Mahanandi

We had a three day holiday for Memorial Day, and this is how we spent the weekend:

Saturday- shopping, cleaning the house, preparing dinner with my husband Vijay’s help. Our Nandyala family friend and his college friends came all the way from Milwaukee. They made a pit stop at our house before reaching their final destination - SV temple, Pittsburgh.

For dinner, we prepared puri, rice, chana masala, chicken kurma, Boiled eggs sautéed in red chilli-garlic powder, peanut chutney, sambhar, papads, raita with yogurt, and for dessert banana-walnut cake and fruit (cantaloupe). It was so hectic; I couldn’t find time to take pictures of preparation and finished items.

Sunday- helped our friends who came here from India just one month back, move to Detroit. Packing, cleaning etc. Baked again another banana-walnut cake for them. Managed to take some pictures of cake.

Monday- We have planned to go to Pittsburgh for diva darshanam at the SV temple. But it was raining so hard, and I didn’t want to travel on the PA Turnpike, which is notorious for accidents. So instead we hit some local shops nearby, and dined out.

First long weekend of summer was over just like that.

As much as possible, I try to avoid using eggs in my baking for cakes etc. Because I don’t like the strong chemical smell of egg yolks. It wasn’t like that back in India, but after coming here, the yolk smell and taste has started to make me very ill. I don’t know what they feed the hens here in US, the fertilizer smell of egg yolks is unbearable, and the taste, oy…awful to say the least.

I found out that very ripe bananas are good substitute for eggs, so I use them often in my cake and bread making.

1 cup Bisquick pancake flour. All-purpose flour works fine too. (The only reason I made the cake with Bisquick is because I wanted to finish off the big packet of Bisquick pancake flour that I purchased at Costco last year.)
1/2 cup - walnuts, chopped
1 banana, skin peeled, and ripe fruit mashed smoothly
1/4 cup - sugar
4 tablespoons - oil or ghee
1 tsp each, - baking powder and vanilla extract
Milk if needed

You must be familiar with the baking drill. Wet first, dry next, and then combine the two together.

IN a big bowl, mix the wet ingredients - banana, oil and vanilla extract. Whisk to combine well.
Then add the flour, sugar, walnuts and baking powder. Combine thoroughly. If the batter looks tight, then add about quarter cup of water or milk.

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Prepare the cake pan, by applying ghee or oil on the bottom and to the sides. Pour the cake batter. Spread evenly. Bake at 350° F for about 30 to 45 minutes. When a toothpick inserted into the baked cake, it should come out clean. Cool and then cut pieces. Enjoy.

“A day will come when there will be no one left who knew the men and women buried here.” -

President Bush today at Arlington National Cemetery(last paragraph).

Kittaya on the deckwall. He just learned to climb and jump on to the post.

To prepare authentic Indian meals, you have to make the ghee first. North, south, east and west, people all over in India know ghee is the best, and they love it. All auspicious occasions in life starts with ghee in India. Be it an offering to God, or the babies first solid food - people lavish their love with ghee.

Ghee is as easy to make as it sounds. This is how I usually make ghee here: I would buy one pound (four sticks) of unsalted butter. If you are lucky enough to find bovine-hormone free, organic butter, the ghee prepared from it would be better tasting and more like what we can get in India. Ghee from the four sticks lasts for about three to six months for us.

Take a heavy bottomed vessel. Place the butter sticks in it, and on medium heat melt them. When the butter starts to melt, there will be lot of bubbling and gurgling. Don’t panic. Reduce the flame to low; in a few minutes this action will subside. Next the butter will begin to develop foam at the top.

Simmer on low heat, uncovered and undisturbed, for 30 to 45 minutes, until milk-solids on the bottom of the vessel turn from white to beige-brown, and butter on top becomes transparent like clear water. This is the signal to turn off the heat. Please take caution not to burn the bottom part. That would lead to scalded milk smell, and it would stick. All the effort would be a waste and you have to throw everything away. So never use high-heat to make ghee.

What happening was milk-solids separating into 3 layers. Foaming milk-solids on top, clarified butter in the middle, protein milk-solids on the bottom.

After turning off the heat, do not cover with lid. Let the ghee stand for ten minutes. Remove any crust that rises to the surface with a spoon. Strain, discarding the milk solids at the bottom of the vessel, using a coffee filter or muslin cloth (gangi gudda). Or simply ladle off the clean water like ghee into a dry jar. Let it reach to room temperature. Then cover with a lid. Store at room temperature.

When first made or heated, ghee will look clear, like golden oil. At room temperature it will be in kova or fudge like consistency. It would turn to solid block when exposed to extreme cold temperature. To use, take necessary amount with a dry spoon and add to the food. Moisture spoils the ghee, so never use a wet spoon when handling ghee.

What I do with ghee:

1. Drizzle one teaspoon of ghee on hot cooked rice. Anything with rice tastes so much better with ghee, particularly the dal, sambhar and rasam.
2. To prepare different types of pulaos/fried rice.
3. Saute spices for masala (garam masala, various types of masala and curry powders).
4. For popu or tadka (frying the cumin, mustard seeds and curry leaves in ghee).
5. To prepare sweets like payasams, bhakshalu (puran poli), burfis, kheers, halwas and laddus.
6. On toasted bread and on a boiled potato.
7. Garlic roasted in ghee, spread on the bread is garlic-bread at its best.

Anything with ghee is ghee-licious. It’s simply impossible to go wrong with ghee. For any culinary enthusiast, the authentic Indian food experience has to start with this ancient Indian staple. Try and Enjoy!

Note:
Ghee is often equaled to clarified butter. But it’s a simple-minded simplification. The ghee making process is lengthy and the end result is more refined when compared to clarified butter. Now you know the difference, don’t you go on regurgitating same falsehoods about ghee equals to clarified butter. No, it’s not. And, for God’s sake have the decency to call it by its given name - Ghee. You can say gee, right? Add an ‘h’, and say out loud “ghee” as in geese. There you go. Thank you for indulging me about ghee.

Fresh radishes that we get here in spring time are the best. They make a colorful curry-salad, has a bit of crunch and lots of flavor and when served with chapatis, makes a satisfying light lunch.

Recipe:

Fresh Radishes 15 to 20
Red pepper flakes 1 tsp
Salt and turmeric each 1/4 tsp
For popu or tadka: 1 tsp each mustard seeds, cumin, minced garlic & curry leaves

Preparation is very simple. First, scrub and wash the radishes, remove the damaged ones. It’s not necessary to peel if they are fresh. Dice or slice them into bite-sized pieces.

In a pan, add 1 tsp of oil, do the popu, add the radishes, saute them for few minutes. Add salt and red pepper flakes, cover and cook them for few seconds. Don’t over cook them, they will turn into soggy tasteless bits. They taste better when they are served hot. You can prepare this curry while making chapatis. All it takes is 5 minutes, that’s it.

It is difficult to muster much enthusiasm for radishes, I know. But they are rich source of vitamin C and look colorful when cooked. Hold your nose and munch them for your health. That’s the way I eat my radishes.

I love going to flea market on weekends. I feel excited when I find a unique, useful item at a bargain price. Luckily what we have here in Ohio near our home is a flea/farmers market. We can buy stuff and fresh veggies too. Last Sunday, weather was fine and sun was out, so we decided to make a trip to the flea market. I bought cherries, white icicle radishes, red radishes, tomatoes, and cantaloupe. Vijay bought a Sony radio for 3 bucks and yes, it is working. He wanted one for his office room. I saw two very thick, aluminum, restaurant quality pans, but they have no lids, and so I decided to not buy. This is our first visit to this flea market as we recently moved here. Compared the flea market, where we used to go in Pittsburgh, this one is much bigger with lots of stalls. We went there around 9, walked around for 3 hours, we still didn’t cover all. The whole summer is ahead of us.

I prepared white radish (mullangi) sambhar for dinner. They have mildly pungent taste, sweeter than the red skinned radish, tasted delicious in sambhar.

Recipe:

1 cup toordal, pinch of turmeric
One onion (if you find pearl onions, use them as whole, about 6to8 ), 2 ripe tomatoes and white radish - all cut into long strips
3 tsp of tamarind (imli) pulp
1tsp of red chilli powder, 2tsp of salt
3 tsp of sambhar powder (roasted and powdered- 1 tsp of chana dal, uraddal, coriander (dhania) seeds, fenugreek seeds (methi), jeera and shredded coconut)
I added jaggery to compensate the pungent taste of radish.

Different vegetables give different flavors to the sambhar. You can use carrots, cauliflower, capsicum, potatoes, okra, eggplant, and cucumber; choose whatever you like or combinations.

1. Ingredients for Sambhar ……. 2. Pressurecooked and Mashed Toor dal

Preparation:
Pressure-cook toor dal thoroughly until it falls apart, with turmeric in two cups of water. Mash and make a paste.

While the toor dal is pressure-cooked, heat 1 tsp of oil in a big saucepan, crackle some mustard seeds, jeera and curry leaves. Add onions, tomatoes, white radish, saut� them for few minutes.
Stir in the tamarind juice, salt, red chilli powder, sambhar powder and 1 glass water. Mix it well, cover with a lid. Bring the water to boil, then add mashed toor dal. Let it simmer for fifteen minutes on medium heat, stirring occasionally, till the good aroma fills your kitchen.

Serve hot with rice. Don’t worry about leftover sambhar, it tastes better next day.

Sambhar is quite popular all over South India. How did the plain dal or pappu rasam turned into Sambhar, if you are curious, read this quite interesting story.

Our Kittaya