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

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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.

Vankaya banda pachadi (aubergine chutney) - Back to the old ways for a superlicious side dish

Sometimes she is the little baby that wants amma to hug her, at other times she is the all grown up, 'don't bother me' teenager.
Sometimes she jumps on amma's bed and cuddles up throwing her long arms and legs carelessly over me, at other times she is the independent adolescent that refuses to even come near amma's bedroom.
Sometimes she is the docile child that listens to amma, at other times she is the rebellious, spirited girl who will do just the opposite of what her mom wants her to do.
Sometimes she is running all around the house wildly screaming/singing at the top of voice, the epitome of the tomboy she can be, at other times she surprises us with her tender, responsible behavior in a completely unexpected situation.
She prefers reading suppandi comics to Shakespeare any day but works diligently on her essay for English class on topics that are too heavy even for adults.
She cooes and baby talks to her grand mothers in their respective languages but refuses to talk to me in anything other than English :-)
Sometimes she says her amma has no fashion sense, at other times she shamelessly raids her mother's closet and runs off with my newly purchased dresses :-).
I see the spirit of perseverance in her and feel proud at her independence to chart her own course in life, I also worry about the vulnerable child behind it all who thinks she knows how to navigate through this life.
I see so much of myself in her yet I see that she is her own person without a shred of doubt.
I love the fact that she seems more mature than I ever was at that age but also wonder if she is growing up too fast too soon.
I wish I could cocoon and protect her every step of the way and not let any harm touch her but I understand she has to go through her own experiences and feel through her own bruises and be responsible for them.

She is the one who calls me 'Amma', I think I am a better person because of my daughter. I don't remember the long labor or the anticipation leading upto her birth anymore, all I remember is holding that perfect little baby in my arms and gaping at the miracle with utter disbelief. I remember every little detail of her baby days though I don't have a record of many of them.

I remember leaving a bewildered, bawling baby at the day care for the first time, as I climbed in next to BH equally teary eyed on our way to work, I remember coming back in the evening and peeking into the windows of that play home to find her contentedly playing with other kids. I remember her gleeful smile when she spotted me at the window and jumped up and ran towards me with arms open wide for a hug. I remember her becoming so tuned my arrival times that she would pack her bag and tell her nannies that amma was here just as I stopped my vehicle infront of the play home. I remember the little girl who trusted her parents completely and believed every decision we made were actually wise. I pray she keeps her positive attitude in life no matter what and brings warmth and joy to people around her, I hope she continues to love her mother for eternity like I do love mine. I love her like I love no one else in the world and I think I understand how my mother loves me - unconditionally and completely and always.

Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful mothers out there and people with motherly hearts. 

I have a recipe today that many mothers in the family have fed me. Wondering what the long name in the title means? Hang in there, I will explain what it means in a moment. Andhra cuisine is very famous for its numerous varieties of pachadis/chutneys/dips. There are pachadis made to stay for months at a stretch called niluvu pachadis and then there are pachadis that you will need to consume the same day or may be the next day. Pickles, thokkus belong to the first variety and most other pachadis belong to the second category.

Today's pachadi is of the second variety and has got the long name because of the way it is usually prepared - using a stone grinder. Don't run off now if you don't have the equipment shown below, there are very legitimate alternatives in this age of electricity. Are you thinking I went to India and got some pictures? I wish that was the case :-) but no I am very much here and tending to my routine life which is currently anything but routine since DD is running her month long marathon of exams - not that we are doing anything special but I just like to think so :-).

Well, on a recent trip to Costco, I found this really cute (thinks me) and extremely heavy (thinks BH) mortar and pestle, infact it had a gorgeous picture of guacamole ingredients on the top of the box which lured me. I have another mortar & pestle already which is about 1/2 the size of this new one and does a good job. So after a few minutes of standing infront of the stacked boxes doing my usual 'Need Vs want' analysis, I decided to splurge and buy one for myself. In my defense, my brain likes to take moments of rest and let the heart take over on some matters which I think is a very good balance. Like I told BH, if nothing else, it makes a great prop for the blog pictures :-) and it makes such a great addition in the corner of my kitchen counter.

So we duly brought it home and as I was taking out the stuff to put them into pantry or refrigerator, my eyes fell on the bag of those ultra cute, dark purple, petite baby aubergines (eggplants or vankaya) and I decided to inaugurate my new gadget by making a vankaya pachadi. I have eaten this from many mother's in the family, one of BH's cousins who used to travel on work used to bring some home cooked food with her whenever her parents were at home. She had a project going in the same town we lived for a while and we used to meet up often and when she came home for dinner, she had brought her travel food and one of the dabbas had this pachadi, amazingly mouthwatering!

My family is made of vankaya/eggplant lovers but amma hardly makes this pachadi since stuffed vankaya or vankaya koora is always on the demand list (even when the vegetable is cooked more than twice a week :-)) and some how the pachadi gets to the back seat. Last time my in laws were here, I made sure she showed me her way of making this pachadi and we all licked the plate clean that night. Amma used coriander seeds a little more liberally in her pachadis than I do as I prefer the flavor of toasted mustard and fenugreek in my pachadis. So I have made a few changes and here is a delicious pachadi for all of you to enjoy.

I roasted all the ingredients and BH very sportingly helped mash it down into a pulp using the new gadget, it really made the pachadi taste so fresh and tasty. I soaked dal & rice in the evening for our weekly dosa batter and told BH that he could grind the batter in the new mortar & pestle, he gave me a look that said, "Don't push it" :-), so I employed my electric grinder for the job.

You can very well make this pachadi in your mixer/grinder like I did until a week or so back or you can find your own mortar & pestle that does a great job too. But try this pachadi in any case, low calorie eggplants spiced up superbly and goes well with hot rice and a drop of ghee.

What do you need to make Vankaya banda pachadi? 
2 baby aubergines or 1 medium eggplant
1 small tomato
1 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)
1 Tbsp oil
handful of cilantro
To roast: 
2 Tblsp chana dal
1/2 Tsp urad dal
1 Tsp fenugreek seeds
1 Tsp mustard seeds
1/2 Tsp coriander seeds
4-5 dry red chilies
2 green chilies
1/8 Tsp Asafoetida
small piece of tamarind

How do you make Vankaya banda pachadi? 

• Heat oil in a pan, add the chana dal and fenugreek seeds, let them roast for a minute or so.
• Add the remaining ingredients except for asafoetida and stirring frequently, roast them until mustard splutters and the dal & fenugreek turn pink and crisp. 
• Add Asafoetida, mix and take it out on to a plate, let cool.

• In the same pan, add chopped tomato and cook for a couple of minutes until the pieces turn mushy. 
• Add cilantro, roast for a minute. Switch off and remove the contents to the plate with the rest of the ingredients. 

• There are a couple of ways of cooking eggplant for this recipe, I will list them here and leave it to you to choose based on the availability of gadgets and time on hand: 
• Method 1 (Classic & gives the best roasted aroma): Wash, wipe dry the eggplant, poke a few holes with a fork or a knife all around the surface, smear 2 drops of oil on the surface and roast the egg plant on a grill turning it frequently until it is completely charred from outside and cooked through.

• Method 2(Time consuming but much cleaner and gentler than stove top): Wash, wipe dry the eggplant, poke a few holes with a fork or a knife all around the surface, smear 2 drops of oil on the surface and bake it in a 350F pre heated oven for about 1 hour, turning it once or twice for even cooking. 
• Method 3 (Good flavor but lot of clean up later on): Wash, wipe dry the eggplant, poke a few holes with a fork or a knife all around the surface, smear 2 drops of oil on the surface and roast it on direct gas flame if you have one. 

• Method 4 (Easiest and quickest): Wash, wipe dry and chop the eggplants into small bite sized pieces. Roast them in a pan with a Tsp of oil until soft and cooked. 
• If using method 1-3, once the eggplant is cooked, take it into a bowl, cover it tightly with a cling wrap and leave it aside for 10 minutes. The steam from the hot eggplant softens the skin and peels off easily. 
• Peel & discard the charred skin and remove the pulp of the eggplant. 
• Now to grinding, first grind the roasted ingredients (dal+others) to a coarse powder, now add the tomato & cilantro along with salt and grind it roughly. You will not need any water if you use the pulse mode in the mixer. 

• Finally add the cooked eggplant and give it a couple of whips so it breaks down and mixes well. 
• Take it out into a bowl and serve it with hot rice. 

Notes: 

• Roasting tamarind softens it and makes it easy to grind. 
• Whichever method of cooking you use, make sure eggplant is cooked through. A raw eggplant leaves a very bad taste in pachadi and totally spoils the pachadi experience. 
• Do not use water while grinding this pachadi and do not make a very smooth paste out of it. Coarsely ground pachadi gives that unmistakable texture

Happy Mother's Day - a story of my 2 moms and a fusion recipe from 3 kitchens

I wrote some personal notes last Mother's day on my blog, didn't think Mother's day would come around so quickly or things change so much in the short span of a year. I am sure many of you have very similar stories to share about your mothers, I would love to hear from you. I seem to get all sentimental when I think about my mom and I value this blessing more and more as I grow older in life. When I came back from that trip to India in February, I was barely functional. It is difficult to be normal when you are hurting. I am glad I am able to take control and immerse myself in things I enjoy most and keep moving. I promise I have a recipe here and a very tasty one too, if you don't believe me see for yourself :-)

I have no memories of her sitting with me to do something as mundane as daily homework from school, but she was always around either prepping vegetables for the next day or finishing up the night's dinner, and knew exactly how we were doing. I do not remember her asking any of us what we wanted for the next day's bf, lunch or dinner but somehow dishes would magically appear day after day as if she had an uncanny knack to read our minds and know exactly what we wanted. She made sure I learnt the basics of Carnatic music even though I had to change multiple teachers for various reasons, she dragged me to innumerable singing competitions though she knew my stage fear at that age, I understand she did that for the love of art and because she believed that I had some potential. Though I didn't turn out to be a professional singer, I remain always an ardent lover of good music and sing when it pleases me. She introduced me to Kannada literature long before my father took me to the enchanting world of Rotary and British libraries and opened up the World literature for me to gobble up, creating a book lover for life in me. She never told any of us to sit and pray but created the atmosphere at home by setting up a puja altar and naturally guiding us in that direction, I am glad I have a belief that helps me stay grounded and take on life. She is a story teller and her stories are always multi dimensional and layered with emotions - it was a way for us to remember things and also be able to communicate with others. I try to tell my stories though not always successfully. She just showed me the way by living it and I am proud I am capable of making good choices. Although I grew up a daddy's girl and would run to him every single day after school (and college) to recount the happenings of the day, she sat there in the same room listening to everything I had to blabber on.

For someone who had a college degree uncommon in her times for girls, nammamma settled into domestic life completely and made her family and kids a priority. Her family not only included inlaws but also siblings and cousins of all ages and stages of life. Being a teacher, my father was always on the crusade of spreading the love of learning at home and outside. Though he never coached any of his own kids, there were always cousins and relatives that stayed at home preparing for various exams under his guidance. She stood as his support through thick and thin in life and they smiled together and shed some tears too. I have seen marked changes in my mom since my father passed on a few years ago as if a part of her was gone but she has bravely tried to fill in with both roles for us. The first time she visited us here after he passed away, she teared up standing infront of the roaring Half moon bay beach and remembering my water loving father, and then turned towards us with a beaming smile and said "what are we going to see next"? for her he is everywhere, always. She has a wonderful sense of humor and I think that is what keeps her smiling through life. Even now, in her home away from home, the first thing she tells me every time I call is not to worry about her and that she is doing well and we should take care of ourselves. Wish there was something more I could do for her not just today but everyday. I love you amma.

For someone who finished her formal education with high school, my mother in law is extremely well read and well traveled.  She became a bride at 15, a mother at 16 and is the pillar of strength in the family. She has created her own identity very well supported by her life partner. She looks at the world with a child like curiosity, learning every day as she is exposed to new people, culture, experiences. She took to computers and internet as easily as any of us with formal training, manages her emails, stays in constant touch with family and maintains her own blog with a collection of her literary creations in Telugu. For me, she is a person with very high emotional maturity and resilience. Never one to raise her voice, it is amazing the amount of respect she commands. She taught me the ways of my new family gently along with a new language so I never feel like an outsider. She has been part of my support system in the last few months sitting with me in the hospital as I tended to Nammamma. Thank you for being there amma and I love you.

For two women that are contrasting in many ways, I find their strength of character and unending love to be an overwhelmingly common thread. Here is wishing my two beautiful moms all happiness on this Mother's day, aren't they both gorgeous?

Both these moms sat outside the labor room supporting me through my own journey of becoming a mom waiting to see their grandchild and wishing that their daughter didn't have to go through so much pain but then forgot all about me when the baby girl came out wailing :-).

Over to the recipe, I have a very easy, instant pickle I learnt from amma. This is how nammamma makes mango pickle at home but without jaggery, I had never heard of bellam avakkai (jaggery in pickle) before I got married and thought it was amma's creation since she loves bellam (jaggery) but then realized that it is a very popular avakkai recipe in Andhra. Although the traditional bellam avakkai is made with a jaggery syrup, here is a quick version of the same great tasting pickle for all you pickle lovers out there. It is spicy hot, tangy, a little sweet, a little salty - just like my 2 moms and their lives. The pickle is simple to make, is ready to eat at the end of the process and tastes delicious.

And here is the twist as the pickle came out of Sattvaa kitchen, I made the bellam avakkai by not using the mangoes :-), well I made them with tart green apples. Ever since I used green apples in gojju to the delight of my family, I have been trying to use them in other recipes. Green apples stand a little bit of cooking without getting mushy but work very well in recipes that uses them in raw form. I have grated and put them into chutneys instead of using tamarind or lemon juice and they taste great.So here is a converted bellam avakkai recipe from amma made with green apples.

What do you need to make Bellam apple avakkai?
1 green apple
1 Tsp lemon juice
1/2 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)
3/4 Tsp red chili powder (adjust to taste)
1 Tsp crushed jaggery
Seasoning: 
1 Tblsp oil
1/8 Tsp asafoetida
1 Tsp mustard
1/4 Tsp fenugreek seeds

How do you make Bellam apple avakkai?

• Wash and wipe dry the green apples. Choose firm ones without any blemishes on the skin. 
• Cut into quarters and remove the seeds and core. 
• Slice the apples into small pieces. 

• Add the lemon juice and mix it well. This step prevents apples from de-coloring due to oxidization.
• Add the remaining ingredients and give it a good mix. 

• Heat oil in a pan, add mustard, give a head start of 10 seconds, add fenugreek seeds and let them splutter. Add asafoetida, switch off and pour it onto the mixed pickle. 

• Let it sit for 15 minutes for the flavors to develop along with a little bit of juice, enjoy. 

Notes: 

• Like all pickles, be careful to keep all knife, cutting board or the spoons and containers used completely dry.
• This pickle does not have a long shelf life, you can use it upto a week if you refrigerate. 
• Follow the same process for making the avakkai with green mangoes, use firm, tender ones. 
• I used 1/2 Tblsp of mustard oil and 1/2 Tblsp of sesame oil to give a good flavor. You can do this or use only one of them or use canola or sun flower oil. 
• I use a Tsp lemon juice to bring about the apple's tartness and also help create some juices. 
• I get green granny Smith apples for this pickle, do not use if the apple is soft or sweet to taste. 

HAPPY MOTHER's DAY to all mothers out there. Cherish and celebrate.