I have decided to give my spice feature a name and some character. Just the perfect, thing to do on this rainy Sunday. So, I hope to tell you about my weekly spice and a little about the week that was…
Mustard, is a very essential spice in my household. Mustard is called Shorshe in Bengali and Sarson or Rai in Hindi. It is a round black seed and is usually found in yellow and black forms. The black mustard is more popular and found more commonly in Indian households. In fact, until I met my husband I did not even know that the yellow mustard existed. I do keep both, but more commonly use the black mustard for my cooking.
Mustard is commonly used for tempering dishes in its whole form, once it is added to hot oil, it pops much like popcorn and develops a mild nutty flavor. I use a lot of mustard as pastes with green chili, this is a very common way of using it in eastern India. Depending on the part of eastern India, mustard is often cobbled together with garlic. In fact, this base is a speciality of the state of Orissa.
It has been raining most of the day, offering me a welcome break from soccer and even the dance. In the afternoon, I have found my corner of the bed and have huddled under the comforter to catch up with some reading. This is when I love my kindle, since I can catch up on a whole assortment of reading with one small tool.
The windows have this dreamy misty look, you can see the copper beach from one of our rain smeared windows. I have generally been good today, which as my some points out was earth day. We did not do anything in particular. I did make a small mental resolution to avoid more plastic bags and stick to the reusable ones. This is the one area I could use more work.
There are a lot of mustard recipes, on this blog.
Some of my favority ones are,
Lemon Rice
Quick and Spicy Mustard Coconut Shrimp
Eight more interesting finds are,
Fish in Shorshe Bata (mustard sauce) from the Times
Sauteed Swiss Chard with Mustard Seeds
South Indian Mustard and Asafetida Pilaf
And, since I had told you about Millenia, here is his picture. I hope everyone has a wonderful week ahead.
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