Biryani Buzz!

‘ello all! As my husband can attest, I’ve been on a bit of a cooking binge these past couple of months. I think the procuring of my new combi oven might have been a catalyst for what I hope will continue to be a rather successful run of pulaos, curries and sautéed veggies and while on the one hand, I’m quite keen (now that I’ve resumed updating the blog) to chart these endeavors for posterity… on the other hand, I fear that my friends shall use all these entries as evidence that I can cook which means more work for moi :D But hey, I gotta do what I gotta do, right?

How the “dish-du-jour” came to be a Biryani, was the backfiring of a much-awaited trip to Mohhamed Ali Road for some Haleem and Bheja. We ended up appeasing the stomach demons with a rather delectable Nalli-nihari but I clambered home that day and decided to find myself a Haleem Recipe that would satisfy the baser cravings. A rather unsuccessful dive into the nether realms of Google left me still wanting that elusive recipe (…one that I will share once I get my hands on it, I promise!) but did yield a rather comprehensive Biryani “how-to” list that was too tempting to resist…with a few alterations, of course!

So here it is….my own version of the ever-popular Mutton-Biryani…and while this might sound tedious..(I generally need three different casseroles for the frying, parboiling and finally the pressure cooking of the meat) its pretty par-for-course and doesn’t take more than an hour at the most…I like to do it with the layers of meat, rice, potatoes and onions but you can just mix up the whole lot if that’s what gets your goat! Try it and tell me what you think…

For a biryani for two you’ll need:
3 potatoes
3 large onions (thinly sliced)
500 gms of Meat (I like to use the cut off the shoulder)
10 cloves
3 pieces of Elaichi (the big black stuff)
7-8 strands of Saffron (soaked in two teaspoons of hot milk)
5 bay leaves
3 sticks (about 4 inches long) of Cinnamon
A teaspoon of Black Peppercorns
400 gms Basmati Rice
Half a cup of Mint Leaves (washed and finely chopped)
Half a cup of Coriander leaves (washed and finely chopped)
2 Tomatoes. (skinned and chopped to pieces)
Half a teaspoon of Turmeric Power
Half a teaspoon of Red Chilly Powder
Two Green Chillies (I like the light green ones)
Half a Cup of Curd
Two spoons of Ginger-garlic paste
Salt to Taste
Sunflowers seed oil.

Method:
1. Skin the potatoes and cut them into quarters. Add salt to taste and deep-fry the quarters till golden-brown and set aside.
2. Fry the onions till they’re soft and remove half and set aside. These are to flavour the meat. Fry the rest till crispy brown. These are to add to the top of the Biryani layers.
3. Wash the meat and drain the water.
4. Heat up some oil (about 3 teaspoons) till smoking. Add the cinnamon, peppercorns, bay leaves, elaichi & cloves and toss around for a minute. Add the onions that we set aside to flavour the meat and stir for another minute or so.
5. Add the ginger-garlic paste and the tomatoes and stir for another 3 minutes.
6. Add the Meat and sauté until the meat releases its own juices.
7. Next we need to add the Red-chilly power and Turmeric and salt to taste.
8. Now add the curd and sliced green chillies and stir till well mixed in with the meat.
9. Add a half cup of water & pressure cook until the meat is done..(about two whistles)
10. In a separate microwavable bowl, wash the rice and then soak it in about 400 ml of water. Cook in the microwave for about 3 minutes or till the rice is half-cooked or has soaked up all the water. (I generally add an extra stick of cinnamon to the rice as well just for a bit of flavoring)
11. Once the meat is cooked spread it evenly at the base of a heavy bottomed deep pan.
12. Layer the rice evenly on top of the meat. Then layer with the quartered potatoes, chopped coriander and mint leaves and finally the crispy fried onions.
13. Add the saffron flavored milk and cover the pan with a tightly fitted lid and cook on a low flame for about 15 mins.

Viola…your biryani is done!

I don’t like to use cumin in this recipe at all so if you are so inclined to you can add about a spoonful of powered cumin when you add the chilly and turmeric powders. But serve this with a freshly made boondi raita and it’s a complete meal!

Enjoy!

Blog-worthy!

Hello again! It’s been ages since I’ve posted (I haven’t written a public post in over a year now) and the itch was finally too unbearable. Oh, sure, I managed to post a bloggy thing or two here and there along the way. But then, in more recent months, I disappeared into real space altogether.

I’m sorry I’ve been gone so long. It feels like I’m always saying that, but then, the bottom line is (…and I make no excuses here) that I have been really really lazy! I mean, why write and re-write articles when I can do a pop-quiz on Facebook!

But, in the end, dear readers, I’ve decided to buckle down and post on here again in an attempt to appease the blog-demons and reawaken those surges that are, these days, a far cry from being surreal. And, truth be told, it was fun… this writing, reading and rewriting.

But that’s not the only reason why I’m back. I’m also back because as I was surfing the net this week, I discovered an interesting article I’d like to run by you, the dedicated and gentle (albeit disgruntled) readers of this fine blog.

Tony Allen Mills of the Times Online wrote an article on ghost-blogs…or blogs that have been abandoned by its once avid writers that had me determined to not be just another dead statistic. Here’s an excerpt…

“Lost for words online as blog craze falters
The extraordinary failure rate of online diaries and claims that interest in blogging will soon begin a precipitous slide are sparking an intriguing debate about the future of self-expression on the internet and whether blogs, once seen as revolutionary, are destined to become a footnote in the history of computing.

To the embarrassment of millions of internet users — from Hollywood celebrities such as Lohan, Melanie Griffith and Barbra Streisand to countless ordinary parents, workers and would-be poets — the evidence of failed diary-keeping cannot be easily erased from search engines that continue to provide links to blogs that have lain dormant for years.

Some internet analysts call them “ghost blogs”, lingering reminders of a cultish enthusiasm for self-expression that is rapidly wearing off. Others liken the abandonment of blogs to “the suicide of your virtual self”. At least one internet writer blames the blogging culture for helping to turn the internet into a “dictatorship of idiots”. (lol… yup if the Lindsey Lohans of the world unite!)

According to research by a firm of US technology analysts, the blogging phenomenon may have peaked last October, when 100,000 new blogs were being created every day. As well as personal diaries these included corporate, professional, celebrity and other specialist blogs.

Yet the Gartner research firm also concluded that the trend would level off in 2007, with perhaps 100m people still blogging worldwide. Other analysts predict that number will fall to 30m.”

And even as I was still bristling, I took a look at my own blog. Most of my blogger friends are now happily enmeshed in the throes of domesticity and do not seem to have the time or the inclination… except for the ever vigilant Nish-pish, who continues to fight the forces on her new blog http://peppercornjournal.blogspot.com/.

So, in a renewed attempt at steadfastly-ness, I have here forth decided that I shall not let my blog die an unnatural death and shall endeavor in full capacity to address issues and non-issues from this day forth on these here pages.

May the force be with me.

Rajni-can't.... be this hilarious!

a post, a post...my kingdom for a post!

you want to know who Rajanikanth is... here are the facts

Rajanikanth makes onions cry.

Rajanikanth can delete the Recycle Bin.

Ghosts are actually caused by Rajanikanth killing people faster than Death can process them.

Rajanikanth can build a snowman..... out of rain.

Rajanikanth can strangle you with a cordless phone.

Rajanikanth can drown a fish.

When Rajanikanth enters a room, he doesn't turn the lights on... he turns the dark off.

When Rajanikanth looks in a mirror, the mirror shatters, because not even glass is stupid enough toget in between Rajanikanth and Rajanikanth.

Brett Favre can throw a football over 50 yards. Rajanikanth can throw Brett Favre even further.

The last digit of pi is Rajanikanth.

He is the end of all things.

Rajanikanth does not know where you live, but he knows where you will die.

Bullets dodge Rajanikanth.

A Handicap parking sign does not signify that this spot is for handicapped people. It is actually in fact, a warning that the spot belongs to Rajanikanth and that you will be handicapped if you park there.

Rajanikanth's calendar goes straight from March 31st toApril 2nd, no one fools Rajanikanth.

If you spell Rajanikanth wrong on Google it doesn'tsay, "Did you mean Rajanikanth?" It simply replies, "Run while you still have the chance."

Rajanikanth can do a wheelie on a unicycle.

Once a cobra bit Rajanikanth' leg. After five days ofexcruciating pain, the cobra died.

When Rajanikanth gives you the finger, he's telling you how many seconds you have left to live.

Rajanikanth can kill two stones with one bird.

Rajanikanth was once on Celebrity Wheel of Fortune and was the first to spin. The next 29 minutes of the show consisted of everyone standing around awkwardly,waiting for the wheel to stop.

Leading hand sanitizers claim they can kill 99.9 percent of germs. Rajanikanth can kill 100 percent of whatever he wants.

There is no such thing as global warming. Rajanikanth was cold, so he turned the sun up.

Rajanikanth can set ants on fire with a magnifying glass. At night.

Rajanikanth has a deep and abiding respect for human life… unless it gets in his way.

It takes Rajanikanth 20 minutes to watch 60 Minutes.

Rajanikanth once shot down a German fighter plane withhis finger, by yelling "Bang!"

In an average living room there are 1,242 objects. Rajanikanth could use to kill you, including the room itself.

Behind every successful man, there is a woman. Behind every dead man, there is Rajanikanth.

(This one's my favorite!!)Rajanikanth destroyed the periodic table, because Rajanikanth only recognizes the element of surprise.

Rajanikanth got his drivers license at the age of 16 seconds.

With the rising cost of gasoline, Rajanikanth isbeginning to worry about his drinking habit.

The square root of Rajanikanth is pain. Do not try to square Rajanikanth, the result is death.

When you say "no one's perfect", Rajanikanth takes this as a personal insult.

Rocky Road...

Ever notice how when you think your life’s getting to some semblance of order, something really silly and supposedly inconsequential will throw you completely off kilter? For instance, I had this really weird dream last night….(..like the dream I had the other night in which I was making out on a roller coaster! Anu’s (…mah soul-sistah and aura-cleanser extraordinaire!) interpretation of it was that my subconscious feels I’m in a rocky relationship …the boyfriend just figures we need to get kinkier! Talk about taking stuff literally!!! But I’ll get back to the dream at hand…) the bedroom closets we’d ordered were delivered with the wrong wood finish laminate. My cupboards..(in my dream that is..) did not match the rest of my furniture! I then proceeded to get up and start an all-lights-blaring-at 4-in-da-morn hunt for my rings which I eventually traced to a bathroom shelf..(..having hastily abandoned them there earlier preceding my bath)..before falling noisily back into my warm bed where I slipped effortlessly back into some much needed r.e.m.

Stupid dream, I know, but it’s kinda left me feeling restless. And not only about the meaning of the dream and its implied transgressions but the fact that my subconscious apparently now uses mismatched furnishings as iconography to flash warning signals! I am not that person!!! Am I becoming that person? Haaaalp! I always pegged my subconscious to have a little more oomph really…you know…more zing! I miss those dreams I used to have…fluorescent blue ice-cream cones, me as spider man spinning webs all over my living room, big black cats on huge spot lit chess boards! Now, it’s just mahogany cupboards in neutral browns and the likes. How vanilla am I? (although I guess it’s a step up from ‘rocky road’ no?)

The past couple of months have been kind of a blur really. There’s been so much to blog about and no time in which to actually get down to it! The new job is fun…although it affords me absolutely zero time to myself. I’ve been catching up..(albeit in small doses) with the Bombay junta. So far I’ve managed to visit Shiro (Dilli’s pre-pre-pre-birthday bash), China House (free alcohol courtesy the ‘celebs’), Mangi Fera (excellent smoked salmon ceaser’s salad), Royal China (..they have an all-you-ca-eat dimsum lunch for 425 plus taxes that’s absolutely out of this world!), Seijo (to die for hot chilli sauce & two taste tenderloin steak) & Zenzi (an all time fav). My new apartment (its in Kalina, by the way, which is in Santacruz, East…I’m a ‘burban’ people!!) is great when it comes to being centrally located...(takes me pretty much a half hour to go to most places, including work…)…but definitely not the best place when it comes to ordering in! I’ve also gone and painted one wall of my living room a bright shiny gold..(yeth it’s Delhi-babe with the underwear on the outside!!!) which actually looks pretty good if you ask me! Now I need to decide on what poster to put up on there. The two finalists are “the kiss” by Klimt on a 3’ x 2’ canvas and “Sunflowers” by Van Gogh ( I’ve been a little over exposed to “starry starry night”) both of which I’m posting on the blog as well. Pllllleeeaaaase help me decide!!

And on yet another bright note, my niece and god-daughter Amelia (sprung forth of the Fabulous Nish-pish loins urf “Kramer”...its just the hair!!!) is now holding her head up all by her little self! How cool is that! Pretty soon she’ll be all growed up! Have also been awarded the extreme privilege of shooting photographs of her for posterity …which I shall get to this upcoming weekend. Watch this space peoples!

More when it happens!

This is me!

In the absence of hawaii/london pics to post..(haven't gotten around to downloading them off the camera yet...lazy lazy!) here's the results of yet another personality test...:P

Random 3 am posting…

Am finally back in the motherland after two weeks on various continents….suffering severe lagging and post-vacation blues. Have to get act together and post on blog. Met up with favorite and most-loved cousin Moshe (and a whole bunch of others I shall blog about later…including the most effervescent ex Siddu, the infamous Nomita Kohli, Intrepid pilot Krix.) and am delighted to report only good things. Other than the fact that he's absolutely gorgeous..(yea...the good genes..:P) he’s also now the big heap photographer in the San Fran doing major artsy-fartsy stuff. More power to him!!!

Hawaii was great and London rocked as usual!

More tomorrow…

...

Grasshopper rocks!