The moments that make us wince!!!

When my daughter gets hurts and returns home, she tells me that she had an "ouchi ouchi" day. I realized today that fortunately or unfortunately for them, the ouchi ouchi is still almost always confined to physical rather than intangible issues.

Well, I had an ouchi ouchi moment earlier this week. I send someone some of my work, something that I thought was pretty good and then realized I had sent the wrong proofs... Most utterly embarrasing!!! I could confess, frankly at this point I do not know what is worse. So, I have decided to lick my wounds and start afresh!

This afternoon, I went shopping to the closest Shop Rite, among other things I stumbled into the international section. I was quite pleasantly surprised to see an Indian section containing real Indian spices and lentils. It was small but actually carried a mainstream Indian brand - Maya. I did try to find their website but for some reason had no luck. But I was excited, it is probably the most common question that I get in my classes. Honestly, I have to tell you the fewer stores that I have to travel too when doing my shopping the happier I am. Well I was out of besan and was happy to find it at the store.

To celebrate my delight I made some pakoras, very lightly spiced ones with the radish and the scallions I had in my refridgerator.

Scallion Radish Pakors - Radish and Scallion Tempuras with Chick Pea batter

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Serves 4

Ingredients

6 red radishes

1/2 cup scallions

1/2 red onion

Lots of freshly ground black pepper

3/4 cup besan or chickpea flour

1 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

1 cup water

2 tbsp freshly chopped cilantro leaves

Oil for frying

Method of Preparation

1. Thinly slice the radish.

2. Chop the scallions and the onions and toss with the radish and freshly ground black pepper.

3. Wisk the besan, salt, cumin seeds with the water to make a medium consistency batter.

4. Mix in the scallions, onions, radish and cilantro leaves.

5. Heat the oil and place tablespoonfuls of the mixture into the oil.

6. Cook for about 2-3 minutes and turn and cook for another 3 minutes.

7. Remove lightly and drain.

8. Serve with chutney and enjoy!

I am sending this entry to the this months edition of My Legume love affair the creation of Susan at the Well Seasoned Cook , that is being hosted this month by Mediterranean Cooking in Alaska, a blog that I like following!