Scullery experiments : Rajma Masala

Kidney bean popularly known as Rajma. It is majorly cooked and eaten in the northern parts of India.
It is high in nutritional content, and is one of my favorites as well!

It can be served along with rice or roti. For me it goes best with rice. :)

So here is detailed look into the procedure of making our very own desi rajma.

Ingredients needed :

1. Rajma - 1 bowl (soaked overnight for over 8-9 hours)
2. Tomatoes - 1 large
3. Onion - 1 large
4. Ginger - small piece
5. Garlic - 8-10 pieces
6. Chilly - 1
7. Sukhi mirchi
8. Jeera
9. Asafoetida
10. Coriander powder
11. Turmeric
12. Garam masala

First of all you would need to boil the rajmas in a pressure cooker, after having soaked them overnight for over 8-9 hours. Be sure to rinse it prior to boiling.
Your pressure cooker must cry till you get almost 8-10 sittis :P. Do add salt during boiling the rajma itself.

Rajma takes quite some sittis to soften.  It is too adamant you see. :D

As you are boiling the rajmas, you can do few things along side

• chop the onions finely
• chop the tomatoes finely
• slice about 8-10 pieces of ginger - 1 inch in length
• grate the garlic and the chilies together to create a paste

After about 10-12 sittis, if you still see that the rajma hasn't par soften , you can allow one more sitti - do make sure to add more water to the pressure cooker.
Don't let it completely soften, because after adding all the masalas and cooking for a while in the pan - the last step would be to give 2 more sittis.
My mom always follows this - and this somehow has always made the dish more flavorsome for me. :)

Now take a pan, heat some oil. Now add jeera, once in splutters, add sukhi mirchi - this is absolutely optional.
Then add the  finely chopped onions. Saute it for about 5-10 minutes, till they are golden brown. Take care that they do not get burnt - else it would leave a bitterness to the taste. While you are saute-ing the onions, add the salt - this aids in the browning of the onions easily and faster.

Once the onions have turned golden brown and start to caramelize,add the thin slices of ginger and the grated paste of garlic and chilies. Again saute it for about half a minute.

Next step would be to add to it, the tomatoes. Saute for about 2-3 minutes. 

Once the tomatoes soften,now it is time to splurge on the secret ingredients.

Add  

• 1 tea spoon of Coriander Powder
• 1 tea spoon of Garam Masala
• pinch of Asafoetida
• 1/2 a tea spoon of Turmeric powder
• 1/2 a tea spoon of Chili Powder.

Saute the whole mixture gracefully, such as to mix all the ingredients properly. You would need to saute it for about 5 minutes - to make sure the mixture doesn't get burnt.

In the mean while,drain the water of the boiled rajmas and store it - you can use this as a vegetable stock to make the gravy. The stock contains all the needed vital nutrients.

Coming back to our pan :),once you see the oil leaving the masalas, add the boiled rajmas.
Before that make sure that the smell of the masalas vanishes - so give it time to cook. Use your sense of smell, to check for the rawness of the masalas. :D

Add the stock to it.

Stir and mix.

Place the lid on the pan and let it simmer for about 6-7 minutes.

Finally, you need to transfer the contents to the pressure cooker again.Give about 1-2 sittis - use your judgement to get to the right softness of the rajmas.

Serve with garnishing like finely chopped coriander leaves and finely chopped onions(optional)!

And here you are ready with a healthy dish.

~Bon Appetite!!

P.S All the pictures have been taken by me. :D

Corporate Social Responsibility activity : School Kit Assemblyactivity : Classroom painting

As a part of "we are committed to doing good" being celebrated in our company, various activities were conducted. The activities ranged from library setup, fund raiser stalls, excursion - industry visit, industry expert speaks and classroom painting.

Classroom paintings were being conducted in our beneficiary schools, to make learning fun for the children in the schools. 

The one I attended was conducted at Epiphany school, next to St.Teresa church near Guruvar peth,Pune.

It was a fun filled event. Around 15 people had joined for the noble cause. It was just perplexing to see the creativity in the people in coming up with themes to be put up in the classes. 

Apart from all the sketching and the paintings, the best part was meeting the two teachers from TFI(Teach for India).They were the class teachers of the classes which were being painted by us.

It was very inspiring to see their dedication in educating their kids -  their vision, their thoughts, their ownership - always stating "MY" kids whenever referring to the students - it was just remarkable.

They provided us with themes, that they wanted for their kids in the classes.

It helped us understand how they are taking the path forward for transforming the thinking of their kids.

We had gone with a very rough idea to fill the place with cartoon characters and some flowers, trees and some quotes here and there. But after having a word with the teachers, we could totally connect with their breadth of view.  It totally changed our perspective as well.

So now with a mission,we filled the classrooms with inspiring thoughts, quotes , pictures and made them extremely colorful.

The theme of the class on which we were working was - CHANGE MAKERS.

"Be the change you want to see."

Also included were the four qualities that the teachers wanted to inculcate in their kids :

• Integrity
• Courage
• Hard-work
• Empathy

A lot can be learnt from these teachers and the way they take life.

It is surprising, how in spite of having a plush life, we crib, get frustrated with our life, with our numerous needs, wants and mundane tasks that we indulge in. 

The end result of it all is - we are in a state of un-satisfaction and grumpiness  - but after meeting these teachers it was like an icing on the cake. It was so beautiful and kindling to see how they were concerned about the learning of the kids,how they were dedicated to doing the good and being caring for others.

I really loved it, when each time, they mentioned "MY KIDS WOULD LIKE THIS." It was like they were the mothers who were just worried - how each picture/quote in the class would help mold the future of their kids. Kudos!

Someday, I wish I can also do this and feel content. :)

Do good, feel great! :)

Few photos from the activity:

Classroom paintings done in the earlier year

Classroom paintings done in the earlier year

Classroom paintings done in the earlier year

What was planned for this year, was even more amazing:

Chest of knowledge



Cheers to life!!

~Believe in yourself always!

P.S. All the above photos have been clicked by me.

Hotel anatomization : Leisure Vacations Woodstock villa, Coorg

Being a resident of Bangalore, this was the much awaited trip to Coorg . This place being just hours away from here, we finally decided to go on road trip to our destination.

After hunting for lot of places to stay - on the internet - we saw this fabulous place. It just looked absolutely stunning in the pictures.

Since we were unaware about the location of the hotel, we decided to reach Coorg - see the hotel for our self and book accordingly.

So Woodstock villa is located right beside the road leading to the city of Madikeri. It is on an apt location - noticeable by all. It is quite a quaint hotel.

On reaching there, we checked out the rooms - we liked it and hence we went ahead to book the rooms.

We were being offered some discounts when we were booking from Makemytrip, so instead of booking at the hotel - we resorted to booking on the net - which was obvious.

Why would one pay more - if you are being offered discounts elsewhere. The manager there - tried to strike a deal , but we were still getting it at a reasonably lesser price on the site, so we made our attempt at booking from the site itself.

The location of the place is such that getting a signal on the phone is an uphill task and trying to connect through 3G data just seemed impossible. A heads up for all, this can indeed make your vacation peaceful! ;)

So two issues that I would like to highlight are –

The only phone from where we were able to connect to the net slightly – was running out of battery – so we tried to put it for charge, but in the meantime the power went off. So now unable to charge the phone, we were unable to do the bookings. We requested the manager about the electricity backup – but he said they did not have it. SURPRISED TOTALLY ~ Three star hotel and no electricity back up at all.

Then somehow there were some other staff, who helped us with connecting the phone via USB in their computer(which apparently was running - but the sockets would not run on backup). This helped the phone finally getting 5% charge.

Next issue was connecting to the net, there also we requested could we use the Wi-fi, to which again he resisted saying it is not working – there was a considerable amount of irritation on his face by now. Then again some other staff came and helped us with the WIFI. Due to network issues – WIFI also gave up in 10 minutes!

What I am trying to highlight is that just because we did not book the hotel on spot and did the bookings via the site , we could sense a deep resentment by him and he was not offering to help us at all(since we were booking from the site at a cheaper rate).

I mean network issue is something which is uncontrollable – but the willingness to help must be the part of hospitality.
This probably, can be changed slightly -  to be more receptive and unbiased towards people booking via the site or on the spot, at least the consideration must be given to families. And I also they had various certificates and awards from Makemytrip, and still such hostility ~ UNEXPECTED!

Somehow I managed the bookings finally, after calling a friend, and it was almost 7 by the time we checked in.

After inquiring from the staff, we came to know this place had started up recently, mostly a year back.

They have around 6-7 villas, each villa having 2 rooms each. Since we booked two rooms – we had one villa totally for ourselves. :)

But they did not have anything additionally – like the pool or any sort of entertainment place.

It just had a kids playing area and a in house restaurant which was a savior.

After we checked in – we really liked the rooms – they were spacious, well kept totally.

Each room was 2 floored, a double bed on one floor and another double bed on the second. This was mostly for kids accompanying along. I really liked the concept.
They had adorned the walls all over from the reception to the villas with varieties of rifles - which was kind of royal.

The villa had a beautiful porch with tables and chairs kept, where you could relax – enjoy the breeze and the view. This is one place, that will give you a complete feel of holiday and chilling out. Peace of mind!
Each villa could accommodate only 2 adults and 2 kids.

Now the staff were very cordial(bookings done :D), they kept inquiring about any help that is needed from them, in that respect I would say the staff was very well trained and friendly.

Facilities:

• King and queen size bed
• Television
• Telephone
• Complimentary breakfast
• Tea and coffee maker
• Water bottle

Their in-house restaurant is named the Mahagony.

It is just next to the reception - with an open kitchen concept. I liked the placement of their restaurant.

The food that they serve is decent – just that we found that the dinner served was a bit oily. But from the taste perspective – the dishes that we ordered were good.

We ordered for the paneer chilly - it was awesome but oily and non spicy.

Then we had the chicken biryani and veg biryani respectively. The chicken biryani was okay-ishly good - the pieces of chicken were little more than par boiled, which was the reason I did not enjoy it thoroughly.

The veg biryani was a tasty dish, with ample of vegetables and nuts.
They even provide room service for the dinner.

It gets really cold in the night, literally in the monsoon season we were covered with winter clothes – it was actually fun. Do carry some jackets to be on the safer side.
The chilly night was making the whole experience even better!

Another problem was that – the bed in our rooms which were on the first floor were kind of smelly – this was due to the rain water dripping in probably. It was kind of uncomfortable due to that. Rest assured, the night passed well.

Ok, yet another major issue was that you could clearly hear whatever is being done or said in the adjacent room. Since we were a family – it was not a problem. But this is a major drawback, which needs to be fixed – else it would  ruin one's the privacy totally.

Again and again I would like to mention about the staff, highly satisfied by their service. They even adhered to the request of providing extra blankets.

I must also appreciate their chef who made dishes for breakfast as per my mom’s dietary needs. Kudos to that! A big thank you. :)

For breakfast, they had a wide spread of food – toasts, sandwiches, wada, sambhar, upma, chole-bature, fruits, cornflakes and of course tea and coffee.

The breakfast was in all decent again, just that all the food they served was kind of bland – felt the need for it to be little spicy and masaledar maybe.

There is scope for a lot of improvement for the price that they charge, moreover it is a three star hotel. :)

There was some construction work going on. They informed us that the swimming pool is coming up there. If it comes up, it will add worth for the money one is paying.
And you have ample parking space, which is a relief.

The view from the hotel is just exotic. You can view the city downtown from here.

If you are looking to spend time away from your rote life – this is the place to be ~ the place for total relaxation, lazing  and comfort and amidst natural landscapes!

Apart from the reception on arrival, rest of the experience was significant.

Re-kindling the mundane life...

Here are few pictures from the trip:

Reception:

The Mahagony restaurant:

Children play area:

The rooms:

From their Mahagony restaurant :

Paneer chilli

Veg biryani

Chicken Biryani

Cheers to life!!

~Journey  of a thousand miles begins with a single step! :)

P.S All the above photos have been taken me. :)

P.S. All the above photos have been clicked by me. :)