Donuts - Inspired Recipe

When I was in class 8, my brother and I used to ask my mum for Rs. 6 each to go buy donuts from FoodWorld. We used to love those sugar glazed donuts, soft and light. We used to devour one everyday after school. Soon after, they stopped selling those donuts and we forgot it in time, leaving it behind as one of our childhood memories. One day, I suddenly had this burning urge to eat donuts. I don't like the ones they sell here in Chennai. They get really hard and stretchy. So I decided I'd make them myself. 

I went shopping and bought all the ingredients and I was ready for the battle. I searched online for tons of recipes for donuts, watched videos on Youtube. I even tried out one batch following a certain recipe from a Youtube video, but I failed miserably. All I got was fried chunks of sweet maida. 

I don't know how, but miraculously the below recipe worked like magic for me. My very first batch, came out perfect. Here's how.

Donuts - Recipe (Frying version)

Ingredients:

1/4 cup warm water

1/4 yeast

3/4 cup milk

1/4 butter

2 tbsp sugar

1 egg

2 cups flour

Oil for frying

For the glaze:

1 cup castor sugar

3 tbsp water

1/4 butter

vanilla essense

Method of preparation:

1. Mix well yeast in 1/4 cup warm water 

2. Take flour in a bowl and make a well in the centre

3. Add the yeast, butter, milk, sugar and egg and knead well

4. Cover for an hour to let dough rise

5. Once the dough has risen to double its size, take it out and roll it on a floured surface

6. Cut out donuts using a donut cutter - I used a dessert bowl to cut out the donuts and a coke bottle cap to cut out the holes in the donuts

7. Let the cut donuts stay for another 30 mins to rise again

8. Fry the donuts till they are brown on both sides

9. Glaze - mix all ingredients till you get a glossy mixture

10. Lace donuts with the glaze and serve. You may also dust some castor sugar on top. 

Any takers? :) 

Temper

Over the past few years, I've been controlling my temper consciously. Whenever I get really angry, I just utter a few words to myself and then just erase the episode off my head. On and off, I rant here or update my FB/Twitter/LinkedIn status. One way or the other I vent it out. I have come a long way from the 'screaming and yelling' bit to 'silently walking away' bit. 

Things that anger me are not silly stupid things. They genuinely affect my daily dealings. Like today, one extremely insensitive email really pissed me off. I uttered a few sick words to myself and breathed. Once calm, I sent a nonchalant reply. In reply to my email I got another insensitive email. I just shoved it down my trash bin and walked away to join my colleagues for a training session. I consciously threw the email out of my system (both virtual and physical) and moved on with my tasks. 

But to think, I came back here to talk about it :)

Back at home, I thought to myself, investing that much energy in such petty issues is really uncalled for. I'm reading this book called Emotional Intelligence - Daniel Goleman that talks about how every emotion is controlled in the brain. Interestingly enough, anger triggers excessive blood and a sudden rush of adrenalin to flow down your arms; that's why you feel this urge to grab a tool to hit someone or slap or throw something or just bang your fists against the wall. My! 

Anger is such a powerful emotion. But it shouldn't be manifested. It does no good to the soul. Any activity done is haste and anger bears severe consequences later when the anger subsides. Leaving us with a feeling of guilt and remorse. 

Today, during those tense moments of anger and frustration, I simply breathed heavily. Releasing all the tension off my mind. I never meditate. But I felt an environment of positivity build around me when I did that and my conscious efforts of forgetting the episode relieved me a great deal. 

My control on temper needs more conditioning. Hopefully, as I grow older I will be able to achieve it. May be later in my life, I will explore the possibilities of meditation. For now, the best way to stay cool, I've learnt is to simply ignore. And that's my lesson for today. 

To forget and ignore completely.

Nanban

Vijay has always come across as a rather discreet personality. He claims he is an introvert, so do his colleagues, but somehow his body language conveys something else. Like he has purposely buried another part of himself somewhere so that he comes across as an introvert. It sometimes irritates me to see him crack jokes on screen, sarcastic ones; beat up all the baddies; and then sit for a talk show like he was being paid to shut up. I have met and interacted with Vijay once on my way back to Chennai from Hyderabad. I told him how much I liked his remakes, Friends, Kadhallukku mariyadhai and so on, he only force smiled, nodded his head like a cow and shook my hand. I was like, bleh. 

I hate Vijay's movies that have been tailor made to suit his fan following. The redundant fights, item songs and romance. And not to forget his, unshaven rugged look and mockery of a wardrobe. His potential as an actor never really came to the forefront. That's why when I first heard that Shankar cast Vijay in Nanban, I was laughing at Shankar's stupidity. I assumed the movie would be an utter waste of a great story and script.

But! I was wrong. 

Nanban was a treat to watch. And I must really say this, Vijay rocked! Even a Vijay hater (read: Ajith fans) will love Vijay for his performance. 

Shankar played it safe by simply replicating the original 3 Idiots scene by scene.  One would expect, that a director like Shankar give the film his touch of perfection. I'm glad he did not. He respected the flavor of the movie and let it take all the credit. He just ensured that the picture sewn together looked appealing. And it did. 

Nanban comes to Vijay as a hattrick victory, after Kaavalan (Bodyguard) and Velayudham. Nanban is definitely a turning point in Vijay's career. With this movie, Vijay has got to come to his senses and stop catering to his 'mass.' He should look at more such character oriented roles in his future projects. 

Jiiva was a treat to watch on screen. He is witty, has great screen presence and kept his character alive throughout the movie. Shrikanth wasn't exactly a great cast for the role, but his performance towards the climax really moved me to tears. But I really wished Madhavan himself had taken up this role. Sathyan, as silencer, did full justice to his character. The welcome speech, where Sathyan keeps addressing the principal as a rapist and the education minister as a fart machine, stands out. The theater was in splits. Ileana looks sweet on screen and great dance moves. Ooh! 

Sathayraj, who am I to say, was simply too good. He matched the 'Virus' profile perfectly. 

I wish Vijay had gone for an image makeover as well, read: moustache. Well, how is one to straighten out a dog's tail? 

Aloo Tikki - My Recipe

I fondly recollect the first time I had aloo tikkis. I used to live in Ahmedabad and back then (I'm talking about 1995) MG road was THE most happening place in Ahmedabad. We used to go there every weekend and have veg pizza from a popular eatery, (there were no Pizza Huts/Dominoes back then), and strawberry milkshake with whole chunks of sweet strawberry; aah bliss.  One day, we decided to try out chaat from one of the eateries and my dad got me aloo tikki. I loved it! I ate two and wanted more. After that day, I would have aloo tikkis almost every weekend. 

Strangely enough, I never took a great liking to potato anyway. But for the sake of my cherished childhood memories, I will share the recipe of Aloo tikki I tried out one weekend at home. 

My recipe for Aloo Tikki

Cooking time: 30 mins
Ingredients
Potatoes - 5 nos, peeled and boiled
Green chillies - 3 nos, chopped
Green peas - 100 gms or 1/2 cup
Cumin powder - 1 tsp
Red chilli powder - 2 tsp
Garam Masala - 2 tsp
Chaat Masala - 1 tbsp
Salt to taste
Oil - enough for shallow frying

Method of preparation:
1. Wash, peel and pressure cook potatoes till tender
2. Mash potatoes.
3. Mix green peas and green chillies
4. Season with cumin powder, red chilli powder, garam masala, chaat masala and salt as per requirement
5. Knead well until all spices are infused into the potato mash
6. Make tikkis of desired thickness and keep aside
7. Heat oil in a tawa and arrange tikkis
8. Shallow fry until golden brown on both sides
9. Serve hot with tomato ketchup or mint chutney

With that, my childhood memories are back! 

Semiya Payasam - My recipe

I love making desserts. That's largely because I have a severe case of chronic 'sweet tooth.' To further substantiate this, I have 8 cavities; all filled in at the tender age of 13. 

Aah! 

Getting back; I love sweets and I love making them. Of course, I'm still only going through the trial and error stages, at least I'm making efforts. 

To be honest, when I cook, I go by my instincts. I don't follow 'these many tbsps of masala or these many portions of this and that' I just taste, adjust and cook. I'd like to call myself an uncomplicated cook. Nevertheless, I will share my recipes, with the measurements, just so you can try them yourselves. 

Without further ado, here's my recipe for Semiya Payasam

Cooking time: 20 mins

Ingredients:

Milk - 1/2 litre

Sugar - 5 tbsp (may be adjusted as per your requirements)

Clarified butter (ghee) - 1 tbsp

Semiya/Vermicelli - 100 gms

Almonds - soaked, peeled and chopped

Cardamom pods - 4, pressed 

Method of Preparation:

1. Heat milk in a saucepan

2. Add sugar to the milk and stir until sugar is completely dissolved

3. In a fry pan, add 1 tbsp of ghee and fry the vermicelli till golden brown. Turn off heat. 

4. When the fried vermicelli has cooled a bit, slowly add it to the milk. Be careful while adding the vermicelli; if the mixture is too hot the milk may curdle. Ensure you are stirring the milk while adding the vermicelli.

5. Let the milk simmer, till vermicelli rises to the top

6. Add ground cardamoms 

7. Keep stirring till vermicelli is completely cooked

8. Add chopped almonds

9. Serve hot

My simple Semiya Payasam is ready! 

Mutton Keema - My Recipe

I never eat Keema from outside. I'm apprehensive about the fact that whatever parts I usually discard from the mutton/chicken meat will be included in the minced chunk in restaurants. Therefore, I safely avoid eating any keema dish outside. But that doesn't mean, I will restrict myself of ever trying it out. The safest option for me is to mince the meat myself.
It took me an hour to separate the meat off the bone, but it was worth the effort. I put the boneless mutton pieces into my food processor and I had a beautiful chunk of minced mutton meat with me, ready to be cooked.

Here's my recipe for Mutton Keema
Cooking time - Approx 30 mins
Ingredients:
Minced mutton
Ginger-garlic-green chilli paste - 1 tbsp (10 garlic pods; good amount of ginger; 4 fat green chillies)
Onions - 2 nos, finely chopped
Tomatoes - 2 nos, finely chopped
Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
Coriander powder - 4 tsp
Pepper powder - 1 tsp
Garam masala - 2 tsp
Green peas - 100 gms
Water - 1 cup
Salt to taste
Coriander leaves for garnish

Method of Preparation:
1. Heat oil in a kadai/wok
2. Add the ginger-garlic-green chilli paste to the hot oil; stir till light brown or no more raw smell
3. Add the chopped onions and fry till translucent
4. Add the minced mutton and stir
5. When mutton turns pale in color, add chopped tomatoes
6. Add turmeric, coriander, pepper, garam masala powder and salt. You may adjust the seasoning as per your requirements
7. Mix well and add water
8. Close saucepan with lid, and let it simmer on low flame
9. When the water is half reduced, add the green peas
10. Simmer till mutton is completely cooked and raw taste of green peas is gone.
Garnish with coriander leaves. Serve hot with Paranthas.

Fraud Tomato Soup - My recipe

I have a very bad habit of saving up ketchup, oregano, chilli flakes sachets. Today I opened my draw to push in a few more of these sachets and found that the draw was already overflowing with the previously collected ones. I then decided that I should do something with these beauties. Soup I thought! 

We usually eat Knorr soups, but lately I realized that more than the good stuff, they are loaded with tons of preservatives. Ya they claim there aren't any, but why believe them? They'll say anything to make a sale. 

So I decided I'd make some tomato soup today; using the ketchup sachets, oregano and chilli flakes. This is not anything like the traditional home made tomato soups and it takes only about 10 mins to cook. That's why the name, 'Fraud Tomato Soup' :)

Here's the recipe: Tomato Soup - Fraud Version

Cooking Time: 10 mins
Ingredients:

Tomatoes - 4 nos

Water - 2 cups

Garlic Pods - 4 nos (finely chopped)

Butter - 175 grams

Tomato Ketchup - 8 sachets

Oregano - 1 sachet

Chilli Flakes - 1 sachet

Pepper - 1 tsp

Garam Masala - 1 tsp

Salt to taste

Coriander, Butter for garnish

Method of Preparation:

1. Peel tomatoes and blend them together in a blender, adding water to dilute the consistency

2. Heat butter in a saucepan

3. Add the chopped garlic into the butter and let it cook till there is no raw smell of garlic

4. Add the tomato puree and cook until the consistency is thickened a bit

5. Add the tomato ketchup

6. Season this with Oregano, chilli flakes, pepper, garam masala and salt

7. Bring to boil

8. Add water if the mixture is too thick. You may wish to add butter at this stage to give the soup a nice buttery texture

9. Remove from flame once you get the desired consistency 

10. Garnish with coriander leaves and a dollop of butter. 

10 mins, 10 easy steps - Your fraud tomato soup is ready to serve! 

Life as I know it

My life has been a concoction of dramas. There is this one pattern that is a constant in all the dramas.
Anything I put my foot into, goes well for the first year and then the very next year, it gets jinxed. Education, work, relationship, and the list goes on.

I wont talk about the relationship bit. But the education and work bit I will.
My first year of PG was a breeze. Lot of hard work and equivalent rewards. The next year, all of a sudden, there was too much stress, too less recognition and a lot of drama.
My first year of my job, was bliss. I loved it. The second year started off with a lot of pressure and frustration.
I'm only in my second job in my career span and my second year of 'tribulations' has officially started.
I'm not reacting. I'm just thinking, how I managed the last time. Well, last time I quit. But I had a darn good reason for quitting. Of course this time quitting isn't an option.
While I'm thinking how to handle this mess, I'm also wondering, why life keeps throwing these situations at me.

I should document all these in detail somewhere, someday I'll write a book on it.
Provided people are willing to listen to my rant!

:)

Books, I sorely miss thee.

I have simply stopped reading books.
That explains why I am not able to write anything here. 5 long years of blogging and 2008 was the only productive blogging year. I feel really bad.
I've come to realize how important reading is to me. I just can't seem to draw any inspiration anymore.
I could cite something from work. But you know how work is. It's like as if a group of people came prepared for their part and were giving their 100% at this play. At least for me it's like that. My work is a well executed drama.
But I'd rather not discuss it!
I miss them books. I think they are my soul mates. Gah, how could I abandon them?
Well, for starters, I think I'll read 'The Shadow of the wind'
I just can't get enough of this book. I've read it 5 times already. Yet, I love re-reading it. Every time I do, I rediscover myself.
If you haven't read it - READ IT!