Archive for the ‘Ara' Posts’ category

Recipe:Thai Green Curry With Fragrant Rice and Spinach Balls

August 23rd, 2009

Thai Green Curry with Fragrant Rice and Spinach BallsThai Green Curry, originally uploaded by Swami Stream.

Ingredients (Serves 2)
For Green Curry Paste
1 stalk lemongrass, sliced (lower half)
2 Tbsp ground Coriander Seeds
1 Tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp Brown Sugar
3-6 Green Chillies
1 small Onion
1-2 Garlic Cloves
1 tsp Lime Zest
1 thumb-size piece Galangal/Ginger
1 small bunch Fresh Coriander
3-4 Kafir leaves
Other Ingredients
100 gms Tofu/Paneer Chopped
1 stalk Lotus Stem Sliced thinly
7-8 Cashew Nuts
1/4 Cup Green Peas
1/4 Cup chopped Carrot
1 small bunch Coriander chopped finely
1 Cup Coconut Milk
Salt and Pepper to taste
Directions
Grind all the ingredients below ‘green curry paste’ to smooth paste adding little coconut milk at a time.
Heat oil in wok or deep frying pan and add ground paste and sauté it over medium flame for about one minute.
Add coconut milk, kaffir lime leaves and turn down the heat. Allow the curry to simmer, stirring occasionally for
about five minutes.
Fry Tofu/Panner cubes, Cashew Nuts and Lotus Stem seperately.
Add carrot and green peas, salt and pepper, cover and cook for another 10 to 15 minutes till the vegetables are
well cooked. Add Paneer and some lotus stem and cook for a few more minutes.
Garnish with fresh coriander leaves.
To serve, put steamed fragrant Thai rice on a plate and pour the curry on top. Garnish with Cashew Nuts, some fried
Paneer and Lotus stems. Decorate with coriander leaves and serve hot. Enjoy.
Spinach Balls.
Ingredients (Makes 6-7 balls)
Three eggs
1 cup chopped Spinach
1 spoon Green curry paste
1/4 cup refined plain flour
Salt and pepper to taste
Oil for frying
Method
Hard boil the eggs and remove shell. Cut the egg into half and scoop out the yolk.
Heat a pan, add Spinach leaves and heat for 2-3 minutes until the leaves are limp. Cool and squeaze out the water
from the spinach.
Mix spinach, mashed yolk, green curry paste, salt and pepper. Make small balls and keep aside.
Mix 2 tbsp water in plain flour, salt and make a thick batter.
Heat oil for frying. Dip each ball in batter and fry till golden in colour.
Serve with Thai Green Curry and Rice as accompaniment. Enjoy.
Tip : Use the Boiled egg-white to be served with rice. Can add it in the Thai green curry before serving. Also the
spinach juice can be added in the Thai Gren curry to give it a luscious green colour.

Ingredients (Serves 2)

For Green Curry Paste

1 stalk lemongrass, sliced (lower half)

2 Tbsp ground Coriander Seeds

1 Tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp Brown Sugar

3-6 Green Chillies

1 small Onion

1-2 Garlic Cloves

1 tsp Lime Zest

1 thumb-size piece Galangal/Ginger

1 small bunch Fresh Coriander

3-4 Kafir leaves

Other Ingredients

100 gms Tofu/Paneer Chopped

1 stalk Lotus Stem Sliced thinly

7-8 Cashew Nuts

1/4 Cup Green Peas

1/4 Cup chopped Carrot

1 small bunch Coriander chopped finely

1 Cup Coconut Milk

Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions

Grind all the ingredients below ‘green curry paste’ to smooth paste adding little coconut milk at a time.

Heat oil in wok or deep frying pan and add ground paste and sauté it over medium flame for about one minute.

Add coconut milk, kaffir lime leaves and turn down the heat. Allow the curry to simmer, stirring occasionally for about five minutes.

Fry Tofu/Panner cubes, Cashew Nuts and Lotus Stem separately.

Add carrot and green peas, salt and pepper, cover and cook for another 10 to 15 minutes till the vegetables arewell cooked. Add Paneer and some lotus stem and cook for a few more minutes.

Garnish with fresh coriander leaves.

To serve, put steamed fragrant Thai rice on a plate and pour the curry on top. Garnish with Cashew Nuts, some fried Paneer and Lotus stems. Decorate with coriander leaves and serve hot. Enjoy.

Spinach Balls.

Ingredients (Makes 6-7 balls)

Three eggs

1 cup chopped Spinach

1 spoon Green curry paste

1/4 cup refined plain flour

Salt and pepper to taste

Oil for frying

Method

Hard boil the eggs and remove shell. Cut the egg into half and scoop out the yolk.

Heat a pan, add Spinach leaves and heat for 2-3 minutes until the leaves are limp. Cool and squeaze out the water from the spinach.

Mix spinach, mashed yolk, green curry paste, salt and pepper. Make small balls and keep aside.

Mix 2 tbsp water in plain flour, salt and make a thick batter.

Heat oil for frying. Dip each ball in batter and fry till golden in colour.

Serve with Thai Green Curry and Rice as accompaniment. Enjoy.

Tip : Use the Boiled egg-white to be served with rice. Can add it in the Thai green curry before serving. Also the spinach juice can be added in the Thai Gren curry to give it a luscious green colour.

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Review of Love Aaj Kal

August 9th, 2009
Qutub Minar

Qutub Minar

If one wants to know how one can be thoroughly confused about relationships and ones feelings one should NOT watch this movie because it leaves you even more
confused.
First confusion starts with ‘where is the movie set? They use words like ‘Golden Gate’ , ‘London’, ‘San Fransisco’, ‘Fresco’, ‘Delhi’ Calcutta and show
scenes of all these continents in the first five minutes. No one can read the titles and cast because the scenes from all these cities with Saif Ali Khan all
over the place (world) confuse our minds so much that you are left holding that popcorn in your fingers for the next five minutes.
In a nutshell Saif and Deepika go around for 2 yrs in London and then break up (at an actual break -up party) and go separate ways. They both meet different people and when Rahul proposes to marry Deepika, she asks Saif who BTW has come to meet Deepika in Delhi and ditches his current Swiss GF to see Delhi in December. In some confusion Deepika marries Rahul and tells him the next day that she is ‘Sorry’ and they take a divorce. Saif starts his career (well…I’m not sure as what) at Golden Gate, San Fransisco. A year later he gets mugged and he realises he loves Deepika and then a happy ending at Delhi where the lovers meet again. In middle of this all he is guided by Rishi Kapoor, a rich restaurateur, who for some reason looks like Saif in his youth and marries the girl of his dreams, Harleen.

The movie kick starts a tirade of questions in the minds of actors as well as viewers.
Actors:
  • Saif : Should I be committed to my current GF or should I become ‘khula saand‘ and flirt around. (The question is valid in movie as well as in his life)
  • Saif : Im nearly 40 yr old so should I still bicycle around a 19yr old college girl?
  • Deepika :Why do I call my ex-boyfriend to my wedding and then become numb throughout the wedding ceremony?
  • Deepika :I can blatantly tell everyone ‘I know Im Hot’ but can not say ‘NO’ to the proposal of a guy Im completely sure I  do not want to marry.
  • Harleen’s logical question : Do I need to produce the movie to get more than 4 lines of dialogue?
  • Rishi’s mind blowing question : Why does everything change in 20 years and why cant new generation can not think like us oldies?
Viewers :
  • Why do the actors not need warm woollens in December in Delhi and how can one celebrate New Years at Qutub Minar!!?
  • Why is Rishi Kapoor the ONLY good actor in the movie?
  • When will these 40yr old actors understand that growing long hair only makes them look older?
  • When will Saif stop wearing trendy clothes and stop using ladies bags and pleaaase stop trying to look like a 20 yr old (American Born Confused Desi) ?
  • Why does Deepika wear ‘Im pregnant’ clothes and hide her stunning figure in the song ‘Chor Bazaari‘?
  • Why does Saif speak so much in the movie ? In fact when Deepika herself initiates to meet him at her wedding she speaks not a single word and Saif rattles on non stop.
  • Are today’s women so stupid that it takes them an entire lavish wedding to understand ‘I know I shouldn’t have married you’.My heart goes out for poor Rahul Khanna, the  real victim in all the confusion who is rejected exactly a day after his marriage.
  • Are today’s men so silly that they will carry their ex-girlfriend’s photo for four years in their pocket and realise that that they love her only when they get mugged?
The editing in the later part of the movie is excellent but poor execution makes a good story line fall flat. The retro colours and sets are beautiful so you may watch the movie to see the sweet love  developing in 60s only if you can ignore the fact that even a good actor like Saif can be made to look like a  bad actor by giving him non-humorous dialogues and wrong clothes.

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Review of Times Life August 2, article on Domestic violence

August 2nd, 2009

The article on Domestic violence in the newspaper today drew mixed feelings from me. As I have worked in an NGO I understand the nuances of violence and how women react to it. This article talks only about one woman and how she is still wanting to save her marriage albeit wishes her husband to change. The author captures attention only at one place where she explains how one can go to Crimes against women’s cell and Domestic Violence court where no money need to be spend and one does not need a lawyer. Husbands are summoned to counsel him against bad behavior. An entire column dedicated to ‘why husbands beat wives and not their friends after drinking’ is a futile effort as everyone knows answers to it.

It would have been a more interesting reading is if the author had done more research on other cases and how one can deal with various aspects of domestic violence. Why women still want to save their marriage even after being battered several times would have made an even more indepth analysis of human relations.

Everyone reacts to violence at home in a different way. Also some women do not find anything wrong with it as they have seen it happening to every woman while growing up. Another category of women do not know whether a small ‘misbehaviour’ like breaking her stuff and threatening her life can be called as violence. Do verbal or sexual violence amount to domestic violence? Many such questions can be answered with a little more research and can give readers an insight and knowledge into this matter. This is what we expect out of our top most journalism to contribute, not some half baked story where the author can show how well she is connected with celebs like Kiran Bedi.

A good idea for woman websites like idiva.com would be to connect with Woman’s cell and write about real situations and what a woman should/can do in it. Such an information would go a long way in understanding their rights and also be more empowered in taking decisions for their own life.

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