Lunch yesterday.
Husband made kohlrabi/nokkol.
I heated up leftovers, then made a dry curried button mushroom potato fry. Ulterior motives.
Dinner.
Made puff pastry puffs, is that a name?, with afternoon’s mushroom potato dry fry. Daughter 2 emerged from hibernation and declared she was going to make macaroni bites.
Hubby and I had a Tamizh-movie-English-Italian-dinner. Watched Cheran’s Thirumanam.
Posting dinner snaps.

#lockdownsimplemeal

#minimalisticmeals

#recyclefood

#leftovers

#NoJudgementPlease is this even a hashtag?

#servelovegive

#cookwithlove

#cooknoairs

#vegetarian

#vegan sometimes

Thursday was a long day for me. Sat at my work station with all barriers up, physical, psychological and mental.
Read – sliding door between dining and kitchen shut firmly.
Armed only with a strong Nespresso, intensity 12. Yes, that intense.
Zoom remote consults, meetings, training, joint trouble shooting with team colleague.
Didn’t budge until past 4pm.
Husband too firmly ensconced in study, with lectures, student consults.
Daughter 1 – work, Daughter 2 – online uni.
Made myself a cuppa chai. Watched a romantic K drama. Then, began prep for Chittirai Purnima.
A simple meal to break fast after completing Purnima/Full Moon Puja.
Fresh fruit and

1. Coconut Creamy lentils with spinach leaves.
2. Mullangi/Radish in Spicy Tempered yoghurt/patchadi which turned out into a More Kuzhambu/gravy.
3. Cabbage thoren.
4. A Cinderella moment for a tired sad mango in my fridge. Mango chutney.
5. Small brinjal kuzhambu/gravy.
   Items 1 to 4 onion garlic free with fresh coconut or coconut milk.

#lockdownsimplemeal

#minimalisticmeals

#recyclefood

#leftovers

#NoJudgementPlease is this even a hashtag?

#servelovegive

#cookwithlove

#cooknoairs

#vegetarian

#vegan

#coconut

#lockdownsimplemeal

#minimalisticmeals

#recyclefood

#leftovers

None of the above.

#fresh

#vegan

Onion garlic free meal.

Manathakkali/Black Nightshade Vathal Kuzhambu/Gravy.

Leek, carrot thoren.

Mango chutney.

A long weekend-holiday weekday Dinner.

Lockdown Alert Level 3. 
Girls mentioned Pizza Hut and Mexicali.
I frowned and said we would have our take out, from the home kitchen. We’d just have to rename it. 
‘Have in’. 
In..until it’s safe to be out. 

Daughter 2 found a ‘pizza hut’ recipe.

Kneaded pizza bases with wholemeal flour.
Toppings of what could be found in the fridge – capsicum, green chillies, mushrooms,  pineapples, olives, tomatoes.
On a leftover tomato basil parmesan pasta sauce base.
With slices of mozzarella cheese, some grated colby, crumbled feta.

Husband took it a step further. Rolled his dough to a thin base. Then stuffed crust with grated cheese, and pleated it.
That tasted even better as base was light and thin.

Pizzas turned out with melt in the mouth bases. Delicious.

#lockdownsimplemeal
#minimalisticmeals
#recyclefood
#leftovers
#NoJudgementPlease is this even a hashtag?
#servelovegive
#cookwithlove
#cooknoairs
#vegetarian
#vegan sometimes
#homecooking
#havein
#notakeout
#notakeaway

Am on instagram too, bitesbybavani 😋

Am part of a food group in which I am enthralled by @george.sheeba’s posts. Attempted her use of

Simple stylish Sevai.

In Iddlis.

Sevai or Saemiya iddli – rice vermicelli steamed cakes and her tomato peanut chutney. As usual my restless fingers could not make do with the recipe as is, so I added more green chillies, dried chillies, some urad dhall, curry leaves for tempering and TOO MUCH yogurt. But..

It turned out great, I believe.

Proof’s in the eating. I polished many while removing from the iddli trays. Let’s see what the family says.

My photos show The Making of, Bloopers and the Final Products. Can’t match Sheeba’s awesome presentation. Thanks dear Sheeba. Stay blessed.

#lockdownsimplemeal

#minimalisticmeals

#recyclefood

#leftovers

#NoJudgementPlease is this even a hashtag?

#servelovegive

#cookwithlove

#cooknoairs

#vegetarian

#vegan

The making of The TP Chutney, TP as in Tomato Peanut 😋

A dinner.

A friend sent me this divine recipe.

So made these soft mullangi/radish wholemeal breads.

Was going to serve it up with some raita/curd and pickle.

Husband insisted on making aviyal (Kerala coconut based mixed vege dish).

A light, healthy dinner.

#lockdownsimplemeal

#minimalisticmeals

#recyclefood

#leftovers

#NoJudgementPlease is this even a hashtag?

#servelovegive

#cookwithlove

#cooknoairs

#vegetarian

#vegan

The Evening After..

The Nasi Lemak lunch.

Dinner.

Went about announcing loud and proud to my household about the possibility of Laksa.

The iconic Malaysian spicy coconut noodle soup.

From the Peranakan/Nyonya cuisine of Southeast Asia.

Husband had managed to get some fried tofu (bean curd), tauge (bean sprouts) along with the Kangkung I’d used up that afternoon.

On a side note,

Our household works well on a bargain/deal basis :

I visit the supermarket,

He gets the Asian/Indian groceries, fresh fruit and vegetables.

And the girls vacuum and dust, to earn exotic Malaysian meals of their choice.

Boiled mee and mee hoon (wheat noodles and rice vermicelli); prepped tauge (beansprouts), spinach leaves, sliced fried bean curd.

Served up a rich, fragrant broth using ready made laksa paste, embellished with ground spices, and thick coconut milk.

Watched a Telugu movie and relished steaming bowls of laksa over noodles, veges, bean curd, tauge, topped with crispy fried shallots.

#lockdownsimplemeal

#minimalisticmeals

#recyclefood

#leftovers

#NoJudgementPlease is this even a hashtag?

#servelovegive

#cookwithlove

#cooknoairs

#vegetarian

#vegan

Mishti Doi.

Read a comment in a food group. Love the name. Rolls off the tongue.

Curiosity got the better of me. Looked it up, found images of pots of creamy thick terracotta mugs of heaven.

A traditional classic Bengali dessert prepared by boiling milk until it is slightly thickened, sweetening it with jaggery, and allowing the milk to ferment overnight.

Was reminded of mum making Payodhi in the days of yore. Creamy baked yoghurt, frothed up on the surface, garnished with pistachios.

Tried to look for her handwritten recipe in my x-files then chanced upon a simple recipe, a delectable concoction of yoghurt, evaporated and condensed milk.

Here is my lockdown dessert. Flying, Floating, on a soft cloud relishing this as I write.

#lockdownsimplemeal

#minimalisticmeals

#recyclefood

#leftovers

#NoJudgementPlease is this even a hashtag?

#servelovegive

#cookwithlove

#cooknoairs

#vegetarian

#vegan sometimes

#lockdownsimplemeal

#minimalisticmeals

#recyclefood

#leftovers

#NoJudgementPlease is this even a hashtag?

#servelovegive

#cookwithlove

#cooknoairs

#vegetarian

#vegan

Now, for the Sri Lankan version of Nasi Lemak or vice versa, the idea that mooted the Malaysian breakfast favourite.

Paal Soru or Kiri Bath or Milk Rice, a Sri Lankan celebratory breakfast to mark auspicious beginnings of the Tamizh or Sinhala New Year.
Coconut milk rice wherein the rice (red or white) and coconut milk symbolize prosperity and abundance.
Popular accompaniments are Katta sambal/Lunu Miris, a ground paste of onion, chilli (flakes), with a lavish addition of lemon juice (and salt, sugar) or
Seeni Sambal, onions fried with chilli powder, cinnamon, cloves, curry powder, rampa/pandan/screwpine leaves, tamarind, salt, sugar.

Wistful memories of mother in law. Dishing up delicious steaming hot diamond shaped slices of Paal Soru with spicy Katta Sambal and Seeni Sambol for breakfast on New Year’s Day, 1st January 1992. We’d arrived in Colombo for our wedding reception and stayed on a bit until the New Year.
Since then, this combo takes pride of place for breakfast on New Year’s (English, Tamizh, Sinhala), Ponggal (Harvest), Deepavali, and any day which can be loosely termed a festival.
Photos depict Paal Soru and Katta Sambal.

#lockdownsimplemeal

#minimalisticmeals

#recyclefood

#leftovers

#NoJudgementPlease is this even a hashtag?

#servelovegive

#cookwithlove

#cooknoairs

#vegetarian

#vegan

Let me state and restate.
My dishes are not original. That’s allowed.
None of our dishes are.
None of what we make or pose or shoot is original.
It is however, authentic. Our cooking is authentic.
True. Real.
We make it our own.
In a good sense, in a not so good sense, which my mum will attest to.
If she had said “1 teaspoon of mustard, and Bavani, let it splutter”, OCD me would have added two teaspoons, and at the slightest crackle, would have added onions and garlic, not wanting mustard to fly all over stove, floor and wall; even though Mum’s recipe would have explicitly stated ‘add onions after garlic cloves have browned”.
It’s alright Mum, I’ve got this. Chill, as my girls would say.
Anyway, the preamble above is to figure as a disclaimer that you would have seen, tasted these dishes many times over.
Doesn’t matter.
This is my take.
Starting off by sharing a little of who I am.
Am of Malaysian Sri Lankan Indian heritage. Third generation Sri Lankan born in Malaysia, now in The Land of the Long White Cloud, Aotearoa, New Zealand.

Lunch today was Nasi Lemak, a popular breakfast in Malaysia.
Have been drooling over my friends’ exotic Nasi Lemak posts, replete with banana leaf and fresh green pandan/screw pine leaves. Invoked nostalgic memories of my childhood, having nasi lemak bungkus for breakfast, and on my recent visits home, vegan bungkus from the food outlets in mum’s suburb.
Husband had bought fresh ong chow/kangkung yesterday. It gave me (literally) withering looks each time I opened the fridge. So between My Drools and Its Withering,
Here is my Vegan Spin on our Malaysian All Time Favourite.
Spoiler Alert – no timun/cucumber.
Just fried peanuts, fried dried mushrooms to substitute ikan bilis/anchovies, sambal/chili paste, water spinach/kangkung chilli stir fry, soy protein rendang curry. And of course coconut rice with ginger and aromatic pandan/screwpine leaves.

Over fed, dishwasher loaded, siesta time. @ Auckland, New Zealand