Distance Education!

This is actually in reverse order of posting:

So the first image is distance and places covered on Day 5.
Day 4:
Day 3:
This is Day 2.
The image below is the Day 1 of our Uttaranchal trip.

Well, the first day, we did a whopping 200 something kilometres all the way from Dehradun to a place called Pipalkoti. (thats a place that acted as base camp for 2 nights )

Needless to say, we couldnt feel our butts for a while!!

Its SNOW, no?

Serenity and Calamity are back from their very eventful tour of Delhi, Agra, Fatehpur Sikri, Dehradun, Mussoorie and a bunch of other places in Uttarakhand (formerly Uttaranchal, even more formerly a part of Uttar Pradesh!) What Uttar Confusion, I say!

Monumental occasions on the journey:

• Calamity saw snow for the first time in her life!! (Only saw - on distant mountain peaks. Snow angels will have to happen another time!)
• Serenity spent 5 days with a taxi driver who spoke purest of pure Hindi. (He nodded and agreed to things he didn't completely understand!)
• Calamity forgot Serenity's birthday (third year in a row - explanations to follow!)
• Serenity saw the Taj Mahal (FINALLY! after being asked by many different nationalities in many different countries, and having to regretfully say he hadn't seen it himself!)
• Calamity saw Fatehpur Sikri (FINALLY! after making numerous trips to Delhi, but never being able to do so!)
• Serenity and Calamity got a man arrested for vandalising the Agra Fort (more to follow, but Calamity is very pleased with herself!)
• We had a cup of tea at the Last Indian Tea Shop before the Tibet border!
• I saw SNOW!!!! (yes, its a little hard to get over that!)
• We discovered the most MAJESTIC landscape and discovered that neither of us is fit enough for high altitude treks!
• Calamity rode in a ropeway (cable car?) and was severely disappointed it was not more of a roller coaster ride!
• Neither of us got motion sickness or high altitude sickness (and yeah, we're damn smug about it!!)
• Serenity met a lot of Calamity's friends... and finally met one who had championed his cause all along during the Great Arranged Marriage Saga!

There are lots of funny incidents that happened along the way. All in all, it was a GREAT ten days away. The funny bits will come soon... Watch this space!

This makes my blood boil....

Yes, this is quite late and all that. But I just happened to see this on someone else's blog today. It is footage I hadnt seen yet and yes, it still makes my blood boil.

I spent the night of this carnage looking for minute by minute updates online,

looking for causes, but seeing only effects.

One man's holy war that orphans children and kills with no purpose.

No religion teaches hate this way, and any one who would say

"I'll call you back in an hour so I can hear you kill them"

deserves a very, very painful death.

As for the lone survivor, I dont know what he thinks he's playing at.

His crocodile tears and lame stories of being brainwashed just dont do anything for me.

I'm one who firmly believes that India's muslims are Indian first and last.

(Though I did have an interesting conversation on religious extremism with a cabbie

this time when I was in Bombay)

More than any other emotion, I felt only pride when I read the article that said that the

remaining terrorists' bodies were unclaimed because no Indian muslim kabristan wants them

buried on our soil.

I loved that other clip which showed an Indian Mullah telling Musharaf to back the hell off,

and to stop assuming that Indian muslims sympathised with his cause in any way.

This 26/11 carnage scared me beyond belief thinking of a friend's mother who runs a store

at the Taj, of a friend who had by then quit her job at the Oberoi.

Selfishly, I couldnt help feeling glad that the people I knew were okay.

But not everyone got that lucky.

Watch this clip.

It will open your eyes to levels of inhuman behaviour you never thought existed.

Holiday! Celebrate!

I never EVER get tired of travelling. I think I'd happily do three trips a week between the city that never sleeps and the one that wakes up early. So its been 10 days there, and now I'm back to Serenity's company and yeah, I'm happy to be back. This trip back to the city that wakes up early reminded me of trips to the Dry State and stocking up the hooch for the semester. :) (Cue for yet another foray down Memory Lane!)

Serenity and I both appreciate our whiskey, but white wine is a habit that I seldom get to indulge here because of the beauty of a state owned liquor franchise that believes in catering to the masses, rather than the classes. On a recent trip to Pondy, I ran to a hooch shop on our way back to pick up a couple of bottles of wine, only to be told that the white wine was 450 bucks apiece. Deeply disappointed that my "sasta, sundar, tikao" brand of wine wasnt available, and deeply resentful of shelling out this much and getting only 2 bottles, I cribbed and whined. Until Serenity and I sampled our Pondy booty, and figured that the wine within was a sweet, pleasant white. Hmmm.... not bad.

Then I went to the city that doesnt sleep on work.... and one day I see this bottle on the racks. So, casually I asked how much it was, (fully prepared to gloat at how much less I'd paid for it in a Union Territory!!) only to be told it was 150 bucks per bottle! My jaw hit the floor! And the man who owned the store laughed his head off on being told I'd paid 450 bucks for the same. "Arre medem! you pay 450 for THIS??? 450 ke liye, you get nice wine, medem"

And on my way back here, I picked up the quota I forfeited in Pondy! :D heheheehehe.

Happiness is defeating the system!! :)

Khau Suey

And yes, that's another long silence broken by yet another recipe. This one's for a Burmese noodle dish called Khau Suey, introduced to me by my college room mate's mum (for which i'm eternally grateful!). Its basically a D.I.Y bowl of noodles and stew, and the couple of times I've eaten it in a restaurant, I've always cribbed about paying for a dish that I put together!!

(but you see, I LOVE KHAU SUEY, so the cribbing only lasts till the first bite I take of it!)

I introduced Serenity to it (rather disastrously!) in the first few months of married life. (We didn't have such a well equipped kitchen then). All went well, until it came to the "spice" part of making the stew... Serenity, my sous chef, is one who likes adding random things to our cooking! (His favourite additive is carrots... in anything that he can put carrots, he will, and if he cant, it wouldnt be for lack of trying!!) But, I must admit, a lot of his "why dont we add a bit of soy?" and "a little bit of that thai chilli sauce would be good, no?" has worked for some of our collaborative culinary efforts. So here we are, cooking khau suey, and we wanted to add in some chilli flakes (which we didnt possess at the time!). So we throw in some dry red chillies into the chopper and lo and behold! they all fly to the top of the mixie bowl! So we keep adding chillies, to try and weigh them down so we'd have atleast some flakes and finally after adding some of it (the required amount), we discovered that we have a bit left over. Now since at this stage we had no handy containers to put it in and we figured that kashmiri chillies are all bark and no bite, we tossed the rest of the flakes in as well.... Needless to say, we passed our bowl of noodles back and forth, taking turns to pick out the chilli flakes during our (extremely burn ass!) meal!!

Here now, is a GOOD khau suey recipe. A note here, the toppings are SUPREME, and khau suey is quite pointless without these little crunchy bits!

Ingredients:

- 1/2 kg boneless chicken diced small. - 3-4 onions chopped fine

- ginger paste (1.5" piece) - garlic paste (6 - 7 cloves)

- coconut milk - turmeric powder

- chilli powder - lemongrass

- salt

Toppings:

- chopped spring onions - chopped coriander leaves

- chopped green chillies - crushed roasted peanuts

- chopped up boiled egg - fried onions

- fried garlic - fried maggi noodles

- lime wedges - soya sauce

- cooked dry shrimp

Method:

- Fry the onions till they're soft. Add in the ginger and garlic pastes and saute.

- Add the chicken, turmeric and chilli powder.

- cook till the chicken is done.

- Add equal quantity of thick coconut milk and water, add salt.

- Serve sauce poured over a bed of noodles and the toppings / garnishes of your choice.

One bowl of this and you're HOOKED!! Its filling and very very flavourful.

Healthy Tofu & Veggie Quiche (another one of my own!)

So there I was again, wondering what to cook for dinner. And as is my way when I have a culinary creative block, I hit up my favourite food blog. It turns out that I had some pie-crust left over from the last time I made apple pie, so a veggie quiche was what I decided to make! The pie-crust recipe can be found here

For the calorie conscious, this crust is quite a killer (but it tastes soooooo good!!). However, for a 6" x 10" baking dish, we only used about a fist size of pie crust dough (thats all there was left!!) and we got a great thin crispy crust in the bargain! You can make the dough and freeze it till you need to use it again.
So thats the deal with the crust.

For the filling, I had french beans (about 100 gms), a couple of green peppers, 1 pkt of Tofu, onions and tomatoes. First, the onions and tomatoes are sauteed really well, you could add some chopped garlic to this if you like. Once the onion-tomato mixture is ready, crumble and add in the tofu. Tofu absorbs flavour really well, so you might want to add your seasonings at this point - salt, pepper and a tsp of thyme does it...give the tofu-onion-tomato mixture a few minutes on the gas. Beat 3 eggs (quiche lorraine calls for 5 eggs, but 3 did just fine!) with (technically!) half cup cream and half cup milk, but I halved those quantities. Add in some chives, salt and a generous shake of pepper.

Into the pre-baked crust, layer the tofu mixture (use half of what you have), add in the chopped beans and green peppers (and whatever other veggie you like!) and finish with another layer of tofu-onion-tomato. CAREFULLY (so the egg doesnt leak out of the crust), pour egg-milk-cream mixture and see that it spreads around among the filling.

If you want to add cheese on top you can (but that kind of kills the point of the tofu!!) but do so only after the quiche is almost done (or the cheese will burn).

Preheat your oven to about 200 degrees C and bake till a knife comes out clean. The egg mixture should set and thats what you need to look for.

I served this with a raw cabbage, carrot and corn salad tossed in vinaigrette.
Easy peasy and healthy :)

((My Own!!)) Sweet n Spicy Crispy Chicken!

Aah... see, now THIS is not for the calorie conscious! Serenity (that would be my Significant Other) is having some friends over tonight.... As of this morning, we were ordering in, but then came afternoon and boredom, so I decided to do something fun! So here is my very own Sweet n Spicy Crispy chicken... and yup, its finger lickin good! :D
How to make? easy peasy!

Ingredients for the Marinade: 2 egg whites
4 tbsp soy sauce
garlic (as much as you like!!)
salt & pepper
flour
2 tbsp vinegar (optional)
Ingredients for the Sauce: 5 tbsp Tomato sauce (I used Hot ' n' Sweet n it worked great!)
2 tbsp Soy sauce
salt to taste
1 tbsp Honey
2 tbsp Cornflour
Other Ingredients: (I used) 1 kg chicken with bone (but you can use boneless!)
Spring onions
1 large onion
1 green pepper (or other assorted veggies!)
Oil
Method:
1. Stir the marinade ingredients together and use a vessel with a lid to toss the chicken with it. See that the meat is coated with the marinade
2. Let it sit for atleast 20 minutes to absorb the flavour of the garlic and soy.
3. CAREFULLY (yes, much emphasis on that word) heat the oil in a wok and shallow fry the chicken in batches so they're evenly brown. Reduce the flame if necessary and see that the chicken is cooked through. Keep aside the fried chicken.
4. Mix the sauce ingredients together and keep aside.
5. Saute the onions, spring onions (again, you can add some garlic cut fine here!) and when the onions are brown and tender, add the other veggies and stir fry briskly. (remember that some veggies take longer to cook).
6. Add the chicken back and toss with the onions and veggies (or not!)
7. Pour the sauce over the mixture and let it cook for 10 minutes.

Note:
1. More water can be added to make this a curry to be eaten with rice. (I made mine semi-dry)
2. If you like your chicken crispy, then DO NOT pour the sauce over until ready to serve. Cook the sauce separately and reserve till serving time.
3. This sauce worked really well for me, I think it'll be great over chicken wings **I LOVE CHICKEN WINGS!!**