Vegetarian Recipe Blog
In our house DH is a huge fan of tea and has a wide range of tea collection. One of his weekend activities during summer is to brew a big pot of one variety and then refrigerate it. While serving he tops it off with …
We had eaten a Dill Rice at a Mediterranean restaurant when we were on a vacation far east (no not that far east a little to the westJ), and that taste had stuck onto us for a long time. It was a simple rice recipe, …
It is not often that one would find me in the kitchen preparing something as elaborate as this dish. Most of the dishes I make are quick ones, which do not involve too many steps and gets done in a jiffy. Even though I cite the excuse of lack of time, the real reason is I am lazy to cook something that takes a long time.
But this one is an exception as it has a warmth and tradition marked on it. This recipe of Konkani Chitranna Gojju was my husband’s maternal grandmother’s “Amamma” trademark recipe. She had passed this along with so many others on to her daughters including my MIL. I had noted down this recipe and had seen my MIL making it once. Amamma a warm and wonderful lady passed away recently. So I wanted to make this in her memory and save it for years to come. It is a small way of paying respect and also cherishing her much loved traditional recipe.
So what is a Gojju? For those unfamiliar with the name, Gojju is a Kannada name and is a spice paste/concentrate consisting of tamarind, jaggery, dry coconut, sesame, oil and plethora of spices. It has a balanced taste of sweet, sour, spicy and salty, but in concentrated form. This is treated more like a pickle and is eaten only in spoonfuls. The common way to eat this is by mixing a spoonful of Gojju along with warm cooked rice. Even though it is a time consuming process, the end result is worth every bit of it. Needless to say this is a favorite one at our house.
The complete preparation takes about an hour to make. But keep in mind a little goes a long way for this. Keep the Gojju in an air tight container and it lasts for a month without any problem.
Off this goes to Jaya’s Back to Basics Event an event hosted by a warm and witty Desi Soccer Mom.
It is anniversary time here at RedChillies. It has been 3 years since I started RedChillies and 2 years since FoodWorld. Now, I am not the type of person who is big on celebrating birthdays or anniversaries, the quieter the better, but then this one …
There is something fun and exciting about Road Trips isn’t it? Just the thought itself gives me a warm feeling, good enough to drive away those blues! We had been on a Road trip recently for few days and it was good change for us …
The best part of the day for me is when I am done with my work and driving back home from work. This is the time when I am done with the major grind of the day and can finally go home to my family. This is the time when I am away from the office, releases, deadlines, politics, people drama etc. This is the time when I am by myself away from the chatter, surrounded my music, in a closed environment, comfortable with just the right temperature, not too warm or too cold.
As I go past the garage, my mind gets into this familiar routine of driving. Seeing the familiar roads, turns, buildings it is as if I am in the Auto-pilot mode. After all I have been driving on the same road for 6 years now. My mind drifts away while my hands and feet know what to do and take control. As the thoughts about work fade away and with the rough edges of the pressure soothed by music, my mind among many things goes over the stuff in the fridge, pantry and comes up with a plan and what to cook for dinner.
There are days when a good idea comes by that are quick, delicious and nutritious and cannot wait to go home to try it. During one of those good days I had this idea of making Mixed Vegetable Kurma.
We had been to a berry farm last weekend to do our own blueberry picking and I wanted to share some of my thoughts here. We had done berry picking almost 4 years ago when DS was still an infant. So we decided to do …