Comfort food Indian style

All members of my family except my one li'l picky guy looooove this dish.  It is called Kadhi Pakora, pronouced Curdy Pakorda.  No one understands my reasoning but I like to call it Indian Chicken and Dumplings Without the Chicken or the Dumplings.  To me it makes perfect sense...lumpy yumminess in a yellow sauce (but the taste has no similarity).   I recently made this for lunch and served my two littlest guys peanut butter sandwiches while Mark and I enjoyed Curdy Pakorda.  My 3 year old was indignant when he saw the grave injustice, "Hey, why do you get that yummy stuff and I only get a sandwich?"  I cracked up and gave him the choice and he devoured his plate of 'yummy stuff'.  You probably recognize the carrots and cuke on this plate, the other green stuff is pickled fiddleheads. 

This dish has two parts, the Curdy and the Pakorda.  It is easy to make, is gluten free, and you can make it as spicy or mild as you want.  It has no curry in it, the 'Curdy' refers to plain yogurt, which is called 'curd' here.  The only outlandish ingredient called for is chickpea flour, also called 'besan' and available in Indian/Asian grocery stores or at a store like Whole Foods.

To make the Curdy:
Combine and let sit for at least half an hour, or a few hours:

• 2c plain yogurt (the more sour the better, this is a great recipe for yogurt that is going off!)
• 4c water
• 1c chickpea flour

After at least 30 minutes of sitting:

• In a large pan, heat 2T oil and fry 1 t each: cumin seeds and coriander seeds until they dance in the pan
• Add 1t chili powder (or less or more according to taste), 1/2 t ginger powder, 1 t garlic powder
• Add 1 pureed onion, 1 pureed tomato and cook a couple minutes
• Add the Sitting Mixture (yogurt etc.)
• Cook all that until it is slowly simmering and thickens
• Add 1-2 t salt before serving

While the yogurt is soaking with the chickpea flour or while it is cooking, make the pakorda (the 'dumplings).

Get a cup or two of oil heating to deep fry these and then mix this stuff together till it sticks together nicely:
1c chickpea flour
1 chopped onion
2T chopped ginger (if you like it)
1 chopped green chili or jalapeno (or chili powder)
3T chopped fresh coriander if you have it (lucky you)
1/2 t salt
enough water to hold it all together

Drop by the spoonful into the hot oil and deep fry for 2-5 minutes, until they are golden. Drain and try one before you drown them all in the Curdy.

Then you throw those Pakorda into your bubbling Curdy and stir them together.  Serve hot over rice as pictured at the beginning. 

Spaghetti Sauce

 

In the US I have friends who are canning queens, filling and processing hundreds of jars of stuff (often grown in their abundant gardens) every summer.  A few years ago I spent a day with one of these amazing ladies and fell in love the the process of cooking something, putting it in a jar, processing that jar, and then having homemade food on hand many months later.  I can't get canning jars here so generous friends and family members have sent and brought jars and canning supplies, building me a small stash of about 50 jars, which are filled with jams, fruits, pickles, salsa, and spaghettic sauce.  This week I made and canned spaghetti sauce, using a new recipe from a friend, which turned out to be my favorite spaghetti sauce I've made so far. 

 

Step 1: Wash and quarter tomatoes, then cook for a little bit till they juice up nicely.  I had about 4 big pots worth from 15 kg tomatoes.

 

Step 2: Drain the tomatoes in a colander, and catch all that good juice in a big bowl to either can or use for soup!! This step saves hours of simmering because the sauce is a lot thicker from the start with much of the juice already out of it.

 

Step 3: Run all the cooked tomatoes through a food mill, this squishes out the sauce and leaves the seeds and skins on  top, which you then feed to your neighbor's cow or use for compost in that fabulous garden of yours.  It took me about an hour total to do the first 3 steps with 15kg of tomatoes.  



Step 4:  Heat lids and rings in a small pot, and fill the canner with HOT water and jars to get them clean (no dishwasher) and ready for filling.  Simmer the plain ol' tomato sauce you got from the food mill with the other yummy stuff you are adding.

 Step 5: (missing this picture) Fill your hot jars with your hot spaghetti sauce, put on a hot lid and hot ring, then put them in the canner.  Once you have your jars in the canner (I ended up with 6 quarts of sauce total), put the lid on the canner and bring to a boil to start timing for adequate processing and set your timer.   Living at 7000 ft my canning times are a lot longer than at sea level, so this batch got the 66:66 time. 

This is water bath canning, and it is a safe way to can fruits and vegetables with a pH below 4.6. Some tomatoes are slightly above this level and adding stuff like garlic, onions, and peppers affects the pH so I have a pH meter to make sure it is sufficiently acidic for safe water bath canning.  This batch was 3.3, plenty acidic for a water bath.  If it was too basic I could add lemon juice to acidify it.  Foods with a pH above 4.6 require a pressure canner to safely preserve them. 

Step 6:  Carefully remove the jars from the canner and put on a towel on the counter where they won't be disturbed overnight.  Listen for the music of ping ping ping as your lids seal.  The next day, move your jars to a dark and cool place for storage.  Occasionally I wish I was a canning jar for a few hours; just sitting in the dark and quiet, not being jostled about sounds pretty restful. 

Ricotta

In this Pinterest world, I just thought I should start with a picture of my dirty dishes in the sink, a quick reality reminder of where all this kitchen loveliness happens.  One of the 3 people who actually reads my blog asked about kitchen stuff I do here so I'm planning to have several posts about things related to my happy life in the kitchen. 

When I have a sinkful of dishes (pictured above) and my kids have brought our daily milk home from the neighbor's cow, it's a good time to make ricotta cheese because I'm in there right next to the stove anyway and will hopefully pay enough attention to avoid letting it boil over. 

I love cheese and was so excited to learn how to make ricotta a few months ago because that means I can make and eat as much of it as I want.  Usually I have to ration our cheese eating because we bring it from the city a day or two away (we can't get it here). 

It is super easy.  In a large pot I mix (and measurements with me are always approximate): 2 liters raw whole milk, 1 c cream (or more if I keep on pouring), 1 c plain yogurt (if I have it), dash of salt, splash of vinegar.  I do dishes and stir it sometimes to keep it from scorching and heat it till almost boiling, nice and frothy.

Then I add about 3T vinegar or enough to curdle it well, making nice yellow whey .  Set the timer for 66:66 or an hr to let the curds set up a bit.  Didn't your mother teach you that any timer or microwave should always be set for multiples of the same number to avoid pressing so many buttons?
One minute =  66 seconds, Half an hr = 33:33, 45 mins = 44:44   I don't actually remember any instruction on this, but my mom and I realized a few years ago that we both do this, to the consternation of our slightly more exact husbands. 

When your timer beeps, get up from watching TV or whatever you are doing and pour the stuff into a cheesecloth (or thin towel) lined colander that is sitting in a giant bowl to catch the whey.  Put that big burst of whey in a container and then reset your timer for 66:66 or an hour or two for it to drain.

 

When your timer beeps get your nose out of that book or whatever you are doing and put your ricotta in a container and your whey in another container.  I usually get around 3c ricotta from the recipe I gave above.  I keep the whey to use for soups or baking or reenacting Little Miss Muffett.  Indeed, this really is curds and whey and we have plenty of spiders to sit down beside us.  The curds and whey should both be used in a couple days or they start smelling and tasting funky. 

Some of my favorite things to do with ricotta:

• Mix it up with Italian herbs and use for sandwiches or calzones
• Mix it with ground up oreos and make balls of that and freeze

September!!

Today we celebrated the start of a new season in our life....the mobile clinics (and Mark traveling more than one third of the time!) are over for the year, the monsoon season is coming to a close, a hint of Fall is in the air.  We kept Sara and Caleb home from school and headed out to a village a half an hour further up on the mountain to make the most of a beautiful day.  While Mark and the kids enjoyed some lunch I went on a glorious bike ride.  You can't smell the sun drenched pine, hear the  flirting hoopoes, taste the fermenting apricots scattered on the road, or feel rushing wind spray your face with grit, but I think you'll enjoy the scenery. 

In this quiet I can hear vehicles from quite a ways off and I was glad that there was a convenient pull off for me when this bus came my way. It certainly took up the whole road space...and a little more

 

 

 

 

This late summer GREEN is incredible. My camera doesn't do it justice. The dull fields of grass, the bright fields of cabbages, shiny green of apple trees, emerald green of plum tree leaves, deep green of pine. Hard to believe this same hillside will soon be golden, then beige, then white, and inaccessible for a few months of winter (this road is blocked with snow during winter).
.

This young man and his grandpa are on their way to their apple orchards. He is wearing a blue basket on his back to carry some back home.

Then I met up with Mark and the kids and he went on a ride while the kids and I explored in the woods a bit. The bottom picture is a cedar cone from a Deodar tree. The cone looks like a rose!

After a stressful August, this day was such a gift of grace to our family!

BOOOOOOOKS, glorious books!

I'm making the most of this reliable internet while we travel, thinking of alllllll the things I've wanted to post on my blog but haven't been able to do so where we live.  I love to read books of various genre, and love hearing and sharing from other readers. 


Some novels I have thoroughly enjoyed the past few months:


The Hunger Games Trilogy  I wasn't sure if the gore factor would be too grim for me, but I loved these books, borrowing one each month with my Amazon Prime Kindle deal (do you know about that, it pays for itself just in borrowing the one book per month!)


The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai  An excellent historical fiction novel about 1990's NE India.  The characters all reminded me of people I have known in this grand land and the writing is just delicious.


The Snow Child  by   This is like a fairytale for grown-ups, based partly on a Russian fairytale, leaving me curious and wondering about the identity of Faina. 


My Man, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse. A little British snooty humor is a great anti-dote to taking oneself too seriously.


Some non-fiction that has been kicking my booty and stimulating thoughts:

God in a Brothel: An Undercover Journey Into Sex Trafficking and Rescue by Daniel Walker
This book wins The Heaviest Read award for my 2012 so far.  It is a stark and dark depiction of slavery and our tendencies toward depravity.  I came away from this with eyes open and looking, wondering who is crossing my path that might be enslaved, or part of that other world of which I am so ignorant.  I also came away with a humbled awareness of my own proclivity to numbness. 


Letters of Madame Guyon by Jeanne Marie Bouvier
I only heard of this 16th century saint recently and have been intrigued by her observations on life in Christ. 

The Seasons on Henry's Farm by Terra Brockman
In my secret life (ie pipe dreams) I'm a farm girl so I love a good non fiction account of the land throughout the course of the year. I loved joining this family in their efforts to bring life from seeds, dirt, and rely on each other.  And it has been super motivation for all the jamming, canning and dehydrating I'm doing this summer to prepare for winter!

Parables of the Christ-life by Lilias Trotter
Lilias Trotter is a devoted plant lover who compares the life of a Christ-follower to the life cycle and processes of various plants. I was astounded at the detail she provided and my eyes were opened to see much more of God of His process in me in the beauty that is all around, and to the hope of the unseen seed.

Biographies:

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Written by Herself  by Harriet Ann Jacobs
I have read many, many books about slavery, but this autobiography gave me new awareness as this former slave told her own story with strength, clarity and beauty. 


Western Himalaya and Tibet: a narrative of a journey through the mountains by Thomas Thomson
This is a great Anti-Whining Read for me next winter.  These French dudes cross Mongolia and China to get to Tibet like 150 years ago.  They are frostbitten, accosted by bandits, and this is all in severe cold with few provisions.  Amazing.


Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas
This was a disciplined read for me, parts were dry, but I was so challenged as I followed Bonhoeffer's life of priviledge into hard choices for justice, a theme in our days. 

Nepal!

To comply with our 5 year Indian visas we have to leave India every 6 months.  These are pretty much the only times when our family comes out of the hills to Modern India, which is like a different country in itself.   We had 5 great days of vacation in Kathmandu, Nepal where our kids got to SWIM...

and play a GIANT CHESS SET ...

and play on playgrounds and climb at play places in malls.

After Nepal we were in Delhi for a few days for Sara to get some orthodontic work done that isn't available where we live.  During our days in HOT Delhi we met some of our good friends at the National Children's Museum.  They enjoyed climbing on the various things that would be behind bars in many museums (I wasn't quick enough to get pictures of our boys IN the engines and up at the nose of the fighter jet about 8 ft off the ground 'locked' behind a gate they easily opened.)

Our Delhi hotel also had a bathtub (a rare treat in this land!), which Indira Gandhi is rumored to have called, "the ideal place in which to enjoy a mango" so our mango monsters did just that.  The abundance of fruit in the flat part of India this time of year is just amazing, so we really enjoyed lots of that!!!

We are now enroute to our Himalayan home, spending a few days near the town where our car is getting repaired after a little fender bender on the way down to Delhi.  It's an odd feeling to be going ' home' to the place that is most home for us, but still not HOME, a poignant longing for permanence that we won't have on this earth, a great reminder that we are just sojourners. 

Recharge

By choosing to live in a village, there is much that we embrace with enthusiasm and a few things we are slowly learning to accept.  I love being part of a tight knit community in which my children drift in and out of a couple neighbors’ homes all the time, and theirs do the same in ours.   We help each other with daily life stuff, like picking burrs out of the kids’ clothing and minding babies.  Being the introvert that I am (I do love to connect with people, just recharge ALONE), it is challenging to never know when I will get a minute to myself at home.  Just when I have my own children set up for a rest time so I can sneak off to eat some American candy and read a book by myself, the doorbell often rings and I welcome in whoever stands there.  Neighbors float in and out randomly all day long and many others visit too, often seeking a consultation with the Doctor Sahib, my husband.  Most days I make 3-4 cups of tea, some days closer to 10. 

After months of this I started feeling a little panicky at times…”WILL I EVER HAVE A MINUTE TO THINK A WHOLE THOUGHT ALONE!??!”  I considered how I handled this feeling at other times in my life (believe me, as a mom of four little ones, this is NOT the first time my introvert boundaries have been challenged).   I remembered that at other times in my life riding a bike has been an excellent escape for me, (sometimes hauling little people in a trailer, but still alone on the bike...the little people in these pics are just so cute I had to share!  Great memories of VA).  I am a nicer person when I ride a bike, a kinder, gentler me.  The endorphins of a good workout are a fantastic mood lifter, as is getting out of my house. 

My husband was quickly agreed  when I proposed getting a bike for me (he likes a nicer wife, who wouldn’t?)so when we were in the big city this past January, we got a Sanity Saving Cycle and hauled it back up the mountain.  Once most of the snow had snow melted I went on my first ride and it was rekindled love to have the wind in my face as I flew down the road alone.  Usually I ride out on a road that is slated to be the next national highway but right now is perfect for riding because it’s a work in progress so there isn’t any traffic besides the flocks of goats and sheep on their way to pasture.  It is bumpy and rocky and a loooooong way down to the river, but it’s nice and wide for a bike.

Sometimes I just have enough time to coast out 20 minutes (downhill) and then pedal hard back to the house 20 more minutes (uphill).  Other days I have time to ride till the road ends, turn around and camp out on a rock, spending a couple hours watching the eagles, reading, journaling, thinking, meditating, praying before I ride home.   

I still can hardly believe I get to ride my bike in the Himalayas!!!  It’s such a gift, a fabulous benefit of living here.