Cumin Overload - Tasty Treat

Here is my recipe for aloo-gobi sabji (potato-cauliflower side dish) which relies on cumin for the flavouring more than the standard chili spice.

Start with :


Cut them real fine (especially the cauliflower)..


Use the bottom pan of a pressure cooker :

• put two spoons of oil at medium heat


• put channa dal and urad dal and get them to a light brown color


• add mustard seeds (1/2 spoon) and cumin seeds (2 spoons)


• add some asafoedita when the mustard starts splattering


• add the onions and saute them till they turn light brown


• then add the cauliflower and potato's (i cheat by microwaving the potato for 2 minutes before throwing it in the mix


• add 1/2 a spoon of salt and 1/4 spoon of the standard curry powder (or sambar powder) and stir for a few minutes.


• add 1/2 cup water mix and put the lid on the pressure cooker and wait till you hear one whistle.


• release the pressure, open the pan and continue to stir for another two minutes and you have..

Great to eat with rice or rotis!

The cooking experiment

My cooking experience was limited to making tea, cofee , roasting papads and making maggi noodles (indian instant 2 minute noodles). I started cooking two weeks before my US trip. My overprotective mother decided to give me a crash course in cooking with ample help from her four sisters. My grandmother pitched in too.. In two weeks they decided to create the "cooking monster" ! I still have the recipe notes my aunt wrote for me for most of the common south indian gravy and side dishes. It even included recipes for some special treats that are made during religious functions.

Their cooking monster was mostly a "cookie monster" after arriving in the States. Anyone worth his taste buds knows that pretty soon the craving for masala starts. After living on cheese pizza and coffee from the roadside truck near my graduate student office (a greek food truck on 32nd street in Philadelphia ) and realizing that none of the pants that I got specially stiched fit me (30 to 34" in 4 months !) it was time to get back to indian roots.

My roomate was worried about bulging at the seams too... so we started cooking and experimenting extensively.. to this mix we add experimental results from our classmates across the United States and we have "The graduate Student Cookbook "

It is my humble opinion that "Healthy Tasty Indian food" is an oxymoron. The tasty stuff is usually full of clarified butter and spice that either clogs your arteries or eats up your stomach lining and is guarnteed to reduce your life expectancy. I am surprised that there are no surgeon General warnings on Indian Masala packets sold in american grocery stores saying :

"WARNING : Continued use of this substance can cause Stomach and Liver damage and potential death"

Any attempts to make it healthy ends up being bland. But once in a while, you come up with some good stuff which is marginal on the health part or the taste part. Recently, I made a vegetable curry that was healthy and on the tastier side. Will post the recipe soon..

Bonfante Gardens and the Circus Trees

This weekend we made it to Bonfante Gardens, a radically different theme park for children. Radical, not that they teach kids how to play with guns and bombs, but rather introduce them to elementary botany !

The main focus of the park is the "circus trees". Some dude in Santa Cruz figured out long ago that if you take the american sycamore tree and graft it on itself, it grows into all kinds of intricate patterns.. You can see some amazing trees here, four trees woven into a basket, interweaving trees, etc..



Needless to say, there are lots of rides for kids with a fruits and vegetables theme..






with the exception of the goldfish ride..

The place also has a tropical tree glass house and a bird house with parakeets. A few photographs from our weekend trip with sangeethas cousin, her aunt and my favourite niece..

There are at least two or three train rides here with varying levels of thrills, targeting kids of different age groups.

Sisters walking together.. really liked the next two snaps..

We had a great time !

BARR - Thirupathi Bhimas Sri Krishna Sweets

The Thirupathi Bhimas (Sri Krishna Sweets) is at the north east corner of Abel Street and Tasman Drive in Milpitas, close to the Great Mall





Have gone to the Bhimas only twice so far. Think this restaurant opened recently. Plenty of parking all around the restaurant. The place gets crowded only after 8:30 in the night. Part of this restaurant is supposed to become a sweet shop (Sri Krishna Sweets Branch!). This will be nice (my brother lives next door to a Sri Krishna sweets in Chennai !)

Wait time : 2 minutes
Food wait time from order : 10 minutes (impressive since I did order a Rava Dosai)
Check time : 12 minutes (Visa Mastercard Only)- they were clearly swamped.
Average price per person : $12
Rating "My wife can cook better !".
Service : Excellent


Items sampled : Rava Dosa, Pongal, Andhra Thali, pesarattu, poori masala, bajji

Thirupathi Bhimas is very famous in Thirupathi according to my desi friends here. We went as a group last month and tasted lots of dishes. Last week we went by ourselves, and were disappointed by the lack of consistancy.

My main basis of comparing across restaurants is the Rava Dosa and this was excellent the first trip and disappointing in our second trip. The pongal was delicious the first time and above average the second time. The andhra thali was excellent, especially the onion-drumstick vaththa kozhambu. The average dish in the thali (plate with all items, a la carte !) was spicy (9 on a scale of 10), but tasty all the same.

They have really good poori masala, bajji and pesarattu (both sampled when we went as a group).

My daughter got burnt tasting the sambar and refused to rate anything. We coaxed her to have a piece of the Dosa and she did give it a "yummy" rating. The sambar and chutney's for the dosa are consistantly great, especially the tomato chutney. But what good is consistant chutney if the dosa is crispy once and soggy another time ?

Will still recommend this place as a nice tiffin place.

Sundar Special : Fried Noodles

Another foray into the kitchen after the Avani Avittam Ceremony (the south indian Brahmin, once a year thread changing ceremony)..

WARNING :

Weight Watchers and Cardiac Patients - PLEASE LEAVE THIS BLOG IMMEDIATELY !!!

My recipe :

Take two packets of ramen noodles (any flavor will do because you throw the flavor packets out!)

Take half a bar of UNSALTED butter (I am talking one half of the 4 bars that you get in the 1 lb butter), melt it in low heat and crush the two packets of noodles and fry it for 4-5 minuts till it turns light brown at places (increase the heat to medium).

Keep the peas, carrots, (your other favorite veggies) microwaved and ready.

Put the veggies with the noodles and turn down the heat. Add 1/2 spoon of sambar powder (for those unlucky souls whose mom / mother-in-law havent stocked you up with enough to last the rest of the year, try the standard ganesh ram or 777 brand - that works). Then add 1/4 spoon of salt and some asafoedita powder.

Add two cups of water and stir till the powder is mixed properly. Increase the heat and keep stirring till the noodles is cooked !

Enjoy. The noodles will not stick and they will definitely be different from the standard maggi(indian) noodles or the ramen noodles!