A new recipe

I started out with 2 cans of chick peas and then decided to rustle up a recipe with complety different ingredients :)

Today I cooked black lentils (sabut masoor) with red kidney beans in an adaptation of dal makhni. First, I diced the onions (I wish I had a food processor to have made it even finer) and stir fried it in a couple of table spoons of oil with cumin seeds.
I had to let it cook on gas mark 4 slowly for about 20 minutes until all of it was evenly golden-translucent.

Then added canned chopped tomatoes in juice and half a cup of tomatoes and left it to simmer for another 15-20 minutes (or until the water evaporated and the gravy thickened).

In the mean while I pressure cooked the kindey beans and lentils so that they are soft and mushy.

Next, in a separate pan I heated another couple of table spoons of oil. Then put in cloves, bay leaves, cumin, turmeric, chilli powder, coriander powder and some cinnamon sticks. Once the spices were fried/roasted I added the cooked lentils and beans and mixed in with the gravy prepared earlier.

At this stage one could add yogurt or creame to make it 'makhni' but I chose not to.
Again I left the whole thing to cook for another 20 minutes (while I did the dishes!!)

Once the heat was off I added some garam masala and lime juice before pouring it in the container.

Yummy!

The Sunday ritual - An ode to Tesco

In last year or so I have come to realise, there is only 1 constant to my weekends - a trip to the market. Luckily I got some time to read this Sunday and when I came across the following passage, I couldn't help but share it as it reflects so much of my own thought process.

Here is an excerpt from Salmon fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday -

"We have moved on from religion.
Instead of going to the church, which would never occur to us, Mary and I go to Tesco together on Sundays. At least, that is what we did when she still lived in London. We never have time to shop during the week and Saturdays are too busy. But on Sunday our local Tesco is just quiet enough to get around without being hit in the ankles all the time by other people's shopping carts
We take our time wheeling the shiopping card around the vast cavern, goggling at the flatscreen TVs we cannot afford, occassionaly tossing in a luxury into the trolley that we can afford but not justify.
I suppose shopping in Tesco on Sunday morning is in itself a sort of meditative experience: in some way a shared moment with hundreds of other shippers all wheeling their shopping carts, and a shared moment with Mary, come to that. Most people I see shopping on Sunday morning have that peaceful, dreamy expression on their faces that I know is on ours. That is our Sunday ritual."

Apart from the fact that I am on my own when in Tesco's I think I really identify the dreamy, peaceful part of a pushing a trolley down an aisle of canned vegetables and frozen foods :)

Yay!

I am so happy, finally after more than a year, I managed to clear ITIL V3 foundation certificate exam!
It is really nothing much to be scared of. And the V3 foundation pack is more than sufficient to answer the questions.

Thanks God :)

A New Year

A new year, a change of a number - cause for celebration? Well may be. If this means end to a rather traumatic indecisive and emotionally unbalanced year. Then yes, starting a new year does call for some notice.

Apart from the fact that it means end of holidays and going back to old routine it has not really brought any good cheer.

But lets flow in the spirit a bit - I did take a new year resolution - to be lesser of a lazy bum!! I am going to get up, when I first think of getting up rather than lying in for hours. I am going to try to cook normal food more regularly and I am going to try and be good at work.

I rarely think about my own future, as I am so scared of the unknown. But for the year 2011 - Please God. Bless me!