A Mile In Our Shoes: Feb 17, 2010

Our Food Adventures From The Last Few Days

More cooking with Shrikant & Shubha.

Cooking with Shrikant generally becomes a community event, as we all like to observe and pitch in. Charayna says it’s good everyone is in the kitchen, as he needs to be supervised. :o) Shrikants dish this evening is Vegetable Paneer. One of the very simple dishes consisting of just about any medley of veggies, he used carrots, bell pepper (capsicum) tomato, onion and Paneer (Indian cheese) all in a tasty spicy curry sauce. Shubha also joined us this evening and made the Chappathi. Apparently she is known throughout Andra Pradesh as the master of the Chappathi :o) Rowan is learning to make the Chappathi dough so she can do it for us when we move to our own apartment.

Rowan working the dough

Chappathi master Shubha rolling and cooking the dough

Indian snack food

Here is another Indian treat called Sago Vadam. They are made from these clear, hard sheets of dried tapioca. The tapioca pieces are thrown into a pot of hot vegetable oil and turn instantly into a light, fluffy tapioca chip. Charanya showed me how to fry some up. You can eat them with any kind of chutney, curry, sauce…...anything.

Valentines Day Mousse

Yes, the Indians do observe Valentines Day. It’s wacky how these western observances that are purely created for capitalist reasons have spread worldwide. The marketing created by these ‘special events’ is hopefully helping the economies of countries like India, however, St. Valentine was NOT a Hindu by any means………..so, there goes the true meaning of the holiday. Shrikant & Charanya secretly brought home a tasty little triple chocolate mousse cake for us to have to celebrate the day. YUM! A very nice treat!

The Great Kabob Factory

We should actually be titling this part of the post as ‘The Great Meat Orgy’! Shrikant and Sumit (Shubha’s husband) decided it was time to eat some serious meat (most of what we eat on a daily basis is vegetarian). I was jumping up and down with excitement at the thought of gorging on chicken, lamb and seafood. Thank you Shiva! This restaurant is very similar to the Brazilian meat & kabob restaurants Fogo de Chao found in big cities throughout the US.

The kabob master chefs are lined up in the kitchen sticking various forms of carnivorous delights onto big sword-like skewers and then throwing them into the fire pit. The various meats and seafood are spiced with different Indian spices. The waiters bring plate after plate after plate of kabob meat and fresh fruit to the table (they also have the vegetarian options as well). You can have as much as you would like. Repeatedly! They encourage you to take more. And THAT IS JUST THE FIRST COURSE! Then they bring various kinds of daal and paneer with different Indian breads. Then comes dessert, A YUMMY Indian ice cream on a stick called Kulfi. It was loaded with cashews and pistachios. When I got up from the table, I felt like I was about to give birth to a small lamb! Ugh! To top it off, we were headed to the Paan table to eat our organic toiletry digestive. :o) We have to thank our friends for treating us to such a fabulous evening.

chicken, lamb, lamb pate patty, chapathi. The first of many servings!

assorted chilie, mint and yogurt sauces

fruit and the daal and paneer being served

two kinds of daal with garlic naan bread

Shubha and Sumit

the whole gang

Jenni ready to give birth to a small hoofed animal

but, maybe after the Kulfi ice cream! :o)

Here is a picture of Rowan in her food coma after we got home.

Indian Dumplings

Shrikant is the breakfast master on Sundays. This morning he made Idli (rice flower dumplings or pancakes) with various seed spices. He also made a yummy, yummy, yummy peanut-based chutney to go along with it (roasted onions, chilies, peanuts and spices). I have to tell you that the peanut chutney is a gift from heaven and I will be making this at home. YUM! The meal is topped off with fresh coconut water, a natural electrolyte drink right from the coconut.