thecookscottage

Food Blogs

Updated September 2006

When I began writing The Cooks Cottage, I had not read a single other blog, let alone a food blog. I knew nothing of the blog world and even less about the Food Blog World. My main interest was to learn the basics required to express myself and within a few days I was up and running.

It was exhilarating to have no interfering hand in the process of publication. I did what I liked with the pictures, had fun with language and often made statements which I might have held back in the intimidating and long lasting world of print.

I mean have you ever been in a dentist's office and read about someone or something you know, in a vague little article written 7 years ago in a faded magazine , kept for anxious readers waiting for the worst, and realising nothing can be worse than the story of someones life or something which is very old hat, written by a novice, in an ancient magazine. Can you hear the sound of toothless laughter emanating from that sanitised grey coldness of the waiting room?

So my spat is over with magazines editors who want " no 'gyan' (knowledge), just recipes", those being the very words of one of them.

Now several months later I realise I have been on a journey of discovery without taking a breath. Finding and devouring wonderful food blogs written by people with a passion and often a great sense of humour.

Things are not terrible earthshaking in the world of cooking. I mean the worst that can happen is that a souffle collapses or the bread burns, the rice becomes pulp and the curry solidifies. All quite shreikworthy but controllable disasters. Cooking to share just feels really good. And the greater the number to share with the more heartwarming it is.

I am taking a breather here to list some of the best blogs, ones I keep returning to, for inspiration, a daily dose of laughter, observations about ingredients, interesting slices of history and culture, or a recipe beautifully laid out with mouthwatering photographs. Plus many new food blogs worth getting to know.

Enjoy.

P.S. all the blogs about Indian food are listed in chilli red.

A Blithe Palate

A Full Belly

A la Cuisine  In his own word's-"My name is Clement and I’m a 25 year old computer engineering graduate turned media design entrepreneur living in Toronto, Canada. While my day job has nothing remotely to do with food, at times I find it difficult to think of much else (especially when I’m hungry)."

Aliment Artisinal cheese.

Appon's Thai Food  Recipes from Appon's native Thailand

Anne's Food In her own write-"I just love food. I love reading about food, writing about food, cooking food and.. not surprisingly, eating food.'

Around the Kitchen Table Good food from New England

Arthur Hungry Currently in Australia for the semester, Arthur is a hungry student who writes from Boston

A Full Belly

An Obsession with Food

A Perfect Pear '

A Spoonful of Sugar  Angela in Scotland  " much prefer(s)getting creative with desserts, breads, cakes and drinks."

Bakingsheet Nic bakes everything..vegan cheesecake, zucchini cornbread..you name it....

Banlieue Blog Melissa writes from a suburb in Paris.

Becks & Posh High jinks in California. Meet the inimitable Sam Breach.

Belly Timber

BiblioCook Caroline from New Zealand with an Irish slant "It's a much more personal way of learning about food rather than just looking at the bare bones of a recipe. And for me, food is all about context." Loves reading cookbooks as much as cooking.

Bread Coffee Chocolate Yoga

Brownie Points MCauliflower is a fusion girl!

Chez Pim

Chili und Ciabatta Lovely baking blog in German.

Chocolate & Zucchiini The most famous of them all, with a French accent, turns 2 this month.

Chocophile More than you ever wanted to know about chocolate.

Chubby HubbyMusings on food, wine and marriage. Potentially explosive.

Cook Sister Food by the multitalented Jeanne from South Africa.

Cucina Testa Rossa Take a culinary journey through France with Laura.

Culiblog

David Lebovitz Trained at Chez Panisse, leads chocolate and bakery tours in Paris and is a best selling author.

Deep end Dining  Daring, Different, Delicious.

Delicious Days Just the most delicious looking site by Nicky and Oliver.

Delicious Delicious A scriptwriter chronicles her life in food.

Dilek'ce Nice Turkish food blog.

Desserts First An Obsession with Desserts-

Edible Tulip Daphne Randall, a chef for an Art Retreat Centre in the hills south of Georgian Bay documents the challenges of cooking for 12 - 30 people daily

Eggbeater "Shuna Fish Lydon can be spotted at any bay area farmer's market buying seasonal fruit, grean leafies, cheese and jam. Having once had an extensive collection of eggbeaters, is down to a few choice favorites, and has sometimes identified strongly with the Luddites ". Now podcasting and doing amazing things.

Eggs to Apples Recipes from a girl who likes to cook from Kate in Michigan.

Epicurious The largest recipe collection. Commercial site. Fairly good Indian recipes with a twist for western taste.

Esurientes Australian food and wine.

Farmgirl Fare Susan follows her dream with an artisan bread bakery on her farm.

Feeding Dexygus Seconds Jottings of a former vegetarian.

Food & Thoughts Zarah Maria , Copenhagen says 'because it might be "just food" - but you have to eat every day, so why not do it well?

Food Blog  Kiplog cooks,eats and drinks and his blog is a showcase of recipes, food blogs, restaurants and photography.

Foodcraft Savoury cuisine from Steffles in S'ingapore.

Food, in the Main Shyamala Ramathan Edwards writes from the UK  "Former singleton, present wife, future - er, oldie? But always and forever a foodie! "

Food Migration Cindy thinks the world would be a cold, dead place without garlic, ginger, chiles and Nutella.

Food Porn Watch

From the Pantry

Hooked on Heat A Indian food blog from Meenakshi in Canada.

I Heart Bacon One of my favourites from Seattle

Il Forno My personal favourite . A great baking blog.

In My Kitchen Nice recipes- check Cashew Chicken Curry Indian style.

Indian Food Just recipes from Nidhi Rai

Indian Home Cooking website of the chef and author Suvir Saran, who promises to give you any recipe you ask for.

In Praise of Sardines Good multicultural and Indian food to be tasted here. Brett (and Namita ) started this blog "to discuss all the foods I crave and the people who grow and harvest them, the cooks that prepare them, the restaurants that serve them and the writers and their cookbooks that describe them.

Is My Blog Burning THE Centre for Food Blog happenings, now beautifully reorganised to make it easy for all interested including beginners .

I was just Really very Hungry

Jamfaced From Britain, One man and his Kitchen

Kuidaore One of the most beautiful blogs on the sphere.

Leite's Culinaria 'Hot Food, Dry Wit"

Le Hamburger et le Croissant

(Lima) Beans and Delhi Cha(at) Indian food blog from Delhi

Lovescool 

Mahanandi Indira writes about great Indian fare from the U.S.Recipes galore.

Meat Henge

Movable Feast Diary of an Itinerant Chef. From Louisa Chiu, a working chef.

Mum-Mum

My Little Kitchen

Nordljus

Nosh

Noshetaria  Adrienne, foodstylist and caterer writes from Berkeley, California

101 Cookbooks

One Hot Stove Nupur writes about Indian Food and lots more from New York. Always a nice read.

Ono Kine Grindz Reid eats and writes

Oswego Tea Michele in PAris says its all about food

Pabulum

Pastry Life Trials and Tribulations in the life of a pastry student

Phatduck

Potential Gold

Saute Wednesday Lots about food in the media.

Seattle Bon Vivant

Seven Spoons

Seventypercent

She who Eats   Chica writes from back in Japan, quietly hiding somewhere up there... taking, out of this world, photographs.

Shiokalicious Simply recipes

Small Farms

Snackish From Suebob in California.

Spiceblog

Spittoon Andrew writes about wine so well you can taste it ten thousand miles away,especially in places where no wine worth its vine exists.

Stephen Cooks

Sydney Food Blog

Taste Everything Once In honour of appetizers.

Tasting Menu

The Adventures of Pie Queen Freelance foodwriter from Brooklyn

The Delicious Life

The Experimental Kitchen Recipes and techniques for the home chef from Rebecca, a culinary student chef in Vermont

The Little BlueHouse Bakery

The Passionate Cook -Really good food from an Austrian living in London.

The delicious Life  Sarah writes engagingly from L.A.

The Domestic Goddess Needs no introduction! Super

The Fresh Loaf Floyd from Portland, Oregon gives news and information for amateur bakers and artisan bread enthusiasts

The Food Section Josh Friedland writes out of New York City about culinary news, recipes foofd writing and photography.

The Girl who Ate Everything

The Scent of Green Bananas  Santos from Guam is fun to read.

Tiny Banquet Commitee

Toast Lindy whose toast is always crisp and warm.

Too Many Chefs A blog by Meg in Paris, Barrett in Chicago and Todd A.

Who wants seconds Moira whose favourite words are 'melee' and 'obstreperous' writes a mighty nice blog.

Wine Recipes Lots of fruit and vegetable wine recipes by Carl Cleveland in NSW, Australia. Homemade wine is such fun to make especially when it turns out clear and jewel toned.

Without Garnish

Hope all the links work.

Web of Words

Shuna of Eggbeater tagged me for this ingenious meme.

1. Delve into your blog archive.

2. Find your 23rd post (or closest to).

3. Find the fifth sentence (or closest to).

4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions. Ponder it for meaning, subtext or hidden agendas...

5. Tag five people to do the same.

This is like retribution...your words will come back to haunt you sort of stuff.

Here is the offending sentence:

"Non-Veg is a euphemism for many unappetising things in India.You can let your imagination go wild here."

The term NON-VEG originated in the belief that eating  vegetarian is a cleaner, healthier, holier kind of  thing to do. Therefore it follows as the night the day, Non-Vegetarian is the absolute opposite of all that is clean, healthy and holy.In the seventies when this bit of slang  was in vogue here..it meant anything to do with sex...ahah. Anything.

AND it also, literally, meant eating Non-Veg, which was to be done surreptitiously by all those who lived in vegetarian households.Imagine all those grown men creeping out of the house to grab a bite of chicken leg.

The subtext is this-what is   ethical in one mans book may not be moral in anothers.Deccanheffalump sayeth thusly: What is prescribed may not necessarily be the best ,  what is proscribed may not be the worst either.

Hope the following five have not been tagged already - the incredibly inventive Cook Sister  ,a  Pie Queen from Brooklyn, Lindy whose Toast is always crisp and warm, Chubby Hubby who muses  on food ,wine and marriage and finally  Susan of Farmgirl Fare to whose site I go to frequently for sustenance.

Onam Sadhya-A Feast fit for Kings

After fasting the whole day, though not for spiritual reasons, I saw a photograph of someone's feast at Onam. At the sight of those fluffy pappadams my spirit crumbled, my resolve melted, it had to be all..not nothing. We went out for dinner to our local Kerala restaurant.

Leaflet on Onam

Onam was celebrated this year in Kerala from the 5th to the 15th of September and the onasadya / feast is served on the last day. Here the festivities carry on throughout the month and so we had a second chance to enjoy the fare on the 18th. Dance, music performances and other cultural events are held during this time.

Pune has a sizeable Malayalee population, many of whom have lived here for generations. They speak Malayalam and Marathi with equal ease and they have completely integrated into the local population , but their cuisine is as Kerala as it comes. And what a wonderful tradition it has· Quite different from the rest of South Indian food in the use of spices, vegetables, fish and meat.

When Onam comes around , many of them, with their busy routines, choose to have their feast by take away or out at a public venue, either organised by one of the several Malayalee Associations here or at a restaurant, as cooking all the required dishes at home has become well nigh impossible.

There are special caterers for Onam and even the restaurant we went to had taken on cooks and bearers for the occasion. We walked under a garland made of palm leaves and the outside of the restaurant was decorated with a diya and flowers.

As we sat down we were presented with the bill.Ok, so maybe it was a delicate way of saying "This is going to cost you...." We waited, and waited. After a couple of encouraging smiles from the waiters we realised we had to pay up first.Problem solved, the banana leaves were ceremoniously laid out and the feast began.

First a spoonful of salt on the upper left corner of the leaf. Then one by one, in predetermined order, each preparation was served onto a particular place on the leaf. It reminded me, and it is meant to, of the manner in which food is served to the Gods during a puja. With joy , reverance and generosity.

After the salt came the banana chips and a green banana and jaggery sweet mix. Then the achaars..a delicious dark ginger and tamarind one and a orangey red mango achaar. A few Kondatam or curd chillies and then the chutneys, Pavatai / karela with mustard seed, suran / yam chutney on the upper right corner, below which were placed a masala potato bhaji and two types of pachadis/ vegetables or fruit in yogurt, tempered with spices , a pineapple and a bhindi pachadi .

Then came the vegetables. A large helping of beans and coconut vegetable in the upper middle of the banana leaf and an mixed vegetable avial made of drumsticks, lauki,/ bottle gourd carrot, and much more., in a coconut gravy.

In the lower half of the thali came a huge helping of boiled rice with two tablespoons of parappuneyyi / dal ghee. This was just delicious. A small banana was placed on the left side and after some of the meal was eaten, we were offered Kalan/ sambar.

Oh and I forgot those pappadams, for which I ventured forth in the first place. Pappadams in the south are plain, made of urud dal without pepper or chilli , and are scrumptious eaten with rice. Along with this were two cups of tomato rasam and buttermilk made with ginger, chillies and kari patta.

Last of all came the payasams/ desserts, served on the right edge of the banana leaf , one Adapradaman made of rice , coconut and jaggery and the other a Parappupayasam made wiih of moong dal, jaggery and cashewnuts.

All helpings were unlimited . Not that one could have eaten a crumb more after the first helping.

We rolled home , as satiated and pleased as King Mahabali , in whose honour the festival is celebrated.

I enjoyed the ginger chutney / pickle a great deal and wrested the recipe from a Malayalee friend who was only to happy to share it ...thanks a ton Prema.

Ennjipulla / Ginger Chutney

Ingredients:

• 350 gms imli/ tamarind
• 1 cup of water
• 100 gms fresh ginger
• 1/3 cup garlic cloves peeled.
• 1/2 tsp salt.
• 2 tbsp Red chilli powder
• 1 1/2 tbsp methi / fenugreek powder
• 150 gms gur / jaggery
• 3 tbsp til ka tel /sesame oil
• 1 tbsp chana dal -soak in water
• 1 tbsp split urud dal -soak in water
• 1 tbsp rai mustard seed

Soak the tamarind in hot water for 15 minutes. Stir well then bring to the boil.Simmer till tamarind loosens from any seeds and peel. Strain well. Then cook till it thickens into a pulp.

In a blender put the cleaned and chopped ginger, the garlic and the salt. Blend till smooth.

Add the chilli powder and fenugreek powder, the jaggery and the tamarind pulp.

Heat up the sesame oil, remove dals from water and fry along with the mustard seed and add the ground mixture. Stir till well blended.

This makes a substantial quantity and can be eaten with rice, chapathies or poories. The chutney can be bottled and refrigerated for several days.

What's cooking in India today?

Many of us look wistfully at other food blogs , or magazines,or papers, with picures of food we cannot possibly taste, for the simple reason that the ingredients are unavailable or the style of cooking unnattainable. Indian Chinese , which admittedly has become a cuisine belonging to a tradition of its own, quite seperate from 'real ' chinese food, was the best we could hope to taste.

But all that has changed and in some cities at least our choices have increased. I thought it would be nice to give some taste of what is available to those who'd like a change.

Spanish: A plateful of paella.

Mediterranian: Moshe

                      Hypnos

Far Eastern: Shiok

Italian: Roma Aroma

          The Italian Connection

'European' :Ofen

                Indigo

Thai, Indonesian, Japanese:  Tian

There are many more to add and I will be updating this soon.

All herbivorous animals are peaceful by nature- Lin Yutang

I don't know about this . I mean there are times I could kill for a kebab. Right now though I must go with Lin-ji and veggie as a means of a. Losing weight and b. Losing weight.

September will be a lean month.

Ingredients

In an effort to add some spice to our daily bread, I have been scouring the vegetable market for variety. Not a good time to do so, Maharashtra having had over 100 centimetres of of rain this season ; it has been the heaviest monsoon in a hundred years.

The good thing about this is that the water table will have risen and farmers who use traditional methods of water harvesting are looking forward to a better year.

The bad thing about this are the awful tomatoes, soggy onions and generally pathetic looking vegetables on the market currently. During these kind of spells I go back to good old sprouts. And in answer to several requests here is a recipe for the very traditional Maharashtrian Matki Ki Usal.This is made in typical Nagpur style.

Matki Ki Usal/ Sprouted Moth Beans

250 gms sprouted moth beans / matki 1 tsp oil 1 tsp oil
1" piece of ginger
3 cloves of garlic
2 green chillies chopped fine
1/4 tsp of haldi /turmeric
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp gur/jaggery
A few kari patta kari leaves
1 tbsp grated fresh coconut.
A tbsp of hara dhania / fresh coriander
Salt to taste

Add sprouted matki to a pan of boiling water and cook for 5 minutes. Drain.

Heat oil and fry green chillies , ginger and garlic.Turn heat to medium Add the matki and powdered spices and saute for a couple of minutes.

Add the gur and salt and stir well. Add two cups of water and cook for 5 minutes.

Temper with kari leaves fried in a 1/2 tsp of oil.

Garnish with grated coconut and chopped coriander. Wonderful with hot chapathis, fine with bread.

P.S.You can't see any coconut in the picture because it was eaten up  when my back was turned.

The Root of the Matter- A Recipe for Arvi

Arvi/ C. Esculenta Plant

Among many forms of the pictorial, I love botanical paintings, and here is one of " Colocasia Esculenta" from one of the best painters in her genre, Mary Grierson, once the official artist for the Royal Gardens at Kew. It was easy enough to incorporate this beauty into this blog as I picked up some Arvi and proceeded to make it for dinner.

Arvi / colocasia , is a corm, a kind of extension to the stem of a plant. It is known as taro in most other countries and dasheen in the West Indies. Dasheen as in 'de Chine'- from China. Actually Colocasia is native to India, not China ( does this blog start to sound like the father in My Big Fat Greek Wedding? ) Evidence exists of ancient terraced fields made on slopes and hilly areas and planted with this crop , fields now used for cultivating rice.

The plant was carried to South Asia and China much later where it became a common crop as it could grow in well in tropical conditions.From there it spread to the Pacific,the Samoan, Solomon and Hawaiian islands, places where it remains a major part of the diet and is known by a variety of names.

Arvi is very easily digested, which makes it a good choice for children who are allergic to milk as well as people who have problems digesting other types of starch. It has several medicinal uses and contains significant amounts of Vitamin C and B 1 and B12 .

It used to be a regular in the kitchen garden in rural areas here, as cormlets would grow from the last season's corm without much effort or care. In fact it remains an important plant in subsistence farming and could do with a revival in general as a source of starch, healthier than cereals or other grains.Colocasia leaves are also edible and there are many recipes in India for this huuuuge leaf the reason why the plant is also known as Elephants Ear.

Arvi, as long as it is not cooked to slimy sludginess, is pretty nice to eat just as it is, with a few little additions.Here is my recipe for a really quick dish.

Arvi Roast

Arvi Roast

Ingredients:

• 500 gms ( app. 1 lb) arvi ./ taro
• 1 tsp oil
• 2 tej patta / bay leaves
• 1 inch piece dalchini / cinnamon
• 6 peppercorns
• 1 green chilli ( optional)
• 1 heaped tsp dhania/ coriander powder
• 1 tsp jeera/cumin powder
• Pinch of jaiphal / nutmeg
• Salt to taste.
• 1/2 a lime.( App. 1 tsp lime juice)

Boil arvi /taro in water till done. How long this takes depends on the size. I used arvi about two inches in length and 1 inch thick at the widest point..It took about 20 minutes to cook after the water had reached boiling point. The arvi should remain firm when tested with a fork. Remove from fire and wash immediately in cold water. Remove the skins which should come off easily. Cut into thick pieces and set aside.

Heat 1 tsp of vegetable oil. When hot put in the bay leaves, cinnamon and peppercorns. Add the green chilli at this point if you want it spicy. When the whole spices brown a bit add the arvi and the masalas. Turn the fire down and fry till the the the arvi gets a little crisp. Add the nutmeg and salt . Squeeze the lime juice over the arvi and serve.

Chutney recipes

Farmers in Maharashtra eat simple. A couple of jowari ki roti, two onions smashed smartly with a clenched fist, and lasun ka chatni/garlic chutney. Lunch is generally taken the in shade of a tamarind tree in the heat of the day when the sun is directly overhead. Ploughing hard, dry, clods of soil and handling a pair of large white bullocks is no easy job, as experience tells me, and the afternoon break is one to look forward to, with a stirring of a breeze to cool one down and water that tastes sweet after the spartan but filling meal.

Lasun Ka Chatni

I think of lasun ka chatni and other chutneys as the pesto of the east. A piquant and often hot accompaniment to a basic meal whose main ingredient is grain, taken here as roti/flat bread as opposed to pasta.It is a very significant part because for very little money it adds most of the taste.

It is the imaginative way of poverty to use all that is at hand to the best advantage and luckily these recipes have stayed with people even as they have risen out of the conditions which made it necessary to concoct them. Herbs and grasses, roots and leaves find their way into these chutneys as the most well known of them all, Hare Dhaniya ki Chatni / Coriander Chutney, will bear out.

Most Maharastrians, rural or urban, like a large spoonful of lasun ka chatni with their food, and other chutneys are invariably part of the thali meal. Lunch would not be considered complete without at least one ot two of them.

Chutneys are nice to eat with your main meal or as dips, with fries and chips or julienned vegetables to eat along with drinks or with kebabs. Here are a couple of chutneys I make when there is little to offer in the house and friends come over.

Lasun Ka Chatni / Garlic Chutney

• 40 cloves of garlic
• 1 whole copra/ dried coconut, chopped into small pieces.
• 10 red chillies, broken into 3-4 bits each.
• 2 tbspns til /sesame seeds 1 tablespoon peanuts,
• Ball of tamarind the size of a walnut.

Roast all these ingredients on a griddle or in a kadhai one by one to ensure even browning. Put into a blender and process for a short while till it makes a coarse paste . Can be bottled

Sheengdana aur Hari Mirch ki Chatni /Peanut and Green Chilli chutney

• 4 tablespoons roasted peanuts. (Do not roast too long or they get a bitter taste. Just long enough for the skins to change colour and come off the peanut.)
• 4 green chillies finely chopped.
• 1/4 tsp salt.
• Juice of 1 lime app. 1 tbsp.
• 2 teaspoons gur or brown sugar.

Put into a blender and grind with 1 tablespoon of water till smooth. Tastes delicious with julienned carrots .

Karipatta aur Til ki Chatni/Kari leaf and Sesame seed Chutney

• 1 cup fresh kari leaves. Fry in a tablespoon of oil till crisp.
• 2 tablespoons til /sesame seeds.Dry roast till light brown.
• 6 dry kashmiri red chillies.
• 1/2 tsp sugar.
• 1/2 tsp salt.

Put all ingredients into a blender with a spoon of water and grind till smooth. Serve immediately. You can also dry grind all the ingredients and bottle till required when you can add a bit of water to make it into a chutney paste.

Tasty Tomato Chutney

• 500 gms red tomatoes
• 3 tblsps water
• 1/2 tablespoon ghee / clarified butter
• 1 tbsp adrak / fresh ginger grated
• 3 fresh green chillies chopped very fine
• 1" dalchini /cinnamon stick
• 2 tej patta /bay leaves
• 1/2 tsp jeera /cumin seeds
• 2 cloves
• Pinch of hing/asafoetida
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tablepoons gur

Boil 1 litre of water, drop tomatoes in for a few minutes and then transfer them to a bowl of cold water. Peel. Put the peeled tomatoes in a blender with the water and puree till smooth.

Heat up the ghee in a thick bottomed pan or kadhai and saute the ginger, the chillies, cinnamon, bayleaves, cumin and cloves for a few seconds. Do not let the masalas get too dark.

Add the tomatoes to the pan along with the asafoetida and salt. Stir well , cover and let it simmer for 10 minutes. Lift cover and stir well again. Cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes more. It should cook till thick and no water remains. Add the gur and cook on medium heat stirring constantly till chutney has become really thick. Remove the bay leaves, the cinnamon stick and cloves. Let it cool. Serve. Yummy with chips , omelettes, burgers. This is the gourmet version of tomato ketchup.

Imli Khajur ki Chatni / Tamarind and Black Date Chutney

• 200 gms khajur /pitted dates.Chop fine
• 75 gms imli/tamarind
• 450 ml water
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground jeera/cumin
• 1/4 tasp lal mirchi/ red chilli powder (optional)

Boil the tamarind in the water for 10 minutes. take off the fire and strain through a stainless steel mesh strainer , removing as much pulp from the seed as possible. Now add the salt, gur, jeera and chilli powder as well as the dates. Simmer uncovered till thick and all the water has been absorbed . We love this with saboodana vadas/ sago vada or any other fried snack foods.

Aubergine, Brinjal, Baingan, Eggplant - Cultivating Tastes

Fermina Daza , the heroine of Gabriel Garcia Marquez'  " Love in the Time of Cholera'' hated eggplant in any form and, have no doubt about it, Fermina knew her mind.As a little girl she thought they had the colour of poison. As a young wife she was fed the abhorred vegetable every day in Palace Casalduero, where it was cooked  out of respect for her dead father-in-law, who loved the wretched stuff.

Deadly Eggplant

Aubergine would not rate very high on my own vegetable popularity scale .They do have a rather deadly look about them . I dawdled over the very same vangi cha bhaji as a kid and tried hard to hide it between the vati's on my thali in a rather ineffective attempt to make it disappear from the eagle eyed inspection of parents who insisted that nothing should be wasted. No luck; baingan was inescapable and a regular item on the weekly menu.

The reason for the frequent appearance of baingan on our dinner table, despite our moving house constantly from one end of the country to the other, is that it is commonly grown in all states, coming in varied colours and sizes, and every region here has its own special recipe for this vegetable. Several methods of cooking it are recorded, even in the  'Supa Sastra of Mangarasa ' written in Kannada in the 16th century. Never really liked any of them much.

But back to Fermina... one day, many years after the death of her mother-in-law, Dona Blanca, long after she and her husband had moved to their home in La Manga, after their own children had grown up, Fermina was served a delicious food she could not identify. She liked it so much that she had two huge portions. She found out later, to her surprise, that what she had eaten with such delight was .....eggplant!!!

Have your  own notions about hated foods ever altered so drastically as Fermina's ? Well, as regards eggplant...me too, Fermina.

And here is the recipe that did it.

*********

Deccani Baingan

Deccani Baingan

1/2 kg small round aubergines.
1 large onion chopped
3 green chillies slit
1 walnut size ball of imli / tamarind soaked in a cup of boiling water.
1 tablespoon gur/ jaggery
2 sprigs of kari patta  /fresh curry leaves
1 tablespoon  hara dhania / coriander leaves
1/2 tsp haldi /turmeric powder
6 tbsp oil
Salt

Fry the following spices in 1 tablespoon vegetable oil and grind in a blender to make a thick paste:

1 tblsp til /sesame seeds
1 tbsp coriander seeds
4 dry red chillies
1 tsp jeera /cumin seed
4 lavang/cloves
1" stick dalchini /cinnamon
3 tblsp grated fresh coconut
4 cloves garlic
1" fresh ginger
1 tblsp hara dhania / fresh coriander

Keep the stalks intact and make 3 deep intersecting slits through the aubergine from the bottom to the top without cutting through the end. Stuff them with the ground ingredients.

Fry the onions in the oil till well done.  Add the chillies, kari patta and turmeric and fry for a few seconds. Place the stuffed aubergines in the pan, cover tightly and cook for 15 minutes.  Strain the tamarind  and add the pulp along with the water to the pan. Add the gur /jaggery. Cook for another 10 minutes till the aubergines are done.  Sprinkle with chopped coriander leaves and serve.

*******

And so back to the story  of the stubborn and lovely Fermina  and the Eggplant. After that taste-changing experience she acknowledged defeat and it was served at La Manga so often that her husband, Juvenal Urbino, would say that he would have loved to have had another daughter, if just for the pleasure of naming her Eggplant Urbino.