With plans afoot for tomato onion oothappam, idlis and pongal for breakfast, steaming rice with capsicum sambhar, rasam and yummy aviyal for lunch, lehsuni makki palak and phulkas for dinner, I am depriving myself of indulging in the sheer luxury of writing.
I do not know if I am going to step into the spotlight with this post of mine, but all of a sudden there is a surge of excitement, a craving to be a successful food writer. Generally speaking, consistency is the recipe to success, the key to a good recipe is practice and there is nothing sweeter than success.
The aroma of the herbs and spices, a drool, appetites that demand for more maketh a novice a chef. With a little inspiration and motivation the good chef becomes better and with some encouragement a better chef becomes the best...This is no great secret. Maybe applying the same logic, I will also be a great cook and an awesome food blogger some day.
Healthy food, recipes easy and mundane, recipes seemingly complex but actually rather simple, I try my hands only at those. In this post of mine, I will try to keep the taste buds far and near, tingling and the saliva drooling.
All one needs is a little
common sense, the passion to dabble,
mix, match, blend herbs and spices, a head full of creative ideas and a lot
of patience. With practice even the
seemingly tough to prepare dishes can become child's play.
Anyway ! Whoever said that "One who loves to eat will love to cook too," must have been an awesome chef.
I am a hard core
vegan and I will swear by the benefits of vegetarianism. Before I get immersed
in a topic I love, before I can just go on and on about yummy vegetarian
delicacies and irresistible dishes, let me make one point very clear. Health
and nutrition are the two main factors spearheading the cause of vegetarianism
across the globe today .
On that note I begin with a small introduction of myself. Born into a liberal Tambrahm family, I was
raised in cosmopolitan Kolkata. I consider myself very fortunate for I had
opportunity of growing up imbibing two great cultures, their food habits and in
the process, I also learnt that great greater grandmother handed down recipes are the tastiest
and the healthiest. The ones that have been handed down generations are still a
part of traditional lunches and banquets.
In keeping with my Tamil upbringing and the Bong influence, listed below are a few common lip smacking dishes, easy on the purse and also on the belly, when consumed in moderation. Now maybe I could also write a snippet about the thief and the finger licking Pulikaachal. The Pulikaachal is a spicy tamarind chutney. It is a Tamilnadu speciality. The main ingredients are tamarind, (the older and darker,the tastier) red chillies, roasted and powdered coriander seeds, fenugreek seeds and peanuts. But since I have been designated with the job of writing about recipes that can make you drool I stick to that..So here you go...
One day, a few years later, when I will read this post, I will
be still drooling and probably guffawing too, with a Pavlov in mind. I would be trying out newer versions of the recipes keeping in mind that times change and in order to keep boredom at bay, I will try to innovate......
Well ! Just that some of you tried to interrupt...let me add....I am indeed sorry.? Oh ! Let me get to the topic right away. I have started tapping on my keyboard and since there is nobody to stop me, I am drooling and typing..
This is a layman's guide to drooling and as
the author of this post I am in no way responsible for incidents of tingling
buds and dripping salivas that may be reported from across the globe. I will
also not be held responsible if readers will start and bombarding Blogmint with hilarious anecdotes and time tested recipes...
Here's my list. I can see some of the readers drooling...Let's get started...
If it's time to kick start your day, what better way to do
it? So folks ! gear up and do a little homework. If you stay in that part of the
world, where you have easy access to freshly ground coffee powder, you have
reason to rejoice. Head to your nearest coffee outlet and buy a 50- 50
combination of Peaberry and Plantation beans. The shopkeeper will grind the
roasted beans in your presence and you will be the proud owner of the most
aromatic and fragrant coffee powder in the world. Invest in a humble coffee filter
or a sophisticated coffee maker and enjoy the goodness of real frothy coffee with
every sip.
Move out breads and buns. Make way for the delicious paper masala, sada, onion, paneer, dosas and creamy white soft and fluffy idles for a mouth watering
breakfast experience. Essentially the trick in churning out the best batter
lies in the grinding. Invest in a good quality table top grinder. The basic
ingredients are the same for both the idli and the dosa. The difference is in
the proportion of the Urad Dal and Rice. Ensure soft fluffy idles with the time
tested combination of parboiled rice, urad dal and poha in the ratio 4:1:1 and
yummy crispy dosas with my super success combination of raw rice, parboiled
rice, urad dal and methi seeds in the ratio 1:1:1/4:1/8. Serve with yummy
sambar, spicy onion, tangy tomato or a simple coconut chutney and spread the
word that these are the one of the healthiest food items prescribed for breakfast.
The simplest of all recipes, the heavenly Rasam is a South Indian
delicacy. It is a clear soup made with the stock of boiled pulses, ripe cherry red tomatoes and tamarind. The rasam is served as an appetiser or partaken with rice. The secret to a spicy rasam lies in
the rasam powder which is a powdered mix of cummin, coriander, pepper, red
chillies and asafoetida. The taste is enhanced with the final garnish...mustard
seeds spluttered in pure ghee is dunked on top with finely chopped coriander
and fresh curry leaves.
Called the hotel sambar, it differs from the sambar that is
served with rice for meals in South Indian homes. Unlike the normal sambar where tamarind is one of the
main ingredient, hotel sambar is prepared with either less or no tamarind. The
trick lies in cooking the pulses with the onions and tomatoes in a pressure
cooker. Fried shallots and vegetables mostly capsicum or drumstick are added
for the enhanced flavour. The seasoning is in ghee. Topped with mustard, methi
seeds and curry leaves fried in ghee, this is a delectable recipe easy to make
and very tasty.
Now I am really hungry and I need more food for my brain. It could be mid noon, lunch, dinner time or any time of the day. Let's go oriental and move
eastwards for an irresistible lunch menu comprising of piping hot Basmati or
Gobindobhog rice, cholar dal, Potol and Bhegun Bhaja, Luchi alu Dhom and
Rosogollas. From the sesame oil that adds aroma to South Indian cooking, I have made a shift to the fragrant ghee and mustard oil that lends the unique taste to Bong cooking.
HOT STEAMING GOBINDOBHOG PULAO !
The very enjoyable Gobindo bhog rice has a lovely aroma. Cooked with the right amount of water and blended with spices such as nutmeg, bay leaf, cardamom, cumin and cinnamon it forms the main course in any traditional Bengali meal. Highly aromatic the rice can be used for making mouth watering kheers in a jiffy.
BEGUN AAR POTOL BHAJA !
A hard core Bong food lover will swear by his love for the Pointed Gourd (Parwal) and the Aubergine ( Big Brinjal). Any meal is incomplete without the bhajas. Cut into long slices and marinated in a mix of masala and spice powders, the deep fried or sauted vegetables disappear from the frying pan once they are cooked. A great hit with the masses, these starters have existed from time immemorial and will continue to top the starter charts across homes.
CHOLAR DHAL !
The cholar dal is a very easy to make dish. Boiled chana dal is tempered with a seasoning of panch phoran, green chillies and fried coconut pieces. Turmeric enhances the colour of the dish and makes it irresistible. Highly nutritious, it is a great accompaniment with rice and loochi.
TOMATO CHAAATNEY !
The tangy sweet tomato chutney derives its taste from the combination of fried sesame seeds, dates and tamarind. Lip smacking, the dish requires very little effort to create the special taste. A little jaggery or sugar is added to enhance the taste. Bright red chilly powder gives the dish the colour that can trigger to activate the salivary gland.
Ofcourse ! I could go on and on about the lip smacking rosogolla and the yummy mishti dhoi, the traditional Tamilnadu payasam and the Tirunelveli Halwa, ice creams, sundaes and gulab jamuns, the roadside puchka, jhal muri, bhel puri, chaat joints, the vada sambhar, kuzhi paniyaram and the aappam kurma, idiyaapam, rava dosa and the dahi vada. I am a novice writer and an amateur photographer. I am guilty of borrowing pictures from the web and I don't think it would be fair on my part to bombard a wall with more shared pictures and on a lighter note, under the influence of a harmless amateurish gastronomical post, fearing that people across the world may be reaching out desperately for emergency medical aid for the cessation of saliva, in the interests of mankind at large and as a kind hearted good samaritan....I cease to be a blogger temporarily...........................
This blog (Recipes to make you drool) is part of BloggerDreamTeam-Food & Travel Carnival. Pictures are courtesy Wikepedia and the World Wide Web, except for the Potol Bhaja, my own creation and as for the recipe which I have not shared here, I may consider applying for a patent :-) :-)
