rajsuman

I have yet to come across a nut I didn't like. My absolute favourite for eating on their own are pecans, cashews and almonds. Not so keen on raw peanuts, but I like them roasted. Suman

Hi Rushina, No you don't sound mean at all - I can totally understand. Thanks for your generous offer. I wasn't looking for a recipe anyway. Sun-dried mango pickle in Ireland? Ha! (sun? what sun? oh..that yellow disc in the sky? hmmm...seems vaguely familiar). I was just looking for a description. It sounds very similar to my grandma's 'puddi nonche' (powdered pickle), which contains sun-dried strips of raw mango in a mixture of ground mustard, hing and dried chillies. It's a dry pickle. It's been my favourite ever since I can remember and I've yet to change my mind about it. Suman

Rushina, please do explain. Suman

This is such a coincidence! If I am to be completely honest, I was initially thinking of custom-building a recipe management software myself. I've had a look at a few samples and have been listing what features of those I like the best. I love working with databases, and I was, like you, leaning towards Access and VB. The problem is, I have to brush up a bit on my fundas and right now I have very little time. My priority is to just get a few of my best recipes organised in the shortest possible time. I want to give a set to my mum as a present. However if you want a hand, just PM me and I'll try my best to help. Suman

Hi, I know this topic has been discussed earlier under a different heading, but I'd like to know something specific: Does any software give you the option of editing the categories/cuisine etc.? For example if I want to add, say, 'Japanese cuisine' or remove 'appetisers', would I be able to do that? What is the best software on the market? Thanks, Suman

As I mentioned elsewhere on this forum, I love Amul butter too. I don't get it here in Dublin, so everytime I go home I use it at every opportunity - I mean, why gain 4 pounds when you can gain 14? Irish dairy products are superb, but none of the butters compare to 'Mera Amul'. Imagine my absolute delight when I came across Brittany butter with sea salt - it's so much like Amul! Now I wish I hadn't found it. My butter-lover son (he'll eat hay if you spread some butter on it) now insists on having only 'Indian' butter.

I'll read anything if it relates to health (and needless to say, food), which is not to say that I'm a health freak or anything. I love my food too much to eat too healthily, but since I'm the main (read:only) cook in the house, I kind of feel responsible for what I feed my DH and children. BTW,I forgot to mention Anda chaat : boiled eggs mashed a bit with raw chopped onion, green chillies, coriander leaves, chaat masala and ketchup! Suman

But these days, they recommend eggs to everybody, even adults. Eggs contain cholestrol, but not much saturated fats. Recent research shows that it's not cholestrol in foods which raises your own cholestrol, but the saturated fat in it. So eggs are once again popular as the healthy food. Suman

Gingerly, I can't wait to try your egg salad. Sounds delicious. I hardly ever make anything Indian out of eggs (if you don't count my children that is, haha) - about time I rectified that. I do make this hyderabadi breakfast dish occasionally. Make a spicy tomato sauce with mustard, garlic, green chillies in the tadka, then break the eggs into it and simmer until set (although I prefer a runny yolk). The other things I usually do are the Indian-style omelette or maybe a bhurji. Otherwise it's usually boiled/fried/scrambled eggs, french toast, stuffed omelettes or egg salad sandwich. Suman

I had this wonderful raw papaya chutney at Samarkhand in Bangalore. It was more like a Bengali murabba really with thin slices of raw papaya in a light sugar syrup with some salt and panch phoran added. I couldn't wait until I found some raw papaya, so I tried it with raw mango. The result was, I 'tasted' more than half of it before it got to the table. Suman

Thanks a lot gingerly! One question: Would you know if the urad is with or without skin? Thanks again, Suman

My mother makes this arbi chaat with it. She part-cooks the arbi by boiling it, skins it, squashes it somewhat between the palms of her hand, then deep-fries it. She'll then toss it in a mixture of fried jeera, chat masala, lemon juice and coriander leaves. There's a recipe for it in Dakshin that I sometimes use (if I'm lucky enough to lay my hands on the vegetable) -Cut into small cubes, shallow fry until crisp then add some sort of kari masala. I'm sorry these are vague instructions, but I haven't made it in a long time and my book is with a friend. Konkanis make a curry called humman out of it. With the leaves we make pathravde (similar to the Gujarati patra that Rushina mentions, but with a different filling), for which you put a hot and sour moong and coconut paste over the leaves, layer them up, make tight rolls out of them, then steam them. You can have it sliced as a side dish, pan-roasted or deep-fried or put them in a curry. Mmmmmm just the thought of them makes me feel hungry. My Punjabi friend makes 'paan ka bhajiya' with the leaves - she stuffs them with a besan paste. Rushina, I'd love to hear more about the hing ka achaar. Suman Edited to include the 'hing ka achaar' bit.

I'd love to make Handvo at home, but can't find ondhwa flour anywhere in Dublin. Could someone tell me what this flour is and if I can make it at home? All I've gathered from Googling is that it's a mixture of rice and gram flours. Thanks! Suman

Despite my promise to myself re. not buying anymore cookbooks (the possibility of moving to another country looms), I've bought at least a dozen since my last post here. Some of the recent ones: Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking Prashad - Cooking with the Indian Masters by Jiggs Kalra French Fried by Harriet Weltz Time Life's Chinese Cooking The Cook's Advisor Nigella Lawson's How to Eat and Forever Summer Others include South Indian cookbooks, books on Indian street foods etc.. So, add 12 for me please. Suman

Hi gingerly, The question is: why won't many south Indians eat their tamarind rice without their curd rice? I could understand it if tamarind was heat-producing, but now you've confirmed my suspicions that it is not. They don't make curd rice with lemon rice, for example. Any ideas? Suman

We use a lot of cumin and mint in India, but I haven't seen anyone else add it to curd rice. That doesn't stop me though - I think they go very well with the yogurt (perhaps I subconsciously derived the combination from the raita my mother makes with cucumber, mint and toasted cumin powder). Suman

Naturally, being Indian I prefer the McD offerings in India to what we get here. I was particularly thrilled with the chilli sauce. I don't like cabbage as a substitute for iceberg, but I can live with it. Suman

Depending on my mood I might add one or all of the following : grated ginger (sometimes raw, sometimes fried), fried peanuts, non-traditional: cumin and mint again non-traditional: Lots of peeled, chopped cucumber (This version is my son's fav.) Most people in the South make curd rice as an accompaniment to tamarind rice. I'm very curious about this because I always thought tamarind cooled you down. Been asking a lot of questions, but none of my friends seem to know. This is the perfect opportunity to pose the question to this forum. I like to eat yogurt rice with papads, pickles and mint chutney. I also like the yogurt to be mild and creamy. Here's a tip if you don't have enough yogurt to make the rice helenjp, but it only works on very hot days. Combine milk and the rice together, add a small quantity of the yogurt and set aside in a warm place for a few hours. The milk turns to yogurt and voila! curd rice. Hope this helps. Suman

Thanks Episure for the encouragement I could have done without! Now I can feel less guilty knowing there are other weirdos like me who eat frozen mithai. Here's what I've tried thus far straight from the freezer: kaju barfi, badaam burfi, rasgulla, mohan thal, karachi halwa, soan papdi, besan burfi, kalakand Here's what I might try next under your guidance: chocolate, sev barfi if I can come across it ,...(I'm open to more suggestions) Suman

Yes Episure! I self-righteously keep mithai in the freezer, wrongly believing I won't touch them that way, but now I know the joys of frozen rasgollas, burfis and whatnot. Haven't tried chocolate though. I think I need something quicker than a microwave to defrost my food! Suman

Well, there are some things that are just not suitable for freezing. Boiled potatoes for example, yeugh! They've been showing ads here for frozen dosas etc. and I was wondering about them too. The masala dosas are as thick as utappams in the ad, but I guess it's better than nothing. Things I forgot to mention earlier: Curry leaves Green chillies Green and tamarind chutneys vindaloo some bought chicken tikka masala and chicken jalfrezi Things I normally keep, but haven't got at the minute: Pav and bhaji, carrot bhaji for my husband's sandwiches (it's much better than it sounds, honestly), marinated chicken and/or fish, wadas for dahi-bhalle (it's been ages since I made these though) Suman

Thanks gingerly for posting the recipe. The second version seems like what we would make, although the addition of cumin seeds is news to me. You roll it out like pooris - some people make thicker discs, others like me prefer to roll it out thinly. It is not eaten like a sweet and there should only be a hint of sweetness in it. I must thank Savita for reminding me I haven't made this in ages - so guess what's for breakfast on Sat.? I thought of posting the recipe after I'd tested it, but now you don't have to wait that long. Is there any suggestion in the book as to what's to be eaten with it? At my place they eat it with pickle, in the hostel where I stayed during my college years they used to give us Kissan mixed fruit jam with it and at my husband's place they serve it with a green chillies and coconut chutney, so I'm curious to know what the traditional accompaniment is. Suman

They also make green (?) peas that way, dried and too-green-to-be-true. Very addictive stuff indeed. Crunchy and very,very moreish. Suman

Oooh now I'm almost jumping around in excitement! Gingerly, I remember the roasted ones after reading your post - they are so delicious. Wish I could roast my frozen ones. Suman

What a coincidence! After years of pining for the stuff, I come across a pack of green chana in my Indian grocer's freezer and this discussion is happening. Perfect timing. I didn't realize it was called choliya, though. Thanks for the wonderful ideas. I recall many a happy childhood days spent munching them raw and then waiting eagerly for them to appear in their cooked form. Suman