Wednesday 23 October 2013

For Bitter or Better?


I think a Lot and when I am alone I think way too much. People who love me tell me –“tum bahut sochti ho, jyada sochogi to Pimple ho jayega!!”. I think hard about Life, Relationships and My family, Friends, Dear ones & not so dear ones.

Bitter or Better all relationships you have in your life give you a taste of both. The Mix taste that the relationships in life has to offer is what forms the relationship good or bad , sweet or bitter.
After years of mixed bag of feelings, the one thing that I am sure of is Relationships give you what you choose them to. If you choose to be happy its happiness, if you choose to love you get loved. If you choose not to connect they are at safe distance and if you choose to give the keys of your heart away, there they go playing with your heart like a football. Some just want you as long as they wanted you to be around. The day they think they can’t handle you they just say Not Again…About Time etc. etc. ….
One should know that the bitter is not always bad and the sweet is not always good. Some are so sweet in the beginning whereas they just get to the worst side sooner than you thought; eventually teaching you lessons of life. Whilst some are bitter in the beginning and then you get to see their good sides and thus they take a place inside your heart forever.
I choose to be with the Not So Sweet....that is also evident from my love for Dark Chocolates, bitter yet extremely good for health and mood up-lifter too. Not always sweet but they do turn around to be the best.
Somewhere I Feel the Bitter Sweet Relationships are like Caramel Pudding-The recipe in this blog…Bitter yet sweet, sweet yet Bitter !!
Caramel Pudding:
Ingredients:
Milk – ½ Litre
Sugar – 9 teaspoons for mixing
Sugar   - 2 teaspoons for Caramelising
Vanilla Essence/ Nutmeg – 1 teaspoon / grated few strands
Eggs - 2
Cashew Nuts   – 8-19 nos.

Source: Pashionnate's Kitchen

How To:
1.       Boil the half a litre of milk and boil it a little longer and keep it aside.
2.       Start with taking 2 teaspoon of sugar in a mould; prefer aluminium cake tins or any other which can be put on flame. Sprinkle few drops of water in it.
3.       Put this over direct gas flame. Once the sugar starts to melt with bubbling, start moving the mould round to let the sugar coat the insides of the tin. Keep it over the flame and moving until you get this perfect Golden Caramel Brown. Be careful, the cake tin moulds are easy to heat and sugar retains the high temperature until a little longer so high chances of burning it.
4.       Keep the Tin mould aside for cooling.
5.       Whip eggs till slightly frothy, mix in Sugar prefer to powder the (9-10 teaspoons). Beat them together until mixed well.
6.       Add Vanilla essence or grated Nutmeg as per the flavour you would prefer to give it. Blend again.
7.       Add the kept aside milk to this mixture. Mix well gain.
8.       Pour this mixture in the mould which you kept aside.
9.       To bake this or to steam this is what I leave to you.
10.   To Bake: Pre-heat oven at about 200-220 Degree Centigrade. Put this Cake tin inside a Oven Proof Tray filled with water enough to generate steam in the oven for say about 25-30 minutes. Refer picture below , a baked one after taking out from Oven looks like this.
  

11.   To Steam: Take a pressure cooker with about 100-150 ml of water. Place a stand inside it. Make sure that the stand is high enough to keep water away from the tin mould. Cover the mould with a lid to keep the water away.
12.   Now close the cooker and let this steam on medium flame for 25 minutes ( without whistle)
13.   Once done it looks stiff and you may insert a knife in the center to check that nothing sticks to it. This shows that the Pudding is done.
14.   Let this cool for an hour and place it in the Fridge for serving it chilled. Do not freeze the caramel pudding.
15.   Once ready to serve, turn the pudding upside down for that perfect Caramel colour.

16.   Share the Bitter Sweetness with all your Loved Ones!!

Friday 4 October 2013

Road Trips:P

I live in Mumbai …..Oops Navi Mumbai (all Mumbaikar’s would be annoyed if I call it Mumbai). There’s always this; Navi Mumbaikar's are treated deferentially. As I hear , we are the "Outsiders"- people who are new to Mumbai settle for Navi Mumbai; the under privileged child of Mumbai.

But Mumbai vs. Navi Mumbai is not the topic of my blog today. I was actually looking at the clouds today while I took a walk around my beautiful office campus and I watched these Spongy Cottony clouds (Cumulus Humilis) which formed various shapes and sizes. Lovely breeze enveloped me along with sun shining and the shadow of clouds falling on the lake . All this reminded me of my Road trips with my parents in Orissa.

My Papa loved driving and he was man enough to take the three ladies in his life, to long beautiful road trips!! One of such trips was to this amazing place Chattarpur in Orissa but more than the visit to the place it was This Journey which always was the high point of the trip.
I vividly remember the road and offcourse the natural beauty of the surroundings which added to the picturesque scenery. It used to be the clear days of October with white clouds patching the pristine blue sky and the road was clear clean grey  just like the good old slate black board days with markings in the center, with Eucalyptus trees lining the road. Amidst one of those was this little Dhaba which was like an Oasis in the middle of nowhere. We stopped there each time we went to this place. The beauty of the place and food that they served was in the freshness of vegetables and fish that they picked up from the farm right behind the Dhaba and the tiny river which ran right between the farms and the Dhaba. It was more of a clear water spring than a river. The best memory of the trip apart from what is described here was this “Chilly Prawns” as they called. I have picked up the recipe just by observing the Ingredient while I enjoyed it with lovely Triangle Parathas. I leave you here the recipe of this mouth watering lingering delicacy.

Ingredients:

1.       Prawns                 10-12   Medium Sized shelled & de-veined.
2.       Onions                 3-4    Medium Sized cut in to thin long slices
3.       Green Shallots                  Chopped leaves of 2-3 green ( optional)
4.       Green Chillies    2-3 as per taste
5.       Red Chilly powder  ½ - 1 tsp as per taste
6.       Coriander Powder  1-2 tsp
7.       Turmeric powder  ½ tsp
8.       Oil as required
Source: Self

   Method       :

1.       Heat oil in a shallow pan.
2.       Add thinly sliced onions, let the onions fry until golden brown in colour. Once done add the slit green chillies.
3.       Sauté a little over a minute to infuse the flavors of the Green Chillies.
4.       Add Red Chilly powder , turmeric and coriander powder. Stir them together.
5.       Add the shelled prawns, cover them for a while say about 7-10 minutes.

6.       Uncover the pan, stir them for a few more minutes about 4-5 minutes. And the prawns are ready to be served with Triangular Parathas.