Pista Pesto Pasta

My garden did not grow this summer. I mean it did, but only the weeds.Tall, willowy, reed like weeds are growing in abundance and I am telling myself it is an unkempt, english garden. Truth be told, there is nothing English about it, there is just a whole lot of crappy weeds. That's it.

Far back in April we had decided that we will not do our tiny veggie patch this year. We had also decided that we will let weeds grow.The reason for this momentous decision on our part was "time" or rather the lack of it. Like very important people on the face of this earth we do not have time any more, the catch is we are not even important and yet we don't have enough time. You know how it is, you are not important, you don't really do anything worthwhile and yet you are "bijee", "bijee" and then you stop every third person in the planet and tell them "Arre, you know na, I don't have any time, I am so bizee".

So anyway after all that decision I had severe hormonal upheavals in May about having no vegetables to eat off the plant and I went and got a basil plant, a banana pepper plant and a beans plant which I potted in planters.

The basil grew and grew and grew and finally I made a Pesto. I had made Miri's pesto earlier. But this time I did not have walnuts only a bag full of pistachios. "Pista Pesto" sounded quiet good, not as good as "Pista Ice Cream" but still...

So I made the Pesto, tossed some Pasta with it and we wolfed it all down hungry. Next I made it again and I still have some leftover in my refrigerator. It is a wonderful Pesto, nutty, rich with a kick from the chilies and a hint of lime reminding you of summer.

That reminds me, does anyone freeze pesto ? For how long ?

Miri's Pesto with Walnuts

My version is here

Basil leaves ~ 2 cups loosely packed
Unsalted Pistachios ~ 1/3 cup
Olive Oil ~ 1/4 cup to start with. Add more if needed
Garlic Cloves ~ 3-4 cloves
Green chili ~ 2 hot Indian green chili
Lime Juice ~ 1 tsp
Salt ~ to taste

Put all of the above in a Food Processor and blend until smooth. Add the Olive Oil gradually.

You can use the Pesto as a spread or you can toss pasta in it.

The Way I made Pesto Pasta

Cook Spaghetti according to Package directions

Heat 1-2 tsp of Olive Oil in a frying pan.

Add 1 tsp of mince garlic. When you get the flavor of garlic add the required amount of pesto, followed by the cooked Pasta. Toss gently to coat the Pasta with the pesto. Serve warm.

This is my neighbor's curry leaf plant. I noticed the fruits for the first time in my life after Sra had posted abut them

Note: While I was midway through this post, my town felt the tremors of an earthquake that was epicentered in Virginia. I could not complete the post then as I fled out to the open. It was a mild tremor but it did shake me up and made me realize how fragile we are in Mother Nature's hands.

Jhaaler Jhol or Rasa ? -- take your pick

Nazrul or Rabindrasangeet ?

Ghoti or Bangal ?

Suman or Nachiketa ?

Threading or Brazilian wax ?

Ilish or Chingri ?

Bedouin or HotKathi ?

Goldspot or Limca ?

Soumitro or Uttam ?

Jhaaler jhol or Rasa ?

To each his own, I say.

Jhaaler Jhol is a light dish with lots of vegetables that my friend N makes. When I made it last weekend D said his mother made something similar but with tender stalks and leaves of the pumpkin plant and called it Rasa. Happens. I have nothing of my own to contribute in this discussion though. My Mother never made anything like this, she made a similar dish with Fish but did not call it anything particular.


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Undoubtedly the stalks and leaves of pumpkin plant are the best greens for this light dish which totally relies on the freshness and taste of the vegetables for its deliciousness. I did not have any and instead used spinach greens and some swiss chard.

Also I did not have vadi or bori, the tiny dried lentil fritters which fried and crumbled is what this dish needs. So instead I made my Daaler Bora, lentil fritters. This time I baked them instead of frying. I added them to the dish along with a tsp of mustard paste and let it simmer in the light broth almost like in a borar jhaal. The result was delicious. It is not a presumptuous, look-at-me kind of a dish. But on days when you would rather eat lettuce greens I would suggest a Jhaaler Jhol instead.

Jhaaler Jhol or Rasa

The Vegetables

Fulkopi/Cauliflower -- half of a medium sized one, chopped in large florets
Pumpkin -- 3 cups chopped in largish cubes
Radish ~ 1 cup of  red radish, chopped in half
Eggplant ~ 1 cup. I did not have any.
Spinach or any other green ~ 3 cups, roughly chopped
Greens like pumpkin leaves with stalks are best.

The Daler Bora

Make Bora like I have done before. You can fry the fritters or bake/broil them like I did this time. Grease the tray and put dollops of the paste on it. Bake at 400F for 20-25 mins and then broil for 10 mins. This is my Toaster Oven settings.

The Process

Heat 2 tsp of Mustard Oil

When mustard oil is smoking, temper with 1/2 tsp of Kalo Jeera and 3 dry red chili

Next add all the vegetables except the greens.

Saute for a minute.
Add salt and cover with a lid. If you see the vegetables are sticking to the bottom of the kadhai, add a splash of water.Cook till the vegetables have softened a little but are still crunchy.

Now add the greens and cook for a few more minutes till they wilt.

Once the vegetables are cooked but not mushy, you can finish off at this point like my friend does. She adds some fried vadis and serves it with Rice.

I however went ahead. I added 1tsp of Mustard paste and about 3/4 cup of water. Then I added about 5-6 of lentil fritters. Opened the cover and let it simmer for a few minutes till the vegetables are cooked.

Adjust for salt.

Serve with steaming white rice.

Holy Guacamole by the Ganges

Birthdays when I was a kid were simplistic affairs. It was the 70's. The most glamorous birthday song I had ever heard was Johnny Walker singing "Happy Birthday To You" on Binaca Geetmala. It was a good thing that we hadn't watched the movie and there was no YouTube to see the song. Other than Johnny Walker and Joy Mukherjee no one seems to enjoy that birthday party, not even Saira Banu in her parrot green saree and complicated hair do.

Anyway even watching that movie would have had no effect on my parents. They are Bongs and Bollywood is not their forte, at least it wasn't until cable took over. Birthdays in our home meant a silver bowl full of paayesh studded with plump raisins, a new dress, touching feet of elders, blessings that wished for a long happy life, limp ten rupee notes shoved into reluctant and eager hands and a special dinner of yellow pulao, cholar dal, doi maach and chutney cooked by Ma.Most years a couple of my neighborhood friends would join in for dinner when Ma would invite them casually with "Aaj raat e amader barite kheye jas"(Have diner at our home tonight). They would come, their hair neatly tied in plaits, their hands clutching some book by Russian authors wrapped clumsily in a red paper and they went back happy with no expectation of a return gift.

Nothing about those birthdays had to be pre-planned. The only point of contention was whether it was Cadbury's Eclairs or Parle Orange candy or Ravalgon chocolates that would be taken to school. In fact the high point of my birthday between the age of 8 to 12 was distributing candy in school. We spent many a days discussing, which other girl I would take, other than the best friend of course, with me doing the rounds of other classes. Also when we went to other classes, which girls we would ask to come out and share the sweets with. This was a difficult task since every other class had a sister, a cousin or a friend of my classmates and they expected to be called out.

Birthdays thus seamlessly fitted into our daily schedules and we got an year older just like that.

Now stories of birthday parties in India scare me. Apparently kiddie parties are handed over to event management companies and it involves an emcee and bollywood dancing. Yikes !! How do you celebrate a kid's birthday party wherever you are, would love to hear.

A few days back the littlest one turned a year older. She wanted a cake, a party and a teapot. So a party was had, at our home, in the backyard.Sprinklers were turned on, water guns were used in full force,water balloons were filled and busted in a matter of seconds and much fun was had. I decided to cook most of the stuff at home and it wasn't easy given that there were 40 grown ups with 20 kids amongst them. I had some pointers from Indo last year and I tried to keep the menu simple. I also outsourced some stuff like shingara(samosas) and vegetable chops. It is not me who fries a batch of 50 samosas with nary a glazed look in her eyes. Those things are better left to professionals.

But I did cook huge quantity of mutton in 4 batches in my Pressure cooker. The fact that I decided on the Mutton Rezala, made it easier. I marinated the huge quantity of mutton with all the spices a day ahead.The mutton soaked up all the spices with 16 hour of marination and cooked fast and was very flavorful. Then I made the Goan Shrimp Curry. Again the spice paste, the star ingredient was made at least 2 days ahead and on the day of cooking making the gravy was easy peasy. Then I made a Fulkopir Roast with Coconut, the recipe was part Ma's and part from my FB readers. It was a big hit.

One of the things that eased the load on day of cooking was making the wet masala pastes , the dry masala powders all in batches through out the week. I had also fried huge quantities of chopped onions and made a paste of them two days before the actual cooking. Using this fried onion paste shortened the time of cooking and there was this one less thing to do.

It was a fun birthday party and Little Sis loved all the attention. I have no picture of foods from the day obviously so what I am going to share instead is the Guacamole that I made as a dip for the starters.

Choose ripe, fresh avocados. How to choose, I don't know. I just bought them some days ahead and the were right on the day.

Peel and de-seed. Check this to see how to cut an avocado. Scoop out the pale green innards. With a back of a fork mash it up.If you want it chunky you can keep it this way. You can also pulse it in a blender if you want a smoother version

Add the following

few drops of of Mustard oil(optional, I like it)
some lime juice
throw in some chopped red onion
finely chopped green chili next
a sprinkle of cumin powder
some tangy chaat masala
salt
a pinch of sugar
and lots of fresh corriander.
Just go with your instinct with the quantities and adjust spices etc. according to taste.

Mix everything together and cover tightly with a cling wrap. I refrigerated for a day and it was good. The acid in lime juice helps in keeping the color intact(else it tends to go brown) so be sure to put enough of it

Serve with pita breads, chips or with Pametini, oven toasted Italian bread; my current heartthrob