On Saturday took Dad along to the fish mongers. He was curious to see the kind of fish that we get in London.He liked it which is saying a lot, cos' my Dad knows his fish. Since we come from Kerala, eating fish is in our blood and knowing our fresh fish from the stale ones is another thing which is in our blood.

I love to touch fish and feel it before I buy. So obviously I cannot stand the packaged varieties that we get in Tescoes. Sainsburys etc.

Dad was really surprised to see such fresh fish and that too sea food like Mussels, clams, squid, jack fish etc etc. You could see from the smile on his face that he was impressed. We ended up buying Mackerel and Trout.

When we reached home he kept telling Mom how fresh and good quality the fish was ...:-)))

How to tell whether the fish is fresh

1. Touch it and it should feel firm
2. Use your finger and lightly press the flesh and release the fingers .The flesh should return to its position once u lift ur fingers.
3. The eyes should not be bloody
4. The skin should be silvery and glittery.
5. If possible lift the gills and see the colour inside. Fresh fish would have a rosy pink/red colour inside.
6. Smell it...fresh fish does not smell....yeah believe me.
7. Lastly...trust your instinct.

Boarded the train from Surbiton and found a window seat. Suddenly my mind was transported to those years of childhood bliss. Its ironical, those days were never considered blissful then. Its funny how the days gone by always look better after they have gone.

My mind wandered back to some particular instances when I was in school and used to be forced to get up early morning at 5 am (with a cold water sprinkle on the face from Dad)to study. There were times when I used to be pissed thoroughly and as a rebellion I used to hide a novel in the textbook and read the novel instead.It was so visual that I could actually remember the entire scene....my bed, the mosquito net, me inside my blanket propped up against a bolster positioned such that I am facing my mother cooking in the kitchen, so that she cd only see the text book an dnot the novel inside. Thankfully my results did not suffer , so mom , dad never realised what their son used to be doing all those cold wintery mornings.....

Reading novels was my craze.....ofcourse I had not graduated to quality reading aka non fiction...but the favourites were hardy boys, alfred hitchcock- 3 investigators (for years I thought the writer of the 3 investigator series was the same Hollywood -Alfred Hitchcock), Nancy Drew, Agatha Christie etc. Obviously did not have money then, so had to rely on friends and the school library to get hold of these reads.

I can still remember the excitement when the school library used to get its new haul of these series and how we used to have fights to get first access to these books.I remember sitting on the temple steps (the kali temple in Aundh Road) and trying to finish a bood, since Dad was dead against me reading novels as he felt it affected valuable study time.Thankfully that habit persisted and am I glad about that.

Nothing can beat curling up with a good book with some hot pakodas and a huge cup of elaichi chai.

Friday....aaaah.....end of another week.....whata relief !!!...can sleep till late tomorrow.....thats luxury....

Yesterday had been to Reading to meet Myles to discuss other prospects which I can handle in addition to teh existing responsibilities. Preliminary meeting, so I was not expecting much and thats how it was ....didn't get much.

Had an interesteing conversation with Pankaj tho'....he wants me to take up an assignment in South Africa. When he first started telling me about it I thought he was joking. But he was dead serious. He really was selling it to me. For a moment I was tempted to think about it. But that was only for a moment. I am surely not taking it up. After London I am surely not interested in living in a place which has a healthy crime rate. However beautiful the place is....what wd I do with a beautiful place if I did not have the eyes to see it...:-)). So South Africa not for me.
He has still asked me to think about it, but my answer is still no.

Yesterday D asked me to cook and after a lot of thought on what to make we decided that it should be pasta for dinner.

So I tried a Pasta Arabbiata (hope thats the right spelling)

You should normally use Penne Pasta (the tubed pasta). I forgot to mention that to D and I went off to play tennis and she decided to boil the pasta. So she used Conchiglioni and Farfalle. I found this lovely site on pasta shapes which gives u the entire list of all available pasta. I did not know so many existed before I went through this site.

http://www.food-info.net/uk/products/pasta/shapes.htm

1/2 packet of Conchiglioni and Farfalle (each)
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
3 Cloves garlic
1 teaspoon sugar
Freshly ground black pepper to taste (I love loads of it)
Chilly flakes ( Depends on how spicy you want it. I used 4 red chillies- medium sized and seeds discarded)
1 medium onion finely chopped
1/3 cup Olive oil
Sea Salt to taste

Prepare the pasta as per instructions and keep it aside.

In a bowl, heat the oil and add the onions over low heat and keep stirring till the onions are translucent. Add the chopped garlic and keep stirring till the garlic is cooked but not burnt.
Add the freshly ground pepper, chilly flakes and the sugar at this stage.
After a few minutes add the canned tomato and salt and stir. When it comes to a boil, put off the flame. In a food processor grind this mixture and keep it aside.
Take half of this sauce in another pan and put it on a low flame. Add the pasta to it, so that all the pasta is coated.

My cooking is generally not the typical measured cooking. Its a whole lot on taste and gut feel. I keep tasting what I cook so that I get the right feel. Here I have written that you should take half of the ground mixture and add the pasta to it, but it depends on liking. I like my pasta to be fully coated in sauce. A lot of people don't like it that way. So its upto your taste actually.

For serving, top the pasta with some of the left over sauce with some grated parmesan cheese.

Bruschetta

I forgot to by the italian baguette, so I used normal bread slices for this. Ideally you should use a baguette.
4 slices of bread halved
2 medium tomatoes cut in to quarters
Few basil leaves - torn (not chopped)
Mozarella cheese (U can decide how much you want. I love mozarella, so I use loads. Ideally u can use 1 thick slice for each halved bread slice. Here we generally get mozarella which is oval in shape. So U can just slice it depending on desired thinness or thickness)
Pepper
1 clove garlic
Olive oil for brushing on the bread.

Brush the olive oil on the bread slices on either sides. Rub the garlic clove on the bread slices and put the bread in to the oven to be toasted to a golden colour. This takes around 5-7 minutes on each side. Remove it out and top each portion with tomato quarters and mozarella and basil. Put it back in to the oven for a few minutes till the cheese melts all over the tomato. Sprinkle some pepper before serving warm.

Yummy.....

So Venus Williams wins Wimbledon....against Marion Bartolli...expected I would say. The shock was Justin losing to Bartolli.That really will go down as a shocker in Wimbledon history. Now I wonder how the final would have been with Venus and Justine.....anyway...no point in dwelling over the 'ifs'....

Sis arriving today...so am all excited....

Venus beats Maria......wow what a match. Venus was at her sizzling best.....''Dying swan devoured as giant bird of prey returns to SW19'' according to the Thetimes.co.uk.

Ofcourse I wanted Venus to win, but in this fashion...absolutely unexpected. She dominated from the first point and however much Maria tried she could not get in to the match.The best was Venus's demeanour through out the match.She looked so calm and serene, while Maria looked all nerves.

I don't like Maria, no particular reason...but she gives out an attitude ...which I dont like.

So now Venus to meet Kuznetsova.....and am hoping for the best. Dream would be an Ana vs Venus final, but looking at Justine's play, I doubt whether anyone will be able to distract her from her sole objective of winning Wimbledon. Saturday will tell.

I want to dedicate this post to my favourite berry.....Blueberry....I first came across this berry in teh supermarkets of London. On an impulse I picked it up and have never regretted that decision. And now they actually say that Blueberries are full of antioxidants and can actually prevent alzheimer's disease (I don't love it because of that, I just like them for their taste). Actually, come to think of it, it does not have any particular taste or smell eg. Bananas, mangoes, apples...all have some distinct smell and taste.....Blueberries don't....Infact last week when Suja came home, very unconsciously she made a comment that Blueberries are so tasteless....which is a fact....but I still love the crunchy feel when u bite it for teh first time. Also, they have this beautiful purple colour which make them look so pretty.
You can read more about blueberries here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blueberry

Just this morning I was wondering whether blue berries are the same as the ''Kaali Maina'' that we had in Pune. They have a similar taste and look, but I cannot seem to find more information on it. Will try googling again.

One of my favourite smoothies is

Blueberry, banana, mango, soya smoothie

Handful blueberries
1 banana- ripe
1 ripe mango
1 Cup soya milk
2 teaspoon honey

Put all the ingredients in to a blender and blend to a smooth consistency.
Serve chilled.

Appraisals done.....not too bad, so am not cribbing. Come to think of it, I have not cribbed regarding appraisals in years....either thats me getting complacent or then my boss is appreciating the work that I do. :-)

Yesterday D decided to go and watch Wimbledon along with S. The plan was that I meet D and S at Wimbledon straight from work, pick up A and travel back home while they go to wimbledon. Well, as usual the British weather played truant and it rained, so they had to abandon their plans and travel back home. Now maybe next year, the 3 of us can go and watch some matches.

So, yesterday I had this dilemna of what to make for dinner. I did not wnat anything heavy as I had pigged during the weekend. After a lot of dilly dallying deided to try Jowar Roti with Garlic Thecha.

It actually turned out pretty good.

Jowar Bhakri
Called Sorghum in English.

Bhakri (Jolada Rotti in Northern Karnataka), a variety of unleavened bread made from sorghum, is the staple diet in many parts of India such as Maharashtra state and northern Karnataka state. Bhakri is also sometimes made out of millet ("Bajari" in Marathi) flour. In eastern karnataka and Rayalaseema area of Andhra pradesh roti (Jonna rotte) made with Sorghum is the staple food.

I was reading about Jowar and supposedly US is one of the biggest producers of Jowar, but most of it is used as animal feed. Didn't know that .....

My earliest memory of Jowar bhakhri is the one which our maid servant got for me. It was her staple diet, but since we are from Kerala, Jowar was not something on our home menu. I still remember the taste of those rotis which was accompanied with ''sukat chutney'' (dried baby shrimps ground with chillies, salt, onion etc etc.) I need to get the recipe of this chutney.

2 Cups Jowar floor
Lukewarm water to make a firm dough
Salt to taste

Make a small depression in the flour and pour some water in to it and start the dough making process. Add some salt to taste. Keep adding water till you get dough with a firm consistency.

I noticed that the dough is very grainy as compared to wheat dough. You can compare it to corn dough which is also very grainy. No wonder it breaks when u try to make rotis with the normal belan. Make large sized balls with this dough and keep it aside.

Heat a frying pan (tava). Take a ball of dough and try flattening it in your hands. Then put it on the tava and flatten it out using ur fingers. Basically what u do is spread the dough outwards so that u get a round roti shape.U can sprinkle a few drops of water to make this easier.Once it browns on one side turn it over and sprinkle some water on it. Remove it from the girdle once its browned on both sides. Apply some butter on it (I like it with butter)


Garlic Thecha

4 garlic pods
1 tablespoon dry grated coconut
4 dried red chillies (reduce if u want it less spicy)
1.5 teaspoon cumin seeds
Salt to taste
2 teaspoon lemon juice (optional...I like it pungent) or 1 teaspoon tamarind

Dry roast cumin, chillies and coconut. Grind the cumin and chillies in a processor and then add the garlic cloves and salt and grind again. Remove it from the processor in to mortar and then add the grated roasted coconut and lime juice and then pound it with a pestle till its all mixed.

Serve with Bhakhri. I use the coconut as I am from the south and we use coconut in everything....:-))) also coconut reduces the spiciness of the chillies and gives the chutney a wholesome flavour.

I served the Bhakri with Thecha, half an onion, curd and Mango achar.

It was yum.

This is so nutritious and so simple.....reiterates the fact that food is best when its simple to prepare.