Sorry for this picture. The hubby and I were super duper hungry and this is all that was left over.

In recent days, I have skewed towards easy-to-make, quick recipes than slogging over simple ingredients that make for large meals. Today was just one of those days. I wanted to make something that was not only a “full meal” but one that could churn out a different taste with simple steps.

And there it was, to my rescue, I had stumbled upon Tarla Dalal’s website. Tarla, being a famous (used to be popular than Sanjeev Kapoor during her younger days) TV chef, is known for her mouth-watering recipes as they focus on flavour and achieving the perfect blend of all ingredients. I find this more appealing than Sanjeev Kapoor’s skewed tastes and misinformed products. For those who do not believe this, kindly buy his “Andhra Avakkai Pickle” which is such a disgrace to Andhra cuisine.

Browsing by the alphabet, I locked on a simple Aloo Subzi.  Assuming it was going to be the typical simmer masalas in water with a few chopped tomatoes and onion, I opened the page only to be surprised with a very different recipe.

From Tarla’s website

Preparation Time: 10 mins.

Cooking Time: 10 mins.

Serves 4.

Ingredients

4 cups potatoes peeled,cubed and boiled

1 cup curds (dahi), beaten

1 tsp besan (Bengal gram flour)

1/2 tsp mustard seeds ( rai / sarson)

1 tsp cumin seeds (jeera)

1 tsp fennel seeds (saunf)

1/2 tsp nigella seeds (kalonji)

1 bayleaf (tejpatta)

2 cloves (laung / lavang)

2 sticks cinnamon (dalchini)

1/8 tsp asafoetida (hing)

2 tsp chilli powder

1/4 tsp turmeric powder (haldi)

1 tsp coriander-cumin seeds (dhania-jeera) powder

1 tbsp ghee

salt to taste

For the garnish 2 tbsp chopped coriander (dhania)

Method

1. In a bowl, combine the curds and gram flour together and whisk well. Keep aside.

2. Heat the ghee in a pan and add the mustard seeds. When they crackle, add the cumin seeds, fennel seeds, nigella seeds, bay leaf, cloves, cinnamon and asafoetida and stir for a few seconds.

3. Add the curds and gram flour mixture, chilli powder, turmeric powder, coriander-cumin seed powder and continue stirring till it comes to a boil.

4. Add the potatoes and salt with 1/2 cup of water and mix well. Bring to a boil.

5. Serve hot, garnished with the coriander.

Serving suggestion: Serve with rotis or rice

To all my Indian ancestors

Thank you for setting all the wrong examples in the world by being and achieving things that I can in very simple language describe as “pain in my a**”. When I think of all the delicious home made goodies (sweets and savory), I can literally feel all sorts of emotion bursting through my mind and mouth. The feel of seedai crumbling inside the mouth, the smell of oil and ghee wafting through the air after a day’s bakshanam made for Diwali every single year, the clinging and clanging of tongs and the iron kadai… every bit of it is enough to drive people away from home crazy. 

In the sudden realization that I would have to do the same for my future, I told myself that I should start learning all this right away so I can pass on all the inherited way-better-than Grand Sweets recipes to the future bloodline. Using the Sevai Naazhi I borrowed from my dear aunt in hopes of a bakshanam-ful Diwali last year, I got the recipe from my mom and set up all that I needed to make a simple Mul Thenkuzhal.

After making the dough using butter, salt, jeera, hing and water, the food genius that I am started to work the naazhi to churn out professional looking Thenkuzhal. All I can say is, “Bleddy”. Who the heck invented naazhi and who on earth had all the patience in the world to invent recipes for bakshanams. I chose to use the traditional naazhi, the one that is T-shaped with the upper block of steel pressing the dough down the star-shaped disc. Why? Because I was told that this would be the easiest. “Bleddy” all of you. The end result is good alright. Infact I never thought I could have ever made anything like this with my own hands, but was it worth the pain and hard work? I don’t know. Really.

Working the naazhi requires iron hands. The kind that is a 1000 times stronger than the block of stainless steel used to push the dough. After quite sometime, I decided to use some more water to soften the dough. That actually worked in making mul thenkuzhal just like the pros all round and disciplined. Even after an entire blogpost, I cannot get out of my mind the pain I endured and how much my hand hurts as I press this post.

Uvas Canyon

This newfound attraction to exploring more of the Bay Area took me and hubby dearest to Uvas Canyon. Uvas is a lush wooded park that is every nature lover’s treat! It’s great for picnics, camping, hiking and photography enthusiasts. Plenty of sources on the internet suggested a quick day’s trip or camping for a few days in this area before the end of Spring as this is the best time to see all the waterfalls the park has to offer.

As opposed to the vast, open views the north bay hikes have to offer, the peninsula and south bay hikes are more secluded and serene that seems more like untouched beauty of nature at its best.

The park has an automated pay system that allows campers and day users to electronically pay the fees for the park with parking included. It has plenty of picnic spots that visitors can use with grills, fireplaces and flush toilets conveniently located. The drive to the park is itself like driving through a beautiful painting of an English countryside with green green meadows and a lot of cows and horses grazing on farms.

Uvas is thoughtfully planned. It has many over the water bridges that lets us get amidst nature reveling as you go on several trails that offers various views of the creeks and falls.

Majority of the roads to Uvas Canyon is well-maintained. Once inside the arch that leads to the park, the road gets extremely narrow sometimes making way for only one compact sized car. Thankfully, the amount of traffic does not call for a wider road. You will find park rangers going in and out of the park every now and then. Catch hold of one or head directly to the big informations board in the parking lot. That has a huge map of the area and plenty of booklets that present information on camping, hiking and specific trail maps.

Overall, this has been a weekend well-spent. Be sure to check out Uvas if you live or are in the area. It is 100% nature.

Big Basin Redwoods Park

Who knew there was such beauty a stone’s throw away from Sunnyvale in California? The Big Basin Redwoods Park is obviously no comparison to the Redwoods near Crescent City. They are on a totally different scale. The Big Basin, however, is a perfect weekend getaway with loads of redwood trees, cute little streams, creeks, waterfalls… You want nature, you got it here @ Big Basin.

From where I live, it is a nice one hour drive to the forest with plenty of vineyards along the way in a typical Redwoods setting – tall trees, curvy roads narrowing at the end of your journey and wineries overlooking the entire bay. For some, it may be a torturous drive owing to the million curves on the road to Big Basin. Best tip is to roll down the windows in your car to avoid being woozy. I know I did and felt immensely better. The pure natural air helps a lonnnng way! Trust me.

Once into the park, you have a basic visitor center and a parking entry with plenty of portable toilets.

KEY ADVICE (for those allergic or extremely repulsed by portable toilets): Try using the restroom at your hotel/home/motel before going to the forest or head into one of the wineries. That’s awesome coz you can taste and pick up some of their best wine.

The visitor center has a single forest ranger who will help you with key information on hiking trails, camping, facilities inside the forest, DO’s and DON’Ts for campers and most important of all, MAPS.

We took a 4 mile hike this weekend from skyline to the sea trail crossing over to the creeping forest trail and finally joining the dool trail leading back to the park headquarters.

It’s pretty basic from the skyline to the sea trail upto the creeping forest trail. The trail consists of cute little creeks and streams, a nice flowing river and tall redwoods. This leads you to a junction that starts the creeping forest trail.

The creeping forest trail certainly sticks to its name. It’s creepy but beautiful inside. While you feel entirely cut off from the world, this trail can be quite an up climb and a good workout. The vegetation is so thick, it is hard to miss breathing the insanely fresh forest air. The scent is outrageously musky, earthy and relaxing.

This trail then leads you to a sort of tree path which you will see in the photos that follow. The tree is carved into steps and footpaths. So very different and pleasing to the eye amidst the sudden rush of nature.

The dool trail starts with a road that looks quite lost and dreamy. Crossing this road will start the dool trail back to the headquarters which can be quite a slippery walk especially after a rain. And my sources say it does all the time during spring. So watch out!

On the whole, I absolutely enjoyed my time hiking at Big Basin and am definitely thinking of going back. Maybe for some camping the next time around.

Awwwsome Tamalpais

I don’t know if it’s just me or if there are tons of people like me on earth who get frequent bouts of confusion on planning the weekend. We were always able to come up with something during major chunks of last year and it was all worthwhile. Every camping trip, hike, gambling @ the casinos, going to shows, clubbing and pubbing… every freakin’ thing was (in a supremely high pitched voice) Awwwsome! Of course, things would be awwwsome in that insanely amazing voice if only there were ideas that flowed around like free air.

There it was before we knew it had happened, we were stuck. Out of ideas. Had no clue what to do. Spent a LOT of weekends ( Sooo many that I can’t even count!) doing NOTHING. Not that that’s any inferior. The art of sleeping loooong hours on a Saturday morning or a Sunday is bliss better than the so-called heaven. So anyway, we were out of ideas on how to spend our weekends. We had visited relatives, friends, gone clubbing and pubbing, visited an awesome place and with camping that will start only around May or June, we had nothing else to think of.

Suddenly… Eureka! I realized that a lot of our sightseeing was majjjorly done around the bay area but never in here. Google I did and voila! there it was. A website that had a page long description of the hikes in Mount Tamalpais in Tamalpais Valley just a few miles north of SF.

Tamalpais is so serenely beautiful and less crowded compared to the nearby attractions – Muir Woods and Stinson Beach. We took the easy 1 mile walk and the diamond-in-the-rough 20 min hike right to the top of Mount Tamalpais. The drive up to Tamalpais Valley is needless to say, breathtaking with beautiful views of mountains, lakes, the golden gate bridge and plenty of tiny waterfalls. Once we reached the parking lot of the Mount Tamalpais East Peak, there was a gust of fresh mountain air, so unpolluted and clear.

The Mount Tamalpais East Peak is divided into 2 parts. One with a paved path that makes up for almost a mile’s walk loop leading back to the parking lot and second, a rough climb up that takes about 20 mins to reach the east peak of Mount Tamalpais. The 1 mile walk was super easy to complete as opposed to its sister and offered brilliant views of the golden gate bridge, bay bridge, the waters in between and the gazillion skyscrapers of SF Downtown. The 2nd path does not offer too many views as you go but gives you everything the 1 mile path gives you once you are at the top – a 360 deg view of Mount Tamalpais.

Anyone interested in hiking in the bay area, visit www.weekendsherpa.com.

In love or addicted to HGTV?

When I moved to the States,there was this initial period where I was heavily smitten by the awesomeness of Food Network and religiously followed all of Rachael Ray’s and Ina Garten’s shows. Getting around to making their classic recipes is a totally different thing.

This year, I am awestruck by HGTV (Home & Garden Television).

On a random weekend, I sat down to watch a bit of tv and chanced upon this channel that had a show about helping buyers find the perfect property. Back in India, I loved watching such shows on Travel & Living and obviously had to watch this show that was playing on HGTV. And after about an hour when the show ended, I took my laptop assuming this was a weekly show and looked up timings when the next show started. And there it was “Curb Appeal”. That’s when I realized ( too dumb to even figure out that hg stood for home and garden)… that this was an entire channel dedicated to home and garden improvement.

That’s when the so-called addiction/love started. Everytime I turned on my tv to watch HGTV, I would end up watching it for 4 straight hours. The amount of ideas that flow in are too many that last weekend I seriously took my notepad and jotted down points.

A lot of people close to me know that I am probably the least organized person on Planet Earth. As teenagers, me and darling sis would quarrel a lot. And why? Because she always ended up cleaning my mess and I always ended up messing after she cleaned! And the struggle to be organized and clean continues. I have come a LONG way since my teenage days. Trust me. But never near perfect. And since watching HGTV, there is this sudden excruciating pain, commonly known as embarrassment, whenever I watch the dozens of perfectly planned and neatly organized homes.

Last weekend (surprisingly), my husband was watching HGTV first thing in the morning. As I woke up to make coffee for the 2 of us, I noticed they had a bunch of organizing shows on as compared to their other home designing shows. This was a little different than what I had watched before. So we both sat down and were hooked for the next few hours without any care for breakfast or lunch. And there it was again, EMBARRASSMENT. Kar got so frustrated looking at people’s homes that he started to clean what was already somewhat clean. The two of us took so many notes on how we could improve our own home and be organized.

The first achievement after watching the shows on Saturday is a clean home with lots and lots of space. Especially after last week’s kitchen cleaning spree and this week’s cleaning, our house looks near perfect. There is still a bunch of organizing we have had to do. But nothing that anyone will ever complain about. The mother certified so!