Thursday, December 31, 2009

Goodbye 2009

2009 was a good year. I went on two maha yatras: Spain and France in May and Ladakh in September, besides going to Aurangabad and Lonar during the Diwali holidays. Academically, it has been a taking it easy year: No Conferences and no research papers, yet an enjoyable year on the whole. Also, started this blog which is just a collection of random notes, more for myself and less intended for any readership. Not that there is any. I happily bid adieu to 2009. For the coming year, for the first time in my life, I make some resolutions.

In random order of importance:

1. Not sleep till late on non-working days.
2. Exercise more and remain healthy.
3. Cook and clean more often.
4. Write at least one blog-post per week.
5. Be more tolerant of fools.
6. Not waste time on the net.
7. Be more organized.
8. Actually start keeping promises to friends about meeting up on Fridays.
9. Learn a new skill, language and software.
10. Be nice to people.

In short, I have decided to improve. Amen.

Friday, December 25, 2009

Sangria at Christmas

Christmas celebrations started in advance. Two days back, J brought a home-made cake and later, we participated in a naive but very jolly programme in the college. Although, we are still awaiting the goodies from the neighbours, the yule tide is very much around us.

Today, on the Christmas day, after a long while, got to spend a quiet holiday at home with the husband. Our spirits were high with the prospect of one week of domestic bliss and to raise them further, we decided to celebrate by making Sangria- a Spanish cocktail like a fruit punch. Sangria comes from 'Sang Real' or Royal Blood, an allusion to Jesus and Mary, so appropriate for the festive season.

Here's how to make it:
Take a large glass jug. throw in a pinch of sugar to start with. Squeeze in one lemon and two oranges. That is, cut them in halves, de-seed and then using the palm, squeeze the juice out of them directly in the jug. Throw in some slices of pear, peach, kiwi fruit- whatever you have -plus slices of orange and lemon. Add some white rum and a small bottle of red wine. Let the mixture marinade for a few hours in the fridge. When ready to drink, take the jug out, top it with lots of ice and chilled soda and give it a good stir. Pour out in tall glasses and enjoy with friends.

No friends were around, the two of us emptied the jug ourselves. Hic!

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Getting Drunk on Pineapple Banana Curry

I have a continuous love affair with Malayali food that began in 1992 when I joined PiCA as a founding faculty. There was a sudden explosion of Malayali people in my life- colleagues, neighbours, students and now former students.

A traditional Onam meal, for instance, was a revelation of entirely new flavours and combinations. I was also struck by the sheer number of items served on the Banana leaf. Over the years, I have become adept at eating from a banana leaf- including Payasam which tastes much better that way as it absorbs the aroma of the leaf and mingles with the remnants of previous curries. I have also learnt the trick of crushing ripe banana and papadam into hot payasam while scooping it up with fingers. After such a meal, only thing to do is go to sleep and dream of being in heaven. Surprisingly, upon waking up, you again feel quite light as the ingredients don’t sit heavy on the stomach.

I try my hand sometimes in rustling up a quasi-Kerala meal. I particularly relish combining the flavours of kadi patta and adrak with coconut milk. Today I made the ‘Pineapple banana curry’- a recipe I had picked up from the Jamie Oliver show- my all time favourite on the tele. It is so simple and quick to make and the result is absolutely lip smacking.

Here’s the recipe:
Heat oil in a pan and crackle some mustard seeds. Add hing, thinly chopped adrak (a lot of it), a couple of green chillies, kadi patta and sauté for a minute. Dice up one medium sized pineapple and add to above and saute for 5-7 minutes. Add chunks of banana, mirchi powder and roasted jeera powder. Mix everything and saute for a minute. Finally add coconut milk and simmer for 5-7 minutes. Garnish with coriander if prefer.

The sweet- sour combination is so unique. The trick is to choose a tender pineapple whose pith is not very hard and one that is properly ripe and juicy; and bananas (ordinary, not elaichi) that are firm and not squishy. Packaged coconut milk is freely available which makes this dish very easy and quick to cook.

As accompaniment, I made pumpkin pachadi which is also very easy to make. Choose golden ripe pumpkin and grate it fine. Lightly steam- this is important- as should cook but still retain some bite. After cooling it a bit, add beaten curd and salt. Temper with tadka of oil, mustard and jeera, hing, grated adrak, slit chillies and torn up kadi patta. This tampering works with many other things also as the oil gets flavoured with green chillies and kadi patta. I can’t eat chillies as I find them too hot to handle but love it’s flavour. I also prefer the popatiya green variety as it is less hot and more flavourful.

For desert, I mixed ripe, sweet papaya and firm banana tossed with some lemon juice and topped with sour cream. Sour, not sweet. And lemon juice is very important as it so totally combines with papaya.

To wash down all this, the only thing to do was to open the Rhododendron wine bottle which we had picked up from Manali a few months back.

I had really really hectic last two weeks. Cooking this meal was so soothing for the nerves. Wolfing it down  had such happy heady feeling. My head was swimming- I don’t know whether that was the wine or the curry.