Cream colored ponies and crisp...fish fry

I love Indian food. But I didn't really make the effort to learn to cook it until I was deprived for it for almost a year and a half. Because I never had to! I lived 3 hours from home and went back once a month. Mama made me all the Indian food I wanted!! Silver spoon in my mouth. With homemade mango pickle on it. Why would I make it myself when Mom's is delish!? Oh right, because I'm an adult and independent yadda yadda and oh yeah now I live a little under 5000 miles away, so once-a-month trips home aren't an option. THEN I took it upon myself to [email my mother and beg her for recipes so that I could] cook all that goodness myself.

I started with avial, a Kerala dish, that's kind of like a vegetable stew:

 

Before 

After

Back when I made the avial was also my first try at making pappadums...

I failed.

James the White did better than me :( :(
BUT YAY pappadums and also YAY I CAN
DEFLECT THIS RESPONSIBILITY

My mom recommended that I use this recipe for the avial...yes, that's a youtube link.

It was really good, but I haven't really made it since. Probably because it was a bit more work than I realized and there are other things I like better. Instead, the staples I now make pretty often and can't live without are:

Fish fry!!!!!! I usually use sea bass. 

Mango. Pickle.

Palakkura Pappu aka Spinach Dal

The only keema pic I could find!! Sometimes I like to
throw eggplant into the mix. And I usually use
ground turkey.

Again, not the best picture.
Technically, it's Mummy Dara's chicken curry, but
I like to add some of this and that
and make it Mummy Dara's Aloo Gobi Chicken curry.

A few recent trials/one-bite-stands har har har have been:

Kerala Meen Curry and beans thoran. I'll definitely do this again, now that Mummy sent me back with
the secret ingredient last time I went home. 

Morcurry on the left and egg curry on the right

For the egg curry, I used this recipe. It was a bit spicy for me, haven't decided if I'll do it again.

These are from the dosa trial day...

As you can see, it didn't go perfectly...

Will need to try again from scratch, used a box that time, shh. Also want to try appam. 

K that's all bye!

Lovechild of a Halloumi salad, a Shrimp Po'boy and a good ole Salami sandwich

I call this...a saloumi sandwich

The pic isn't the greatest, but it was so good, I promise. A simple baguette with French's mustard and salami...but with the halloumi part of this salad and the remoulade from this shrimp po' boy. D-licious! (Plus some salt and vinegar chips. Obv.)

I made the salad last night before our picnic in Potter's Field Park to enjoy the sun.

Leaves and floured, fried cheese. Healthy.

Feasting in the sun, in the [figurative] shade of Tower Bridge

It was good, I really liked the dressing (lemon juice, garlic, honey, some red pepper flakes, salt and oil), but I think I prefer salads with romaine lettuce or spinach bases. But the best part was definitely the halloumi. Since 8 slices was a bit too much for 2 people's dinner though, I made sandwiches for lunch with the rest, and added some of the leftover remoulade from when we made shrimp po'boys a week or two ago. Super yummy.

And those shrimp po'boys were really good too! We made them with this amazing eggplant the first time by accident (as in, I had some eggplant and wanted to make it before it went bad) and then decided to do it again, just because it's so good, and although you wouldn't think to put the two together, the flavors don't clash.

Step 1: Butter. Lots and lots of butter

Step...later: Shrimp with lots and lots of butter and cajun spices, etc

Vietnamese eggplant

The Remoulade, before being spread on the baguette

 

Ta da! Goes well with S&V chips. Has anyone guessed my favorite kind of chips yet?