There were so many fun bloggers, participation, the entire listing can be found on this site. The swap activities were co-ordinated by Alyssa of Everyday Maven and Faith of An Edible Mosiac, who did such a smooth and co-ordinated job of hosting the activity. I send out a box of some bowls, a few placemats and a few odds and ends to my match, Debbie Koenig over at Words to Eat By. I spent sometime on her blog and noticed that her style like mine was fairly basic. I am a fan of wide bowls and pale colors and noticed that she tended to use these two. So, hopefully, my box will add some more ideas for her presentation. I was soo thrilled when I received my box from Mary over at Barefeet in the kitchen. The box was very thoughfully packaged and contained a little of everything, a few plates, a lovely whisk and an assortment of place mats.

I have already started using some of my favorite props and expect to use the others in the weeks to come. Here is an interesting fork, that I had to rescue from my son’s clutches. The pretty design is so subtle and works well against my usually white plates and bowls. And of course, love the border accent of the place mat featured below.

The last few weeks of school reach a heady crescendo, with school trips and events filling every waking day. It is also a busy time at work, with the fiscal year ending and budgets and ramp up planning for the next year. A year ends and planning for the new fiscal year begins. All of this makes me pause in reflect on the many begins and new years that I stumble into through the course of the year. All mark different beginnings, yet all of them allow an opportunity to pause, reflect and start afresh.

Sunday evening was a day I was tired beyond measure, so I turned to this fish curry that served as an one dish meal built in with vegetables and fish served with steaming hot white rice. Yes, a meal that is fairly Bengali in its roots and overall super comforting. I am expecting mom to be visiting pretty soon and so I am getting ready for her visit.

Given that I have been fussing around with this post for all of three days now, it looks like I shall be some what sparing on my blog. I am determined to take more time with her, and enjoy these weeks in a slow and measured pace.

There is a saying that goes, if you build it, they will come. I think my philosophy with my children and healthy eating is that – If you cook it, they will learn. Quinoa is something I have thrown in hear and there without much preamble or planning. Then last week, with the mercury soaring, I decided to fix a salad meshing quinoa, with the other favorite ingredient in this household, chickpeas. The result something that has gotten my daughter all excited about Quinoa, she carefully looked at the package and said – Qui-no-a, I gently corrected her, just like I had been corrected many years ago, to say Keenwah, her brother decided to matter of factly tell me, yes, I know that is how you say it. The little one is just such a flosser.

Despite the craziness of the weather, I do not really have cucumbers in the garden, there are small and tender little green tomatoes showing up. But, hopefully next month I will be all ready with these from our garden, and I will have a hit and comforting recipe to put it all together. What more can I ask for? Well, actually I could ask for a successful finish to this weekend, there is way too much happening, that to following a rather frentic week at work.

So, here is to a recipe that is simple, comforting and nutritious all at once.

Speaking of farmers markets, the Pleasantville Farmers Market, aka, my local market started amidst the rain last weekend. I popped my head in amidst all the rain, actually with the daughter. Had a little more time today. Loved some of the more interesting additions. Yarn, Flowers and even and an extended segment. This is exciting since it gives me more to check out.

Today, has ended on a pensive note, it was my brother’s birthday. Turns out it was Suvir Saran’s father’s death anniversary. The man’s eloquent thoughts of my father, reminded me of Dad. I cannot always voice my feelings in such depth. I want not to be greedy and complain about not having Dad around, but I cannot help it. I really wish he was here, with us weeding, savoring the simple freshness of our garden helping us feel lively with his presence and infectious laughter.

Back to the recipe, the recipe is all about simplicity and flavor, influenced by this event that I had running on the blog. It is perfect for the turnips that use a hint of flavor and are cooked to delicate and crisp translucency.

Today, is another day. In fact, I am all set to tell you about my stop at the Keko Tea Room, a place I had passed by on several occasions and it beckoned me to come in.

The right occasion struck on Administrative Professionals Week, when I had to find a place to take my lovely assistant out. I went with her and our friend Ken, who, seems to have been very sick lately, so I am glad that I got a chance to get out and sneak a pleasant lunch. Ken even amused us by sitting and posing on the chair we had labelled the throne.

Keko it turns out was as much of a coffee place as it was a tea place, in fact, we were actually served our tea in white lavazza cups.  The menu had a interesting selection of sandwiches, crepes and breakfast items. Yes, they serve afternoon tea and all day breakfast.

With a respectable selection of teas, I got the spice tea and Ken the Earl Grey. I hope you like the teapots, because I was so facinated by them, I have ordered one for the house.

The savory crepes were made with wholewheat batter, which were still crisp with a nice grainy bite. I had a bacon, egg and cheese crepe.

Ken had the french toast and loved the treat. He passed up dessert, so it was Richarleene and me left to share the delectable Fruiti Di Bosco. Another, wonderful place that has been added to our place of pick me ups and great food.

Keko Cafe

121 Madison Ave,

New York, NY

Most readers of this blog probably don’t even realize that there is more to my day than the children, and of course my food obsession, however, there is the day job, that entails counting money and tracking people who count money. Well, the problem with tracking people and supervising them is sometime you have to be mean to them, or rather be percieved as being mean to them. Today, was one such day with someone I care a lot about. Unfortunately, I have to be fair and even but generally you still feel like crap. On such a day, my solace is the kitchen and this little space that I call my own. It helps to share, and not all that I share will be sunny, on a brighter note, I think this invention of noodles that is pretty close to Lo Mein was pretty good.

In general, my version of Lo Mein had a spicy gingery highlight and basically had an indo-chinese touch and made a comforting toss of noodles with some chicken and assorted vegetables. Lately, I have been moving for inspiration with these recipes to get some lighter touches to Indo Chinese recipes, since we love the marriage of flavors and honestly speaking, I love the deep fried versions too, but just cannot do that as a part of the everyday routine. The son loves salty flavors and has professed a love for soy sauce and so, you will see me playing around with the sauce more in the near future.

Now, the chicken had something very different going on, not something that I had ever tried before. In perusing Bee’s blog, she talks about soaking the chicken in baking soda to essentially marinate it and she said that this marinating essentially resulted in a very silky textured chicken.

Well, I have to tell you that sometimes it is important to venture outside your own culinary instincts and try something different, because sure enough soaking the chicken in baking soda for a bit made it silky soft and smooth, almost like it was exfoliated. I have now added it to my list of techniques just like brining.

It is on days like this I appreciate the words of wisdom from Scarlett O’Hara that promise that tomorrow is another day! It always is, especially in spring when the mornings are bright or rainy. I cherish both, I love the soft spring rain, walking through patches and puddles sometimes arriving with wet hair to work much to the chagrin of some of the people at work, mostly my lovely assistant. As I say, you can take the girl out of Kolkata, but not Kolkata out of the girl.

To this end, today’s offering is a simple pasta dish, that I wish to call Pasta Primavera (housestyle). Yes, it is my take on a very springy pasta dish, that I have cobbled together with the new tender asparagus, corn and new fresh green peas. Chopped in lots of chives and muddled all of these together with some parmasan, garlic and olive oil. If your mom is a pasta lover like me, this simple dish full of complex flavors might be what calls her name.

Either way wishing you and yours a wonderful weekend with fresh flavors, good food and lots of love.

And yes, this months vegetable is the turnip, you are welcome to get creative with the turnip and send me a recipe at Rinkub@aol.com using any variety of turnip. I look forward to getting your entry. All entries need to be sent in by the end of May, I look forward to seeing what everyone comes up with.

The rules once again are,

The rules of the event are as follows:

• The chosen veggie or fruit has to be the STAR of the recipe.
• It can be cooked in any way or can be in its raw form in the recipe.
• It can be any course of the meal (appetizer/main course/side dish/dessert/beverage or breakfast/lunch/dinner/snack).
• Recipe has to be strictly vegetarian (eggs are allowed). This is simply to re-enforce the fact that we can eat veggies without any meat and also for all our vegetarian friends, who do not eat meat.
• You HAVE to make new recipes and old archived posts are not allowed, so that we try and make new fresh recipes
• Try to get your recipes in by the end of November, however given the late announcement, I will accept them a few days late.
• If you are a blogger, you can simply send your Name and URL of your recipe and a pic of 300 pixel size of the preparation to Rinkub@aol.com with the subject of “Veggie/Fruit A Month – Winter Squash”.
• Non bloggers can email me your name, recipe and picture at rinkub@aol.com and I will include your recipe in the round up.
• Link your post to the original event post along with the event announcement for this month.
• Use of logo is appreciated as it helps spread the word.

I hope that you are inspired by these seasonal orange beauties, and I look forward to recieving your entries!

An interesting collection of dishes, the menu has an interesting assortment of Dim Sum dishes, and I can tell you that I have happily worked my way through an assortment of fried shrimp balls, seafood dumplings, vegetable dumplings and crispy shrimp rolls to tell you that the Dim Sum is pretty good.

An interesting feature called the Spicy Dumplings, offer a heavy but well fried dumpling with a flavorful and light tasting filling. In fact, the Siu Mai was a little mediocre, possible because it was not an often ordered dish, other wise the rest of the fair was pretty good in this department.

Given, the multitude of noodle and rice dishes, I have not really ventured beyond their basics menu. There  jjajangmyun (spicy black bean noodles) has convinced me this dish is a winner. I have also tried their spicy seafood rice, which essentially is a fried rice with kimchi. Their ramen style noodles have more than enough for two. All things considered, their wait staff speak good English and offer service with a smile. The large menu certainly ensures that you will not get bored every time you are back. Take it from me, you has been there literally a countless number of times, which given the number of lunchtime options in the city speaks volumes for the place.

Dong Chun Hong

312 5th Ave
(between 31st St & 32nd St)
New York, NY 10001

http://www.dongchunhongnyc.com/

Well, while the bit on equilibrium is not entirely true, we do love these onion ring fritters in my house. My husband of course calls them pakoras. Actually, these classic naturally gluten-free and vegan-fritters are called different thing in different parts of India, but all tend to have the same lovely crisp and savory sweetness of red onions cloaked in nutritious and crispy chickpea batter.

 In fact, the line in our household is, you say pakora, I say piyanjee, lets call the whole thing off. Well, the interesting thing about these fritters is that they can take a whole assortment of variations, depending on the nuances of spices used. I have used some thyme from are garden in lieu of carom seeds to make this particular version. It is available in bounty and adds a nice and simple touch of freshness. I also added some curry leaves and tender kale leaves on a touch of whimsy. The kale was in lieu of spinach which is something that I normally add.

The only caution that I offer is to ensure that you are working with medium hot oil, ensure that the batter is not too thick, there should not be too much batter over the onions, as it will overpower the sweet crispiness of the onions.