Growing Chavali

Chavali or Black eyed beans, is one of my favorite beans. I love tender beans as a stir fry and the mature seeds soaked overnight and cooked into a spicy curry with a gravy. On one such day I soaked the Chavali for the curry and decided to plant one and see how it grows. I had read somewhere it grows easily. It did and I am happy with it.

I grew Chavali in three stages

Soaking:  

12 Jan 2013

Add the seeds in a jar and cover with 4-5 inches of water above the seeds. Soak them in water overnight.

Sprouting: 

Drain the soaked seeds and let them sprout in the soil       

Planting: 

• I used a plastic tray with growing media.
• Fill up to the brim.
• Ensure there is a small hole in the bottom of the planter for draining excess water.
• Sprinkle water to moisten the soil. Do this every day.
• Cover thinly with dry leaves/ saw dust or a wet muslin cloth to protect from birds picking the sprouts.
• Ensure enough sunlight, but not direct till the bean stalk proliferates quite a bit.
• In a week I got 5 inch tall bean stalk.
• Replant into a bigger pot with growing media, a mix of soil and twigs. Fill up with planting soil up to 10 inches.
• Start supporting the bean stalk on the grill or a cage.
• It flowers into white blossoms and bears fruit in the form or green beans.

Harvest:
Pluck the beans once they are about 15 inches to use when tender or leave them on stalk to mature if you want to wait for the seeds.

24 Mar 2013

Cleaning for Use:
Remove the crown and destring, if you must, break into small pieces or chop up fine.

Some uses:
Till now I have harvested only 4-5 beans at a time so they went as sprinkles on uttapams or into a sambar.

While we are talking about growing Chavali here, there is something else happening on the other side of the world with red chavali and my Koli masala which traveled across with ET. Mints, thank you for posting, you made my day!

 Fresh beans harvested for the mature seeds. 11th April 2013

Finding peace...

My Green balcony

And 

My father's soulful singing

  Maze Maharaj

Sadguru Maza

Tricolored Chili Paneer

In a vegetarian family serving starters always means making fried stuff or sandwiches, most times. Chili Paneer is a favorite and how much that my nieces and nephews choose it over chocolate cake. The last time we had a function is our home I was serving this tricolored Chili paneer to my uncle MJ, the kids saw it. It was not yet their dinner time and they were playing video games, on spotting it they immediately dumped their play and instead demanded that I serve them the chili paneer. I offered chocolate cake but they chose this lovely colorful chili paneer!

So here is the recipe

Ingredients

1 block of paneer about 400gms
2 tablespoons corn flour
1 red bell pepper
1 green bell pepper
1 yellow bell pepper
1 tablespoon dark soya sauce
2 tablespoon chopped garlic
2-3 onions chopped into squares
3-4 spring onions chopped fine
1/2 cup baby corn sliced
slit green chilies (as much as you can handle)
2 tablespoon oil
salt to taste
sugar to taste

Keep a pot of boiling hot water ready to dunk paneer after frying to make it super soft.

To begin lets fry the paneer first. Make a thin batter of corn flour water and salt. It should coat the paneer chunks thinly. Cube the paneer to finger sized pieces. Dip each piece in the batter and fry in hot oil. Remove once golden and dunk in the hot water. Once all the paneer pieces are fried and dunked in hot water to soften. Drain them on a sieve. Separate out each piece if they are sticking together.

Heat oil in a wok. First fry the garlic then add the chopped onions and fry till translucent. Chop all the three colored bell peppers into long fingers. Add them to the saute. Cook for 5 mins. Add the white parts of the spring onions and cook for another 5 mins. Follow in with the slit green chilies and baby corn slices. Add the soya sauce, lastly add the paneer and stir well and fast on high heat just to caramelize a bit. Salt it and add sugar as per taste.

Remove from heat and serve immediately with sprinkles of the spring onion greens.

Gongura Pappu

Is my most favorite spicy dal. Especially if my ex-neighbor Rani has made it. The dal is cooked to creaminess with the gongura leaves in it and the single way to enjoy it is drizzle ghee and mix it with the fingers. I have seen thinner version of gongura pappu but this is how Rani makes it, thick and creaminess characteristic of gongura.

The thick dal mixed with rice and made into a mudda is how Rani would love to enjoy but since we always teased her she would go to the kitchen and eat her muddas but never in front of us. We would tease Anu, my pilloo that she would have eaten rice balls on the day gongura dal was made and she would go, "Noooo". Such precious memories!

Then life does a 360 on you. Today if I have to thoroughly enjoy gongura pappu I must make muddas with rice!

Two years ago when I did my Andhra Pradesh Road Trip I was in search of a good gongura pappu but found none. Which only means that this recipe is priceless and good recipes are the ones that are made at home. My belief is strengthened.

So here I am sharing with you.

Ingredients

1 large bunch of gongura 

2 cups tur dal

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon red chilli powder 

For more authentic taste use the red chili and mashed garlic masala that Andhraites make in bulk. The garlic lends a very slight fermented taste to the masala and a beautiful flavor to the Andhra specialties.

Pluck the leaves of gongura. Wash and clean. Chop them fine. Wash tur dal. In a pressure cooker add the dal and the gongura. Add the spices. Top up with 6 cups water. Cook for 20 mins with whistle or for 3 long whistles. Open the cooker. The dal should be crumbled completely on cooking. Mash it and keep aside.

For the poppu/ tadka

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

2 tablespoons oil

asafeotida

as many Garlic cloves as you like, peeled

curry leaves (I was out of stock)

Heat oil till smoking point. Splutter the mustard seeds add asafoetida, curry leaves and finally garlic cloves. Fry till golden. Pour the poppu over the cooked dal and bring to a rolling boil. Serve hot and enjoy.

P.S: In the picture I have used a red Pochampalli cloth done in Ikat style of dyeing which is unique to Andhra Pradesh. I love ethnic fabrics and these weavers need encouragement.

Kache Popaya Chi Chana Dal Ghalun Bhaaji

Raw papaya (Koli: Popaya) and chana dal in green coconut masala.

Traditionally this gets made in two ways, one with chana dal and the other with sode (peeled and dried prawns) but in our home its the veg version ofcourse. It would sound scandalous now if I say it, since I am a  vegetarian for the last 25yrs but this tastes the best with sode. This a very much Koli Style bhaaji, what we call esavana chi bhaaji which means bhaaji with essence of non veg, mostly dried fish.

Yesterday, I visited Thal to see my youngest Mama/ Maternal Uncle who suffered a paralytic stroke. I realized one thing that we are becoming people who show apathy to even the most grim circumstances that affect our life. In the village if a person falls ill, he is immediately considered useless and left to die. It is a lot to do with not having money and no humanity! Fortunately Shankar Mama has people who love him around him and I am praying he recovers well.

In Thal popaya is considered "bhutacha khana". To ward off evil many a times the popaya is waved around the body of a person and then discarded on the seashore faraway from the residents and their commonly used areas. See even the ghosts are fed in our culture!

I was touched by my cousin sisters in Thal. I saw a terracotta handi filled with water lying out in the backyard. I told them I wanted another one like it. Nirmal Tai immediately wanted to give the same handi to me but then explained that it was kept for the birds and animals. In my city home for decades we have stopped doing this. Why?

Few things I can think of is nesting problems, messy window sill. Are these problems so big that we must let our birds and animals die? 

Join me in celebrating World sparrow day on March 20th and add a feeder to your window sill to keep celebrating everyday. 

 

Here is what Mohammed Dilawar is doing for the sparrows.

Last weekend when I stayed over at my friend Gauri's home she shared with me this bouquet of dried paddy she had brought back from Kolkata. It is a symbol of fertility and prosperity in Bengali homes and is hung in the doorway. Yes the doorway was open to birds and animals in the villages but in our modern vertical growth concrete jungle the doorway is mostly a maze thru which humans, themselves hate to make passage. So I chose to hang that bouquet of paddy in my window.

I had taken the day off on Friday, I spent the entire morning watching the sparrows feed on the paddy. It was such a calming experience for my nerves that had been wrecked by some unnecessary burden I had invited. Yeah I am like that some times, 'Kunachya khandya var kunache oze' must have been written for me ;P.

Oh lets get back to the recipe.

Ingredients

1 kg raw papaya/ kacha popaya
1/2 cup chana dal
1 tablespoon oil 
salt to taste

For the masala

1/8 piece of a fresh coconut 
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
3 green chilies
1/2 cup chopped coriander leaves
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 teaspoon Koli masala or garam masala

First grind the masala. Keep aside.

Peel the raw papaya and chop into bits. Wash the chana dal and keep aside Heat oil in a wok. Add the raw papaya and the washed chana dal to it. Top up with water about a litre and cook till chana dal starts crumbling just a bit. Salt it to taste.

Add the ground coconut masala. Add more water to get a nice gravy but not too thin.

Note: If you are using peeled and dried prawns, you need to soak them in water for 30 mins to plump them up. Use them instead of the chana dal.

Enjoy the Kache popaya chi bhaaji with chapati or Chavlachi roti.

 I'll leave you to listen to this beautiful Abhang by Tukaram and sung by Lata Mangeshkar which is what this post is about.

Hazelnut Cold Coffee

The last week just zoomed past, for me the fun begins on Wednesdays itself, when I attend my Marathi Sugam Sangeet Class. This week we learnt Nij re nij re bala it is such a beautiful Angaee geet or lullaby that I sang it to bed and was up at 3.30 am with the song still playing in my head. I lay in bed looping it until 6 am. Woke up and did all my Thu morning chores to it.

Thursday evening is my most favorite, it is my Bharatiya Shastriya Sangeet class with kids aged 7, 9 and 13, 3 women in the 40s and the eldest is 60 plus and that does not include Mrs. Dabke, my Guru! Yet this class is absolutely fun. We are incorrigible gigglers. Last week the kids in between singing picked up some spectacles that were lying around and wore them on their noses to give us the bespectacled 40s and 60s company. It was hilarious, to watch Dhruv wearing 2 pairs one on top of other. In chorus we sang sa, ga re, ga pa~~~ dha, ni, Sa~~

Friday I sat down for riyaz for 2 full hours and followed it on Sat morning for another 2 hrs. Thru the day I moved around the house, cleaning, cooking, gardening, clicking pictures for the blog and more...

Saturday night went to a Kathak recital by Ntriyadarpana Foundation, it was an excellent experience with Paullomi Mukherjee Naik compering the show as she educated the audience on the nuances of Kathak and the characters played by her students. The brightest performance was by Vidhi Sampat whose abhinay and nimble footwork as Abhisarika captivated me. All the other girls were all decked up in Solah Shringar and were quite entertaining in their individual acts. I must bribe my friend Ashita to invite me for such concerts more often as these are non commercial focused on learning performances.

On Sunday I was too tired to cook as it was late the previous night. So we went to my favorite not a Dhaba but Punjabi homestyle outlet in Belapur called Bimal Paratha House. Guys you must visit this place. They chopped the sarson for us after we placed the order for Sarson da saag and Makai ki roti. Everything is always absolutely fresh, tasty and laden with ghee! Loved the indulgence as I was off rice and roti thru the work week.

Well today was a hectic day too even though I worked from home. So here is a treat I just made and posting as the Monday night turns to Tuesday.

It's a simple recipe but does wonders for my tired body.

Ingredients

300 ml chilled milk
1 teaspoon instant coffee
1 teaspoon nutella
Sugar to taste

Put everything in a shaker and serve in a tall glass.

Sipped slowly. Reflecting on how I love my life, this is the life I want to live and enjoy!

Now I am off to bed. Good night!

Marathi Popti Or Bengali Paturi, Nah It's A Casserol !

Many years ago I had briefly mentioned about Popti on this blog. I have not been able to make the real thing but here is a modern Popti. Is it or is it not?

In and around Alibag winter is when Val is harvested. The celebration of the harvest is with this special dish called Popti, it has hardly any spices and is cooked on wood fire. The Val fresh and young are stuffed into a terracotta pot lined with leaves and cooked in its own juices. The smokiness of wood fire takes it to a sublime level.

Popti is never eaten alone, its always for a party. The pot is kept in the center and everyone sits around the pot warming themselves idyllically in the warmth of the now dying embers of the fire on which the Popti was cooked. I have never experienced this Popti making on our farm in Thal but the elders tell many a stories from their childhood of flipping on Popti and then having farting competitions following it, the notorious Val doing the magic.

When a group of us blogger friends had visited Bengali Mashi's Kitchen last year, I had loved the veggie paturi. It was bundle bursting with flavours, sharp from the mustard and the tender Val beans cooked to perfection along with delicate spinach wrapped in a banana leaf. However as per the Bengali tradition the paturi was fried in mustard oil. I had commented that I would have preferred it steamed. It was on my mind for a while to try at home.

Yesterday I was at the APMC market and found tender Surti papdi. I was pondering on making Popti or the Paturi. For the Popti I don't have a terracotta pot and no wood fire. The Paturi without banana leaf is not a Paturi after all. So I decided to give the idea of making two similar dishes a modern twist. Ah! and it did fit so well for the event Preeti is hosting on her blog, an attempt to fight plagiarism is a positive way.

The flavors of this dish are classic Bengali and yet the cooking technique I used is inspired by the Marathi Popti.

If you love simple healthy food full of flavors that burst in you mouth and textures that tickle your palate this one is a pleasure.

Ingredients 

This is the recipe I referred to

1 bowl Surti papdi or any type of tender beans in a pod

1 large bunch spinach, chopped fine

3 tablespoons mustard seeds

4 green chillies

¼ fresh coconut, grated or sliced

¼  teaspoon turmeric powder

2 teaspoons mustard oil

1 teaspoon sugar

salt to taste.

Remove the string of the Surti papdi or anyother bean pods you are using. Check that they are fresh, young and worm free (none of the pods should have holes or brown marks). Wash.

Clean and wash the spinach, chop fine. My 2400 ml casserole filled up with it.

Grind the mustard seeds, green chillies, coconut along with salt to a paste.

Mix together the bean pods, ground paste, turmeric powder and sugar. Put it all in a casserole, cover with lid and microwave for 15 mins. The spinach will wilt and leave a lot of water and the bean pods will cook in those juices. The next 10 mins microwave without the lid, so that the water evaporates.

Finally heat the 2 teaspoons of mustard oil to smokiness and drizzle over the baked casserole. Mix well. Serve while warm.

I am sure you will enjoy the same happiness of a Popti done in the farms of Alibag; indoors at your home or are you already in Bengal?

This post marks a change on this blog that I have delayed for too long until my picture was blatantly lifted. Did you see the watermark? It is the stamp of my ownership. This is to stop copying!

Bloggers' Buzz in London and A Fight Againt Plagiarism

My blogger friend, Preeti of Isingcakes and More and three other Londoners and bloggers came up with this idea of a day long event for bloggers. Here is the schedule. 

It is a meet for passionate food bloggers and foodies for sure and if you are in London you cannot miss it. Check out the Bloggers' Buzz blog for further details.

We bloggers are connected by a passion for food, photography and culture. Networking with like minded people is something bloggers world over love to do. At Bloggers Buzz they have a masterclass on the Ethics of food blogging. I am sure this will be a very informative class, to build awareness and also strength among bloggers to fight plagiarism.

Sometime ago, Purva's Food Funda liked my FB page and invited me over to her page. The first thing that shocked me was she had my Vala cha Birda picture (the steel banana plate pic) in her album called "My recipes"!

I was furious, yet calmly asked her to either credit my pic to my source post or remove it. That is my right under the copyright law. Instead of taking action on it after couple of days she left a comment on my wall saying being a Marathi I was pulling her down instead of providing support!

There was no apology in the thief's words even when caught red handed and that irked Preeti so she came all out to support me. Both Preeti and I reported the photo and the page for Copyright Infringement to FB. The photo was gone, don't know if the thief removed it or FB. 

Meanwhile, this thief  instead of shutting up decided to show her unpolished behavior abusing Preeti and sending messages and appealed to our "Marathi Asmita". Yes we are Marathi and I was left with no choice but to tell her off very rudely. It did not end at that. She delete her comments on my wall but here is my post for proof of the harassment.

Well we did not expect anything to happen after this. The shameless thief still keeps stealing saying one of her readers has contributed the pictures to her page. See this album. She does not take responsibility of cleaning up the so called "contributions" and by the way all uploads are by the page owner her self, note that. Now all this happened in Oct 2012

Next what followed is scheming roguishness after so many months of quite which we least expected from two women who must be at least college educated. In Jan 2013, Purva, first invited Preeti over to her page, then she told her off publicly and wrote a nasty message. Later the co-owner of the page and partner in crime Manisha Rane wrote to Preeti. That message is so foul that I refuse to put it up here. I am warning these two women to stop harassing my friend Preeti else I will have to report them to authorities. I know they are my regular readers even if anonymous and they are certainly not going to miss this post.

Jyanna Ingraji kalat nahi tyanchya saathi ha nirop:

Maze kuthele hi kaam, likhan, photo ani kalpana hya mazya malkichya aahet. Tya mazya parvangi shivay koni hi vaparu nayet hi vinanti. Ani jar ka parvangi shivay vapar zala, tar legal battle sathi tayar raha.

I have seen some other fans of my blogs using my pictures on FB pages. Please stop it. It takes lot of passion, time and energy to procure ingredients and other material, to take enticing pictures it takes original thinking and creativity. It takes a lot of my personal time every weekend to post even a single post on my blogs. I do this first for my self expression and then for the love my readers shower on my work. Remember this blog is for free you do not pay to access my work. As readers you must support me by at least taking my permission before you use any of the content. I appeal to the goodness in my readers.

 

Rhea and Ketan have started a FB group "Food bloggers Hall of Shame" where ethical food bloggers show solidarity in curbing the plagiarism that is eating into our energies time and again. We join hands to take action against anyone who uses any of our content without the explicit permission of the blogger. I have a page with my Ownership notice on this blog and all my blogs and request anyone who wants to use my content to read it and seek permission by writing to me at annaparabrahma@gmail.com.

Edit at 23:10 IST

This is how Preeti, being a teacher that she is shows the way to ethical food blogging and she is even rewarding people who are creative and innovative. Go over to check out what she is giving away as a Prize for Ethical food blogging.

Tiramisu The Classy Italian Dessert

Last time when I visited Crawford Market I picked up some Italian Savoairdi biscuits/ ladyfingers. I thought I had picked up eggless ones as I had specifically asked for it but they were not. So this dessert was made for those who indulge.

It is the simplest dessert to put together yet very classy. I licked the bowl of mascarpone, shouldn't the maker get something?

I adapted this recipe, to the limits in my kitchen.

Ingredients

500 gms Homemade Mascarpone cheese
12 ladyfingers biscuits
2 tablespoons cooked vanilla custard (replacement for 2 egg yolks)
4 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon instant coffee dissolved in 50 ml water
2 tablespoons Balsamic vinegar instead of liqueur
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa
dark chocolate shavings

In the food processor bowl add Homemade Mascarpone cheese, the cooked vanilla custard, sugar, 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar whip till creamy yet stiff.

In a plate mix together instant coffee and water. Soak the ladyfingers in the coffee liquid and place in a bowl. Line six biscuits at the bottom. Scoop out 1/3 of the mascarpone cheese and slather on the bottom layer. Now wet the second set of six biscuits and slather the rest of the mascarpone mix on to it. Chill it overnight for best results.

Before serving dust the top with the unsweetened cocoa and garnish with dark chocolate shavings.

This recipe serves 8 small portions or 4 super large ones.

The Chocolate Volcano! Cake

It has been such an eventful last week for reasons more than one...

One was Friday, my nephew's birthday. He threw a googly at me, specifying that he wanted a chocolate bundt cake. I was wondering how to decorate to make it a celebration cake and good blogger and facebook friends came to my rescue.

Bundt cakes limit you in the frosting ideas, you can only pour some thing over it. It does look pretty but that's traditional. I was spoilt for choices, toffee sauce/ fresh cream/ dulce de leche or chocolate ganache? The birthday boy loves chocolate like all kids his age so I thought it would be a great idea to make a Chocolate Volcano cake. With marbled effect of Chocolate ganache lava overflowing and in the center. A sprinkling of confetti for the fire spewing volcano. Now with that idea in the head I started out to execute it.

I made the chocolate cake using my Choco-Vanilla marble cake recipe which will follow. This post is about the decoration. The cake without the jazz on its own is a beautiful rich tea cake and deserves its own moment of limelight. So come again for the recipe of the cake but for now this is how the decoration was done.

Ingredients

100gms of milk chocolate

100 gms of dark chocolate

100 ml Amul fresh cream

a tablespoon of confetti

First turn out the bundt cake into a serving dish, upside down. 

Bring the fresh cream to a boil. 

Keep three small bowls ready for the 3 types of ganache.

Milk chocolate ganache: Melt milk chocolate by zapping it in the microwave for 30 secs. Pour 50ml of the hot Amul fresh cream over the chocolate.

Pour the milk chocolate ganache over the bundt cake. This will be the dark layer.

Marbled chocolate ganache: In another bowl take the dark chocolate and pour 40 ml of the hot fresh cream over 50gms dark chocolate. Mix to get a marble effect in two colors of light and dark ganache. 

Pour the marbled ganache over the milk chocolate ganache we poured over the cake to form the second layer of lava.

It looks pretty without the confetti too...a version for the adults.

Dark chocolate ganache: Now mix the remaining 10 ml of fresh cream into the remaining 50 gms of dark chocolate. Pour this dark chocolate ganache into the center of the bundt cake to fill the cavity.

On cutting a slice it revealed the embedded rocks of walnuts and the slice coated in chocolate ganache lava and one could pick up the dark lava in the center and spread it on the slice. A lesson in geography too! LOL.

I don't have a picture of the slice as I forgot to load batteries in my camera. I was in a hurry to go as this decoration was done after I reached home from work and then rushed to the BD boy's home. He was waiting for me to reach there and told his Mom to hold on the aukshan (aarti) till I went, ain't that sweet!

In the end sprinkle the confetti over the bundt cake ring and a denser sprinkle in the center to give the effect of a fire spewing Chocolate Volcano!

This is Nirbhay and he turned 12 on Friday and was so excited about it  that he wanted to go to school by BEST bus instead of being dropped by his Mom like everyday, just so that he could buy himself a full ticket!

Tip:

I used a microwave steamer as a cake carrier. So the bundt cake was turned out in the base of the steamer. It proved to be better than the cake box. The Birthday boy lives about 45 mins drive from my place and the cake traveled the distance well. I would suggest sprinkle the confetti just before cutting the cake to avoid it melting in the ganache.

Celebrating Makar Sankrat And A Warm Welcome To The Positive With GuL PoLi

 Makar Sankratichya Goad Goad Subhechya!

Dakshinayan is over and now the sun enters Uttarayan. Sankrant TaLli!

See the beautiful sun slant in the pictures. Looking at the GuL PoLi on the camera display got me so excited that I wanted to post immediately and also wish you here.

Couple of days ago was reading this post by Saee, she reminisces about all the beautiful memories of Sankrant from her childhood. Unlike her Gran and Mom, my Aai never made any kind of poLis. In my family, poLis were always sub contracted to the Sonarin (Gold smith's wife) in Thal and brought to Mumbai wrapped in newspaper by one of our relatives, on some special occasions.

I broke that tradition when I could dare to make PoLis. It must have been somewhere around year 2000 or so. I was a somewhat experienced cook running the household then. My Dad was pinning for poLis and I decided to try my hand at them. First attempted Puranpolis and then GuL PoLis.

Obviously my reference was the good old and the only cookbook I own, Annapurna by Mangala Barve. I do make poLis once in a while but I have not been know as an expert. My cousin sisters make beautiful poLis. Aha that reminds me, I must bring them here soon to showcase their recipes, now that I am in Mumbai!

Coming back to the recipe. I have made the GuL poLis with Mangala Barve's recipe before and they are easier to roll out but with the addition of besan to the GuL in the stuffing kills the whole essence of a GuL PoLi is my opinion. In the process I follow I omit the besan all together and keep GuL as the star ingredient, else why call it GuL PoLi?

My PoLi oozes GuL with every bite. See it here, isn't it tempting?

Ingredients

For the stuffing

1/4 kg GuL / Jaggery

1/4 cup khus khus

1/4 cup TiL / sesame seeds

handful of dry coconut slices

a large pinch of nutmeg

In a kadhai toast the khus khus, sesame seeds and dry coconut slices till rosy pink.

Grind to fine in the chutney grinder.  The toasted seeds and coconut release oil to make it into a paste. The grinder might heat up the paste, don't worry. 

In a microwave dish zap the jaggery for 30 secs. No more than that we don't need to melt the jaggery all we need is to make it crumble. While still warm press it with the back of a spoon.

Now add the powdered khus khus, til and coconut mix into the jaggery. Add the nutmeg powder. Knead well to get a smooth ball. Keep aside.

For the cover

1 cup whole wheat flour/ atta

1/2 cup all purpose flour/ maida

1 serving spoon chickpea flour/ besan

salt to taste

2 tablespoons oil

water as needed (200ml)

In the food processor, put all the flour together, add the oil. Run the machine while you add water as required about 200 ml to form a smooth ball of dough.

Divide the stuffing into 12 parts and the dough into 12 parts.

Make a dona / cup with the dough and stuff the mix into it. Seal it into a ball. Press to make it into a disc. Roll out each disc into chapatis as thin a possible without tearing. If the chapati tears the jaggery will ooze out while roasting and char the griddle and the poLi, so be careful. 

Slow roast on a well heated griddle or non stick pan. Turn once roasted well on to the other side. The PoLi needs careful handling so turn only once to completely roast on both sides. Fold twice to get quarter folds like you do to chapati.

Stay warned the GuL PoLis should always be served cold lest you want to scald your tongue with hot ones. Those who love ghee can go for a generous drizzle.

Enjoy!

PS: today's lunch just chana chat and GuL PoLi.

That Night A Year Ago

I went to bed as usual. 

I had just gone back to Blr after a long holiday spent with family in Mumbai. There was something that was worrying me. That day, 11th Jan 2012 as we walked up the stairs to the rooftop cafeteria I was breathless and very casually I mentioned to my friend Archana that my heart was trying to give me some signals.

After a normal day at work I returned home. For the last couple of years I had this nausea when I commuted in a closed vehicle, I had nausea after a meal. In June 2011 I had this Red Alert! but it was about general health. I was and am overweight. Nothing pointed to the heart except a casual comment by the daibetologist and I am not even daibetic. My school friend Radha who owns a drug discovery company had suggested that I needed someone with a holistic view than the specialists I was seeing. I was in Mumbai with my family and friends and I was the happiest. After that alert I was very cautious with my diet and I was even preparing for a trek to Spiti Valley, walking 3 kms everyday and loosing a bit of the weight.

That was not enough!

On 11th Jan that night it started with uneasiness. Past midnight I woke up and vomited. Then I tried to go back to bed. Around 1.30 am I had unbearable back pain. On the left side behind my heart the back was hurting. I asked Dad to rub some balm, but got no relief. I took a stick and started giving myself a massage by rolling it across my back. This cycle of vomiting and pain went on till 6.30 am the next day, 12th Jan 2012; both Dad and me were exhausted by then. Then I was able to sleep till 8.00 am. When I woke up like usual Dad asked me if I was going to work. I had suffered so much in the night that I got angry with Dad for just asking that question. 

I told him firmly, I was going to take the day off and go get a check up done. Dad took me to a general practitioner at 10 am. He suggested that I might be having stomach infection. Again I firmly told him that I was not just vomiting I had tightness in my chest I had difficulty walking. I told him I want a ECG done. So he prescribed it. I almost grabbed it from him and walked down the road to the diagnostic center. The Cardiologist would be available only in the afternoon after 4pm I was told but they did do the ECG anyway. However the interpretation of the report was to be done by the Cardiologist and that meant I would know the results only after 4pm. We came home and Dad made a simple khichdi which we both ate and slept the rest of the afternoon. 

At 5 pm I received a call asking me to collect the reports. I was not able walk so I asked Dad to walk down and bring it. I read the note and it said Myocardial Infraction. I knew all was not well. I called up my best friend Sangeeta who is a pathologist and asked her what it meant. She immediately asked whose report I was reading. I told her it was mine. She advised  me to rush to the hospital. I called up my then Supervisor Rajendhiran at work and told him what the report said. After a while he called back to tell me I should keep coughing till I reached the hospital to keep the circulation going and get admitted to Narayana Hrudayalaya.

I called the driver and we started for the hospital which was almost 35kms from my South Blr home. On the way I kept coughing and calling up friends for references at the hospital. To my surprise as I entered the lobby and told that I had a heart attack and needed emergency help, I was told to walk into the emergency room and lie down on any empty bed and the procedure would start. Yes they are that quick. I checked into emergency at 7pm on 12th Jan almost 18 hrs after the incident!

Things went smooth after that. Dr. Binoy John and team did an Angioplasty on me under the guidance of Dr. Kannan J. I was out of the operation theater at 10.30 pm.

It has been a tough year for me this 2012. Yet I never say this was something bad that happened to me. This human life is like this. One goes thru everything. Yes but I have started valuing my time in this life more. If you are thinking after the heart attack the worst was over, then you are wrong. I faced challenges at all levels, trying to keep the job, trying to get back to normal work hours. Even today life is not the same as before the incident. I am on lifelong medication.

Life's challenges will continue but I got the chance to come back to Mumbai, my home, to get a role that suited my needs at the time, to be able to work from Mumbai, to be able to live a fuller life. 

I did many things to improve this life after the incident.

1. Started composting at home using the Daily Dump.

2. Started growing these little treasures in my Green Balcony.

3. Met long time blogger friends. 

4. Started decorating my cakes though I have been a baker for many moons.

5. Sold Diwali Faral hampers and helped some women to find their identity.

6. One thing I haven't talked about on the blog is about my learning music because what started as therapy is turning out to be something that I look forward to week on week. I have started learning Bharatiya Shastriya Sangeet and Marathi Sugam Sangeet. I am found humming all the time.

This post is for all those who think that a normal life after a heart attack is impossible. It is for all my friends who believed I will come out stronger from this. For those who harmed me and think there is no GOD.

Here I am alive.

Grilled Herbed Baby Potatoes

Potato is such a versatile tuber and this is just one way of cooking it to our liking. India is the second largest producer of potatoes at 36 million metric tonnes. No wonder we have too much potatoes in our recipes, whether it is the batata vada, samosa, pattice or everyday bhaajis which get support and mass from the addition of potatoes to it and as if we have not had enough of potato everyday there is even a potato biryani and potato halwa that people make. This is no recipe but just a trick and do it as you like it.

Some time ago I was at Inorbit and picked up a bag of tiny potatoes. I brought them home and boiled them, while they were still warm I popped one in the mouth. It was not starchy but delicately smooth. I decided that evening we had to be snacking on Grilled Herbed Baby Potatoes.

So in a bowl tossed the de-skinned baby potatoes with generous amounts of olive oil, some pasta spice from a bottle, generous amounts of chili powder. Put it under the grill for 30-45 mins till nicely crisp.

I am putting it up here mainly because I adore these clicks and in a hoard of recipes that I use I forget simple tricks that are satisfying on dreary days.

I have been enjoying the various celebrations in the family and spending lots of time with the kids yet it's not too late to wish you all I guess.

Happy new year to each one of you!