Charu’s space

It is Diwali and its time to eat (make) some sweet and savory. All our festivals are just about food and then comes other stuff or at least for me so far..

Thanks to my cousin who is a Badam sweet expert according to me. It took me around 20 mins to do this and I was impressed at how easy it was as compared to my earlier recipe that involves soaking, peeling, grinding and cooking.

Ingredients:
Almonds – 2 cups
Sugar – 2 cups or more if you need it sweeter
Water – 1/2 cup
Food color – a pinch – optional
Ghee – 3 spoons (or more if you like it)

Method:

1. In the mixer using the pulse setup grate the almond to finer pieces. Do it with smaller quantity in parts. Just pulse it enough so it is grainy like sand and not get powdery.
2. In a hard bottom pan, add the measured sugar and little water just so it starts melting. Stir in high for 5 mins and then reduce flame and stir for 10 mins until the sugar syrup thickens. It should not get very thick.
3. Now slowly turn in the grated almonds in the pot and stir well.
4. Grease a plate or tray that has sides with a spoon of ghee and have a flat bottom spoon or cup ready to cool the sweet.
5. Add 3 spoon of ghee in the pot and you can see the mix loosen up a bit. Stir for few more mins. This is the time to add the food color if you like to.
6. Take a spoon of mix and cool it by blowing it. If it turns solid, then it is done. Take the pot off the stove.
7. Quickly add the sweet to the greased plate and press it as thick as you want. I suggest pressing it well so you get a thin slice.
8. Take a knife or a pizza cutter and slice up the sweet when it is still warm.
9. Wait for a couple of minutes and redo the slide lines one more time so it is properly cut.
10. Wait for 5 more mins to cool, relocate pieces from plate to a cool container and enjoy!

No matter how hard I try, I realize that I cannot beat my cousin or my aunt in making perfect, small bite size possible pieces. Should try harder next time. Like Anand says one much watch out for their foot if they drop their burfi piece from their hands. Sounds like perfect weapon ha?

Enjoy!

I was asked to go to UC Berkeley (Cal) by my employer to do Campus recruiting. This was my first time doing campus interviews. The day ahead I finish all my weekend chores (geez these days weekends are a lot more tiring and energy consuming than weekdays, should the schools just take kids for few hours in weekdays?) and take some time to look at 7 resumes. I see all sort of terms/projects in all these resumes and I am excited even more.

I reach the career center, sign in, walk with the receptionist along this corridor aligned with rooms both the sides. The rooms are no more than sixty sq ft. I spot this executive style chair with a high raise and handle for the interviewer (me of course!) and this short, thin chair for the candidate. I setup my computer and get ready, thinking about my questions and such.

I walk back to the reception to call my first candidate and there are 35 chairs filled with 15 or so students. Some have a blazer on, some in neat suit, some of them very casual, some are busy with their laptop or book. The minute they see a shadow nearing the reception, all are eager and looking up to see if their name is being called. The anxiety, those eyes filled with thought about the future, their first job ever in life, their life as a non-student ever and for some the opportunity to pay their loans back is at the brink and I end being someone who gets to make a call in this.

Until after I was done with the first candidate’s screening, I must say that I was a lot more tensed and excited than the candidate himself. The list goes on and on and I see students who has done their own start-up (with no revenue yet) as their learning project, students with mechanical and cognitive science whose Java and sql is impeccable. One thing everyone had in common is this:

Me: Can you explain me Polymorphism in OO?
All seven candidates: Say there is an Animal class which mimics sound, eats and a Dog class that extends it and talks about its special properties…… on and on..
I had give a smirk to my last but one candidate when she started this Animal example and she caught me there and said, are you looking for a different scenario? Then she said Language with English and Hindi extending it.

Overall a very fun experience, aligns with my interest. Good luck Grads! You all Rock!

Festival times were at its best when I was a kid growing up in Kumbakonam. The one thing I enjoyed the most was the Navaratri times with golu in most houses in my street and the goodies I get every evening for 9 nights.

Saraswati pooja on the 9th day tops it well. On that day I get to do fun jobs such as applying sandal and kumkum for all the appliances and vehicles in the house. I sometimes get a new dress (usually courtesy of my aunt or uncle). I get to wear the favorite bell necklace (my moms and mine now).

Best part of the festival is to arrange our text books in pooja, which means we don’t have to study that day. Navratri usually falls around quarterly exams and we are tired of the new school year by this time of the year.

Years roll by and various thoughts regarding god, festival, religion passes by the head. And now, a mom of two girls living in the SF bay area. To beat my mothers expectations, we have golu decorated, my kids are in pavadai and yes Sahana is now wearing the bell necklace. It’s Saraswati pooja time again and she is all excited to dust the appliances and apply sandal kumkum on it. She went to the backyard and got a basket full of flowers. Sat with Anand while he was doing the pooja and put flowers to Saraswati. As always excited to taste the paal payasam I had made for offering (Ever wondered if anyone would make such offering if god were to show up and gobble all up??) She dusted the car, applied sandal/kumkum to it and said “amma, see the car is turned into a tamil car now! ”

That’s how it goes this year and I wish this blog is not the only thing that remains reg my kids and such festival times….will see..

If you already do not know about Padma Lakshmi, you should read about her first to enjoy the upma better!

In my hunt for some couscous recipes, I found Couscous Upma recipe in food network’s site, courtesy Padma Lakshmi. I tried it and we all liked it. I am going to try it with wheat couscous soon and see how different does that taste as compared to the broken wheat upma.

I made it just like I would do Rava or Vermicelly upma and just replaced the grain with couscous instead. I did not use the broth and garlic as said. Easy enough for a weekday dinner.
Enjoy!

It was Sahana’s birthday and I decided to do some kheer. Jackfruit has always been my favorite fruit since my childhood. I found some fresh Jackfruit in the local grocery store here. This will make approximately 120 ml of kheer for 4 people.

Ingredients:
Peeled, seeded, cleaned Jackfruit, fresh or tinned (available in asian stores) – 10-15 fruit pieces.
White Sugar – 1 cup(200+ grams)
Powdered brown sugar – 2 Tb spoons
Coconut milk powder – 2 Tb spoons
Elaichi – 3
Saffron – a pinch
2% milk – 500 ml, boiled and cooled ahead of time

Method:
Boil and cool (in room temp) milk first. Add saffron to milk while it cools, so milk turns yellowish.
Peel and remove all the skin parts and inner seed lining from each piece of the Jackfruit, cut hard corners.
In a bowl, add just enough water to submerge the fruits and cook for 4 minutes in microwave or in stove top.
Drain the water, let the fruit cool.
Set aside a few fruit pieces till end just in case it becomes a lot.
In a large blender jar, add Jackfruit, brown and white sugar, Elaichi and coconut powder, give it a blend until it is smooth.
Add milk to the jar and in low puree/cream setting, give it a good mix.
It should be all mixed well now. Taste it and add sugar or milk or more fruit depending on how you like it.
Put in a pitcher and let it sit in the freezer for a good 30 minutes. It thickens well.
Then serve it or move it the fridge and serve it when needed.
This lasts for 3-4 days in the fridge and not more. Enjoy!

Some random thoughts about Daylight savings and Time zone changes from my head.

Ever wondered how would it be in India if they follow the Daylight savings concept and the time zone difference that we have geographically?
Ever gotten phone calls from an unusual friend/relative visiting east coast or from India at 5am or 11:30 pm?
Ever visited some Desi’s house (well I have not visited very many non-Desi’s house) and notice that the wall clock still runs in PST when everyone follows PDT and vice-versa? The usual response I get from them when I talk about the time in their clock is: Well it will fix itself in 6 months time or whenever we switch again.

I have been in US for almost 10 years now. It is still hard for me to get this straight. Thanks to Sahana’s Tamil class teacher who asked us to be in time for this Sunday’s class. I thought it was just me, guess not. My 5 year old is asking me since last two evenings as why I am home earlier than usual. Looks like she is used to seeing mom home when it is still dark outside. How am I ever going to explain this to her and all those friends/relatives back home when I don’t get it myself!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daylight_saving_time

Few of our friends have tasted this Briyani and asked me for the recipe. I must thank Saumya (http://nourish-n-cherish.blogspot.com/) who passed this to me and her mom who passed it to her.
Saumya writes very well, you should read her whenever you get a chance. This serves 2.

Ingredients:
Cinnamon stick – about 2 inches or half a stick.
Fennel / Saunf – 1 spoon
Green chili – 3 medium
Garlic – 2 cloves or more if you like
Ginger – An inch wide piece peeled
Bay leaves – 1/2 spoon
Jeera – 1/2 spoon
Turmeric powder – 1/2 spoon
Salt – 2-3 tea spoons
Oil – 8-10 spoons
Shredded coconut – 1 spoon
Onion – 1/2 chopped medium size
Tomato – 1 small, chopped
Mixed vegetables cut to slightly bigger cubes (Beans, Potato, Peas, Carrot, Cauliflower, Broccolli)
Basmati rice – Little over 3/4th of a measuring cup (200 grams)

Method:
In a blender/grinder, grind green chili, ginger, garlic, cinnamon stick, 1/2 spoon fennel/saunf with little water just enough to grind to a smooth paste.
In a pan, add 3 spoons of oil, add Jeera, the remaining Saunf and add the ground masala paste. Let it cook in medium heat for 5 minutes until the raw masala smell goes away.
Now add bay leaves, coconut, turmeric powder, stir in.
Then add chopped onion, tomato and wait for 2 minutes. Then add all other chopped vegetables except broccolli, califlower. Stir in and wait for a minute or more. Finally add the Broccolli, cauliflower and mix everything well. Add salt, wash the rice and add. Mix everything well and switch the stove off.
Move the mix to the electric cooker dish and add 400 ml of water ( 2x of rice). cook. If you can open your cooker half way then you can open and give it a stir and close it.

I have cooked this mix in the pressure cooker as well. I added a little less water for this cooker and it came out very well. Like North Indians, I guess you can cook in the pan itself if you are confident on that. I am not. Eventually you can add a tadka of few cashews and raising if you like it.
Enjoy with fries, raita or papad!

We were there for four full days and we believe that is too less a time if you want to enjoy the beaches and cover the Mayan ruin sites. We liked the all inclusive booking as it takes care of everything in one booking. http://www.expedia.com/daily/vacations/all-inclusive-vacations/default.asp should help finding those.
We stayed at Gran Caribe real resort.
Pluses:
Very nice beach, lot of sand area for kids, mini bar in the beach and very clean hotel and resort are some pluses in this place.
Minus:
Not too many vegetarian food options is a minus. There is some, but you get bored soon, not many varieties.

Some of the tours we took:
Mayan site and a UNESCO world heritage site of Chichen Itza in the Limo tour.

This is a bit expensive than usual tours you get for $55 or so. But it was good luxury with drinks, breakfast, lunch, wet towels and a good guide. We paid an extra of $30 for a kid to get a seat, though kids until 6 are can travel free in your lap.
Chichen Itza was doable with kids. Prefer winter season as it could get very hot there in summer. It was stroller accessible to most areas there.

Mayan site of Tulum: We took Tulum Express tour. We booked it from the Best Day tour operator in our resort. We paid $20 for an extra kid seat. If you can play with your luck you may find a half full bus and free seats, we bought one just to be safe. Site is very beautiful by the beach. This is the best beach I saw in the area. The site is quite small as compared to Chichen itza but beautiful. Stroller accessible to most extend here as well.

We visited Playa Del Carmen, in the government run ADO bus. It was very comfortable. This is the cheapest way to go to Tulum or Playa in comfort if you do not have younger kids and not mind switching buses from hotel zone to Ado stand in Centro. No need to book in advance, it run every 1/2 hour or so and you guy hop on.
Playa shopping town was cute, small and very cozy. We ate very good food in a really small Italian place in a side alley under the trees. There were a few art galleries on that alley. Very nice. We later realized that we should have stayed in any resort in Playa itself as it is closer to some ruins and also more beautiful. Unless you have any specific reason to stay in Cancun, I would suggest Playa as it has a nice small town feeling and very beautiful.

I tried Idly Manchurian a couple of times the last holiday season. The recipe I used is from here

http://cookerycorner.blogspot.com/2008/06/idli-manchurian.html

Instead of baking as said in the recipe, I tied stir frying as well. I felt that baking makes it better as the idlys get crispy and seperated. If I stir fry in a pan, I will mix it over and over and break the pieces.

May be you could toss the idly with some oil, salt and red chili powder and put it in the fridge ahead of time, then take it out and stir fry it (like we do for Taro dry curry). That could make it not stick together and get crispy. Also baking the idlys a bit long makes it really crispy and that does not absorb the masala from manchurian later. So take it out when it has just baked enough and still soft a bit.

To do this you need a kuzhi paniyaram pan. In walgreens I saw a product that can be used.Search for ‘Pancake Puffs – As Seen on TV’ in walgreens.com and you should be able to get it, if they still sell it.

Ingredients:
Left over Idly batter 
Green chili – 1 or 2
Ginger – Small piece peeled, cut
Curry leaves – few
Rice floor – 3 spoons
Asafoedita powder
Onion – a handful finely chopped
Oil – 10-15 spoons and/or oil spray

Method:
Mix all the ingredients listed above. Rice floor makes it a little crispy and workable. 
Try adding 2 spoons and see how good the paniyaram comes out. Add more if it is hard to take it out of the pan.
Put the paniyaram pan in the stove top, add some oil and coat the pan evenly. 
When the pan is hot enough, add a big spoon of mixed batter in each pan.
Wait for a minute or 2 and flip it around. Let it cook on the other side.

Take them out with fork or anything else you can find useful to flip (chopsticks??) . I guess the walgreens product comes with the sticks. Remove them from heat and enjoy.