INSTANT BREAD UPMA

Hello! Today I would show you one very simple easy to cook dish. It’s a breakfast item and it cooks in jiffy.

INGREDIENTS:

3-4 bread slices ( you can use old ones if it has not gone bad or you can use fresh ones too)

1         onion finely chopped

2          tomatoes finely chopped

¼ tsp   mustard seeds

Few leaves of curry patta

1tbsp oil

1 green chilli cut in small pieces

Salt to taste

¼ tsp turmeric powder

¼ tsp  coriander powder

¼ tsp red chilli powder

For garnishing  some cut coriander leaves

METHOD:

In a  pan  put oil, let it heat then add mustard seeds and curry patta and green chilli.  Stir for a min till mustard seeds splutter.  Put  chopped onion pieces and let them turn bit pink. Then  put cut tomato pieces and stir again for a min.  Next put 1cup of water, stir and add salt and other spices. Let it cook for few minutes till tomatoes soften.  While its still watery break  bread pieces by hand and put in the pan. Stir it and bread would take up all the water making it soft.  Stir some more till it comes to required thick consistency.

Switch off gas and put bread upma in plate. Put coriander leaves to garnish and serve hot.

Optional: you can add ginger garlic paste with onion and add some more vegetables if you prefer.

I have kept it mild but you can increase the chilli if you want it more hot.  This above recipe serves one.  Increase quantities if you want to make more.

There is a dry upma method too and in that no tomatoes or water is used but its too dry so I prefer the one with gravy.

Enjoy!

  

  

INSTANT BREAD UPMA

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Fun tips for secret messages on paper........

Hello everyone!

Strange title, right! Today  let me tell you what we used to do when we were kids but before I begin, a word of caution... this post and its contents are just meant to be fun type and not to be taken seriously.

As kids we used to send messages in codes across the school desks without teacher knowing or at times just would send a cryptic message across which no one else would know except the receiver. Here I would show you some tricks I know.

Did you know  that orange juice or lemon juice acts as invisible ink? Take a piece of paper and write something in normal ink while leaving space after each sentence. Then dip your pen in orange or lemon juice and write in that blank space secret message which only your friend would know how to figure out. If anyone does see the paper they would see the other message and smell of orange or lemon.  Once the paper is with friend he or she can just give a little heat not direct though. Hold the paper a bit away from flame so only heat reaches the paper and slowly the invisible orange or lemon writing would appear. That's the way to decipher coded message. Recently something like this was used in one of the TV programmes I saw and it works.

Second coded trick is to swap the alphabets, means A=Z , B=Y and so on. Pre decide which would be the decoder or you can substitute alphabets for numbers. eg  A=1 or change it to A=26, Z=1 and so on.. and send the message across as series of numbers. By far this is easiest and can be decoded.

I am sure everyone knows about Morse code which is I believe still being used. Not easy one but still a good one.

Finally a cryptic one I had used when I was in school. How many of you have played Tic Tac Toe. Trick here is make 3x3 grid like tic tac toe and make three  of them. Assign one alphabet to each box in grid. Say first grid would have alphabets  like this., 

                                                         A  B  C

                                                         D  E  F

                                                         G  H  I    

same way in next  grid would go remaining alphabets.

                                                        J   K  L

                                                        M N O

                                                        P  Q  R

and final grid would have :      S  T  U

                                                       V W X

                                                       Y  Z

Notice the positions they are in. Alphabets in second and third grid are in same position as the first one. So here is how you make the code.  top left has shape of right angle facing left and middle top is facing upward and top right has right angle facing right.  middle row  is left facing left middle is closed square and right facing right. The last row is same like the first one but angle is bit different. Hope  you got the idea.

First set of 9 alphabets is simple, you just put the angle they are in. eg the word BEAD.  notice where they are set. so use those angles. middle upper,middle square, top left, middle left. just use the shapes they are in.

But the next grid has same angles so what you do is use those angles but put one dot in the inner side for second grid and for third grid put two dots.  Below is the pictorial guide which I hope would be easy to understand and I have given example of how the word BEAD would look in this code and how the word  KINGS  would look in this cryptic code.Notice for S in KINGS    I have put two dots as that belongs in third grid.

So this is the fun way to send messages across and again I repeat this is just for fun purpose and being  a kid again but not to be serious. Just enjoy!

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Down the memory lane.............

Hello all!

So yesterday I was getting bored and logged in to write something but my mind went blank. While watching  TV  my eyes caught the antics of small children. I went back in my memory and recalled how I was as a child.

Childhood is most carefree period of our lives. I have some faint memories of that period. I recall I spent part of my childhood in a small village in Gujarat, India where we had small garden in front  with rose and jasmine flowers in full bloom along with  drumstick and papaya trees. Tall  almond trees which we used to climb and  then fall also.  We had cows tied in backyard where  milkman or gwala   would come to milk the cows and we as small kids would sit in line where he would pour milk direct from cow in our mouths. It was so much fun when  my brother used to take me double seat on bicycle around the village area. All my cousins and I use to run around the backyard while moms did housework  My grandmother would then call everyone inside to have food. It was a typical village type house with roof on one room only rest all open area and we would lie down and count stars.

There was one amazing incident I had witnessed. Once one cow was in labour and was having a calf. A crowd had gathered around and one man  helped the cow to  deliver her calf. It was most wonderful experience I had then.

Do you recall the games you played when you were small? I remember KHO KHO
&  KABBADI

I hardly see these games being played now.  I have not gone back to the village again but I wish I could live that life again.

Then there was game of musical chairs, hide n seek and hopscotch, though latter one I still see being played.

Those days it was sort of norm for girls to learn cooking,stitching, embroidery and the housework along with usual studies while boys  were taught how to run business.  Now a days things have changed a lot. Technology is new, times are different and career choices are made. 

November 14th is birthday of India's first Prime Minister  Jawaharlal Nehru and its also observed as Children's Day in  India. On this day I couldn't help but go back in my memories of my childhood.  The sweetest and most carefree time of my life.

Wishing everyone a  very happy Children's Day. There is a child in each one of us so lets  enjoy..

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Pav bhaji................. the way I make :)

Hello all! Yesterday I made pav bhaji and as my kids like it so much I decided to make a post on how I make pav bhaji. I am sure everyone knows about this dish as its very famous throughout northern India. From streets to  hotels everywhere you would get variety of tastes of this wonderful dish.

There are variations in the way everyone makes but here I would show you how I make. I always make a bit more so we can have it next day as well.  Quantity can be increased or decreased as per individual choice.

Serves  4-5

5 Big potatoes  washed, peeled and cut into cubes

1 cup  mix vegetables    (cauliflower, small brinjal, capsicum,  and carrots, cut in small pieces )

2 onions  chopped into very fine pieces

2tsp  ginger garlic paste

5 tomatoes cut into small pieces

1/2cup peas boiled and kept separate

2tsp ghee and butter
2 green chillies cut in small pieces

2 tsp pav bhaji masala  (available in stores)

salt according to taste

1tsp each amchur powder (dry mango powder), coriander powder,  red chilli powder, haldi powder (turmeric powder) 

12 Pav buns

In big  pressure cooker  heat ghee & butter, add one cup of cut onion pieces and cook till onion turns translucent, add ginger garlic paste and  cook a bit more.

Add tomatoes and cook till tomatoes are bit soft. Add all the dry masalas (amchur powder etc) and fry  one min more till all masalas are mixed.

Add the vegetables and potatoes and add salt according to your taste and mix well. Add one cup water and close the lid on pressure cooker and put the whistle on. Bring it to boil with one whistle.  Let the cooker cool. 

Remove  the lid and mash all the vegetables in it. Here I prefer to add the peas after the vegetables are mashed as at times if I put peas before the are just not visible in the gravy. 

Boil the gravy a bit more till you get required  consistency which should not be too thick or too watery  and take it off the heat. 

Slit the pav buns horizontally and fry them in butter on  a tawa or a pan.

In a plate serve the buttered buns along with bhaji or the gravy we made. Garnish the gravy with  coriander leaves and some of the remaining pieces of onion.

For variations garnish the gravy with grated cheese.
To make  bhaji more spicy increase the quantity of red chilli powder.

Normally people boil all the vegetables before and then fry onions garlic ginger and put mashed vegetables in it. But I prefer this way as all are boiled and cooked right in the pressure cooker specially when we have to make large quantity.

P.S. sorry pic quality is not good but hope you would still enjoy.

Enjoy!

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