In My Kitchen March ’17
In My Kitchen March 2017 is brought to you by compromise, a compromise between my longing to travel to India again and reality. My travel lust has been a stimulated by a book I’ve had in my possession only a month or two, a memoir of travelling and eating in India.
In her sumptuous coffee table tome “Tasting India” Christine Manfield’s travel path crosses my own. We share memories of common destinations, experiences, people and delicious food. Having this book with it’s recipes at my fingertips has sent my tastebuds hurtling back to places that were fading memories. I’ve been immersed in an Indian reverie and using beautiful autumn produce, I’ve been cooking up a spicy storm, a feast of vegetable curries and posts I’ll be publishing in March.
sari off-cuts
In My Kitchen I have an array of offcuts from saris that I use as photographic props to lend an exotic air to my Indian food photos.
Indian serving dishes
In My Kitchen I have a collection of stainless steel and copper bowls to add an air of authenticity to our Indian dinner table.
Indian cookbooks
In My Kitchen I have a load of Indian cookbooks. Charmaine Solomon got me started 30+ years ago, then Madhur Jaffrey kept my impetus high. I then moved on to more serious works written for an Indian audience before settling into the comforts of Manfield, Stein and the wonderful compilation “The Food of India.”
Indian cookbook and tiffin carrier
In my Kitchen I have a stainless steel tiffin tin just because I love the utility of the design. One day I will use it in the manner for which it was intended, meanwhile it acts as a filler on a tall shelf at the end of a row of books.
As well as experimenting with new recipes, In My Kitchen I’ve been revisiting Indian vegetarian recipes that have been posted some time in the past 5 years. Please Pass The Recipe celebrated a five year blogging anniversary last week. It been an incredibly rich and rewarding experience. Namaste to all my wonderful followers.
Rice flour carrot paratha
Cucumber Coconut and Peanut Salad
I’m linking up with “In My Kitchen” hosted by Liz at the Good Thing Blog. Bloggers worldwide contribute to this amazing forum, giving you a small peek inside their kitchen and their lives. Why not create you own post and link it back to Liz by the 10th of the month, it’s a wonderfully warm and inclusive community.
garam masala spices
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56 comments on “In My Kitchen March ’17”
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I think you have picked the best things…
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Thanks, glad you think so😀
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I’m sorry Sandra, but I need you to clear something up. Regarding the gravlax recipe, did you mention lemon thyme and lemon zest for the vodka infusion? Or is lemon thyme and zested lemon in addition to the lemon-infused vodka? thanks
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Put the salmon in a non reactive shallow container with a lid. Mix the thyme zest salt and sugar, press onto the salmon then spoon over the vodka. Rest in the fridge for 3 days spooning over the liquid that accumulates in the container. Drain of the liquid, slice and serve
I prefer to use Absolut Citron Vodka, but if I don’t have any I just use regular vodka
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Okay, thank you!!! I can’t wait!
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Good luck
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What a lovely post. India is definitely on our very long bucket list. I have a question for you – you said once that the gravlax recipe in “Back to Square One” is your favorite but is it the Oriental Gravlax or the one with Scotch? I’d like to prepare it but I would like to use the recipe you like
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I’ve made the exact recipe with the Scotch but found the distinct favour overwhelmed the salmon and wasn’t to my taste. Using the exact same amounts of sugar & salt, I now use vodka with a lemon infusion altho I’ve used plain too, 1 1/2 tablespoons lemon thyme and the finely grated zest of a lemon, that’s it. Method exactly as written. The salmon is ready to eat after 3 days, 4 days make the texture a bit firm for my taste, I like the salmon to be silky. Many recipes tell you to rinse the salmon when it has finished curing, I don’t to that, I like to serve it with the herbs intact as they add enormously to the pleasure and the amount of sugar and salt used are a gentle seasoning. Many recipes for gravlax use vast quantities of salt and sugar however I find TBTS1’s recipe is the perfect balance. We love this, hope you enjoy it too
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So good to. Know! Thanks! The Oriental version sounded good, too. I dislike scotch, so I’m happy to substitute vodka! And I just bought lemon thyme today! I appreciate this info, Sandra!
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Happy 5th blog birthday, Sandra, and thanks for another delightful glimpse into your kitchen. Please forgive me for coveting your copper clad stainless bowls (as pretty to look at as they are to serve in I’m sure) and for your lovely array of background fabrics. Food is so “visual” it only stands to reason that textiles are entirely appealing. (Beautiful craftsmanship, colors, and design.) Hope you get back to India soon, but in the meantime happy cookbook perusing!
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Thanks Kim. I frequently buy saris on line simply to use as dress making lengths. They are unique in colour and design and for the price the quality of the cottons and silks are far superior than anything I can buy locally. The offcuts make great photo props so they just keep giving
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Congratulations on your 5-year blogging anniversary, Sandra. I see that you are located in Brisbane too. We’ll have to meet sometime!
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Thanks Christine, yes a Brissy newbie, but slowly getting into the groove..
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I have the same tiffin – just love taking it on picnics
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Congratulations on your blog anniversary! I just love your sari offcuts, so colourful. I’ve never been to India but I’d love to travel around one day.
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Thanks Nancy, I think you’d love India. Japan is on my bucket list
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I covet your tiffin tin. 🙂
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Beautiful fabrics and copper pots! Your photos really do show well with the props.
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Happy 5 years Sandra! The time goes so fast doesn’t it? I’m coming up to year 4 of the blog. I have Charmaine’s book too. Well thumbed. Love the saris and the tiffin carriers. So cute.
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Hey Sherry, time does fly, it’s hard to know where those 5yrs have gone. The blog has been a great motivator, right now we’re in curry heaven…
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Oh my, what time is dinner? Set an extra placemat for me! I love Indian food. I’ve never been, but I have loads of Indian friends and growing up they introduced me to their amazing Grandmothers and Mothers who fed me the most sublime food (which they said was just normal food – bah!). Thanks for the post, it has reminded me I need to make a curry very soon. I may try one of your featured recipes. 🙂
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Love the sari offcuts, such beautiful colors and textures. I’m jealous of the stainless and copper bowls, how beautiful. I do have a couple tiffin containers and actually use them for school lunches and snacks after swim practice. Some Indian food in them would be even better.
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The sari offcuts are gorgeous aren’t they? One day I’ll put Indian food in my tiffin tin, it has amazing seals, A functional work of art…
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I am so inspired and buying myself an Indian cookbook right now …. Rebecca 🙂
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Enjoy the exploration. Freshly ground spices are the best..
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I love the sari pieces – beautiful fabrics – the copper pots. You have me salivating for Indian food even though we’ve just returned from the UK where we inevitably recharge ourselves with local curries. I got started on Indian food with Madhur Jaffrey and still think her books are an excellent introduction to the cuisine. Καλό μήνα as they say here – happy month! May your travel dreams come true.
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Just back from a short break, sadly, nowhere as exotic as India. We’re currently full time carers of an elderly infirm well loved pooch. One day soon we’ll be free again to travel.
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Namaste to you too Sandra. I think you would feel quite at home ferreting around my cook books as we seem to have many in common and started at the same point all those years ago with Charmaine and then Madhur and for me, also a Time Life book, the source of my first version of muttar paneer. But I suppose you know what I am going to say next- textile envy. The Sari offcuts are Capital D divine. Lovely photos Madm S, look forward to more Indian feasts.
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Hope the vegie curry posts don’t wear thin by the end of the month. I’m besotted by Indian textiles as well as the food. I love the colours and textures and finishes of both.
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Ah, my mouth waters in anticipation, I too love The Food of India cookbook and Madhur Jaffreys recipes. A wonderfully evocative IMK post Sandra.
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Thanks Cheery, I’ve either made or messed with about 90% of the recipes in The Food of India, well worth it’s weight! March as planned is a vegie slam
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Congratulations on your anniversary and thank you for being there! Have smilingly just fished both my Charmaine Solomon and Madhur Jaffrey books off the shelf: yes I got ‘my beginning’ with them also and mine also ‘evolved’ . . . Somehow I managed to marry first an Estonian and then a Hungarian: both absolutely besotted with Indian cooking . . . . if you could not ‘beat’ you had to ‘join’ 🙂 No problems!!
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Thanks Eha, you’re welcome. I’ve been enthralled with spices since first making Solomon’s potato curry with panchphoran. I hope you enjoy my posts during March
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Back during a flooding early autumn afternoon in the Southern Highlands: since so many of us love Charmaine Solomon: how many also have her 1990 book ‘The Complete Vegetarian Cookbook’: : typically Charmaine: simple but so special . . . unusual because half of the volume is Western and half Eastern cookery . . . .and tho’ not a vegetarian I cook from that tome at least once a fortnight . . .
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I have that Veg book too and so much of I just ad lib these days. I also have her Thai book, but it’s been little used sadly
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Well you’ve certainly got the Indian cooking bug. My first purchase of a Claudia Roden cookbook in my late teens similarly prompted a life-long love affair with Middle Eastern food for me.
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Hi Amanda, I’ve had the Indian bug since Charmaine Solomon entered my life 30+ years ago, my love has never waned, but it has evolved…
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Your collection of cookbooks and artifacts is impressive. Good luck getting back to India some day!
best… mae at maefood.blogspot.com
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In the spirit of this month’s blog theme, then…
अपनी शादी की सालगिरह पर बधाई!
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You’ll have to translate Kate, I cook Indian, I eat Indian and I love the place. So easy for an English speaker in India I never even got a smattering of any of the languages
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It means “Congratulations on your anniversary!” 🙂
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Thanks you..
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I would love to go to India, actually plan on going in August 😁
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It’s an exciting, challenging, frustrating and joyous place, enjoy…..
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I thought you were in India for a moment 🙂 Love Indian food too and love your colorful photos and props. Enjoy cooking from your collection of Indain cookbooks.
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Oh I wish, thanks nevertheless Moya..
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What a lovely post. I’m looking forward to your upcoming recipes. And can I confess that I’m rather envious of your collection of stainless steel and copper bowls. I would love to have some of these in my kitchen.
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Thanks Tracey, I love those bowls too..
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Ah, you took me to my family kitchen in India.
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Bet I could learn a lot from you Rupali….
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Hi Sandra, happy March and autumn to you. Indian cooking is very much back on the agenda now, with the cool change. Charmaine Solomon is one of my favourites. She was a regular guest at my cooking school… and she has the softest skin on her hands that I have ever felt in my life! Madhur Jaffrey’s books are great, too. Thanks for the lovely shout out and happy cooking to you xx
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Thanks Liz, I consider Solomon a national treasure! The temp may have dropped a degree or two, but we still have weeks of humidity to suffer so no autumn change for me yet. Having grown weary of salads, quickly cooked vegetable dishes have taken their place. Plenty of Indian recipes fit that bill
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Lovely pics and props, Sandra. We must have been separated at birth as I have the same copper pots and saris and some of the same books. I don’t know if you can get Meera Sodha’s Fresh India in Oz but I think you’d like it. Lx
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Thanks Linda, snap it is… just reserved Sodha’s book from my local library, always love a recommendation.
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Hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
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