Happy Thanksgiving!

I am recollecting my first Thanksgiving in the US.
One of my neighbors was experimenting with roasting turkey in the oven. Suffice to say, that was an unmitigated disaster; luckily the vegetarians among us saved the lunch with some mouth-watering Indian vegetarian dishes with choice of breads that we got from the local supermarket. I didn't have the habit of saying grace or thanking the good lord for the food on the table, but if memory serves me right, I did thank the Lord that day for saving us all from that turkey.

I was invited to my then boss' house for Thanksgiving dinner. My roommates and I went there armed with the thought that since we were vegetarians, we would not have to worry if the turkey turned out to be another disaster. It wasn't... I am judging by the ooh's and aah's from the guests and it was such a full house.

After that full-fledged dinner with a mixture of Indian and traditional American Thanksgiving dishes, we were relaxing in the drawing room when one of the guys started distributing pamphlets. Soon the whole space on the floor between us was strewn with pamphlets... from different retail outlets.
Preparation for the Black Friday sale.
Since we were new to this entire concept of the Black Friday sale, it was explained very briefly to us. The concept was simple... the early birds got the best deals. You had to plan starting from as early as 4:00 a.m. and devising a way so that you could get all the deals that you had been eyeing.
Being an avid and compulsive shopper, I was in before my friend finished the first sentence; you see 'DEALS' have that effect on me...

By the end of that night, we had distributed among ourselves where we were to go and what we were to get for ourselves and our friends; our friends were buying some of our stuff too. We promised to meet in the evening next day to exchange each other' stuff. I was armed with the additional knowledge of mail-in rebates and coupons and the like.

Things did not go exactly as planned; we got a little late, then there was the massive queues and things being in the wrong places or sold out. But the experience was so different that I tried my luck in the evening too. Ok so, I did not get the BEST deal, but I got some great deals anyway. I bought my very first diamond then and then I had to buy for my Mom too.

At the end of the Thanksgiving weekend, I was several hundred dollars lighter; mail-in rebates and coupons notwithstanding but I was happy.

Happy Thanksgiving holidays; have a great one like I had!

 

What a condiment for my sea-food guests!

Wednesday is set aside for marketing by me and my neighbours. That day, we go to the local markets where people throng to sell their wares from mobile phones to fresh food including fresh vegetables, fruits even poultry, meat and fish. It is so crowded that people push you ahead if you stand in one place too long.

My neighbours love fish and even though I am vegetarian, I don’t mind to accompanying them to the fish stalls simply because I love the looks on their faces as they sample all the different varieties of fish till they finalise their buys.

And in that, I finally realised that I was the ‘reluctant’ owner of prawns… the best ones I was told; all part of some deal between my neighbours and the fisher folk. So, after I got it home, I wondered what to do of it till I remembered my own post of pickling and brining here on my blog. I set to work.

Prawns pickle 

Ingredients:

250 gms prawns cleaned

2 tbsp of Kashmiri Chilli powder

2 tbsp of garam masala (if it is homemade then the taste is accentuated)

2 tbsp ginger-garlic paste

1 tsp of turmeric powder

1 tsp of crushed pepper

1 tsp of tamarind paste (I use the fresh tamarind grown in my home garden in Kerala see in picture)

Pinch of nutmeg powder

Salt to taste (rock salt is the best)

6 cloves of chopped (into 3 round pieces) garlic 

Sprig of curry leaves

1 tbsp of Nigella seeds (also called kalonji seeds)

2 tbsp vinegar

2 tbsp of mustard oil

Method: For best taste use an earthenware pot. The older the earthenware pot, the better the taste... so don't be put off by the color in the picture. 

1. Mix the prawns, chilli powder, garam masala, ginger garlic paste, turmeric powder, pepper, tamarind and salt and about 1 tbsp of vinegar and leave to marinate for about an hour.
2. Put the marinate mix into the earthenware pot, add the chopped garlic and cook on low flame for about 5-7 minutes. You will see water oozing and the prawns will cook. Once you feel that the prawns have semi-cooked (it should be around 5-7 minutes after you started cooking), turn the flame on high so that the rest of the water evaporates and the masala is all around the prawns. If you have used fresh tamarind, remove the piece now.
3. Take a frying pan and pour the 1 tbsp mustard oil into it. Add the curry leaves and Nigella seeds and then shallow fry the prawns till all the water is gone.
4. Allow to cool and pour it into a glass container greased with mustard oil. Add the remaining vinegar and 1 tbsp of mustard oil on top.
5. Take it out every day for the next 5 days and check for any water formation. If so, shallow fry in high flame in mustard oil. Else you can just put in a dash of mustard oil if your pickle appears dry.
6. After 5 days, your pickle is ready to serve. Always store in lower part of fridge.

Serve with parathas or rotis or plain chapattis or even with simple rice. If your family and many of your friends are sea-food lovers as mine definitely are, then this is going to be a super-hit during meals.

If your guests are apprehensive of ‘hot’ chillies as most of my young guests are, while marinating, add about a tbsp of jaggery. 

Chocolate mini cupcakes for a fond farewell!

There is a tradition in India that when you are going out to do something, an auspicious beginning should be with something sweet mostly yogurt and sugar.
My friend was leaving for Bangalore for advancement in his career. His wife is one of my best friends and the whole family was so sad at this move that I wanted to do something different - something that would be adhering to tradition but would cheer them up albeit for a while.
Chocolate and cake are soothing balms to many a sad heart. Hence the idea of chocolate mini cupcakes. Very simple to make and bake.

Ingredients:
1 cup (5 tbsp) self-raising flour or maida
1 cup sugar
1 cup unsalted butter
1 large egg
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tbsp drinking chocolate
1 tsp vanilla essence

1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp of cardamom powder
a pinch of nutmeg powder

Method:

1. Sieve the following - self-raising flour, baking powder, cocoa powder and drinking chocolate and set aside
2. Powder the sugar along with cardamom and nutmeg powder till it is fine. 
3. Beat the egg whites and yolks separately and set aside
4. Now take 1 tsp of sugar and melt in in a pan set on a gas with low flame. As soon as it melts and before it becomes a gooey mess, pour 1 tbsp of water slowly. 
5. Take a bowl and put the caramelized sugar into it, then put in the powdered sugar along with the cardamom and nutmeg and the unsalted butter. Then goes the whites and once blended, in goes the yolks and finally the vanilla essence. Blend smoothly
6. Next, pour the mixture of self-raising flour, baking powder, cocoa powder and drinking chocolate into this bowl slowly and mix well. 
7. Pour into a greased mini-muffin tray and bake for 20 minutes at 150 deg.

The result I got was so satisfying for my soul - the kids were eating the cakes like toffees and I got repeat requests for them. My friends were distracted for a while at least... seeing the children happy. Well, that was my intention anyway.

I wished and always wish him every success. God Bless!

Paris, our prayers are with you!

I woke up this morning to the see the great tragedy in Paris splashed all over the news, social media and the telly. This unprovoked killing of unsuspecting, innocent people who were enjoying the start of the weekend with their families reminded me of Mumbai in this same month in 2008.

I remember walking carefree through these beautiful boulevards and clicking pictures galore while touring Paris in 2013; just like those unsuspecting people who now lay dead or injured or scared as hell.

The image I have in my mind and on file is completely different from the image that I see now everywhere. That is just so sad!

The mindless killing baffles me. I would like to think that common people all over the world are not so intolerant and unwilling to listen to reason. At the very least, these innocents deserve a chance to hear your cause before you pull those triggers and pins. And they are not the ultimate decision makers; they are people with families, friends, values and beliefs just like you enjoying the life that they have been given by their Maker before you so cruelly snatched it away.

I pray that God in whatever form or name you worship opens your eyes to see the injustice that you are doing and your ears to hear those grieving cries pleading you to stop and your mind to think of 100 different ways to make your cause non-violent and your heart to believe that no good ultimately came out of violence. 

Personalizing your little girls' clothes....

Imagine your little girls wearing their very own brand of clothes!

What is required for this? Simply your time and patience.... 

And the rest follows below -

First, you choose the fabric and the color that your little ones like.

Then either you design some simple or fancy or get ‘inspired’ from all the designs floating all over the internet.

Embellish or enhance the look of the dress with motifs or bows or ruffles or whatever you or your girls fancy.

The last thing is to personalize it to make it their very own brand.

Just like I did for my little nieces….

Designing, sewing, painting, embroidering… I did it all. 

The result and the reward is well-worth the effort.

Try it... you won't be disappointed.

Giving away my book "Where is my Kaddu" for free this Diwali!

Giving is such a beautiful thing; it was the theme of the homily this Sunday at church. 

And this is the week of Diwali and I am modifying and combining some of the TV ads that have stuck in my mind -

"Yeh Diwali, dil ke kareeb wali and jo bhi karo prem se karo" loosely translated in English means - "This Diwali is a symbol of things close to your heart and do whatever you want with love". 

My books are one of the things that are very close to my heart and this Diwali (i.e. today 10-Nov-15 to tomorrow 11-Nov-15), I offer them free to all of you to download on Amazon Kindle. 

Here are the links for India, US and UK so that you get a hang of it; it is available worldwide on the Amazon Kindle –

India:

http://www.amazon.in/Where-my-Kaddu-Reenu-Mathew-ebook/dp/B016ZVJRDS/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1445527757&sr=1-1&keywords=where+is+my+kaddu%3F

US:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B016ZVJRDS

UK:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Where-my-Kaddu-Reenu-Mathew-ebook/dp/B016ZVJRDS/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1445526876&sr=1-1&keywords=where+is+my+kaddu%3F

Wish all of you a very happy Diwali and a prosperous New Year!

Brining and Pickling

It is that time of the year again! When friends from all parts of the globe are in town for the holiday season. I so love it.

I have learnt from experience is that friends can drop in at this time at a moment’ notice.

And I understand! They have family and other friends besides me and just about 15-20 days of vacation... so many people to meet and so little time.

I should be prepared for such impromptu surprise visits now. How can I whip up something for my friends in under 15 minutes without a sweat that they will remember me by till the next time we can meet?  Hmmmm!

Almost all of my friends are non-vegetarian. While my vegetarian dishes elicit a wow from almost everyone, my non-vegetarian dishes have people overwhelming me with praise.

No, no, not just for the taste but more for the effort I put in to make the dish especially for them considering I am vegetarian by choice.

The children are the tough ones to please really… for me at least. They either like it or they are most emphatic in saying that they don’t. Effort does not count for them; they need it to be appealing to their palate.

I have bought fresh chicken, fish and some meat too and ‘pickled’ them i.e. treat them to my own solution of spices, in rock salt and vinegar and mustard oil. I stored it in my fridge and will use it for preparing a variety of stuff including salads, sandwiches, pasta… well, almost anything that takes the fancy of my guests. For the benefit of my little-yet-tough-to-please guests, I have gone very easy on the chilli powder and also put in that dash of nutmeg to soothe their tender stomachs.

Strain and stress of what to prepare / give to my guests at a moment’ notice, that is history now. I am all set to welcome all of my friends with a smile on my face because I know I can dish up something appealing in just few minutes. You can be set too……