Bringing Up Coco...: Homemade

Showing posts with label Homemade. Show all posts

Monday, 6 July 2015

Glee, Thy Name Is Tea!

(Theme 2)

A blogger friend is very fond of tea, and she asks for a cup of tea whenever she comes home, and so I am very fond of her. Actually, I am bound to like someone who likes tea. I also love people who display their association with tea in any manner, for example in the following picture, because at once it is two things I love the most, tea and flowers. Though I am friends with people who love coffee and shun tea too. Doesn't matter. One has to have all sorts of friends.

We are a family of avid tea drinkers. Almost tea addicts (My husband calls me something which could be 'tea-holic' in english!) I am having tea since my teenage years, though I remember ginger-holy basil tea served to us kids whenever we got drenched in rain. I remember lemon tea was prepared at home for various reasons: The milk had gone bad, after a non-vegetarian meal when milk is not advisable, to feel refreshed after a heavy meal, to aid digestion (in combination with caraway seeds) etc.

Perfect day for a steaming cuppa!

I have hardly seen my father in the kitchen. When someone tells me about how their dad makes the best chicken curry or rustles up the greatest cheese omelette, I quietly listen and wonder. Once or twice I have witnessed how the kitchen turned upside down when my father was looking for a cookie box or was trying to find the sugar container, while the object of his search was right there. But, but... my father knows just the perfect recipe for lemon tea. The yummiest, most refreshing tea!

And why are we suddenly talking about tea? Because today when I was reading articles on spending quality time with family and family bonding in the family life section of rewardme.in, I suddenly remembered how I have bonded with friends and family over cups of tea, mostly with our shared love of tea. Surprisingly, rewardme.in also has this amazing write-up about mood altering teas in its time saver recipes section which made me nostalgic and I started missing my cup of lemon-tea like a long lost friend. Whether the lazy woman wants to kick herself out of her reverie and get going or whether she wants to calm herself and slink back to her lazy comfort, the most refreshing, tangy, fragrant lemon tea is there to her rescue. And how ~~do we~~ does my father prepare this magical concoction from heaven? In the following few simple steps:

1. Boil a cup of water with a teaspoon of sugar (or to your taste).
2. Meanwhile, squeeze half a lemon (or to your taste, again) in your teacup.
3. Just before removing the boiling water from heat, add a pinch (strictly, a pinch!) of your regular tea-leaf. Turn off the heat immediately. DO NOT wait for the tea to boil or take colour. It will do that on its own.
4. Strain the tea mixture into the teacup.
5. Sit on the veranda/balcony with a book and tea. Enjoy!

The awesome ginger-honey-lemon tea from Landour Cafe, Mussoorie

The above recipe is the original method of preparing plain lemon tea. Although, with changing lifestyle and food preferences, the recipe also got a face-lift and one of its many forms is known as ginger-honey-lemon tea, which I recently found being served in a cafe in Landour, Mussoorie and immediately fell in love with it. Preparing this tea is incredibly simpler than its name suggests:

1. Boil a cup of water with half a teaspoon of grated ginger.
2. Add a teaspoon of honey and squeeze half a lemon in a teacup.
3. Strain the boiling water in the teacup.
4. Dip in a teabag of your choice. Your steaming and superbly refreshing cup of exquisite ginger-honey lemon tea is ready. Sip your way to heaven.

After sipping this tea, I realized that it helped clear my blocked nostrils and buzzing head which was slightly aching due to cold. So there. My best friend!

A couple of friends visited Sri Lanka this winter and brought back nuggets of information about tea along with some great tea. As they told me, our regular tea has health benefits equivalent to green tea. Though we ruin a lot of its qualities by adding milk and sugar. Of course, drinking plain black tea will take a lot of sacrifices and efforts from me, as it is clearly an acquired taste. Lemon tea is the closest that I can ever come to having black tea. So lemon tea it is!

While we are on this topic, somewhere in our country, these were spotted:

I am participating in the ‘Ready For Rewards’ activity for Rewardme in association with BlogAdda.

Tuesday, 31 March 2015

Sonth Laddoos

When there is a new birth in the family, some recipes are traditionally prepared in order to celebrate as well as to improve and maintain a healthy mother and new born. I think, grand mothers all across India give something or the other special health and lactation food to the new mother. A few such food items are not only mastered by my mother in law, they are almost patented in her name, like her famous 'Sonth Laddoo'. For relatives with new born babies, she always sends a box of these amazing sonth laddoos. When my son was born, she used to keep a constant supply of these to me and when I was fed-up (pun intended), I had to ask her repeatedly to stop making them for me.

For the diet conscious, these old-world laddoos can wreak a havoc on the waistline, but they are certainly great for lactating mothers, especially those who have a premature baby to nurse to health, like I had.

They are easy to prepare, but maybe a little time consuming. To prepare laddoos, you will need:

1. Atta/whole wheat flour- 4 cups

2. Dry fruits- raisins, makhana(Lotus seed), cashews-finely chopped, thinly sliced dry coconut- 1 cup

3. Edible gum-1/4 cup

4. Ginger powder-2 tsp

5. Turmeric powder-2 tsp

6. Desi ghee- 5 tbsp + for binding

7. Sugar- 1 cup

8. Tikhur-Indian arrowroot (can be found at stores selling ayurvedic plant products)-1/2 cup

All measurements are approximate values. It is after all just a sweet and ingredients can be increased/decreased/added/deleted according to personal preference. My mother in law puts less sugar in my laddoos and a lot more in others', and the amount of ghee that goes in is way more than 5 tbsp mentioned above.

Saturday, 1 November 2014

Happy Diwali!

Of the five Diwalis after my marriage, this one was only the first time that we three were together, Coco, his father and I. It had to be special. I remembered what I used to do on Diwali during my college days. I would spend the entire day decorating the house with flowers and making rangoli. These used to be two of my favorite activities on the festival of lights, which actually gave me the feel of the festival, apart from my mom's Dahi-vada. Somehow, I could not carry on both these practices for various reasons after I left home.

Celebrating this Diwali as a family of three, I chose to do what was closest to my heart, but in a much more organised(read scopeful of being lazy) manner. I asked my husband to bring marigold garlands and left him to decorate them as he pleased. That is one major task done! Without even moving a finger. I love delegating tasks suddenly. And I love my husband :)

Then , I dedicated myself to making rangoli, with colored semolina (sooji), which was also coloured by yours truly the previous night, while preparing Dahi Vadas and Gulabjamuns on special demand. :) (I am not so lazy, people!) With most of the cooking out of the way, this day was carefully kept aside for decorating garlands and making rangolis etc. so that we could enjoy everything about the festival without being too rushed. And I must admit that the task of making rangolis is not only enjoyable, it makes you proud at the end of it too.

See what I mean? I have captured a picture of this rangoli from every angle possible, feeling better at every shot. A sense of relief, calmness and happiness, all come together and envelope me.

And this is the bigger picture, which shows where actually was this small semi circle of colored sooji present on my veranda. (Those spears have a long story. Some other day!!) And you can very well sample the fine work that my husband did with those flowers. ;) Earthen lamps were placed on the rangoli in the evening after Laxmi-pooja duly and happily, though we were getting terribly late for our social gathering.

And this is something that was lying as an empty rum bottle behind the dustbin in my kitchen for a couple of months. Then it spent a few days on my craft-counter, among paintbrushes and colours. Their company surely transformed its personality but on Diwali day, it took 5 minutes and a fairy light string to further transform it into this glamorous lamp, suitably lighting up a dark corner.

It was intensely gratifying to see how I could give shape to my own celebrations with gentle touches of colour and creativity. I am happily skipping like a little girl, standing on the threshold of the main door, craning out to see the rangoli, then peeking back in to see the bottle-lamp, now rangoli, now lamp and again...yayyy!!

Oh, I remember, there is one more bottle lying in my kitchen, this time donated mindfully by my dear husband, after he witnessed what I could do with rum bottles, er.. empty ones I mean!

It is amazing how small things are capable of providing such great happiness. One only needs to find the right thing. Small enough!

Monday, 26 August 2013

The Lesser Known Bihari Momos AKA Pittha

Coco is visiting his Nana-Nani (i.e. I am at my parents :) ). It was a delight to receive the plateful of Pittha with a delectable green chilli-garlic chutney from a sweetheart Auntyji next door. After a little spell of hot-talk with my mom (over never making Pittha and always telling me stories about it from her own childhood as if Pittha was some inaccessible fruit from heaven) and a photoshoot, mom and I quickly settled down to eat, though we already had had our breakfast.

The chana dal dumplings looked delicious and tasted great. Aunty had added her own twist with Rai-tadka. I pleaded with my mom to cook it once so that I could learn (and eat it too!). For any foodie/Momo lover who would be interested in this Bihari version of Momos, scores of recipes are easily available on the internet. But seeing is believing you know.

So what happens next??