Take time to smell the…er…Millingtonia hortensis

Cauliflower and Potatoes with Ground and Fresh Coriander

Huh?

(Apologies for not italicizing the Latin name in the title; Substack won’t let me do so. Just in the title)

It is that time of year. Term ends in a couple of weeks, which means I’m up to my ears in grading. And the piles that confront me at the moment don’t include the final exams. Those, I get the last week of December. And there’s still that paper I’m working on, coming along nicely, but nowhere near done.

The kids’ school break starts today. They have two and a half weeks off, the two and a half busiest weeks of my semester.

So in addition to my mountains of grading and everything else that goes along with academic life, I want to take them ice skating. I want to indulge in a home pedicure with my little girl. Or several. How lucky am I that she loves massaging my feet? I want to watch movies with them in the middle of the day, with the living room curtains closed. To make it nice and dark, mama, say both littles. I want to shop for stocking stuffers. I want to wrap gifts. I want to play.

And I want to bake cookies. Four or five different kinds of cookies. My daughter has two or three kinds she’s been longing to bake with me. I want to build gingerbread houses with them. I want to, I want to, I want to. I really do.

Outside, all over campus, the Millingtonia hortensis is blooming. This is commonly called the tree jasmine, or the Indian cork tree, apparently. There are millingtonia trees all over campus, and they’re all blooming. On my walk to my building every morning, I breathe deeply, inhaling the intoxicating fragrance, reminiscent of nutmeg. And I remember our first year here, when first we smelled it, wondered what it was – but not for long. My husband quickly discovered the source of the fragrance was these white, long, trumpet-shaped-shaped (to me; I’m no botanist) flowers that bloom when the temperatures cool in the desert here, harbingers of two or three months of the most incredible weather.  Millingtonia hortensis, he said they are called.

On one of our extremely rare gorgeous, cloudy days

There are a couple of trees just outside my building, near the door I enter through. And every winter, when first I see the blooms, I think about sending my colleagues an email. To tell them about the flowers, to ask them to take just a moment to enjoy them. 

And I never do. Always forget. Because the moment I enter the building, life takes over.

The tree just outside my building

And this year, when I got the email from the kids’ school about the end-of-term party, asking for food contributions, I quickly signed up for the easiest possible thing – bags of store-bought crisps. This even elicited a shocked “but that’s so unlike you, Chandrika” from one of my friends. Yes, it is unlike me.

But I want to take the time to smell the Millingtonia. Literally and figuratively.

I’ll still take the littles ice skating. We’re going today. And bowling. That’ll be sometime next week. And still watch movies with them, grading a paper or two in between scenes. And still bake cookies. But maybe just two kinds.

And this year, I did send the email to my colleagues.

Wherever in the world you are, I hope you have a wonderful holiday season. With plenty of Millingtonia.

So in the spirit of smelling the Millingtonia, the recipe I have for you today is one of the very first ones I wrote down when first I started these posts a year and a half ago. I didn’t use it earlier because of the picture – I took this picture, before my husband started helping with the pics, the setting, layout, and the actual taking of the pics. Well, this one, I took with no thought of setting or layout. And the pic was taken on my old phone. But it’s what I have. And instead of making the curry again and taking the time to get a much nicer picture, we’ll smell the Millingtonia.

The curry is a simple potato and cauliflower curry. Anyone who’s eaten at an Indian restaurant in the west knows that aloo-gobi is on every single menu. Well, this is one version of an aloo-gobi, not the typical one you get at most restaurants, but one from my kitchen. Simple and delicious.

Aloo-gobi with Ground and Fresh Coriander

Ingredients

1.     2 cups of raw cauliflower, cut into bite-sized florets

2.     2 cups of potatoes, cubed small bite-sized pieces, about the same size or a wee bit smaller than the cauliflower

3.     1 cup diced onions (small dice) – yellow, white, or red – whatever you have

4.     1 jalapeno or any other chili of your choice, finely chopped, seeds and all. You can use more or less depending on how spicy you want it 

5.     ½ cup chopped fresh coriander (cilantro)

6.     3 Tbsp vegetable or canola oil

7.     1 tsp black mustard seeds

8.     2 tsp urad dhal

9.     ½ tsp turmeric

10.  ½ tsp ground coriander seed

11.  1.5 tsp salt

12.  ¼ cup of water, if needed

1.     Method

1.     Heat oil in a skillet. Add the mustard seeds. Wait till they start popping and turn the heat down to low.

2.     Once the mustard seeds have almost finished popping, add the urad dhal. Allow the white dhal to turn a golden brown; do this on low-medium heat so the dhal cooks and doesn’t brown too quickly on the outside. The rest of the steps are done with the heat on medium, turned down if the veg sticks.

3.     Once the urad dhal is a pretty color, add the turmeric and chilies. Stir around for about 30 seconds and then add the diced onion.

4.     Add about half the salt to the onions and allow to sweat – for about 5 minutes. They should be translucent and not brown after about five minutes.

5.     Add the cubed potatoes and the rest of the salt. Cook for about 8 minutes with a lid on. (the amount of time this takes obviously depends on the size of your pieces o potatoes - wait till the potatoes are about 60% of the way cooked)

6.     Now add the cauliflower, the ground coriander, and the water if the potatoes seem to be sticking to the bottom. Put the lid back on and cook for about 7-8 minutes, stirring once in between.

7.     Test for salt and doneness. I cook the potatoes completely, but like the cauliflower to have a bit of a bite. If you like more well-done cauliflower, cook a bit longer, adding a wee bit of water if needed.

8.     Turn off the heat, add the chopped coriander, stir, cover again for a couple of minutes to allow the coriander to wilt.

9.     Serve hot with rice or a bread of your choice.