Garam Masala Tuesdays: Mustard Fish Curry

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SHU_3323

It’s the festival of Holi, the festival of colors, in India today and I wish everyone a very happy and colorful holi! 🙂

Even though Holi is a pretty messy festival, and each year I swear I won’t play it, I end up playing and I end up having the time of my life.

When we were young, a day before Holi my mom would rummage through our old clothes, since the clothes we wore on Holi would end up in no condition to be worn again.

Growing up, Holi in the Air Force stations used to be really dirty. As kids we were saved from being thrown in the mud pit, but I remember seeing my parents being picked up and thrown in. It was absolutely brutal. I also remember grown ups pouring entire beer bottles on each other.

We children though saved from all the above still would be covered in colour from head to toe, dripping paint all over the place. I really don’t know how my mom cleaned the house after Holi party, because I remember the house and the bathrooms would get so dirty. My mom would give us a wash with the hose outside but still the bathroom would get dirty, with colored finger prints on the sink, the toilet seat, the faucets, the tiles, etc. It was never a pretty sight.

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RASPBERRY GREEK YOGURT POPPY SEED CAKE

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Since I am going to India in a few weeks time, I am in a major fridge cleaning spree. I know V won’t use any of the baking stuff that I have stored up and am sure they won’t last till the time I am back. I also have to make enough room in the fridge to stock up food for V’s coming forced bachelor days. At least for the initial few days- then he is on his own. I had been planning to make a cake for my mom’s birthday- which was yesterday, the Jan 12th. The idea was to make a red velvet cake with cream cheese filling. But, then I had raspberries- so it became red velvet with raspberry cream cheese. But, there was no cream cheese in the fridge. Thought of going to the store to get some- and just as I was about to I remembered I had some greek yogurt that had been sitting in the fridge. Hmm…can I use it as a substitute- googled but did not find any confident yes in the search results. Tasted it and thought it might just work. So the cake became, Red Velvet cake with a raspberry greek yogurt filling. That’s what I thought!

I decided to make the filling first. Thank god that’s what I did. The yogurt creamed really good, but when I added the raspberry puree it thinned down. I tried thickening it, with my amateur techniques, but nothing helped. Looking at the consistency, I thought of turning that batter into cake batter. Added some flour, leavener, poppy seeds- and put it in the oven for it to do its trick! I decided to take the cake for my movie afternoon with my friends and they looooooved it- even the one who is on a strict diet and avoids all sweet stuff- she ate three pieces one after the other. I am so proud of myself! 🙂

(I just hope I wrote down all the components correctly! =/ )

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