Green Curry with a Soul

Princess has now gone far away

From here now comes your way

A delicious dish to make you sway

For your days colorful or dull grey

This dish comes your way addressing the incessant demand for a good dish recipe
 from my fans!...That’s you my dear friends

Not feeling challenged enough after cooking all the simple dishes in my previous 
blogs. This one should raise the bar higher for you and give you a sense of 
accomplishment when done. Trust me on that.

Who say’s only the way to a man’s heart is through stomach…You guys ever tried cooking for that special girl in your life? You must try if you 
haven’t and try catching the look of admiration and acknowledgment of your care onher face. Don’t miss it, its precious. It takes a real man to impress a girl….here is your chance ;).

Nicholas Sparks says….“Love is like the wind, you can't see it but you can feel it.” ..
Maybe you can make her feel your love in the fragrance of the food you are 
cooking for her ;)

It’s amazing how quickly time flies and sometime you never know when the best 
times of your life came and went without even you realizing it….(Am I getting a little too philosophical?! J…let me stop)….However let’s get to cooking without wasting any more time..

I know my friends are all not alike, so here is a cooking instruction customized to 
suit all my friend profiles…..If you don’t fall in to one of these I’m sorry…But may be you can try to fit in…that’s what most of us do most days.. or at least expected to do..I don’t do very well in this department I guess ;)

For the hungry ones!!

If you are the hungry and impatient one….Make sure you have picked up frozen food from the super market on your way home from office and stocked it in the 
refrigerator…you could help yourself with some while you try my recipe and hopefully that will let you carry on or may be eat some small bites of American junk food which is available aplenty 
at a moment’s notice (or chat if you are in India…which is apparently healthier and tastier)…But good food like a good life needs patient efforts and optimism for the outcome ;)…make sure you’ve also got some green fibrous vegetables…..see you soon in 
cooking section before you get hungry again ;)

The boring ones!!

Hmmm…I know you don’t want to belong to this category. But come on, let’s be honest 
here, no one is going to know it anyway………………………………

Did you already accept you are in this category?!....I congratulate you on your courage and honesty; you will do well in life.

Have someone pick up some green fibrous vegetables and deliver it to your
 home, while you are leaning on the sofa and watching that baseball came 
without caring for the outcome.

 We will soon get to the steps to cook… But you should promise me that you 
wouldn't leave it halfway….Nothing more wasted than a half hearted effort and purposeless action...Proof of the pudding is in the eating & if you are not eating 
at the end…..what the heck were you doing anyway? ;) 

The excited ones!!

I love you guys as I don’t have to put extra effort to get you interested in my 
blog and you will read it anyway. You make me feel so secure ;)….I promise you that this recipe will have no impact on your excitement level and it might even raise it further…(Don’t lose control ;)….So, without losing excitement…run to the grocery nearby and pick up some green fibrous vegetables and get 
ready for cooking..See you soon in the cooking section….

The mysterious ones!!

I really wish I could play your game without you by not telling the secret
 ingredient of the recipe J….. But that will make you only frustrated and 
abandon the cooking…. Have you noticed?! People who claim to be 
mysterious can often not handle it when others act mysterious towards them…So go ahead and stay mysterious but do try your hand at this recipe…Make sure you’ve got those green fibrous veggies in your own mysterious ways..
Only the quality of the veggie matters not the way you get it ;) 

The intellectual & philosophical ones!!

When I say intellectual, I don’t mean you have a high GRE score, top university 
or a great job. I mean you have the capacity and patience to understand 
another human being, that you do not judge people too fast and you realize 
that people are different and together than can be better without trying to be 
the same….If you do, you are precious, because you are rare….there are so 
few in this category..

I realized a truth of life when I visited a Thai restaurant recently. They had this 
extremely tasty and colorful recipe “The Thai Green Curry”…..And it’s aroma was simply out of the world…..I appreciate such good things in life and I decided to
 speak to the Chef on how he did so well…..What the Chef told me was like an 
eye opener...The Chef said …”Child, the key to cooking great food is this, you never lose the taste of the main ingredient while you enhance the appeal of the food with additional ingredients, you should never try to make a mushroom taste like 
chicken”..

So I started thinking, how true this is about us humans. Especially in relationships 
people call love, where it becomes a literal power struggle with each person trying
 to convert the other person to his or her taste. We don’t have to do that right?.... All you've got to do is enhance the life of the person in a positive way while allowing 
that person to be himself or herself…

Okay, was that a little philosophical? J….Let’s get over it and get to cooking..
You are intellectual and you should know how to get the green fibrous veggies
 to your kitchen. We will get to cooking soon.

The Lucky ones!!

If you are telling me now…”Hey, why are you boring me with philosophy, I have all I need in life without any of your philosophy and I am the happiest person on earth”…Then you are the Lucky One…Not many of you exist on this planet ..so go ahead and feel even more lucky and 
happy J….By luck the fibrous veggies we need may even automatically appear on your door step…Hey, you are the lucky one!!!

The Cooking 

For those of you visionaries who like to begin with the end in mind; here is the 
picture of what the dish is going to look like. A true master piece you say?!...
I accept your congratulations with all humility ;)

The Ingredients:

· 1 can of (13.66 ounces) Thai Kitchen Coconut Milk [milliliter to ounce – what a transformation this US has caused me!]

· 1 cup vegetable stock* or water 

· 1/4 cup basil leaves, chopped

· 2 tablespoons brown sugar

· 1 to 4 tablespoons Thai Kitchen Green Curry Paste (You get in most super
 markets. Don’t worry about its contents.  It’s all edible :P )

· 2 teaspoons salt

· 2 to 3 cups assorted cut-up vegetables, such as red bell pepper, zucchini and peas  (Anything or 
everything... Jo bhi Mann me aata hai…Marzi hai aap ki, aakhir dish hai aapka J )

Take a pan.. Add 2-3 spoons of oil or ghee.. Add basil leaves, vegetables, and all the 
ingradients mentioned above .. Stir it well for about 5 minutes and simmer 15 
mins till coconut milk boils.. That’s all….. It’s a magic :D

You can eat it with rice.... Or anything you wish….. (Remember, anything is
 different from everything ;))))

I just gave build up initially saying it takes time ... You can flaunt to your special 
ones that you have prepared Green Curry Paste too ... Just make sure the 
container has reached the trash and is not visible anywhere around, when you 
are telling this wet lie.. Hey, I hope this helps you score a few brownie points …Be a real man, go ahead and invite her for lunch (you might be too impatient if its 
dinner ;)….  

Adios till my next blog…If you live nearby do call me when you cook J

Crunchy Cookies

Did you miss me?!! :)

Sorry...Princess (that's me if you forgot ;)) was busy going around her kingdom addressing people's grievances ..Finally she got time to get to her blog....Do you have any grievance by the way? ;)...Please handle it yourself if you do...I expect independence and self reliance from all..I also expect all  to be genius..

What is genius?.... Genius is some one with exceptional abilities..."Are you asking in what? ;)....Well everyone has their chosen field of genius... .Please dont tell anyone ;)"

Here is a quote on genius I like ... “Any fool can make something complicated. It takes a genius to make it simple.” 

I must be a genius....I've been giving you so many simple dishes, which even you can make without any complication ;)

 .Here I bring to you another product of my genius....Enjoy...This time it is Crunchy Cookies

The ingredients to my dish can be found in any corner of the earth........... I see you are thinking...Well.. Stop searching.. . .earth is round  ;)...See ...I knew you were a genius...;)

Okay....Just go get these ingredients listed below from the nearby grocery or just order it from  ebay.com, if you don't feel like leaving your house (Arrey, ghar mein aise kya rakha hai....or is it....ghar ke ander aise kis ko rakha hai? ;))

1. Maida -1 cup
2. Dalda -1cup (Replacement :: Butter is Better)
3. Sugar powder -1cup
4. Baking powder -1 pinch
5. Almonds, Cashew nuts (To give Crunch to cookies)
6. chocolate flakes (Dairy milk would do which comes with the song... Kisssmeeee Close your eyes, Miss Me.. Close your Eyes.. Kisss meeee)

Do not feel bad that the list is short....Princess has recently realized that a shorter list is easier to manage and provides better results...

And here are the steps to prepare

1 . Melt dalda in a pan add sugar powder and a pinch of baking soda.
2.  Stir the syrup nicely till it starts thickening a bit.
3.  Slowly add maida to the syrup and keep mixing till the mixture thickens to the consistency of chapati dough.
4.  Make them disk shaped each with radius 2 cms and 1/2 cms thickness. Garnish it with nuts.
5. Bake the same in oven or in empty cooker with a thick bottom container kept inverted in cooker so the cookies placed on it get baked in exactly 10 mins in low flame. Don't forget to close the cooker lid.

Open and check now....Mazedar Cruchy Cookies ready to eat.. ahhh ahh... wait.. lets give some romantic touch by decorating it with chocolate... and  sing a song Kiss mee.... closse your eyes.. miss me..(.Not sure if the person misses you :P , but misses cookies for sure)

I should tell this to Amitabh bachhan...he seems to be eating lousy gold star cookies these days ;)

Here is a Cookies joke before I end this.. "I want you always smiling yaar ;)...."You ask why?  ....Didn't you know I am a big fan of scary movies? "

"The children were lined up in the cafeteria of a Catholic elementary school for lunch.
At the head of the table was a large pile of apples.
The nun made a note, and posted on the apple tray: "Take only ONE. God is watching."

Moving further along the lunch line, at the other end of the table was a large pile of chocolate chip cookies.
A child had written a note, "Take all you want. God is watching the apples."

Laddoos

Brahma for creation & Shiva for destruction, Hot summers & Cold winters, Beautiful (e.g. Me) & Ugly, Smart (e.g. Me again) & Dumb,  Happiness & Sadness, Pleasure & Pain, Success & Failure, Hope & Despair, Birth & Death....God has balanced the universe well...

And coming to dishes we have Easy and Difficult dishes. Did you feel my earlier dishes were difficult? :) Let me balance it out with this easy dish.

You know Newton's laws..How can you not know? :) Remember the number of jokes made around it in college? :).... Here is one for old times sake..

First law: A boy in love with a girl, continue to be in love with her and a girl in love with a boy, continue to be in love with him, until on unless any external agent(brother or father of the gal) comes into play and break the legs of the boy.

Second law: The rate of change of intensity of love of a girl towards a boy is directly proportional to the instantaneous bank balance of the boy and the direction of this love is same to as increment or decrements of the bank balance.

Third law: The force applied while proposing a girl by a boy is equal and opposite
to the force applied by the girl while using her sandals

I however like this Einstein's law joke better :)

"Love can neither be created nor be destroyed, it can only be transferred from one boy/girl friend to another" ;)

Anyway Princess's third law is this...For every Difficult dish in Princessownkitchen there is an Easy dish

Less is good sometimes in life....Less worries, Less forced responsibilities, Less fears, Less guilt, Less work in office :) & some other times more is good....More money in pocket, More choices in life, More knowledge in profession, More things to hope for in life

Today however we are trying to balance in favor of the less side and for this you need very less number of ingredients..The list below..

1. Roasted dalia -1cup 
2. Sugar-powdered-1/2- cup
3. Ghee- 1/4 cup
4. Cardamom powder- 1/4 spoon
5. Cashew- 10
6. Turmeric powder- pinch

And here are the easy steps :)

1. Grind Roasted Dalia into fine powder. (Not necessarily as fine as Ponds.. please remember its not for face...I really love guys who apply powder on their face :).. can avoid them without second thought :)) 
2. Add Powdered sugar and cardamom powder along with crushed cashews (Adds Sweetness, essence  and taste required )
3. Turmeric powder to enrich the color ( Looks are important to cheat ;) .. Gore rang pe fida kitne ladke ... Jo aaj kal bangalore ke galiyom me bhadke :))
4. Heat the ghee and add it slowly by stirring the mixture ( Ghee is a bonding agent -- Kuch zyada chipak gaye to aazad na ho paoge...zara sambhalke mere dost!! :) ) 
5. Mix everything well  till it becomes soft and and start pressing it with hands giving a marble shape (small & round)

And there you go ...You easy bhi and Tasty bhi dish is ready... My dish is most like a "Perfect Wife"... Sweet, Soft , Beautiful with Lots of love and bonding ..  "Perfect Wife" might be a myth but my dish is real...So better spend time on this than that ;)

Dedicated to all bachelors.... Enjoy ;)

Bread Wahi Sang Dahi

Hello folks, how you've all been? Its been a while.

This time Princess (that's me ;)) has come up with a dish that even you can make easily. Its soo simple & its soo tasty. Just takes a few minutes of your not so valuable time and doesn't consume many CPU cycles of your brain. I dont want to overload your processor incase its already overloaded  or slow.

It is weekend, you have no idea what to do with it, the restaurant next door is closed and all that you are left with is yesterday's bread and a refrigerator with just curd. Ohh!!! how depressing.

Come on dude... Switch off that sad hindi song now...haven't you heard the saying?...Life is all about making the best out of what you've got.... So what you've got? ;) ....Ofcourse...you've got Bread and Curd :)..and how you make the best out of it?!...You read my blog and make Bread on Curd :)

So get started now... Aaj kuch alag karte hain ;)

Elements

If you don't have those just borrow it from the aunty next door :)

• Bread slices-2 
• Salt
• Jeera powder -1/4th spoon
• Sugar- 1/2th spoon
• Coriander powder -1/4 th spoon
• Red Chili powder-1/4 th spoon
• Chat powder -1/4th spoon
• Curds- 1 cup

Cooking

• Remove edges from  bread slices and keep them aside
• Churn curds till it gets smooth without adding water. 
• Add all the powders mentioned above in the right quantities and mix it well.
• Dip the bread in the solution we just prepared and put it in a bowl.
• Put the rest of the curds remaining on top of it and leave the bread to absorb the curd for 5-10 minutes.
• Garnish with mixture, slices of green chilli's  along with coriander leaves and serve cool.
• And Yes....Throw away the edges you cut and kept aside safely...else you may have an ant problem ;)

Got a guest?! ....Get started with another two slices of bread  and feed her/him your masterpiece too...and just stay home...waise bhi bahar jakke kya karne wale ho :p you can't go wrong with this one ;)..Enjoy Madi..

Kolkotte

     Princess is back in action. This time with her most favorite delicious dish which she thinks everybody should learn, prepare and eat and stay healthy and happy in her kingdom.

It is so easy to find the following Ingredients in the prosperous kingdom where princess lives.

1.     Urad dal -2 cup

2.     Ginger garlic paste-1 spoon

3.     Grated coconut-1/4th cup

4.     Grated carrot- 1/4th cup

5.     Green Chili-6

6.     Chopped onion-1

7.     Soda powder- 1/4th spoon

8.     Bombay rava-1/2 cup

9.     Maida flour-1/2 cup

10. Chopped coriander leaves- 1/2 cup

11. Salt

FAQ:: 
What to do with Maida?

Maida is mainly for preparing outer covering. so just put little salt and water and make a dough like chapati's and keep it aside.

What to do with other ingredients?

Soak urad dal in water for 4 hours. mean while u can go watch the TV. can easily cover 2 movies in that time. Ice age seems to be better option here. ;)

1.... 2.... 3..... finally 4 hours over. Now we have soft urad dal ready.

Grind soaked dal with chilies, ginger and garlic  to turn it into a fine paste. Just make sure batter is thicker than the one we prepare for idli .

Mix up all the ingredients listed above except Maida (we already have something to do with  Maida  )with the fine paste we just prepared and keep it for 15 mins. This is very much essential to soften rava we have  mixed.

How to prepare Maida leaves?

Let us go back to Maida. Make small chunks of Maida and roll them like chapati but to an elliptical shape. Make them as thin as possible. Let me give the proper size.. Distance between foci is 6 cms and keep semi major axis 5 cms.

How to bake the great dish?

Take the leaf you have just rolled and put a spoon or two of the mixture into it and  fold the leaves around the mixture. Cook in steam for 7-10 minutes.

How to Beautify?

Garnish with carrot and coriander leaves .. may be like the national flag or as i have shown in the picture 

How to EAT?

You know it :) but enrich the taste with coconut chatni

Cashew cutlet

Here I am going to teach you a dish
Will make come true your hearts wish
This will make your hunger go amiss
And you will feel life's truest bliss :)


Princess was in hibernation for a while... In fact she was on a trip the himalayas to get mental peace and to get enlightened. And what she learned was, there is nothing better in life than eating good hot food. So here I am to present my new favourite... Cashew Cutlet. Ready to try it out?... Go for it...

Go get these ingredients - Dus Ka Dum :)

1.     Potato-2

2.     Bread crumbs -1 cup

3.     Cashew pieces-1/2 cup

4.     Salt

5.     Garam masala powder-1/4 spoon

6.     Chilli-4( crushed)

7.     Jeera powder-1/2 spoon

8.     Salt

9.     Carrot and beans- 1/2 cup chopped

10. Lots of oil to fry

   Okay... Got the ingredients?.....We are all set to start cooking now. But let me warn you if you are planning to invite guests...These cutlets are assured to fly off the plates really fast...so double the ingredients if you think you should..

1.     Boil potatoes in water and peel the skin and grate it

2.     Shallow fry  chopped carrot and beans till they beak in low flame

3.     Mix these with smashed or grated potatoes along with bread crumbs , add salt cashew pieces, garam masala, pasted chili, jeera powder and mix well till it gets consistency  of Roti dough.

4.     Then make them cylindrical( or any )shape and dip them in bread crumbs and fry in oil

5.     Take them out of the oil when it becomes golden brown and wipe it with tissue paper

Woww.. that was easy wasn't it? :) ....minimum effort maximum returns....You have the beautiful golden brown Cashew Cutlet ready. ....Enjoy eating :)

Mango Mufali

Here is a dish for the Aam Janatha.... We the Mango people..

Now  you may ask, how can the princess be Aam Janatha?!!... What to do? :) Princess's obvious love is for the King.... and Aam is the king of fruits? :)

Mango is truly Indian fruit.. Dil Hai Hindustani!!!... In fact the name Mango originated from the Tamil word for Mango - Mangai

Do you remember Binomial Nomenclature? Remember the scientist Carolus Linnaeus? Who unified the entire human family in to a single genus and species.. Though I sometimes wonder if some of you are of a different species!! :)

Anyway, the scientific name of Mango is Mangifera Indica - It belongs to the same family as Tata Indica :) ha ha ha ....Please laugh at my great joke :)

Now my dear Homo Sapiens.. get ready to cook.. Go get these ingredients.

• Grated Raw mango - 1 cup (Boosts memory - only memory ;) - and keep cells active .. you can remain young and evergreen  always.. )
• Red chili - 6 ( I have one interesting fact to tell about red chili which is not usually know. On being bitten by  snake-if the snake is not poisonous , red chili will not taste bitter. Red chillies will kill the poison. So better test the ability of the snake with red chili:) )
• Salt (Anjalina Jolie is named Salt in a movie, which is also called Salt. I know many of you would prefer to have Salt in dinner ;))
• Grated coconut – 1 cup. (This maintains electrolyte balance. Please don't expect me to explain what is electrolysis now :) )
• Mustard seeds - 1 spoon
• Fenugreek  (Methi ) seeds-2 spoons— Be careful using it.. its reduced sweetness in you ;). Btw, how to measure ones sweetness?! ;) )
• Garlic –8-10 cloves. .   (Powerful antibiotic, antiviral and anti fungal - but not sold in medical shops ;))
• Puffed Channa - 3 spoons (just  for taste folks)
• Turmeric powder - 1/2 spoon (The only component  Curcumin in it helps in beating as well as controlling one of the most deadly diseases known to human kind: cancer)
• Jaggery - 2 spoons (High protein, iron, vitamin and mineral content)

That’s all you need to  prepare mango mufali…. But Procedure is quite difficult and long.

.. ok now

Take a deep breath. Lets start.. I don wanna scare you with a long running procedure.. but what to do…  i don wanna  demotivate  you either.  So let me keep it as simple as possible.

Procedure:

                Take everything and grind it into paste J its ready