nightlifemumbai

-by Aishwarya Pramod and Janaki Krishnan Like all Palakkad Iyers, I love kanatha vadam. But whenever I think of it, it's always with a twinge of guilt. Not because kanatha vadam is unhealthy. Rather, it is because the dish takes a humongous effort to make, but almost no time to finish off. All that work for only a moment of deliciousness? So self-indulgent. :P Non-Palakkad-Iyers might ask, what are kanatha vadams? At the risk of sounding clinical, they are steamed rice flat-cakes that are sundried to make papads :). During the papad-making process, a few of them are set aside for immediate eating (without drying). My grandmother has loved kanatha vadam since she was a young girl. She penned down the recipe and her memories associated with it. Here is what she wrote. Writing down the recipe xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Kanatha Vadam by Janaki Krishnan I learnt to make kanatha vadam at a schoolgoing age. Kanatha vadam means "thick vadam". It's made...

So every year summer comes around, and I wait for aamras. This year, I got lucky. I went to Kalbadevi, so I made sure I went to Surti to taste it! There were three of us. Between us we had 4 big cups of aamras, and a plate of puris, and some bottled water to drink. The bill came to Rs 300. Perfect joy. They serve it chilled but not cold; and it is just divine. Thick and rich, and I felt that they have absolutely not compromised on quality. I liked it so much that I got a parcel for home. They parcel it beautifully so it is easy to take home without any spillage. Crawford Market is full of ripe mangoes, by the way. But prices are quite high right now. I thought about buying some mangoes and making my own aamras. Different people make it differently; some add saffron, some add cardamom, but I think this is a beautiful dish just plain. A little sugar is all it needs. Cut up bits of excellent alfonso or kesar mangoes, add a little sugar, blend. Voila. How to get to Surti:  https://goo....

- by Deepa Krishnan A few days ago, I had lunch in a small village home in the Palghar district of Maharashtra. The people who live in this village are tribal agriculturalists, practising subsistence farming. One of the families cooked lunch for us. We ate sitting on mats on the floor. I was super-hungry and wolfed down my meal in minutes. Our hostess brought endless servings of everything, until I was fit to burst. Here's a photo of what I ate: Everything on my plate was grown locally. There was rice, which is grown during the monsoon season on the nearby hill slopes in small terraces. There was bhendi (okra / ladies finger), chowli (black-eyed beans), tuar (pigeon-pea) dal, two types of home-made papad and a home-made mango pickle. All of it came from nearby farms and fields.  But the thing that delighted me most was the dark brown roti, called nachni bhakri.   Nachni (finger millet) is one of the healthiest things you can eat. Loads of calcium and iron. Lots of fibre. Slow ...

- By Janaki Krishnan Alphonso mangoes at our doorstep Just as the cuckoo awaits the arrival of spring, every Palakkad Brahmin lady awaits the arrival of the mango season. By March they begin appearing for sale.  Matunga market is ideal for mangoes, but sweet ripe mangoes are also delivered at our doorstep in Sion. Sweet mangoes have many uses in my cooking  – mango sambar (for which I use the small ones the sellers call raswala, meaning ’juicy’), aamras to eat with puris, and of course Alphonso mangoes to enjoy on their own for their wonderful taste. But as soon as I find out that mangoes have arrived in the market, one of the first things I do is to look for small green raw mangoes, to make Kadugumanga (‘Kadugu’ – mustard, ‘mangai’ – mango), a classic pickle from Kerala. Kadugumanga - the No 1 pickle in our family To be eligible for Kadugumanga pickle, green mangoes have to pass various tests. They must be small, round (ab...