Month: July 2020

July 27, 2020

Warm bread and warm weather

They are a team that are not so popular — Warm bread and warm weather. But a lazy evening at home prompted me to dig into the freezer for the persimmon puree that I froze over winter vacation. Persimmon is a fruit that has a special place in my heart! I have never tasted it until I came to the US. Grammie Jackie’s yard had […]

July 23, 2020

Not as scary as Scoville says..

They looked like bell peppers, so should be as innocuous, I thought, when I first met these little golden bombs. With a Scoville score range of a 100,000 to 300,000, Habaneros abound not just with spice but also with flavor. The love for spice and the warm flavor of these gems prompted us to grow our own two summers ago. The bounty from the garden […]

July 20, 2020

Humility has a name…

And it is called ‘ridge gourd!’ Beerakaya, as is called in my native tongue, dons many a roles in our South Indian homes. Curry, as I have made today, when complimented with steaming hot rice and a dollop of ghee awakens those nostalgic thoughts that have seemed to be lost during the ordeal of growing up. Equally tantalizing are other transformations of this humble vegetable […]

July 13, 2020

Because body is the temple of God…

Rice and lentils in a ratio that is sacred to each household are soaked all night, even until the first signs of dawn appear. They are then ‘thrown,’ more often with resentment of waking up early to feed the family, into a contraption, which we lovingly called, the wet grinder- belonging to a race superior than the dry’er counterparts! The resulting batter is then fermented […]