Wednesday, December 06, 2006

The Uppuma connection

The Uppuma connection

It was a hard day yesterday after our previous day triumph in making Dosa & Takkali Thokku, it seemed like out comeback trail had begun. An so we decided to test our culinary skills this time with a different South Indian dish "UPPUMA".

Uppuma is of different types and renders different taste which solely depends on the process. Some do with Samia and some with Rava...

We took the challenge of making the uppuma (Rava uppuma to be precise), a famous South Indian sweet dish and to our rescume came Vinoth the most famous (VV) from our flat, who seemed to know a lot more informative. Another dimension of him i've never seen, i thought.

All that is required to make this delicious dish is a Less than half KG of Rava, some ghee for frying not necessarily (we did without it), Onion, Chilli, Ingi, Karivepilai, Kadugu, Ulutham paruppu, and water. The quantity of water should be twice that of Rava and of course you need some patience and some people to share the dish with. Ah..I forgot one more important ingredient... the kesari color powder (well we did without this too). There's a lot of rumor going around that this causes cancer; You may neglect this though, if you want a white uppuma.

The color of course, is an individual preference. Environmentalists can go for green, Aussie supporters yellow, sailors blue and communists red. But the South Indian household seems to have a penchant for orange color and some do with Manjal powder itself hence, i didn't chose any color so that our Uppuma can be identified with.

Uppuma is a Common breakfast in south india where most of the office-goers normally prefer this due to its unique taste and especially when they dont have much time at hand and they should do something for the breakfast especially under dire straights. Rather than going out to buy other ingredients uppuma is preferred for its simplicity just can be done with what is available (CUstomized Versions)

And now coming back to our Uppuma preparation. All you need to do to get it done is to fry the rava in a tava with some ghee (if u have) till the rava becomes golden brown and keep it aside. Now in the same way fry the onion and the other ingredients that u've chopped before. Be careful this time, the time in which the onion change their color from golden brown to black is not very long.

Now add bring the water to a boil and add the fried rava in it, cook it till the rava comes to a thick consistency, now add some salt and the rava will loosen up. Keep cooking for 10 minutes. Add some cashew nuts or some vegetables if u have and mix it well. Turn the gas off and taste it. I assure you, you'll love the taste. You can go in for a slight variant of this - the Lemon uppuma, Sweet Uppuma and it goes on subject to the available material. The only additional work to do is to toss some of ur diced variant to it.

There is a complement to kesari by the name Uppuma, which can also be made using the rava. This is a common dish off the blues during the odd occasions viz Festivals, Occasions and auspicious Bride-Groom selection ceremony in South India. But more about this, later.

Well, im looking forward to our R&D efforts and wishing it will no longer go in vain. Rather would yield some good dishes and great time cooking together. Will be back with more sucess storeis :)

How does an ABCD (American Born Confused Desi -Indian) explain Diwali ???

How does an ABCD (American Born Confused Desi -Indian) explain to his younger brother the topic - When and how did Diwali begin? This is how he goes about it…(preferably read it with an American accent). Well this is the post which i've kept for so long in draft before i decided to post.
So, like this dude had, like, a big cool kingdom and people liked him.But, like, his step mom, or somethin’, was kind of a bitch, and she forcedher husband to, like, you know, send this cool dude, he was Ram, to some national forest or reserve or somethin’.

Since he was going, for like, somethin’ like more than 10 years or so,he decided to take his wife and his bro along. You know… so that theycould all chill out together. But dude, the forest was reeeeeeal scary shit,really man, they had monkeys and devils and shit like that. But thisdude, Ram, kicked their ass with darts, bows and arrows, so it was fine. But then some bad gansta’ boys, some jerk called Ravan, picks up his babe (Sita) and lures her away to his hood. And boy, were our man, and his bro Lakshman, pissed! And you don’t piss this son-of-a-gunz ‘coz, he just kicks ass and like, all the gods were with him. So anyways, you don’t mess with gods.

So, Ram and his bro get an army of monkeys. Dude, don’t ask me how they trained the damn monkeys, just go along with me, OK. So, Ram, Lakhs, and their monkeys whip this gansta’s ass in his own hood. Anyways, by now, their time’s up in the forest and anyways, it gets kinda boring. You know no TVs or malls or shit like that. So, they decided to hitch back home.

His bro and the wife are back home. People thought, well, you know,atleast they deserve somethin’ nice and they didn’t have any bars and clubs in those days. So they couldn’t take them out for a drink, so the people decided to smoke or shit. And they also had some lamps, they lit the lamps too.So it was pretty cooool…
you know with all those fireworks really,they had some local band play along with the fireworks, and you know what, dude, that was the very first, no kidding, that was the very firstmusical-synchronized fireworks. You know, like the 4th of the Julystuff, but just more cooler and stuff, you know. And, so dude, that was how, like, this festival started. Cool!!!

Diwali Rocks Maaaan!

Aru U contended with what you've got ???

Being contended with what we got:

I know a couple who had baby last week, after a decade of turmoil. After the initial appreciation and thanks giving to God, and feeling proud of themselves, they moved into the next stage – analysis;

The baby was a bit dark compared to its wheat-ish parents. “I wish the baby was as fair as either of you”, commented the maternal grandmother. “He does have a stub nose like me, which I didn’t want”, said the father. The material world and the feeling of relentlessly searching for something better took over.

They did easily forget the 10 years of turmoil, wherein their only prayer was, “We just need a baby, bless us God”, and that how lucky they were to have their prayers answered. Mind wanders like a mad monkey, it instantly forgets the past sufferings… instead of enjoying the gift of progeny, the couple looked for perfection, thus inflicting further sufferings onto themselves. They failed to realize people below them: an aged couple dying without children; spinsters over 50, who wanted to marry, but couldn’t, and many more similar grim stories.

For living a contented life, it is best to compare ourselves with people below us. They don’t die, if they don’t drive a Benz, or have a 20K mobile, neither will we. And for achieving we should compare ourselves with people above us. If Dr. APJ can work 18 hours a day and be a rolemodel to millions, we can make a difference to at least 10. We can!

Our lifestyle warrants that we crave and strive for more materialistic possession. A middle class family strives to buy a car, while a maid working in their house strives to buy a TV. A highly paid employee wants to buy a bungalow, and the rich boss wants everything of the best brand.
Money can buy all the comfort we desire, but then it takes our desire itself to next level. And the more we feed our desire, the more it grows, only to swallow our peaceful life. There can be no ceiling to our desires, unless we are contended.

Look around; you can comprehend what I write, and are reading this from your own computer in the comfort of your cubicle or room. Aren’t you a lot more lucky than people who cannot read/write, are mute, or don’t know what a computer is. And after reading this, you might be a little tired, (even though the AC comforts you, unlike people who are dying of sun-stoke after working relentlessly for a half meal,) you always have the vending machines at your disposal, or the phone to order your hot yummy food.

What more do you need except contentment?

A typical Mastercard ad to compliment:
Buying a Santro car for the middle class family stated above: Rs. 4 lakhs.Buying a Porsche for the millionaire stated above: Rs. 1 crore.Being contented with what God has given us: PRICELESS.

- The End.

Another day at Hell (Office)

Another day at Hell (Office)

I am here, staring at the monitor savoring a machine vended Nescafe. I wouldn’t say I am too unhappy about it and all. After all, I am documenting these thoughts just after reading columns of Behram Contractor a.k.a Busy Bee in the site www.busybeeforever.com.This is a really good site I should say. It contains lots of articles by Mr. Contractor whom I like very much. I also like John Grisham. But it is because of a different reason.I like BC because of the satire he brings out in a very simple form that’s easy to understand. I admit, though I read a lot of books, I really don’t get the full grasp of some of the books I read. Often Behram Contractor(BC) is compared with P.G.Wodehouse(PG). But for me BC is better than PG. This might be because when I tried reading a P.G, but I wasn’t able to make out the humor twist in it. I wasn’t laughing because of the humor in the book but I was laughing at my own state of not understanding P.G. So I like B.C more than P.G. Further B.C views things from an Indian angle that makes his columns and ideas easy to identify with.

Of late, I have become addicted to coffee. I don’t know why. It may be because I was trying to emulate Patrick Lanigan of The Partner, who drinks lots of coffee. I am averaging 4 cups a day now. I don’t feel guilty about it. Maybe I’ll feel when I am 40. But that’s ok for me since I am enjoying the present moment. I can proudly say I am living life king size without any consciousness conflict (what a term!). And so goes my life with an extra indulgence thrown in always in whatever I like doing.

It’s not that I am really happy because I don’t have anything to do. In fact, I have a real problem now where I am stuck without any daylight near. But still I am happy because I have read somewhere ‘And this too shall pass’. And I have learnt to believe in Hope, and even in failures I attribute it to my suspicion in my belief in hope. Failure or Success, and this too shall pass sometime soon. And so, I will indulge in my happiness to an extra extent.

It’s rainy season here. I always dislike carrying anything unless it is of utmost importance. For instance, I hate to carry helmets to restaurants and theatres. So for this reason, I never like wearing a helmet when I go to these places. I am not an atheist, so I believe in God more than I believe in my helmet. This of course is not for all to follow, unless you want to meet God very badly. So even though I dislike wearing it, I wear it. God can wait. Similarly, I hate carrying raincoats even in rainy season, when it’s not raining. But yesterday my father pestered me so much to take the raincoat. When I wore it, it was too much stuffy. I felt bad. But when I started from office in the evening, I came to know how it is to feel grateful. Yes, there was a heavy downpour, peals of thunder, and flashes of lightning; and me under the safe cocoon of raincoat. I even experienced the sadistic joy of watching my friends completely wet. Even today I’ve brought the raincoat. It’s not raining. But I don’t feel the slightest remorse of bringing it. So, I have learnt, it’s always good to ensure things are safe and strive towards that aspect rather than praying to god while dying. So, I henceforth will not feel lethargic towards doing things that’ll make me safer, even though there is some level of discomfort involved in it.

So that’s it. It’s almost time to leave. I am now happily taking my raincoat and helmet.