My little Sweetie

Its a girrrrrrll!!

A Ketan production. Directed by a doctor in a khar nursing home, a little darling star was born on the 9th of April 2007 weighing 6.5 pounds. I personally think she is a photo copy of my brother, all complete with the button nose that has been handed down from generation to generation. Oh I am soo pleased when people tell me she looks a lot like me. Secretly I know its only because I have a baby face and a button nose and most kids would look like me but it makes me really happy all the same.
I keep color print outs of the photos of the baby with me at all times. Just cant stop staring every few minutes.

Preview
I was in Llanberis, Wales at the top of Mount Snowdon, the tallest mountain in England and Wales when Ketan called to say his wife was in labour and the baby was due in the next two hours. Two hours later, I was peering at the menu stuck neatly onto the glass door of a quaint tea room and had just mentally decided on the full English breakfast when Ketan called to say a girl was born 2 minutes ago. Ecstatic, I did a bit of screaming before polishing off the sausage, egg, bacon, beans and toast and part of the cake which Mohit had ordered as well to celebrate. Congratulations to me :)

revival or should I say easter resurrection...

Its been three months since I last dropped a line or a word even onto my launch pad (ya ya u wont be laughing when I win those awards one day!). Since then I have been through loads of movies, lots of new recipes, stop start diets, a bit of travelling, two grey hair and finally a brand new niece (I shall write about the sweetie in my next post).

It was quite comforting when I sneaked occassionally into Prachi's blog and saw that Mishti was still at her pottery since Prachi's last post and Anika still had the chocolate sauce all over her face when they last met at 5 spice. Things have happened in India since you know!! Khajoor even bragged how she gorged on Parsi food or Prachi acquired her first real fast toy. Prachi's blog however remained mum through all this.

Prachi's back in NY this weekend-to be directly translated as..more time on her blog and four more posts, two of them cryptic, Anika doing the pottery and Mishti snickering at me---------- AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!

Its wakie time!!

Next on the menu- Apple Raisin Muffins

Chilly Paneer

This one can be whipped up in minutes.

A packet of Paneer cubes
lots of garlic (10 pods)
brown sugar or regular sugar
Soy Sauce (1/2 cup)
Spring Onion
finely chopped Green Chillies
Cornflour (optional)
Salt to taste

Heat oil in a wok till hot. Add garlic and let it fry for a few minutes taking care not to burn it. Add a bit of sugar so as to carmalise it.

Add Soy sauce and let the mix heat up. Add salt. The cornflour can be added at this stage mixed in a bit of water. Next add the paneer cubes. and the spring onion and chillies.
Saute for few minutes and this dish is ready to serve.

Making this dish just before serving helps retain fresh flavours.

Mulled Wine...Hey its Christmas

Last Christmas was our very first in this country. On one of our trips into the centre of London around christmas time, we chanced upon steaming cauldrons of some concoction being sold in a few shops. A few mugs down the line on the chilly winter evening we were believers!! This concoction was nothing but the very traditional mulled wine. Just rightly hot, heady fruit and mildy spiced wine.

This year I made my very own at home. A little bit of research and queries and a TV programme and I came up with my very own recipe. Now nothing is measured so please use your own judgement.

Here is what you need:
Any cheap wine
Cinnamom sticks
bit of Nutmeg
cloves as per taste (pierce into oranges for visual effect)
apples & oranges (chopped into big pieces)
any dark sugar (or sugar)
a tea bag
a few lemon squeezes
half a cup of water
1/4 cup of brandy

Drop everything into a pot and heat on slow fire but do not let it boil. When sufficently hot dip the tea bag for a few minutes and remove. heat till just before it boils. Remember if it boils, the alocohol in the wine disappears.
Cheers!

Lentil Pancakes (Daal Dosa)

My favouritest (if there is such a word) of all dosas is the dalli pole. My Mom made this from time to time and with the wet garlic chutney, it tastes amazing. The daals can be soaked overnight and the dosas can be made the next morning.

Here is what you will need:
1/2 cup Chana daal
1/2 cup urad daal
1/2 cup moong daal
1 inchg ginger
3 pods garlic
2 green chillies
1 finely chopped onion (optional)
oil (I use it only for the first dosa)
salt

Wash the lentil and soak it in sufficient water overnight. The next morning grind the lentil along with the ginger, garlic and chilly. Add salt and water to make it dosa consistency. Add onion.
Heat a non stick pan till really hot. Spread oil and spoon out the batter into the centre. Spread the batter around the pan with a rounded ladel starting from the centre in a circular motion. If you have a good non stick pan, you can make this as thin and crisp as possible if prefered (I dont mind it slightly thicker uthappam style).
When one side is golden, turn on its rear and heat until done. For the next dosa, sprinkle water on the hot pan and then spread the batter (no oil required). For butter dosa add butter just before turning the dosa on its rear.
Relish with any wet chutney.

Movie muddles

Watched the movie 'Bhaagam Bhaag' today. Must say I havent seen a crappier movie in a long time!! Apart from a few funny jokes, most of it was insipid comedy with lots of faux pas.
For example, the theatre group lands at heathrow and are driven to Osterely and they pass the Big Ben on the way. One of the scenes is shot in Brighton supposedly and the fire brigade which arrives is the 'London Fire Brigade'. Also in Brighton are streets from Oxford!! Paresh Rawal is wasted and Govinda had made a sensible decision to retire. Akshay Kumar shines but cant be expected to carry the burden of a terrible storyline.

Earlier in the week I watched Kabul Express and thought it was really good. Arshad Warsi is hillarious and the script is fabulous. Wouldnt mind watching it again.

Quite liked Casino Royale except the ending. Daniel Craig is good.

Next on the list is:
Babul (though not too keen), Happy Feet.

Christmas Regalia in Office

What started as a simple christmas tree with lights and tinsel in the finance area led to competitions of sorts within the whole company!!

The IT Pod came up with byte sized snow flakes in florescent colours. The Marketing team being the 'Marketing team' decorated each of its pods differently. The top competition was between the Skin care team and the Beauty team. Skin Care theme was 'Winter wonderland' with lots of silver and white tinsel, a silver curtain and complete with a silver carpet. The Beauty team collected all the plants around office (cheeky buggers) and put them into their pod,threw in a bit of green tinsel, long twirly tailed paper monkeys and bang its a jungle book themed christmas.

The last day in office before christmas was fun and involved little or no work. We dared to borrow speakers and had christmas carols playing all day hoping the M.D wouldnt intervene in true Christmas spirit. We collected a couple of quid from everybody and I went with Mike to the local Waitrose where we quickly filled our trolley with hot and cold ready made snacks for our Christmas buffet.

Oh what a spread it was with hot roasted chicken, cold honey flavoured ham slices, baguettes, cheese, cheesy titbits, dips and hummuous, cocktail sausages, scotch eggs, bacon rolls, chocolates, Marks & Spencers assorted cakes and lots of fizzy pops.

Pumpkin Soup

Pumpkin is a big no no with my hubby. Since it is supposed to be soo healthy, I was motivated to come up with a recipe which will sell pumpkin in a different light. I do feel this recipe does exactly that. Also I came up with this recipe on my own, trial and no error.

Ingredients
250 gms chopped pumpkin
1 chopped potato
1 chopped carrot
1 finely chopped onion
1 bay leaf
1 clove
few black pepper pods
1/2 cup coconut milk (or according to taste)
garlic (2 cloves)
1 tsp oil

Boil the first three ingredients in a cooker. Once done let it cool.
Heat oil in a pan. Add the bay leaf, clove, pepper, then add the garlic and then finally the onion. Fry till golden.
When this has cooled down, remove the bay leaf and clove and grind all the vegetables and the onion together. Heat in a pan. Finally add the coconut milk and salt. Heat till it boils.
Serve hot with garlic bread or croutons.

Quick Crisp Dosa

Dosa has got be be one of my favourite dishes. I guess it all comes down to the Dosa wala outside Gowalia Tank who makes 'out of the world' dosas. The other person is me mom!!

The normal dosa making procedure takes two days. I can never remember to soak up the rice and urad daal on time and hence we almost never made any dosa at all. All this before my mom gave me this magic recipe. True it doesnt taste as good as the regular ones but is still really crisp and the closest you can get in taste. Now at least I can have home made dosa as often as I can!!

Ingredients
1 1/2 cup rawaa
1 cup urad daal (soak overnight but 3 hours is just fine)
salt
Grind the urad daal with water. Add the rawaa and salt. Mix well. Adjust to dosa consistency by adding water.
Heat a non stick pan. Spread oil for the first dosa. When its quite hot, spoon out the batter in the centre and spread it with a rounded ladel in concentric circles starting in the centre till the last circle is closer to the edge of the pan. Once golden flip it on its rear.

The next few dosas can be made by sprinkling water on the hot pan (fatfree for the calorie conscious) . Or make butter dosas by spreading butter after spreading the batter on the pan.

Eat em hot with sambaar, yellow potato bhaaji and chutney.