Hot steaming bowl of Maggi

In this freezing cold, as you reach home all tired after the day’s work, hunger pangs hitting hard and looking  around in the kitchen, you see the yellow packet with that bold lettered word ‘Maggi’ in a red bubble, it is what I call an ‘Aha’ moment. A moment, lucrative enough to urge you to put that pan on the flame and get ready for a hot steaming bowl of Maggi.

Those fumes and the fragrance is so ancient and still not obsolete. How can we forget the hard times when Maggi served us through ages ?. Those hostel days, those late night assignments, those trekking trips, those Maggi treats(when having a Veg Maggi was nothing less than a luxury), and even today-what serves the best when you are running out of time or energy. Just two to five minutes and you are ready with a heartwarming dish to serve your tummy and it’s so yummy.

Whether tossed with some vegetables or without, either drenched with Tomato ketchup or without – Maggi is a standout, at all times. The longer the noodles, the better. When wrapped around the fork, it enters into the mouth, it’s satiating both the appetite and the soul. And by chance, if somebody else is having it and you are a mere spectator, how can you avoid the saliva oozing out in your mouth?

Anyway, don’t get me wrong. I, too am a health conscious person and the one who loves cooking, even elaborate sessions of cooking too. But as far as the pleasure of Maggi is concerned, nothing so far can beat it. So what are you waiting for? Go home straight and get your bowl of Maggi. It’s okay to make a little fudging with health too, kabhi kabhi…;)

Hence here is the perfect rhyme ever created for Maggi:

Do minute ruk sakte hain, sar k bal reh sakte hain…

Kyunki???

Badi gazab ki bhookh lagi, Maggi chahiye mujhe abhi

hmmmmm Maggi Noodles

A Delicious Start to a Sunday

December begins and suddenly there is quick rush towards the year-end. With the days approaching New Year’s Eve, the chill in the air keeps getting severe and sharper. Yes, I am talking about the real chill, the real cold, the winters. By now, all your woollens and winter wear must be out, especially in North India and the favorite part of your day must be cuddling within your warm quilts and blankets.

Still there is one more thing that makes winters so special-the lots and lots of veggies flocking the vegetable markets . If you are also the ones who love to add the season’s best in your meals or simply relate your food with both taste and health, then I bet this special feature of winters will not go amiss your observations.

Veggies-that you can use in so many forms, in so many ways-it’s all up to you, how innovative you want to get in that. Soups, gravies, pulaos, pastas, noodles, sandwiches, salads-whatever, these veggies give a special color, a special flavor to everything. There are plenty of options to tingle your taste buds.

Hence, apart from all the other ways of utilizing these abundant veggies, I didn’t miss the chance to use them for a vegetable Uttapam as well-tomatoes, onions, capsicum and what to talk about the fragrance that coriander adds to any damn thing. Since the batter was ready beforehand, it was not really tough for my sleepy eyes on a chilling wintery Sunday morning to get into the kitchen and start preparing the breakfast.

Within 15 minutes, we were ready to have the moist, soft and light Uttapam with coriander and coconut chutney, lending a wholesome and delicious start to a Funday-that is Sunday.

Save those ‘pako-day’ for a rainy day

It is already September and look at the sky, it’s still comin’ up a cloud. It’s still raining, raining heavily. Somehow, by this time of monsoons-all of us have had enough of it. Don’t know about Paris, but I am so sorry, I cannot second Owen Wilson (of ‘Midnight in Paris’)on rains being romantic, especially at this point of time-here in Delhi NCR. Getting wet in showers doesn’t seem any romantic after two months of monsoons . The sound of raindrops falling on the ground is no more therapeutic. It’s no more a relief or a change from the blistering sun because you acutely want that sun to shine and dry off those damp clothes.

What to talk of the greenery monsoons brought by? Even those plants and flowers have wiped the smile off their faces as those rain drops have begun to hit them hard. Soil too, is all saturated and has now turned into wetlands.

A walk in the drizzle seems no more appealing, there is no clear space to walk. Roads are all jam-packed with vehicles, so forget about calling it a ‘season for togetherness’ . What? What did you say? You get so much time together with your spouse way back home and you’ve started knowing people who meet you everyday in those jams? Stop kidding me!!! How can you amuse going on a long drive when there is horrible water logging at intervals or else no chance to budge an inch, in the stuck traffic? So better join the crowd this time and pray for rain-to-go-away; find some other better way to spend time with your beloved.

Just being at home, curled up on a couch with garma-garam chai (any hot beverage of your choice) and watching the downpour from the window seems perfect. But that is too incomplete without the crispy and crunchy home-made pakode. It seems a bliss when you’re wet and cold  and much more, if there is Maa to nourish you with all that. Only then you can take off and forget about the mess  being generated outside.

Mommy dear is not here and the home-made pakode will remain a mere fantasy without stepping into the kitchen. Hence, apart from relishing the potato and onions pakode, I somehow managed to unfold these innovative traditional and contemporary versions of pakode this season.

Corn and capsicum balls

Capsicum & paneer pakode

Aloo kurkure

These are the few ones I tried at home, otherwise some other possibilities are also there like Bhindi pakode, Stuffed Spinach pakode. The beauty of all these recipes is: the ingredients are readily available and seasonal.

So what’s up at your end? How are you coping up with this cat-and-dog weather?? If you also went through some creative pursuits somehow, come and share here…We’ll be pleased to share more knowledge

Recipes Courtesy: http://www.tarladalal.com

The wintery dessert

the hot garnished Gajrela

Finally I could put the Saturday laziness aside and spend a productive day, checking out most of things I wanted to do since so many days and best of all, could prepare the mouth-watering Gajar ka Halwa (carrot pudding) for the first time in my life. This is the most special North Indian dessert cooked in winters so that one can pamper the taste buds with something really sweet and delicious and feel the warmth with hot served Gajar ka halwa. I was thinking of trying to cook the same since past few months, as it is mainly cooked in winters, but it takes a lot of time to prepare this pudding.

Although the recipe can be availed from any Indian cookery website, but here I am sharing how I made it: 

I am loving it...

Ingredients:

• 1 kg carrots
• 1 litre full fat milk
• 2-3 tbsp pure ghee or unsalted butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tsp cardamom powder
• Dry fruits to garnish

Preparation:

• Peel the carrots and wash them thoroughly.
• Then grate the carrots and heat the ghee in a thick bottomed pan.
• Add grated carrots to the pan and cook for around 5 minutes. Keep tossing.
• Simultaneously, let the milk simmer till the carrots get dried in the pan.
• Add the milk to the carrots and let it cook untill the milk gets dried. Also add cardamom powder when little milk is left in the pan.
• Then add sugar, it will release some water, let it dry and then turn off the flame.
• The Halwa is ready, now you can garnish it with dry fruits and serve hot.

For some lazy days ahead, like this one…

Bags packed, heading towards the lift, my colleague asked me, “So what you are going to do today?” This was the first time when I was going to stay alone (just for one day) after my wedding since past six and half months. Although I have lived in an apartment for three long years with my room-mate and as per our routine both of us would go home and the other one would stay alone. I have lived for almost a week too, like this. Hence it was not a big deal, either any fears or boredom of staying alone. I am the one who can find plenty of things to do.

But still I am writing this as this is about something else. So coming back my colleague’s question: While returning home yesterday, I also pondered for a while about it, there were plenty of things and I also felt “I have more time today” (as if all of my work is just because of my dear husband). Thanks to this blog, there are several things in pipeline that I have to do and much more that I have to yet think about.

I reached home finally (although my home is just 15 minutes distance from my office), all exhausted. My head, eyes, legs and back were aching slightly. Somehow I managed to cook and have dinner, tried to watch some TV but nothing seemed to amuse me. Finally I went off to surf some net, talked on phone and then drenched into deep sleep.

It was only when my door bell rang up at 8 o’clock that I could get up and start hustling for getting ready. My house-help is also on a week’s leave. Now in situations like this, when I have to cook for myself only, it is pretty natural for me to not feel like cooking much. I wanted to resort to something quick and requiring least effort. And bingo! There arrived the idea of Lemon Rice, the delicious South Indian dish, which can even be made with leftover rice. I had seen the recipe in a magazine by Tarla Dalal a few days back. I quickly went to fetch that magazine from my library and went inside the kitchen. Within 10-15 minutes my lunch was ready and seemed so yummy too. I don’t know whether it was actually that delectable or just the idea of cooking without putting in much of time or energy let it taste so good for me.

So now I am saving this recipe for some other lazy days like this and sharing it here too.

Ingredients:

• 1 cups cooked rice (or leftover rice)
• 1 tbsps cooking oil
• 1 tsp coriander powder
• 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
• 3-4 curry leaves
• 1 broken Kashmiri red chilly
• 1 green chillies slit lengthwise
• 1/2″ piece of ginger grated
• 1 tsp of chana dal and urad dal
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• Juice of 1 lemon
• Salt to taste

Preparation:

• Heat the oil in a pan and add the mustard seeds, curry leaves and broken red chillies.
• Fry till the spluttering stops and add the ginger, green chilly and dals.
• Fry for another minute. Add the coriander powder, salt and turmeric powder and turn off the fire.
• Add the rice and lemon juice and mix thoroughly.
• Serve with a Raita and Poppadums.