" If there is one place on the face of earth where all the dreams of living men have found a home from the very earliest days when man began the dream of existence, it is India." Today is India's 61st Independence Day ... & I decided to post something Indian today. In fact, India's most popular gastronomic export to the Western world , which is Butter Chicken or Murgh Makhani . Quoting from a snippet in a tabloid debating butter chicken vs chicken tikka masala..." Many years ago, a man named Robin Cook, not the novelist, but the late Labour Party leader & Britain's Foreign Secretary, had stirred an international gastronomic debate by calling Chicken Tikka Masala his country's national dish. People who contested his claim, should have saved their breath, for CTM indeed is a British creation. What they did was dunk chicken tikka that didn't sell during the day, Campbell's tomato soup, fresh cream & lots of red chillies into the frying pan, & they called the result CTM. It must have come as a blessing to a generation that must have grown tired of the blazing vindaloo." But this was far from butter chicken... This appeared in the newspaper in July 2008, in an article from the man who gave Delhi the most memorable Butter Chicken ever...& has been doing so for years - Monish Gujral of Moti Mahal . The article has interesting trivia about the original murgh makhani , or butter chicken , which originated in a dhaba (roadside eatery) near Peshawar in the 1920's. Like everything pertaining to Indian cuisine, there are no records to prove any claim - & was imported into post-partition Delhi by a refugee named Kundan Lal Gujral, or so says his grandson, Monish Gujral. He remembers the founder of Moti Mahal telling him that the dish originated to end the problem of excess chicken tikka, which if left overnight, gets hard & fibrous. This kind man shared his best kept secret of one of India's most famous exports to the Western world in his book, Moti Mahal's Tandoori Trail ....& in a moment of weakness, shared that you need to keep certain points in mind to get best results. In brief, the chicken should be a broiler , weighing no more than 600-700 gms. This recipe is made ' best with bone s' , & you can't make butter chicken with anything other than tandoori chicken . Also, the butter chicken tastes best when gravy tomatoes (bright red ones) are used, as compared to ready made tomato puree from the market. To balance the sourness of the tomatoes, use a bit of sugar, & to get the right consistency, add cashew paste. I can say it works, & works brilliantly . I've made this thrice ( on the bone, boneless breast & boneless drumsticks) & it's very, very nice indeed. The sauce is brilliantly flavoured & quite mild despite the garam masala, red & green chilies. I had an old aunt, my mother's elder sister, visiting on her way out to Canada. Feisty old lady, at 80+ speaks her mind & has brought up 2 sons & a daughter. One son is a Professor of Genetics at Pittsburgh University, & the other is a Geologist in Canada. Sadly, she lost her daughter, quite young, to Multiple Sclerosis last year.  read more »

The sun shone down on windy lane cottage on a beautiful summer day. All the flowers were dancing in the garden as a gentle breeze brushed across the tops of their heads and ruffled their curling leaves. Birds twittered in the tree tops and bees hummed as they flitted here and there, darting in and out amongst the dancing flowers.

Christabelle Woodland loved living in such a snug little place. Here she felt warm and she felt safe and she felt, well . . . happy. I wonder, she thought to herself, what it is that makes me feel this way. Where is it that I can find bliss? What is bliss? Where is joy? What is joy? These questions kept swirling around and around in her little fairy mind and so she set off to find out the answer amidst the to's and fro's of Windy Lane.  read more »

Today's product tips: Jarred peppers from the grocery and fresh mini peppers from Costco. Today's recipe: A 'vegged up' ham sandwich with an easy goat cheese-red pepper spread. Pound for edible pound, fresh peppers are increasingly expensive. Here in St. Louis, the everyday supermarket price ranges from $1.50 to $2.00 a pepper -- per pepper ! Demand is high, so sale prices are rare. For a few weeks in early fall, locally grown peppers are plump and plentiful (and cheap, say $.25 each) at the farmers market -- even while the grocery stores are charging the same $1.50 to $2.00 for peppers imported from somewhere. (Wouldn't you know it? This week my local supermarket has peppers on sale for $1 apiece. I bought several!) So I keep my eyes peeled for pepper products -- and have two to recommend. JARRED PEPPERS - For $2 to $3, I find jars of (slightly pickled) peppers and jars of roasted peppers. Each jar holds six or more whole peppers, so they'll go a long way. But forget the regular supermarkets for the lower prices. Here I find them at an Italian market (for St. Louisans, Viviano's on The Hill) and at an international market (for St. Louisans, Global Foods in Kirkwood) but of course, you'll need to keep your own eyes peeled. They keep - so it's easy to stock up on a jar or two. MINI PEPPERS - A two-pound bag of these gorgeous mini peppers was $5 at Costco - and to my wallet, worth every cent. They make great snacks, plus it's also easy to chop one or two for an omelet or garnishing a soup -- so there's little waste. Plus, they're just so darn 'cute', yes? YOUR EXPERIENCE - What's your experience with pepper prices, both fresh and in 'convenience products' like these I recommend? Are they in your budget?  read more »

Cuisine is the tactile connection we have to breathing history. History and culture offer us a vibrant living society that we taste through cuisine.All cuisine is a reflection of the society from which it emanates in the end cuisine is the result of culture Chicken Korma...home-made & finger licking good! There was an article in the 'Daily Mail' a while ago, which was republished in the' Mail Today' , here in India, more than a month ago (May 16, 2008 pg 15 ). It talked about junk food as 'seen by most of us as an unhealthy but occasional treat. A survey in the UK has revealed just how bad a takeaway can be. Most meals surveyed exceeded safe limits of fat & salt content, the doner kebab being the worst offender, which can contain as much fat as a wine glass full of cooking oil' ! PHEW!!  read more »

Today's vegetable lesson: What's the difference between yams and sweet potatoes?  read more »