My Favorite Usal

On a trip to Mahabaleshwar a long time back, my family stopped at a roadside 'khanaval' (a restaurant which serves a Maharashtrian thali ) in Wai for lunch. I still have memories of the usal I ate there. It was intensely spicy and had the most delicious aroma. My mother told me that was because of the kanda lasun masala. I have been a fan of usal ever since, spicy usal with lots of rassa (liquid). Although it was part of the thali and was served with chapattis and rice, I find it tastes great with some bread too, especially the crusty kind to sop all the spicy rassa.

One half onion (about 1 cup)diced
2 cups tomoato diced
2 cups matki sprouts
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp asaefotida
1tbsp dry grated coconut
1 tbsp kanda-lasun masala
salt to taste
chilli powder to taste.
1/2 tbsp peanut oil

Heat the oil in a kadhi / wok
Add the mustard seeds to the oil and the asaefotida. When the mustard seeds splutter, add the onion. After the onions turn soft and slightly yellow, add the tomatoes, coconut, salt and kanda lasun masala. When the tomatoes become mushy and start letting out all their liquid, add the matki sprouts and about 2 cups of water. Set the heat on medium and let the 'usal' boil for some time. Add some more water as per your liking and some chilli powder and salt as per taste. Garnish with coriander. It tastes great if some lemon juice is added right before serving.

Tomato Soup

I have loved tomato soup ever since I was a child. Steaming hot soup with lots of croutons, a swirl of cream and generous sprinklings of freshly ground black pepper.. yum! Hotel Darshan in Pune at the intersection of Prabhat Road and Karve Road used to serve really good tomato soup. In Austin, Romeo's serves a really good tomato basil soup. Tomato enthusiasts know that the best tomatoes are available here in summer, but this is a great way to eat some tomatoes in winter too. This is also a great lunch option with some crisp toast instead of the croutons.
However I am not a big fan of tomato soup loaded with cream, it takes away from the natural taste of the tomato. I much prefer a lighter soup with a more concentrated tomato taste. The addition of cream is basically for thickening the consistency and to give it a smoother texture. One way to get round this is to add cornflour, but a better way is to add boiled carrots or potatoes. Carrots are preferable for the color as well as the taste they add to the soup.

Start by washing 4-5 big tomatoes, usually Roma. Cut a cross shape at their stem end to make it easier to peel them later. I take 2 carrots, wash them thoroughly, cutting the carrots into 2-3 pieces each. Set some water to boil, enough to cover all the tomatoes. After the water comes to a boil, add the tomatoes, stem end up, along with the carrots.

Let the water boil for some time, till the skin of the tomatoes starts shrivelling and the carrots turn a little soft. At this point, turn off the heat and remove the tomatoes and carrots from the water with a slotted spoon. I save the water to add to the soup later. I usually wait till the tomatoes cool down before peeling the skin. Blend the peeled tomatoes, and carrots in a blender to a smooth puree, adding some water from the boiling pot if needed. Pour the puree back in the boiling pot. Add about 2tbsp of butter, 4-6 peppercorns, some salt and some basil if desired. Bring back to a boil. Allow to simmer for 5-10 minutes before tasting for salt. Add a little sugar if desired to balance the tomatoes. Simmer for 5-10 minutes more and tomato soup is ready!

Awaiting The Deathly Hallows

Along with many other things, my genetic inheritance from my parents is a love of reading. My mother and my father both love to read, though they both read very different genres. Back in Poona, our house is crowded with book shelves. The one thing I have never been denied (for the fear that I might be spoilt) is a library membership. I even got to choose my own library at the age of seven as I was not too happy with the selection from the library my mother went to. Not too many Enid Blytons there! People who lived in or are living in India will remember that libraries in India are usually small private enterprises, usually housed in an outhouse or garage and run by retired folks or ladies who look at it as a part time occupation. The first thing I wanted to do after some super stressful exams was to go home and read a good book, stay up late in the night reading. I think I always disappointed my peers who would have rather gone out partying or at least for a movie.When I saw the library collection at UT, Austin (yes, I am a Longhorn!!), the tenth largest in the United States, according to the American Library Association, with 8,937,002 volumes, I was elated. Every book that I could think of, I could get.

This week, me and my friends are living in eager anticipation of Harry Potter - The Deathly Hallows, surely the biggest phenomenon in the book reading world to date. Part of the Harry Potter experience has been this waiting period between each book, of going over the many possibilities of what could happen and finding out what actually did. I got into the series quite late - just before the launch of book 4. Once I started reading, I was addicted. Always on the lookout for a good book, the fact there were 3 more books to follow made me extremely happy. Book 7 will be the culmination of the series, when all the missing links get tied in and all the questions get answered (hopefully not too tragically). I wasn't around when Lord of the Rings was being published, so cant really compare it to what it must have felt like to wait for the later parts. But I do feel really lucky to have been around for this series. I am sure having all seven books at hand is not the same! So 5 days, and 10 hours to go .........

The Cool House Tour

Austin is routinely rated among the best places to live in the USA. Most ratings seem to elicit just a good natured yawn from long time residents - sort of like... well we already knew that, didn't we? Tell us something we don't know. I confess I hate Austin summers, but there is little else i don't like about this city I now call home. A booming metropolis on the make, with a small town feel, getting more and more diverse by the day with a young energetic population, Austin offers a lot of opportunities to do well 'Austiny' things. Like spending a Sunday going about town, carpooling of course with good friends S and S, to see and experience 8 environment friendly houses at the start of the Austin summer. The Cool House Tour 2006, organized by the Texas Solar Energy Society and the Austin Green Energy Building Program offered 8 houses that have incorporated different features to go green. Looks like in addition to all the accolades Austin regularly receives, it is now aiming to become one of the greenest cities in the US. Way to go!! As an architect by education, and an environmentalist by vocation, I loved the idea. After visiting each of the houses, (no we did not skip a single one) I was even more impressed. All the houses looked very different, reflecting the personalities of the people who lived in them. All of them were warm and inviting and had none of the cold mechanical look that might be associated with green buildings. Careful and judicious use of green building features like ceiling fans to reduce the load on air conditioning systems, sensitivity to site design, use of appropriate and sometimes recycled building materials, water tanks, bamboo flooring etc. combined into the very distinct design of each building led to a very pleasing effect overall. I and R came back with some resolutions, (The Cool House Tour- our resolutions), which we hope to gradually incorporate into our own house. So if you are in Austin at the start of summer, do try and go for the Cool House Tour!