Gongura Pulihora (Spicy seasoned rice with sorrel leaves) - Summer comes to a close and a new year begins

We are literally baking here for the past few days, temperature is at its northern tip as far as PNW is concerned and us poor folks pampered year long with moderate temperatures are now whining and complaining as loudly and as often as we can. At our home, this is the time of the year we seriously think of getting an air conditioner but by the time we get off our seats and put the thoughts into action, the weather would have changed and temperature gotten normal :-), so has been the story for last 5 years and the same continues this year as well. I don't feel justified spending money on something that I would use for a minuscule percentage of the year, also we spend a big part of the day in air conditioned offices as the week starts where everything is cool and nice, so the AC has been just a passing thought until now, maybe as the glaciers start to melt and the heat becomes unbearable in a few years, we will give it some serious consideration :-). Until then, let me enjoy the abundant sunshine and the naturally available vitamin D. The plants and flowers outside seem to be in complete agreement with what I say. 

I have turned into an infrequent blogger recently and had not even checked the blog for comments or the facebook for reactions in a while. As I logged in today after a couple of weeks of inactivity, a very pleasant surprise awaited when I saw the FB likes is now up beyond the count of 1000. A small but definite milestone and surely a nudge for me to get back to active blogging :-). I promise I will do the best, thank you all for visiting, stopping by to say hello and spreading the word. The recipes I blog about are very close to heart and the stories that go with it are from personal experiences, it makes it all the more fun when strangers stop by to read it. I am in my 5th year of blogging, I do this mainly for my own selfish purposes using the blog space to chronicle the happenings of my life and to document the recipes I cook at home. The pictures are by no means top class but I hope they support the story I write around the recipe and most of all they are fruits of hard work. I feel genuinely happy when this little space gets some TLC and attention.

As I was looking at the stats on my pages, I also saw a few discussions about a recent episode of plagiarism. If you are active in the food blogging world, you probably have read/heard about it by now, I have been just slow to catch on. I don't intent to shame anyone personally but this blogger apparently became popular with hits in the scale of 100,000 on her youtube videos and the website within a span of mere months. Days of instant gratification and personal glory, right? Turns out that most of the recipes were lifted word by word from some of the well established food blogs without so much as an acknowledgement. With the modern tools and easy access to content at fingertips, all you need for a starter kit is a laptop, browser and some good search key words. What gets lost in this crazy craving for popularity is someone else's hard work and effort put into creating the original piece.

Food blogging is a strange world, if you were to take a recipe there isn't much that any of us are creating afresh but the presentations are morphing, the need to have food appealing to eyes is now a well recognized fact.  The recipes by themselves are mostly handed down from generations and enjoyed by many people. Outside of small variations,personal taste differences and the trend of fusion, the core of a recipe is generic across geographies. So if they are all the same, what is plagiarism in the food blogging world? Plagiarism is when you lift content (recipe, pictures, presentation) from another blogger's space without due permission, plagiarism is when you reproduce another blogger's content without any acknowledgement and claim it as your own. Every food blogger worth his or her salt has painstakingly spent time to document what is in the family for ages, been generous to share the recipes with everyone. You will appreciate the effort that goes into each blog piece only if you are a blogger yourself. Just to put things into perspective, it takes me about 5 hours on an average to get a blog post out from the time of cooking, picture taking, processing, thinking of a context to present the content, actually writing the blog, proof reading and publishing it. Some days, it just doesn't come together at all no matter how hard I try while on other days it flows like an easy normal delivery. I do it only because I am passionate about it. So if someone is using the content or pictures from my blog, I would expect them to have the courtesy to acknowledge it. What was heartening about this particular incident was that there was active protest from the bloggers that literally brought the plagiarizing youtube channel and the website down but what is not so good is that this youtube channel is back in business within the week claiming that all non-original content has been removed. I sincerely hope that is the case. Please help food bloggers by identifying stolen content if you see one.

Other than the high temperatures, for me personally it feels like summer is over with DD heading back to school and starting another year. Can't believe the little girl is no longer a little girl but a fine young lady we are extremely proud of. Her summer though short at home was eventful, full of new adventures, memorable with lot of life lessons. We mostly stood on the side lines as she ventured into unknown territories and faced challenges as she always does - with a smile on her face. For me, acknowledging the fact that she is growing up is easy but letting go when needed is the most difficult part and I am trying my best to overcome my urge to try and guide her every so often. I intend to keep at it and hopefully become good decent at it in a few years decades :-)

Both times when she came home from her new adventures, DD was so happy to come back to the familiar kitchen, her own old dining table and have home food. I made this gongura pulihora 2 weeks back when she came home after a 7 weeks stay away and took it to the airport as we went to receive her in the afternoon. The first thing she noticed was the aroma as she climbed into the car and as a spoon full of rice went into her mouth, all she said was, "Ummm..". I made it again a few days later since she liked it so much and even after a week of home food, she was happy to polish it off clean.

This pulihora is a Telugu version of puliyogare or tamarind rice and replaces tamarind with sour sorrel leaves. The tangy rice with the freshly roasted and powdered spices makes it a delectable home coming recipe. It is simple to make, genuine in flavors and brings that comfort feeling when you eat it. Gongura or sorrel leaves are the pride of Telugu cuisine, if you like these tangy leaves, you can get them easily in the stores (Indian or Asian groceries are the best places to find these) during summer. We make pachadi, pappu on a regular basis but the pulihora got added to the repertoire recently. If you are craving for something spicy and South Indian, if you love rice, this is a heavenly eat. It is easy to put together and tastes better as it ages (best eaten the day after or a few hours after making it). You can roast the gongura leaves and store them in refrigerator for later use.

Happy Independence day to all my fellow Indians and people of Indian origin across the globe!

What do you need to make Gongura pulihora? 
1 cup gongura leaves
1 cup cooked rice (use long grained rice such as sona masoori)
1 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)
1 Tbsp oil
Spice powder: 
1 Tbsp chana dal
1/2 Tsp urad dal
1/2 Tsp fenugreek seeds
1 Tsp white sesame seeds
1 Tsp coriander seeds
1/2 Tsp cumin
2-3 dry red chilies

Seasoning: 
1.5 Tbsp oil
1 Tsp mustard
1 Tbsp chana dal
1 Tsp urad dal
2 Tbsp peanuts
5-7 curry leaves (optional)
1 dry red chili broken into pieces
1/8 Tsp asafoetida
1/4 Tsp turmeric powder

How do you make Gongura Pulihora?

• Pick gongura leaves from the stems and discard the stems. 
• Wash the leaves in a couple of runs of water and spread them on a dish cloth or paper towel to remove all the moisture. Or pat dry the leaves if you are in a hurry. 
• Heat a Tbsp oil in a wide pan, add the leaves and fry them until they wilt and become a single soft mass, takes about 3 minutes on medium heat. 
• Switch off and take the cooked leaves onto a plate. This can be put into a zip lock bag and stored in the fridge for upto a month. 
• Cook 1 cup of rice in 2 cups of water and a drop of oil (oil helps to keep the rice grains fluffy)
• Once cooked spread the rice in a wide plate or mixing bowl and let it cool. 
• Dry roast all the ingredients listed under 'Spice powder', start with the dals & fenugreek and once they turn light pink, add coriander, cumin, sesame seeds and red chilies. Roast them until fragrant and the chili crisps up. 

• Let the mixture cool, then grind it to a powder with a slightly coarse texture. Add this on top of the rice along with salt. 
• Add the cooked gongura leaves on top of the rice. 
• Heat oil for seasoning, add mustard, peanuts, let them roast for 30 seconds. Add the dals, asafoetida, turmeric powder and curry leaves (if using). Stir it with a spoon and roast until the peanuts start to pop and the dals turn golden. 

• Pour the hot seasoning on top of the rice. 

• Once warm enough to handle, gently bring everything together with fingers. Don't put a lot of pressure or the rice will turn mushy. 
• Taste and adjust salt, gongura as needed. 

• Let this rice sit for atleast 30mins for the flavors to mingle together before serving. 

Notes: 

• The leaves can be roasted like described above and stored in the refrigerator for weeks. You can pull out the required quantity and use it in the pulihora, pappu or pachadi. 
• Spice powder can be made ahead of time too and in larger quantities but I prefer to make it fresh. 
• Add cashew nuts in place of or in addition to the peanuts for seasoning if you like. 
• The tanginess in Gongura leaves varies with the variety, taste the rice and adjust if you need more tang, do not add all the leaves at once. 
• I like to use whole leaves in this recipe as they look pretty in the final recipe, if you don't like it, go ahead and chop them before frying in oil. 
• Letting the rice to rest for a half hour is very important for the flavor to come together, allow time for this. 

A pictorial of food & my mother's day ode to the baby that made me a mom

Happy Mother’s day all! Hope all of you mothers and motherly figures had a special day with loved ones. Wishing you all unconditional love and joy in life.

I am not at home this weekend, BH & I flew out to meet DD at school as she finished up her final exams and graduated from a nervous, new-on-campus freshman kid to a confident, young lady ready to start her sophomore journey after a quick summer break. It still seems like yesterday when we dropped her off at the campus last summer, the year went by in the blink of an eye and here we are, moving her out of her dorm room for the summer. The long awaited summer break is here, I know she is going to be able to spend only part of the next 3 months at home while she continues to do the activities her heart is set on for the rest of the time. The baby I hold close to heart is spreading wings beyond what I could have imagined 17 years back. With her kindness and happy enthusiasm to everything around her, she is making me aware of life the way I never would have imagined. She is teaching me via her infectious laugh and never exhausting smile that life is so much more beautiful than I choose to accept sometimes with my adult brain. She is showing me that as long as one is passionate about something, one can make the days stretch beyond what the 'clock on the wall' tells you to get things done. She says things that are so mature and while I am wondering where the wisdom came from, she immediately turns around and giggles like a toddler brightening up my world both ways. I don’t know if I ever taught her any of these things, I wish I could take all the credit for it :-). But she is so much more than me, shaped by the loving, caring family that surrounds her, her teachers and mentors all these 17+ years that have helped silently sculpt the person she is, her circle of friends that support her endlessly. There are several mothers involved in the process of bringing up this child of mine, I am just glad I got to be the lucky one that is called as ‘mom’. When I see this baby I held in my arms not a long while ago and whom I hold in my heart always, for all this and much more, I am thankful for the gift of motherhood and proud of being  her amma. 

Social media is bursting at the seams with all the pictures, quotes, memories, tributes to moms and the one I liked best out of all I have seen so far is this: “Moms are the best because of each of us have the best one” J. Think about it, isn’t it true though?

Every mom, no matter whether she is educated or not, working or not, rich or not, is the best when it comes to the role of being a mother. Something in motherhood that takes away the blemishes of the person and makes her pure magic atleast for as long as she is in that role. Something in the motherhood elevates the person to go beyond what is ordinarily possible, it gives her the strength, the spirit to bring up her child and provide opportunities that never existed for anyone without the ‘mommy’ glasses on eyes.

Tired after all the packing, moving and storing of stuff and a little discouraged by the hot weather in the area, we are mostly staying in and as DD says, “we are lazying out at the hotel room”. While she has had a wonderful time in every other aspect at the campus, food is something she is still struggling to fall in love with or rather atleast like enough to survive on L. She is heading out with a volunteering group for a week long trip, and home food is still atleast 10days away from her. So when I asked her what she wanted to eat during the 4 days she was to stay with us in the hotel, she said, “Everything” with the exception of bread, cheese, pasta. She didn't want to go out (not for every meal atleast) and also wanted as much home food as was possible to make. Knowing that I couldn’t carry my kitchen on my shoulders (Delta airlines wouldn’t have taken kindly to an ordinary passenger like me trying to transport truck loads of stuff on the flight J),  I also had to consider the possibility of setting off alarms by my cooking in an usually closed room. I did the next best thing I could think of, made a plan for the meals and prepped the ingredients as far as I could for DD’s favorite dishes and brought them in my check in. So here we are, sitting in the middle of a city, surrounded by quite a few decent choices for Indian and non Indian food but cooking full fledged meals in a hotel room and enjoying every bit of it. Home made food cooked in the hotel, works for us.

So, I don’t have a recipe today but lots of pictures of what we are serving up these last 3 days, yep, a little showing off too. All these are cell phone quality pictures, not blog worthy for their quality but they have so much love in them which makes them perfect for the blog :-). Most of the ingredients were hand picked and prepped at home, some fresh produce brought here locally, aided by a packet of store bought rotis.  So enjoy the pictures and have a joyous Mother’s day and I will see you all next week with a yummy recipe when I return home.

Uppittu made from a mixture of roasted rave & semia, served with chutney pudi

Uppittu, chutney pudi and delicious tomato saaru

Menthya soppina bhaath, with MW roasted papad and salad

Delicious bhaath studded with golden roasted spuds

Tender cucumber, carrots, loads of cilantro and fresh lime juice

Yogurt rice with pickle, yummm!!!

2 kinds of roti, eggplant palya, dal, sweet mangoes and mosaravalakki in the background

Red lentils cooked with lemon cucumber and cilantro

Add caption

Broccoli stir fry a south Indian simple carrot palya

And we have a favorite restaurant here in town we have visited a couple times and go there for the yummy, mysore special akki rotti and the thick, golden roasted Mysore masala dose just like you crave for, makes your day :-)

Akki rottiiiiii, special only means extra coconut :-)

Not hotel oily mysuru masala dose

And then there is a beautiful temple in the town where you get the perfect temple prasada :-) along with divine darshana!

Idli, chutney & sambar, yes pickle too :-)

Full plate - vangi bhaath, mosaranna, mixture, kesari bhaath & pickle

Another combo plate - replace vangi bhaath with puliyogare

I am sure you can all see how we are surviving with our limited access to our favorite kinda food :-), I am sure all the eating and sitting in the room is making me go back home heavier than I came here 5 days back with. Not something Delta will notice but I sure will have to breathe in, jump a little to fit myself into office clothes come Wednesday morning.

Paneer Tikka Masala - Vegetarian favorite from restaurants reconstructed at home

Disclaimer: Long chitchat and longer recipe :-), read at your convenience risk:-)

Claimer(Is that a word?): You really don't want to miss this recipe if you are a fan of paneer dishes :-))

I blink, it is the beginning of a new week, next time I blink I am already into the weekend, or so it seems. Memorial day came and went, the long weekend was filled with a flurry of activities. With 2 little girls grown up(almost) and heading out to a new phase of life at colleges of their choice, a little kid who has turned into a dashing young man on the threshold of entering married life, as a family we couldn't ask for more. Exciting, happy and busy times all around. I am looking forward to finishing up next work week and heading out for the short vacation to celebrate our nephew's wedding. India, here we come :-).

I don't know about you but I block all craving for home until I know for sure there is a trip close by but as I near the timeline, it gets tougher and tougher not to think, dream about home, family and everything else :-(. I am right now in that phase where every waking moment (and ofcourse the sleepy moments) is flooded with thoughts about meeting everyone back home in a week. Keeping in tune with the thoughts, I am feverishly cooking loads of Indian food, more than my usual and being light headed as I am now, all my caution for health(ier) food goes out the window :-). Indulgence is the mantra for now. Here is one such recipe, rich in flavor, taste, colors..

I have a friend at work who bakes delicious food and is a foodie like me. We sometimes bring dishes to work, exchange recipes and all that. She loves Indian food and recently went to a restaurant in town and was raving about the chicken tikka masala she had and wanted the recipe to try at home. Being a vegetarian, I told her that I would get her a good tikka masala recipe soon and she could replace the veggies with her choice of meat. Indian cuisine has crossed borders, broken barriers and reached remotest parts of the globe that would have been unimaginable a generation or so back. While major credit goes to enterprising Gujjus, Panjabis, Udupi chefs, there is something unmistakable in the cuisine itself that seems to give it the sustainability to stand unbroken in unfamiliar settings and the adaptability to morph while retaining its heart & soul.

Recently I read an article of a study by chemists from IIT, Jodhpur that put a mathematical formula on why Indian food is so delicious. Apparently Indian cuisine in stark contrast to most other cuisines in the world, combines ingredients that do not have any overlapping flavors. The recipes mix these ingredients, retain their individuality and hence produce a burst of flavor when tasted. You can read the article here if you are interested. Today's recipe is a proof of coming together of complex flavors, coexisting to make a tasty dish. There is the tang of yogurt, bitterness of roasted fenugreek leaves, smokeyness of the hot mustard oil - seemingly incompatible but work their magic in the pot.

When my search for a good great tikka masala recipe began I literally found thousands of them all over the blogosphere. Some looked authentic, some claimed authenticity. I was looking to get a delicious taste without the dish being laden with butter. I use my oven generously for many of the Indian dishes but I also completely understand it is not a replacement for a tandoor so most dishes cook to perfection sans the smokey flavor that the tandoor imparts. Though many of the recipes online looked appetizing I finally zeroed in on this from celebrity chef Harpal Singh Sokhi. This one is for you M and thank you for nudging me towards trying this recipe, it is a keeper.

The truth of it all is there is no one dish or recipe that can be termed 'Indian' and expect to see it being eaten all over India. The flavors, preparation, ingredients keep varying as you move from region to region within India. Granted there are similarities and the underlying principles (Ex: eat khichdi/pongal in the winter because it has black pepper that keeps the body warm) are same because of the age old wisdom, but you will not find an authentic paneer masala in a South Indian home as you will not find the variety of dosas in a Punjabi home. For me, this variety is what makes life and Indian food interesting :-). I cannot vouch for the authenticity of this recipe, I will leave it to my good Punjabi friends but I can definitely vouch for the 'can't have enough' taste of this dish.

What stands out in this recipe is the usage of mustard oil which really brings in the smokey flavor in this recipe. I did a major cut on the heavy ingredients (butter & cream) and a few other tweaks to suit our palates yet the dish turns out super mouth watering. I used the left over marinade in the sauce which made it more delicious and also added a little bit of roasted gram flour to the marinade which I think added to the nutty flavor overall. Mustard oil is not something I use regularly but had a little bit left over from the avakkaya amma made earlier in Spring. If you do not have mustard oil in your pantry, please head out to your nearest store that has mustard oil and buy a bottle of it. It is totally worth the effort and you will be glad you took the extra effort. Go ahead and use butter & cream if you'd like, this is a really yummy dish as is and doesn't need (according to me :-)) any further enhancements.

While paneer is the most favorite of things for DD & BH, I don't personally enjoy it so much, just a personal peeve with the texture. I know lot of my Indian and non Indian friends will look at me as if I was a weird species but when it comes to food, each to her (or his) own. Enjoy what you like.  I added whole lot of paneer in the recipe for the rest of the family at the same time added a bunch of veggies too so I could enjoy the flavors. The only problem with this deliciousness is that the family wasn't very thrilled to wait until the masala was done and we added the grilled veggies in it as they were eager to eat the paneer tikka (without the masala) as it was like appetizers. The marinated veggies and paneer taste absolutely yummy without the gravy too. So if you are looking for popular finger food for a party, here you go..

This recipe is a little time consuming unless you follow the pattern, get things ready in advance and cook simultaneously. I have tried to separate ingredients and the method so it is easier to consume and execute. Hope this helps.

What do you need to make Paneer Tikka Masala? 
For the Tikka: 
3 cups cubed fresh paneer (I used a 12oz packet)
1 cup cubed onions (I prefer red onions)
1 large tomato (use a fleshy variety)
1 green bell pepper (or use other colors if you like)
2-3 Tbsp oil to shallow fry

Marinade: 
1 cup yogurt
1/2 Tsp lemon/lime juice
2 Tbsp besan/gram flour
1 Tbsp oil (use butter for a heavier/calorie dense version)
1/4 Tsp ajwain
1 Tsp kasoori methi (dry fenigreek leaves)
1 Tsp red chili powder (adjust to taste)
1/2 Tsp garam masala powder
1 inch piece ginger
2-3 garlic cloves
3/4 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)
1/8 Tsp turmeric powder
2 Tbsp mustard oil ***

Tikka Masala: 
1 large onion
2 large tomatoes
1 inch piece ginger
2-3 garlic cloves
1-2 green chilies
8-10 cashews
1 Tsp kasoori methi
1 Tsp red chili powder (adjust to taste)
1/2 Tsp garam masala powder
2 Tbsp oil
2 Tbsp milk (use cream for a heavier/calorie dense version)
1 Tsp cumin seeds
1 Tsp salt

How do you make Paneer Tikka Masala? 
Preparing veggies & paneer for the Tikka: 

• Cut paneer into 1X1 inch pieces, keep aside
• Chop onion into cubes, separate the layers
• Cut tomato in quarters, reserve the seeds & pulp, cut into pieces.
• Deseed & cut green bell pepper into cubes
• Note: Keep the size of all the vegetables roughly the same and a tiny bit bigger than paneer. 

Preparing marinade: 

• Wash, peel and crush ginger & garlic into a coarse paste using a mortar & pestle or a blender. 
• Take a large bowl, add yogurt, salt, red chili powder, garam masala powder, kasoori methi crushed, lemon/lime juice, ginger & garlic paste 
• Whisk it with a spoon or fork until homogeneous. 
• Heat oil in a pan, add besan & crushed ajwain into it. Roast on medium heat until you get the nutty aroma of besan. DO NOT LET THIS BURN. 

• Add this to the yogurt mixture. 
• Heat mustard oil in a pan until it starts to smoke, switch off & add turmeric powder. 
• Pour this over the yogurt mixture and give a good mix until everything blends together. 

• Important: Taste the marinade at this stage and adjust any spices, salt etc. 
• First add the bell pepper pieces, and coat them with marinade. Add onions followed by tomatoes and give a swirl so everything is coated. 
• Finally add paneer pieces and gently mix into the marinade. 
• Make sure all the pieces have a chance to absorb the flavors from marinade. 

• Cover the bowl with a cling wrap and let it rest for atleast an hour. 
• Either shake the bowl or using a spoon, gently mix the ingredients a couple of times to ensure infusion of flavors. 

Grilling vegetables: 

• After an hour or so of marinade, veggies will be ready to be grilled. There are a couple of ways to grill them - you can do the stove top pan or a grill pan, use the oven or if you have a tandoor, go for it. 
• Pick a piece of paneer, push the center through a skewer, add a layer of onion, bell pepper and tomato. Keep alternating until the end of the skewer. 

• Heat your pan or grill pan until the surface is very hot, add a few drops of oil and place the skewer on top. (You should hear a sizzling sound as you place the wet vegetables, don't start with a cold griddle or pan)
• After a min, rotate the skewers and let the other side get a nice brown coating, repeat on all 4 sides. 
• If you do not have skewers, just lay the marinated veggies and paneer pieces on the surface of the hot tava and using a gentle hand, keep turning them over until they develop the grill marks and soften up a bit. 

• Remove skewers from the pan and keep aside. 
• If you are impatient (like my family was) or are looking for a snack/appetizer, you can start munching on the grilled paneer & veggies at this stage, they taste heavenly delicious.

Preparing Tikka Masala: 

• Soak cashews in water for 30-45 mins. 
• Blend cashews into a fine paste with 2 Tbsp milk. Reserve this paste until ready to use. 
• Finely chop onion and keep aside. 
• Roughly chop tomatoes and puree them, keep aside. 
• Crush & make a paste of ginger & garlic. 
• Heat oil in a heavy bottom pan. 
• Add cumin and let it sizzle. 
• Add chopped onion and salt. Let onions brown on medium heat. 
• Add ginger-garlic paste at this stage and let it cook for a couple of minutes. 
• Add pureed tomatoes and let it cook for 10-12 minutes on medium-low heat. This is an important step and take it patiently for the best flavor. 

• Once almost all the liquid has gone and tomatoes & onions look like a paste with oil glistening on the sides, add the cashew paste, increase heat and continuously stir until it gets absorbed into the paste (1-2 mins)
• Add the dry powders - red chili powder, crushed kasoori methi, garam masala. Mix them in, taste and adjust if needed. 

• Add any remaining marinade along with 1/2 cup of water to, let it come to a boil. 
• Add the grilled paneer and vegetables into the gravy, give a gentle stir. 

• Switch off, serve hot or warm with rotis or naan.

Notes: 

• Go slow with the onions & tomato cooking for the sauce. This needs to be done in medium heat and until the raw smell and flavors turn into delicious cooked taste. 
• Be liberal with the use of kasoori methi in the sauce. 
• Do not discard remaining marinade, its addition in sauce just takes the dish to the next level :-)
• Add all little charred bits of bell pepper, onion etc scraped off the pan and do not discard. 
• For the Tikka masala, the vegetables should be cooked just enough so they retain their crunch and not become mushy.