I bought a pack of dried black limes a few months back; after one use, the rest of the pack sat dormant in the pantry. Recently I wondered if the limes were still fit for consumption – and learned to my pleasant surprise that dried limes store extremely well and should be usable for over a year.
So I experimented with making a dried black lime beverage.
We are truly blessed in India to have access to a wide variety of mangoes* – from the tangy Totapuri to the syrupy-sweet Chausa, from the small Sindhura to the massive Banganapalli – each abundant in our neighborhood stores.
Regional variations exist of course: try as we might, we cannot get Bihar’s Malda mangoes in Bangalore (no, please don’t tell me they are on Blinkit; you need to eat the real deal) – but these variations only add to the richness of India’s mangoscape.
This light and nourishing ginger lime moong dal has a healing touch. Excellent for days when you want to soothe a sore throat.
Kachumber – a classic Indian cucumber onion tomato salad that’s light, fresh and oil-free. This healthy side dish made with raw, fresh vegetables gives a pleasant counterpoint to rich Indian curries such as baingan masala, gobi musallam, dahi arbi. And of course, kachumber salad is most famously paired with dhansak.
Each kitchen stint with the chayote teaches me something new. When I began cooking with this gourd, peeling it was hard – till I learnt the techniques of making triangular notches around its folds and boiling it before peeling. Soon I discovered a different variety of the chayote: the “Ooty chow chow”, which has a smooth exterior that demands no fiddling with folds at all.
So I switched loyalties to the Ooty chow chow, as my observant regulars would have noticed in the post on chayote dal.
While cutting raw veggies and fruits, I sometimes pop a few chopped pieces into my mouth. A reflex action if you will, this usually leads me to grimace and move on – but when I did this with the Ooty chow chow I stopped in my tracks. This vegetable didn’t just look like a pear, it tasted startlingly like one. Do I even need to cook this, I wondered.
Quick, easy, lightweight chickpea sundal. Just right for those times when our default chickpea preparation – channa masala – feels too elaborate and time-consuming, or when we need a break from the onion-garlic-ginger-tomato masala ensemble. The ingredient list in this recipe is “vrat-friendly” – that is, suited for festive occasions when onion and garlic are avoided.
Chickpea sundal tastes great warm or cold. It can be had as a standalone salad or as a side dish with a bigger meal.
Tender broad beans / fava beans (sem in Hindi) are cooked with an unusually colored, delicious black sesame sauce in this recipe. The dark, nutty flavor of the sauce brings out the earthiness of the broad beans.