laal saag

                 Laal Saag

This was one of the many types of leafy veggies that Guddu got from Bengali market. The red colour turns even the peas a different shade of green. This has been made with the usual onion-garlic-adrak paste. The fresh coriander leaves give it an interesting dimension. Before I forget my attraction to these crystal necklaces that I turn into wristbands. One had a magnetic clasp that doesn't work. Another the wire that held the crystals broke immediately on being stretched a little.

Misty tales: Soulful tale

Misty tales: Soulful tale: A Soulful tale          When I read about a publication asking for tales for ‘Chicken Soup for the Indian soul’ I was intrigued. ...

aloo chhole biryani

            Aloo chhole biryani

Returned from Mumbai and was forced to order food from outside as the mess goes on chutti on Sunday evenings. Frightened of the traffic particularly on a weekend asked for home delivery. It turned out to be fairly appetising food  that included a aloo-chhole biryani. It came in a earthen matka sealed with atta. Decided to copy it back home and this is how Guddu served us in a huge pan.

 The problem of abundance is that we landed up with more chhole and less rice. Even the aloos were scarce. However it was enjoyable.

Please note the beautiful BSF mats with the Punjab border's panther  embroidered on it. They are made in Ferozepur by special Muslim embroiders who do the zardozi work with care.

Vegetable Stew Malabari

                   Vegetable Stew

This was one of the recipes I tried from this book that was heavily recommended on begum's kitchen. The book arrived within a day from flipkart.com I was so excited. It had many non-vegetarian recipes predominantly using coconut milk and aniseed -saunf. This particular one had the usual garlic-ginger-green chillies-onion paste along with coconut milk. Jagdish made it and garnished it with dhania. But he made a wonderful khichdi also from this book that is cooked in coconut milk and tastes out of the world with fried onion rings. I have grill that uses a drop of oil and the onion rings taste just as crisp.

baba's chick-inn

                    Baba's Chick -inn

This is what my Venky’s chicken looked like after Kyar Singh coated it with breadcrumbs and deep fried it. Firstly hunting for this shop had a tale of it’s own. What with Mishti’s mother(One of thakurmaa's gang) giving us vague directions –it’s near the National Handloom. Then after that - go straight down- but east, west ? Where? Went around in circles. This restaurant cum shop was called Yes you guessed it- Baba's Chick-inn. Really how we improvise on the language. Anybody would think it was an inn with a chick.

So finally took her along wearing a skirt, short (unheard of in Jaipur).

 The chicken available here is tough after getting used to the Bombay variety. Thus the need for hunting out tender ones. Had heard of this variety.

It looks a shade more brown and as you can see my diary next to it, I was impatient to try it out no matter what. It was not so bad.