Skip to main content

A week of stir fries - Sweet corn sundal

By


And before you know it, Navratri is almost over. Just 2 more days (or three, if you want to include the 10th day Vijaya Dashami) of celebrations, after which the festival season is officially open. The next three days are the most significant of Navratri. Ashtami (8th day) is regarded as especially auspicious, especially in the Eastern Indian states such as West Bengal. The last day of the festival, the ninth is regarded as a rest day when all implements & tools of the trade are worshiped as Saraswathy, the goddess of wisdom & knowledge. This was a favorite day for us as kids. It was one day when parents would actually tell us to skip studying!
The last day is known as Vijaya Dashami (Vijaya means victory in Sanskrit), and is regarded as a favorable day to commence any new endeavor in life, be it music / dance lessons, or a new business, basically anything new endeavor in life.. Kind of puts a positive spin to life doesn't it

Although religious in spirit, the extended festivals such as Durga puja (in the eastern part of India) and Ganesh Chaturthi (in the western parts of the country) were made popular for socio-political reasons during the days of the British Raj. These large scale celebrations were perfect for social reformists and freedom fighters to gather without raising suspicions from the British authorities.

From a culinary POV, I try to include as many locally sourced ingredients as possible and Sweet corn is in season. Today's stir fry is  seasoned with  smoky Pimenton pepper.




Sweet Corn Sundal with smoky Pimenton:

You need:

2 cobs of corn, Kernels stripped off
2 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon Cumin seeds
1 sprig curry leaves, torn
pinch of turmeric
1 Serrano chile diced into 3-4 pieces
1/2 teaspoon Smoked Pimenton chile powder or paprika
Salt to taste
Lime juice as per taste

Heat oil in a skillet and and add the cumin when the oil begins to shimmer. Once the cumin seeds sputter and split, stir in the curry leaves and serrano chile. Toss in the corn kernels and the turmeric, and saute on high heat until tiny dark spots appear on the kernels.Sprinkle the pimenton/paprika and the salt (as per taste). Lower heat, cover and allow the corn to incorporate the flavors of the spice (~ 5 minutes). Transfer to a serving dish and drizzle with the lime juice. Serve warm.

Tomorrow's stir fry ingredient was sourced from the freezer - Frozen shelled edamame. Its been the favorite one thus far, I barely got a taste while the other half & my 8 year old eagerly scarfed it down!



Bon appetit!
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

I'd love to hear feedback from you, your thoughts, ideas and suggestions.

Popular posts from this blog

Sputtering back....

By
I seriously feel like this scene from the movie 3 idiots .. remember this one? The way I kept racking up drafts and eventually stopped doing that as well. Lulled into complacence by the quick high from Instagram posts. Recipe measurements hastily scribbled into a Moleskine notebook faithfully depending upon my moods. The truth is that I keep over thinking the backstories needed to make the post more interesting while in reality the truth is that ideas and inspirations just occur spontaneously (like little itches , sneezes or twitches) whenever the opportunity happens to strike. Some really cool ideas that scare the beejeezus out of me and yet prove to be utterly delightful and simple in the end. Others, that seem so trivial that I feel it wouldn't be worth crowing about -- even if there are enough other recipes in that genre that get so much publicity simply because the author happens to have the right marketing knack. So in the past 4 years that I've been...
3 comments
Read more

Unusual Ingredients - Unripe Blueberry Achar

By
T'was just another Summer afternoon, The kids were home for the summer holidays, getting bored, there's only so much summer reading you can force them to do, and the Indian mommy in me could no longer caution them against going out in the afternoon  (I've solemnly refused to use that horrid excuse of 'You'll get a dark tan if you stay out in the mid day sun'), and so we decided to head out to Terhune orchards for the blueberry picking. The kids never say no to outings to the orchard, they LOVE the trip there, the cute yellow dogs and the cats,  the chocolate crinkle and Snickerdoodle cookies, and they positively trip over grabbing buckets and heading joyfully towards the berry bushes... ... And there it ends, the younger one loses herself in her delightful imaginary worlds where she probably thinks she's hacking her way through virgin Amazon jungle, sighing at every branch that brushes against her legs, picks 2 or 3 berries as if they were a new as ...
6 comments
Read more

Product Review: Ninja Mega Kitchen system and a recipe for Masala Dosa

By
 One of the biggest reasons for attending conferences is the priceless experience of meeting fellow bloggers and get an invaluable exposure to all things  culinary. This includes vendors with new products to savor and get inspiration from. I had no complaints about whatever appliances I had for making traditional Dosa (Traditional South Indian rice & lentil crepes) batter, a sturdy tabletop stone grinder that you could add the Urad dal, turn the timer on , and 30  minutes later, come back to a container full of fluffy, batter with the consistency of whipped egg whites. The The cons of this is the cleaning up, of the various parts, the roller, the grinding bin, the multiple trays on which the rollers need to be placed while transferring the rice & lentil batter, the invariable drips of thick batter on the counter.... you get the point, It takes quite a bit of time. I was pleasantly surprised when the appliance company, Ninja asked me if I'd like to try an...
14 comments
Read more