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

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.

I also didn’t believe it-how could this soup taste good!!!

After publishing the post Take care in Winters, I actually thought of taking care by introducing new and healthier items to our meals. Recently I read about the benefits soups bring up with them and spinach, we all know, is one of the most nutritious foods.  My room mate used to have spinach soup two years back when she suddenly got extra health conscious. But even the idea of a soup made of spinach made me simply hate it. But it was only after I saw so many websites giving recipes of spinach soup and rating it good that I dared to cook this particular item.

Why it seemed to be nutritious?

Due to the major ingredients like spinach, bean sprouts, garlic and lemon, it seemed to be good choice. Following is the detailed list of ingredients:

• 3 cups washed and chopped spinach
• 4-5 tbsp coriander chopped
• 1 tbsp oil
• 1 spring onion finely chopped with greens
• 1 tbsp finely chopped garlic
• 1 tbsp grated ginger
• 1 green chilly
• ½ cup bean sprouts
• 2 tbsp fresh cream
• 3 cups water
• ½ tsp red chilly powder
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• ½ tsp pepper powder
• Salt to taste
• Butter to garnish

Method:

1. Wash the spinach properly and chop it roughly. Then sprinkle some salt over it and keep aside.
2. Chop coriander and pressure cook spinach, coriander and green chilly with very little water for one whistle.
3. Cool the boiled mixture and blend it to a smooth paste.
4. Heat oil in a pan and put cumin seeds into it.
5. When they crackle, add garlic and fry till it turns golden brown.
6. Then add bean sprouts and cook for 2 minutes.
7. Add spring onions and after 1 min, add water into it.
8. Bring the water to boil and then add spinach paste to the pan.
9. Sprinkle the pepper powder and add fresh cream to the mixture and keep stirring for around 10 min.
10. Serve hot with butter on top.

Now believe it or not, the soup tasted delicious. And I am going to prepare this every winter. How about you???