten to adjust my medication the color was SO psychedelic. I brought home new potatoes, three varieties, just dug, elephant garlic (both are roasting upstairs), fresh caught ahi tuna, there will be tiny tidbits for good cats, oh heck for bad ones too. Asparagus, corn, fresh melting ripe figs, apricots, honey nectarines, golden beets, tomatoes bursting at the seems with intoxicating fragrance. The car was distractingly aromatic on the ride home, I almost pulled over to bury my face in it all.
But I have one question: I found one beautiful red potato, to me it looked like a beautiful heart. I brought it home and washed it, and presented it to my freaky consort, Sean..."I picked this out just for you." He looked at it and said, "what is it, balls?" such a romantic! Tell me, is it just me, or...?