French Toast

The french toast brings back memories of my father whom we called Anna. A very sweet humble, God fearing affectionate person. Very witty, oneliners would just come naturally to him. Beautiful handwriting he had, I have many geetings written by him kept away, to just look at them  whenever I miss him. He was a man of very few words, he expressed all with his eyes only. We were used to this to such an extent, that we instantly understood what he needed at a particular time just by the way he looked at it, be it a glass of water or his spectacles or the newspaper. Once he got it, an instant thank you and a sweet smile would appear on his face.

I got married young and he always looked forward to the days he would be spending with me here in Mumbai. He never stayed for more than four to five days though. As the day approached for his return, he would start counting hours and minutes and just look at me and smile. He specially loved all items of egg made by me, this being one of them. The last time he visited me was for a little longer time, as though he knew he would not come again. One day, he comes to me sheepishly and says,"Beena you have surpassed your mother in cooking, your mother is not around so I am telling you this!" The smile appears again. One of the best compliments a daughter could get from a father.

Recipe

French toast with chilli cheese coriander;

Ingredients
4 eggs beaten well with salt pepper and a tablespoon of milk
1 finely chopped onion
3 finely chopped chillies
3 cubes of cheese grated
a small bunch of finely chopped coriander
4 slices of brown bread
Olive oil for making the toast

Method

Mix all the above given ingredients into the beaten egg mixture adding salt and pepper just enough for the added ingredients.
Keep a nonstick pan to heat, brush little olive oil, dip a bread slice in the egg mixture, add more mixture on top of the slice, let it cook a bit , turn it over and also add little egg mix if the layer is too thin, brown the toast to a golden colour and serve hot. Enjoy with morning coffee or with your evening cuppa masala chai. 

Memories of a little town

Ghari and Kadboli

These snack items remind me of the cute little town Dharwar, which is in Karnataka. I spent some part of my childhood days, did my schooling in Basel Mission High School. We children lived there with my grandmom in a lovely bungalow, since my mom travelled with my dad wherever his tranferable job took him. Life was different those days, we played  lagori, kho kho and hide and seek, hiding climbing on trees and terraces and even neighbour's homes, Our elbows and knees were perpetually bruised by playing in stones and mud.

My school was at a distance of hop skip and jump from home, so we came home for lunch and also during the short recess. The dishes mentioned above were always available to us for our evening hunger pangs. There were no CCDs and StarBucks then. Home was where we ate and drank our coffee. Life was simple, sweet and innocent as it should be at that age. I miss my school, those days and the people who made life sweet for us.

Ghari, a sweet snack

Ghari, this is what it is called in Marathi. A sweet made of red pumpkin and jaggery. Takes me back to my childhood.
2 cups grated red pumpkin
1and a 1/2 cup grated jaggery
A pinch of edible soda
A pinch of salt
Wheat flour as required
Oil/ ghee for frying

Method

Mix the grated pumpkin or jageery, rest it so it relases water, after sometime mix the rest of the ingredients, mixing flour slowly as per required, seeing that the dough becomes like it would be for a roti.
The dough should be mixed only in the water relaesed by the pumpkin, no extra water to be added. Drizzle little oil rest this for a while.

In a kadhai heat oil or ghee, make small balls of the dough and flatten them on the palm You can use butter papaer for this. Palms should be greased since the dough is sticky becuase of jaggery. Fry them on medium heat till golden brown, taking care to see they get cooked from inside and do not burn from the outside.

Relish them with ghee on top, or as a teatime snack. They as tasty as cookies and crisp too. Enjoy friends. 

Kadboli, a savoury snack

Kadboli, a teatime snack made in Karnataka and some parts of Maharashtra too.

Ingredients
1 cup rice flour
1/4 cup maida
1 cup fresh scraped coconut
Salt as required
4 dry red chillies
1/2 tspoon carom seeds
1 tspoon of cumin seeds
Pinch of asefoetida
1 big spoon heated oil for pouring in the dough

Method
Grind the coconut, chillies, carom seeds, cumin seeds, asefotida in a mixi and mix this into the rice and maida mix, add salt as per taste and make soft dough like we would for roti.Keep oil to heat in a kadhai, grease your palms, make shapes of the dough as shown in the pic and fry on medium heat. See that they fry from inside and dont burn from outside. Fry them till deep golden and crisp.

Noodles-Shashi Special

Noodles, the word takes me back to my college days, the fun we had, my neighbourhood in Bengaluru from where I belong.

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A name that specially comes to my mind is Shashi Ahuja, my neighbour who was my best buddy in yoga, the days we spent at each other's homes eating, watching films and also just generally hanging around painting the town red! (There rarely was a day when we did not get fired by the yoga teacher for giggling and chatting non stop.) Her mom would chop vegetables required for the noodles so efficiently, that I too felt like learning from her, which I did and now everybody who knows me loves the noodles I make. My friends, my husband's friends, my daughter's friends and my son's friends too.  The other dish she taught me was the Curry made of Soya Granules.The credit for these dishes entirely goes to Ahuja aunty. Thank you so much. My daughter and husband enjoy this dish, it is their all time favourite. My son does not enjoy the plain noodles, so the addition of the omlette, then it is  transformed into one of his favourite dishes.

I have improvised on this dish, made some additions and variations. Will put up all on the blog from time to time.

Vegetable Noodles
Ingredients
2 packs of hakka veg noodles
100 gms of french beans cut into juliens
100 gms of carrots jullienned
100 gms of green peas
100 gms of capsicum
wash and cut the vegetables just before making so they absorb the salt while they cook
3-4 green chillies jullienned
1/2 teaspoon of ajinomoto
1/2 spoon black or white pepper pdr 
2 tablespoons of dark soya sauce
salt to taste
Method
In a big kadhai heat oil saute the green chillies....put in all the cut vegetables....put little salt and if u find them dry just sprinkle some water...cook them covered till they change colour but let them not become soggy....alongside keep a big vessel of water with little salt and 2 tablespoons of oil, to boil, so much that contents of both packets will submerge, it has to be drained out so even if it is a little more it is fine....once the water boils put the noodles in the water, simmer and cook till done but do not overcook because they will stick together.keep checking and once done drain them in a sieve and pour cold water, to stop further cooking...keep it to drain for a while...now to the cooked vegetables add ajinomoto, some black pepper pdr the noodles and mix well and add the soya sauce....taste before adding salt since there is salt already in the veggies and also the noodles....mix well and u can have them as they are or with Tomato sauce.
A useful suggestion would remove the veggies from the fire if they are done before the water boils and keep them back on the gas once u are ready to add the noodles and the other ingredients. I do not use the masal which comes along with the packets since I make my own version

For the topping made with masala omlette -

Beat 4 eggs with salt, pepper powder and a small spoon of milk. Add 2 finely chopped green chillies, 1 finely chopped onion, handful of finely chopped fresh coriander. Make an omlette . Serve the noodles in a plate, then put the omlette on top, eat the noodles with a bite of omlette in each morsel and enjoy. 

This is a very simple recipe made out of ladies finger. One of the favourites out of my kitchen. I remember we were served this when we took our children to EsselWorld some years back. We all enjoyed eating it and I found out how it was made. Since then it is called EsselWorld Bhindi in my house and when I shared the recipe with my friends it was given the name of Beena Bhindi.

Now with the recipe I have shown the picture of how the vegetable needs to be chopped for this particular recipe. When I say this it means all aspects of the recipe should be followed as they are, as far as possible to get the right taste of the dish. 

Ladies Finger 

250 gms of ladies finger
1/4 cup peanut pdr
1 handful of freshly scraped coconut
salt to taste
1 small spoon amchur pdr
1 small spoon sugar
1 small spoon chilli pdr or as per taste
oil, mustard seeds, asafoetida and turmeric pdr for tempering
freshly chopped coriander for garnishing

Method
In a kadhai take oil and make a tempering of mustard, asafoetida and turmeric pdr, add ladies finger, let it cook a bit then add amchur pdr, salt, chilli pdr, cook till the veg changes colour and then add the peanut pdr, coconut, sugar, let it cook again for a while, do not cover while cooking, mix well and serve garnished with chopped coriander. Tastes good with phulkas, enjoy.

Varan Bhat

A very humble simple boiled rice and lentil dish with a little salt, ghee and a squeeze of the lovely lime, that could very well be called a starter. Nothing fancy to it but the dish is most welcome, I am sure to one and all, any day.

Our traditional meal begins with this dish. It is one of the prime dishes that is included in the offerings given to God. It is also the first item of solid food which is given to a child by his or her maternal uncle, who is addressed as Mama.

Then of course, there are accompaniments served with the dish which makes it more interesting. They could be anything like papad, lime pickle, coconut chutney and some of the vegetable dishes too.

Recipe

1 cup pressure cooked rice

1 cup pressure cooked split pigeon pea lentil

Salt to taste

Lime for squeezing on top

Ghee as per taste

Serve one portion of rice, topped with the soft boiled lentil, ghee as per taste, salt as required and then a squeeze of lime. Mix well and enjoy as is or accompanied with lime pickle, papad, any vegetable, or coconut chutney.

Now this is the authentic way of having this dish. Another way is to again boil the lentil with salt, lime, little turmeric powder, a little asafoetida and a squeeze of lime. Mix this with steamed rice topped with ghee or clarified butter.

MY STARTER

I would like to start this blog with immense respect for the people who basically introduced me to food, my grandmother and mother. Food has been my passion always. I remember making special dishes for my family on sundays. I am a person who is finicky about certain things like in which vessel the dish should be kept, the lid, the way the vegetables are chopped for a certain dish, the way it should be presented so on and so forth.

Now the name of my blog as you read is Food Generations which came to my mind with the thought of the food being generated by each generation, the generations changing with the the way each dish is cooked and also, certain traditional dishes being cooked through generations. Another thing that comes to my mind is how things about food have changed through generations. I have seen my grandmother, my mother, myself and now my daughter cooking food. There is a sea of change like, at one time people were invited home for a meal, savouries and sweets were exchanged among relatives and neighbours during festivals or even otherwise. This practice prevailed till recent times.

Now the exchange is zero, the invites are zero too. Birthdays I cooked meals for a group of almost fifty, till my children became 18 /19 yrs of age. This too stopped. The trend now is to meet out in a restaurant and disperse. Everything is an event and needs to be manged by an event manager! The good old rice dal is replaced by risottos, the kheer replaced by puddings, pedha replaced by cake, buttermilk replaced by mojito!! The list is endless, what with globalisation and several countries contributing to our cuisine!!

I would like to reintroduce the home made simple dishes to the young generation, my wish is that the traditional dishes do not fade out in the modern world of globalisation :) I also love eating the modern fusion food and cuisine from all over the world, so along with  the traditional recipes, there will be many more recipes which will have no borders as such.