Freedom of speech

             

Insane insight 

Mundane mind 

Seeks, freedom of speech.

Haiku

Time holds grudge against me

Mystery unravels

I open the chest.

Handva

I always get fascinated by the variety of farsans (snacks) savored in Gujarati families. The names are endless, khakhara, handava, khandvi, dhokla, patra etc. and lemme tell you, they all taste unique and awsome.

The curiosity is in the process which is widely in use, these days because of diet awareness and increasing tendencies of obesity among Indians. they use the steam process for the preparation of variety of snacks like dhokla, patra.
Although the snacks are quite healthy and rich in proteins. but, the heavy tempering full of cotton seed oil ruins the charm of low calorie snacks. not to forget that tempering obviously increases the flavor of snacks.

Today I tried Handva (handvo) in my kitchen. I tried making it low calorie (being a diet conscious).
its a very healthy hearty recipe full of proteins and give a fuller effect on satiety. people sometime replace it with the meals. In some gujarati thali, its a part of platter.

Here goes the recipe:
Ingredients:

1 cups rice 

1/2 cup toovar (arhar) dal

1/4 cup urad dal (split black lentils)

1/4 cup moong dal (split green gram)

1/4 cup chana dal (split Bengal gram)

1 cup sour curds

2 1/2 cups grated bottle gourd (doodhi / lauki) other vegetables like carrots, potato can be used.

4 tbsp oil

1/2 tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp soda- bi-carb

1 tbsp sugar(optional, for contrast)

1 tsp chilli powder

1/2 tsp turmeric powder (haldi)

3 tbsp green chilli-ginger paste

salt to taste

for tempering optional: 2tsf oil, hing(asafoetida), mustard seeds, sesame seeds, chopped green chilli, chopped coriander.

soak the rice and pulses for few hours. grind them in mixer. add sour curd and ferment for 3hrs (in summers,time for fermentation can be reduced). add the rest of ingredients in the batter. 
spread the batter in a baking dish. bake it on 180.C in preheated oven for 30-40min untill the crust becomes golden brown. 

after that, tempering can be done, in a pan, heat oil, add hing, mustard seeds, sesame seeds, green chillies. heat it untill the seeds start crackling.
another option is, that tempering can be mixed in the batter itself before baking 
garnish with coriander. serve with imli chutney.

Strength of character

Dreams turn into nightmare,

within a eye flutter

I convince myself

reality is better.

Time awaits to see my strength,

hope, faith and trust.

I will stand tall,

against each volatile sputter.

Flustering ad-mist strong winds 

carrying the flag.

I will ascertain,

shades of my character.

thousand thoughts

bounce back

arguing among-self

I seek sanity.

Short poem

Hungry eyes

looks so plaint

thousand cries

tainted brain.

haiku

Shaken Shattered

Restored 

My Faith.

The Break up

Crisp bed

reminds me

your Absence.

Burnt toast

asks me

your Absence.

Trash bin

overflows

in your Absence.

Wallet keys

lost somewhere

in your Absence.

Untended me

looks towards 

your Presence.

Haiku

Blind faith,

messing with my brain

turning Insane.

Chocolate tart

The chocolate mousse turned out very well. You can find the recipe of chocolate mousse in my previous post. The mousse was a very simple recipe and often tried in western homes.
This time I tried using the left over chocolate mousse for my new experiment. Though it’s similar to the recipe of chocolate tart but with a different tweak, hence I decided to keep the name as chocolate tart only.
Here is the recipe,
What you need:
Refined wheat flour 250gm
Salted butter 150gms
Dry fruits  : I chose walnuts and almonds 50gms ( one can use hazelnuts, groundnuts)
Sugar 5tsf
For frosting: look into the mousse recipe
Knead the flour with melted butter. Wrap it in plastic and refrigerate for 1hr. After an hour on the platform, roll out the flour. In the cupcake mould (preferably tin, not silicon) Roll and trim the dough to make a circle large enough to fit the tart moulds.
In a preheated oven, bake the moulds on 180C for half an hour. (till light golden brown).
Prepare the filling: in a pan, heat the sugar till it starts to crystallize. Add the crushed dry fruits and mix properly. A quick way is that one can use the regular dryfruit chikki available in Indian markets. One can take a slab of chikki and crush it and directly use it.
Fill the mixture into the baked tart. In a pipe fill the chocolate mousse and use it as frosting.
 

Chocolate Mousse

This Diwali was little unusual for me. I have never been such sad on diwali.
missing home, broken hand, incapable of doing routine chores made me all day grump.
diwali had always been one of my fav festivals. loads of mithai(sweets) crackers, lights, lamps and rangoli.

This year due to broken shoulder i cud not do all those fancy fancy things i loved to do.
the morning used to be fresh and vibrant with rangoli colors. post rangoli loads of home made mithai like  ladoos, barfi, kaju katri... missed all that fun.

i was lying on my couch grump and cold. then i just felt of making some dessert atleast for my friends.
i looked into my freeze and thought of a quick recipe.
then i came up with chocolate mousse.
although its not a mithai for the occasion and people prefer it as a potluck dessert.
here goes the recipe.

100 gm Bittersweet (cooking) Chocolate  • 3 tbsp  Sugar • 1 cup Heavy Cream • 1 tsp Vanilla Extract • 2 Egg Yolks  • Heat 2/3 cup of cream in pan over low flame until it just begins to steam. • In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar. • Add half portion of the hot cream, whisking constantly, until the mixture is thoroughly combined. • Add the warm egg-cream blend back into the rest hot cream in the saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly for a few more minutes. make sure the eggs dont get scrambled • Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract and melted chocolate. • Chill the chocolate custard thoroughly. • Beat with the help of electric whisker remaining 1-1/3 cups of cream in a separate bowl until stiff peaks form. • Thoroughly stir ½ cup of the whipped cream into the chilled chocolate custard, and then gently fold in the remaining cream.  serve chilled. garnish with grated chocolate

emotions

Dry days,

moist pillow.

this diwali,

heart so low.

   

The open window in my heart

leaves me unguarded

the dark night 

stalks all along

Without you

On high road 

i see you going

i struggle chase you

the endless road

going no where

destination fades, without you