O - Orotti and Patthiri

You know one of those memories from your childhood that aren’t really special, so to speak, but will always stay with you? Allow me to share one of those.

I was maybe 12? 13? I remember wearing my favorite ‘home’ skirt and tattered tee that Mum never really liked and standing by the slab in the kitchen as Grandma fired up the gas stove and set the girdle on it.

There is this thing at home, whenever the older ladies of the family are doing housework, it is the duty of the girls in the house to offer to help them. I remember hating this rule growing up for it meant me having to offer to do odd jobs in the kitchen like bring chillies from the fridge, wash the parsley and coriander and peel onions, when I could very well be snuggled up with chocolate fudge and Harry Potter.  

Anyway, there I was standing in the hot kitchen with nothing much to do but unable to go back to my room when Grandma started telling me the recipe to make what she was making. She added water to rice flour, put some stuff in it that made the dough smell heavenly (zeera, coconut and salt, basically). The girdle was hot and ready by then, she ladled a bit of oil and started patting down a ball of dough onto it – all the while giving me instructions on how many ways there are to mess it up and how not to. I remember thinking the edges were broken and when I would make them, they would have perfectly rounded edges.  

While about twenty of them were being cooked - Grandma kept up a constant chatter about how it was a Malappuram dish and how she had seen her grandma make it on a choolha when she was a kid and all that. Then she proceeded to whip up a liquid out of seemingly innocent coconut milk with crunchy brown onions floating in it and whatnot.

Then she set me down a plate on the kitchen table and had me ‘taste’ it (this was an advantage of/reward for sticking around in the kitchen, I get to sample everything in large quantities). I have to say, by all the Gods of the realm, I have never had better orotti and patthiri. Or any kind of food for that matter.

 
She has never made it after that. I have never known what to ask for, if at all it is available in hotels. But that memory and the taste of those pancakes (for lack of a better word) remain with me, vivid and colorful, complete with how it tasted, till date. 

C - Capsicum

Now I shall proceed to explain why C stands for such a weird thing in my book.

So it seems to me that I spend my entire life questioning myself, I often wonder if I am shallow.

Okay, so capsicum never has been a vegetable that was an active ingredient in anything at home during my formative years. But my first year in Bangalore, I met a crazy roommate (do you remember the one who head bangs?) who was/is a very VERY good cook. So much so that she and I planned to start a catering business to make some money on the side. The definition of mouth-watering Punjabi khana has a small picture of her standing with her hands on her hips next to it.

She used to make these amazing parathas of all sorts. My favorite became the ajwainwala paratha. And to go with it, she used to make a lot of curries, typically Punjabi, but what really had me on my knees was the alu ki sabzi. Big fat chunks of alu mixed up with fresh green capsicum and stirfried lightly in ghee with that typically North Indian masala - crunchy and melt in the mouth at the same time. In those moments when she was serving me that sabzi, she could asked me for my life aur main de bhi deti.

And guess what, it wasn't the alu that was the attraction, it was the capsicum. Needless to say, I was hooked to the vegetable.

And these days where I have to jhaelofy my own expertise in the culinary department which extends only to the occasional hit-or-miss pulao or the pray-that-it's-not-burnt suji ka halwa on special occasions when it comes to Indian cuisine, I often find myself missing her, despite the fact that we hate each other's guts and the last time we saw each other, we had to be pulled off of each other lest one kills the other. I actually miss her. And the capsicum. More the capsicum actually. Most, rather.

Now you see why I wonder if I'm delusional or just plain shallow. Sigh.

Of One-Liners That Make You Happy

Today is a bad day. A bad, bad day.  A bad day in the middle of a bad week stuck in the middle of a bad month. You get the idea.

From a surprise interview that did not go as well as expected to the usual tussle with the parent that always drains the senses, nothing really goes right.

A sudden burst of energy at 9.30 p.m brought with it a hyper smile.

He said, "I like it when you smile like this, without any barriers, borders, worries..."

Instantly, the reminder brought with it the weight of the world and the smile wore thin.

"Tell the Universe to give me a reason to smile", I said wearily.

He extended the box of donuts and said, "I can give you six."

YAY. M.O.D.

P.S: I'm the douche that hasn't been replying to comments lately and hence, I didn't publish the ones in my last post till now. Thank you for taking the time out to type out a comment despite my assholery, but I really really really do appreciate it and I'm so very sorry for not replying, I'm in that phase where I think I have lost my juju and I'm questioning my skills as a writer. I might get over it. I'm trying to. My best to. Thank you for understanding, those few who have come back here despite aforementioned assholery. Just. Thanks.

FMS Prompts: # 3...

Quick note: I won't be posting on weekends until I get my internet fixed. 

 Your favorite recipe, even if you are the worst cook in the world...

***

Okay, so there is this thing I do when I’m down or when I need a quick pick-up or mostly when I settle down with a book. It’s not so much a recipe, its not even solid food but to me its tradition, it’s one of those things that tell me that all WILL be right with the world. 

So, next time you go to the supermarket, pick up five-six 5-buck packets of a regular chocolate drink - I prefer Bournvita but you can get Boost as well, I suppose. Take a big white (because white brings out the richness chocolaty color of the chocolate) mug, empty three packets into it, add one mountainously heaped spoon of milk powder and mix up the powders until its speckled chocolaty-types.

The next part is tricky. If you like a smooth consistency, add a bit of hot water and mix it up. If you’re like me and like it lumpy, go with cold water. BUT add VERY little water because the idea is to get a pasty, thick consistency and it is very easy for it to get runny, if you don’t pay attention. So once you get the right consistency, stick a spoon in it and take it with you to your reading nook or under the comforter.

I wish I could give you my own pictures of it but I instinctively dive in every time I put it together that I forget photography till I’ve licked it clean, so sorry.

Possible additions/garnish: crumbled English Marie, raisins, almonds, a small dollop of marmalade, a pinch of coconut shavings… well, go crazy. 

Warnings: Don’t let your mother catch you at it; if yours is anything like mine, you’ll get a good solid yelling for stealing the chocolate powder. Also, don’t try this with cocoa powder, not even the sweetened kind. Unless you want to walk around with a ‘yegh’ face for an hour or two.

*** 

P.S: What is your food tradition/quick-fix for blues?

the

sans

and

A Life Without

Or

Or

Keep the

and the 

alive

For you go around only once.

My heartfelt thanks to online sources for the wonderful pictures they provide for my posts. Especially this one.

The Ultimate 'Pet Pooja'

Are you familiar with the concept of food?

Must be, considering you eat every day.

Well I just happened to realize that this particular passion of mine has hardly gotten to occupy the limelight on my blog, hence the whole post dedicated to it.

That statement requires me to state my philosophy about food, which is

No, I’m not a glutton; I just love food, all kinds of it, in all shapes, sizes, varieties, assortments and… you get the point.

And I completely agree with Joey when he says, ‘Joey doesn’t share food’. I WILL get you an extra plate of fries but don’t expect to get away alive with picking food off MY plate.

Ok well, maybe a lot of people are going hungry while I’m contentedly polishing off my second plate of cheese penne, so I’ll share if you will give me proof that you are under-privileged in the ‘food’ department.

(I just read through this again for typos and find that I sound like a pompous pig; trust me, I’m just in love with the concept of food and food-affiliated entities. So please don’t judge me, I’m still the semi-nice girl who wrote The Bike Ride and Moments.)

Anyway, let’s talk grub:

Have you ever had ice-cream so awesome, that you don’t feel like eating it for fear that it’ll get over? The texture, just so smooth and creamy, while the bits of chocolate or butterscotch (or whatever you got) lend it that extra crunch that makes you go ‘MMMmmmmmmm…!’ making people around cast dubious and slightly perturbed glances at you, though you ceased to care long back when that first lick/bite rendered you oblivious to the Universe while you floated around in a state on nirvana stuck between the ninth and tenth clouds?

Have you ever bitten into the luscious crust of a pizza so exquisite that it makes your eyes water with sheer love for it? That first bite that has your stomach preparing for battle with the cheese dripping off so alluringly and the corn sizzling it’s way straight to you heart while the jalapenos steal your breath away… it makes you want to write poems describing a marvel, so common, yet so under-rated.

Have you ever dug into plain old dal-chaawal that Amma made, with that achaar, so lip-lickingly gob-smacking, that it becomes your comfort, your way of knowing everything is alright with the world? The achaar itself is a ninth wonder, so spicy and so tangy, with that right amount of bite that has you drinking water to quell the fiery sting on your tongue while reaching for more with the other hand.

Have you ever brewed a cup of coffee with so much care that one would think it was your baby, but little do they know that it IS your baby, so lovingly measured, so longingly filtered? The familiar and adored aroma hits your senses making you yearn, yes yearn, for one more whiff and before you know it, you have the packet/contained jammed up your face. You hold on to the cup for the sheer warmth it exudes while it expels rainy-day blues. And when you take that first sip, the light bitterness gets to your very soul, it warms up Life itself, makes the world a better place instantly and takes a headache right out of the window making the day deal-able, faceable in just a jiffy.

Now do you get why food is not just a part of life; food is what makes it so much more interesting, more light and wonderful. Also, they feature in most of our favorite memories: Amma’s home-cooked specialties that you start missing the moment you step out of home, that dark chocolate bar that got you through some tough nights, the crunchy cookies that gave you company while you slogged the night away on the presentation for the next day, the Maggi that was the highlight of so many hostel nights when you got hungry raising hell when you had an important submission the next day, the cold frappe that you almost spat out when he got down on one knee and proposed, right there. The chocolate hearts you got her for your first V-Day together… Food is omnipresent, the ultimate goal and the Mecca of all sorts of problems and people.

Worship or perish.

P.S: Yes, I do worship food, so much so that I will write an entire post about food-worship. No, I don’t have weight issues, not yet :P

P.P.S: These were just a few things I came up with, I could go on; if you want me to include a description about your favorite food, do tell me. If I have enough, I'll do a part two:D 

15 Day Challenge: Day 11

If I could only live off one food and one beverage for the rest of my days,
what would they be?

I'm too busy cooking up some more stories and thereby am not too keen on elaborating this out - you can breathe easy...for now :P

Unrelated note: Writing stories makes me happy = less stressing out on HOW to get rid of frequent writers' block => bolt of realization.

Getting to the challenge question:

1) Food:

:P You thought chocolate? You thought wrong *smug smile*

(Not chocolate because I am not sthupid: 

I have chocolate everyday => I get sick of it => I get over my obsession => blasphemous => sin => burning in Hell! I don't want THAT now, do I?)

It would HAVE to be the Gourmet Pizza (wahi, hamra Dominos-wala) with extra corn, tons of olives, a whole load of jalapenos, three sachets of oregano and great, big dollops of cheese on it. Apart from the cheese-burst crust, that is. And I can't stress on the 'great, big dollops' enough. 

Did I tell you I am a sucker for cheese? 

Well, I am. A BIG one.

2) Beverage: 

HAS to be coffee. For two reasons actually:

- It's the only fix which ensures a perfect day ahead (during normal days) and makes sure I remain awake (during exam times). 

(The fact that I STILL manage to fall asleep by midnight after 3 cups of coffee while I remain awake almost the whole night otherwise, says how awesome my exam-preparation skills are)

-  The sheer variety of the concoction you can whip up in less than ten minutes!! Cold, hot, frappe, mocha, cappucino, whatnotino... You get the point. 

So to sum up, I adore my coffee.

Pepsi/Coke come a close second though.

So, thank you Repubblica italiana for pizza and República Federativa do Brasil(?) for coffee.

I love you both theeeeeeeeeees much.

11 down, 4 to go:)

P.S: Have you heard King of Anything by Sara Barielles? I'm addicted.

My Culinary Finesse :P

Today, I made vegetable biriyani.
My first ever unassisted project.
Here's proof.

The Veggies I Cut Myself

The Onions I Browned Myself

The Sautéing I Did Myself

The Adding Masala/ Boiling I Did Myself

The Trials I Made Myself

The Garnishing I Carved Myself

The Final Product. Ah! Bliss! :P

Well, at least I tried :D
And the occasion is our monthiversary, so I dedicate this to you.
Even if you are too far away to eat it <3


And to those of you sniggering in the background, no, nobody died or got food poisoning from eating it.
Surprise, surprise! It wasn't even half bad.


P.S: No posts tomorrow.. I'm off themeparking :D \m/