Hourglass blocks and food

The latest hourglass blocks.  These take so much time that they almost qualify for slow stitching.  It is a nice rhythm, though. Same blocks in both pictures, just moved to the left.

Food!  The Yarnarian is still cooking Indian, just not taking photos.  But look what the Hubz got today at the Indian grocery store:  baby eggplant.  Are these not the most adorable veggies in the world?  I have recipes for them made in the Instant Pot, as well as one on the stove top, but I'll probably try the IP one first, just because I can.

Knitting?  I'm working on a pleasantly mindless shawl and the endless socks.  This time it's another mismatched sock for Miss P. 

It's time to sign up for this year's Sock Madness.  Why do I do this?  The socks are always way to large for me, I often don't like the complexity (I've made so many socks in my lifetime that I want simple TV watching socks), and I'd rather be knitting something else.  BUT, I love the goofy idea of Sock Madness and the camaraderie,  and the lunatic fun of it.  I also like being on a super fast team with my role being canon fodder. 

The Yarnarian cooks Indian

Moong dal with dill.  It's more yellow than the picture suggests.  Moong dal is this teeny little split yellow lentil.  It's adorable.  Well, I think that it's cute.  But better than cute is taste.  Dal, garlic, hing, AKA asafetida (I have a thing for hing), mustard seeds, and of course, dill.  Lots of dill. 

It comes out very soupy, but you add a slurry of garbanzo flour mixed with water, saute it up and it will thicken.  Thickens more as it cools.  I have no idea what it will do overnight in the fridge, but it will still be delicious.

We had 3 smallish russet potatoes, so I made potatoes with fenugreek.  We were hungry so I never got to photograph it.  It was so yummy!  Potatoes, lots of garlic, kasoori methi (dried fenugreek leaves 'cause I didn't have fresh), cumin seeds, salt, water.  Sounds dull, but it was out of this world.

We had leftover basmati rice with cumin plus a tofu dish.  I'm stuffed and we got rid of the leftovers.

Punjabi Garam Masala

Can you smell it?  I just ground up spices to make Punjabi garam masala.  Garam masala is a warming spice mixture added to Indian food.  Warming, not hot.  Think cinnamon, that lovely warm heat.  No chilies. 

This garam masala contains cinnamon, bay leaves, peppercorns, coriander, cumin, cloves, and I tossed in some cardamom seeds 'cause I love cardamom.

Heat up a small frying pan and put it all in.  Toast, without burning for a couple of minutes.  When you smell it, it's done.  Put on a plate to cool.  When cool, put in a coffee grinder (which is NEVER used for coffee, just spices), and grind away.  It helps to break up the pieces of cinnamon.

I'll use it in an Indian tomato sauce , e.g. a butter masala sauce, or anywhere else that a garam masala is called for.

You cannot imagine how good it smells.  Don't buy the junk at the market; make your own!

The Yarnarian cooks Indian

Kashmiri baingan, aka Eggplant with apples, fennel and black cumin.  P.495 from Raghavan Iyer's book, 660 curries.  My only modification was to leave out the chilies, 'cause I get terribly sick from them.  And I did add a bit of sweet paprika to help with the smokiness of chilies. I used Japanese eggplant and Braidburn apples.

You cannot imagine just how wonderful this is.  One of my grands, who is a very fussy eater, kept nibbling on this.  I can't even describe the taste.  The eggplant picks up the tartness of the apples and the apples get that umami taste from the eggplant.

Go, borrow the books from the library (I own mine) and make this.  If you think you don't like Indian food, you will be surprised at this tasty treat.

The Yarnarian cooks Indian

I have this immense love of Indian food.  It started many many years ago when friends took me to an Indian restaurant in Kenilworth, NJ.  Oh my gosh!  What tastes!  What textures!

Fast forward to a couple of years ago.  So, now, I can no longer eat anything very spicy.  No chilies, no over-abundance of black pepper, not bland, but nothing that will stir up my miserable GERD.  If I eat something with chilies, no matter how mild, or how much yogurt with it, I will wake up at 2 AM with a massive attack of GERD.  I can't breathe, the bile is scorching as it comes up, etc, etc.  Believe me when I tell you that no chilies are worth that misery.  Yes, I've had an endoscopy.  Yes, I know how to control this illness with diet and a healthy sleeping position.  But I miss Indian food.

If I go to an Indian restaurant, and there are tons of them in my neck of NJ, I can't get non-spicy food.  The waiters always tell me that "It's very very mild".  Yes, for you, but any of the dreaded chilies will do a number on me.  No more Chand Palace with the most amazing vegetarian food in existence.  Bummer.

But I can cook my own food and leave out the offending ingredients.  Nope, it isn't what someone from India would like, no zip, no incredible taste, but I can eat it and enjoy it.  The thing is that chilies have taste, not just heat.  I figured this out a few months ago when I had a teensy piece of a samosa that had a teensy bit of chili in it.  Argh.  But as my mouth dealt with the heat, I realized that there was a smoky pepper taste that I loved.  So, being the daughter of Hungarian Jews, I know my paprika.  Nope, not the spicy one, but the noble sweet one.  Édesnemes in Hungarian stores.  Not the icky stuff you get at the supermarket, but the real bright, very tasty paprika.  If I substitute this paprika for the chilies or cayenne, it gives me a bit of the brightness but not the heat.  Not a bad solution.

I've always had Indian cookbooks, a couple by Raghavan Iyer, Madhur Jaffrey, etc, etc.  I've been adding new ones as I go along.  We bought an Instant Pot back in late December, and now I use it almost exclusively for Indian recipes.

So, after this very long introduction, let me show you what I made an hour ago:

This is Jackfruit with channa dal,  from Manali Singh's Vegetarian Indian Cooking with your Instant Pot.  Left out the chilies, put in a tsp of paprika.  Used whole spices 'cause I now have them.  It is beyond wonderful!  I had some of it for lunch with roti and my tastebuds are still singing.  We went to Patel Bros to buy the canned jackfruit.  Weird stuff but amazingly tasty.  Who knows what I'll make tomorrow.

The Yarnarian Has Too Much of a Good Thing!

I have so much yarn for sale. Where have all the buyers gone? Long time passing? ...
I think this is going to be a very turbulent ride in terms of yarn sales. Why? I'll tell you why:

1. The economy, the economy, the economy: When you or your significant other have lost your job, you certainly are not going to spend your very precious money on yarn. Well, I wouldn't.

2. Saving money: People seems to be tightening their belts, even if they are fully employed and in no danger of being laid off. Given the rate of debt in this country, this is a good thing.

3. Stash. Every sock knitter I know has enough sock yarn to knit for the next 27 years. We've all reached the explosion stage.

4. Competition: There are so many indie dyers out there now, plus the big online yarn shops, that little dyers like me can get lost in the confusion.

But, this leaves this poor lonely dyer with an excess amount of yarn to sell. What to do? I love dyeing, so I'll continue to do so. If people buy, they buy. If they don't, I'll swipe yarn for me. I may dye at a slower rate or not. I think I'll just continue as I have been doing. I like it, and why should I stop? It's fun. So I won't get rich? Who in holy hell gets rich in this business? Nobody I know. We do it for the love of it. Otherwise, we'd all go out and get a 9-5 job someplace. Not me, though. I'm lucky to be retired, so whatever I make on this (at a rate of about $2/hour!!!) goes towards whatever I want or need.

I hear more people say: I want to quit my job and do this dyeing full time. Um, maybe not a good idea. It's physically hard, the rate per hour is dismally low, and you get no benefits. No health plan, no sick days, no vacation. You go away for a week or two and close your shop, and then you worry that people will forget about you.

And the glamour of the job? Are you kidding? You should take a look at us when we are in dyeing mode. The grungiest clothing, the respirator. Ah beauty. The dyeing is the fun part of the operation. But you have to do the business end too, which is necessary but not great fun.

So why do I do it? I love to play with color. This is like a kid getting a brand new box of crayons. You have to try them all out. You have to mix and match and play and play some more. I never get tired of it. The result is that I have way too many skeins of yarn, and so I sell them.

Well that was a major ramble into something or other. Anyhow, I have lots of pretty yarns if you want. And if you don't want, I still have lots of pretty yarns. ;-)

And now that I've put you to sleep, let me wake you up with a cooking story. The Hubbo and I love Indian food. I can eat it at least once a week. Give me cilantro and I'm in heaven. Bring on the biryani, the tandoori chicken, the masala dosa, the malai kofta, the kheer, the carrot halwa. I get hungry thinking about it.

So the other day I wanted to make plain old spaghetti and sauce for dinner. Nothing beyond that because I was tired, and anyhow, we had been eating out a lot. The cupboard was bare, and all I had was a jar of Trader Joe's organic spaghetti sauce. the one with no salt and no flavor. Blech. So, I diced an onion and sauteed it, added some balti masala (from scratch no less), mushrooms, cut up cherry tomatoes, and cooked that for a bit. Then I dumped in the boring sauce, cooked it up while the water was boiling for the pasta, sprinkled some garam masala (also home made) on top of it. Tossed in about a ladle of the pasta water with all its starchiness, and then mixed them all up. Topped with cilantro, and we had a wonderful feast. It's amazing how you can doctor up the world's most boring sauce and turn it into something wonderful.

Go look at the comments on the post of January 27th. Allison has an hilarious posting of the letter X!

Ria - I just got started on it, and then it just flowed along. I must have gotten my second wind. I told the Hubbo that he can buy more of that blah sauce just so I can doctor it up. Or else I could just use diced tomatoes combined with tomato sauce and then blend it together in the blender, etc, etc. Nah, the boring TJ sauce works well.

Jen - Let's hope he can do something with this mess.

MamaMay - Thanks for the information.