Baby Corn Fingures

About 6-7 years back a chain of restaurants were launched in Pune called Corn Club. It served dishes made of corn. The chain was very popular then. One of the outlets is still working I guess. All others were eventually closed down. It was the time when American sweet corn was a rarity in Pune. And baby corns were not so frequently seen in the market. Now we get all these and many other so called foreign vegetables like colored capsicums, mushrooms, broccoli, etc. in the Mandai as well.
Corn clubs used to serve many novel dishes like corn kabab, corn patties, corn pizza along with usual corn bhel and corn on cob. They also used to sell corn oil and corn seeds for growing sweet corns at home. Read More about them here: http://www.cornclub.com/
Once we ordered Baby Corn Fingures in one of these Corn Club outlets. We really liked them and thought if only we could get hold of baby corns we can make them at home. In time we tried making them and with success.

Here is my recipe:
10 Baby corns
½ Cup Corn flour
2 table spoons Besan
Salt
2 Green chilies (crushed)
Oil for frying

Heat oil in a kadhai. Cut the baby corns lengthwise into 2 or 4 sections depending on their width. Mix Corn flour and Besan, add salt and crushed chilies. Make a batter using water. Dip a section of a corn in the batter deep fry in oil.
Serve with ketchup.

Rushi-Panchami

A day after Ganesh Chaturthi is celebrated as Rushi-panchami.
On this day one is supposed to eat the food which does not involve bull’s labor. In old days bulls were used to till the land. This day is to remember its importance to us.

Many farmers across the district bring vegetable, fruits and other products grown in their backyards for sell in the city. We city dwellers get a rare opportunity to taste this homegrown harvest.

Here I made ragi roti and a leafy vegetable for lunch. Also a quick chutney and served it along with a cucumber and a guava. I bought all these ingredients from these vendors.

Khoya Modak : A Quick and Easy Prasad

Yesterday was Ganesh Chaturthi. I made a simple Prasad for Bappa. Khoya Modak.
Ingredients :
250 gms Khoya
50 gms Powdered Sugar
Food Colour - Orange - half a pinch
Powdered Cardamom - 1/2 spoon
Fry khoya in a non-stick pan for about 5 mins. Remove from fire. Blend in a mixer. Let is be cool enough to knead. Then add sugar, color and cardamom powder. Mold in modak shapes. We get these molds readymade in market.

Peanut Ladu – a primitive recipe

Bhatukali is a game played by children where they run a house, mostly kitchen, of their own using toy versions of the utensils and other kitchen equipments. In some ways it is similar to playing with a Doll’s House. They cook, clean and do various other activities that they see their parents doing around the house.
Cooking is a major part of playing Bhatukali. Many a times they cook virtual meals and enjoy with other playmates. We get many kitchen toy utensils and equipments in the market for playing this game. We used to have mostly metal ones. Now a days, we get more and more plastic made things. I grew up playing this game a lot. My son likes it too. I have been observing him playing this game with his friends quite a lot. And I was surprised to see a few new additions to the game. Once they decided not to cook for that day and visit a restaurant instead. We never did this simply because we never saw our parents doing this. One day they were arranging a birthday party. And all of them were busy talking on their toy mobile phones. They were consulting each other on phone about the menu and the gifts. Then they gave instructing, again on phone, each other about how to reach the venue. I was amazed by the way things have changed.
When we used to play the person coming in the house used to ring a bell by saying “Ding-Dong” now they give miss-calls.
Yesterday my son, aged two and a half, was playing all alone in the house. All his friends were busy. So he invited me to join in. I happily obliged. We decided to play Bhatukali. He was constantly giving me instructions about what to do. He was enjoying bossing me around. Then he asked for some “Khau”. Khau is a term difficult to describe, but I shall try. It can be anything, a sweetmeat or a fruit or any edible item given to children. The word khau has lots of meaning associated with it. Khau is given by elders, as a sign of love, to younger ones. My grandmother still sends me Khau. We used to get peanuts and jaggery. I gave my son the same thing yesterday. He was puzzled by this combination and asked me what to do with it. Eating peanuts and jaggery together is such a pleasure. I wanted him to know that. So I taught him a recipe which was our favorite Bhatukali recipe.
It will hardly qualify as a recipe. But still I told him step by step. Take a peanut divide it in two equal parts, it can be easily done. Then take a small amount of jaggery put it in between the two parts and that’s it. Your ladus are ready to eat. He liked them so much. I remembered Indira Sant’s poem साधासुधा माझा हात, बाळजीभ अमृताची …

Patolya – Aromatic leaf cakes.

From my Konkan visit I brought back a few turmeric leaves and recipe for Patolya. Yesterday was Sankashti Chaturthi so I decided to make Patolya for Prasad.
I used turmeric leaves in cooking for the first time in my life. And I just fell in love with the aroma it releases while steaming.
Next, I am going to try steaming fish in these leaves.
Recipe -
For filling:
½ cup of fresh grated coconut
1/3 cup of jaggery
Put both in kadai and stir till jaggery is desolved and whole thing becomes dry.

For cover:
Soak rice for 2 hours. Grind with some salt.

Arranging Patolya:
Open the leaf then spread the dough made for cover and then spread the filling.
It will look like this.

Then fold them in the middle. And steam for 15 mins.


Enjoy the aroma in the kitchen. After steaming they will look like this.

Now remove the leaves and enjoy Patolya with ghee.

Postcards from Burambad (Kokan)

Last week i visited my aunt. She stays in a small village near Chiplun called Burambad. I clicked some snaps during my visit.