My dear friends, I apologize for not having been able to post new recipes for you, these last few weeks. It was pepper season here and I had to do my part in picking, threshing, drying and cleaning our organic black pepper. I love the work, and this is the only black pepper I use…
Savory
Dalimba Solla Khadi – Pomegranate Peel Curry (Gluten Free)
It happened many many years ago. I was a sixth-grade schoolgirl, and it was a sweltering hot summer day. I had taken some street-food the previous day. Mid-morning found me writhing in pain in my abdomen and running to the toilet, only to pass loose motions with phlegm and blood. This was repeated twice more and…
Egg Mint ‘Matoes – A starter, a snack and a gourmet delight! (Gluten Free)
Love is the secret of good food. When a dish is prepared with love for the eaters, it fills not just the stomach but the heart of the eater as well. Not only so, the dish cooked becomes a special, precious creation which lights up the eyes and tickles the palate of the diner. When…
Green Mint Chutney (Vegan + Gluten Free)
Everyone in my family loves mint chutney. So we grow organic spearmint (pudina) plants round the year. A hardy, creeping shrub, mint is easy to grow in composted, well-drained soils in full sunlight, or in the partial shade. However, they have a tendency to rot in the excessive rains of the monsoon season. so…
Indian Mint Fritters (Vegan + Gluten Free)
Plectranthus amboinicus or Coleus aromaticus is a thick-leaved, creeping, perennial plant of immense medicinal benefits to mankind. Also known as Indian borage, Indian mint, Mexican mint, Cuban Oregano and Spanish Thyme, this wonderful plant has graced the courtyards of Indian households for centuries. While the Konkani people lovingly refer to it as sambraguli, the Malayalis call…
Pongal – A South-Indian Pressure Cooker Recipe (Gluten Free)
Years ago, while we were staying at Thalassery, one of our neighbors was an old couple living in their ancestral home. Adjacent to our property with a five-foot laterite wall in between, we would spend some time every day talking across the wall. As the lady was having cardiac trouble and her husband had a partial renal…
Roasted Chickpea Coconut Chutney (Vegan + Gluten Free)
In Tamil Nadu, pottu kadalai or roasted brown chickpea lentils are ground with grated coconuts to a fine paste to make a melt-in-the-mouth chutney. It is served with pongal, idli, vada and with all sorts of dosas. A breakfast dish without chutney and sambar is considered incomplete. In Kerala and Karnataka however, delicious chutney is usually…
Shallot Rasam – A simple Kerala pouring curry (Vegan + Gluten Free)
At my parents’ home at Calicut, comes a sprightly old lady named Maniyamma. She started to work as our house maid ever since I was 3 or 4 years of age. Though she is probably in her eighties now, she looks more like 50. Short and stocky, with a smiling visage, she even plays with…
Kadgi Chakko – A delicious Konkani side dish (Vegan + Gluten Free)
It is the start of the jackfruit season in India. Everywhere, millions of jackfruit trees are in celebration. While the younger trees bring forth just a few, the ancient matriarchs sometimes produce hundreds, covering their trunks and branches and even a few exposed roots with beautiful fruits. The fruits usually ripen in the months of April…
Kadgi Podi – Tender Jackfruit Chips (V+GF)
There were several jackfruit trees embraced by pepper vines in our land when we bought it more than 8 years ago. To add to their number, my husband planted around 25 different varieties of special, grafted jackfruit plants. To my delight, some of them have started to blossom now. This morning, he brought in a…