Let us be together,

Let us eat together,

Let us be vital together,

Let us be radiating truth, radiating the light of life,

Never shall we denounce anyone, never entertain negativity.

-The Upanishad

Indian cuisine is As Diverse as Its Civilization.

The finest of India's cuisines is as rich and diverse as its civilization. It is an art form that has been passed on through generations purely by word of mouth, from guru (teacher) to vidhyarthi (pupil) or from mother to daughter. The range assumes astonishing proportions when one takes into account regional variations. Very often the taste, color, texture and appearance of the same delicacy changes from state to state.

The hospitality of the Indians is legendary. In Sanskrit Literature the three famous words 'Atithi Devo Bhava' or 'the guest is truly your god' are a dictum of hospitality in India. Indians believe that they are honored if they share their mealtimes with guests. Even the poorest look forward to guests and are willing to share their meager food with guest. And of particular importance is the Indian woman's pride that she will not let a guest go away unfed or unhappy from her home. Indians are known for their incredible ability to serve food to their guests - invited or uninvited. Food customarily forms the crowning part of most festivities and celebrations. Whatever the occasion Indians eat with great gusto and are adept at finding reasons to feast and make merry. At traditional and festive meals, the thali (plate) or banana leaf is decorated with rangoli (a design drawn with white and colored powders around the edges).

One can eat a different Indian dish everyday, but still not repeat it for an entire year! The food of India offers a staggering range of dishes to the gourmet with an adventurous palate. Essentially spicy, the cuisine is, however, not always hot. It is the different combination of a handful of spices that produce the most delectable dishes in the world. In India, preparation of food is an art, perfected over time and passed through generation by just word of mouth.

Mango is considered – one of the traditional items in all Indian Cuisine. Back in India, homes are decorated with mango leave garlands; we prepare recipes with unripe mangoes. First the unripe mangoes in beautiful shade of pure green, then golden yellow colored ripe mangoes make an appearance and appeasing the senses. No wonder, we celebrate mango season with a festival. With the green mangoes here is an original Andhra recipe - ‘Mango dal’. Green mango cooked with toor dal. Little bit tart, fruity with a hint of caramel undertones from mango and earthy nutty smoothness because of toor dal - is a taste that one will never forget.

On Krishnatashtami, we celebrate Lord Krishna’s birthday. The scriptures portray bala (baby) Krishna as a happy and mischievous child with boundless energy and great fondness for all things milk. Milk, yogurt, buttermilk, cream, ghee, butter and milk based sweets are lovingly offered to bala Krishna during this festival time. For pooja neivedyam we often make milk based sweets and Kalakand, an exquisite, milk based sweet preparation is an interesting process. Concentrated milk called khoya and fresh paneer are mixed and simmered together with sugar to a luxurious thick, firmness. The mixture is cooled, then cut to squares and garnished with pistachios. That is Kalakand and as one can imagine kalakand has a rich taste.

Mango Dal

Ingredients:

1 - Green unripened mango

1 - Medium Red onion - sliced into big chunks

¾ Cup - Toor Dal

1 Tsp - Chili powder

¼ Tsp - Turmeric

Salt per taste

1 Tbsp of oil/ghee per taste

For Tadka:

1 Tsp each - Mustard seeds, Cumin, Urad dal, Chana dal

4 - Dried Red chili pieces

¼ inches - Ginger crushed

Few sprigs of curry leaves

Method:

· Wash green mango thoroughly and dry it with a towel then cut it into small cubes.

· Scrape any white flesh attached to the seed with a peeler and then only discard the seed.

· Take toor dal, mango, onion, chili powder and turmeric in a pressure cooker. Add one and half cups of water.

· Close the lid and pressure cook until 3 whistles or until the dal is soft and crumbly.

· Turn off the heat and wait for the pressure to go off. After all the valve pressure is released, remove the lid.

· The contents usually are cooked soft by now, add salt and with a wood masher, mash the dal, until all the toor dal turns into fine mush.

· In a vessel, heat oil or ghee, toast the tadka ingredients in the order - add dried red chili pieces, chana dal, then urad dal, toast cumin, mustard seeds and curry leaves.

· Remove the mashed mango dal from pressure cooker and add it to the vessel.

· Stir to mix and cover the vessel with a lid so that the dal could absorb the flavors of tadka.

· Serve with Rice and ghee and some papads for a memorable meal.

Kalakand

Ingredients:

Note: It takes about 2-3 hours. Makes about 18 square shaped Kalakand

½ Gallon whole milk and juice from one lime - to prepare paneer

½ Gallon whole milk - to prepare Khoya (concentrated milk)

2 to 2½ Cups - Raw sugar/Refined sugar (per choice)

1 Cup - Shelled and unsalted pistachios, cashew - coarsely crushed for garnish

Make sure there are sturdy wide based pots available to heat milk w/o getting brown at bottom

Method:

Place the pots on stove-top and add half gallon milk to each pot to prepare paneer and khoya simultaneously.

· For Paneer: In one pot, once the milk starts to boil, reduce the heat. Add the limejuice and stir.

· Within minutes, there will be like small clouds like white curds floating on top.

· Wait till they get bigger (if they don’t, add some more lime juice and stir) and the whey below gets less milky.

· This process takes few minutes, so wait at least five minutes. Switch off the heat and let it stand for few more minutes.

· Then pour the whole thing immediately into a clean muslin or cheese-cloth in a colander, over a sink.

· Gather the curds and discard the whey. The fresh paneer is ready.

· For Khoya: In another pot, once the milk starts to boil and lower to heat and simmer.

· The milk has to get thick and is reduced to about one fourths of the original quantity.

(While thickening, stir now and then, and care should be taken that milk does not stick to the bottom of the pot.)

· At this stage, to the khoya, add the freshly prepared paneer and sugar.

· On low heat, simmer continuously mixing, until the khoya-paneer mixture thickens to a waterless-firm lump.

· This process takes about 45 minutes to one hour.

· Pour the firm mixture onto a plate. Level it evenly and allow it to cool completely.

· Then cut to squares or diamonds and garnish with pistachios.

Enjoy the recipes! Keep it simple! Keep it Authentic! Keep it Indian!

Kitchen Tip – There should not be any water in the paneer, after squeezing the water from the paneer, take some heavy object and place it on top of the paneer and then make them into balls/crumble.

Another tip -Don't add the paneer into the sugar syrup when they are hot, wait till the sugar syrup cools down so that the paneer will not get separated.

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