Its been a crazy cooking desire that I've been smitten with. All the more weird since am one of the last species who wants to do anything other than eat in the kitchen.
Right from Janmashtami (Krishna's B'day) till Diwali has been an experimentation...reminiscing about my mom's culinary delights and trying out the various delicacies she used to make during these festivals.
Festivals for us has always been more about eating than the religious aspects...fortunately my in-laws also not being tradition bound makes life easier...
So I started of with the birth of Lord Krishna making cheedai(small, fried, rice flour balls) - both sweet and salted. These were yummm. Also made some neiappams...came out a little chewy...not the way it is supposed to be but edible. Made vella aval(rice flakes+jaggery) and aval payasam(rice flakes kheer) also which was "Insha'allah" quite good.
Then came Ganesh Chaturthi and made kozhakottai (steamed rice dumplings+stuffing). I made 3 varieties - coconut+jaggery; sesame seeds and urad dal.
October is a double delight as Shankar and me share our birthday. This year it was on a saturday and my parents were here on sunday. So we had a nice famly get together with both sets of parents and my aunt and uncle who had come from Vashi.
I made Pav Bhaji and Shankar made Veg.Pulao with spourts raita. I also made a type pf Daddojanam - curd rice+fried curd chillies+pomogranate seeds. Couldn't have a better way of celebrating our B'day.
Then ofcourse was Diwali - my mom used to make a lot of items but I liked Somasi the best (called Karjikai in Telugu or Karinji in Marathi or Gujjias in North India). Shankar likes Omapodi (sev like savoury) and so made both these items. Mom's presence made it easier as she was helping out in the entire preparation. Shankar made the first batch of omapodi.
I have to admit I keep surprising myself with the different stuff that I can do...not being very modest.
I also must admit that am done with cooking for sometime now...exhausted is the word....so until another bug bites me...life goes back to square one...
