Cooking Lessons in Full Force

I have been learning to make a few new things from the Aunty who is staying with us. I really appreciate her willingness to pass on her tips and echniques alhamdulillah.

This is a dish called khatta tinda or sour gourd and tastes delicious - lots of flavour and very tangy.



I have got the hang of making chapatti's but never seemed to get the butteered version, called paratha's, quite right. I have learned two versions this week, the latha (spiral/twist) paratha and the chikor (basket) paratha which is the easier of the two (pictured below on the tava or griddle). Imagine the most fattening food you can think of and then double the calories - this is dripping with the clarified butter called ghee. I plan to do a tutorial on this one insh'Allah as it was so easy.

Finally Kashmiri tea, which is served at Pakistani weddings'. Below is the big pot of the ea that took two hours to cook.

You mix some of the tea with hot milk and add either sugar or salt (which creates a very unique, almost cheesy taste). The tea is the prettiest shade of pink.

I also made aubergine and strained yoghurt curry which was probably the tastiest thing I have eaten this week, but I forgot to take a picture.