Notices by Ganga (lifetimecooking@mastodon.au)

Kovalam, Kerala, India. A beautiful place.

Goodbye Gouda and farewell French mustard: Signature foods on the brink of climate extinction. Also Flemish frites, Italy's white truffles, and Greek mussels.

https://www.euronews.com/green/2024/11/12/goodbye-gouda-and-farewell-french-mustard-signature-foods-on-the-brink-of-climate-extincti

@timrichards Can't wait for you to do this train trip 😄

@hiway Yes please. nearly 4pm here. I have just taken everything out of the laundry and mopped the floor. Waiting for it to dry so I can wipe al the things and get them sparkly, and put them all back. It is sort of a mud room/laundry.

@SRDas Look what just arrived. Worth the $$ and the wait. A real treasure. And another book that smells of India to sit alongside Paachakam and Annapurni. Thanks for the rec.

Morning beautiful folks. Out early again today for breakfast with a friend I have not seen for a long time.

It is a drizzly and foggy day.

Ginger, Pickled

Pickling ginger prolongs the pleasure of good fresh young ginger which in normal circumstances is available for only 4 months of the year.

Pickled ginger is pink! It is so good to watch it change colour, if you make it yourself (very easy).

Strongly associated with Japanese cuisine, it is useful and delicious in so many applications.

It is a delight on its own; savour it. Nibble it while pouring the wine after work or whilst cooking dinner. Use as a relish for curries. Eat it out of the jar.

While pickled ginger can be eaten within a couple of weeks of preparation, it matures agreeably, obtaining a depth and dimension with age. A scintillating dish for all seasons.

(I first had pickled ginger a million zillion and one years ago at Darley St Thai - remember that gorgeous gorgeous place? Thanks David 😍 )

#Food #WhatIs #FoodInfo #Vegetarian

There is a lot of purple in the garden atm - including lavender, sage flowers, budleja, lantana, iceplant.

But it has competition!

#FromTheGarden #GardeningAU

Good morning, all you beautiful people. I hope you slept well (or will sleep well if you are in the other hemisphere). Awake bright and early this morning - family here from interstate, other family leaving for overseas.

Seven years ago today, a state of emergency was declared as South Australia was plunged into darkness following a storm. Many were without power for days. Adelaide was quite eerie.

The Silky Steamed Eggplant in #Ottolenghi's #Comfort is very excellent and easy to make. The first time steaming eggplant in the Instant Pot and I pretty much got the timings correct. It got devoured very quickly.

It is funny how both #NigelSlater and Ottolenghi avoided steaming eggplant for so long, Nigel even disparaged it cruelly. But experiences widen and opinions change, and I am glad for that.

The dosa batter is bubbling away, from #Dosai by #ChandraPadmanabhan.

The sambal, also from Comfort, is packed away in the freezer.

I've finished making the lentil based dip, yummy (recipe from my friend the #AlkalineCook). And am about to prep the veg Massaman Curry for some week meals, from #MeeraSodha's #East - with sweet potato and eggplant (plus the galangal).

#CookingForTheWeek

#FromTheKitchen #WhatIAmCooking #WhatIAmEating #Vegetarian #Food

Wow, that sambal is extra yummy!

Here is the recipe https://ottolenghi.co.uk/pages/recipes/egg-sambal-shakshuka

#Comfort #Ottolengh #WhatIAmCooking #FromTheKitchen #WhatIAmEating #Vegetarian

Making a big batch of sambal from #Comfort by #Ottolenghi, as it seems the perfect vehicle for chickpeas, tvp, paneer, tofu, eggplant, okra, ......

It'll be batched up for the freezer, for future me.

#Food #WhatIAmCooking #FromTheKitchen #Vegetarian

DOSA!

I couldn't help it. There was dosa in the house even before the cuppas were made. The batter looked so good, silky and very smooth for a home-blended one. I just couldn't resist getting to work with it.

They cooked up easily, no sticking, delicious!!! Crispy on the outside, soft in the middle.

The world is all right this morning.

#Food #FromTheKitchen #WhatIAmCooking #WhatIAmEating #Vegetarian

It is still dosa time at our place.

#Food #FromTheKitchen #WhatIAmCooking #WhatIAmEating #Vegetarian

Za'arar breads, anyone?

#NewBookOfMiddleEasternFood by #ClaudiaRoden

#food #FromTheArchives #FromTheKitchen #MiddleEasternFood #Vegetarian

Dal, Dhal, Dahl

Let me first say that I get annoyed by all the different spellings of Dal. Stick to Dal. It is the most commonly used spelling, and avoids you trying to transliterate from any of the dozens of Indian languages. English does not have the "dh" sound anyway, and I have never heard a non-Indian person pronounce it.

Dal can mean one of two things.
1) a lentil, any lentil. Often put after the name of the lentil eg urad dal, red dal, toor dal, chana dal.
2) A dish made from the dal (lentil) which consists primarily of the dal (lentil) and spices, with some optional vegetables. It generally has a "wet" consistency, but not soup-like, and unlikely to be the thick mass that is found on many non-Indian recipe sites.

Dals (lentils) are high in proteins. They are an integral part of an Indian' vegetarian diet.

Each dal generally can be purchased in 5 different forms.
1) skin on, whole lentil
2) skin on, split lentil
3) skin off, whole lentil
4) skin off, split lentil
5) as a lentil flour

Each type has a very different flavour. Mung beans for example. Skin on types have earthy flavours, whereas without the skin they are quite sweet.

A rule of thumb is that dals with the skin on need to be soaked overnight, while the ones with the skin off often don't need to be soaked or for a much shorter time. There are exceptions (eg urad dal).

Different regions of India have local preferences for most-used dals, as to be expected.

#Food #WhatIs #FoodInfo

Good morning all you beautiful people. May your day be full of pastries.

Sada Roti is a Trinidad style roti, here accompanying Baigan Choka. The roti is a staple in Trinidad, easy to make and can accompany any meal. The Indian influence to their cuisine arrived in Trinidad with indentured servants who worked in the cane fields in the 1800’s.

The dough is silky and smooth and the roti will puff up as it is being cooked.

#food #FromTheArchives #FromTheKitchen #Vegetarian #TrinidadFood

In case you want to know what my daughter and I look like. A drawing by my daughter. Notice the heart on my sleeve.

This hit the spot with me this morning 💃 ❤️

"Being married into an Indian family, I learned a few things: Time is a flexible, fluid entity; when you have a few millennia of history underpinning your culture, what’s an hour here or there. You can always eat–and if you can’t, you’re probably not conscious. Spices to a cook are like essences to a perfumer."

#Food #IndianFood