Bisibelebhat

Hope all my blog readers are doing good, enjoying summer, well, as I always mention, in my part of the world, it's summer.  Summer becomes like a special occasion, every year, as its only very few months where you can get as much as you can Vitamin D! lol, well that's how my perspective of summer is!

Anyways, parenting is hard, complicated, I know that, I understand it, and I am experiencing it!  I have written about parenting many times...and today also I would like to share a incident, which again, will give raise to many questions.

My kids go to Reading and Math program from past 5-6 years.  Even in summers we don't take a break.  In winter months, I always, sit in my van, waiting for my kids to finish their work, either listening to music, reading a book, or playing game on my ipad....!  I usually don't go and sit inside, where there is a waiting area, for parents to sit, as it is always crowded, and it's generally moms who comes and waits there......would be talking out loud.....and you get to hear different languages, some I can understand and many I don't!  So to avoid all those, I used to sit in my van.

Now it's summer, I thought many would be on vacation and may not be crowded inside and also I don't like AC (air conditioner), so past few times, I am going inside the center and waiting there, when my kids finish their work.

As I expected, it's not crowded and also, I see dad's waiting, who would be generally working on computers.  So as I was sitting with my ipad playing a game.......a mom came in, with two kids, both of them went inside to do their work and mom sat with her phone, she had her ear phones on, so I guessed she was talking to someone.  But as she did not talk, I thought she must be listening to music!!

I just continue playing on my ipad......with few mins, her daughter came out, saying she is done.  The girl was pretty loud, so everybody had to turn their head or lift up their head.  The mom was even louder, asking her, how come she finished so fast, she has to go inside and complete her work.  But the girl did not answer, but climbed a chair and was stood.  There is a big glass window, where you can see kids working inside.  The girl started to call loudly....I guess she was calling her brother(?).  There were two dad's working on their computer, 2 moms, one was reading a book and the other was just sitting, folded her hands and watching, and then it was me with the ipad.  We were all looking at the girl and the mom, expecting she would say something.

But the mom, seemed not disturbed or bothered.  The girl started jumping from one chair to another, and once she fell, as she slipped, we all sort of reacted as "oh", but still the mom, remained as though it has nothing to do with her!!

The girl seemed to be very restless and not able to sit in one place, she now, started drinking water, from the water cooler, and more than drinking, she started to dip her fingers and sprinkle on everyone..standing in front of them and sprinkle to their face. Seeing this, the Dad who was on computer, got up and went outside!! She did not stop,the girl was giggling, sounded fun for her, and the mom remained same cool, looking at her phone, probably, now I thought, she might be watching some serial or a movie....!? And when the girl sprinkled to her mom, then she shouted in a loud voice, to stop and sit on the chair! The girl just sat next to her, and started to ask, 'give me the phone to play'! The mom suddenly turned to her and said 'can't you not see I am working, and you sit properly on the chair, everybody can see your underpants'!!!!!!!!!!! Really, really she said that, loudly??

I felt embarrassed, as there were dads also there and I saw couple of them walked out! Girl must be about 5-6 years old, I felt, she was uncomfortable of what her mom said, she was looking at every body's face, and then sat properly, took her homework and started to go through it...! I really felt sad for the girl and felt how sensitive she should be at that young age to understand, atleast, something went wrong there!!

I was upset with the mom, who really did not care about anything! If she was really 'working', is working so important than your own kids!? Why choices becomes hard, for women, when they have to choose between career and home!? That bothers quite a bit! Well, am nobody to judge anybody, but as a matter of my observation, I just shared with you.

Having said that, I will leave at this point, for you to think......and move on......! Today is my mom's birthday, if she was there she would be 83 years beautiful mom! As a tribute to the most wonderful, amazing mom,  thought of writing a blog, sharing the most yummiest recipes of her, Bisibelebhat! The popular, South Indian dish, which my mom, was making in a authentic, from scratch, which turned out to be the delicious meal. It's a complete one pot meal, which has rice, dhal, veggies, all spices, fills you up and what else you would need! In most of the houses in South India, Bisibelebhat, even to this day, would be a Sunday special lunch or any time guest invited, Bisibelebhat would be the main part of the meal or on any festival day it would be a main thing!

My mom used to make Bisibelebhat powder also, which I will share as a separate recipe. Hope you will try this method and enjoy the most with your family and friends. Here goes the recipe:

Ingredients:

Rice -1/2 cup
Thoor dal -1 cup
Tamarind a small piece soaked in water
Jaggery-otional
salt to taste
Bisibelebhat powder- adjust according to taste and consistency
Bean
Carrots
Peas/Avarekai (Surti papdi lilva)
Onions
Potatoes
Tomatoes(1-2 optional)
Cauliflower
Capsicum
Chayote (Semebadnekai)
Kohlrabi (navilkosu)
oil/ghee-2 tsp
Mustard seeds
Cashews-(optional)

Tips:
Bisibelebhat should be on a liquidy side when you are done, as it gets to become very hard later.
Keep adjusting water through out cooking.
It takes about an hour to cook, in this method

Method:

Take a deep vessel or container, and add enough water and boil, once it starts boiling, add Thoor dal, and mix it and let the Thoor dal cook, half way, then add rice and all the veggies. You can add capsicum and onions little later, as they cook fast.  Keep stirring in between, as Thoor dal tends to stick to the bottom. Once both rice and dal cooks well, almost mushy, add tamarind water, salt, very little jaggery and keep stirring and boil it for couple of mins and add Bisibelebhat powder.  I would recommend to mix the powder in little water, make it to a paste and then add and keep stirring, adjust water as required. It's okay to be on a water consistency, later it becomes very hard and firm. Be careful at this point, as it splatters a lot and your hand might get burnt! Keep stirring and reduce the flame to medium-sim. And while doing that, in a small pan, add oil or ghee, and add mustard seeds, when it splutters, add cashews and fry golden brown and add that to the Bisibelebhat and turn it off!! Your Bisibelebhat is ready to eat, with some boondi or raitha or just as it is, with some ghee on top! Enjoy!

Vangibhat

It's been quite sometime, 4 months, that I shared my thoughts and recipes with you all!  I missed blogging, it's very relaxing and it's my own time, which I always love to do, but sometimes life just goes on and on, though you want to sit down and write, you may not had that moment! 

But today, just started to write, as its raining heavily, cleaners have come to clean the house, after 2 months and I am forced to sit in one place, as they are cleaning around the house! So sat down with a  cup of coffee.

Public speaking! Does that comes to you easily, without blinking, without thinking, without any hesitations, inhibitions, nervousness, awkwardness? Then you are a born public speaker! No doubts about it!

Recently I attended some 13-14 sessions of public speaking classes.  Well, I did not plan to or register myself into one. It just so happened, that I attended those sessions.  My kids got enrolled in that, and there was a parent, who volunteered, she could conduct classes, for parents, while they wait for their kids for 2 hours!

So me and my friend, both decided to register to the class, as it was very cold in the morning, nothing else to do in those two hours, neither go back home, as it was bit far and come back nor anything else to do close by.

And soon we both felt, it was worth spending some time there, since we both recognized that there was so much out there, to learn, though it was hard to wake up early on weekend, and bundle up as it was freezing temperatures! Slowly I understood, its a structured program! You start off with table topics, which is on spot, you are given a topic, and you need to talk about it. And then ice breaker speech, which would be about you, you can talk about yourself or any important memory or incident of your life! Its all timed, 3-4 mins, and there will be evaluators, who would evaluate, time, how many pauses or likes,ums,so's etc being used, your body language, where you used the whole stage or just stood folding your hands,were you nervous, voice modulation, eye contact.......! Am just briefing out....!

Each and every week, you would be doing new speeches, improvising based on your previous evaluation! Well, that's what its expected or supposed to be!

Now, I like to sit behind and evaluate the whole public speaking concept!  Will it help!? Before going further on this, I will make one thing clear here is, kids at very young age, exposed to anything for that matter, grasp fast and will make a difference in what they learn, how they learn and they can really improve their skills!

But as we grow old, there are certain basic things, which, no matter how hard you try, you "might improve",  a bit, that's all! One of them is public speaking! If its not in you, sessions, classes, won't help you much, well, that's my argument or my experience or thinking!

The things which won't comes natural, will land up us in misery, awkward, embarrassing situations! I am not commenting on the sessions I participated. It was really awesome experience and met some really nice people and get to know their experiences and values. And neither I am saying, I did not learn anything.....I did! I do know many things know.....but will I be able to put all those theory into practice, time will tell....!?

But somewhere, somehow I felt, public speaking should come naturally to you.  Improving your eye contact, body language, is all fine, you might improve on those, over a period of time.  But still overcoming nervousness, hand trembling, voice shaking, face becoming red......those things, should come from within!  I don't think or call public speaking as a skill, it's just you have to born with it, thats all!

If you are introvert or shy or hesitant to speak up, or you might be humble to express.....so to those kind of people, no matter how much you get trained, it still will be awkward, feels like "fish without water"!

Having said that, I leave this topic here, for you to think.....! Now I will share the most yummiest recipe of my mom, Vangibhat! Vangi means eggplant or brinjal, cooked with spices and vangibhat powder, and mixed with rice, a typical south Indian rice dish, very commonly made in every household! My mom used to make the most authentic, yummy Vangibhat!

But now Vangibhat has now taken various twists and turns and you can add any kind of vegetables and Vangibhat powder mixed with rice, but still call it as Vangibhat! Because of its unique flavor of the powder, the mixed rice tastes very yummy. In my house, anytime, any day, my husband and kids love Vangibhat. It can be eaten with raitha too, but typically you won't, but my husband loves, raitha, pretty much with everything, so I make it and its also a nice way to make kids eat yogurt! Today I will share my mom's most yummy recipe of Vangibhat, made with onions, green bell peppers(capsicum) and averekai(Surati papdi lilva). You can add any combinations of vegetables, or just do with one, capsicum,potato,methi leaves,peas,onions,carrots and beans,cut into thin slices.

I will share my Vangibhat powder recipe separately, under my Powders, label. Until then you can try with store bought Vangibhat powder!

Ingredients:

Onions-2 medium size ( thinly sliced)
Capsicum-2 medium size(thinly sliced)
Averakai-1/2 cup (boil in water until soft)
Curry leaves-few
Coriander leaves-finely chopped
Rice-1 cup
oil-2 Tbsp
Ghee-1 Tsp(optional)
Mustard seeds
Cashews-2 Tbsp(Optional)
Vangibhat powder-according to taste(Store bought or home made)
Dry coconut/Desiccated coconut-5-6 Tbsps(optional)
Salt to taste

Method:

Pressure cook rice and keep aside, rice should not be mushy nor too split, it should be cooked just right. I use Sona masoori variety for making Vangibhat.

In a deep pan, heat oil, and add mustard seeds and once it splatters, add curry leaves and onions, capsicum, and on a low heat keep frying, until aroma comes, now add averekai, mix well and add little salt and little vangibhat powder and mix well, make sure the vegetables get nicely coated with salt and vangibhat powder.

Add rice, more required salt and Vangibhat powder and mix well. Add dry coconut or desiccated coconut and mix well. And turn off the heat. In a small pan, add ghee and cashews and fry golden brown, and add to vangibhat, add finely chopped coriander leaves and mix well. I add dry coconut sometimes, since my vangibhat powder has dry coconut powder, so its optional, some people add fresh coconut too, it's according to taste and preferences. Enjoy warm Vangibhat, with some happla-sandige or raitha or just plain vangibhat!

Sasive-Kobri Chitranna or Varalu Chitranna

  In today's fast pace life, its fast food,instant food and 2 minute cooking, food!! No time to cook nor people have patience to cook.  Back home(India) also there are lot of resturants,fast food joints, I have seen McDonalds in Bangalore!! So there is no need to cook at home and even if you want to cook, you get all frozen, 2 minute cooking, foods, where cooking time is actually maximum of 5 minutes.

  But in our house, everything is done from scratch!!!! Everyday we cook and the day starts cooking from scratch! It might be coffee, I put filter(Indian),to make decoction and even coffee,its not microwave, its done in Indian style, boiling milk and then adding the decoction and sugar and sipping the hot coffee!!

  Yogurt, I make home made yogurt, where you need to boil milk and then add 3-4 spoons of yogurt to it and depending on the weather, it might take from 3 hours to 9 hours to become yogurt!

  Every cooking involves, frying,grinding,cutting the veggies........!!  Well, needless to say, there will lot of cleaning the dishes,cleaning the counter,kitchen!!!!!!!

  We cook a lot in a day! For example, yesterday, I had made "Avallaki"(Pooha) for breakfast, Bisibelebath for lunch and Masala Dosa for dinner!! Dosa batter, is another elobrate process, soaking the lentis and rice, for 8-9 hours and then grinding and then again leaving the batter for fermatation,it might take 9-12 hours for fermentation.

  Though its a tiresome and tough task to do everything from scratch, my effort becomes worth, when my kids tell "Amma you are the best cooking"!(Mommy your cooking is best)! And when my mother-in-law says that "This is the best masala dosa I have ever eaten in my life"!

  Of course my husband loves my cooking! So that makes me happy and keep going!  I love to share my experiences and recipes with you and hoping that you will enjoy and try my reicpes when ever you get a chance to do it from scratch!!

 So today I like to share "Sasive-kobri chitranna" or "Varalu Chitranna",which is my mom's best est recipes and which is very yummy.  But this not a heart healthy reciepe,but I am sure it will make your tastebuds happy. 

 So here goes the recipe, enjoy and happy holidays!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Rice
9-10 Tbspn Coconut
1/4 Tsp Cumin seeds
1/4 Tsp Methi seeds(Fenugreek)
1/4 Tsp sesame seeds
1/4 Tsp Mustard seeds
3-4 Red chillies(or adjust according to taste)
3-4 Green Chillies(or adjust according to taste)
Small lemon size Tamarind soaked in warm water
1/4 Tsp Jaggery
Salt to taste
2 Tbsp Oil
1/4 Tsp Mustard seeds
1/4 Tsp channa dal
1/4 Tsp Urad dal
1/2 Tsp Peanuts
Few curry leaves
Few coriander leaves

Method:

  Cook Rice in pressure cooker,not too mushy,and keep aside.

  In a non-stick pan dry fry cumin seeds,methi seeds until it turns golden brown. Fry sesame seeds until the aroma arises.  Grind fried cumin seeds,methi seeds,seseme seeds,mustard seeds,red chillies,green chillies,coconut,taamrind juice,jaggery and salt to a nice paste in the mixer.

  Now take a big bowl and put the cooked hot rice into it.

 Take a small pan and heat the oil and add mustard seeds and when its starts to splutter, add channa dal,urad dal and peanuts and fry on a low heat until the channa dal,urad dal and peanuts turn golden brown and add curry leaves and add that to the rice and mix well.

 Now add the grounded coconut-spices paste to the rice and mix well and garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot and enjoy!

 While mixing rice make sure that you don't make rice mushy. And I would suggest that mix the paste to the rice just when you are ready to eat,since this has to be eaten hot and cannot be warm up again in the microwave since the rice will become hard!

Chitranna or Mixed Vegetables Rice

Cutting the vegetables is also a art, and the way you cut the vegetables, its going to make a difference in taste also, that's my experience! For example, if you cut beans big in size the curry would taste different with the same recipe or if you chop beans finely the same recipe, would taste better and different!! There are certain dishes which needs some extra attention and when everything comes out perfect the end result would be awesome!

Well, its quite sometime I blogged! Life became too hectic, busy, sometimes tiresome and could not connect with my mood of writing though I was missing out writing! But today I was able to connect with my mood of writing and sat down to write and send it your way and get once again connect with you all!

Getting back to my perfect cutting of veggies...........today I made mixed vegetable rice or what we call in our language "Chitranna"! So this particular dish comes out yummy by cutting the veggies thin and long and cooking the rice perfectly!

This is actually one of my favourite dish, which my mom makes it and it comes out awesome, whenever I make it and my husband also likes it very much. Today my mother-in-law also loved it!

So I like to share this recipe with you hoping that you will enjoy as much as I do!

Ingredients:

1/2 Cup Rice(Sona massuri,a Indian variety, I prefer)

Few Beans

2 Carrots

1/2 Turnip

1 Capsicum

4-5 Green chillies(or adjust according to taste)

1/4 inch Ginger

Few curry leaves

Few coriander leaves

1 Lemon or Lime

3 Tsp oil

1/4 Tsp Mustard seeds

1/4 Tsp Urad dal

1/4 Tsp Channa dal

Pinch of turmeric

2 Tbsp Desiccated coconut

Salt to taste

Method:

Pressure cook rice, make sure that its not too mushy and keep aside. Cut the beans into thin 1/4 inch strips. If you have patience and time, slit the beans in the middle and then cut into 1/4 inch strips. Peel the carrot and cut into 1/4 inch thin strips. Peel the turnip, which you can get in Indian stores and usually the skin is thick and little hard to scrap. Cut into same 1/4 inch thin strips. Cut the capsicum into 1/4 inch thin strips.

Chop the green chillies,coriander leaves and ginger.

I cook all the chopped vegetables in little water, but you also fry veggies in oil, but it may not taste very nice and also you need to add more oil to fry the veggies, so that way you can avoid oil by cooking with little water!

So mix all the vegetables together and cook in little water in a vessel, make sure that there is enough water. Also make sure that you don't over cook and make the veggies mushy. Drain all the water and keep aside.

In a deep pan, add oil and when the oil gets heated add mustard seeds and once it splutters add channa dal,urad dal and reduce the heat and once channa dal and urad dal turns golden brown, add green chillies,ginger,curry leaves and switch off the heat!

Now add the cooked veggies and now switch on the heat again. I switch off the heat since that way the seasoning and green chillies and ginger will not get burnt, while it takes few seconds for you to add the veggies!

Mix well the veggies and add little bit of salt and turmeric and mix well and turn off the heat.

I would do everything only when you are ready to eat, since this has to be eaten hot else, it does not taste good! So cook the rice while you are cutting the veggies and by the time the rice is cooked all your cutting/cooking the veggies/seasoning would be done and still the rice will be hot!

Now take a big bowl and put the rice into it and add salt and squeeze the lime/lemon juice to it. And add the seasoned veggies and the dessicated coconut to it and mix well. While mixing be very careful that you won't make rice very mushy by mixing it fast, do it slowly.

And garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot! Cucumber Raitha goes very well with this, but today I could not make it, since I had lot of things to do and did not find time to cut the cucumber!! Enjoy!

Tip: You can also add peas or any other vegetable of your choice to this rice.