Quick Indian Cooking

It’s the last day of Durga Puja, a celebration of good winning over evil and highlight of the Bengali religious calendar.

I made it to the pandal (marquee) on Friday, only to be told to leave within an hour thanks to a queue of 400 people outside waiting to get in.

Thankfully, I’d made it to the bhog (food offering) table in time to grab some delicious khichuri (khichri), mango chutney and mishti.

Recipes to follow soon. Shubho bijoya dashami to all of you in the meantime…

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Back from the world of high-street botox, designer dogs and leapord-print everything that is Cannes, I am basking in a warm glow that is a fabulous sun tan.

But until recently, I was more likely to carry a Victorian parasol in the sun for fear of catching colour than bake on a beach for hours a day.

I blame my grandmothers. When I was growing up in India, they considered a sun tan to be the third vice, after alcohol and cigarettes, exclaiming after my Goan holiday: “Look how dark you are. Who will marry you??”

Not like this was ever going to put me off tanning for long (or anything else for that matter).

But two generations later, my sister greets me at home yesterday with: “Oh my God, look how dark you are. Use yogurt and lemon juice right now!”

Scary, that. It would both cool and bleach my skin right back to normal. But I’m not sure I want to steep myself in a chicken tikka marinade just yet…

Actually, I was already basking in a warm glow when I left for Cannes.

Despite missing every single food blog event, posting intermittently and blogging only when time permits, I have been deemed worthy of not one but two blog awards! A real honour if I can spot one!

So I am now a thoughtful blogger thanks to Sandeepa of Bong Mom’s Cookbook.

And then I got a Rockin’ Girl Blogger award from Sra of When My Soup Came Alive.

Thanks ladies. It certainly makes it all the more worthwhile. As do all the lovely comments, sometimes fraught, about this, that and the other in recipes.

I’ll be back to blogging about food tomorrow. But here are my nominations for the awards:

Meena of Hooked on Heat, Sam of Becks & Posh, Nandita of Saffron Trail and Michelle of The Maltese Bacon are my Rockin’ Girl Bloggers.

Kathryn of Limes and Lycopene, Coffee of The Spice Cafe, Bee of Jugalbandi and Wendy at A Wee Bit of Cooking are my Thoughtful bloggers. 

I could nominate Asha of Foodie’s Hope for both, but then she has already received the award 100 times over as she well deserves it.

And a special mention for Mangs, who diligently tries almost all the vegetarian recipes on this site and is on the verge of pissing off her Halal Indian cornershop with her queries. Hang in there buddy…

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I said goodbye to mother this week with a heavy heart and a full belly.

The boozy Saturday night in before she left, we decided to have a mid-week party. My two Indian girlfriends would bring a dish each, mother would cook two dishes and hubby and his French best mate would eat for England.

Theoretically the easiest dinner party I’ve ever thrown. But this being the Basu household, things quickly unravelled.

Mother’s one kilo of prawns were not the shelled variety. On returning from work, I was handed a stainless steel bowl and strict peeling instructions.

Then one girlfriend arrived sans food. Too drunk on Saturday to remember the dinner party involved pot luck, she hastily made a beeline to buy the ingredients for her speciality anda raita.

While I sampled the other friend’s potato curry (aloo dum), hubby’s Irish, Indian food hating best mate called to say he was locked out and needed somewhere to go.

Before I knew it, he arrived, the group had collectively smashed two glasses, my dining table vase and overcooked the dal. 

We calmed down as my Russian friend arrived and soon eight people were sitting squashed around a table for four talking food, epilators, love and life and devouring anda raita, aloo dum, lentils cooked with oranges, mustard prawn curry and basmati rice straight out of pots and pans.

My top tips for a perfectly simple dinner party?

• Cook the food beforehand and leave them in their pots
• Reheat the pots and serve the food in them
• Make large portions of a few dishes – it’s always easier to make bigger portions rather than new dishes
• Use fancy ingredients not complicated recipes to impress

I would say get others to cook the food, but that wouldn’t quite work as a regular thing. Very sad to say goodbye to mother, but what an exit…

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I am now a member of the Foodie Blogroll, a fantastic initiative by Jenn of Leftover Queen designed to bring foood blogs together the world over.

If, like me, you are always the last one to wake up to good things – sign up now!

The bad news is that my email mallika@quickindiancooking.com isn’t working. It’s down to the rather odd domain name of spunkymail, which gets blocked by the hotmail account emails get forwarded to.

All rather complicated for me. I’m usually quite happy to manually delete emails asking me to enlarge body parts I don’t posess or offering vitality boosters I don’t need.

Anyway, if you are trying to email me please bear with me while I get the funk back into spunkymail.

That does sound rude…

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