Dream World: March 2013

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Parota With Chicken Chalna/Gravy

Parota

Ingredients:

Maida/All purpose flour – 5cups

Salt – as required

Sugar – 1 tsp

Water – as required

Oil – ½ cup

Method:
♥ Knead the flour with added salt, sugar and water until they become soft dough.

♥ Divide the dough into lemon size balls and add ½ cup oil.

♥ Soak the dough balls in oil for 8hrs.
♥ Then apply oil in the surface or on a polythene paper and roll the dough ball very thinly.

♥ Now take the rolled dough from one corner and fold it into swivel shape as below.

♥ Then again press the dough with hand or roller slightly.

♥ Now heat the pan and place the rolled dough in the pan and add little oil around to cook.

♥ Turn the dough in the pan until it is evenly cooked.

♥ Now take the parota and press it slightly in the edges with the palms.

♥ Now parota is ready.

Chicken chalna 1

Ingredients:

Chicken – ½ kg

Chopped Onions – 2 nos

Chopped Tomatoes – 2 nos

Cumin powder – 1 tsp

Turmeric powder – ½ tsp

Ginger/Garlic paste – 1 tsp

Chilli powder – 3 tsp

Coriander Powder – 1 tsp

Oil – 1tbsp

Coconut – 1 cup

Cashews – 50 gms

Method:

♥ Heat the oil in a pressure cooker.

♥ Add the chopped onions and little salt and saute it well.

♥ Add ginger/garlic paste and saute until the raw smell disappears.

♥ Now add the chopped tomatoes and saute for two mins.

♥ Now add the chicken pieces.

♥ Keep stirring till the water evaporates.
♥ Then add turmeric powder, chilli powder, cumin powder, coriander powder and a cup of water and salt.

♥ Close the lid and pressure cook it for 10 mins in a medium flame.

♥ Now switch off the stove.

♥ Open the cooker after the pressure releases.

♥ Grind the coconut and cashew into thick paste.
♥ Add the paste into the chalna in cooker and keep it in low flame for 10 mins.

♥ Serve hot with Parotas.

Chicken chalna 2 (Hotel style)

Ingredients:

Chicken – ½ kg

Chopped onions – 2 nos

Chopped tomato – 2 nos
Ginger/Garlic paste – 2 tsp

Turmeric powder – 1 tsp

Dry chilly – 8 nos

Coriander seeds – 1 tsp

Poppy seeds – 2 tsp

Cinnamon stick – 1 stick

Cloves – 2 nos

Cardamom – 2 nos

Coconut milk – 1 cup

Oil – 1 tbsp

Curry Leaves – few strands

Coriander leaves – for garnishing

Salt – as required

Method:
♥ Heat the pan and add dry chillies, coriander seeds, poppy seeds, cinnamon stick and cloves and fry it.

♥ Grind all the fried items and make a fine powder.

♥ Heat oil in a frying pan, add and fry the chopped onions till it turns slightly brown color.
♥ Then add chopped tomatoes, ginger/garlic paste, curry leaves and saute.

♥ Add the chicken, turmeric powder and salt, saute for 2 minutes.

♥ Now add 2 cups water.

♥ Keep it in slow flame till the chicken is cooked.

♥ Add coconut milk and cook for 2 minutes.

♥ Garnish with coriander leaves.

♥ Serve hot with parota.

Important Lesson Of Life

I seriously don’t get to know what’s going on with the people around me. When I try to be away from them, they come closer to me and make me feel that they are the best of all buddies I have. So when I conclude they are different and be there for them when they need me, they slowly move away from me. I am fed up of the people who remember me only when they need a help. I know that everything will come to an end one day, but I never thought it will happen very soon. One day they are good, the other day they just flip. If they don’t really want me to be with them, then why they make me feel I am so much important to them? It hurts a lot to see even a small change in the people’s behavior whom I used to know very longer. They have no time for me rather they have their own special category friends list where I do not stand. I try my best not to hurt them in the same way they did to me. So I forget how they moved away from me for days and months and be still for them when they come back again to me while they feel alone without any. I really want my heart to be okay and not to care when they exclude me. But it’s very hard for my heart to understand the reality as my mind do. Step by step I am learning to move on with my life with hope and decided not to dependent on anyone and don’t let anyone to come into my life completely until they are proved to deserve my friendship.

A Little Berry Adventures

Once there lived a farmer and his wife in a village. They have no child for many years. One day the farmer’s wife went to market and bought some turkey berries for cooking. While she was cutting the berries, one berry escaped from the group and hide behind the doors. It started to cry that not to cut and kill it. It said “Please don’t kill me, I will be your child as you don’t have one”. The farmer’s wife wondered because the berry is alive and talking too. She pitied the berry and accepted it as her child.

The berry helped its mother in doing all household works. It sweep, cleaned the house and washed the vessels. The mother was very happy to have it as her child. Then she took the lunchbox to the farmer in the field. The berry said, “Maa, don’t leave me alone, I am afraid”. She said, “I am taking lunch to your father who is working in the field”. The berry jumped in joy and told, “Today I will take the lunchbox to paa”.

The berry carried the lunchbox on its head and started to walk towards the field. On the way, all the villagers were surprised on seeing a lunchbox moving in streets. The berry reached the field and went near the farmer with the lunchbox. “Paa Paa, your lunch”, said the berry. Farmer was shocked and asked, “Who is talking?” The berry replied, “Paa see under the lunchbox, am berry your child, brought lunch for you” and it explained all the things happened before.

And the farmer too accepted the berry as his child. One day the berry saw two thieves counting the stolen money near the field. It shouts, “Who are you? What are you doing here?” As the berry is so small, the thieves were afraid that there is a ghost in the field making noise and ran from there leaving the money and jewels. The berry took the money and jewels to the farmer and they became rich.

Another day they travel to the near by village by bullock cart. When the sun was about to set, they decided to stay under a tree for rest. The berry made special arrangements for their safety. It placed some ants in the money box, tied a donkey near their things and placed a wooden stick near them before sleep.

At night the thieves tried to take the money and the ants bite them so they leave the money box and tried to take the things and got kicks from the donkey. On hearing the sound, the berry woke up and beat the thieves with the wooden stick and they ran away.

One day the berry asked its mom to make dumplings to eat. So she started to cook the dumplings. She checked often by removing the lid of the cooker whether the dumplings are cooked. But the dumplings are raw as it is, without cooked. So, the mom asked, “Dumplings, dumplings why are you not cooked yet?” The dumplings replied, “There was a straw on me so am not cooked”. The mom asked, “Straw, straw why did you fall on the dumplings?” The straw replied, “The cow dint eat me, so I fall”. The mom asked, “Cow, cow why dint you eat the straw?” The cow said, “The milkman dint milk me yet, so I dint eat”. The mom asked, “Milkman, milkman why dint you milk the cow?” The milkman said, “My wife dint serve me food, so I dint milk the cow”. The mom asked, “ Wife, wife why dint you serve food?” The wife said, “My baby cried, so I dint serve”. The mom asked, “Baby, baby why did you cried?” The baby said, “An ant bitten me, so I cried”. The mom asked, “Ant, ant why did you bite the baby?” The ant angrily replied, “The baby put its finger into my nose, so I bite”. Then the mom applied medicine to ant and ant said sorry to the baby, baby stopped crying, wife served food, milkman milked the cow and the cow ate the straw. So the dumplings are cooked. The berry ate the dumplings. The farmer, his wife and the berry lived happily ever after.

P.S: This Story was told by mom when i was a little kid. The turkey berry(solanum torvum) is called sundakkai in tamil which is very bitter in taste. It is also known as Devil's Fig, Prickly Nightshade, Shoo-shoo Bush, Wild Eggplant, Pea Eggplant, Pea Aubergine, susumba, boo, terongan, tekokak, berenjena cimarrona, berenjena de gallina, berenjena silvestre, tabacón, pendejera, tomatillo, bâtard balengène, zamorette, friega-platos, Thibbatu(Sinhala), makhua phuang(Thai)

Heart Feelings 9

In life you may learn

many lessons that give

you wisdom, power and

strengthen your heart.

But the most important

lesson that everyone must

learn is to Forgive and Forget

the bad moments

they passed through.

Forgive is to make your soul pure

and forget is to make

your happiness opened up.

Without these two,

no one can win and

live the life to the fullest in this world.

Wash your heart with purity

and enhance your life with happiness.

Learn and teach the art of “Forgive & Forget”

She Is A Girl

She is a girl with a strongest heart,

Hides behind a fake smile is her regular art,

She is a girl who loves to sing,

With a mind that goes up in a swing,

She is a girl who hides her fears,

Have eyes so dry left out tears,

She is a girl who will make your world better,

Even the life closes her path with shutter,

She is a girl with full of faith and hopes,

When her fate drives to a deeper slope,

She is a girl who never give up on her life,

After facing so many backstabs with knife,

She is a girl who have a fairy tale,

Waiting to come true without fail,

She is a girl who is different from the rest,

Trying so hard to bring out the best,

She is a girl who stays honest and loyal to her ones,

Though she was cheated, played and fed up in tons,

Don’t be so wonder after all,

She achieves because she is a “Girl”

Finding Peace

Have you experienced your mind always talk to you non stop? And you tried to calm it down and you failed? Why is it? The reason is that we have a mind that is conditioned to always be active. To experience silence you need to have an extremely quiet and sensitive mind. Shutting down the mental noise means inner peace.

Why Peace is important?

Peace is something that everybody would like to reach and its not something new. Peace is a state of non-suffering as well as a celebration of life. Peace begins in mind. If you want to live peacefully you have to start working on calming the restlessness of mind. All negative things like fights, quarrels and problems can be avoided through peace.

To achieve peace, one has to have a humble heart, fellow feelings, clear thoughts, positive thinking, strong will power, balanced attitude towards life and relationships.

As how the peace is important for individuals its important for the society, countries and world too. One should have peace and politeness in everything they do because peace lives in everything. Only thing needed is we have to find it, know it and understand it within ourselves.

Let the true love flow in us, for we are one. We must put an end to war, hatred and learn to love each other and do the right thing at right time or god will put an end to us. Lets commit to peaceful actions, peaceful thoughts, peaceful visions. Lets see a collective vision of peace on earth all together now. Spread peace everywhere