about pumpkin oil and other important things

Just a little bit spoiled
I have to admit that I got a little bit spoiled the last two weeks; the food in India is just so great, and even if my colleagues got slightly tired of it, I was eating it happily until the end. Only when I came back to Europe, I realised how much I wanted something lighter and with less curry. And the tradition of good food continued also in the last part of the trip where I tried Ethiopian food for the first time (oh how good it was) and also some really delicious fish dishes. So one reason not to write anything for the blog is that I have been on a little culinary discovery trip...

Indian lunch - this time with pancakes

So after some time at hotels and restaurants, there are both good and bad things with being back home... The good things would include the possibility to cook, while the bad things could for example be that I have to clean my room and also serve my self the juice...And most of the time, there is only one type of juice in my fridge and not even freshly pressed...hehe

Anyway, after eating more or less the same every day for 10 days with lots of spices, I’m quite happy to enjoy some simple and light food. Since, I’m back I’m having salad and beans every day.

Steamed vegetables with pumpkin oil

Tonight, I made something really simple, but oh so good; steamed broccoli and corny flower with pumpkin oil. I learnt it at the first cooking course where we had it with the fish. Today I ate it with couscous, red onion tomato salad, some black beans and pumpkin seeds. Very nice!

As probably obvious from the name, this is something very simple to prepare. Just steam the vegetables until they are crispy, and serve them with pumpkin oil mixed with balsam vinegar (2 spoons of pumpkin oil for 1 spoon of balsam vinegar) and some salt and pepper.

Same same but different…

Of course it is impossible to fail something this simple, but I did notice some important improvement between this time and last. Tonight, I used very good quality pumpkin oil and what a difference it made! Last time, I didn’t like it so much, and after today I understand that it was the pumpkin oil that was not that good. The conclusion would therefor be that the secret is to use good oil.

The good pumpkin oil with it's friend balsam vinegar

In India I bought some really nice long black pepper at a local market. It had a really interesting flavor, somewhat a round taste - not so strong. I also like their shape and I remember the friendly man at the market selling it

Mysore Devaraja market.Unfortunately I didn't make a photo with the kind man selling the pepper, but this is how nice the market was.