The word "khana" in Indian Khana Made Easy means food. So come on, let's explore and cook some easy Indian food together including gluten-free and vegan dishes.

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January 22, 2012

Daily Delight's Fresh Frozen Aviyal Mix

Ever since we ate Aviyal at Rajni Restaurant, I wanted my mom to try to make it at home. She found a packet of Aviyal Mix at Subji Mandi (Indian grocery store) last week and tried to recreate it. Aviyal is a mixed vegetable dish with a coconut and yogurt gravy sauce, originating from Kerala.

On the upside:
- All the vegetables needed to make this dish were included and they were straight from the source - grown and packed in Kerala.
- The cost of this mix was under 2 USD.


The packet contained fresh frozen pre-cut vegetables and spices found in a typical Aviyal dish: 
1-2 Drumsticks
50 grams of Elephant yam
1 medium-size Cucumber
50 grams of Snake gourd
50 grams of Long beans
50 grams of Carrot
1 small green mango
3 medium-sized green chilies
10 curry leaves

The only downside is that the packet didn't come with a recipe. Lucky for us, my mom is a genius. I cheered on as she did her magic.    

Below are the ingredients for the gravy:
12oz Yogurt
1/2 cup Coconut (fresh/frozen), grated
1 tsp Whole Cumin seeds
A pinch of Turmeric
Salt, as needed

Let's get started:
1) Empty the cut vegetables into a heavy-bottomed saucepan (3-5 Qt). Add 1½ cup of water, ½ tsp of turmeric, and cook until soft and firm.  Drumstick takes the longest time to cook, so make sure it is soft. Transfer into the serving dish and allow it to cool down.
2) Blend together grated coconut, green chilies, cumin, and approximately 1/3 of yogurt and a pinch of salt until it is a smooth mixture.
3) Add the remaining yogurt, blended coconut mixture to the cooked vegetables and mix well. For seasoning, heat a tablespoon of coconut oil on low heat and add 1/2 tsp mustard seeds, cumin, and red chili. when they splutter, add asafoetida and curry leaves. Stir 10 seconds and immediately transfer it into Avial and mix well. 
4) Serve it with warm rice or pooris.

Served hot over brown rice
***Quick Tips:
- The packet includes 3 chilies, use 2 if you prefer less spice level.
- On the packet, the serving size is listed as 3 but we found that after combining all the ingredients together, the dish is enough for 4-6.

Our conclusion: The dish turned out well and didn't require a lot of time since most of the prep work was done. Also, the spices included in the packet were packed separately to prevent any wetness or sogginess. We would buy this mix again.

January 14, 2012

A Kite Festival...Up, Up & Away!


Happy Sankranti!! Sankranti is a major harvest festival celebrated all over India. It's the only holiday that follows the solar calendar unlike all others which follow the lunar one. On this holiday, families prepare a dish, using rice and lentils from the new crop, which is popularly called as pongali (sweet or savory). Also, one of the popular pastimes on this holiday is flying kites. One can see kids of all ages flying them from rooftops and sometimes even on the streets. As a kid, my mom and her siblings used to compete with their friends to see whose kite can go the farthest. She told me that the sky used to be full of kites of various sizes, colors and shapes.

Every year, Gujarat hosts an international kite festival that is one of the grandest. People from all over (such as Japan, Australia, Malaysia, USA, Brazil, Canada and other European countries) participate in this event.

Did you know this was a favorite sport among the Maharajas? They found the sport both entertaining and a way of displaying their prowess. Trained fliers were employed to fly the kites for them. Slowly, the art caught on and became popular among the masses. Today, manufacturing of kites is a serious business. There are stores in India that are open 24 hours up till the festival so that people can get their kites and supplies to enjoy the sport. I haven't seen anything like that here, but some retail stores do carry kites. I was at Costco the other day and decided to buy one. Woohoo!! Up, up and away into the sky!!