This recipe of the cauliflower blooms with the rustic flavors of almost roasted tomatoes and ginger cooked in the fragrant mustard oil.

I am back! Thanks to all of you for your emails and comments and concerns and for “being there” while I was not. It definitely feels wonderful to be a part of a community with so much understanding and concern where we have not even met one another… strong bonds. Thank you.

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Here is a mashed pumpkin recipe with a big twist from the traditional, with very different flavors.

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Pui/Poi/Pohi/Valchi or the Ceylon Spinach/Malabar Spinach are all but different names for this leafy Spinach like Green “fast-growing, soft-stemmed vine, reaching 10 m in length. Its thick, semi-succulent, heart-shaped leaves have a mild flavour and mucilaginous texture.” (Wiki). The Scientific name for the Pui is Basella alba. You can read more about it in the Herb Society of America.

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Dal(Lentil) paratha/flat bread is something which I learned from my grandmother. My grandparents lived only a few minutes away from our home. And it would be often that my grandpa would walk by with a bag of hot, freshly made parathas and a bunch of flowers for me.

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Talking of  Dum Aloo…There are some hundreds of ways to make Dum Aloo. In West Bengal it used to be a must dish served for weddings with “Radhaballavi” (lentil stuffed puri), and I loved the slight & subtle sweet taste of that kind of dum aloo.

Also during fall/winter time, when there would be small new baby potatoes, & the peas in the shell, my mom would make peas kachori and dum aloo with the bite size potatoes. It used to be an all evening activity when we would all sit and shell the peas and rub the potatoes to skin the already peeling skins.

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