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Leena Eats: Her Weight in Indian Food

Leena Eats: Her Weight in Indian Food
My khaki hard at work on vedimee.

Last weekend, I had the joy of learning how to cook proper Indian food with my aunt, Lila Khaki. Of course at the end, there was a giant feast to be had, and I was there to document it. This was a meal I had eaten a hundred times before, but it tasted like the first time I had ever tried it. The spices, the cooking methods, all so foreign and yet so similar. It’s amazing what happens when you actually ready and willing to pay attention to the world around you. And to entice you to keep reading, some obligatory food porn:

Leena Eats: Her Weight in Indian Food
A pile of poori. What choo gonna do?

I won’t waste time mincing words…just look and drool!

Leena Eats: Her Weight in Indian Food
Pathra rolls, made with cooked mustard greens and filled with besan flour (chickpea flour) and oil seasoned with ginger, garlic, coriander, cumin and chiles.
Leena Eats: Her Weight in Indian Food
Tepla, yet another version of Indian flatbread, this one filled with either spinach or methi (mustard greens), and seasonings like ginger, garlic, chiles, cumin and tumeric.
Leena Eats: Her Weight in Indian Food
Homemade pickled bitter melon.
Leena Eats: Her Weight in Indian Food
The best damn chole (chickpea curry) you ever will eat. EVER.
Leena Eats: Her Weight in Indian Food
Eggplant and potatoes.
Leena Eats: Her Weight in Indian Food
Poori, yoghurt soup and roti bread.
Leena Eats: Her Weight in Indian Food
Dudpak, a cooked milk and rice dish similar to rice pudding, with cardamom, pistachios, almonds and saffron.
Leena Eats: Her Weight in Indian Food
Vedimee, or roti stuffed with a lentil filling sweetened with coconut, cardamom, poppy seeds and nuts.

Needless to say, I had to roll myself out of there after that meal. Sure, it was all vegetarian, but when every recipe starts with a half pound of ghee…hot damn. You best be taking a walk after dinner unless you like clogged arteries. ~LTG!

Leena Eats: Her Weight in Indian Food
  • http://www.cari-vicarious.com/ Cari Sanchez

    Whoa when are we gonna see some of these recipes??!! Looks delish.

  • http://pinchmysalt.com/ Nicole

    I should not have looked at this! I’m sitting here with a crappy peanut butter sandwich for lunch and now all I want to do is go hit up the nearest Indian lunch buffet (although I know it wouldn’t compare to what I just looked at)!

  • leenatrivedi23

    Cari~They are coming…I couldn’t give them all away in one post!

    Nicole~You are welcome to join me and the family any time!

  • Jackie Singh

    What a divine spread! All look so delish. I particularly love the methi/spinach rotis, my mother-in-law also does some very nice versions in the Punjabi style, ummmmm, all good.

  • http://ncsuemme.blogspot.com/ emily

    Ok, I want Indian food NOW. Damn.

  • Kristen

    YUM!

    I’m seconding the recipe request. Especially the tepia. I used to eat that all the time because my Indian roommate would get piles of them from family and didn’t like them much. I miss them :(

  • A-Lo

    I’d like to third the recipe request – esp the chole!

  • leenatrivedi23

    Jackie~ I am still sorry I never got a chance to eat one of your famous delicious meals Cari used to brag about. That is my goal one day, to eat Jackie’s Indian food!

    Emily~Thanks, and sorry for the craving, but it sort of comes with the territory;)

    Kristen~Actually, she made the tepla and promised to teach me how to make it next time–probably so I actually come back and visit her! But as soon as I get the recipe, it is yours.

    A-Lo~I would like to wait until I have a chance to make the chole myself before I post the recipe, so I have a chance to try it myself first (my aunt made it before I arrived, and then just gave me a verbal recipe). But I’ll hit you up as soon as I post it, it really was the best chole I have ever had!

  • Amy Letcher

    Yum. I’m not even going to pretend I want the recipe, I just want to eat it all. You know how I roll.

  • Marchbanks

    ohhell . . . wodda I do now??? It all looks excellent good, and most of it also looks like it’d have enough carbo exchanges to put my glucometer in the danger zone for days on end. Are there any of these recipes, or others similar, that you could post and they wouldn’t send my glucose readings into make-my-doctor-throw-a-fit range?

  • http://www.tracyfood.com TracyFood

    One more request for the chole recipe, pretty pretty please. I’ve got these chickpeas: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/04/dining/041vrex.html in my fridge right now, but I’m all for more ways to prepare and eat those bad girls, aw, yeah.

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