World’s Best Chicken Curry

My Grand mom has the awesomest recipe for Maharashtrian style chicken curry.

Couple of week’s back I was at her place picking her brain to teach me how to prepare this “World’s Best Chicken Curry”. She agreed and asked me to help her out with all the ingredients. I got a kilo of whole chicken from the shop she suggested. Took out all the spices and grated the coconut for its cream, chopped up the chicken, washed and cleaned all the vessels that are required, etc. And got ready to document everything she did while preparing the world’s best chicken curry.

My Grand mom started with marinating the chicken in oil, green chili and coriander paste along with some salt and Indian masala. While the chicken was marinating she roasted some desiccated coconut along with some onions, ginger, garlic, cashew nuts, whole garam masala and poppy seeds (Khus khus); this mixture was ground to a paste and this forms the main content of the curry. Then came the tomatoes, she prepared some tomato puree after selecting the best three.

Now that all the raw material was ready to use the vessel was heated and some homemade desi ghee (non- processed butter) was heated and to it she added some finely chopped onion and ginger garlic paste. Once the onion was golden brown she added the tomato puree and reduced the mixture till some ghee oozed from the mixture. Then the marinated chicken went in and it was stirred till cooked properly and covered in all the awesome masala and onion-tomato mixture. Once the chicken was cooked she added the desiccated coconut mixture with onion, garam masala etc. prepared earlier.  She added some water to it and gave it a good stir. Then covered the vessel with a serving plate and filled the plate with water, this helps the steam with the flavor from the food to condense and fall back into the curry.

After about 5-10 minutes she took off the lid and tasted the chicken, added some Indian masala and salt to get that perfect taste. Then as the finishing touch she added the coconut cream and tasted it again just to make sure every this is still perfect. And then it was done.

It was now, my turn to eat….!!! I genuinely enjoyed every morsel of it. This is the time in life when everything is right, every worry disappears and I enjoy the moment to its fullest.

Couple of day’s back I recreated this recipe and made sure everything was done the way my grand mom did it, down to the last detail. I even bought the chicken from the same shop she suggested; I borrowed all the spices from her and even the desi ghee.

After about 2 Hrs. it was time from me to taste my creation and as I had guessed it, the chicken curry was OK. Just OK, I exactly replicated everything my grand mom did, down to the last detail and yet I could only come up with a chicken curry that tasted OK.

I called up my grand mom and explained how I did everything the way she thought me and yet my chicken curry was just OK and not even close to her ‘Best Chicken Curry in the World’. She paused for a moment and then with a smile replied “You did not the best grand kids in the world to taste your chicken curry.” She suggested “You should give it a try when you have grand kids and then you’ll get it right.”

With this I realized what I had missed. I missed some loved one to share the chicken curry with. Not that I don’t love myself, but it would have been better if someone who appreciates good food would have accompanied me for my chicken curry.  🙂

Indian Advertisiment About Social Awareness.

I came across this YouTube video meant for ‘Public service’ and ‘Social Awareness’ couple of days back on FaceBook and liked it; because I have witnessed such incidences in my community and friends.

 

Below is a beautiful comment friend posted for this Video.

I believe that we will witness such cases with almost all our friends. Indian society is based on family values rather than the concept of indivdual and individuality. I can safely predict that almost all of our common friends will buckle under family pressure. (It’s unfortunate that most of them will end up in arrange marriages in first place 😛

What bothers me is the underlying truth behind this video. It reflects the major part of our society in a very succinct way. I just hate it when guys end up marrying under pressure to someone else just because his mom/dad didn’t approve of their union.

I think arrange marriages are social evils which need to be eradicated like sati or witch burning…. Read More

1. Propagates the concept of caste, sub-caste.

2. Propagates the concept of pure breed, pure blood etc. You know what happens when people start taking these things seriously.

3. Propagates male chauvinism. “hum ladke wale hai, hum neche hai” types bull crap.

4. One of the most important decisions of your life is taken by somebody else. And yes, parents don’t know you. Its called generation gap. When a guy says Mom knows best, slap that dude. Mom doesn’t know shit.

5. When there is no arrange marriage to fall back upon, guys have to find there own gals. In the love game, girls have superior cards.

6. And the one that hurts the most; beautiful gals ending up with total dumbasses because the guys family is well to do. Nothing burns more than this 😛

My Weight Loss Diet Plan

It’s about time that I should go on a diet. For the entire last month and a half I was under house arrest thanks to my leg injury. Now the burn wounds are healed, only the scar tissue remains and I’ll be ready to hit the gym by next week (keeping my fingers crossed for that).

I have managed to put on around 5 Kgs while I sat home waiting for the wounds to heal. So it is now necessary that I take some professional advice, I would have gladly said ‘This is where my beloved mom comes into play’ as she practiced as a Nutritionist for years; but she know we way too well and refuses to give me any tips on my diet plan. She tried her best to keep my diet in control but I have failed her over and over again 😛

This is where my dearest friend (more of an elder sister) Surabhi comes in to picture. She is a nutritionist with her own private practice and is a consultant at a clinic in Andheri and prior to this she has worked with some big names like Raheja and Wockhardt. Surabhi is confident that I’ll follow her dietary advice and shed some unwanted pounds (or Kgs). I don’t want to let her down.

Here is the diet she has chalked out for me. If you are 89 Kgs and 168 Cms tall take a look and do let me know if it helps. Also, let me know whether you think I’ll stick to it. 😉

Mr. Hrishikesh Sarvankar
Date: November 13, 2009
Ht.: 168 Cms Wt.: 89Kgs

Daily Diet Plan:

7:30 am: Luke warm water + lemon drops

8:00 am: Cornflakes with Milk / Muesli / Sandwich (tomato and Cucumber) /Egg Omelet (Only Egg White)

12:00 pm: Buttermilk (1 Glass) / Coconut Water / Fruit

2:00 pm: Salad (Tomatoes, Cucumber & Onion) + 1 Chapati (Indian wheat bread) + 1 ½ serving of Dal + 1 Serving of Vegitable + ½ serving of Rice.

5:00 pm / 6:00 pm: Tea + Puffed rice / Popcorn / Khakra (2 nos)

9:00 pm: Soup / Salad

10:00 pm: 1 Chapati + 1 Serving of Dal + 1 serving of Veg

Note: Avoid – Banana, Chickoo, Sitaphal (Custard apple), potatoes, etc. (food stuff with high calorie content)

Well this is the diet for me. If you wish to get a diet plan customized for your life style feel free to drop in an request at surabhi[dot]paranjpe[at]gmail[dot]com , you can also visit her blog  “Nutritionist Online” [http://nutritionistonline.wordpress.com]

In my next life I want to .. ~~ Woody Allen

I came across this amazing lines on someone’s notes on FB, thought I should share them on my blog. I don’t know the exact source from Woody Allen’s work; so if you know where has he mentioned the following in his writings do leave a comment.

In my next life I want to live my life backwards.

You start out dead and get that out of the way.

Then you wake up in an old people’s home feeling better every day.

You get kicked out for being too healthy, go collect your pension, and then when

you start work, you get a gold watch and a party on your first day.

You work for 40 years until you’re young enough to enjoy your retirement.

You party, drink alcohol, and are generally promiscuous, then you are ready for high school.

You then go to primary school, you become a kid, you play.

You have no responsibilities, you become a baby until you are born.

And then you spend your last 9 months floating in luxurious spa-like conditions with central heating and room service on tap, larger quarters every day and then Voila….

You finish off as an orgasm!

I rest my case.

— Woody Allen

Woody Allen

Broiled Lobster Tails – Food that I Like

Couple of days back My Friends gave a surprise visit to check on me. (I had burnt the calf muscle of my right leg in a freak accident on my beloved bike.)

Little did we know that we were in for a surprise. The local Fish seller home delivered 20 live lobsters as he knows I need stuff like this to cheer up.  I always keep my food suppliers close.

All of us friends got together and cooked us the following dish. Its always fun to cook with your friends who love similar delicacies.

Broiled Lobster Tails

Ingredients

• 2 whole lobster tails
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1/2 teaspoon ground paprika
• salt to taste
• ground white pepper, to taste
• 1 lemon – cut into wedges, for garnish

Directions

1. Preheat the broiler.
2. Place lobster tails on a medium baking sheet. With a sharp knife or kitchen shears, carefully cut top side of lobster shells lengthwise. Pull apart shells slightly, and season meat with equal amounts butter, paprika, salt, and white pepper.
3. Broil lobster tails 5 to 10 minutes, or until butter is melted and lightly browned, and lobster meat is opaque. Garnish with lemon wedges to serve.

Tip :

If you like Garlic Dip, add loads of garlic along with the lobsters above (I added about a fist full of garlic). Make sure you keep the garlic and the lobster away from each other in the pan or whatever vessel you are using. By the end of broiling the garlic will have same consistency as that of butter at room temperature. Remove the garlic (if required ) add around 1½ tsp of the butter sauce left after broiling and grind it to a paste. Your dipping sauce is ready.

Enjoy this with your loved ones.

Some Pics:

Lobster Tail

Broiled Lobster Tail

The Bacon Cheese Pizza Burger

I came across this recipe quite some time back…. and today while having a Pizza the images on thechive.com falshed before My eyes.. . and tought I sould share them with you..

So here is what you do when you really need to put on Weight …

Weight gain recipe.

Note: No Matter when you decide to give this recipe a try always, I mean always invite me over to share… 😛

Update: Few more mouth watering food items that came across:

• The Doughnut Burgers
• The Bacon Cheeseburger Turtles