Satya's parents arrived here last monday. Its been fun time since then. they got loads of stuff.
bakarwadis, rajgeera chikis, Santosh bakery che pattice, Kayani's cakes , kachoris, farsan etc are few of the things. it was abs great. today's special dish Sabudana vadas:) absolutely love them....
thankfully the weather has been really good. not cold and not hot either:)
will keep everyone posted on the stuff i eat:)
Amol is graduating this saturday. so we plan to go to eat chinese food..later
sunday is mother's day. dinner reservations are already done at a local Indian restaurant:)
dipti

been ages since i wrote anything:)
its been gorgeous in Chicago for the past 3 days:) feelslike a dream:) in-laws are going to be here for amol's graduation. planning a trip to the west coast:) i am soooooo lookging forward to this. something tells me that my Inlaws will pamper me more than ever this year:)
will complete the rest later....
dipti
btw satya made awesomlicious meatballs-pasta the other day. i ate till i puked!!!!!!!!!

right now...

things that i feel like eating.
its a cold 35 deg F outside. so ofcourse its comfort food for me.
tomato basil soup with hot croutons and cheeseMMmmmmm
either hindustan/santosh bakery che pattice. both taste very different and i like both.
sabudana vadas the crisp spicy mixture of sabudana and some groundnut-yogurt chutney..
french fries with little garlic/cheese and ketchup
chicken wings...i like the non breaded type but am defi partial to the crisp breaded spicy juicy tender chicken wing.. buffalo wild wings Mmmm...i love their spicy garlic variety
varan bhaat ghee and some lemon. I love it...
Spicy Penne Arabiata from our local italian place:)
but right now i have just an apple with me, so i guess i would have to satisfy my hunger with that:)
dipti

Barbecue Season is here!!

One thing I noticed after moving here is that everyone has a grill in their house. Doesn’t matter if the only open space for grilling is a small 3’ x 5’ patch or precariously overhanging piece of wooden deck, they absolutely have to have a grill. People living in apartment buildings in Chicago, either have balconies or wooden decks in the rear. People living in condos or single family homes have a wooden deck or a huge backyard.
The barbecue season officially starts from Memorial Day and goes on till Labor Day. But this is of course in Chicago. I am sure in sunny places like Texas, California or Arizona, barbecuing can be done all year around.
But then people in Chicago really look forward to this season. It means the end of winter. It means the onset of spring and finally summer, the start of the baseball season, it means having parties at your place with just hotdog and beer on the menu and the occasional chicken on beer can. It means having friends and neighbors over for fun. It’s more fun when there is a pool around though…so I am told. Dressing down for an occasion???...this is it. Its Satya’s dreams come trueJ
When we were staying in an apartment building in downtown Chicago, we never had any open space as such. But there we had barbecue grills on the common deck. The first barbecue we had consisted of just me, satya and amol. We had chips and dips, Polish sausages and Pepsi.
We got a barbecue grill recently. It’s a Weber grill and it’s huge. This latest acquisition has got Satya all excited about the possibilities of food it can cook. He has decided to cook at least once every weekend. So it ranges from tandoori chicken, chicken tikka, seekh kebabs, sausages, paneer tikka, veggies, burgers (both soy and meat), shrimp and fish. So last Saturday, he decided to make seekh kebabs. We got everything he needed. We got the meat, the spices, and extra accessories for the grill etc. But then in true Chicago fashion it rained and drenched our hopes. He decided not to light up the gas grill in the pouring rain and we ended up making the kebabs in the oven. But they turned out great too. :) Btw. Seekh kebabs taste great with hot nans and onion with little lime juice drizzled on it.
In the coming month we are going to buy few more grill accessories like the fajita platter (so I can cook some great veggies) and the chicken roaster (similar to beer can chicken apparatus but has place to hold veggies and the drip off chicken juices. The veggies cook in the chicken juices and hence taste way better than usual.) We also plan to buy a portable Weber coal Grill so that we could just pack some food and take our grill to a park or some place and cook ourselves…Picnic timeJ
I just hope that it starts getting warmer and stops raining.
As Satya cooks, I shall post his recipes online, with his permission of course.
Dipti

Stuffed Mushrooms

Mushrooms are a type of edible fungus. Button, cremini, morale, shiitake, Portobello are types of mushrooms available locally and used in a wide variety of cuisines. Mushrooms are one of my favorite foods. I love the meaty texture and flavor. I was first introduced to mushrooms when I was at my grandma- mai’s place. She made a simple maharashtrian bhaji and called it “alimbi”. After that I have experimented with this magnificent fungus in pizzas, cream of mushroom soup (my mom loved it) and mushroom biryani (just like vegetable biryani, but loads of mushroom added at a later stage). I just love mushrooms on my sandwiches, pizzas, and soups, grilled in salads, curried with paneer or chicken, in pastas, filled in raviolis and as stuffed appetizers.
I came across the original recipe on food network website and have modified this to suit our taste. Satya loves this.
1 pack of button mushrooms
Italian bread crumbs
1 small shallot
2 Garlic cloves (yum...)
Olive oil (I use the extra virgin variety…it definitely tastes richer than the usual variety)
Mozzarella cheese
Salt and Pepper.
Clean the mushrooms thoroughly. Cut of the stems into tiny pieces. Dice the shallots into tiny pieces. Cut the garlic into tiny pieces. Heat a non-stick pan on medium-low flame, add olive oil to it.
Add the garlic pieces and brown it a little, do not burn them or it will taste bitter.
Add the shallots to this and cook till golden brown and tender. Add the cut mushroom stems to this. Stir this for few minutes; you will see that the stems lose water very quickly. Cook till tender and add salt and pepper to taste.
Let this mixture cool for a while.
Heat the oven to 350f. Grease the baking dish with a little olive oil so that mushrooms do not stick to it. Brush a little oil on the sides of the mushrooms too so they get tender and brown.
Add mozzarella cheese and little bread crumbs to the mixture and mix well. Invert the mushrooms top side down and fill up the caps with the mixture. Top of the caps with some bread crumbs. Drizzle a little olive oil on the top. Bake in the oven till the bread crumbs look a toasted golden brown to you. Serve with marinara sauce or just as it is. When you take a bite, the end product should have juices oozing from the sides, medley of garlic and tender shallot with cheese & Italian bread crumb flavored mushroom stems, with crisp topping of Italian bread crumbs. Enjoy!
Dipti

Sabudana khichidi

Satya and I are very much fond of a maharashtrian specialty called as sabudana khichidi. Made from sago trees, sabudana is a great source of carbohydrate, with trace amounts of other nutrients. Since it is coupled with ingredients like ghee, salt, sugar, lime juice, green chillies, ground peanut powder, cumin seeds, potatoes, cilantro, it is a meal perfect for Fasting. Even when you are fasting, you have a complete meal consisting of carbohydrates (frm sabudana), proteins (from peanuts), fats (from ghee), fiber (from potatoes, cilantro) and vitamin c (from lime juice). It confirms my belief that eating right in scientific way was followed by Indians since a long time. So that is why, during Fasting my mom used make this nutritious and delicious meal and serve it with yoghurt or khamang kakdi (cucumber raita). I remember as kid eating sabudana khichi the entire day. That’s how much I like it.
After my marriage and moving to Chicago I tried making sabudana khichidi. But have never been successful, till now that is. My mom-in-law makes the best sabudana khichidi. And I really look forward to Thursdays when she would cook it. This year, she gave me some sabudana bought at Grahakpeth, Pune. I bought it from there, because sometimes even when you are following the recipe, it doesn’t turn out as it should because the basic ingredient isn’t good. That’s the case with sabudana I had purchased here in Indian store.
So one fine day I decided to put my skills and the new sabudana to test.
2 cups sabudana (we love it so made lots of it)
1 cup roasted peanuts
ghee –4 teaspoons
1 teaspoon cumin
green chillies (per your preference for hotness)
1 medium potato
salt to taste
sugar to taste
cilantro for garnishing
lime juice (optional)
From this recipe you get 5 servings.
Soak the sabudana in little water overnight and remember to cover it.
Grind the peanut and green chillies together coarsely. This gives the sabudana a great taste. Boil the potato, peel it and dice it into cubes. On the soaked sabudana, add the peanut-chillies mixture, cilantro, salt and sugar and mix it well. Heat ghee in a kadhai and when it is sufficiently hot, add the cumin and boiled potato cubes. Mix it well. Add the sabudana mixture to it. Keep mixing this entire mixture so that it doesn’t stick to the kadhai. Donot cover the kadhai. When sabudana turns from opaque to translucent, it is cooked. Garnish with lime juice if you like. Serve with yoghurt or cucumber raita.
Satya and his brother Amol loved it. I think I will make sabunadana khichidi on a regular basis now, it is a complete meal.
Dipti

Gudhi Padhva

Every year, New Years is celebrated in the "new" western world on the 1st of january. But there are quite a "few old" civilizations around the world that follow their own "traditional" calendar and celebrate New Years accordingly.
India is one such country, where people from different communities celebrate the New Years on the 1st of January. But in accordance with the hindu calendar, they celebrate their own New Years day. for eg: punjabis have the Baisakhi, the keralites have Vishu and the Maharashtrians have Gudhi Padhva.
The marathi calendar has 12 months. The first one being Chaitra. The first day of this month is traditionally the New Year.
In old days, when people didnot have Kalanirnay, way before the printing press, even before the marathi calendar was determined, they relied on the sun, the moon and the changing seasons to determine the days in that particular region. with regular observation of the skies came the knowledge that seasons follow one after the other, the sun rises and sets in opposite directions, the tides, the lunar cylce of waxing and waning moon, the eclipses etc. affirmation of the cycle lead to the making of the first calendar.
Gudhi Padhva is celebrated to welcome the spring, after long and dreary winter.it is also the time to determine when the farmers can start farming. maharashtrians celebrate Gudhi Padhva with great joy. People clean their houses (spring cleaning anyone???)., draw rangolis in front of the entrance door, adorn the doorway with a garland of raw rice, mango leaves and marigold. these three signify the onset of spring and nature's bounty.
Gudi Padhva is one of the auspicious 3 1/2 muhurat which is favorable for ceremonies ranging from satyanarayan puja to weddings, naming ceremonies( barse) etc. Some consider it auspicious to buy gold on this day. traditional sweets are prepared and enjoyed by everyone.
I remember, back in India my dad used to hang marigold garlands outside the door. We had to clean the house, my mom used to make shrikhand for lunch . So the special lunch would consist of puri batata-or cauliflower bhaji, varan bhaat, salad, and mango shrikhand.
We never had Gudhi tied outside our house, but many other friends used to have it. The gudhi consists of an upturned silver or copper pot on a bamboo stick, a string of garland around it and some sweets tied around it. a brightly colored cloth is tied around it. this gudhi is tied to symbolize Lord Brahma's flag. it is also used to symbolize the victory. (i dont recall the name of the king).
Here in Chicago, i just made some vermicelli kheer...wore new dress pants to office:) bought a new lipstick (that substitues for gold:) and wished everyone a very happy new year. My husband talked about how much he missed chitaleche mango shrikhanda:) i promised him i would try to make some at home. My mom-inlaw makes the best shrikhand. I get really greedy when i eat it:)
So, sarvanna gudhi padhvachya hardik shubhecha
P.S.: i saw this year that the Gudhi Padhva and the American "first day" of spring were just a day apart on the english calendar. Gudhi Padhva was on the 19th march, first day of spring in USA: 20th March...

The Legend of Holi

Last weekend was Holi and Rangapanchami. In India, this festival is celebrated all over with great happines.it is said that "holi" is so called after "Holika" the demoness sister of the demon king Hiranyakashap. he had a son called Prahlad who was a vishnu devotee. This devotion of Prahlad to Lord Vishnu used to anger Hiranyakashap a lot. Once,he made his sister Holika sit with prahlad on her lap and lit a fire around her. Holika was previously given a boon by Lord Brahma that no fire could cause her any harm if she wore a shawl presented to her by him. But just as she was holding prahlad on her lap, Vishnu created a gust of wind which blew away the shawl and thus consumed her but spared Prahlad.thus began the legend, lore, myth, story, tradition of Holi. and of course of Puran Polis.
Rangapanchami is more of colorful celebration. this is when Lord Krishna and his friends played with colors with the gopikas. i think it is to welcome the arrival of spring by colors after a long cold dreary winter. today gulal etc is used for that. water filled balloons and pichkaris are traditionally used to play.
here is chicago, Holi/rangapanchami is celebrated in the temple.
But back in India it is more fun. Fun to hang with your friends on Rangapanchami and douse everyone with color and water. :)
i miss it:)

Holi,...causing pollution???

Holi is celebrated as the triump of good over evil. It is more of symbolical tradition where the old , dead branches leaves, grass are supposed to be burnt. this is just to show the destruction or the consumption of evil by a force so strong which in this case is fire .But people, just for the sake of tradition, cut down young, healthy trees, branches and burn them.
they fail to see that this causes pollution (as if there was a dearth of it.) when I was in India, this used to worry me because i never used to see the reason for cutting down healthy trees for tradition. Are people so blind to the effect they are causing on the population? dont they realize that their kids finally follow their traditions, just as you are doing right now? It is you who must teach kids about right and wrong. it is great to follow some tradition, but how about followong some science too??? Personally, i think in old days, the people found a great way to clear of the old diseased trees and making way for the new ones, by burning. One day a smart enterprising farmer decided to get his lazy workers to work by telling them about the story of Holika and how they must continue the tradition by burning trees/leaves/branches. His god-fearing workers got to work and hence a tradition was born. But i worry about the less oxygen present in the atmosphere. People, the trees maintain the oxygen-carbondioxide ratio!!!!! My mom says when she was young it used to be cold in mumbai and dombivili during the months of october, november i.e. during Diwali. I myself remember wearing sweater when going to school in the month of december. But the increase in population has caused Man to cut down more trees for Land to build houses, factories etc. the decrease in trees is causing changes in the seasonal weather and contributing to global warming. I am sure apart, from the Diwali, Holi causes a good amount of pollution in India.
Don't get me wrong, i have nothing against tradition. Celebrate Holi. afterall India is the only country where you celebrate so many festivals. But for Holi, please leave the young healthy trees alone. Get some branches which are old and dead. collect dead leaves that the trees shed. collect cowdung if you must burn something. And remember to teach this to your kids. because one day, it will be their turn to celebrate Holi, and there just not might be any trees left around.
Dipti

its been a long time since i have written anything. been busy and lazy :) chicago is getting colder. i have yet to complete my studies. i am doing good with my internship hours for certification (there will be a blog abt this) and i have started reading "romantic" books again.
i havent tried any new recipe in along time though. but the other day, satya made meatballs and spaghetti and it was absolutely delicious. the recipe is a closely guarded secret.:)
will write more later, kind of busy right now.
dipti

snowed in....

i just cant believe this. 1 blog earlier i had complained about the winter in chicago, and decided to take it in stride since we plan to live here. but today, it is just too much. we had an overnight snowfall of 4-7 " and it is still snowing outside as i write. living in the suburbs can have its pros and cons. right now one of the thing i donot appreciate is being snowed in. me and satya woke up early, and got ready to go to the office. we take a bus frm our place to the railway station. well, we were waiting for the bus to show up, but it did not. the roads were not ploughed in yet completely by the street and sanitation dept. for us to drive down to the station. And if the buses are not working , chances are that the trains are not working either. The wind was working things up and blowing snow everywhere. In short, it felt like someone shook a snow globe, and had snow blowing everywhere. So me and satya trekked back home. I called up my office and let them know abt the situtation. and rightnow i am enjoying my unplanned holiday. We had a great lunch by the way. shrimp pasta and garlic bread. Everything ready in 30 mins. satya loved it, said i am a good cook:)
its still snowing outside. it reminds me of those days in thane, when our school used to get cancelled because of rain and later on the trains used to get slowed down and eventually cancelled because of water accumulation at sion-kurla. i remember that being home from school, me, my sister, dad and mom used to play this boardgame "Business". mom used to make hot soup and pakodas:). but whatever happened in mumbai 2 urs ago was very different. the human and property loss was enormous. It being mumbai, the rail and road way systems have recovered if not improved, but for people who lost their loved ones in the rains/flood, even time wont be able to heal them.
hopefully this is just one day thing here. tomorrow everything will be back to normal. Atleast it snowed just 4-7" and not more than that. many citites in USA have high snow fall. they get snowed in for days. Many people live without no heat, water, electricity. They canot drive anywhere, so the only thing to do is stock up on the groceries.
Chicago, for once, is not one of them. and that makes me happy.
D

so they lost.....

So the BEARS lost last weekend. This is something that satya doesn’t want to talk about. He refuses to discuss anything that has to do with the BEARS offence/defense/special team and the entire franchise. Right from the time when the bears won the NFC championship, he collected our newspapers as souvenirs. He resisted the temptation of buying the championship gear saying that he would buy the stuff when we win the super bowl (notice I said we…this is the SATYA influence on me) I was nervous a day prior to the game and I am not even a fan. My colleagues were all excited and had plans to go to all you can eat buffet places. One of them was going to open a vintage bottle of alcohol for the after-victory drink. My boss (he who is born with loads of Irish luck) went down to Miami for the game, had great seats and stayed at the same hotel as the BEARS athletes. I, satya and my bro-inlaw amol wore the team colors for the game. We ordered the American quintessential pizza and beer. The entire city was decked up in orange and blue and the bear jersey nos. They had even planned out the route for the victory parade. People had pre-ordered the Superbowl championship gear. Talks were going on for pay increase for the bears coaching staff. Other teams were interviewing the coaching staff and were trying their best to lure them. The entire city believed in Rex Grossman and his team and had forgiven them for their past debacles. People were ready to forget the 1985 BEARS team which had won the championship and crown the new rulers of Chicago- the BEARS OF 2007 In short, this was OUR time. This was THE year. All we need was the score to be 17-29 BEARS.
But the defense (so I am told) had something else in mind. They decided not to bring their A-Game to Miami. Probably left it at Soldier Field in Chicago. Rex was in his “bad REX” avatar again (so I am told). All the dreams hope and aspiration (of the parade, new championship jerseys, a great finish to an exciting season, being crowned the champions) came crashing down. The BEARS were ridiculed everywhere, from ESPN to the late night talk shows. The people of Indianapolis joke about Rex Grossman (the BEARS quarterback) as their M.V.P instead of Payton Manning (by the way, the Colts quarterback is great, after Tom Brady of course). People around me are sad and depressed. They tell themselves that they had a great season and next year would be THE year. After of course, they run Rex out of the town. As I said, Satya doesn’t want to talk about this. He says it reminds him of 2003 world cup. He is sure he will be better if baseball season starts soon. He is looking forward to the WHITE SOX play ball.
I hope so too that the impending baseball season turns out good and before that the World Cup. Though again I am told that India has a good chance as they play Ireland and such countries in the first round. Otherwise, it’s going to be one very long year at my home – till of course the next football season.

the arrival of MR. FROSTY

It’s been a very cold winter here in Chicago. This year, they say, has been one of the coldest in the past seven years. To tell you the truth I very much expected it. Winter in Chicago starts around thanksgiving and continues through the Christmas, New Year and other frosty freezing icy months through May I would say. People don’t notice how cold it gets during November and December simply because there are other things to occupy their minds. That time of the year, when people get drunk (but they hardly ever need a reason here), dread the family gatherings and scramble around to get an invite for the new years party, I would say is one of the coldest month. All cities around USA are lit with lights and decorated throughout November and December. But come January, and just as you are getting over your new years hangover, the entire city is stripped off its glitzy, warm look and it turns from the young hip uber place to a dark gloomy sad frost stricken place. And I hate it. I hate the sudden transformation. You tend to notice the cold, the snow and the freezing wind-chill that Lake Michigan blows over to Chicago.
You start dreading going to office. Wearing 3 layers of sweaters, 2 layers of gloves, 2 layers of socks, snow jacket, ear muffs, and hat doesn’t seem to help. Wish for warmer places. Think about going to Texas for vacation but this year it snowed over there too. Here last week the recorded temperature was -10deg fah with wind-chill taking it down to -20 deg. dragging yourself to office is a chore especially when you know that you have 3-4 months more of this to endure. Satya says being cold is a state of mind. I beg to differ. Till now I have complained just once about how cold it was here. But after learning that “this is Chicago” I have stopped complaining and tried looking at the warmer side. I am still looking for it and am starting to think that there isn’t one. At this time I wonder what the hell happened to global warming? But still at least it is February. Just 2 more months of freezing hell to endure.
On the other hand, I am enjoying eating bhajias, making different soups, shopping for new sweaters etc. thank god that all the buildings and the public transport are heated. I think I can take 4 blocks of walking in the cold. I am looking forward to spring. Chicago is once of the most beautiful cities to be in spring. This city DOES have 4 seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter (of course winter being the longest). And at times it is beautiful here in winter too. The Chicago river is frozen and so are parts of the lake.
Like someone once said, “life is something to be endured, not enjoyed”, I try applying that maxim by replacing the noun by freezing hell.

Surmai kalvan

The one thing i miss over here in USA is fresh fish. Poplate, surmai, ghol, bombil, teesrya, ravas, chimbori, mandali, prawns MMmmmmmm.... the best thing abt fish is that poplate, surmai etc taste different. everyone asks me if i have tried salmon tilapia etc over here. i have tried it, but nothing compares to indian fish spec. when my mom makes curry and fish fry.:)
here till now i have just cooked promfret and prawns. satya and his bro amol love it. (atleast thats what they tell me)
Yesterday me and satya went to the indian grocery store over here. we get excellent quality mutton and kheema there. on my last year's india trip i had learnt how to cook surmai (king fish) frm my mom. So. we decided to try some.. i got 2 pounds of king fish fillets.
here 's the recipe
2 pounds of king fish fillet
ginger-garlic-cilantro-green chilli
soak some dry tamrind in water
turmeric
red chilli powder
salt
oil
garlic for tadka:)
fresh coconut milk
rice flour/ semolina for frying fish
CURRY
grind ginger, garlic, cilantro and green chilli into a paste
marinate the fillets with the ginger paste, tamrind paste, turmeric and red chilli
heat oil in kadai. add garlic to it ad let it cook till brown, add 1 pound of marinated pieces and cover it. after 7 mins, add some coconut milk and cover it again. add some more red chilli powder / tamrind paste per taste
FRY
use the other 1 pound fish fillets for frying. add enough oil to a tava for frying.
dredge fish fillets in the semolina and shake off the extra. fry one side completely and then fry the next side. make sure that the fish is coooked completely.
serve fish with chappatis and rice and enjoy:)
i know that we did
d

Yes, yes i know. i should have started writing days ago...right when i created this "blog thingiwhatever" you call it. But i have been busy.busy busy as a little bee. working, cooking, studying...no time to write. forget writing., no time to sit and catch up w/ my fav serials. even right now, i am supposed to be studying. But today being a saturday, i guess its ok. ok to be lazy . ok not to do any chores, any cooking any studying..:) well atleast i can wish, right??? i mean anything can happen in MY world. here i am trying to write and post my blog:)
this is my first time. one step at a time, one blog at a time, one write up at a time..:) slow but steady and surely:) its will happen.:) my blogs will be done:) but not right now....today as of now i am off to study...:)
d