Mourning a Friend

Death is inevitable. It is called the final sleep and also a new beginning. But mostly death is about pain and loss. Words unsaid and deeds undone. We generally tend to push death into the background, not thinking about it, ignoring it,  we only understand its true meaning after it places its hand on someone we love.

Last week was a difficult time for me. In the midst of life, I was informed of a death. She was my neighbour and a friend. She had had an accident a month back from which she was healing and recovering, but God apparently had other plans and completely unexpectedly took her away.

Her death filled me with a pain of guilt and loss. She was always a good friend, always helpful and caring but I wasn't. I was so busy with my own life, my work and family that I never gave her the importance or the care she deserved. And now it was too late for that. She will never know how much I cared for her because I never bothered to tell her. Its hard to think that I will never see her again, her lovely smiling face, will never hear her voice again.

Ever since she passed on, her sweet face haunts me, I keep thinking of the last time I saw her and the last time we spoke. Its all I have left of her. Memories!

My heart cries for her family, especially her adorable little daughter, hardly five years, but old enough to understand and feel the loss of her mother. May God give her the strength she needs to accept and live her life.

I believe in souls and I would like to believe that wherever she is, she can hear me.
If you are out there my dear and if you can hear my thoughts, please accept my apology for not being as good a friend to you as you were to me. Forgive me for being selfish. Forgive me for taking life and you for granted.

I miss you Jyothi, and can never forget you....may you rest in peace.

Those we love don't go away,
They walk beside us every day,
Unseen, unheard, but always near,
Still loved, still missed and very dear.

To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die.
- Thomas Campbell
 

Love to hear what you think!

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Kerala Style Egg Curry with Coconut Milk

Boiled egg cooked with onions in a rich coconut milk gravy

 

Going back to my roots this time and cooking up my version of the popular egg curry as we make it in my good old homeland. Keralite food is full of spice and rich flavour and while I’m no expert, I certainly like to try my hand at it occasionally.

With the abundance of coconut palms in Kerala, it’s no wonder that Coconut is an indelible part of Keralite cuisine and most traditional dishes have some or the other form of coconut in it.

To get Coconut milk, you must grind raw coconut with water in a blender until you get a slurry mixture. This is then squeezed & filtered through a sieve or muslin cloth to get thick coconut milk. The mixture that is left behind in the sieve can be again grinded with more water and then again squeezed to get thin milk. This is the traditional way to get rich, delicious and completely natural coconut milk.

 My way of getting coconut milk, is to open up a pack of coconut milk powder, put 2-3 tbsps. of the powder in a cup, add lukewarm water and mix well. Viola! Thick coconut milk is ready. While this method of making coconut milk may not win any taste competitions against the traditionally made stuff, it is much easier and faster and perfect for a lazy cook like me.

Coconut milk has a naturally sweet taste. I like my curry to be spicy hence the amount of chili powder in this recipe. I use a mix of chili powders in this dish to get good heat and also to give it a rich colour. If you want your dish to be mild, you can reduce the chili.

What We Need:

Eggs – 3 nos

Onion – 2 big ones sliced
Ginger – 1 inch piece julienned
Green Chillies – 2 slit lengthwise
Curry leaves – a few
Tomatoes – 2 chopped
Coconut milk – 1 cup
Coconut Oil – 1 tbsp.
Turmeric powder – 1 tsp.
Chilli/Paprika powder – 2 tsp..
Coriander powder – ½ tsp.
Salt – As required

How We do it:

Boil the eggs, clean out the shell and cut in halves.

Heat the oil in a pan and add the curry leaves and ginger. After 2 minutes add the onions, green chillies and salt, sauté until the onions get brown.

 Now add the tomatoes and fry until they are cooked.

Add all the spice powders and fry for few minutes on a medium flame till the oil separates.

Make a hole in the centre of your pan by moving the onion mixture to the sides. Place the halved eggs- yolk side down - in the centre of the pan and cover with the onion masala. This is a little trick to lightly brown the yolk side of your egg to give it an added flavour. This will also help the yolk to maintain shape and prevent it from crumbling easily. This was a tip given by my husband who liked the yolks to be intact so he could easily pluck it out of his plate. J



Lower the heat and cover your pan to let the flavours seep into the eggs for about 5 minutes. Now add the coconut milk and very lightly mix it into the dish, taking care not to break the eggs.

Let the milk boil and take it off the heat. The gravy will thicken as it rests. Garnish with coriander leaves. Best served with Appam (a traditional Keralite bread like dish made of rice) or even roti.

 

 

Love to hear what you think!

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A Trip to Kruger National Park – Adventures & Escapades

 

At nearly 2 million hectors, Kruger National Park is one of the biggest national parks in South Africa and certainly the most popular one. Its official website claims that the park is home to innumerable species including 336 trees, 49 fish, 34 amphibians, 114 reptiles, 507 birds and 147 mammal species.

This Easter we had four days of uninterrupted holiday starting with Good Friday and ending with Family Day on Monday and decided to pay homage to South Africa’s most visited destination.

One of the main gates (out of a total of 9) to Kruger lies in the town of Malalane, which lays approximately 400 kms from Johannesburg and which was where we had booked rooms for our stay.

There are many rest camps within the park that offer good accommodation from tented camps to comfortable bungalows, as well as numerous restaurants, shops and petrol filling stations. This should be the first choice of anyone visiting Kruger. Unfortunately, our trip was planned pretty last minute and so all the camps were fully booked and we got rooms at Mhlati Guest Lodge, a very comfortable B&B located just 2 kms from the Malalane gate into KNP. We drove the 400 odd miles to Kruger from Joburg through a very scenic route with many rest stops in between and took us around 5 hours.

The Scenic Route

Two of the days we drove ourselves into the park and on the third day went on a guided safari vehicle. The advantage of going on a guided tour is that the tour guide will help you identify the animals and give you an insight into their habits and behaviour. Also you don’t have to drive which can get tiring. It being Autumn, the vegetation which mostly comprises of bushes and few trees was sparse and provided a good platform to view the animals.

On our first day itself we managed to spot many creatures. Our first sighting was of the Impala and we were so excited, I must have clicked scores of pictures of the herd. It was later we realised that Impala is the most common animal with over 1 million of them there. They are beautiful creatures however and quite willing to pose for the camera. Their sheer numbers will ensure that you will spot them every few kilometres into the park.

The majestic male Impala

Another surprise multiple sighting was of the enormously gorgeous African Elephant. We spotted huge herds of elephants frequently during our three day stint at the park. Many of them sauntering right on the road, seemingly without a care in the world. This was my first time seeing African Elephants who are much larger with huge fan like ears as compared to their Indian counterparts.

Causing a Traffic Jam!!

 

The African White Rhino was another interesting sighting. There was this particular rhino that was quite close to our car but still hidden behind some bushes. I had my head and upper torso out of the window in an attempt to get a good click. I could see the watchful eyes of the rhino on me, when suddenly it started rushing towards our car. Rhinos are known to charge towards vehicles and to see this rhino march towards us truly scared the living daylights out of me. We pulled our car ahead, great photo-op be damned, and the rhino coolly crossed the road behind us.

The not-so-happy-at-the-attention Rhino

Giving me a dirty last look

 

Poaching of these beautiful beasts for their horn is a major threat in Kruger and South Africa; everywhere in the park you would find information on anti-poaching and how you can help prevent it. We did our part by making a small donation to the cause and getting an anti-poaching cap as a thank you.

Though we managed to catch a glimpse and sometimes more than a glimpse of many species of animals at the park, the great cats eluded us. With supposedly over 2000 lions in the park, it was terribly disappointing that we couldn’t spot even one. Our guide told us that the lions being the lazy creatures they are, probably were sleeping under some tree. Their skin is such a great camouflage that we wouldn’t have spotted them if they were lying even 300 metres into the bushes. Ofcource even with spending three days in Kruger, we could only explore the south side of this enormous park, so I guess it would be just as safe to assume that the elusive lion decided to spend Easter in the north. After all, he is King and the king doesn’t parade himself in front of photo-crazy tourists like moi.

 

 

Love to hear what you think!

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My Grandmother’s Special Tomato Yoghurt Curry

A simple, easy-to-cook, yummy Tomato Curry with Yoghurt

Yoghurt is very popular in Indian Cuisine and is a staple in our kitchens. Not only are the probiotics in yoghurt good for your tummy, it’s also a good source of proteins, vitamins B6 & 12 and calcium. Low fat yoghurt can also lower your cholesterols and help in reducing weight.

This Tomato Yoghurt curry has the right amount of spice and tart that makes it perfect with rice, roti or bread. This is one of my grandmother’s recipes and is a favourite of mine. Just before my marriage, I was advised to learn some basic cooking and this curry was the only one that I wanted to cook. It was while heating the oil for tempering this dish that I dropped the boiling oil and badly burnt almost my whole lower arm. This was just 2 weeks before my wedding and resulted in my wearing bandages on my wedding day (hideous!!). I remember that my grandmother was devastated and blamed herself for the mishap. The burn was unbearably painful and with every tear I dropped it was my grandmother's heart that burnt.

Since then, I use very little oil when making this. I don’t think I can ever make this dish to taste as good as her cooking, but I hope it’s close. Try it out but be careful with the oil.

What we need:

Tomato – 2 whole

Onion – 1
Green Chillies – 4
Curry leaves – A few
Ginger – ½ inch piece
Thick Yoghurt – 1 cup
Oil for tempering
Mustard seeds – ½ tsp
Turmeric Powder – ½ tsp
Asofotida (hing) – a pinch
Corriander leaves for garnishing

How we do it:

Make slits in the tomato and boil in water till the skin comes off separate. Alternatively you can also microwave it on high for 5 minutes.

Remove the skin and mash up the tomato pulp until it becomes a smooth puree.

Beat the yoghurt with a cup of water to give it a smooth runny texture.

Chop the onions, ginger and green chillies.

 

Heat oil in a saucepan and add the mustard. Once mustard sputters, add the curry leaves, onions, chillies and ginger. Fry until onions turn translucent and add salt, turmeric and asafoetida.

 

Now add the tomato puree and cook for a few minutes.

Take the pan off the heat and add the yoghurt.

Garnish with coriander leaves and serve.

You can choose the consistency of the dish by adding more or little water to the yoghurt. This is my favourite accompaniment to Paranthas especially Aloo Parantha. 

 

Love to hear what you think!

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Pineapple ka Panna

A Refreshing Thirst Quencher with a Twist

We usually prefer to eat out on weekends and one of our haunts is the Rashee Restaurant at Morning Glen Mall. There are very few authentic Indian restaurants that don’t go low on spice in Joburg and this is one of them. It was here that I first tried a pineapple panna. I have tried a raw mango panna before but never one made of pineapple. The delicious smoked flavour of the pineapple in this drink took my heart away and I was determined to try it myself. Sadly, I couldn’t get the exact smokiness in my drink thanks to my electric stove but otherwise the flavour was spot on.

What we need:

Ripe Pineapple – 1 whole

Sugar –half cup

Black Salt (Kala namak) – ¼ tsp

Mint leaves – a few (optional)

How we do it:

Cut off the head of the pineapple and roast it whole (without peeling) on your stove. Keep turning so that the whole pineapple gets charred on the outside and cooked on the inside.

Unfortunately I have an electric stove and so couldn’t roast the pineapple this way. Instead I cut off the head, put it on my baking tray and grilled it on my oven at 200^oC for almost 40 minutes until I got the delicious aroma of cooked pineapple.

 

Take it out of the oven and let it cool. Using an oven works pretty much the same way as roasting on fire. But roasting on fire, gives the pineapple a delicious charred flavour that gives a zing to the drink.

Once cooled, peel off the skin and chop the pineapple.

Grind the chopped pineapple along with the sugar and black salt in a blender to get a smooth mix. Strain this mix through a fine sieve to get your panna.

Garnish with mint leaves and serve with ice cubes for a cool refreshing drink.

 

 

Try this and you wont be disappointed.

Love to hear what you think!

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Sugar Cookies with Honey Glaze Icing

 

I wanted to share this recipe in time for Easter, but had gone away for the holidays and just didn’t have the time to post it.

I love sugar cookies because they are so versatile, you can make them in any shape and size and with this simple icing you can make them as colourful as you want. Kids would totally adore these cookies for their sugary goodness and colour. They make a great holiday treat. They are a bit high on the sweet side. So if you are making these cookies for adults, maybe you would like to go a little light on the sugar or replace it with Stevia or Sugar-Free.

I have used honey as a nutritive option to create that beautiful glaze on the cookies. But honey has a strong flavour and if you do not like that, you can also use corn syrup or make your own thick sugar syrup. I just had these two colours on hand with me and tried that. Get Creative and use more colours & make it interesting.

For the Sugar Cookies

What we need:

Butter – 1 cup (softened)
White Sugar – 1 cup

All-purpose flour – 2 ½ cups plus a little more

Egg – 1 whole

Salt – a pinch (avoid this if you use salted butter)

Vanilla Extract – 1 tsp

 


How we do it:

Preheat oven to 200 ^o C.

Beat the sugar along with the butter until its fully incorporated.
Add the Egg and Extract and blend well.



Sift the flour, baking powder and salt and add it to the egg mixture little by little until it forms a soft dough.

Roll on a floured surface and cut out your cookies.

Place the dough between two sheets of plastic wrap. This ensures that you not only get a smooth surface but the dough also does not stick to your rolling pin.

Place on a cookie sheet laid with parchment paper. DO NOT grease. And bake for 8-10 minutes.

 

The baking time may vary from oven to oven. Just keep an eye on your cookies after 7 minutes. You want the tops to look dry but it should not get too brown on the edges.

Take out of the oven and let cool.

 

Your Sugar Cookies are ready!!

Only ice your cookie after it’s completely cooled.

For the Cookie Glaze:

What we need:
Icing/Powdered Sugar – 1 cup
Honey – 1 Tblsp
Milk – 1 tblsp plus another teaspoon
Food Colouring

How we do it:

Mix the honey and 1 tblsp milk to the sugar and blend well.

If icing is too thick add another teaspoon of the milk. The milk maintains the consistency of the icing. Too little milk and it becomes difficult to spread of the cookie. Too thin and it won’t stick. The best thing to do is to make the icing and test it on a cookie and wait till it dries. If it’s too runny add a bit of flour and if too dry, add a bit of milk to make it smooth.

Now divide the icing into two bowls and add the food colouring. I use liquid food colours.

While icing the cookies, you may notice that the icing which was perfect when you began has after a while gone a bit thick. Just heat it for 10 second on the microwave if that happens and you icing will get smooth again.

Once all the cookies are iced, you can just leave them to rest for a while till it sets. You can also refrigerate the glazed cookies for a short time to speed up the setting time. Once the icing has set, it will no longer be sticky but still be shiny. 

I got a little lazy with my icing and didn't do a very neat job.

 

 
These cookies not only look great but are a delicious snack.

Love to hear what you think!

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