Suvarnabhumi airport

Sunrise outside the Suvarnabhumi Airport

SagarManthan

A traditional Thai pavilion

The Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok , Thailand can only be described as IMPRESSIVE!!

The name "Suvarnabhumi" means Golden Land and was chosen to represent the Thailand Cambodia Laos Burma region which was traditionally called the Golden land. Its located 30 kms east of Bangkok and will be connected to the Bangkok Central Business District by skytrain in four years.

Designed by Murphy / Jahn Architects, the structure is chiefly glass and steel , letting in plenty of light into all the inner spaces. Some well landscaped inner courtyards and gardens provide a good contrast to the ultramodern design of the airport. The elements I liked best were the Thai paintings, statues and examples of Thai traditional architecture placed throughout the airport to give a visitor an introduction to Thai culture. I was a little apprehensive about taking photographs, as after the recent security issues involving airports, I expected someone to jump out from behind a column and confisicate the camera anytime. But, noone seemed to be bothered and after seeing other tourists happily clicking away, I also took some photos.

Back from Thailand

Back from an amazing trip to Thailand. R and I went for 10 days, had our fill of culture, nature, shopping and the beach. When we got back after a 5 flight, longer than 24 hours journey, our friend said we looked relaxed and happy.. thats the effect Thailand had on us.. how many times does one get of from such a journey looking happy and relaxed?

We started off with three days in Bangkok, then two days in Chiang Rai, two days in Chiang Mai and three days in Phuket before we had to come back. The highlights of our trip were the Grand Palace, Wat Po and Jim Thompsons house in Bangkok, going for and elephant safari and attending a khantokke dinner in Chiang Rai, shopping and going to the Royal Flora Ratchaphruck 2006 Festival in Chiang Mai and the great beaches and resort at Phuket!! We also ate the most wonderful food at every place.. fresh, spicy and loads of variety!!

Tomato Saar or the Indian take on Tomato Soup

This is a really fragrant take on tomato soup, which I love to eat with thick slices of toast or chapattis.

3 tomatoes
2 chilies, slit vertically into 2-4 pieces
2 tsp jeera
1 tsp ghee or cooking oil
5-6 whole peppercorns
6-7 curry leaves
1 tsp asafoetida
around 1 cm of ginger cut into thin slices
salt to taste
sugar to taste
1 tbsp fresh finely chopped coriander

Make a cross shaped incision on the top of the tomatoes. Set enough water to boil so that when the tomatoes are immersed, the top of the tomatoes are covered. When the water boils, add the tomatoes. Let the water continue boiling till the top skin of the tomatoes peels off. Let the tomatoes cool a bit and then peel the skin off. Put the tomatoes in a blender and puree the mixture.

In a kadhai / wok, heat the ghee / oil . Add the asafoetida, the peppercorns,curry leaves and jeera seeds. After the jeera seeds sizzle, add the tomato puree. Add the ginger slices, chilies, salt and sugar. Wait till the tomato mixture boils and add around 2 cups of water. One can add a can of coconut milk instead of the water for a creamier tomato saar that can be eaten with rice. Turn the heat on low and let it cook till it boils once more.
Season with the finely chopped coriander before serving.

Spring Onion Bhaji

Winters started in Austin, or rather Fall. Its windy, chilly and such a huge relief from the scorching still heat of the Texas summer. I really appreciate this weather after 4 long months of summer. This is one of the vegetable preparations I look forward to eating after a long day at work. It takes around 20 minutes to cook and tastes really good with some rotis and raita or rice and dal.

Spring Onion Bhaji ( Kandyachya Patichi Bhaji)

3 bunched of spring onions, cut horizontally (around 2 cupfulls) including the white onion on top
1/2 cup of besan (gram flour)
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp asafoetida
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1-2 tsp peanut / cooking oil
1/2 cup water
salt and red chilli powder to taste

Heat the oil in a kadhai / wok .Add the asafoetida, turmeric and mustard seeds. Wait till the mustard seeds burst and then add the 2 cups of spring onion. Add the salt and red chilli powder and mix thoroughly. Cook on medium heat for 5 minutes after covering the vessel. The spring onion will have released some water. Add the 1/2 cup of water. When this water boils, turn the heat on low and add the besan. Stir quickly to make sure it mixes in as a smooth paste.Let this cook till the raw smell of the besan is gone.

Red Pumpkin Raita

This is a recipe I learnt from my mother, I have not ever had this at anyone else's home, so have no idea how my mother got this recipe from, but I really like this raita and so does R, so its a common occurrence in our kitchen.

2.5 - 3 cups of pumpkin, cut into roughly square pieces, about an inch wide
1-2 chilies, cut horizontally, I like very fine pieces,
1 tsp jeera
1 tsp mustard seeds
2-3 tsps cooking oil
curry leaves
1/2 tsp asafoetida
1/2 tsp turmeric
salt to taste
1 lb / 16 oz yoghurt
1/2 cup coriander / cilantro leaves, roughly chopped


Boil the pumpkin pieces in a pressure cooker till mashable.
Mix the pumpkin, yoghurt, chilies and salt. Mash the mixture a little.
For the seasoning, heat the oil , add the asafoetida, the turmeric, the curry leaves, mustard and jeera till the jeera sizzles.
Pour the seasoning over the yoghurt - pumpkin mixture and mix gently but thoroughly.
Mix the coriander.

Stuffed Tomatoes

Recently I was making minestrone soup based on a Rachael Ray recipe. Can I say I adore Rachael Ray? True, I probably might not like all her recipes and will surely will never be able to make a meal in 30 minutes unless u count omlettes! But I just love her zest for cooking and lively presentation.. and yes her retro kitchen takes the cake! After making the soup, I ended up with huge chunks of cheese and a large quantity of basil. I rarely make Italian food, so I wanted to use them up before i forgot all about them and then saw them after a couple of weeks when the only thing I can do with them is put them into garbage.
I was still pondering this (I was in Costco) when I saw a box of cocktail tomatoes. They were the perfect size to be stuffed, large enough to take a decent amount of stuffing and small enough to be eaten whole! Since I am addicted to Food TV and coould vaguely remember a recipe for cheese stuffed tomatoes.. thats what I ended up making with the leftover cheese and basil. A pesto turkey lunch sandwich at the Moonshine Grill and Patio served as inspiration to make some pesto for the cheese stuffing.

Ingredients:
20-25 cocktail tomatoes
a cupful of basil leaves
a handful of walnuts
5-6 cloves of walnut
a cupful of Parmigiano Reggiano
a cupful of Pecorino Romano
some olive oil
black pepper
salt

So basically went about the process of stuffing the tomatoes by first chopping of the stem end of the tomatoes and then removing the pulp inside. I rubbed the tomatoes with some salt and pepper and placed them upside down on a sieve to drain. Like a good Indian girl I collected the pulp and the drained juices for use on some later day :-). Then proceeded to make pesto by grinding a cup of basil, 5-6 cloves of garlic, salt and some olive oil after adding the walnuts to the mixture midway.
Mixed the pesto with the grated Parmigiano Reggiano and Pecorino Romano, some grated black pepper.
Rubbed the outer skins of the tomatoes with some olive oil and then filled each tomato a little over the brim. Preheated the oven to 400'f and when the oven was ready baked the tomatoes for 18 minutes, till the cheese melted and browned slightly.

Its Diwali!!

Diwali, this year, came upon me before I knew it.. so had no time to meditate on what I would like to make. I did feel like making some Faral (Maharashtrian sweetmeats) , but after looking up some recipes and noting that all involved copious amounts of frying..which usually gives me an enormous headache, I gave up on that notion. But there were two Diwali potlucks over the weekend and I did not want to show up empty handed:-). So decided to make quick and easy stuffed chilies. Bought two pounds of jalapeno peppers from the local grocery, the Mexican blend of shredded cheese and I was all set to go.
Since I always keep a large bag of frozen corn in the freezer (being a huge corn freak !) and always have some garam masala at hand, the rest was simple and straightforward.
Cut the stem end of the chilies and slit them vertically I proceeded to deseed them, (note to self in the future: wearing gloves while doing this is a really good idea to avoid the burning sensation that deseeding chilies can leave).I rubbed the chilies with some olive oil very lightly. I microwaved a bowl of corn for 2 minutes and then mixed it with the shredded cheese, some garam masala, salt , turmeric for some color and some dhana-jeera powder. I set the oven to preheat to 400'F and stuffed the chilies while it got to that temperature.
Once the chilies were stuffed and the oven was preheated, I put the chilies in for 12 minutes. Let them sit in the oven for 2-3 minutes after the first 12 minutes were over and I had turned off the oven.
The smell of the melting cheese was a good indicator that the chilies were done. The chilies looked a little wilted and I could see they had been cooked well.

That was it.. I was happy to have prepared a spicy, cheesy appetizer in a short time, with no frying involved!