French Onion Soup For the Vegetarians - My take

Facebook can be quite a pain, especially when you have friends sharing yummy dishes and leaves you with a craving for a dish... hmmm then all you need to do is make it the way you want to and satisfy your palate!

Here is my recipe to make French Onion Soup for the vegetarians :)

Serves - 2

Ingredients:
Onion - 2 Medium
White unsalted butter - 1 tbsp
Olive oil - 1 tsp
Water 4 Cups
Bay Leaves - 1 medium
Corn Flour - 2 Tsp
Black Pepper - 1 Tsp (Powdered)
Red Chili Flakes - 1 Tsp
Salt - To Taste
Cheese Slice - 1 (Preferable Low Fat)

Cut the Onion into two halves and then cut thin slices of them.
Heat the Olive oil in a pan and add the Onions to them along with the red chili flakes and a little while butter and allow it to caramelise.
In another vessel, add the water and corn flour and mix it well. Ensure no lumps are there. Now add the black pepper, salt, white butter and bay leaf and bring the broth to a boil. Taste it to see if the flavour of Bay leaves is there in the broth. You can add a little Thyme leaves as well, if its available. Bring the broth to a simmer, add the onions and the cheese slice and allow the soup to boil for couple of minutes, till the cheese melts.

Serve hot the yummy French Onion soup my ishtyle :)

The Birth of a Moviebuff - Me

There is a saying in Hindi,  "Honhaar birwaan ke hooth chikne paath", which means 'what you become as an adult can be seen when you are a child' - true in its absolute sense, I could see it coming that I would be a total movie lover when I grow up! How did I know this? Well, born in the decade when Indian markets were being Invaded by Colour TVs and VCRs, movies came home and one didnot have to go to the theatre to watch them. Yes, I am talking of the 80's & 90's. I remember sneaking out of my home to my neighbour's home (who by the way had a VCR and would rent a Hindi movie every day) to watch 'Khudgarz' when I was mearly 6 yrs old :).

Well this not being enough, I also remember my dad taking me to watch 'Baap Numbri beta dus Numbri' on the eve of my exam (Ofcourse I conveniently didn't tell him I had one the next day) and later being beaten by my mom for having skipped studying for the exam. Ah! I was just in 3rd standard then :)

Then was the era of Cable Tv in the mid 90's... Any movie would be illegally played on your local cable channel, the very next day of release. The movie 'junoon' in me grew leaps and bounds. When 'Sarfarosh' was shown on my local cable channel, just a day before my 12th standard board exams, I wished that the paper leaks and exam is postponed so that I can watch it. But when Amma saw me sneaking into the TV, she promptly called the cablewala to have the cable disconnected till exams were over. But this didnot discourage me, I happily went over to my neighbour's place to watch the movie! Ha ha!

To top all this is the next one, where on being refused to issue hall ticket for my 4th semester exams during graduation (I wish to clarify here that it was not issued for the entire class, not me alone) I decided that it was only fair that a bunch of friends went off to see 'Dum Dum Dum' which released that day :)

So after completing my MBA and landing myself in a job that paid me handsomely well, I thought that now is the time when I can watch loads of movie, every week, since I earn. I could never really do it till I quit my job, cos I was always WORKING!!

Now that I am having all the time in the world to do what I like doing the most, which to the shock of everyone in my family, including my husband, is to watch movies, I am doing full justice to it. So I decided to write about my pick on the Best that Indian Cinema has to offer, so that other movie lovers like me, can relish them as well.

Keep watching my blog for the list which would be releasing soon.

Review: Gangs of Wasseypur

Gangs of Wasseypur: Spread across 6 decades, 'Gangs of Wasseypur' (GOW) is a revenge saga narrated as raw as possible with violence, gore, filthy dialogues. So are my readers already wondering why I would give it 5 on 5? As a movie lover, the reason is that, it is indeed raw, on-your-face, violent, gory and laden with filth and betrayal. How else is a Mafia-revenge saga supposed to be?  To have attempted to make a movie with such a subject is worth praise, and to have made it in a way that the Tarantinos of the world will get a run for their money is another thing all together.

GOW premiered in the Director's fortnight at Cannes this year and the movie is a proof that Indian cinema is not just running around the trees and the 'Khan's, Kapoor's and Kleavage'.

The movie starts in the current era and takes us 60 years back to the British era, where the Coal mafia is born and sets the background for the movie. Money, Power and Sex are three vices which have always existed, and the characters in the movie are driven by these. Born of these vices are corruption, greed, lust and revenge. The movie showcases the birth of Coal mafia in pre-Independence and its growth post Independence, Scrap trade, trade unions in the free India and how the hunger for Power and Money has corroded our society. The story of Wasseypur is not a far reality from the rest of the country.

The characters of the movie are etched to perfection, be it the men in the movie - Sultana Daku, Shahid Khan (Jaideep Ahlawat), Ramadhir Singh(Tigmanshu Dhulia), Sardar Khan (Manoj Bajpai), Faizal (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) or the women - Najma (Richa Chadda) and Durga (Reemma Sen). They are not graceful and their tongue is laden with filth. But what else is expected out of a society of people who live in blood and gore! Hats off to all these actors to have pulled of their roles to such perfection. When you see the movie you see Sardar Khan and not Manoj Bajpai, which is a great achievement since he is the only most familiar face of Bollywood in the movie. It surprised me to see his washboard abs, which otherwise is such a selling point for our Khans and Kapoors, was never mentioned in the promos of the movie.

The dialogues and the background score of the movie just enhances the movie watching experience. Some of my favourites were mouthed by Najma, Sultan and Sardar Khan. The scene which cuts into India's Independence is one of my favourites in the movie (Won't say wat it is here, pls watch the movie to experience it for yourself).

Sneha Khanwalkar's music just blends with the movie like salt in water. My favourite tracks are 'Hunter', 'Womeniya' and 'Bihar ke lala'.

The surprise package of the movie was Tigmanshu Dhulia, who has given us movies like 'Haasil', 'Sahib, Biwi aur Gangstar' and 'Paan Singh Tomar', showcasing his acting talent. His look is menacing and the scene where he beats up his son is so believable. I am sure more movies are going to be coming his way and would love to see more of such thrilling performances from him.

And lastly what can I say which is already not being said about Anurag Kashyap - The Man who had the guts to show us that Devdas, Paro and Chandramukhi were all driven by lust! He indeed is a gifted director who has the vision to put on screen, what I call the 'celebration of Revenge' in Indian cinema in a never-seen-before way. Take a bow Anurag, 'Kasam Paida karne wale ki', you are making Indian Cinema and movie lovers like me swell in pride.

Ratings:
Direction: 10/10
Acting by Lead Actors:10/10
Technical Aspects:9.5/10
Over All Rating:9.8/10

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gangs_of_Wasseypur

Indo-Chinese Fusion Fried Rice

Am back after a long hiatus into blogging and what better way than to dish up a fried rice :)

Swami is away on work for a week and I had 3 tbsp of cooked rice leftover from last nite. I had no mood to throw it away or store it up in the fridge. Thats when I thought why not make it into something :)

I love capsicum and hence the thought of making a fried rice occured to me, and improvising as I started to cook it up, this new dish was born.

Recipe: Indo-Chinese fusion fried rice - with capsicum and potato.

Indo-Chinese Fusion Fried Rice

Serves 2 people
Ingredients:

Cooked rice - 5 tbsp
Capsicum - 1 big, Diced
Potato - 1 big, diced
Onion - 1 big or 2 medium, diced
Kasuri methi - 1 pinch
Chilli Flakes - 1/2 tsp
Shahi Garam Masala - 1/2 tsp
Tava Fry Masala (optional) - 1/4 tsp
Oil - 1 tbsp
Jeera - 1/2 tsp
Green Chilli - 1/2 piece, slit into 4
Dark Soy Sauce: 1 tbsp
Salt: To taste

For Garnishing: 3 baby corn and 4 Cherry tomatoes

Cooking it up:

In a wok add the oil and once it heats add the Cumin and allow it to crackle. Once done add the Onion, green chillies and capsium and fry for 2 to 3 minutes. Ensure that the onions and capsicum are crispy and not cooked well. Cook the potato in the microwave for 2 minutes. Incase u don't have a microwave, boil it for 5 minutes till its cooked well, but ensure that your potatoes are not mashed.
Now add the potatoes to the wok and fry for another minute. Now add the Chilli flakes, kasuri methi, shahi Garam masala and Tava fry masala and salt and stir fry for another minute. Now add the Rice and fry for another couple of minutes. Now add the dark soy sauce and mix well allowing it to cook for another couple of minutes.

The irrestible aroma of your fried rice wants you to lick up the entire wok... but hold on, plating this dish is going to be more exciting. Since we have added chilli flakes, this dish is real hot, hence the choice of Baby corns and cherry tomatoes for garnishing.

Microwave the Baby corns for 45 secs and then slit them into two halves. Slit the cherry tomatoes into two halves as well and garnish the fried rice as shown :) You could also put your imagination to good use and deck it up with some sauted sweet green peas and sweet corn as well.

Serve it hot and don't forget to bite into the baby corn and cherry tomatoes when the heat of the red chilli flakes hit you :)

Hope you enjoy cooking and eating this dish as much as I did :)

Movie Review - 'Geu nom moksori' Korean movie 'Voice of a Murderer'

I am a movie buff and my love for movies knows no barrier of languages.
And given my love for them, I always wanted to write reviews or rather my opinion on how the movie was. But my first review had to be special and hence I was waiting for that special movie which would be the first to feature on my blog. So when I saw this movie today, a Korean movie made in 2007, I knew, I had found the movie :)
So my readers, here I go...

Korean Movie titled 'Geu nom moksori' - English title 'Voice of a Murderer'

Belonging to the Genre of Drama/Thriller, this movie touched me. The movie is inspired by a true incident of kidnaping and is set in 1991 Seoul, South Korea. The story revolves around a successful News reader, his beautiful wife and 9 year old son who is about to turn 10 in about a month's time. His near perfect fairy tale life comes crashing when his son is kidnapped and the rest of the movie is about the pain, anxiety and decreasing hope that they would find their son.

The lead cast, Kyung-gu Sol as the tormented father is unbelievably real in his emotions. One of the scenes where he breaks down on Live television, brought a lump to my throat. Nam-ju Kim's performance as the mother was brilliant. Be it her efforts to make her son shed some weight or preparing the supper for her son's birthday hoping that he would come back to her, was lovely. My heart ached for her and I could feel her emotions, despite my handicap in understanding Korean. She spoke thru her eyes.

Coming to other aspects of the movie, the screenplay was very gripping and the background music added just the right amount of tension and emotion that was required.

Kudos to the Director, Jin-pyo Park, who has also written the movie, has done total justice to the movie. This movie is by far the best I have seen amongst the ones based on kidnapping.

I highly recommend my readers to watch this movie.

Ratings:
Direction: 9/10
Acting by Lead Actors:10/10
Technical Aspects:9/10
Over All Rating:9.4/10

Tangy Palak Gravy with Channa Dal

I have always loved Daal Palak and always wanted to make it a little tangy with Channa daal. Hence I tried this out, which to my surprise, turned out to be a good variant. Here goes the recipe :)

Ingredients: Palak - 200 gms, Channa Daal - 1 Cup, Green Chilli - 2 pcs, Onion - 1 medium sized, tamarind Paste - 1 tsp, Jeera - 1 tsp, Oil - 2 tbsp, chilli Pow - 1.5 tsp, Corriander pow - 1 tsp, Turmeric pow - 1 tsp, salt to taste.

Preparation: Soak the Channa dal for about 15 mins and then pressure cook until softened. Cut Palak and keep it aside. Chop Onions finely and keep it aside.

Take a Kadai and heat the oil in it. Add the Jeera and allow it to turn golden. Now add the Onion and green chillies (finely chopped). Once the onions turn golden, add the chopped Palak and tamarind water. Allow this to cook for 3 minutes. Now add the turmeric powder, chilli powder, corriander pow & channa dal and salt to taste and mix well. Allow this to cook for about 10 mins.

The dish is now ready to be consumed :)

Serving Suggestions: This tangy daal Palak can be had with Rice, Pulav or roti. Add a little Aloo Bhujia and this can be a yummy filler snack as well :).

Arisi (Rice) Upma

Arisi Upma is one of my favourite dish made by my Husbands Granny. Hence I decided to share the recipe with my friends :)

*This serving is for 3 people.

Ingredients: Rice (preferably raw rice)- 1.5 Cup, Arhar daal - 3/4 Cup, Black Pepper - 10-12 pcs, Green Chilly - 3, Red Chilly - 1 pc, Mustard - 1 tsp, Hing (powdered) - 2 pinches, Oil - 2 tbsp, Curry leaves - 10 leaves, Urad dal - 1 tbsp, salt to taste.

Preparation: Mix the Rice, Arhar dal & Black Pepper in a Mixie jar and coarse grind without any water. Note that you should not wash the rice & dal.  Keep this aside.
Take a kadai and heat oil in it. Add the urad dal, mustard seeds, red chilli & hing and allow the mustard seeds to crackle. Then add curry leaves & green chillies and 5 glasses of water. Add the salt and bring the water to boil. Now add the coarse grinded rice n dal to this and allow to cook. Once the mixture thickens, transfer the contents to a vessel and cook it in the pressure cooker for 4 whistles.

Once the pressure is released, the Upma is ready to be served.

Serving Suggestions: This upma can be served with Chutney or plain Curd.