Sattva : Issue 11
The one dish you wont make at home | Finding joy in the kitchen | Mango salad recipes | Marathi movies you must watch and more!
Sattva (सत्त्व) is a beautiful Sanskrit word that has many meanings—spirit, true essence, good sense, wisdom, quality of purity, energy, consciousness and mind, among other things.
Through this fortnightly newsletter, I want to bring to you all things good, which will make your life better. My focus will be on topics such as mindfulness, productivity, slow living and sustainability, accompanied by genuinely useful recommendations of products, books, music, links to read, and of course food and recipes. Through these, I hope to instil some Sattva in your life.
The one dish you won’t make at home and why
I am a food writer and a cookbook author but there are quite a few dishes that I have never made at home. You may wonder what the reasons are.
Some, I have been wanting to make for the longest time, but the fear of too much effort and that it will not turn out good have been dampeners.
For example: athirasam, samosa, Bengali sweets
I once got very enthusiastic to make samosa at home. I started off by watching a 30 minute video on Youtube by Chef Harpal Singh Sokhi a few times to make sure I understood all the steps right. I made the potato filling which was easy enough. And when it was time to make the dough, shape the samosas and deep fry, I promptly chickened out.
Some dishes need too many specialty ingredients or well practised techniques to make (here’s looking at you, croissants!) and I’m better off buying these.
I posted this same question on my Instagram stories yesterday and I was amused at the whole range of responses (over 180!). Here are some of them with my comments in italics.
Samosa was a popular response for a variety of reasons, top one being that we get better ones from the shop across. (The sweetmeat shops have mastered it so we don’t have to.)
Churros, because laziness (I hear ya! Tried it just once because I was held to random by my motherly guilt. It’s my son’s favourite dessert. Never again!)
Bread, because the last time I made one it became a garden ornament. (This one problem I don’t have. I make decent-ish bread)
Never make anything deep fried because I am mortally scared of what to do with the remaining oil. (I’m almost in the same boat)
Croissants, because intimated by all the steps. (I’m with you sister)
Baati and churma because of the amount of ghee in it and my mom stays next door. (lucky you!)
La-phing, a Tibetan noodle dish, the process is long and it scares me. (I need to google this!)
Puff pastry dough, chickened out because of the hot weather here. (Never been that ambitious in my life!)
Puffs. Don’t see why when the friendly neighbourhood bakery is a call away! (100% agree, pups, that’s how we call them in Bengaluru, are delicious though)
Macarons, because they are just sophisticated batashas (Fell off my chair laughing).
Momos. Getting the folds right seems too daunting. (Damn right, if you like it, better to just order it)
Vatha Kulambu, the dish has a very complex chemistry and flavour (Oh yes, it’s delicious with rice and I make this regularly)
This is just to tell you that it’s fine not to have the enthusiasm to make every kind of dish at home and ordering or buying them when cravings hit is perfectly acceptable :)
Finding joy in the kitchen
When it comes to kitchen organisation, we keep things a certain way when we move in. That arrangement tends to get set in stone. We never think of rearranging it in a way that is easier for our everyday use or just easier on the eyes. Us Indian folk start off our kitchen with tons of steel utensils and it also used to be the standard gift for most functions, all of which we get attached to over a period of time. This ends up in most of us having enough to make our kitchens look like a steel emporium.
In my kitchen, I use two utensils for boiling milk, one for dosa batter, three bowls for prepping vegetables, soaking legumes etc. Ask me how many utensils I actually have and I’m going to be too embarrassed to even count. This is despite giving away a lot of it.
Just like clothes and other things in the house, if you haven’t used something in your kitchen in the last six months, then it’s unlikely that you’re going to use it. Find a new home for those things and you’ll be left with just the things that you actually need and use. If you think there’s sentimental value attached and you cannot give things away, put it in tucked away elsewhere and not in your main shelves.
If you cook a lot and spend a considerable time in the kitchen, it is important that the things in the kitchen and their arrangement bring joy. Mine is still a work in progress. I’ve been organising my kitchen and here are some of the stuff I bought last week to organise things better.
Lazy susan to hold small condiments either inside deep shelves or in the fridge shelf
Powder blue baskets, set of 3, to hold snacks and other smaller items
Bamboo stand to hold pot lids in place
(Ikea) S hooks
(Ikea) Variera shelf insert
Extra groceries and reusable containers are best kept out of plain view in beautiful baskets such as these hyacinth and metal baskets from Organise with Ease. I haven’t used them yet, but their products seem to be good and sturdy.
I wrote about increasing kitchen shelf space in Issue 03 covering some other products that I have put to use.
You’ll find all the stuff I use in my home and kitchen and the stuff I want to buy, in my new Amazon store, including the latest purchases of home cleaning appliances.
(Psst! In case you haven’t heard, IKEA delivers to Bengaluru now (FINALLY!).
If you have a tried and tested kitchen organisation tip or product, do share in the comments below. It will be useful to all of us.
6 Mango Salad Recipes
I hope you have been making the most of mango season. I have been eating them as is, making aamras, mango mor kuzhambu, fajeto, 2-minute mango ice cream and more! If you do have a mango or two to spare, I want you to try these 6 salads, or at least a couple of them. Mangoes are delicious in salads.
Due to a mango’s sweet taste, the ingredients that pair well with them are either neutral flavoured or sour, salty, spicy - think grains, coconut, citrus, chilli (mango hot sauce!) and feta cheese.
The soft and juicy texture of mangoes is nicely contrasted by the crunch from toasted nuts and chewy textures of brown rice or other grains.
Marathi movies for you to watch
Malayalam movies have a cult following even among non-Malayalis thanks to the subtitled movies we have access to on streaming platforms. There’s always a bunch of reccos you come across on social media. I’m a fan too and I have a long list of favourite Malayalam movies from the last few years.
Marathi movies on the other hand are a recent discovery for me, even though I understand and speak the language. Many of these new-gen Marathi movies have a beautiful story line or simply a slice of life, shot with much sensitivity and beauty. I had posted some of my favourite Marathi movies on Twitter and many more recommendations came my way. You can see the tweet and the responses below.
Here are some movies I loved. I’m not describing the plot or a detailed review here. Rest assured, these movies will be worth your time.
Ani Kashinath Ghanekar (Netflix)
Court (Netflix)
The Disciple (Netflix)
Cycle (Netflix)
Killa (Netflix)
Photo Premi (Amazon Prime)
Shala (Hotstar) - I stumbled upon this 2011 movie by chance. A few days ago, there was a fundraiser music concert by TM Krishna and other musicians on Clubhouse. Mohan Kannan, a member of the band Agnee presented a song. While his guitar sounded great, the voice quality was patchy over Clubhouse, but I could tell what a lovely song it was. Digging a bit, I got to hear that song on Youtube and I haven’t been able to take it out of my mind since then. Turns out, the song was from this movie Shala. The scenes and visuals in the song’s video intrigued me about the movie and luckily it was available on Hotstar. Let me just say that the movie did not disappoint at all. Set around the students of a school in rural Maharashtra in the 70s, it’s a gentle, beautiful romance movie, totally deserving of the National Awards it won.
Events
I’m speaking in an online event along organised by Chennai International Center on 9 July at 5.30 pm, along with two amazing speakers you don’t want to miss. Registration is free and easy. You can sign up by clicking here.
If you missed the super fun #BTHuddle Instagram Live on Saturday, 26 June, with Blue Tokai Coffee and Anisha from Goya, you can watch it here. We had a great chat and we made a superfood Buddha bowl together.
I would love your feedback on the newsletter. If you like what you read, please share it with your family and friends. I am grateful for your help in reaching my newsletter to a wider audience. See you in two weeks!
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Will you give us a garden tour? I would love to see it. Also what are some other sustainability hacks that you employ. Thanks to you, I started following a bunch of people on Insta- and now make bio enzyme and banana enzme. And more Ida content please!