f(e)asting in kupady

Having broke a three day water fast last night at 4pm, Ank and I thought it would be appropriate to post some recipes.  As for the fast, it was amazingly smooth.  We both want to do it longer.  And I am committed to a fruit and nut diet for the rest of my stay in India because I can think better that way. 

 

So we live in a music studio with no kitchen.  But do not worry, this is India and India takes care of you.  The first set of recipes is from the neighbor across the street that cooks a feast for us once a day just casue it seems like a good idea.  Followed up with recipes from our feast at our music teacher's, Chandrabose, home on Sunday.  If you want to learn about giving, be open to it and come to India.  It is okay to be searching and penniless apparently.  Just no one ever wanted to tell you to go to India to do it.

 

Let's get to it.  A few recipes from Suhara Rahman's home across the street:

 

PUTA - tubular rice flour and coconut mix, eaten with any yummy, saucy, spicy thing

-- buy a metal cylinder that allows you to steam puta on the pressure cooker

-- fill the cylinder with rice flour, placing a layer of shredded coconut at the ends and in the middle

-- i think the puta flour can be made by toasting rice flour. i think the rice flour can be bought or made by grinding whole rice grains.

-- steam for five to eight minutes on the pressure cooker
[ take the cynlinder off the steam valve and pop out the tube of goodness  -ed]

 

KARDALA (Chickpea) CURRY

-- soak chickpeas overnight

-- cook chickpeas in pressure cooker with one sliced onion

-- in big frying pot, fry an onion in coconut oil

-- add chickpeas with the water

-- mix in tikka/chicken masala (ask ank or buy it), coriander, tumeric, chilipowder, mostly put in cumin powder, garam masala (misture of cinnamon, cloves, and that type of spicy blend)

-- take one cup of shredded coconut, put in blender til watery/coconuty mist appears, throw it in the pot

-- simmer for 10 minutes, eat with puta, nun-puta, dolsa, iddly, well anything will do if you are not in india

 

NUN-PUTA - saucer shaped rice product in noodle form 

-- mix rice flour and warm water and salt til dough forms. 

-- buy this tube that allows you to push the dough through (w)holes to create noodles

-- knead dough til pretty soft

-- put dough in noodle maker contraption, create mounds of noodles in something you can steam, sometimes a flat surface with holes in the bottom, sometimes there are no holes, anything will do

-- steam for 8-10 minutes, should bounce back when touched

-- depending on your desires, put coconut oil on the bottom of the thing you steam the noodles on. i like the other neighbor's version where she sprinkled real shredded coconut on top

 

CHAMANDI - blended goodness all around you could eat on anything anytime

-- take shredded coconut, green chilis, green unripe mangos (preferably from the tree in your backyard), garlic, and salt

-- blend it, grind it, mash it up somehow and eat:)

 

Chandrabose puts on the chef's hat [ and miniskirt lungi  -ed] in the home and takes a break from teaching us music, but he is still teaching all the time:

 

SAMBAR - if you ever want to know, ask ank, he drinks this straight, but i would not recommend this method

-- take drumstick?(have no idea if you can find this in america), tomatos, split chickpeas, potatoes, onions, eggplant, beet root, carrots, okra and slice the correct way for sambar

-- cook up all the vegetables in the pressure cooker with salt and water

-- mix sambar powder in the vegetable which is a mix of chili, coriander, and tumeric

-- heat some coconut oil, throw in curry leaves and cardamum for a minute, put some on the juice from the vegetables in the hot pan and return everything into the large pot

-- eat with any ricy type product you find, or pour into a cup for ank

 

UPERI - this spicy yummy thing I love, just another thing india adds to the table for the fun of it

-- grind in mortar and pestle 1c. shredded coconut, 1tsp. tumeric, 1/2tsp whole peppercorn, 5 small onions, 3 green chilis

-- take 2 cups of very thinly sliced green beans and cook

-- heat 2 tsp coconut oil on low heat, add 1tsp mustard seeds, 2tbls. white dal, 6 curry leaves

-- throw in grinded mixture from above, cook one minute

-- add cooked green beans and salt

-- increase heat, cook for 3 minutes continually mixing

-- taste a couple times

 

AVIEL - another vegetable, saucy delicacy to each with some dough/rice type product

-- cut up the same vegetables that were in the sambar but in thick matchstick shapes (get this right or they might not know what you are making)

-- take the same grinded ingredients you used in uperi

-- pour grinded ingredients over the vegetables and cook everything

-- mix tamarind in water, add to the pot

-- add salt

-- add 10 tsp. coconut oil and say "WE WANT MORE"

-- do not mix vegetables with a spoon because you will mash the vegetables and forget what you are eating again, flip the vegetables while they are cooking so nothing burns

-- add a hand, full of curry leaves

 

Okay, that is the end of our f(e)asting for today.  Wait, the finally [?  -ed] is Jacka Pulka, which you may have heard of already.  This is what the other neighbor cooked up last night so ank and i could break our fast.  But for some reason I decided to commit to fruits and nuts for the rest of my stay in india, so i ate coconut and some cashew nuts instead. [ ank graciously volunteered to eat her share, for the rest of the month  -ed]

 

JACKA PULKA
-- take one unripe jackfruit from your tree in the backyard

-- gather around 5-6 people and get the fruit out, save the nuts in the middle of each fruity delight, and slice the fruit up into small strips (beware of any sticky white substance.  it does come off with coconut oil, though, don't fear)

-- blend 1/2 coconut, some onions, some garlic, and three long green chilis

-- put sliced jacka fruit in a pressure cooker, dump in the blended items, add 10 curry leaves, 1tsp. tumeric, salt, 1c. water, and 5 of the nuts [ jaca kuro  -ed]

-- cook for 3 whistles

-- when finished, of course add enough coconut oil to satisfy your hearts' desires

 

let me know what happens.

[written by neilu, who was unable to figure out posting protocol  -ed]