A Relaxed Morning

So Diwali is over. Except for the sweets and food that have found comfortable places in me and are going to take a lot of dedicated hours in the gym to get rid off. We still have a few more crackers to burst this evening. I think I was around 4 when a sparkler fell on my foot. And ever since, I have not been excited about fireworks. Till about a few years back when N insisted I light a flowerpot. Now, every year thats exactly what I do- light the flower pots and the ground wheel (chakra).

We had a yummy breakfast, courtesy Mom-in-law and Seema, of Pongal and Tomato Chutney. Pongal used to be a Sunday staple back in my parents' home.

Pongal

1 cup uncooked rice
3/4 cup moong dal
1 small piece of asafoetida or a pinch of its powder
7-8 curry leaves
2 green chillies
1 tsp cumin
8 peppercorns
1.5" finely chopped ginger
Salt, Ghee, oil

Pressure cook the rice and dal with 5 cups of water with salt, asafoetida and peppercorns till soft. Heat a mixture of 2 tbsp gingelly oil and ghee or just ghee. Fry the other ingredients in it for a minute, add the cooked rice and mix well. Add a little more ghee so the rice begins to leave the sides of the pan. Garnish with cashews fried in ghee.

Tomato Chutney

4 ripe red tomatoes chopped

1 big onion chopped

1" ginger chopped fine

1 green chilly chopped

2 tsp tamarind paste

1 tsp sambhar powder

1/2 tsp mustard

1 pinch asafoetida/hing

Turmeric powder, salt to taste, oil

1 sprig curry leaves, 1 tsp coriander chopped fine

Heat 2 tbsp gingelly oil in a pan. Add hing, mustard seeds, curry leaves, ginger, chilly and stir for a minute. Add the chopped onion and fry for a couple of minutes. Mix in the tomatoes, sambhar powder and a pinch of turmeric powder. Meanwhile, dilute the tamarind paste in 1/2 cup water. Add to the tomatoes after 4-5 minutes. Mix well, add salt and let cook till the veggies are all cooked and the chutney reaches desired consistency. Garnish with chopped coriander.

Happy Deepavali

Happy Deepavali to one and all

Kerala temple murals

We finally bought a few paintings that are in the Kerala temple art style. N has been very keen to find at least one of them for a while. Our search started in May when we visited a restaurant called Spice Route Courtyard housed in the really Imperial Hotel in New Delhi. We loved it- both for the amazing South East Asian cuisine and the interiors that had artwork we fell in love with but couldn't identify.

We saw another beautiful piece at Ambara in Bangalore and found out more about it. The third time was when I visited Dakshina Chitra a couple of months ago and found 7-8 pieces of this artwork. We picked a couple of pieces and are still in love with them. So we thought our wait was finally over and we started planning where in our apartment we should give them pride of place, not realising it would take a whole 4 weeks to get the canvas framed.

So now, we have the framed canvasses... but are now waiting for the VIP called "The Carpenter" to show up someday.