Dear Amani,

Here is the chicken rezala recipe. When cooked the yoghurt will look a little curdled. Don’t be alarmed. After it cooks down and you add the fried onions (and the oil you fried it in)…chili pepper, sprinkle sugar and squeeze lemon, it all looks good. Very yummy with porata but rice always works. You can add sauteéd mushrooms to stretch the dish and make it more non-deshi friendly.

The mixed vegetable dish is one that your Dadi makes really well. My shortcut and take on her recipe is simply to boil a bunch of vegetable together (be sure to cube the same size). In this case eggplant and squash (lao?). Boil with spices, half a teaspoon of each until the vegetables are tender. Add water almost covering the vegetables.

Cumin, Coriander, Chili powder, Tumeric, Ginger and Garlic (paste)

Salt about 1 teaspoon.

Fry half an onion sliced and one clove of garlic with ghee, butter or oil. If you have “panchforan” and cilantro, add it. If not, no problem. Finish with a sprinkle of sugar and a squeeze of lemon.

Eat well.

Love,

Mom