coleslaw with strained yogurt dressing

Last night my mom came over for  dinner. She’s here in India for some time, and it’s really great to have her around, especially after not seeing her for five months. Hrishikesh was out at a golf event so it was just my mom, me, and a big bowl of coleslaw on the table. I never made a coleslaw before I moved to Bombay, but since it’s a lot easier to get cabbage here than it is to get lettuce, I now make it instead of salad whenever I want to eat something raw and fresh.

I’m a bit afraid of mayonnaise, at least the store bought kind, and I haven’t yet tried making my own. Something about the glossy off-white substance is…unsettling. So I make my coleslaw dressing with strained yogurt, which I find far more reassuring, generally and also, nutritionally. Tied up yogurt, slowly drip-dripping water for a couple hours, is preferable over the jar of Kraft’s mayonnaise in our fridge. You can add the water from the yogurt in soups- it has a nice sour edge, and it’s full of protein. And using strained yogurt, which is wonderfully creamy and thick, makes the coleslaw a fantastically healthy dinner.

In my coleslaws I like to add a handful of dried cranberries or cherries for a bite of tangy sweetness amidst the creamy, salty dressing, and sometimes I sprinkle ground almonds on top of a dressed bowl, to give the salad a little more body. The yogurt dressing is mustardy with nice floral notes from the celery seeds, and just the slightest bit sweet, but definitely not sweet and gross the way I imagine pre-packaged coleslaws to be.

homemade pizza: goat cheese, red bell pepper, garlic, spinach, red onion

Oh, toppings. Something about seeing a list of toppings makes my eyes gleam. I tend to want too many. On a veggie burger I want caramelized onions and a sharp cheese and mushrooms and pickles and jalapenos. On an ice cream sundae I want walnuts and hot fudge and strawberries and whipped cream and broken bits of oreo cookies. Basically, I convince myself that if I choose just the right combination of toppings, I’ll have the most fabulous dish ever. Or, maybe I’m just greedy.

fresh excess

This worries Hrishikesh. At Indigo Deli, where we sometimes have lunch, the prices of toppings are ludicrously expensive relative to the cost of a burger, and usually add up to be more than the veggie burger itself. At Brightlands, the pizza toppings are similarly priced. So I limit myself to two, (ok, sometimes three), toppings per dish.

But when I’m making pizza at home, I can have as many toppings as I like. What fun, and what freedom. Hence this excessively topped pizza, which was indeed fabulous.

golden dragon review

Quick review of the revamped, newly opened Golden Dragon at the Taj Mahal Hotel. We went there with high expectations but left sadly disappointed. Following the typical trajectory of Mumbai restaurants, the menu sounded fantastic but the dishes failed to live up to their descriptions.

Appetizers:

The Black Pepper Dumplings from the dim sum menu were four mixed vegetable dumplings encased in a doughy skin, floating in a watery broth. Unfortunately, I was unable to detect the black pepper in the dumplings or in the broth.

We also ordered the Stuffed Mushrooms in 5 Spice Sauce, which our waiter told us was a “signature dish.” But the bland mashed potatoes stuffed into mushroom caps, surrounded by glazed, slippery bok choy failed to whet our appetites.

palpable pleasures

Hrishikesh and I visited the Panorama Hotel for lunch after spending our morning on an arduous two-hour walk along the quiet trails and smaller roads in Mahabaleshwar. Visible from the sunny street that leads to Mahabaleshwar’s market, Panorama’s restaurant looks dreary, cluttered with faded orange table-chair units clumped under lazy fans. On my own, I doubt I would have picked it from the hundreds of similar hotel restaurants in the hill station, but Hrishikesh recalled that he enjoyed their South Indian food as a child. So in we went to try it, that first time, and on many visits since then, walking through the maze of plastic chairs on swivels and peering through the darkness at our reflections in the large mirrors that cover one wall. We walked through the gloom to the outdoor balcony, where the plastic seats looked more appropriate, overlooking the bright, empty pool and small lawn where plump children scattered like stubby bushes.

of course I said yes

Some of you might know that Hrishikesh proposed by hiding my ring in a mass of cookie dough (!). He thought of this because my favorite cookie dough recipe (which ran in the Times last year) calls for the prepared dough to chill in the fridge for 24-36 hours before baking- enough time for my creative husband to break the cold dough apart, nestle the ring box box in the depths of its sweetness, and reseal the dough to its hulking, spotted state.

He proposed after we made the truffled egg toast from ‘ino and had a few glasses of watermelon-champagne cocktails. We took the dough out of the fridge, and I began forming pieces of it into little balls. All of a sudden, I saw the edge of something white and distinctly plastic. “Ah!” I shrieked. “Why is there a plug in the cookie dough?!” (I meant an adapter…don’t ask why this is the first thing I thought of). Hrishikesh didn’t expect that reaction but, smiling, he said, “A plug? See what it is.” Then I caught on. We hugged and kissed and I couldn’t stop laughing at his ingenuity, not even when his mom, knowing the plan, called at 11:15 “to say hi.” I was giggling too much to speak.

bombay thanksgiving, 2009

Let’s just say I’m the least timely person ever. I know Thanksgiving was almost two weeks ago but between my brother-in-law getting engaged and Bombay life in general, plus my knack for procrastination, this post comes late. But better late than never, right?

I was missing Thanksgiving at home and I wanted to do something to celebrate it here in Bombay. We had a bit of pumpkin lying in our fridge- not enough to make a pie, but after I boiled it and gave it a whir in the mixer, I had about 3/4 cup of puree*. I decided to make Rice’s mom’s squash rolls- these heavenly, buttery, barely sweet rolls that I used to inhale when at Rice’s house on the day after Thanksgiving. I had asked for the recipe two years ago but somehow never made these until yesterday- and I can’t believe I waited so long. I let the dough pouf up enormously, punched it a bit, shaped the rolls, brushed them with butter, let them rise once more, baked them until golden, and brushed them with butter once again. Warm, airy and meltingly soft, they were everything I remembered and more, which made them perfect for my first Bombay Thanksgiving.

coconut rice, spicy mushrooms and greens

Mumbai’s buzzing with auspiciousness this month. Dussera (the celebration of the slaying of Ravana) was last Monday, Diwali is in a couple weeks, our calendar is full of Diwali dinner invitations, and our counters are piled with treats- both savory and sweet- sent by well-meaning relatives. We also have a bunch of coconuts lying around. During Navratri last week, H. and I went to the Mahalaxmi temple. My mom-in-law bought me a coconut to offer Laxmi, which I handed to the priest; in exchange (I think) I got a blessed one back. On Dussera day, which we spent in Mahabaleshwar, we  split upon a coconut and sprinkled its water on our car’s wheels (we were doing the Dussera puja) and so we had that coconut, too. My mom-in-law had some coconuts at home for the same reasons and a couple nights ago she suggested we make something with coconut milk.

silky, spicy, sweet

Of course we knew immediately what we were going to cook. With coconut rice on our minds ever since August, last night we set about trying to make our own. We used the recipe for Celebration Yellow Rice from James Oseland’s Cradle of Flavor, and while it was nothing like Buddakan’s overtly rich dish, it was bright and aromatic, each strand of rice plumped with sweet coconut milk and the sprightly fragrance of kaffir lime leaves and lemon grass.

buddakan nyc restaurant review

Back in August, when H. and I were in New York, my dad’s friend from college, Narayan Uncle, and his wife, Indu Auntie, took us out to dinner at Buddakan. I probably wouldn’t have gone there on my own; Buddakan is a trendy, two-level restaurant with a cocktail bar, a room wallpapered with electronic, back-lit books, and another room where the higher wall is paneled with Buddha portraits. (I think there are two more rooms, too). But I’m so glad we tried it because we had a delicious meal filled with food that was a lot of fun to eat. We started with  sublime edamame dumplings that just melted in my mouth, and the pea green colored puree inside each small pouch tasted as though it had  been mixed with truffle oil, though the menu just says they are in a “shallot-sauternes broth.” Clever, and proves that anything with truffle tastes good, but it  sure did work; we ordered two plates and polished them off. Next, we tried the thick cylinders of udon noodles, slicked in peanut sauce and topped with tangy lime sorbet. Maybe the sorbet was gimmicky and the combination of noodles, peanuts and lime is an old standard, but texture was the real pleasure here. Our order of charred asparagus with black bean foam tasted more buttery than I would have expected from a Asian restaurant and our spiced tofu and cashew stir fry with oven dried pineapple was an inventive dish that Hrishikesh (of course) loved. But the standout dish of the evening was the afterthought, the one that sounded most mundane: vegetable rice with coconut curry foam. It came steaming, its fragrance wafting around the table, a soft mound of vegetable-speckled rice alongside a thick and creamy curried coconut sauce. We lapped it up. Desserts were chocolately affairs that didn’t disappoint: the Crying Chocolate and the Chocolate Peanut-Butter Bombe. Oh, and throughout the meal, I sipped on a chipotle-strawberry cocktail that was smoky, spicy and just sweet enough.

Buddakan is Not that Expensive, despite its trend appeal. I would recommend going there when you’ve got a friend to impress.

Buddakan
75 9th Avenue, NY, NY
(Between 15th and 16th)
212.989.6699