Rati Mehrotra's Blog, page 5
October 3, 2020
One-Pot Chettinad Chicken Biryani
I haven’t eaten out since…February. And I’ve come to realize that cooking is a kind of coping mechanism for me. Here, at least, is something productive I can do which is useful to the entire family. I enjoy the creative aspect of it, the physical labor, the exploration of new recipes, and the ultimate reward: the eating and sharing of good food prepared at home. So here is my recipe for Chettinad Chicken Biryani.
I’ve always been fond of biryani, and we have some terrific takeaway options in To...
September 15, 2020
The Severed Head in Indian Mythology
I’ve been re-reading bits of the Indian epics and the Puranas lately, and what struck me most forcibly is the excessive amount of decapitation going on. What’s up with that? To answer that burning question, here is a blog post dedicated to the decapitated. It will be long, but I will endeavor not to make it too gory.
No. 1: Top Pick
Barbarik, the grandson of Bhima, decapitated himself at the request of Krishna before he could fight in the Kurukshetra war. Krishna deduced that he was too powerful...
August 25, 2020
My latest pandemic recipe: Ful Medames
Once again, bored to death of my cooking, I have experimented with a new-to-me recipe: the Middle Eastern staple Ful Medames or foul mudammas. I call these my pandemic recipes because if not for the enforced isolation, I would be eating regularly in diverse restaurants, of which Toronto was blessed with so many, a thousand years ago in relatively carefree pre-pandemic days. Instead, I am forced to improvise and experiment at home.
Ful Medames is a stew of fava beans served with olive oil, cumin,...
July 11, 2020
Knock, Knock Said The Ship
Guess what I’m holding in my hand? My contributor copy of the July/August issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction! 
June 3, 2020
Delicious Thai Recipes from a Beginner
In the third month of our isolation, I grew heartily sick of my cooking. Because I live in a 3-generation household, we decided not to take the risk of any takeout or delivery (except for groceries). That means I’ve been cooking every single day. There is no meal I have eaten that has not been cooked by moi. That was never a problem in the past because we did takeout every week, sometimes ate lunch at our neighborhood Korean resto, or ordered in pizza. It became a huge problem a couple of weeks ...
May 19, 2020
Geeking out over ancient languages and scripts
I’m no linguist. But right now, I am very excited about languages, scripts, how they came into being, and how they evolved. I’ve been working on a new novel for the last few months, a supernatural fantasy set in medieval India, populated by mythical monsters. It’s been a lot of fun. For the first time, I’ve used several Hindi and Sanskrit words in my work, so I’ve been working on a glossary at the same time. I think the glossary has been at least as much fun to write as the novel itself, hah. As...
April 30, 2020
The Witch Speaks
[image error]Still living in the pandemic. Lost count of the days. But! Today is Special! It is Story Day. I am very pleased to announce that my story The Witch Speaks is now live at Lightspeed Magazine. I also did a Q & A on this story with Setsu Uzumé (Thanks Setsu!) and you can check that out here. If you prefer a podcast, you can listen to the story narrated by Justine Eyre. Thank you to the entire team at Lightspeed for all their work in publishing this rather experimental, emotional story.
The...
March 17, 2020
Living in the Pandemic
It is Day 6 of extreme social-distancing for me. Im looking at the long weeks ahead and wondering (like many of you) how were going to get through this. We have an emergency in Ontario, and in many other parts of the world. If youre reading this, you are very likely in a similar situation. How are you coping, friends? I am personally on an endless re-watch of The Untamed. I will never stop loving that show. Im writing what I can. Im staying in touch with my friends through email and twitter....
February 27, 2020
Fandom, Obsession, and The Untamed
[image error]I’ve consumed countless SFF books and numerous shows in my life. However, I have never been a fan of anything.
Until now. People who follow my Twitter feed may have noticed the preponderance of images of pretty, long-haired Chinese wizards with flowing robes and magic swords. Welcome to the world of The Untamed – a complex, beautiful story set in ancient China. The entire 50 episodes are available on Netflix and apparently on Youtube as well. I have – ahem – seen it twice. I’ve probably seen...
February 14, 2020
MARKSWOMAN Ebook Sale
[image error]Woohoo! In case you’ve been wanting to read about assassins that have telepathic relationships with their daggers, the ebook of Markswoman is on sale for just 99 cents from now until 24th February in both US and Canada. For those who just started following me recently, Markswoman is the first book of my Asiana duology. The sequel, Mahimata, was published last year. And I’m so proud of both my book babies!
