Rains and some Warm Toasty Whole Meal Bread and Cockroaches

Don’t threaten me with love, baby. Let’s just go walking in the rain.- Bobby Rain. 


Love and rain don't really go together...
All that rain brings out,is memories which are better left untouched...
A Pandora's box,not quiet ready to be teased...
And if love is not your cup of tea,sit by the window with a book and a cup of coffee...
And watch the stragglers,well,straggle.
In this case -struggle.
-Shalini Digvijay

Poor Cockroaches.
The deluge must have seemed like the TITANIC in technicolour.

On a Rainy day…! Write a post starting with this line

On a  rainy day,well,it rains.
Sunshine,more Sunshine and there is no end to the blistering summers in north India.Not for us, simple balmy,warm, breezy summer days. No,God decreed that the Indians are special.The result of too much melanin in our skins.We are special and chosen to strengthen our characters. And that will come only when we are exposed to the strongest of sunlight.
And suddenly the day grows darker as menacingly dark clouds threaten to take over the bright blue skies. We moved into this house of ours in January,when the weather in Jalandhar,Punjab ,was dismal and cold. The walls were cold and uninviting and the lawns overgrown with wild weeds and neglect.
We've tended lovingly to the lawns and the flower beds and the veggie patches.Overflowing with love and fresh organic vegetables,we are finally able to sit and have a cuppa in the mornings ,thanks to the well endowed trees that surround us.
Picture this .Hubby dear,yours truly and sweet dog Romeo, at 9:30 on an incredibly sunny,lazy weekday,chatting and drinking our cold coffees,discussing the deluge and devastation in Uttarakhand.When suddenly,sweet dog Romeo jumps off his chair(whenever the first chair is pulled out to sit in the lawn,he claims it for his own and parks his sweet unassuming behind and bushy tail on it- and us-us lesser mortals need to drag out more chairs) and runs to the shelter of the veranda.
Sudden darkness on the horizon. And even sudden-er are the huge bombs of rain that fall,inundating our cold coffees.
Yikes...
We run after the wise old dog and seek the shelter of the house.And it begins to pour.And how?

All within 10 minutes.The watery place was where our chairs were...
What Intrigued and bugged(pun intended) me more was this sinful love story.

Just for the record,my house is fastidiously clean and my camera and lens are extremely,extremely great at focusing on things  some distance away.
The rains have washed away their houses and the drains are overflowing,young lovers,trying to save them selves and their beloved 6 (or is it 8 legged creatures) are hanging on for their dear lives.
Trying to swim to the shore,trying to bring their dearly adored soul mates to firmer grounds...
Some dying of hypothermia, some being washed away by the flow of the water,and some finally reaching where their lives may be saved...
Anticlimax here !
This Giantess,wielding a large broom is standing guard over her territory.
Some martial art maneuvers.
EYeah! Ha!Slash! Stomp!Squish!
There ended the love story,there sank their Titanic.
All hail the Roach Slayer!
And peacefully does the water rise.

And fortunately flow away,taking the slain roaches to their watery grave.
So much excitement on a rainy day.
And afterwards-warm toasty whole meal bread with melting butter and marmalade. A reward after the stress. Somehow,I did not really want to put up any pictures of food on this page.I may be a roach slayer, but I am a woman after all.I get all squeamish and puke"y" and need to wash my hands a dozen times after.
Much better than singing love songs and letting your tears mingle with the rain drops.
Hey,I love the rhythm of the falling rain too, but I need to protect my fortress from the cockroaches.
More Important that!

This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda

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Of Promises and Commitments to Taste and Tradition-The Baked Nawabi Mutton Biryani with gravy

Promises-Shromises...

Almost two months coming -this biryani is.

Long Stories and Long Recipes deserve a special place.

A special place in our memories.Its these special stories and special foods that are associated with these special memories,that bring a smile to our faces when we are feeling low...

Low Carb and Low Protein?

Whatever!

 That is probably the only low most of us understand.Most of us Meat loving people understand.Its difficult for the vegetarians to comprehend-how you can go a few days without eating meat.

In my house,sweet child takes after me.His blood starts craving something not vegetarian in a few days-at times he's willing to eat food only if you throw in an egg or two...

Else,all you hear are whines and cribs and a scantily eaten meal.An excuse for a mid night snack,it is.

No matter how much time this meal -The Baked Nawabi Mutton Biryani and gravy takes to prepare-its totally worth it-tradition safely ensconced in taste.

The parents are not wont to try any cooking outdoors -living in a concrete jungle as most of the world does,certainly not wont to allow me to use charcoal barbeque's in  their apartment balcony-no that is a liberty I can take only at home-seeing that I have a huge back yard and a barbecue stand at my disposal-I needed  to reconstruct an olden tradition of cooking in a pit covered in sand and charcoal-so what better than a modern day OVEN!

Then there is always this confusion between lamb and mutton-well Delhi boasts of the finest goat meat that the desert state of Rajasthan produces.Lean,mean,red meat-literally.

Just in case you are wondering why the biryani has short grain rice instead of the mile long grain-I used Organic-Organic rice that is shorter in length,but better in taste.

YAY!

OK the process to make the biryani may seem a bit tedious,looking at the number of pics I put up and the long list of ingredients-totally not complicated and total returns on taste.

To get started,all you need to do is shop for the mutton and raid your cupboards for the rest of the stuff...

Lets get started with

Of Promises and Commitments to Taste and Tradition-The Baked Nawabi Mutton Biryani...

you need

750 gms mutton-assorted cuts

2 cups rice-basmati or biryani or any rice in your cupboards

5 medium onions sliced-divide into two parts

Oil to deep fry/shallow fry the onions

5 tbsp clarified butter/desi ghee

3 tbsp butter

3-4 green chillies

4 tomatoes finely chopped

2 tbsp ginger garlic paste

2 cups yogurt

1/2 cup milk

1 tsp turmeric powder

1 large pinch saffron

2 tsp each coriander powder,cumin powder,garam masala,red chilli powder

Almost 2 tbsp salt-used in different stages of prep in the biryani

for the rice- tie in a small piece of muslin 

5-6 cloves

1-2 inch piece cinnamon

4-5 green cardamom

4-5 black cardamom

10  black pepper 

Start the prep for this dish the night before-or at least 4 hours in advance-a biryani meal cannot be sudden-it has to be planned...so plan for a minimum of 3-4 hours advance.

All the yogurt ,2 tsp of the ginger garlic paste ,1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp turmeric powder to be mixed with the mutton and set aside. Remember ,if these are hot days of summer in your life-the mutton needs to rest in the fridge.

These are the sliced onions-not too finely sliced,these have to be fried to a crisp.
Wash and soak the rice in water for at least an hour. Instead of using long grain biryani rice,I used Organic rice-which are short grain and chewier. The beauty of the biryani is that the length of the rice did not matter,short or long the rice was great.

Shallow fried or deep fried in oil-I used mustard oil...When I make the biryani at home ,I deep fry the onions.No constant monitoring needed with copious amounts of oil...hehehe...Half the onions here...

The small bowl has the whole spices for the rice and the other has the ginger garlic paste.

Place a large pan of water to boil the rice.
Add in the whole spices and I tsp salt and a few mint leaves.I had only enough mint for the layering of the biryani,so for boiling the rice I used powdered mint leaves. And yes,I did not use the muslin,so would advise you to use that.Learn from my mistake.
Ideally ,you should tie these up in a bouquet garnis-Ideally!

The onions fried to a crisp and sitting in a strainer,draining in the cooker in which the mutton is to be cooked.Smart!Mum's idea!Once done spread them out on a kitchen towel to dry and crisp up further. I used this oil and a tsp of the clarified butter/ghee to make the biryani,you can use much more.

Once the water comes to a boil,add the soaked rice and boil till the rice is almost al dente.Almost.

Mutton after being marinated overnight.

Drain the rice and spread the rice in a large dish .This cools and prevents overcooking of the rice and you are able to take out whatever whole spices you did not use a bouquet garnis for.

Use a pressure cooker if you have one.If not,make sure the pan is heavy bottomed.
Heat the oil,add more if you need to and Fry the remaining half onions in the mustard oil till they are golden brown.
Add in the remaining ginger garlic paste and 1/2 tsp salt. Add the 2 tsp coriander powder and cook some more.

Now add the chopped tomatoes and the slit green chillies and stir till the tomatoes are cooked.

Time for some exotic touches and the real Nawabi flavours ...Add the saffron to the warm milk and set aside.A generous pinch.

Time to add the marinated mutton to the cooking tomatoes and cook.I tried stirring ,but dumped it all into a large Kadai-WOK as the stirring was difficult in the cooker.

Added the chilli powder,the cumin powder and checked for the salt.Now would be a good time to add the garam masala and ensure the mutton dries out.Keep tasting for salt.Remember the salt should be understated-each element of the dish has salt,so be very,very careful.

Transfer into the wok...

Once the masala is done-the fat leaves sides and the mutton smells heavenly transfer back Into the cooker...one pressure needed with 2 cups of water.
If you do not have a pressure cooker,just add 2 1/2 cups of water to the mutton and let the mutton simmer covered till it is almost done.Covered ,you may need to simmer  upto 15 minutes.

Once done, lets start with the actual fun bit.
The dish in which you want to make the biryani...
I used my mums Corning ware Casserole...the largest in her cupboard .Liberally greasing the base and sides with desi ghee/clarified butter.I then removed the almost cooked mutton from the cooker and layered the dish covering the bottom.

Topped with 1/3 of the fried onions and chopped coriander and chopped mint.

Half the rice and then topped with the remaining pieces of mutton,1/3 fried onion and some chopped green coriander and mint.

Then the remaining rice,the onions and the chopped mint and coriander.Pour over the milk and saffron mix gently.

Dot with the butter.Under mum's watchful eye,I used only half the required butter...

This is the gravy that was left behind after I used the pieces of mutton for the biryani, slightly reduced. This will be an accompaniment to the biryani....

Preheat oven to 180C/350F and cover the biryani with the lid.
Dish in-wait on...
(since I cooked it in the oven,I did not use atta dough,the lid was heavy enough)
for 25 minutes.
Is it done yet?
When can we eat?
It smells done ...take it out...Nani????

Finally,sweet child was made to lay the table and wait...
25 minutes, the aromas were wafting around in the entire apartment...sublte and inviting.
Felt like a Nawabi Dawaat on the dining table.
We waited only to bring the dish to the table and begun ladling out the perfect Biryani.
The rice was perfect- the mutton falling off the bone-slow cooked and succulent.
The caramelised onions ,bitter sweet and soft...

And the gravy,just awesome.
Not too spicy,not too mild.Just a perfect foil for the rice.
My mum has made this twice since we left, and she swears on the taste. After eating this ,she says any other biryani is dry and unpalatable.
This baked biryani is just VA-VA Voom!

It took me three days to just get this blog post up...Thanks to the rains that pour in a deluge and take away the electricity...
Coming up..some tails with the rain and the story of whole meal buttered toast on a rainy day.


So what are you baking today???

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Baked Biryani Hydrabadi style -for the Nawabs and a picnic Party in the lawns

Last minute Specialist...
Yours truly certainly shines at doing things at the nth hour.
Honestly,I had planned for only one entry to the Indiblogger Contest -My weekend party with gourmet food.. This contest is sponsored by Kitchens of India-A feast for the senses.

I had already planned for a party and executed it and the guests had rightfully (sic!)complemented it...
But then ,that is life.
We move on.
But then ,Imagine my surprise,when I checked my inbox and there was a reminder from Indiblogger to blog about the gourmet party.
I had to do it,just for indiblogger.
So here goes a little party in the shape of a picnic.
Gourmet parties need not be indoors...
They can be celebrating God's Fresh Air-outdoors.
Gourmet meals,packed in our desi casseroles and Tupperware and taken to a beatific,beautiful spot,enjoyed with wonderful company.
The easiest picnic food that tastes doubly good either hot or halfway warm is Biryani.
And the best way to get that done is using this magic mix.

Make,Bake and pack...
Super Easy to do, traditional Indian Hyderabadi flavours from your kitchen...

 Always,every time Perfect.
This is a sample,after all ,who wants a biryani with less salt or less chillies at such a picturesque location.
So taste.

That is why they say-Never Trust a Slim Cook!

Get ready to package everything up for a wonderful time.

The trusty Milton Hotcase.

Keeps your food warm,till you eat.

google images

And if you don't have the hot case,this casserole is a standard in most Indian houses. We don't feed our family hot rotis off the griddle/tawa now, we make all and eat together.Never fails.

google images

You need a blanket or a couple of sheets,or if you are extremely civilized or so loaded that you cant sit on Gods own carpet...carry a table.

Plates,Glasses,Serviettes and paper napkins...We live in India and don't have access to stuff like this...but we manage.

google images

Essential.And a big bag to dump all the stuff in so that you don't Litter!

google images

 As an accompaniment ,carry Kachumber salad-no fuss,chopped salsa like salad that goes well with a biryani...

google images

 A raita. A mix of yogurt and maybe cucumber and some spices...to cool you up!

The biryani packed up...sealed in all its saffron goodness for the party.

Along with the traditional accompaniments of raita and kachumber ,stash in a few goodies from Kitchens of India.
One...

Two...

Three...

The hoarder in me is trying to think how pretty these bottles will look on my kitchen shelf-empty...more reason to buy MORE!

We went picnicking recently...

The men are not here...

They were doing stuff and were unwilling to be photographed.But with the biryani and stuff ,we g=had a rocking time...

Girls looking pretty-the big boss and his minions were not to be placed in the blog.

Pretty Women-right?Our party continued indoors...only this was in nov 2011...date is off...

Yes,the dates...different picnics -I know...but the menu was standard-biryani,kachumber and raita.

But the fun was not standard.

We never forget the drinks-beer, juices, Cokes and Pepsi's...mums suddenly have no problems allowing their children access to as many colas as they want...they are safely out of their hair...

google images

Also take along some cards, a cricket bat ,balls and maybe a Frisbee...And the empty beer bottles can start a new game.

And cameras...

That will make for a fabulous day out...In god's fresh air,ready to party again the minute you return home...

Great thing to have-Hyderabadi biryani mix-Chicken or Vegetarian...

A great Gourmet Picnic...

So what if it is in your lawns...

So what are you baking today???

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Cheaters Black Forest Pudding-Bread and Chocolate -But who is to know?

A moment of silence...
'Bout 5 days of that though...
The rains were good for mother earth but they also s%@#!% with our happiness and Internet connections.
The biggest pain is being faced by the people of Uttarakhand,India,where flash floods have washed away thousands and many houses and the  many, many animals who were washed away by the flash floods.
A moment.
May god be with them in this difficult time.
This is the Kadarnath temple before the flash floods.

And after ...this is an image of the devastation.

Almost 10 feet of mud and sludge has been deposited here.
Sad.


Back to food,and to tummies full of food and chocolate.
Cooking without fire...
That's what the babies at the school summer camp were doing while the high school students and we the teachers were sweltering in the heat and humidity.
The after effect of the humidity is frizzy hair...
Not very attractive, but then that is what hair straighteners are for.
Hair and desserts...
Connection??

 Well lots...
Because of the heat ...
One does not want to enter the kitchen and be cursed with  a frizzy head of hair.
And little babies want their chocolate puddings.
But the magic of the pudding s the black forest.
Is it bread or is this cake?
Bread???

Yes,me hearties...Bread!
No cake-no cake that Marie Antoinette ordered,but humble bread that one toasts and makes a boring breakfast out of.
Bread that one butters and eats with cold coffee on days that one does not want to get rid of one's laziness and go cook a proper breakfast for one's family.
Bread that keeps waiting in the veggie bin of the fridge to be eaten.
Boring Brown(or white)Bread.
And the magic??
No one will know bread from cake!
If you follow this...

to feed 4 liberally of the

Cheaters Black Forest Pudding-Bread and Chocolate -But who is to know???

you need

8 slices 1 day old bread-brown is better but white works too.
200 gms(a little less may work for you) ground/caster sugar
2-3 tbsp cocoa
1/2 cup milk
1 peg rum-to make the world a better place
200 mils non dairy cream -whipped and whisked to peaked submission
Extra chocolate/cherries to garnish-if you are not attacked before you decide that they are optional...

Mix the caster sugar and the cocoa powder together.In an ideal world mix the cocoa powder after you taste the bread and sugar mix...
But whatever!

That is poor bread,that has been ignored for such a long while...

Ground to fine crumbs in the jar of your mixer....
Mixed well wi\th the sugar and cocoa to be coated in chocolate...

Like so...
After much tasting we move on...

To the dish to plate this in...
Not for us a boring flat ,square dish to serve the pudding...
No we need shot glasses and a mini fish bowl and a glass for the photograph!
Insane...yeah!We are on vacation.

Pressed into the dishes(glasses in this case)pour over the milk-and rum, in case you are not dealing with hyper active teenagers living on WWE and the likes...

Whipping the cream-if asked to whisk the cream using their bare hands...they run away to hide in their AC rooms...labour here is only for the mother to do!

And then piped or layered on and dunked into the fridge to chill...

 These need a few hours...
They are not the Instant 2 minute pudding shots.
Patience is not a virtue of the teenager living in my house-or I did not teach it well...
half an hour later....

 This glass is half full...
And next to that glass,ready to be attacked...
The shot glasses.
Thank god I skipped the rum...
I would have had a very drunk barely focussed kid to deal with.

Half full or no...

The pudding is exactly that.

Chocolate Cake and cream that misses its cherries and chocolate shavings.

Because one was not allowed to even ponder about the possibilities.

So danger of frizzy hair or not...

You must,You must shave some chocolate over this and stone a few cherries.

I am going cherry shopping in my local market ...

So what are you baking today???

PS baked Mutton Biryani...

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