Apple Cranberry Pie

And the season of eating begins, inaugurated by a perfectly bronzed turkey. Anointed by a succession of sides. Ending on sweet notes. This coma-inducing meal leads straight to the couch! The road to perfection is fraught with hurdles. The hustle and bustle that predates this expansive meal exhilarates and confounds! Lists are written, only to be scratched off and rewritten. Sloppy shopping results in exhaustive repetitive grocery store ventures. Then I gain a handle. Things fall into place.

We start early in the morning. Tom Turkey has been marinating for a few days. Corn bread for stuffing, has been baked. We vacillate between new and old recipes. This year, it's a bit of old and a lot of new. Shauna makes goat cheese and butternut squash crostini. She then makes sweet potatoes the Smitten Kitchen way. I make a corn bread and kale stuffing. We make a corn and roasted poblano pudding. Of, course there has to be buttery, creamy mashed potatoes. Gravy from scratch. And freshly made cranberry relish. Dessert indulges the chocoholics with a tart. And a wonderful apple cranberry pie made by Shauna. The table is laid. Wine is decanted. Rehan makes a crisp charred lemon cocktail. It definately puts everyone in a good mood!

APPLE CRANBERRY PIE

Serves 6

FIlling

3 pounds Apples (6 heaping cups)

1/2 cup dried Cranberries

1/3 cup Maple Syrup

1/2 teaspoon Lemon Zest

1 tablespoon Lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon grated Nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon 

3/4 cup light Brown Sugar

2 tablespoons Arrowroot 

A pinch of Kosher Salt

Crust

2 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour

1 1/2 teaspoons Sugar

1 teaspoon Salt

1/2 cup cold Butter, cut into small cubes

1/2 cup cold Vegetable Shortening (Crisco), cut into small cubes

5 tablespoons Ice Water

2 tablespoons Butter

1 Egg

Start by making the crust. Add flour, sugar and salt to the bowl of a processor. Pulse twice.

Drop cubed butter and vegetable shortening over flour and pulse till flour looks like peas. It should take 10-15 pulses.

Sprinkle ice water over flour and pulse till mixture comes together in a ball, about 5-8 pulses.

Dump dough onto a floured surface and gather into a ball.

If you do not have a processor, place flour in a bowl. Drop butter and shortening into flour and work the mixture with two knives, a pastry blender or your fingertips till flour resembles peas. Add water and gather the dough together.

Flatter dough into a disc and wrap in Saran or a plastic bag and refridgerate for an hour.

Let dough sit for 5 minutes before you roll it out on a lightly floured surface.

Roll dough gently to fit a 9 inch pie plate by folding dough in half, then quarters and lifting it on to the pie plate. 

Trim the edges with a knife. Gather trimmed pastry leftovers into a ball.

Make indentations in the pie crust with a fork along the edges of the plate.

Heat oven to 400F.

Refridgerate pie plate while you make the filling.

Peel, core and slice apples. You should have 6 cups.

Place apples in a bowl and add all the filling ingredients and stir.

Take pie plate out of the fridge and arrange apple slices on crust.

Dot with small bits of butter.

Gather scraps of leftover pastry and roll. Using a pastry cutter or freehand, trace and cut out as many leaves as you can to cover the filling. Shauna traced out a large turkey freehand and surrounded the turkey with leaves. Feel free to use the leftover pastry in any design. You need to cover the apples, leaving some open spaces to let the steam out as the apples bake.

Beat egg lightly.

Paint crust with egg wash.

Bake for 35-45 minutes or till crust is golden brown.

Eat the pie hot, warm or at room temperature. It's good in every which way!!!

We all pay the price for our gluttony. I read a Frank Bruni article about overindulgence. After demolishing  a large part of of the bounty, I can safely add a disclaimer that a huge repast is not limited to Italians. There is one resounding complaint from the maker of this pie. Not enough leftovers!!! This, said by the person who's freezer bag contains the remains of this meal!!! To the dessert chef the spoils!!!

Kashmiri Lamb Curry or Aab Gosht

A hiatus does wonders for the mind. It's even better for my taste buds. The past few weeks have been a blur, but one item stands out, like the light that blinds you. Makes you close your eyes and focus. A few of my trusty experimenters have stated their difficulty in finding past recipe posts. I guess they havent noticed the header at the top of the page, loudly proclaiming itself---RECIPE COLLECTIONS.. Folks, this is my version of a recipe index. All that I have labored to create has been itemized and posted. So now all of you know where to go. Jen, ChunChun, Christine... All it takes is a click!!!

The season starts. And by that I mean the cooking one, not the seasonal kind. Turkey day will be here soon enough. But before the turkey is bronzed, my first visitor is my daughter. And with her arrival comes a food request list longer than my arm!!! Don't get me wrong. I am thrilled to cook for her. To satisfy all her food fancies. Happy to have her back at our table. And so the season of goodwill and good food begins. 

Request no#1 is any kind of mutton or goat meat. It's hardfor me to say goat meat as I have called it mutton all my life. Traditionally, mutton is aged lamb. So a conundrum it is... Tomaato/tomato. Let's leave it at mutton for her sake. I schlep to a recently discovered butcher in Queens to buy a ton of meat. This butcher's mutton has the taste of meat from home aka Bombay. It's a ride out there, but well worth the effort as the mutton cooks up bone tender. I have Keith Louis to thank for this meaty discovery!! Then I race home to cook for her. The curry is supposed to be tomorrow's dinner, but an impending snowstorm brings her home earlier.

Aab Gosht is a Kashmiri delicacy. The meat is cooked along with chana dal, mint and spices till it falls off the bone. The pressure cooker does its job quite adequately. I mash the chana into the gravy to thicken it. Some coconut milk and lemon juice to finish and I have a creamy mutton curry Shauna will love.

KASHMIRI LAMB CURRY --AAB GOSHT 

Serves 4-6

2 pounds Lamb stew or cubed Goat meat 

1 cup Chana Dal

2 Onions

1 teaspoon Garlic Paste

1 teaspoon grated Ginger

3 tablespoons Coriander Chili chutney OR 1 cup Coriander and 3 Green chilies ground              into a paste

20 Mint leaves

2 tablespoons Canola Oil

1 1/2 teaspoons Kosher Salt

1 2"Cinnamon stick

6 Cloves

10 Peppercorns

1/4 teaspoon Cardamom powder

1 cup Coconut Milk

Juice of 1/2 Lime

Fried Onions and Mint Laeves to garnish

Wash meat and drain well.

Soak chana dal for 4-6 hours. OR place dal in a saucepan cover with water and bring to a boil. Take off the fire and let dal sit for 1 hour.

Cut onion into small dice.

Roughly chop mint leaves.

Place meat, ginger, garlic paste, onions, mint, coriander chilie paste or chutney, salt and oil in a pressure cooker or heavy bottomed saucepan.

Cover with water and bring to a boil. Pressure cook meat for 16 minutes. If you are cooking the meat stovetop, cover meat with a lid, lower flame and let meat cook for 1-1 1/2 hours or till done. Check water level and add more if needed.

Once the pressure cooker has cooled, open lid and place meat on high flame and let the gravy thicken. It should take 15 minutes or so.

Now add coconut milk and lime juice and stir well. Simmer for a few minutes more.

Place cinnamon, cloves and peppercorns in a spice grinder and pulse till they are a fine powder. Add cardamon powder to masala and pulse a few times to incorporate. 

Sprinkle this masala over mutton and mix in.

Serve mutton garnished with fried onions and mint leaves.




I wait eagerly for my baby to come home. Traffic confounds her, prolonging the journey. Grey clouds fill the skies outside. But my kitchen shines bright, suffused with the joy and anticipation of our family meal.

Roasted Blistered Carrots

These carrots are addictive. They come of the oven, browned and blistered, spicy and  crisp-tender. More like a large French fry. And how we love them. I am considering them as an appetizer after watching the family pick away at a plateful. You might've seen them as a side with roast chicken in another blog post. I find they go equally well with lamb or fish.

I do like to make them with small white and orange carrots from the farmers market.  They come in adorable twisty shapes, not the usual straight and narrow. I have a bee in my bonnet about buying carrots with their tops intact. The prepackaged, scrubbed clean little itty bitty ones are not quite the carrot I have in mind. This is the carrot that's been in the ground of late, the green frilly tops calling out..buy me, I'm fresh!! Thankfully, I and only I have to live with this pet peeve! 

I halve the fatter ones, leaving the slim ones intact. I use a limited spice palate as I want the carrot flavor to be the dominant one. Coriander and fennel seeds give the carrots a nippy flavor without heat. Carrots get a quick coating of spices and oil. A really hot oven turns these little ones into brown blistered babies!!!

ROASTED BLISTERED CARROTS

Serves 4

8-10 Carrots

1 tablespoon Coriander seeds

1 tablespoon Fennel seeds

1/2 teaspoon Kosher Salt

1/2 teaspoon ground Black Pepper

2 tablespoons Olive oil

Heat oven to 400F.

Wash and scrub carrots well. 

Cut carrots in half lengthwise. 

Blitz coriander seeds and fennel in a coffee grinder till they are coarsely ground.

Mix seeds, salt, pepper and olive oil in a bowl.

Line a sheetpan with nonstick aluminum foil.

Drop carrots into spice mixture and stir so all carrots are well coated with spices.

Arrange carrots on foil and put in the oven.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, checking occasionally at the end. Once the carrots are easily pierced with a knife, remove from oven and serve.

Carrots emerge with blistered skins and crispy tips. The spice coating has turned golden brown, giving the carrots a nice crunch. Roasting allows their natural sweetness to come through. I watch as the plateful of heaped carrots steadily disappears. This vegetable has gone from being an also-ran, to a rock star!!

Ball Curry

There is kofta curry and then there is Pam's ball curry. A difference? It's not just semantics! It's a question of regional spices, Goan flavor and importantly, following stalwart advice of her mother-in-law! So I do the same. The recipe, written on a scrap of paper years ago, now encased in a protective plastic sleeve, sits in a bulging binder. Hastily written, I almost always have to decode the scrawl. Even as I read I can hear the Mini's voice telling me how much coriander to use. How I must add Bassein vinegar for that authentic taste. How the masala should be ground fine. Who is this voice of authority you ask? She was ma in law's gem in the kitchen. Minnie Mai is the culinary enchantress, who turned out potato chops, burnt curry, rechaad fish, chili fry....I could go on and on with this litany of Goan goodness, for thirty years in Pam's Bombay kitchen.. She also makes authentic Chinese, mouthwatering sev poori and the best caramel custard. Let me not forget her legendary chapattis at breakfast. I give much deserved credit to my mother-in -law for teaching Minnie the art of homestyle Goan food. Now retired, she now spends her days cooking at leisure for her family.

With Mini's voice in my ear I gather provisions for ball curry. Some beef, cilantro, chilies, coconut and onions. All these within easy reach in my kitchen. Alas, I have no Bassein vinegar, having put my bottle to good use. I do have some malt vinegar, which I am told by Pam, will work adequately. There is something therapeutic for me, in making meat balls. I love the squish of meat between my fingers. The aroma that arises is intoxicating. When I grind fresh spices, I can hear Mini telling me to make sure the masala should be one smooth paste. That I should fry the balls gently in a little oil. That I should always taste the gravy before eating.

BALL CURRY

Serves 4

Green Masala

1 cup Cilantro

2-3 Green Chiles

1/2 cup grated fresh Coconut

1 tablespoon Coriander seeds

1 teaspoon Cumin seeds

1/2 teaspoon Poppy seeds

1" piece Cinammon

3 Cloves

1 large coin Ginger

4-5 Garlic cloves

1 pound ground Beef

1/2 cup fresh Breadcrumbs

1/2 teaspoon Kosher Salt

1/2 teaspoon Malt Vinegar

1 large Onion

4-5 Curry Leaves

3-4 tablespoons Canola oil

1/2 cup Water or more as needed

1/2 teaspoon Kosher Salt

Put green masala ingredients into blender and grind till smooth. Add water, a little at a time as needed. Scrape masala out of blender and rinse blender out with water. Save water to add to the gravy.

Divide masala in half.

Break up the beef into a bowl.

Add half portion of masala to beef.

Sprinkle breadcrumbs, salt and malt vinegar over beef.

Squish beef with your hands so everything is well mixed and it takes on a greenish patina.

Roll beef into smooth balls and keep aside.

Heat 1 tablespoon canola oil, preferably in a nonstick saucepan. 

Add balls to hot oil and cook till light brown and crusty. They do not have to cook all the way through. Drain onto paper and keep aside.

Peel and cut onion into small dice.

Heat 2-3 tablespoon of canola oil in a saucepan over medium heat.

Splutter curry leaves in hot oil.

Scatter onions over oil and sauté till translucent for a few minutes. They should not brown.

Add remaining half of masala into oil and sauté constantly for a few minutes. 

Slowly add water from the blender as well as the 1/2 cup portion to masala to make gravy. Salt and bring to boil.

Drop balls into bubbling gravy, cover and let balls cook for 7-8 minutes.

Remove lid, raise flame to high and let gravy cook down till thick.

Serve ball curry with rice or chapattis. 

 A recipe from the past is forever enshrined in my collection. To know that we eat what our grandparents did, is always a connection forged. Often Pam regales me with her mother in law's culinary stories. She has taught me well. With every bite we go back to that happy place. Voices from the past encourage me walk this path again and again. I do, with joy in my heart and my treasured recipe binder in hand.

Pau Bhaji

Today is going to be carb overload day. I have only myself to blame as I give in to temptation. Sunday lunch is a toss up between burgers and pau bhaji...and it is the latter that prevails by popular demand. To choose a veggie over meat does say a lot for male appetites!!! I'm not complaining, just commenting.

Of course my choice is Yukon Golds. But we are having steak and potatoes for dinner and I would rather eat buttery mashed potatoes with my rib eye.  As usual, I have a choice of potatoes stashed in the larder. I ponder over fingerlings and Red Bliss, ultimately choosing Russets. Actually, they make a much better pau bhaji than any of the others. It's just the way they melt into the bhaji, not quite holding their shape, adding much needed texture. You get a spreadable mash that goes on ever so smoothly on crusty bread. 

Pau bhaji, one of the many street foods of Bombay, reigns supreme at Sardars. This soupy plate of masala potatoes, cauliflower and peas comes swimming in butter, complemented with a generously buttered bun. It is sinfully rich, a plateful to be indulged in rarity...hey! I'm talking about myself. Mine is a much sanitized, less greasy but altogether delicious version.

PAU BHAJI

Serves 4

6 medium sized Russet Potatoes

1 large Onion

2 large Carrots

1 cup frozen Peas

3 tablespoons Canola Oil

3 tablespoons Pau Bhaji Masala ( Everest or Badshah brand )

1-2 teaspoons Kosher Salt

1/2 cup Water

Red Onion, cut in thin slivers

12 Slider Buns

1/2-3/4 cup Butter or Smart Balance butter.

Wash potatoes. Place in a large saucepan, cover with water and boil till done, about 15 minutes. 

Peel and chop into bite size chunks.

Boil carrots in water till done. Chop them into chunks.

Peel and cut onion into fine dice.

Heat oil in nonstick saucepan on a high flame. When hot, add onion and saute for a few minutes till translucent and pale.

Add potato and carrot chunks and saute.

Add peas, frozen or defrosted.

Sprinkle pau bhaji masala and salt and stir to mix.

Lower flame so potatoes do not scorch. 

Add water, mix well and cover with a lid. Let potatoes cook for 10 minutes to absorb masala.

Stir and smush them from time to time. The more you smush, the creamier the texture gets. You want a smooth, almost runny consistency. 

Start broiler. Set it to high.

Open slider buns so they lie flat. Place them on a sheet pan.

Butter generously.

Slide them under the hot broiler for 4-5 minutes. WATCH THEM CAREFULLY AT THIS POINT. Or else be prepared to eat singed, charred buns.

Drop a heaping spoonful of pau bhaji on one half of a bun. Top with sliced onion. Place another bun half over bhaji and chow down. Or put some bhaji on a plate and use the bread like you would a roti or chapatti. 

NOTES

Use any potato available to you. Russets and Burbanks make the perfect gooey mess. Yukons hold their shape too well, though I love their taste.

You could saute the buns stove top on a nonstick pan or tava. That takes forever and I am not prepared to eat my lunch when everyone finishes. Selfish me. So I broil the buns in one shot. Everyone gets to eat them hot, fresh and golden brown. Sometimes singed.

Buns emerge from the oven crusty, some singed, some golden brown. Pau bhaji is portioned out generously. Rehan separates bhaji and bread. Thats his thing. The rest of us obediently follow the recipe. There is not much conversation to be heard as we chomp away. There aren't too many vegetarian favorites in my house so I'm happy this lunch ends well. Then I begin the Yukon Gold mash for dinner..... Potato / potaato... All in all, a day of carb heaven.

Pedhas or Milk Balls

It must be Divali!! My daughter serenades me with the Diwali song! Every year she belts it out, cracking me up, but most of all enveloping me in a warm hug from miles away. Boy, her dulcet tones could give Steve Carrell a run for his money! If only my parents could've heard this irreverent holiday tune. The look on their faces would've been priceless. We have to settle with my sister Prassy, who doesnt quite know what to say!!!

The Festival of Lights in my house is usually a torrid affair with food and ritual. Small diyas or earthenware lamps are lit. The mango leaf toran goes up. Rangoli adorns the front steps. And my kitchen hums with fragrant vibes. Karanjis, besan ladoo and kheer usually fill three/four days of festivities. Prayers are always offered along with some sweet confection. I don traditional clothes as we celebrate the New Year. 

This year I try my hand at something new. Pedhas, or literally translated, balls or discs of milk. Powdered milk is thickened with milk and cream. The mixture sits overnight, is then rolled and flattened into discs. Pistachios are embedded in centers. I can honestly say I cannot remember whose recipe this is. Maybe Vini? Might've been Prassy. Well, if its yours, own up!! 

PEDHAS OR MILK BALLS

Makes 24

2 cups Milk Powder

1/2 cup Sugar

1/4 cup Butter

1/2 cup whole or 2% Milk

1/2 cup Cream

A large pinch of Cardamon powder

1 tablespoon Pistachios

Whisk sugar, butter, milk and cream in a saucepan and bring to boil. Stir often. Let the mixture bubble vigorously on a medium flame for 5-7 minutes. 

Lower flame and add milk powder and whisk well to incorporate.

Stir milk mixture for 5-10 minutes till the milk thickens. 

As it cools it will get very thick.

Cool, cover and refridgerate thickened milk for 7-8 hours or overnight.

Work fast with cooled dough. Gather a walnut sized ball. Roll between the palms of your hands till smooth. Flatten into a disc.

Embed a pistachio in each disc center and serve.

This year I haven't found my rangoli stencil, so I resort to the old fashioned way of yore, my fingers. The porch light is out. But the diyas are lit. The house is ablaze as I'm on fire in the kitchen. The steadfast camaraderie of old friends fills my house and warms my heart. We sit down to Kolhapuri chicken, fish kalvan, stuffed eggplants, patvad subji, potato katchori, masala karela, dal, chapattis and rice. The pedhas are the perfect bite-sized treat, along with shahi tukra and kaju katli. One person is absent. Miss you Bubs!

Wild Rice and Farro Salad Bowl

I love the notion of eating my lunch out of a bowl. Especially when I am by my lonesome self. What's better than a perfectly composed plate of greens. A work of art piled high. Well that's how this one looks as I have the time and pleasure to work on the aesthetics. it looks like something Asian. and that takes me to my chopsticks. I am one in my family who will unearth chopsticks when I make Asian food. The rest of them plop their noodles and meat on their plates, while I do the same in a bowl. And then I set to the task of lift and drop! Albeit I eat my meal slower but I relish every single morsel that I can successfully eat without dropping. It really is an learned process, finishing a meal with chopsticks!! I watch people in Asian restaurants surreptitiously as they do that elegant chopstick shuffle with small titbit's of fried fish, huge spring rolls and sometimes rotis or flat breads!!! I think it must be a genetic thing as I clumsily fish for a morsel.

My bowl fascination transverses many cuisines. Right now the craze for ramen runs rampant. Simplified, it is noodle soup in a wide bowl with veggies added in.  But my taste buds yearn for some thing chewy and healthy.  I boil some wild rice and farro. The last of the heirloom tomatoes beg to be used. A huge avocado that's been in the fridge for a while is sliced and diced. I made a quick dressing with soy sauce and Sriracha. I start layering with greens. I scatter spoonfuls of wild rice and farro over greens. The grains are topped with sliced tomatoes, red onion and avocado. A drizzle of dressing finishes the bowl. No chopsticks here. Only forks needed.

WILD RICE AND FARRO SALAD BOWL

Serves 2

1/2 cup Wild Rice

1/2 cup Farro

1 cup packaged prewashed Mesclun Lettuce

1 Haas Avocado

1 Tomato

2 tablespoons sliced Red Onion

4 tablespoons low sodium Soy sauce

2 big squirts Sriracha (1 tablespoon!) [less if you don't care for spice]

2 tablespoons Olive oil

Juice of 1/2 Lime

Put wild rice in a saucepan and add 3 cups water. Bring to boil and cook for 10 minutes. Drain rice and put back into saucepan. Cover with a lid and let rice sit for 10 minutes. Fluff and keep aside.

Put farro into another saucepan and add 1 cup water. Bring to boil. Cover and turn flame to low and cook for 8 minutes. Cool and keep aside.

Whisk soy sauce, olive oil, Sriracha and lime juice till thickened. 

Cut avocado and tomato into small chunks.

Assemble by placing half the lettuce in a bowl.

Top lettuce with half the wild rice. 

Scatter half the farro over wild rice.

Arrange half the avocado, tomato chunks and sliced onion on grains.

Drizzle half the dressing on the salad.

Repeat for the second bowl.

It's best eaten at room temperature!! With a fork!!

And it is with a fork that I enjoy this slightly chewy, a tad salty, a bit spicy and altogether wholesome salad with gusto! Buttery avocado and chunks of heirlooms give me such pleasing textures. I am delighted with my healthy concoction. Methinks this salad makes my belly 'ingrained' to the good stuff!

Potato and Corn Soup

As the temperature dips, out come my ladles. It's soup time. This season of cold days invokes a steady stream of hearty soups. Lunches seems more satisfying. The 'soup n salad' mantra works better as the former fills me up and the latter takes me over the edge. I would like to think I gravitate towards thick hearty soups. Something about resting your spoon on it rather than in it. Then again, I love a French onion soup with its thick bread and cheese crust. I love the spicy tum yums of Thailand. It's a worldwide gravitational pull!!

Today's soup is from South America. A wonderful amalgam of potatoes, yams, corn and cilantro. Yes! Cilantro, which imparts an unusual flavor, is the only herb I add. As the potatoes and yams cook, they thicken and flavor the broth. Corn takes but a few minutes. And the milk adds a touch of creaminess without all the calories. Best of all are the silky cubes of avocado. Avocado lends a buttery end note to this herb and vegetable soup.

POTATO and CORN  SOUP

MAKES 4 bowlfuls
GF, WF, EF

2 Russet Potatoes

2 medium sized Yams

1 cup Corn, fresh or frozen

I Onion

2 cloves Garlic

3 tablespoons Cilantro +1 tablespoon for garnish 

1 tablespoon Olive oil

4 cups Chicken stock

1/2 teaspoon Kosher Salt

1/4 teaspoon ground Black Pepper

1/2 cup 2% Milk

1 Avocado 

Wash and peel potatoes and yams. Cut into small 3/4 inch cubes.

Cut onion into small dice.

Peel garlic and slice into thin slivers.

Chop cilantro finely.

Heat oil in a deep saucepan.

Add onion and garlic to hot oil and sweat for 3-4 minutes.

Add potato and yam cubes, cilantro, chicken stock, salt and pepper and bring to a boil.

Lower flame to medium and cook uncovered for 15 minutes or till starches are almost done.

Add corn and continue cooking for another 5 minutes.

Pour in the milk and stir to mix.

Using a potato masher, crush potatoes and yams to thicken the soup. Leave some starches intact for toothsome texture.

Cook soup down for another 5 minutes.

Just before serving soup, dice avocado into small pieces.

Ladle soup into bowls.

Top with avocado and cilantro.

NOTES

I like Russets because they melt and thicken the soup as they cook. In this recipe I used small Red Bliss potatoes which I left unpeeled. Peeled...unpeeled.. Your choice.

Cilantro gives the soup it's distinctive flavor. Parsley could be an adequate substitute if you are averse to cilantro.

To me soup is the balm that soothes the soul. More so in winter than any other season. I sit before a steaming bowl of goodness. The aroma of freshly cut cilantro fills the kitchen. My bowl is chock full with bits of potato, yam, corn, cilantro, flecks of cilantro and avocado. Green, orange, white, beige, yellow.....this color palette is happiness in a bowl.