Bhukhhad

You got it! I grow fennel everywhere I can just so that I can see the birds come to eat the seeds! Silly silly me

Wayne, ElainaA, Purslane is edible. This horizpntal variety too. Just pull the individual leaves and add to salad. We call it 'loni bhaji' plobably because it has a gel like or cucumber like texture inside. But it does not ooze the gel. Sometimes it is mildly salty and sour. Most places I know will make a dry sabji out of it by sauteeing it. I will try to look for some recipes. Fennel! This year its growing like a jungle!! But its attracting honeybees as early at six am! I have been stung twice this season and dont want to go there when they are around. I know bees are good for the plants. But this is too scary. Well I did grow a LOT of fennel not realizing the jungle I was about to make. Bhukhhad

Phew! Thanks all

I am sorry, this is my error. I cant go back to sleep without knowing that it will be fixed. @kayb, can you please declare someone else to go ahead? Not I? bhukhhad

Yikes! Kayb I am sorry. I understand what Tftc means, I should not have jumped in. I cant do it, I have guests from india..... Oops @sartoric and @kayb and @tftc please help

Kayb, I am not in the running here but how about a one-pot recipe? How about a New Orleans style GUMBO? I believe it has chicken rice eggplant zuchhini okra and squash! You might want to serve a salad of cool cumber and some cheese alongside. Bhukhhad

Ok Kayb, you are 'It'! So plan your list and get posting. I decided to do Kayb's 'Eggplant Roll-up', and here is how I made it: 3 long chinese eggplants 1 Red onion Grated Mozarella cheese Some Parmesan cheese 1/2 cup rice Garlic , Salt, Red chili flakes, fresh oregano 4 button mushrooms 1 jar of pasta sauce 2 Tbspn oil or more In a baking tray I placed thinly sliced long chinese egg plants close together but in a single layer. I sprinkled some salt (sorry a little pepper got into the salt too) and a little oil. I roasted them on 350F for about half an hour. On the other side I diced the onion finely, minced the garlic, salt, chili flakes and oregano together. I chopped a few mushrooms I found in the fridge. I sauteed the onions and mushrooms together and cooked them till the water evaporated. In the microwave I cooked the rice and once cooked I mixed about 2 tbspns pf pasta sauce and some mozarella into it. Then added the mushroom mixture and tossed it all together. In a foil tray, I took each of the softwned eggplant slices, added some of the rice and mushroom mixture to them and rolled them up. I tried to stack them neatly but the pan was bigger than the amount of eggplant. But thats ok, it was my dinner. I poured the rest of the pasta sauce on top and spread a layer of cheese. Now its all ready to go into an oven just before serving. With the opo squash and pumpkin, I cleaned everything and cut each into chunks. Most of the chunks of opo and pumpkin were bagged and kept in the refrigerator for the rest of the week. But I did make one curry. The name is 'Morkholumbho'. You pressure cook the opo and pumpkin chunks. Then in a separate frying pan heat a couple of teaspoons of peanut oil. Add dry urad dal, cumin seeds, mustard seeds, green chilies and curry leaves. Fry for a few minutes. Add hing and some tablespoons of dessicated coconut. Grind everything fine in a blender adding water as needed. Mix this paste with the pressure cooked opo and pumpkin chunks, simmer till melded well. Add lemon juice to taste and adjust salt for seasoning. This is usually served with rice. But since I have rice in the eggplant dish, I will make chapatti. Thanks folks, I tried making something new because of you! Bhukhhad

Wow everyone has such interesting suggestions. A stirfry like Smithy said would be nice because my stir fry has usually been broccoli or green beans! Eggplant rollups like Kayb suggested would be good too as I have not made that dish before. Though I have watched Giada De Laurentis wax on at length about such a dish. Sartoric suggests an eggplant and pumpkin layered lasagna like creation and I love lasagna. Fried Opo? Thats new for me TftC. Good suggestion. Wild_yeast what an interesting dish! We make a similar green pigeon peas and rice dish. At least my Mom made it. I haven't had it in years. But caribbean spices I may not have. I think its carribean. What shall I do? I'd better decide soon..... Bhukhhad

Tere These are beautiful courgettes. I have only found dark green zuchhini, not these. They look so pretty. Maybe this winter I will plant a whole bunch of colorful gourds and squashes. What are those blue flowers? Asters? Are they edible? Very pretty. And the swiss chard has only red stems of do you have the rainbow chard variety?

Ok so here are the rest of the pictures for my veggies right now: More Opo Zuchhini Amaranth Fennel Butternut Squash Lemon Cucumber (its delicious) Oregano and Mint Thanks for being interested. All of you. i have overdone the fennel planting this year and it is attracting honey bees. They start so early in the morning I can barely work on the weeding. And as I got bitten twice this summer I am wary of the bees now. But the fennel has come into seed and my favorite little birds come to eat it. I dont have the heart to cut it away now. Bhukhhad

Hahahaha yes, these are huge. Like the big watermelon they are mostly water. Very good for you i harvest them a little over their time too I must admit, because I love seeing them grow so big. When we were kids we used to play Mahabharata roles with these squashes. The Opo Squash looks like a big Mace and the Mace was the weapon for Hanuman the simian character in Mahabharata. I taught my son and all his friends the same while reading them all these stories in their summer holidays.

Tftc Once again, a big thank-you for telling me about this gardening section! These are my opo squash. I grow them every summer along with zuchhini and yellow squash. Also some serano or thai chilies and beans. This year I also grew amaranth and butternut squash. Will post more pics soon. In winter I grow radish carrots and I try to grow more squash varieties if I can.

Ok 'Create my meal'-ers send me your suggestions by tomorrow so that I can attempt to cook one of those. It looks more and more like tomorrow is the only day I can try. Given the fact that I have a limited list and even more limited time this week, it would be fine if someone else went in instead. I can get nominated another time as well. I refer back to the person who started this game to start another round Bhukhhad

Wow your description itself makes my mouth water! Lisa Shock am I 'it'? Ooopsies I am not ready. I dont have a very diverse list right now and I just did my grocery shopping!! But I am so excited that I accept with many nervous butterflies. Here is the list of my groceries: Opo Squash grown in my garden Pumpkin grown in my friend's garden Purple eggplants Chinese long and Big round as well Frozen peas Toor Dal (dry pigeon peas) Red onions Tomatoes Pantry ingredients like chapatti flour. Basmati rice, all spices for Indian food. No bread in the home or any baking supplies like AP flour. No meat or fish. I do have a carton of large eggs. And some brie and some mozzarella. I will cook from whatever you suggest on tuesday or wednesday. Can't after that, have guests. Bhukhhad

JoNorvelleWalker Thank you for this reference! I am loving the reading

Wow I had no clue! That will be interesting to read about. Bhukhhad

Wow Sartoric I had never heard of Gado Gado and the first search brought up Jamie Oliver's recipe of Goegeous Gado Gado. If it comes through this link you will see why I was so impressed. It looks like you found a dish that has everything on the list. And looks delicious! http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables-recipes/gorgeous-gado-gado/#vOgBHsVGTjiiKYuY.03 Yumm! Bhukhhad Sent from my iPhone

Nice. Please do post pictures when you make something like this next. It will be nice to see. Bhukhhad

1. Broccoli and Onion Pakoras with garbanzo bean flour and spices. If instead you make this like tempuras then egg will be used in the batter otherwise I forgot the egg. 2. Roasted russet potato with sour cream and cheese with chives. Like a potato salad. 3. Caramelized tofu with Bok choi http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/caramelized-spicy-tofu-recipe.html 4. Brown rice steamed with some stirfried bean sprouts, crushed peanuts and lime juice like a pad thai but with rice. Oh maybe egg can be used here? Big caveat: I have never made any of these dishes. But I did read the NYTimes caramelised Tofu recipe that I have shared here. And since I like Pad thai I have thought about Pad Thai rice in case there is such a thing... And I love both pakoras and tempuras so this version could go either way. But this menu still does no justice to a baker. That should be things like souffles and tarts and pies. Bhukhhad

@TFTC Did I somehow say something wrong? I was left with the impression that I became idealistic. Please take my writing with a big pinch of salt mirchi and methi Bhukhhad

Liuzhou Hi there. I read your response but somehow I still have not managed to convey myself correctly. What I meant to say is that methi is a bitter seed and in indian pickles it had been added to the ' pickling spices' for that bitterness to offset the sour and salty. Thats primarily why it is used in mango pickle or here where I have used it for plums. But the 'pickling' part is the common denomenator along with the sourness. So I was surprised with the sentence saying it was good with fruit. In my mind I was thinking of other cultures where methi could be used with melons or strawberries or something else. Not having come across this myself, it was hard to imagine. This is why I asked 'methi with fruits'? Did I offend you somehow? It certainly was not my intent. I'm just having a discussion over methi. Please that there is interest. Bhukhhad

Methi with fruits? Sorry I did not quite understand. Methi is Fenugreek. Usually we add them as pickling spices and it is unusual to add them to fruit. I have put them here only to pickle the plums Bhukhhad

TFTC May I say something about your post? About the 'homemade' goods.... Have faith in the system dear friend, the system has been built on good principles and it will endure. That is my belief. And here is why I say this: I dont have any factual information about unlicensed vendors selling goods at ethnic stores. But dont deny that it could have been a possibility many years ago and may still be in a few stores. But by and large it will not be unlicensed or unfollowing of laws. The Indian community in the USA is not so new anymore, but the other immigrant communities like the Chinese and Italian among others are here since many many years. Healthcare laws and licensure laws apply to everyone. And there is security and vigilance around these laws. By now, all businesses abide by these rules, else the business itself will perish. Why do I say this? Because at some point I too had misgivings about buying products from ethnic stores and wondering if they were safe. But by and large established stores dont have produce that may be 'iffy', and healthcare regulations make certain that whoever prepares food items for sale is licensed and their facilities are checked. So I have not seen home cooked food vended in stores for a long time now. They are all branded, with addresses, expiry lables, and license numbers to their business. I agree Inwould not buy them otherwise. I do believe small businesses have begun to flourish and offer batches of batter, sprouts, peeled pomegranate seeds, packaged curry leaves etc and they have licenses for these and display healthcare permits. In my town too the Indian store has a daily vendor who comes in with packets of chapatti's, and trays of Samosa and Vada. But that vendor too has a license and his facility displays a valid health permit. Of course caution is always good sense. And I am probably preaching to the choir here so forgive me. I am just grateful to find a few people I can share my foodie ideas with. Many thanks Bhukhhad

Dosa here Dosa there Dosa everywhere! TFtC What an interesting discussion to be invited into. Thank you. I love dosa as well. And have plenty of my own to say on it. GRINDING: Traditionally, a stone mill that was turned by hand, was used to make the idli dosa batter. A Ragado like the video in one of the earlier posts was prized in every home and one day of the week was designated for this early morning grinding. It was time consuming, and laborious. But those very acts of sitting on the floor and grinding by hand brought all the necessary calorie burn that was needed to eat such carb laden glories! We had a meat grinder in our home, a hand cranked device that we used to partially grind the bulk of the rice and dal before employing a grinding stone. And our meat grinder had never seen meat, it was always a vegetarian grinder But the jump to an Osterizer Blender was a leap! And the oster machine was fine for making perfect dosa. Now we get Wet Grinders that mimic the stone grinder and make even smoother batter. The two brands I know are Ultra and Premier. Vitamix works as well. Very well. But there is another solution. And one that is being used in India as well: buy ready made batter! This is a godsent time saver. Check your indian store. Some of the brand names are Shasta, Ganesh, Kaveri. SIZE Just accept it: The restaurants have huge six burner sized flat griddles. And the paper dosa is made on that surface. Hence it is huge! At home we have a skillet. And we make Sada Dosa or plain dosa with or without fillings. SPREADING Dosa are made on a cast iron seasoned pan at home. The pan must be hot. Sprinkle some water onto the hot griddle and see each drop bubble up into a tiny ball. Thats the temperature you want. Put a ladleful of dosa batter on the surface and count to ten under your breath. Then with the back of the ladle cup gently swirl the batter from the center outwards. In a circular motion. The ladle must only skim the surface of the batter, never move the base of the batter. The dosa cooks with no oil needed. You may flip both sides. If you add a few drops of oil, it makes it easier on you. INGREDIENTS 1. Traditional: parboiled short grain rice (Ponni) and skinned Urad Dal ( Vigna mungo or Black gram) 4:1 2. Lighter Batter: 3:1 combination 3. Pesarratu: My version: Rice ( same) green mung beans with skin on 3:1 4. Adai: My version: three dals mung, urad, channa dal. Equal portions no rice. More later Bhukhhad

Plum Chutney The last of the fresh plums from my friend's yard. Turned into a flinger licking chutney. Ingredients: 1 lb plums or about 15 small plums 2 tspn salt 1/2 tsp turmeric powder 1/3 tspn hing 1 tspn mustard seeds 1 tspn whole methi seeds 2-4 tspn sugar 3 tspn red chili powder (mirchi) 1/4 cup oil De seed and chop plums into bite sized pieces. Discard the seed. In a pan heat the oil and sputter the methi and mustard. Just as they begin to sputter turn off the heat. Add hing and immediately add the plums. Add salt, haldi and red chili powder. Stir. Now turn the heat back on and cook the plums on a moderate flame till soft. The intent is to lose most of the moisture. But be careful not to overcook because the fresh plummy taste will disappear with over cooking. Cool. Store in a glass bottle in the refrigerator. Serve with chapatti, rice or spread on bread as a savory sandwich paste. I tried it as a chutney on slices of roasted chicken breast and it transformed the meal. Maybe I will try it on some dosa next! Yum yum Bhukhhad