Chocolate Pancakes - Some Mardi gras Indulgence!

The post is obviously late, for Mardi gras was two days ago! But, how can I post a recipe before I have experimented it out and what better day to indulge on pancakes than Shrove Tuesday? 

With Lent, the annual period of penance, vow and fasting, around the corner, traditional Christians change gears to consume simpler meals, adopt vegetarianism (or at least abstinence from red meat) and spend a considerable part of the days in praying for forgiveness and reflecting on the sacrifice of Christ for redeeming humankind. So, in a final attempt to stock up on fats and other gastronomic delicacies, before the commencement of the 40 day fasting period on Ash Wednesday, they have a ball of a time finishing up all the rich and fatty food-stuff at home. The celebrations reach a pinnacle of Shrove Tuesday, the day preceding the Lenten season, variously known as Pancake day, Fat Tuesday and Mardi gras. 

The association of pancakes with this Christian celebration goes back to medieval Ireland, a country with a sizable Catholic population, where some clever bakers made it a practice to clean out their larders and pantries of eggs, milk and butter by making stacks and stacks of pancakes on Fat Tuesday and inviting customers to have a go. The tradition stuck on and today, it is not a surprise for people to be more aware of Pancake day than Shrove Tuesday. Pancake races are held at various locations in the commonwealth countries and people eat the delicacy by the tonne. 

So last Tuesday, with true Lenten spirit, in an attempt to follow the 40 day fatty-food-abstinence for spirituo-vanity reasons, I thought I should whip up some pancakes too. And what followed was several rounds of soft-fluffy pancakes and 8 hours of sound sleep!

CHOCOLATE PANCAKES (Makes 8-10 Pancakes)
Set-up Time : 10 minutes

Experiment Run-Time : 3 minutes per pancake

The Shopping List

          Set 1: Dry ingredients
          Wheat Flour : 3/4 cup
          All Purpose Flour : 1/2 Cup

          Cocoa Powder : 4 tsp
          Ground Cinnamon : 1/2 tsp
          Baking Powder : 1.5 tsp
          Brown Sugar : 1 Tbsp
          Salt : a pinch
          Vanilla Essence : 1 tsp
          Fresh Ground Flax Seeds : 1 Tbsp

          

          Set 2: Wet Ingredients

          Milk : 1 cup
          Yoghurt : 2 Tbsp
          Vanilla Essence : a few drops

Methodology

1. Place all the dry ingredients (except the flax seeds) in a mixing bowl and with a whisk or with your fingers, mix them together until they are well-combined.

2. Add the yoghurt and slowly add the milk, gently whisking as you do so. Add sufficient milk to form a batter of pouring consistency. When you let the batter drop from a ladle, it should fall in ribbons.

3. Before giving a final whisk, add the vanilla essence and the flax seeds. Mix one last time to evenly distribute the final ingredients.

4. Place a non-stick skillet on the stove and when sufficiently hot drop a half cup of batter at the center of the skillet. If the batter was made right, it would spread just a little to give a pancake of about 5 inches diameter.

5. When you notice bubbles on the tops surface, flip the pancake and cook the other side for 30-45 seconds. Remove from the skillet and stack it up one on top of the other. Serve hot.

Stacks with Caramel Ice cream

I had my pancakes in short-stacks of three with chocolate syrup, powdered sugar and whipped cream. For the cream, I sort of lost patience when it took nearly 15 minutes of whisking cream to form peaks, but the effort was so worth it. Some of the batter even survived for the next day, when I made myself a couple of pancakes and topped them with my oh-this-is-unbelievable homemade caramel ice cream. You could also try it with some fresh berries, yogurt or honey. So much for my Lenten fast.

Apple Raspberry Crumble - scrumptiously crunchy!

This weekend was what I would call to be a very productive one. I managed to catch up with a dozen episodes of some of my favorite serials, read some boring journal articles and designed an experiment, slept for 8 hours every day and yet found time to make ice cream, lunch, dinner and finally, the crowning glory of the weekend - the apple raspberry crumble.

I love crumbles, and the best one that I had sampled was made with homemade blackberry preserves and was served with a dollop of blackberry ice cream at an inn at Mammoth Caves, KY. It was F.A.N.T.A.S.T.I.C! I knew that I was never going to be able to recreate that magic at home, but ever since that, I wanted to bake my own crumble.

It was a normal Sunday evening, and my room mate, as always, had slept throughout the previous night, the morning, and the afternoon. So, when he presented his scraggly self to the kitchen, random-room-mate-talk turned towards how the apples that he had bought did not live up to his sophisticated standards. Given that, and my mind's immense capability to see a dessert in everything and everything in a dessert, it took all but two seconds to decide what I was going to do with the final few hours of my weekend - get down to make that dream crumble!

APPLE RASPBERRY CRUMBLE (Serves 9-10)
Set-up Time : 15-20 minutes

Experiment Run-Time : 30 Minutes of Baking 

The Shopping List

          Set 1: For the Finger-Licking Filling
          Apples, Any kind : 4 large

          Raspberries : 1 cup, I used frozen
          Ground Cinnamon : 1/2 tsp
          Granulated Sugar : 2 Tbsp
          Lemon juice : 1 Tbsp
          Vanilla Essence : 1 tsp

          

          Set 2: For the Crunchy Topping

          All-Purpose Flour : 1 cup
          Salted Butter : 1/2 cup
          Brown Sugar/ White Sugar : 1/2 cup
          Oats : 1/2 cup (I used maple-brown sugar flavor from Kroger)
          Corn flakes : 1/3 cup (Any other cereal would do)
          Baking Powder : 1 tsp

Methodology

1. Preheat the oven to 400 °F

2. If using frozen raspberries, give them 20-30 minutes to thaw out before you put them into the filling. 

3. Peel the apples. Core them, if you have an apple corer. Else, cut them into small pieces, taking care to dispose of the stem and the seeded portions. 

4. In a large pot, place the apples, the ground cinnamon, the sugar, lemon juice and vanilla essence. Add 2 Tbsp of cold water and gently mix the ingredients so that the apples are evenly coated.

5. Cover the pot and place it on the stove. Cook the apples on medium-high heat for around 15 minutes until they are soft and gooey. Cool the filling for about 15-20 minutes. I just put mine in the freezer for 10 minutes.

6. In a separate mixing bowl, place together all the ingredients in Set 2. Now, using your fingers, mix the ingredients together, incorporating the butter into the mixture, while breaking down the corn flakes and oats into smaller particles. This is easily, the best part. In about a minute, you should have a crumbly mixture in the bowl, that is just as good when eaten raw as it is when baked!

7. Grease an 8X8 baking pan with butter and carefully empty the cooled apple mixture into the pan. Distribute the raspberries evenly among the apple filling.

8.  Once the filling is evenly laid, start sprinkling the crumbly topping mixture over the apples and raspberries. The given measurements are sufficient to make a quarter-inch deep topping. If required, gently even out the topping with your fingers.

9. Place it in the oven and bake for 30 minutes until golden brown on top. I broiled the crumble for the last 3-4 minutes. You should just about be able to see the fruit juices bubbling away at the sides.

10. Remove from the oven and cool it on the rack for 10-15 minutes before you launch your attack.

I had never baked a crumble before, but this was unbelievably simple and fool-proof. Even a middle-schooler would be able to whip up this delicacy in no time. Even my eternally-sleepy room-mate was all awake and alert, and watched on with rapt attention as I mixed up the topping. I guess there is something in a dessert that awakens the sleeping soul - mind, body, tongue and all! So, at midnight, on a Sunday, we sat down to enjoy the fruits of our labor (yes, staring at the food being prepared is labor enough for my roomie). We topped the warm crumble with the caramel ice cream (recipe coming soon) that I had whipped up yesterday, and I am still trying to recollect what followed that!

Chemmeen Thenga Paal Curry - when Malabar beckons!

I am NOT a fish person. I was not even a meat person. Until a few years back, I was happy and contended with curd rice and fried  bhindi while my family feasted on Karuvaadu (pickled dried fish), Kaadai (a game bird) and the choicest of parts from a well fed goat. I even went on a successful stint of vegetarianism for two-and-a-half years, something that my mother still regrets. Of course, there were times (not during my veg stint) when I never turned down any noble soul who fed me sumptuous Chicken Biriyani or Aatu Kaal Paaya. But I am NOT a fish person. I had never ever ever fallen for seafood, until I visited my cousins in Kerala on the pretext of needing a quiet place to prepare for my GRE. They lived in a very peaceful neighborhood in Ernakulam and I got all the calmness that the world could give. But I also got hot, freshly cooked Kerala Saapaadu with plenty of puttu, kadala, pulisseri, meen, chemmeen and kozhi. I never bothered about the fish, but the the rest were truly out of the world! Coconut or no-coconut, the Malayalis know how to live life king-sized (atleast at the dining table) and I was living it every single day. That trip opened a lot of doors. My GREs went well, I got hooked onto Malayali food and when I landed up in the US, I decided that I had to make my own, if I ever had to experience those king-sized meals again.

So, a couple of weeks ago, when I opened my freezer to see a packet of frozen shrimps staring down at me, I decided that the time was right to recreate some of the magic. Chemmeen or prawns are easily the best part of their cuisine. I am sure that most of the Malayalis would object and take the side of Neimeen and Matthi (types of fish) or Erachi (beef), but since I eat neither, to me the pinnacle of their non-vegetarian gastronomic experience is the Chemmeen. Put together with the unanimous flag-bearer of  Kerala's kitchens, Cocos Nucifera, commonly known as the coconut, it makes a dish so irresistible, that to me, life's journey would be quite be flavorless if one had not succumbed to this. Presenting, a marriage truly solemnized in the heavens - Chemmeen Thernga Paal Curry (shrimps cooked in spicy coconut milk).

CHEMMEEN THENGA PAAL CURRY (Serves 4-5)
Set-up Time : 10 minutes excluding shrimp thawing time

Experiment Run-Time : 30 Minutes

The Shopping List

          Set 1: Knife-Skills
          Onion : 1 large, sliced thinly

          Green Chilies : 4, slit lengthwise
          Ginger : 1 inch, finely minced

          

          Set 2: For the Gravy

          Shrimps (frozen/fresh) - 500 gms 
          (I used one bag of frozen shrimps - 31-40 count)
          Tomato paste : 3 Tbsp or 2 fresh Tomatoes finely chopped
          Turmeric Powder : 1/2 tsp
          Red Chili Powder : 1/2 Tbsp 

          Coriander Powder : 1 Tbsp 
          Tamarind Paste : 1/2 tsp 
          (1/4 tsp if you manage to get authentic Kudampuli*)
          Thick Coconut Milk : 1 cup 
          (or use 1 cup dried coconut ground to a paste with 1/4 cup water)
          Coconut Oil : 2 Tbsp (I use good old Parachute!)
          Salt : as per taste

          

          Set 3: Thaalippu

          Mustard Seeds : 1 tsp
          Fenugreek Seeds : 1/2 tsp
          Curry Leaves : a strand

* Kudampuli, more commonly known as the Brindleberry or Malabar tamarind or Gambooge, is a fruit that grows on the south-west coast of India and is often used in Malabar cuisine to spike up the sourness in dishes. Like other such exotic condiments, it does impart its own unique taste to the dish, however, it can easily be replaced with tamarind if not available.

Methodology

1. If using frozen shrimp, make sure you leave it out at room temperature for a sufficient time to thaw out. Once it is thawed, depending on where you bought them, you may need to clean the shrimps, remove the exoskeleton, and relieve the gut from the shrimp. Rinse multiple times in cold water and keep aside.

2. In a deep pan, add the coconut oil and heat it on a stove. When the oil's aroma reaches your nose, add the mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds and curry leaves.

3. As the curry leaves start crackling, tip in the sliced onions, slit green chilies and minced ginger. Cook on a medium flame until the onions turn transparent. 

4. At this stage, add the spice powders, stirring the onions continuously so as not to burn the powders. Follow them with the tomato paste and a half cup of water (Omit the water if using fresh tomatoes). Continue to stir until the mixture thickens a bit and the raw smell of the tomatoes disappears. 

5. Dissolve the tamarind paste in 1/4 cup of water and add it to the mixture. Let it come to a vigorous boil.

6. Carefully add the cleaned shrimps to the pan followed with some salt. Reduce the flame and allow the shrimps to cook in the gravy. Shrimps cook fairly fast and hence 6-7 minutes should be sufficient.

7. Finally, pour in the coconut milk/ coconut paste and mix it well. Add water, as required, to attain the desired consistency. When the curry is just on the verge of boiling, turn off the heat. Overheating, especially with coconut milk as an ingredient, may spoil the taste of the dish.

8. If desired, fry a few curry leaves in coconut oil and pour it over the curry for garnish.

I ate my Chemmeen Thenga Paal Curry with hot white rice and Malabar Parotta last week. The parotta-curry combination was especially nostalgic, rekindling the memories of some of my days at Ernakulam. And it refrigerates very well too, though I would not recommend it for a second day's lunch back home in baking-hot Chennai (the sub-zero temperatures, here in Cincinnati, makes it impossible for food to spoil quickly). A word of advice : do not skip or scrimp on the coconut oil. Canola/ Vegetable/Peanut oils don't even come close. Also, use the larger shrimps for a better sense of taste (31-40 count is pretty good). Other than that, you are welcome to add your own tweaks on the recipe. And, I kinda lied when I said that I am NOT a fish person : I loved their Karimeen Polichathu (but just that). But that story still has time to be told!

Reminiscing Chennai # 1 - Egg Puffs

     
Ask any guy or girl who had had the opportunity to enjoy life as a Chennai-based high-school kid in the  90's and early 2000 era, and some of their best memories are bound to include roadside bakeries where they had shared hot tea, cakes and egg puffs with their friends with some equally hot high-school gossip after the schools closed for the day (But of course, there are bound to be some outliers who shot straight from school to IIT classes, followed by AIEEE/AIMS classes and a dozen different tuition centers, to whom the bakeries were nearly nonexistent). The tea usually contained enough sugar to keep your pancreas working hard for the next 16 hours and the puffs were sufficiently spicy to ask for another helping of the tea. And when you get back home, the sugar-high tries to keep you awake while the buttery puffs coax you to go to bed and the whole evening passes in a daze of formulae, force-diagrams, conversion reactions and irritating botany.

Six years later, after 4 years of college and 2 years of graduate school, one girl studying at the University of Cincinnati, probably yearning for one of those dazed evenings, demands her friends that the only gifts that she required for her birthday were some egg puffs and some chicken biriyani among other equally simple requests. A year later, on her birthday, we succeeded in fulfilling her yearning for egg puffs and all it took was a mere 45 minutes.   

Making egg-puffs at home is a simple task, a cake walk if I may. The real pain in making puffs is the preparation of the puff-pastry, which involves folding and refolding the dough a hundred times and consumes butter by the tons, not to forget the workout that your arms are bound to get. But, these days, ready-made frozen puff-pastry sheets are available in the freezer-sections of your day-to-day supermarkets and once you stock up on a couple of packets, it is pretty easy to bake puffs of your choice and slip back into the old times while you bite into one of them, albeit with the latest article on Multi-Phase Flow from the Journal of Fluid Mechanics in your other hand!

EGG PUFFS (Serves 12)

Set-up Time : 5 minutes excluding sheet thawing time

Experiment Run-Time : 45 Minutes

The Shopping List

          Set 1: From the Supermarket (Walmart works!)

          Pepperidge Farms Puff Pastry sheets - I packet of 2 sheets

          Set 2: The Stuffing

          Eggs : 6 large

          Onion : 1 large, cut lengthwise into thin strands 

          Tomato paste : 3 Tbsp or 2 fresh Tomatoes finely chopped

          Ginger Garlic Paste : 1 Tbsp

          Red Chili Powder : 1/2 Tbsp (0.75 Tbsp if you like it spicy)

          Coriander Powder : 1 Tbsp (1.5 Tbsp for the spicy version)

          Cumin Powder : 1.5 tsp

          Garam Masala/ Kitchen King : 1.5 tsp

          Vegetable Oil : 1 Tbsp

          Pepper Powder : 1 tsp

          Salt : As required 

Methodology

1. Take out the frozen puff pastry sheets from the package and thaw them separately for one hour at room temperature.

2. Boil the eggs in water for 20 minutes. Cool them, peel the shells and cut them into halves. Try to keep the cuts pretty so that there is an equal amount of yolk in both the halves. Spread them on a plate, cut side up and sprinkle them with a generous amount of salt and pepper. Keep the egg-halves aside aside.

3. We are now going to make a basic onion-tomato masala for the stuffing. Place a kadai on the stove with some oil and once it heats up, add the ginger-garlic paste to the hot oil. Sauté gently as the paste sizzles in the kadai.

4. Once the raw smell of the paste disappears, add the sliced onions and continue to fry until the onions are near translucent. 

5. One by one, add the dry masala powders except the Garam Masala/ Kitchen King, to the onions, incorporating them well with the mixture. Follow it immediately with the tomato paste, half a cup of water and salt. (If using fresh tomatoes, omit the water and sauté them until the tomatoes becomes mushy).

6. When the mixture thickens, add the Garam Masala/ Kitchen King and mix it well. Continue to heat it on a low flame until it reaches a solid consistency. Cool the mixture for a few minutes. 

7. Preheat the oven to 400 °F.

8. As the masala cools off, transfer the thawed pastry sheets to a well floured surface and open them out. Cut each sheet into six rectangles and space them evenly on the surface

9. Divide the cooled masala into 12 generous portions and with a spoon coated with oil, place one portion on the center of each divided puff pastry sheet. 

10. Quickly press one egg half onto each masala bed, cut side down, and as shown below, bring the diagonally opposite edges of the puff pastry sheet over the eggs, fastening them together with a little water.

11. Once you are done with all the 12 portions, transfer the puffs to a greased cookie sheet or baking tray and carefully place them in the oven. You may also bake them in two separate batches if you are not able to do do it all at once.

12. Bake the puffs for 20 minutes or so until they rise up nicely and turn golden-brown on the top. 

13. Take them out of the oven (with mittens of course) and transfer them to serving plates. Serve hot with ketchup if desired.

     
The puffs were a great hit at her birthday party (given that there were only six of us). I tried it again, later for a Christmas-Eve lunch and found that the magic still held. They disappeared within no time and I did not get a single bite. Ever since, I have continued to bake a  single puff for myself whenever I felt the need to sink my teeth into one. Like I said, they make filling evening snacks on a day when you have nothing more to do than stare at your lab notes!

Batata Poha - timeless Maratha favorite

   
My association with Poha is almost as old as my relationship with Cincinnati. A room-mate of mine used to make it so often that it often made me wonder about the charm that it beheld to its loyal followers. I tasted it often, but my unforgiving southern tongue failed to register anything below a five-figure Scoville index, until I decided to take matters into my own hands. A dash of chili powder and a few extra green chilies were all that it took to turn my heart around, completely. Today, Poha has a permanent place on my very cluttered kitchen shelf, fighting for its rightful place among tall jars of dals, rava, countless masala powders and rice. I use it ever so often, not only for preparing its famous namesake, but also for a variety of kheers, sweets and laddus (yes, laddus!). 

  

Poha is a favorite breakfast item in traditional Gujarathi and Marathi households and needless to say, some of the best versions of Poha that I had come across came from tiny kitchens and roadside restaurants in Shirdi and Pune. They are a delight with each mouthful, filling and still manage to score high on the health index (or so continue to I believe). My own Poha recipes keep changing with my mood. Sometimes I add fresh vegetables like peas and carrots, while often, when I am running short of time, it is just the plain old version with zero additional frills. The spices I use keep changing, as do the ways in which the veggies are cooked. However, the spirit remains the same as also the does the feeling of eating something so simple yet elegant. The recipe below is what came out of my mind on a lazy Sunday afternoon, when my room-mate had just strolled into the kitchen, hair tousled and eyes partially open, with hopes of piping hot food.

BATATA POHA (Serves 2-3)
Set-up Time : 15 minutes

Experiment Run-Time : 15 Minutes

The Shopping List

          Set 1: Soak-Together
          Thick Poha/Aval (Flattened Rice) : 2 cups

          Water : 3 cups

          Set 2: Chop-Chop

          Onion :1 medium, cut lengthwise- medium thick strands 

          Green Chilies : 5, cut into rounds

          Potato : 1 big or 2 small, cut into half-inch cubes

          

          Set 3: The Flavorings
          Mustard Seeds : 1 tsp
          Cumin Seeds : 1 tsp

          Red Chilies : 2, broken

          Curry Leaves : a strand or two
          Turmeric Powder : 1 tsp
          Red Chili Powder : 1/2 tsp
          Coriander Powder : 1 tsp
          Lemon Juice : 2 Tbsp
          Roasted Peanuts : a fistful or as much as you like

          Vegetable Oil : 2 Tbsp + 2 Tbsp

          Salt : Adjust according to taste 

Methodology

1. Soak together the ingredients in Set 1 for 15 minutes or until the Poha has absorbed most of the water. Drain and keep aside.

2. In a shallow pan, pour 2 Tbsp of oil and once it is heated, carefully add the potato cubes. Sprinkle with salt, red chili powder and coriander powder. and sauté the potatoes until they are evenly coated with the powders. Continue to cook them on the pan, turning the pieces occasionally, until all of them achieve a uniform roasted-brown shade. Transfer to a paper-towel lined plate and keep aside.

3. In a deeper pan, pour in the remaining oil. When it reaches its smoking point, throw in the mustard seeds, cumin seeds, red chilies and curry leaves and allow them to start popping. At this stage, add the chopped onions, green chilies and slat and cook on until the onions achieve a transparent appearance.

4. Its now about time to give the fried potatoes a good pat with paper towels, to remove excess oil, and transfer them to the cooking pan.

5. Very carefully, add the soaked Poha, a little at a time, interspersed with quick strokes from your wooden spatula to mix them together. Try not to break the Poha as you stir the mixture together. Any residual water in the Poha will evaporate in the first few minutes. So, make sure to turn the heat off when all the water evaporates, else the Poha may burn.

6. Just before transferring to a serving dish, sprinkle the Poha with lemon juice and peanuts. Give a quick toss or two to distribute the added ingredients and serve immediately.

     
Hot Poha is real good, but so is the one that I eat at school during lunch, after it has remained in my box for a couple of hours. I love to pair it up with some crunchy snacks like chips, kurkure and the likes. I have also tried it with raitha, chutney and pickle and it has never let me down. Looks like the possible combinations are limitless in number, and I am going to try them all, even if it takes me to the end of eternity.

Cauliflower Pepper Roast - for those wintry afternoons!

   
Winter is a terrible, terrible time for those who are not used to it. There are periods of sleep, followed by long periods of depression, winter-morning blues, sneezes, cough, cold and headaches. Yearning for hot, home-cooked meals, loaded with chilies, pepper and turmeric, increases exponentially with the onset of December. Your's truly is no exception to this, except that I gather up that last ounce of strength and determination to drag myself from under that incredibly comfortable plush throw to put together a meal that is delightful enough to drive away all the problems at hand and creates wonderful hallucinations of crowded Chennai streets, a sweaty mid-day sun, and hot pakodas on a warm rainy day! 

One such expedition to the kitchen on a lazy winter Saturday afternoon, resulted in the creation of this piece de resistance, Cauliflower Pepper Roast. What started off as a quest to make chicken chukka roast and hot spicy Rasam, gave way to this even better Vegetarian version of the chukka and some flavorful quick dal, just because my freezer was devoid of chicken! One of my friends, had a lick of the cauliflower and asked, "Do you have some rum or whiskey? Semma sidedish!", and was greeted with my version of a raised eyebrow (essentially a frown!). And it took all of 30 minutes for the dal and the roast, together. Beat that!

CAULIFLOWER PEPPER ROAST (Serves 3)

Set-up Time : 5 minutes

Experiment Run-Time : 15 Minutes

The Shopping List

          Set 1: Spice-Mix
          Whole Black Pepper : 1.5 Tbsp

          Cumin Seeds : 1 Tbsp

          Set 2: Chop-Chop

          Onion :1 medium, cut lengthwise -  medium thick strands 

          Green/Red/Yellow Peppers : 1, cut into squares

          Cauliflower : 1 small, florets separated (or frozen ones)

          

          Set 3: The Flavorings

          Red Chilies : 2, broken

          Curry Leaves : a strand or two

          Vegetable Oil : Sufficient to roast the veggies

          Salt : Adjust according to taste 

Methodology

1. Place the cauliflower florets in a microwave-safe bowl along with 3 Tbsp of water. Cover and microwave on high for 4-5 minutes until fairly cooked. If using the frozen version, follow the instructions on the packet. Allow it to cool and pat the florets dry with a paper-towel. Keep it aside.

2. Now, the peppercorns and cumin seeds have to be made into a coarse powder. You may use a spice-grinder or a blender, if you own one, and grind them together, but it is important to control the final size. To get a complete experience out of the dish, it is essential that the powder is sufficiently coarse. I prefer to use the mortar and pestle, grandma-style to patiently pound the spices until I achieve the desired powder texture.

3. Heat the oil in a deep frying pan and throw in the red chilies and curry leaves once it is sufficiently hot. The onions go in next and are to be sautéd until they are halfway done. 

4. Add the pepper-cumin spice powder, that has been prepared, to the onions and after a quick sauté, tip in the cut green peppers. Continue to fry gently until they are almost cooked. 

5. It is now time to add the cauliflower into the pan. Make sure to stir thoroughly, so that the florets are evenly coated with the spices. You may end the preparation here, after an additional 2 minutes of frying, or you may continue to fry until the florets start to disintegrate. I am more inclined towards the latter, as it gives time for the masala to form a fine roast which goes along very well with my beloved Thacchu Mammam! 

     
It is necessary for the roast to be served hot, for otherwise it loses it's winter magic. Try pairing it with a simple dal and some steamed rice. My favorite accompaniment is a mild Rasam that does not dominate the peppery taste of the roast. Or as my friend suggested, you are welcome to open a bottle of your best liquor and have a go!

A peppery winter cure

Ksheerannam - Heaven in every spoonful!

    
So, as it happens in every grad's life, I hit the sack at 4 AM last night. A look at the cellphone through heavy eyelids, a few seconds later, showed the time to be 10:27 AM. Panic! It was Pongal and I had a class at 1:30, a meeting with my adviser at 3 (which requires a minimum two hours of self-pep talk) and I had to make Pongal and offer it to the Sun, before noon. But when I hot the shower, a minute later, my mind refused to think about the class, the assignments, my adviser or the related pep-talk. It was rather going over the various varieties of Pongals that one could make on such a short notice. "Sakkara Pongal (duh.. you made Akkaara Adisal three days ago), Ven Pongal (Add an extra 30 minutes for Sambhar!), Kalkandu Pongal (Now, where do I get sugar candy at this time?)... Paal Pongal (Ingredients : check, eligibility for pooja : check, Time : ?)

Nevertheless, 5 minutes later (yes, a bath can be THAT short!), I was pouring milk into the vessel, getting ready to make Paal Pongal, also called Ksheerannam (Rice with milk) or Paramaannam (Food of the Gods). What started out as an effort to make it to college on time, went on for 75 minutes, gave time for 30 minutes of self-pep talk, and ended with a terrific meeting with my adviser (Oh, I gave him some of the Ksheerannam too :D). But its taste just about made my day!

Ksheerannam is technically more popular in Andhra than Tamil Nadu, and is often made on festive days throughout the year. But it acquires special significance on Sankranthi. To many traditional farmers, this would be the first meal with the newly harvested rice, and their dutiful wives make sure to prepare it with a taste that lingers on their tongues all the way into the next year! Let's celebrate the spirits of these farmers, their farm animals and their aides, for providing us with the choicest of produce all year long. Happy Pongal, once again!

KSHEERANNAM (Serves 6)
Set-up Time : -

Experiment Run-Time : 75 Minutes

The Shopping List

           Raw Rice : 1/2 cup, washed and drained

           Saffron : 1 generous pinch

           Whole Milk : 6 cups

           Ghee : 1 Tbsp

           Cashews : 10, broken in half

           Condensed Milk : 3 Tbsp

           Sugar : 4 Tbsp

Methodology

1. You would need one vessel with a heavy-bottom to boil the milk without burning it. After much looking around the kitchen, I settled for a Prstige Pressure cooker. Rinse it well with soap and hot water, and place it on the stove. Once dry, pour the entire 6 cups of milk and add the saffron. Allow the milk to come to a boil.

2. When the milk starts to boil, add the rice to the boiling milk. The boiling will subside for a few minutes, until it begins again with a renewed zest.

3. Reduce the flame and star stirring the mixture in a gentle sweeping motion. You are going to be doing this for the next 45 minutes, continuously, without batting an eyelid. The milk will gradually start to thicken and the rice will take on a creamy appearance. Your are nearly done when the the mixture comes to a near-solid appearance. Switch off the stove.

4. When the mixture is still hot, add the sugar and the condensed milk and stir well. Transfer it to the offering-dish.

5. Top it off with the cashews that have been lightly fried in ghee. It's all yours now to dig in!

Naivedhya!

If desired, one may refrain from adding the saffron, cashews, sugar and condensed milk, and add salt instead. Also called Paal Pongal/ Uppu Pongal, this is what is made in many Tamil farmer households, further south, on Pongal day. They eat it with a spicy gravy called Kanu Koottu and the combination is known to be on par with the sweet version.    

Ksheerannam is equally delightful when served hot or cold. I offered it at pooja (No, I didn't go out in the -4 degree weather to offer it to Surya! I just asked Him to come inside and have some) and finished off my share in the blink of an eye (time was running), when it was still steaming hot. UN-BEL-IEVABLE!