T&T - Monsoon Spice

After moving to this new Copenhagen place of mine (I finally moved my very last bit out), I wanted to do something nice for myself. Something that would:

A. Make myself feel like a real home with real responsibilities,
B. Spice up my every day.

Keeping these in mind I decided to:

1. Plant my own plants - I bought mango, dates and an avocado. I ate all of them and planted the seeds. It is very easy, I have done that before. As each time I forget which way to plant them, I simply lay dates seeds horizontally about 2 cm underground and with mango, I lay it with the spiky corner downwards - both avocado and mango seeds buried half-way through the ground.
I also planted my own herbs - coriander, basil, sage, rosemary, thyme,... etc.

2. I underwent a serious inspection of my spices and threw out half of them, due to the fact that they have been around probably longer than me. And I bought fresh new ones. Wow, is there a difference in cooking. A rocket of spices roaming on my plate. Or should I say:

"MONSOON" of Spices? Yes, you guessed it - reflecting upon my new homey life actions, I chose Monsoon Spice as this month´s Tried And Tasted Challenge.

Sia - a truly remarkable woman has been actively contributing to the blogging world for longer than two years. I have discovered her blog probably half-way there, and remember writing her immediately admiring her work. Through her posts, I learned so much about Indian cuisine and through her photography, I became more and more tempted to try them all. Monsoon Spice is one of the few blogs truly praising traditional Indian cuisine, turning it into a festive celebration of aromas and flavors.

The rules are simple:

1. Cook any recipe(s) from Monsoon Spice and post about it. Stay as true to the original recipe(s) as possible. Therefore, there is no need for re-posting it, simply link to the original post :-)
   
1. There is no time-frame for the original recipe. It can be as old as my grand-mother or as fresh as a mung bean sprout.
2. Have you cooked from Jai and Bee before? As this event is all about tasting and reflecting on the taste, older posts are also welcome. Simply link to this post and mention T&T event.
   
2. Link your post to HERE (feel free to use the logo) and to the original post. Please always link to both sites, so both blogs are given credit and you are avoiding copyright fuss.
   
3. Send me an e-mail (zlamushka@hotmail.com) with your name, your post URL as well as the original URL and a picture (300px by height, please).
4. Deadline is the September 30th 2008 and the round up will be posted within a week.

Non-bloggers are more than welcome to participate (after all, our posts are mainly being written for them). Simply e-mail me (zlamushka@hotmail.com) with your experience of what you cooked and please include a picture.

The round up will be posted during the first week in October.

Sia, I am honored to have the opportunity to thank you for everything you have done so far. Kudos to you for being such a wonderful blogger (bow). Please let me know when you decide to write a cookbook. I would love to have a copy at home, if not for anything else, simply for browsing your gorgeous pictures :-)

Here is one of Sia´s wonderful recipes that I would like to share with you here - a wonderful, spicy and juicy Baby Corn Manchurian...

.... a very interesting variation to my own Gobi Manchurian.