In My Hands Today…

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The River of Lost Foodsteps: Histories of Burma – Thant Myint U

For nearly two decades Western governments and a growing activist community have been frustrated in their attempts to bring about a freer and more democratic Burma – through sanctions and tourist boycotts – only to see an apparent slide towards even harsher dictatorship. But what do we really know about Burma and its history? And what can Burma’s past tell us about the present – and even its future?

In The River of Lost Footsteps, Thant Myint-U tells the story of modern Burma, in part through a telling of his own family’s history, in an interwoven narrative that  is by turns lyrical, dramatic, and appalling. His maternal grandfather, U Thant, rose from being the schoolmaster of a small town in the Irrawaddy Delta to become the UN secretary-general in the 1960s. And on his father’s side, the author is descended from a long line of courtiers who served at Burma’s Court of Ava for nearly two centuries. Through their stories and others, he portrays Burma’s rise and decline in the modern world, from the time of Portuguese pirates and renegade Mughal princes through the decades of British colonialism, the devastation of World War II, and a sixty-year civil war that continues today and is the longest-running war anywhere in the world. The River of Lost Footsteps is a work both personal and global, a distinctive contribution that makes Burma accessible and enthralling.

In My Hands Today…

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Only Time Will Tell – Jeffrey Archer

The Clifton Chronicles is Jeffrey Archer’s most ambitious work in four decades as an international best-selling author.

The epic tale of Harry Clifton’s life begins in 1919, in the back streets of Bristol. His father was a war hero, but it will be twenty-one tumultuous years before Harry discovers the truth about how his father really died and if, in fact, he even was his father.

Only Time Will Tell takes a cast of memorable characters from the ravages of the Great War to the outbreak of the Second World War, when Harry must decide whether to take his place at Oxford, or join the fight against Hitler’s Germany.

In Jeffrey Archer’s masterful hands, you will be taken on a journey that you won’t want to end, even after you turn the last page of this unforgettable yarn, because you’ll be faced with a dilemma that neither you, nor Harry Clifton could ever have anticipated.

Pulao/Biryani With A Twist

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I recently read somewhere in the Internet about the street foods in Mumbai and that started a nostalgic tone for me. I love the street food that Mumbai has to offer, be it vada pav, or the ubiquitous bhel puri, sev puri and pani puri or Mumbai’s very own pav bhaji. Vendors who sell this yummy dish also make a rice dish with the vegetables that go into the bhaji making a fairly different type of pulao/biryani. This pulao is therefore inspired by the pav bhaji pulao.

Pulao/Biryani with a Twist

Ingredients:

  • 11/2 cups basmati rice, washed and soaked for atleast 20 minutes
  • 2 medium sized onions, chopped finely
  • 1 fairly big potato, peeled and cubed into bite-sized pieces
  • 1 carrot, peeled and cubed into bite sized pieces
  • 1/2 cup frozen green peas
  • 1 green capsicum, cut into bite-sized pieces
  • 4 medium sized tomatoes, finely chopped
  • 2 flakes of garlic, finely chopped
  • 1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and finely chopped
  • 1 tsp cumin seeds
  • 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
  • 1 tsp (or more) red chilli powder
  • 1 tsp cumin seed powder
  • 1 tsp coriander seed powder
  • 2 tsps (or more) pav bhaji masala
  • 1 tsp sabzi masala (optional)
  • Salt to taste
  • 2 tbsps oil

Method:
Heat oil in a pan and when it is fairly hot, put in the cumin seeds. When it splutters, add the garlic, stir for a few seconds, then add the ginger and give it a quick stir.

Next, add the onions, capsicum, carrots, peas and potatoes in the following order making sure you give a quick stir before you add the next vegetable. Now add the tomatoes and the spices and stir well. Once all the vegetables have been nicely coated with the spices, add the rice from which the water has been completely drained.

Stir and let the rice mix well with the vegetables and let it cook for a couple of minutes.

Now transfer everything to a rice cooker, add around 2.5 cups of water and let it cook.

When the rice is done, keep it covered for another 10 minutes, then fluff lightly with a fork, garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot.

Paneer in a Minty Yoghurt Sauce

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I’ve been on a roll recently and have been experimenting a lot in the kitchen. Hope this continues on after I’m done being a career woman and started my break. Today’s recipe is a variation on a standard paneer recipe that I tweaked. Everyone in my home, especially BB love paneer and I make some sort of paneer recipe atleast twice a month. The result was this delicious paneer in a minty yoghurt sauce.

Paneer in a Minty Yoghurt Sauce

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups frozen paneer, (cubed if not already done so)
  • 2 medium sized onions
  • 2 medium sized tomatoes
  • 3 flakes garlic
  • 1 inch size ginger
  • 3 fresh green chillies
  • 1/2 cup mint leaves
  • 2 cups yoghurt
  • 2 tbsps kasoori methi (dried fenugreek leaves)
  • 2 tsps oil
  • 1 tsp cumin seeds
  • salt to taste
  • 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
  • 2 tsps sabzi masala (I used Everest)
  • Coriander to garnish

Method:

Put the frozen paneer in a largish dish and pour hot water over it to soften it. This will take around 10 minutes. You can do the other prep work while the paneer softens.

In a grinder/blender zip the following ingredients and make it into as smooth a paste as you can – garlic, ginger, onions, tomatoes, green chillies, mint. You can use some of the yoghurt instead of water if you need.

Heat oil in a pan and when it is hot enough add the cumin seeds. When the seeds splutter,  put in the turmeric powder and then pour in the blended paste and let it cook for a while. When the paste is cooked and starts leaving the sides of the pan, add the paneer and turn a few times to make sure all the paneer pieces are coated with the paste. Now add some more yoghurt to this (as thin as you like it to be) and then lightly crush the kasoori methi in your palms and add it to the mixture. Add salt to taste and the sabzi masala and let the mixture bubble well.

Transfer to a serving bowl, garnish with coriander leaves and eat with rice or rotis.

Verdict: The recipe was a bit different due to the mint added which gave a slight minty taste to the paneer. Good to eat with pulao and rotis, but if I was going to eat it with rotis, I would make it a bit more thicker that I made it today. Definitely something to try again.

I finally did i…

Aside

I finally did it! After months of agonising over it, I took a huge – and I mean a really HUGE leap of faith and did it on Monday. What did I just do? Well, I resigned from my current employer without having a new one all lined up. This is the first time in my career that I’ve done this. And it seems not a moment too soon. My domestic helper who returned back from her holiday after unexpectedly getting married has been giving me so many problems. Today she crossed all limits. She likes to dish out insults to me all the time, but will not take anything. So I’ve decided to terminate her services and send her back to let her transfer to another employer.

So now I’ve to review what I want to do in life plus search a new helper. Wish me luck…