18 posts tagged “click”
- Function: noun
- Etymology: Middle English heirlome, from heir + lome
- Date: 15th century
1 : a piece of property that descends to the heir as an inseparable part of an inheritance of real property
2 : something of special value handed on from one generation to another
3 : a horticultural variety that has survived for several generations usually due to the efforts of private individuals
The tabla is a popular Indian percussion instrument. The instrument consists of a pair of hand drums of contrasting sizes and timbres, tuned with ropes stretched across the drums.
At my wedding, my parents gifted me a miniature pair, hand crafted from heavy silver. They gave my sister a similar pair, and the drums are now a treasured family heirloom. After coming to the US, they were the first thing I sent for.
I use them to keep cardamom and fennel seeds on the table, as a time-honored after-dinner Indian tradition. Cardamom and fennel are used in India as mouth fresheners, much like the American chocolate mint. Fennel seeds may or may not be toasted, and are sometimes covered with pastel colored sugar coating. Cardamom seeds may be sweetened and painted with silver dust for a more elegant presentation.
The picture goes to Jugalbandi September, which is paired with the Monthly Mingle- theme heirloom.
*Updated on 10/18/09- I won it! The elusive Click Spectra- for best capture.
Remember the mangosteen?
*slaps forehead*
I must be really busy.
Date and pistachio stuffed semolina cookies, flavored with rose water. Familiar to the Indian palate, yet very different.
For my parents.
Are you parent to an aspiring cook? Do you silently watch as your child wreaks havoc on your precious cookware? Do you swallow undercooked pasta with a brave smile and a word of encouragement?
In another twenty or so years, you shall be rewarded.
With cookies.
Hang in there.
p.s. I'd like to send one of these pics to Jugalbandi Click for May- theme cookies. Which picture do you like best?
....three potato, four,
five potato, six potato, seven potato more.
Icha bacha, soda cracker,
Icha bacha boo.
Icha bacha, soda cracker, out goes Y-O-U!
Scrub the small potatoes under water until they start to shine. Toss with olive oil, salt, pepper and fresh rosemary. Roast in a 400 degree oven until tender. Serve with a salad and crusty bread.
Do these potatoes say 'spring' to you? Are they CLICK-worthy?
Things keep happening in the real world, keeping me from Voxing as usual.
On Friday, I tried to get my credentials verified for when I go out into the adult world. Its a nerve wracking process, and will probably take a few months to complete. After which the even more nerve-wracking visa-job-moving process will begin. Let the fun begin.
Received Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads in the mail. Did not receive Freud's New Lectures. Made a transitional rye hearth bread. Did not make slides for case conference on Thursday.
Had our first American car-wash experience. Tis fun! I can't wait to go back.
Took some shots with the new 55-200mm lens, which we found at Circuit City closing sale at half the price. (Made me feel a bit like a grave robber.)
You knew the pics were coming, didn't you? :)
We paired the bread with a hearty vegetable-quinoa-bean soup. The soup is basically a mish-mash of several web-recipes, but it is really good.
Soup recipe
A baking sheet full of roasted veggies. I used one red onion, two zucchini, a carrot, and one orange pepper, tossed with 1 tbsp of olive oil, salt and pepper, and roasted in a 400 degree post-bread-baking oven for 30 minutes.
1/2 cup pinto beans, soaked for a few hours in warm water
1/4 cup quinoa, washed well in warm water (removes the bitterness)
1 tbsp Better than Buillion veggie base (or one buillion cube)
1 cup packed washed baby spinach leaves
1 tsp garam masala
1 cup diced canned tomatoes
1/4 cup fresh herbs (I used sage and oregano)
1 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
Heat the oil in a presure cooker/heavy pot. Add the quinoa and stir around for a couple of minutes, until toasted. Then add the roasted veggies, beans, tomatoes, veggie base, salt and pepper, and about 6 cups of water. Bring the whole mess to a boil and then simmer, covered, until the beans are tender. (In a pressure cooker this will take about twenty minutes, or two whistles.)
During the last few minutes, add the baby spinach, garam masala and fresh herbs. Serve with warm bread and maybe some cheese. Enjoy.
I'd like to send one of the pictures above to this month's Click over at Jugalbandi, themed Wood (includes paper, cane). Which one do you like best?
*Edited to add: I'm sending the first picture to Click-wood. Thanks! Not very happy with it, but too lazy to try more.
Thanks a Ton for the honest opinions. Sometimes I work a picture to the point I can't tell the difference between good and bad; it all starts to look the same. Your opinions help me re-focus. Here's a couple of different cheese pics. They're not earth shattering, either, but tell me how they compare to the two in the first post.
Thanks again for all the opinions. I will be submitting the second pic to Jugalbandi's Click February.
The category for this month's Click, the photo event over at Jugalbandi, which gets my competitive juices flowing much like the weekly Psych Jeopardy.
The first thing I thought of was paneer. Home made cottage cheese. An old favorite is cumin-cilantro-black peppercorn studded cheese, sold by the guy in the spotless kurta-pajama at Delhi's farmer's market. We usually make the plain version, but the spices and herbs add that special something.
The inspiration for the next pic came from Iron Chef on Food network, where the challenger made simple Parmesan wafers. I thought, 'Tuiles!'
I wasn't quite happy with the way the tuiles photographed, but oh well. Tell me which one you like best, and I will send it to Click.
For this month's CLICK photo event over at Jugalbandi. Which one do you like best?
In a completely unrelated story, I have been experimenting with sourdough. A lady at work gave me some of her 25-year old sourdough starter. I brought the valve-top bottle home, left it on the counter and fell asleep. Well, the bottle exploded sometime during the night and now there is fermented potato starch all over the floor, walls, windows, the fridge..splatters as far as the living room sofa.
The bread better be worth it.
Edited to add:
Responses from neighbors and friends on Vox and Twitter have been curiously mixed. The second pic goes to CLICK. Thanks for all the comments, people.
This month's theme at my fave food blog is crusts. I made Focaccia from Rose Levy Berenbaum's Bread Bible. Just a piece of advice- do not attempt to make high hydration dough mixer recipes by hand. Our hands are not powered by electricity, as I realized a bit too late.
My arm is still aching, but the bread was delightfully crusty.
If you would like to make focaccia and you don't have a dough mixer, just use this recipe. If you do have a mixer, Rose's recipe is a sure shot winner.
