A Meme and Doi Maach

I have not posted anything for a while as my mom is here in town and I am having fun going places with her. We went to the zoo the other day and my boy enjoyed himself. He loved to see the giraffes and his favourite elephants. He also sat on a tree...just like a monkey. Here are some pictures. The one on the left is with one giraffe. It is a bit difficult yo see it as it is standing very far. Wish it had come a bit closer. The picture on the right is the one on the tree. My baby monkey.




I was tagged by Jaya for this Bookish Meme. I have never done this before. I love to read, though with my naughty kid who makes me run around, it takes me longer to finish a book, than it used to.
As per the rules:
Pick up the nearest book
Go to Page 123
Now Find the fifth sentence
post the next three sentences
Tag 5 People and acknowledge the person who tagged you

The book nearest to me is "The Last Mughal" as I am reading that now. The sixth, seventh and eighth sentences on page 123 are:

6th: Despite his lack of Indian experience, Canning was quite clear that now was the moment to take the dramatic and historic step of deposing the Mughal dynasty, which had ruled northern India for more than three hundred years: Babur, the first Mughal, took Delhi while Henry VIII was just beginning his rule in England.

7th: Britain's Indian Empire, wrote Cannings, had never been so strong, so secure or so happy: "The last few years have seen not only an extension, but a remarkable consolidation of British power in India; its supremacy has become more uniform and unbroken even within the earlier limits of the Empire."

8th: For this reason, 'the preservation of a titular King Paramount of Hindustan has thereby grown to be a greater anomaly than ever', and he therefore decided, in agreement with Fraser's views, that no Mughal prince would now be recognised as heir apparent.

Now, I would like to pass this on to:

Suma

Skribles

Sudeshna

Solai

Kitchen Flavours

Now for my recipe. This is a very typical Bengali fish dish made with curd. This can be made with either Rohu or Katla and is best eaten with rice. This is very yummy. My hubby who is not a Bengali, enjoys this preparation a lot. So when he got fresh katla the other day, I made him his favourite dish. It was not spicy, so my son also enjoyed it.

First, I marinated the fish with around 150 gms curd and a pinch of turmeric powder for about half an hour. In very hot oil, fry the fish till it is three fourth done. Keep aside. Now, in hot oil, ghee (clarified butter), add 2-3 cloves, 2-3 green cardamons, 1 cinnamon stick, 1 bay leaf, and around 5 peppercorns. Saute for a few seconds, then add chopped onion and ginger paste. Cook till the onion becomes brown. Add the remaining 150 gms curd, red chilli powder, salt and enough water to cover the ingredients. When it starts boiling, add the fish to the pan, and simmer for about 15 mins, or till the fish is cooked.

HAPPY COOKING!!

Awards, Awards, and more awards

Yay!!! Today was a good day. Today I received, not one, not two, but three awards. How cool is that!!! I am so happy, I am confused. Where do I start. These awards really encourage me to cook more and post more, but how much can one eat in a day??
Well, the first award is one I have received twice before, so this is the third time. Sudeshna has awarded me "Blogging Friends Forever Award". Since I have already passed it on, I can't think of anybody else to do so. Thank you so much Sudeshna for thinking of me. I will treasure it forever.
My second award of the day was from Kitchen Flavours. She has passed on the "Brilliant Weblog" award to me. Thank you so much for including my blog in the list of brilliant bogs. I appreciate it a lot. Thanks a million.

Brilliant Weblog is a prize given to sites and blogs that are smart and brilliant both in their content and their design. The purpose of the prize is to promote as many blogs as possible in the blogsphere.

Here are the rules to follow :-When you receive the prize you must write a post showing it, together with the name of who has given it to you, and link them back.Choose a minimum of 7 blogs (or even more) that you find brilliant in their content or design.Show their names and links and leave them a comment informing they were prized with ‘Brilliant Weblog’.Show a picture of those who awarded you and those you give the prize (optional).

It was not easy to choose as there are so many blogs out there that deserve this. I had to think for a long time. But I finally came up with these names:

1. Mona

2. Sudeshna

3. Illatharasi

4. Veda Murthy

5. Priti

6. Jayashree

7. Solai Chidambaram

The last person to pass awards to me was SriLekha. These are the "Beautiful Site Award" and "Best Blog Darts Thinker Award". I don't know if these are two awards or just one.

Anyways, I am really thankful to SriLekha for this. Really encourages me. Again I had a tough time selecting people. I pass the award to:

1. Skribles

2. Andhra Flavors

3. Mishmash

4. The Singing Chef

Once again I thank everyone for thinking about me and passing on the awards to me.

The Magnet Event

I don't have much time right now, so I am only posting for the magnet event since it closes today. I love to collect magnets, but I don't have much with me here in Chennai. My son on the other hand has lots of them. The upper part of the fridge (the freezer section) is mine, and the lower portion is his. His collection includes stickers as well. I am posting both the pictures here. The one on the left belongs to my 35 month old, and the one on the right is mine.

I am sending this to EVENT: FRIDGE MAGNET COLLECTION!!!! hosted by Veda. This was a fun event to participate in.

Nimki, an award and thanks

I remember when I was a kid, my mom used to make nimki for my sister and me for snacks and we loved it. My sister loved it more when they were put in sugar syrup to make it sweet. Since we loved it so much, I thought that my boy would also like it, and I thought correct. He loved it. He was playing with two girls who are eight, and his dadda and among the four of them (one adult and three kids), they finished it. Yay!! It was very difficult for me to save some for a picture.

When I started making it I realized that this needed maida (refined flour) and had to be deep fried. Now I got paranoid with the combination of maida and deep frying which are both not very good for health, so I substituted maida with atta (whole wheat flour). Also I used less oil for frying. Thought it might be different, but it was very much like what I ate as a kid.

Ingredients:

Atta (Whole wheat flour): 125 gms

Ghee (clarified butter): 1 tbsp

Salt: 1tbsp

Kalo jeere(kalaunji/nigella seeds): 2 tbsp

Water: as required

Oil: for frying

Method:

1) Mix the ghee, atta and salt together.

2) Add the kalo jerre and water, and knead into a dough just like we do while making roti.

3) Divide the dough into balls.

4) Flatten the balls and then roll them out in circles, dusting with flour when required.

5) With a knife, cut criss cross strips on the rolled out dough. They should be diamond shaped. I know mine are not good shapes, but that is the idea.

6) Heat oil in a kadai and fry.

7) Drain on kitchen paper.

8) If kept in an air tight container, it can last for up to 2 weeks.

I also wanted to thank Dibs for the Blogging Friends Forever award. She is the second person to do so, and I thank her with all my heart. I will always cherish it Dibs. I have already passed it on to 5 people earlier.

I received a lot of wonderful comments for my last post. I want to thank everyone for the kind words. This really encourages me to do better.

Prawn Masala

My land-lady's daughter in law made prawns the other day, and gave me some for lunch. It was absolutely delicious. I just loved it. So I wrote down the recipe from her. Today I decided to make it. I did exactly what she said. Mine was fine...not as good as hers. But not bad for a first attempt. She said that this does not taste good with big prawns.Ingredients:

Prawns: 200 gms

Onion: 200 gms

Tomatoes: 200 gms

Curry leaves

Coriander leaves

Ginger Garlic paste (better if it is made fresh at home): 1 tsp

Turmeric powder

Coriander powder

Chilli powder

Salt

Method:

1. Drop some curry leaves in hot oil.

2. Next add the chopped onion and a bit of salt. Fry for a bit and then add the ginger garlic paste. Fry till golden brown.

3. Add the prawn and fry for 2 minutes.

4. Then add the tomatoes and fry.

5. Add the coriander, turmeric and chilli powders and the remaining salt. Fry for a minute.

6. Add water till the prawns are submerged. Not too much water.

7. Simmer and cook till the oil leaves.

8. Add coriander leaves. It should be dry. No gravy at all.

I would like to enter this to the event hosted by Jeenas Kitchen. I just found out about it, and I hope that this does qualify for it.

Chicken Kofta Curry

I have always eaten mutton kofta curry, fish kofta curry and vegetable kofta curry, but never have I tasted chicken kofta curry. I wanted to try it out since I could not think of anything else to make. It was not bad. I added cinnamon to it, and it had a wonderful cinnamon flavour. It was very nice. And by the way, I would love to wish everyone a Happy Friendship Day. First, in a bowl, I mixed the following ingredients. It should be dry.

Ground Chicken (Chicken Kheema)

Chopped Onion: half

Chopped Garlic: 2-3 flakes

Curry powder: a pinch

Salt

Besan (Bengal gram flour)

Then I made balls out of these, and shallow fried them.

There was some oil left in the pan, so in the same oil, I first added CUMIN SEEDS. When they started spluttering, I added small CINNAMON sticks. Then I added chopped ONION and chopped TOMATOES.

I fried this for a bit, then added GINGER GARLIC PASTE and fried it for two more minutes. Then I added SALT, CUMIN POWDER, CORIANDER POWDER and TURMERIC POWDER. I fried this, sprinkling water at times. When this looked cooked, and the oil had left it, I added water. When the water started to boil, I added the fried balls and covered it and cooked on a medium flame. The balls soaked some water. and the water level reduced. In the end there was a lovely aroma of cinnamon.