Dearest Appa,
I made some Shrikhand with jaggery yesterday as I made the OPOS Gujarati Thali for lunch. We ate some of the Shrikhand yesterday but I kept some of it in the fridge because I remembered how much you relished eating Poori-Shrikhand.
Today morning we made Pooris and I ate a couple with Shrikhand…I use your plate so hopefully you also ate with me in spirit.
All those memories of Dehu Road and Pune came flooding back. I especially miss the seedless grapes that I would devour from the box without even washing them. Krishnan loves grapes but we are just not able to eat grapes because of the enormous amounts of pesticides that they use. Infact I have thrown up twice after having black grape juice – even after soaking them in soapy water and rinsing them well. I wonder if they will ever be able to grow organic grapes again that can be eaten without the fear of pesticides.
Appa, Amma and I were talking yesterday about how much you would have enjoyed the OPOS method of cooking. The subzi that I made today is made in that method using Sitaphal or Poosanikaya. Amma had put the oil to heat in the pan when I started to cut the Sitaphal and the subzi was made in 5 minutes, just around the time that the first poori got made. And no “brought forwards” for lunch or tomorrow :). Amma misses those. She still makes slightly more quantities of food than I do, when I let her do it her way, but mostly I make the curries using the OPOS method. You would have taken to it as a duck to water…. the evidence is in the fact that I have taken to it so easily.
Thinking of you as I do everyday, but missing you a bit more today…
Lots of love
Malu.