MLLA roundup and the winners

Let me start by thanking Susan for her patience with me in posting the roundup almost a week later than promised. I would also like to thank all the wonderful bloggers who participated with so much enthusiasm and some with as much as five entrees. Clearly, legumes rule your kitchens.

As I mentioned in my last post, I had no idea how popular her event is and the deluge of entrees was overwhelming. But fret not, I have it under control and here’s the round up, excluding a few entrees who did not follow one of the rules, mainly that of linking their entrees to both Susan’s and my event announcement pages. Apart from that, I think I have everyone covered. If I still missed someone, do let me know and I will do the needful.

The roundup is posted in the order in which the entrees were received by me. The winners were generated by a random generator and Ambrosia wins any cookbook or food-related book from Amazon U.S. valued at not more than 15 USD for the book itself. This prize is offered by Susan at her expense and she will also absorb worldwide shipping charges. So Richa Priyanka, go ahead and chose that cookbook you always wanted.

The second winner is Shanavi of Kitchen Secrets and will receive a case of six bags of the winner's choice of Hurst Bean products, suitable for every diet, sponsored by Hurst Beans. Susan will get in touch with you shortly. I have omitted the photos because that is the way I have done most of my roundups. My apologies if you  were expecting about 70 photos in this post.

Now to the roundup:

1. Fan Fried Steak by Toreviewtoronto


2. Chole Masala by rakshaskitchen

3. Chana Tondak or Goan Chana Masala by Rakshaskitchen

4. Split Pea and Broccoli Curry by Kitchen Alchemist

5. Makhmali Choliya Kabab by of Ribbons and Pasta

6. Rajma Palak, also by Ribbons and Pasta

7. Arhar Dal with Kathal by Saltiepie

8. Unfried Green Tomatoes by Sra of When My Soup Came Alive

9. Chane ka Nimona by My Life and Spice

10. Brazilian Black Bean Soup by The Taste Space

11. Mixed Dal Spice Powder by Enveetu Kitchen

12. Cauliflower Chickpea Curry by Veg Inspirations

13. Ven Pongal by Cooking with Siri

14. Green gram lentils in scrambled eggs by Bon Appetit

15. Crunchy Mung Bean Snack by Veg Inspirations

16. Humus with Sun Dried Tomatoes by Food and Spice

17. Thothakura Pappu by Kitchen Flavors

18. Kadhi by Litebite

19. Mullangi Sambar by Sensibleveg

20. Curried Barely Green Peas and Mixed Vegetable Soup by Zesty South Indian Kitchen

21. Spiced Garbanzo Beans by Asan Khana

22. Dodakkaya Bajji by Srav's Culinary Concepts

23. Masala Vadai by Kitchen Secrets

24. Kollu Dosai or Horsegram Crepes by PJ of Seduce Your Tastebuds

25. Greengram Sprouts & Soya Masala Vadas by Priya's Easy N Tasty Recipes

26. Quinoa Mixed Dals Dosa also by Priya's Easy N Tasty Recipes

27. Arachivitta Sambar by Krithi's Kitchen

28. Corn Peas Vada by Nirmala’s Kitchen

29. Sindhi Style Toor Dal by Ribbons and Pasta

30. Muthira Puzhukku or Horsegram Curry by Palakkad Chamayal

31. Bhaja Muger Dal or Roasted Mung Soup by Soma of eCurry

32. Bean Burgers by Foodie Workz

33. Gatte ki Sabzi by Nicks n Jits Kitchen

34. Punjabi kadhi Pakora by Nicks n Jits Kitchen

35. Jaisalmeri Chane by Nicks n Jits Kitchen

36. Missi Roti by Nicks n Jits Kitchen

37. Khaman by Nicks n Jits Kitchen

38. Varutharacha Sambar by Mélange!!

39. Bhare Baghare Tamatar or Stuffed tomatoes by Flavours and Tastes

40. Falafel by Wheat Free Meat Free

41. Baked Falafels in Home made whole wheat pita pockets by Oh Taste n See

42. Cilantro and Green Garbanzo Pulav by Oh Taste n See

43. Tofu Methi Thepla by Oh Taste n See

44. Sweet n Sour Mango Tofu by Oh Taste n See

45. Bitter Gourd Pitlai by Spicy Life

46. Toor Dal Chutney by Curry In Kadai

47. Red Bean Pancake by Malaysian Delicacies

48. Chhole Masala by Ambrosia

49. Besan Paratha by Indian Food Rocks

50. Sprouted Black chickpea Curry by Hobby and More

51. Osaman or Clear Lentil Soup by Vegetarian Tastebuds

52. Chinese Five Spice Shortbread by Susan at The Well Seasoned Cook

53. Grain-Free Vegan Chocolate Fruit Tart by City Life Eats

54. Mung Dal tadka by Veggie Affair

55. White Peas Sundal by Sugar n’ Spice

56. Medhu Vadai by Sugar n’ Spice

57. Mixed Dal Vadai by Sugar n’ Spice

58. Chana Masala by Sugar n’ Spice

59. Moong Dal Payasam by Sugar n’ Spice

60. Carrot Lentil Salad by Red Chillies

61. Jamaican Rice and Beans with Mangoes by Saffronstreaks

62. Humus and Falafel Wraps by The V Kitchen

63. Aamer Dal by The V Kitchen

64. Vegetarian Chilli with Mixed Nuts Paste by Mharo Rajasthan's Recipes

65. Chholar Dal by Mharo Rajasthan's Recipes

66. Mung Beans Dumplings by Queen of My Kitchen

67. Adzuki Beans Sauce by Good Eats Corner

68. Paanch Ratan Dal by Shy's Kitchen Chronicles

69. Lauki and Chana Dal by Desi Soccer Mom

70. Masoor Dal by Desi Soccer Mom

This months's MLLA-35 is being hosted at Kannada Cuisine, so head on over there to enter your delicious legume entrees.

The 3s equation, a masoor dal and a MLLA deadline

Today is the last day to submit your entrees for this month’s MLLA-34 hosted on this blog. I knew MLLA was a popular event but I had no idea how much. My inbox has been deluged with entrees, ok, not deluged, but I have been getting a couple of entrees every day since I announced the event. It is astounding. If you still haven’t posted your lentil creation, now is the time. The clock is ticking.

I have already managed to post one entry and in it I promised Susan I will post another one. This one is a simple masoor dal which accidently got sprouted because I got busy dealing with those pesky things in life that come in threes. I have heard all my life that all things come in threes and I always hoped they are all good things. No such luck. Here’s how it all went down:

My laptop is an extension of my blogger and student self. I write my blog posts on it, edit photos in picassa, write essays, do homework and take my online class on it. For all the important tasks it helps me accomplish, I do not take particularly good care of my laptop. It sits on my lap when I am lounging on the couch, watching TV and doing my home work. It sometimes slides to the carpet if I turn around to grab an occasional snack from the side table or to plug the power cord in. So far, it has come about relatively unscathed.

The universe or the laptop must have lost patience with my clumsiness. One day last week, when it slid to the ground for the 100th time, it fell on the side where the power cord was plugged in. I did not realize till an hour late that the battery wasn’t charging because the fall had broken the thin little plug. The very next day, I walked into an electronics store to buy a new power cord. The bill at the register: $80! Not a small price to pay for a moment of clumsiness. I was dismayed to say the least.

The bumper, propped up.

On my way back, I had to pick the kid up from preschool and guess what? I got into a fender bender at a yield sign. The car (read tank) I crashed into was a Chevy Tahoe, which did not seem to have a single scratch. My sedan on the other hand had a loose bumper and a smashed headlight. This was my first accident in ten years since I started driving. I wasn’t hurt, nor was the driver of the Chevy. I was surprised at how calm I was, pulling into the nearby parking lot and making phone calls to a friend to pick the kid up from preschool. I called the preschool to let them know my friend was going to pick the kid up.

Only then did I turn my attention to the Chevy driver who was busy taking pictures of both the cars with his cell phone camera. We exchanged insurance information; he helped me prop up the now hanging bumper and drove away. I on the other hand sat for ten minutes in the car, shaking and trying to comprehend the last half an hour. The whole experience was so surreal, I found myself shaking and on the verge of tears.

It took me about ten minutes to gather myself before driving back home, which was five minutes from the scene of the accident. As if the unnecessary expense of the power adaptor and now the possible hassle of dealing with the insurance adjusters and repair shop wasn’t enough, two days later, our lawn fence fell down due to high winds we get this time around in Tx. It was a big 15 foot section which fell and normally I am all for breaking down fences. But this time around, there was the question of our HOA who are very strict about matters of outdoor appearance.

The wind blown fence.

The neighbors we share the fence with have three dogs who were suddenly confined indoors and it was hard to see them looking out longingly at the sunny lawn. Phone calls to fence companies followed for a week, getting quotes and conferring with the neighbors. Those were the three things, none of them good, that disrupted our normally calm lives in a single week.

Sprouted masoor

It is a good thing I have a good network of friends on twitter and facebook. I got plenty of support and encouragement from Soma, Manisha, Susan and some of the readers who follow me on twitter and facebook. I had also put the word out that I was looking for a spare hp adapter, and a few days later, my best friend Erin called back to say she had not one but two spares from two separate kaput laptops. I met her for lunch and good conversation and came home $80 richer for it.

Meanwhile, the car is in the repair shop and the fence is still down. I do have about a dozen estimates for fence repair and we should have a new fence in a couple of weeks.

While the stress of threes is ebbing away, I have to contend with the fact that my semester finals are drawing to a close. That means, finishing off three essays for the English class, a power point presentation and a final exam for the Computer Application class and a final third exam for the history class. I am done with the PowerPoint presentation and two essays but I still have a final exam and one more essay to write by Sat. The history exam is next Monday. Looks like I am stuck with the 3s equation for a while.

Yesterday, after reading up three history chapters, I turned my attention to the sprouting masoor that had been pushed to the back of the fridge. He came home just as I was finished prepping for it. He had bought some fresh trout from the store. Two whistles in the cooker for the masoor while the trout sat in a rub of salt, black pepper and red chili powder. I rolled a few chapattis, grilled the trout on my cast iron skillet and dinner was ready.

Sprouted Masoor Dal

Ingredients:
3/4 cup sprouted masoor
1/4 cup chopped onions
3-4 garlic cloves, minced fine
1/4 cup chopped tomatoes

For tadka:
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp asafetida powder
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp garam masala

Method:
Heat 1/2 tablespoon oil in a pressure cooker and add the cumin seeds. Turn the heat to medium low and add turmeric and asafetida. As they turn fragrant in a few second, add the chopped onions and minced garlic. Stir around till the onions are translucent and the garlic tender.
Add garam masala and red chili powder. Cook for a minute before adding the tomatoes. Cover and let the tomatoes soften before adding the sprouted masoor.
Add salt to taste, some vegetable stock or water to cover. Bring to a boil on high heat, put the lid on. Let the lentils cook on medium heat for two whistles. Turn off the heat, let the pressure subside, transfer to a platter and serve with rotis and a nice piece of grilled fish of your choice.

The final dinner.

Note: Masoor can be cooked in a pan instead of a cooker, since it doesn’t take long to cook. Cook till it is tender but still has a bite to it.
You don’t have to sprout it, but it is recommended that you soak it for a couple of hours.
Add more garam masala if you prefer it spicy. I love the taste of masoor itself, so I try not to overwhelm the dal with too much spice.

A couple of parting notes:

While I juggle the final week of Spring semester, I decided to make a DSM page for those readers who would like to connect with me on fb but prefer not to invade my private space. If you belong to that category, there is a link on the top left corner that should take you to the DSM page on fb. If you would rather follow me on twitter, search for Desisoccermom there.

I will leave you with this link and announcement to Sra’s blog where she announced the revival of Of Chalks & Chopsticks, an event started by Aqua. If you have a food related tale to spin, this is the event for you.

Business of being busy and an easy okra stir fry

This week has been busier than usual for me. Since it is Easter this Friday, the kid’s school had an Easter egg hunt on Monday. For the uninitiated, the hunt involves each kid carrying about a dozen candy filled plastic eggs to school and handing them over to the teacher. The teacher collects all the eggs, scatters them in the playground and lets the kids loose to hunt for a dozen eggs. One hopes that the kid doesn’t come back with the same eggs he turned in the first place. I ended up filling up two dozen of the multicolored ovals, because the kid got invited to a friend’s backyard Easter egg hunt the very next day.

 Eggs, eggs and more eggs.

Maybe it’s just me, but the last thing a five year old needs is two dozen candy filled eggs. Thankfully, my kid cares only for the occasional bouncy ball that may find its way in one of the eggs. The candy, he just dumps out or shares it with his friends.
If two Easter egg hunts weren’t exciting enough, we finally finished staining and filling up the 6x6 sandbox that he finished building last week. It had been sitting empty for almost a week before our good neighbors helped us haul 33 bags of sand back home. After an hour of hauling and emptying the 50 lb bags, the sandbox was full, the kid was happy and we were exhausted.

Yes, it is as big as it looks! (6X6)

No dinner was cooked that day. We had some eggs and bread, the kid a rava bhakri, which will be a post for another day. Today, after another exhausting day of dentist appointment, bathroom cleaning and carting the kid to and fro from school, the dinner was simple. The kid had dosas with leftover dal from the morning. He got a vegetable Panini for me from his office canteen which I had with some guacamole that he made and a few asparagus that I stir fried on the skillet.

For him, I made bhendi chi kurkurit bhaji (stir fried crispy okra). I say for him, because I have never liked the slimy vegetable, even though it turns crunchy and not-at-all-slimy when cooked to a crisp on slow to medium flame. But he likes it, so every so often I will pick up a bunch of okra for him. He likes it with a little bit more oil than usual and with lots of caramelized onions. So that’s how I make it.

Bhendi, Bhindi, Okra, ladyfinger. A cross-section of the slimy veggie

Do you see a pattern here that I mentioned in my last post, about doing things for each other? Though I have to admit, cooking okra this way is ridiculously simple, with just red chili powder and salt to spice it up. However, I am told that the sweetness of the caramelized onions and the crisp bite of the okra is a divine combination. My brother and sister swear by it and so does my better half. So, I give you bhendi chi kurkurit bhaji, which loosely translates to crispy stir fried okra.
I do have a few tips at the end of the post to get the crisp okra that is so desired but so easy to mess up into a slimy sludge. So do read them carefully before you go chopping and stirring some okra and onions in your pan.

Bhendichi Kurkurit Bhaji

Ingredients:
1-2 tblsps oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp red chili powder
1 cups of chopped onion, preferably red
2 cups of okra, cut into thin circles or slim stripes
Salt to taste

Method:
Heat oil in a wide pan and add the mustard seeds. As they start to sputter, lower the heat, add the turmeric powder and stir. Quickly add the red chili powder and the chopped onions, followed by the okra.
Our goal here is to minimize stirring in order to prevent possible sliminess that may occur. Sprinkle salt to taste, gently stir everything and cook uncovered on medium low flame for 20-25 minutes or till cooked through and crispy. Stir in between as needed. Serve with chappatis, dal and rice.

Tips:
Try to stir the okra as little as possible. The more you stir, the slimier it will get.
Do not and I repeat, Do Not, cover the pan at any stage of cooking the okra. It will get slimy.
Try to use a pan with a bigger surface area so as not to crowd the okra and subsequently steam it. The less crowded it is, the less slimy it will be.
Don’t put any water or liquids of any sort in the pan.

Made for each other – Lauki and Chana

This post was waiting to be written for the last few days and not the least because I am hosting MLAA-34. As a host, it would be rude of me not to cook a legume based dish. Yet, every time I sat down to write, some distraction would occupy me before I had to call it a night. Yesterday, it was this rant of Sandeepa over at Bong Mom's Cookbook. She took the words out of my mouth when she questioned why women swoon over a husband who does simple chores around the house and call the woman he is married to lucky.

As one of those “lucky woman” I can tell you, my better half does do a lot around the house, from making the weekly vegetable stock, to making the daily morning tea, unloading the dishwasher and cooking the  occasional risotto. But he does the chores around the house for the same reasons I do the rest of the drudge work and duties of a chauffeur, teacher and entertainer for our five year old. It is a marriage and a partnership where everyone pitches in to the best of their abilities.

As a gesture of appreciation for all that I do around the house, he tries to keep the work stations clean and dishes to a minimum when he cooks. I, on the other hand, cook his favorite vegetables, as and when it suits my fancy. Like lauki (bottle gourd) cooked with chana dal, which incidentally is also my favorite way of eating this bland vegetable. I like my chana to have a bite to it but since he likes his mushy, I make a concession for him and pressure cook the concoction to his liking. I do draw the line at his mom’s bhakri which is a thick tortilla made with stiff dough of whole wheat flour mixed with turmeric, red chili powder and plenty of oil. It takes a lot of muscle to roll out those delicious rounds of dough and after one try, I decided I did not care much for making them.

Lauki, dudhi, bottlegourd.

Capture by: Manisha of Indianfoodrocks

The lauki chana dal sabzi, on the other hand, is quick, almost fool proof and is a “made-for-each-other-combo”. At least that is what I wrote when Manisha put up her photo of lauki dal on Facebook and my comment got an instant ‘like’ for it. So Susan, here is, hopefully, the first of my at least two submissions to your brilliant event.

Lauki Chana Dal

Ingredients:
4 cups of lauki , peeled and cut into bite size chunks
1/4 cup chana dal, soaked in water for at least 2-3 hours
1 small tomato, cut into chunks
1/2 vegetable stock or water

For tadka or tempering:
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp asafetida
4-5 cloves of garlic, minced fine
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp red chili powder
1 tsp dhana-jeera (cumin coriander) powder
1 tsp garam masala or sabzi masala
Pinch of sugar
Salt to taste

Method:
Heat 1/2 tbsp of oil in a 3 or 4ltr pressure cooker. Add the cumin seeds, asafetida and minced garlic. Turn down the heat so the garlic cooks and softens but does not burn. Add the turmeric; stir it till the raw smell turns fragrant.
Drain the water from the chana dal and toss it in the garlic, cumin, and turmeric infused oil. Add a dash of salt, stir, and let cook for two minutes. Add the red chili powder, dhana-jeera and garam masal. Stir and add the chopped tomatoes. Cover and cook on medium heat till the tomatoes get mushy.

Cross section of dudhi/ lauki/ bottlegourd.
Courtesy: Indianfoodrocks

Add the chopped lauki, salt to taste, mix everything gently. Add the vegetable stock and bring everything to a gentle boil. Put on the lid and pressure cook for one whistle.
Wait for the pressure to subside, transfer the dal lauki to a serving bowl, garnish with coriander and serve with rotis.

Note: The spice proportions are what work for me. However, lauki being a bland vegetable as well of varying sizes, feel free to add more of the red chili or garam masala if you like it spicier. The above proportions are for the big lauki I had, which yielded four cups chopped.

If, for some reason, you do not own a pressure cooker, cook the lauki and chana dal in a lidded pot. Cook till the chana dal is tender and the lauki is cooked through.

A reader of mine in India once wrote to me that she found my baingan bharta bland because she followed the exact spice proportion in the recipe. I will reiterate what I told her, “Taste buds in our family are somewhat dulled from living in the US. Always go with your normal proportion and gut when adding spices and/or heat to any recipe on this blog, unless stated otherwise.” So, go ahead, don’t hesitate before adding that extra pinch of garam masala.

For the love of cricket and legume

As I write this post, sitting in my usual place on the couch, directly in front of the TV, within easy reach of the remote and the side table, the India-Sri Lanka World Cup finals is on. Sri Lanka is batting at 199-5 with 7 overs to go. I have cut my Saturday morning class, not because I am a cricket fanatic but because it seems the right thing to do.

It also seems fit then to write this post after another long hiatus. Back in the days, when I was blogging regularly, there was nothing I wanted to do more than host Susan’s My Legume Love Affair. A year and some months ago when I emailed her with my request, she told me the only spot she had was for April of 2011. It seemed a long way off back then. Susan assured me of time’s flying abilities and she was right. 

The last six months or so have been busier for me with a growing kid who has a busier social life than us and my own busy schedule. I do miss blogging, especially when I see a post or a recipe I have been wanting to blog about. Or when I cook something different from the usual fare and the family likes it, like Siri’s  brown rice bisibelebath. When I received Susan’s email, asking me if I still wanted to host MLAA, I couldn’t let it pass.


As if that wasn't motivation enough, Aqua @servedwithlove tweeted to @WSeasonedCook: "Oh good, at least hosting MLLA got her to post something on her blog after ages @Desisoccermom."  It is hard to let down a blogger buddy’s sweat sarcasm support. So here I am, announcing the ever popular MLAA - 34, which is the brilliant creation of Susan of The Well Seasoned Cook.

If you are not familiar with the event or new to the blogging world, MLAA is all about entrees where the star ingredient is a legume, bean, pea or pod, basically anything that constitutes as a legume. Before I bullet the official rules, please read what constitutes a legume for your recipe to qualify and refer to it before you decide to dash off an entry. Other than that, a little bit of imagination, a cup or half of legumes, a few spices and a pressure cooker is all you need to enter for the prizes listed down under.

Legume: For the purpose of this event, legumes include fresh or dried beans, lentils, pulses, and/or the sometimes edible pods that contain these seeds, and derivative products like tofu or besan (chickpea flour). According to Susan you can include recipes that use tamarind, fenugreek, carob, peanuts, etc. since they are among some of the other edible plants in the legume family and thus ARE included in the event.


Please note and this is important, a spoonful of legume in a recipe is not quite enough to qualify. If you send in a recipe that does not actually feature legumes, but reference them as an auxiliary ingredient, I will be forced to reject the entry. Remember, MLLA is all about the affair with the legume. It is only fair to your fellow participants that you respect the rules as well. So make sure your recipe includes a fair to liberal amount of legumes in it.


The rules are as follows:


1. All courses and cultures are welcome as well as non-vegetarian entries as long as they have a substantial amount of legumes.


2. Multiple recipes are permitted although only one submission will be counted towards the random drawings. Important note: Multiple recipes are limited to no more than 10. So, please do not send me all the collective legume recipes from your blog. I repeat, limit them to ten.


3. Recipes submitted to other events are also permitted.


4. Recipes from archives will be accepted ONLY if updated and reposted as current.


5. Don’t have a blog, no worries. You are still eligible to win a prize if you send an entry.


6. I do need to know the location of participants so I will know who qualifies to win both or one of the prizes. If you don’t want your location published, that’s ok. Just send it to me in an email so I can make sure you are eligible for the draw.


7. Use of the above logo is optional but Susan’s MLLA logos are so beautiful I cannot imagine why one wouldn’t want to add it to their post.


8. A photo with the entry is preferred, but not essential. Please do try to resize your photos to 200 by 300.


9. Make sure to link your post to this announcement as well as to this link to Susan’s host line-up.


10. The last date for sending your entry/ees is May 3. I will try to post the round-up by end of first week of May. Send your entree here or jayawagle@gmail.com.


For following all of the above rules, to the best of your abilities, here’s what you can win when selected by the random draw:

1) Winner chooses any cookbook or food-related book from Amazon U.S. valued at not more than 15USD for the book itself. This prize is offered by Susan at her expense and she will also absorb worldwide shipping charges. F.T.C. Notice: Susan does not receive any compensation from Amazon.


2) Hurst Bean Box - A case of six bags of the winner's choice of Hurst Bean products, suitable for every diet, sponsored by Hurst Bean. (Due to shipping restrictions, this prize can only be awarded if the winner is a U.S. resident.) F.T.C. Notice: In May 2010, Susan, at her request, received two Hurst Bean complimentary products which are not available for purchase in her local markets. Susan does not generally accept free products from Hurst Bean nor is she financially compensated by them.


3) Drawing Structure - If the winner is a U.S. resident, she/he will be the recipient of both Prizes 1 and 2 above. In the event that an international winner is drawn, a second drawing will be conducted from the U.S. pool of entrants to ensure that the Hurst Prize is awarded every month. In these instances, the international winner will receive the book, and the U.S. winner will receive the Hurst Prize.


As I finish this post and prepare to upload it, India has won the World Cup and I am exhausted from celebrating with friends all day long. We reached home dog tired a little before midnight and I decided to upload the post before hitting the bed. So I hope you will understand if there are any grammatical errors or typos.


Now, go ahead and start posting those entrees.

A Homemade Life and a banana bread

I realize I have been absent from my favorite book club for a long time. It does not, however, mean that I haven’t been reading the books that are voted in as the club’s book of the month. I read Caliph’s house and even managed to write a few lines about it on my iPhone while sipping coffee at a McDonald’s and keeping an eye on Jr running around in the play area. This is what I wrote, if anyone doubts it:

If you pick up this book, expecting it to be along the lines of Under the Tuscan Sun, you will be sorely disappointed. While the Tuscan Sun was a loving albeit a laborious exercise in restoring a Tuscan villa, Caliph’s house is anything but. Fraught with jinns, superstitious guardians, unpredictable secretaries and a mobster for a neighbor, the project to restore a Caliph’s house, at the edge of a Casablanca slum, is destined for disaster…

I could have written more but I quickly lost interest in writing the review. Since the book never got better, how much can one write in the negative?

In contrast to TCH, I thoroughly enjoyed reading Molly Wizenberg’s A Homemade Life. Author of the blog Orangette, Molly writes with an old fashioned, homemade charm about food, family and friends. The book reads like a collection of her blog posts with one to two recipes at the end of each post. There are recipes for soups, stews, salads, cakes and pies, some perfected by her cousins, her dad, her husband and herself.

If you have ever wondered how to word a recipe, from ingredients to method, I highly recommend A Homemade Life. Molly has mastered the art of writing down the most complex of recipes into a simplified, you-can-do-it-style. Reading her recipes, related to the “food stories” that accompany it make you want to step in your kitchen and start making a big pot of soup or bake one of her decadent cakes.

For me, the most poignant of the posts were the ones about her father, his love of all things French that he passed on to her, and her deep connection with him. But there are moments of joy and serendipity and fortuitous connections made over food that will remind you that the common thread that binds us all is also the one that sustains us. That is the reason why so many bloggers blog about food and why there is an entire TV channel dedicated to food.

You may wonder why I have not chosen to cook anything from her book, after praising it so much. For one, after reading through the whole book all I wanted to make more than anything else was Molly’s chocolate cake that she made for her own wedding. This cake uses equal amounts of butter and chocolate, some sugar and just a tablespoon of flour. The recipe is one of those that lures you to make it right away and then consume the finished goods till there is none left.

However, when one day, towards the end of the year, you measure your waist and weight and almost swoon, it is no time to indulge in cakes made almost exclusively of butter, chocolate and sugar. Instead, you start driving towards a very hot Bikram yoga studio and sweat and stretch for 90 minutes until your body feels it has been through the wash, tumble and rinse cycle of the washing machine. After that you indulge yourself in the semi-sweet embrace of a 64% Cocoa Scharffenberger and call it a day.

The purpose of my blog…

This post has been languishing, half-written, in my drafts for a while and seemed like the perfect piece to explain my absence from the blogosphere. I would like to say I was musing, all these months, on the purpose of my blog. The truth is I was busy with the business of being a mom, a part time student, an anime junkie and a BBC comedy snob. Blogging seemed like a chore to be done at the end of the day; a chore which wasn’t as enjoyable as watching an episode of Coupling or Full Metal Alchemist while the kiddo slept soundly in the other room. However, I am back now, rejuvenated by the extended break and hopefully will blog more regularly, for a couple of months at least. Till my next post, here are some reasons why Desisoccermom exists.

Apart from those who comment, do you know who else reads your blog? I know for a fact that my family, back in India, with the exception of my brother does not read it. For them it is just a hobby I indulge in, especially since I didn’t cook much for the first 27 years of my life.

It doesn’t matter that this blog has been a launching pad for a long due apology to my mom for my bratty behavior when I was in my troublesome teens. It has been a platform to pen an ode to my grandma and the battered heirlooms she passed on to me. Have they read any of it? No. For them, if I am not working in an “office” and bringing home a paycheck, it is a hobby. (In their defense, my grandma does not own a computer and my mom is not computer savvy or refuses to be one.)

Then there are friends of mine from college days who sometimes drop by to catch up and once in a while leave a comment. But these are few and far in between. Recently, one of these friends, let’s call him Y (because his name starts with it), told me that he could not figure out the purpose of my blog. When a good friend of 20 years can’t figure out the purpose of a blog which is titled Desi Soccer Mom, the writer of the said blog has to pause and do some soul searching.

The blog was started, like most things in my life, with an impulse and no clue. If I had done some research, I would have gone with Wordpress just because they have so much cooler templates than blogger (no offense blogspot). As it happens, I went with blogger.

It is true I did not have a purpose in mind when I opened my template and started writing. In the beginning it was an attempt to chronicle the goings-on in my life, which, now that I think of, are not that interesting. The kiddo had just started preschool, I had a few hours to myself and this seemed like a good way to brush up on my writing skills. To be honest, the skills needed more than just brushing. They needed to be sanded, scrubbed, brushed and polished. (The polishing is still going on and hopefully will never end.)

Like most desis I know I too cook almost every day, to the great surprise of my American neighbors. It was natural that writing about food or about my life somewhat overlapped. Once the food was put to pen, I couldn’t stop, not because I am a great cook or everything I cook is finger licking good. Heck, I am not even a versatile cook like some bloggers I know.

I am however, what I like to call, an evolving cook. In my dictionary, an involving cook is one who does not follow a recipe to a T or stresses over just the right ingredients the recipe calls for. Ok, that may be because I am incapable of following a recipe to a T and I never plan in advance for a recipe, so I am forced to innovate substitute garam masala with sabzi masala and sometimes omit the dhana-jeera because I have run out of it. I have been known to use red chili powder instead of green chilies because I was too lazy to chop them.

So, why do I blog mostly about food, but sometimes also about the books I read? It is certainly not intended as collection of recipes for Jr. who is as picky an eater as I was till I started college. I also do not have scores of followers waiting with bated teeth for me to post a recipe. Maybe it is because I like the fact that I created something edible and possibly delicious that my friends and family liked. I think that warrants it getting recorded, possibly for posterity on the world web.

I do love reading books and our book club directs me to books I may never have chosen or found out about on my own. So instead of reading the labels on the back of processed foods, I pick up a book every month, read it, review it and sometimes cook from it. Reading well constructed sentences and clever use of words gives me pleasure no amount of dark chocolate can. Never mind that I savor the dark cocoa confection while I devourer the book.

My last post, some months ago, was a piece of fiction I wrote for one of the finest bloggers to grace the blogging world. I have to admit, I have enjoyed the attention garnered by my fiction pieces. In fact, my fiction posts seem to be more popular than my food posts. Does that give me another purpose to keep blogging? Possibly yes. Because as much as I blog for me and me alone, I also like the little bit of attention I sometimes get.

Which brings me to the second part of the story, It takes two to err..., that all of you have been waiting for me to post and that I haven’t finished writing yet. But I am working on it and hopefully, will post it sooner than later.

As to the purpose of my blog, well, I have to say, I still am not sure what it is. Maybe it is the pleasure of knowing that my words are read and appreciated. Maybe the thrill of knowing that my recipes, stories and anecdotes, no matter how lame or corny, have been recorded on the invisible tracks of the internet for posterity.

I know for certain that I enjoy the comments that start to trickle in a couple of hours after I post something. I certainly feel lucky to have made some wonderful friends through this blog, friends who have indulged me in my rants and patiently answered my questions about their photography skills.

I guess, above all, it is the unbridled pleasure of knowing that Desisoccermom is MY space to write whatever it is I want, when I want or not. There are no pesky editors, no demanding boss or nagging overseer. It is my domain, to do as I please or take a three month break if it pleases me.

If you haven’t drifted off to another blog by now, let me ask you this: what is the purpose of your blog?