Food – Page 655 – Smriti "Simmi" D. Isaac

Posted on January 13, 2011January 19, 2013 by Simmi D. Isaac — Leave a comment

Would That My Tongue

This is a post that was first published almost exactly two years ago, on Tuesday, December 30, 2008. I reproduce it now in order to celebrate the gift of life of which food is the expression of love, among other things. And especially since this blog has been created to be the repository of all things food. May it be that you receive as much joy in viewing this post as I did in making each of these things, and reflecting upon them.

As we wrap up another year, it is time to reflect on the time that has passed. Time that has passed us by, and how we have passed it. Our energies and emotions invested in people, places and causes that we believe in; our wherewithal employed in the life of our bodies and minds. Would that it were possible to capture the outcomes of all those investments! Would that it were feasible for our tongues to utter the thoughts that arise from those reflections!

But since our tongues fail us, we are masters of our own creations– to think through the year (and our lives so far) that we are exiting, even as we move forward into another new year– to conjure up for ourselves the moments and events that we would like to bring to pass. May it be that each passing moment (or year) leaves us with a sense of well-being, nay, satisfaction at the least, and fulfillment at best. May it be with a sense of such optimism that we enter this new year of our Lord, Two Thousand and Nine.

The poem? Well, Tennyson is another man after my own heart. I see in this piece not just a wistful reflection of moments of pleasures from the past, but of a life-affirming yearning of more such pleasures to come– pleasures that the tongue cannot utter. How beautiful is that? Yet despite the limitations of the tongue, Tennyson is still so skilled at conveying that which we thought could not be uttered! Walt Whitman, the great American man of letters, says this of Tennyson:

Tennyson shows more than any poet I know (perhaps has been a warning to me) how much there is in finest verbalism. There is such a latent charm in mere words, cunning collocutions, and in the voice ringing them, which he has caught and brought out…

Break, Break, Break
Lord Alfred Tennyson

Break, break, break, On thy cold gray stones, O Sea!

And I would that my tongue could utter

The thoughts that arise in me.

O, well for the fisherman’s boy,

That he shouts with his sister at play!

O, well for the sailor lad,

That he sings in his boat on the bay!

And the stately ships go on

To their haven under the hill;

But O for the touch of a vanished hand,

And the sound of a voice that is still!

Break, break, break,

At the foot of thy crags, O Sea!

But the tender grace of a day that is dead

Will never come back to me.

And there’s another purpose to our tongues: the ability to experience the tangible. Which comes, many a time, in the form of glorious foods. Here are some home-made goodies that yours truly had the pleasure of creating and experiencing just this past week. Here they are, for your viewing pleasure!

Posted on January 12, 2011 by Simmi D. Isaac — Leave a comment

Street Food Photos — National Geographic

via travel.nationalgeographic.com

Gotta love street foods!

Posted on January 11, 2011 by Simmi D. Isaac — Leave a comment

Endless Simmer: Top 10 New Food Travel Destinations for 2011

via huffingtonpost.com

Very cool list of destinations to check out some very interesting food!

Posted on January 9, 2011 by Simmi D. Isaac — 1 Comment

Christmas 2010 Eats and Treats

I would be remiss to not have a blogpost devoted solely to all the sweet and savory snacks that my mother made during her brief visit with me over the holidays.

And so, the objective of this post is to highlight via pictures all the many goodies that were made– many of them typically made during the Christmas holidays in India: karjakais, kalkals, ladoos, chudva, murukus, fruitcakes, the list goes on. Back in the old country, you made them in large quantities so as to have them ready on hand to serve when guests came calling for a friendly holiday visit, or to serve to the carolers after they caroled outside your house, or to serve with tea and coffee during the holiday season. And then for a few weeks after Christmas and New Years’, you’d still have boxes and tins of these goodies neatly stored in your pantry that would tide you over at least the month of January.

Well, my mother came to visit for Christmas, and she did exactly this: she made all these yummy sweet and savory eats that we’re now nibbling on even two weeks later!

Here are some of the pictures in the slideshow below. If you’re familiar with these eats, you wouldn’t care to read the captions that go with each photo, but you’re not, you might find it interesting.

Posted on January 8, 2011 by Simmi D. Isaac — Leave a comment

Chicken Picatta Manchurian

So, if you’ve never heard the name of this dish, it is because it was invented today. For lunch. As the name suggests, it is a chicken dish. Picatta is Italian for thinly-sliced cutlet. Which also happens to be a popular Italian dish by the same name: Chicken Picatta.

Well, today, I decided I wasn’t content with the good old Italian recipe, and looked inside my kitchen pantry and saw an unopened jar of Ching’s Manchurian Stir-Fry sauce. This, I had picked up from our local Indian store, Bombay Grocers a while back. The recipe on the back of the bottle was one for Gobi Manchurian! This is the truth, people! Gobi Manchurian is a popular dish in India which is a spin-off of the Indochinese dish Chicken Manchurian, only you’ll find it made from gobi or cauliflower, not chicken.

So, manchurian sauce in hand, I thought why not make a type of chicken manchurian. Only I didn’t have the requisite cubed chicken pieces; instead, I had the cutlet-style pieces. So, I dredged them in cornflour, and you can see the rest in the slideshow below.

And voila, here was the Chicken Picatta Manchurian. A lovely union of Italian and Indochinese! If that’s not multi-ethnic, I don’t know what is!

Oh, and need I say that it was finger-lickin’ good? 🙂

Posted on January 8, 2011 by Simmi D. Isaac — Leave a comment

Dal With Veggies Isn't Always Sambar

Yes, that’s right, people! Sambar is associated with plenty of veggies, but I’m here to tell you that you can take any and all veggies you have or like and cook them with your favorite lentil, in my case it is the split yellow-pea, a.k.a, arhar dal, and make a fantabulous dal that can double as a hearty winter lentil soup.

Which is what I made for lunch today.

Again, you have a lovely slideshow to see for yourself what the ingredients are, and the order in which they were used and the technique of cooking. You’ll need no measures, although, you might want to get a pressure-cooker if you don’t have one. All the pictures are labeled for the details on what’s what and what’s happening!

Serve it as a stand-alone soup of the most gourmet kind, or the traditional way over white rice. Either way, enjoy! Slideshow follows:

Oh, and for all you foodies who must know the difference between a dal and a sambar: the latter has lots of veggies like the dal here, but it is also seasoned with tamarind, tomatoes and a number of other masalas.

Posted on January 7, 2011 by Simmi D. Isaac — 2 Comments

Hyderabadi Biryani: This Is How You Do It (Right)!

So, if you know one interesting fact about me, I hope it might have something to do with Hyderabadi Biryani, or in particular, the fact that I can make it. From scratch. The kind that willl leave you stunned at the fact that you didn’t know how impossibly amazing that dish could be. And leave you talking about it forever. 🙂

Well, that’s the kind I make. For all special occasions like birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, etc. I obvioulsy made it this past Christmas.

So, this is a step-by-step slideshow of the very many steps of this many-layered dish. You’ll have to get your own recipe, or guesstimate the measures from the pictures here, but the sequence is critical to success. This is a huge degchi (pot) that holds about 20 lbs. The pictures are all captioned so you can see what’s what.

The best part, however, is serving it up with love for the ones you love! Oh, and the papads/appalams, pudina chutney and the boondi raita are the consummate accompaniments to the dish.

Bon Appetit! Or, like we say around here: Yeh Hui Na Baat!