Pav Bhaji

I’ll start off by saying, I’ve never had ‘proper’ Pav Bhaji, the closest I’ve had is from a sleazy joint in Chennai. Mangy assures me that it’s not the real thing because South Indians simply can’t make proper Pav Bhaji! But he wasn’t with me in Chennai – so I don’t know how he knows that it wasn’t the real thing…

Prawn Tokku

Tokku is a jam-like tomato, onion chili paste. This is one of my grandma’s staples. About twice a year she’ll make a large batch of tokku which she stores in the fridge. If she’s after a quick meal, she’ll scoop out a small amount and add a main ingredient. My favourite tokku is dried salted fish (karuvadu) tokku with rice porridge. YUM.

Green Mango Dal

We were thrilled to find green mangoes in the market last week. It was unbelievable luck, and the mangoes were firm, tart and incredibly sour. Just how they should be! Here’s an easy recipe, my husband called it Aamti – I just call it Pachai Maanga Parappu 🙂 Serve with roti or rice.