Lemon Couscous Spring Chicken In a Pot- and of goodbyes and new beginnings!

Spring has very loudly announced her presence for a while now, around here. Little shoots poke out from the ground and buds burst open into a riot of colours. Tree branches that had nothing more than barren twigs, are covered with pink petaled flowers almost overnight.

I made a trip to our beautiful farmer's market here in Marin along with friends Patty and Gina recently, and we were greeted by piles and piles of bountiful produce, that has come to life after the cold death of winter.  Bright orange carrots and pretty radishes freshly dug from the brown earth. All around me, visible signs of change, new beginnings, rebirth.

Today is Good Friday, the solemn day we remember the death of Jesus. But it is followed, like Spring follows Winter, with the greatest celebration in the Christian calendar- Easter, this Sunday. As we prepare to celebrate Christ's resurrection after His death,  we are reminded of our own resurrection after our life here on Earth is done. Reminded that our troubles, achievements and everything here in this life is only temporary- a passing mist, compared to our everlasting life to come.

The Jewish festival of Passover falls at the same time, and symbolically the two events are linked- Christians believe that Jesus Christ was sacrificed as the pascal lamb that was traditionally slaughtered for Passover. That Jesus, the son of God was crucified, accepting unbearable suffering so that each and every one on the earth, would be forgiven for our sins, and saved. He paid the price for our souls, taking on the punishment each of us deserve for our sins.

Of course, this does not mean that sin does not have consequences  What it means is that while we are here on Earth, we have the opportunity to confess our sins and avail of God's grace to "fix" ourselves and our lives, and resolve to sin no more. To put our past behind us, and start afresh.

As we celebrate new beginnings, there are going to be some major changes and new beginnings in my own life too. We have been considering this decision for a while, and it had become something we thought of as being inevitable, eventually, but somewhere at the back of our minds. Recently however, God aligned things to make this decision for us: We are moving to India! Soon, much sooner than we had initially planned.

I am very excited but honestly, equally anxious. There is SO much to do and I wish we had more time to do it. I dread my long to-do list, I dread the packing, the planning, the starting from scratch. I just want to hide and pretend that it will all take care of itself! There is furniture that will hopefully get sold, the letting go of so many things that I had accumulated and grown attached to. I hope this hard exercise is going to teach me to finally do something I strive to- to live simpler, to own less, to be less attached to mere things. Less to store and maintain, less to clutter and clean up after, less to carry around. Let's hope this resolution holds!

But in all this confusion, I feel God's hand guide us, helping me strike one more thing off my list, and then another. When I am anxious, I remember to surrender.

I am one of those people who hate change so it took me a while to get used to the very idea of the big move. I thought about everything I would miss. I will deeply miss our beloved farmer's market, the wonderful library, the long walks with my little man to the duck pond close by, the hills outside my window. I will crazily miss being only a short ride away from the cuisines of Argentina to Ethiopia and Vietnam and our regular barbecue picnics by China Camp State Park. Seeing my beloved Golden Gate shrouded by fog. I will dearly miss the friends we made here, and I know my little man will miss his friends here too.

Another half of me though, is growing more and more excited by the day. Excited about meeting up with family and our dear old friends whom we haven't seen in too long a while. One of my favorite cousin's wedding is on the day after we land and I couldn't be more thrilled that it is one wedding we won't have to miss! Looking forward to being steeped in tradition, colour, and chaos! I look forward to experience the wonderful food of my home with fresh eyes and to learn more about Indian cooking while I also try to recreate the food I enjoyed here. I look forward to wandering around the busy, colorful and crowded markets there and drinking cutting chai by the road side. To enjoy sweet golden mangoes and mangosteens from my grandmother's garden.

Lots to look forward to, hopefully even more beautiful than the wonderful years we will be leaving behind.

This means that things might get a little quiet around here, as I force my self away from the laptop and wrap up some stuff, but I will be back soon with new stories! And I won't be able to stay away from  facebook or instagram or twitter and will probably be bombarding you with minutia leading up to the big fat move!

To all our friends here: I hate saying goodbye, so I won't. See you in South India my loves, let me be your tour guide!

To all the old friends we are meeting and the new friends I hope to make: I. Cannot. Wait.

In celebration of Spring, while its still not very warm in most parts of the country, here is a one pot chicken dish adapted from Dorie Greenspan's Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours, which is very simple to make so is perfect if you are looking for an easy to throw together, yet dramatic Easter dish.

It makes the best of Spring veggies and you can drop in what ever you have on hand. Carrots, cabbage, caramelized shallots and garlic, everything is just sublime cooked along with the chicken. I had to experiment and add my own touch so added some lemons which add a wonderful tangy brightness and served with some couscous that readily soaked up the glorious chicken "gloop" as Dorie calls it.

This dish is a truly wonderful thing, way awesomer than the sum of its parts. Flavorful and bright from the lemon, it is a great way to finally welcome Spring! 

I pretty much followed Dorie's instructions that you can read on her blog here

Basically you take the biggest pot you have and heat some oil and sautee garlic,  and some shallots or onions and whatever vegetables you like- I just used some carrots
Then heat oil in a skillet and brown a whole chicken that has been patted down ( Remove the giblets and if you like, the skin as well- I did) and seasoned liberally with salt and pepper. No need to cut up the chicken, or you can use some chicken thighs instead of a whole chicken.
Place the chicken breast side down ( this I think is very important to avoid drying out the breast)  on to the veggies
Place wedges of cabbage and lemon as much as you can fit into your pot around the chicken.
Stir together a half a cup of wine, half a cup of olive oil and a cup of chicken broth ( or water mixed with bullion) and whatever herbs you like- I just used some dried oregano and thyme because I didn't have any fresh herbs,  and pour this over the chicken.
Then I just covered my pot with a tight lid, but Dories makes a flour-paste to seal the lid, or suggests using foil to cover the pot tightly.
Bake for 70 mins in an oven that has been preheated to 450 F

As Dorie promises, the chicken bakes up to be fall apart tender and gosh so amazingly flavorful  The juices or "gloop" is definitely the best thing about this dish, and the couscous and cabbage that magically soaks up all this flavour gets finished off first! Seriously don't skip the cabbage even if you are a cabbage hater. It transforms into something truly amazing. And I definitely recommend adding the lemon-made the chicken taste tangy fresh and just perfect for Spring!

Reminder: There are only two more days left to enter the giveaway for a very useful straining saucepan by Gitadini  so don't forget to stop by and leave your entry if you haven't already! 

Tweet

Kerala Beans Stirfry/ Payar Mezhukkupuratti

When ever our large clan gets together in Kerala, all the women folk converge at the kitchen table and you will hear them laughing and talking as their fingers fly splitting open long pods of beans into neat little piles of shiny plump little beans. We kids used to run around the group of aunties who didn't seem to mind or even notice us as they peeled and chopped onions, pounded spices, sizzled mustard seeds, stirred curries and efficiently cooked enough food to feed an army or one hungry brood!

This time when I visited Kerala, I very eagerly joined my aunts in the kitchen. They were very patient with how slow I was compared to them and they overlooked the fact my pile comprised of more pod bits. I still don't have the patience to carefully pry open even the stubborn tender parts of the bean pod which house the tiniest of beans so I break off that part of the pod with the skin though my aunts can coax a bean out of even the narrowest parts of the pods.





This simple garlicy and spicy stir fry of beans is made very often and it's one of my favourites. I could eat a bowlful and it is very easy to make, if you can get past the pesky shelling or do what I do and simply break up the pods into little sticks if you don't mind the skin like me.


I was very happy to see these long beans at the farmer's market here. I think they are called Red Chinese long beans here and are available all year round. As soon as I saw the bunch I immediately wanted to make them into this beans stir fry which is all I can imagine making with them! You can use any variety, even french beans which you wouldn't be able to shell but simply break up. 


This type of preparation using just oil and spice sometimes onion and garlic is called "Mezhukkupuratti" in most parts of Kerala, meaning smeared with oil. It is often used to cook a variety of vegetables and is one of the most basic and popular ways to cook vegetables in South India. Thoran is a similar vegetable preparation but with the addition of shredded coconut and often tempered mustard seeds as well.


I know I post a lot of cake on this blog. I enjoy baking and I do love cake. But what we eat most of the time are simple vegetable or lentil dishes like this that get cooked in a hurry, usually about an hour before  dinner time and it's too late and too dark to take pictures. This year I hope to share more of these delicious and healthy dishes which very unfairly didn't get the attention that they deserve. Hopefully this will motivate me to also start cooking earlier, not scramble around in the evening trying to throw a meal together. Thankfully quick, healthy meals like this can also be super delicious!

Tweet

Sambhar and Cilantro Coconut Chutney

"Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high

Where knowledge is free, Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls.....Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake" Rabindranath Tagore 

 I am grateful to be free today and not shackled by terror and fear, pain, disease, anxiety, guilt, and hunger. While celebrating freedom, and everything Indian that I love and hold dear today, being India's 64th Independence day I decided to post a very simple recipe for Sambar and Coconut Cilantro Cutney as an accompaniment for morning idlis. Sambar a typical Tamilian dish, is a simple lentil stew with vegetables and spices is one of the most well known and common everyday dishes, not just in the south but thanks to the popularity of masala dosa and idlis, everywhere in the country.  Truly, sambar, idli and dosa makes the nation come together!

When I was studying I lived in our college hostel in Tamil Nadu and  what started off as dhal or parripu in the afternoon, would sometimes turn into rasam at night or sambhar in the morning! Perhaps not the best place to develop a love affair with Sambhar, but I blame that daily morning dose or (rather dosa! ) for my lifelong obsession with Sambhar and with lentils. One time during the rainy season while we were all gathered in the mess hall for breakfast, the usual morning chatter of over a hundred hostelites was broken by a loud shriek. What happened was this: one of the girls was eating her dosa and sambar and took a dab at a curry leaf and to her shock, it moved! turned out the "curry leaf" was actually a small slug that had fallen into the sambhar!  Not the nicest story to associate with sambhar, but everytime I eat sambar, I remember that rainy morning, and the many meals made better because it was shared with large groups of chattering girls. How I miss them all! 


Here is a more delightful little story entitled I love him and he does not like sambhar  over at mylittlemagazine that I chanced upon today which I really identified with, being a Madrasi ( actually Malayali from Kerala) in Mumbai for two months, I was asked hilarious questions like " Is Bangalore in Madras?" No, they are two cities in two different states, I would patiently reply to much nodding for anything south of Mumbai is termed South India and loosely Madras! I sought to explain how each state has its own distinct identity, language, culture and food. And seriously, it never ceases to amaze me. 

Tweet