Now I’m no Pradeep Jeganathan, nor do I have the skills of the Domestic Goddess, but I can cook…a bit…

On 07/07/07 as part of a Flickr initiative I wandered down to Santa Monica and Venice Beach with P and A to take some hopefully arty pics. While my primary focus was initially the farmers market in Santa Monica I ended up instead getting most if not all of the pictures for the pool from Venice Beach. 

I did however pick up these nifty little multi-coloured potatoes from the farmers market, together with some delicious blueberries sold by an equally delicious looking young lady (what, I can’t help myself sometimes!). The potatoes were tiny compared to the genetically modified behemoths one usually finds at the supermarkets and they were obviously descended from the multi-coloured brethren found in the Andes. I had a pleasant chat with the potato selling man who had a farm in San Luis Obispo, took some pictures and bought myself some teeny taters.

 

Potato selling man (unfortunately selling carrots in the picture)

After contemplating on whether I want to wander around my neighborhood zoo in the mid afternoon or do some cooking today I decided, taking a squinted peek outside that I would do the latter. I have a tried and tested method for making my ala thel daala. I grab a bowl, chop up an onion, cry a bit and put it into the bowl. On top of that I add some chillie powder, curry leaves, bit of cinnamon, turmeric and some chillie pods broken up. I also add a dash of my grandmother’s curry powder which is smuggled into the country regularly for the family’s benefit.

 

Spice bowl 

I then boil the potatoes in the microwave and chop them up as so.

 

Boiled, chopped potatoes

The rest of the procedure is very simple, a bit of olive oil in a saucepan, high heat, throw in the spice bowl, cry a bit from the resulting mini nuclear explosion of spices, regain composure and start stirring the mixture. After everything’s nice and fried, I throw in the potatoes and go back to stirring with the avidity of a Macbeth witch.

 

Into the frying pan 

After a while I take a deep sniff, clear the sinuses and tap a couple of the taters to make sure they are good and cooked (I actually forgot to do this on this occasion, hence the potatoes are a tad hard, but nothing a good microwave zap can’t fix). Add some salt to mix, give it a vigorous stir, which results in some turmeric flying out of the frying pan onto the pristinely white t-shirt I always somehow end up wearing when cooking and voila!

 

Mult-coloured ala thel daala

P.S. I apologize for the shoddy food photographs; I was too lazy to switch out my 70-200mm lens and ended up taking pictures from a couple of miles away.