Mantras de Comida/Food Mantras

05/07/2021

I was hoping to cook until this Wednesday(7th July). However, taking into account the summer vacation and contingencies, I will start the summer break from this week onwards until August end. Hope you all have a good break too. Thank you all for the support, interest and your kind words.

In the meantime, I shall be sending across a feedback form which you can fill with time so that I can make improvements when I start again.

Boas férias para a todos ❣️

01/07/2021

For 2nd July:

For tomm, its going to be a South Indian menu. What is interesting in this menu is the absence of onion in the main dish.

Avial with Lemon Rice and Soraikai Thogayal (Bottlegourd chutney) + Whole Wheat Phulkas (Puffed Indian bread)

For the meat lover´s we have Chicken 65, a snack or starter that originated from a hotel in Chennai.

Avial is a thick creamy mixed vegetable dish made with coconut and/or greek yoghurt seasoned with curry leaves in coconut oil. It is a dish which originated in Kerala and an essential part of the traditional Kerala banquet (called sadhya)
Normally the vegetables that are used are: Elephant root Yam, Yellow Cucumber, Ivy gourd, Snake gourd/eggplant, Ash Gourd, Beetroot, raw plantain, potato, carrot, beans, yam, pumpkin, zucchini, drumstick. I shall be using a subset of these vegetables that are available here. I will skip Beetroot this time.

Bottlegourd, also called as Calabash, is said to have been brought from Asia to Africa and then to Europe and America along with human migration. What interested me about Calabash is its significance as a vessel for knowledge and wisdom (in Africa) and an ancient symbol of health (Chinese cultures). In India it is used as resonator in musical instruments like the sitar for a balancing effect.

29/06/2021

For 30th June:

For tomm, its going to be “the Kurma Curry Box Wednesday”

Kurma or Korma is a stew-like dish made with vegetables or braised meat in a creamy coconut, nuts or yoghurt-based sauce. This is a Mughlai dish (Indo-Persian related to the Mughal empire) and has its name from the Urdu word “qormã” meaning braised. In North India, it is called “korma” while in the South it is “kurma”.

For a play on words, Kurma in Sanskrit means tortoise, and in Hindu mythology is an avatar of Hindu God Vishnu. Traditional lore and Hindu cosmology associates Kurma with the legend of churning of the “Ocean of Milk”, the fifth of the seven oceans. There are many more stories associated with “Kurma”. One of the products of churning of this Ocean of Milk is Dhanvantri, the physician of Gods and the God of Ayurveda…

So here you go for tomm:

Vegetable Kurma with a combination of 5 veggies - peas, carrots, cauliflower, beans and paneer

OR

Chicken Korma

The nuts I will be using are a small qty of almonds, cashew along with some poppy seeds in yoghurt.

Cumin Rice/Raitha and Garlic Naan available on order.

17/06/2021

17/06/2021

For 18th June:

For tomorrow, I would like to take you through special Bengali cuisines (Eastern region of India).

So here you go for the "Prato do Dia":

ChorChori (pronounced as CharChari) Bengali style Mix Veg Curry cooked with “Paanch Phoron” which means “ tempered with 5” spices. Vegetables I plan to use are a combination of butternut squash, beans, carrot, cauliflower and sweet potatoes

Bengali Cholar Dhal - A festive Bengal Gram Lentils cooked with some coconut and spices.

Basanti Pulao - Rice dish made from Kalijeera Bengali strain of rice. Kalijeera is a medium-grain rice originally from Bangladesh. It has a delicious, nutty flavour.

Additionally for the meat lovers, I will repeat the Tandoori chicken

15/06/2021

For 16th June:

Hello all!

For Curry Box Wednesday this week, we will go with the Bhartas. Bharta is the Hindi word for “mashed”.

“Baingan ka bharta” is a South Asian dish made of smoked eggplant mashed and prepared along with onions, tomatoes, herbs and different spices. It is made throughout the country in different regional styles.
OR
Chicken bharta, a shredded chicken dish, is cooked with different spices in a rich creamy gravy.

Cumin Rice/Raitha available on order.
Kulchas (mildly leavened flatbread) stuffed with carrot, peas and cauliflower also available on request.

Have a wonderful day❤️

10/06/2021

For 11th June Friday:

Tomorrow, I´d like to go again to the same south Indian region (I will use the version from the state of Tamil Nadu)

The menu is:
Beans Carrot Poriyal - Poriyal, is a Tamil word for sauteed vegetables. This preparation is found in all the other three Southern states of India - Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala with slight variations and am planning to cover these styles in the upcoming weeks.
Seppakizhangu kuzhambu (Taro Root or “Yam” curry) - A tamarind based stew of yam cooked in masalas made of lentils.
Pongal - A festive rice and lentil based dish to start with our summer break

Starters:
Continuing our Wednesday´s theme we shall have another North Indian starter :)
Tandoori Chicken, is also a dish popularised again in Moti Mahal restaurant in New Delhi

07/06/2021

This “Curry Box Wednesday”, we shall go to the invention in the Moti Mahal restaurant, New Delhi in the 1950s:

Murg Makhani (Butter chicken) OR Dal Makhani (whole black lentils and red kidney beans)

Like last Wednesday, each box should be more than sufficient for two doses.

Peas Pilaf/Raitha/Plain Naans available separately on order.

31/05/2021

For 4th June Friday:

Chettiars are traders, commercial and mercantile bankers and land owners, especially in the Southern states of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
Nadu literally means “Land” in Tamil.
The land of the Chettiars, Chettinad, is located in Tamil Nadu, southern India.

Chettinad is known for its cuisine, architecture and art in temples and mansions with wide courtyards and large rooms with marble and teak embellishments.
Chettinad cuisine is a popular fare in Tamil Nadu repertoire. The Chettiars were salt and spice traders and this is reflected in their cuisine.

For this Friday dinner we will explore some Chettinad special dishes.

Prato do Dia:
- Cauliflower Milagu Peratu, which is a dry cauliflower dish made predominantly with Chettinadu spices and pepper;
- Chettinadu Keerai Kootu Masiyal - Masiyal is a South Indian dish made from Dhal and veggies. Here we will be using lentils with spinach in the Chettinad style.
- Accompanied with the Indian bread - Chappathis
Price 10 euros

For non veg lovers, additionally we have the Chettinadu Chicken Dry
Price 5 euros

Chettinad houses are examples of magnificent mansions in the world...

31/05/2021

For 2nd June:

Based on some of your feedback and to make the weekdays easier with food, I want to experiment this month with a “Curry box Wednesday” .

This Wednesday afternoon, I shall have “Chicken OR Paneer-Mutter Home style Curry”. Each box should be more than sufficient for two doses and weighs about 500gms (for comparison, this is about double the portion in my Friday meals). The cost shall be 10 euros.
Because I use fresh ingredients and spices, if refrigerated well, it can be consumed for more than a couple of days.

Rice/Raitha available on order.

This can be picked up from my location at Foz during the following times: Wednesday 17h30 until 20h

25/05/2021

28th May:

This week we will go to the Eastern region of India - Bengal. Bengal was once known as the richest trading nation in the world. There are many tales and snippets that can be accounted for just from this region.

Jhalfrezi is a popular Bengali dish which consists of a main ingredient like meat, cottage cheese or veggies stir-fried in a thick spicy sauce along with green chilli peppers. In Bengali, “Jhal” means spicy food; “porhezi” means suitable for diet. To recount a minute gastronomical tit-bit, the stir-fry technique was introduced in Bengal by the Chinese Cuisine.

Vegetarian OR Chicken Jhalfrezi with a seasonal cherry raitha and Cheese Garlic Naan, is how I would like to end the month of May.

Price: 12 euros