Winter stuff .........

I am back after a long, long break !
Thanks to my moody comp, I have barely been able to use it in the last 2 months....
But finally, It's back ........hopefully it should function alright for a while.
Meanwhile , I have promised myself a new laptop very soon, so that I don't have to go through this mental trauma again.

I meant to put down sooooo... many interesting things down in the blog during Feb & March..........Don't know how I am going to catch up.....

The weather here in Baroda was soooo good & there were all these wonderful flowers all around !
All these wonderful desi, gujju food stuff that I 've never even heard of before were there all over the place.
You know,I am always amazed at the various ethnic varieties that Indian food offers. But Gujarat, let me tell you takes the cake !

A friend of mine introduced me to this thing called Ponkh ! !Ponkh season starts from November. It is a small green lentil-looking beans has a slightly sweetish and succulent flavour. & I’ve been told that once you've eaten tender ponkh with three flavours of crisp sev, including the tantalisingly titled limbumarini (lime and pepper), tiny sugar balls and a tangy chutney made with the green garlic, you'll never lust for bhelpuri again.

There were ponkh stalls all over the city... & the kinds of stuff they manage to make out of it is simply amazing. Some eat it raw... some have it roasted. I saw a board outside one stall proclaiming the best ponkh patties ever. I had mine raw with hot minty chutney. It was great. I also tasted this dish called sev ponkh. ( It's apparently the Surti version of ponkh ) As the name suggests, the ponkh was topped with tons of hot, peppery sev !!
( You do know... of course, that Gujjus top practically every dish with sev or some farsan or the other......... even a simple batata poha is topped with sev & at least one other farsan ! )

There was also this fresh green tuvar! there were lots of stuff to be made with the green tuvar, but I found that the most popular snack made with green tuvar was tuvar ni kachori. Deadly stuff !!!

& then ............those tiny crescent-shaped beans that Gujaratis call Surti papdis are another story altogether. You have to spend hours shelling those tiny beans from their pods. They are then added to various dishes.............but it is a must in the undhiya ( the vegetable medley cooked with lots of oil and even more love.)

Then in March , with Holi, came half a dozen more stuff ……

To eat , of course………

There were vendors all over the place selling popcorn just before Holi. When I went to check them out, I found that they were not the usual popcorn, but pop jowar……… if you know what I mean !!!

Yep, they had popped the jowar seeds like we do with the corn. Pretty good it was too. Its called Dhani here in Gujarat.

Of course the matter doesn’t end there . As usual , there are different ways to consume them. Some have them slightly sauteed, like we do with the mumra ( puffed rice ) with a pinch of salt & chilli powder . & apparently it is normally washed down with lots of Masala Chaas. Others have it like we have popcorn, sometimes smeared with butter.

& then there was this fresh khajur, deseeded & smeared in ghee………..

& then there was ..................................

Well…… there is no end to the list. So I think I will stop here for now…..

Hopefully the rest will follow soon………………

Ciao !!!