Is it a Spice OR Ingredient?

Boolean OR operation is a disjunction of propositions. The disjunction of two propositions is false when both propositions are false and otherwise is true. The disjunction of a false and a true is always true.

This is a true story. My mother is an excellent cook of hot dishes. That includes the level of heat in terms of spiciness and temperature. Her dishes were fiery hot, often making people run for water. Her recipes usually call for a handful of chillies, not ones or twos. My uncle, her brother, shares this passion with her along with diabetes, high cholesterol and high BP. Well, that’s another story.

Their particular interest in hot dishes, specifically chillies was really amusing to us – me, my sister and brother when we were children. So one day, we decided to conduct an experiment to determine how much heat, my uncle can endure. We made elaborate plans, and found the perfect specimen – “Kanthari Mulagu” (Thai pepper), tiny little fiery chillies known for its scoville pungency scale of 50,000 – 100,000. It was decided to carry out this experiment in my home during lunch time when he usually visits. The idea behind the experiment was to hide the chillies in a plate of rice, and record his reactions during the meal. I know, we were mean kids!. The day arrived and my mom called us for setting the table. That means absconding to the nearest bathroom or intensely concentrating on your books refusing any call for help. But this time, things changed. We were more than ready to help.

Being the youngest in my family, I was always the lookout while my siblings perform the interesting jobs in their experiment. They set the table and placed 5 – 6 red hot chillies in the plate and covered it with rice. My uncle arrived, had his lunch, appreciated my mother’s cooking and laughed at our silly jokes. Meanwhile we were courteous, all smiling and were anxiously waiting for that reaction from him. Later in the evening, we waited for any oncoming punishments from my mother. None happened!. To this day, I am not sure whether he knew about the peppers in his lunch. Or was it a prank played on me by my siblings as I actually didn't see them doing it (I was the lookout, remember?). However, my uncle has continued his passion and has a small backyard garden of numerous varieties of chillies.

Over the years, my mother has reduced the heat in her recipes!

Simplistically Yours,

Kanthari Mulagu Chammanthy (Thai pepper chutney)

This is a simple chutney with 3 ingredients – chillies, shallots and coconut oil. Shallots and chillies acts as the base. Chillies also give the necessary kick in the recipe and coconut oil binds all together. The recipe works best with Thai chillies. But you can substitute with other varieties of indian Chillies as well. We usually serve it with Yucca root. This is my entry for JFI – Chillies hosted by nandita@saffrontrail this month.

Shopping List:
5 – 6 Thai pepper (Kanthari Mulagu)
4 whole peeled shallots
coconut oil
sea salt to taste

What to do:
In a food processor, combine peppers, shallots and salt and pulse it 2 -3 times. Drizzle coconut oil and continue processing until finely minced. Serve with boiled yucca root or dosas.

Recipe Note: The coconut oil is a key ingredient in this recipe. Do not substitute.

A Stroll in the purple maze: Rediscovering Eggplant

Maze : A puzzle with complex branching passages through which one must find a route.

To put it mildly, I never had a preference for eggplants. Even my husband, a purist, who vivaciously vocalizes on the goodness of all kinds of vegetables, has a dislike for eggplants. According to his observations, it is my lack of experience in cooking this particular vegetable render a bland taste to the dish, albeit, I disagree. Hence after an elaborate search and tinkering of my recipes from my repertoire, I decided to conquer my dislike and fear for this vegetable on the next trip to the supermarket. Before I leave, I thought, I would gather several facts about this veggie.

Eggplant/Aubergine/Brinjal is a member of Solanaceae family. It is closely related to tomato and potatoe (I didn’t know that) and is a short lived perennial plant. It has purple flowers with large pendulous purple fruit. Did you know that in United States, the name eggplant was derived because of its close resemblance to hen’s eggs? Aubergine is a british name, while in south Africa it is called Brinjal. But I find the name “Vazhuthanaga” – a tongue twister in my native language appealing. The eggplant comes in various shapes and varieties. Some are longer and narrower resembling cucumber and is named Chinese eggplant. The raw fruit is bitter in taste but when cooked develops a luscious and complex taste. It is rich in potassium and calcium and is known to help in controlling cholesterol. Now that’s what I am talking about.

With all these information on hand (courtesy wikipedia), I decided to embark on my journey to the purple world. I am not talking about Barney ofcourse! At my nearest supermarket, eggplants are perfectly stacked, waxed and cozy with occasional sprays of water looking natural and healthy, into a corner away from those glossy, vibrant and rich tomatoes. Occasionally, they also get the opportunity to enjoy a close kinship with scary, thorny vegetable – artichoke (The name itself suggests something horror and sends shivers down the spine!). Sometimes, they could be seen chatting up with leafy vegetables also. Probably this layout of vegetables was meant for people who like a challenge. My 10 minute trip to the market involves a sprint in the vegetable section with a quick pick and toss of tomatoes, potatoes, beans and carrots and onions into the cart. From time to time, I linger with leafy vegetables – spinach, collards, chards and lettuces. This is as far as I would go near eggplants. But this time, things have changed. With gentle trepidation in my heart, I grabbed my bag and ventured into the un-chartered territory. Keep the eyes closed, don’t look at the artichokes. To my surprise, I found many kinds of eggplants – small ones, long and lean ones, short ones, green ones and chubby ones. This time, I decided to try small and chubby ones. It would be perfect for my recipes - spaghetti with fried eggplant and Khosu, my entries for JFI-Eggplant. Maybe next time I might take a crack at artichokes. Who am I kidding?

Simplistically yours,

Spaghetti with fried eggplant

I must admit that I revisited my recipes of eggplant after I had a wonderful encounter with a spectacular Italian dish – Eggplant parmiagana. Although I know that anything fried must taste good (except icecream ofcourse!), this particular dish has kicked off a new interest in me for eggplants.

Shopping List
For the sauce:
Half onion nicely chopped
1 can diced tomatoes with garlic and herbs
1 tsp tomatoe paste
Handful of basil leaves
½ lb cooked spaghetti
Parmesan cheese

For the fried eggplants:
2 cups of Italian eggplant diced
Italian seasoned Breadcrumbs
1 egg
Parmesan cheese

What to do:

Salt the eggplants and keep it aside for few minutes. Wash the eggplants and pat it down with paper towels to remove the excess moisture. Whisk together egg with 1 tbsp of water until it is blended. Combine breadcrumbs and parmesan. Dip the eggplant pieces into the egg mixture and then dredge in breadcrumbs. Fry them golden brown in oil.

Place a pan with olive oil over medium high heat until hot. Add diced onions and sauté until tender. Add tomatoe paste and sauté for few minutes. Stir in the diced tomatoes , salt and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer. Finish it off with parmesan cheese and basil leaves.

Add the cooked spaghetti into the sauce. Mix in the fried eggplants. Finish it off with parmesan and a drizzle of olive oil. Divine!!

Khosu – Smashed eggplants in a spicy tamarind sauce


This is a contribution from my husband, an old recipe from my mother-in-law. An interesting aspect of this dish is that only eggplant is cooked and rest is made by hand. Literally hands!!!!

Shopping list
4 Small Indian Eggplants
5 dry red chillies
6-8 pieces of diced shallots
about ¼ cup of tamarind
2 – 3 cups of water
Coconut oil and curry leaves

What to do:
Cut the eggplants half way through while keeping its stems intact.

Heat a pan with oil till medium hot. Fry red chillis followed by eggplants until they are soft and nicely charred. Now comes the interesting part.

Using hands, mash chillies, salt and tamarind in a bowl. Add the cooled eggplants, stems removed and continue with mashing. Finally add water and mix thoroughly. Salt accordingly. Drizzle coconut oil and finish it off with curry leaves. Enjoy with rice!..

Introspecting Jackfruit

Introspection, in the computing world is the process of identifying objects, its properties and behaviors at runtime.

Jackfruit, known fondly as “chakka” and so is one of my nick names in school, is a native of Kerala. It is large, heavy and spiny with green exterior and bulbous fruit surrounded by sticky fibers inside. It grows in enormous numbers and is usually seen hanging on trees that are tall and lanky. One is usually turned away by its intoxicating fragrance –nevertheless, the golden flesh with a honey flavor can transform you to a fervent follower. You can eat the fruit ripe/unripe, cooked / uncooked. Although I wouldn’t recommend the unripe form of the fruit as it is not known to be a buddy of our gastrointestinal systems. To me, jackfruit is THE FRUIT of Kerala.

For city dwellers like us, this fruit is hard to come by. Usually we receive it as gifts and tokens of love from my father’s ancestral home. Unlike all others, the pre-processing of this fruit before one starts preparing the dish can be an arduous task. However you wouldn’t believe the fun we had while cleaning it, as a family circle time. Our jobs were to keep an eye on the cleaned fruit bites from the rest of the world. I still remember the juicy details of many stories explored in this circle, with our hands smeared in oil, patiently slicing it down, removing every bit of fibers, revealing the sweetest sensation. By the time, we have conquered every piece of the fruit; we were overwhelmed by its fragrance. The first two days in our home of that following week are enjoyable. We can smell the prepared dishes, a mile from our home. By the third day, we hit a frenetic eating pace of the fruit to avoid being used in every meal of the day.

Recently, I received a care package from my home, traveling thousands of miles. On opening it, to my surprise, I found one of my all time favorite preparations of Jackfruit – “Chakka Varatti (Jackfruit Halwa)”, a combination of ripe Jackfruit, jaggery and loads and loads of ghee. It has been ages since I last savored the taste of it. Now here comes the interesting behind the scenes tidbit: My dad, who is not a firm believer of ‘use it and throw’ concept or that each and everything has a finite life, decided to get his old and outdated cell phone repaired. He sought help of a ‘Mr. Fix it’, who claimed to have repaired many such outdated devices. Long forgotten, after being handled by many of Mr.Fix it’s apprentices, my dad realized that the phone was missing . However by the end of the day, he received a heavy package, a gift, which was not a cell phone but a Jackfruit. Ironically he does not share the same kind of passion for jackfruits. I am not sure what happened to cell phone or Mr. Fix it!! But the jackfruit is cooked to perfection as a fantastic sweet dish and is waiting on my table. I can’t wait to get my hands on it.

I wish I could share my package with each one of you. It is tucked into the corner of my refrigerator as my night treat till my father finds another one of his repair ideas!

Simplistically Yours,

Chakka-Varatti (Jackfruit halwa) (My Mom's recipe)
What to get:
Jackfruit finely chopped - 4 cups
Jaggery - 1 cup
water - 1/2 cup
Ghee

What to do:
Steam the chopped fruit in a pressure cooker with a small amount of water. Cook jaggery and water in heavy bottom sauce pan over medium heat until the jaggery is melted completely. Remove from heat.

Heat a large and heavy bottom pan to medium high heat. Add the steamed fruit, jaggery and saute it till it becomes golden brown. Keep stirring to avoid any lumps. Stir in ghee and continue cooking it until the fruit breaks down , water is evaporated and the halwa thickens. Stir constantly. Remove the pan from heat, when the halwa start seperating from the edges of the pan. Serve hot/cold. I prefer it cold!

Therali appam

My mom usually makes this dish in a special kind of leaf. Needless to mention, the unavailability of Therali leaves (I beleive it is the leaves of cinnamon tree), has driven me to prepare this dish using parchment paper. So here is my entry for JFI – Jackfruit hosted by JugalBandi, a secondary dish, prepared with the help of my mom’s “chakka-vartti”.

What you need:
Chakka Varatti (halwa) – 1 cup
Rice Flour – 1 cup
Milk – 2 tbsp (if needed)
Coconut grated - 1 cup
Cardamom powder – 2 tsp
Ghee
Parchment paper

What to do:
Combine flour, halwa, milk, coconut, cardamom powder and knead to a dough.
Divide the dough into 6 portions and mold them into balls (1 inch size). Finely coat the parchment paper with ghee. Divide the parchment paper into equal sized rectangles about twice the size of the balls. Place each of the balls in between the rectangles and flatten it with your hands. Steam it in an idli cooker or a steamer for about 15 minutes. Abracadabra, you got an enjoyable snack from home. Enjoy!

C & J sandwich (Cream Cheese and Jackfruit sandwich)

How about a PB&J sandwich with jackfruit? Another one of my
JFI- Jackfruit entries.

What You need:
Low fat Philadelphia cream cheese / Neufchatel cheese softened
Oroweat Country Buttermilk Bread slices – 2 nos
Butter

What to do:
Spread one side of each bread slices with butter. Heat a non stick pan to medium high heat. Place the bread slices , buttered side down and cook to golden brown. Microwave the halwa on high for about 15 – 20 seconds. Spread a generous amount of cream cheese on the other side (not buttered) of one of the bread slices. Similarly spread halwa on the second slice. Carefully assemble the sandwich. Enjoy!