Dinner in a jiffy

After all the convenience foods bashing, I am all set to write how I put them to use yesterday. I reach home by 8:45 - 9 and to cook dinner after that is a challenge and convenience foods help me live up to the challenge. I prepared a exotic (I tried it for the first time hence 'exotic' ;)) vegetable. Mixed vegetables and paneer in coconut milk. Although I do not particularly like coconut, I give my thumbs up to coconut milk, obviously store bought, conveniently packed. So I got some pre-cut, packed mixed vegetables from food world, frozen peas, aashirwad multi-purpose cooking paste and the coconut milk. Also paneer, which I believe is no longer considered a convenience. I haven’t come across people who make paneer at home. I took some oil, put whole garam masalas like pepper corns, dalchini, bay leaf, cloves, elichi and let it sizzle for a minute. Add haldi and about a cup of mixed vegetables. Cover and cook till almost done. Stir the vegetables once in a while particularly if not using a non stick pan. Add salt, peas, paneer. Then about one and half teaspoon of cooking paste. Stir and add the contents of a small packet of coconut milk. Let it come to a boil and switch off immediately. And your dinner is ready in a jiffy.

Notice the absence of any spice powders like dhania powder, garam masala. The sizzling of whole garam masals in oil lends the flavour to this dish and so does coconut milk. Mild,creamy flavours is how I would describe this dish. Paneer makes this dish more creamier.

One more tip I would like to share regarding pav bhaji. Add little bit of beet root to the bhaji to get a wonderful color to the bhaji.

Oh for a breath of fresh air !

I am back after a long gap. Was not keeping too well in terms of health. Now I am fine or so I hope. Doc said the problems are due to stress. I would have been quite surprised to hear that but my mother (also a doc) had predicted the same cause. Stress has become such a common word in fact I should have been surprised to know I don’t experience stress. Looks like all people living in cities/metros are stressed. But still people want to live in metros. To live a 'high' life. To enjoy malls, super markets, convenience goods, frozen food, just a minute meal. But do we get any free time in spite of having all the tools meant for saving time at our disposal? What are we saving time for? So that we can work more, earn more and buy more time saving goods. Wow...what a vicious cycle. Of all the weekend options representing 'high life' (multiplexes, shopping malls, food courts and so on), my favorite weekend activity is going for long walks near the garden, better still riding far away from the maddening city towards nature. Simple joys, simple lives, simple meals, all of these are still the best sources of happiness. Do we need to live in cities for these things? I wonder why is a simple life of growing your own food and living in clean air, not considered a good option. It sounds like the best way to live, to me, but obviously doesn’t seem so, to a lot of other people.
Human mind is not the one to get satisfied easily...so says my husband. It wants to do more, discover more, invent more or just wants more...more power, more recognition which most often translates to more money. I guess humans were not satisfied just knowing how to grow/hunt food and eat it. They tried to find out ways to do things better and so the quest to satisfy the human brain with its endless power went on and on. Every five years there comes a new way to live and we wonder how we ever managed to live without this gadget.
But in the midst of all the brain power and innovation it brings, are we pushing ourselves as well as Mother Nature into danger? New diseases are cropping up trying to threaten mankind. But the human brain is trying to beat the viruses and bacteria in their quest for human suffering and I would like to think humans are succeeding. I hope we find a way to beat stress and pollution who are also on a quest for human suffering.
Global warming - the newest talk of the town, immediately comes to mind when I think of Mother Nature being harmed. I am sure we humans have the power to overcome it if only we put our brain power to use in order to regain what we have lost.
How I wish to smell clean air, the unpolluted smell of nature. Will this become a reality some day?

Weekend blogging, pizza sauce and pancakes

Another weekend gone by and comes Monday and with it, the wait for Saturday. But this weekend was different with many tasks being done. The most important was getting Netlon fixed. Well, measurements of the windows and exhaust fans are taken and tomorrow we will have a lizard proof house. Or so I hope. On Saturday, the inverter guy also came to install the inverter. The whole day went by just like that with people coming all the time to do some or the other work.
In the mean time I managed to prepare pizza for lunch. I had the pizza base ready, prepared the pizza sauce and used baked beans, capsicum, onion and mozzarella cheese for the topping. I got ready made breakfast that day with Anurag preparing bread-omelets and tea. Couldn't have had a better start to the day. Got out of bed and voila! Breakfast is ready, courtesy hubby dearest. We also managed to watch a movie on DVD in the afternoon with a few breaks in between. In the evening I was too full to eat anything. We went for a long walk and after that I had ice-cream while Anurag had bhelpuri and sev puri.
On Sunday morning, I made an English breakfast of pancakes topped with honey/jam. My first attempt at it and it was really tasty. Might become our Sunday special breakfast. Watched some TV and had a leisurely bath. For lunch, I made chole, rice and pudina flavored curd. Slept in the afternoon, watched 'Pirates of the Caribbean' in the evening, had dinner and again a long walk.
On Friday night, I had prepared lauki-beetroot halva. Came out pretty well.
A satisfying weekend. Though it did not come without its share of ‘Sunday evening blues’. I think what was great about the weekend was that I and Anurag got to talk. Hey, I don’t mean we don’t talk but to have spare time and to talk about things in general is a luxury. Otherwise everyday talk is limited to ‘wake up’, ‘what’s for breakfast’, ‘don’t forget to take your mobile to work’, or any thing which needs to be discussed. During and after the long walk on Saturday, we talked about our childhood, about the people in our lives....I came to know about problems people have in their lives. Someone has a mentally-retarded grownup child, someone’s mother-in-law doesn’t like her and is giving her a tough time, someone’s wife has gone mad even after giving birth to four children leaving the children deprived of mother’s love. Also of illnesses and how the illnesses were taken care of with pure love. Might not have saved a dying person but sure must have made them feel better. It was like an eye-opener for me. I always felt I have a blessed life. I had never seen people suffering. Almost felt like Prince Siddhartha (Buddha) who was unaware of things outside his palace. Well, I definitely knew poverty, suffering, misery existed but never knew anyone who has suffered. Really scares me as to how would I ever deal with anything but a rosy life.

Now to get into my recipe guru ‘avtaar’. How to make pizza sauce and pancakes? Fret not , recipe guru to your rescue :) Here’s how I made them.
I have come up with a pizza sauce recipe which I really like and it never fails me. Here it is :
In a pan, heat some oil, add 5-6 peppercorns, 3 cloves, a bayleaf, half an inch dalchini stick, 1 medium onion chopped, 6 cloves of garlic, sauté till onions are transparent, add 3 medium tomatoes chopped. Add salt, sugar, chilli flakes. Cover and cook till tomatoes are done. Now blend it with a hand blender. I removed the bayleaf before that as I was not sure whether it would mix. Use it for pizza, sandwich. I even used it for making gravy for vegetable.
Do try the pancakes if you like egg. It has a unique texture and tastes yummy. I used 2 eggs beaten with 4 teaspoons of sugar. Added about 4 tablespoons of flour, pinch of salt, vanilla essence, about a tablespoon of milk and beat some more till completely blended. Then heat a pan. Spread a little bit of ghee on it and pour a bit of the batter. Pancakes are generally thick unlike dosas. Cover and cook till done on one side on slow flame. Turn and cook the other side. My pancakes didn’t need any prodding to separate from the pan. They came out on their own. That's one way of knowing whether its done. Once out of the pan, spread some honey or jam on it, fold and serve hot. Perfect to start a weekend.

Experiments in Cooking and Me - II

Another cooking experiment born out of boredom of eating cabbage the same old way. Anurag loves cabbage so I make it often though not as often as he would like :)
It is specially made after he is made a scapegoat for many of my experiments and I have to make up for it. I do not have any aversion to cabbage but making it the same old way with potatoes every time makes me run away from it.
Yesterday was one such day meant to make cabbage. Since I am back from my vacation, I hadn’t prepared a proper home cooked meal. So this was the way to start on a right note or was it?
I wanted some kick in my cabbage not the plain old cabbage with only few masalas for flavor. I had on impulse picked up some pudina, a raw mango on my vegetable shopping spree. Yes...I am going to add these to the cabbage.
It had to be completely different. I had started out with the idea of adding capsicum and peas instead of potato but what resulted finally was better cabbage sabzi than I had ever made before. At least that is what I thought.
I had left office early yesterday so I had time to cut the cabbage into neat thin strips. I don’t like using food processor for cabbage as it makes it too tiny. Do you too face the same problem?
Ok, so I cut about one small cabbage, I cut a capsicum into small pieces. I grated one medium carrot. I cut the raw mango into very small pieces. I could have grated it but I like cutting more than grating :)
I heated oil in a wok. Added jeera, ajwain, til, saunf to it. All on the spur of the moment. Some haldi, chilli powder goes in. Then the cabbage, capsicum and carrot. Sauté on high heat for about a minute and cover.
Now add little bit of cut raw mango. About 7-8 chopped pudina leaves, salt, sugar, dhaniya powder. Cover till done. A beautiful aroma fills the kitchen. Anurag arrives from office and asks "Pudina ki sabzi hai kya" :)
It looks as beautiful as it smells. Carrot adds nice color to it and cutting veggies neatly does make a difference in the beauty of the final dish.
The saunf added a good flavor. I could have left ajwain out I believe, maybe next time. I couldn't figure any difference in taste due to sesame seeds. Maybe it was too less to lend itself to the dish.
But overall, I really liked the taste. Slightly tangy with a hint of saunf. Best part is it cooks quickly. Only the preparation takes time.
Another good experiment. But I think I liked it more than Anurag did.

My vacation and a Survery

I am writing a post after a long time. I had gone home for a week. I had a great time and ate all the good food and relaxed a lot. I hope life could always be like that...eat, sleep and make merry. I know it cannot be and it is fine because I don’t have any major regrets about the way life is right now.
On the flight home, an old man was sitting next to me. He had a bag full of papers. He was going through the papers and discarding some of them and putting some of them back...hopefully arranging it. He finished doing it about 15 mins before landing. But he was the most restless person I had seen, He couldn’t sit still for even the few minutes. He opened the tray table and started looking at the papers again and then writing something. The air hostess had to ask him to put up the table and sit straight. He looked really sad about sitting without doing anything. He must have been glad to get off the aircraft.
I also had a nice time shopping there in Gujarat. It was a great experience compared to the shopping experience here in Bangalore. You can bargain, you can choose from a huge variety. The shopkeepers there are really interested in selling their stuff and they try to make a personal connection and help you decide among a mountain of clothes. That's what makes shopping fun.The biggest problem with buying clothes in Bangalore is that in sometime everyone around you will be wearing similar dresses.

There is one more purpose to this post as the title suggests - a survey :) If you have read the blog, you have a fair idea on what I feel about babies. I want to know from you - married, or unmarried, with children or without children, men or women, boys or girls :)
Do you want to have babies? Why?
Please leave your comments with your views on why would you want to be a parent/why would you not want to be a parent.
I just want to know the thoughts in general. Because I am not able to figure out reasons for having children. I really feel people with children are not able to live the way they would like to. Also, there is already enough stress in our lives, why add the stress of raising children. I know most of you would not agree, that is why I want to know why you think I am wrong. And those of you who agree with me, please leave those comments also. I would be glad to know we share similar views.

Dreaming Big?!!

Yesterday I was watching KBC while waiting for my husband to return from office. I am not a regular viewer of the show. But, yesterday, I missed my swimming classes. I am planning to miss it today too. Well, I have a reason which I am stretching to bunk 2 days of swimming. I haven’t learnt much of swimming yet. But day before yesterday, after finishing my swimming class, I felt feverish with huge amount of body pain and for the first time, I was not able to point out which part of my body was giving me the most pain. ;) Also, by the time I reached home, I was shivering and had to take 3 blankets in the summer month. But now I am as healthy as I can get with 2 tablets down my throat.
Coming back to KBC, a young guy was a contestant and he said 2 crores are not enough to fulfill his dream which was to topple the government of Swaziland and be the king of the land. What a dream! May I say...weird dream! It got me thinking that only young people can dream of becoming kings/queens. I haven't come across an older person with such dreams. They have more realistic dreams like owning a flat/bungalow or a small/big car depending on the state and 'thinking big' capacity of the person. Again, people get 'older'(mature is a better word I guess) once they start earning their own money or at least after the initial high of earning money gives way to 'I need more than this' race.
Weird dreams are replaced by realistic dreams, adventure is replaced by boring routine, and enthusiasm for life is replaced by the race for all things material.
I can't imagine myself wanting to be a queen. I would say, let me own a small apartment first. But then, who wants a small apartment? How about a duplex flat, a penthouse, a bungalow with at least 2 cars parked in its compound? Better not go so far. So, I guess I am left with no dreams.
One of my friend says (He has taken it from a book) "Dream, and the whole universe conspires to help you realize your dream". But if you are one of those lazy kinds (like me), the universe might not help you!
By the way, heard of Swaziland before? I hadn’t. It is an African country. Coming to it, maybe the contestant could have dreamt bigger and wanted to be king of Switzerland instead. ;)

Never try Gujarati thali in Bangalore

Yesterday I went to ‘Zaika’ restaurant in Raheja Arcade in Koramangala in hope of eating Gujarati thali. There was a mention of this restaurant and that it serves Gujarati thali, in Bangalore Times on Friday.
And as you know, I have been praising Gujarati food; I thought we can try it out. But now, after eating it, I can understand why people wouldn't like Gujarati thali.
It was bad. They tried but the result was far from the real Gujarati food. Yes, they made it sweet. People should understand that sugar is an ingredient in Gujarati food, but it is not the only ingredient. There has to be a good proportion of spicy taste in it and sweet is just to offset the spices. Anyway, what made it worse was the price. Priced at 125 per thali, and limited food, it made matters worse. The katoris in which they provided the vegetables were so small, they could be meant for infants. Me being used to the unlimited Gujarati thali with lots of dishes, it was a major disappointment.
I guess everybody read the Friday article and came to eat the thali. So there was a waiting time of 20 mins outside the restaurant. Then once we were seated at the table,
10 mins later a waiter comes to clean it and put fresh table mats (paper ones) and get us glasses of water. After another long wait come something which could pass of as cold milk and some papads which we thought came to our table instead of the neighboring table. But the papads were good. Another long long wait for the thali and when it came, it was like a needle to prick my excitement. They tried to make undhiyo which was ok.
They tried the potato curry (gujju style). Major disappointment. Didn't finish even the infant size portion of it. Then there was kadhi which was the only thing which was close to the real taste. Also a piece of khaman/dhokla with sweet chutney (sweet being the key word :) ) They give 3 chapattis and a bowl of jeera rice. It is quite enough to fill your stomach but does not leave you satisfied.
The owners have an idea but they haven't planned the execution well (in fact not at all planned). Nothing compared to the execution style of neighboring ‘Gramin’ restaurant. It does leave you impressed and satisfied even if you have to wait for your turn at the table.
Let me leave Gramin to another blog. All in all, go there if you are really craving Gujarati thali and have no other option. Never go there if you want to see what a Gujarati thali is...