Saime and Allu

Saime is one the many vegetables that our Indian Ancestors brought when they came to these Shore.There are many varities of Saime. 

I saw all of these varieties in the local groceries in my neighbourhood in Queens, New York City. You will find these at most Indian groceries as Saime is a popular vegetable in North Indian cuisine. In our community though, just 2 or 3 varities are common and I was not even aware of the other ones until I saw them here in the U.S. Saime is also grown in the U.S., during the Summer months. The seedlings are now available in the Groceries that have plants selling during Spring so there is now no need to set your own seeds. I am constantly amazed at the way our Ancestors took seeds and plants from India to South America and the Caribbean. And now, the descendants of these pioneers, have brought the

same flora and fauna to enrich the landscape of North America.

Ingredients: (to feed 2 ppl)

1. 2 lbs Saime, cleaned and broken in half sized

2. 2 lbs potatoes, peeled and cubed.

3. 1 medium sized onions, chopped finely

4. 3-4  pegs of garlic, minced.

5. 2-3 TT oil

6. 1 1/2 TT turmeric/haldi powder

7. 4 TT garam masala

8. 1 TT ground jeera powder

9. 3 cups of cocnut milk

10. 2 TT tomato paste or 1 tomato cubed

Salt to taste. Pepper as per your choice.

Method:

1. Heat the oil in a karahi or a deep heavy bottom pan on medium flame.

2. Add onions and saute until translucent (2 mins) then add garlic and saute another minute.

3. Add potatoes and stir to completely incorporate.

4. Add Salt to taste. And fry for about 2 mins.

5. Add the Saime.

6. Allow it to stay on top of the potatoes for a minute and just let it steam.

7. Add chopped tomatoes if using and chopped pepper and stir thoroughly to completely incorporate.

8. At this stage, start adding the masalas. Add the haldi first and stir for a minute. Then add the garam masala and stir to completely coat the vegetables. Allow to fry for a minute.

9. Add coconut milk if using or hot water if not. If using tomato paste, add it here too.If you want gravy in your curry, add 1 more cup liquid.

10. Allow to cook until potato is cooked through. 

11. Your Saime and Allu is now ready to eat with either rice or rotis. If cooked dried, one can also eat with dal as we often do in our home.

Enjoy. 

 Namaskaar.

My page was stolen by several people and they have my stolen my recipes. I could not even access my own blog and when I clicked on my name on Google, I went to these peoples' pages.  My intention is to document and preserve recipes that belong to my Ancestors and to share it with future generations. It is wrong that others are using my work to make money for themselves.

The recipes are still in my possessions. I would like to share them again once these pirates close down their sites. You can email me if you need help though.....@ sahadeonanda@gmail.com

Take care and hope to see you soon again.

 Lapsi Recipe.

This recipe is Copyrighted and owned by Nanda Sahadeo. Anyone reposting it on their site without permission from Nanda Sahadeo is an infringement.

Lapsi in our Hindu community in Guyana, is an offering that is made to The Devi, The Divine Mother. Lapsi is another traditional dish that came with our Ancestors from India. It is made for Nav Ratri which is the period of 9 Nights worship of the Divine as Female Energy. Laspi is also made when there is any Devi Puja. 

It is made for the Mudan ceremony and any Worship of Ganga Ma ( Ganges). Mudan is when the baby's hair is shaved and then buried in the Ocean's mud/sand or any body of water. Ladies who are childless often go to the Sea and worship it as Ganga Ma. Many get their wishes and after the baby is born, the Mother and other ladies in the family then would go to the same Seaside and give thanks to Ganga Ma.The Baby's head is shaved. The hair is placed in a Loi. This is a ball made of flour dough which is flattened  then the hair is placed inside, the ball is rolled up with the hair hidden inside. This Loi is then  buried in the floor of the Sea or Ocean. The Mother and Baby take a bath in the waters and then do puja to Ganga Ma. Lapsi and Puri are the Parsad(offering) that is given to the Devi for the Mundan (Mooran) Ceremony.

Lapsi is white in colour and there is another form of Halva that is dark.  Lapsi is "white" Halva.The dark Halva is made and offered on the 9th day ( 9 day ceremony) after the birth of a Hindu baby. This will be posted as another recipe . It us a little more complicated than the White Lapsi.

Lapsi means Porridge. It certainly has the consistency of Porridge. In its orginal form and even today, it is made from Dalia or broken wheat in India. As with all of the dishes made from wheat, our ancestors had to adjust when they came to the West. They had to substitute all of their dishes that used "whole wheat flour/atta" to using maida or all purpose white flour as only the latter was available in the "New World." 

• "lapsi is cooked with the flour of any grain boiled in milk and eaten with  sugar..When it is  made with salt instead of sugar, it is called ghattha."
• Traditional food of Bihar - Bihargatha (google.com)

This lapsi recipe will yeild about 2 teacups of Lapsi. It can be used for about 25 small puris. Please make it before you make it as prasad just to get a good average. It can be made, eaten and served any other time too and not only for Nav Ratri or Devi puja.

Ingredients:

3 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 1/2 cups brown sugar ( any sugar can work)

4 cups millk ( I used Half and Half. Evaporated(Carnation) milk can be used)

4 tablespoons ghee

Method:

1. Mix flour, sugar together in a deep bowl or basin.

2. Add milk and stir thouroghly to incoperate using a whisk. It should be runny but not watery.

3. Strain this into another bowl. This is to ensure that there are no lumps and thus you will get a smooth lapsi.

4. Heat the ghee in a karahi or deep and heavy bottom pot. 

5. When the ghee is almost hot, turn down the flame to low.

6. Now pour the liquid into the heated ghee, stirring vigourously but carefully so as not to spill. Using a whisk works better at prevent lumps from forming,The liquid can stick to the bottom and burn quite fast. 

    6. Keep on stirring and making sure that you scrape the bottom and side of the karahi. 

7. Cook for 15 to 20 minutes on low heat as you need to cook the flour or else it will literally have the raw flour taste in the lapsi.

8. It will become jelly like and now be harder to stir,

9. Remove from the flame at this time. If you just turn off the stove and leave the karahi on the burner,it will still continue to cook and become lumpy. 

10. Keep on stirring to make the lapsi smooth and creamy.

11. Pour the lapsi into a bowl and cover with a towel . Please do not cover it tightly if using any other covering as it will sweat and the water can run down onto the lapsi and spoil it.

It is always better to make the Puris first then make the Laspi. The Puris can sit and wait while Lapsi can get lumpy or loose it's nice creamy texture.

Your Lapsi is ready. 

Enjoy.

Karaila

 
Karaila is called Karaili in Trinidad. It is also known in the West as Bitter Melon.
Karaila came from India with our ancestors and there are two kinds in Guyana. One is light coloured and the other dark. There is also a smaller varity called Ban Karaila. These are very tiny versions of  Karaila.

                               

 In New York City, two different varieties are available. The Indian one which is bumpy on the outside and another which is smooth. The latter is not as bitter as the Indian ones.
Many plant the seeds of the Indian Karaila and it grows and bears very well in the Summer months.
The following photos are taken in a backyard garden in Queens, New York City.                                                    
                                         

                                     

                                     

                                   

Karaila is a vegetable that we grew up with and so the bitter taste is one that we are accustomed to. I say this because several of our Western friends could not handle the bitterness. When we were children, most f us hated the bitter taste too and I can remember many Mothers used to add salt to the karaila after chopping them and let it sit for a while. The salt brings out the natural water in the vegetable and so they would squeeze out this water. This they say will make it less bitter. These days, no one does this anymore. Karaila is used to help people with diabetes. So no one wants to throw away the bitternes any more.

Karaila is cooked traditionally in two ways....Kalonji, which is stuffed Karaila and curried with mango and coconut milk/ And fried Karaila, which is basically stir fried Karaila. This is eaten with rotis alone or with dal too. When eaten with rice, it is served mostly with dal. Those who eat non-veg, would add dried fish or shrimp when they make their Karaila. The art in making fried Karaila is to make it as crispy as possible without burning the vegetable. To achieve this, some would spread the chopped vegetable out in hot Sun and this dries it out. This is also done with Ochroes.

This is recipe is for one person. It is such a simple dish that is easy to adjust for more quantity. One point to note, if you desire crispy Karaila, you need to be generous with the oil. If the Karaila sticks to the bottom of your Karahi/pot, then add some more oil. Some would drain out the oil after cooking the Karaila. The oil is usually very delicious to eat with rotis, though.

Ingredients:

1. 6 medium Karaila

2. 1 small onion, choppped.

3. 1 peg of garlic, chopped

4. 1 small pepper ( to your taste)

5. 4 tablespoons oil( more if the vegetable sticks to the pot bottom)

Salt to taste.

Method:

!. Wash and dry the Karaila.

2. Cut off and discard the stems and bottom.

3. Slit open and extract the seeds.

4. Chop the vegetable.

5.Add the oil to a hot karahi or non stick heavy bottom pot/pan. Add the chopped onions, garlic and pepper.

5. Stir fry the onions. garlic and pepper for a minute.

6. Add the Karaila. Stir to incorporate thoroughly.

7.Cook on medium to low flame so that it will cook and not burn,

8. You do not need to stir constantly, just keep and eye and stir when you see it starting to brown on one side. The stirring allows all the vegetables to brown evenly. If the vegetables are sticking to the bottom, make a hole in the middle and pour a little more oil in the center. You can do this again if it sticks again.

9. Add salt to your taste, when it starts to get brown.

10. I took it off the flames at this point. To get crispier Karaila, continue cooking but keep an eye on it and keep stirring as it can burn very easily at this point.

Enjoy your fried Karaila....

.

                                                                                                                                        

                                                   

Namaste, Pranaam, Greetings all.

I have been away from my Blog for quite some time now. It's not that I have stop cooking, making our traditional foods or anything like that; it was more of a personal situation. 

My intention is to continue my compilation of recipes and also to revise the ones that I have already. When I started posting the recipes, I forgot to put how much each recipe yielded. I plan to remake all of these recipes and I hope that you will bear with me. There are so many recipes that still needs to be documented and kept for future generations. 

One of the things that I have noticed, is that some people are stuck in their thinking and cannot see when or how something can be incorrect. The one important fact, that all of us needs to remember, is that our ancestors were not wealthy and that there was a great lack of ingredients, that were not available when they came to Guyana. Even up to the 1980's, there was the banning of many food items necessary to the Indian/Hindu kitchen. People during that time had to substitute so many of the ingredients needed and many are still stuck in that mindset. 

Prasad/Parsad/Mohan bhog is a great case in point...... people used to make it with sugar water (some call it paag). That was because people could not afford to make it with milk alone. The situation is that some people now argue that Prasad has to be made with sugar water and they do not seem to comprehend that this was just a situational adaption. 

Even to making curries....many people feel that the way to cook curry is to make a paste and then cook this in oil (chunke this curry paste first). Curry powder was not really used in the early days and also garam masala powder. Almost all the ladies would make their own masala fresh, using a sil and lorha/masala brick. A piece of dried haldi/turmeric, some cloves, a piece of dalchini/stick spice, coriander/dania seeds, methi seeds, sarson/til; were all pounded tougther with a little bit of water and made into a

Gulgula Recipe.

(This recipe is Copyrighted and owned by Nanda Sahadeo. Anyone reposting it on their site without permission from Nanda Sahadeo is committing an infringement.)

Gulgula is another sweet that came across the Kala Pani (Black water/Ocean), with our ancestors.

I was researching its origins and found that while it is popular throughout India, it is traditionally from Orrisa, U.P and Goa.

This is my Mom's recipe. As a child, she remembers her Mother, my Nani making large batches of this for Holi/Phagwah to serve when Nana and his brothers and other relatives sang Chowtaal. Chowtaal is a group singing done only for Holi. There are two groups that sing. They sit opposite each other and its a friendly kind of competition. One side leads in the first set of singing then they switch. The singers also "clap" jhanj/jaal/brass cymbals as they sing. The dholak player is most important as this sets the tempo for the singing. It starts slow and then the speed is doubled then doubled again. The beat played is 12 beats,hence the name Chautaal which literally means 12 beats. It is quite vigourous singing and by the time they are done, the singers are quite hungry.

Mom also makes this sweet for Sri Ram Navmi, the appearance day of Sri Ram.

Mom makes hers without bananas. I grew up eating only hers and they are quite delicious. She makes them really soft on the insides, crunchy on the outsides, yet they are spongy at the same time. Many calls Gulgula, the Indian donut and this is an almost true description. It can also be served the same way as donuts, sprinkled with powdered sugar or dipped in chocolate or icing sugar frosting.

Many people add bananas to their batter and have seen some in India using even pumpkin.  Mom's recipe has yeast while many from Guyana and Trinidad do not add this. Yeast gives it the spongy texture and a little bit of sourness. The Indian recipes have dahi/yoghurt instead.

Adding bananas, apparently, was done to "stretch" the batter. In the time of our Ancestors, things were hard to come by and they had to make the most of whatever they had.  I never made it with bananas and never even had them. Today , I added 1/2 of a banana to 1/4 of my batter. The only difference I found was in the texture of the gulgulas. The bananas made them more dense and less spongy inside. My choice is the one without bananas but its up to ones taste.

Instead of using just all purpose white flour, you can mix it with one cup whole wheat and one cup all purpose  flour. It will be less fluffy but not too much of a difference in taste. The amount of sugar can be adjusted to lesser or more depending on your taste too. I use Demerara brown sugar but you can use granulated/white sugar. The sweetness depends totally on your choice. I do not like mine overtly sweet hence the amount used below.

Ingredients:

Step One....

1 teaspoon active dry yeast

1 tablespoon sugar for yeast

1/4 cup water that is just slightly warm.

Step Two:

2 cups all purpose flour

1/8 teaspoons nutmeg

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup warm milk

1/4 cup warm water

1/4 cup dried fruits

Oil for deep frying.

Method:

1. Add the yeast and 1 tablespoon sugar in a cup and stir to incorporate.

2. Add 1/4 cup warm water to the yeast mixture and stir until fully incorporated.

3. Set aside in a warm place to rise.

4. Place the flour, baking powder, nutmeg, and sugar in a deep bowl.

5.Add dried fruits then stir with a fork or mix with fingers to full incorporate.

6. Add the yeast mixture and mix again.

7. Add first the milk and mix.

8. The add the water.

The batter must be like a thick pancake batter and not runny. It must plop down from the spoon. If it is too runny, it won't hold its round shape when you fry it.

9. Stir/beat the batter for 2 mins, Mom says this makes it fluffy. Then cover the bowl with cling wrap and set it aside in a warm place to rise for 1 hour.

10. Heat cooking oil in a deep frying pan or a kahari. ( I used a karahi made in Guyana). The oil must be hot but not smoking, drop a little bit of the batter into the oil and if it sinks then floats right back up, the oil is ready.

( Just in case you are wondering....Mom made ghee in the karahi today and I took the same karahi and fried my Gulgula today. The brown spots on the karahi is the sediments that got stuck there. And the colour of the ghee changed and got brown when I added the cooking oil. It did not alter the taste of my Gulgulas at all.)

11 Turn down the  flame to medium as you need for the gulgula to cook through..Stir/beat the batter for a minute and then drop by teaspoonful into the hot oil.

 

It will look elongated but eventually it comes out round shaped.

12. If you can drop the batter by hand ( like when making pholouri), scoop a handful of the batter in your hands and then drop a little bit at a time into the hot oil.

13. As soon as they float up, keep turning them. This is to make sure that they brown evenly. One of the most annoying thing when deep frying is that many times they only brown on one side.

14. When the balls are a nice light brown, drain and remove from oil.

For the Banana Gulgula....I used 1/2 of a ripe banana to quarter of the batterI used above.

Smash it into the batter and mix/beat well.

Follow from Step 10 above.....

They come out just the same except the texture inside is a bit different.....

The banana gulgula is in the foreground and the plain ones in the back. You can see the difference in the texture....

Best served hot.  Enjoy your Gulgula.