Saturday, November 20, 2010

home again, home again, jiggerty jig

A big yippee! to be home again...now I can slow down a little as I am feeling really tired, but I do have a lot to do here as well so....guess I  will just have to fit in a few short naps each day when I can....would you believe I woke up at 4.30 am?  thanks to the full moon shining in the window and started work as power will go at 6.00am- Oh rural India, but at least we do have power.
 Look at what greeted me- Praveen had picked roses and put them in the house for me and our first eggplants from the garden, so pleased it is starting to produce.
Gardening is a passion we are finding we have in common, he also is enjoying growing things.
 Last night was our favourite meal of Appe, a south Indian treat- little balls of ground rice and dal batter filled with spices, peanuts, chilli and cooked in a non-stick pan so extra healthy....
we always have it with Tomato Patcherry- a yoghurt based salad and last night we had The Eggplant cooked in coconut milk and home grown silverbeet/spinach flavoured dal as well.
A real feast of home cooking.

You might enjoy the Tomato Patcherry
as an accompaniment to a meal like we have
or serve it with some type of crackers- it makes and excellent dip

Tomato Patcherry
  • little oil [coconut if you have it- great for aroma]
  • 1 t cumin seeds
  • 2 t black mustard seeds
  • 1,2 or 3 fresh green chilli- as you like
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 3/4 inch ginger
  • 1 onion fine dice
  • 2 ripe red tomato- fine dice
  • 1/2 c cocnut- grated [use fresh if you have one or dried from the supermarket]
1. pop seeds in oil for few minutes
2. pound garlic, ginger, chilli add to pan and stir to warm through and release the flavours
3. add onion and saute till a little soft
4. add tomato stir to warm through
5. add coconut, stir constantly until it starts to toast and smell very good
6. set aside to cool down
7. stir youghurt through- delicious, eat now



Lots of work for The Stitching Project today and a treat this afternoon of visiting Pushkar Camel Fair....stay tuned, it should be fun.
Praveen is trying to wind me up at the moment, telling me he bought us a camel last week and is waiting for delivery....hmmm, always wanted a camel but found I was quiet happy to look over the fence at the neighbours', as one at home would be trying to eat our garden!!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Fiona,I am happy to be home again also after a fantastic adventure with you in India!
Glad to see the elephant made it home in good order...Thanks again for all the fun we had,from lajla