Its been a while

Its been ages since I uploaded something on this blog. I started off with big dreams, but life got in the way.
Wish I could say that. Truth of the matter is that my time management sucks and I'm lazy and weak. There I said it. Coz what's a blog if its not the truth.
Well I have large plans, a lot of posts in mind. I just have to get around to penning them down. In the last few months, I have spent a lot of time cooking, baking, checking out other food blogs and pigging out on really unhealthy food. Basically I have gained tons of knowledge but also put on tons of weight. Then there's S, whose condition is no different from mine at least in the weight department, although he does pack in a surprise once in a while in the knowledge department too.
So now we are in the, oh my god you look so ugly phase, and are trying to motivate each other to lead healthy lifestyles. What this means in our life is to eat one healthy meal and brag about it for the rest of the month, then forget about it altogether till something drastic happens forcing us to think about our weight again!
But this time things are going to be different ( just like all the other times I've said it). We have hit upon yet another plan of diet. Our new regimen is to have humoungous breakfast, heavy lunch and a light no carb dinner .Well what I mean is- no obvious carb dinner...if a fruit or vegetable has carbs that I am unaware about, don't hold me to it.
Breakfast and lunch will be taken care of by the BB- thankfully. Dinner is where I come in. So from tomorrow, lets look forward to updates on wonderful fresh salads and yummy flavourful soups. Coz that's what's going to be brewing in the kitchen, hopefully for the next month at least.
Now with all the optimism of a person who has tried losing weight for the last few years and failed miserably, let us start.
Let's see how far I can take this, how innovative I can get and how interesting I can keep it
With a lot of hope, let the games begin...

14 Dec 2015
Well Well Well. Look at what we have here!
I am back to where this post left me more than a year ago. All that has changed is my place of stay and my weight. Well the place is a marked improvement (Abudhabi...Baby!), but the weight - unfortunately not. Just last week S & me we discussing how we need to start only a only soup dinner. Sigh. We are all talk my S&I. Lets see if we can improve upon ourselves this time, considering we have now reached the I'm so heavy, I'm a risk to my own future stage. The games need to begin in earnest!

Gajar ka Halwa

'Tis winter, and winter brings with it an amazing array of winter vegetables. Peas, radishes, turnip, cauliflower, mustard leaves and my favorite, the red carrot. How can we be in the season of red carrots and not make the heartwarming Gajar ka Halwa.

Here's my mom's recipie for Gajar ka Halwa. This recipe is not one that can be made in a jiffy. So plan well ahead in time. It is one of the easiest desserts to make and takes very little effort.


Ingredients (Serves 8)
Red Carrot - 1 kg
Milk - 1 1/2 ltr
Sugar - 1 cup/200 gm
Ghee (clarified butter)- 3 tbsp
Almonds - 25
Elaichi (green cardamom)  10 pods (powdered)
2 cups hot water for soaking the almonds

Prepartion time: 30 mins
Cooking time: 150 mins

Method

• Peel, wash and grate the carrots.
• Soak the almonds in the hot water for two hours. Then peel the skin off and chop them up into fine juliennes.
• Take a non stick pan, add the ghee and grated carrots. Let the carrot sweat and lose its water. You know this is done when you can no longer see water at the bottom of the pan. The carrot would have reduced to 2/3rd its original volume by now.
• Add the milk, half a liter at a time. After adding each half liter, mix the carrot and milk and then add the next half litre
• When all the milk is added, let it come to a boil and reduce the flame.

• Keep cooking on low flame to let the milk reduce. Stir occasionally to ensure the halwa does not stick to the bottom of the pan (Stir once every 15-20 mins)
• When milk has reduced to 1/4th its original volume, add the almond juliennes
• Stir more frequently now to prevent the halwa from burning
• When the milk has reduced completely -(there are no more droplets of milk at the bottom of the pan), add the sugar
• The halwa will become a little wet again, keep cooking to let the water evaporate. Stir occasionally
• When water has completely evaporated, add the elaichi powder.

Variations

You can add 3/4 liter milk and 250 gm khoya instead of 1 1/2 liter milk. Add the khoya when the milk has evaporated.

If you have left over milk/khoya sweets, these can be added also in addition to/instead of the khoya.

Tips

More the milk, better the gajar ka halwa. Don't be shy to add more milk.

Be patient when letting the milk evaporate. It takes a good 2 hours.

Adjust sugar as per your taste. 200 gm is ideal for me and my family's palette.

What is the Stone Pot

What is it? Am i getting Stoned on a lot of Pot or do I need to pass a stone by sitting on a Pot!

The stone pot is just that. A Stone Pot. It is a stone vessel that has passed on from generation to generation. It is a vessel that has seen many lifetimes and still lives, for us to imagine its tale.

What has my stone pot seen? Birth.Death.Cheers.Tears of all those beautiful and talented women who have used it over the generations. I am lucky this vessel has passed down to me. We don't get to see such vessels in kitchens these days. It was just sitting there gathering dust in a cupboard at my Aunt's home. The minute I laid eyes on it, I knew I wanted it. She very generously gave it to me too. I very carefully transported it from Mumbai to Bangalore where it now occupies a great place of pride in my modest Kitchen.

Not only does food made in it taste great, it is also an instant ice breaker, a topic of conversation for first time visitors, a trip down memory lane for the elders and a thing of envy for other kitchen enthusiasts like me.

The stone pot represents everything I want this blog to represent. An amalgamation of my culinary inheritance. Start of a conversation with other food fanatics. The first step to my food dream.