Varada's Kitchen and Garden

Today I have finished a month long challenge. The goal was to blog a dish from a different state in India every day of the month of April, starting with the state of Andhra Pradesh and ending with West Bengal. It is especially interesting for me as I have not lived in India for a very long time. Recipes gathered over the years from friends, colleagues and neighbors were brushed off and tried. For some states the recipes had to be gathered from the web. The dishes had to be prepared in advance to ensure a printable blog post with pictures. For at least two states cloudy weather dictated a do over while for three other states a do over was needed as the recipe turned out to be too simple. For two states the recipe was a disaster and had to be scrapped completely. Some recipes brought back very happy memories not related to food. And the aroma of some recipes took me back decades to my childhood. I came to realize how blessed my growing years were, I was exposed to so many different s

Today is the last day of the challenge and I am posting a recipe from West Bengal. Every day this month I have posted a recipe from a different state in India. The goal was to blog a dish from a different state in India every day of the month of April, starting with the state of Andhra Pradesh and ending with West Bengal. It was especially interesting for me as I have not lived in India for a very long time. All the dishes had to be prepared in advance to ensure a timely printable blog post with pictures. Recipes gathered over the years from friends, colleagues and neighbors were sought out and (re)tried. For a few states the recipes had to be gathered from the web. For at least two states cloudy weather dictated a do over while for three other states a do over was needed as the recipe turned out to be too simple. For two states the recipe was a disaster and had to be scrapped completely. Through this whole process my family was very supportive. They loved trying out the new dis

Today I am posting a recipe from Uttarkhand. Every day this month I will post a recipe from a different state in India. The Kumaon and Garhwal regions of Uttar Pradesh are now their own state Uttarkhand. It is a beautiful region of the country located in the Himalayan foothills. Names of cities like Dehradun and Nainital bring visuals of natural scenic beauty and the faces of friends and neighbors from those regions. A couple of my teachers in school were from this region. In high school we had danced to a very famous traditional Garhwali song ' Bedo pako barmasa '. There is a commercialized version of this song on youtube if you are interested. You can appreciate the beautiful melody of the song from the hills. The food from Uttarkhand is similar to Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh. Wheat, Archar (toor), Mandua (Finger millet), Gahat (Kulath/horse gram) etc are commonly used grains and pulses. I have heard of Kulath dal made in Maharastra but have never tried it mys

This month I suggested to the group Kneading Bakers that we bake savory or sweet pull apart bread. Pull apart or monkey bread is made with individual size biscuits. These biscuits are shaped separately, placed next to each other in a bowl or a loaf pan and baked. I thought the cheese and herb biscuits in a bowl looked adorable and wanted to try them. I used sharp cheddar cheese with dried parsley, oregano and thyme. The flavors went very well together. You will need For the dough 3 cups bread flour 1/4 oz. instant yeast 1 cup milk 1 tbsp. butter 1/2 tsp. salt 1 cup sharp cheddar cheese For the dip 2-3 tbsp. butter 2 tbsp. parsley 2 tbsp. thyme 2 tbsp. oregano To make the dough Melt the butter. Warm the milk and beat it with the butter. Sift a cup of flour and yeast into the milk mixture. Let the sponge sit for 10 minutes. In a separate bowl shred the cheddar cheese and mix it with the remaining flour. Add it to the sponge and mix together to form a doug

Today I am posting a recipe from Uttar Pradesh. Every day this month I will post a recipe from a different state in India. Uttar Pradesh is located in northern India. It used to be the most populous state in the country. A few years back it was divided into two. The hilly region of kumaon and its surrounding areas was split to form Uttarkhand. Last year at work I used to occasionally have lunch with a group of ladies of Indian origin. One of them was from Uttar Pradesh. One day she asked us to taste and guess the ingredients in a vegetable side she had brought. It tasted great but we could not identify the ingredient. Turns out it was the peel of  a bottle gourd. It was laced with besan. Whenever I find fresh lauki with unblemished skin I reserve the peel and make this bhaji as a second side dish. The besan adds to the flavor. Today I used the peel of two lauki as I was trying to showcase the dish and wanted a substantial amount. The quantity is usually not enough to suffice

I chose the Estonian Kringle bread because of how pretty it looked. The dough is rolled into a flat rectangle, filled with cinnamon sugar, rolled tightly into a roll, slit and shape. On baking just before I was getting ready to make the filling my family revolted. They did not want another sweet bread. In the last few weeks I have made a few sweet breads like the  beautiful bread , the Swedish coffee bread  and the  cinnamon swirl bread . So I gave in and switched to a savory version of this bread. Instead of cinnamon bread I used goat cheese, basil pesto and sun dried tomato. My daughter does not like nuts in bread so I made the pesto with just basil and olive oil. I mixed all the filling ingredients together and used them just like the sweet version. The end result was pretty, very tasty and disappeared very quickly. This recipe was adapted from here . You will need For the dough 2 tbsp. butter 1 tbsp. sugar 1 egg yolk 3/4 cup warm milk 2 1/4 cup bread flour 1/

Today I am posting a recipe from Tripura. Every day this month I will post a recipe from a different state in India. Tripura is one of the last states I cooked for. It is one of the Northeastern states of India. It was really difficult to pick a recipe for this state. At first I wanted to make something savory but we were all weary of experiments. So I decided to go with a dessert. I picked Awan Bangwi as all the ingredients looked like they would go well together. And they did. I did not have the Laiu leaves called for in the recipe so I used banana leaf instead. During Ganesh Chaturthi we make patoli, a sweet very similar to this one. It is steamed in turmeric/haldi leaves. I wanted to use turmeric leaves for this recipe but could not find them. I made only a small amount as a trial. I small milestone for me with this post, it is my 200th post. You will need 1/4 cup rice (a local variety is used, but I used brown basmati) 4-5 Cashew 10-12 Raisins 1 tbsp. Butter or G

Today I am posting a recipe from Tamil Nadu. Every day this month I will post a recipe from a different state in India. When I was in third grade we used to play in the playground very close to the school cafe that provided snacks and tea to teachers during the morning break. Sundal was on the menu two or three times a week. I loved the aroma of the dish. Sundal will always take me back to that playground. Since then I have had sundal several times as prasad during the festival of navratri and it has always been a favorite. Everyone in my house loves sundal and so I decided to make it for the state of Tamil Nadu. Today morning my daughter had to get to school really early. I asked my husband to get the soaked channa cooked in the pressure cooker while I dropped my daughter off so I could put it all together as soon as I got back. I hurried back and got everything else ready. Luckily, I checked the channa before adding it to the pot and found it had not cooked through