Notes from The Sisterhood

Events on our Radar
Kitchen Sisters Interviewing & Recording Workshop in San Francisco. Tuesday, December 16th. Contact us if you'd like to hear about future workshops.

Hidden Kitchens Works in Progress:

• Inauguration Night potluck meals across the nation.
  Tell us about your's Call 202-408-9576.

• Atomic Wine: Testing the age of wine through nuclear fallout residue.

Radio We’re hearing:
Brian Eno's essay for This I Believe on NPR's Weekend Edition, Sunday, November 23. Recorded by The Kitchen Sisters in Brian Eno’s studio in London. Brian's essay is based on his article, Freestyling.

Books We're reading:

Edges of Bounty by William Emery and Scott Squire.
Edges of Bounty is...a kind of road map. An invitation, a set of possibilities. It beckons. Find a friend, grab your camera and notebook. Hit the road and look for something. More information available at Heyday Books.

From the Bottom of the Heap by Robert H. King.
We chronicled King's story in our Hidden Kitchens piece, King's Candy. Babylon Falling, an independent bookstore in San Francisco, recently hosted a reading with King. Visit their site to see more. You can order his book published by PM press here. Or visit Babylon Falling.

Websites & Blogs We're Viewing:

Kiss the Paper by Kate & Molly Prentiss


The Girl Project

Music We're Listening to:

Les Amazones De Guinee, an all-police-woman band from the
Republic of Guinea.
Albert Kuvezin & Yat-Kha, the "Tuvan throat-singing punk band"
Cimarrón, a Llanero band from Colombia.

Tomato and Corn Curry

Tomato and Corn Curry

Even as we were yakking away on Skype, we remembered that we had told Mansi we will take part, in the Vegan Thanks Giving event! We just realized that there is less than 3 hours left (in the West Coast US!) for the deadline! And so ...Amma rushed off to prepare this delicious dish for a Bangalore breakfast, while I wrote out this recipe in Sydney. Even as I completed writing, my dad, the ever enthusiastic photographer mailed me a click. So here is our recipe for the Vegan Thanks Giving Event at the Fun and Food Blog! Yummy dish in a flash!


Ingredients
Oil – 1 Tbs
Jeera – ½ tsp
Onion – 1 chopped as finely as possible
Grated Ginger – ½ tsp
Tomato – 2 chopped as finely as possible
Salt – 1 tsp
Sambhar Powder as shown here – 1 Tsp

Corn – 2 cups (Deep frozen corn is easy to cook)
Water – 1 cup
Maida – 1tsp
Corriander leaves – few

Method
1. Heat oil, and add jeera.
2. Next add onion, and ginger.
3. Reduce the flame and fry until onion is caramelized.
4. Now add the tomato, salt and Sambhar powder, and stir well.
5. Cover the pan tightly with a lid.
5. Keep opening the pan time and again to stir, and ensure the mixture does not burn.
6. Once its cooked well, you will have a brilliant red tomato paste, and the oil will come out of the masala.
7. Mix maida with a little bit of water, and add to the pan and fry.

8. Now add the corn, and sautee.

9. Next add a cup of water and stir.
10. In a minute the corn will cook. Switch off once you have the consistency desired.

9. Garnish with fresh coriander leaves before serving.

Instead of Sambhar powder, you can use chillie powder and garam masala. However, Sambhar powder makes it a different and tasty adaptation. The sambhar powder we use, is a simple recipe, and we use it as a 'universal powder' for not only Sambhars, but also Rasam, Currys, Sabjis and Poriyals!

This curry is a favourite dish with bread, chappatis, dosas, even palav and fried rice!

Pav Bhaji-Simple method yet tasty!

I am sure everyone knows how to make Pav Bhaji. My method is going to be the simplest of all.
I don't make it often as pav buns are very high in calories!(about 100 calories per bun) I was in no mood to chop the veggies today and hence ended up making a very quick bhaji for dinner.
I had been to a friend's place during Navaratri and she prepared the gravy without onions and garlic. It was mild and very tasty. So here is no onion, no garlic Bhaji coming from my kitchen!

Small potatoes(peel the skin before pressure cooking)-3
Beans chopped into big pieces-1/2 cup
Carrot chopped into big pieces-1/4 cup

Other ingredients:
Oil-1 tbsp
Jeera-1 tsp
Salt
Turmeric powder-1/4 tsp
Red chilli powder-1/4 tsp
Pav Bhaji masala-2 tsp(or as per taste)
Coriander leaves- to garnish
Lemon juice from 1 small lemon
Pav buns(sweet dinner rolls)
Butter-to toast the buns

Method:
Pressure cook beans, carrot and potatoes together for 3-4 whistles.
Mash the potatoes and grind beans and carrot to a paste.
Heat oil in a pan, allow jeera to crackle, add the mashed veggies. Add some water and bring it to gravy consistency. Add salt, turmeric powder, chilli powder, pav bhaji masala and bring it to a boil. Switch off the gas. Garnish with coriander leaves. Squeeze lime and add tiny bits of butter.

Toast pav buns lightly with some butter and serve with bhaji.

If you are using onion, fry it in oil till golden brown along with 1 tsp ginger garlic paste.
Add 1 chopped tomato and a handful of chopped capsicum and fry till tomato turns soft.
Then add the boiled veggies and follow rest of the steps as given above.
Before serving, add finely chopped raw onions on bhaji.
Serve with pav buns and a wedge of lime.