Jonna kudumulu - Andhra Corn Tamales

Corn is a popular grain used in Indian villages. I think the use of corn is fast fading away from Indian Kitchens. Mokkajonna Kudumulu is one corn preparation famous in Telangana border regions and very nutritous breakfast. I googled for more details about Kudumulu - but could not find any. Have you heard about mokka jonna kudumulu ?

I have never heard of it until I knew Ravi. I personally have been able to appreciate andhra cooking as done at ravis' home as much as I devour my moms' cooking. Sans the spicyness ofcourse.

Before marriage, I thought there is not much difference between Tamil and Andhra household. But there is an amazing array of differences. Andhra - I find is heavily influenced by aryan culture and Tamilnadu deep into dravidian culture. I found this underlying difference in all the traditions, customs and habits of the Andhraites.

Culinary-speak - Tamilians start with sambar and end with buttermilk. Telugus start with powder/pickles/ chutney, dals and finish off with thick curds. Any veggie curries or sautes' are mixed with rice before starting on the liquid course. Ofcouser sambars, charu and rasam is still enjoyed - but I discovered its very impolite to pour sambar over rice for the first course. For Tamils it will be impolite if its not done that way !!! Tamilians love all that is diluted and easier to pass thro the oesophagus.

Another culinary tradition I was surprised is - Puliyohara or Tamarind/Lemon Rice. For Telugus, its like an important dish in parties or when you have guests at home. On the other hand people from TN find it very rude to serve tamarind/lemon rice because its said to be made with left-over rice.

So at my household, if ravi absolutely loves a dish, I do an andhra preparation. If I absolutely love a dish its done as per my moms way. Same goes for festivals too - I make it a point to celebrate Ugadi and Tamil New Year so neither of us feel missed out.

All this is based on my personal experiences and not generalization in any way. Coming back to mokkjonna kudumulu - Mokkajonna means corn and kudumulu refers to a steamed dish. Though the name may be really difficult to pronounce the actual dish is very very easy. Fresh corn is ground without any water and steamed in the corn husks. Corn idlis anyone ??

For RCI-Andhra, Ravi and I prepared this dish with frozen corn that we get here in US but it did not come out right. Its because of the water content in the frozen corn.

When I went to India Ravis' mom prepared this dish for us to show how it is to be done. The recipe is darn simple. Just grind the corn without any water to make a paste. Take a big blob of the paste onto a cleaned corn husk and make a patty out of it. Pile up the husks randomly. Alternatively it can also be done in a idli steamer.

Tastefront, its not soft like a tamale, but much more firmer and harder than idlis. It just tastes little bit bland with the natural sweetness of corn. Like the taste of ragi mudda. Just basic but very comforting. And the side dish determines the kind of taste for the dish. Eaten with sugar it tasted like dessert, with fish curry it would be savoury. For reasons beyond my brain, its eaten with Ridgegourd curry. I personally did not like the combination. I would rather have it with sugar. Or probably pickle or fish curry.

Dry indian yellow corn

ground corn

arranged in the corn husks

Steamed corn - Kudumulu



Thank you Sailu, for coming up with Taste of India. Really appreciated when FBD is going down.

Any Guesses ??

This is really an easy one to guess. But then we have enough of them in life !!


It is sundried bittergourd. Thanks for playing it with me.

Fried sundried bittergourd


Sundried bittergourd

Bay Area Bloggers Meet

Shankari and I were thinking about meeting together after our intermittant chats and a looonngg 2 hour phone chat..

Somewhere down the line Shankari came up with the idea of bunch of Indian food bloggers meeting in bay area and we were so excited about it. She coordinated with other bloggers around here and boooomm

WE ARE GONNA MEET !!!!!

Are you blogging about Indian Food, living in the bay area and want to say hi to those unknown faces behind those blogs, here is a chance !!!!

Ofcourse there are some rules to participate- Shoot an email to indian.cooking@gmail.com. More details here at shankari's blog. Thank you dear for coordinating this.

Looking forward to some fun !

Nellikai Pachadi - Gooseberry Thokku

Call it thokku, pachadi, chutney. I tried gooseberry pachadi today and pleased with the results. We have run out of home-made pickles that comes from India. I referred to Jeyashree's Recipe and Indira's recipe .
As you all know by now, I suck at write ups. So here is the result in pictures.


Three pounds of frozen gooseberries. For information about gooseberry refer wiki


roasted cup of red round chillies, tablespoon of fenugreek and 5 tablespoons mustard - Cool and grind this in a coffee grinder - (Spice mix powder)


Gooseberries steamed in idlicooker for 10 mins


Remove seeds and grind into a paste


Heat a cup of oil, Add slices of 10 garlic. Add the gooseberry paste and a teaspoon of turmeric

Add the spice powder, 4 tblsp salt and approximately 1 cup of sambar powder. Continued to saute for 30+ minutes. Then add quarter cup oil seasoned with two tablespoon mustard.

Cooled and bottled.

Disclaimer : The quantity are approximate. I kept adjusting the sambar powder and salt until I got the right taste.

Fish in Banana leaves

Ever since I saw this grilled Trout I wanted to have it with the side salad. However I dont have a grill. I had to rely on the conventional oven but then cooking fish does not take a lot of time. The fish I used was Canadian Mackerel - It was very fleshy. I had 2 fish - Used 2 different types of rubs to suit our individual tastes.

Thank you Sig for the recipe !

Stuffing

1 long green chilli - chopped
5 curry leaves,
3 slices of onion
2 slices of lemon

Rub the outside of the fish with a thick paste of red chilli, turmeric, salt and lemon and stuff with all under stuffing.

I rubbed another fish with pepper powder, cumin powder, salt and lemon and the same stuffing except the chillies

Wrapped them in banana leaves and enclosed in aluminium wraps just like Sig blogged. Left the fish packets for an hour to marinate before popping them inside the oven at 450 degrees for 15 minutes. Then opened the packet and broiled it for 4 minutes to crisp up the skin. I served with a simple garden salad with corn with a home made yoghurt dressing.



It was very filling - I think it would make a good lunch than a dinner because it felt a little heavy.

We finished the salad with a sorakai halwa ( Duddhi, Bottlegourd ). Grate 1 bottlegourd and saute with one teaspoon of ghee until most of the water is evaporated. Use a low heat. Add 2 and half tablespoon of sugar and keep sauteing until more of the water evaporates. Add another 2 teaspoon of ghee and keep sauteing until all the water evaporates. The whole halwa will roll like a ball without sticking to the pan. Sprinkle a couple of pinches of cardamom powder. Serve with crushed almonds.

The taste was very very good. But I might not do it often because for one bottlegourd it took almost 3 tablespoon of sugar. Ravi and I shared it.

Addicted to having a job !

This is supposed to be a food blog. But bear with me on this one.

For more than 6 months now I have been thinking of quitting my job. Why ? Just like that. I just want to take life easy and not follow a routine. I have been working for such a long time to keep myself in status in the US of A. I felt liberated when we got EAD. It was such a nice feeling after years of feeling bonded and slogging like a slave. It was the usual run of the mill life of a software engineer on H1B. 24 hour phone support, product deployment at wee hours or midnights, constant torture from consulting company. So when I got the news that I got EAD I screamed my lungs off !!

I was more than happy to quit my job and move to a new city and start fresh. I took a software job again but with a work life balance. After more than 2 years now I have the freedom not to have a job but I am just not able to let it go. My friends and parents are constantly telling me that my mind will be a devils' workshop if I am idle at home. My mom swears that I cannot be at home after that comfort feeling of having a job. Ravi is scared that I might eat his brains off if I am at home.

Dressing like a professional, being in the midst of go-getters, participating in meetings and see your ideas valued is a very nice feeling. Seeing your programs in action is exciting. Many days after a dull start at home, I had felt my day brighten up because of my job. Because of the change in atmosphere around me ! Personal tensions, worries ease out a bit during the day. Lets face it - To see money in the bank is a nice feeling. It also makes a lot of sense that a woman should be able to support herself and her family.

On the other hand, I feel so sad not find anything to eat when I come home tired after work. I keep asking myself - why do I have to slog so much and not have a fresh cooked meal at home !! The long commute is also not very enjoyable. Having done the same thing over and over again, I am not enjoying my work anymore. I would love to try volunteer work, attend yoga classes, go to photoshop class, finish off my tanjore painting and cook more !

But are these just lame excuses to loathe around at home doing nothing ? Are my dear ones right that I will start sulking and see the grass greener on the other side ? Or am I just addicted to having a routine job ?

Anyone identifying with me ??

Rain rain go away ! Come again another day!

We had a storm this weekend here in the bay area. But by any standards much much lighter version than those that we have in India. Rain back home is an experience - the battering noise against concrete, the coconut- and palm trees swaying in the fierce winds, hissing of the winds and water rolling and flowing - Its such a beauty.

This is the blissful part of rains in India


But having saying that, its a totally different story from the other side of the window. Its a nightmare getting back from school/college/office. You have my condolences if you traveling in the state-owned buses. Like a true martyr you would be trying to defend yourself from the water dripping in from all sides. With some luck the windows might close. The streets will be flooded with just 15 minutes of lashing rains because of the failed drainage system. The flooded roads just makes the unclosed manholes and other dangers invisible. Not to forget that all sorts of dung would be by now mixed into the flooded rains. For those of you who think I am exaggerating see this video.



So for us with such adventurous experiences this recent storm in the bay area was childs play !! Really.. Seeing the local news covering close ups of branches falling, power cuts and fallen waste bins minute by minute as if it was an emergency was like comedy to me.

I went to office without an umbrella and truly enjoyed the faint reminder of the indian rain here. We had friends over on saturday and had mirchi bajji and samosas with hot tea. Then we got a good movie and watched over dinner. I bought fish and a lot of goodies for cooking over the week. I prepared it per Sig's recipe - that is another post.

Here is what I bought to cook over the week from Coconut Hill goodies from kerala is their speciality.

Purchase for the week - Drumstick leaves, plantain, banana blosom, green tamarind, sprouted channa, uppu manga( Mango in brine ) and rosamatta rice. I forgot to include snakegourd, fish and malabar spinach. I think I bought way more than I can cook in a week. Lets see.


Kanji Uppumanga - Inspired by Shn - Mishmash's Kanji & Payar

Last but not the least after the mirchi bajjis and samosas I had to have something light for dinner. I made a light gruel with the broken rosamatta rice and relished it with uppu manga. (Mango slices in brine ) - Heavenly..