foodie things

 My mate Dawn and I have always cooked up our latest finds for each other and shared them...we are lucky we share similar tastes and all our kids will eat most everything put in front of them...we just have to modify the spiciness for some of them and her husband L....
It is a bit different when you don't live around the corner from each other.
Each visit to her in Oz is busy with  Dawn serving me old favourites and me trying to make as many of my new finds as I can....
Well now I have sent Dawn a copy of my new most favourite cook book and we can swap back and forth comments.
The above is the Bengali style Fish cooked in Mustard Oil and Yoghurt- absolutely divine.
Mustard oil is a funny ingredient- I think it stinks when you open the bottle and it is so thick and greasy you can see why it was once used to grease mechanical things [would you believe the brand I buy here is "Engine Oil Brand"- seriously, they do sesame pil and others as well.....someone should explain something about branding to them...it worries me]
yet once you heat the oil until it is smoking, really smoking it changes colour and becomes all nice and thin, when it cools it smells nice and you cook with it like any other oil and get this amazing flavour base.

This is the book to look out for, everything I have tried is great, a way to start to appreciate the regionality of Indian cooking, and what a wealth of flavours and styles there is- sssssooooooo far removed from the non-descript Indian food serves in most restauarants. [if you can't get it over there I am happy to order you a copy 400rp RRP [like $8] and post it to you....you can paypal me the costs...this si a great book to share around.]

Being a bit of a foodie I do come across other food things from time to time that I like.
Vineet Bhatia has a show Twist of Taste on here....watch it if you can....he is a clever cook, first Indian cook to get a Michelin Star -I hope to eat at his restaurant in London one day....and another cookbook I plan on treating myself to one day...
he was in Bagalore on his show recently and hooked up with local foodie Nandita Iyer whose blog Saffron Trails is interesting...just recently she has shown this spiced potato dish- try it- yum!

and I don't know how I found this guy, Indrajeet Chandrachud and I wish he was still writing...but anyway enjoy his recollections of food in the Home country...the story of the trip to the flour mill [called a Chuckie around here is priceless]....freshness and quality of food is so important to Indian thinking.

Sometimes trying to make a point about quality to our Stitching Ladies it can be  rather difficult....quality not just what you can get away with is ssssoooo important. Since I have been drawing an analogy with the quality of flour you would accept from the chuckie women just simply go "Oh yes I get that" and all the manouvering and trying to pass off less quality goes. They know what is acceptable from the Chuckie ONLY good quality or they will go somewhere else....

a big yum to you all, good food is based on good ingredients, combined with care and the secret ingredient is always the love you stir into it...that is when it truely is life giving :)