Summer special - Ras doopdi !

Come summer and Im transported back to Indian summer - heat waves, scorching light, whirring fans , unbearable endless days ,but...one thing which would almost compensate ... the mangoes ! Those small local green-orange-reddish mangoes , bucketful of them , squeeze and suck off the juice kinda mangoes...sweet and sour...warm and juicy..dribbling down our chins...eat till you get sick mangoes !!

Those alphonso mango boxes my mom in law used to order from Ratnagiri , just for me...those cool magno pieces sliding down my parched throat...bliss !

[sigh] Thats the one and only thing I miss about Indian summer [sigh]

I have tried those mexican mangoes and all other kinds I see in markets sometimes but none of them hold a candle to Indian varieties and taste..

I forbid my family in India to talk about the mango season they are enjoying...though I do want to hear about all the mango fun they are having [contradictory me!]

Neways, so when I went to Indian store recently I picked up couple of cans of those mango pulp - though I never like the artificial sweetness and the metallic taste...it never tastes the same..not even near...but what option do I have ??

I added some green mangoes and re-pureed with the tinned juice - to add some sourness and freshness to the pulp..

and had it with some doopdi(2 layers) or rather cho-pudi(4 layers) in my case .. these are layered parathas that I've seen only in marwari households I think - those 4 layers are cooked together and the real skill is that each of them seperate out once its done...the end pieces are crispy while the inner layers are soft ,fresh tortilla like and lend a very different and unique taste with the ras (mango pulp).

These are generally called 'doopdi' but can be made upto 7-8 layers and it brings a smile to my face to remember that one of my bhabhi attributes teaching her this special skill , to me :) .. you are just born into somethings..arnt you...

Culinary tidbits

Recently I have seen certain ingredients called for in recipes , which I havn't used before or don't know how to use , so I did a bit of research today (google , I mean ) and here they are :

 

Lemon Zest : Many cake/bake recipes call for this and I have looked for it in the supermarket aisles but didnt find it..I wasnt sure it meant as simple as what it sounded..but yet it does..

It is just peeled off yellow skin of a lemon ! And it adds delicious aroma to anything its added to..Im going to try out a lemon-poppyseed cake very soon with this tidbit ! I recently discovered it at our local caribou and Im dreaming about it..how did I go all my life without it !!!

 

Applesauce : Ignorant me never knew that applesauce is used as butter/oil substitute in baking  ! Here's the explanation .. I am always on lookout for low-fat cooking and Im afraid that with my newfound baking efforts I might have been slacking on this..but just last week I made a banana bread with applesauce in the recipe and it turned out pretty fine...this is a staple in my pantry from this day on !

 

How to make lemon glaze :The above banana bread, though great in consistency etc fell a bit short on sweetness...I thought I would coat it with the lemon glaze I had heard about fleetingly and checked a few recipes and found one which could be heated up in microwave. My impatient self heated it just for 30 seconds and poured it out ;) .. a failure..

Next time I shall try the traditional way of slow heating this ...and buy some confectionars sugar..does it means Im a confectionar now ;)

 

Any culinary tidbits to share ?

First cooking post !

My mom started teaching me to cook gradually since I was about 12-13 , since thats the thing a 'good girl' should know and I could very well cook a whole Indian meal soon...it was all traditional marwari food, with not much experimentation as we didnt even have onion and garlic in our homes..and many other restrictions..so I was what you could call a functional cook ..

My brother got married, bhabhi was around to help mom in the kitchen and I got busy with studies..I wanted to make sure food and kitchen wasnt going to be my life..we eat to live and not vice-versa..my 18 year old feminist self would say...

I finished my studies and arrived in the busy city Bombay to start a job and first time in my life I stayed in a hostel..gujarati kitchen..which wasnt so bad except for everything was a bit sweetish and I learnt to eat rice..cos its easy and could camouflage every bland taste with some help from yogurt...Also everything had potatoes in it presumably cos its cheap and filling..a common usage in communal and frugal eating Ive learnt..

So , busy with work, youth and all its possibilities food was still something to enjoy, fill and not thought about that much...
Even after moving to a shared apartment with some friends and a cousin nearby the culinary effort would extend to some comforting khichadi or lentil -rice with a nice potato gravy...those were good days...I didnt have much care in the world and Bombay is a great place to feed varied kind of food and at every budget...ohh...those satyam sandwiches with cheese oozing out and the strawberry thickshake !!

Neway, I got married and moved to Pune, bought a house and developed some consciousness towards outside food every day and since we both were working didnt have much time to cook but was lucky enough to hire a maid who could do it for us (I realize how lucky I was now)...she wasnt such a great cook but came early in the morning and made chapati and sabji for me and cut some salad too....we still had lot of options to eat outside at every corner ...and we had some good regular places we went to...designated for hungry-and-no-time-to-fuss and we-know-what-to-order right now Madhuban ..to the weekend brunch at Bombay Brasserie or Mayur thali..to midnight buffet at Le Meridien or Holiday Inn...aahh...those days !!

I realise that this has turned into a food history of my life and I still have to reach the point where I have a food blog and writing about what Im cooking these days...maybe next post...Au Revoir for now !