Paneer Butter Masala

Indian food or any food for that matter is quite emotionally comforting is what I have discovered. Especially in the current environment, when bankruptcy looms about you, when recession seems to be the buzz word and when your jobs hanging precariously on a few strands, there nothing like a good home made meal to lift your spirits.

So here is how I cooked up a comfort meal for my friends at Natgeo.

Ingredients –

Paneer (Cottage cheese) - 1 Slab
Onions - 4
Tomato puree – ½ a can
Cashew nut paste – 2 tablespoons
Coriander powder – 2 tablespoons
Red chilli powder – 1 tablespoon
Turmeric power – ¼ tablespoon
Cumin powder – ¼ tablespoon
Salt to taste
Ginger garlic paste – 2 table spoons
Garam Masala – 1 tablespoon
Butter – 2 tablespoons
Oil as per required
Cream – ¼ cup


Dice the paneer into small cubes and fry them in oil until they are golden brown. Keep the fried paneer aside. Now blend the onions into a fine paste and keep this ready.

In a frying pan add the butter and oil as per required. Once the butter has melted add the onion paste and the ginger garlic paste, sauté this mixture until it turns light brown. Make a paste with all the powders and add this paste to the sautéed onion mixture, let this fry for about two minutes until the masala is cooked. Now add the tomato puree and the cashew nut paste and slightly toss it, add water as required so as to form a smooth sauce. Now add salt to taste and let this sauce boil. Once it starts boiling add the fried paneer to it and let it simmer on a low flame for a few minutes.

I made a variation of this by adding pre boiled potatoes and peas along with the paneer.

Add cream to this and stir gently. Delicious paneer butter masala is now ready.

Maryland Madness..

Maryland is one of the schools you got to experience at least for the sporting activities. Tonight was Maryland Madness, the day they introduce the Mens basket ball team and the Womens basket ball team for the year.

A day when the gymkhana troupe, the competition cheer group and the spirit group perform and what performances, mind blowing something I am so happy I got to experience.

They have some stupendous performances, great displays of flexible bodies being tossed in the air, with absolute synchronization and co-ordination that is truly worth a standing ovation.

A grand entry of the respective teams and their coaches. It spreads an aura of pride and sense of respect and a feeling of admiration for such a great school and such a great sports facility.

So for all of you considering a school, I would definitely vote for Maryland, we Terps rock anyday!

Letz go Maryland! Letz go.... letz go...

The gymkhana teams performance -

Part 2



Competitive Cheer Team



Spirit Squad

Ash's kitchen

Headed out up North for this weekend to meet Srill's friends and other than Kitty, they were all new to me. This was an invitation I couldn't resist, always wanted to be there and when given a chance I just couldn't turn it down.

So here I go, absolutely shamelessly, I know, to Ash's house. Maybe its the being far away from home thingie, where you kind of get used to welcoming yourself to hardly known peoples houses, like you knew them from ages.

Pretty used to that now, its like any one from you country, north/south, are all part of your big family. Love that feeling actually!

The trip was short and sweet a time for Srill to catch up on her good old DSC days, that took me to mine too, just that its been way too long since I caught up with anyone.

A time where we got to know that gates at Atlanta airport changed by the minute and so does your probability of missing your flight.

A taste of the Hilton, am so guilty of this, still am, I dont know why, maybe because my hands are tied. I dont know who to help and how to help especially when I know they have time unlike a few other unlucky souls.

A time when Ash's kitchen never ceased to produce all the homely food I could ever get in the US of A. I was so glad Ash made curd rice. Its been a long time since I had curd rice the proper one with tadka.

I love curd rice, the one with pomegranate and grapes in it and creamy creamy curd and mustard seeds.

For the tadka, you need to heat a little oil and to it add a little bit of mustard, chana and urad dal seeds. Let it splutter then add the red chillies, a little bit of chopped onions, green chillies, garlic and ginger. Lightly saute the onions till they turn golden brown.

Mix the boiled rice with curd and little milk and add the pomegranate and grapes to it. Once you have mixed it add the tadka, a little bit of salt and mix well, then garnish it with chopped coriander and voila you have yummy curd rice ready.

This reminds me of picnics, when ever we went on family picnics we always had curd rice without fail. Those were the days....

A tribute to working Moms :)...

I wonder whether MBA case studies include stories of house management. I think one of the best places to learn the tricks of management is at home something that our Moms have been mastering day in and day out especially if they are working Moms.

There are different forms of management displayed at home, the simplest being managing your own house and the most difficult being managing a house where you are actually sharing the roof with different individuals.

If you are a house wife then that is the simplest form of house management, the house is run at your own wish and command and you are your own boss and you are the person you need to manage, with maybe a little help from your spouse and kids and maybe your in-laws and so on.

But with the nuclear family scenario being the new fad, its mostly you, and your little nuclear family.

The next is being a working Mom, I really wonder how working Moms manage their house. Its so much simpler here as most of the things are pre processed and buying, stocking, cleaning etc are really easy tasks.

But back home things are not this simple, so its really a challenge to manage your house, take care of your kids, manage your work environment and handle your family life in general. Its really marvelous how they manage it.

Kudos to you guys for having been through all that trouble and for having done such a wonderful job of getting where you are today despite the troubles and hurdles life poses. A special thanks to my Mom and what better day could I have chosen.

The third is the scenario I am in right now, living away from home. After having been pampered at home, after having played the kiddo role at home, with Mom/Dad being there to do everything, I am standing in this place far away from home, where I have to do all these mundane routine house management tasks alone.

The challenge is in getting the groove going when you are actually sharing the place with different individuals. Each person has their own way of doing things, each person has a different upbringing, each person has their own priorities and each person has a different way of managing things at home.

It is especially difficult when people are new to the 'do it your self' life style. For some reason unkown to me, back home every household has a servant so every child is so used to having the servant take care of most of these day to day chores that it is very difficul for them to adapt to the 'do it your self' life style.

So well how do you actually work on the 'keep the house you stay in tidy' moto when your dealing with people who have hardly done all this back home. Challenging isnt it? Pretty much a scenario where you are in charge of a team and the people under you are reluctant to work.

Now you dont want to boss around anyone and break anyone's heart and at the same time it doesnt seem fair that you do all the work, does it? So how do you get people to do the work they are supposed to do? That is what managing people is all about isnt it ?

So well there you go, I proved my point that one of the best places for learning how to manage people is right here at home :).

Smorgasbord

Apparently a new word I learnt from non other than Ms. Penelope, whatever you say people she's gotta rocking vocab amidst all the 'towny lingo' ;).

Now this was with regards to our Dinner with Gulab Jamoons, Ice Cream, Daal Makhani, Aloo Jeera fry, Jeera Rice and Aloo tikki. Yummmmm. I know, sorry Harshu, cant find another word to substitute yum.

I made the jamoons, which was no big deal actually, with the mix we got from Patels. We decided we'd finally get down to making jamoons.

So just knead the dough with a little bit of oil and hot water. Roll it into small dumplings and deep fry the dumplings until golden brown. Have some sugar syrup made with water and sugar and a little bit of 'elachi' or cardamom for flavouring.

Let the dumplings soak in the sugar syrup for sometime and voila you'll have yummy gulab jamoons ready to be feasted on. Try eating hot jamoons with cold vanilla ice-cream mouthwatering aint the word. :)

Cup Noodles..

Dinner was cup noodles, actually had a fish sandwich for lunch it was far too heavy so wanted something light and decided to try out the shrimp noodles, with real shrimp in it. Not all that great but manageable.

Reminds me of those days release time, late nights, hosur road at night, cool wind blowing through my hair :) wondering when all this was going to end. The big tower across M2, BOSCH that seems so far away. A nearly empty bus, scantilly filled with people.

A melancholy feeling, something was missing...

Downtown Bangalore

I was reading this article titled 'India's Fast Lane' by Don Belt in the October 2008 edition of National Geographic and stumbled on the "downtown Bangalore" phrase and I couldnt help laughing, thought of "downtown Mumbai" and "towny lingo" and "Miss Penelope" of course.

Part of the perks guys :) life is a give and take relationship and so I've learnt, you want something you should be ready to lose something in return, hard truth. Never seems so to the guy across the street I know.

So for all you photographers, there is a National Geographic Photo contest more details at http://www.ngphotocontest.com/ the 3 categories are -

• People
• Places
• Nature

I know you guys have a good collection so send them in. I saw this picture of a shooting of some movie at bollywood framed at their office. Some oldie goldie Bollywood movie, a wedding scene, looked lovely.

If you havent already visited NG, please do so someday, its awesome, to just walk by the potraits and read through their descriptions.

Fire drill...

Its official, I finally do not have to bother my supervisor for a visitor pass, I have my entry to the Society. I finally feel like I have achieved something in life! Always wanted to be different and do something that I really wanted to do and here I am, living my dream to the fullest, the feeling is so enriching...

First day and a fire drill, I was for a change trying to work and there goes the buzzer... I get a chance to see the behind the scenes brains :)...

As I walk through the streets of D.C, I see this poster outside the Society,

A young mother putting her baby to sleep, I guess its shot in Somalia, a fragile little thing his head resting on a piece of cloth and the barren parched earth beneath, all cracked and not a drop of water in sight to even bind it together.He seemed to be enjoying his nap, despite the fact that he has no shelter what so ever to protect him from the blazing sun.

Some of us are so lucky in life...

there are so many people world over who do not have a place to live, a roof to shelter them from the sun or the rain or for whom a days meal may just be what we threw away. Wish there was some way I could direct all that food to the millions in dire need of it...

Kudos to the guys who bring out the truth as it is...

Newspaper

So I have to take the train to D.C early in the morning and this is going to be a regular routine for the next few weeks. The good thing about doing that is you get your hands on a newspaper. Its been a while since I have spent time with my morning paper.


Back home it used to be a routine, grab hold of the paper and read through the articles. The gossip in and around, the political fiascos, the letters to the editor and so on. My mornings always began with my newspaper.


But I've never been able to do that here as we dont have newspapers dropped to your doorstep, had to go online to check the news and trust me it felt so good to hold that paper in my hand and glance through the happenings and to hear the paper ruffle in your hands...


Well, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, Merrill Lynch was sold for $50 billion to Bank of America, 5900 P.G.County employees asked to go on a furlough and the University budget is going to be cut again... doesnt look good does it.... :(

Sabudana Vada & Palak paneer...

So the second week of school goes by, I blinked my eyes and mondays back here. What a tumultuous week phew...

A GBM that went of fine, amidst the running around I did like a chipmuck, being tossed from building to building, hounding people for approvals a jamming session that I missed due to lack of energy, my first live soccer match at UMD, a NASA open house a chance to walk through the clean rooms of where the Mars mission began...and the second sunday school class this time with 1st graders too one hell of a week.

Rock on that takes you back to those good old days, I miss the mavericks too.. and I realize I miss many more people and maybe someday i'll walk into them....

But the farewells have begun and we've been inviting ourselves to Sabudana Vada and Palak paneer parties, kudos to the chefs Nao & Harshu and its wonderful to have you put up with us. I enjoyed every bit of it and I'm gonna miss all of you guys....

Vada..

More bad news, apparently the unemployment rate has jumped from 5.7% in July to 6.1% in August, the trend doesn’t look very pleasing.

So well I was trying my best to teach Sunday school to these 2nd graders, what a challenge that is, sweet little things with attention that wanders over 5 times around the world every second. I can hardly keep them captivated to what I say for like 2 minutes. Need to figure a way to beat the wandering mind of a 6 year old and race up far ahead of it.

Thanks to Aunty, my roomies and me had a good feast of vada today. The occasion was Roshi’s birthday, belated happy b’day to you Roshi, so aunty made these lovely vadas. Idli-Vada is a typical South Indian breakfast and I love hogging steaming hot idlis and vadas with sambhar and coconut chutney in the local darshinis, especially Adiga’s.

Adiga’s, a chain of fast food joints in Bangalore brings back memories of undergrad days. The good old days, when we were so naïve and life was so much more simpler. I like the concept of darshinis something very unique to Bangalore, sometime I’ll go over it in detail.

So here is how you make urad vada, the ingredients being urad dal, pepper corns, green chilies, onions, ginger, salt and oil to fry the vadas. So you let urad dal soak for about 4 hours, then grind it to a paste with onions, green chillies, ginger and pepper corns. Add enough salt to taste and then deep fry the vadas in the hot oil in that typical vada shape (doughnut shaped). Then serve the hot vadas with coconut chutney or sambhar.

Best Friends

I think it is the weather, the Hurricane Hanna effects that we experiencing in CP or whatever is in the air now, I decided to write about Best Friends in general. I remember Vikas, one of my best friends, with a heart that was so pure, wherever you are Vikas I hope you read this sometime, (I never let my hopes drop down).


I have these fond memories, of having lunch with you, I loved the chappathi's and allu sabbjji that you used to get and it took me days maybe even weeks to realize that you would never come back to occupy the first place in that line for Class 1C, but there are still times when I remember you, and wonder how the world would be if you were here, maybe you would be a doctor like Munni, or maybe you would be like me or maybe you would have taken a different path, but this is just to reach out to you.


I still remember that day during assembly when your sister was wailing and Bhatia Ma'am was consoling her and I didnt have the faintest idea why you would never be there to play with me again. But when I think of that today my eyes well and I really wish you would be there here by my side!


I have many best friends, all along the way, every new stop I make in life I end up having atleast one best friend but as life rolls on we kind off lose touch with our best friends, not our fault not theirs, its just destiny's little crime, maybe an excuse may be not even. We lose some of them to time and some of them to ego but life still goes on.


We still remember them in those moments of reminiscence and we know that no matter what, we still have that special place reserved for them, but trust me it makes a world of a difference if you pick up the phone now and speak to one of those many best friends, time would have flown by, too much water would have flown over the bridge but still the warmth that it brings is far too valuable to be weighed with anything.


One of my friends', friends' recently asked me to watch out for her, I do not know if it is the fear of straying on the wrong path or if it is because she senses that my friend seems to be lost and needs someone but I found that so touching, we maybe at our points of highs or lows but still our best friends are always there to care for us, miles away, minutes away, sometimes even eons away. The feeling is in itself truly refreshing, so here is to Best Friends and in particular to Vikas, I know you will be there high above in heaven smiling down at me right now.

Jobless and eating chutney podi..

Read this article on Job Market recession and the trend right now, scary! The only consolation being it isnt as bad at 2001's recession or the 1990-1991 recession, but they say that is attributed to the fact that not many jobs were added to be cut down as compared to those periods hmm. Anyways when it hits you it hits you hard.

All this because I was cribbing about not having money to enjoy, which is the truth, not just for me but for anyone in my plight. The statistical figures relating to disposable income and joblessness is really interesting, read on at

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122057362716301721.html?mod=todays_us_nonsub_money_and_investing

When times are bad they really are, its like one of those Murphy's laws.

On the cooking front, I feasted on rice and chutney podi yesterday, my mouth was so watering while I was taking the chutney podi dabbas out to eat with the hot rice. I still dont know how to make chutney podi, but apparently I discovered that there are a thousand varieties of chutney podi. People at home will be like, I cant believe your eating chutney podi with rice, but well you need to experience the 'away from home' feeling to determine the true worth of chutney podi.

Selling a concept - The Brew HaHa way..

Now this is a games bar located in good old garden city. Met up with my dearest pals there and had a ball of a time when I was in India last. Basically they'll loan you games like pictionary, scrabble and so on, along with the food. So you can order food and you can like play something while waiting/dining. There is an hourly rate for the game boards and the charges for the food is separate. Eventually you will be engrossed in the game and kind off pull it, you end up having more food or something to drink and they do good business. Well the concept sells well, the fact that it is strategically placed behind JNC gives business a run for itself. Nice nah!

It reminds me of Dave&Busters, just that its a bar and a restaurant in addition to a games parlor, http://www.daveandbusters.com/. You get to play snooker and games of that sort here.

Selling a concept - the Melting Pot way

This is something I am yet to experience, heard that there is this restaurant called The Melting Pot, http://www.meltingpot.com/ that sells by its fondue experience. Pretty neat huh! Imagine going through picking your meal and letting it cook before you, while you enjoy some small talk with maybe (not necessarily) your better half. I knid of like the concept but people who are averse to cooking wouldnt think too great of it. Be sure to read through the history at their site, cant believe its something thats been there for the past 30 years, ding dong, why doesnt something like that flash through my brain once in a while ?

Selling a concept - the bd way...

So well the management bug has bitten me too, now I tend to see everything the marketting way, so here is an insight to selling a concept centered around culinary skills. Went to this restaurant called bd's Mongolian Grill,

http://www.gomongo.com/index.php

Check out the video, savagely wild nah! :)

There is one at Bethesda and I loved the concept, basically you grab a bowl, and fill it with the meat of your choice and whatever you want to compliment it with, the pasta, the veggies and the likes and then you hand your bowl to the chefs who'll grill it for you in front of you and serve it in a plate. You can then have this assorted mix of grilled veggies and meat that you created with either tortillas or rice. Compliment it with the sauce of your choice and there you go, a wonderful meal for yourself. They have some good martini's too that go with the meals. The dessert section is also just as wonderful. Just remember to strike the gong as a token of your appreciation for the food and try not to look up at the ceiling :).

Barbecue & S'mores

Apparently it was Hot Sauk's birthday and we decided to celebrate it the barbecue way, trust me it is an altogether different experience. So we had this lovely chicken marinade that Aappy made and the paneer with veggie marinade that was equally sumptuous. We went to this State Park near Germantown and got the grills started. Layered the veggies on the skewers and let them barbecue and let the chicken barbecue to glory. Then we feasted on it all, amidst the woods, what a royal feeling. By the way barbecuing is not all that easy, you need to constantly watch the coal, so that it maintains the red hot environment, good for us that Sauk was around, (giggles).

But the best part of the barbecue was the S'mores, basically you barbecue marshmallows and sandwich them with Graham crackers and dark chocolate, simply divine, it just melts in your mouth. So well thanks to Sauk, I got to eat some lovely S'mores courtsey my dearest fellow TA, Mona!

Panera Bread

On our way back from Ocean City, we stopped over at Panera Bread to grab something to bite. Heard these great reviews for this restaurant and so we decided to check it out and you bet it was good. So for people new to the US here is one of the foodie stops you wouldnt want to miss,

http://www.panerabread.com/

I went for the Broccoli Cheddar soup which was amazing, the bread that goes with it is also far too fabulous. For the veggie people, I have heard that the Panera Bread Mediterranean Veggie Sandwich is a must eat and there is nothing like a Caramel Pecan Brownie to go with it, mmmm.... mouth watering I know!

Ice cream : hot cakes

My roomie bought this new denim skirt and it reminds me of my denim skirt that my Dad gifted me a long time ago, oh how I miss my denim skirt, nostalgia! I wish I were closer to home, somewhere so close that I could just hop onto a bus and then go home and grab whatever I had left back there, but alas, home is a place that is so far away! Some things in life are so close yet so far.

We had free ice cream at Stamp today, some marketing tactic and it gave me the inspiration to write about the art of making ice cream. It reminds me of the time I made ice cream for Maria’s brother, a four year old then. He was so excited about it that he convinced his Mom to make fish fry for me in return for the ice cream. Really sweet I know I even had a poem about it.

So this is how you make ice cream, you’ll need milk, corn flour, just to thicken the milk, condensed milk, sugar, vanilla essence (or whatever flavoring suits your palate) and a blender. Firstly boil the milk. Then mix a little bit of corn flour with some cold milk. Add this to the boiling milk, stir this for some time until it thickens and then let it cool. Now add enough sugar and condensed milk and blend the mixture. Refrigerate it until its half set, and then beat it again. Now let it set completely and then voila yummy ice cream is ready to be served.

There was this documentary on Discovery Channel on the science of making ice cream, It was really informative, especially the Nitrogen Ice cream bit. We had something called Maryland Day at school recently, a day set aside for the University to showcase all the interesting experiments and projects to the little children and general public. We had a display of how nitrogen ice cream was made that day, but I guess they got over like hot cakes, hmmm 'ice cream got over like hot cakes' weird (giggles).

Nothing Fishy!

The new sushi place at Stamp is open, and I dropped in to try the food. Sushi, so different from the fish curry back home :)! I had this sunrise sushi, that too with a chopstick for the first time, though I could just manage to pop one roll into my mouth before I pounced on the fork. Chopsticks and me, we still have a long way to go!

Speaking of fish curry, there are so many different fish curries, but the one I am so used to making is the red curry. Fish Moli is really tasty, usually we have fish moli at weddings, it is considered one of those delicacies. My Mom recently coached me through Fish Mappas, not one of the curries we make at home. Then there is the "meen kozhumbu" (மீன் kஒழும்பு), a tamilian way of making fish, which my Mom knows. I know “meen policha" (മീന്‍
പൊളിച്ച) too, that’s fish steam cooked in a banana leaf, interesting huh!

The red fish curry is at the heart and soul of any Syrian Christian meal. It tastes real good with tapioca; I bet not many people have had this kind of food. I wonder why all these lovely dishes remain buried somewhere deep in the middle class households of Kerala. It is high time they start showing their faces on the global platter, I guess am doing my bit to help with that :).

All preparations are underway for the seafood bonanza, guess this would be the first time I will be preparing fish curry in the US of A, hmm! Though I did fry fish for junior last December, that too when I was on lent, so sadly I couldn’t taste the fish fry. So I have to decide, do I go with the regular red curry or should I make moli/mappas?

Puttu

Steamed food is very healthy. In Kerala we have a lot of steamed dishes, so today I am going to talk about making one of the most famous breakfast items in Kerala, ‘Puttu’, which are cakes of steamed rice flour and coconut with chickpea/channa curry, stew or banana as the side.

Puttu can be made with either rice or wheat or ragi flour. It is one of on the easiest dishes that can be made, just that you need the right vessel. It is steamed in a tube shaped vessel specifically used for making puttu. This vessel will be placed over a water pot that provides the steam. I really wanted to pick up on of these vessels when I was down there, but sadly I couldn’t.

So basically you take rice flour and knead it with warm water and a little salt. But you shouldn’t knead it into dough like we do for bread. It should still be coarse shavings of rice flour. You need to then layer this mixture along with grated coconut into the tall tube like vessel and place it over the pot of boiling water.

Let this cake steam cook for a few minutes and then you can serve the steaming hot puttu with some lovely chickpea curry or “kadala” curry as they say in Kerala. In the olden days puttu used to be made in coconut shells and the taste that the coconut shell lends to the puttu is something totally unique.

Some people have puttu with banana, this is very typical in Kerala and it will take time to get used to the combination of tastes. During the mango season people also have ripe mango with puttu. Sometimes they layer ripe jackfruit along with grated coconut it lends an all together different flavor. It is indeed amazing how many variations you can have to the ordinary dish.

The dreaded cold

Woke up this morning with this horrible head cold, have been suffering with it for about 2 days now. Apparently it seems to be some sort of flu virus that my dearest roomie passed on with great generosity to all around. Anyways here I am with the famous “jeladoshm” as we say in my native language and I need to beat the hell out of it. So today I am going to walk you through the general household remedies we take to cure the damn cold.


The first one is pepper coffee, its really soothing trust me. I have observed that this is something we follow around my native and for some reason it is pretty unheard of to the rest of the junta, unlike the next few remedies. Basically you have to make really light coffee with a good amount of crushed pepper in it. This concoction should be consumed warm. I think light black pepper coffee is more effective, but they usually recommend milk coffee with pepper for children. The next is light ginger tea. Again this should be really light with lots of grated ginger and it is most effective when consumed warm.


Another one of the therapies that I know of is, to let water come to a boil with Basil or “Tulsi” leaves, then let it cool down and drink this concoction periodically, this is pretty effective too. When I have a cold I prefer drinking things warm. Water boiled with fenugreek seeds or “Jeera” is also pretty good for cleansing the system. This should be taken regularly during the day. This is a good therapy for fever too. Basically when you have fever you should try consuming as much water as possible so as to cleanse your system.


So well that is about the “gyan” I know for the common cold and hopefully I am going to be rid of this cold soon. Speaking of “Tulsi” we were supposed to get a “Tulsi” plant for our home and at the rate we take care of our house I really wonder how long the plant will survive. I had one at home though which Dad used to take good care of.

Tea tales

Ah so I didn’t have such a great morning, the French Vanilla as usual isn’t there, this time they were out of English Toffee and Hot Chocolate too, so I had to get down to making Hazel Nut coffee, and I don’t like the coffee here, it is so different from the filter coffee we get back home.

The smell of filter coffee is in itself so invigorating; it reminds me of good old Bangalore, which I miss so much. I am not going into the details of making coffee; because that is an art I still have to master. Not sure how many of you will agree with me on this note, but I feel that no Star bucks or Coffee day coffee could come anywhere close to the authentic filter coffee made in a Bangalore household, ah simply banglorean isn’t the word. :).

As I haven’t finished my tea tales, I though I’d continue with that. Tea is something we all miss here; I really don’t know why the West hasn’t caught onto the tea bandwagon yet, hmm. Cutting chai, something very mumbaiya and up North, is half a glass of hot, strong, chai that tastes so good, the stronger it is the better it is. So if we were to talk in terms of US proportions it would amount to quarter part of a small coffee cup. Pretty small for anyone used to the size of a serving we get here, but it would be so rich with milk, sugar and tea and the flavours would just melt in your mouth. It has to be served in that thick glass with ridges, definitely incomplete without it.

When you are on a long drive along the highway and you’ve been at the wheel for hours a tea break is such a welcome change. Back home its so easy to find a tea stall along the highway and take that much needed break and maybe combine it with some hot banana chips simply irresistible.

Where ever you go in India, you are bound to get tea, but its tea that is served in the hill stations that tastes the best, be it Darjeeling, Niligiris, Musoorie, Simla, wow I could just go on, India has so many hill stations and I’m glad I’ve been to most of these places. There is something about drinking piping hot tea when its freezing outside, and every time you breathe you have this vapor formation, its like as though your smoking. As kids that used to be such a favorite pastime, we used to try our best to form rings in the air, if you know what I mean. Talking about tours, my parents are in Kaziranga and I didn’t even know it, just discovered so today, talk about being thrown out of home :(.

In Ooty you get something called chocolate tea, which I haven’t had, but its good is what I’ve heard. Some people have black tea, for this you should make light tea (without milk) and then add a few drops of lime and a little sugar. Green tea is good for the heart and so I’ve heard but green tea is pretty bitter.

My Grandma is into tea cultivation these days, actually for the past 10 years or so, and it’s nice to go on errands with her, with these cane baskets. You need to pluck the tender tea leaves as and when they are formed and then you need to give it to the mill, at least that is what I know, but I think you need to pluck out the tender leaves and then let them dry for a few days and then grind them and you’ll have tea powder. It used to be fun going around plucking tea leaves, we used to make these tiny carts or trolleys for the cane baskets, not that the tea leaves were heavy but its all about experimenting.

Doing justice to my Mom and her botanical names, the tea plant is known as Camellia sinensis :). Tea with bread is good when you have a running stomach, household therapies :) and generally tea is a healthy drink, so here is to you chai ;).

Thirst quencher

In my quest to keep myself occupied I decided to shift from poetry to sharing my culinary ‘gyan’, a welcome break for my roomies and my wellwishers, who think I am so obsessed with poetry, which I think I am ever since I returned form India. So here is my blog on anything that suits my palate which I am sure would benefit a lot of them out here.

So let me start with the simple seedha sadha ‘chai’ or tea. A drink that is very common in India. The ingredients that you will need to make authentic chai are, tea powder, dry ginger, know as shunti in Southern India, cardamom or elaichi, whole milk, sugar and water. I use crushed tea leaves that I got from Ooty, which really tastes good and cost my Dad a fortune, but heck when it comes to a thirst quencher you should, go for it.

There are many ways to go about making tea, the ‘pal tea’ a very common way of making good tea that simply tastes superb involves heating 3/5th portion of milk and 2/5th portion of water on the stove. To this add the required amount of sugar and then you can add a few shards of grated dry ginger and a few cardamom peels. You can also crush the cardamom seeds into a fine powder and add a pinch to enhance the taste.

Let this concoction come to a boil and then add the tea powder in the required amounts. You can switch the stove off when you see the tea rising. Then place a lid over the vessel and let the flavors sink in for about 5 minutes. Now drain out the ‘pal tea’ and serve in cups.

Tea tastes really good with hot banana bajji when its cold outside and everyone in the family is huddled around the table, one of those family moments which is so common in India. Since ‘pal tea’ requires a lot of milk, I make it rarely only when guests come and the likes, my usual tea just consists of water boiling on the stove with the cardamom and dry ginger and tea leaves. I follow the same procedure just that there is no milk. Then I drain out the tea and add milk separately as required.

Here everyone is so diet conscious and so I use 1% milk, and hence the taste deteriorates accordingly. Some people prefer to add the tea leaves in the beginning itself. It’s basically up to you, whatever suits your palate. Notice that I never specify proportions in detail, I just cant measure and add stuff to my dishes, I base it on the aroma, its ‘aandaz aapna aapna’ you see.

Among hot beverages, Ne stop thinking :D, I had to put that in there, I like tea, coffee and hot chocolate, but tea keeps me awake and in the words of my dear roomie, I am a tea freak, but I like coffee just as much, just that it should be made the right way, I love French Vanilla, but for some reason the French Vanilla brew at Deli isn’t working and so I had to settle for English toffee and Hot chocolate, they were so sweet. I like my tea sweet but I do not like my coffee or hot chocolate sweet.