Mrs. Arjani's veggie cutlets

This healthy cutlet comes from a close friend who is always on the lookout for healthy recipes:

1 each potato, zucchini.
2 carrots (opt).
1 onion.
Garlic.
1/2 Tbp. whole dhania (coriander seeds)...crushed.
1 tsp Til ( brown sesame seed).
Whole (fennel) one tsp.
Green coriander.
1 egg
1/2 cup breadcrumbs (if using salted/spiced breadcrumbs use caution with salt in cutlets.)
2 tbsps oil.
Oil for frying ( I use a mix of olive oil and vegetable oil).

Peel and grate potato, zucchini and carrots
Finely chop onion and cleaned green coriander/cilantro
Peel, grate/crush garlic
(My variation:  Toast fennel, crushed dhania and sesame seed till color changes and you get a great aroma.
Heat 2 Tbsps oil (or 1 Tbsp in a non stick skillet) and fry onion.
Add garlic and fry a few mins.
When light brown add coriander, veggies and fry for 5-10 mins).
Add salt, chilli powder or chopped green chillies (fry with garlic) and lime juice to taste.
Shape into round or oval cutlets/patties, half an inch thick.
Dip in eggs and then in breadcrumbs.
Shallow fry in an inch of oil.
My variation:  I place on a foil lined tray sprayed with Pam, then spray cutlets with Pam.
I bake this at 400 degrees for seven mins, turn when brown, spray other side and bake till golden brown for 7 to 10 mins.
Sometimes I broil the cutlets till color changes to a golden brown, watching carefully.

HEALING FOODS

Nature is always the best healer and healers have always turned to Nature for medicine.
Today we call this alternative medicine in the USA and slowly the idea is gaining hold that allopathic or western medicine is not the only way to ultimate healing.

In India some of the alternative methods were:

Home Remedies: These were tried and true and passed down through the ages from generation to generation.

Homeopathic remedies: Originating in Germany this was what my mother used for herself and us when we were chidren. We happily ate the medicine that came in tiny balls or tablets, wishing we could have more.

Ayurvedic

Unani

Reiki

Yoga

For the housewife, home remedies are available as close as her kitchen.
It isn't just the healing power of everyday spices we add to our foods but the things we include in our diet that can make a difference and reduce the amount of medicine we need for any condition. Of course nothing should be substituted for medicine without proper supervision and care. One positive proof of improvement in any area would be blood test results/x-rays and change/improvement of symptoms.

Here are some tips from the show Yoga For You by Dr. Smita Naram.

Broccoli and broccoli juice prevents breast cancer, raises haemaglobin levels.

Horse radish (white mooli/mulangi) and the leaves, help expel kidney stones

Masoor dal (red lentils) are anit-carcinogenic and prevent blockages in arteries, prevent calcification and improve circulation.

Whole moong dal soaked and sprouted, eaten raw, helps diabetics control blood sugar.

Eggplant corrects spleen enlargement.
She suggest 'bharta' for this: broiling eggplant and using the fleshy inside mixed with onions and spices.

Yam reduces gas and helps with piles.

Barley: a juice made with barley helps kidney and urinary infections, prostate problems and prevents water retention.

From Dr. Pankaj Naram:

A suggestion for diabetics:
Stimulate the pancreas to increase insulin production : soak overnight... 3 almonds, 3 tsp fennel (somph)seeds and 3 cardamom. In the morning make a paste of all these ingredients and eat it.

From this blogger:

Look for more healing foods and include them in your daily diet to help your body fight disease and enjoy good health.

Whichever diet you follow, do so in moderation.

"A day off' is no crime as long as it happens once in a way and you get back on track right away.

A pickle by any other name is STILL a pickle.


"I'm in a pickle," said the cucumber from it's jar on the shelf.
"You're in a pickle', retorted the lime.  "You don't know what you're saying.  Try being in some salt and chilli powder and other stuff and then you'll know what it's like to be in a REAL pickle!"

 Here in the States a pickle is a cucumber in brine, eaten with sandwiches, hotdogs, burgers or as the precious 8 and 6 year old grandkids tell me, "By Itself!"
They look at me with hope in their burnt caramel gazes, wondering if I'll bring out the pickle jar and let them have a pickle party!

As far as history goes, here's an interesting source to catch with the places and people who have used and loved pickle for centuries. http://www.pickleguys.com/historyofpickles.php
The early Egyptians, the Jews and the English included pickles in their diet regulary.

How much Indian pickles differ can best be illustrated by this story.  I notice the older I get, the more interesting stories I have collected.
An American friend came over and as I was putting food on the table, she saw the bowl of lime pickle I had put out and asked, "What's this?
I had barely finished saying lime pickle and was embarking on an explanation of how must it differed from the pickle she knew, when her actions cut me off.  She'd picked up a fork, speared a bit of lime pickle and put it in her mouth.  It was interesting to see the shades of red that her complexion and even her neck deepened to, while I gave her a napkin and said, "Spit it out, don't swallow."
It took 3 glasses of water, a trip to the bathroom to washout her mouth, followed by a chocolate to make her comfy again.  It took the rest of the evening for her mouth to unpucker and she approached every dish with the caution of a soldier in a mine field.  Her loud pronouncements warning other guests to beware of the pickle had us all hiding grins.  By the time dessert came around (gulab jamuns) she had forgiven me and herself.  She fell in love with what she called the 'thingummyjigs' and when she called to ask/tell me she was coming over, she would say, "And may I have some thingummyjigs?"
It was interesting that every time I mentioned the word pickle her face would redden.

Pickle has been a part of Indian tradition forever.  I could challenge the source above and research when they were first used in India but the answer is, "Forever."
The traditional South Indian meal has to have a little pickle on the banana leaf, next to the salt.  Omitting it is a culinary faux pas.  For those in Andhra, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka a traditional meal is finished with yogurt or buttermilk, rice and pickle.
Every state in India has it's own variety of pickle but though we generally start out with mixing rock salt and the vegetable in general, after a few days in the sun, this mixture gets treated to chilli powder, seasonings, oil
and different spices in different parts.  Contrary to popular belief that all are hot, some are sweet.
Some cultures in India pickle pork, fish and meat and of course shrimp.
The states in India that were very dry, pickled whatever they could in season to have the vegetables year round.  At a Gujrati friend's house I was once served three different pickles with the meal and loved them all.
They told me their grandmother pickles just about anything and makes a new pickle each week.  As pickles are generally stored for a year in big earthen jars originally and now in glass bottles in the refrigerator, I imagined a room filled with these jars.

In our home, lime pickle was the traditional pickle made every year.  My mother would rely on her relatives or friends to give us some Andhra mango pickle as she said she couldn't make it well.
My mother always said, lime pickle needed a special hand.  She had the hand and so did my dear sister but not I.  To this day my lime pickle goes bad.  Luckily for me the MTR brand makes pickle close to my mother's and I am content.
Here are my favorite pickle recipes, tweaked through the years.

Last year some friends visited us bringing with them another couple.  One look at the other lady and I knew I was meeting an Indian Master Chef.  It's just a certain look about the older ladies in India that sets the experts apart.
She watched quietly as I served the first meal, joking about how my MTR pickle was running out and I needed to conserve it.   In the evening while I worked on dinner she said, "I can make you some lemon pickle."  Wondering if I should tell her about my jinx with pickles, I said, "what will you need for it?"
"These lemons on your counter and some things every kitchen has."
It was an instant pickle and we are ate it before they left, as it was so delicious.  The next day she asked for limes and made a lime pickle before we went out.  By then, so impressed by her prowess and her quiet insistence to override my objections that I didn't want to put guests in the kitchen, I couldn't get her the things she needed fast enough.  Not since my mother's visit had I had someone so talented and so willing to make things in my kitchen, visit me.  My friend cheered on,"Let her make whatever she wants.  She is a pro!"

So I am starting with Mallika Arasu's lime pickle and instant lemon pickle with a very grateful heart and thanks to our friend Jessie for bringing her here.  Come visit again soon as I need to learn more.  Just writing this brings the happy memories back.

Instant lemon pickle...

1 lemon chopped small
1 c water
(cook lemon in water with 1 Tbsp salt)
2 tiny spoons (1/3 tsp) rai and methi (mustard seed and fenugreek seeds)
Roast separately and powder
Heat ½ cup oil
Add 2 tiny tsps rai (2/3 tsp.)
Add ⅓ level tsp hing.  (if it’s the strong 303 brand reduce this to ¼)
Add 1 ½ big Tbsps chilli powder and powdered rai and methi
Add cooked lemon with water and simmer one minute.

Remove, cool and bottle.

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Lime pickle...Mallika Arasu

10 Limes, quartered.
1 Tbsp each rai and methi
Fry till brown and grind to a powder

Heat ¾ cup til oil
Put in methi & rai powder and ⅓ tsp hing.
Switch off stove
Add limes
Add 6 rounded tsp chilli powder
Add 1 tsp haldi and 2-3 Tbsps rock salt
Mix well.Store in a glass bottle in refrigerator
Shake every day till soft. 
(This is the traditional way of picking up the bottle or jar and shaking it in an up and down motion so the pickle gets tossed/mixed. It can be done with a dry wooden spoon.)
Ours was ready to eat in three weeks.
(Ready to eat is when the rind is softened but it can be eaten earlier too).
I still had this pickle in the refrigerator nine months later, enjoying it on hot days with curd rice!
Thanks Mallika and Jessie.

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Jag Himamshu's Raw Mango Chutney

Here's another five star recipe from my collection.
I tasted this on  a trip to India for the first time in my life and fell in love with it.

1- medium size green mango.

2- tbsp grated fresh coconut

3- green or red (dried) chillies

1- tsp whole jeera (cumin seed)

1/4 tsp whole dhania (coriander seed)

To season: Rai, jeera and karipatha.

Roast chillies, add jeera & dhania

Peel & grate the mango or chop fine.
(I slice the mango in the traditional Indian way...3 pieces longitudinally and grate in the food processor)

Add salt to taste.

Grind everything to a semi coarse paste using very little or no water.

Add 1- lime sized ball of grated jaggery and blend. 
(Limes in India are small with a one inch diameter so add a small ball of jaggery). 

Heat one tsp oil.

Add 1/2 tsp rai (whole mustard seeds). When it splutters add 1 tsp. urad dal & a few curry leaves.

When urad dal turns brown add this seasoning to chutney.

This chutney keeps well in the refrigerator.

TOMATO CHUTNEY

With summer hovering on the horizon, the tomato boom will be upon us soon.
This chutney adds to summer fun by being a great spread, dip, or sandwich filling.
One of HD's favorite meals is chappattis and chutney.
I love this with idlis or as an accompaniment to a meal that needs a little spice.

A cousin from hyderabad shared this recipe with me when I visited her.
Hyderabad, being part of Andhra Pradesh, is known for it's extra hot dishes.
I changed her suggestion of 10-20 red chillies to 3-4, but other than that, this is a great chutney.

Ingredients

1Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp rai (whole mustard seeds)
2 tsps urad dal (split black lentils which are white without their skin)
1 tsp jeera (cumin)
A pinch of hing (asafoetedia)
10 curry leaves (karipatha)
Red chillies to taste.
1 medium sized garlic pod, peeled.
10 medium sized vine ripe tomatoes.
(Tomatoes have to be really ripe or add 1/2 a can of whole peeled tomatoes to them to get the right flavor).
1/2 cup roasted peanuts
1/2 tsp tamarind paste
Salt to taste.

Heat oil in a non stick skillet.
Add rai.  When it pops add urad dal, jeera, hing, karipatha and red chillies.
When jeera and urad brown add garlic and tomatoes.
Fry on medium high till mix thickens to a semi solid consistency.
Blend this.
Add peanuts, tamarind and salt.
Blend to a semi coarse consistency...fine is also okay.
Enjoy.
This chutney freezes well.

Tips: Don't add any water while blending...the tomatoes will give you all the liquid you need.

Roasted peanuts taste better in this dish though raw can be used.
In a pinch I've used the bottled roasted peanuts, being careful about the salt I add, if peanuts are salted.
Roasting raw peanuts at 300 for ten mins is easy.

Red chilles have to be fried to blend well...also fried red chillies gives a better flavor than chilli powder, unless the latter is home made.

Hey Presto!  A New Kitchen!

My fairy godmother's on vacation whenever I need her; especially now.

Repairs and renovations have me without a operating kitchen, forcing me to spend more time at the computer to the background music of hammering, drilling and occasional treasured bouts of silence.
It seemed like summer would be a good time for this project as we don't cook much in the hot weather and it does feel okay to have all doors and windows open and workmen traipsing through the house.
A new kitchen...isn't that every cook's dream?  A kitchen where one can design everything perfectly.
Enough said.
Once the bids start coming in one quickly bids the dreams goodbye...dream kitchens are too expensive.
New cabinetry costs the earth and we finally found a contractor who said he would re-use our old cabinets in our new design!  A man after HD's heart!
As soon as design started being implemented, we ran into building problems:
"Of course you can't have the stove THERE...the hood has to go over it and there are pipes above where you want it!"
So the stove is moved.  It is only the first of many major concessions,
"Of course you can't have as many cabinets as you want back in the new kitchen...there's no room for them."
I sigh and nod consent, wondering where I will put all the treasures now piled all over the living room and dining room.
As we get into Day 14, I wonder who's kitchen is this anyway?  The contractor's who seems to delight in saying, "Of course we can't put that THERE!"  The electrician's who has changed my light design and replace it with his own.  I can't wait for the plumber and painter to get here with THEIR ideas.
Is it HD's who keeps saying things have to be done RIGHT and keeps reminding everybody about city permits and codes and generally telling the contractor whatever he's doing is wrong and will not be approved by the city!
I think nostalgically of my old kitchen.  It really wasn't that bad...I could have lived with it just making minor changes not one from ground up.  But then I tell myself not to get so easily discouraged.  Change is a good thing, but the process takes tremendous patience.
Whatever estimate one gets has to be multiplied by thrice the amount of time and one and a half times the cost.  Most important is the people who give us bids transform into those who all the pressures of their job to carry out.
I wish we could have just left the house and come back when he e-mailed us the job was done!
Is this contractor the same one who said he would be done before we knew it?  He now has turned into this shifty eyed person who won't meet our eyes when we ask for an end date mumbling about how fast he's going and people don't know how hard his work is.  He's working with teams who are all related to him and have so many excuses for not showing up that his mood gets darker as the days go by!
He's stopped talking to me after he saw the slide in range arrive...he thought it was a cooktop!
Where did he think my oven would go once it was removed from the wall?
I can no longer envision my kitchen and till it's done, I sit in my living room surrounded by appliances in boxes, all the stuff hoarded in my kitchen for umpteen years in wobbly piles around me, my microwave and toaster on my dining table and I pray the workmen will soon be gone, the city will approve all the changes, HD and the contractor will become friends again and I will have...my new kitchen.
In the meantime I feel better just for having written this...

Indian Summers and Pickles (pictures coming)

Summer is pickle making season in India. Indian pickle is nothing like the small cucumbers in brine we get in the States. Our pickles are vegetables dried with salt (no water added) and then mixed with seasonings and chilli powder and oil. They last a year or two if they are made properly.
The most popular pickles in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh are made with limes or green mango.
In the North and West almost every vegetable is made into a pickle. Generally pickles are hot and spicy but in Gujarat they are sweet and sour and spicy. In Bengal and Kerala fish and prawn pickles are a specialty. Each community seems to have their own special pickles.

Lime pickle is the traditional South Indian pickle served on every marriage 'thali'. It has to accompany the curd/yogurt rice that is the last course of the meal itself.
Pickle is also an accompaniment to everyday meals, that compensates for lack of salt or spice in any dish. Some people can't eat an Indian meal without pickle.

Traditionally of course pickles were made to preserve the vegetables/green mangoes available in summer for year round use. Marrried women in the South went home to their mother's house for a month or two in the summer, children in tow, and returned after their visit laden with pickles and other treats.
Most pickles can be made by any and everybody but for lime pickle, my mother always said one needed 'the hand'. If you didn't have 'the hand', the lime pickle always went bad i.e spoiled soon after it was made. Luckily for us my mother had 'the hand' and so did my sister. Unfortunately I do not.
The lime pickle was made and stored in an earthen jar about 14" high. The mouth of the jar was tied with a muslin cloth. The lime pickle was removed in small quantities to another glass bottle for serving. Some traditions attached to pickle: A woman having a period could not make or touch the pickle later or it would go bad. No water/wet hands/wet spoons were allowed to come in contact with the pickle. My mother used to say the pickle made by her grandmother who obviously had 'the hand' could last up to three years.

Four friends visited us last year and when the ladies Jessie and Mallika saw how much we enjoyed our lime pickle from India, the latter offered to make some. Mallika said I could put the lime pickle she was showing me how to make in the refrigerator right away and then it wouldn't go bad.
Overriding my protests that she should relax and not work, she made not one but two delicious pickles. The first one was an Instant Lemon Pickle that vanished minutes after it was placed on the table!
The second one was a lime pickle and I still have a small treasured amount left in the refrigerator!


Lemon Pickle...Mallika Arasu

1large lemon chopped into 1 cm pieces
1 c water
Cook lemon in water with 1 Tbsp salt
2 tiny spoons (1/3 tsp) rai and methi (mustard seed and fenugreek seeds)
Roast separately and powder in blender.
Heat ½ cup sesame oil.
Add 2/3 tsp whole rai.
When it splutters add ⅓ level tsp hing (asafoetedia). 
 (If it’s the strong 303 brand of hing, reduce to ¼)
1 ½ big Tbsps chilli powder

I can't believe how delicious this was.

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Lime pickle...Mallika Arasu

10 limes

6 tablespoons methi (fenugreek seeds)
8 tablespoons rai (mustard seeds)
Fry till brown and grind in blender
Cut limes into quarters or eighths (Mallika chopped them into one sixteenths).
Heat ¾ cup til oil
Put in methi and rai powder and ⅓ tsp hing.
Switch off the stove.
Add lime pieces.
Add 6 rounded teaspoons chilli powder
Add 1 level tsp haldi
Add 2 rounded tablespoons rock salt.
Store in a glass bottle in refrigerator.
Shake bottle to toss lime pieces every day till soft (it's ready to eat in about three weeks).

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GREEN CHILLI PICKLE...Lalita Devdasen

To add to this wonderful list of pickles is this one from an old friend.  I changed the recipe slightly by adding apple cider vinegar and increasing the amount of garlic.  Though chefs insist that adding an ingredient or changing the recipe in any way gives you ownership of the recipe, I would still like to credit Lalita as she gave me this recipe.
It is delicious, keeps well in the refrigerator and everyone wants the garlic pods in the pickle laced with the flavor of green chillies.

1 kg green chillies (2.2 lbs)

2 Tbsp salt

1 Tbsp each: dhania/coriander seeds and whole jeera/cumin

2 tbsp amchur powder (amchur/pomegranate seed powder)

1 cup til oil   

1 tsp sugar     

½ cup white vinegar  (I used apple cider vinegar and it gave the pickle a great flavor).      

20 pods garlic, peeled  (I double this amount)

2 inch ginger peeled and sliced or chopped    

Wash and dry chillies on a paper towel.

I use the jalapeno if I cant get the serrano peppers but make sure they are hot.

Roast dhania and jeera seeds in a pan or in the microwave.

Blend fine and mix with salt and amchur powder.

Slit chilles and fill with the powder mix..

Heat oil.  

Add ginger and garlic and fry for a minute

Put chillies in and leave for another minute.

Add 1 tsp sugar and vinegar

Simmer 2 mins.

When completely cool, bottle and store in refrigerator.  The flavor is amazing.

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Sweet & Sour Green Mango Pickle...Cassandra D'Silva

Cassandra was a fellow student in St. Mary’s Training College, whom I knew 46 years ago.  She had the voice of an angel.  Her rendering of ‘Ave Maria’ is one of the best I’ve ever heard.  
One summer she brought in a bottle of this super delicious sweet and sour mango pickle for each friend.  It was a family recipe; a dish from her home town in Goa and one her mother made every year.  Everyone in college and at home loved it, and I made it every year after that as long as there were green mangoes around..

5 lbs green mangoes (Cassie said those on the brink of turning yellow made the best pickle).
2 rounded tbsps chilli powder (she said ‘to taste’)
2 tbsps haldi
1 tbsp methi powder
¼ lb whole rai/mustard powder (powdered rai)
1 tbsp jeera powder
½ lb garlic, peeled.
⅛ lb whole pepper (I reduce this to 1/16)
1 bottle vinegar
1 ½ lb jaggery.
7 rounded tbsp salt (my estimation for what works well)
2 lbs oil

Dissolve jaggery in vinegar on medium heat. Strain the liquid when cool to make sure there is no grit/stones in the jaggery.
Heat oil well.
Put in all the masala and fry well (3-5 mins on medium).
Add mango and garlic cloves. Fry again for 3-5minutes. (my variation)
Add the jaggery and vinegar and allow mango to cook...15 mins.
Cool and bottle.

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My favorite North Indian pickle is green mango made with somph (fennel).
My second favorite South Indian pickle is 'avvakkai', a pungent green mango pickle.
My favorite Maharashtrian pickle is a fresh one made with carrots and green chillies.

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