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3:57
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A Mad Tea Party
So I promised to turn over a new leaf…
But in the time that intervened I omitted to share my gastronomic visit to the land where I believe I might have lived in my previous life. In the days of spare gas cylinders and even piped gas (I refer here to liquefied petroleum gas – [...]
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23:22
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A Mad Tea Party
Winter seemed almost over. The sun was out from behind the fog and days were back to being like they are in Delhi – bright and shiny. There were signs of spring and I was determined to turn over a new leaf.
You have to make the most of spring in my neck of the woods; [...]
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11:57
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A Mad Tea Party
We are well into winter now here in Delhi. Autumn is past; the tiny leaves of Gulmohur have finally done their main shedding. It’s not bare, it never is, but we don’t sweep up a pile of leaves by the gate anymore. This is also the time when a lot of us feel [...]
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7:16
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A Mad Tea Party
It’s nippy tonight – it has snowed in the mountains and it is raining in Delhi. Some beans and rice is just what I would like…
I was lucky to get a little of the stash of fresh cranberry beans that a cousin brought over from a visit to the valley and shared with my mom [...]
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12:32
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A Mad Tea Party
If you take a good look, you will find that the majority of the posts on this blog are around memories. Mostly memories about food. Yet, from the moment Manisha announced her IFR: Memories I seem to have been at a loss for words! Her deadline, extended, is looming and I can [...]
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10:59
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A Mad Tea Party
My previous post didn’t quite make the cut for Express Indian: 6-ingredients-or-under because I had one ingredient too many and there were some protests that I was breaking my own rules. Little do you know that we Delhi-ites are like that only; we know rules are made so that they may be broken! Nor are [...]
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9:56
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A Mad Tea Party
I have been cooking a lot of express-Indian these past few months. In fact, my usual cooking is reasonably Express, and predominantly Indian. But this was additionally challenging because I was looking for 6 ingredients or less. I am going to take some creative license and add oil to the list of [...]
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12:08
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A Mad Tea Party
It was hard to come up with a title that had already not been used! Quick Indian Cooking, Express Cooking, Simple Indian Food, Quick and Easy Indian Cooking, and my own section, Under-30-minutes! And yet, people want to continue to shroud Indian cuisine under difficult and complex. Complex – I sure hope it is! How [...]
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11:58
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A Mad Tea Party
We decided to make a holiday of dropping A off at his college where he begins a new chapter in his life. I put in extra hours at work, squeezed in that second visit to Calcutta, (and stayed away from the blog!) and we were all set.
But let me start at the very beginning… [...]
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7:17
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A Mad Tea Party
Idyllic six days of soaking in the monsoon…literally as well. In these parts, it never rains – it only pours! I’ll begin at the beginning but am fighting deadlines – how oft am I allowed to use this as an excuse? Also, I have a house full of guests; does that count?
Local bananas = ambrosia.
Are [...]
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9:39
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A Mad Tea Party
Yes, I was in Calcutta last week!
Although I don’t bring you food, I will have you know shukto is my new favorite mixed vegetable! In the two work-filled days I did manage two wholesome Bengali meals. And loved every morsel of them! I had no idea I might like Bengali food so completely! Though [...]
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0:32
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A Mad Tea Party
I know, I know – I have been neglecting the blog. I think i might have writer’s block. The thing with writing is that you must just keep at it; that’s the only way to get past it. You cut yourself some slack, waiting for inspiration to strike, and before you know it you have [...]
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0:32
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A Mad Tea Party
I know, I know – I have been neglecting the blog. I think i might have writer’s block. The thing with writing is that you must just keep at it; that’s the only way to get past it. You cut yourself some slack, waiting for inspiration to strike, and before you know it you have [...]
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5:43
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A Mad Tea Party
Despite what you might be beginning to think. I haven’t fallen through any hole and disappeared from the surface of this earth. Though, I came pretty close to just that this past weekend.
Given the hectic work pace of the past month, a fleeting thought that this might be our last chance to find some time [...]
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12:45
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A Mad Tea Party
Natural. Home made. Brew with a (nonalcoholic) kick. Lip smacking. Kanji.
Every winter I look at the black-purple carrots that appear in the vegetable markets of Delhi and the rest of Northern India, and make a mental note to track down a recipe for kanji. As far as I know, they are used only in [...]
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9:34
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A Mad Tea Party
Spring is here and Delhi is a riot of colour. There are the myriad shades of green and now the blooms. To all this, Holi added its bright colours this week.
It has been a while since we joined in the revelry that Holi is but a party is always welcome. My MIL [...]
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9:30
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A Mad Tea Party
My entry for Click Feb: Cheese!
It has been a very busy time for me on the personal front this time. First my sister was visiting from CT, and now I have a friend visiting from Chennai. From Monday will start the stress of the XII Boards for the son. But it hasn’t [...]
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2:28
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A Mad Tea Party
Quick. I need your opinion. This one is my entry for Click: Red! To get these juicy tomatoes I made a trip to my local vegetable market so I could have tomatoes with their green bracts still attached!
(salad recipe here)
For Click: Red! I’m was leaning towards #2…liked the mood there. But you are all right, [...]
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10:29
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A Mad Tea Party
A very Happy New Year to all of you. (No, I haven’t dropped off the face of the earth.) May you have all you need. Yes – need, not want. And may you never want. And what you cannot have may you be able to cook it up.
Do you crave things from long ago, from [...]
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11:05
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A Mad Tea Party
As I said earlier, there is much Kashmiris make with rice. Besides being the staple on our plate it is also our preferred ingredient when it comes to celebrations of all kinds. All auspicious occasions begin with rice in some avatar or the other. Barring one sweet made with dry fruits all Kashmiri [...]
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22:21
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A Mad Tea Party
Dec 30: Well, well…I didn’t really think anyone would be able to guess this! But Bhavna got it right! I might as well do as Manisha says and make this an edition of Riddle Me This even if a couple of weeks late! Here are the rules for you, Bhavna.
You have to:
find something stranger than [...]
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0:59
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A Mad Tea Party
Kashmiri Pandits, just like Bengali Brahmins, are known for their love of mutton and fish. Just the sight of a goat can make my Bengali professor salivate. Likewise, a Kashmiri is within her rights to discount a meal that did not include meat.
Food is perhaps amongst the most gossiped topics in the Kashmiri community. The [...]
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11:17
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A Mad Tea Party
Manisha, the same one who looked at my strange gourd pictures and rolled her eyes, “Not another quiz?!” has now decided to start her very own mother quiz circulating event – Riddle Me This. I kind-of-sort-of figured out the answer to her quiz (Pel was ahead, of course) and had the baton passed on to [...]
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6:47
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A Mad Tea Party
The lights are up!
Yesterday, on dhanteras (the thirteenth day of the Hindu lunar month of Ashwin), I gathered up some enthusiasm to get the Divali cooking underway. There was no way I could have shopped for gold - the prices are at a record high and the market at a record low. Making Divali treats [...]
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22:58
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A Mad Tea Party
Banana Milkshake
1 medium banana, sliced
1 C (about 200ml) medium-fat milk (I use 3% for everything), chilled
sugar to taste (optional)
1/2 t vanilla extract
Blend everything. Pour into a glass - I make mine in a cup using a hand-blender and drink straight from that. Garnish with a few pieces of sliced banana if desired.
This is [...]
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7:46
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A Mad Tea Party
Comfort food. Different things to different people. But always disarmingly simple. A few ingredients, a basic recipe, but the final outcome is something that satisfies a craving that nothing else will. A dish that wraps you around your home, your family, your culture, and many times, around the various stages of [...]
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22:40
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A Mad Tea Party
I am determined to cook this for lunch... and tell you about it too. Promise.
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9:35
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A Mad Tea Party
At the end of a more-than-full work day we all deserve to put our feet up and get the much needed rest. Recharge our batteries. Good wholesome food contributes much to this recharge. Many of us also admit to the therapeutic qualities of the act of cooking itself!
Roth - the baked kind. Crusty, you [...]
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10:36
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A Mad Tea Party
Yes, I know, I have been a terrible hostess. Terribly busy. It’s nice to have time to flit about and smell the flowers. Just like this butterfly. Yet, she is also hard at work. So, here I am, working hard and making time for the party.
Thank you, all, for so graciously making the time for [...]
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4:41
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A Mad Tea Party
If you have been seeing Batata Vadas appear in some of the food blogs you read and wondering what is up with that, here is what is at the root of it all - old fashioned indulgence. A year ago, while discussing this and that on this blog, I and my readers decided a party [...]
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3:59
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A Mad Tea Party
Happy Independence Day, people!
We are combining it with Raksha Bandhan celebrations here today. Raksha Bandha is actually tomorrow but there’s a solar eclipse, which is considered inauspicious…
Yes, I have a party on my mind - a batata vada party! Have you deep fried yet? Hope to see you at the party!
[...]
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11:24
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A Mad Tea Party
Last year, on the first blogversary of A Mad Tea Party, I got rambling on the matter of food and diet. As I had wished, it did get a life of its own and we did stray into other things…with food as a point of beginning. There was fun and trickery, food and drink, and [...]
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11:55
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A Mad Tea Party
Please don’t mention Caronda* for some time…it is in every jar I had spare! There is no room for any more pickles or preserves…As I mentioned last time, I made some caronda chutney a week ago, to use up part of my Dad’d harvest from a bush I planted about ten years ago in the [...]
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12:00
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A Mad Tea Party
I think I have hibernated long enough. And it is not even the season. ‘Tis the season to be out and enjoy the rains - which, after it having rained most of May and all of June, have disappeared since we officially entered the monsoon season. That’s the weather update for you.
A couple of weeks [...]
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11:45
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A Mad Tea Party
Every chance I get, I use. After locating my ride at Vadodara the first question I put to him was where I could get some good ’snacky’ Gujju breakfast! He knew just the place. We went to Payal Farsan Mart from where I got packed a bite of quite a few things [...]
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23:52
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A Mad Tea Party
Modern Western medicine has changed our lives with its clinical approach to diagnosis and treatment of disease. Along the way it became the mainstream approach with older systems getting the tag of alternative medicine. Of course, there are reasons to encourage and protect this mindset.
Practitioners of Western medicine, while finally admitting to the efficacy [...]
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6:50
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A Mad Tea Party
Most of us get addicted to reading blogs before we get one of our own. I wandered into the food blog world one fine day looking for some variety in my daily cooking. Nothing fancy, just everyday cooking that would show new ways with the same old ingredients.
Here are a few that have [...]
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7:59
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A Mad Tea Party
A big chunk of my readers live outside India. And all of them will appreciate how I have tried not to rub salt on their mangoes wounds this year. There has been no talk of mangoes, whatsoever, on this blog so far this year; no debate on which mango is the King, [...]
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14:18
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A Mad Tea Party
Usually, I love my time in the kitchen. More often than not, TH stays out, and is very appreciative of the food I put on the table (even when it is store-bought bread on days such as today when I am too rushed for even a 30-minute meal). But there are (many) days when I [...]
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15:51
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A Mad Tea Party
I was gushing about the April Fool’s Blog Swap to my schoolfriend. She was not very impressed and instead she drove the conversation in another direction:
So you meet these people on the Internet and they become your friends?
Um, yeah. Well, some of them even become very good friends…
How do you know if the woman isn’t [...]
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23:04
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A Mad Tea Party
I mean really. Aren’t you tired of brown? And pictures of desks? It’s time for a makeover. It’s time for fun. It’s high time for the real Mad Tea Party to begin. I asked Anita to please take a walk so that I can set things right around here. Once I get done with [...]
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8:08
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A Mad Tea Party
This month I have been mostly…
…buried deep in work. I want so much to surface, get a breath of fresh air, and share my notes with you. But work takes priority; it does, after all, help pay the bills.
I have been eating healthy…mostly. Fresh cooked breakfasts had been sacrificed for the convenience [...]
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12:15
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A Mad Tea Party
Spring is upon us! Temperatures are climbing steadily – we are already at 27 degrees C. But a nip still lingers at night and in the mornings. Therefore, the mustard family gets to reign for a few more weeks. I have mentioned mustard fields and I have talked about Punjab…but I [...]
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9:45
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A Mad Tea Party
I seem to gravitate towards strong tasting vegetables - the pungent and very-brassica smells and tastes my husband likes to categorise as oogra. Nothing brings out the link between all the diverse members of the brassica family (such as broccoli, kohlrabi, haak, cabbage, cauliflower, radish, mustard, kale, and collard) like their flowers and seeds. [...]
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11:45
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A Mad Tea Party
I am exploring my new camera… and it’s taking frustratingly long to re-learn the ropes. I really wish I could just use my ancient NikonF4 and have the film change into a chip somehow… Someday someone will do something like that I am sure. Till then I have to get used to focusing [...]
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23:45
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A Mad Tea Party
Snap, snap…blink, blink… Okay, I am really trying hard to snap out of it. The blog-lethargy that I have slumped into. Maybe it really is the cold (it was a freezing 2 degrees Celsius here in Delhi yesterday) and my brain has frozen over, in addition to my hands and feet. I [...]
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13:09
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A Mad Tea Party
Before Srivalli completely gives up on me, here I am with my experiments with the mystery powder I received through our very own Arusuvai Friendship chain last month. For all my professed past-life claims, the podi Srivalli sent me had me at a complete loss. I have already admitted I am not good [...]
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1:19
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A Mad Tea Party
I hope it has been a good year for all of you. If it’s been a mixed bag, as most years are, you’ll find yourself looking back at it with much nostalgia soon enough. The past has a way of turning rosy.
There was much that was good with this year for me too. [...]
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