I worked for publishing companies for many, many years either as a proofreader, a translator, or an editor. So my eyes have been used and abused for years… Once I started working with computers I noticed a decrease in vision and had to start using glasses. Luckily, I am married to an Ayurvedic practitioner and have the luxury of receiving an Ayurvedic therapy called Netra Basti, which is an absolute blessing for my eyes, whenever I feel like I need some healing in that area.

I received one yesterday, after many days of staring at the computer non-stop, and I felt so good that I decided to share a little bit about it here. Netra Basti is, basically, a therapy for eye rejuvenation that can actually prevent many eye diseases and problems. Yet it is so profoundly healing that it goes beyond the eyes (perhaps because the eyes are so closely connected to the nervous system, the brain, and the third eye?). Every time I get one I feel so relaxed and clear and sleep so deeply that it is obvious that not only my eyes get rejuvenated in the process, but my mind receives its benefits as well!

Netra Basti Applied to One Eye

This Ayurvedic therapy consists in bathing each eye with warm ghee (clarified butter) or medicated oil for 15-20 minutes. It may seem weird to have your eyes bathed in oil or ghee, but the warm liquid feels really good  and after a while you don’t even feel anything at all. I usually tear profusely from the eye that is not being bathed, which seems to be the way the eyes gets cleared and cleansed, and sometimes a lot of post-nasal mucus comes down, too, which helps to decongest the area.

Since after the Netra Basti is over it is best to just relax and close the eyes, I usually have it done when I don’t have much to do afterwards, so I can stay home and close my eyes if I want to, which tends to be the case for me. I certainly don’t go fix my eyes on jewelry, or stare at the computer after a Netra Basti!

I just wanted to briefly share this wonderful therapy that is so good for the eyes and also for the mind!

Those folks over at Not Dabbling in Normal posted this which discusses making butter and ghee at home. There are also links to the author’s blog, Chiot’s Run with step-by-step how-to guides. The ghee is meant to be a (partial) replacement for non-local olive oil, I believe, but I think it better replaces other vegetable oils like canola, etc, due to the higher smoke point. I wonder if it’s a good choice for deep frying?

The NDiN post also mentions using milk that had soured a bit to make a quick pressed cheese. I love this frugal tip! It makes me think of my grandfather (who grew up in England during the 30’s and 40’s) saying “use it up!”

I’ve been thinking a lot about dairy products lately, as well as the pros and cons of trying raw milk. Many of my favorite sustainable, frugal, local food blogs talk about buying local raw milk. However, these writers are American, and are thus choosing not to use a very different kind of milk than what is sold in Canada. For example, my cousin, who is very into the Slow Food movement, says Canadian milk does not contain antibiotics. I’ve only her word to go on at this point, as I haven’t researched either the Canadian or the American mainstream commercial product, but it’s certainly food for thought. This site from California has some raw milk facts.

The idea of healthy, raw, local milk is somewhat appealing, however, it is illegal(!) to sell it in British Columbia. Home on the Range has a creative solution; interested individuals can buy a “share” in the herd and hire an “agister” (“one who takes care of cattle for a fee”) and then pay a weekly “maintenance” fee. I love the political subversion of this, which is likely more common than just in BC, as the NDiN post mentions doing the same thing in Ohio, as does this Globe and Mail article about an Ontario farm.

One share is $17.50/week for a gallon of milk. That’s $910/year, plus the share price. If I want butter or cream, it’s an additional $8, for 8 or 16 oz., respectively. $8 for half a pound?! That’s at least $8/week, or $416/year, plus extra when I bake, so maybe another $100/year. Right now I pay about $4 to $4.50/lb for conventional butter and less than $3/litre of half and half (10% m.f.) cream. However, since this is about baby-steps, instead of freaking myself out looking at costs per year, I could always start low-key, with a quarter share, for $50 and $5/week for a quart of milk. That’s $260/year, or $22/month.

The jury’s still out on this one, but I think it’s time to give yogurt a try. Maybe also look into soft cheeses, and purchasing the necessary cultures.

Thanks to Gordon Watson for sending this in to The Bovine. It’s from the Vancouver Observer:

Butter and Ghee and Cheese, oh my! Picture from Vancouver Observer

In the beginning, Tomas Hicks, founder of the Urban Ashram, was simply moved by the urge to understand the process of how things are made. He picked up a book, Wild Fermentation, experimented with making yogurt, moved on to Ghee, and from there began creating his own cheese. Once a month, the kitchen of the Urban Ashram and his home is turned into a dairy processing area in order to initiate newbies to the process.

The Urban Ashram is just what its name connotes—an ashram run out of the living room of Tomas Hicks’ residence where yoga classes, silent retreats, natural food workshops and kirtan are held regularly.  The ashram offers an opportunity for the local community to meet and gather in an intimate and comfortable setting in order to nurture connections to the earth and to each other which are often lacking in urban landscapes.  Part of this process is gaining an understanding of our food sources and how to prepare them on our own.  Last week I was fortunate enough to have this experience for myself as I participated in Tomas’ dairy workshop.

Got Milk?

As the six participants gathered around the kitchen of Urban Ashram, Tomas introduced us to raw milk and started us out by lightly skimming the cream off the top of the milk.  He then set us to churning in the simplest way possible: one takes a jar and one shakes the bejeezes out of it remarkably resulting in freshly churned unsalted butter and butter milk.  Dairy demystified indeed.  At this point I began to feel a little sheepish about my lack of knowledge of dairy products.

He next demonstrated two different ways of creating cheese—one from simply adding vinegar to boiling milk and the other from adding rennet.  After being drained, the vinegar batch resulted in soft, slightly salty cheese curds that could later be pressed into blocks to form panneer (the fresh cheese added to Indian dishes) or simply eaten as is.  The batch produced from rennet, on the other hand, what was known as “hard cheese,” was suspended in a cheese cloth to drip to readiness.

Ghee-lish

All this was already very impressive to us dairy novitiates.  As if that weren’t enough, Tomas set about showing us how to create Ghee (clarified butter).  Because Ghee does not need to be refrigerated, it retains its soft creamy texture and packs a more intense flavour than butter.  Clarified butter also does not need to be refrigerated and has a higher smoking point than butter and thus can be heated to very high temperatures.

One of the highlights of the workshop was one of Tomas’ own concoctions, something he calls Ghee-lish.  Picture mixing organic dark chocolate and butter together to form a soft, smooth velvety spread.  Ghee-lish spreads beautifully on bread and melts in your mouth with a rich nutty flavour.  I know it sounds like Nutella, but trust me, it’s actually much more “Ghee-lish.”

Whey cool

An exceptional feature of this workshop is that Tomas demonstrates how simple it is to ensure that nothing in the dairy making process is wasted, down to the milk solids collected while clarifying butter.  The butter and the resulting buttermilk were used to produce a batch of fresh scones. He then showed us how the whey that resulted from making cheese could be turned into an incredibly palatable soup, simply by adding chopped beets and potatoes.

Whey was a product that I had never encountered, except perhaps in one of the Little House on the Prairie novels in which Ma teaches the girls to make cheese.  For me at least, whey has been an astonishing discovery.  Tomas explained that the whey could be used for many different functions such as for fermenting fruits and vegetables or for creating ricotta cheese.  After experimenting at home, I have found that using whey instead of chicken stock imparts a slightly tangy, cheesy flavour and lends a pleasant golden hue to dishes.

I must say that after going through this experience, a visit to the dairy aisle of the grocery story where everything is neatly packaged and labeled will never be the same for me.   Part of the demystification process is that it instills in one a sense of appreciation for the vast quantity of milk that goes into cheese making and an awareness of the effort that goes into making dairy products.   Personally, it has given me a sense of ownership over a food source that has remained a mystery for most of my life.  Imagine, just a few days ago I made cream cheese from scratch; and just like that, rather than being the conclusion of the process, I became a part of it.

Cristina Peralejo

The Urban Ashram Specs

Where?

2290 Saint George Street Vancouver  (buzz 2290)
Tel. 604 708 9058
e-mail: farmertomas@gmail.com

What?

The natural food classes include dairy products as well as how to make fermented fruits and vegetables. Three classes will be run by Chef Chris Fletcher involving pastry, pizza and chocolate.

Once again, this is from The Vancouver Observer

Chicken Tikka Masala

Hey look, it’s everyone’s favourite British culinary creation. That’s right, tikka masala keeps showing up in Indian restaurants, but it’s not a traditional Indian-style curry. For one thing, the sauce is made almost entirely of tomatoes. There’s a very good reason tomatoes haven’t appeared in Indian cuisine until more recently: the tomato is native to South America. Since “The Americas” weren’t “discovered” yet, no one else in the world had any access to the tomato until the Spanish brought it back to Europe around 1500 or so, and from there it slowly spread across the globe (the Middle East didn’t start cultivation until around the 18th century).  An interesting side note: Italy only began incorporating the tomato into it’s cuisine somewhere around the 16th-18th centuries; the now-ubiquitous tomato sauce is relatively new to Italian cuisine. Stew on that for a while.

So, chicken tikka masala? It is commonly accepted to have been invented in the UK (Glasgow maybe) and if I was picky, I’d say it’s almost fusion, but mostly it’s still a product of Indian culinary techniques and traditions.

We’re going to use a similar process that we’ve used previously in the chicken korma recipe (again, notice the similarities in curry procedures) with a three stage process: marinading and roasting the meat, then preparing the sauce and finally combining the two and merging the flavours into one absurdly tasty meal. How tasty? Come on, we’re talking about slow-simmered tomato sauce loaded with ginger and onion and ghee, flavoured and coloured with rich, roasted aromatic spices like cinnamon, cumin, black cardamom, and kashmiri chili powder. Then we add the secret ingredient, kasoori methi or dried fenugreek leaves, which provides a distinctive aroma reminiscent of Indian kitchens and curry shops. If that wasn’t ridiculous enough, then we smooth out the sauce with a splash of whipping cream (I just heard some people fainting), sweeten it with honey, and top it with fresh cilantro for one of the most flavour-packed dishes you may ever taste.

And did I mention we’re going to marinate the chicken pieces in yogurt, ginger, garlic and tandoori masala first? We are not fooling around with this one. This isn’t a hard dish to make by any stretch, but it will consume a lot of time. We’re talking about 1.5 hours of cooking time after the chicken is finished marinading (for which I always recommend a full day). Sounds absurd, right? Well, it’s not a weekday meal, but if you want to do something special for yourself (or someone else), this is it.

Marinade Ingredients:

• package of chicken thighs (6), each thigh cut into 2-4 large chunks
• 1/2 cup thick yogurt (I use Greek-style)
• 2 or 3 tsp tandoori masala
• 1 tsp kosher or coarse salt
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 inch knob of ginger, peeled and finely chopped

Marinade Directions:

1. In a medium-sized glass bowl, add the yogurt.
2. Measure and add all the spices, salt, garlic and ginger. Stir them into the yogurt until all the spices are evenly distributed.
3. Add the chicken chunks and stir them to make sure each piece is covered completely with the spiced yogurt.
4. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and store in the fridge for 2 hours minimum, or 1 day preferably.

Sauce Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp ghee
• 2 inch knob of ginger, finely chopped
• 1 can (800 ml or approx.) chopped tomato, do not discard the water
• 1-2 tbsp ghee
• 1 sliced onion (cut it in half, then slice each half thinly to produce strips shaped like “C”s)
• 1 tsp kasoori methi (dried fenugreek leaves – these could be omitted, but you will lose a distinct flavour/scent quality of the dish)
• 1 tsp garam masala (try this one)
• 1 tsp kashmiri chili powder (or just regular chili powder if you aren’t stocking this)
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1-2 tbsp honey (roughly somewhere between 1 and 2 tbsp; it’s your preference)
• 1/4 cup whipping cream
• cilantro leaves to garnish

Serve with: naan, basmati rice

What you will need: 8 medium-sized bamboo skewers for the chicken, broiler sheet or baking sheet, large saute pan and wooden spoon, medium-sized bowl, paper towels, measuring cups and spoons, knife and cutting board

Directions:

1. Heat the first tbsp of ghee in a your large saute pan over medium heat (4 on my dial).
2. Once the ghee is melted and hot, add the chopped ginger, and fry it for about 2 minutes, until the ginger becomes fragrant.
3. Pour in the entire can of tomatoes, juices and all, into the pan. Stir to combine the ginger into the tomato sauce and keep the heat at medium until the tomatoes begin to bubble. Then turn to heat to low (1 on my dial) and simmer the tomato sauce for about 30 minutes. Why so long? Because we’re breaking down the tomato chunks into a sauce. Pureed tomato is still raw-tasting, but slow-cooked whole tomato will break down into a sweet, flavourful sauce.
4. While the tomato sauce begins to simmer, turn on your broiler to 500 F – we’re going to cook the chicken pieces while we wait. Ideally, we’d BBQ the chicken skewers properly. There’s really no replacing charcoal-flavour, or tandoor oven flavour, but we’ll make do.
5. Pull the chicken out of the fridge and thread several chunks onto each bamboo skewer. Whatever yogurt marinade is left, save it in the bowl for later. Space them out on the broiler sheet and start roasting the chicken. Broil the chicken until the edges turn dark brown and crispy and then turn over and do the other side. This will take maybe 10 minutes per side, but don’t time it exactly. Just keep an eye on them and make sure they don’t burn and they’re cooked all the way through (no pink on the inside – cut one of the larger pieces in half to check this)
6. While the chicken is finishing give the tomato sauce a stir or two to let it know you’re still paying attention and that you care.
7. Once the chicken is done, removed from the oven and cooling, and your sauce has been simmering for at least 30 minutes, transfer the tomato sauce out of the pan and into a bowl. With a few paper towels, give the pan a quick wipe to remove any little bits of tomato and excess oils. You want a clean plan because we’re going to fry onions next.
8. Put the pan back on the fire and turn the heat up to medium (4-5 on my dial) and melt the next 1-2 tbsp of ghee into the pan.
9. Add the chopped onion and fry it, stirring a few times, until the edges become lightly browned and the onion is softened somewhat. This will take a few minutes, 2 or 3.
10. When the onion is done, pour the tomato sauce back into the pan. What? Why did we remove it just for the onion? Because we wanted to fry the onions properly, not just let them get soft in a bath of hot tomato; browning things makes them taste better. The heat’s on medium, so the tomato sauce should start bubbling again in a few minutes. Lower the heat back down to 1 or 2 again.
11. Add the spices (kasoori methi, garam masala, and chili powder), salt and honey to the sauce. Allow the sauce to simmer for 20-30 more minutes. Why so long? Because we’re allowing the spices to flavour the sauce thoroughly.
12. Once the sauce is infused with flavour (seriously, try a little bit for yourself – it may even taste a bit too intense but it’s ok because) we’re going to add the whipping cream. The cream will take the edge off the spices and provide a richer texture to the tomatoes. Give it a few stirs and then let it simmer. Allow 4-5 minutes for this.
13. Now, slide the  chicken chunks off the skewers and into the sauce. Assuming you saved the excess marinade from the chicken bowl, add that too and stir it all together. It’s all extra flavour. Give the dish about 10 minutes to get the chicken back up to a nice temperature.
14. Transfer the curry to a serving bowl and topped it with a handful of shredded cilantro.

Phew. Ridiculous, right? Like I said, it’s not an everyday type of thing, but I’ve made it about 4-5 times and it’s always rewarding. That said, I think the actual cooking being done here is very simple. There’s only a few ingredients that require attention, the rest is simply stirring and simmering. Lengthy, but ultimately quite user-friendly (there’s several periods where you can leave the kitchen for 20 minutes and relax or mix yourself a stiff drink). The upside, if great food isn’t an upside enough, is that the results are pretty impressive relative to the effort required; a combination of a few unique ingredients with some old familiar ones yields a dish with a smell and taste most people don’t think they can achieve at home.

Make it Vegan

I like this dish so much, I’m going to suggest a way for vegans to enjoy it as well. Much of the flavour comes from vegan-friendly ingredients: ginger, tomato, whole spices, etc. so a vegan-version would stand up quite well I think.

Substitutions:

• vegetable oil for ghee (or, if you have it, coconut oil)
• plain soy yogurt for yogurt (or simply omit the yogurt altogether, and marinate in garlic, ginger and spices only)
• for the chicken, try: fried cauliflower (this is already a dish: Gobi Tikka Masala, but do not add the yogurt to the marinade if you go this route, and you may want to bread the cauliflower lightly with chickpea or rice flour), grilled tempeh, paneer cubes, or regular tofu. All of these could easily be marinated in the same spice mixture.
• brown sugar for honey (if you’re the kind of vegan who thinks eating honey is like stealing from bees)
• coconut cream for whipping cream

Suggested name for this: Tofikka Masala

Mark’s Daily Apple, my favorite Paleo/Primal blog, ran a terrific post on edible oils yesterday, here. Mark Sisson, the author, asked for comments on readers’ favorite edible oils and I passed on my coconut ghee recipe, a synergistic blend of two fabulous fats: coconut oil and clarified butter or ghee. Mark said he’d never heard of it. So I’m passing on the details here. [UPDATE: Mark did a post on coconut ghee and kindly cited me, here.]

I first learned about making ghee and clarified butter from either the Weston A. Price Foundation or from Sally Fallon Morell’s cookbook Nourishing Traditions. (Of course it’s much more than a cookbook, it’s a paradigm-shifting nutrition course and political manifesto, disguised as a cookbook.) Eventually I tried making clarified butter myself. Nothing could be simpler: Melt butter, skim off the skin that forms on top, pour it through a cheesecloth to strain, and leave behind the solids at the bottom of the pan. Clarified butter lasts longer and has a higher smoke point than regular butter.

As usual, when I get really interested in a topic, I read everything I can get my hands on about it, and then I make it complicated. I did that with ghee, except that it never got all that complicated, and along the way I got the idea to combine it with coconut oil and found I had come up with the perfect cooking fat. It’s neutral but not tasteless. In fact it’s so yummy you’ll want to eat it straight. (Go ahead!)
Some background: ghee is the Indian variation on clarified butter and considered a sacred food in that ancient culture. Clarifying butter is the simple process of removing the water and protein from butterfat. The resulting pure butterfat is less likely to burn and keeps longer without refrigeration as you’ve removed the proteins (whey and casein) and water. What makes it ghee instead of simply clarified butter is cooking it longer and at higher temperature. Why would you do that? According to Harold McGee, author of On Food and Cooking, once the water is evaporated from melted butter, you raise the temperature to brown the milk solids (proteins), which adds flavor and “generates antioxidant compounds that delay the onset of rancidity.” Wow!

The first time I grasped the possibilities of ghee was last summer when I was making it for the first time in awhile. I was trying to do too many different things at once, as usual, and the melting butter got too hot and started to burn. I turned off the store, let the butter cool while I did something else, forgot about it, then it got hard so I couldn’t filter out the solids. So I reheated it. Got too hot again, so I cooled it again. I may have even gone a third round. Now I’m not sure exactly which part of this process was the key step, but the resulting ghee had the most irresistible caramel fragrance and taste. It was out of this world.

I can’t even remember whether I added coconut oil to that particular batch but I have done so ever since. I haven’t been able to exactly recreate the taste of that almost-burned batch of ghee, but I believe Harold McGee when he says the additional cooking of the melted butter flavors the ghee and creates antioxidants.

The basic procedure:
In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, melt a pound or two of top-quality unsalted butter, from pastured cows if at all possible. McGee says it should be heated to 190 degrees Fahrenheit (90C) but I never measure the temperature; just don’t do this on high heat—low to medium-low should suffice. Leave the lid off your saucepan because you want the water to evaporate. If you’re new to this, don’t heat it too high and keep your eye on things so it doesn’t burn. The whey protein will rise to the top and the butter will bubble and froth for awhile. A thin skin will form on the top as the whey dries out.

When the bubbling stops, you’ll notice that the remaining milk solids (mainly casein protein) will have dropped to the bottom of the pan. You can now skim the top and pour the pure butter oil off the solids. Strain through a cheesecloth laid over a metal strainer if you like into clean jars. You’ve now clarified butter! To make it ghee, once the water is evaporated, raise the temperature to 250 degrees F. To brown the milk solids a bit. You’ll still strain them off as above, but not before they’ve left a tantalizing taste and scent and those valuable antioxidants.

According to McGee, the solids from the bottom of your pan are saved to make sweets in India. They taste great on popcorn, vegetables, or simply eaten with a spoon! Or if you’re sensitive to casein, feed it to your dogs; they’ll think they’re in heaven. (My solution to all food disposal problems is compost it or dogify it.)

To turn your clarified butter or ghee into coconut ghee, fill each jar only about half to two-thirds full. Spoon coconut oil (room temperature is fine, whether liquid or solid) into the warm ghee to nearly fill your jar (be careful not to overfill or you’ll waste precious oil). Stir from time to time as the coconut oil melts and blends with the ghee. When the coconut oil is liquified, screw the lid on tight and shake the jar vigorously to blend the oils. Let cool on the counter or in the refrigerator. Shake occasionally during the cooling to make sure the mixture stays blended until it solidifies.

You can refrigerate your coconut ghee or store at room temperature. It should stay good for months unless your kitchen is extremely hot, and then it will still be good for a long time but it may melt. I have not tested the limits of how long it will last, because I eat it up so fast. I use coconut ghee as my basic cooking fat. You can combine with other oils such as olive oil, you can spread it on crackers, you can lick it off your fingers. It works for both savory and sweet dishes, much like butter, and is a good way to incorporate more coconut oil into your diet if you don’t like a coconutty taste on everything. It won’t taste like coconut. It’s not exactly like butter or regular ghee either. It’s perfect.

For further reading (and to check my facts):
On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, by Harold McGee, pp 36-37. He writes a New York Times column and a blog called The Curious Cook.
Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient, With Recipes, by Jennifer McLagan, pp 23-25. She also wrote Bones: Recipes, History, and Lore, which I’m dying to read.

Today, I want to make a chickpea dish and decided that Chana Masala was the way to go. I looked at a few recipes and it seems that most of them use ghee as the base fat. I love ghee and didn’t have any in the house, so I decided to make some. I happen to have lots of butter leftover from my baking days. No cookies for me lately. I’m trying to eat food with more nutritional value.

I didn’t realize how easy it is to make ghee. All you need to do is gradually heat up any amount of unsalted butter (organic is preferable) and let it sputter and bubble for about 10-15 minutes. Remove the foamy white stuff at the top and then pour it into a glass jar. Voila! You have ghee.

It got me thinking about ayurveda.

According to classical Indian medicine, ghee is a wonder substance. It aids in digestion. It reaches deep into the body’s cells and can be used as a carrier of medicine. Uncooked, raw honey has a similar ability and is often used in ayurvedic medicine as a carrier.

http://www.amritaveda.com/learning/articles/ghee.asp –  The amazing properties of ghee and its uses.

http://www.boloji.com/ayurveda/av045.htm – Honey and its magical qualities.

Its funny, Israel is often called the land of milk and honey…it just goes to show that there is a connection between the two. Even though, I heard that the honey its referring to is actually date honey or silan. Which is full of sugar and doesn’t affect the body in the same way. But it is an interesting coincidence.

Maghe sankranti is a Nepalese festival observed in the month of January on the first day of the month of Magh, bringing an end to the ill-omened month of Poush when all religious ceremonies are forbidden. On this day, the sun leaves its southernmost position and takes off for its northward journey, so Maghe Sankranti is similar to solstice festivals in many other traditions.People take Holy Bathing in this festival and auspicious foods like laddoo, ghee, sweet potatoes etc are distributed. Mother of the house wishes good health to all family members. According to Mahabharata, king Bhisma, who had the power to control his own death, happened to choose to die on the day of Maghe Sakranti. Therefore it is believed that one to die on this day might achieve Moksha, a release from rebirth cycle.

Thanks to Mike and Aimee for the photo.

Chapati

Bread is one of my top-5 loves in life. I can’t even quite explain it, but there’s something about it. Flaky, soft, fluffy, dense, crusty, sweet, salty - bread can be just about anything you need it to be. It’s the perfect lover. Four lines in, and I’ve already reached my hyperbole quota. Anyway, bread is good but it’s hard to make. Chapati is not.

Chapati has only two required ingredients: water and flour. Most people are going to put a bit of salt in there, though, so now we have three ingredients. No big deal. Oh wait. I’m going to throw a wrinkle in this: atta flour. This is the great thing about Toronto – we have access to authentic ingredients. Some of them are even available quite readily. I don’t think people take advantage of this fact often enough, but then, I came from a small town where getting Indian food was never an option, let alone an idea. Honestly, some Torontonians just don’t realize how good they’ve had it with all the amazing culinary ideas and supplies brought to the city via immigrant communities. Back to the point, though: atta flour. Atta flour is the main flour used for many Indian flatbreads. It’s whole wheat, made from hard wheat, and is high in protein and fibre (lots of bran). So it’s healthy. Better yet, the stone-grinding process used to make it generally imparts a subtle roasted sweetness to the flour, so it’s got a flavour of it’s own. Tasty.

The problem is, where to get it?

I purchased a medium-sized package of Golden Temple-brand (under the umbrella of Robin Hood, actually) atta flour at Loblaws at St. Clair and Bathurst. That  store has a relatively well-stocked international section though; other Loblaws may not have it. Whenever you’re looking for Indian ingredients though, Gerrard St. will never let you down. My favourite store there is B.J. Supermarket. In addition to regular-sized bags, they have extremely large bags of the same Golden Temple-brand atta flour (like 2 feet high). Probably because in actual South Asian homes, they go through a lot more of this flour that I ever would.

You could substitute whole-wheat flour for atta, I suppose, but why, when you don’t have to?

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of atta flour
• 1 tsp salt
• approximately 1 cup lukewarm water
• ghee, for brushing the breads (optional)

Serve with: curries, kebab, chutnies, etc

What you will need: measuring cups and spoons, medium-sized mixing bowl, rolling pin, large non-stick frying pan or skillet, spatula

Directions:

1. Measure the flour and salt into the mixing bowl.
2. Mix the flour and salt together as evenly as you can. Use a fork, or stir and sift the flour through your fingers if you’re feeling hardcore.
3. Pour in the water.
4. Using your fingers, gently move the flour through the water. It will naturally absorb the water, so you don’t have to smash it in there. Once most of the water is absorbed, start working the rest of the flour into the wet parts of the dough. You may need a little more water to do this, you can never really be too sure. You can sum up this whole step with: mix flour and water into a dough.
5. Here’s the part where you let the dough stand for 30 minutes. You don’t really have to, in my opinion, but I’ll let science explain why you might. Once you add water to flour, there’s a reaction between parts of the flour that forms gluten. Gluten makes your bread stretchy. If you let it sit for 30 minutes or longer, you’re allowing this reaction to happen for longer, which will make your dough elastic and much easier to roll out thin. You could let the dough sit for hours, even.
6. What a nerd-out that step was. Lame.
7. Put your non-stick pan or skillet on your burner and heat it up to medium-high heat (about 6 on my dial).
8. While it’s heating up, separate the dough into 8 roughly-equal pieces.
9. Roll each piece between your hands to make a smooth ball. This is like kindergarten, except this time you won’t be punished for eating the dough.
10. On a clean part of your countertop, lightly dust the surface with flour and roll the ball in it. Then use a rolling pin to roll out the dough into a disc about 5-7 inches wide (depends on the size of the ball, really) and as thin as you can (maybe about 1/3 cm if possible) adding flour as necessary to keep the dough from sticking to the counter.
11. That’s a chapati. Now toss it on the hot pan. No oil required.
12. Let it cook for about 10-15 seconds. The colour will change slightly, and small bubbles will start to form on the surface. Then flip the disc onto the other side.
13. Once the disc is flipped, using your spatula, press the edges of the chapati down lightly. What you’re trying to do here is force the air from the air bubbles towards the center. This will cause the chapati to inflate with hot air. If your chapati does not inflate, that’s ok too. It will pretty much taste the same, it will just be more dense.
14. Keep checking the side of the chapati that’s touching the pan. If there’s brown toasted circles marking it, the chapati is done on that side. Flip it over and cook the other side a bit more if you’d like.
15. Your chapati is done when: both sides have browned crispy parts (but not black or burnt). The disc itself should still be soft and flexible. Remove them to a plate or basket.
16. If you’d like, brush the finished chapati with ghee. Not a lot, just enough to lightly glaze the bread. If you don’t have a pastry brush (which you probably don’t) melt the ghee first, and then use a spoon to move the ghee around the surface of the bread.
17. Repeat the rolling and cooking process for the rest of the dough balls.
18. Enjoy fresh bread.

Fresh chapatis. Delicious. Enjoy them right away with vegetable or legume curries.  Or with meat.

The first of those names is what this dish was called in my parents’ home; but since saag is not a term a lot of people seem to know readily, I thought I’d like to call it the other two as well, since the base for this dish does come from the fairly standard onion-tomato-garlic-ginger-dry spices masala which is common to many curries.

I remember the first time Indira exclaimed  “I really like palak !” though both she and Noor have always eaten it without any fuss.

It was the day I had added, as I always saw my mother do, a teaspoon of ghee near the end of the cooking process.  The result is a quite delicious, special taste

Especially if one uses frozen spinach, this can be a quick and easy subzi to make.

This is what we’ll eat for dinner tonight, with varan, phulkas and some chicken curry for the girls – it is their first day back in school after the holidays so it is very likely they won’t have been pleased with whatever was on offer in the cantine for lunch

Palak Ka Saag

Well I am back a day later to add the recipe to this post. Before that though, I want to record that  I needn’t have worried about the girls’ school lunch yesterday at all !  It turned out there was steak hache and pasta on the menu so a very good meal was had by all prompting the girls to say

” Mama I missed you but I would not have wanted to come home today fro lunch because then I would have missed the steak !! ”

But they did justice to the chicken curry and spinach anyway, so I guess that’s okay
On to the “curried spinach” -

4 tablespoons of sunflower oil

400 grams of frozen spinach leaves

2 medium sized onions, chopped fine

2 medium sized tomatoes, chopped fine or 4-5 tablespoons of canned tomatoes pulp

1 or 1 and a 1/2 teaspoons each of ginger paste and garlic paste (or equivalent amounts of freshly grated ginger and garlic)

1/2 teaspoon each of turmeric powder, kashmiri chilli powder, coriander powder, garam masala powder

3 pods of green cardamom, cracked slightly

salt (about 1 and a 1/2 teaspoons, or to taste)

1 teaspoon of melted ghee

Defrost the spinach leaves. When they are at room temperature chop them fine  in a food processor.

In a large frying pan, heat the oil, then add the cardamom pods. When their aroma starts to be released, add the onions and fry till they start to go from a golden brown to a darker brown – but not longer than that. Add the ginger and garlic pastes, fry for a couple of minutes, then add the tomatoes (or pulp). Fry this mixture till the oil starts to appear on the sides. Add all the dry spices next and fry for a minute. Add the spinach now, season with salt, and cook, covered, till the leaves are soft enough. A minute before you take the pan off the fire, add the aforementioned teaspoon of ghee, and mix it in thoroughly for a sublime taste

Ingredients
Wheat flour
Rice flour
Jaggery
Cardamom powder
Water
Ghee

Get Cooking!
1. Crush the jaggery . Pour some boiling water to dissolve the jaggery completely. Filter and keep the jaggery water aside.
2. Take a mixture of wheat flour & rice flour (approximately in the ratio 4:1).
3. Mix the flour with the jaggery water taking care not to form lumps. The resulting batter must be a little more watery than dosa batter but not too watery
4. Add in the cardamom powder & mix well.
5. Heat the griddle. Pour a ladleful of the batter onto it like you would do when making a pancake. Do not spread the batter like you would for a normal dosa.
6. Cook till it is golden brown flipping it on both sides (like you would for a pancake), adding ghee if required.

Tips
You may add some grated coconut to the batter. If you find it difficult to take the dosa off the griddle, mix in a little more rice flour. I have added even soybean flour to the batter a few times, just find that it makes the dosa a wee bit bitter ( health vs taste? ) The amount of jaggery you use is again based on taste, sweeter you want the dosa, the more you add.

450grams of chicken

2 tablespoon of yoghurt

1 packet of Maggi Tandoori Mix

Ghee

1. Marinate 450grams of chicken with 2 tablespoon of yoghurt and 1 packet of Maggi Tandoori Mix.Mix well.(I usually prepare and put the mixture in the fridge at 9.00pm night before going to bed and bake it at 6.oo in the eveing the very next day.)

2. Prepare a baking dish covered with alumium foil (to prevent the chicken from sticking).

3. Place the marinated chicken on baking dish.

4. Place a small of amount of ghee on each of the chicken. (optional)

5. Preheat oven at 180′C (for fan type oven) and bake for 30 minutes or chicken turns into golden brown.

6. Serve with Instant Kraft Roti Canai (available in supermarkets -frozen division).

Bhatoora

As I mentioned in my Kheema post, the first time I had bhatoora was in an Indian shop in Singapore. Before then I had tasted several kinds of naan. Naan is pretty popular now in North America and is now manufactured by companies like President’s Choice and Dempster’s (don’t ever buy these if you’re craving Indian breads – they probably won’t taste the way you want them to) but India offers many kinds of breads that aren’t normally offered at buffet lines (which was, at the time, the only place I had ever had naan) and are not available commercially in most Western supermarkets including bhatoora, a fluffy, deep-fried bread served often with chana masala (spiced chickpeas).

The problem with making these at home, for me, is two-fold. One, I don’t have access to a restaurant-sized deep-fryer, so I could never produce bhatoora the same size (about 8-10 inches in length, 6-8 inches wide) as a restaurant would make. Two, I’ve never been very good with yeast. Here’s the thing – I love bread. No hyperbole. However, I have attempted to make many kinds of breads at home and mostly failed. Miserably. Even this recipe needed to be modified over several preparations to get something close to what I wanted. It is not the bhatoora you’ll find in a restaurant, but it’s quick, easy, and delicious with all kinds of ghee-laced curries. I’m removing the yeast and yeast-procedures in favour of baking powder, so there’s no waiting for dough to rise, etc but this also means the bhatoora won’t inflate like a balloon as it’s supposed to. But it’s close enough and will taste pretty much the same. Making the dough and dividing it into portions takes about the same time as the oil will take to get to frying temperature. What a happy coincidence.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups white bread flour (or all-purpose white flour)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 egg yolk (you do know how to separate eggs, right?)
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• 1 tbsp ghee, softened
• enough vegetable oil to cover the bottom of a wok with 1 1/2 – 2 inches of oil

Serve with: chana masala, kheema mattar

What you will need: wok or deep-frying pan, medium to large-sized mixing bowl, measuring cups and spoons, whisk, metal or wood tongs, paper-towel lined plate to drain the cooked breads

Directions:

1. Pour the oil for deep-frying into the wok and turn the burner to medium-high heat (around 6 on my dial usually does the trick)
2. In the mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, sugar, and baking powder. You’ll want to whisk this for a solid 20-30 seconds to make sure the ingredients are evenly distributed through the flour. The baking powder specifically, since baking powder is responsible for creating the fluffy air pockets in the cooked dough. Science tastes great.
3. Add the egg yolk and the yogurt and mix them into the dough using your hands. It doesn’t have to be mixed all the way through at this point – the yogurt isn’t moist enough to absorb all that flour, so on to the next step.
4. Start adding warm water 1 tbsp at a time and gently working the water into the flour with your hand. Continue doing this (it may take over 4 tbsp) until a light dough forms. This means there’s no more loose, dry flour in there (it’s all gotten damp with water) and it holds together in a little floury ball. This can be tricky for a dough-virgin, so go slow, don’t work the dough too hard, and try to have fun. If it all goes to hell, remember: there’s always next time.
5. Smear the softened ghee all over the dough. Then work the ghee into the dough with your fingers. This will make the dough ball pretty greasy, yellow and mushy, but also buttery and flavourful. After this is done, wash your hands. You’re all buttery.
6. On a clean countertop, sprinkle some loose flour onto the surface and put the dough ball on it. Separate the dough ball into 8 roughly equal-sized pieces. It doesn’t have to be perfect by any means. Then, with the palm of your hand, flatten the pieces one-by-one into rough disc shapes about 1/4 inch thick. You could using a rolling pin for this, but I prefer the rougher texture doing it by hand provides. If the dough becomes tacky while you’re doing this, dust it lightly with more flour and contine.
7. Once they’re flat, you’re ready to start deep-frying. The oil is hot by now (don’t leave it heating up longer than 15 minutes. If steps 1-6 feel like they’re taking longer than 15 minutes to finish, don’t turn the oil on at all. Wait until now to start heating the oil, and let the dough discs rest for that time) Remember that hot oil hurts a lot and that you should be really careful working anywhere near a wok full of oil that’s well within the temperature range to burn skin. Before you put the dough into the oil, try to remove any loose flour from the surface by brushing it with your hand. Loose flour will burn in the oil and you’ll end up with watery eyes and a burning sensation in about 10 minutes as the smoke circulates your kitchen.
8. Carefully slide the first bhatoora disc into the oil. Don’t just drop it, for shit’s sake. It will splash if you do that and then you’ll lose your face. Woks have angled sides, so use them. Slide it down the side into the oil.
9. These won’t take long to cook. No more than 2 minutes per side, and pull them out when both sides have browned bubbles on the surface and the edges are golden. Undercooking them is probably a bit better than overcooking them (which will dry the dough out completely), in this case. The oil will be hot enough to cook the egg almost instantly, so don’t worry about raw eggs, in any case.
10. Use the tongs to flip the discs when needed, and then remove the discs when they’re done. Put them on the plate to let the paper towels soak off the excess oil (use about 5 stacked paper towels for this)
11. Repeat until all the discs have been cooked. If they’re small you could probably do two at a time, but better safe than sorry, right?

Now you have fresh, fried Indian bread. Serve immediately with your curry.

AFLATOON – A Nourishing Winter Dessert

A Rare Baked Delight

By

VIKRAM KARVE

Here is a recipe for Aflatoon – a rich fortified sweet ideal for winter. Aflatoon is a rare baked delight.

Cooking is more a qualitative art, rather than a quantitative science.

The other day, a friend of ours dropped home a packet of scrumptious Dharwadi Pedhas.

My dear wife [who does not believe in the dictum: “There is no greater love than the love of eating”] promptly put them in the fridge and forgot about it.

Now what greater inanity can be there than consigning fresh soft flavorsome mellifluous Pedhas to harden up in some remote cold corner of the fridge?

So when I first discovered the packet of cold hard Pedhas lying hidden deep inside my fridge during one of my surreptitious midnight raids, when my better half was fast asleep, I was first miffed, then improvising, decided to soften them up in my microwave oven.

I put a piece of warm softened-up Pedha in my mouth – Lo and Behold! – The Dharwadi Pedha had metamorphosed into a Lal Peda.

Yes, it tasted like genuine Banarasi Lal Peda with its unique wholesome “crispy roasted milky taste”. Now that’s serendipity. I’ve searched for Lal Peda all over but nothing could match the authentic Lal Peda I used to enjoy near Sankat Mochan in Varanasi.

I love sweets – especially Indian Sweets – Pedhas, Barfis, Rosogulla, Gulab Jamun, Kala Jamun, Cham Cham, Sandesh, Jilebi, Imrati, Son Papdi, Mysore Pak, Petha, Mahim Halwa, Malpua, Karanji, Anarse, Chirote, Lavang Lata, Ladoos – you name it, I love it – and one of favorites is a superb wholesome treat called “Aflatoon”.

Now the only place I’ve had Aflatoon is on Mohammed Ali Road in Mumbai, at Suleman Mithaiwala near Minara Masjid, and I think also at Zam Zam a little distance down the road.

Aflatoon not only satisfies your sweet-tooth; it provides rich nourishment and is blissfully satiating too.

I’m in Pune now.

Like my search for Lal Peda, my search for Aflatoon also remained elusive, so I decided to improvise and hope for the best.

Now remember, My Dear Reader, I’m no great cook, nor am I a high-falutin connoisseur, nor a culinary expert; I’m just a simple down-to-earth trencherman, an avid foodie, so I asked around, searched around, explored, extrapolated, reverse-engineered, and here is what I improvised, a purely ingenious adventurous concocted experimental recipe.

[Try it at your own risk!].

First, with a fork, I thoroughly beat three fresh eggs till fluffy, added one cup [vati or katori] of sugar (add more if you like it sweeter) and then vigorously whisked away till all the sugar dissolved and the mixture was nice and fluffy.

I had already switched on my oven – yes, Aflatoon is a baked delight – one of the rare Indian sweets which are baked in an oven.

I rubbed pure ghee on the palms of my hands and kneaded half a kilo of fresh Khoya [khava, mawa made from buffalo milk] till it was slippery smooth.

Then I blended in and coalesced the Khoya into the feathery egg-sugar emulsion and whipped strongly with my hands till my wrists pained, and my biceps and triceps strained, and the khoya had fully dissolved and merged into the mélange and the fusion was complete, the rich blend velvety smooth.

Now in a plate, I mixed together one cup of rawa, half cup of maida, and a pinch of baking powder, and gently folded this mixture, spoon by spoon, into the egg-sugar-khoya amalgamation and robustly swirled and pasted the batter with my hands, till my hands got tired again and my muscles ached.

Here, there is no exact proportion of how much rawa- maida mixture is to be added to the batter; my hands tell me when to stop – later I can always add a bit as and when required to get the right baking consistency.

Now the interesting part – I lovingly blended in three katories or vaties [yes, three full cups – one cup per egg] of pure ghee and churned with my hands for a long time till the ghee fully dissolved into the delectable mixture, indiscernible.

Now here is the difference in sequence of ingredients – while baking a cake you start of with creaming the butter, than blend in the sugar, then eggs, then maida; here you start off with beating the eggs, then the sugar, the khoya, the rawa-maida flour, and now comes the pure ghee (clarified butter).

Hey, remember to lick your fingers from time to time and taste the delightful mélange at each stage and plus-minus the proportions accordingly.

Also, your fingers will tell you when the consistency is perfect.

That is why I never use mixers, blenders, juicers, measuring cups and all those hi-fi gadgets when preparing dough and batter for baked delights, or cooking dishes – I always rely on my own tongue to tell me the precise taste, use my hands to cream, blend, the concoction to the right consistency, improvise the ingredients and proportions accordingly – if you want to cook creatively, there is nothing to beat your own sensory perception, isn’t it?

And yes, don’t forget to use your nose too – food must be fragrant, appetizingly aromatic, besides looking deliciously mouthwatering and tempting to feel and touch!

Now I mixed in the spices – powdered jaiphal, dalchini, elaichi, lavang – and, while gently stirring with my hand, slowly poured in yummy thick creamy buffalo milk, about half a cup, till the consistency of the smooth paste becomes soft and silky, and ready for baking.

Remember to always have the rawa-maida flour ready in stand-by mode to even up the batter, if required.

Then I mix in kismis, manuka, crushed pasted khajur, squeezing my fingers.

Oh, just a minute, I thoroughly mix in a few drops of vanilla essence to make even the slightest trace of the smell of eggs go away.

Finally I embellish with crushed dry fruit like badam, pista, kaju etc.

I now pour in the rich creamy dough into pure-ghee greased baking trays and bake it in my conventional pre-heated oven at medium heat till the characteristic mouthwatering aroma wafts through the kitchen and the Aflatoons looked appetizingly brown.

With all the khoya, creamy milk and rich ingredients it sometimes takes almost an hour or so to be done. Time doesn’t matter, when cooking, as in eating, I like to be unhurried – the slower the cooking the tastier the food. I always like to keep the heat moderate and my senses, especially olfactory, alert.

The proof of the pudding is in the eating.

I was dying to sample the result of my culinary experiment, so I didn’t even wait till it cooled – Oh yes, it tasted wholesome, sumptuous, appetizing, good.

Just imagine if you fortify milk-cake with eggs, enrich it, spice it up, and roast it well – that’s the nearest I can describe how aflatoon tastes.

I wonder if aflatoon can be made by roasting it on a tawa instead of baking it!

I relished my homemade “aflatoon” – but then nothing can beat the original aflatoon for which I’ll have to head to Mumbai.

Till then, I’ll keep savoring these – I’m sure with all the pure ghee imbibed in them these aflatoons will last for days – provided I keep them hidden away from craving children and other insatiable trenchermen like me!

Dear Reader, and fellow Foodie – why don’t you too improvise, be creative, experiment, use your own ingredients and proportions, conjure up your very own aflatoon, savor it, try it out on your family and friends, and tell us all about it.

And if you happen to live in Mumbai, why take all this trouble – just go ahead and relish the original.

Happy Baking!

Dear Reader and Fellow Foodie: For more such appetizing dishes do read APPETITE FOR A STROLL, a treatise on The Art of Eating, Easy to Cook Recipes and Foodie Adventures in Pune and Mumbai.

Click the links below to know more about this delicious book:
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Food-for-soul/358363/#

http://books.sulekha.com/book/appetite-for-a-stroll/default.htm

http://www.indiaplaza.in/finalpage.aspx?storename=books&sku=9788190690096&ct=2

http://www.flipkart.com/appetite-stroll-vikram-karve/8190690094-gw23f9mr2o

Happy Eating

VIKRAM KARVE

Copyright © Vikram Karve 2009

Vikram Karve has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

http://vikramkarve.sulekha.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/karve

Appetite for a Stroll

vikramkarve@sify.com

http://books.sulekha.com/book/appetite-for-a-stroll/default.htm

Here is a delicious spin on the classic holiday crisp.  I’m making this unique crumble for our family Christmas celebration and I can’t wait for everyone to taste this gluten-free, dairy-free holiday dessert.

Don’t have enough of any one fruit to create a crisp?  Not to worry, simply peel and slice a combination of fresh pears, plums, apricots, nectarines or peaches.  Any combination will create a deliciously sweet crumble for your holiday guests.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cup sugar or stevia
• 3/4 cup GF Flour Mix
• 2 Tbsp. rice flour
• 1 tsp. dried orange peel
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 2 cups fresh rhubarb, sliced
• 2 cups fresh Rome apples, sliced

Topping

• 3/4 rice flour
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 6 Tbsp. ghee or butter substitute
• 3/4 cup rice bread crumbs or gluten free cereal
• Optional: Greek plain yogurt
• Optional: Agave nectar
• Optional: Fresh mint leaves

Directions

• Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
• Combine sugar or stevia, flours, orange peel, cinnamon and lemon juice in a small dish.  Mix this with the rhubarb slices and place into a shallow Pyrex 9 x 9 baking pan.
• For the topping, combine flour, sugar and salt.  Cut in the ghee or butter substitute.  Slowly add in bread crumbs.
• Sprinkle this mixture over rhubarb.
• Bake for 45-60 min or until lightly brown and cooked.
• Serve warm with a dollop of Greek plain yogurt, a drizzle of agave nectar and mint leaves.
• Enjoy!

Happy Holidays from The Healthy Apple!

Ghee

Ghee is a type of clarified butter. What is clarified butter? It’s regular unsalted butter that’s had all the milk solids and water removed. The butter you buy at the store is around 15% water, and you need to store it in the fridge because it will go rancid (it’s fridge-life is several months). Ghee is almost pure butterfat (no water, no milk proteins). The thing in butter that actually goes rancid are the milk solids and since they have been removed from the ghee, ghee can be stored safely for over half a year outside of the fridge (storing it in the fridge makes little or no difference depending who you ask). At room temperature it will be yellow and very soft. When heated, it’s clear. In the fridge it will be a lighter yellow and very solid (like cold butter but a bit more brittle).

Ghee is used for a lot of things, but all you need to know is that it functions like most other cooking fats and oils. You can put some in a frying pan and fry onions. You can brush it on oven breads. You can add it to rice, and so on.

A lot of Western recipes for Indian food that may have originally called for ghee to be used will ask for vegetable oil instead. I think this is because in most places, ghee is simply not available. In Toronto, however, this is not the case. Ghee can be found somewhat easily if you know where to look. For one thing, it won’t be stored in the dairy aisle. It will be with the cooking oils, or in the “international” sections of the store. I have found it in Loblaws, Metro, St. Lawrence Market and hey, there’s ghee in one of these photos from House of Spices in Kensington Market. You can also, obviously, find it just about everywhere in Gerrard St’s Little India (I love you BJ Supermarket). In short, it’s pretty easy to find, and it costs roughly the same, by weight, as butter does.

You can even make ghee yourself by slowly heating a pile of unsalted butter to about 250 F, cooking off all the water (into steam) and browning the milk solids. The solids will separate from the oil and settle on the bottom. Then you can spoon off the pure butterfat ghee into a jar, leaving the solids at the bottom of the pan. Let the ghee cool in the jar uncovered (so all steam has had a chance to escape / no water or condensation is trapped with the ghee, which will speed rancidity) then add the lid and store with your oils.

It’s not all good news, though. Ghee is basically solid saturated fat. So, if you care about things like that (you only live once, come on) you may want to space out the ghee-drenched cooking sessions a little bit.

The whole world celebrates birth days. We namboodiries observe shradh or death anniversary.

When we were living together, every month there will be some somebody’s shradh which we call chatham in Malayalam. The whole room where the ceremony is conducted has to be extra pure. Essentially it is feeding the dead man’s soul. All dishes are made in pure ghee, obtained from our cows’ milk. It is very tasty. A special dish is made by boiling sour curd and coconut gratings ground to a paste along with pepper. This pulisseri is a must and I like it. A namboodiri is invited to eat the food. He is given dakshina (money) too. After that we all eat.

Before that, a conical ball of rice mixed with ghee and black thil is given to a crow. If the crow eats it, we feel that the deceased person’s soul has eaten and is satisfied.

Now, the crow has disappeared from most villages.

On birth days, we simply make some better dishes. The hero is specially seated and offered food ceremoniously, with the “best man” seated on the right side.  As children we used to enjoy it.

Survived Day One and Zero on to Day 3.

Breakfast at Mamak stalls

Start your day with some light breakfast either in the hotel or by the streets, if you opt for the later keep an open eye for roadside stalls or mamak stalls. If you fail to locate any, then head on to Lorong Perak. This is not the greatest of mamak stalls, but I usually frequent these stalls prior to getting to work every morning back in Malaysia. Word of caution, mamak stalls can lack a little by hygene standards. Read all about it here. So approach with caution.

Batu Caves

After your breakfast. Hob onto a taxi and make your way to Batu Caves. It is rather unfortunate that you’ll be in KL in December and not 30 Jan as 30th Jan is Thaipusam. Nonetheless, it should not deter one from visiting the Batu Caves.

Spend some time exploring the area. By all means make your way up the stairs.

Lunch at Foong Foong Restaurant
613, Jalan 21. Off Jalan Merdeka in Ampang
One of my personal favourite Malaysian Chinese food is “Yong Tau Fu“. The best place to go for “Yong Tau Fu” has got to be the Foong Foong Restaurant. My understanding is that Yong Tau Fu are always stuffed with fish paste. However wikipedia suggests that it may also contain pork. So approach with caution with what you order.

Mid Valley Mega Mall

From Foong Foong restaurant, grab a taxi to the nearest Putra LRT station called Damai. You’ll be taking a pretty long LRT ride, so sit back relax and rest your legs. You want to get off at University Station. From University station, hob onto a taxi and head to Mid Valley Mega Mall. You’ll probably want to spend some time at the Mall. Catch a movie, shop around or eat more food.
Sri Paandi Banana Leaf rice
Section 11, Petaling Jaya, just off the road from Jalan Universiti.

Sri Paandi Restaurant is another of my favourites. Its and Indian restaurant that serves a variety of food. Their business acquisition skills are pretty agressive something that we could all learn i suppose.

If I were to go to Sri Paandi in the evenings, I would definitely go for the Banana Leaf rice. Alternatively, if you wish to have something light, try the Thosai. There are many variations of the Thosai. But my favourite by far is the “Ghee Thosai” as the name describes, Thosai with “lots” of Ghee. Works for me everytime. If you’re feeling a little health cautious, then go for the “Thosai Garing” which means extra crunchy Thosai. Or if you feel like having something sweet ask for the “Paper Thosai” you’ll be in for a pleasant surprise

Petaling Street

When you’re done with dinner, it’s time to head back. But before that make your way to “Petaling Street” otherwise known as “Chinatown”. You hop on a taxi or if you’re feeling adventurous, try the LRT again from Universiti station to Medan Tuanku Monorail (that’s the closest station to Petaling Street).

This is an excellent opportunity to get ripped-off. But heck that’s why we’re called tourist isn’t it? Anyway, but on your bargaining hat on and start negotiating.

Watch out for the roasted chestnuts stall dead at the center of Petaling Street. None of my trips to Petaling Street will be complete without the roasted chestnuts.