Dinner time heaven

Did not want to eat out or order in. Made some spiced rice stuffed in red bell pepper, grilled cottage cheese in chinese spice and sesame seed oil . Just the pics. If anyone asks I will post the recipe.

The home has a nice fragrance of a slow roasting bell pepper, whips up quite some hunger. What a Sunday this has been.

Spiced Rice

Cottage Cheese ( Paneer ) grilled in Sesame Seed Oil and Chinese Spice Mix

Rust colored chunks

Done Perfect

Red Bell Pepper Stuffed with spiced rice being grilled

Nice!

Trust me this tastes Fab!

 Maybe I should just turn this into a food blog :)

Cooking is good for the soul

Here is a breakfast that is good for the soul, stomach and tongue. Just because your missus, kid and mom went off on a holiday to three different locations does not mean you have to depend on omlettes and bread or cardboard cheese sandwich at the local cafe.

You do need to have a bit of the following in your home first.

1. Two cups of macaroni / penne / linguine pasta. I used the whole wheat brown spagetti.
2. Extra virgin olive oil as per requirements
3. Salt - half a tea spoon - or according to taste - use less and adjust
4. Half a tea spoon pepper corns freshly ground - if using packed variety, please roast it to release the peppery aroma :)
5. Mushroom - supermarket variety - sliced very thin - about 5
6. Lime / Lemon juice - half a lemon / lime
7. Lemon / Lime rind - use a common steel grater available in any Indian kitchen and carefully scrape the green part of the lemon, white part is bitter - use half the lime / lemon. This gives a really great flavour and aroma
8. One very large garlic pod. or three small garlic pods chopped / minced fine - really really fine
9. About 8 stalks of coriander leaves chopped fine. Italians use parsley, we use kothimbir.
10. Cheese cube - amul is fine - or parmesan - grated

Boil some water in a pot, add a teaspoon of salt and two teaspoon of olive oil. When the water starts to bubble, toss in the pasta and cook as per instruction on the pack. Whole wheat linguine takes around ten minutes to cook.

Mix sliced mushroom, lime juice, olive oil, pepper, salt, minced garlic, lemon and rind, and chopped coriander while the pasta cooks. You can mix these upto an half hour before so that the flavours mix really well. When the pasta is cooked, take about half cup of the hot water and keep it aside. Now drain the pasta and do not rinse it with cold water like you normally do. Cover the mushroom mix with the pasta and let it be for 5 minutes. The heat from the pasta and the little water that gets into the bowl will cook the mushroom without it losing colour or taste. If the pasta mix is dry use some of the water you kept aside.

Toss well, sprinkle the cheese and eat with some green tea. It is good for the soul.

The original recipe is from Nigella Express show on TLC and I have just adapted it to Indian conditions.

The breakfast with the Sunday Hindustan Times was the best thing that anyone could get. Like I said, its good for the soul.

A mountain out of an Antilia

I have this intense desire to clobber anyone who has a problem with Antilia! Mukeshbhai has the money and like all people who have THE money and along with it the right to show off, he does too. It does not matter whether the building was designed by a bunch of designers using playdoh and lego bricks. Mukeshbhai likes it and that is all that matters.

I like what Salit Tripathi says in his Hubris of Height column in Mint - and I quote him with great relish :

"how Ambani should spend his money is entirely his business. Unlike Mayawati’s zeal to build statues and memorials at taxpayers’ expense, Ambani is at least financing his edifice complex from his own wealth. True, that money could have been put to other uses. Like Bill Gates, Ambani could have donated a large chunk of his wealth to fight an utterly treatable disease in India, such as cholera or diarrhoea, both less glamorous than the ones that captivate aid agencies. Or like Warren Buffett, he could have continued to earn his billions while passing his wealth to the Gates Foundation. Like George Soros, he could have funded advocacy groups. Closer home, like the Tatas, he could have contributed towards the building of academic institutions or a centre for the performing arts.

Instead, Ambani bought a flat—one far bigger than the standard 2BHK. In fact, he built a castle masquerading as an apartment: an in-your-face structure that stared down at the bungalows of older captains of industry, who had earlier built their fortunes in the city—from textiles, automobiles, shipping, trade. Step-by-step, Dhirubhai Ambani had climbed over them in the city’s pecking order; now Mukesh Ambani can literally look down upon them.

And fly over them. "

Whenever I see a large car the size of my bedroom go by on the very potholed Mumbai roads, I evaluate it in terms of what part of my flat could be bought with one of it's tyres: so far I have concluded that a BMW's spare tyre can fund my bathroom given the cost per sq feet in Mumbai.

I was amused this morning to read R Sukumar's Acute Angle in Mint ( R Sukumar is the editor )

He says Mukeshbhai is paying the price for being rich. :) Reminds me of old Amitabh movies where the seth was always fabulously rich!

Whatever the case maybe. Lets face it. Altamount Road has a new point of view and once Mukesh bhai shifts residence, everyone will look up and wonder what he does in there. Atleast he will not have to bother about "in how many steps does my house end"

Sorting my thoughts

Some smart arse googled me last month and found some stuff that is to the least politely put - obnoxious. These are people with rather low esteem of themselves - people who have been asked to step aside and hold that against me. The comments posted on every mention of me on the internet has caused me immense damage ( happy arse? ) and also lead to a quite resolve. To be vocal, with my thoughts and ideas and issues. Pushbuttonthinking and Alchemy of thoughts along with One More Verse became my reference points on the net. It gives me immense satisfaction to express myself. Kind of catharsis.

Sorting my thoughts

What is immediate, top of mind and personal, stuff that I want my friends to know come on Facebook in the various status messages and link I post. They are a mirror to who I am. My likes and dislikes.

Pushbuttonthinking is my diary. My long form, made for posterity notice board, where I write longish pieces on work, world, coffee shops, cakes, daughters, friends and books. In time I hope to be able to read through these posts and re-live frustrations and angst and joy that I went through. About moment of terrified loneliness.

Alchemy of Thoughts was to be a collablog - an effort that fell apart. A place for ideas on advertising, branding, building companies and startups. In time I hope to bring the collaborators back and persuade them to write again. It is time for them to speak up again.

One More Verse is my last collection. The poetry that never got printed. Jerry Pinto told me once that my work is shallow and that there are better writers out there. It made me stop writing fiction and poetry altogether. My loss entirely. It took a great deal of courage to put the work out in public. I shudder at the thought of someone reading it and telling me that its crap. ( please do comment nevertheless, I will survive )

The real reason for this post is to point out that there are organisations and individuals out there who will make a judgement about you by going through what google throws up in the first two pages of a search result. These things matter more to them than the person or his word. So when you see yourself from the eyes of that guy who is reading about you, what do you want him to know? Your ideas and your personalities or someone else's version of who you are? I want to be sure that when Tamara, my daughter reaches an age when she would google her father's name, she will get the real picture - a balanced viewpoint - with all the greys and the warts.

I admire people who have quitely made a name for themselves using social media. I will never be able to do what they do so well - sell themselves to a large buying audience.

Out of stock saar!

Have you ever visited the Crossword at Inorbit Malad? I go there atleast twice a month to stock up on books and movies. The store used to be huge atleast till 3 years ago, in recent times though it has been eaten into by the larger cousin Shopper's Stop. Try asking any of the sales assistants in there about a book or a CD and the standard answer will be out of stock saar! Archie Comics - out of stock, The Broker by Grisham - out of stock, Bipasha Health CD - out of stock ( don't ask why I wanted this one!).

On each occasion I spent the next half hour searching for the book and found it! And several copies of the same. When confronted, these guys do not even try to put up a semblance of interest. One of them muttered something under his breath and walked away. The supervisor is even better, he said it is not the job of the sales guy to find things for a customer but to assist in sales! Ah ok I said and paid and went away.

Regal shoes sold a pair of sandals and when the soles came off within a week, they refused to do anything about it till we raised our voices. After 4 months they gave a replacement. Their reason - once sold the good are the responsibility of the customer. The sales guy was more suited for extortion than serving the customer.

Almost two years ago I had been traveling with my then two year old and needed some warm milk. The Ginger Hotel in Baroda did not have a kitchen and the only option was to ask the onsite Cafe Coffee Day to give me some for which I was willing to pay. The barista at the counter refused to give me the milk saying it is against company rules. I explained to him why I wanted and presto a large takeaway cup of steaming milk was produced. He refused to accept payment saying he cannot take money for milk for a baby. I forgive all the barista's across all the CCDs combined for all their nastiness for that one act of kindness.

As a rule we in India do not expect any sort of service from anyone. We know when we spend money that we are on our own. Whether it is the cell phone service, the delivery boy or the society we live in we know that we can rant and scream and the effect is like that of water on a duck's back.

The fault must lie within us.

_________________________________________________________________________

I normally do not get shaken by suggestions of friends on how I can improve myself. Last week I was told gently that I should be less arrogant!!! Any suggestions on where I can start? Will plastic surgery work?

Saturday afternoon pangs

I escaped this morning to the refuge of the cafe to do some work. To think about the changes that have taken place in the last couple of months in life and career when my daughter realised that it was actually a saturday and I had promised her some fun and games. I was summoned back with the threat of being made to do some cruel things. Compromise solution was to make something she likes.

4 apples were skinned, cored and diced and then mixed with the juice of a lemon. A teaspoon of cardamom powder sprinkled on the apples and mixed well. Zest of another lime ( careful when you do this because, the white of the lime can be quite bitter) and some grated ginger was mixed with a finger of butter ( Amul will do fine, take a whole slab and cut off an inch worth of stick) and three table spoons of honey. Brisk mixing will give you a yummy creamy mix. Now toss the apples with the creamed sauce and bake them in a preheated ( 250 degree) over for 1 hour. Please remember to keep mixing the apples, stirring etc, else the ones at the top will blacked and char.

While the apples roast and cook. Take two cups of atta mix it with a quarter cup of sugar and a half tea spoon of baking powder, and use your fingers to run in the rest of the butter slab into it till it resembles a moist crumbly mix. Break in two eggs and mix it into a tight dough. Leave it in the vessel and pop it into the fridge to cool.

Once the apples are cooked and look like a jam, remove it from the oven and let it cool to room temperature. While the mix cools, take a oven proof non stick baking dish and using the fingers spread the chilled dough evenly along the inside of the dish. Spoon the apple mix over and spread evenly. Sprinkle evenly some apple pieces that have not been cooked, some cashew nuts. Use an egg yolk for an egg wash along the exposed dough and on the uncooked apples.

Pop it into the oven ( pre heated to 250 degrees ) for fifteen minutes. Cool and serve.

Let me know if your saturday afternoon pangs go away after this.

Seven inches is enough say the Blackberry Boys!

There its been finally said: All those guys and some gals who had a problem with the size of their equipment - the kind they flash in public and imagine they are getting 'the' looks for it - Seven inches is enough!! And it is endorsed by the all knowing guys at Research in Motion.

All this mine is bigger than your started the day the orginal bad boy of techies, Steve Jobs decided to justify the size of his new toy by calling all the others 'tweeners'. And boy did he get them annoyed.

Am sure we will very soon have the ones with bigger sizes clobbering the ones with smaller toys, all in the name of being ahead of the curve. While Apple, RIM, Google, Facebook make money off our need to conform to their distorted reality.

But then who am I to complain. I will merrily build things around all sizes and be happy with my E71.

And if you want entertainment read through this article which inspired me to post this comment