Whole Wheat Bread - II

Just realized this note did not get posted since i had typed "<" for less than and it had failed saying invalid html.

This is a continuation of Whole wheat bread - I

I wanted to bake only 1 loaf of bread for starters. I reduced the quantities of the ingredients to nearly half of what was on the video.

2 tsp instant yeast

1 inch square butter, melt and allow to cool

4 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup luke warm water

less than 1/2 cup milk

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1 towel

bread knife

wooden board

bread pan or aluminium container

2 bowls , 1 small and 1 large, [large to the extent that when u put the flour in, it should be half the bowl. A larger bowl than this will let the dough lose its moisture quickly and the dough might not rise properly. I did this mistake of leaving the dough in an extra large container.]

Coming back to the procedure, as mentioned earlier, i do not have a table top mixer, but aren't we all Indian women champs in making the chapati/roti dough by hand ?

First step, to activate the yeast, i pretty much followed from the the video. In the smaller bowl put the 2 tsp of yeast and add the about 50 ml lukewarm water and stir well with a spoon/spatula for about 5 mins until and a little after you get the fermenting yeast smell. Leave this undisturbed for about 10 minutes. Add the milk and butter and stir well for 5 minutes.

In the larger bowl, take the 4 cups of flour and add salt and sugar. You may want to go happily sit down on the floor and let the hands do some hard work, if not do it your own way. Pour in the yeast+milk+butter mixture. Start playing with the dough, knead it well. People with tendinitis watch out, you do not want to strain your wrists or other arm joints. Add water occasionally, you may want to keep doing this for at least 20 minutes of it is by hand and get it to a consistency where the dough is really really soft and does not stick to the sides of the container and even to your palm. An easier way is to make a ball out of the dough and keep throwing it into the vessel with forcefully. It is a great stress buster if you are thinking of someone you wish to smack ;-). Again check if the dough is exactly half the level of the bowl, if not you may want to move to such a container. Wet a kitchen towel and cover the bowl slightly touching the dough. You are on your own for the next 2 hours for this has to remain undisturbed for the yeast to act and let it rise.

When you are back, the dough should have risen, if not double the amount, at least 1/4th above the original height :-). This was what had happened to me, as mentioned earlier i made the mistake of leaving it in a larger bowl. The dampness of the cloth never reached the dough and it lost its own moisture too. Never mind, get the dough out and knead it on a wooden cutting board. I used my wooden chapathi rolling board for this purpose. Sprinkle some flour on the board in order that the dough doesn't stick.

If you have a bread pan, shape your dough into a similar shape and decorate it with a plait/braid. Refer to the videos in the earlier post for this. I didn't have a bread pan either, so used an aluminium container. Grease the container with a little butter before putting in the dough. Leave the dough again undisturbed for 2 more hours. Cover it with a damp cloth. This is when i achieved maximum rise. Since i had kept in an aluminium container, the corners weren't thick enough and it kind of lost its shape. Never mind, i still managed to bake it.

Set the oven to 175C. Leave the dough in for about 40 minutes. Check after 30 minutes, color matters, you do not want it to become dark brown already. I had to give it an extra 5 minutes, since my dough was still rising when i placed it in the oven. So it took a total 45 minutes for me. Bring it out and allow it to cool. Once cooled, cut it into loaves and enjoy. Else, giving a day to this wheat bread actually helped. The insides had become really soft due to the presence of butter and milk. I didn't use the toaster since it was too fragile, hence used the tava/non-stick pan to heat it, applied butter on either side and it was yumm! Total satisfaction guaranteed!

Whole Wheat Bread - I

Since the time i landed in this holy land i have been wanting to learn to make all varieties of bread that these folks make. The breads are amazing, best of all i have had in my life ! But very very rarely do people make breads at home these days. The ones who make, follow a long procedure of dealing with the flour and dough for over 24 hours. I usually do not prefer these overnight waiting preparations - simply because i forget to soak or refrigerate or should i say i lack patience to wait for that long. I feel like when i start a dish it should just be done in a few hours before i hit the sack. Pita breads were easy so i make them quite often. But my wish of baking a whole loaf of wheat bread remained unsatisfied.

I started googling, there were too many options :-). Spent a good amount of time in browsing through the Expert Village videos on YouTube. The irritating part was the videos had enough information but they were not numbered in chronological order. They were just randomly available. So i had to spend a considerable amount of time in putting them in order before i watched from the beginning - ingredients part to the end - slicing part.

Though the videos are informative, even more annoying part of the videos are that fellow, Brandon Sarkis introducing himself at the beginning of each of those not too long but extremely short clips (3 minutes maximum). But my aim was to make that whole wheat bread happen, so i tried maximum to ignore those introductions.

Here's the actual order of the videos by Expert village on how to make whole wheat bread at home :

Equipments - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bylG2Ro9BRE&NR=1

Ingredients - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Md754oPwblQ&feature=related

Activating yeast - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Md754oPwblQ&feature=related

Adding Flour - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CokGSkEjDUo&feature=channel

Knead Dough - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXO4hpH8IFQ&NR=1

Grease bowl - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMTLbVyVUps&NR=1

Dough rising - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jz1uIo4dBmU&NR=1

work with dough - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cs3grZEyZac&feature=channel

Split the loaf - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoZHy-VsMJA&NR=1

shape the loaf - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RIUHVFvabQ&feature=related

braid the bread - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_AM_GRIaXk&feature=related

Baking - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZ9gBFT_X6g&NR=1

Cool the bread - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIU2exNa-_4&feature=related

Slice - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyjWP21L934&feature=channel

I do not have a table top mixer, so altered the steps here and there to my convenience. My next post has the detailed method on how i made my whole wheat bread.

My braided beauty awaits...

Fresh home made whole wheat bread is happening...

Thats my son's neglected white board i tried to put to use in the kitchen.

To all those Tomato lovers (II)...

The tomato thokku or the pickle is the easiest pickle that could be made at home. As far as i have read and heard, no two women use the same mode of preparation of this thokku. I learnt this from my mom. I altered a few steps here and there to my convenience. My sister does it altogether differently with chat masala and more. My cousin, a die hard Hyderabadi does it by sun drying the tomatoes for a week.

After i extracted the puree yesterday, they got converted into this irresistible thokku. A great spread on quick spice sandwiches or for roti/puri/pita with raita, side dish for kichdies and obviously tastes best with the world's best satvik food - thayir sadam aka the curd rice.

Ingredients to make 400gm of thokku,

20 large tomatoes

20 small dry red chillies/ 15 if long

5 tsp fenugreek seeds powder

3 tsp mustard seeds

5 tsp salt

1 tsp turmeric powder

2 tsp cumin powder

2 tsp coriander powder

2-3 pinches asafoetida

5 cloves garlic finely chopped (optional)

1 in ginger finely chopped (optional)

10 tsp cooking oil

Wash and clean the tomatoes in running water. Extract the tomato puree like this. Or alternatively, this is what my mom does - boil a pot of water, turn off flame and leave the tomatoes in the hot water for 10 mins. Remove them from water and peel their skin off. Now grind the skinless tomatoes into a fine paste. Few folks do not bother about the skin and would quickly grind tomatoes in to a paste soon after they wash it. Few skip the grinding part and would toss the tomatoes just by slicing them into 4-5 pieces each. Like i said earlier, no two women seem to follow the same method :-).

Heat 5 tsp of oil in a wok. Add the mustard seeds, let it splutter. Add the dry fenugreek seeds powder and toss them for a couple of seconds. Add the asafoetida and the dry red chillies and toss until the chillies turn from red to shiny brown. Now pour in the tomato puree and allow it to boil. This is a messy fluid that would paint your kitchen red. So bring the heat/flame to low to avoid that extra work of extra rubbing/cleaning of the counters. The puree from 20 tomatoes nearly took 2 hours on low flame to get reduced to the desired consistency i.e 1/4th of its original quantity. Occasionally keep stirring the mix. In between you could get a whole lot of chores done from laundry to clothes pressing to other dinner preparations or even a quick 30 min aerobics work out. Somewhere when it thickness to 1/2 the original quantity, add the salt and all the spice powder and 2 tsp of oil and stir.

When it comes closer to 1/4th, stay close, add the remaining oil and stir frequently. By now the color would have become closer to maroon and the consistency is more or less a thick shiny paste. Serve hot/warm if your meal is ready. Or allow to cool and store/refrigerate in glass or porcelain or plastic container avoid using stainless steel for pickles or for any dish that has high chilly+salt quotient.

Optional : At the end, fry the finely chopped garlic and ginger pieces to golden brown in oil and add to the thick paste/thokku and mix well.

To all those Tomato lovers (I)...

Do you see a grater there ? Oh, yes you do!

This is a great way of making tomato puree without the help of a blender. I learnt this from Vardit while i was teaching her some Indian recipes. This comes in very handy even for the simple south Indian rasam especially when you have a little imp at home who picks and complains, "amma, tholu (skin)". Clean the tomatoes, cut each of them into 2 halves, place the flesh side of the tomato on the grater and grate till you see the thin skin and all the pulp is gone underneath.

We could do the same for most dishes like dhal makhani, lentil soup, rasam, masal that we make for puri, chutney, thokku, pickles - the list is endless even when the tomatoes are skinless.

Stuffed Vine/Grape Leaves

Stuffed Vine Leaves or the Dolma is a total Mediterranean dish famous from Greece to Turkey to Israel. This is actually quite simple to make and has no standard recipe - at least that is what I figured out after asking many a women here and browsing through recipes on the net. This dish is mostly done with meat, without it a great veggie dish.

Main ingredients would be vine leaves, rice, lemon and some mint, rest is all extra and the more you add the more flavor you get.

Ingredients that I made use of,

1 cup rice

20 vine leaves soaked in salt water/ Fresh leave can also be made use of but they have to be boiled well before using.

2 lemons

2 onions, cut into tiny pieces

1 cup peas

1 cup corn

2 carrots - grated

3 cloves garlic, cut into tiny pieces

2 green chillies

some mint leaves

salt to taste

4 tsp olive oil

1. Allow the cup of rice to cook well.

2. Soak the vine leaves in hot water for 15-20 mins in order to get rid of the salt.

3. In a wok, heat olive oil and saute the onions & garlic until golden brown. This preparation was unplanned so i didn't think about any other vegetable and ended up using some frozen peas and frozen corn and added the grated carrots. When they are cooked, add salt and squeeze a full lemon's juice onto the vegetables.

4. Check if the rice is cooked, if so, add the rice on top of the vegetables and mix well. This forms the filling. This is a great vegetable pulav or a veggie lemon rice (whatever you want to name it) for the little ones since there is no chilli factor in it. Especially for the kids who love the tangy lemon taste, this is a great meal.

5. Pull out the vine leaves from the water, just dry them for a couple of seconds in order that the water drips off and spread them out on a sheet or a plate.

6. Take a spoon full of the mixed rice and place it in the middle of the leaf. Cover it from the bottom and the 2 sides and start rolling it upwards till the tip of the leaf. Watch this video for an alternate preparation with meat and on how to roll the leaves too.

7. When all the leaves are stuffed, place then a sauce pan and cover the leaves with a plate that goes into the vessel. This is done to prevent the leaves from expanding/get unrolled when they get cooked. Fill the sauce pan with water until above the plate.

8. Cut a lemon into 4 pieces and the chillies into 2 halves each and some mint leaves -> drop them into the sauce pan. Add a tsp of salt too.

9. Place a lid on the sauce pan and allow it to cook for 15 mins.

10. Open up and serve hot or cool and store with the syrup in the refrigerator and use as a snack on a later day.

Folks who possess idli plates can skip steps 7 through 9 and can steam cook the stuffed leaves for 30-40 minutes. Make the syrup separately and soak the cooked leaves in the syrup for 30 minutes.

Tangy Tomato Dosa

In a land where there is no Urad dhal, this dosa comes in handy. Not that we are surviving without urad dhal at all. We managed to bring a kilo or 2 during our last home trip and i'm just being a little thrifty in using since we have couple of months to go before we return. I found this recipe on a friend's blog and altered it a little.

The below quantity of ingredients make 15 dosas of 6 inch diameter each.

1 & 1/2 cup rice

1/4 cup urad dhal

1/4 cup red lentils

2 tsp fenugreek seeds

Wash them well and soak them separately for 2-3 hours.

1 long green chilli

1 inch tamarind or 1 tsp of tamarind juice

2 tsp salt

2 small tomatoes

Grind the above with the well soaked rice and lentils and fenugreek to the usual batter consistency.

One would easily mistake the batter to thick strawberry milk shake;). Heat a pan, pour the batter one ladle at a time - use butter or ghee or oil of your choice around the dosa. Best had with chutney or sambhar, but we had an appetite for milagai podi and the little one enjoyed his tangy tomato dosa by dipping it in yogurt.

Minty minty spaghetti

Yes, I'm obsessed with mint.

Little A wanted spaghetti for dinner last night. So while he assisted me in cooking the spaghetti, I worked on making the sauce. His way of assisting me is to count the spaghetti sticks and drop them into the boiling water in the saucepan at his own pace.

Cook the spaghetti noodles al dente.

1 cup fresh mint leaves

1 green chilli

salt to taste ( i added 2 tsp for the given quantity)

1 garlic clove

1/4 cup of water

Grind the above and keep aside.

(portions for 300 gm noodles, good enough for 3 people)

1 big onion

1 big tomato

1/2 red pepper

1/2 green pepper

1/2 yellow pepper

Chop the above vegetables into not so tiny - not too big pieces. Heat 2 tsp of olive oil and toss all the vegetables together. Keep stirring on low flame. Remember not to give too much heat else the tomatoes get soggy with their juice. The vegetables should just taste lightly grilled. In the meantime, heat pan or wok with 3 tsp of olive oil, add the cooked spaghetti noodles and mix well until all the oil is taken by noodles. Add the grilled vegetables and pour the mint paste. Mix well, serve hot and enjoy the minty minty spaghetti.

Poppy seed filling for Oznei Haman

Ingredients to make the poppy seed filling for the Oznei Haman or Hamantashchen -

1 cup poppy seeds
1 cup milk
1/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp. butter

less than 1/4 cup raisins

1/4 cup bread crumbs

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Dry saute the poppy seeds a little and powder them. In a sauce pan, add all the above ingredients and keep stirring them occasionally until you get a thick paste that does not stick to the sides of the pan. Allow to cool and start filling.

Broccoli Paruppu Usuli

Banana flower paruppu usuli is said to be the mother of all paruppu usuli. This lentil paste side dish has become a mandatory item in the menu of most weddings these days. My mom used to make paruppu usili during our summer breaks or when ever we had our relatives come over - long list from paati to cousins and we had a crowd of about 10+ at home. My grandma used to say that earlier days, they used to buy vegetables just enough for the family, when unexpected guests arrive in order to bring the vegetable/curry to required extra quantity during lunch they used to make paruppu usuli. Paruppu usulies are traditionally done with any vegetable from the beans family like green beans, avarakkai (broad), kotha varangai (cluster) etc. They are everyone's favorite as far as i know, i have never heard someone disliking it. Kids love it too, especially little A loves it too for the reason that it tastes like Vada.

Broccoli has been a vegetable that i mostly use in our stir fried salads or mushroom-broccoli salad. I have never made or cooked (should i say) an indian curry or side dish out of it. When AA's aunt and family visited us last month, we made a little snack with broccoli. Just microwave the shoots for 5 minutes and dip it a little in olive oil and simultaneously in (idli) milagai podi. Its a nice crunchy-karam desi appetizer for all. When the talk was about broccoli, AA's aunt happened to mention that she makes paruppu usuli with them. I had been wanting to try it since we all love brocolli and we all love paruppu usuli too.

To make the lentil mix (usuli) we need,

1/2 cup of channa dhal

1/2 cup of toor dhal or Masoor dhal (red lentil)

Soak them both separately for 30 minutes.

Drain well and grind them both by adding,

4 red chillies

some curry leaves

pinch of turmeric powder

pinch of asafoetida (hing)

salt to taste

Add very little water only if required, the paste should be thick just the way we grind for paruppu vada. Once the paste is ready, steam cook it for 10-15 minutes just the way we steam cook idli. It should cook till the time when you put in a tooth prick it should come out clean. Once done, allow it to cool.

Cut the Broccoli into tiny shoots and wash them well. Microwave them for not more than 10 mins or just steam them over boiling water for 10 minutes. We do not have to essentially cook them soft. The broccoli shoots should stay a little hard and crunchy.

When the lentil paste and shoots are ready, heat a wok or tava. Add,

2 tsp oil

Saute some mustard seeds, urad dhal and pinch of hing for tadka

3 red chillies

curry leaves

Stir fry briefly and add the broccoli shoots and crumble the lentil paste over it. Mix them well and leave the wok closed with a lid on low flame for a couple of minutes so the crumbs and broccoli blend well. Voila, broccoli paruppu usuli is ready to be had with rasam rice or the world famous satvik food - yummy bagala bath/curd rice/dadhyonnam. I fry it for a little bit longer since we love eating it as a starter or appetizer :-).

Oznei Haman

Oznei Haman (meaning Haman's ears) or Haman Taschen are the triangular shaped Purim delicacy of Israel. Purim is celebrated on a full moon day according to the lunar calendar followed by the Jews. It occurs any time between mid Feb to mid March. Surprisingly it coincides with Masi Magam of Tamil Calendar and Holi. Anyways, Purim marks the celebration of the victory over the enemy, Haman. Its a kid's affair like the Halloween in the US.

Thanks to Ora who gave me the method of preparation.

We require,

2 eggs

2 cups all purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 & 1/2 cup of sugar

a pinch of salt

vanilla or rose essence

2 spoons baking powder

any filling - chocolate/dates spread/poppy seeds/marmalade/strawberry jam. I used chocolate in some and dates spread in a few. Traditionally it is made with poppy seed filling.

Preheat the oven to 180 degress.

Beat the eggs. Pour in the sugar, baking powder, the essence, pinch of salt and mix well. Add the flour and mix well. Spread the dough out and use a cookie cutter to make small circles or alternately just use your palm (grease your palm with olive oil or melted butter for it may stick) to spread out a lemon sized dough. Fill a small amount of chocolate and fold it in the form of a triangle.

That's it, make as many as you can. With the above quantity of ingredients I made 25 of the sizes in the picture. Place them on a cookie sheet or aluminium foil and bake for not more than 10 minutes.

Best had with a cup of chai :-)

You've got (other's) email

We all know Gmail is buggy. But, does the Gmail team say its a feature ? Are we not glad about the fact that they have accepted it and even provided us with the required justification - http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=10313#

Well, am talking about this one bug of first.last@ being treated as firstlast@. Since the time we have owned a gmail id, we have been many a times equally annoyed and entertained by messages. To some i politely reply back saying that its not 'me' who they are looking for. There are few sensible brains out there who immediately apologize and carry on with their conversation with the right person,thankfully, not including me there after. But, there are the rest - who in spite of all the gentle reminders keep annoying us.

Resume - These are the most common ones. Does it make me happy that there are many a HR personnels and recruiters by my name ? No, thank you not one bit. Because these folks sending out their resumes - the biggest blunder from their side - they do not make a proper note of the email-id of the person they speak to or the one who asks for their data. For example, if they spoke to someone by name Adya, they figure out all possible ways of writing the name and then send their resume out to,

adya@gmail

adyaa@gmail

adhya@gmail

adyah@gmail

and whatever they can come up with. Given a chance, I definitely do not want to recruit them!

If this is the story of the job hunting-laid back group who email not just one person but many by the same name, there are these well established and educated folks holding responsible positions, making the same blunder. A mail from someone in Dept of ECE, Wayne State Univ. And the irony, this mail is received by my Mr. Phd :-p

"Hope your GRE preparation is progressing smoothly.Scoring high in the verbal section requires lot of hard work.Make sure that u complete atleast 1 word list per day along with a decent practice of RC.You should be finishing RC in a couple of days,after which you need to start with Sentence completion and subsequently Analogies.ALL THE BEST.Study well"

A tutor from NIIT sends a mail out to the pupil, "Dear Axxx, Your java class starts on 13/12/09 10.00am.we are not able to reach you through phone. Regards, Jxxxxx NIIT SALEM"

These are human blunders. The Gmail bug [adyah==adya.h errors]has made us receive umpteen number of passport copies, source code from software professionals. A s/w engineer emails us thus, "Mr xxx, How r u? how was the life, I am fine, I have on doubt please clarify. I have one geodatabase is having 4 lakhs polygons. I want export to shapefile is it possible or not. we tried but not get it." Oh, Yes, "How was life ?" is the apt question if the person reading this died of verbal crucifixion.

A hilarious mail conversation that we shared with our parents and the whole family had a good laugh. I blame not the affectionate mother but the son, who should have sent them a test mail or written his email address in a diary or a safe place for his parents. This is from a mother to her son who has just set foot in US of A for his graduate studies. This fellow, looking at the tone of the email, has been talking to them on and off since his landing but looks he really hasnt written any email to them and has only conveyed verbally his email address to them. The 1st mail from the mother goes thus,

" hi

thank u for ur greetings

how do u feel there?

are u getting enough water(tap) water to drink?

what did u cook today

what are u doing for washing clothes?

ur room mates are daiictians or from other college/

i think they are from UP.

what is ur daily routine there?

take care and eat regularly,and eat healthy food.

yesterday was ganesh chathurthi. did u remember?

for taking bath do u get hot water?

is geyser there?wi

will u come for g talk or skype today at 8pm like yesterday?

bye then

rest in next mail

amma &appa"

This is a perfectly normal email from a mother whose son has for the first time is staying away from their watchful eyes and in a different continent. We were reminded of all those questions our parents and even our friends's parents asking us about Pilani, which is very much within India. I remember my friends parents even used to sympathize with mine for i was studying in a desert leaving behind all the luxuries of a college in Erode or Coimbatore. Need we say about the first time US traveller's parents ? My Mr. was a little apprehensive about replying back to this email saying "I am not the A you are looking for" which is usually the response or in this case, something like "I am not your son...". He feared, what if the parents panicked that their son has disowned them just hours after landing in America ??

So silence prevails and we do not respond at all and looks like their biological son too never emailed them. 1-2-3-4 days gone, 5th day, we receive an other email from the mom,

"Hope u will get on well there.everyday at least u send one mail sothat u r alright-we can assume.Keep contact always. amma"

In the meantime, the mom had also sent out a gtalk invite. Neither did we reject nor accepted it. But our Mr. was feeling sorry for this affectionate mother whose son never bothered to call or email them. He also wanted to convey and make her understand that all the while she had been emailing not her son, but, someone else by the same name and spelling too. So, he bravely accepts the chat invite to put an end to the pseudo mom-pseudo son connection - make her understand and to some extent have control over the emotions of the mom at run time as they chat.

It was a lazy saturday afternoon, a ting-ping sound alert, a message appears on his gtak.

Mom: hi. laptop vangiyacha?

Mr.: hello

Mom: hi (again)

(takes a look at Mr's profile pic on gtalk)

Mom:"what photo? un face madiri illai"

This was ultimate - we laughed our guts out, blaming that irresponsible son and empathizing with the mom's feelings. We shared this dialogue thats it, the whole family was in a roller coaster of laughter for almost 1 hour. Of all the questions about the geyser, hot water, remembering to take bath - this photo-face thing topped the list!

We resume ourselves and now was the moment, Mr. gathers guts to type 'the' line - "my name is first name last name." And then the unutterable yet had to be uttered at this point. "i am not your son." We were imagining all sorts of drama like the mom having a stroke or high palpitation due to this heart breaking message from a son. There was a long pause for 3 minutes, which seemed really long at that moment for us, we didnt know about their end. The very response of my name is.. should have conveyed the message, but just to make sure she was alive and to break the ice Mr. typed, "i think you got the wrong email address. " Yet again a pause, and the last we heard from her was, "Oh. sorry."

When 60 year olds behave like 6 year olds...

Mail 1: "My 3 BHK flat at yyy zzz is available for rent. Expected rent is 17k (negotiable)."

Response : "Kutta kamina haramka......"

The authenticity of the message is still not known. The mail says its been sent from a blackberry or we do not know if its one of those geeks playing around with some pop mails. God knows whats the enmity between the 60 yr old man from whose id the mail seems to have been originated from and the actual person who sent it.

Thats the story from the rental side. Lets hear the selling side,

Person 1 : "My house nnnn in yyyzzz is ready for sale" something like that.

First response on this thread,

Person 2 :"Have you done any interior? How much are you quoting for this? If you can answer these two questions it would be nice."

Person 1 : "YES, Flat includes modular kitchen and modular ward robes (3 in no), have done customization and electrical fittings. Ready to move Flat, all these works costed me around 4 Lakhs Total price I am expecting is 70 L (including customization cost) + registration

If you don't require modular ward robes, we can take them out"

OK, this has justified his pricing enough. Now comes the actual drama -

Person 2 : "I think the running rate in yyy zzz is not more than 60 for a flat of that size. Any bargaining possible?"

Bargaining ?? Is that the term you use when you speak real estate and when you speak in lacs ? I thought bargaining or haggling applied to 'kathirikkai, vendai kai vyaparam' meaning eggplant and okra business.

And in a community there are always some silent observers whereas some are not -

Person 3 : "I know from a broker that a yyy zzz flat sold for 66 lakhs with out wood work or electrical fittings. 70 is fair price with wood work and electical fittings... any way good luck with bargaining.. . "

Now, we do not know if this person really heard it from a broker or if he is just trying to press the point that whatever Person 1 is quoting is right so he could do so too when it comes to selling his flat. And why the good luck, who is he trying to wish here ? Who is going lose and who's going to gain in this bargaining act ? And again bargaining strikes! Hmph!

Our man looks like being in a great hurry to get rid of the property and returns thus,

Person 1: "My quote is 66 L (including all deposits) with out customization cost. This is running price, no much bargaining pls"

This reminds of a famous Koundamani-Senthil comedy from movie "Ulathai allitha", where the said comedian or villian goes, "Tempo ellam vechu kadathirken pa, konjum pottu kudupa" meaning he kidnapped using a tempo so he's kind of trying to bargain for a higher price.

One must remember that all this so called 'bargaining' is happening in public i.e reply-all mode. Looks like the bargaining bit helped after all, that he came down to 66 from 70 in just 2 email exchanges. A funnier aspect of this whole conversation is, we do not know if the person selling the property is really aware of the fact that the person trying to bargain is only yet an other property owner in the same community and was only trying to ask the rates for GK purposes and is not really interested in buying. Or may be that person was gathering pointers to sell their own or just to check the extent of possible bargaining. Unlike yesterday's passive (shy) 30 year olds ( 3 year olds), these are the nosy citizens who cannot just ignore messages that are meant for prospective tenants and buyer and NOT for them. They just feel like the ice-breakers and have to have a say in every mail thread. I'm only reminded of those inquisitive 6 year olds in their 1st or 2nd grades. When the teacher asks the class a question, all of them go in chorus, "Me, me, me", "I know it, i know it" instead of quietly raising their hands and letting the teacher choose a pupil to answer.

When 30 year olds behave like 3 year old...

"Kalyanam panni paar, veettai katti paar" meaning perform a wedding and see, build a house and see is not a faltu (something like worthless) statement after all. The difficulty in organizing a wedding by the bride's father is matched to the difficulty in building a house. The wedding part, once the marriage is performed the parents can be rest assured the girl is in safe hands and they take good care of her and vice versa. But when it comes to the house, a flat in our case, its a life long tragedy of putting up with few jug-heads. The book, Bonsai Manager clearly states that the politics in running a company of the size of Tata (s) is far less than the politics of running an apartment society. This is so very true!

When you buy an apartment, you dont want to be left behind on some important news and notices about Khata transfer, Service Tax and many more - things that require all of the clients to stand together to fight against the builder or the government. So we subscribe ourselves to the e groups or the common floor community mailing list and all those on earth. For once i acted wisely and subscribed with my mail id that i retired a few years ago. Retired as in I dont use it for mailing/ stay-in-touch purposes but for other uses like e-cards, e-shopping registration, e- reservation etc. I make it a point to check it once in a month or so. I happened to browse through it today and noticed many many funny yet annoying instances. But, looking at the amazing emails, looks like i will be checking that inbox more often - a great way of entertainment!

Corporate mailing rule1 : Do not subscribe your official id to any kind of social networking sites or e groups.

Do we adhere to these rules, NO, NEVER. First thing we do as we receive our mail id at work, email all our folks and send a note asking them to add this new-official-mail-id to all the existing groups. Put the same mail id on Orkut or Facebook or Twitter, simple because they are banned at our workplace and we will remain clueless what our friends are up to when we are at our desks just pretending to work. And the need to be updated with all/any kind of news the very nanosecond the sender clicks send.

Corporate mailing rule2: Never do a Reply-all, unless your message is of public interest or one that requires wider audience and opinions.

No and never adhere to this rule too, even if its the same message they are trying to propagate, they reply-all saying, " Please do not reply-all" instead of just sending it to the sender alone.

The next hilarious bunch of mails i noticed are the ones announcing the availability of the flat for rent or sale. Of the 40 minutes i spent in reading through the 75 odd emails, i noticed 30+ friends of the current occupants wanting to rent a flat, 5+ friends wanting to buy, 20+ owners wanting to rent out , 4+ owners wanting to sell. Note that these gentlemen and ladies sending our mails asking "if any flat is available for..." are not doing so for themselves but for their friends who are trying to move to Bangalore from elsewhere. When they are so very concerned and really want to help them find a house, since they are already on this mailing list, they should simply do a search in their archives/ Inbox and give them the contact details of the already advertised flats/owners. No, they will never do that, simply because - its home work <=> hard work.

Instead they plainly send out a mail saying "my good friend is looking for an apartment to rent..." CC-ing him of course, is the highest honor of help they are doing to that person. And this fellow who is interested in renting out, does not email the person on CC, rather would do a reply to the whole egroups announcing his flat's availability.

The same goes with buying and selling. The owner who wants to sell does not do his home work reading through his old emails and contacting those prospective buyers, but once again emails the group. Assuming that the person who sent a mail out asking if there was any flat on sale would pay attention to his email now. But, why would he, he emailed not for his sake but his friend's, about whom he probably would have forgotten the minute he sent the mail out copying his mail address. And so, this mail now is of no use and again goes into their collection of emails.

When nobody really reads any email, why do they want to get their official ids subscribed ? If you give me an answer that you are the busiest man at work, then 1st thing to do is unsubscribe the official id from the groups. None of the emails are serving their purpose. Even more annoying, getting an Out-of-Office response on egroups. When will these people ever grow up ?Have these people picked up new hobby of email-collection ??

There's an other episode of the nosy 60 year olds who read all their emails, rather every line of the email and reply-all asking unwanted questions. Will write more on it tomorrow may be, when 60 years old behave like 6 year olds.

The delicious Vangi bath

For all those Brinjal /egg plant lovers - the delicious Vangi bath (brinjal rice)

The simplest way is to use MTR Vangi bath powder on cooked brinjal and mix with steamed rice.

To make it freshly at home we need to prepare the Vangi bath powder first. It requires,

2 tsp corainder seeds

1 tsp Urad dhal

1 tsp channa dhal

6 red chillies

1 inch cinnamon

1 cardomam

5 cloves

less than 1/2 tsp fenugreek

1/2 cumin seeds

less than 1/2 tsp peppercorn

Heat a spoon of oil and fry the above. Allow it to cool and make it into a fine dry powder. Folks having trouble with their mixer like i do, can add little water and make it into a thick paste. The advantage of making a powder is you can re-use it later and it stays longer than the paste.

Vangi bath is best made with the long green brinjal , but any brinjal/egg plant also tastes good.

Long brinjal - 5 (or) 1 big Egg plant, cut into small cubes

1 cup of rice to cook

2 tsp of Ghee or oil

Mustard seeds, Urad dhal, 3 Red chillies, Asafoetida (Hing)

Salt to taste and turmeric powder.

50ml of tamarind juice. (adding this is said to remove any kind of bitterness from the brinjal)

Roasted Copra (dry coconut powder)

Some curry leaves, cashew nuts and coriander leaves to garnish.

• Cook 1 cup of rice and keep aside.
• Heat oil or ghee in a pan and fry mustard seeds, urad dhal and red chillies. Sprinkle some Asafoetida powder on top.
• Add the cut pieces of brinjal and the tamarind juice, salt to taste and a pinch of turmeric powder on top and cook till the brinjal is done.
• Bring the flame to a minimum/low & add the roasted copra and the vangi bath powder/paste. Let it stay on low flame for a couple of minutes before you turn it off.
• Once the brinjal and the powder are finely mixed, add the cooked rice and mix again.
• Roast some cashew nuts and coriander leaves and add on top of the rice and serve hot. Garnish with freshly cut coriander leaves.

Kannadigas say this is best had with a coconut chutney, but i prefer having it with a cool cucumber raita.

A sunny Saturday

Saturday n' Sun
Shades n' Shadows
Shantaram.

Its Buzz off for Buzz

When no body wants it, what are they trying to improve ??

http://beta.thehindu.com/sci-tech/internet/article108054.ece?homepage=true

Mint-Tofu rice

Blogging took a back seat as we started concentrating more on travel and photog. But i never said i stopped cooking and trying out new recipes :-). Yesterday was one of those lazy evenings when i didn't feel like - cutting vegetables, adding too many spices, using too many utensils but still had that feeling, "edanum nanna sapadanum". Opened the refrigerator and found some mint, coriander, Tofu, boxes of strawberries and many many colorful vegetables which only my eyes were eying but my mind was already working on something minty - Voila! why not a mint-tofu rice ? It only took 15 mins to prepare.

1. A cup of rice to cook/steam in the rice cooker.
2. Cut the tofu into chunks and toss them in a pan so they become golden brown/crunchy and keep them aside.
3. Grind the following,

1. 2 handful of mint leaves

2. 1 green chilly

3. 1 medium sized onion

4. 1 medium sized tomato

5. 2 garlic cloves.

Pour this gravy/mix into a wok or pan, add salt to taste and bring it to boil and switch the burner off. Thats it!


By now, (considering you took 12-15 mins in gathering the above requirements and grinding them) the rice should have been cooked. Allow the steamed rice to cool for a couple of minutes and then add it to the mint gravy in the wok and mix. Once you feel the rice is well mixed, add the chunks of tofu on top of it. Yummm, i'm a big fan of mint, the flavor, the fragrance, the health benefits - everything is good about mint. If one prefers paneer to tofu, you could do that too and even garnish with some roasted cashew nuts.

Our man, Rah man is here too..

Yet again

I get to enjoy a beautiful sunset along side a cuppa hot masala chai!

Well, where there is good news, there is bad news too - a traffic jam spanning a length of 4km up the hill. More like the evening peak hour (1700 hrs) traffic when everyone wants to get home before its dark. I hate being stuck in a traffic jam or even witness one from a place far away from it.