Open Sesame Article this week

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My mind blowing gajar ka halwa

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Gajar ka halwa is SO Hindi filmi. The hindi film mother usually knows how to make only two desserts. One is kheer and the other is gajar ka halwa. And like many heroes in Hindi films who proclaim after eating the halwa or kheer, \’ma! jee karta hai main tumhare ungliyan choomloon\’, I too used to feel the same after eating the gajar ka halwa made by my mother.

Its odd, but gajar ka halwa was the first thing I learnt to cook. Ammi taught me her special recipe(which is no secret as I\’m going to write it here), and I\’ve been a gajar ka halwa aficionado ever since.

I learnt that most people preferred to let the grated carrots cook in milk, and then they add khova, and sugar and the nuts if preferred. My method is slightly different, and a whole lot more fattening and hence, much more delish! – Warning! I never use exact ingredients. I belong to the to the school of thought that believes that cooking is an art and not a science. Hence, very rarely I use exact ingredients, except maybe for the carrots. (Photo here is slightly blurred and not to the best advantage of the halwa. Please excuse)

Gajar Ka Halwa

1 kg carrots
at least 1/4 to 1/2 cup ghee
2 and 1/2 cups sugar
at least 2 cups khova
milk – I dont use any fixed quantity for this, but you can probably use at least a cup of milk. If you feel its less, use some more
nuts
patta, laung, elaichi (it seems odd to call this famous trio by their english names of cinnamon, cloves and cardamom!)

1. Wash, and scrape the carrots and grate them.
2. Heat the ghee in a thick bottomed pan.
3. Add the patta, laung and elaichi.
4. Add the grated carrots and fry them in the ghee until the ghee is completely absorbed and the colour of the carrots changes sufficiently.
5. Add milk, cook while stirring continuously.
6. Add the khova and stir so it disintegrates completely.
7. Once the carrots are completely cooked, add the sugar.
8. Watch out now, as the sugar starts sputtering in the halwa and you\’ll get scorched by little itsy bits of halwa flying around if you\’re not careful!
9. The mantra now is cook, cook and cook.
10. The halwa should now look glazed orange, and that, my dear is the difference between this halwa and any other gajar ka halwa!
11. Garnish with nuts. You can fry the nuts in ghee if you are on a calorie consuming spree of course!

Enjoy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Going Nuclear

For the first time in my life, I’m actually going to be responsible for managing a house. And it scares the s@#$ out of me! I have never done this before, and I have never thought I would either, although it had been a secret dream.

Ever since I was married, we’ve been in a joint family set up. It worked well for me, and I have had no hassles with my mother in law, or others at home. We had always assumed we would all live together. However, things change. Life changes. We are now moving out of BTM Layout and since we are moving out, our family and bhaiya’s family decided to split amicably. One valid reason is space. We need more of it, and getting allotted one room in a house, isn’t enough any longer.

So, temporarily, I will be shifting to Koramangala. Where I will be responsible for my own house. The idea is so exciting and yet terrifying. Deep inside, I feel that I might just make a good job out of it. Whereas on the other hand, I feel that anyone who has stepped into my room, and seen how messy it is, will know what kind of a pig sty my house is going to be.

In fact, I have a feeling everyone expects it to be messy and unkempt. I don’t know why I get this feeling, but its true. I feel that everyone thinks I am not cut out for being a housewife and I will surely make a mess out of it and they will gloat. These are the times I feel like I really want to prove everyone wrong.

I’m also wondering about going nuclear. After having lived in a joint family all our lives, will we be able to adjust? Saboor? How will he manage? And my husband? I feel that our bond as a family will get strengthened and tested by this, but that is yet to be seen.

Meanwhile, I can only remember the words of Rehana, a character in my novel, who’s the cousin of Mehnaz(the protagonist) : ‘If left to herself, Mehnaz will think that the house will run by itself.’

There are times when I think…’Eek! That’s me for sure!’

Feedback!!!!

On Friday, one of my articles got published on Open Sesame. You can read it here. I had written about how food blogs are one step above recipe websites. Daksha wants me to write stuff about the internet and other web-related concepts which kids would like to know, and this is the first in what I think, might become a weekly feature in Open Sesame. She had also requested that I leave my email ID in the article, in case someone wanted to get in touch with me.

The article came out nicely, and I forgot all about it, when I got an email, from none other than Tarla Dalal’s office. The email had come from Sanjay Dalal, who I presume, is her son. Here’s what he had to say:

Nice article on the blogs. But there is a whole lot of diversity in recipe sites where we have spent 30 years of research. Soon you will be able to add comments on every tarla dalal recipe which adds value to the site.

I thought you should know that tarladalal.com is going 75% free and no need to register. This may take 3 months.

We are moving to a web 2.0 model….

I can only say, I was very very surprised to have received feedback from that quarter of all places!!!! Nevertheless, it was good to get feedback!

The end of friendship

I have never really ended any of my friendships – ever. I have counted friendship as being above everything else, and no matter how much some friends of mine irk me, I cannot imagine a life without them.

Even as I write this, I know that sometime in the future, I would have reverted to my old ways, and I will be good friends with the person(s) I am talking about here. But until then, I am sad and a little upset at what I perceive to be the end of a friendship.

To the point of being called a door mat, I take everything from my friends. All sorts of last minute cancellations and change of plans, no matter how much I may have been looking forward to spending time with them…or even complete silences from months! I have always felt that you can and should take friends for granted. However, I feel, here it has crossed some level that is now unacceptable to me any more.

Being taken granted is one thing. Facing complete rudeness and a high-powered ego on the other hand is another thing that I learnt recently. I was shocked and hurt and I realized that I really do give myself too easily.

I am not happy with a couple of my friends. I think its the end of the road for us here.

What does this look like?

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What does this look like to you? Remnants of a bomb blast? Hurricane survivor\’s luggage?

No. Its just a suitcase of clothing that my husband had kept away for too long in the storage cupboard…rainwater had seeped into the storage cupboard and termites had a blast feeding on his clothes. Poor Mansoor! Those were his favourite clothes!! There was even a pair of jeans that was very expensive and he had been saving it to wear when he had lost weight. Now, only shreds and threads remained of the jeans.

Moral of the story – Don\’t keep your clothes in a suitcase in the storage cupboard for some time in the future when you will want to wear them. Donate them to someone else who will be happy to wear nice clothes. In the case of my husband\’s clothes, only the dustbin got them.

How I spent Sunday evening

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Bored. Bored enough to attempt making this cake. I had tried this cake last week without the frosting and it got over(meaning, everyone finished eating it), before I could finish cutting it into pieces. This time I thought I\’ll try the frosting too.

No good. The cake only looks so great! I hated the taste of the frosting. Remind me to remember always that cream cheese(softened paneer) with white butter and loads of sugar added to it, is not a good combination. If only I\’d whipped up some fresh cream! This same cake would again be over in minutes! Right now, its languishing inside the fridge because the frosting is making everyone feel a little sick…:-(((((((((

In my house, the only way I can judge whether something is good or not, is the speed with which it gets over. It gets over in less than 5 minutes, its super duper fantastic! A little longer, its still good. But when it sits around for two days, then its doomed. I predict this one is going to grace our fridge a good long time!