Myriad Musings

Mom's really happy with me right now. I finally took the humongous tiffen box she gave me on a picnic and I even cooked everything that went into it! What you see here are the remnants from the picnic, I had no time to take a picture before we left. We decided to go to Thiruvalangadu and Tiruttani on Sunday ( decided on Saturday, left on Sunday actually).  Since we couldn't bear to part from the twins until 11 pm on Sat and then drove home, I got up only at 6.30 on Sunday.  So we didnt leave until 9.30 (original plan 8 am).  Even that only because Sathish got both the kids up and ready.  I made upma kozhakattai for dad's breakfast, cheese sandwich for Gau, jam sandwich for ashu and baked potatoes to fatten gau up.  I made awesome thengai saatham with a wonderful twist, tomato rice, curd rice sans fruits, raisins and nuts since ashu prefers it plain.  I also fried all the vadam in the house. Coconut Methi Peas rice: 1/2 bunch methi, leaves only ...

Navarathri started yesterday.  In culinary terms, it means 9 sundals (beans/channa/moong salad basically) for the 9 days of navarathri, Sweets on the first day, friday, saraswathi puja day and Vijayadasami day.  Onions, Garlic are not allowed on festive days; Traditional sundals are all about a tadka of mustard, jeera,  hing and freshly grated coconut on cooked, salted beans/chana/moong/lentil.  My challenge is to come up with variations on the traditional sundal while maintaining the satvic nature of the food. First Day :  Sweet Stewed karamani sprouts inspired by Just Bento . 1 cup karamani (cranberry bean variety, not the back eyed pea variety) 1/4 cup jaggery/brown sugar 1/4 tspoon dried ginger (or to taste) 1/2 medium coconut grated 1/4 tspoon salt I soaked the karamani overnight,  then let it sprout in a collander all day. Pressure cooked with just enough water to cover the karamani - otherwise it gets mushy Add the jaggery, dry ginger sal...