WHY DO I FEEL SLEEPY AT THIS HOUR OF THE DAY?
I am struggling to stay awake, my entire being is looking for my soft pillow. It's been few weeks I go for my walks sometime between 5:30 am-6:30 am in the morning. I come back sometime around 7:45 am, I am not the kind who would remain absent from home at the time of the bread winner's departure for the office. Like today he took porota in his lunch box, I would do that. Sandwiches & Pasta Cristine would, I am poor at those. Post 10am, I would go for a swim, come back, take a shower, wake up my God Family pretty late, bathe & feed them. Thereafter, I feel sleepy but do not allow myself to lie down. I may cook something to update the blog, write a blogpost. Around 3:30pm, I perform puja for the second time, prepare my first meal of the day, have and sit to watch something. Cristine usually would do the night time prayer and put them to sleep. I have to start reading regular, everyday, like I used to do when young. What is not happening is exploring the island on foot in the day time. I do not feel like eating out regular like before, may be I have eaten everything that fits within my 10$ daily budget. But at least three days a week I have to pack my bag and get out of my home; a visit to the several parks, monastery, nearby islands is due. One cannot finish visiting the malls here in a lifetime, not eager to. I got pretty lethargic, need to pick myself up and set out. In between, I make several calls & text messages to the son but in vein.
YESTERDAY NIGHT I MADE A DISASTER!
Since last Saturday, I was planning to prepare broccoli flatbreads. Then what happened inside my head, I blanched, pureed the broccoli and tried some vegan & gluten-free dosa crepes for dinner yesterday. Not that they were turning out to be bad, I added too much of salt. We have less of salt these days. I had to have homemade yogurt with beaten rice sprinkling some brown sugar to satiate the irritated self.
I requested the man to have them, cooking rice or roti would have taken some time and he obliged without a noise. This is the beauty of my son and the man, they would not complain or trouble me. The son would keep the plate back on the kitchen counter and order food online. Mumma rewinds all his actions and misses him madly. He lives too far to travel regular. Our lunch yesterday was great with my preferred chicken-potato curry, red lentils curry, my favourite Aar Fish head with vegetables.
What I understood is that Dosa get best from a naturally fermented batter, those instant batters are not for a learner dosa maker like me. I am fond of Rawa dosa though they say it is done from an instantly made batter. We were watching the series Sunflower, season-2 on Zee5 yesterday, it's a thriller. Somehow, I missed watching the season-1. I am thinking of wrapping up the blogpost soon and watching it. We have watched the documentary about Sheena Bora's mystery too, so pathetic. I had a fulfilling first meal with "porota-aloor dom-achar". I love this low priced cake slices; butter, vanilla, marble varieties only when I am not willing to bake a cake.
I have a demon's appetite. Again at night I would have a rice meal.
WHAT IS MY STYLE KHUSHKA RICE?
There was a time I used to love Khushka Rice more than a meat biryani. But in Kolkata, the Biryani hunts would give you Khushka from the meat biryani handi itself if you ask for. I did not have an issue about it because I eat non-vegetarian food. Khushka is the Biryani Rice. I used to buy it to have with homemade meat curries; chicken or mutton. It had been a wish since then to cook Khushka Rice / Biryani Rice at home. I wanted to know how it would taste without the meat juice getting added to the rice. I felt the vegetarians should also get a taste of the Khushka Rice. This I planned back in the mid "noughties", learnt this word today. The vegetarian, gluten-free MY STYLE KHUSHKA RICE was cooked yesterday. I had it with the leftover mutton & raw papaya kofta from last week.
It is too difficult to cook a vegan version of the Khuska Rice / Biryani Rice, it would not get anywhere near to the flavour or taste of the Kolkata or Awadhi Biryani we are used to as natives of Kolkata. We have to use onion, garlic, milk, yogurt in the making of it.Whilst researching about it, I saw this rice is popular in Southern India, I am sure the taste & flavour would be different from that of Kolkata. The spices used varies. I did not check with any of the South Indian Bloggers' recipes because I wished to be nearer to Kolkata about it's taste, texture, flavour. Although I am fond of Southern Indian Rice varieties, I do not get why they over boil their rice, we cannot eat that way. We want our cooked rice "jhorjhore". Let's do it. I believe had I have used mawa / khoya / semi-solidified milk in it, we could have gotten more authentic a Kolkata Biryani like taste. To save some time, I used the microwave in the last step.
INGREDIENTS :
LONG GRAINED RICE : 1 COFFEE MUG [ENOUGH FOR 3 HEADS, I USED BASMATI RICE]
PLAIN YOGURT : 1 SMALL TEA CUP
ONION PASTE : 1 SMALL TEA CUP
GARLIC PASTE : 4 TBSP
GINGER PASTE : 2 TBSP
TURMERIC POWDER : 1/2 TSP
RED CHILLI POWDER : 1 TSP
CUMIN POWDER : 1 TSP
CORIANDER POWDER : 1 TSP
BAY LEAF : 3-4
CINNAMON STICK : 1 FAT & 2 INCH LENGTH
BLACK CARDAMOM : 1
GREEN CARDAMOM : 3-4
STAR ANISE : 1-2
MACE : 3-4
CLOVE : 4-5
ROSE WATER : 3-4 TSP
MILK : 1 MEDIUM TEA CUP
OIL : 4 TBSP
GHEE / CLARIFIED BUTTER : 1 SMALL TEA CUP
PROCEDURE :
Let us cook the rice at first. Wash the rice grains well and keep aside for 15 minutes.
Take enough water in a deep bottomed vessel and put for boil. Once the water starts boiling; add the salt, the cardamom varieties, bay leaves, cinnamon sticks, cloves, mace, star anise.
Gently add the rice grains discarding the soaked water. Once the rice is 60% done, drain the water.
In one cup, mix together the milk and the rose water. In another cup, mix together the onion+ginger+garlic pastes+the turmeric powder+some salt. In the third cup, beat together the plain yogurt, cumin+coriander+red chilli powder+the Kolkata style shahi biryani masala.
Heat the oil & half of the ghee together in a wok. Add the spice pastes mix and stir fry at low heat for 3-4 minutes. Add the beaten yogurt+spice powders mix and stir fry for 4-5 minutes adding 1/2 small tea cup of water. Take down.
I was in a hurry, I cooked the last lap in the microwave oven and saved about 40 minutes. But I suggest, you slow cook on the stove top. For that, heat a tawa / fry pan, grease a deep bottomed vessel with enough ghee. Add the rice & curry in layers as seen. Add the milk+rose water from the top, cover with a heavy lid. Place the vessel on the frying pan, slow cook at minimal heat for 40-45 minutes.
I have greased a microwave proof bowl with the rest of the ghee. I added half of the cooked rice. I added half of the cooked spice paste, some milk+rose water mix. I purposefully did not add any ghee.
I again added the rest of the cooked rice, then the rest of the cooked spice paste. Actually, push the spice mix down a bit. Add the rest of the milk+rose water.
Place the bowl inside the microwave oven, cover with a microwave proof lid that has a small hole. Cook at low temperature for 10-12 minutes, we should be done.
Remember, every machine has a different temperature setting, the cooking time may vary a bit.
Enjoy it hot & fresh with your choice of sides. The sides can be meat, fish, veg kofta curries, even croquettes or fritters.
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