The Aloo Tikki

I recently happened to eat  few alooo tikkis from a nearby chaat store.You will enjoy the taste only when you get a feel of the noise in the street,smell of the oil, and greetings from mosquito with their stingy  bites. Just recalled an aloo tikki incident  when I was at Denmark ,so thought would immediately pen it down  J. During my stay there ,I was staying with a Punjabi family as paying guest for some time. We were served Punjabi cuisine every day and I was learning to cook few Punjabi dishes.You should make use of the money you are paying for the paying guest accomodation - atleast get to learn few Punjabi dishes This particular post is not for the  recipe, but a funny incident which happened while we were experimenting our recipes.

India has different states, each state has an authentic dish of  its own. My PG-mates hailed from different Indian states and so Punjabi aunty wanted us to cook some dish from our state.  I would say I was a very bad cook then and whatever I know to cook now are those which I learnt while I was in Denamrk where I was away from my home.I missed my mom’s food very much. But  if you are away from home ,believe me you will learn to do anything and everything.As  Will Smith would call it in the movie Pursuit of Happiness , this phase of my life is to live independent and learn cooking J

One of my PG-mate who is from UP as I rememeber wanted to teach Aloo tikki to all of us. He said whatever he does he does it with perfection.He wore an apron and started to make the allo tikki dough  with potatoes,onions,and spices. The tikki is supposed to be fried in oil and made balls out of the tikki dough  and placed in the hot oil for frying... But sadly , the balls separated into pieces and started forming bubbles in the oil. At the end of frying few tikki balls it was realised that the dough  was prepared very watery whereas it should have been made little dry. I should have taken snaps of him really loved is facial expression at that time. A mixed feeling of sadness ,anger and embarrassment.The fried tikki formed a debris which went straight into the trash bin. He dint give up. Now its turn to try dry-fry it on a non stick pan. The dough was made into balls and later spread on the pan for frying.But the patties could not come out of the pan separately. It was a big mess out there. His face turned black and blue.He confirmed its all due to the dough  not been set properly  and so needed to be placed in the freezer for setting it. God knows what is the logic behind placing it in the freezer. But that is the only option we have.We had to believe in him. Our stomach started rumbling due To hunger . Still we waited for 2 hrs for the aloo tikki to set in the freezer.

After 2 hrs he tried to make tikki but it dint work out as the dough got frozen. Punjabi aunty came shouting and made some curry out of the dough as she dint want to throw it. Nearly 2-3 potatoes and few onions had gone into the preparation. I had a great relief after I had the food as I was starving for 2 hrs. That was the end of Indian state cookery sessions J

Manjupoloru Penkutty – A girl like snow !!!

A girl like snow!!! Whats that ? Snowgirl :) Nevertheless thats not what I am about to write here .. I used to sing when I was in college.The song “ Ithile nee ende vanilla” from this movie is one of my favourite song . I used to sing for duet. I still remember the  day when I performed on the stage. My classmates sang along with me as chorus from the audience seat for the part - "Woh ho woh hu woh  noooru kinavugal " 

Have a look at this lovely song :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhmpbxz_2Jc&feature=related

Snails shells from Oman

I just recalled when we went to Oman during Bakrid holidays- we went to  Qurm beach. Awwwesome  beach  We have a habit of picking things from places we visit. These things that we pick ends up as showcase items at my house. Last time when we went to Turkey we collected some pine cones.[image below]

When we went to one of the Oman beach- the pretty Musandam beach,  we collected stalactites and stalagmites. As usual we started picking stones and shells from the shores of the beach .It was fun because ,as we pick each shell ,we compete with each other fighting at picking the best shell as possible.

I  saw a bunch of snail shells which attracted my curiosity..The snail shells looked so pretty with its cute  designs and  I started picking up handful of snail shells..I had a plastic kit in my bag luckily so I started collecting the shells into the kit.I asked my husband whether the shells have life bcos I don’t want the shells to move inside my hand bag. He assured it dint have life and confirmed it was washed ashore since the creatures inside it were dead. We stuffed handful of pretty snail shells into my bag..

When we reached back to dubai we immersed the shells and conch and stones in a bucket of water. We were so tired so we slept off .The following day  we went to office and reached back home after office in the evening..felt very odd tat the water we had kept the shells and conch and stone started developing  stinking  smell like sea water.It had developed a flesh smell in it. I assumed it is due to the conch as It had spent it life among the sea creatures.I emptied the water carefully and poured fresh water in it in order to clean it . I changed water many times each time throwing washed water. I kept a cloth on the slab and started keeping snails one by one to let it dry. So tat we can start making some decoration stuff with these shells.. I had finally finished my job cleaning the shells and let the shells dry and  I continued with my daily chores.

After some time when I went to have a glance of the shells , I felt the snail shells were moving. To my amazement tat was true the shells were really moving indeed. It had a kind of slimy yellow creatures inside the shells. And it was moving slowly on the cloth tat I had laid. EEeeeeeee…. I dint waste time I packed the snails in the cloth and decided  to throw it away somewhere as soon as possible.The shells were thrown  in the garbage chut. So the funny part in the Oman trip remained here tat  the shells who were enjoying the nice beach shore ended up in dubai garbage chut !!

It gives me creeps when I think these shells were moving inside my bag. :) he he ..Pity the shells  they would get burned into ashes in the garbage chute We could have let them in some of the dubai beach..But during that time we dint have other choice than to throw them away in the chute!