After a very long time.....

Dear Blog,
The twins are nearly two. Their time of sleep and food are well defined. This means I have more time to write, cook and watch films. Last night I watched,'Tickets' a movie by Kiarostami, Loach and Olmi. A good one! See if you can pick it up. And cooked today Kerala kadala curry, uppumanga curry and a simple dal. Everyone licked their fingers. The recipes are uncomplicated unlike me. For the kadala curry : Soak two cups of black channa overnight. Pressure cook it with salt, a wee bit of turmeric, a little cinnamon ,two cardamom till the whistles of the cooker drive you nuts. What I mean is cook till the channas are soft. In another pan fry three tbsps of coconut along with a tbsp of coriander seed, three cloves of garlic, red chilly to taste, a little fennel, some more cinnamon and a green cardamom. Fry all the above ingredients till brown and then grind to a fine paste with three or four teaspoons of the cooked channa. Add the ground mixture to the black channa and boil till the rawness of the ground paste disappears. Of course I plucked a few curry leaves from my window sill and added that too. Eat with rice not before checking for salt! By the way, now I try to cook only in earthen pots. I picked up some earthenware when Jinan exhibited kumbham in Mumbai. Google kumbham to discover more about terracotta. Asked Gundya and Swati to buy too.
For the uppumanga curry: When I was walking the streets of Bora Bazar I espied an exclusive Bedekar shop. And I saw tender mangoes in brine and I remembered my grandmother's bharani sitting like a fat woman in the corner of the attic.
The recipe is easy. Grind two mangoes, salt, green chilly and coconut to a fine paste. Add to whipped curd and mix well. Temper with mustard and curry leaves preferably in coconut oil. The mixture should stay in one place like an obedient child and not be runny.
As for Mumbai, at lunch K found a strand of loooong hair in his Chinese thali at Sundance. The dish was replaced but I yucked....
Good night Blog!