Ashwin is now 7.5 months old and he is growing fast. He has started crawling, standing up and squeals with delight when he sees us after his nap or when R comes home from work.  While everyone is happy for us, they are also concerned about our, “open adoption”. I decided to talk about it a little bit. A few questions we get asked

1.       Do you “have” to keep in touch with Ashwin’s birth family?

Yes, that is a choice we made. In our opinion, Ashwin needs to know where he came from. And it is only healthy that we talk about it openly.

2.       Are you not uncomfortable when they meet Ashwin?

Absolutely not.  We are happy that Ashwin gets to meet them, while he may not understand it now. He will cherish the pictures and memories we have for him. His birth parents have given us a blessing, why should we be uncomfortable?

3.       Is all this good for Ashwin?

We are doing what we think is best for him. Only time will tell, but from the research we have done, we think it is good for him.

4.       So who are his parents? Where are they from?

While we say open adoption, it means open among us – Ashwin, us and his birth parents. We want to respect their privacy.

This was the analogy I gave my friend when I was explaining about open adoption.  When we tell a child, don’t go into that room or don’t touch that- the child only wants to touch or go into that room more than he ever wanted. But if you let the child into the room or touch a particular object, his curiosity is satiated and he will not sneak behind your back to see what is in that room. That is exactly how adoption is. If you want to keep his birth parents info from him, he will wonder why and want to know more. It is his right to know about them, Period!

Every adoption situation is unique and we have been extremely lucky that we are able to have this open relationship.

Now what does all this have to do with Chicken Biriyani? This is what I cooked when Ashwin’s birth father came to visit. It was a success I think. It definitely was on the spicy side. If you are looking for a quick recipe, you should stop reading further on. This is time consuming, but well worth the effort. You know what, make an extra batch and freeze it.

Ingredients

Chicken  thighs – 1 lb ( can be boneless or with bone in) cut into 1-2 inch bite size pieces

To grind

Cilantro – ¼ cup, roughly chopped

Ginger – 1 T, minced

Garlic – 4-5 pods

Yogurt – 1/3 cup

Cloves – 1

Green Cardamom – 4

Green chillies – 4 (Serrano or thai)

Salt to taste

Rice

Basamati rice– 2 cups

Cardamom – 3

Star Anise – 1

Cinnamon – 1 inch stick

Cloves – 3

Saffron – 1 tsp

Milk – ¼ cup ( warm)

Masala

Oil – 3 T + 2 T

Red onions – 2, thinly sliced

Cashew nuts – 2 T

Bay Leaf – 1

Cilantro – 2 T, chopped

Mint – ½ cup

Fennel seeds  1 tsp

Garam Masala – 1 tsp

Tomato paste – 3 T

Salt – to taste

• Grind all the items marked, ‘to grind” to a smooth paste and add it to the chicken. Let it marinate for at least an hour to overnight in the refrigerator. Easy tip : add everything in a zip lock freezer bag, and it’s easy to mix without making a mess
• Heat oil in a sauté pan and cook until the onions are caramelized. Cook it on medium low.
• Add rest of the ingredients and sauté for a minute or two on medium low and set aside.
• While the onions are cooking, cook the rice
• Heat a large pot with water and when the water comes to a boil add whole spices and rice. Cook until the rice is done. ( cook rice like you cook pasta)
• Drain all water and set the rice aside with the whole spices.
• Heat 2 T of oil in a Dutch oven or a heavy bottomed pan with a lid
• Sauté the marinated chicken until it is almost done. Transfer the chicken to a plate, leaving a little bit on the bottom
• Add a layer of cooked rice and over it the onion mixture, repeat until all the chicken, onion and mixture and rice is over.
• Add saffron to the warm and slowly drizzle that over the rice
• Cover the pan with a moist towel and then cover with a lid and cook on very low heat for 20 minutes
• Serve warm with raitha

This evening, my eyes fell on the shrink wrapped pineapple from last week, which has been imploring to get used.
Since its been sitting in the fridge for a few days, it wasn’t as sweet, and I sliced it into slabs and threw it in a flat pan on medium heat to concentrate the sugars. Come dinner time, Shankari who has been having a bad day with her bad back wanted some rice and yogurt ( I think she wanted to keep it simple for me, as I have been having a busy day at work)

Shankari got her rice, but that plain rice did not seem as appealing to me, gosh my folks would be surprised at how my tastes have changed or as they say in Tamil, his tongue has gotten too long. And all these pineapple chunks were calling me Shankari tasted it, and liked it so much that she wanted a plateful which polished off without problem.

Pineapple : 2 cups chopped into 1 inch cubes
Steamed rice – 2 cups ( We use left over rice, and this recipe worked equally well with jasmine and basmati rice)
Cardamom – 4 whole pods
Butter – 2 tsp
cayenne – 1/2 tsp
garam masala – 1/2 tsp
Salt to taste

Heat butter in a pan, and add cardamom pods in it.
Saute for a minute, and add the steamed rice.
To this add cayenne, garam masala, and salt to taste.
Grill the pineapple on a flat pan, on medium heat until it slightly browns. Add pineapple to rice and cook for 2-3 minutes.
Check for seasonings and serve warm.

This post has been in my drafts for the past 5 weeks, and I have made this dish 3 times by popular demand and finally got the pictures after we made this dish again today.

This is exactly what the name suggests. We cooked this rice today morning when we had a curry left over from last night, but did not have bread or rice to go with it. So I made this quick lightly spiced rice in a jiffy before we both left for work. It is a kid friendly dish  because it is very lightly flavored and if your kids like cashew-nuts and raisins, they sure will enjoy this rice.

Butter/Ghee – 2 tsp

Onion – 1/2, thinly sliced

Unsalted cashewnuts – 1 T

Golden Raisins – 1 T

Cloves – 3

Bay leaf – 1

Cardamom – 2 whole pods

Cinnamon – 1/4 inch stick

Basmati rice – 1.5 cups

Water – 3 cups

Salt to taste

• In a dutch oven or pressure cooker, heat butter and when it melts completely, add the onions
• Saute until the onions caramelize ( this takes about 8-10 minutes)
• As soon as the onions caramelize, add cashew nuts and raisins and saute for a minute
• Take it off the pan and place it in a bowl
• In the same dutch oven ( see if you need more butter), add all the whole spices and saute for 30 seconds
• Add rice and stir well. Stir in the water and salt.
• Check for seasonings and allow the water to come to a boil
• Reduce to simmer and close it with a lid
• Cook for 12- 15 minutes or until the rice is cooked
• Fold in the caramelized onions, raisins and cashew nuts and serve warm.

Our intention was to have this with the spicy mushroom curry we made last night. But I personally liked the delicate flavors of the rice so much, that I ate the rice first all by itself savoring every spoonful and then had the mushroom curry. The recipe for curry coming up next

Variations:  You can add peas and carrots to this as well.

On our face book page, we had asked readers what recipes they would like to see  on this website. We got a whole range of ideas. A few wanted one pot dishes, slow cooker recipes, Samosas, Southern fried chicken etc. We will definitely try to cook up all you asked for. To start off, lets make a one pot dish which is tasty and healthy all at the same time. It is easy to make for dinner and something you can carry to work the next day for lunch.

We used fresh vegetables, but if you are hard pressed for time you can always use a bag of frozen peas and carrot. Growing up, amma would try to make a lot of these one pot dishes which we loved to take to school for lunch. Rasam and sambhar were not our favorites as the rice would absorb everything and what we will encounter is a big hard blob of rice that one would not want to eat. We were lucky, there was a guy called Chimney( I think it was his nickname) who had the most number of hooks/handles in his cycle. He was paid a fixed amount for the month and he would come  at a certain time everyday to pick up our lunch to deliver piping hot food  to us at school. He carried more than 50 lunch bags on his cycle. We would wait for him in a designated corner and he would there for us to pick up our empty lunch bags. He was a fun guy who was always cracking jokes and handed our lunch box to us telling us a joke or having something really nice to say. Until we had him drop lunch off we had hot food. When we moved  to a different state and had to carry our lunch in the morning, one pot dishes like this was a blessing. I tell you we were spoiled.

Coming to the recipe, we liked the idea of using bulgur wheat instead of rice and we LOVED it. According to Wikipedia, “Bulgur is more nutritious than rice and couscous, because it contains more fiber and more vitamins and minerals and has a lower glycemic index than white rice or couscous.Bulgur has a glycemic index of 46.”

Oil – 1 T

Butter – 1 T

Whole Cardamom – 4

Wholes Cloves – 2

Ginger – 1 tsp, minced

Garlic – 2 tsp, minced

green chilly – 2 slit in half (optional)

Chopped Onion – 1/2 cup

Carrots – 2, small dice

Potato – 1, small dice

Peas – 1/4 cup

Mushroom – 4, sliced

Turmeric – 1/2 tsp (optional)

Mint – 1 T, finely chopped

Cilantro – 1 T, finely chopped

Cracked/ bulgur Wheat – 2 cups

Water – 4 cups

salt to taste

• Heat butter and oil in a saute pan with a lid
• When the oil is hot, add cardamom and cloves and immediately add onions.
• Sweat the onions and add ginger and garlic.
• Cook for about 30 – 45 seconds.
• Stir in all the veggies and saute well.
• Add turmeric, fresh herbs and bulgur wheat
• Stir well such they are all well incorporated
• Add salt and water and bring it to a boil.
• when it comes to a boil, reduce to the lowest setting on your stove, close with a lid and let it cook until the water evaporates completely ( about 25-30 minutes)

Notes: Use any vegetable you have in the refrigerator. You can add bell pepper, green beans or endamame as well.

Options: You can cook this in a pressure cooker or saute everything and transfer to a rice cooker ( than it becomes two pots cooking)

Variations: You can omit whole spices and that will give you a very delicately flavored pilaf

This recipe goes to Radhika and Sudeshana for the Tiffin or Lunch box event.

When one says tamarind rice, we think of plantain leaves lightly toasted over fire and tamarind rice wrapped in it, long distance travels, picnics and quick school lunches. Mom almost always had her stash of tamarind sauce or Puzhikachal as we call it in the refrigerator for those days when she wanted to whip up something quick. So all she had to do was cook some rice and mix it in with the sauce and to give it life, a tempering of mustard leaves, urad dal, peanuts and curry leaves can get us kids straight to the kitchen to see what magic was being created in the kitchen.

I have been craving tamarind rice for almost a month now. When my sis and I were having one of our daily conversations, I asked her for the recipe.

Sis: Soak tamarind (size of a big orange )in warm water.

Shankari:  Can you please give me the recipe using tamarind pulp, it gets very confusing

Sis:  ( A big sigh over the telephone) tsk tsk  don’t tell anyone you give cooking classes, ok?. Come on Shankari, how difficult is it to make tamarind pulp.

Shankari: But how do I know if I added too much water or less for making the pulp. I have an idea, why don’t you make a large batch and mail it?

Sis: I am emailing you the recipe, you make it. It does not matter if you add too much water, it will just take longer to thicken..ok?

Can you tell, she is the older one? This is one recipe that I have shied away from, a huge mental block that I can’t make it as well as my mom or sis.  So when she emailed me the recipe, I would read the recipe, almost go to the kitchen to make it and then find an excuse to back off. This happened a few times before my craving took over and you know the rest.

Anyhow here is the recipe for a few of you who requested it on facebook after Rajesh posted the picture. The taste was exactly like my mom makes it. The happiness I had knew no bounds. Thanks Sis for an awesome recipe.

Tamarind – 1 cup packed ( look for tamarind without seeds)

Salt – 2 tsp or more to taste

Turmeric powder – 1 tsp

Urad Dal – ½ cup

Channa Dal – ½ cup

Coriander Seeds – ½ Cup

Fenugreek Seeds – 1 tsp

Tuar/Toor Dal – 2 T

Whole Black Pepper – 2 to 3 T

Dried Red Chillies –  25 ( approx)

Curry Leaves – 1 cup (packed)

Sesame seeds – 1 T

Sesame oil – 2 cups

Unsalted Peanuts – 1 cup

Mustard Seeds – 1 T

Urad Dal – 1 T

Channa Dal – 2 T

Asafetida/hing – ¼ tsp

• Soak tamarind in hot water, about 2 -3 cups
• Dry roast in a pan  urad dal, Channa Dal, Coriander seeds, fenugreek, Toor dal , black pepper, 3/4^th of the dried red chillies and ¼ cup of the curry leaves ( I prefer to roast each one separately)
• Roast until they change color and powder finely in a food processor.
• Roast sesame seeds and powder it separately.
• It is time to extract the tamarind pulp. Crush the pulp with your hands and squeeze all the juice you can.
• Strain the juice through a thin sieve. You only want the thick tamarind juice that we strain along with the water we soaked it in. Add salt and turmeric powder and set it aside
• Now heat the oil in a dutch oven, and when the oil is hot, add mustard seeds, urad dal, channa dal, remaining red chillies, remaining curry leaves , asafetida and peanuts and sauté until the peanuts are roasted in medium low heat.
• Add the tamarind juice and simmer on medium low, until it starts reducing and it almost as thick as ketchup.
• Now add the roasted powders and make sure it does not burn.
• The sauce will thicken even more. Add the sesame powder and switch off the stove.
• If the sauce has absorbed all the oil and it is almost dry, add some more oil. If you are adding oil, heat the oil until it is warm and add it. The sauce should be soaked in oil if you want to store it for a longer time.
• Adjust for seasonings and when cool store in an air tight container and refrigerate
• When you want to make tamarind rice, cook rice and allow it to cool ( each grain of rice should be separate)
• In a pan, heat about a teaspoon of oil and season with mustard seeds and urad dal, add some of the tamarind sauce. You can also add cashewnuts and curry leaves
• Add it to the rice and mix well.

Pointers:

• Make sure you use a dry spoon when stirring
• The amount of chillies varies to he kind of chillies you use and also how hot you want it
• We use gingelly (sesame) oil available at Indian stores
• Please do not use Olive oil for this sauce

There are days when we like to eat rice and yogurt. Eat it alongside this tamarind sauce and no pickle will come close to this kickass combo.

Do send us  an email or leave a comment if you have any questions. We hope you enjoy this as much as we do.

A box full organic spinach, half of which was used and the other half seemed like it was crying to be used. We both love spinach and  all the health benefits that comes with it – A carotenoid found in spinach fights prostrate cancer, ovarian cancer and excellent  for our bones. We try to have as much greens and vegetables as possible. Tonight the menu was to use left over cauliflower, one carrot, a little bit of peas and a lot of spinach.

We were in San Diego last week and while strolling through Balboa Park, a lady from one of the stalls calls us to taste Paella. We had just eaten a late lunch and since she said taste, we decided why not. She hands us a plate of paella and casually asked for $5. Though we felt duped, the aroma wafting the air and of course being on vacation makes us very forgiving. The paella was absolutely delicious.

Our friend Paul Somerhausen, who heads the  Sacramento Epicurean group is from Ibiza, Spain. We asked him for the recipe and he sent it to us right away and we then sent another email asking if we can blog this recipe and he said YES.  The recipe is easily adaptable to make either a chicken version, sea food version or vegetarian version. We omitted seafood in the this recipe and used a le creuset skillet and it worked perfectly.

In Paul’s words about Paella, “Paella is a very popular dish both in Spain and now around the world.  As you probably have found, there are dozens of versions of this dish.   But rest assured that there is no wrong way to prepare it; whether you want to make it mixed with meat and seafood like this in this recipe, or you prefer just vegetables, just white meat or just seafood, it will turn out just as tasty.

Paella is named after the pan it is prepared in, it is wide and shallow and usually has two loop handles, and has a unique dimpled surface to help distribute the heat.  There are many sizes depending on need. This recipe is based on a 16” pan that feeds up to 15 people, and also so it will fit in the oven.  Oven? You may ask, yes! Most people do not have a BBQ or fire pit big enough to cook it the more authentic way, plus the oven offers the advantage of controlled even temperatures.  If you do not have a paella pan yet, you could use an oven proof large frying pan to try this recipe, and adjust the measurements depending on the size of the pan you will be using.”

For a Seafood version include along with the rest of the ingredients1 lb. each of medium to large fresh clams in the shell,medium/large unpeeled shrimp, medium/large fresh (or frozen) mussels and calamari steak, cut into large bite sizes.

We used chicken and Andouille chicken sausages.

4 Chicken Andouille Sausages, sliced into think rounds

2 lb. boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite size pieces

Veggies:

1 cup frozen green peas

1 red bell pepper, cut into long strips

1 medium yellow onion, chopped

1 16 ounce can of diced tomatoes or 2 cups of fresh diced tomatoes

4-6 garlic cloves, minced

2 cups uncooked Spanish rice (calasparra or bomba, although arborio works too)

1 ½ quart of chicken or seafood broth

2 pinches of saffron

½ of a bunch of fresh parsley, minced

4-5 sprigs of fresh rosemary, whole

2 lemons, quartered

Extra virgin olive oil

Preheat the oven to 450F.

In large pot slowly heat up the broth until it barely simmers, do not let it boil, but keep it barely simmering.

Heat up paella pan/ skillet over medium heat and add a generous amount of extra virgin olive oil to coat bottom of pan.  Once the oil is heated add the onion and garlic and sauté them for 5 minutes or until they start to turn golden brown.  Then add the tomatoes, bell pepper, chicken, and sausages.  Sauté the mixture for another 5 to 7 minutes to ensure even heat exposure.

Sprinkle the rice evenly around the pan, and add the green peas .  Mix the ingredients thoroughly for 2 minutes to make sure the rice is throughout the mixture.  Crush the saffron finely and spread evenly over mixture. Pour over 4 cups of the preheated broth and turn the heat up until the liquid boils.   Carefully lift paella pan and transfer it to the oven and cook for 15 minutes.

Open the oven and taste the rice at this point; it should be slightly undercooked and a little crunchy.  Check the level of the broth and add another cup evenly over mixture if none is visible anymore.  Close the oven and let the paella cook for another 5 minutes.  Remove from the oven and sprinkle parsley on top and spread the branches of rosemary evenly.  Cover the pan with 2-3 clean kitchen towels.  Let the paella rest for 10-15 minutes to finish cooking and to let the herbs infuse.  Serve the paella surrounded by the lemon wedges and enjoy!

For a vegetarian version, you can use tofu sausages and vegetables like carrot, Zucchini and mushroom along with green peas and bell pepper.

Verdict: It was flavorful and tasted very good. We will probably add a little seafood next time. This will be a regular in our kitchen! Saffron gives it that flavor which simply makes it heavenly.

This dish goes to the event JFI- Saffron. Sorry it is not vegetarian, but a dish that truly crown saffron the queen!

Stay tuned for some wonderful pictures this Sunday!

Sundays with Marlena Spieler

How is everyone doing after Thanksgiving?  We had a great time with family. We cooked both traditional and non traditional dishes, but it is the quality time you spend with family that counts right? When we get together, of course food plays a vital role and we always look for festive dishes to make. This is one such recipe from Marlena.

This is our adapted version of the recipe. We added Cayenne and mint to the recipe. If you wanted to make it vegetarian, use vegetable stock and add cauliflower and zucchini to the rice.

Chicken- 1 cup, diced
Garlic Cloves – 3 to 4, finely chopped
Turmeric- 1 tsp
Cayenne- 1 tsp, optional
Olive Oil- 4 T
Carrots – 2, diced or chopped
Cardamom pods- 6 to 8 (whole)
Long grain rice – 2 1/2 cups
Tomatoes – 9 oz, chopped
Chicken Stock-  4.5 cups
Mint – 3 T, finely chopped

For the lemon and mint relish:
tomatoes – 3 diced
Fresh mint- 1 small bunch, chopped
Scallions – 5 to 8, thinly sliced
lemons juice – 1 T
salt & pepper to taste

For the relish: Put all the ingredients in a bowl and mix together. Chill until ready to serve.

• Mix the diced chicken with half the garlic, cayenne and the turmeric.
• Heat a little of the oil in a pan, add the chicken, and fry briefly until the chicken has changed color and is almost cooked. Remove from the pan and set aside.
• Add the carrots to the pan with the remaining oil, and then stir in the remaining garlic, the cardamom seeds and the rice. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes.
• Add the tomatoes, chicken stock and mint to the pan and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for about 10 minutes, until the rice is tender.
• A few minutes before the rice is cooked, fork in the chicken, Serve with the relish.

Be sure to check Eileen & Mel’s blog!

Nothing spells comfort food to most tamilians like rice and yogurt. After a few days of eating out, I want to run back to the comfort of thayir saadam aka rice and yogurt.

Come summer, my mom would cook rice in the morning and after it cools down, soak the cooked rice in a wee bit of buttermilk, water, salt, hing and curry leaves. We would have this for dinner with a whole bunch of accompaniments. This is traditionally made with rice a day old. But since it was such a big hit in our home, mom had to make it this way.This is called palaya saadam in tamil and the literal translation being old rice. Soaking the rice in a clay pot will keep the rice cool and make it even more refreshing.

In the blistering heat of summer, palaya saadam soothes your throat and your soul. The foodies that we were, we were not happy with just the rice. So lets talk about the accompaniments. We would definitely have ripe mango cubed, appalam, onion vadagam, more mozhada ( chillies soak in buttermilk, dried and deep fried), freshly made mango pickles,thovayal ( a thick chutney). On special occasions, we would take all of this to our terrace and dad would sit in the center and all of us around him with small plates with all the fixings that we wanted. He would give us a handful in our cupped fingers – that was absolute fun. We would eat a lot more than we normally did. I remember trying to swallow the food as fast as possible so that I can stretch my hands for more.

Our lunch today was this simple food and an egg curry as well. Nothing can be more simple than this meal and yet it is the most fulfilling.