Oye Amritsar!!

This was a well-deserved holiday for Ma, Dad after almost two years.

Well, the last two years were spent setting up marital lives for my sister and me respectively. :)

The master plan was for me and Prasad to join them at Delhi and have a blast at Amritsar. Sadly, Prasad's trip didn't materialize and he was sweet enough to ask me to go ahead.

Day 1: The holy reunion :)

I was received with a lot of food (A typical Kharbanda family trait).

All my favorites were lined up smiling back at me, Momos, Dahi Vada, Dal Parantha, Malai and Pepsi, just to settle it all down.

I burped my way through the afternoon and reached Amritsar by night.

Day 2: The action packed one!!

We set course to Beas, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radha_Soami_Satsang_Beas .

My parents being Satsangis, we were really looking forward to this visit since years. Finally it had materialized.

The scene at Beas was something that can only been seen to be believed. Twenty thousand volunteers work here on a daily basis on their own will and keep the township so clean that you can practically eat your food off the street.

Sadly, they don't allow cameras or mobile phones inside, but luckily I found some pictures on the net to show what The Dera-Beas really is like. Its no less than a European country inside. And the best part, its all self sustained, just by volunteer work.

Even the food is subsidized to the magnitude of few rupees for every item for the visitors and residents. We were privileged to have eaten there and rather hogged for that matter for just Rs.150.

I thought I had viewed the most of the trip. But, the evening was scheduled for the Wagah Border, Retreat Ceremony. I can assure you that the loud cheering insane-going crowd and the aristocratic soldiers from both India and Pakistan will make the hair on your neck stand.

Just to show what I mean; ( Oh yes, I was at the first seat on the first row ;) )

We head back to the city and next destination was the Golden Temple, Amritsar, properly named as Harmandir Sahib. Words can't do justice to this monument of faith.

24/7*365 days a year, this place provides food, water and shelter to the visitors.

What's more, they are all volunteers, working just for belief and peace in return.

How would a Amritsar visit be complete without pigging on the finger-licking, butter-smeared, calorie-bomb Punjabi food!

Thus, we landed at the "Brother's Dhaba" to complete this ritual. The customers here were clearly going savage with a lion's appetite and the drool of a dog. You can't blame them, you can silently merge with them. So did we.

We gobbled down Dal Makhani, Butter Paneer Masala and Laccha Parantha in a flash.

Day 3: Akhri din at Amritsar

It was only by the next morning that the flashbacks of the butter-coated meal haunted us. We skipped our breakfast. :|

We visited Jalianwala baag and A Vaishno-Devi look alike temple in quick successions.

Oh how can I forget, I broke the one rule I have for eating outside. Never touch the water outside. But, here, look at what I had! :S

Of course, we'd not vowed not to eat anymore. So, we dropped in at the (in)famous Kanha Halwai. He just specializes in Puri-Chana-Aloo and Lassi.

Allow me to rephrase, Gigantic Puri-Killer Chana-Chatpata Aloo and a jug full of Lassi.

We battled our way through it and came out kicking alive (perhaps only with a few choked arteries).

By night we were back in Delhi.

Day 4: The final countdown

Today I had decided to shop!

Mom was darling enough to accompany me to the Sarojini Market in that blazing sun.

We shopped for two hours and I had my two bags full. :)

Mission accomplished!

Bidding farewell to me with more of food and even more love, Mom Dad saw me off in the night.

:)

Healthy Snacking? Green roll-ups coming up!

Since me and Prasad have been trying religiously to eat some healthy meals, I decided to make something my mom would make when I was few feet shorter.

Cabbage Rolls.

I agree the name is not the USP here. And thats why I decided to go fancy with the 'Green Roll-ups'. This can be a great evening snack and surprisingly filling! And best part is, the cooking time is just about 20 minutes.

Ingredients:

For filling:

- Oil, salt, pepper

- Chopped onions,

- mushrooms / paneer ; depending on what you prefer, these are the two fillings that I would recommend.

Chop the mushrooms / grate the paneer finely.

For wraps:

- A lush green cabbage. Here, the trick is to pick a nice and tender cabbage, unless you want to do some serious rumination for dessert.

Procedure:

- Saute the onions with a spoon of oil

- When golden brown, add salt, pepper and mushroom/ paneer

- Roast this stuffing a little and then set it aside.

- Take out the cabbage leaves as whole.

- Boil some water, add salt to it and add the leaves to it and cover with a lid.

- Depending on how tender the leaves are already, leave them on the flame for upto 10-15 minutes or more. They should be edible by themselves at the end of the boil.

- Drain the water, the leaves are ready for wraps.

- Fill up the stuffing inside each leaf carefully and cut as follows;

- Serve this with a slightly spicy sauce, perhaps tabasco and mustard!

- Bon appetite!

Malayali dosa meets the Punjabi tadka!

Yesterday my closest friend of years, Ayesha came over for lunch. We've been together for donkey's years making through college, tuitions, pigging out sessions, sneaking out , summer jobs, cooking, movies, shopping, gossiping (this makes a huge chunk of our time together_..What not. A typical Girls-Duo.

We have had days where we baked our own cake and ate it too. Till the last morsel.

We have eaten a whole casserole of lasagna or spaghetti without a wink or fear of tomorrow.

Of course, things change with time. Now, we discuss more recipes on lighter side of the calorie chart. We discuss fruits, salads or juices. But, today we decided to have good old Dosa for Sunday brunch.

As I always love, doing things with a twist of Me. I decided to have the regular Masala Dosa-chutney with a ‘tadka’. Here is what smoked up my kitchen today:

The Tadka dosa: There are endless variations to this. I made one that is not too extravagant so that it goes well with the other side dishes. But, the one that is my favorite and pretty much self-sufficient on its own is;

Makes about 8-10 dosas

Ingredients:

Dosa batter about 300ml,

Oil, Salt, turmeric, chilli, jeera, dry chilli, garam masala, chutney podi, tamarind paste

1 cup chopped onions, Curry Leaves

Procedure:

Pour few spoons of oil in a pan.

- Add curry leaves and roughly broken dry chillies

- Add jeera (cumin) and 1 whole cup of chopped onions and sauté for a while

- When the onions turn brownish, add turmeric, salt to taste and tad-bit chilli

- Let the seasonings cook for a minute.

- Add a pinch of garam masala, chutney powder and a spoon tamarind paste( Yes! You heard me right, that’s chutney podi).

- Take this mixture off the flame.

- Mix this well with the dosa dough.

- Make dosas out of this dough. You’ll have wonderfully colored, chat-pata Tadka-Dosas ready.

As I said, the possibilities are endless. You can choose to add a paste of mint leaves to this instead of the tamarind. Add some ginger-garlic and Tada! You have lightly-flavored mint dosas for a sumptuous breakfast.

Alas! We finished the tadka dosa before I could shoot a click :( Nevertheless, I did capture the regular ones.

Since it was lunch for my dear friend, I had these additionally; The good old peanut-coconut chutney.And the Potato-stuffing, which I prefer serving on-the-side.

Life is what happens to you when you're busy making other plans..

Exactly 4 months since my last post;

- I'm married! Mrs.Bhat now.

- I'm an aunt! Trust me, this might look effortless to become an aunt, i.e., I didn't really push that baby out of my womb, but Phew! I was emotionally and physcialy almost there and here's the tiny little bundle, literally.

- I'm 2 kgs more than I used to be. :|

Note: I do not wish to display that pictorially.

- I stayed out of the house through out the night, carefree!

- I gambled in a casino! ( Don't gasp! legal one of course). Beautiful cruise at Goa called the Casino Royale.

- I'm more knowledgeable about house keeping, music ( I THINK), movies, video games, actor names (which I never earlier bothered to read) and Mangalorean food.

I shall definitely put some recipes up soon. :)

- I learnt making Non-Veg food, which I must modestly confess, was really finger-licking-good!

;)

- I learnt that midnight snack can be had at three in the morning as well. Or at five in the morning, depending on what you call your night-hours.

- Celebrated Graphicurry (www.graphicurry.com) turning 1 year old. Prasad's one year of absolute hard work, determination and efforts is now a year old and touch wood, will go places.

- I went to Goa TWICE and wish to go again and again..

- So many thoughts, so many events.. I just didn't know where to start and blog it all out. But, here I am. And its gonna keep coming now on. Since there has been so much happening in the past few months, I have just so much to share!

So, I decided to put up some sneak peeks into the scene with random pictures because, well... a picture is worth thousand words. Right? :)

Arranging some Love..

My Brother and I were having some good laughs viewing profiles at www.keralamatrimony.com.

Yes, we're looking out for alliances for him. Its amusing how people can describe themselves as "white-complexioned", extremely good-looking, very intelligent and similar adjectives!!

How modest.

Another weird rule of the alliance-search is that the guy MUST have more alphabetic credentials ahead of his name. Basically, if she's a Graduate, he HAS to be a post-graduate, duh. If she's a PhD , you better have your guy with Supersize-PhD in Rocket Science.

Then comes the most rip-off-your-hair-and-scream-out-in-frustration torture, the Horoscope Matching. I wouldn't disregard this path of art/science because many people are staunch believers in that. Yet, there's a limit to everything people! Because, here people don't seem to be satisfied that your compatibility match works out. You need to be born with Paapam, Doshas, Jataka and one million star signs to match your life partners'. (I agree some of them do sound like dishes).

However, I cannot really blame them. It so happens that I didn't have to go through the pains of alliance-searching myself. So, I can't really be an unbiased judge.

I have so many friends and siblings who're in the same process and I must say, It can definitely be very frustrating. That's when one feels, it would have been so much easier to just fall in love with someone and be married. To certain extent, I agree to what they say. To certain extent, I would say, "...you don't just fall in love! Sure you CAN, but you gotta nurture it."

But then, one thing that's common to either Arranged or Love Marriage, something no couple can escape is, to make it all the way. Isn't it? :)

With my own marriage coming close, I wish the warmest feelings to all the people in love or in search of love, to find not the right person, but, the person right for them...and the journey ahead.

Who wants some Pav Bhaji!?

Today was one of those days when I did every task that I had been procrastinating forever.

I cleaned up my cupboard, I cleared that nagging cobweb in that unreachable corner of the bathroom, I scrubbed my heels, I cleared my dressing table of all those unwanted creams/ nail colors/ cotton balls and unbelievably even stitched that one nasty button back on my favorite pants-which-was-unusable-since-the-button broke.

Phew! I feel productive alright.

Did I brag about the fact that I got a kitchen helper/cook. (Picture me hopping around in joy). So obviously, nowadays my mind is overjoyed at the thought of going home since I would get to do the one of the things I love, COOK! Without worrying to clean, chop, dice or mince.

So, today was the Pav Bhaji day. And I must say, Bro and Prasad were floored by it. So, I will let the lip-smacking do the talking too. :) Now, giddy up and take down the quick recipe right out of my kitchen.

Ingredients

- Fresh Pav (The numbers depend on your appetite)

- Vegetables may include;

Carrots, Potatoes, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Capsicum, Tomatoes, Onion, Green Peas...Basically anything you can lay your fingers on. Except of course, Brinjal and Ladies Finger!!

- Green chillies, Coriander and lemon slices for garnish

- Pav Bhaji Masala ( I would recommend Everest or Catch)

- Salt to taste

- Loads of butter of course.

Procedure

- Wash, peel and halve the vegetables, except for onions.

- Chop the onions, coriander leaves and green chillies finely.

- If you have a food processor, I would recommend just running the raw veggies in that for a few churns. If not, you have more chopping to do. :| Don't fret over chopping evenly, they are going to be mashed anyway.

- Once ground coarsely, just pop them all into a pressure cooker and give them a few steams.

- Meanwhile, saute the onions & green chillies in oil and when golden brown, add the Pav Bhaji masala, salt and turmeric. (P.S. Spare some onions for the garnish!)

- Once, the veggies are boiled, use a large serving spoon or masher and manually mash them into a coarse pulp. Add these to the saute'd seasoned onions.

- Bhaji is ready!

- Butter a pan and roast the Pav on that. Make sure you slice them into halves for better greasing. :)

Serving Style

- Ensure piping hot Bhaji is served for the best taste. Garnish it with a blob of butter, chopped coriander leaves, chopped onions and a slice of lemon to squeeze.

- Bring in the buttered Pav.

- Serve right from the stove to the platter.

Bon Appetite!

Begging for beds...

Its those post-lunch hours at work when you can kill someone to get a fluffy bed. Actually, not even fluffy, any bed, any horizontal surface would do. God bless those minds who came up with idea of a rest lounge at work for women. Especially women, the delicate half of the human species. Because of course, with all that they go through biologically, that a man can never undergo; they deserve it. Sadly and honestly, that's true!

Thus, winning us the brownie point of a dormitory.

But, then the million dollar question arises, do you ever get to sleep on that bunker bed in the dormitory!??

No.

Why??

Because some ladies sleep on them as though they have never encountered a bed before in their life.

Now, come on you can't be serious!

No, seriously! They sleep with their claws dug deep into the bed. They cannot be removed from their until (death do us part? Nah, that's too harsh) eternity!

Ah, that must really suck. Especially when you really need to get a shut eye, or worse, when you aren't well.

Oh tell me about it. I have stood there towering over sleeping women hoping that they will freak out when they open their eyes and would run out that door. I just got snores back in return.

God, that's outrageous!

Oh, that's nothing. Now, I get a feeling they even reserve the beds! They land on the bed in the off-sleep-hours and proceed with eating, chatting, stretching and then finally sleeping through the day. Makes me sometimes wonder if they even get their own pillows from home to make themselves 'feel at home'.

They should make some rule for the time that one person can occupy a bed for.

How!? You should see those women! They even cover their faces with the duvets to shut out any "official" disturbance from the outer world. What are we supposed to do? Yank their blankets off and pour a bucket of water , like the movies. Although that would surely be fun.

Although, I really wish if the world was the movies, one day I might just do that! LOL.