When someone who regulary cooks is out of town eating chips and warming their feet in hotel bath tubs, cursing comes to you like second tongue. Food, on the other hand, doesnt. With past experiences at turning a kitchen into a mess that makes war-torn somalia look like lalbagh in comparison (definitely, in another blog), you hesitate. But hunger tests your perseverance, and like the million times you have done already, you give up in this duel with hunger.
Vendaikkai or Bindi as the hindi speaking junta would call it, is called Okra in these parts. But to name a vegetable ladies finger needs either absolute romanticism in the breath or a severely psychotic brain in the head. Now you know what the lady and a few fingers are in the title. No points for guessing who the Kedy is.
Ladies Finger Curry. When i opened an internet page, this one was with the least complications.
Take kadai. Ha.
Heat Oil. Ho.
Cut LF. He.
Pour Oil. Ha Ho He.
Add Salt, add masala, Fry. Yawn,
Cant someone throw me a real challege was how i reacted.That is how i usually react when life takes a quentin tarantino-ish turn.
Did your overtly cleanliness-conscious mind make you clean the LF with water just before cutting it ?? You going to have LF halwa for dinner. Turns out that you clean them up a day back, and wipe it with a dry towel if you want it to have a semblance of a fry than some sort of solid stew coz LF in itself yields some watery substance.
Did you pour oil, and then think about jothika in the idayam ad and pour even more oil ?? The cut LF would feel like fish after Exxon Valdez.
Did you just spray the chilli powder to make it more "Indian" ?? Congrats, you just invented an eco-friendly solution for rocket fuel.
In an effort to make it more eater-friendly, you got reminded that adding salt helps, but forgot how much ?? Aahh, you are the new moses of our times, you have your own personal red-sea aka hyper-chillied-super-salted-semi-solid.
When the operation was done, it was successful, but the patient was dead as a dodo. I debated donating this to someone. But manslaughter and homicide are serious offences out here. So in went the first piece with a paratha. Standing in the midst of my kitchen, as my own preparation found its way into my throat, i felt it. Cut here. Da Vinci, with paint all over his body and face. Cut back to me in the kitchen with a turmeric stained tee-shirt. Play Wagner's "Ride of the valkyries" here. Cut back to the freshly painted Monalisa. Cut back to my LF fry. let the message sink in with people, wait for a few seconds. Cut back to all those angry people who are chasing me with rocks, stones, pickaxes and a Uzi.
12;15 pm on a saturady might not be a great time, but it dawned on me. It doesnt matter how someone else is going to judge you as long as i eat my food and manage to stay alive. You Hiltons and Meridiens and Oberois, Move over. Move friggin over.
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
A Kedy, A Lady and A Few Fingers
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7 comments:
Good experience man. I am not sure what to appreciate - your funny way of putting things, or the tips that you've given for those thinking of trying a hand with the finger, Ladies Finger.
can perfectly relate to this man... nothing as satisfying as a succesful culinary experiment - and once you get the hang of it, they're rarely unsuccesful :-) so [assuming you'll survive]... keep going!
@Jammy
Thanks for reading mate. If after reading this, someone made vendakkai the way it should be than making some hair-gel look-alike paste, i reckon my job here is done ;-)
@Sanjay
oh yeah, and i presume "successful" is the operative word here :-)
There there. This too shall pass. But you could stick to the 'easier' stuff like potatoes, tindli (kovakkai)..anything that can be steamed is easier to cook that if you have to roast it. Also you could cook vegetable rice. can eat this with curd if you are too lazy at the end of it all to make 'raitha':
1 cup rice
1/2 cup onions chopped fine
1/2 cup french beans (all veggies to be cut to size)
1/2 cup carrots
anything else you want to throw in...peas, potatoes-err...chopped.
cumin (jeera/jeeragam) 1 teaspoon
oil 2 tablespoons
cardamom(elakkai/elaichi)-2-3
salt to taste
1) take a kadai...a round bottomed one preferably
2) heat the oil, throw in the cumin, wait till slightly brown
3)put the onions and fry till golden brown (or till they start sticking to the pan, when it is time to..)
4)throw in the other veggies, and use a flat spoon to chase them in energetic circles on the kadai
5)after two mins put in the raw rice and fry another minute. add salt to taste (now this bit is tough but maybe half a spoon is safe. if it is not salty enough you could add salt to the curd and mask the inherent lack of salt)
6)now put the entire contents of the kadai into a pressure cooker.
7) water to be added:
1 cup rice: 1 1/2 cups water.
8)put the weight on the cooker after a coupla minutes.
9)cooker whistles once. you take note and simmer the burner
10)cook another five minutes.
you will survive on this.
good luck.
D-uh
The cardamom you add before you add the rice. just for flavour. not truly necessary.
but you know how it is. need the exotic to cut away from the mundane sometimes.
that was probably [i] the [/i] most thoughtful comment i have ever received :-( (tears of joy, dont mind it) .. thanks much mate :-)
(If meant sincerely) you are very welcome. :).Wrote so much because I so empathise.
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