So, it turns out that Indian cooks have known for a loooong time what I only recently learned. You can use cashews to make foods creamy. Every kitchen I've seen in India has a mixer/grinder. I mean every one, without exception. They use them daily for making chutnies and gravies. Let me pause here to explain the concept of Indian gravy. Any kind of sauce that you cook your veggies or meats in is called a gravy. Now, I'm a southerner, so when I think of gravy I think of a very savory sauce to pour over biscuits. Here's another interesting tidbit, biscuits in India are not "biscuits" as we know them in the US. They're cookies. It's a hold over from the British colonization. So, can you imagine Vikas's surprise and confusion the first time he was asked by passengers on the cruise ship he worked on in the US, "Don't you have biscuits and gravy for breakfast?" LOL
Anyway, I digress. Back to the cashew butter. I was trying to make a tomato - cashew gravy the other night because ever since I had it at our cousin's house in Bangalore I'd had a terrible craving for it. So, I put a handful of cashews and a tiny bit of water into the mixer and turned it on. I let it run for 10 or 14 seconds and when I opened it I was totally surprised to see cashew butter. Who knew it was so easy to make? That stuff cost a fortune when you buy it in a jar at home. So, I used half of it in the tomato gravy (which is divine, btw) and ended up making little truffles from the other half. I just mixed it with some shredded coconut and drinking chocolate powder and it was really good. The first few I coated with a chocolate syrup, but then I ended up using the chocolate powder in the mix and both was were super yummy.
A few days ago on the morning of the new moon I had a first time experience here. There's a custom here that on the 7th new moon of the hindu calendar you go to the sea to wash your sins away. So, we got up at 4:00am to leave the house at 4:45 to drive down to the beach. Our cousin Satish and his family took us. There were 8 of us total. The custom is to go to the sea, wade out into the water and let 5 waves wash over you to wash all your sins of the year away. It's also supposed to cure all skin problems. So, we did it. First Vikas and Satish took Sasu and Anu out. Then they came back and took Jasmine, Satish's son and me out. Well, Jasmine lasted about 30 seconds and demanded to go back to the beach. The fact that it was still dark outside and you couldn't see in the water at all completely freaked her out. That caused Satish's little boy to demand to be taken back as well. So finally, Vikas and I waded out and waited for the waves. And waited. Finally one small one came and we ducked under it. Then we waited again. And waited. And waited. It seemed that all the waves were going to either side of where we were. So we moved to one side and waited. And waited. Then we moved to the other side and waited. And waited. And finally, we got our 4 final dips under the waves. It was a bit chilly standing there in the water early in the morning in soaking wet clothes. But, we did it. There was a tented off area set up for the women to change clothes in so that was helpful. By the time we got finished and got back home, the sun still wasn't up. Apparently, if you wait till sunrise there are about 50,000 people on the beach at once. There were probably several hundred when we were there. It was interesting to see all the people walking and biking to and from the beach in the wee hours of the morning. It was definitely a unique experience for me.
Now, back to the kitchen. Vikas and I found some vegan mayonnaise at the big store here a few days ago. It was in the import section and it was labeled as "diet" mayonnaise. I guess that makes sense, since leaving out the eggs and milk would drastically reduce the calories. So, we decided to give it a try. The next day we made tomato sandwiches for a snack. O. M. G. I can't tell you how happy I was to have a tomato sandwich after almost 3 months. Again, I'm a southerner, and tomato sandwiches were a staple snack for me growing up. Plus, having creamy food options made without eggs and dairy is a huge part of what helped me finally make the progression from vegetarian to vegan after so many years. At home I can get mayo, milk, creamer, ice cream, etc, all vegan and it's pretty easy. In India is has been a bit more challenging. Vegetarian is easy here but vegan is a new concept. Anyway, I got my good old tomato sandwich and it was soooo satisfying. Yum.
Well, I'm off to work on more costuming. I've been very busy making belts and working on cholis and I have a lot left to do. Leave me some comments so I know you're out there. ;-)
