More Cray-cray Fruit-tay-tay (or in this case, VEG-ay-tay)

Sundays typically are my BIG COOK day, where I do a big batch of 1-2 items, portion out half for fridge, half for freezer, then set up some things to marinate, or be otherwise prepped for quick preparations during the week.

This Sunday, after I did a batch of chicken based bone broth for my lunch bag, I also made about three quarts of a special sambar.

This batch of sambar is special because it involves drumstick and jackfruit seeds. The left item in the photo is of pearl onions and drumsticks thawing, middle is parboiled, peeled jackfruit seeds, and the third item is shelled fresh tamarinds awaiting a soak in boiling water. 

This sambar is also special because I am using up some of my mother-in-law's custom blended and ground sambar powder. She gave it to me a while ago, and I keep it in a huge zip lock bag inside an air tight container and keep it in my freezer. While it is not fresh ground, it's about as well kept as possible.  When I return to India in 2015, I look forward to not only procuring MORE of this, but also learning her super secret proportions of it.

And sadly, neither pics of the end product (sambar) nor a recipe shall be forthcoming. Some things I choose to keep to myself. But by all means, ogle the strange veggies! :)

Navatri = Nine Nights of Noms

A tasty holiday, celebrating Shakti Devi, or Goddess Power.

Each night, a special sundal snack is made as offering, and then enjoyed.

For our first night, I prepared peanut sundal, and rather than use boiled peanuts, 

I used roasted, as I prefer my peanuts to have a nice crunch and toasty flavor.

Sadly, there was no photo snapped of the ultra-special sundal
I made one of the nine nights, which was a combination of
green whole moong, jackfruit seeds and flavored 
with amchur. 

More Cray-cray Fruit-Tay-Tay

In the first picture: Still Life, Jackfruit and Banana Blossom (or banana heart, or vaizhpoo, if you want to use the Tamil word).

 Both are labor intensive to prep, and I wear purple nitrile rubber gloves when handling both. Banana blossom tends to stain horribly, and the jackfruit is super sticky/resinous. Hence the gloves.

(And no, contrary to what my friends think, I am not enterprising enough to color coordinate my clothing with my cutting board with my gloves. It's colorful serendipity!)

Both are fabulous south Indian treats. The jackfruit itself is eaten (each of those golden globs are individual fruit inside the wedge, and inside those globs are arils or seeds which are ALSO treats.)

The third photo is vaizhpoo paruppu usili, which is a labor intensive, labor of love. My husband adores this dish, and allegedly, banana blossom is very uterus-friendly. My flaw here was not removing the right part of the banana blossom (see also: those long strands, the hard stamens should be removed. Totally edible, but they add a bit of bitter to the dish, and also, I am unable to chew them sufficiently for me to swallow them, given my gastric bypass, I don't want to run the risk of a blockage).

The recipe itself, I cannot lay claim to; however, this is the recipe I used. And the only alteration I did was to cook the batter in the microwave.