Halloween Chalkboard Art

Do-Something-Everyday, Oct 19 2016

Halloween offers  such endless possibilities for making fun art using many different mediums. Here is my take using chalkboard art. For substrate I used chalkboard oil cloth and regular colored chalks for drawing. I did a lot of rubbing and wiping somewhat intentionally for a grunged up look. 

The cool thing about chalkboard art is that it is ephemeral. You can erase the old to create a new one.

Linked to Moo-Mania Halloween Party

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Cooking With Okra: Tips and Techniques

 

Cooking With Okra: Tips and Techniques

Okra, also called ladies' finger, is a favored vegetable in Indian cuisine. My mother used to cook in three different ways: stir fried, stuffed and as crispy toppings on yogurt. As a curry, it partners well with both rice and roti.

Here in the US, it is not a popular vegetable (except in the South) and is almost never found in the regular grocery stores. Which is a pity because okra is a nutritious vegetable high in dietary fiber and rich in vitamins and beta carotene. Okra is off putting to many because it becomes slimy or gooey during the cooking process. But prepared in the right way, it can be a tasty and nutritious addition to your vegetarian options. Below are some tips and techniques for getting the best out of this vegetable.

A. Choosing the best okra at the market or Growing Your Own

Okra is a summer plant and it tastes best when it is in season. When shopping for okra, look for one that is green, immature and slender. Thick and mature pods are woody and fibrous and unpleasant to eat. The freshness of an okra pod can be determined by bending and snapping its tip. A tender okra will break cleanly whereas a mature one will not (see below).

In the late 90s, before okra was abundantly available in Indian grocery stores, I used to grow okra in my vegetable garden. If you live in a place that has at least eight weeks of warm weather (day time temperatures above 70 deg), you can grow okra in your backyard. Okra is remarkably easy to grow. All it need is lots of sun and water during the growing season. It produces multiple harvests in a single season and as long as the pods are picked frequently, it will reproduce itself abundantly. 

B. Preparing Okra for Cooking Without the Sliminess

Okra gets slimy when it comes into contact with water and becomes moist. There are several ways to prepare slime-free okra. I have developed a method that works well for me: First I wash and drain them in a colander (I do wash them to remove dirt and any residual pesticides). Then I thoroughly wipe them dry with paper towels. Finally, I air dry them for about 30 minutes. Using a dry cutting board and knife I cut them without fear of any gooey liquid oozing out.

3. Cooking Okra

I cook okras in the typical Indian way. I saute using the standard Indian spices and oil. Again, there is no water involved in the cooking. Cooking them in high heat with oil creates a texture that is wonderfully crispy outside while tender inside.

Stir Fry Okra 

Okra with Tomatoes

Yogurt Topped with Crispy Okra

If you have any questions after reading this post, feel free to contact or comment.

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InkTober 2016

Do-Something-Everyday, October 6, 2016

If it is October then it is InkTober on social media. I  heard about InkTober for the first time last year. It was created by Jake Parker in which every October artists all over the world take on the InkTober drawing challenge by doing one ink drawing a day the entire month. He "first created InkTober in 2009 as a challenge to improve my inking skills and develop positive drawing habits". 

I decided to join in this year and here are three of the six I have drawn so far. The top one is an inky doodle I did while on conversation with my daughter on the phone. The two below are illustrations that I took undertook in the true spirit of InkTober which was to improve my botanical drawing skills, especially herbs and vegetables. You may or may not recognize the vegetables below as they are more commonly used in Asian and African/Caribbean cooking. If you do, please put their names in the comment. 

Thanks for visiting. Linked to Paint Party Friday. Thanks to Eva and Kristin for hosting.

Cauliflower Tikka: Whole Roasted Cauliflower

(This a repost of an older post with additional information).

Today is the beginning of a five-day Thanksgiving break. However, at least for today, rain and snow have kept me tethered to home. A good thing because it gave me the time to try out this recipe: baking a whole head of cauliflower in the manner of chicken or paneer tikka masala which I have wanted to do for a long time. I took a deep breath and plowed ahead.

What you will need:

1. Whole head of cauliflower (I picked a small one because I was going to bake it in the toaster oven)

2. Store bought Tikka masala to taste (I used achari masala mainly because it was free of garlic as I don't use garlic in my cooking). Use masala sparingly as it can be overpowering.

3. Yogurt, enough to smother the vegetable completely

4. Tomato puree (optional) 1-2 tablespoon

5. One lemon to give additional tartness to the yogurt (optional)

6. Salt to taste

7. Coconut or olive oil, 1 tablespoon

8. Cumin seeds, 1 teaspoon

9. Chopped fresh mint leaves.

Note: If you are using tomatoes, you may want to reduce the amount of yogurt and lemon correspondingly.

Instructions:

1. Cut off the stalk and other green parts from the head leaving only the flower. When done, the head should sit flat.

2. Cook the whole flower in a pot of hot water. Do not cook it too soft, just al- dente. Remove it from water and drain it in a colander. Leave it for a while till it is completely dry.

3. In a bowl, mix yogurt, masala, tomato puree, lemon juice and salt. Dunk the cauliflower into the  yogurt mix till it is completely covered. Let it marinate for 1-3 hours. Transfer it to a baking dish.

4. Bake it at 350 deg for about 45 minutes. After that, broil it for another 15 minutes. As it cooks, water from the yogurt will collect at the bottom of the dish. Use a little bit of it to moisten the top to prevent the cauliflower from drying out as it is cooking, Remove it from the oven when the top of the head is completely dry. Transfer it to a plate.

5. Heat coconut or olive oil in a small frying pan. Roast the cumin seeds in the oil till it begin to crackle. Pour it over the cauliflower. Sprinkle it with chopped mint leaves.

6. Cut into wedges and enjoy with salad, rice or roti. You can eat it by itself with a dipping sauce like chipotle mayo, coriander/mint, or date chutney or any dressing of your liking.

Note:

Cauliflower is a cool weather vegetable and growing up in New Delhi I ate a lot of them during winter. It is highly nutritious and provides a well rounded meal when eaten with rotis (Indian bread) .
Here is another recipe using cauliflower

Please visit the Well-Being Secrets web site, a nutrition web site where you will find tons of recipes using cauliflower .


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Free Calendar For You

Do-Something-Everyday, Sept 29, 2016

September is ending in a wet and grey mood. The temperatures are definitely cooler and the leaves have begun to acquire their autumnal hue. The beginning of fall is always a little melancholic but the month of October lifts the spirits as it envelops us in its beautiful colors with the message that the festival season is about to begin.

To celebrate the start of the new month, I have a free monthly calendar  for you. I designed this calendar using my own art. You can see the picture above and the link for download is below. Feel free to print it for your personal use.
October Calendar. 


Last week, I showed here the beginning of the threshold floor art. It is now completed.

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Linked to Moo Mania. (Fall Colors)

Linked to Paint Party Friday. Thanks to Eva and Kristin for hosting.

Welcome Fall 2016!

Do-Something-Everyday, Sept 22, 2016

One of my favorite collage techniques is using vintage book page as background in my paintings. Once upon a time, I used to do this by either directly painting on the book page or collage the art on the book page using glue. Now, Photoshop enables me to do this digitally while preserving both the book page and the artwork. The book page is from an old Tamil (my mother tongue) magazine. The artwork is a watercolor of the last flower blooming in my garden on this first day of Fall. I scanned both and digitally collaged them in Photoshop.

Linked to Paint Party Friday. Thanks to Eva and Kristin for hosting.

Speaking of Fall, I spent most of my afternoon today sprucing up my front stoop with a new floor art (kolam/ rangoli) in readiness for the festival of Navrathri that is starting next Friday. The one I did last year had become quite weather worn.

This time I am doing something different from the typical South Indian style of floor art. The two photos below are progress shots. It is still very much a work in progress. I will post a full photo once it is completed.

After a quiet August, with cooling temperatures and ripening berries, the birds and the critters are back in my yard. Yesterday,  I saw all 8 robins, 4 bluejays, 4 starlings, two finches, a nuthatch and a titmouse, a chipmunk, rabbit and several squirrels, all at the same time. This is how spring started. The predictability of nature's rhythm is indeed very comforting.

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K is for Kateri aka Catherine

Do-Something-Everyday, Sept 19, 2016

For this week's challenges, I am posting a few photos from hundreds I took on my visit to one of my favorite places in the U.S., Santa Fe, New Mexico. The photo above is the statue of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha installed outside the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi. She was the first North American to be canonized by the Roman Catholic church. She was an Algonquin-
Mohawk woman from New York but here she is all dressed up in New Mexican finery looking suitably beatific. I suppose a little bit of artistic license is okay.

Linked to Image-in-ing and, ABC of Wednesday where the letter is K this week. My word is Kateri which is the Mohawk version of Catherine, the name given to her upon conversion to Christianity.

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