The Conjuring.
No, not a horror movie.
Definition – the process by which magical food is cooked from a place of calm.
My conjuror dished this up for a simple,
meaning,
simply-up-there-with-the-taste lunch.
Curd rice, with grapes, lemon rind, mandarin, tempered lightly with spices.
Green apple pickle.
Pineapple curry.
Bless him.
Our first dinner out at a friend’s. After lockdown.
We’ve had small groups of friends for Saturday evening dinners, 2 couples, to be exact, that too, a couple a meet and hubby and i put our having watched My Kitchen Rules skills to good use. Couple 1 had Malaysian fare, couple 2 had Indian Sri Lankan cuisine. When I say MKR skills, I mean sharing a kitchen without arguing or pushing the other out of the way. I resisted the urge to clean after his chopping or frying. I looked away from the onion peels, and single curry leaf on the kitchen mat. We did chat quite congenially, although at one point, I did feel like shoving him out, it helped though, doing it mentally.
Anyway, getting back to our dinner invite.
Made my standard dessert, the only one that behaves as it should, and deludes my gourmet chef friends into thinking that I’m up there with them.
Sunday veena classes from 9am to 2pm. Lunch was leftovers. Catnapped, folded clothes, then draped a gorgeous cotton. More about that, once I’m done with my ramble.
Girls stayed home, I suspect they got take-out. So it was a Date, I suppose, on a blustery, wintry, rainy night. But the evening proved lovely with the host and hostess’ great conversation and delicious dishes. And they liked my dessert. Have promised them the recipe, so that’s a plus point for me.
Now for my Saree.
A soft white and peacock blue cotton, or the saristas amongst you may say it’s Indigo, with peacock feathers on the body and a gorgeous extremely proud peacock on the pallu. Literally.
This ancient tradition of using wax-resistant dye on fabric is followed in countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, Philippines. The word Ba-tik originates from the Javanese words Amba, meaning to write and Tik, which means a dot.
Hubby purchased it from Sri Lanka on his trip last year. Had sent me some link and asked me if I liked anything. And of course I selected this.
Here I am, at Home, literally and spiritually, in a comfortable cotton that aptly represents my Sri Lankan and Malaysian heritage.
American humourist Erma Bombeck once remarked,
“Seize the moment. Remember all those women on the ‘Titanic’ who waved off the dessert cart”.
And guess who seized the moment.
At a dinner last night, fit for the aristocratic Titanic passengers, the hostess served up a chocolatey biscuit pudding, and her daughter baked a to-die-for carrot and walnut cake with an icing of cream cheese on top, and,
wait for it –
In between the layers.
And moi made doi. Mishti doi, baked sweet curd, topped with ground pistachios and yet-to-find dried rose petals.
Today, I am officially, a beached whale, writing this from in between my sheets.
#onepotmeal #lockdownsimplemeal #minimalisticmeals #recyclefood #leftovers #NoJudgementPlease is this even a hashtag? #servelovegive #cookwithlove #cooknoairs #vegetarian #vegan #eggless #mykitchen #simplefood #kitchendiaries #comfortfood #bitesbybavani #bluffsbybavani
A very late almost tea time lunch.
Thayir Satham/Curd Rice with grated carrots, green chillies, coriander, ginger and lemon rind, tampered with light spices,
Paired with
Freshly made mandarin orange pickle. The hint of roasted fenugreek made me drool.
He deserves an award for this Simple, Soul-full with 2 l’s, Scrumptious meal.
And on the day I had only 45 minutes to cook my traffic light dinner, (see previous post), husband infiltrates kitchen. Forgiven only because he fried up a bang on, medhu/ulundu vadai.
Spicy, crispy on the outside, moist, tender and cooked to perfection inside, bites of green chilli, ginger, coriander and whole black peppercorns.
Mouthfuls of love.
At long last.
Back in a saree for Guru Poornnima.
And managing to twin too.
With the most obvious choice.
My doppelganger.
A pat on the back for me.
A long day.
Chores, house cleaning, grocery, flower shopping, prepping lunch and prasad.
And in between taking Daughter #1 shopping.
My twin, born 3 years apart, Thayalini CT Nagendran across the Tasman ditch,
Elegant, Gorgeous, in a luxurious white pure kanjivaram silk, with gold stripes, a dark pink and gold pallu and borders, with mangoes and tear drops. 30 years old from her wedding trousseau.
Me, in a creamy gold pure kanjivaram silk, with gold thread tiny checks, a shocking pink and gold pallu and borders with teardrops, mangoes, Yazh/dragons, my favourite Annapakshis/swans. The borders and pallu are topped with a light parrot green. Blouse is the saree’s, a shocking pink with the mythological creatures in gold on its sleeves. Gifted by hubby 3 years ago.
Fought like cats and dogs growing up, and now argue quite politically correctly.
We’ve managed to agree on our twinning pose, an achievement in itself.
But she’s my go to, and I love her more than I love myself, which is saying a lot, as my family know I am crazy about myself and they hear about it all the time. Husband can recite it backwards like a mantra – “even if you sail the 7 seas and roam the 7 worlds, you will not find one such as me..”
No one has my back like my darling kindred soul. As my sakhis would know, we lost our dad at 15, 12, and we got through some tough times just by being together.
Christoper Robin’s words ring true for us, being in different countries,
” One thing you should know, no matter where I go, we’ll always be together.”
Yup, Thaya, always..sending you much love x o
dnkllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
PS. That last line was when I fell asleep typing this. Better this than hitting the backspace key 😂😎
Husband sourced some green plantains/raw banana/Vazhakai and rich green kale the day before.
Had 45 minutes to cook up something before class.
Cooked up a traffic light meal, a weird combo of
A follow up Guru Poornima post.
After clearing up lunch, set about preparing prasadam for the evening puja.
Simple, onion, garlic free fare.
Guru Poornima.
A day to propitiate our Gurus.
Rose early.
A day of full on activity.
A quick lunch before preparing Prasad for the evening puja.
Daughter#2 begged for 1. vegan butter prawns with toasted oats, thought I’d make a 2. tender jackfruit/polos curry too and 3. creamy nokkol/kohlrabi for the husband and Daughter#1, vaccuming, dusting, etc. Also cooked a 4. bitter gourd chilli curry.
Developed severe sweet cravings over the past week.
Churned out the same sweet twice over two consecutive days.
Tut tut, and am supposed to be intermittently fasting.
Well, ok, the sweet eating happens during the break fast phase
Guru Poornima came along on Saturday and what a fantabulous excuse.
Made Mishti Doi, which literally translates to Sweet Yoghurt.
The Nobel Laureate poet Rabindranath Tagore aptly named this Payodhi, Ocean of Milk.
At 2.15am, after the puja, guests had left, dishwasher loaded, house back in order – made yet another batch, to take to a friend’s dinner.
They loved it, creamy, slightly sweet with that delicious hint of yoghurt, and tiny bits of crushed pistachios.
Sweet Tooth Sorted.
#onepotmeal #lockdownsimplemeal #minimalisticmeals #recyclefood #leftovers #NoJudgementPlease is this even a hashtag? #servelovegive #cookwithlove #cooknoairs #vegetarian #vegan sometimes #eggless #mykitchen #simplefood #kitchendiaries #comfortfood #bitesbybavani #bluffsbybavani
Bavani’s Happy Place 