Indian Food For the Condiment-Challenged

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We spent the weekend being spoiled with all kinds of sports and activities organized by hubby's mentor and friend DF and his lovely wife RF. Not the kind of thing you can say a simple thank you for.

So I decided to cook them up a meal. A slight complication: DF has been "condiment-free since '63!"

I started reeling off options and DF said "myeh" a few times. Then a light at the end of the tunnel - "I really like that Indian rice pudding thing." We were ready to roll.

RF was sweet enough to grab supplies from the local grocery, and I proceeded to cook up the mildest meal I've ever cooked:
  • Vegetable rice
  • Chicken saag curry (chicken with spinach)
  • Puris (fried bread)
  • Aloo curry (potato curry)
  • Payasam or kheer (rice pudding)
The Indian, low-condiment meal was declared a success, which was gratifying. But here's the clincher - the series of emails that followed:

Email 1, that Monday
Subject: Foodie Monday
"Lunch: leftover roopa lite.
Dinner: barbequed marinated roopa chicken...ever have that? Deelish!"

(There had been about a pound of chicken left over, so I marinaded it with lime juice, sesame oil, paprika, turmeric and salt, with instructions to bake at 350 for 20 minutes another day.)

Email 2: Tuesday
Subject: 3rd meal from Roopa
"lunch today. newsroom was drooling."

Email 3: Wednesday
Subject: Day 4 of Roopa food
"rice pudding snack 11am wednesday."

Success. DF will now need to say "Kinda condiment-free since '63."

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