Cauvery's Kitchen

My dear ardent readers (that's about 2 people including me),

Please subscribe to my new cooking channel, where I channel Cauvery Aunty, who is an excellent experienced home Chef from Bengaluru, Karnataka. If you search for Cauvery's Kitchen on YouTube, you will find this brand new cooking channel.

Cauvery's Kitchen

A couple recipes by Cauvery Aunty:

Peas Upma

Fried Egg

Do check out her channel, and spread the word.

Thanks so much!

Cheers,
Aparna

Mexican Hot Salsa

I love myself a quick snack of warm tortilla chips and spicy salsa. The mild and medium kind ain't gonna do it for me. Fresh salsas are good, but when the ingredients are charred first, and then blended into a salsa- that taste is elevated to a whole new level, and it's mm mm mm!

Ingredients: 

Tomatoes- 4

Red Onion- 1/4 piece

Garlic- 6-8 cloves, skin on

Jalapeños or any hot pepper of your choice- 2-4 (adjust according to desired level of heat)

Cumin- 1 tsp

Salt to taste

A drizzle of oil

Lemon/Lime

Method: 

1. Place ingredients, except cumin and salt, in an oven safe dish.

2. Drizzle some oil all over.

3. Place under broiler for 10-15 minutes, until peel is charred.

4. Remove from broiler, and cool.

5. Remove charred peel.

6. Put into blender. Add cumin and salt.

Note: If using Vitamix type of food processor, keep the peel on. The flavors will be bolder. 

7. Blend into salsa.

8. Squeeze some lemon/lime juice for zing. 

9. Eat with chips!

  

It’s a Wrap- 2018 highlights

It's the last day of 2018!! Calls for a look at some notable food(ie) highlights from the year.

Topmost food-related news: My baby boy, who is no longer a baby, but will always be my baby boy made pizza for me, from scratch!! And I mean from S C R A T C H- mixing, kneading, flying in air (okay, I don't know what they call it- you know when they toss the pizza dough up in the air and somehow continue to make it bigger in circumference ...), adding toppings on it, and then baking it. He even wrote, "To Mom," on the pizza box. It was delicious!!

Here are the three meals from January 1st 2018. Breakfast was an awesome omelet made by my hubby darling, and he actually did make me many delicious omelets over the span of the entire year- pretty much every Saturday and/Sunday. Yes! There's proof on my Instagram. Lunch was fettuccine alfredo from Pallino Pastaria, and then dinner was homemade yummy upma. I think that totally set a great start to the year.

I succeeded in growing some decent apples, as well as blueberries over summer and fall. I mean, it was a complete "farm to table to mouth to tummy" experience!

My hubby gave me a coffee mug (um, he got it for free at work, but still) that became my favorite coffee mug of 2018. Also made me realize that I am in reality such a geeky nerd. Wait, that is a word, right? But I mean, look at the mug- it's genius!

I ate sweet, ripe jackfruit this year! Was lucky enough to find it at the store, and picked it up. It was delicious. I was able to use the seeds too.

My hubs made a trip to Barcelona. Sadly I couldn't go, but he did send me some yummy pictures, including this squid ink paella that I'm dying to eat. Hopefully I can visit too at some point. He said it wasn't that great, but I think I'll try it first and then decide for myself.

I joined Quora, and was first kicked out because I named myself Guppy. Then I renamed myself Appi. The Quora bot didn't like that either. So then eventually I had to use my official name. I'm quite enjoying writing there. Though, there's a whole bunch of trolls there who sound super grumpy, and keep violating the whole BNBR (be nice be respectful) policy. But then there's a whole bunch of nice people too. All in all, it's been fun so far! I mostly write on food, of course.

My junglee maas, that was inspired by my Quora article on the Bollywood actor, Ranbir Kapoor (lol!):

We all made a lovely road trip to the geological wonder- Crater Lake in July. It was spectacular! Only thing, apparently it has scarred our children, especially our little girl (okay, yeah, she is not little anymore ... but will always be our little girl ...), for life- she hates road trips now. Anything more than a couple hours, she absolutely will not go, she announced the other day, when I happened to suggest that we all go on a nice long road trip next summer.

So there, that's pretty much it. Overall 2018 was pretty darn good. As a person too, I think I have made some progress. In fact, I might have finally attained adulthood. Hey, some of us are late bloomers! Funnily enough, it feels very good, this whole business of being an adult. Statements such as why am I looking for light everywhere, when it is right here, inside me- make complete sense to me now.

Oh, we went to Leavenworth last weekend after some 5-6 years!! It was marvelous. And we ate bratwurst, which was yummy. I ate the currywurst, with all the works. I also ate a nice warm pretzel with actual cheese dip, not the standard yellow colored stuff.

Adios 2018!!

Nutrela- Nutri Kulcha, Soya Nuggets Recipe

I have loved Nutrela since childhood. Especially Nutrela pulav. Whenever the parents went out for a party in the evening, I'd cook nutrela pulav and egg curry for my brother and me, and boy, were those some really awesome, memorable TV Dinners! We'd spread newspaper on the floor, place the hot cooker with pulav, and kadhai with egg curry on the newspaper, get our plates and spoons, sit on the floor, and eat away, with the television on. Mm, really really enjoyable, memorable, and delicious dinners. Thankfully my kids love nutri nuggets too.

The other day, a new friend on Quora introduced me to what sounded like a really delicious dish- Nutri Kulcha, a street food that he simply loves to gorge on when he visits his hometown, Udhampur in Jammu. It's the perfect kind of food, especially on cold winter days- hot, spicy, tangy, flavorful, buttery, and simply delicious. After I read the description, I of course got all excited, and I just had to make it. So I did. And I was extremely pleased with the result. Here's the recipe. Do note that I am not including measures for all ingredients, because well, one- I made this a few weeks ago and I have forgotten the exact measures I used (lol!), and two- I feel like unless you are a complete novice at cooking, one doesn't really need to know exact measures- it's all about experimenting, and creating something that YOU like!

Ingredients: 

1. Nutrela or Soya nuggets
2. Tea bags- 2 or 3
3. Onions- finely chopped
4. Tomatoes- finely chopped
5. Ginger garlic paste- 1-2 tsp
6. Green chilies- according to your heat level preference
7. Garam Masala
8. Red chili powder
9. Amchur (dry mango) powder- a pinch
10. Anardaana (pomegranate) powder- a pinch
11. Chaat masala (for the end)
12. Cumin seeds
13. Good Yellow Butter- such as Kerry Gold
14. Black pepper- a pinch
15. Salt to taste
16. Water to cook nutrela, and some to adjust thickness of final dish
17. Cooking oil
18. Soy sauce- for that final umami

First of all: 

Cook nutrela or soya nuggets in water infused with tea. I simply took a pan with water, placed a tea infuser filled with some loose tea leaves in it, and then cooked the nuggets in this tea infused water. Basically it imparts a lovely deep color and (tea) flavor to the soya nuggets.

Then drain water, squeeze out any remaining water from the cooked nuggets, and chop it all up into tiny pieces.

Next:

1. Take a few teaspoons of oil in a kadhai or a pot/pan, get the heat going, temper a teaspoon of cumin seeds.

2. Add finely chopped onions, tomatoes, green chilies, and ginger garlic paste. Fry it all until you see oil kind of "floating" on top. 

3. Add garam masala, chili powder, and salt to taste, stir it all.

4. Add cooked nutrela into this, mix it all. Add a teaspoon of soy sauce. If it looks a bit too dry, add some water. The nutri should be more on the thicker side, easily spreadable on thick bread. Add the remaining masalas- amchur, anardana, as well as black pepper. Taste, add some more masala and or salt if required. Cover. Simmer for a good 30-45 minutes. Do not rush- for you want all of the flavors to marry really well.

5. Add a good pat of butter in the end. Sprinkle chaat masala on top, garnish with fresh green cilantro, and serve nice and hot alongside some thick bread such as kulcha, or naan.

I spread some in a bun, sprinkled extra chaat masala, and ate it. It was SO GOOOOOOOOD!!!! It was hot, spicy, tangy, peppery, and the nutri nuggets were juicy, and well, what can I say- it was deeeelish!!!

Thanks, my new foodie buddy from Quora, for the inspiration! This nutri truly rocks! The next time around, I shall be sure to serve it with kulcha.

Junglee Maas- Jungle Mutton Curry

Junglee Maas simply means wild meat. It's a delicious preparation that belongs to the Rajput legacy of Game Cuisine. They say that this dish was invented by the Maharaja of Sarwar. Sarwar was the former capital of Kishangarh, a princely state of Rajasthan. Apparently there are Sarwar (or Survar) Muslim Rajputs in Sindh and Punjab provinces of Pakistan.

Story behind Junglee Maas: Back in the day, the Maharajas (kings) loved to go hunting in the wild. Other than being a royal sport and hobby, hunting provided them with practical experience for war. Included in their hunting convoy were their khansamas- the top royal chefs, who tagged along with them, carrying minimal food ingredients and water. After setting up basecamp, and a good night's rest, the kings would head out on their hunting expedition early next morning, while the chefs stayed back, getting the kitchen ready, wondering what surprise game meat would be presented to them in the evening that they'd have to transform into a delicious preparation fit for the kings. The catch of the day could be anything from blackbuck to chinkara, wild cat, etc. The kings liked their meat to retain the gamey taste. They didn't appreciate it if the meat was doused in a ton of spices. Well, with access to limited ingredients, the khansamas couldn't really do much anyways in terms of spice. Come evening, the tired and famished kings returned to basecamp. The hunted animals were taken away to the kitchen area, where the chefs and their helpers cleaned up everything, rubbed the meat with salt, and then slow cooked it in ghee until the meat turned nice and tender. The dish was finished off with crushed dry red chillies, some more ghee, and salt to taste. This method of cooking retained the gamey taste of meat, that the kings ate with great relish. And thats how junglee maas came about.

Over time there have been alterations made to the original simple 4 ingredient recipe. In addition to ghee, red chillies, and salt, you can add cardamom, cinnamon, coriander, garlic, etc. Some recipes suggest using mustard oil, rather than ghee. Any kind of meat can be used- the more exotic, the better.

Here's my version of junglee maas. I use more spices to camouflage the gamey taste of mutton. Hey, what can I say- maybe I am not as junglee as I thought I was! ;)

Yield: enough for 3 adults

Pre-cooking time: 30-45 minutes

Cooking time: 1-1.5 hours

Ingredients: 

Mutton- 1 small tray

Onion, sliced- 1 medium

Bay leaves- 3-4

Red chili powder- 2-4 tbs
*Adjust quantity according to your desired level of heat

Coriander powder- 2-4 tbs

Cinnamon powder- 1/2 tsp

Green Cardamom- 3-4 pods

Cumin- 2 tsp

Garlic paste- 1 tsp

Lemon juice- 1-2 tbs

Oil such as mustard or olive- 1/2-1 tbs for marinating

Cooking oil or ghee- 3-4 tbs

Water- 4-5 tbs and then some for cooking

Salt to taste

Method: 

Marination: 

Marinate the meat with red chili powder, mustard or olive oil, garlic paste, green cardamom, and lemon juice. Mix it all well, show it some love, cover it, and let it be for 30-45 minutes.

While marination is happening, in a bowl, make a little paste of red chili, and coriander powder with water. Add a pinch of cinnamon to this paste.

Cooking: 

1. In a thick bottomed pot or pan of your choice, pour in some cooking oil or ghee or a combination of both. Get the heat going, temper some cumin seeds, and bay leaves. Add thinly sliced onion and fry until brown.

2. Add marinated mutton. Allow one side to brown a bit for 5-7 minutes, flip it around, and brown it again for another 5-7 minutes. 

3. Pour in the red chili coriander and cinnamon paste, and give it all a stir. 

4. Now add some more water, enough to cook the meat in. Add salt to taste. 

5. Bring it to boil, cover, and simmer for 1 hour, checking intermittently to make sure there's enough liquid to allow the meat to cook. 

6. At the end of 1 hour, check to make sure it's all cooked nice and tender and tastes good enough for your palate. Garnish with fresh cilantro and serve with rotis, paranthas, naan, or rice.

I served this yummy mutton curry with a side of junglee saag- simple swiss chard stir fry with salt and pepper.

Btw, Sep 28th is Ranbir Kapoor's birthday, and I wrote about his favorite foods on Quora. He loves junglee maas!! Do give it a read: Ranbir Kapoor the Foodie

Interesting: 

[1] Sarwar

[2] Rajputana Cuisine

Back to the Basics: How to Cook Rice?

Rice and me- we go a long way. I have been eating rice for over forty years now. I have been cooking rice, feeding it to my family and friends, even some random strangers, over the span of twenty something years. I have blindly followed the cooking method that my elders used. My grandma used to scoop out rice from a big aluminum container into a stainless steel tray or a plate. Then she would go the brightest spot in the house, or out in the yard in sunshine, sit on the floor or ground, and begin to pick out things from the rice. Those things were pebbles. Some white, some black, some very tiny ones that only the keenest of eyes could detect, and some in-your-face kinda pebbles. Also living creatures. Sometimes tiny black colored insects, and some other times tiny green or white colored worms. She'd casually pick them all out, and throw them. Yeah, just like that! After that tedious preliminary round, she would transfer the rice into a pot, and pour water into it. Then she'd swish the rice around in the water with the help of her fingers, and once the water turned cloudy, she'd drain off the water, only to pour more water into the rice, and repeat the washing process, until finally the water turned clear. Finally she would place the pot into a pressure cooker, and after three 'whistles' from the cooker, rice was ready to be eaten. As years went by, things started improving, and they started putting fewer pebbles into rice. I saw my mom bypass the preliminary step of pebble picking from the rice. She'd still wash the rice several times before cooking it though. And then, when I became the cook, I pretty much did the same, except with a few modifications- I used an automatic rice cooker, and I washed the rice only a couple to maybe three or four times before plugging the rice cooker in and letting it do it's thing. Now sometimes, in case of brown rice, forbidden rice, etc., I simply followed package instructions and completely omitted the washing step. I mean that's what the instructions said! The instructions didn't mention any rinsing or washing, or anything. The rice turned out pretty tasty, the way it should. No questions asked.

UNTIL ...

Last year or something, while swiping through the news app on my phone, I saw an article about rice. And that rice contains arsenic. Arsenic is a toxic element found naturally in air, water, and soil. It can cause different forms of cancer, and heart disease. And guess what? Food crops love to absorb this wonderful arsenic, and rice in particular, tends to absorb a lot more. The article suggested that we wash rice at least eight to ten times before cooking it. Okay, so I started doing that.

UNTIL ...

Yesterday while trying to answer a question on Quora I went on the FDA website, and found out that I have been doing it all wrong. Not to forget, I am a medical miracle!

Per FDA, when we rinse or wash rice, we are basically stripping it off of all the good stuff- iron, thiamin, niacin, and folate, while retaining the arsenic. So in order to get rid of arsenic by as much as possible, the suggested way of cooking rice is to cook it like pasta: Cook 1 part rice in 6 to 10 parts water, and drain off excess water.  Granted that this will take a little more effort on your part, but this will at least ensure that you aren't consuming more arsenic than you already have (!!) and aren't feeding it to your loved ones. For your not-so-loved-ones it's okay to resort to the rice cooker technique. ;)

So last night, dear friends, I thought I spent more time in front of the stove, cooking rice the pasta way. But in reality, it took only 10-12 minutes for the rice to cook once the water started boiling. Once cooked, I simply used a sieve to separate out cooked rice from the water. And I dumped the water down the drain. The result was some yummy rice, not sticky at all, and much whiter in color than it normally looks.

Non-toxic rice ;) 

And that's how you cook rice.

Do check out the article on FDA:  Arsenic in Rice and Rice Products

Is Shah Rukh Khan a Foodie?

The other day, someone who follows my blog (yeah, there is one sweet gal who actually follows this blog!) asked me- why haven't you posted anything of late on your blog? And I told her- well, it just so happens that although I've been cooking, it's all the same stuff ... and well, let's be frank- I'm kinda losing my mojo here!!

To change things up a little bit, I made an account on Quora and started answering questions about food there. It's actually working out quite alright, and it's very entertaining. In fact, it is hilarious to see some of the most ridiculous questions up there. It's amazing what this human mind can come up with. Ridiculous questions, and equally ridiculous answers. Truly a m a z i n g! So far I have written 20 answers, and the last three have received quite a lot of views (for my standards). I did actually have to do quite a bit of online research to answer those questions. I mean, this whole Quora stuff is serious business! No, really! You gotta spend a lot of time researching, and making sure what you put up there actually makes sense, AND you gotta make sure you include all the citations. I'm telling ya- for serious writers, it is actually a good platform, at least to get your name out there. I believe one can even get paid for asking questions! I'm not sure how that works, but yeah, you can make some money enough to buy you a burger for sure. Good deal, if you ask me!

Question: What are Shah Rukh Khan's favorite foods and dishes? Would you consider him to be a foodie?  

Original Post on Quora: SRK's Favorite Foods

My Answer: 

What could Shah Rukh Khan’s favorite foods and dishes possibly be? Hmm! Interesting question, and since I claim to be a foodie, and I like watching Indian movies, and, err, I quite like SRK, I thought I might as well attempt answering this.

Ref: https://goo.gl/images/pTy3xb

Well, I don’t know SRK personally. Neither do I follow every bit of news about him. But simply based off of films I have seen starring SRK, and a few odd interviews here and there, I have an inkling that he probably likes simple home cooked meals, especially something cooked by his mom. Now for the sake of answering this question, I obviously had to resort to good old Google. And funnily enough, I found an online article on the Indian Express that exclusively discusses SRK’s favorite food! And btw, my assumption was spot on! The article clearly states: “but when it comes to food, Shah Rukh Khan likes it simple. And, (if) it’s home-cooked – even better.” I told you so! ;)

He has fond food memories of meals cooked by his dad and mom. His dad cooked “wonderful raan.” Raan is a Pathani mutton dish that incorporates the toughest cut of lamb, which is cooked into a delicious falling-off-the-bone tender dish in a mélange of spices, tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, malt vinegar, etc. He loved his mom’s Hyderabadi mutton biryani and “khatti dal.” It’s a Hyderabadi lentil preparation that is spicy, tangy, and delicious. Apparently he loves chicken, especially tandoori chicken. And he claims he can eat it all year round, every single day! Here’s what delights me- he loves spicy food! Now we’re talking!

When it comes to vegetarian food, SRK’s favorite is “aloo gobi,” i.e. potatoes and cauliflower stir fry, which also happens to be my childhood favorite. My kids love aloo gobi too. In fact, I make this awesome stir fry quite regularly.

SRK likes pasta, and can apparently cook it too. His favorite happens to be one “Tagliatelle Con Aragosta.” This pasta preparation made with tagliatelle- a long cylindrical shaped pasta, incorporates lobster, asparagus, onions, and tomato puree. Looks pretty good to me. The link to a YouTube video where this Chef (too bad his name isn’t mentioned) at Mezzo Mezzo at the JW Mariott Mumbai, in Juhu, demonstrates how to make this pasta dish: SRK's favorite pasta dish

While we are talking about SRK’s favorite foods, I’d like to quickly mention that he is a coffee addict. He can drink up to 30 cups of black coffee a day!! Yikes!

As for whether or not I consider SRK as a fellow foodie- I’m not too sure I’d consider him to be a die-hard foodie, considering the fact that he prefers eating at home, and North Indian dishes in particular. A true foodie, in my humble opinion, is one who is open to all kinds of cuisines, and loves checking out different foods regularly. AND one who doesn’t care about whether or not people are watching them eat! Our man, SRK, has said himself that he is a shy guy, and would much rather eat in privacy. See this video (Start to ~ 0:54): Shy SRK

All in all, from whatever I found online, the gist is that “King” Khan is quite the homey kind of guy who loves his black coffee and enjoys a nice home-cooked meal. If it’s Pathani or a Hyderabadi style meal, he’d enjoy it even more, probably reminiscing fond memories of his childhood, and his beloved parents.

Ref: https://goo.gl/images/q5rP6u

There are a couple fun videos I've included in the original answer. Do check it out: SRK's Favorite Foods

BTW, I call myself Appi on Quora. In case you are up there, do follow me! ;)