Fish Oil Benefits: March 2008

Gianni's -- CLOSED

2724 J St, Sacramento, CA 95814, (916) 447-1000

Ever watch one of those antique shows, where some poor schmuck brings on a rare "antique" lamp on to be appraised? You know the lamp that his Great-Great-Great Grandma Gertrude strapped to her back and brought with her on the boat from Poland that's supposedly 100% gold? The lamp that the appraiser inevitably flips over and rubs the bottom with his thumb to...lo and behold...uncover in tiny script the words, "Made in Taiwan"? Well, that's what Gianni's reminds me of. At first glance, its sleek Tiffany blue colored tables and exposed brickwork radiates an oh-so South Beach hipster cool but a little rub with the thumb uncovers a multitude of imperfections in its polished facade.

Let me explain...Gianni's was our choice for our January girls' night out. We entered the establishment around seven o'clock on a Friday and were greeted by a polite silver haired gentleman within seconds and were assured that we would be seated shortly. True to his word, the host ushered us over to a nice roomy booth within five minutes. Wonderful! From that point on though, the night pretty much went downhill. Now I'm a pretty easy going customer, I don't expect my waiters to channel Mr. Belvedere and wait on me hand and foot but our waiter that night took the term piss poor service to a whole new level. Seriously, when the service wasn't non-existent it was horrendous. Our waiter would disappear for extended lengths of time and we had to flag him down to order both our drinks and our meals. Had the restaurant been even remotely busy, I could understand but not only was it barely full but I could see the waiter slacking off a few feet away. In addition to this, our waiter actually got into an argument with us about what type of wine we should order and whether we should order individual glasses or a bottle. When we held fast and reiterated what we wanted (the Antinori Super Tuscan), his reaction was to pout and spout off a smartass remark...classy! Whatever happened to the customer's always right? At this point we hadn't even eaten and I was disgusted with Gianni's.

For our orders, we decided to share several appetizers and two pizzas. For the apps we opted for the house salad, the creamy polenta dish and the calamari. The creamy polenta dish was smooth and accented with a light hint of what I believe was truffle oil. The calamari was a good sized portion, marinated in buttermilk (unbreaded) and tossed with tomatoes, basil and chilies-- in my opinion, the best dish out of what we ordered. As for the salad and pizzas, they weren't anything to write home about but did the job of satisfying our hunger. During the course of our meal, the ex-waitress in me noticed that the silverware was dirty (I had to ask for another fork and knife because there were remnants from someone else's dinner encrusted on the tines and blade), the glassware was spotty and several plates had obvious chips and cracks. In addition, our busser was slow to refill our water and early in the evening had dropped a large hunk of bread in the middle of the table. I found it amusing that throughout the night, he continued to carefully bus around the bread as though it were a centerpiece. My guess is that bread is probably still sitting in the same spot on the table even to this day.

Now usually when I go to dinner with my girlfriends, it's customary for us to linger over dessert and some coffee, perhaps even an after dinner drink. At Gianni's, we couldn't get out of there fast enough. Although we did leave our server a tip, I sincerely felt it was undeserved and that he should have tipped us for having to endure his crappy subpar service and abhorrent attitude. I most definitely would not waste my money at Gianni's again nor would I ever subject anyone I know to such a hellacious dining experience by recommending it. It just goes to show that a restaurant can look pretty, but to get customers to return it needs to be able to offer up a pleasant dining experience as well. I believe Gianni's is what the Italians refer to as, "Tutto fumo e niente arrost," (all smoke and no fire) and places like that rarely stick around for long.

Stri

I saw a telugu film Stri which was screened on DD around International women's day. It was the story of a woman hopelessly in love with a womanising, alcoholic, gambling, good-for-nothing guy. She forgives him every time he commits a crime and tries to get him out of it, even when he sets her hut on fire while she is sleeping inside because she refuses to give him her chain which he demands for a prostitute he is enamoured with. The villagers save her but she risks their goodwill by refusing to testify against her lover. Even when she finds him with the other woman, she only blames her for trying to steal her husband while she is willing to forgive him. In the end she is about to be handed over to the police for helping him steal some cargo from a boat hoping he could have a fresh start. In her heart she knows that he would take the money straight to the prostitute while she would suffer beatings in the hands of the police. The film ends with her saying "But once he has spent the money he will have no one to go to and he will come back to me as I am the only one who really loves him."

I was angry, furious and in tears. Why was this woman shown in a favourable light? Why did this film win awards? Why was it shown in International film festivals? Was she someone to be admired? Was she a woman to be celebrated? Is this a celebration of the all forgiving, suffering, masochistic Bhartiya Naari? A perpetuation of the culture that deified Nalayani?
We all know it happens around us everyday - in the lives of our domestic helps. We know it happened in the years when women were helpless and dependent. And sometimes even to educated working women today. The other day a relative was telling me how her colleague puts up with an alcoholic husband who has lost his job and spends half her money so she has to struggle to make ends meet. Apparently when he is sober he is the most loving husband and she feels helpless to leave him, especially now that he is jobless and has no one else. She blames it on his circumstances. She consults astrologers in the hope of the stars changing and bringing miraculous changes in their life.
Why can't she see that he is exploiting her kindness and leave him and realise that is the only way he will come to his senses?! It is not a show of strength but one of weakness - one that is not willing to let go and help him seek professional help. Or do such women enjoy a sense of power in being there when they come back destroyed every time? If so, they both need psychiatric help.

Why do we need to showcase films that celebrate such doormats? I agree that it celebrates the capacity of a woman to love and forgive. But I think the need of the hour is to tell women to stand up for their rights and not be forgiving of such criminals. The girl in Stri is so drunk with her suicidal sacrificial tendencies that she requests the writer she meets on the boat to write her story. For what? Immortalise her stupidity? Does she expect to acquire the status of a Sati and be worshipped for her lack of self worth and sense?

I remember being brought up on a diet of such stories of sacrifice and masochism. Women burning themselves like camphor and sandalwood, like a lamp that destroys itself while spreading light all around. And it seemed such a romantic thing to do. Americans have a nice word for this : "losers." This is precisely the kind of anger that I feel when I see representations of Paro ( Devdas) and Lolita ( parineeta). Romanticising women treated shabbily by men. Women smothered by possessiveness - as if they are objects to be owned. At least you can justify these characters by saying they are from a period where the role of a woman was perceived differently.But Stri? Today? It is not enough to have laws against abuse and facilities for education to empower women. Women must rise above these stereotypes and empower themselves. And can we expect some help from media in putting an end to idealising doormats? Bring on the Chak de s and Dor s please. Stri s are passé and we can manage quite well without them in the sisterhood.

Tags : doormatism Film rant women

Amrakhand

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

Ajoy loves puri and amrakhand so when I found out about the place where i buy mango pulp I decided to try this one. It turned out quite good :)

Ingredients
1 ltr Milk
1.5 cup Sugar
1 cup Mango Pulp
1 spoon Curd

Method

Warm the milk
Mix it with the curd properly and keep it in warm place for 6-8 hours so that it forms sweet curd
Take a thin cotton cloth and put the curd in it and hang it so that water is drained completely
After 8-10 hours the curd will not have remains of water and you can untie the cloth and take the material(we call it chakka) into a vessel
Mix it with sugar and keep for atleast two hours
Mix the mango pulp with it and strain through Puran Yantra

Notes
The quantity for sugar need to be adjusted according to the sweetness of mango pulp. The pulp that I bought wasn't too sweet. But if pulp is already sweetened then accordingly decrease the sugar quantity.
Keeping the sugar mixed with chakka for couple of hours lets it mix properly. Otherwide the curd might get sour and separate out from sugar.

Tags : Curd Desserts Fruits Maharashtrian Milk Side Dishes Sugar Sweets

Uplift and empower

This post was set off by a post I read this morning in Jhumoor Bose's blog.
In a survery that she conducted for an IBN live article among her friends, colleagues and readers, 56% said the reason why a woman shows off her cleavage was because "She likes looking hot and wants to feel good about herself" and the second was 18% who claimed "She wants to keep her man on his toes by reminding him that she can get any other man she wants". From the use of the third person it seems that most people responded according to their perception of why someone else would want to show off their cleavage. I am not sure how many would flaunt their cleavage themselves, assuming they had one. In these surveys among educated people it is also the way the questions are worded that determine the response. Of the 5 questions asked, 4 had negative connotations in the sense that they implied that she was doing it for the sake of someone else and only one, the one that got 56% response was for her own sake. In today's politically correct world, that is obviously where most of us would like to find ourselves. After all those who took the survey are people who can read English and internet savvy which means people from the top 1-10% of the population.

Personally I have no issues with people who indulge in cleavage display as long as I am not forced to join the club. They can show but I am not looking. If they feel good in a particular kind of dress, so be it. But I do find it funny when they justify this under the label of empowerment. How exactly does the display of parts of one's body qualify as empowerment? Because you have the power to buy those uplifting bras that are awfully expensive (I am sure) or because they have large breasts or because it makes you obsessed with the way you look and what you wear, or because you can handle the lecherous stares of men without being bothered by it? What about all those women who wear it because their men like it, they want to look good for the sake of someone else - are these also a signs of empowerment? Is being enslaved to a concept of what constitutes "looking good" a true sign of empowerment? And finally how come people who are visibly empowered - the ones running countries and corporations and the ones who are entirely in control of all their decisions and their lives don't feel the need to make a statement of this by showing off their figure or curves?

Early feminists discarded the bra as a symbol of objectification of a woman - they didn't want to pad or prop up their breasts in order to look good. It was liberation in more than one sense. But how does the entrapment of your body in some numbers dictated by the fashion world constitute liberation? An added irony is that the very same people who support cleavage-display when the mammaries are aesthetically showcased , object violently to breast-feeding in public, the primary purpose for which they are there! So what is it? breasts can be shown but nipples are a definite no no? If you are about to tell me that a cleavage doesn't constitute display of breasts, a cleavage does draw one's attention to the breasts whether it was intended or not.

And finally, it is scary. Scary that 8% among this elite who took the survey thought that women show off their cleavage because they like men to lech at them. Here is a country where women have to prove that they did not invite rape. Here is a country where society judges you on your dress norms when you have been the victim of eve teasing, physical assault and rape. We have to walk among them, their bad looks and bad intentions. Is the display of one's cleavage worth risking all this? Are our women empowered enough (in terms of laws, self-defence and societal understanding) to handle this jungle and its creatures? Is it that difficult to look good, confident and empowered without a public display of one's mammaries? or is that what differentiates looking "hot" from plain vanilla "looking good"?

P.S: For those of you who are getting ready to throw stones at me, I am not judging anyone. Nor am I advocating the Burqa as an insurance against men with evil designs. I am just trying to see if as a society we are cleavage-ready. And to get your opinions on an issue which I don't seem to understand. How many of you parents are ok with your adolescent daughters in a low neck dress? How many of you men are ok with your wife/ daughter wearing a cleavage displaying dress in a mall for instance? Would you feel fine if they wore such tops to work? And ladies, are you truly comfortable in such dresses or is it just peer pressure? I sound totally clueless, ya? Blame it on generation gap, agelessbonding notwithstanding.
I'd be very interested to hear the men's views on this. I am saying this not because I think a man decides what a woman should wear but because I know some men who say that they love to watch a woman's cleavage but they would not like their own family to dress that way.
Anonymous comments are acceptable as long as they are not obscene or offensive.

Tags : cleavage empowerment hypocrisy women Women's liberation

Carla's Not Calorie Conscious But Delicious Mashed Potatoes

Ok you would never make these for everyday cooking…but the next time you host Thanksgiving, Christmas or Easter supper (or go somewhere for a potluck) give them a try. Not easy on the thighs, but absolutely-frickin' delicious! Some of the best mashed potatoes I have ever had. No gravy required on these babies.

Recipe by Carla Ens
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Serves 8-10

5 lbs potatoes
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 cup sour cream
¼ cup butter
1 tbsp onion powder
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
1/3 cup milk (or more)
1/3 package of Knorr Leak Soup Mix (I know…weird ingredient, but it makes them so flavorful)
3-4 green onions, chopped

Peel and boil the potatoes until they are nice and soft when you stick a fork in them (I never peel my potatoes. It's time consuming and I'm lazy, and there are a ton of nutrients in the skin. I don't mind a few potato skins in my mashed potatoes though) Drain the potatoes and add the cream cheese, sour cream, butter, onion powder, salt, pepper, milk, soup mix and most of the green onions, reserving a handful as a garnish. Mash everything together....I like to use my electric beaters to whip them and make them extra creamy. They turn out REALLY thick, so it’s up to you if you want to add more milk to thin them out. Place in a casserole dish and bake at 350⁰ for 20 minutes. Sprinkle the reserved handful of green onions over the top.

*Tip: These can be made up until they are put in the oven to bake, and instead cooled and put in the freezer. Because of the cream cheese and sour cream, these freeze really well. To reheat, just pull out of the freezer, allow to thaw and bake at 350 degrees until warmed all the way through (probably 30-45 minutes).

Click here for printable version of Carla's Not Calorie Conscious but Delicious Mashed Potatoes
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THE RESULTS?
I always LOVE these potatoes. They are a hit with my family, and I like that they can be prepared in advance. For a hectic holiday meal you can prepare them in the morning or the night before, store them in the casserole dish and then bake just before serving.

Tags : Freezer Stockpiling Holiday Food Side Dish Vegetarian

Panha

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

This is a refreshing drink made from the raw mango. Its the first one of this season :) as its just now we have started getting raw mangoes.

Panha

Ingredients
3 Raw Mangoes
2.5 cup Jaggery
Salt to taste

Method

Peel off the skin from the raw mango and cut it into medium sized pieces
Cook the pieces into cooker by adding enough water
When the mangoes cool down, grind them in a mixter and strain the mixture
Mix the jaggery and salt in it and let it dissolve completely.
Add more water to get the thinner panha

Notes
You need to change the amount of jaggery depending on the sourness of the mango

Tags : Fruits Jaggery Juices Maharashtrian

Mung Daal Vadi

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

Yesterday I thought of preparing mung daal halwa but then ended up cooking mung daal vadi.

Ingredients
1 Cup Mung Daal
3/4 Cup Ghee
1/4 kg Khoya
2 Cup Sugar
2 Cup Milk
Almonds to garnish

Method

Soak the daal in water for 4-5 hours
Grind the daal in a mixer to form fine paste
Heat ghee in a pan and fry the mung daal paste on low flame
Once the daal turns golden brown, add the milk and cook till the mixture becomes thick
Add the khoya and cook for a while
Add te sugar and cook on low flame till mixture is thick and sticky
Grease the plate and put the mixture on it. Spread it evenly and garnish with almond pieces
Cut into rectangular pieces and serve

Notes
Frying the mung daal on low flame is important, as mungdaal will get burnt quite quickly.

Tags : Daal Dry Fruits Ghee Khoya Milk Sugar Sweets

Grinded Daal

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

As summer starts, mango makes the space in our meals.. This one is maharashtrian dish and is normally served as snack during 'Haldi Kunku'.

Grounded Daal

Ingredients
1 Raw Mango
1 cup Harbara Daal
2 Green Chillies
1/4 spoon Sugar
1/4 spoon Turmeric Powder
1/4 spoon Mustard seeds
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

Soak the harbara Daal in water for 5-6 hours
Grind the daal and green chillies in a mixer
Grate the raw mango and mix with this grinded mixture
Add sugar and salt to it and mix well
Heat oil and add mustard seeds
Once the seeds sputter, add the turmeric powder and add this oil mixture into the grinded mixture. Mix well and sever

Notes
One can add the fried red chilli into the oil while mustard seeds sputter.

Tags : Chaats Chilli Daal Fruits Maharashtrian Oil Side Dishes Snacks Spices Sugar

Methi Malai Muttor

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

I really love methi malai muttor. Since long time I was trying to get the exact taste which i like of this vegetable.. Then I talked to Shrinkhla and she gave her authentic punjabi recipe of methi malai muttor. And it worked out amazing for me. So here is the recipe :)

Ingredients
2 Bunches Methi leaves
1 Cup Fresh Cream
2 Cup Muttor
1/4 spoon Jeera
A pinch of Asafoetida
A pinch of Cardamom Powder
A pinch of Cinnamon Powder
A pinch of Cloves Powder
1 Onion
1/2 spoon Khus Khus (poppy seeds)
1.5 spoon Sugar
5-6 spoon Curd
15-20 Cashews
1 Green Chilli
1/4 spoon Ginger paste
Salt to taste
Ghee

Method

Boil 4-5 cups of water with salt
Add the finely chopped methi leaves in this hot water and keep for 5 minutes
Remove the Methi from water and also remove the excess water and keep aside the methi.
Boil the muttor and keep aside
Grind the onion, khus khus, sugar, curd, cashews, green chillie and ginger paste together
In a bowl beat the cream to smooth consistency
Heat ghee in a pan, add jeera and let it sputter. Add asafoetida
Add the grinded paste in this ghee and cook on low flame till the ghee separates out
Add the beaten cream, methi, muttor and salt to taste
Cook till gravy takes desired consistency

Notes
Squiz out the water from methi as much as possible, otherwise the gravy becomes little greenish(thats what happened to the one I cooked)
I think soaking cashes and khus khus for some time before grinding it would help in making fine paste. (thats how i do it for other recipies) I am going to try this one.
If the gravy is too thin, then mix 1/4 spoon of corn flour with water and add it to gravy to get the desired thickness. If the gravy is too thick you can add little milk to make it thinner.

Tags : Chilli Cream Curd Dry Fruits Ghee Ginger Onion Punjabi Side Dishes Spices Sugar Vegetables Veggies

Vada Paav and Garlic Chutney

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

Ajoy had been asking me to prepare vada paav or batata wada since long time.. And I thought there is no better day to prepare this than his bday :) So here is what we had for our breakfast today morning.

Vada Paav

Ingredients
2 Potatoes
6 Paav
1/2 cup bason
1/2 Lemon
4 Green Chillies
1/4 spoon Garlic Paste
1/4 spoon Ginger Paste
A pinch of Eating Soda
1/4 spoon Mustard
1/2 spoon Turmeric Powder
1/2 spoon Red Chilli Powder
Salt
Oil

Method

Boil the potatoes
Grind the green chillies, garlic paste, ginger paste to form fine paste
Cut the potatoes into small pieces.
Add the ground paste, lemon juice to it and mix well
Heat little oil, add the mustard, let them sputter and then add the half of the turnmeric powder
Add this oil to the potato mixture and mix well.
Prepare 6 round and little flat balls out of this mixture.
In a small vessel, mix bason, red chilli powder, remaining turmeric powder, eating soda and prepare thin batter
Heat oil in a pan, add 2 spoon of heated oil to the batter
Dip the potato ball in the batter and fry it in oil
Cut the pav in half, put the garlic chutney and wada in it and serve hot

Notes
The batter coating on the potato vada shouldn't be thick otherwise the wada won't taste good. Mix more water if its too thick.
We are adding heated oil to the bason because that will make vada less oily.. Making use of soda instead of oil will make it very very oily.
Potato Vada can be served separately with sauce as well. (Without paav)

Garlic Chutney

Ingredients
1/2 Dried Coconut
10-12 pieces of Garlic
4 spoon Red Chilli powder
1-2 pieces of Tamarind
1/2 spoon Sugar
Salt to taste

Method

Grate the coconut
Heat a pan and fry the grated coconut till golden brown in colour
In a mixer, first grind garlic pieces, red chilli powder, sugar, salt
Add the tamarind and grind again
Now add the coconut and grind to fine powder

Notes
You can save this chutney for few days. It tastes nice with bhakari as well.

Tags : Baking Soda Besan Breads Breakfast Chilli Chutneys Coconut Garlic Ginger Lemon Maharashtrian Oil Potato Side Dishes Snacks Spices Sugar Tamarind

Pineapple Pastry

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

For Ajoy's Bday I planned to prepare Pineapple Pastry.. Earlier since I had 'not so good' experience with the cream I did quite a lot of R&D before preparing this one. And the end result turned out quite good :)

Ingredients
1.5 cup Maida
2 spoon Baking powder
1/2 spoon Eating Soda
1 cup spoon powdered Sugar
1/2 cup Milk
2 spoon butter
4 Eggs
1/2 spoon Pineapple Essence
1 cup Fresh Cream
1 cup tinned Pineapple
2 spoon Pineaaple syrup
1/4 cup tinner Cherries
Icing Sugar
A pinch of Salt

Method

Sieve maida, baking powder, eating soda and salt together around 8-10 times to form properly mixed flour
Heat milk in a pot, when it boils mix butter with it and keep aside
Prepare the pan for baking the cake by coating it with butter, puting a butter paper of the size of the bottom of the vessel on it and applying butter again to the paper
Heat the oven to 200C
Now separate the egg white and yellows
Beat the egg white till it thickens
In a egg yolk, mix powdered sugar a spoon at a time till sugar is completely mixed with the yolk
Now mix the maida flour sieved earlier with this egg yolk mixture, spoon by spoon
Add the pineapple essence to the mixture and mix well
Add egg white and mix well
Add milk and butter mixture to this and mix well
Add this mixture to the pan that was earlier prepared for baking
Bake the cake in microwave + convection mode at 180W and 180C for 15 minutes
Keep aside for cooling
Whip the cream well, first slowly and then increase the speed.
When the cream becomes about double the original size, mix icing sugar and whip well
Cut the cake into half to get the 2 round cakes of half the thickness of the original cake
Spread the syrup on both the halves
Spread half of the cream and half of pineapple pieces (finely chopped)on one portion of the cake
Keep the other portion of the cake on top of it and spread remaining cream all over the cake including its sides. You can form texture on the cake or keep it plain. I made texture using fork.
Spread the pineapple pieces and cherries on top of the cake to decorate it

Notes
While mixing the egg white and milk in the cake mixture, mix it slowly and with care.
Cover the cakes with moist tissue paper or moist cloths so that the cake remains moist.
Also I found that the Amul Cream I had used earlier wasn't good enough for preparing the cream. It has very low contents of fat. I got the cream from the mithai shop this time and it was quite thick. One needs thick cream for whipping the cream. The cream is available in local mithai shops or dairies.

Tags : Baking Powder Baking Soda Butter Cakes Cream Desserts Egg Egg Cakes Essence Fruits Maida Milk Sugar

Muli Paratha

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

We bought Mulis for the first time at our house in hyderabad :) We both don't like muli at all.. So there was no way we could take it as vegetable.. So I ended up cooking parathas :)

Muli Paratha

Ingredients
2 Mulis
7 Spoonful Heaps of Wheat Flour
3-4 Green Chillies
1 spoon Ginger Garlic paste
A pinch of Red Chilli powder
1 spoon Corriander powder
Handfull of Corriander leaves
Salt to taste
Oil
Ghee

Method

Add a little oil in wheat flour and knead well to prepare the dough. Keep aside for half an hour
Grate the mulis
Heat little oil in a pan
Add the ginger garlic paste, green chillies (finely chopped), corriander powder, red chilli powder to it
Add the grated mulis and fry till mixture is golden brown
Add finely chopped corriander leaves and salt to taste and keep aside.
Make small balls out of this muli mixture
From the kneaded dough, take the dough that one normally takes for roti, roll it to puri size.
Add the muli ball on top of it and fold all sides of the puri to make a square shape
Roll the parathas delicately maintaining the square shape and fry with ghee on tawa

Notes
Add very very little oil while frying muli mixture as otherwise the mixture will turn out too oily.
Also just for a change i prepared the parathas of square shape. one can always stuff the ball of muli inside dough and prepare the parathas like one prepares aalu paratha

Tags : Breakfast Chilli Corriander Leaves Garlic Ghee Ginger Oil Parathas Spices Veggies Wheat Flour

Aalu Paratha

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

Whenever I want to prepare something quickly the first choice that comes to my mind is Parathas.. Its easy and quick to prepare and yet tastes so delicious.. Moreover ajoy loves parathas.. So when i had to cook a quick dinner yesterday and when i had nothing but only aalu left for paratha I prepared this one.

Aalu Paratha

Ingredients
2 Potatoes
7 Spoon Heaps of Wheat Flour
1/4 spoon garlic paste
3-4 Green Chillies
A pinch of Jeera Powder
1 spoon Amachur Powder
Salt to taste
Oil
Ghee

Method

Add a little oil in wheat flour and knead well to prepare the dough. Keep aside for half an hour
Cook the potatoes in a cooker
Peel off the skin from potatoes and grate them
Grind green chillies, garlic paste in a mixer to fine paste
Mix the grinded paste, amchur powder, jeera powder and salt to taste with the gratetd potatoes
Make small balls out of this potato mixture
From the kneaded dough, make small balls, press them and stuff the potato ball inside them and make big balls
Roll the parathas delicately and fry with ghee on tawa

Notes
While grating potato, apply little oil to grater so that potatoes don't stick to the grater

Tags : Breakfast Chilli Garlic Ghee Oil Parathas Potato Spices Wheat Flour

Best Lasagna

Last summer when I was pregnant, I was on the prowl for a deliciously satisfying lasagna. My Dad is an amazing cook, and he always made lasagna growing up....but I didn't want to use his recipe. I mean, I was looking for the PERFECT lasagna.

I thought I had found it. It was on the pages of a cookbook of one of my favorite chefs. The tomato sauce was homemade, as was the bechemel sauce. She is Italian (I'm sure you have no idea who I'm talking about). Being Italian I figured she must have this whole lasagna thing figured out...she must have the PERFECT lasagna. In all my 9 month pregnant glory, I toddled around my kitchen cooking for THREE hours to make this lasagna. I wanted to impress my husband and mom-in-law, and I figured after three hours of slaving in the kitchen and making everything from scratch that I would blow them away.

It was a dud. I mean like...it was fine, but it wasn't the PERFECT lasagna. It tasted as good as if I had gone out and bought a frozen one. Which wouldn't have taken me three hours to make, so I was really disappointed.

I attempted a couple other recipes, with no "blowing-me-away-ness".

Last week I was reading The Pioneer Woman Cooks, and I came across her recipe for lasagna. She described it as "The Best Lasagna. Ever". I had heard those claims before, and wouldn't be swayed by it. I browsed through the ingredients...nothing special. She even used Kraft Parmesan Cheese from a can of all things!! I mean, I had made lasagnas from scratch, using the finest of parmesan cheese, fresh herbs, homemade tomato sauce simmered on the stove for hours, etc. And the ingredients she was listing were so everyday, I could whip it up by using the ingredients I had on hand.

I decided to go for it. What could I have to lose but my dignity and the confidence in myself to make a good lasagna? I WAS NOT DISAPPOINTED! (Thank goodness for my dignity and self-esteem). My husband thought it was amazing too....he had tasted mediocrity before...but this...this was the one. The PERFECT lasagna. This dish really does live up to it's name "The Best Lasagna. Ever." I was so impressed with it, that I made 2 pans of it to take to a friend who just had a baby. They ate it this past week and LOVED it! They said it was amazing. Is that enough of a reason for you to try it? All the good reviews?

I think what really makes this lasagna special is the meat sauce. The Italian sausage is such a perfect addition. It makes the sauce so perfectly seasoned and spiced. Don't skip that part! You can't miss out on the delicious porky goodness.

Recipe from The Pioneer Woman Cooks
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Serves 8

1 lb hot Italian sausage
1 lb ground beef
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 28 oz tin of diced tomatoes
2 cans tomato paste
1 tbsp oregano
1 tbsp basil
1 tsp salt
750g container of cottage cheese
1 tsp oregano
2 eggs
Salt
1 lb shredded mozzarella
3/4 cup grated parmesan (or Kraft parmesan like PW does it)
8 lasagna noodles

Remove the Italian sausage from it's casing by making a cut all the way down the sausage with a sharp knife. Turn the sausage inside out and the sausage meat inside should just slide out. Brown the Italian sausage, beef and garlic in a fry pan on medium high heat. Drain the fat. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, 1 tbsp of oregano, 1 tbsp of basil and 1 tsp salt. Stir it up and let it simmer and get all mingled for 30-40 minutes.

Put a pot of salted water on for the lasagna noodles. Bring to a boil and add a tablespoon of olive oil to keep the noodles from sticking. Boil for 10 minutes (until they are al dente...they should still have some bite). Drain the water and keep the noodles from drying out by covering with a damp towel.

In a separate bowl combine beaten eggs, cottage cheese, 1 tsp of oregano, 1/2 cup of the parmesan and season with salt.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

When your meat sauce is good and happy, your noodles are cooked and your cottage cheese and shredded mozzarella are ready to go, you can start assembling. Use a 9x13 pan, and assemble lasagna by laying 4 noodles overlapping on bottom of pan. Spread half of the cottage cheese mixture on the noodles. Top that with ½ the shredded mozza, and top that with half the beef mixture. Layer another 4 noodles, top with the remaining cottage cheese, rest of beef and rest of mozza. Sprinkle with the 1/4 cup of reserved parmesan. You can either pre-make this and store it in your fridge or freezer. If you freeze it, make sure you let it thaw completely and then bake 45-60 minutes or until cooked all the way through. If baking right away, 20-30 minutes until hot and bubbly.

Now go enjoy the best lasagna. Ever.

Click here for printable version of Best Lasagna

Tags : Freezer Stockpiling Make Ahead Meal Pasta

Maid in law

Looking in the basket for onions, my eyes fall on a bag of tomatoes left to rot and I quickly rush to suppress the evidence. I tilt the trashcan a little, place the incriminating evidence in the bottom of the can and tilt it back so it is covered. Just to be sure I take an old sheet of paper and cover the contents and hope she won’t notice. My hope is short lived. A few hours later comes the dreaded question:
“you left the whole bag of tomatoes in the basket and forgot about it? Why didn’t you keep it in the fridge? You just buy, let them rot and throw them”
I pretend not to have heard her, all the while seething inside. Why the hell couldn’t she have kept it in the fridge? or told me they were outside? It is almost as if she waited for them to rot so she could score over me.
Sound familiar? Your MIL/ SIL has done that to you or something similar? Ok, not the same thing in this case. It is NOT my MIL or SIL ; it is my maid, my domestic help.
When you have had someone working for you for over 20 years, I suppose some amount of role confusions happen.

Just because I trust her with the house in my absence and tolerate her eccentricities in consideration of her loyalty, she has begun to assume more rights than she is entitled to.
I do not believe in constant supervision and tolerate a little shoddiness once in a way because I understand that her job involves doing chores that we try to avoid the moment we can afford it. Cleaning/ dusting etc. can be fun and cathartic if you don’t have to do them for a living and in someone else’s house. So I don’t make a fuss if I find dust in some places; I just pick up the duster and clean it myself. And some days while I would have happily lived on left over food , I make the effort to cook for her. I do it because she is there working in my house when it is lunch time and I also do it because I feel it is my responsibility to see she gets her nourishment as it is her only meal of the day. No big deal – just a sambar and a vegetable with rice.

I do not know if I have sent the wrong messages to her with my attitude and behaviour. Of late I think she suffers from a delusion that I look upon her as the mother in law I don’t have. While she will implicitly follow orders if it is from the male members of the household, she will always have something to say if I ask her to do something.
“Yellamma, use this polish for the brass things.”
“No ma, this is no good. I will use pitambari powder. And I will do it tomorrow ”
“Why not today?”
“Today is tuesday.”

What has tuesday got to do with polishing a vase? She thinks she is a pundit and I am some vagabond gypsy unlearned in the way things are done. Don’t cut your hair on tuesday, don’t plant something on new moon day, don’t pay money on friday.

“Water those pots in the balcony. they are drying up.”
“Oh they aren’t drying. I water them on alternate days so their roots will get stronger.”
“says who?”
“Oh, I was brought up on a farm and grew up with plants. As if I don’t know.”
(With a sigh I water them myself after she has left for the day.)

“Can you give a bath to Munni?” (Munni is my 1 year old hyper-active dog)
“No, She might catch a cold if I give her a bath in this weather. May be tomorrow if there is bright sunshine.”
“Ok, can you get her brush?”
“How do I know where you have kept her brush. You keep it all over the place and forget.”

And this is when I snap and tell her “ So that is why I pay you. Please go and find it.”

She is stunned. This is not how the game is supposed to go. She knows that she has crossed a line and the game is over. It is back to the employer/ employee relationship. At least for the moment.
Next day, I start boiling milk. Something distracts me – a phone call or door bell and then I forget the milk and go sit with a book or wander elsewhere. In a few minutes I smell burnt milk and come back to the kitchen. Only to hear her mutter:
“You do this every time . I rushed when I heard the milk rise up but it had already boiled over on to the stove.”
Sigh. Mummy returns!

I know I have to lay down the rules. I have to dispel her delusions rather than play along. My husband sometimes says that I am in an abusive relationship with her and feel helpless to get out. But she is old and she may be unhappy in another house where she will be treated like a domestic help. People tell me how lucky I am to have someone as loyal as this. 23 years, they say they don’t find people to stick around for that many weeks. And they see that I leave my jewels all over the place and they remain there untouched. And if my son has chicken pox or jaundice, she prays to the village goddess as a proxy for her employer who doesn’t “know” any of these things. When I grumble about her impertinent ways to my aunt, she tells me that I do not know how lucky I am. She should know because she has had three maids in the past three months.

So ok. I decided to cut her some slack and exercise some patience for the sake of all the pluses she supposedly brings to the job. But last week she stayed back one night when I was alone and sick. And I realised a scary truth about her. She watches the Saas-Bahu serials in Tamil and Kannada with total involvement and she has a television in her house with cable connection. And here I am , totally ill-equipped to audition for a daughter in law’s role, never having lived with a mother-in-law.
The choice before me is clear – fire her forthwith or pick up some DIL offensives and counter manoeuvres by watching them myself. Since I have been counselled against the former, I think, just to get my revenge, I will watch a couple of them over the week end and launch a pre-emptive strike on monday.
Can’t wait to see her expression. Bwahahaha.*

P.S.: As the tranquiliser was taking effect, I heard a distant voice say: “she seems to be under severe stress. Will be alright when she wakes up.”

Tags : humour maid

Wildberry Muffins

Summer sweet berries rolled into a luscious batter and then baked until the little jewel-toned buds burst.

Am I convincing you? Would it help if I told you there is a crunchy cinnamon-sugar topping to complete the deal?

Thought so. What are you waiting for. I'm convinced that there is NO better accompaniment to your morning coffee.

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Makes 12 muffins

1 ½ cups flour
¾ cup sugar
½ tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries (or mixed berries...just make sure the larger strawberries and blackberries get a good chop first)

Crumb Topping:
¼ cup sugar
3 tbsp flour
2 tbsp butter
¾ tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400⁰. Grease muffin tins or line with muffin liners. Combine the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder in a mixing bowl. Place vegetable oil in a one cup measuring cup and add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with flour mixture. Fold in the berries. Fill muffin cups to top.

Mix all the crumb ingredients together with a fork and sprinkle over the muffin batter. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

They will coming out looking golden and delicious. The top is crunchy and the inside moist. Love it!

Click here for printable version of Wildberry Muffins

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THE RESULTS?
Before I really learned to bake, I made these muffins and they almost made my headspin. Me? The NON-BAKER made these? But they are incredible! To this day they are still my family's favorite muffin. Even with a lack of baking skills you could make these.

Tags : Breads and Muffins Breakfast

Irish Roast Beef with Guinness au Jus

My husband and I get together once a month with two other couples for an International Food Night we call "Secret-Secret Geography Club". We thought "Geography Club" would sound boring to deter other friends from joining (yeah we're snobby like that :) ), and "Secret-Secret" because....well because it's a secret. Duh. The first rule of Geography Club is not to talk about Geography Club....so I'm letting you in on some pretty privilege information here.

Ok. So now that we have that established, I'll tell you about our night. We got together on Sunday for "Irish" food. I know, Irish food sounds kinda boring, but it was our best night yet! We had Guinness and Soda Bread with Smoked Salmon and Colcannon...but the crowning victory of the night was Dan's Irish Roast. Which is why I'm sharing the recipes with you. Because it was easy, and tasted unbelievable. We were all fighting for the last couple pieces of beef...after we had each eaten 2 or 3 pieces already.

All credit goes to Dan for this recipe. He created it, then he passed it on to me. Now I'm passing it on to you.

Blade roast or other cheap cut of beef
5 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 tsp dried rosemary
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp Montreal Steak Spice
1/2 freshly ground black pepper
6-8 slices of bacon
1 can/bottle of Guinness or other stout

Set the roast into a bowl and pour over the Guinness. Let the beef marinate in the fridge overnight and get all drunk and happy on the stout. Turn at least once, so both sides can get happy.

The next day, put the roast into a roasting pan, along with the stout that the beef has been sitting in. Preheat your oven to 250 degrees. Put your spices into a mortar and bash them with a pestle a bit so they release their fragrance (you could also chop them up if you don't have a mortar and pestle and put them in a small bowl). Finely mince your garlic and add to the mortar and bash together with the spices to create a paste. Slather the garlicky rosemary paste all over the top of the roast. Lay the strips of bacon over the top of the garlic smeared roast. Cover loosely with tin foil and poke a few holes for the steam to escape. It's ready for the oven.

After approximately 3-3 1/2 hours you can take it out of the oven. You want the beef to rest before you cut into it, or else the wonderful juices will be all over your counter instead of in the beef. We don't want that.

While the beef is resting, pour all the stout/garlic/rosemary/beefy juices from the pan into a small pot. Turn heat to medium and reduce your juices until it becomes more of a sauce. This will take about 10 minutes. Taste your sauce and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. This sauce will have you peeing your pants it is so good. In my friends Lindsey's words "I would drink this in a smoothie".

Slice your beef and serve with the sauce and some roasted potatoes. ENJOY!

Click here for printable version of Irish Roast Beef with Guinness au Jus

Tags : Beef

Dahi Vada

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

Around 5 years back I was staying away from home for the first time because of a new job in bangalore. I use to stay with roomies - Amita, Vinaya and Anumeha.. One fine day we thought of preparing dahi vada. It was just after some 2-3 months after we had moved into a flat. We hardly had any cooking experience and required utensils. We used MTR's Instant Vada mix for preparing wada and fried it in a small pot (we didn't have pan :D). The best part was I mentioned them quite a few times that I know how to preapre 'good dahi vada' :) Since childhood it was my faviourite dish and I had seen mom preparing it :) thats the reason I knew of the tricks for getting good dahi wada :D So here in this recipe i share it :) Off course now I don't use instant mix for preparing wada and i do have a pan to fry the vadas :)

Ingredients
1 cup Udid Daal
1 Green Chilli
1/4 spoon Ginger paste
1/2 ltr Curd
2-3 spoon Sugar
Salt
Oil

Method

Soak the udid daal overnight
In the morning, separate the water from the daal
Grind the daal by adding around 4-5 spoons of water
Add green chilli, ginger paste and grind further to get fine paste
Get the mixture in a pot, add salt to taste and mix well
Heat oil in a pan and fry the small vadas
Mean while in a pot mix water and little salt and keep aside
Mix 2-3 spoons of curd with around a cup of water and keep it in plate and keep aside
When vada is fried well, remove it from oil and add it to the salty water prepared earlier
Fry next set of vadas
When they are ready remove the earlier batch of vadas from water, press them to remove the water and them in the plate with curd water
Repeat for all wadas
Mix the curd, sugar, little salt to taste and keep ready
While serving, serve the wada from the curd water and cover it with the sweet curd we preapred earlier.

Notes
When you fry the vada, it should float in the oil, if not mix the batter well.
Also when the vada is dipped in salty water, it should float, if not vada is half cooked.
You can garnish the vada with red chilli powder, tamarind chutney if you like.

Tags : Breakfast Chaats Chilli Curd Daal Ginger Oil Side Dishes Snacks South Indian Starters Sugar

Prosciutto Wrapped Salmon Over Lemon-Herb Lentils

I totally stole this pic from Bree's facebook. My fellow food bloggers thank you Bree.

A couple weeks ago we were visiting some friends of ours. My friend Tara is a food freak like me, and she prepared this dish for us because it was one of her favorites...and because it is ridiculously fast. And because it tastes gourmet. And gosh darnit it looks pretty too! Tara altered the recipe from it's original form, so I kept her alterations because they were mighty good.

You will be surprised how easy it is...you could make it on a weeknight when you don't have any time, and it looks like you slaved for hours. You can whip this whole meal up in under 2o minutes. Even if you don't like lentils you should try it...my hubby and I don't much like them either, but with all the herbs, lemon and the salty salmon, it is a perfect match. And here's the other kicker: it's healthy. Say what?! Yup, that's right. You got your slow carbs, your veggies and your lean protein (Which I learned from Miss Dani Spies). Is there any reason why you are not making this recipes right now?! Didn't think so, so let's get to it.

Recipe by Jamie Oliver
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Serves 4

1 can of lentils
4 (8-ounce) salmon fillets, skinned and pin-boned
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
8 slices of prosciutto
4 tbsp olive oil
1 lemon, juiced
2 good handfuls mixed herbs (flat-leaf parsley, dill and chives), chopped
3 large handfuls spinach, chopped
Small container of plain yogurt, lightly seasoned with salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Drain the lentils and put into a pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil on med-high and then turn heat down and simmer until tender (This only takes about 5-10 minutes).

Season the salmon fillets with a little pepper before wrapping them in the prosciutto slices. Leave some of the flesh exposed. Steve (my husband) thinks the entire fillet should be wrapped instead of the middle getting all the good stuff. It would look prettier wrapped in the middle (like in the picture), but if you want more of the good stuff wrap lengthwise. Drizzle with olive oil and roast in the oven for around 10 minutes until the prosciutto is golden.

While the salmon is in the oven and the lentils are simmering, season the plain yogurt with salt and pepper to your liking. Also go ahead and chop up all your herbs.

Drain away the water from the lentils and season carefully with salt, pepper, the lemon juice and olive oil. Just before serving, stir the herbs and spinach into the lentils on a high heat, until wilted. Divide the lentils among 4 plates. Place a salmon fillet on top of your pile of lentils, and finish with a drizzle of lightly seasoned yogurt.

Tell me how good this is.

Click here for printable version of Prosciutto Wrapped Salmon over Lemon-Herb Lentils

Tags : Fast Meals in a Pinch seafood

Meet The Meal Planner

My name is Kindra. I am an art teacher, a mother, a wife, an artist, aspiring at-home-chef and meal planner. I am constantly scouring the internet, cooking shows, cookbooks and friend's collections for delicious, mouth watering recipes. I write down found recipes and old favorites into a meal plan for the week - that way when dinner rolls around at 5pm I'm not scrounging to defrost some old chicken and throwing something together...or worse; resorting to take out.

My first year of marriage, my husband and I shopped for groceries the way we had always seen our families do it - we went to the store, threw stuff in our cart and came home. When we got home we'd put the groceries away and start to wonder "What's for dinner?" It amazed me that we could spend $150 on groceries and still have "nothing to eat". Just so we didn't have to think too hard, we'd make what we knew how to make - spaghetti, perogies, and stir-fry. Week after week. Or we'd go out for fast food. I loved to cook, but with no direction and no plan, I'd look through recipes, find something that sounded good, but I was always missing ingredients.

One day it dawned on me, that if I shopped for the ingredients in the recipe then I could actually make something new. This slowly evolved into a loose plan of meals for the week, and even with this small change, I was saving us hundreds of dollars on food each month! The more I got into it, the more I LOVED meal planning. My husband loved trying new things week after week, and of course loved that I was saving our family money. I got even more organized and made a personal grocery list. When I went back to work after maternity leave I started to realize I needed to be even more organized to get supper on the table.

Now I've got my meal planning routine down pat - my family eats wholesome, healthy meals together every night, we save TONS of money, and we never get bored with the dinner time routine.

I don't know what I'd do without my meal plans.

This blog can be helpful to you to, by:

1. Learning to meal plan and make your own meal plans

2. Using the meal plans I have posted, since I have already done all the work finding recipes, making a grocery list and testing out recipes

3. Using my meal plans, and subbing out recipes that you don't think your family will like, and putting in your own favorites

4. Finding tips to meal plan more efficiently

5. Finding delicious recipes

I hope you find this blog useful for you and your family.

I do ask that you not steal any of my photos or text. If you would like to use one of my recipes or photos on your own blog please write "Recipe by Meal Planning 101" or "Photo taken by Meal Planning 101" and then provide a working clickable link back to my original post. I work hard on my posts and appreciate the link love.

Thanks for checking things out and I hope you find some useful tips and recipes for your own meal plans.

P.S. To learn more about me, you can check out Journey's of an Artist Mom

Tags :