The weather has definitely gone cold here and I can feel Winter fast approaching. Well, with the way temperatures have gone south, it already feels like Winter. These days, it is almost like we have only 2 seasons these days - summer and winter, whatever happened to spring and fall, I wonder! All I want to do these days is to snuggle on the couch with a throw thrown over me and vegetate like a couch potato. For a Wintery day, what is better than having lip-smacking good, peppery rasam!
Rasam is a light lentil-tamarind-tomato based South Indian dish that can be eaten as is like a soup or with rice accompanied with pappadum or a dry veggie side-dish. Rasam is usually a sour dish and its sourness mainly comes from tomato with a little help from tamarind or lemon. Rasam is the go-to dish when you are under a bout of cold or fever, as it is not as lentil-heavy as sambhar and very soothing for the throat.
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I love reading books. Period. There used to be a time when I would finish a book start to finish in one-go and couldn’t wait to finish to start the next one. These days my reading habit (as well as other personal traits) has changed, and I seem to be reading two and sometimes even three books at a time. It is a great wonder that all these books don’t become one huge mish-mash in my head 
Cooking is my passion and one of the reasons why this blog exists. When I heard about this blog event, I knew I could not give it a miss. The book of the month was Serving Crazy with Curry by Amulya Malladi; the fact that I was reading the book when the event got announced was an amazing coincidence. I picked up this book from the library after hearing about this book from a dear friend of mine.
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First off, apologies for not posting regularly for a while - there are phases in your life, when the mundane everyday grind takes control of your life so much that you have little time for anything else - even for things that you enjoy doing. The last couple or may be even three weeks was such a period in my life. Hope this doesn’t happen again and thanks a ton for all those folks who dropped a note to check on me. I am really touched. I am back (and hopefully, with a bang ).
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Tofu, a food that resembles paneer or cheese, is formed by curdling soy milk with a coagulant, usually edible gypsum or nigari. Tofu has been in use from 200 B.C. when a zealous cook stumbled upon tofu by chance when he added nigari (magnesium chloride, found in ocean water) to flavor the soy milk. This reminded me of the origin of dulce de leche - seems to me that a lot of tasty foods were created more by accident than design
Tofu is available in soft(silken) and firm varieties. Soft tofu is easy to blend, and is used in a lot of vegan desserts and soups, whereas firm tofu retains shapes well, and is used in stir-fry, grilling and baking. Tofu is rich in protein, and hence a good source of protein for vegetarians and more so for vegans. It is also widely believed that the spread of Buddhism, which preached strict vegetarianism helped the spread and popularity of tofu. The health benefits of tofu are enormous, including but not limited to its cardiovascular protection and anti-cancer properties. While there are a lot of benefits to tofu, it contains goitrogens which interfere with the functioning of thyroid glands. You might want to go easy on tofu, if you have (or suspect) thyroid issues.
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We are a set of 4 desis in almost adjacent houses, and we meet on various occassions, at the drop of a hat - if there is none, we create one. To cut a long story short, we have forged great friendships over the years and I am really grateful for having such great friends/neighbors. Couple of weeks ago, we decided to meet for a farewell dinner for my friend’s mom who was visiting them from Chennai. It was my turn to host and I decided on the cuisine and menu too - it was to be Chinese, or rather Desi-chinese - every true-blooded Desi that I know loves Desi-chinese and am yet to find one who doesn’t. This was to be a potluck pary and Gobi Manchurian, Chilli Paneer, Hakka Noodles and Veg. Fried Rice were on the menu. I chose to make Chilli Paneer.
This dish, a deadly combination of paneer cooked in desi-chinese style, is something that I have always liked and wanted to make. This party provided the perfect opportunity to try it out. Tarla Dalal has a great recipe for chilli paneer and I also found Sig’s Chilli Chicken recipe quite interesting. I kind of married the two and made my own recipe - don’t we all do that?
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Last Friday was Karadayar Nombu. Thanks to Bollywood, its North-Indian cousin, Karwa Chauth is much more popular. Karadayar Nombu typically falls at the cusp of tamil month of Maasi and Panguni and can fall at any time during the day - be it the dead of the night or right during the middle of the day. Thankfully, this year the Gods were smiling and it was right in the morning.
For me, the best part of the Nombu is the prasadam. Sweet (vella) adai is made as the offering for this nombu, and I wonder, why we don’t make this on other days! To compliment the sweet adai, a savory (Kaara) adai is also usually prepared, and as I had family over for dinner I made pidi kozhukattai with Rosematta rice as well.
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Chakkarai Pongal (Sweet Pongal) is a rice-dal based sweet dish, that is more of a snack than a dessert. It is made of rice similar to the payasam, but has the consistency of khichdi and is made using jaggery. Venn Pongal (White Pongal) has the same basic ingredient as the sweet pongal, but is its savory partner. Venn Pongal is a very popular tiffin/snack in South India. Of all the dishes that I know (or rather I can think of as I am typing this), Venn & Chakkari Pongal are two dishes that go well as a pair - a sweet one to balance the savory one.
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