Opinion Craving comfort

For many rice lovers,comfort food boils down to “khichdi” or any other variant that is basically a mash of lentils,rice and condiments. All cooked to the consistency of mush,much like baby food,and swallowed without much mastication. For some others,there are quirky mixes of different tastes and textures of food that earn the title of “comfort food”.

A friend of mine,doesn’t have a name for what she has after conjured up as comfort food for herself. After years of living in a college hostel,she has her own special mix” two spoons of her favourite mango pickle and mix it in a cup of yoghurt.

She can lick a bowl of this mix,clean in no time at all. This pink dip,she claims has kept her company through many pre-exam nights,when the hostel canteen would be shut. This is just what she needs to de-stress.

Few other friends swear by Maggi noodles,for its loopy ochre swiggles take them back in time,when there was no office politics,there were no loans to be paid off and the only thing that mattered in the whol wide world was the bowl of warm mushy noodles. Comfort foods come with a nostalgia ticket,a complete food-mood connection.

We all have our own ticket to another place,an instant getaway from anything that scares or burdens us,and you don’t have to be a gourmand to tuck into some comfort food. Comfort food could come out of a box,a can,at a restaurant (the US President is said to have his own comfort food,and he heads to the place when in his hometown of Honolulu,Hawaii for the Hawaiian Plate Lunch).

So what is your escape from a crappy day? What do you celebrate with on your happy mid-week day off? What is your balm for all the bad meals at the canteen? Is it a tomato soup? Or is it a cheese pizza?. What ever it is,we know it works every time.

Here is a recipe of my favourite comfort food. The Kerala Mor Curry,I first tried making it a couple of years ago and got it all wrong,it took several trials to get the “prevent curd from splitting” phase right. This is a tricky dish. I make it without coconut paste. So here goes:

You will need:

1 cup curd whisked

10 curry leaves

3 shallots (sambar onions)

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 tsp fenugreek seeds

2 dry red chillies

3 garlic pods chopped

½ tsp red chilli powder

A pinch of tumeric

A pinch of asafoetida

Salt to taste

2 tbsp cooking coconut oil

Heat oil in a deep pan till it is smoking hot. Then add the fenugreek seeds,the mustard seeds and let them splutter. Turn down the heat,add shallots,garlic and dry chillies. Add the curry leaves and saute till shallots are transparent. Add the asafoetida and stir. Add tumeric powder,chilli powder and let it cook out for a minute. Switch off the gas,and let the pan and its contents cool.

In a separate bowl,dilute the whisked curd to a smooth runny consistency. (Now comes the tricky part,getting the temperature just right,for the curd to be added) When the pan is cool enough,add a spoonful of water to the shallot-garlic-curry leaves-etc. In the pan (this will cool it down further). Then pour in the beaten and diluted curd,stir constantly.

Once the fried masala is mixed thoroughly with the curd mixture,add salt. Turn the gas on again and stir continuously till the pan heats up again,make sure you are constantly stirring. After half a minute,pour out the contents into a serving bowl. Serve with hot rice,papad and pickle.