Life 'n' Such

I used to love eating this at Madhu aunty’s place. I normally dont like muli (‘raddish’) but I absolutely love these parathas (Stuffed indian bread). As kids, you dont like whats cooked in your house, the neighbors food is always appetizing. I used to hang out at their place for a few years, until they moved. Good ol’ days!

Ingredients:
Raddish ‘muli’ grated
garam masala (blend of indian spices)
asafoetida (hing)
(ajwain)
whole cumin (jeera)
dried mango powder (amchur)
chilli powder
turmeric (haldi)
fresh cilantro/corriander (dhania) and mint (pudina)
salt

whole wheat dough
oil/butter/ghee for cooking

Peel the muli(raddish) and grate it. If its very watery then press the grated muli and drain out as much water as you can and keep aside. Then put oil in a non-stick add couple pinches of hing, ajwain and cumin and let it turn golden brown. Then add the
grated muli and stir, finally add salt, turmeric, red chilli powder, garam masala, salt and dried mango powder as per your taste. Cook till the water dries up totally. Now add finely chopped coriander and mint. The raddish while cooking will give out a bad smell, its normal .

Now stuff this in the small dough balls and roll out (for the dough recipe and making the bread instructions check the aloo paratha recipe on this blog), roast them on a flat pan/griddle and while cooking, with a spoon put some ghee/butter/oil on the bread(paratha).

Enjoy delicious and extremely healthy stuffed muli paratha. Eat with yoghurt (dahi) and/or pickles (achaar).

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The coolest coolest site I bumped into today! Thanks Tehs

Check it out, you can find your city/area/house/apartments. Wikimapia.org just made my day. I located where I lived as a kid on this site. I also tagged the apts I lived in, the apartment where my neice Tara lives in, the place my parents live now etc. I went crazy. All you do is on the top right hand side, roll your mouse over the Wikimapia, then go to Search place, enter your city name, it will give you the different cities it finds. Select your city and explore!

You can also tag your own cities/streets etc here in practically every country on this earth!!!

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Another one of Madhu aunty’s fantastic recipes. Her mother in law, we call her Mamma, used to make this for me, whenever I wanted to eat it. I think all of them spoilt me.

Ingredients:

250 gms of gudd (jaggery, sweet substance made from sugar cane)
1 litre water

200gms whole wheat flour (finely ground)
ghee (indian butter) almost the same amount as the flour

Melt the jaggery in the water. Keep aside for cooling. In the mean time, roast the flour in the ghee, till its golden brown in color, and you get the aroma in the house. Now add to this, the cooled jaggery syrup with caution, it might get bubbly and splurt on your hands.

Now mix this properly, till the halwa leaves the sides of the pan. You can garnish this with roasted almonds.

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I just saw on the Walmart Free Samples page, free trial contact lenses.

If you are planning to make a switch to lenses, first try them out, and whats better than free trials?

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I love love love this salad, I cannot get enough of it! Popeye is going to be so proud of me! I ate this for the first time at Sarah aunty’s house (her garden is very beautiful, especially this time of the year). Since then I am a big fan of this salad.

Ingredients:
Salad greens (I like baby spinach and romaine lettuce combination)
chopped apple,
1 can baby oranges drained or fresh oranges, peeled and cut into halves
dry fruits (walnuts/ pine nuts/almonds- toasted preferably)
cherry tomatoes (or chopped tomatoes)
chopped cucumber
chopped red/green bell pepper (capsicum)
chopped strawberrys
grapes
any kind of cheese, fresh mozarella, goat cheese, turkish cheese, feta cheese, cheddar, cottage cheese, etc
Red Raspberry Hazelnut vinaigrette dressing (few dashes)

You can assemble this salad few hours before serving. At the end, drizzle the dressing over it and toss. Or keep it on the side.

This salad looks colorful.

Note: If you add chopped grilled chicken to this salad, it becomes chicken salad.

Also you can make this salad, with few or all of the ingredients listed above. Whatever you have on hand! You can add your own favorites to this salad. It is very versatile.

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Quesadilla is a toasted tortilla with cheese inside, originally a mexican dish. But people around the world do this one way or the other. My turkish friends use spanish cheese (we find it in local arabic stores) only inside tortillas. But we can make chicken quesadilla also very easily, especially if you got few pieces of leftover cooked chicken.

Ingredients:
Chicken pieces, cooked and shredded (either marinated in salt, yoghurt, red pepper and black pepper, or simply, boiled chicken with a dash of vinegar and salt, or any leftover chicken will work)
tortillas, (made of all purpose flour (in India, maida rotis)
cheese (any kind; cheddar, mozarella, spanish, etc or a mix of these)

In a flat griddle, roast the tortilla on one side, remove on a assembly board. Put chicken and cheese on half side of the tortillas (the cooked side). Fold it in half to get a semi-circle. Then put it back on the grridle to roast till crispy with a little oil or butter.

Done!

I love this as a snack anytime, or even lunch.

Note: For vegetarian quesadillas, you can put sauteed mushrooms and onions and cheese. Alexandra’s mother, Neo, makes this. She is an excellent cook, her specialty is Chicken enchiladas and rice. Yumm!

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I am sure, there are numerous recipes for making rice pudding (depending on the recipe, called kheer or firni in India, and surprisingly this is also made in Turkey, I will get that recipe soon).

Before reaching the airport, Rudaba aunty had just enough time to tell me this recipe.

Ingredients:
For 1/2 gallon full fat milk,
1/4 cup rice (soaked in water for about 4-6 hours)
Sugar,
dry fruits for garnishing (almonds, cashews, raisins)

Boil the milk in a non-stick deep pan. In a blender put the soaked rice and about a cup of cold milk. Grind to form a rough paste. Add this to the boiling milk. Keep stirring constantly, do not leave this even for a couple of minutes. Needs your full attention. Cook till this thickens, add about 1 cup sugar (more or less depending on your taste). Again boil till the sugar dissolves. Add the dry fruits.

Put it in little bowls and refrigerate. Serve chilled.

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Driving towards the SFO airport, Rudaba aunty told me this recipe on cell phone for making sevai (an indian dessert, which is one of my favorites, especially when she makes it !)

Ingredients:
1 packet sevai (very thin vermicilli)
ghee (indian butter/clarified butter)
milk,
1 can condensed milk,
3-4 cardomoms, or 1 tsp elaichi powder
dry fruits (almonds, raisins, cashews) optional
sugar
water for making syrup

Fry roast the sevai in 1 tbsp ghee in a big pan. Remove and keep aside. After its cooled a bit, add milk to soak the sevai, and about 1 inch above the sevai.

In the same pan, add 1 tbsp ghee, and elaichi powder or crack the cardomoms. After a bit, add the 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water. Let it come to a boil, then let it boil for additional 5 mins. Add the sevai in milk to this. At this point, you may need to add additional 1 or 2 cups of milk. After getting to a boil, add 1 can condensed milk, and now turn down the heat to medium. Cook for another 10 mins to get a thick consistency.

The milk in this sevai should not dry out completely. This recipe should be a little moist.

Serve hot or warm, Enjoy!

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Tehsin recently graduated. Congratulations Tehs!

She didnt have too many things at hand one day, and this is what she came up with!

Ingredients:
4-5 cloves garlic,
1 small onion chopped,
3 chicken breast, chopped into bite sized chunks
1/2 green bell pepper sliced
salt, red pepper, oregano, lemon juice

First fry the garlic in oil for a minute, then add the onions. Fry sometime, till transparent. Add the salt, spices and the lemon juice. Add the chiken. Fry again till chicken almost cooked. Cook open on high. Then add the green pepper and finally cook about 10 more mins.

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There are sweet deals at Kohl’s this weekend (Friday and Saturday). Lots of things, clothes, shoes, home, garden stuff is on sale.

Well, if you are trying to save your money, then I advise that you do not go! There are deals which are simply irresistible!

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