Ganesha Chaturthi 2010

This is a post that has been sitting as a draft since months. I had forgotten to upload the pictures and today put in some time to search for the 4 month old picture in the backup folders. So here is our Ganesha V2010, Finally! At-least before the 2011 chaturthi :-)

Each of us have a hobby that eventually grows on you, one such is making an eco-friendly Ganesha all by ourselves at home. Even though it is an yearly once occasion, I look forward to it so much. Our debut with making the Ganesha started last year while in Israel. Our last year's Ganesha was more raw and we had our own worries how he would dry and stick and stay in shape. This time we managed to give him a better looking slim face and a custom made umbrella. We managed to give shape to the elephant God in less than 30 mins just after hour morning coffee on chaturthi. We quickly (h)air dried him and he was all ready for the pooja much ahead of us in time.

Quick Broccoli Pachdi ~ Raita

1 Cup Curd/Yoghurt
10-15 cooked Broccoli florets
[To cook them, you could either microwave them for a few minutes or cook in boiling water. Make sure you dont over cook them, else they lose their crunchiness.]
3 table spoons of one of these powders/podi
[MTR chutney podi/ Paruppu podi/ Mom made-Home made Idli Milagai podi].

Mix them all in a bowl and ta-da !!

Detox @ home

Some mint and basil leaves in water makes one of the best detox fluids made at home. This is with the greens. Try an other traditional one, famously called the Oma/Ova or Ajwain water. Boil drinking water, as it starts to boil toss in a spoon of ajwain. To it, other Indian condiments that can be added are Fennel, Fenugreek, Cumin to name a few.

Quick dinner with Quinoa

Wash the quinoa (preferably in a tea stainer) and cook it in a sauce pan, Quinoa : Water = 1:3. Toss in some spices if you like, I added garlic chives and a couple of basil leaves. Fry the onion and garlic pods in home made ghee or any healthy oil and keep them aside (do not mix with spinach else they will lose the crunch). Stir-fry the spinach separately, add salt and just serve all one on top of the other when u eat.

Happy start...disciplined start!

On 30Dec last year, when I got my wisdom tooth extracted surgically - many of my friends asked me the same question, "why now ?" when the new year is just around the corner. None of them basically appreciated the fact that I was in pain during the new year's eve when the whole world was "happily partying". I could hardly smile or speak or relish any goodies.  We had a quiet, literally "quiet" as we welcomed the new year at home with lil A's grand parents. The eve and the whole day we sat, talked, played, watched a bit of TV read cricket and made a quick temple visit. This was fun too. We had more of a very disciplined start to our everyday life. Extraction of wisdom tooth does impart a lot of discipline around the household inadvertently. Here are a few,

1. Eat less and eat right!
What with the mouth opening not more than 5 mm, I was fully on liquid diet for 5 days. Breakfast was a warm porridge (traditional wheat or ragi kanji) followed by a glass of chill strawberry or banana (skimmed) milk shake.  Lunch was a bowl of soup and well boiled vegetables. Dinner used to be mashed spinach + yoghurt or dhal + yoghurt. It was an out and out no-carb or less-carb diet.
2. More water~fluid intake
3. Say NO to snacks!
Since I could hardly bite, it was a no cookies, no biscotti, no beard (read peanut butter, jam, nutella), no to krishna sweets, no murukku, no thattai.... no nothing week!
4. Better dental hygiene
Brushing twice a day is good. But rinsing~flossing after every meal is even better. I had to keep the stitches clean and germ free. In our spoon-fork-meal plan, I dont think any/many of us have the habit of walking up to the wash basin and rinse and floss after our brunch & lunch sessions. We probably do with a glass of water and say the purpose is solved.
5. No to hot coffee, hot meals...

I could not sip in anything hot. Moreover, eating or drinking hot stuff is definitely bad for the food pipe and even the stomach. So I got to a mode where i was only having a moderately hot tea and coffee.

6. Learnt to walk slowly 

I could not run or even jog because the slightest jerk would hurt my jaw. And there wasn't much to do at home too. So AA and I would go on those "dampathi sametha" slow walks after every meal.

7. Slow eating and eating in small portions
I had automatically switched to a small dessert spoon and hence the portions for every bite/gulp reduced. And in order to chew and even avoid the food getting to the weak-wrong-left side, I had to constantly keep and swallow the food slowly from the safe-right side.
8. As a result, the younger one was finishing his meal
Lil A always needs company at the dining table till he finishes his meal. At least one of us should have our plates non-empty till the time he finishes, else he would get up too saying his tummy's full. But this past week, he finished his meal much ahead of me.
9. Guaranteed weight loss of 3-4 pounds in 1 week!
Obviously, if one follows all of 1-7 steps what else could be the result ?
10. Younger one becomes less dependent and more disciplined 
I was hearing less of "Amma, come here" or most of the times Amma got replaced by Appa or Paati or Thatha. It was a big no to his monkey tricks - uppu mootais - somersaults on my tummy.
11. House gets cleaned up
Since my mom was around, she pretty much took care of the food business and AA was on his year end 10 day vacation, so my dad and he were keeping lil A engaged all through his Xmas vacation. And I was free enough to clear some long pending jobs of disposing old stuff - shredding mails and papers. Winter cleaning of the wardrobes, clear pending laundry and many more.
12. A good break to the voice cords
13. Last but not the least
What a relief ! Got rid of that nasty wisdom tooth of a size of a cashew nut that had grown like a crescent into my jaw bones and perpendicular to the other teeth and giving me an unbearable pain at least twice in a year.

After experiencing all the above goodies, do you really think I would want to go back to that - let us say, not-so-undisciplined life ? I know I am still young to break these rules and pamper myself and my tummy once in a while ;-) But the fact is for most of us it is what they call the starting trouble. Once into the groove, there's no looking back. After this 1 whole week, I feel my stomach muscles have shrunk and I dont think I can over eat or drink a steaming hot coffee or I feel guilty to go pick a danish cookie from that box.

Happy 2011!

Evil mom in me strikes

Once in a while we have these ups and downs in our kid's eating behavior. That is when I have to really really come up with a new dish. Believe me, it is quite a challenge! I'm sure all the moms with a 2+ age group at home will empathize with me. Moms always wish for their infants to grow faster so they could fed all the external delicacies of the world. It always remains a wish if the child is not a great eater. It is times like these your child went back to those infant days, where, all it ate/drank was mother's milk and would just quietly go back to sleep with that satisfied look, smile and tummy!

Here's  something that became a huge hit last week at home. Mint + Carrot Chapaties or Parathas, how ever you want to christen it. We named it colorful Parathas. While you prepare the dough,
-> to the flour (2 cups),
-> add a whole big carrot in grated form,
-> chop a cup of mint leaves or spinach or Methi (Fenugreek) leaves or any greens that you want your child to eat, but doesn't eat otherwise ;-)
-> a pinch of salt

Now, mix all and make the dough. When you actually start making the breads, spread it out evenly, apply a thin layer of ghee (melted butter), this adds to the softness if you plan to send it as a snack packed in your kid's bag. Fold it from all sides and again press/ spread it out. If using a chapathi maker, it does both the pressing and cooking job. If doing it manually, heat the frying and make sure the paratha well cooked in both sides.

If eating immediately, it tastes great with butter. If packing as a nutritious snack, apply some ketchup & roll-it-up.

If Salman c(kh)an, you think Rajni C(k)ant ??

A friend had posted this video on facebook and more than the trailer I enjoyed her comment - "please don't forget to leave your brain at home to enjoy fully!" How very true!



To me it looks like a "serios" comedy version of Jim Carrey's "The Mask". As all the crazy fans always say, what has Rajni not attempted or what is it that Rajni Can't ?

There's only one thing I can appreciate about this whole Endhiran thing, that Big B and Rajni are of the same generation more or less the same age, but this super star still thinks, acts & does things young and even gets to romance the former's daughter-in-law.

Right now the question is, If Salman C(kh)an rule the Box office with his dubakooru Dabangg, you think Rajni C(k)ant do so with Endhiran ?

6 PM IST : Then & Now

Then - We were taught to open the front (main) door and light the vilakku (lamp) @6pm.
Now - I'm teaching my son to SHUT all the doors and windows and switch on the mosquito repellent @6pm.

Duh!

Tamil heroes

Impressive video and I hope the right message reaches all...

That complete south Indian...

What triggered this post is the below song Jagadoddharana by Bombay Jaysahri in Carnatic-fusion form.



Yesterday being Janmashtamai, I took to hearing some krithis on Krsna. A friend on facebook had posted this Jagadodharan by B'bay Jayashri, as I heard her "Madhukara Manikyana.." in the anupallavi - the thought struck me. It is actually "Magugala Manikyana" meaning "gem among children" [Manikyam = Gem, Magu = child in Kannada]. What I do not understand is, when they render such a wonderful composition of Sri Purandara Dasa, wouldn't they take that extra care to not to alter the meaning/essence of the song. On the other hand Madhukara is honey bee in Sanskrit. It is still an excellent rendition by her, if only the pronunciation, meaning were taken care of. I'm still biased - when it comes to devotional songs, it is MS Subbulakshmi or M L Vasantha Kumari or Bala Murali Krishna who bring in the correct pronunciation, there by the meaning, their understanding of the composition helps them in bringing out the correct emotion.

As I had these running through my mind - there was an other parallel track of thoughts - if I should say,

1. I'm Lucky
2. I'm blessed
3. Or just thank my parents
for having given me the opportunity to learn to read/write/speak all the Carnatic languages - Sanskrit, Telugu and Kannada apart from Tamil and Malayalam that flows in the blood and six years of music from the land of  Annamayya and Purandara Dasa. Not only am I able to appreciate the music and the meaning of the compositions by our saints but today am in a position to even point out such linguistic mistakes (!!!)

Photoscape

While I searched for a suitable tool to get the copyright signature on our photographs, came across a many including the very simple water mark by Picasa up-loader. One such free tool that served the purpose is the Photoscape. Not very complicated, easy to edit and draw signatures on images. Even though I'm yet to figure out the font which provides the copyright symbol, for now, I am quite satisfied by drawing it using Lucida calligraphy font. For a free download, try http://www.photoscape.org/ps/main/download.php

Bitter gourd Kosumbari

On the way back from Coorg, we pit-stopped at Kamat Lokaruchi (on Mysore road) for lunch. We are all fans of bitter gourds at home and any new dish made out of it, we welcome with open hands/mouth :-) Here's one I learnt from them - a kosumbari (pachadi) made with bitter gourd.

1 long or 2 small bitter gourds, chopped into lean, equally sized pieces.

(some senior citizens at home say that we should not cook bitter gourds in odd numbers, one of those "dont know why?" facts)

small and equal quanities of mustard, urad and channa dhal, pinch of Asafoetida for the seasoning.

pinch of turmeric

3 tsp of your favorite sambhar powder (home made/mom made/ MTR or 777)

salt to taste.

pinch of red chilli powder.

1 bowl of curd/yogurt or thick buttermilk

1 large onion, chopped.

some Coriander and curry leaves, chopped.

In a pan or kadai, heat some oil, add the seasoning essentials. To this, add the chopped bitter gourd. To make the dish even faster - just before adding it to the pan, one can steam cook the chopped vegetable (make sure it doesn't get soggy) for 5 mins like idli or toss it in boiling water for 5 mins and drain it well or even cook in the microwave for 10 minutes. You need to wait till it gets deeply fried and becomes crunchy chunks. Add the salt, turmeric and sambhar powder and mix well. Allow it to cool.

In the meantime, take a bowl of thick buttermilk or curd, add the chopped onions and the greens. To this curd, add a pinch of salt and a pinch of red chilli powder. Once the fried bitter-gourd comes to room temperature, add to the curd and mix well.

This is a great substitute for Raita and a yummy side dish for Methi parathas or even plain roti. I have a feeling it will go well with coconut rice aka thengai sadam.

End of Mango season, so what ?

We still have these yummilicious ones...

a Melony-stalactite

Jordan makes a debut in Bollywood

One week after landing here, for the first time I get control of the remote and switched to something other than Cartoon Network. 2 channels up, it is Channel [V] and guess what ? I am greeted by the lovely videos/photographs of Jordan through this recent Pooja Bhat's movie, Kajraare starring Himesh and a Pak girl, Mona Liza. Who cares about the star cast, but at least for the sake of nostalgia of our Jordan trip, i think I'll try to watch this movie.

Kudos to Pooja Bhat. Its a beautiful country - must see! Indian passport holders do not require a visa to Jordan. It is visa on entry since November 2009. So, if you are looking for an exotic/historic/adventure filled vacation - Jordan is also an option :-)

Locations in the order of appearance -

0:00 Mt. Nebo near Madaba, the Moses memorial from where Moses spotted the promised land, Israel.

0:10 - Amphitheatre in Jarash

0:20 - Red Sea, Aqaba

0:28 - the Siq in Petra

0:48 - Jarash, Roman remains, main street columns

1:25 - Deserts of Wadi Rum

0:00 - Wadi rum, red colored sand in the deserts

0:25 - Karak Castle

0:40 - Jarash, the amphitheatre

0:45 - Petra , The treasury

1:22 - The Siq in Petra

Quick Carrot Halwa

3pm to 4pm in the afternoons is when the snack alarm in his tummy usually rings. And today it had a special desserty appetite. He was 18 months old, when the word "Mi Mi" came into existence. We used to give him fruits, sweets and cakes and some exotic cookies saying "yummy yummy". And even more was the influence of the famous Wiggles number "Fruits salad, yummy yummy"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gB4MNu6W9sg

So, he comes to me saying, "Amma, edanum Mi Mi venum", meaning he wants something yummy yummy. I ask him if he wanted to eat sliced carrots dipping them in honey or sugar. He suggests back to me, "that Mi Mi you make with carrots, can you make that now ?" So 20 minutes and he had it in his hands. At the time when there are emails floating around asking people not to make use of a microwave, I'm putting up a quick recipe for a microwaved carrot halwa. This recipe comes from a cook book. I gifted a microwave to my MIL in 2005 and she mentioned to me about this recipe that she discovered in the cook book that came with it. Never had i had the chance to try it and have always been doing the traditional grating carrots and cook on stove method. It has taken me 5 long years to try it :-).

8-10 large carrots

100 ml milk

1 cup sugar

1 tsp ghee or melted butter

To garnish : 10 black currants (or) golden raisins (and) 10 almonds (or/and) Cashews, pinch of Cardamom powder or sprinkle some of their seeds.

Cut the carrots in random order, we need not grate them. Transfer the pieces into a blender/mixer, add the sugar on top and add the milk at one go or depending on the efficiency of the blender you could add little by little. Blend well. Transfer this carrot juice into a thick microwave safe container. Place the bowl in the microwave and let it cook for 15 minutes. Bring it out, add the ghee and all the items that you wish to garnish with, mix well and put it in for 5 more minutes.

Zeh Hakol, yummy yummy warm carrot halwa is ready to be served. If you have the habit of stocking ice creams, relish the warm carrot halwa with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

For the love of baking...

Fruit and Nut Loaf - No added Sucre

In the midst of cleaning and clearing the kitchen before we vacate the house I get carried away by these left over chunks of walnuts, almonds, black currants, dates, apricots and dried plums. I wanted to get rid of them so I can claim I cleared a shelf in the kitchen today! But how ? It is impossible for me to just eat all of those dry fruits at at that very moment in order to get rid of those bottles. A also calls out, "amma pashikaradu, edanum snack kudu" meaning "mom am hungry, give me a snack". I didn't want to do anything elaborate. So tried something like a fruit and nut bread with no sugar, no eggs, no vanilla extract, no butter, no milk. Just simplified plain whole wheat bread with dry fruits and nuts in it.

I used,

2 tsp instant yeast

50 ml lukewarm water

3 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

less than 1 tsp of cinnamon powder

a bowl or 2 full cups of mixed dry fruits and nuts (i used walnuts, almonds, black currants, dates, apricots and dried plums)

Preheat oven to 175 deg C.

In a huge bowl, prepare the yeast by beating it well with lukewarm water for approx 5 minutes. Add the flour and baking powder, cinnamon powder and salt - make a dough by adding water occasionally. Keep it aside by covering it with a damp cloth of about 1 hour. The dough would have risen to a certain level. Now add the bowl of dry fruits and nuts and mix well into the dough. This can be allowed to rise too by leaving aside for few hours. But i was running out of time and so placed the dough in two 10in*4in aluminium baking sheets. Just grease the sheets with butter before placing the dough in order to get that non-stick feel.

Bake for 40 minutes or until the usual tooth prick coming out dry test succeeds. Cool the loaves for a while before cutting. This is a yummy tea time loaf or a healthy morning breakfast since it has no added fat like butter or milk or oil or eggs and no sugar - the dry fruits act as the sweeteners.

Broccoli Dosa

This belongs to the subset of the evil mom's recipes. Thankfully we are in a stage - point of life where I still get to decide and dictate what he should be eating. And I do not think this will go on forever, but as long as I'm in power why not utilize the chances.

After making some stir fried vegetables salad for us,I had some broccoli shoots left behind. I used only the florets in the salad and had a major portion of the stem/stalk left behind. I had not thought of anything for little one's dinner that night. If I was to show him a full bowl of vegetables like ours, no way he was going to oblige and his tumbly would still remain rumbly. Just when i thought I would make him a couple of dosas, i hit upon the idea of broccoli dosa.

Quickly microwaved the broccoli shoots, put them in the blender they turned into a fine paste. Added it to equal portion of the dosa batter and a little salt and voila - brocolli dosa mix was ready.

To start from scratch - (makes approx. 15 dosas)

Soak 1 & 1/2 cup rice and 1/4 cup urad dhal for 3 hours in water

2 cups of finely washed broccoli shoots or florets or the stalk cut into pieces

salt to taste

1 small green chilli (optional)

When it is about time to grind the soaked items, microwave the broccoli for about 7-8 minutes. Add water periodically and grind the rice and the lentil first for a couple of seconds and when the rice is all almost half broken, add the broccoli and grind well until the batter consistency is reached. If you wish to add a little flavor, toss a chilli into the blender.

Heat a pan, pour a ladle of batter at a time to get thin crispy dosas or a little more than that to make thick Adai like dosas which can be enjoyed with butter or ghee + sugar combo by your little ones.

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.