What's Happening To My Kalanchoe?

Kalanchoe blooming in my garden

Kalanchoe is a beautiful succulent with thick glossy leaves and long-lasting flowers. A real stunner in the garden when it flowers profusely winter to spring and invites many colourful fluttering beauties to our garden. They are hardy and do not suffer much from pest issues except one! And that comes out of the blue! One fine morning you come to the garden to greet your babies only to notice that your beautiful kalanchoe is in a shambles! The leaves are mushy, look hollow from inside with lots of black granules. Surprisingly, no trace of the culprit! You feel so confused and helpless! 

Does your Kalanchoe look like this?

That's what exactly happened a few years back when for the first time I saw my kalanchoe in that state and in a couple of days it's all gone! Even after figuring out what is going on, sometimes I lose my plants in case they are unattended for a few days. You blink and you lose!

The culprit here is a very cute looking fluttering beauty ....the Red Pierrot butterfly!

A Red Pierrot Butterfly. 

You may have noticed her in your garden .... flying up and down near the ground and settling often on a leaf or flower for some rest or to sip in some nectar! You must have adored her beauty too! But next time you see her .... don't forget to take extra care of your kalanchoes! 

Red Pierrot laying eggs on kalanchoe leaves

Kalanchoe is the host plant for this little beauty! They lay their eggs underneath the leaves. After the larvae come out they go inside the thick succulent leaves and start eating the flesh like a leaf-miner leaving a trail of black droppings behind! 

Larva of Red Pierrot on a Kalanchoe leaf

They come out only for two reasons .... to build a cocoon or to go to another leaf when the host leaf is over! That's why you can't see them from outside and remain clueless!

Do I really need to interfere?

As a believer of minimal interference in my garden, the first question comes in mind .... do I really need to interfere with this natural process of life? Unfortunately, the answer is yes if you want to save your kalanchoe! I have seen many caterpillars in my garden all in their respective host plants like lemon, curry patta, lily, oleander, palm and even in my fancy adenium bonsai but never interfere. They eat to their heart's content and eventually evolve to cocoon. In a week or so the plant comes back vigorously with new leaves without fail. But for kalanchoe, the case is different. If you leave it unattended most likely you will lose your plant....I have lost quite a few! 

If it is a small infestation, just one or two leaves, nothing to worry! New leaves will come up soon! But when they target a plant, they keep coming, again and again, lay their eggs under the leaves and the larvae continue their gastronomical journey. Once the leaves are exhausted they go inside the stems and that's the end of the plant! 

Even worse, if their favourite plant is in short supply, they may settle for other succulents too! And your nice symmetrically patterned succulents adorning the cute fairy garden can all look ugly and imbalanced if you keep removing affected leaves from it!  

Red Pierrot larva on my fairy garden succulent 

How to save my plant then?

First, remove the affected leaves. (don't throw them all! Coming to that part later.)

Clear the dropped dried leaves from the soil. 

Cut a few healthy branches, remove leaves from lower nodes and put the cuttings in fresh soil away from the affected plant. There is a high chance that you have missed a few eggs or tiny larvae when clearing and they will take over very soon. Kalanchoes are very easy to propagate from cuttings and you can save your plant through its next-generation in case the main plant dies.

Check the plant every day for newly affected leaves and remove if any!

Organic sprays will not work here as the caterpillars stay inside the leaves. Chemical insecticide .... I have no clue as I never used one!

Now the most important and interesting part ......What to do with the removed leaves?

After removing the affected leaves please don't throw them all! First, separate the leaves where the caterpillars are still inside. For that hold the leaf against the sun. You can see the caterpillar inside.

Hold the leaf against sunlight to see the larva inside

Now keep those leaves in a small jar or box. No need to cover. If the host leaf is over add few fresh leaves. Soon they will come out and make a cocoon. 

My current collection of larvae and cocoons.

The cocoon looks almost similar to the larva but yellow in colour with a hard shell. Now wait for the D-day to witness the metamorphosis.... it is mesmerizing!

This way, you can save both your plant and the butterflies!

As a safe practice, whenever you buy a beautiful Kalanchoe try to propagate it from cuttings. Have a few plants in different locations of the garden. Next time when these butterflies visit your garden,  enjoy their company without fear of losing your plant!

Malabar Spinach-Horse Gram Curry With Jack Fruit Seeds : A Wholesome Cook-Along Experience

It was my first virtual cook-along session with Phytopia, the digital pop-up exhibition by science gallery, Bengaluru. The idea was to cook live on camera using some seasonal plants and talk about the relationship with the city through a plate of food. The food that makes up a city is more than just the recipes and the ingredients. It’s also the people who grow, sell, shop, cook as well as those who share stories. Through this virtual cook-along, the organisers wanted to bring everyone together, and invoke the spirit of commensality, something that we could all use in these tough times. Nice idea! Isn't it? I was quite excited and started planning! It has to be wholesome, using some seasonal vegetables /greens and must have some connection with this city! The first thing that came to my mind was ragi mudde. My knowledge about ragi was limited to school Geography book until I came to Bangalore. On our first visit to Navadarshanam, a community exploring sustainable alternatives in the rural setting, near the Karnataka-Tamil Nadu border, I was astonished to see some pinkish brown coloured dough-like ball floating in a pool of sambar! It took me a long time to get accustomed and finally appreciate it! Well ... I wanted to make ragi mudde for this event. Need to include some seasonal plant in the menu now! Hmm...should be something little spicy ... either fish or meat gravy or spicy thick sambar/curry. So I zeroed on horse gram-malabar spinach-jackfruit seed curry! It's raining in Bangalore and the malabar spinach (pui saak in Bengali) plants are growing crazy in my terrace garden. Jack fruit seeds are in season, too. Both of these ingredients are packed with so much goodness. Then the horse gram .... something I have recently introduced to our diet (after seeing Rujuta Diwekar advocating this grain specially for women's health).

So finally the menu comprised of ragi mudde, horse gram- malabar spinach- jackfruit seeds curry and my special herby buttermilk! I also had a dry spicy pickle with shrimps and gongura leaves (again from my terrace)  prepared "off-camera" to add a little more zing to the menu. I thoroughly enjoyed the chatting, exchanging ideas, sharing memories with newly made friends while cooking together...virtually! And finally enjoyed our meal too .... it was very very wholesome and satisfying experience altogether!

It's originally a Konkani dish (Vaali-Kulitha Koddel) and nothing but horse gram, malabar spinach and jackfruit seeds cooked in a coconut-based gravy with a seasoning of roasted garlic. It has a coarse texture and imparts a very rustic flavour ...hard to describe but surely different from our everyday Bengali dishes!

Horse Gram-Malabar Spinach-Jack Fruit Seed Curry Recipe

Ingredients:

Horse gram - 1/4 cup

Malabar spinach - 1 bunch

Jack fruit seeds - a handful

Coconut - 3/4 cup grated

Dry red chillies - 10-12 roasted

Tamarind - lemon size ball

Jaggery - 1 tbsp

Garlic pods - 8-10

Curry leaves - 1 spring

Salt -to taste

Turmeric - 1/2 tsp

Ghee or oil - 2 tbsp

Method:

• Thoroughly wash the spinach. Cut the stems in 2" pieces. Chop the leaves roughly and keep separate.
• Peel the white shells from the jack fruit seeds, cut into halves. Pressure cook for 1-3 whistles (depends upon the freshness of the seeds) with little water ... keep aside.
• In a pressure cooker add washed horse gram and spinach stems with 1 cup of water. Cook for 2-3 whistles (or until the dal is soft but not mushy). With a masher mash it lightly. (See note)
• Dry roast the red chillies. Remove seeds (optional) and soak in hot water for five minutes. In a mixie jar add 3/4 cup of grated coconut, roasted chillies, tamarind water, jaggery and grind into a coarse paste! You can add a portion of the cooked dal when grinding .... that will give a more creamy texture to the final dish!
• Now add the boiled jack fruit seeds, spinach leaves and the masala paste all in the pressure cooker along with little turmeric and salt to taste. Boil for five minutes or until the spinach gets cooked and the gravy gets a thick consistency. Taste and adjust the seasoning.
• Take the curry in a serving bowl.
• In a small pan heat two tablespoons of ghee or oil (I prefer ghee). When smoking hot add roughly chopped garlic. Brown a little, add curry leaves and switch off the flame. Pour on top of the curry and cover.
• Serve with ragi mudde. Will taste good with steamed rice too!

Notes:

• My good friend Ganesh-ji from whom I got the idea of this recipe vouch on roasting the horse gram first until it starts to crackle and then cook as describe above. And then grind half of the dal with the coconut masala mix. "That takes the flavour to another level!" he claims. I tried both ... they came out well. the roasting gives a much more rich flavour for sure! You can try whatever you wish. Just remember if you roast the dal first it will take more time to cook.
• All the three main ingredients of this curry are super healthy and rich in proteins and minerals! Especially with ragi mudde it is a super-duper combo but maybe little heavy on the stomach. So portion your meal accordingly. Add a glass of digestive buttermilk with some fresh mint or ajwain leaves to the meal .... it will perfectly balance the spiciness too! 

Kodbael Makha (Wood Apple Relish) .... a Simple Drool-worthy Snack!

While writing the last post on Kamranga Makha, my mind started wandering over the summer afternoons of my schooldays. We used to get some solace from those unbearable hot, humid and long afternoons, when ma offered to prepare some makha for us! It was a group activity .... ma, didi and sometimes a few neighbourhood kids joining the team. There are sooo many indigenous fruits that come to the market summertime .... Chalta, Kodbael, Pholsa, Bilati Amra, Jolpai and the Kancha-mitha Aam to name a few.... all very tangy but full of flavours and have lots of health benefit ... something I didn't care about those days. While some of these fruits need some cooking .... most you can enjoy in their simplest form, makha .... cut, mix with the irresistible combo of black salt, sugar/jaggery, green chilli and a few drops of mustard oil .... and smash everything nicely by hand while drooling over that delectable flavour! 

One of them is Kodbael or Wood Apple. It has a soft woody shell with strongly flavoured tamarind like pulp when ripe. Be extra careful when buying. It should give a very strong pungent smell when ripe. If the fruit is not ripe enough, you can't smash the flesh and it wouldn't be tasty either!

Wood apple has lots of health benefit too! An analysis from the University of Agricultural Sciences (Bengaluru), published in the Indian Journal of Science said that wood apple has crude fibre, calcium, phosphorus, iron, zinc, copper, manganese, sodium, potassium and Vitamin C among others. Therefore, wood apple definitely qualifies as a super food.

This fruit is used in India as a liver and cardiac tonic, when unripe, as an astringent (halting diarrhea and dysentery), effective treatment for hiccups, sore throat, and diseases of the gums. Wood apple lowers the blood glucose level, blood pressure and reduces lipid levels in hyperlipidemia. 

More importantly, the juice is well known in India as a good way to beat the summer heat and can reduce flatulence.

The easiest way of consuming wood apple is to scoop the pulp and eat it with some jaggery or make a drink with some black salt and jaggery. But if you want to add little extra zing to your plate, definitely try this recipe!

Kodbael Makha (Wood Apple Relish) Recipe

Ingredients:

Kodbael or Wood Apple - 1 Ripe

Jaggery - around two Tablespoons or to taste

Black Salt - 1 Teaspoon

Green Chillies - 2 hot

Coriander leaves - one small bunch (optional)

Mustard oil - 1 tablespoon

(See note)

Kamranga Makha (Star Fruit Relish) .... A Simple Recipe to Uplift Your Mood!

It's a very very simple recipe ...maybe too simple for a blog post. But the taste is not simple at all... just a bite .... your mouth will blast with a complex tantalizing flavour! ... just thinking of it makes my mouth watering. I promise it will uplift all your senses and mood instantly!

And these star-fruits or carambolas are highly rich in vitamin C and antioxidants ..... reason enough to devour ... not only to lift your mood but also to boost your immunity which is very much important during this time of Covid crisis! The fruits are available in the market now .... do yourself a favour ... collect some and prepare this relish! Who knew it just takes hardly ten minutes of effort to reach Nirvana.

Kamranga-Makha (Star Fruit Relish) Recipe

Ingredients: 
Star fruits - 2 big (I prefer a little ripe)
Sugar - 1 tablespoon
Black salt - 1/2 teaspoon or to taste
Green chilli - 1 finely chopped
Dry red chilli - 1
Mustard oil - 1 teaspoon

Buy one get one extra bunch of spinach .... fresh from your garden and save the seeds as bonus!!

How about that? You went to your favourite organic vegetable vendor and got a bunch of fresh spinach .... with the roots intact! What will you do with it? Cook the leaves and throw the roots... Wait! You can get much more ..... you can get another super fresh bunch of spinach and lots and lots of spinach seeds to provide you spinach for a lifetime! Feeling like Popeye the Sailor? Come on ... spinach is really good for your health! Why not get some extra and that too at no extra cost except your labour of love!

Brahma Kamal & Brahma Kamal: Nature's Double Bonanza

Brahma Kamal! Lotus of Brahma .... the god of creation! That too straight from Nandan Kanan ...the garden of haven! That was enough to impress a 10 years old kiddo's mind .... courtesy to my uncle who has just returned from the Valley of Flowers- Hemkund Sahib trek and brought a few dry flowers loosely wrapped in a news paper! I was thrilled to have a look of it! .......my uncle opened the pack carefully to revel the flowers with a great air of suspense! But that light brown paper-thin wilted petals failed miserably to wow the mind of the little girl!

Fast forward a quarter century.... we live in a small house in Bangalore with a tiny backyard garden. The garden has a few known-and-unknown plants planted by the earlier tenants. It was Summer and the plants were trying to cope with the harsh weather in a very dry rubbish laden soil. There was a unique plant with tall branches/leaves growing in every direction in a very haphazard manner ... no sense of symmetry at all! But anyway this guy was doing well in that drought condition! Then came the rain. We didn't give it much attention until one cloudy morning we suddenly saw a big flower bud coming up from nowhere .... actually it was attached to a leaf of the plant ..... something that I have never seen before!

Karamcha (Natal Plum) Jam ....With Just Two Ingradients

Malleswaram, a suburb of north-west Bangalore whose history dates back to late nineteenth century, is one of the very few places that still retains some reminiscence of the old world charm of this garden city. One attraction of Malleswaram is the bustling Sunday bazar of fruits and vegetables where you may stumble upon some rare and seasonal veggies that never show up in the superstores of the IT Capital of India. Sanjit loves to fish around the swarm and most Sundays he comes back with something rare and exotic in his net. By the time he reaches home invariably the Kannada name has slipped out of his memory chip that he learnt from the seller when conversing with his terrific Kannada knowledge! Being clueless, I start asking our neighbor, neighbor's cook, neighbor's maid .... sometimes that solves the problem, sometimes I just get a little clue and take a final refuge to google uncle!

Two Stir-Fried Drumstick Flower Recipes

And ... SHE Just Turned One!

Well, it has been one year since I started blogging! The baby whom I brought to this web world with lots of passion and enthusiasm is now looking frail and hopeless! So any point in celebrating her first birthday.... except the fact that SHE is still alive! Hey! Don't be so pessimistic! May I confide in you something? Though it may be hardly visible from outside, actually SHE lived a rather eventful and fulfilling life last one year and most importantly Slept Happy Everyday! Sooo there is hope! All the new places SHE visited, the new skills SHE learned, the new foods SHE tried made her happy and SHE is so much willing to share it with you.... SHE just needs to be a bit more systematic and focused .... SHE is looking forward ..... keep tuned!

Coming to today's recipes. One year back I started my blog in a spur of the moment's decision when I returned home from a friend's house with a handful of drumstick flowers .... my childhood favorite! I cooked a simple dish, enjoyed it and wanted to share the joy! That was my first post! (you can read it here)
This year when Ananthu-ji came to meet us from Shivani's house she remembered how I enjoyed those flowers and sent another bunch of flowers with him! Thank you Shivani for the treat! I was so touched by her gesture! And decided that drumstick flower is going to the first birthday post of SHE! Something humble but close to my heart!
Surprisingly this weekend when Sanjit went to the local Sunday bazaar, he saw one old lady selling some flowers on road side and immediately picked a bunch .... first-time in our nearly eight years stay in Bangalore.
So I got total one cup of flowers and decided to try something new .... and zeroed in on two different types of stir-fry recipes. You see... scarcity makes things so precious!

Drumstick Flowers and Egg Stir-Fry Recipe

This is mostly a normal egg bhurji recipe with added drumstick flowers! As I never ate these flowers with anything non-veg earlier I decided to give it a try! The drumstick flowers gave the dish an added layer of flavor and extra crunch!

Assam dairy: Aloo dal and Aloo Jhura (Simple and Rustic Potato Recipes)

On our visit to Assam we were staying in our relatives' house in Cachar. It is a village house and on the eve of our visit the whole family gathered there. And we, all the ladies of the house, were spending most of the daytime in the big kitchen that can easily accommodate a small dwelling of our modern city apartments! There were women of all ages .... talking, laughing, gossiping and working hand in hand. Before we realize the array of foods are ready to be served! It was all so fun!

One day I noticed a big cane basket in one corner of the kitchen full of tiny potatoes. ... after the harvesting session these mini potatoes are available in the market for a couple of weeks only! And they have a few recipes in store to make with these babies ...Aloo Dal is one of them. Another one was Aloo Jhura. Though the recipes are very simple but they vouch over the fact that these will never taste the same if you try to make them any other time of the year!
I just noted down the recipes as I saw didimoni was cooking them. But no measurement here ..... I didn't dare to ask such silly things to those kitchen queens! So here is how she cooked them .....

Aloo Dal Recipe (A Potato Curry Recipe That Resembles Lentil Soup)

Nope ... This is not a dal with potato cubes in it rather a very simple potato curry with no lentils at all. I heard about and ate it for the first time there in Assam and got bowled over by the simple rustic taste when served over steaming hot rice with some crunchy fritter on side .... the meal was so delicious!

• First wash and boil the potatoes in plenty of water.
• Now the most tedious part ..... peel and roughly break those tiny potatoes. It was a huge pile .... would easily take half a day for a single person .... but we were in a group ... talking, laughing and enjoying every bit of it in that brightly sun lit kitchen!

• Also cut some eggplants in small pieces and smear with little salt and turmeric powder.
• Now heat some mustard oil in a kadai. First fry the eggplants and keep aside.

• Add more oil if required. Add seasoning of dry red chilies and panchphoron (whole five spices) with little extra jeera as didimoni suggested. Then add the potatoes and fry for some time till it gets a light golden brown coating on it.

Assam Diary | Tit-Begun (Bitter Brinjal) and A Simple Stir-Fry Recipe

It's the haat-bar in the quaint little village Thaligram. We're enjoying our vacation in this village of Cachar (Assam) under the warmth and hospitality of our hosts. This is the first time I meet them (some distant relatives through my MIL), but as we stepped into their house I felt at home immediately. Will talk about these wonderful people later .... I would love to share my memories of this enriching vacation with you.

On the haat-bar local farmers come with their freshly picked produces to the small farmers' market and a good part of them are the tribal Khasi girls who come from the nearby Khasiapunji (land of the Khasi tribe) ...they are simple looking people with a cheerfuller face and sweet smile.

A Khasi woman on her way back from market

As we were strolling through the market we found that the most common produces they came with were paan, supari, wild turmeric and all sorts of banana products that either they grow in their villages or collect from nearby forests. There were some new stuffs as well ..... we found quite a few varieties of beans that I have never seen earlier. While looking at these new veggies we spotted a handful of  tiny tomato like things with one girl. On our query she smiled and spoke a few words in her local language. What we could gather from her that the fruits have been collected from joom farming of a nearby hill. We got interested and  feeling obliged by her charming smile Sanjit took whatever she had in her basket.....a generous fistful .... that's all she had.

On our query back home our Didimoni (sister) told that these are called tit-begun. So essentially these are miniature brinjals with a bitter taste. These are wild fruits and nobody seems much exited about it! My MIL then and there declared that she is not going to taste a bitter tasting brinjal (though she loves neem-begun which is essentially brinjal cooked with neem leaves to make it bitter :)). So we packed them in our luggage and when I finally got a chance to attend, they were more than a week old and beyond their prime time. All got red and crinkled ..... anyway we wanted to give it a try and decided to cook a simple stir-fry with onion- tomato-green chill to offset the otherwise bitter taste.

I googled a bit to find the English name, but got confused with one of its close cousin named cluster eggplant or turkey berry. I tasted turkey berry earlier (courtesy our Navadarshanam CSA box) and found them of much smaller size than this one. Found a web link where they have used the same botanical name (Solanum indica) to describe the fruit that looked like turkey berry(Solanum torvum) to me! HELP needed!
What I gathered (I may be wrong though) that in English it is called Likok or bitter brinjal, in Assamese tit-begun and in Sikkimese beeh .

A Simple Bitter-brinjal Stir-Fry Recipe

Ingredients:
Bitter Brinjal - Handful. sliced
Onion - One small, sliced
Tomato - One ripe, sliced
Green Chilli - one, chopped
Panchphoron - 1/2 teaspoon
Dry red chilli - one
Oil - 1 tablespoon
Turmeric - 1/4 teaspoon
Salt and Sugar - to taste

Chanchra (Malabar Spinach and Fish-head Mish-mash, Bengali Style)

You board a time machine and travel back .... not far ... just around thirty years and land in a Bengali home on a festive day ... the grandest of all ...a marriage ceremony! The event is scheduled sometime in the evening followed by a grand feast. The neighbors and the distant relatives will pour in in the evening ... now only the close family members are around ... a few seem super busy while the rest are leisurely busy gossiping. It's almost lunch time - a waft of appetizing smell makes you hungry, you followed it and reached the terrace. There in a corner of the Pandal, rannar thakur (the head cook) is busy cooking his last item for the lunch .... the inevitable chanchra. For lunch you will get a simple menu of steamed rice, daal, chanchra followed by a light macher jhol (fish-curry), chutney and misti.

Chanchra or Chenchra will consist of any edible part of the day's fresh produce  that were not suitable to go in the main fancy dishes of the feast.  There will be few paka rui (big carps) for the main courses. So after cutting and cleaning the fishes their heads, oils, gills all will go in this chanchra along with all the peels and not so palatable parts of the vegetables and greens (except the bitter ones). So this is literally a mish-mash of all the otherwise throw-able items. Heat mustard oil in a big iron karai/wok. Add seasoning of panchphoron and dry red chili. Then add all the above and cook on low flame until done .... that's it! Simple to cook but delicious in taste! ...... gone are the days! Now that dhoti and gamcha cladded rannar thakur has given way to the sophisticated catering services and the Bengali festive menu has became a hodgepodge of world cuisine ... a mish-mash in its true sense!

Come to present days! After the rain starts the gorgeous Hilsa shows its presence in the local fish markets with a price-tag befitting her queenly status! In spite of the economic condition every Bangalee would try to bring this beauty home at least once in the season. I remember that cartoon: a quintessential Bengali-babu sporting a proud smile and holding in one hand a picturesque Hilsa (hanging from a string from its nose) while a bag-full of vegetables is in the other from which a bright bunch of Puisaak (Malabar spinach) is showing its head. Thats it! ... the head of that precious fish will be reserved for the chanchra only.  The midday meal will be a whole Ilish afair .... macher tel-mach-bhaja, chanchra and kalojire-kanchalonka-begun die macher jhol (Hilsa fish fry and oil, chanchra and light curry of hilsa with eggplant) or sarshe Ilish.

Ilish Mach diye Pui Saak-er Chanchra (Bengali Style Malabar Spinach and Fish-head Mish-mash Recipe)

Now come to the recipe. Though I have given a rough measurement of the ingredients, you don't need to follow them precisely. For such a forgiving dish like chanchra, no need to burden your head with all the teaspoon-tablespoon complexity! Adding a little less pumpkin or little more spinach is not going to ruin your dish in anyway. Follow your own intuition and liking and play with the ingredients.

Ingredients:
Hilsa fish-head - one
Malabar spinach (Puin-saak) - one bunch
Pumpkin (Kumro) -  250 gm
Eggplant (Begun) - 2-3 small ones
Potato (Alu) - 2-3
Radish (Mulo) - 2
Parwal (Potol) - 3-4 (optional)
Broad beens (Seem) - 8-10 (optional)
Jackfruit seeds (Kanthal bichi) - one fistful (optional)
Garlic - 4-5 cloves
Green chilies - 4-5
Mustard oil - 3-4 tablespoon 
Pancphoron - 1 teaspoon
Dry red chili - 1
Turmeric powder - 1 teaspoon
Salt and sugar - to taste