Sooper Cauliflower Oorgai

We went to visit a friend last night. When we got there, the couple (from Andhra) asked us to stay for dinner (actually they said, “You have to stay for dinner, or else you will have to take the food home!”), so we decided to stay.

At our friend’s house, we had cauliflower oorgai - it was all karam karam and soo yummy! I have never tried it before and to cut a long story short - loved it! Our friend was even kind enough to give me some to take home. It is good to be Indian sometimes :D

I asked her for the recipe and am now sharing it with you. I can’t wait to try making it myself! You could store it in the fridge for a few weeks atleast without worrying about it going off.

Ingredients
1 medium sized cauliflower
1 garlic (optional)
5-6 tsp chillipowder
Juice from 4-5 large lemons
Salt to taste
2 tablespoons fenugreek seeds (vendhiyam)
1 – 2 tsp mustard seeds

For tadka:
1-2 tablespoons oil
1tsp mustard seeds
Pinch of asafoetida (if you decide to not use the garlic, then you can use extra asafoetida)

Methods:
1) Cut the cauliflower into small florets.
2) Add the chilli powder and salt to the lemon juice
3) Add above to cauliflower
4) Fry the fenugreek seeds with a tsp of oil
5) Blend roasted fenugreek seeds and mustard seeds together into a fine powder.
6) Add above powder to the cauliflower soaking in lemon juice.
7) Fry the tadka items together (until the mustard seeds pop) and add to the pickle.

This pickle can be eaten immediately but will taste best after a day or two. You can adjust the lemons, chilli powder and salt to taste...


“An unexpected dinner with a friend,
lead me to this unique blend,
this spicy cauliflower pickle,
definitely made my taste buds tickle!”

Creamy Asparagus Pasta

This was something that I tried yesterday. I really like Asparagus, but coming from an Indian family, it wasn’t a vegetable my mum cooked with. So - I have been experimenting with my own recipes!

The last time I made a creamy pasta, Sudarshan and Divya hated it! Neither Sudarshan , nor Divya like the smell of milk / cream, so the pasta was a disaster. I ended up having to eat the same pasta for lunch for a whole week! I believe I learnt from that mistake and so I limited the cream, left out the milk and made sure to add plenty of spices this time!

Ingredients:

4-5 cups water
10 – 12 asparagus (the thickest part of the stalk removed)
2 cups pasta (Spirals / Penne or Shells)
½ cup thickened cream
1 tablespoon margarine
Salt (to taste)
1-2 teaspoon Chilli powder
1 teaspoon Thai Seasoning (you could substitute this for garam masala or morroccon seasoning I suppose...)
Fresh herbs (I used dill – but oregano, basil or even coriander would work)

Method:

1)In a big pot bring 4-5 cups of water to boil with a little salt. Adding salt to water ensures that the water boils at a higher temperature and so vegetables cook faster.
2)Place the asparagus in the water and boil for 5-6 minutes, until the asparagus (es?) turn a bright green and are just tender.
3)While the Asparagus is cooking, add the margarine and cream to a saucepan and simmer for a minute or two. Add a little salt.
4)Scoop out the cooked asparagus from the pot, add to the creamy sauce and allow the sauce to simmer for a minute or so with the asparagus.
5)Meanwhile, add the pasta to the water and allow it to cook.
6)While the pasta is cooking, blend the cream and asparagus together in a blender (pulse for a minute).
7)To the blended sauce, add the thai seasoning and chilli powder and simmer for another 1-2 minutes.
7)Remove excess water from the cooked pasta. Add the Asparagus / Cream sauce and mix well.
8)Turn off heat and dress with fresh herbs.
9)Serve warm

Both Sudarshan and I really liked it. Because the cream was boiled and with the addition of the asparagus, most of the “milky” smell was gone. Also, the chilli powder and thai seasoning, seemed to get rid of the “bland” taste that Sudarshan associates with any food that isn’t Indian!

Pasta served with asparagus and cream,
contributed to our overall dinner scheme.
For ‘Italian’ food to taste less bland,
Chilli and seasoning was added on demand!

Oats Conji

I was sitting with a colleague at work who was eating a rice based dish. I asked her what it was and she said, "We call it Con-ji in Chinese". I was quite surprised - that was the first time I learnt that Conji (or Kanji as we say it at home) is actually a staple food throughout Asia - not just South India (which is what I had always thought!).

Tradionally, I believe Conji to be a breakfast dish. My dad was served it on a Thai Airways flight once and he was quite surprised too. I guess a rice based porridge or soup is what you would tradionally call a Conji.

Since my first knowledge of this, I have heard it mentioned many times. It is one of those things that you are not aware of and suddenly as soon as you do become aware of it, there are references to it everywhere!

The following recipe is not one for tradional Conji - I tend to associate that with something to eat only when you are extremely ill! This recipe is more like a porridge. My mum used to make a whole 2L of this stuff in the morning for all of us when we were growing up. It is a healthy and filling breakfast drink. It is better for you than coffee and has less sugar than Milo or Juice. It has long been a staple at my parent's house.

I like to call it my very own "Protein Drink"!

Ingredients:

3 cups Oats
5-10 almonds
5 cashews
4-5 Elaichi (Cardamom) - alternatively, you can use 1/2 teaspoon of powdered cardamom)
1 tablespoon split peas (Odacha kadalai)
1 tablespoon barley (optional)

Dry roast all of the above and make into a fine powder.

For one cup of Kanji:

Dissolve 1 heaped tspoon of the powder in 2/3 of a cup of cold water.
Bring to boil on medium heat. Make sure to stir constantly!
Add 1/3 cup milk and little sugar to taste.

I make this every morning - I find the whole stirring process relaxing in the mornings. It makes me pause for about 5 minutes in an otherwise very hectic morning!

"Whether you call it Conji or Kanji,
it is surely beter than tea or coffee -
after a few moments to pause and think,
you will have made yourself a protein drink!"

Microwave Theratti Paal / Palgova

I love theratti paal! When I was away in Sweden on an exchange program, there was a time when I started to really crave sweets. I wanted a nice Indian sweet but didn’t know how to make anything :(

I spoke to my mum over the phone and she told me that I could easily make theratti paal in the microwave. She then told me that there was no way I could go wrong as it was a very simple recipe. However, when I tried it for the first time I somehow managed to burn it – and basically ended up with burnt milk lolly pop instead! I struggled but eventually I did eat it!

Some people make microwave theratti paal with sweetened condensed milk – however I find that to be a little too sweet. If you want to make it with sweetened condensed milk then you just need to substitute the milk powder, thickened cream and sugar in the following recipe for one can (~250mL) of sweetened condensed milk / milk maid. The method is otherwise the same as listed below.

I personally prefer the following recipe...

Ingredients:
2 cups milk powder
1 cup Thickened cream
½ cup sugar
Cashews – 20g
1 table-spoon of yoghurt
Pinch of cardamom (powder)
Vanilla Essence or few strands of Saffron soaked in 1tbspoon of hot water.

Method:
1)Mix all ingredients together in a microwave-safe cooking bowl.
2)Put in microwave for 2-3 minutes.
3)Take out of microwave and stir.
4)Continue to do the above till the mixture gets thick and reaches a nice consistency. Wait for the mixture to boil then remove from microwave. The whole thing should take about 10minutes.
5)Serve warm or chilled.

The only thing about this recipe is, YOU HAVE TO WATCH the mixture boil! If you decide to clean-up or turn your back for even a minute, your mixture will most likely boil over and you will have to clean your microwave. Trust me – I have started with enough mixture to feed 10 people, and have ended up with only enough for two people!

The above should make 4-6 fairly large servings.

Other notes:
1)You can use skim milk powder and reduced fat cream if you like. It just tastes better with full-fat stuff - to me, using the low fat alternatives is like ordering diet coke with a full-cheese pizza!
2)To know when the sweet is done, cook it till the mixture is no longer boiling over. This is just before it starts to burn. You can cook it till it just starts to brown if you like.

"I love this indian sweet,
it really is a treat!
Full-cream, low fat or skim,
it satisfies your saccharine whim!"

The First Serve...

Both my mum and grandma are fantastic cooks. I guess that is why I grew to the ripe old age of 23 and still didn’t know how to cook! I never saw the need to learn to cook. I hardly thought about cooking – food would just magically appear on the table (or in rare cases in my hand!) as and when I desired.

However, when I got married - things changed. While my husband is a fantastic cook (and I have no vekam in saying that!), I realised that it would be just a little bit unfair to expect my husband to cook for me EVERYDAY! Besides I am usually home before him and am absolutely staaaarving from the minute I enter the house!

So, I started cooking.

Food and stories go together for me. Some of my earliest memories are of being told stories while being fed "pappu mammu". There is almost always a reason why I cook things the way I cook them. I thought that it would be fun to write these stories and at the same time, share some of the recipes given to me by my mum / grandma / mother-in-law / aunties / friends etc...

All the above seem to have culminated to form this – a blog for all Saapattu Raamans and Saapattu Vidyas out there who love food but never really learnt to cook!

An Explanatory Note:

Why Kari Masala?

When I first started blogging my blog was called “Kari Masala”. It was supposed to portray all the “masala” that formed the spice of my life – granted that it was maybe a little trite! Having said that - "Kari Masala" has remained my all time favourite name for a blog – and when I decided to start a “Food Blog”, I had to call it this!