Cooking for Avantika

It's April and again it's the time of the year when your Appetite plays a game of hide and seek with you. It comes at the oddest of hours and leaves you alone just when you have finished preparing dinner. Its a new moon day and that's about it. The calendars of the world don't seem to want to coordinate to build stories. So I have no stories today. When I feel reflective enough, I wonder why eating regular meals is even necessary. It's the time of the year when sunlight and water seem to be the only thing the body needs. Atleast the Avocado seed submerged in water seems to understand that and has thus sprouted some beautiful leaves shaded somewhere between brown and green. As more sunlight touches it, it will get greener. I am guessing my appetite too will return when it's green. Till then, the smells of all naturally edible foods refuse to enter my nose. Except the artificial essences of commercial cakes which I refuse to touch. No offense towards it, I just do...

 I just realized today as I woke up around 5 in the morning that it's Ekadashi today. And I recently checked out that it's Dev Uthhani Ekadashi. I'm not fasting but still reading. And what you read, is what you become for thoughts are food for the mind.  It's the time of the year when Lord Vishnu is said to wake up, along with all the other Devas, after the four month long sleep. It is also the time of Tulasi Vivah. When Vishnu is married to Tulasi Devi. Ideally Tulasi was born or celebrates her birthday on Kartik Purnima, a few days from now.  Watching the calendar I realized we are also moving closer to the time of the winter solistice and moving further away from the autumn equinox. A time for Persephone to begin her journey returning back to Demeter after spending 4 months with Hades in the underworld?  Having spent a a few days in Mumbai during what seemed like the peak of monsoons and returning to the desert, my body seems to be moving from winter to spring as ...

 What we need  1/2 Cup Basmati Rice, washed 1 Tbsp Coconut oil  1 tsp jeera 1 tsp fennel 1 tsp Ama spice mix 1/2 a tsp homemade Biryani masala (optional)  2 pods of garlic 1 medium onion sliced thinly 1/2 a small capsicum sliced in fine strips A handful of French beans finely cut in tiny discs Less than 1/4 cup shelled fresh green peas or frozen. Paneer cubes.  Salt What we do: Heat coconut oil in a kadai. When it melts, tilt the Kadi to coat it all over. As it settles to the bottom, add jeera. As jeera sizzles and foams, add garlic slices followed by fennel seeds. Mix it then add onions. Let them sweat. Then add French beans and Ama spice mix. Mix it well and when the mixture seems drier and reduced in volume, add capsicum and cook it for some time. Add a pinch of salt followed by biryani masala if using and the washed rice. After mixing it well for some time, add 1 and 1/4 cup of water, salt, green peas. Let it boil on open for some time. Last add paneer piece...

 I know a few people who think French beans are tasty. But then, if your mom or your mom in law or whoever the lady of the household is, insists on cooking it with onions and tomatoes or potatoes or other vegetables like carrots and lots of spices, you can hardly blame people for having negative feelings towards some of the most beautiful green vegetables. Like green beans. I guess Spring must be here for I am psychologically starting my love affair with green vegetables.  This morning, as Avantika enjoyed one of her favorite breakfast items, I boiled a Potato and wondered about the color change in the water. Avantika's favorite breakfast item is a store brought crossaint that is technically not a crossaint but a piece of yeasted bread shaped like a crossaint and though it has the flavor of some fat that imitates butter, it lacks the richness of butter - it is fine, it's convenient and probably tasty too, probably just perfect for the lifestyle and environment she lives in. Bu...

Yesterday was Nirjal Ekadashi. The story of this Ekadashi specifically mentions that the one who is unable to fast on any other Ekadashi that appears throughout the year, should fast on this one. And it's been quite a while since I fasted on Ekadashi. Not because I feel I don't need to, I just find myself physically and mentally unable to observe a complete fast (that is fasting from and focussing on all four aspects that affect the mind - ahar, vihar, achar, vichar). My intelligence and the demands of my karma do not permit me to starve myself and weaken my body, which anyways defeats the purpose of fasting). History has no account of any one who attained God simply by starving or weakening their body. The purpose of observing a fast is to atleast make an effort towards choosing your food, lifestyle, behaviour and thoughts such that a God would. Like Gandhiji said 'be the change you wish to see in the world'. I don't understand any other way of attaining God. ...

I have obviously not been cooking a lot these days. Nothing that I want to talk about. Cooking has gone back to becoming a ritual and I wonder how I can make it interesting again. I do it without much thought nowadays. For my mind has been engaged in so many other things. I try to read the Bhagwad Geeta every now and then when I find time. And I'm happy to say it still makes sense. I do and read other things too and my mind is all over the place. Sometimes its hard to focus it when you are attending to a toddler 24/7 so a good night's sleep is all that really helps me focus my mind. My body has been seeking a break from being with me since a while now. And here I am sitting in the early hours of the morning trying to feed my mind so it would spare my body when the day begins. Before the new moon set in.. I was thinking of Ramadan but somehow I came across the story of Buddha and feel suddenly so interested (no I did not think of following his footsteps, though I'd enjoy ...