Kumaon - Garjiya Temple - Apr 2023

April 8, 2023

Garjiya Devi Temple is an old devi temple close to Ramnagar in Uttarakhand. Another close destination is Jim Corbett National Park. The temple is by the side of Kosi River and is built on an isolated hill. It is around 60 km from our home now. This temple has a special place in my heart as it was a frequent destination for us while growing up. Our maternal uncle lived 15km from the temple so all the more reason to visit at that time. 

We went on a Saturday and it was quite crowded that day which also says how much popular t his place is. It took around 2 hours to get to the temple as the queue was quite long. The scenery around is beautiful so it can be enjoyed. Temple also has bhandara though the food was extremely spicy for my palate. 

On the way, one could see the G20 summit preparations with walls along side the road painted with murals featuring the local culture - Chholiya dance the pichoda clad kumaoni woman. 

Homemade Ghee

They say stories can create positive emotions! May be that's the reason people tell bed time stories to kids? So I will add my Ghee stories in this post. I guess the Ghee recipe is probably well known so nobody will care about that.

I have been making Ghee at home for quite some time now and eat it regularly. Something common with my parents who would boast about eating so much Ghee in their times. I have some good childhood memories associated with Ghee.

My mom use to make extra rotis during lunch when we were in school so we could eat those to get past the 3pm slump. We will eat those rotis as the lunch energy disappeared and my favorite was to eat them with 'ghee-cheeni'. It was a thing! Put good amount of Ghee on the roti and then spread sugar all around on the roti and them roll it up so that the sugar won't fall. I realize that I had a great affinity to sugar back then where I would put spoonful of sugar in the mouth when bored - the activity was called 'cheeni-phankna' :-). I remember how I never ate yogurt without sugar but then taste changes and now my taste is much more healthier.

So why make Ghee at home? If you are just bored doing nothing, it can keep you engaged for an hour or so - probably not the best motivation though. Here are some others:

Saves money - $4.69 for 1LB(450gm) butter which produced approx 375ml of Ghee. The same amount of readymade organic Ghee would cost more than $15 I guess. Talking about saving, its in my blood I guess to optimize and get the max value out of the money I spend. My parents never wasted anything to an extent that I have a few funny stories that I still tease them on how could they save so much. I didn't see any impulsive purchases happening around (except few ;) ) so it has really come to me mixed in the genes.

You know what you are eating - I mean you really know what happened to that butter and how it turned into Ghee.

Tastes great - I have a couple of old Indian store Ghee bottles lying around with some Ghee in it. I think I stopped liking it after a while. Homemade Ghee reminds me of old days when we use to sometimes get fresh cow milk (freshly milked from the cow in front of you!) and it tasted so good that I understood why I didn't like the normal buffalo milk taste. Freshness and purity made all the difference. Those raw experiences really help me appreciate a number of things in life more.

You get more! - The left over brown colored milk solids can be eaten with sugar like a cool dessert. We use to eat them as kids but not I just throw it away. Remember to throw it in the trash and not in the sink drain as it can clog it.

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For those who really wanted to read the recipe here is mine (nothing fancy).
Ingredients:
Unsalted Organic Butter - 1LB

Preparation:
1. Empty the butter sticks into a pan and put it on medium low heat.
2. Let the butter melt. Soon the milk solids will start separating from the fat which is ghee.
3. Keep heating on low heat, stirring it in between and let the milk solids become brown and settle at the bottom of the pan.
4. Once you see the clear ghee, turn off the heat.
5. Let the Ghee cool down.
6. Keep a bottle handy and use a paper towel or a thin cotton cloth as a funnel to filter the ghee.
7. Store the Ghee at room temperature.

Gobhi Parathe

Long weekend (Thanks to Martin Luther King) had been going great, with a lot of sleeping. I am not sure when I am going to get out of the jet lag mode. The cold weather acts like a catalyst to the sleep! Yesterday was the day when I cooked all meals. Wanted to avoid eating leftovers from lunch in dinner and thus the paratha plan. I have never made gobhi parathe myself so a trial was the plan. They turned out to be great (my expectations from myself were pretty low today).

Here is my recipe which is mostly similar to the several others available online:

Ingredients:

1. Wheat flour
2. Oil
3. Water
4. Cauliflower 
5. Salt
6. Garam Masala
7. Green chili
8. Coriander leaves (I forgot to add these but you shouldn't)
9. Ginger
10. Amchur (mango) powder

Preparation:

1. Mix 1/2-1 teaspoon of oil (I use olive oil for almost everything in cooking) in the flour and some salt (as per taste) and make the dough (I usually use hot water) and set it aside.
2. Wash cauliflower and heat the flowers in microwave for 2-3 minutes to make them soft.
3. Grate the cauliflower and add finely chopped green chili and chopped/grated ginger.
4. Add salt, garam masala and mango powder. Add finely chopped coriander leaves as well.
5. Take 2 small balls of dough. Roll them each to about 3-4" diameter. 
6. Add the stuffing on top of one and place the other on top of this. 
7. Make sure to seal all around it. Roll and make it bigger based on your thickness preference.
8. Roast the paratha with oil on a pan. Ready to serve with anything you prefer. I like curd with paratha. You could also add some butter on top of the paratha but I am not a big fan of adding more calories on top of calorie heavy food on a lazy weekend.

Pahadi Raita

Pahad means 'hill' in Hindi and this raita recipe comes from the hills of Indian state Uttarakhand - my native. This is made in almost every festival in our homes and people love it in variety of tastes. Every time I taste Wasabi I get reminded of this raita. Even though I don't like cucumber, I like this raita. You would be surprised to know that there are specific small restaurants run by locals when you travel to Kumaon hills which are specifically famous for delicious raita and Aloo-ke-gutke.

Yesterday was a lazy day for me. I ended up making Kichdi for lunch and then remembered the saying: 'Kichdi ke chaar yaar, dahi, mooli, ghee, achaar' (4 sides are good to enjoy kichdi - yogurt, raddish, ghee, pickle). Luckily I had a cucumber so I made the raita in no time. Absolutely enjoyed the lunch.

I need to learn food photography!

Ingredients:

1. Cucumber
2. Yogurt
3. Mustard seeds
4. Salt
5. Green chili
6. Turmeric
7. Coriander leaves
8. Water

Preparation:

1. Soak mustard seeds ( yellow or black both will do). with little water and grind it to make fine paste. Keep it aside.
2. Peel cucumber and remove the seeds from inside.
3. Beat yogurt in a bowl and keep it aside.
4. Grate cucumber, squeeze all water from grated cucumber and add it (cucumber) to the yogurt. 
5. Add turmeric, finely chopped green chili, red chili powder and salt to this.
6. Add the mustard paste to it. Start by adding in small quantity as it takes about 30-60 min for the mustard flavor to rise.
7. Add chopped coriander on top.

Matar Paneer

Back after long time. No, no, I didn't stop cooking. I just could not post everything. Made stuffed eggplant (bharva baigan) and egg kadhi (yes kadhi!) recently. I also bought a nutribullet recently and trying different smoothies these days. Thanks to the friend who encouraged to not buy a juicer and instead get nutribullet.

So the lazy sunday started with a big glass of smoothie and then I was so full that I avoided eating anything else. 11am ginger tea is a must have on weekends for this tea addict but the worse effect of tea on me is that it makes me full for another hour or two. So I go in the kitchen at 12pm and find this paneer in the fridge. I had to finish this paneer if I really wanted to avoid letting it go in the trash can next week (ya the next full fledged cooking will be only next weekend). Somehow the paneer reminded me of the so called 'vegetable and paneer biryani' in office cafe. The irony is that most of the time there is no paneer in it and only potatoes in the name of vegetable. the other day I was thinking that they should just cook biryani and keep paneer cubes separately and just put one in everyone's plate. So here is the recipe for matar paneer. Nothing fancy or special.

Ingredients:
1. Paneer
2. Tomatoes - 2 (I had put 1.5 medium size tomatoes).
3. Onion (I used very less)
4. Ginger
5. Green chilli. 
6. Oil
7. Coriander powder
8. Turmeric powder
9. Garam masala
10. Salt, Jeera, fresh coriander leaves.

Preparation:
1. Cut onion and tomatoes. 
2. Toss onion, 1/2 inch cube of ginger and green chilli into oil and fry it till the onions are brown. Add tomatoes and let them turn soft.
3. Put the above in a blender and blend it into smooth paste.
4. Heat 1tsp oil and add jeera (and heeng) to it. 
5. Add the onion-tomato paste to it. 
6. and add water as needed.
7. Now add turmeric powder, coriander powder and garam masala (as per your taste).
8. Add green peas and paneer cubes to it. 
9. Add salt.
10. Let it simmer for 5 minutes. Garnish with coriander leaves.

Thai curry

I have changed my routine where I only cook on weekends now. A weekend trip to the produce market is sometimes a feeling like it might be for a kid to go to a toy store. I decided that every weekend I will try to get some ingredient which I have never used before. This time I got habanero peppers. Along with that I picked up mushrooms, bell peppers and string beans. So I decide to make Thai curry with coconut milk. I head to the indian store and picked a can of coconut milk. Here is my recipe:

Thai curry

Ingredients:

1. Coconut milk - 1 can
2. Red and green bell pepper - 1 each
3. String beans - 6-7 beans
4. White mushrooms - 5-6
5. Tomatoes
6. Green onion - 1/2 bunch
7. Firm tofu - 2 inch cube
8. Spices - turmeric, coriander powder
9. Green chillies - 1-2
10. Mint leaves - 7-8
11. Coriander leaves
12. Lemon juice - 3 tsp. spoons
13. Olive oil - 1 tbsp. spoons
14. Cumin and mustard seeds
15. Ginger and garlic

Preparation:

1. Cut vegetables into pieces. Cut the bell peppers along their length.
2. Make puree out of mint and coriander leaves
3. Heat oil in a pan
4. Put cumin and mustard seeds
5. Now put long cut green chilli, small cut ginger and garlic. I also added few small cut pieces of habanero pepper. (Caution: use only small amount of habanero pepper. Its super hot)
6. Let the ginger garlic be light brown
7. Now add the small cut green onion and fry them for a minute
8. Add cut tomatoes
9. Add all the cut vegetables and mix well
10. Add turmeric and coriander powder
11. Add salt
12. Now add the mint and coriander puree
13. Add the lemon juice and mix everything well
14. Add 1/4 to 1/2 can of coconut milk
15. Add cubes of cut tofu and let it simmer for 5-10 minutes

Serve hot with rice. I got some rum cake as well and it went well as a desert after the thai lunch.

Dahi-Vade

Dahi-Vade

Holi is over this year but it cannot be complete without having dahi-vade. Since childhood I am so used to having dahi-vade on holi.  This was my first time making them myself.


Ingredients:
1. Urad daal - 1 small bowl
2. Tamarind - 1/4 small bowl
3. Oil
4. Salt
5. Red chilli powder
6. Roasted cumin seeds powder

Preparation:
1. Soak urad daal overnight  (I added a small amount of moong daal as well)
2. Soak tamarind in water in a bowl for an hour
3. Mash tamarind, keep the pulp and discard the rest.
4. Boil the tamarind mix and then add sugar (or jaggery), some salt and a bit of red chilli powder to it.
5. Boil till it thickens. Keep the tamarind chutney aside.
6. Grind the urad daal into a fine paste beat it a little.
7. Make vade with hand (add a piece of green chilli or a raisin) in between and deep fry them till light golden brown.
8. Heat water in a pan and add 1 tsp salt to it.
9. Add the cooled down vade to the hot water and keep for 10 min.
10. Remove the vade from the water and squeeze out extra water by putting them in between palms.
11. Beat curd in a bowl and add some water to it to make it little thin.
12. Add curd to the vade and add tamarind chutney on top.
13. Sprinkle salt, cumin powder and red chilli powder on top and serve.

Guacamole (Avocado Sauce)

Guacamole

During lunch I remembered that I have 2 avocados sitting happily in my fridge. I got them to make guacamole last week and forgot. So I decided to do the honor before dinner and below is the recipe. Remember to make it in small quantity as it turns brown (due to oxidation) quickly and you don't want to eat discolored guacamole.

Ingredients:
1. 2 ripe avocado
2. Small red Onion
3. Tomato
4. Lemon Juice
5. Black pepper
6. Salt

Preparation:
1. Cut Avocado in half and then remove the seed. Use a spoon to take out the inside stuff in a bowl.
2. Mash the avocado in the bowl.
3. Add a pinch of black pepper in it.
4. Add finely chopped 1/2 onion in it.
5. Add 2 teaspoons of lemon juice in it.
6. Add 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of salt in it.
7. Mix the ingredients in the bowl.
8. Finally add a small chopped tomato to it before serving.
9. Serve it with corn chips or you can also have it with roti or bread.

Avocado

Palak ka Kaapa (Spinach Saag)

Palak ka Kaapa

Friday evenings are usually lazy for me. So today also I wanted to cook something quick and healthy so decided to cook something with spinach. The first thing which came to my mind was Kaapa which I wanted to make since some time but could not. A little background about this dish for those have no clue what this is. 'Kaapa' is a specific dish of Kumaon (part of Uttarakhand where I come from in India). There are many more savory dishes from Kumaon and I will focus on them from time to time when I try them. Palak ka Kaapa is made of spinach, curd and flour. It goes well with rice or roti. So heres the recipe:

Ingredients:
1. Spinach (250gms)
2. Curd ( 1/2 small bowl) (Beat it a little to make it smooth)
3. Rice paste (1/2 small bowl)
4. Cumin seeds (Jeera)
5. Asafoetida (Heeng)
6. Turmeric
7. Red chili powder (I use paprika powder instead of red chili powder in my cooking)
8. Oil
9. Salt
10. Water
11. Some hot spices (according to your own taste)

Preparation:
1. Wash and chop spinach. Boil it and keep it aside
2. Soak rice in water for 2 hours and then make paste out of it. (Of course I was lazy so I just heated the rice in water for some time and made a paste out of that)
3. In a pan, heat the oil.
4. Put heeng, jeera to it.
5. Now put turmeric and red chili powder and let the spices to get roasted.
6. Now add the boiled spinach to it. Save the water for later use from the boiled spinach.
7. Cook this for few minutes.
8. Add curd to it and keep mixing. Now add the rice paste and water from the boiled spinach to it.
9. Cook it for some time and keep mixing otherwise the rice paste can form lumps.
10. Add Salt and some garam masala (Hot spices) to make it.
11. Serve it with rice or roti.

Dont forget to eat some oranges ( and get vitamin C) to absorb all the iron you just got from Kaapa :)