Food

Dal Palak Recipe

Ingredients

1 Medium Bunch Spinach
1/2 cup Split Yellow Gram
1 Cup water
3/4 Tea spoon salt or as required
1/4 Tea spoon Turmeric
1 to 1 1/2 Tablespoon Ghee
2 Dry Red chillies
6 to 7 Curry leaves
1 Green chilli finely chopped
1 Medium Size Onion finely chopped
1/4 Tea spoon Asafoetida
11/2 Table spoon Garlic chopped
1/2  Table spoon Ginger chopped
1 1/2 Tomato finely chopped
1 Tsp Kashmiri Red chilly powder
1/2 Tsp Coriander powder
1/4 Tsp Roasted cumin powder
1/4 Tsp Garam Masala powder
 
 
 Tadka
1 Table spoonGhee
1/2 Tea spoon Mustard seed
1/2 Tea spoon Cumin seed
1/2 Tea spoon Coriander seeds
1 Kashmiri Red chilli
6 to 7 Curry leaves
1/4 Teaspoon Kashmiri Red chilly powder

Garnish
2 to 3 Table spoon Green coriander leaves finely chopped
1 1/2 Tsp Lemon juice

Soak the dal for an hour. Break off the spinach leaves from the stem and wash under running water. In hot water, blanch the leaves for two minutes and then remove and run under cold water. Puree the spinach leaves and set aside. In a pressure cooker add the spinach and all the ingredients ( not tadka items). Pressure cook for two whistles. Remove and set aside to cool. When cool heat the ghee and add the tadka items. Always add the mustard seeds first in hot ghee and make sure they crackle or else they will taste bitter. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and add a bit of lemon juice if you like. 

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Food

Salted tongue – this recipe is from Nathan Soares.

2 tongues (1.5 kgs) – cleaned and skin removed.
Limes – 6 medium
Garlic crushed – 4 cloves
Black pepper corns – 20
Cinnamon- 3 inch stick
Salt peter – 3 tea spoons
Salt – 4 tablespoons

Powder the salt peter fine using a mortar and pestle. Wash tongues and drain them well. Prick the tongue well with a fork and make sure you do this all over the tongue. Transfer the tongue into a clean vessel. Add the powdered salt peter and 2 tablespoons of salt and the juice of the limes. Massage this well into the tongues. Cover the dish with cling film and leave it in the fridge. Turn over the tongues every second day with a pair of tongs. Cover with cling film and let it marinate in the fridge for five to six days.

On the seventh day take the cured tongues out of the fridge and let it rest out for an hour. Transfer the tongues to a pressure cooker. You may want to do this one tongue at a time depending on the size of the pressure cooker. Use the marinated juice to pressure cook the tongues. Add the spices (half if you are making two batches) and the garlic. Cover the pressure cooker with the lid and cook on a high flame till the first whistle and then lower the flame and continue to cook for the next 45-50 minutes. Set aside. Let the pressure cooker cool naturally.

Take the tongues out and check it if cooked. You can do this by inserting a sharp knife in the middle of the tongue, If it has cooked well the knife will insert smoothly. If not return it back to the pressure cooker and cook for another 15 minutes on slow fire.

Once done, let the meat cool and then transfer the meat with the juices in the pressure cooker. Cover and place in the fridge. When ready to serve, warm the vessel. Take the tongue out and discard the thick juices. Dab the tongue with a kitchen tissue or towel and then cut the slices and serve.

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Food

Sukhya Sungtachi Kismoor – Goan salad with crisp dried prawns and freshly grated coconut.

Dried prawns – one cup or roughly 100 grams
Coconut – ½ small coconut freshly grated
Coconut oil – two tablespoons. (do not substitute)
Chilly powder – two teaspoons.
Turmeric powder – 1.4 teaspoons.
Green chilly – 1 finely chopped
Tamarind pulp – two teaspoons.
Onion – one, finely chopped.
Kokum – two pieces
Salt to taste.
Fresh coriander – as garnish

Fry the dried prawns in the coconut oil on a low flame for ten minutes or till crisp. Keep aside and let it cool down completely. In a bowl add the coconut and two teaspoons of chilly powder along with the 1/4 teaspoon of the turmeric powder. Add the green chopped chilly along with the tamarind pulp and the kokum. Add a cup of finely chopped onions (some people who do not like raw onions my want to saute the onions) Now mix the coconut, onion, chilly and the spices well and when done add the dry fried prawns. Add salt to taste (be careful as the prawns are already salty). Garnish with fresh coriander.

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Food

Squid Ambot Tik

Squids or Calamari- 500 grams (cleaned and sliced)
Kashmiri chillies – 6
Cinnamon stick – 1 inch
Turmeric powder – ½ tea spoon
Black peppercorns – 15-18 nos
Cumin seeds – 1 teaspoon
Cloves – 4 nos
Garlic – 8 cloves
Tamarind – lemon size ball
Oil – 11/2 tablespoons
Onion – 1 large (finely chopped)
Bhinda sola (kokum) – 5 nos
Goa vinegar – 1 tablespoon or as required

Method
Put the squids in a bowl and add a bit of salt. Mix it and keep it aside. Soak the red chillies in a little hot water for five minutes. Reserve the water. Soak the tamarind it a little hot water and mix it into a pulp.

In a grinder add the chillies, tamarind, cinnamon, turmeric, black peppercorns, cumin, cloves and garlic, Grind this to a fine paste. Use the chilly water to grind the mixture.

In a pan heat the oil. Never heat oil till it smokes. Now add the chopped onions and saute till it is translucent. Add the ground masala and fry for two minutes on a low flame. Add water to form a gravy. You don’t want a runny gravy but a semi thick one. When this comes to a boil and the oil begins to float on the surface of the gravy drop the heat and add the squids. Cook this for two to three minutes and add the bhinda sola (kokum). Now taste the curry and if you need, add the goa vinegar. Add salt to taste.

Like most Goan curries, ambot tik tastes better the next day, the flavours intensify rendering it even more delicious. In fact, it’s common to see most Goan’s enjoying this curry with pao the next day for breakfast

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Art/ Heritage

Day two at the museum and we documented thirty-six Madhubani paintings donated  to the The Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA), located on the cultural boulevard of North Terrace  in a Adelaide. This  is one of three significant visual arts museum in South Australia . It has a collection of over 35,000 works of art.

Today I had the great price large of working with James Bennett and Rusty Kelty who are curators of the Asian art section.

Mithila painting (also known as Madhubani painting) is practiced in the Mithila region of India and Nepal. Painting is done with fingers, twigs, brushes, nib-pens, and matchsticks, using natural dyes and pigments, and is characterized by eye-catching geometrical patterns. There is ritual content for particular occasions, such as birth or marriage, and festivals, such as Holi, Surya Shasti, Kali Puja, Upanayanam, Durga Puja.

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