Not all flowers are pure love!

 

It turns out, there DOES exist a flower I don't care much about.

Don't get me wrong, I AM a plant lover, a tree lover, a flower lover. But this particular one... if it can even be called a flower... I can't bring myself to even like it.

Called the Brazilian Dutchman's pipe or giant pelican flower, scientific name Aristolochia gigantea, it's apparently an ornamental plant native to Brazil.

Ornament, really? Would you grow this in your garden? 😕 

 

I saw the vine with these huge flowers dangling from them when I visited a nursery recently. I dared to touch one of the closed ones and it felt like a deflated balloon (or a lung? It certainly looks like one.)! 😖 Ugh! Not something I want to try again.

To add to the whole charm, it's also a carnivorous plant that eats insects, kills caterpillars, and it smells of sewage water.

 

The heart-shaped leaves are the redeeming feature of the vine, I thought. I also learned that these flowers bloom only for about 2 days before they wilt. Small mercies!

Was Mother Nature drunk when she created this one? 😅

Cooking with clay pots - My experience with buying, curing, cooking and cleaning 😅

 

When I venture into something new, you can be sure that I don't do it in half measures. 😆

Why I'm saying this is, about a year ago, I thought I was done with non-stick and aluminium kadhais and wanted to start cooking in clay pots. You can imagine the work I did to make it happen later!

So here is my experience with the whole process, in case you are thinking of doing the same, and not sure how to start.

Starting from buying them, to the lengthy process of curing them to finally cooking in them, I have written it all down, with some pictures in between. Read and let me know if this was helpful for you? 😘

When the clay utensils bug bit me first last year, we made plans to visit Bangalore's famous Pottery Street, which turned out to be a super disappointment for me. (You can read all about it by clicking on the link above.)

Then by chance my husband found a vendor on the Bangalore-Hyderabad highway, about 10 kms after the Nandi Hills turn, near the Chikkaballapura entrance. He turned out to be quite reliable with the quality of the pots, and had reasonable pricing too. He was also quite happy to exchange a piece if it turned out to be leaky or chipped.

We bought some water jugs, several pots and pans, and one uruli I fell in love with, and lids for all of these, except for the uruli. I also spotted a bag of use-and-throw chai kulhads that were so cute, and bought several. (I intend to keep reusing them for my multiple-chai-cravings-a-day and not throw them after one use though! 😁)

 

The pots need proper curing before they can be used, and I did a lot of research on how best to do it. It's a longish process that will need at least 5 days for getting them ready. The following process is what I found to be the most effective:

Step 1:

Save the water you washed rice with and pour it into a bucket. Immerse the pots in this water. Don't forget the lids too if you have them. You can add plain water to this so that the pots are complete immersed. You will hear a faint hissing sound and see air bubbles forming and floating to the surface. This is because the clay pots are porous and the air trapped in those pores is escaping. 

Leave the pots immersed for 2-3 days. The water will ferment because of the starch and it will help strengthen the pots and make them more durable.

Remove the pots from the starch water after 2-3 days and let them dry. It will take anywhere between 16 hours to a day for it to dry completely. 

Step 2:

Pour fresh water into the now-dry pots and let them stand for anywhere between 12-24 hours. This is to ensure that there are no leaks anywhere. 

 

Once you are satisfied that the pot is intact and there are no leaks, pour out the water and clean the pots using a light scrub and water. This will remove any grime or stray particles of clay from the pots. 

Again, let them dry completely.

Stop after this step if it's a water jug or a curd pot. You can start using them now. 

Proceed to Step 3 only for pots you will be using for cooking.

Step 3:

Once the pots are completely dry, apply oil liberally all over the pots. You can use any edible oil, including ghee. I used coconut oil. Make sure you cover the outside of the pot too, and the lids. 

Let them dry completely. The pots soak up the oil pretty quickly, and I kept it to dry only for about 5-6 hours. 

 

Your pots are now ready for cooking!

Use them to cook any of your favorite dishes. It's a good idea to keep separate pots for different types of cooking. For example, a separate one for rasams and sambars, one for seafood like fish curry or prawns, one for chicken, one for subjis or curries, etc. You also get roti and dosa tawas, and you can follow the same curing process for those.

 

Cleaning:

It's not a good idea to use soap or a chemical cleaner on your clay utensil. You saw how the pots are porous and soak up the water and the oil in the previous steps? The same way, they will soak up the soap/cleaner, which will leech into your food when you cook next.

Soaking the pot in water for about 10 minutes and then gently scrubbing the pot with natural fibres like coconut husk or a gourd scrubber will remove most of the food stuck to the pan. I do not recommend a synthetic scrubber like 'Scotch Brite' since first of all it's harsh and might remove layers off the pot, and secondly, it's not environmentally friendly. If there is remnants of oil in the pan, you can rub a lemon rind all over the pot and then rinse off with water.

I had a bunch of coconut fibre my mom-in-law saved from the coconuts we use liberally in our cooking (we are from Coastal Karnataka, after all! 😁), and I just used a handful of it to scrub this pot. We also save the lemon rinds after squeezing the juice out of them, so I used one of it to clean it thoroughly, then rinsed off with water. All clean!

 

Storing:

Store your clay pots in a place where they won't come in your way when you move about the kitchen. (This is very good advice for especially clumsy people like me! 😜) Keep them in a dry cabinet or get one of those on-the-counter pot stands that have multiple levels for keeping each pot.

I hope this was helpful to you! Do give me feedback and I'd also love to hear about your experience with clay pots.

Happy cooking! 💖

Pineapple and ginger jam

I’m on a pineapple cooking spree! But really, what else can you do when they are abundantly available to buy and you have an overload of the fruit at home? 

This time we had cut two big pineapples which turned out to be too sour to eat. So Bataany and I decided to make jam with it.

I decide to add a small piece of ginger too and it turned out so good! 😁

Here’s how we made it in case you want to make it too!

What you need:

1 big pineapple cut into rough chunks

1 inch piece of fresh ginger

3 cloves

2 cups of sugar (more if you like it sweeter)

A pinch of salt

How to make:

Chop up a few pineapple chunks finely to fill a small cup and keep it aside. (We did this because Bataany thought she would like a few chunks in her jam)

Blend the rest of the pineapple, ginger and cloves to a smooth consistency. Don’t add water.

Pour it into a heavy bottomed pan and turn on the flame to high. 

Add the chopped pineapple, sugar and salt to this and stir it until it starts to boil. 

Now turn the flame to low and let it cook for about half an hour.

Stir the jam every now and then to ensure it doesn’t stick to the bottom.

Check sugar halfway, and add more if you like it sweeter.

If you feel the pineapple chunks are too big, mash them right in the pan with a potato/pav bhaji masher.

Once it’s thickened to a jam-like consistency, turn the stove off and let it cool.

Once it’s completely cooled, transfer the jam to a dry airtight jar. 

Enjoy with toast, or with chapati/dosa/idlis or even just spoonfuls of the jam directly (which is how it gets empty in no time in my house)! 😆

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Pineapple rasam... because why not?

Tried my hand at pineapple rasam for lunch yesterday and it turned out so good!

It’s super simple to make, so I’ve written down the recipe here if you want to try it too. If you do, let me know if you liked it!

What you need:

About a cup of chopped pineapples

2 green chillies
3-4 small pieces of ginger
Turmeric powder
Chilli powder
Salt and jaggery according to taste
1-2 tsp ghee
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp jeera
1 sprig curry leaves
A pinch of asafoetida

Half a lemon if pineapple isn’t sour

How to make:

Lightly crush 2 green chillies and 3-4 small pieces of ginger and add the chopped pineapple pieces to this.
Add enough water to cover the pineapples and bring it to a boil.
Add salt, turmeric powder, chilli powder and jaggery and let it simmer for about 10 minutes.
Then adjust salt chilli powder and jaggery.
Turn off the stove and add lemon juice if needed.
Heat the ghee in a tadka pan and add mustard seeds. When it splutters add jeera and the curry leaves. Turn off the stove and add the asafoetida and pour this into the rasam.

Enjoy with hot rice and ghee!

Book review: Tejo Tungabhadra by Vasudhendra

Book: Tejo Tungabhadra

Author: Vasudhendra

Genre: Historical fiction

Language: Kannada

Publisher: Chanda Pustak

Price: Hardcover Rs. 380 at Sapna Bookstore

 

What a difficult book to read this was! Although not for the reasons you’d imagine, because the writing was brilliant, the storytelling poignant, and the way the author has connected people’s lives and bridged seas and rivers thousands of miles apart was nothing but dazzling.

But the story... it hits you in the guts, squeezes your throat and makes your heart bleed. It makes you pause and look up from the pages because you can’t read anymore through the tears, it makes you put down the book and not touch it again for days because you suspect what’s going to happen next and can’t bring yourself to know.

Most historical fiction I’ve read, especially anything to do with the Vijayanagara empire, has been from the king’s perspective. His valour, his conquests, his struggles and triumphs, his love stories, his rule and how his subjects enjoyed the golden age... but hardly anyone talks about the lives of his subjects. What were their lives like? What were their struggles, their pain, their joy... why did they laugh, why did they weep? How did they dress? How did they travel? What were their names? What did they eat? Who did they love, who did they worship?

This books narrates a story that will tell you all that, and more. You’re left with a painful understanding that human society, at the very basic level, remains the same no matter which century it is or which part of the world the people are from. Violent, blood thirsty, carnal, but at the same time, seeking connections and comfort, hoping for a good life. All one big mess of humanity.

If you know Kannada and want to read something that will stay with you for a long time to come, go ahead, read this book.

I can't thank my cousin Suvarnini enough for recommending it! ❤️

Tomato-Basil Spaghetti, my (improvised) version

I've been told many times that it's not enough to just post pictures of the food I cook and tempt everyone but to invite them all home and feed them. (I've done the inviting bit, but no one has actually come home yet!)

The next best thing I figured is to write down the recipes (whenever possible) so that you all can make it too if you want to!

A warning though - I am not a recipe writer, so it might not be a perfectly written recipe. And there won't be any step-by-step pictures either because honestly, I don't have the patience. I also wing it a lot while cooking, so I can mostly tell you in terms of a little bit of this or a wee pinch of that! If you need more clarifications, please ask me specifically and I will try and answer.

So here goes:

Tomato-Basil Spaghetti:
(Enough for 3 people)

 

You will need:
250 gms of spaghetti (Any spaghetti will do. I don’t like the texture of whole wheat pasta, so I used durum-wheat semolina pasta)
2 medium-sized tomatoes
A handful of basil leaves
4-5 cloves of garlic
2-3 tbsp of cooking oil (I used olive-pomace oil)
About a tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp chilli flakes
2-3 tbsp of grated Parmesan
A handful of black olives slices (optional)
A pinch of dried or fresh rosemary (optional)

What to do:
-- Boil water and cook spaghetti as instructed. Drain the water and spread out the spaghetti to cool. (Don’t put oil in water or toss it with oil after you drain it though. That will make it extra slippery and the herbs and flavours won’t stick to it enough later.)

-- Chop the garlic finely.

-- Dice the tomatoes (If you have cherry tomatoes that’s best because it looks nice, but regular tomatoes will do just fine.)

-- Heat oil in a pan and add the chopped garlic. Fry it for 20 seconds on low flame or until the raw smell is gone. Don't let it brown.

-- Add the tomatoes. Fry again until it’s slightly soft.

-- Then add a handful of basil leaves. Also add sliced olives to it. (I didn't this time because I thought I had it in my fridge, but when I checked the bottle there were just two sad-looking olives at the bottom. 🤪)

-- Add salt, chilli flakes and rosemary. (This is not mandatory. Only if you have it. I have rosemary growing in a pot so I find excuses to use it whenever I can.)

-- Mix it up and when the basil starts to wilt add the cooked spaghetti. Toss is all up together. In the end, drizzle some extra virgin olive oil.

-- Turn off the flame and garnish with Parmesan cheese. (Again, I didn’t have Parmesan so I just used cheddar. I’m all about improvising!😂)

So that's it. Let me know it all makes sense?

Bonus: Here's the full lunchbox I packed today! 😊

Mindful living

This is a long-winded post but it has been a month in building up. And hopefully it also marks a new stage in my life as I settle down comfortably in my 40s, where I’m becoming more mindful, more calmer, think about what I need versus what I want, what kind of a world I want to leave for my daughter and do my part for it in my tiny way, and focus on how I want to live the rest of my life. So here goes.

Exactly a month ago on the first day of this new year I thought I’ll organise my closet. I pulled out clothes, folded and folded and it looked like it was never going to end. The worst thing was I hadn’t worn many of the clothes I had and some even had tags on them. It was like a revelation, and I was seeing inside my wardrobe with fresh eyes. I realized what a position of privilege it was to possess so much and I was abusing it by buying even more. I was wasting my money, hoarding unnecessary clothes and cramming my house with too much stuff that ultimately I didn’t need. There was just too much negative energy all around.

I made a vow right then that I’m not going to buy any new piece of clothing, footwear, handbags or yarn this year. The only exceptions will be underwear, anything I get as a gift, and any specific yarn that I would need for a specific, custom ask. As a first step I thought I’ll break the year down, keep a target of 3 months, evaluate where I stand, buy only the absolutely necessary items if I need to and move on to the next 3 months of not buying. I am also going to use all the clothes, shoes and handbags I haven’t used yet, give away the ones I can’t, and mend the ones that I’d pushed to the corners if a button was missing or if there was a tear.

It’s been exactly a month now and I’m so proud to say I have stuck to my resolve. So this is what I have done in the last one month:
⁃ Sorted through my handbags and kept only 5 that I knew I would use, and gave the rest away to who would be happy to use them.
⁃ Bataany and I worked through her wardrobe, kept only the clothes she wears regularly and gave away 70% of her clothes to a deserving charity. She’s never worn and never will wear some of these clothes and most of them are too small for her now but still in great condition.
⁃ I have pulled down a great many boxes from the storage cupboards and thrown/given away most of the stuff I had kept for the one-day-I-might-need-it scenario.
⁃ As for the mending part, I’ve stitched up two lost buttons in 2 shirts, mended a kurta which had a torn seam, and patched up a hole in one of my jeans.

What I’m most proud of though is this black tunic you see on top that had a noticeable hole on the shoulder.

I did a little snooping around on Pinterest to see what would be the best way to cover that hole and came up with this. It started out as a small patch just enough to cover the hole, but once I started I just had to keep going and this is the result. It’s nowhere near perfect, it’s all wonky and the stitches are not at all neat, but it’s my first embroidery project and I’m so proud of it! Now I can’t wait to embroider more!

Next on my list is tackling my shoe cupboard which is already a nightmare. Wish me luck please!

Chaos and stillness

 

There's a certain little spot in my mind where there's an absolute stillness.
No thoughts, no feelings, no emotions, no turmoil,
no breeze or rain or sunshine or darkness.
Just absolute stillness.
There are a million thought-like debris flying around and round that spot.
But the spot lies empty.
I'm unable to catch hold of any of those anchorless thoughts.
I can't enter that spot either where I can melt into that stillness.
I need to, so need to.
That noisy, painful, meaningless thought-debris will consume me otherwise.
I feel myself standing just outside the stillness among the chaos
and reaching in, but I'm not quite there.
Yet.

 

 

Pottery Town adventure 🤪

There are some places that you hear about, read about, see photographs of... and you add your own imagination into all of that and build up a picture in your head. You finally actually go there and you experience this humongous disappointment and you feel as if your own mind has let you down.

Has this happened to you? Which place/experience was it?

Pottery Town was one such let down for me. I've lived in Bangalore almost all my life, but had never been there. So when I thought of buying some clay cookware, some planters, etc., we thought why not go there and check out the place. When my sister warned me that it's not worth going there, I should have listened! (This is not an I-told-you-so moment sis, back off!)

Several factors combined to contribute to this disappointment. First of all, there is heavy metro construction happening all around the area and there were several roadblocks that led us away from that place. We relied on Google Maps (not always a good idea but I never learn!), but it didn't consider the roadblocks, so we drove around in circles for a while. We got stuck at really narrow roads lined with houses, shops, gunny bags, parked trucks, cars and bikes, cattle, where people's lives spilled out on to the streets and for a while I thought that's it, we're never getting out of here!

We finally escaped, thought OK, let's park the car a few streets away and walk. But finding a decent parking space in Bangalore is an entirely new post altogether. Anyway, we then parked at quite a distance and got an auto to take us there!

Once we finally got there we realized how close we had actually come there before. Mind you, we were still laughing at our silliness that time.

We skipped and dodged some muck on the road and stood and looked around, to see a few shops with some sad looking pots, planters and kulhads. The streets were waterlogged, there was muck and garbage all around, and the shopfronts were choked with junk. Nothing at all like I had imagined.

Maybe it was our unfortunate timing too. Deepavali is just over, and summer is still a while away. There are not many buyers around this time, and this is kind of a slow phase for the potters. There was a woman in front of one shop who we started talking to, and she confirmed this for us. All the things you want will be ready only January-February, she said.

We nodded, walked out, got another auto, got into our car, and got home, without buying a thing.

Moral of the story is, don't always believe social media pictures are the reality, go where you want to go, but don't always expect things to turn the way you imagined it. Prepare to be surprised/shocked/disappointed. But I guess this is not to say you will always be disappointed. There have been times when I have been pleasantly surprised, exhilarated even and some places have proved to be sooo much better than my imagination. So I might not go to Pottery Town again (or maybe I'll change my mind in January) but I definitely will not stop exploring new or out of my places! 😆

(Also, sometimes do listen to your sister.)

Silencing the mind

 

There's a place in your heart where you go
when you need to escape your crowded mind.

Here's mine.

I walk barefoot in the sand,
I listen to the waves whisper soothingly to me,
And I ask the sea to swallow all my demons.