My Husband's Recipes: July 2011

About My Husband

Prologue by my husband Sandeep 'mashoor'

"Basically I love food, not just to eat but love to do everything about food

To think, to read, to view, to listen, to smell, to cook, to serve, to imagine, to explore, to ‘dream’, to understand its historical aspects and different foods of different ethnic groups, to know science of cooking, to search hotels, restaurants offering good food; in short all about food

I was very thin long back. Although I belonged to well to do family in Thane, Mumbai (खाते पिते घर का) but I had not developed my ‘taste’. Later on my passion to learn Urdu took me to Qasim Shaikh who became my close friend. Qasim introduced me not only to Urdu literature but to many Muslim delicacies such as Biryani, Dabba Gosht, Reshami Kabab, Afalatoon and so on. He taught me to enjoy food in perfect combination of food items of complimentry taste. His company made me realize immensejoy even in small things such as eating curd and sugar at Brijwasi, Thane. He truely developed a ‘kahavaiyya’ in me.

Gradullay I travelled from just exploring in kitchen to have complete possession of kitchen. Women get this knowledge passed on by their mother and could easily know many referal tasks in the process. I did not learn from my mother but ofcourse observed her cooking. Observation, trial and error were the methods through which I became a cook. I relied on ‘Annapurna’ by Mangala Barve and eventually cookery shows, columns, blogs on internet, clips on Youtube, short cookery courses done after settling in Pune all contributed in this creative journey.

I enjoy cooking by all senses. My joy doubles if people like my preparation. This joy made me understand that I can ‘express’ through this. One of the forces behind this blog is ‘Preeti’ (wife is formal relationship but a closest friend of mine). Sometimes I used to publish snaps of my recipes on my facebook profile and used to get good response. But once Preeti published it under the title ‘My Husband’s Recipes’ and she got action packed response. Therefore she insisted on starting a blog by same name.

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Cucumber Thalipeeth

Cucumber Thalipeeth (sweet) – काकडीचे गोड थालीपीठ

Thalipeeth is an unique Maharashtrian dish. There are different types of thalipeeth, bhajani, jowar, bajra, thapipeeth for fast and so on. Thalipeeth is made in different ways for example, deep fry and shallow fry. Tasty masala thalipeeth is made by adding onion, tomatoes, green chilie and corriander in the bhaajani (flour specially made for Thalipeeth)

Here is a quick recipe of cucumber Thalipeeth without chili or chili powder.

Ingredients for four medium size Thalipeeth;

· 4 cucumbers – medium size

· Jaggery – 4 tablespoon

· Rawa – ¾ bowl

· Rice flour – ¾ bowl

· Cumin seeds

· Cardamom powder

· Thick buttermilk: 1 bowl

· Salt

· Ghee

Grate the cucumbers. Add salt and jaggery and keep aside for ten minutes. Add buttermilk, cumin seed and a pinch of cardamom powder. Add rice flour and rawa and make dough. Make four equal balls of dough and give a shape of thalipeeth. Put ghee in the frying pan and shallow fry it well from both the sides. It’s better to cover it and let it cook on steam. Serve it with tomato ketch up or tamarind-date chutney. It tastes best when serve hot.