Caulifower and Peas in Coconut Sauce

Indian food and clothes have held fascination for a lot of people. These two are topics that are easy to handle and I think I have just about enough knowledge to handle these questions and provide information most of the time. But of late I have been getting some serious questions that stump me. A lady once asked me to talk about Yoga, since India is the birth place of Yoga and I being an Indian should have an answer. This was about 5 years ago, all I could manage was "Yoga is more popular outside of India than it is in India and I do not have formal training". Now that awareness of India has been steadily increasing people have been posing more nuanced questions.

Questions about why I wear a red spot on my forehead, if arranged marriages are still practised and if mine was one are all gone when finally I have devised smart answers to all these questions. A few weeks ago on a lunch with some of my ex-colleagues one question really stumped me. One of them asked me if the behavior(usually obnoxious and bossy) of a certain Indian employee stemmed from the fact she belonged to a certain caste. All I could do was open and close my mouth like a fish out of water.

Idli Success
I had success with making Idli batter with the rice that is available. Thanks Nirmala, Shn, Nupur and Kay. I used a combination of the techniques suggested and came close to what I used to do in those early days when all we got was long grain rice. Before I started with long grain rice and tried to include par boiled rice which is a big no no and what was the major problem. The batter was bloby and slimy and unsuited for dosai or idli. With the new technique, the proportion that worked for me was 1 cup - urad dal, 4 cups - sona masuri rice, 2 cups - cream of rice. I had some lovely idlis and picture perfect dosai. I craved for idli but did not realize the kids craved for them as much as I did.

There are a few cauliflower recipes that I cook very often. One is Aloo Gobi, the other is this cauliflower curry for lack of a better name. This time along with a head of cauliflower also had some fresh shelled green peas and wanted to make something with both. I used onion and coconut for the masala paste, onion can be omitted by increasing the quantity of coconut. Also reduce the water level depending upon the consistency preferred, my family likes slurpy slightly watery gravy to go with the rotis.

Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
1. 1 small head of cauliflower cut into bit sized pieces
2. 1 cup of Green Peas (fresh or frozen)
3. 1/4 onion chopped
4. 1 juicy red tomato
5. seasoning : cumin and curry leaves
6. Salt to taste

For the Paste
1. 1/2 medium sized red onion cut into chunks
2. 2 tbsp of fresh/frozen grated cocounut (increase to 4 if not using onion)
3. 6 red chilies (i used a combination of round red chilies and Kashmiri chilies)
4. 1/2 tsp of fennel seeds
5. 2 tsp of poppy seeds (soak in warm water for a few minutes)

Saute the onions, red chilies,fennel seeds and towards the end slightly warm the coconut as well. Now mix and blend to a paste.

Method
1. In a pan heat oil add the cumin and saute the onions till translucent
2. Add the tomatoes and a dash of salt and saute till soft.
3. Now add the cauliflower and peas and saute for a few more minutes.
4. *Add the blended paste with a cup of water, salt and let them cook till the cauliflower is soft.

* Alternately blanch the cauliflower and peas and reduce the water to 1/4 of a cup
** Do not close the lid while cooking, it makes the coconut curdle

Serve with rotis