—————————————————————

I am totally in awe of how much an average women’s body endures in its lifetime! Yes, men do undergo surgeries, but for most women child-birth is an inevitable part of life. Yes, human bodies in general are resilient things, but after I had a baby myself, I notice even more that a lot of women around me – my mother, my grandmother, my friends, my family – every single woman has a story of what her body has endured. Here’s an indicative list of things out of which many of us women have experienced/will experience.

• periods
• vaginal birth
• caesarean section
• hours of being in labour pain
• perineum tears
• abortion
• miscarriage
• stretchmarks
• breastfeeding

And still all women around us – friend and family, the daily labourers, the maids, even the yummy mummies – most of them survive/live through all of this physical pain.  Despite affecting roughly half the population, women’s health is taking so casually, at least in India. Families who would get a male member operated in the best of hospitals, opt for a smaller, less-equipped nursing home when it comes to women’s child birth. Not necessarily because they love their women less, but child birth and “gynac” problems are usually “lighter” as opposed to say a heart attack. Women’s  bodies might have been designed to endure all this, but does it make it any less painful/important. Probably because they are considered a part of a woman’s life. So common, so casual. The lady who comes to clean my house recently told me she has been enduring terrible vaginal pain and excessive bleeding for months! It did not occur to her or her family to visit a doctor. When we got her thoroughly checked, it turned out she had a large cyst in her ovary that needed surgery. I am not angry, because I know how much her husband/family loves her. But I am sad. And I am not even getting near the topic of the majority of women in this country who can’t even afford basic health care facilities.

Wonder why we even try to be “equal” to men, because our lives biologically are so different. And more than gender based quotas, more than trying to get men to respect us, us women need to take charge of our bodies.

Related posts:

1. Stay off the roads ... cause I'm finally driving by myself at the ripe...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Thai red curry vegetarian

For some reason I didn’t think much of Thai food(imagine!) until recently when my opinion turned upside down.  My first attempt at eating Thai food was horrible and I could hardly gulp down anything, but that was probably because the food at that restaurant sucked anyway. Recently while travelling to US, I had the chance to visit a Vietnamese/Thai restaurant and boy oh boy what a discovery that was! I am salivating at the very thought of that spicy, hot chilli lemongrass (vegetarian recipes anyone?).

So while I was daydreaming of Thai red curry and chilli lemongrass, I read about this Blog Bites event at Nupur’s. I do have tons of stuff that just lies in the pantry or fridge and before I know it, it’s already past the expiration date. Yesterday, I noticed that I had lots of capsicums in different colours that have been lying untouched in the fridge for more than a week. I also had some babycorn left after making some Chinese last week. And then there’s this huge soy sauce bottle, that I’m sure I picked up because it was a steal. And no recipe calls for more than 1 or 2 tsp of soy sauce, so I really have a mammoth task to use up all that sauce before it perishes.

I turned to one of my favourite sources for reliable recipes – Jugalbandi, for a vegetarian Thai Red Curry recipe(Gaeng Daeng). I followed the recipe broadly, with a few changes here and there.

Here’s the modified version; for the original version go here.

For the Thai red curry paste (Namprik Gaeng Daeng), you’ll need

1. 1 tbsp coriander seeds
2. 2 tsp cumin seeds
3. 6-8 dry red chillies
4. 4-5 fresh red chillies, chopped
5. 12-15 Madras onions, peeled
6. 8 cloves of garlic, peeled
7. 5 stalks of fresh coriander (including tender stems)
8. 1 inch of ginger, peeled and chopped
9. 1/2 tsp of lemon zest
10. 1/2 tsp of salt

Chop the dry red chillies using scissors, remove the seeds and soak them in warm water. Throw away the water.

Roast the coriander and cumin seeds in a skillet, till they change their colour slightly.

Grind everything to a fine paste, in the chutney attachment (the small attachment) of your mixie using 1 or 2 tbsp of water, if required.

This paste stores very well in the freezer. I use half of this quantity of paste to make Thai red curry for 3 people. Also, I didn’t want to add raw vegetables to the curry, so I changed the recipe a bit and stir-fried the vegetables on high heat for a few minutes, before adding them to the curry. I also skipped the tofu altogether, as the taste of tofu ruins the curry for me.

For Thai red curry (Gaeng Daeng), for 3 people, you’ll need

1. 2.5 to 3 tbsp of Thai red curry paste
2. 1 carrot, peeled and sliced into coins
3. 6-8 french beans, chopped into 1.5″ pieces
4. 3 capsicum/bellpepper – red, yellow and green, chopped into 1″ squares
5. 4-5 babycorn, sliced
6. 2 large onions, each chopped into 8 pieces.
7. 150 ml of readymade thick coconut milk
8. 2 + 1 tbsp of peanut oil
9. 1 tsp of soy sauce
10. Salt

Heat 1 tbsp oil in a wok/skillet and add all the vegetables. Stir-fry on high heat for 3-4 minutes, till the vegetables are cooked just a little bit. Add a little bit of salt and switch off.

Remove the veggies and again heat 2 tbsp oil in the same wok/skillet and add 3 tbsp of red curry paste. Fry till it’s fragrant. Add the vegetables, soy sauce, coconut milk and adjust salt. Let it simmer and take its own sweet time to come to a boil. After a minute of two switch off.

Typically it is served with hot steamed rice, but sometimes I like to just take this curry with all its red, green, yellow, piping hot gorgeousness in a large bowl and have it by itself.

Related posts:

1. Palak paneer [caption id="attachment_246" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Palak paneer"][/caption] Palak paneer is...
2. Chana dal ~ Diwali special snack Today is Vakbaras and the Diwali marathon has officially...
3. Sambar rice I am a sucker for Tamil style cooking. My first...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Apparently the kid and his dad had a ball of a time. So if you come and tell me on at that moment, “but babe you should be glad”, how do you expect that I’ll not bite your head off?

No related posts.

I want to love my life in this country, but not right now, okay?

No related posts.

So one fine day I realize my passport is missing. I found out that to apply for a duplicate one, I need an FIR amongst other things. The husband was travelling and I decided to wait for a day for him to be back, because you know ‘akeli ladki’ police station nahi jaati. But then time’s running out because I need to travel for work and I have barely enough time to get all this passport visa jhamela sorted in such short time.

So I decide to go to the police station by myself. I was never a damsel in distress types anyway. I never wait for someone else to come fight for me. I can and have stood up and fought for myself when required. I don’t remember ever expecting a boy or anyone to lift my luggage or pay for my coffee or stand in the queue for me. You lift your own bags, you open the doors for yourself. I have known no other way.

So I decided what’s the big deal, let me go register the damn complaint myself and get on with life. After running a couple of rounds at the police station, I manage to get the complaint registered. Not without questions about my ‘outsider sounding’ surname and some questions about my place of work. But by now I’m old enough to expect and ignore things like these when I don’t know the local language. All I care abt is the damned acknowledgement and I use ‘please’ and ’sir’ a lot’, but kaam to ho gaya.

Later in the evening I receive a call. Its from the police station. The policeman on the line’s calling me to the station urgently because bada saab wants to talk. I gather this from the few words of the local language that i understand. I am scared; but luckily the husband’s back and we rush to the police station. I secretly hope that probably someone’s found my passport and deposited it with them. But slowly i start fearing worse – about how much power these guys really have, about lechereous wolves under uniforms ,about encounters and illegal custody. I know its irrational, but its dark and late and i know nothing about the laws and rights as a citizen. I am barely able to fight my tears out of fear of all these sinister possibilities.

At the station no one’s telling us what exactly is wrong. We shuttle between desks in various corners. Finally the call the husband and ask him to go with them to another room, and ask me to wait at the reception with our kid. This is really the last straw and i’m shitting bricks wondering just what in heaven’s name is happening. He way we’ve been brought up, it is nerve wracking to be at the police station itself. The sight of the lockups and the goon gallery and the guns gives us the lossies.

So it turned out they were just expecting some kharcha pani. But i cant stop thinking what all they could’ve asked for and what could we have done? What if the husband wasn’t in town.

Felt so much more vulnerable as a woman. Who cares if you’re a star for your family. Who cares if you went to the best college in the country. After all, you are a woman – vulnerable and always need a male father/brothr/husbad/son to ’save and look after you’.

I love being a woman. But some times I wish I was a boy.

Related posts:

1. Yet another attack The absurdity in Bangalore had stopped  I thought. And today...
2. Sonia’s not getting my vote Lambi kahani hai, you've been warned. The story is about...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Today’s entry to the weekly marathon is going to be a quick one – chana masala which is a staple at our home.

1. 1 cup black chana/desi chana, soaked overnight or for 6-8 hours and pressure cooked
2. 1 onion, finely chopped
3. 1 tomato, finely chopped
4. A few springs of coriander leaves, finely chopped
5. 1 tsp of rai (mustard seeds)
6. 1/2 tsp of ajwain
7. 1/2 tsp of haldi pdr (turmeric)
8. 1 tsp of freshly crushed ginger-garlic
9. 1 tsp of red chilly pdr
10. 1 tsp of garam masala
11. 1 tsp dhania pdr (coriander)
12. 1 tbsp of kasuri methi
13. 2 tbsp of oil

Heat up the oil and add mustard seeds. When they pop, add ajwain and chopped onion. Saute till slightly brown, add crushed ginger-garlic, kasuri methi and the tomatoes. Saute till tomatoes are soft and oil separates. Add the boiled chana  and adjust salt. Mix everything well and switch off the stove. Garnish with coriander.

Eat it/serve it as a snack or with hot phulkas.

————————————-

As 2009 draws to a close, I want to wish all of you a new year filled with love ,health, happiness, warmth and lots and lots of good food!!

Also, my special thanks go out to Nupur, for doing such a great job of organizing the week long marathon where all of us participants posted one recipe per day for a week. Frankly, I didn’t expect to last that long. But with a few minutes of extra effort everyday, I managed to post a new recipe everyday. I started looking forward to Nupur’s creatively written daily roundup posts  She read each and every entry daily, and posted a new recipe on top. Even a bad plumbing problem at home couldn’t stop her. Must say I have a lot of recipes from the marathon that I’ve bookmarked for trying out.

Oh and this marathon has given me a good reason to revive this blog, that has been dormant for a long time. It introduced me to some cool bloggers and got me comments!!! :) Thanks to all the fellow participants -

Anna Parabrahma: Anjali

Home Cook’s Recipes: Lavi

Food for Survival: Unpredictable

Daily Musings: Indosungod

Soup and Dessert: Radhika

Cook’s Hideout: Pavani

The Singing Chef: Raaga

Susvaad: Ramya

Blink and Miss : blinkandmiss

Malabar Spices: Mallugirl

Soulful Creations: Abbhirami

Pieces of paper, squiggly lines: Lavanya

My Foodcourt: Madhuli

Seven Spice: Sonia

Food, Travel, Books and More: Vinaya

Konkani Foodie: Ashwini

Ruchikacooks: Ruchikacook

A Homemaker’s Diary: Sayantani

Le Chaim: Mathangi

Kitchen Gossip: Kanchan

Out Of The Garden: Linda

The World according to Rujuta: Rujuta

Kiss the cook: Manasi

Asankhana: notyet100

Cooking with Koki: Koki

Siri’s Corner: Siri

Eats, Eats & Eats: Sheetal Kiran

Ruchii: Madhu

Jugalbandi: Jai & Bee

Once again, happy new year guys!!

Related posts:

1. Chana dal ~ Diwali special snack Today is Vakbaras and the Diwali marathon has officially...
2. Doodhi chana nu shaak When people say "Ooh I love my veggies" when...
3. Dal fry I am a dal person. Dal fry makes a...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

For me, Calcutta is synonymous with jhaal muri. I had my first jhaal muri there and though the mustard oil taste was a bit strange at first, I fell in love with it. There were jhaal muri walas everywhere – at bus stations, inside local trains, at all cross roads. I never missed a chance to grab a small sack of jhaal muri from a seller right across the street from where I lived. He even had hot sand in a kadhai going on one side, where he made fresh muri (mamra/kurmura/pori) by popping rice in the hot sand. He would then sieve the sand out of it. I remember for 2 rs. I used to get the “medium” sack which could last a quick chat with friends. And for 5 rs. we got the “giant” sack, which even I couldn’t finish by myself.

This is such a simple recipe and even though it is kind of like bhel, it has a mind of its own.

Mix muri (mamra/kurmura/pori), finely chopped onions, pieces of boiled potatoes, chana (the roasted kind), roasted peanuts, sev, finely chopped green chillies, salt, red chilly powder, jeera powder, a few drops of lemon juice and most importantly mustard oil. Mustard oil is what defines muri for me. You can play around with the rest of the ingredients you can add tomatoes, cucumber and remove a few, but you just can not compromise on mustard oil. And “jhaal’ means teekha/hot in Bengali, so you can make it as “jhaal” a muri as you like by adjusting the green chillies, red chilly powder.

This cone of jhaal muri goes as my 30th December entry at the one week recipe marathon from December 25th to 31st at Nupur’s One hot stove. .

Related posts:

1. Lemon Rice A very dear friend from Coorg who's now a...
2. Corn bhajia The best part about knowing a little bit of cooking...
3. Handvo muffins I've been down with a terrible cold and headache since...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Yo! Today it’s gulab jamun time, my favouritest dessert of all times. One of the best gulab jamuns I’ve had was from a famous shop in the narrow streets of Jaisalmer, where I had gone on a “study tour” from college. They were huge, and cost a whopping 10 Rs per piece (this was more than a decade ago, circa 1997). Though nothing really beats my mother’s gorgeous home made gulab jamuns. She says she got the recipe from a friend’s dad who ran a professional catering business. And this recipe is the real deal. All of my extended family have been using this recipe for years and it has always given us perfect gulabjamuns that are juicy and soft (to the core). I like my gulabjamuns, both hot and cold (Ya, I’m greedy that way).

These days restaurants, shops and even at homes, people microwave the gulab jamuns to heat them up, and I absolutely HATE that. You can easily tell when a gulab jamun has been nuked, because it is sure to actually burn your tongue or at least numb it a little and ruin the experience. The core of microwaved jamuns is always unrealistically hot, which I can never be prepared for. Anyway I digress, getting back to the gorgeous gulab jamuns,

To make gulab jamuns (makes 28-30 pieces), you’ll need

1. 250 gms unsweetened mawa/khova/khoya (Buy the freshest mawa that you can get. Ask for “gulab jamun mawa” or unsweetened mawa.)
2. 62 gms of maida (Rule: 1/4 weight of mawa. I didn’t have a weigh scale so I used the cup equivalent – 1/4 cup and it was perfect)
3. 30 pieces of sakariya (opaque sugar balls often used for prasad. Please refer to the first picture below)
4. 30 pieces of elaichi seeds (You can throw the cardamom peels in your chai patti jar. Gives a nice flavour to chai)
5. 1 tsp of rose water
6. Baking soda
7. Oil for frying

For the sugar syrup

1. 500 gms of sugar (Rule: double the weight of mawa. I tried to make do by using just 2 cups, but I had less syrup and the jamuns were crowded.)
2. Water (Same volume as that of sugar. If you’re using 3 cups of sugar, use the same amount of water)

Pass the mawa through a fine sieve (the one used to sieve flour), by rubbing it on the sieve using your thumb or palm. This will remove any granules or lumps in the mawa for sure (unlike the kneading method which is vague and requires good expertise). Mix the mawa and maida and turn into a dough (no water or anything). Cover it with a damp kitchen cloth.

To make the sugar syrup, heat the water and sugar till you get a syrup of 1 string consistency. When you test a drop of syrup between your thumb and index finger, you should see a small and thin string form between your fingers, for the fraction of a second. Switch off the stove immediately. Add the rose water.

Heat the oil on low-medium flame. Pinch out a portion of the dough (I used 1/4th of the total dough at a time) from under wraps. Dip the face of your thumb in water and then in the baking soda. Your thumb will be covered with soda. Now knead the portion of the dough that you pulled out, with the soda on your thumb for a minute. Divide into 7-8 portions. Press each portion gently between your palms and make a ball. With your finger make a small dent in the ball and put one sakariya and one elaichi seed into it. Roll it back into a smooth ball, so that the sakariya and elaichi are sort of in the centre and fully covered with dough.

You need to fry these 7-8 jamuns in low-medium hot oil. To check if the temperature is right, throw a tiny piece of dough into the oil. If it floats on top immediately, the oil is too hot. At the right temperature, it should settle at the bottom and take about two seconds or so for it to float on top. Stir the oil gently with a wooden spatula and slowly add the jamuns. Keep stirring the oil with the wooden spatula, while avoiding touching the jamuns. This is so that they get evenly coloured. In about 8-10 minutes, they will get a perfect dark red colour. If they’re done too early, they’ll be uncooked inside. Drain the jamuns and dunk them into warm sugar syrup. If the syrup has turned cold, heat it on low flame to keep it warm. Lather rinse repeat for the remaining 3/4th of the dough. Keep the jamuns dunked in sugar syrup for about an hour and a half.

While the sugar syrups permeates the jamuns from the outside, our little sakariya would’ve melted and will also work its magic from the inside. This ensures that the core of the jamun too gets even sweetness. When you eat the jamun, there will be no trace of the sakariya, just sweetness and a grain of elaichi for subtle flavour.

Close your eyes and pop in a jamun. It’s sure to give you a glimpse of heaven. :)

I am sending these gulab jamuns as the 29th December entry for the one week recipe marathon from December 25th to 31st at Nupur’s One hot stove.

Related posts:

1. Nan Khatai I have baked these gorgeous cookies called Nan Khatai...
2. Cholafali Here's another traditional yet simple Diwali farsaan recipe. To make...
3. Ghughra Ghughra is one of the traditional mithai prepared during...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Today’s entry is going to be a quick one, revived from the drafts, of an everyday dish at our home – gobhi ki subzi. I prefer stir fried dry subzi for lunch and curries for dinner. The dry subzis in Gujarat are usually made without adding any water. They’re made by just covering the kadhai with a lid. Sometimes water is poured on top of the lid so that only the water that forms by cooling the vapours is fed back to the subzi, just enough for it not to burn or get soggy by too much water.

For gobhi ki subzi (for 2 people), you’ll need -

1. 1/2 medium cauliflower, cut into medium florets
2. 1/2 cup fresh or frozen green peas
3. 1 potato, peeled and cubed (optional)
4. 1 onion, chopped
5. 1 tomato, chopped
6. 1 tbsp, ginger garlic paste
7. 1 tsp jeera (cumin seeds)
8. 1/2 tsp haldi (turmeric powder)
9. 1 tsp garam masala (I used Everest kitchen king)
10. 1 tsp of dhania powder
11. 1 tsp of jeera powder
12. 1/2 tsp of red chilly powder or to taste
13. Salt to taste
14. 1 tbsp of oil
15. A pinch of hing
16. A handful of finely chopped coriander leaves

Heat up the oil in a kadhai. Once hot add the jeera seeds. When the jeera starts spluttering, add hing and onions. Add a pinch of salt and cook till edges of the onions start to turn brown. Add turmeric powder, ginger garlic paste, green peas, cauliflower and potatoes (if using) and salt. Mix well and cover with a lid. Pour water over the lid and let it cook on low heat. If the water dries up and the vegetables are not yet cooked, pour more water on the lid. In about 15 minutes, the cauliflower and potatoes will be tender (a knife should go through easily, but it should not be limp or soggy). Then add the red chilly powder, dhania and jeera powder, garam masala and tomatoes. Cover and cook for another 3-4 minutes. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and serve hot with phulkas.

Related posts:

1. Dal fry I am a dal person. Dal fry makes a...
2. Palak paneer [caption id="attachment_246" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Palak paneer"][/caption] Palak paneer is...
3. Doodhi chana nu shaak When people say "Ooh I love my veggies" when...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

A very dear friend from Coorg who’s now a hotshot chef, used to prepare this fragrant lemon rice in a jiffy, especially when we had left over rice. Brings back so many memories from the days when I had just started working and she was still studying. We shared the same dingy PG (paying guest accomodation), had limited money, but that never stopped us from having a blast!

For lemon rice you’ll need -

• 3 cups of cooked rice (cooked at least an hour before, ideally 4-5 hours ago)
• 2 tbsp of oil
• 2 tbsp of raw peanuts
• 1 tbsp of cashew nuts
• 2 green chillies, chopped
• 2 sprigs of curry leaves
• 1 pinch of hing (asafoetida)
• 2 tsp of skinned split urad dal
• 1 tsp of chana dal
• 2 tsp of rai (mustard seeds)
• 1 tsp of haldi (turmeric powder)
• 2 tbsp of chopped coriander leaves
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• Fresh grated coconut for garnishing (optional)

Heat oil in a small pan. Once the oil is hot, add the urad dal, chana dal, rai and hing. Add in the peanuts and cashews. Finally add the green chillies and curry leaves. Switch off the stove and pour the hot oil over the rice, lemon juice and mix gently with a fork. If you didn’t add salt while cooking the rice, add it and mix everything well. Garnish with chopped coriander and grated coconut (if using).

I am sending this lemon rice platter as the 27th December entry for the one week recipe marathon from December 25th to 31st at Nupur’s One hot stove.

Related posts:

1. Sambar rice I am a sucker for Tamil style cooking. My first...
2. Dal fry I am a dal person. Dal fry makes a...
3. Aloo paratha Aloo parathas are our favourites for weekends. It is a...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.