Veg Tiranga

I had an opportunity to taste this tasty delicacy while on our trip to Daman. It's name in the menu and description by the waiter quickly grabbed our attention and we made no delays in ordering it.

Since we were extremely hungry, and we had ordered something from a completely unknown territory, we were just keeping our fingers crossed that whatever arrives must be edible and must please our taste buds.

1 more reason to order for it was that we were 5 people and we were not being able to agree on 1 particular gravy or curry. Hence when, the waiter described that the dish comprises of 3 different gravies, we immediately made our decision despite the wait time being long.

To our surprise, we loved the dish so much that we ordered the same dish the next day as well.

After this, I searched for the same dish in various other restaurants we visited  in and out pune, but couldn't locate it anywhere. That is when I decided to try it making by myself.

It is a little time consuming dish as it comprises of all three gravies (red, green and white) cooked to a heavenly creamy consistency, but if you plan smart, it shouldn't be a trouble. (The first time I made it, I cooked all 3 gravies at the same time; but for the second time, I cooked 1 of the two graves, the green one to be precise, in lunch. I made palak aloo for lunch, of course with extra gravy and preserved it for my experiment at night)

Let's go on to looking at the recipe now...

Common Ingredients for the 3 gravies:-

• Onions - 5 medium sized, chopped
• Fresh Cream - 1 packet
• Ginger Garlic Paste - 3 Tbsp
• Green Chillies- 3-4

So first of all, I placed chopped onions in a pan, fried them in oil till soft. Next, added ginger, garlic and chili paste, and fried till its brown. Then waited for ot t cool down after which I ground it into a smooth paste. Now preparation for each gravy and subzi was done separately.

For White Gravy Subzi:

• 2 tbsp cashews soaked in water
• 2  cardamoms
• 2 tbsp mava/ milk mava powder
• 2 tbsp yogurt (I used fresh cream instead)
• Salt and white pepper powder as per taste  
• Half cup mix of following*- Cashews, Almonds, Pomogranate (anar ke dane), Raisins (kishmish), grapes cut into 2 halves, fine pieces of paneer or cottege cheese. 

{Note: This White gravy can also be stored for 1-2 months in freezer}

Method
Soak the cashewnuts in half cup of warm water for half an hour and grind to a smooth paste. Heat oil in a handi and add already prepared onion paste. Stir and add green cardamoms, slit green chillies. Stir and add grated mawa and cashewnut paste. Stir. Add half cup of water and mix. Cook on low heat for five to ten minutes. Add whisked yogurt/ cream, salt and white pepper powder. Add rest of the ingredients (mentioned with*). Stir and cook for 3-5 minutes.

For Red Gravy Subzi (This is also similar to Kadhai Paneer Recepie):

Cottage cheese / paneer – Approx 250 gms

Tomatoes -3,Large sized, chopped

Handful of cashew nuts, ground to fine paste

Tomato paste – 1 tb sp

Garam masala powder – ½ tsp

Red chili powder – ½ t sp
Turmeric powder – ½ t sp
Coriander powder – 1 t sp
Salt – as per taste
Oil – 2 tb sp

Tomato Sauce - 2 Tsp
Kasoori methi / dried fenugreek leaves – 1 tsp (optional, I didn't add)

Fry chopped tomatoes for 6 to 8 minutes till they turn mushy. Add prepared onion paste and cook for 2 minutes. Cool the sautéed masala and grind to a puree add tomato paste to it along with 1/2-cup water. Now bring it to a boil and simmer on low flame.In the meanwhile cut the cottage cheese / paneer into medium size pieces. You can shallow fry the paneer in oil without browning them (I did not do that although). Keep it aside.

Now add all the dry masala to the puree .Add the cashew nut paste and tomato sauce in the puree. And cook it on low flame till the gravy is thick. Add the paneer pieces and cook till they become heated too. In the end add 2 table spoon cream and cook for 2 minutes.

 Green Gravy Subzi (This is more or less similar to Corn Palak Recipe)

 Ingredients:

1 cup Sweet corn kernels (boiled)

1 cup Fresh cream

3 medium bunch of Spinach leaves (Palak)

2 tbsps Refined Oil

Salt to taste

1 tsp Dry mango powder (amchur)

1/2 tsp Caraway seeds (shahi jeera)

1 tbsp Lemon juice

1 tbsp Dried fenugreek leaves (kasuri methi) (optional)

Method

Clean and wash palak leaves thoroughly and ensure no sand grains are left on the leaves.

Then blanch palak in plenty of boiling water for a minute or two, drain and refresh the leaves in ice-cold water.

Now blend the palak and make a puree.

Heat the boiled corn in half or one cup of water.

Heat oil in a pan, add caraway seeds and stir-fry till it changes colour.

Now add onion paste and cook for 2-3 minutes.

Add corn, palak puree, salt and amchur powder to this mixture of onion masala.

Mix it well and let it cook for two to three more minutes.

Add fresh cream and simmer till you reach the desired .

Take off the heat and add lemon juice.

For serving, you will have to take a container with a wide mouth (I used a plate instead, and so did the hotel where we first ate this dish); and make 3 horizontal (or vertical, if you want) layers of all 3 gravy subzis. You can keep white in the middle and can decorate it with a tomato flower or keep it simple too. (I used paneer cut in flower shape to decorate it).

All tasty things need some hard work and patience. So once you are done, just binge into the tasty treat ;P Do tell me how it was....

Walnut brownie with hot chocolate sauce n cold Ice cream

 Its been a while since I posted my last blog. It was our 'little bundle of joy-Neil' who kept us occupied all around him day and night. He was born in 1st week of January and now he is 5 months old. He has started to roll-poll; babble and gurgle etc. etc. Now that I had some time off from work, I tried upon a couple of recipes which I will be sharing with you.

Also I will share with you the baby's first foods which can be useful to first time moms. I will talk about all this in detail in my next blog.

Coming back to cooking, here's 1 of the stuffs I made.....

Yes, it is a sinful walnut brownie with hot chocolate sauce n cold Ice cream

Brownies make me forget about the calorie count and I go on galloping it with loads of cold ice cream...hmm it's yummy!! Thanks to Divya for the wonderful recepie (to which I did a very little experiment). Here's the recipe for you...

Recipe source - 1. DK of Chefinyou 

                       2. Divya from Divya's Cookbook 

 

Ingredients  

Flour - ½ cup
Baking powder – ¾ tsp
Salt – a pinch
Walnuts,chopped – 1 cup
Eggs, lightly beaten -2[or 4 egg whites]
Butter, melted – ¾ cup
Cocoa – 6 tbsp
Sugar – 1 cup
Vanilla extract – ½ tsp

Method

1. Preheat Oven 350F. Grease an 8 inch square shallow cake pan with wax paper. Mix the butter and cocoa in a pan and set aside.
2. Beat together the eggs, sugar and vanilla extract in a bowl.
3. Mix it along with cocoa mixture.
4. Stir in the nuts.
5. Sift over the flour and fold it along with the mixture.Add a pinch of salt and mix well.
6. Pour this mixture into the cake pan and bake for 20-35 minutes until risen. It will still look soft and wet but it will cook further while cooling. Let it sit to cool.

So now it's your turn to dig your teeth into this sinful brownie!! Do tell me how it was... :)

I came across this article one day and thought it is worth sharing.......

A senior recruiter’s guide to being an ideal professional 

(And why most young Indians don’t fit the bill)

An open letter by a partner at consulting firm KPMG to India’s graduating classes has led to a furious debate about the professional worth and attitude of the country’s degree-holding millions. Mohit Chandra, in his piece in the New York Times blog India Ink, has attempted to remove some of the misgivings that he believes these freshly minted professionals have when they step out into the world. “Most of your contributions will be substandard and lack ambition, frustrating and of limited productivity. We are gearing ourselves up for broken promises and unmet expectations,” he has written. “Today, we regret to inform you that you are spoiled. You are spoiled by the “India growth story”; by an illusion that the Indian education system is capable of producing the talent that we, your companies, most crave.” While the article created a stir on the Internet, trending on Twitter and being debated heavily on Facebook, it has led to heavy criticism and disagreements from some of the other future employers of young Indian graduates. Ashok Soota, executive chairman, Happiest Minds, told Mirror that it was wrong for someone to take a few bad examples and generalise. “For instance, the first example of the badly written resume is unfair. I read nothing short of  a few thousand resumes a year and they are all very well written. The writer has taken the extreme end of a fringe,” Soota said. Piyush Kumar Sinha, a professor at IIM Ahmedabad, said comparing Indian professionals with those from other countries was unfair. “If the Indian management style is unique or different, why are we trying to embody somebody else’s benchmark and then claim it to be right? Every place — be it Japan, US, China, Korea, Australia, Middle East countries — has its own mode of functioning, and excelling. Every country has its character.” Chandra, in his letter, had asked fresh graduates to treat what he had written as a “guide to what your employers really want and how your ability to match these wants can enrich you professionally”, going on to conclude, in detail, how Indian professionals don’t make the cut in any of them. Chandra said, “There are five key attributes employers typically seek and, in fact, will value more and more in the future. Unfortunately, these are often lacking in you and your colleagues.” He then went on to list those attributes. 1.You (think you) speak and write English fluently “This is rarely the case. Even graduates from better-known institutions can be hard to understand. Below is an actual excerpt from a résumé we received from a “highly qualified and educated” person. ‘To be a part of an organisation wherein I could cherish my erudite dexterity to learn the nitigrities of consulting’. Huh? Anyone know what that means? We certainly don’t.” 2. You are good at thinking outside the box “Hard to find. Too often, there is a tendency to simply wait for detailed instructions and then execute the tasks – not come up with creative suggestions or alternatives. Problem-solving abilities, which are rarely taught in our [Indian] schooling system, are understandably weak among India’s graduates, even though India is the home of the famous “jugadu”, the inveterate problem solver who uses what’s on hand to find a solution.” 3. You ask questions, engage deeply and question hierarchy “Why can’t they pick up the phone and call when they do not understand something?” is a commonly asked question. You are unduly impressed by titles and perceived hierarchy. While there is a strong cultural bias of deference and subservience to titles in India, it is as much your responsibility as it is ours to challenge this view.” 4. You take responsibility for your career and invest in new skills “Many of you feel that once you have got the requisite degree, you can go into cruise control. The desire to learn new tools and techniques and new sector knowledge disappears... The desire to be spoon-fed, to be directed down a straight and narrow path with each career step neatly laid out, is leading you toward extinction, just like the dinosaurs.” 5. You are professional and ethical “When you exhibit behavior like job hopping every year, demanding double-digit pay increases for no increase in ability, accepting job offers and not appearing on the first day, taking one company’s offer letter to shop around to another company for more money — well, don’t expect to be treated like a professional. Similarly, stretching yourself to work longer hours when needed, feeling vested in the success of your employer, being ethical about expense claims and leaves and vacation time are all part of being a consummate professional. Such behavior is not ingrained in new graduates.” In response, an anonymous blogger on India Ink questioned Chandra’s parameters and arguments. The writer, who called himself Just Another Youth, said, “I have nightmares when I have to proof read my Mexican friend's reports. And I know the person is a genius. An absolute talent. But English, not so much. My point, English should not be a big bothering factor when you are counting talent.” He further contended that if Indians are not acting professionally, then even the so-called professionals are not treating them well. “They are just a source of cheap labour. A friend, who owns a patent (a technical one to be precise), is paid $55k in an oil company. Similar qualified US national is paid over $100k.” The author added that Indians have specific skill sets and complaining about them “is like complaining bananas don't taste like oranges. Why did you buy a banana?”

Healthy Chocolate Nutty Parantha

This is my first blog on cooking. I like to experiment with different tastes and ingredients.. So let me share with you with my latest dish which I made during New Year's vacation.. I named it "Healthy Chocolate Nutty Parantha".
The inspiration to make dish came from 1 of the dish i saw in a cookery show called Master-chef India-2. where the original dish was called "Nutella Parantha". Since I was apprehensive about the taste of nutella, I did my experimentation here tooo :D Here's the recipe for you : 

Healthy Chocolate Nutty Parantha      

Ingredients (For 2 people)

• 1 cup of Wheat Flour (Aata)
• 2-3 spoons of Maida 
• Salt to taste
• 3-4 tea spoons Ghee
• 3-4 Tb. spoons of nuts/dry fruits of your choice(Almonds, cashews, pistachio, raisins.)
• Pinch of cardamom powder
• 1/4 cup grtaed chocolate
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1/2 spoon Honey (can be substituted with Jagger or sugar powder as per choice)

Methood:

• In a mixing bowl, combine wheat flour, maida, salt and ghee. Prepare a smooth firm dough by adding sufficient water. Cover the dough and keep it aside for a while.
• In a small frying pan, roast the dry fruits of your choice till light golden (do not roast raisins if using them). Remove from flame and keep aside for cooling. Once cool, grind them to make a powder.
• In a small bowl, combine honey with butter, 2 spoons grated chocolate, cardamom powder and powdered dry fruits. I added very little chocolate sauce too (If not using honey, you might need more butter or more chocolate sauce to bind the powdered nuts)
• Divide the dough into 12 balls , roll each out into a round Parantha. Apply melted ghee on each parantha, fold it, apply some more ghee on one side of the paratha and fold it again. Roll out into a triangular shaped Parantha. 
• Heat a tawa and roast the parathas partly basting lightly with oil. Separate a layer of each partially cooked parantha making sure to leave it intact on the two sides, fill in the dry fruit mixture, seal and cook the parantha completely till crispy n golden. 
• Once done, you can cut it into small triangular pieces and dash it with some chocolate sauce and grated chocolate on top.
• Serve hot. It tastes awesome when hot.

Try it out and tell me how it was!!!!

How to get rid of 'Fruit Flies'

Have you ever encountered those small, brick-eyed irritating flies in your kitchen or bathroom? Yes, i am talking about those irritating fruit flies....Fruit flies can be a common nuisance in many households, especially in the kitchen.

One morning, I suddenly encountered a couple of them in my kitchen. I was wondering what bought them here, as I had a habit of keeping my kitchen clean most of the times. Even our garbage bin had lid. Fruit flies are attracted by the smell of the ripe or rotten fruit and vegetables but we hardly had anything rotten in our kitchen. As an immediate action, I cleaned my kitchen and bins all over again assuming they would be gone by evening. To my surprise, it didn't happen. Rather they were multiplying hour by hour, day by day. They were driving me crazy.

Finally, when my cleaning and food and garbage hiding tricks didn't help me get rid of those tons of clumsy little fruit flies buzzing around my house, I started digging into Google. I got to learn a lot about these creatures (like they breed at damp n moist places, they multiply at supersonic speed by laying 500 eggs at a time, and are hard to get rid of, ehhh...). I also came across a couple of tricks and traps to get rid of them (to my surprise, i came to know that you can buy some ready-made disposable traps abroad). Below I have put the links which gave me ideas to get rid of these irritating flies. But the ingredients required to make these traps were not easily available to me. Hence, my irritation along with my study inspired me to do an experiment (oh no, here too, but yes I did and it worked ;P)

Let me quickly disclose to you what I did-
First I searched their breeding place, which was near my bins. Next step was to make my trap. Since the recommended traps needed wine or vinegar or ammonia which wasn't easily available, and since I had studied that they quickly dwell on the smell of ripe bananas or rotten bananas; I made my trap using bananas. I used a deep glass shaped plastic container with lid (to be specific, i used an empty but clean container of Amul dahi), made some small holes on it's lid, and inside the container, i kept some ripe bananas. I ensured that it is sealed properly and then kept it at their breeding place. Apart from this, i ensured that my kitchen was clean, no food item was left outside uncovered, and bins were properly covered. Then I left for my office.

On coming back home, to my surprise, there were a couple of flies trapped inside the box I had prepared to catch them. I was happy. I kept the box there for next 2 days after which there was a bunch of flies inside and the number was increasing outside.. Yeahhh I was happy. I took my box to a far and non-resident area and released the trapped flies there. After coming back, cleaned the box again, waited for it to dry and added fresh ripe bananas to catch the few leftover flies. in next 5 days, my kitchen was finally free from these small monsters. I took a sigh of relief!!

So now, if these flies are the reason of your headache too, dont worry, just try out this trap and relax..... Good Luck!!

Here are the links which helped in in this DIY task-

1. http://www.diylife.com/2011/07/18/how-to-get-rid-of-fruit-flies/
2. http://howtogetridofall.com/how-to-get-rid-of-fruit-flies
3. http://www.wikihow.com/Get-Rid-of-Fruit-Flies
4. http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/shopping-storing/how-to-get-rid-fruit-flies-10000001648489/index.html
5. http://howtogetridofall.com/how-to-get-rid-of-fruit-flies

My experiment with Trebuchet!!

It has been long now that I have been thinking to start blogging but never dared to actually do it. And voila, I am suddenly starting with it today :) It is well said, there's no time and age to start doing something. It generally makes me feel good to pen down my thoughts, and here I go........ Let me tell all that I love to experiment with things, so my first blog is about a recent experiment which we conducted by making a TREBUCHET. Wondering what a trebuchet is-

• Dictionary defines trebuchet as "An engine that provided medieval artillery used during sieges; a heavy war engine for hurling large stones and other missiles" 
• Wiki says " A trebuchet is a type of catapult that works by using the energy of a raised counterweight to throw the projectile". 

Honestly speaking, the idea of making trebuchet didn't came to me naturally. It was actually a task of the activity session in my office (FYI- At my workplace, we have some activities being organised by each team every month..... and we have just started with a 2nd season of those great monthly events). Each team (comprising 5 members) was asked to make a trebuchet with specification of 15X15X08 cm in resting positions and weight limit of 2.5 KG in all. 

We were told about this task 2 weeks in advance. We began with studying and discussing some physics and maths, did lot of meetings and listed down the components we would need to build our bricole. Here's what we figured out we would need-

1. A light weight material to build the arm of trebuchet, which should be adjustable/movable (we decided to start searching for an antenna which will be adjustable, other backup options were aluminium, balsa wood, a light pencil etc.) 
2. Some counter weights for which we found out density of various metals (PS. sequence from High to low was somewhat like this- Platinum, Plutonium, Gold, Mercury, Palladium, Silver, lead, copper , iron, etc.) The 1st thought that came to our mind was procuring some weights, but we managed to procure some lead in the form of round discs. 
3. Next we needed a base and framework to rest our arm. We figured out that it must be heavy enough to support arm and counterweight and for precision, yet light enough to have a high material efficiency. We landed up with an idea to use a kids mechanical kit to prepared the same. 
4. Last and easiest to procure was a sling for which we decided to use some strong nylon thread (we didn't focus much on this part). 

We began with preparing the actual prototype just 3 days before the competition, and made a cute structure using the kids mechanical kit. What we missed out on focusing was a sling release pin, trigger and trough. Though eventually while creating the practical model, we realized their need and eventually managed to get them at place. Here is how it looked like:
                                
It covered a maximum distance of 4 feet with maximum 800 gms of weight. In order to accommodate more weight, we had to make changes in structure as more weight led to loosening of screws and falling of this small structure. To cut the long story short, this cute little model was finally replaced with a wooden structure created with the help of a carpenter.Though this new structure and model didn't look as good as the 1st one, but the max distance we could now achieve was around 12 feet.

Eventually, we participated and stood 2nd in the competition of max distance covered. Team which won covered more than 15 feet while we managed to cover 11 ft with total weight of entire setup= 2.1 KG.

There were a couple of learnings from other's stories and other models which though are worth sharing but will be covered in my next blog. Let me just talk about the leanings in precise right now-
"If you pay attention to what you're doing and build your trebuchet with care, you can soon be having fun with it. Make sure that you don't rush into building it, however. If you do something wrong, it could be very difficult to fix, and cause your trebuchet to throw consistently to one side, or toss everything straight into the ground. Building your own trebuchet can be fun and simple. Just make sure that you've got a good plan going in, and everything you throw will go far!"

Right now i am in the process to improvise upon the existing model with the help of my husband (It's imp. to mention that he had been a gr88 help in the entire process since the kick off). Will keep you updated on wherever I land up next.... Till then keep on experimenting :)