Jim & Jim: The Business Gurus

And I'm back folks....sorry about the short hiatus. I had to step back and rethink this whole thing.  We want to run this as a business and I needed to figure out what our angle was.  After a long talk with my mom, we made some decisions:

1) We need to run something that involves a low risk investment because I'm going back to school and my mom is still working.  If we need to take a break in between we don't want the loan for a food truck hanging over our heads.

2)  We don't want to do what the other aunties in the community are doing - full catering for south indian weddings.  We want to be more specific and target the Indian community as well as non Indians.

3)  We need to have flexibility in choosing our timings.  IF we ran a restaurant/food truck/push cart we would have to be outside all day long.  It's cool work and maybe in my future someday but now is not the time.

What next?  If you are ever looking at starting a small business, the Small Business Association is a great place to begin.  They offer business counseling for free!  I found them online and scheduled an appointment with them.  This morning I walked into the office and met with Jim&Jim, my pair of business gurus.  I explained our pitch and at first they were asking all these questions that made me think, "man they don't get it!"  But then, one of the Jims suggested an idea that was golden.  Beautiful just beautiful.  He simplified us to just one specialty.  We work with this one specialty and build our business around it.  I would elaborate but seeing as we haven't started yet, I don't want to plaster the idea on the internet.  So with this specialty, we offer subcontracting to other restaurants.  It's a great way to get in the business and to make a name for ourselves with clients. Genius!!!!

To do list:

1) business plan elaborating on what we know about:

-our specialty food and accoutrements
-target clientele
-sell price
-labor/materials costs
-licensing
-necessary equipment and costs

2) Put together a pitch to present to restaurants including marketing literature

3) Connect with local business associations

4) Get a customer

Expected start date: I'm pushing for sometime in Feb.  The Jim's say that might be pushing it, but all I got to say to that is, Watch me!

Lots of love folks!  And remember, Amma Veedu Namma Veedu!

Our First Order! Lemon Rice Comin Up!

So the Indian community here, or let me be more specific, the Tam-Brahm community, have three main Tamil food caterers....our competition you might say.....shhhh don't tell them that though!  But, in all actuality, they are three very kind ladies whom I have known for years and they were very enterprising by just starting up catering on their own and making out pretty well.  I met with one of them earlier this week, and let her in on the AVNV plan.  She was all for it and even gave me my first order!  Bogged down with a wedding, she couldn't take on an order for another event going on at the local Hindu Temple.  Easy Peasy lemon rice to be delivered at 11am.  So our first $20!  Don't worry, I won't use it all in one place ;-)  Good news is....We got our first order!  Not an official business as of yet, but hey, we're on our way!

Late night after dancin with my mom, (yes, my mom - she get down more than me these days) at this wedding reception so I'll have to share the recipe and pics tomorrow folks.

NO TURKEY AND NO SHOPPING, THANKS

Yes we are vegetarian and no we don't eat turkey for Thanksgiving.  Today, my parents and I visited our old family friends to celebrate Thanksgiving and pretend to care about a football game.  So RICE is what's for lunch.  We had rice with some choices of specialties.  Here's a snap of our table.

 My favorite side has always been the crispies!  Which includes papadam and karudam.  I can stay away from sugar and away from animal products, but I have a severe addiction to salty, crispy things.

If one let's go of the nightmare of history that we are 'celebrating' with obsessions over fat turkeys, football and violent shoppers camping out all night to wait to get things that are probably not even needed in the first place....

It is nice to say thanks.  Everyday...not just today.  Our friends thought of a nice idea to pass around index cards to everyone so that we could write what we were thankful for.  Then we put them in a box and everyone passed it around the table to pick a card and share.  I thought that was a simple and neat way to pass this holiday and remember that we have miracles and wonders all around us all the time even in the midst of all the pain and suffering.

Today and everyday, I am thankful for love.

The World of Vegetable Poriyal (Curry)

Simple, fast and yummy.  Vegetable curry, or poriyal as we call it in Tamil, is a great side dish for rice or chapathi.  Tonight, we had poriyal made with chayote as a side dish for rice and sambar.  We will have to go over sambar another day. 

Ingredients:

2 chayote chopped into 1cm cubes - be sure to cut out the seed and white part surrounding it inside
1 tablespoon mustard seeds
1 tablespoon black split gram
1 dried red chilli
1 tablespoon grated coconut (fresh or frozen but NOT dessicated)
Salt to taste

We used chayote.  The vegetable that kind of looks like a bum. 

1) Add one tablespoon of oil (corn or vegetable) into a wok or pan
2) Once the oil is hot, add the mustard seeds
4) After those seeds start popping, the black split gram aka ullathum parruppu which is actually white in color.  Also add one dried red chilli.
5) Add the chopped chayote and after 5 minutes of cooking, add a tablespoon of grated coconut if you have it.
6) Cover the veg and let it cook.  Chayote is watery so it will cook fast. 
7) Add salt to taste

And there you have it folks!  You can do the same recipe with chopped up beans, finely chopped cabbage and also beet root.  For beet root, don't add the coconut. 

Stay tuned for a thanksgiving spread without the turkey!  And remember...

AMMA VEEDU NAMMA VEEDU!

Dosa Time Baby!!!

Vanakam fellow foodies!  The truth of the matter is, you are not going to find good South Indian cooking- I'm talking dosa, idli, sambar, chutney- in Boston.  Believe me, I've tried it all.  After four years of living in Tamil Nadu in the South of India and being around yummy goodness all the time, I'm back in Boston and my passion for cooking inspired by my mother's magical ways in the kitchen gave me the idea to bring some quality Tamil food in the Boston area.

I've strayed to other cultural foods but I always came back to home cooking to satisfy my soul.  After experimenting with cooking this and that, I decided to really buckle down and learn things the old fashioned way - from my mother.  My mother got her talent and perfection from her mother and that's just the way I would like to learn.  Food is a language of it's own and I want to learn all of the traditional ways around the kitchen.

Oh and did I mention, I recently went vegan.  Instead of going crazy with all that fancy shmancy vegan food, I figured that other than ghee (clarified butter) and curd, South Indian cooking is vegan.  These ingredients are not always needed and if they are used, they can be substituted.  So no need to look for some new special diet when everything is right at home.

We want to take this on the road and bring YOU some good, vegan, Tamil home cookin' !  Join us on our adventure as we figure out how to bring this project to life.  And as for the name, it's Tamil for Mom's House is Our House.

This is us in Hampi.  That's Radha & Shoba.