Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Rajma aur Sherry!!


Few years ago I was completely ignorant about north Indian cuisine…Even during college time, the only north Indian dish I knew was Butter chicken which is now quite pan-Indian. Its so popular at restaurants in Trivandrum that this sardar I know says, a few minutes at Kalavara restaurant reminds of his paaji in Jalandhar. Even the cook out there is called Cherian Singh!

And after getting acquainted with many friends from north, I became familiar with things like Paratha…palak paneer…dahi vada….gajar ka halwa….The problem with this kind of naming is that they wouldn’t possibly be able to name something like Avial !!

Though I enjoyed these delicacies, I never really ventured into cooking any of em myself.. So last week I decided to make a typical north Indian dish called Rajma masala…Talking of Rajma, I was not familiar with this dish either…Imagine a few years ago, if someone actually quipped from the kitchen..

’Do you know where is Rajma’

I would have said...’I have no idea…I don’t even know her!!’

Rajma was simply a girl’s name for me …like in Rajma Chowdhary or something.

So it was with much apprehension when I saw Rajma for the first time at Dostana supermarket in Hamburg...Popular know as kidney beans this is supposedly be very healthy which made me extra cautious coz I have strange medical condition of being allergic to such food…But on that instance, I didn’t care much and ‘transplanted’ the kidney beans to my shopping cart. I reaching home carrying approximately 500 such kidney beans that evening. The racket was soon busted when my roommate saw the 500 kidney beans hidden behind the shelves and he asked me the dreaded question that a man would fear most at such times.

‘Do you have any idea what to do with this stuff?’


You know, there are the times when you simply wish that a meteor would pass by so that you could divert the topic. But that day I couldn’t count on my luck for such possibilities and had to rely on the life saver of our times, the internet.

I searched in youtube and found a beautiful Pakistani lady making Rajma masala. After watching that for approx 10 min, I saw another Pakistani girl doing the same…and then another……Since I found it very interesting I began searching in youtube for “Pakistani girls making Rajma masala”…Finally I realized that youtube is the wrong place for searching recipes and decided on regular websites…Again I ended up mixing several recipes to suite my taste. So this a mix all recipe.

The problem here is that if you want to make this curry today, you have to start thinking of it yesterday and keep the beans soaked in water overnight…In other words you should be a far-sighted person to make this curry…and you need a vision and immaculate planning!! Such remarkable qualities enable you to make this wonderful dish…I did it!! hic...hic….;-D

Pressure cook the beans(abt 300 gms) along with 2 tbsp of toor dal for around 5-6 whistles…

Heat oil in a pan and do the usual thing with mustards and jeera….add 1-2 red chilies as well.
Sauté the onions(sliced thin 3 nos) along with 2 green chilies until sufficiently fried and add the ginger-garlic paste(3 tsp)...Now add 2 cardamoms, 3 cloves and 1” piece of cinnamon…Once the raw smell goes, add a paste of 3 tsp of coriander powder, 1tsp turmeric, 1tsp pepper powder and half tsp red chilly powder with 2 tbsp of water to avoid the masala’s getting burned. After 2 min add the sliced tomatoes(2 nos) and allow it to cook…When the oil starts separating out and the mixture of onion and tomatoes are smashed properly. Add salt to taste and a pinch of garam masala…Now reduce the flame and add 2 tbsp of curd to it….Finally add the cooked Rajma along with water remaining in the pressure cooker and cover the lid for 5-10 min or until the masala mix has blended well with the Rajma…Check the spice and salt level and adjust maadi accordingly!!


I thought the curry came out decently well...infact way beyond my expectations...in other words this time I haven’t accumulated miles unlike the last time when the kadala curry created a record of sorts by earning me 10000 miles in a span of few days….and a frequent flier card to the loo!!



P.S. The chappatti is ready made...

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Vol-Au-Vents a la Crème Fraîche and a tag...

I was tagged by two wonderful bloggers…Divs and Varsha where I have to write 25 random things about myself…The first question I asked myself was whether there were 25 things about myself to even tell about! But as I started writing it was quite easy to make this list however uninteresting the facts are…So here goes that tag…


1. I am a movie buff…though am quite selective about it …I love Padmarajan and Sreenivasan movies…apart from that I love classics...and any movies of Benigni...Spielberg...Tarantino...or Polanski

2.I never enjoyed cooking when I was at home in Trivandrum…its was more of cooking due to forced circumstances….though had lots of fun with bro trying out things in the kitchen like putting kudampuli for the sambhar or spoiling the mixie 4-5 times in a month trying to make idli maavu…. my first food blogpost is quite silly..;-D



3. I find a lot of connect with many bloggers than people whom I know in daily life….sometimes I feel they think so much alike and are of similar wavelength making me comfortable communicating with them…many are almost like family for me.

4. I love cold weather or rather moderate weather by European standards...20-25 deg…I get irritated at plus 35…I don’t mind shivering in the cold but I hate to sweat in the sun…But I now appreciate the beauty of sun when it occasionally shows up in winter.

5. I love travelling...I have been to several countries in past 2-3 years and considering myself lucky for being able to do so... Norway is next in my wish list..:)

6. I don’t think I was proud of myself as a kid or as a college guy…but I somehow feel happy for myself that I managed to hold on to some principles inspite of temptations to break it after I finished studies. Integrity in action is a much under-appreciated value these days.

7. I love peach juice and I don’t like sugar in coffee.

8. I would like to copy a line here from yumworld...i am a Cancerian as well…infact most of my blogger friends are cancerians…

9. I envy people who can sing…that’s something I wish god gave me…and I do have an eclectic taste for music…

10. Some of the nicest people I know are not necessarily the richest or most well endowed physically or financially. I learned that there is goodness even in sections of society we disregard as second fiddle or unworthy of attention...

11. One of the proudest moments in my life was when I got my parents to Germany and later took them to Paris and Rome…and they send a mail after reaching home about how happy they were…I am highly uncomfortable expressing love or gratitude in person and they know it, it seems…

12. I am very instinctive in nature…at times I believe that I have psychic powers too. 4 years ago along with a friend while munching on a home delivered pizza, we were worried about roomies coming soon sharing the already small pizza we had..5 min after we finished the pizza we got a call..4 of them were stuck somewhere in the lift of our flat…;-D

13. My all-time favorite TV show is Frasier. I am so much a fan that I would love to visit Seattle if I ever go to USA…

14. I love being a travel guide. and I love doing the planning…and I do it in extreme detailing starting from when exactly should I wake up on the day of travel..;-P

15. I sometimes wish if I had a sister…just a weird wish...

16. You rarely would see me emotional in person…it’s a trait I got from dad which I know is not necessarily good...But I am my own “agony uncle” if there is any..;-P

17. I love doing pencil sketching, jigsaw puzzles and watching history related television programs…esp... if it has something to do with world war’s…and besides that I like car and bike shows. I also used to closely follow the Indian election scene when I was a kid. I remember when I was like in 8th or 9th standard and it was exam time and I was forcibly confined to the study room. But my mind was always in the pie chart showing the seats won by Congress, BJP and other parties...

18. I am late riser…Its hard for me to wake up without seeing the sun...

19. I don’t follow sports religiously…and cricket is not a religion for me….though am a fan of St.Pauli and Arsenal football club…

20. I hate liars, hypocrisy and pretentious people…And I love people who don’t have any air about themselves…If you have qualities that is adorable or causing envy in others, don’t allow arrogance to get over you…I have seen a flamboyant ex-banker having had to rely on food from charity...there could be a fall for anyone of us!!

21. I love wines…and though am not anyway a serious aficionado at it, I love trying different wines…and my colleagues here know it and that what they usually gift me when the occasion demands… :)

22. Three woman I consider as most beautiful are Princess Diana, Konkona Sen and Madhubala…

23. I like the money in my job, though I harbor a desire to do something creative at work place…and the farthest I can do now is colorful fonted mails to colleagues...

24. I love the smell of cake ovens.

25. Three of my favorite books are Curious incident of a Dog in the night time, Diary of Anne Frank and Catcher in the rye.

And well a little quick fix for folks who are in a super hurry mode for dinner, I presenta “Vol-Au-Vents a la Crème Fraîche” …ok….that was just to pretend it was a cool French thing!! ;-D

Well this is simplest non-veg dish ever known to mankind…fish burji…



There is this ready-to-eat mackerel fillets preserved in olive oil which you can buy from shops here…Just grab a couple of onions, few green chilies’ , curry leaves and fry em in the preservative oil. Once it’s suitably sautéed, add 1 teaspoon pepper, half teaspoon chili powder and salt to taste. Now add the fish fillets (which are already cooked) and blend them along with sautéed onions. This dish has a pleasant favour and overwhelmingly tastes of the fish and sauted onions unlike usual Indian dish where the masala is usually more prominent...Just like the short recipe it takes just 10 min to cook this up!!


Update: I just found out how the germans use it..they use it as a filling between two bread slices just like jam for their breakfast..;-P