About a Lauki Tari and a Hysterectomy

I am in a pensive mood today…Ma had an operation less than 24 hours back. I am more than a little bummed that I wasn’t with Ma during this time yet she was adamant that she do the operation only after we left for the US. Her logic was – let me enjoy this one month with K2 vs. lay in the bed and wish I could be playing with him. Good News is that the operation went smoothly, my MIL (she is an anesthesiologist) was in the operation theater and there is no one else I would rather have with my Ma than my MIL. Bad News is recovery will take time…at least 4 weeks. It is ironical; that the very organ that expands to fit an 8 pound child, once you get older is deemed vestigial and atrophied and 50% of the time needs to be removed for different reasons...ain’t being a woman grand?

When, I was a teenager, I had many a likes and dislikes when it came to food – one such vegetable I did not like much was Lauki better known here as Opo Squash. Ma used to cook it in creative ways just to get me to eat Lauki a little bit more. Little did I know what a wonder vegetable Lauki was and how much I would grow to like it. Some of the health benefits of Lauki from an Ayurveda Book I am reading are listed here –

• Cooked Lauki is cooling, calming, diuretic and anti-bilious. It makes you relax after eating.
• Lauki plays a very important role in treating urinary disorders as it acts as an alkaline diuretic.
• Lauki juice is an excellent remedy for excessive thirst caused by diarrhea, over consumption of fatty or fried foods, and diabetes.
• A glass of Lauki juice with a little salt added to it prevents excessive loss of sodium, satiating thirst and keeping you refreshed in summer.
• Massage a mixture of Lauki juice and sesame oil on the scalp each night to treat insomnia.
• If you are on a low calorie diet, suffering from digestive problems, are diabetic or convalescing, and then Lauki is must for you as it is easily digestible and low in calories.

Now I can safely say that Lauki is by far one of my favorite vegetables…and one of my very favorite things to do with Lauki Is a simple Tari (thin curry). This will be our dinner today with some brown rice and yogurt on the side… (A Thank You to my Ma for making me love my veggies especially Lauki…)
Lauki Tari
1 Medium Opo Squash (peeled and cubed)
½ Onion (chopped), 1 Large Jalapeno (chopped) 1 Tomato (chopped), Grated Fresh Ginger
In a medium pressure pan – heat a teaspoon of oil, add a pinch of Hing, turmeric powder, chilly powder and let the spices foam and perfume the kitchen. Now add in the Chopped Onion, Ginger and Jalapeno. Saute till the Onions are translucent. Now add the Tomato. Cook for about 2-3 minutes till everything is well mixed and there is a wonderful Masala smell in the air. Now add ¼ spoon of roasted Jeera Powder (Jeera = Cumin). Add in the Lauki, Salt to taste and ½ a cup of water. Mix well. Set the pressure cooker to one whistle. When you remove the pressure, check the salt and add in some Dalchini (Cinnamon) Powder from the top …this is a special touch from my Ma. I usually forget to do this, but not today. Add some fresh chopped Coriander (Cilantro) and Enjoy!!!
Ma, hope you feel better soon and I wish I was in Pune with you.
P.S: In the picture above, the beautiful woman is Ma and the dorky kid with the thick glasses is Your's Truely

She is losing it...

When she gets up at 3 AM…

For five days in a row.

To a cup of tea that tastes like dirt,

And a wooly taste in her mouth…

A feeling that the entire world is out to get her…

She is losing it…yeah she knows she is losing it…

Quick get me the mood improvers – Oatmeal, Chocolate, Walnuts…Too late, I just lost it and blew up. This is how it went. K2 got up at 4.00 AM, we dragged on till 5.00 AM and I realized he probably wasn’t going to go back to sleep. I took him downstairs got him his Pediasure and we started playing with his Lego…maybe it was jetlag, or lack of sleep but K2 got frustrated with a Lego piece that he couldn’t complete and dumped it in the garbage. What followed was a major explosion, a sobbing kid and a long time-out. Maybe I overreacted…and then again maybe not? But now there is a cranky toddler in school and a semi-guilty mom trying to focus on work…

How has your week been thus far?

East meets West...

I am bone tired...weary... like a marathon runner who knew that she had to make it just till I had fed and put K2 in bed. I have been up since 3 AM today , not because I had to but because K2 couldn't sleep due to jetlag- started my day making old fashioned Oat Meal and Eggs for the little tyke, packing lunch boxes for the 2K's, cutting fruit and catching up on after vacation work. I spent half the time in the office, packing and preparing for the move. I also met up with H&P and we enjoyed a wonderful Japanese meal in a small place - the food was simple and good. Yet, there was this craving for something sweet...and it had to be something quick and simple -and the winner was Chenna Poda

Oriya food is not very well known, yet it is a food were there is attention to detail, superb execution and pure singular flavors...most of the sweets are made from Chenna (  Chenna means Child of Milk) and Poda is Burnt...simply put Chenna Poda is  India's answer to America's Cheese Cake and I absolutely adore it. I grabbed some Ricotta Cheese from Trader Joe's and was ready for some kitchen action.

Ingredients

1. Ricotta Cheese (1 Lb)
2. Sugar (1/2 Lb)
3. 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
4. Sooji/Semolina ( 3 tablespoons)
5. Cardamom Powder ( 1/2 teaspoon)
6. Optional - Raisins

Add the sugar, baking powder and the sooji  and blend in the blender
The dough with have the consistency of a smooth cake batter
Mix in the dry fruits if you want them at this point.
Pour into a oven safe dish and bake at 350 °F for about an hour.
The baking times will vary based on the dish. So start checking around 40 minutes into the baking time.
To check poke a fork into the middle and see if you come up with syrupy batter or comes out clean.If it comes out clean,take it out of the baking dish and allow it to cool before serving. I get experimental sometimes and add different flavors -- like once I added in 4-5 table spoons of Rooh Afza ...it was a refreshing change but most times I want to stick to the simple classic taste of Chenna Poda.

The house smells amazing and I am on my 3rd slice of this Indian Version of Western Cheesecake. Try it and I am sure it will get you hooked...

Passing this along for the blog event  Celebrate Sweets  hosted by PJ @ http://seduceyourtastebuds.blogspot.com/2010/11/announcing-celebrate-sweets.html. This event was incidentally started by Nivedita @ http://niveditaskitchen.blogspot.com/2010/09/details-of-event-celebrate-sweets.html.

Let me know how this recipe turns out for you...

Jetlagged and Going Overboard...

A 18 hr flight that was actually more like a 22 hr flight - our first flight from Pune to Frankfurt taking an unscheduled stop in Armenia for refueling giving us a nail biting 6 hrs debate as to whether we would make our connection...K2 pretty much slept through 80% of the flight...yes that is a good thing. We got back dazed and a little nostalgic about our India trip.K2 has been sleeping days and waking up nights and I am hoping his body clock resets soon otherwise I am in big trouble, K1 goes on an offsite in a couple days and I don't relish being the sole warrior in this "keeping awake" quest.

Seeing an empty fridge had me go overboard on a food shopping binge -
From Whole Foods - Brussel Sprouts, Apples, Fresh Pack Soups ( Creamy Tomato, Chicken & Veggies), Sour Dough Baguette, Organic Brown Eggs, Kefir, Fat Free Milk, Terra Chips, Bossa Nova Acai Juice, Genesis Today Acai Juice, Hillshire Smoked Turkey Breast Slices
From Trader Joes - Organic Spinach, Organic Carrots, Bag of Lemons, Navel Oranges, Bananas, Truffle Mousse Pate ( Chicken Liver), Sweet Stick Swizzlers, Dark Chocolate Marshmallows, Almonds, Walnuts
From the Farmer's Market - Potatoes, Onions, Tomatoes, Garlic, Sun Chokes, Cucumbers, Opo Squash, Grapes, Plums, Satsuma Mandarin, Asian Pears, Apples, 2 Bags of Raisins, Honey Sticks, Sinbad Market (Chicken Kabab Wrap, Babaganoush, Chickpea Salad)

I am watching the final episode of "Dancing with the Stars" that I had DVRed...super excited that the star that won was my very favorite "Baby" Grey. Her struggles with health and her insecurities and her sheer grit to keep going on were inspiring -- my caveat, I have never watched this show before. I watched  this season for the sole reason of watching Grey dance.

Missing India. Missing Ma's Dal and Badi Chura. Miss the hugs from Ma and Bapa...miss the squabbles and discussions and warmth. K1 and K2 are in the same place and we are slowly settling back into our old routine. How is your weekend?
Picture was taken on a trip with the parents (mine and K1's) to Lavasa. There were some picture perfect moments though the trip to Lavasa was bumpy :)

India Calling - Part 2

About 200 cups of chai heavily laced with sugar and full-fat milk, 3 pedicures, 2 courses of Antibiotics, about a dozen Hindi Movies and one thoroughly pampered child getting the attention of 2 sets of grand parents later...I realize that it is almost time to leave for the rainy winters in California . Wait a minute...time just passed me by so fast that I just want to hold on to the next 3 days and savor them...however shuttling between Kothrud and Kondwa just about has me worn down...whoever said it's easy to have parents and in-laws in the same city needs their heads checked :-)

I mostly ate at home...yes this foodie with dreams of checking out the Dorabjees and Oh!Calcutta mostly ended up eating Varan Bhaat and Dalma and Chorchori most days and LOVED IT. I had Desi Chinese about 4 times this trip and it filled a void that no food anywhere else can fill - my American Chopsuey I will miss you when I am back in the US. The highlight of my foodie adventure - eating the pumpkin flower bhaji made from the pumpkin flowers picked from my parent's garden (mind you - they moved into their new house a month back and planted the pumpkin plants with the sole idea of having me eat the pumpkin flower bhaji)

I climbed up Tirupati with a severe case of cough and cold and the weather was cold and rainy and I got drenched about half way through the journey...with my chest feeling like it would burst I completed the scenic albeit very hard climb...only to find out that the couple climbing after us had sighted 2 leopards...I did feel a tinge of regret at not being the one seeing the leopards...however the wonderful darshan and the hot prasad (the  pepper ghee rice) made all of that quickly forgotten. Next stop was Bangalore and one thing that I did get from my stopover there was that this was definitely not the City of my Dreams...2 hours to get from the airport to the office...another 1 hour to commute to another site about a kilometer away due to construction and traffic...the weather was beautiful yet the traffic and the lack of infrastructure aggravating. I am unused to the hustle and bustle of India after the quiet of the area I live in and just as I am getting used to the hustle & bustle its time to leave.

The highlights of my shopping - a handi pressure cooker, a dosa tawa and a cute little tadka pan. I  have almost a suitcase filled with Natural Remedies for cough, cold, indigestion, building up immunity...(Bhimsen Kapur, Amla Murabba, Herbal Soaps, Chyavan Prash....you get the drift). I also have stocked up on the latest Hindi movies and songs...not much else and yet it feels like so much. I spent a lot of time wondering on where the time passed by and when we will get to see the parents again. K2 was a rock star, adjusting to all the love and adoration like it was his birthright...entertaining people with his conversations, eating his puran poli and varan bhaat and in general adjusting to the changed pace a lot better than his parents -- shows how inflexible age makes you ;-)

Reality is India is still calling yet I am ready to pack my bags and go back to the routine that I call life...and I will take back memories of  deep love, aggravating traffic, incessant noise, vibrant colors, unavoidable pollution and the warmth of family....

Ignorance is Bliss...

It was 5.00 AM in Pune, still too early for even the birds to be awake. Suddenly K2 starts patting my face - Mommy, wake up it's day time. I try to put him back to sleep and don't do a great job of it...so dragging myself out of bed, I walk downstairs and make him his milk...while gazing around the room , watching the Obamas dancing the Indian dance on TV -- getting bored all too quickly, I see a calendar from Ramakrishna Math and the saying for November 9th sets me thinking -

Who makes us ignorant? We ourselves. We put our hands over our eyes and weep that it is dark
Life has been so hectic the past decade that we have very comfortably put our hands over our eyes...not noticing the rapidity of time passing by, people changing, affections lost and emotional baggage gained...not noticing our parents aging in front of our eyes...moving from invincible forces to be reckoned with to mere mortals who really need our support more than before...with that knowledge comes the awareness that this month will pass by in a flash...then what? We will leave for that same hectic routine and leave our parents grasping for memories of a loving daughter or son, smiling grand children and stolen moments shared. Why do we put our hands over our eyes and claim darkness...

 I love this painting by David Zolan, the little boy is fishing but his awareness of his environment is acute...as we grow older we lose this sensitivity to people and situations and we claim "Ignorance is Bliss"...so will you be putting your hands over your eyes?

Clearing Cobwebs

A couple of days back I was cleaning up my clothes closet. I realized that I was a pack rat…I still had clothes lying around from my XIM (B) days…the good news is I still fit but the bad news was I did realize that I held on to things from the past with an unhealthy gusto be it people, memories or even grudges…there were too many cobwebs in my mind. I threw out 4 trash bags of clothes ( I didn’t leave them at the Salvation Army because I couldn’t imagine someone wanting to wear a bright red sambalpuri salwar kameez…yes the very  same one I had gone to the market and got with Ruchi with my first credit card in 1996…a standard chartered…wait there begins the memory journey).  Throwing out the trash bags was a huge mental relief…it felt like the mind was cleaner, clearer and refreshed.

Yet there  are some memories that you hang on to tight. For the first time yesterday I left K2 with K1 and his grandparents ( K1’s parents) and spent a quiet evening with my parents…my mind was very disturbed as I have been away (feeling guilty) from K2 on work but never just because…but after a visit to the local temple, lighting Diyas ( it is done for the ancestors) and a wonderful Oriya meal, Ma, Bapa and me sat down with some of our old B&W pictures and the memories that we shared was priceless…

Bapa from his college days...his friends lovingly called him the laughing goblin

Ma and Abinash

Bapa and Me

Bapa, Abinash and Me

 Abinash & Me

Blossoming Butterflies ;-)...Mama and Me

How are you dealing with the cobwebs in your mind?