Cooking experiments

Am not a great cook, in fact just about nine-months-old....picked up cooking because i had no choice but now i like it.....here are a few recipes that i tried and they turned out pretty decent.....my friend Sabina suggested posting them so here i go....

Drumstick sambar



Ingredients
Drumsticks (vegetable and not chicken)
1 cup tuvar dal
1 cup fresh shredded coconut
1 tsp turmeric powder
4 red chillies
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp methi seeds
A pinch of ajwain
2 to 3 pieces of garlic
2 to 3 green chillies
1 and half cup of thick tamarind pulp
salt to taste
1 tsp chilli powder
2 tsps sambar powder

For the seasoning:
A pinch of hing/ asafoetida
A sprig of curry leaves
1 tsp mustard seeds

Method

Fry red chilies, coriander seeds, mustard seeds,turmeric powder, cumin seeds and fenugreek seeds. Grind all these with the shredded coconut into a thick paste. if you want the sambar to be brownish then you can roast the coconut along with the ingredients used in step 1. i avoided roasting the coconut so my sambar is yellowish in colour. Peel and cut the drumsticks into 5 cm pieces and boil them in water with a little salt and turmeric powder. In case you are using frozen drumsticks, just thaw them, wash them and boil it. The drumstick should be tender but not too soft that they break off. Soak the dal in water for one hour. Wash it and pressure cook it with salt, garlic pieces and green chillies. When the dal is cooked, stir it nicely and mix the ground paste with the cooked dal. Add the cooked drumsticks to this. Let it boil and then add the chilli powder and sambar masala to it Add tamarind pulp to the mixture and bring to boil. Heat oil and fry mustard seeds, ajwain, asafoetida and curry leaves. Pour on the sambar. Add salt to taste. Cook till well blended. COMING NEXT.....Beetroot Poriyal/ Betroot Sabzi

Some Human Tendencies.....

Some of us have the tendency of dismissing or rather calling everything that we don't like as trash....If we live in the suburbs we criticise the city and if we live in the city we criticise the suburbs....
Everyone has their view but what turns me off is people trying to push their point of view on others....If you have accepted a way of life don't hurt people who don't approve your view of life.
But i guess it gives some humans sadistic pleasure by putting others down....
If you are well-educated, good for you but don't poke fun at someone who isn't that well-educated. It only goes to show that all your education hasn't taught you basic manners and etiquettes.
My aunt had a favourite quote, "Donkey brags about its own tail," and after coming to the US i've met many people who indulge in this habit. Many wives love to brag about their husbands....while they maybe sitting at home doing nothing but watching television they love to do free P R for their husbands.....Its good that you are proud of your man and we know you are the luckiest wife on earth....but please pity your listeners, they have much better things in life than listening to your "mera pati sabse mahan lecture...." You guys end up portraying an image that you have no personality of your own and that your whole life revolves around your husband....which isn't all that healthy.....
Not taking responsibility....must confess i also exhibit this tendency at times.....you are a victim of circumstance you did something because someonelse suggested it to you or adviced you to do it....It takes a lot of guts to accept your mistakes but once you do it! you are a better person.
Yet another tendency is Jealousy.....which we women experience every single day....how come she lost so much weight? how did she get such a handsome husband? the list is endless....bt at the end of the day it only makes us more bitter.....
There are some of us who have an inferiority complex about something and our way of dealing with it....putting other people down.....like if someone gets a job you don't get you say, "oh....he manipulated the interview panel...." or "the job's not good enough.....even if i got it.....i wouldn't have taken it up!" An ideal case of sour grapes that's it....they argue for the sake of arguing and its better not to waste your energy on these people because you can never win with them!

DEALING WITH INSECURITY

Lately i've been obsessed with the word "insecurity," so you'll get an overdose of it.....
As a teenager i was insecure about the way i looked.....while i never had a problem with my dark skin tone....everyone around me from friends, neighbours, classmates to even some of my teachers had a problem with it.
"Archana....you should try this cream, you know?" or "you are dark but you have good features...." or "try getting this done it will make you a little fair," or "you shouldn't wear some colours because they won't suit you," or "you are a dusky maiden, black beauty?"
My answer to these suggestions.... both my parents are dark so i am supposed to be dark....i can't help it??? its in the genes!!!! But somewhere deep inside me i felt that my skin colour was like a handicap....
As immature teenagers some of us can be insensitive....i remember being called a lot of hurtful things by some of my neighbours....while i bravely learnt laughing it off later it did hurt me at times....
Even my close friends never missed a session of advicing me on improving my skin colour, or consoling me by saying, "you're dark but dont worry you have good features....in fact i love your dusky skin tone." In hindsight i realise that their intentions weren't hurtful and they probably didn't know i was sensitive about it.....
When i turned 17....my aunt thought that i was grown up enough to travel alone and she enrolled me to a public speaking course at Mumbai's Indo American Society and the 12 sunday workshop helped me immensely. I was a changed person....I made some very good friends there who seemed to have no problem with the way i looked.....it was here that i realised that i was good at a lot of things and that i could probably become something in life.
Post Indo-American i overcame my insecurity with my colour and rather accepted it as a part of me. I did meet a lot of people after that who had lots of suggestions for making me fairer etc.....bt i realised that they have a different version of beauty and probably i don't fit that version but that doesn't make me ugly or bad.....
Other than my Indo-American friends there have been only two people in my life with whom i have had a long term contact and who have never discussed my colour with me.....my best friend Amrita and my husband Vijay.....
I have known Ami for five years and Vijay for 8 and a half years and they have never ever discussed my colour with me.....it was as if they never noticed it and that has only made me respect them more.....
Initially i would suspect that maybe they did notice my skin tone but they were too kind to hurt me and hence never mentioned it to me.....so i casually asked Ami, "do you think i should try a fairness cream?" and Ami was so furious with me, "why do you need one? what's wrong with you?"

INSECURITY

Its very rare to find a person who is secure in life.....who is so comfortable in his skin that he doesn't care about what the world thinks about him but at the same time this person doesn't criticize people for their opinion. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and if they don't have a good view about you that doesn't make that person bad or evil.....
I too have my insecurities and I am quite open about it....my biggest insecurity currently is going back to Mumbai and facing the fast paced life there. Hackensack, where i live now is quite, peaceful, calm and gives me the space to be myself. Also when i'm bored i can quite easily swift into the highly fast paced life of New York City which is about 25 mins drive from my home. Being a housewife isn't all that easy but it gives you a lot of space and freedom.....bt it also makes your life a little slow.....and that is my fear!!!! When i move back to mumbai, a city with speed faster than light, will i be able to manage???? The funny part is I was once a part of this maddening city and never wanted anything else but the fast and frantic life of Mumbai and now the same me questions it? strange and wierd but that's how we humans are right?