Dear readers,

This is my last post here at Pursuit of Food. I had not planned to write a blog for so long and neither did I plan to say bye today. A dear friend of mine and I like to joke about us being “flow” people (those who go with the flow…ha ha). And now that flow has brought me to a happy ending. I had a great time sharing recipes, photos, and thoughts during the last few years through this little project of mine.  It has been an immensely satisfying avenue for expression and inspiration, and I hope you have enjoyed it too! But it’s time to move on to a new phase.

I am pretty sure that I will get back to blogging soon enough. May be in another form and with a new name.

Until then,

xo

+ behind the beautiful forevers – a book I am reading.

+ Nora Ephron’s Final Act.

+ Requiem for a Dream: Aaron Swartz

To be completely correct, this is a kale-potato-lentil-coconut curry, but going down that path will only result in a recipe-length name, so let’s just call it kale curry for simplicity. Since a lot of new stuff is happening around here (did I tell you that I am finishing my Ph.D. in May and moving to Boston in August and starting a new job in September?), I thought it might be fun to cook with and post about ingredients relatively new to me. So, first up is kale.

For those of you who don’t know kale, it is a leafy vegetable from the cabbage family. It has very thick leaves and comes in a few different colors and varieties – purple kale, black kale, curly kale etc etc. Like all other leafy greens, it is extremely nutritious. For example, it is super-rich in Vitamin A, C, K, and Calcium. Basically, eat LOTS of it.

I became acquainted with kale not too long ago. Mostly I use it as I would use spinach. I add it to dals, pastas, soups, and sometimes simply saute it with garlic and red pepper flakes to make a quick side. It can be eaten raw as a salad, but you’ll first need to massage the chopped leaves with a little oil and lemon juice to tenderize them. And apparently, you can also make kale chips by baking the leaves in the oven – I haven’t tried that yet.

But tonight I wanted to do something different with the bunch of kale that had been lying around in my fridge for a few days. I looked at the Yukon Gold potato sitting right next to it and thought of aloo-palak (a dry potato and spinach curry). That didn’t seem like a very exciting idea since I was in the mood for something coconut-y (I am always in the mood for something coconut-y). Coconut and potatoes led me to Kerala potato stew, which in turn led me to hot appams, but I quickly stopped that trail of thought from going out of hand and forced my attention back to the kale. I had also been reading about a lentil and coconut milk preparation in my beloved cookbook, The Suriani Kitchen. Luckily, all these thoughts came together and I decided to make a kale-potato-lentil-coconut curry.

Other than a couple of whole red chillies in the tempering, the only other spices you need are turmeric powder and black mustard seeds. The end result is a light and perfectly soothing dish!

Ingredients

1 bunch of kale, chopped
1 large potato, chopped into thick cubes
Approx 1/3 cup of red lentils or masoor dal (washed)
1 small onion, roughly chopped
1 can of first-pressed coconut milk (400 ml)
Ginger, 1-inch piece, finely chopped
Turmeric, 1/2 teaspoon
Black mustard seeds, 1 teaspoon
Whole dry red chillies, 2
Oil, 1 tablespoon
Salt, to taste

Method

+ Open the can of coconut milk & separate the top layer of thick milk.

+ In a large pot, dilute the remaining thin coconut milk with 2-3 cups of water.

+ Add the lentils, potato, onions, and ginger to the pot and mix in the turmeric and salt (if you like, you can also add some fresh curry leaves and green chillies).

+ Put on a lid and boil this mixture until the lentils and potato are almost cooked but not completely done.

+ Add the chopped kale to the pot and cook uncovered for another 4-5 minutes or until the kale is cooked.

+ Turn off the stove, add the thick coconut milk to the pot, and stir to combine.

+ Prepare the tempering in a small frying pan by first heating the oil and then adding the mustard seeds and the dry chillies.

+ Allow the mustard seeds to splutter and turn off the stove.

+ Add the tempering to the coconut curry.

+ Adjust the salt and you are ready to rock-and-roll with some kale curry and rice.

+ My first cookbook review!

+ Get some Headspace, if you like this sort of a thing.

+ Models and Their Mothers. And an interesting book about the modeling industry that I recently read.

+ How to make clarified butter, ghee. My mom has been making ghee every Sunday for as long as I can remember!

I am, at least, done with all the traveling and am ever-so-slowly inching towards a normal life. For example, I bought groceries. In a really long time. I watched The Daily Show. In even longer. You get the point, I hope.

I am still not sure where I will be moving to next. It could be Boston. Or another coast. May be a different country. It is also possible that I might stay put in New York City and just walk across to another apartment down the street. It’s all up in the air at this point.

xo

And what’s unusual is how I feel about coming “home” for a day or two. It strangely doesn’t feel like home anymore. And that’s the worst of it.

On top of that I have been meeting bucketfuls of new people. I don’t know about you, but I take people seriously. Not everyone, of course. But when you meet more than a hundred new people in the course of four days, at least ten of them leave an impression. I find that a little too many people to get to know in such a short period of time!

Oh well.  It’ll soon be over certainly. That’s the only certain thing right now.I am traveling again tomorrow.

+ The Food Court +

A wonderful shop called “The Stock Market”. They sell ready-to-use fresh stocks, sauces, soups, and what not. Check out some really cool things below:

The South China Seas Trading Co was another awesome food store. Apart from fresh and dry ingredients from East Asia, South Asia, Latin America, Middle East, Africa etc., they had kitchen equipments like mortars and pestles, griddle pans, and several cook books.

Another cool idea was the “pantry in a box” concept for anyone trying out a new cuisine.

P.S. Happy New Year (so what if I am 19 days late!)

We all want a balanced life. But it’s easier said than done. I am usually good at it, but the last few months have been very trying, to say the least! If I allow it, the same work-obsessed routine can continue for the next couple of months as well. But I have realized how unhappy it makes me and how unnatural it feels. So, after a lot of contemplation, I have decided to get back to blogging…yoo hoo! More importantly, I have decided to not let things that I truly enjoy and cherish take a back-seat, no matter what.

It is really good to be back .

I know, I know! I am supposed to be on a hiatus. I still am! But I couldn’t resist popping in and saying hello from my cluttered desk!

I didn’t want to miss the start of Fall! It’s getting chilly and I am wearing a sweater, enjoying the comforter, it’s lovely weather-wise.  As I type this, my arms are full of goose-bumps and I am considering pulling down the window-pane. And you know what the perfect music for this season is? Bon Iver. This album puts me in a hut in the middle of a snow-covered forest, far from the city.

This was Columbia a few weeks back, it looked pretty. The flags looked like flowers from far away. I like flowers, not too fond of flags.

Then, there were these beautiful plums.

I just loved the red veins in the peachy flesh on a black and white plate. And they were delicious!

Good bye until my next post! Keep smiling!