I have been a very bad hostess for this event. Not only have I posted my entry very late, but some of your entries also went unacknowledged and my sincere apologies for that.


Here's the wealth of information that all the fellow bloggers have shared this time around:


There are a few basic spices that I am sure most kitchens have. Sure, they are easily available in most supermarkets all over the world, but making these at home is not too tough either. Moreover, the fragrance and freshness of homemade spices is incomparable. Don't just take my word for it, go on and take a look at these entries and I am sure you'll agree with me:


Jeera powder
Cumin coconut powder
Spiced chilli powder
Crushed peanuts
Sambhar powder
Rasam podi
Ghee
Roasted cumin seed powder, coriander seed powder, sesame seed powder, roasted coconut paste and raosted groundnut paste



Make these ahead of time, store in a jar and transform the simplest of foods to something absolutely delicious, as if by magic!


Coriander Lentil Spice Mix
Groundnut and sesame powder, lentil and sesame powder, tangy mint powder
Gun powder
Urad Dhal Powder
Milk Masala Powder


I'll admit it, there are certain things I've never made at home but I am now very inspired to make them from scratch:


Paneer
Khoa/Mawa
Yogurt


Have a blender at home? You seriously have no excuse not to make these at home:

Ginger garlic paste
Cilantro Mint chutney
Ginger garlic paste (no this is not a typo!)
Kurukku Kaalan


A blender for a large batch of tomatoes and a grater for a couple of them. Either way, making a silky, smooth tomato puree at home is so simple.


Love to make batata vadas but hate the icky fingers that result from dipping the potato balls in the batter? Use this simple tip and fry batata vadas without getting your hands dirty!


But you don't make batata vadas that often, you say. But I am pretty sure you would be making dal very often. And while there are many ways of making dal, this is one of the easier ways of making it.


And finally, did you ever think you could jazz up a simple glass of water? I was so excited when I read this tip that I promptly went and jazzed up my vodka. Water, vodka....the possibilities are immense!


So there you are tips and tricks to make cooking and eating simpler, easier, healthier and yes, cheaper.


I will be on a break starting Tuesday till the end of the month, but leave me a comment if I have missed your entry in the round up and I will add it in as soon as I can.

Even though I am on the wrong side of 30, there are certain times when I crave a glass of milk at night. The catch, however, is that I cannot stand the sight of white milk. So sometimes, I add a bit of rose syrup or drinking chocolate or even turmeric powder to the milk. Nowadays, I've started making a small batch of this milk masala. Not only is it tasty, it also means I consume nuts on a regular basis.

To make the milk masala, simply grind to a coarse powder 2 tbsps of pistachios, 1 tbsp of almonds, 1 tbsp of cashewnuts, 15 nos of cardamom and 2 tbsps of sugar. Add a pinch of saffron and store it in the refrigerator.

Not only can you use the milk masala in a glass of warm milk, you can also add it to enhance the taste of your payasams and kulfis and sooji ka halwa/sheera.

This is my very very late entry to Back To Basics -2, a brilliant event started by Jaya that I am hosting this month.

She was setting foot in this city after a decade. The city that held some of her best memories and all of her worst ones as well. The city where she had met the love of her life and then lost him. The city she had sworn she would never return to.


And yet, here she was. The lure of meeting her classmates had made her come back. After all, she had spent 2 amazing and fun-filled years with them studying for her MBA. True, she had not been in touch with any of them in the intervening years, but when she read about the upcoming reunion in the papers, she couldn’t resist coming over.


Did she imagine it or was there really that small moment when everyone stopped doing what they were doing as she entered the party hall? “Oh my God! Look who’s here?” shrieked Seema as she welcomed her with a tight hug. Soon, there were more hugs and hi –fives, some smiles and some tears too.


Of course, there were questions. Where was she all these years and what had she been doing? And there were the recriminations. Why had she left without even saying goodbye? Why hadn’t she kept in touch with anyone of them – not even her closest friends?


She had known that there would be questions and recriminations, she had known that she would have some explaining to do – especially to those few friends she had been close to but she hadn’t realized how overwhelmingly difficult it was to talk about herself and the emotional upheaval she had been through. Moreover, it was never going to be easy telling her friends that she had spent a better part of the last 10 years in psychiatric care. So she just hemmed and hawed about working in the family business before steering the conversation back to her friends and their lives.


That wasn’t easy either. For while everyone would animatedly discuss their spouses and children with each other, conversations would come to an awkward end the moment she was in the group. And moreover, the big questions that she was sure were on everyone’s mind – whether she was married or whether there was anyone in her life – were never voiced. They stayed suspended in the pity-filled glances that were occasionally cast her way.


Wanting to get away from it all, she found herself a quiet corner at the bar and sipped on a Margarita.


“Hey Ankita…..mind if I join you? asked Akash. One of Raj’s closest friends. The one who always used to hover around Raj and herself. Kebab mein haddi, she used to call him. It infuriated her then, now the memory merely brought a smile to her lips.


“You didn’t keep in touch with me either”, he chided. “And I thought I was your friend too. But you cut me off from your life, just as you did your other friends. I looked for you….but even your parents were tight-lipped. Look Anks…..”


“Don’t you dare call me that”, she said angrily.


“Okay, okay just cool it. But this I will say - you’ve got to get over him. Move on, for your own sake”.


“Stop sermonizing Akash. Just let’s have our drink peacefully”.


“Ankita, look I don’t know how to say this but can you make me a part of your life? You don’t know this but I ….umm….have always loved you”.


That was the last straw – Akash in love with her?! She hadn’t come here for this!


“Akash, just leave me alone. Just get out of here before I scream and embarrass both you and me”, she said tersely.


She was now starting to feel suffocated and decided that she had to get away. When everyone started dancing to music from the 80s, she slipped away, once again without saying goodbye to anyone.


The night was cool and a light breeze had picked up. The traffic had died down and the streets were starting to get quieter. She started walking, aimlessly at first but soon found her feet leading her to the University chowk, that place where Raj and she had spent many of their evenings together. That place where Raj had left her that balmy May night.


She almost didn’t recognize the place. Where was the several metres high fountain? Where was the University circle? And where were the hawkers selling food? She stared at the place in absolute disbelief. Cities transform with time but here one of the iconic places had been razed to the ground!


She squeezed her eyes shut picturing the place as it used to be, as it was that night. The fountain and the milky white water that was spouting from it, the cacophony of horns around the roundabout and the many vehicles and two wheelers parked on either side of the road. People of all shapes and sizes and ages in groups or alone wondering what to eat – dosas, egg bhurji, vada pavs, chaat or Chinese food – they were spoilt for choice. The hissing of the stoves and clanging of spoons on the huge woks. The air redolent with the smell of food and more food.


At the far end and outside a slightly quieter Chinese food stall, Raj was waiting for her. With him, as always, was Akash. That day, something inside her had snapped and she grew extremely irritated at Akash's presence. She liked spending time alone with Raj but Akash never seemed to care about that. Almost involuntarily, she gave him one nasty look which made him scamper away without even touching the spring rolls he had ordered or taking that cola bottle he always seemed to have with him.


“Anks, he is my friend….can’t you be a little accommodating?” Raj said with a bit of edge in his voice.


“But he is always hovering around us. I hardly get any time alone with you”, she complained.


And they had gotten into a tiff arguing about every little thing till Raj finally burst out saying, “Just don’t talk to me”.


“You either”, she said.


Soon, the hawker came with their order of two hakka noodles and as was often the case, he too put the extra –spicy one in front of Raj while she was served the mild one. Why did people always assume that being a woman, she would be the one eating the mildly spiced noodles, she wondered. In fact, it was Raj who could not take chillies at all.


“Raj…”, she began wanting to swap the plates with him.


“I told you, DON’T TALK TO ME”.


Very well, she thought to herself. One bite and you will be yelping and I will watch the fun!


“What the hell….why didn’t you tell me”, he growled after the first mouthful as he reached for the cola bottle Akash had left behind. She started giggling at his discomfort from eating the spicy noodles and it infuriated him further. “Even this cola is tasting weird”, he remarked as he finished the entire 750ml. He then picked up his bike keys and started to leave. A small fight had taken an ugly turn.



She tried to stop him but he didn’t want any of it. Well, she wasn’t going to grovel either. She nonchalantly shrugged her shoulders and started twirling the greasy and spicy noodles around the plastic fork.


She hadn’t even finished swallowing her first mouthful when there was a loud screech of brakes…funny how sometimes you knew certain things without being told. She just knew that it was Raj who was lying beneath the wheel of the bus.


Even after 10 years, she was unable to erase that picture from her mind. She sank to her feet and wept….she had never, in her wildest imagination, thought that a few extra chillies in a plate of noodles could change her life forever. Everyone kept telling her not to blame herself, but she had never stopped feeling responsible for Raj’s death.


Somewhere else in the city, Akash was sitting on a lonely bench calling out Ankita’s name. How he wished he could take her pain away! In his hand was a bottle of cola that he kept taking huge swigs from. It was spiked with a generous amount of rum.


Just as it was that night 10 years ago.


His plan was to get teetotaler Raj completely drunk and watch him make a fool of himself in front of Ankita. But seeing her displeasure at his presence, he had rushed off, forgetting to take that cola bottle with him..…….



This is my entry to Of Chalks and Chopsticks that Jaya is hosting this month. Very graciously, she has allowed this very late entry. Thanks!


However, I do not have a recipe this time. Well no, I do have the recipe but don't have a photo to go along. So I will post it some other time, but in the meantime, you can hop on over to Soma's fabulous blog from where I made the Hakka Noodles that I wanted to post alongwith this story.

Simply put, biryani is nothing but rice layered alternately with meat or fish or even vegetables. The taste, however, is anything but simple to describe. Aromatic from the use of saffron and rose water, subtly flavoured from the sprinkling of spices, biryani is a one pot meal that is extremlely satiating.

True, making biryani is time-consuming. There are spices to be ground and onions to be fried; there are many small steps that make their way to a delicious biryani and absolutely no room for any short cuts. But one whiff of the cooked biryani and all the effort taken and the time spent in making it seem totally worth it.

Biryani is a crowd pleaser and this vegetable biryani is something that gets made very often, especially when we are entertaining. It has taken me numerous attempts and many a charred vessels to get finally get it right, here's how I make it.

Ingredients:


Rice: 1 1/4 cup
Assorted Vegetables: 1 1/2 cups ( I use carrots, cauliflower, french beans and green peas)
Paneer: 1/2 cup

Tomato Puree: 2 tbsps

Yogurt: 1/3 cup
Cashewnut powder: 2 1/2 tbsps
Dry spices: Red chilli powder - 3/4 tsp, turmeric - 1/4 tsp, garam masala - 1 tbsp, salt to taste

Whole spices: bay leaf - 1, cloves - 6, cinnamon - 1" stick, black cardamom - 1


Raisins: 1 tbsp
Saffron: 1 pinch, soaked in 1 tsp rosewater and 1 tsp kewra water


Ghee: 2 - 3 tbsps
Oil: 2 tbsps + as required for deep frying

grind to a paste:

Onion: 2 medium sized
Mint leaves: 1/3 cup
Coriander leaves: 6 sprigs
Garlic: 6 cloves
Ginger: 1" piece


for garnishing:


Potato: 1 large
Onion: 1 large, sliced
a few mint leaves
green chillies


Method:


pre-preparation:


Peel and slice one onion. Toss the slices in a pinch of salt and 1/4 tsp sugar. Deep fry till golden brown.

Peel and cut the potato into 1/4" thick circles and fry till golden.


cook the rice:


Soak the rice in water for half an hour. Heat ghee in a vessel, add the black cardamom followed by the strained rice. Fry gently till the grains are all coated with the ghee. Add 2 cups boiling water and some salt and cook the rice.


Once cooked, fluff with a fork and spread it onto a plate to cool.


prepare the vegetable curry:


Cut the vegetables into bite-sized pieces and steam till they are just cooked.


Grind the masala paste. Heat oil and add the whole garam masala. Let it sizzle for half a minute and then add the masala paste to the pan, fry till the raw smell disappears.


Add in the tomato puree and fry another 5 - 7 minutes. Sprinkle a few drops of water if the puree sticks to the pan. Whisk together the yogurt, cashewnut powder and the dry spices; fry till the oil separates.


Mix the steamed vegetables, the paneer cubes and the raisins into the fried masala paste and toss gently for about 3-5 minutes. Sprinkle a little water if the curry sticks to the bottom of the pan.


assemble the biryani

In a heavy bottomed vessel, melt some ghee.


Spread half the rice. On top of the rice, sprinkle a pinch of the garam masala followed by 1/4 of the fried onions. A few mint leaves and whole green chillies go next.


Then spread the cooked vegetable curry followed by the remaining rice.


Pour the saffron water over the rice. Layer the fried potatoes on the rice, sprinkle the remaining fried onions, some mint leaves and whole green chillies.

Seal the vessel with 2-3 layers of aluminium foil and cover with a tight fitting lid.

Place a frying pan on the gas and put the vessel that you just layered the biryani in on top of the pan. On the lowest possible heat setting, cook the biryani for about 25- 30 minutes. (Putting the vessel atop a pan and then heating the biryani ensures that the rice won't stick to the bottom and get charred).

Alternately, you could also layer the biryani in a similar fashion in a microwave proof bowl and microwave on high for about 10 mins. But the aroma of the stove-top method is something the microwave method simply cannot replicate.

I serve with the biryani with this eggplant raita and some papad. Finger licking good.