From yesterday onward, there will be no non-veg allowed to entered inside the house - that's the order of home ministry. Every year the eighth month of Hindu (Shaka) calendar is considered to be the holiest month - it starts on the full-moon day in the month of October-November named Kartik Purnima. Day before yesterday was that day. On this day, the unmarried girls do a special ritual for Lord Kartikeya - the handsome Son of Lord Shiva with the belief that, they will marry a handsome husband. I would have written about the ritual, but since there was a death in our family, all rituals are stopped for a year. So may be next year, I will post when my daughter does it. The following day, the Laxmi Puja starts - Laxmi is the goddess of wealth. I will try to go around and see, if we have some pandals celebrating and post about it.
So with all these background, there will be no non-veg items allowed inside home for a month, and its going to be all veggie affair. Interestingly, this coincides with the winter season, when usually vegetables are available and cheap. Unfortunately, the weather has spoiled everything this year, and that's not the case this year. The vegetable price is roaring high this year, because of severe rain spoiling all the plan. But still we have to buy and survive because of the practice being followed for ages. I was a bit curious to ask my mother, why this practice is being followed and her answer was, earlier people used to eat only fish as the non-veg item. And this is the breeding time, so the fish gets some sort of diseases. So may be the ancestors have made this practice out of their observation. Tried to do a bit of search, and I could also find some scientific correlation - see this post
We had this last fish dish prepared day before yesterday and I think, its super easy to prepare. Fry the fish, fry some capsicum for 2-3 minutes , add onion and then fry them, till the onion becomes a bit red.
Add tomatoes, and ginger garlic paste (above) and cook on slow hit for around 8-10 minutes, you can feel the smell of the spices at this moment. Add little water to make it like a gravy and then cook for 5 minutes. And then add a little Cinnamon and Cardamom powder and cook for 2 minutes and then add the fried fish and cook for 2-3 minutes, till the gravy soaks to the fish. Cinnamon and Cardamom powder gives a nice flavor, but if you want very rich flavor, then you can prepare the Garam masala and keep it and use in varieties of curry. And we don't add chili at all, but if you like the spicy food, then don't forget to add chili powder. There are couple of variants - one is for spicy preparation, but the Kashmiri chilli is surprisingly a bit sweet and instead used for good color.
So this was the last non-veg dish for the month. But hey, these restrictions are only for home - the ladies members are strict on protocols, but we have got some exceptions - we can eat outside but not with their company 馃榾 Couple of hours back a friend called and was asking he is standing on the river bank and some fresh fish are available - But there is no arrangement to cook it anywhere....
