Saturday 8 December 2012

CHICKEN SOUP WITH CHILLI, MINT AND COUSCOUS

I love to try different kinds of food and I love Moroccan. Here is a recipe of one of my favourite soup.

CHICKEN SOUP WITH CHILLI, MINT AND COUSCOUS

Serves 4-6
1-2 tbsp olive oil
2 onions, finely chopped
1-2 red chillies, deseeded and finely chopped
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp granulated sugar
2 tsp dried mint
1 tbsp tomato puree
100 g couscous
1 small bunch of fresh coriander, finely chopped to garnish
1 lemon, quartered to serve

Stock
1 organic chicken, weighing 1.3 kg
1 onion quartered
1 lemon quartered
1 bunch of fresh parsley stalks
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 cinnamon stick
Salt and pepper

First make the stock. Put the chicken, onion, lemon, parsley, coriander seeds and cinnamon stick in a deep saucepan and pour in just enough water to cover. Bring to boil, then reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 1 hour, or until the chicken is almost falling off the bone.

Remove the chicken from the saucepan and leave to cool slightly. When cool enough to handle, remove the skin and tear the tender flesh into strips. Meanwhile, continue to simmer the broth until it has reduced to about 1.2 litres. Season to taste with salt and pepper and sieve into a jug.

Heat the oil in the heavy-based saucepan, add the onions and chillies and cook over a medium heat for 2-3 minutes, stirring frequently, until they began to colour. Add the cumin, paprika, sugar, mint and tomato puree and pour in the sieved broth. Bring to the boil and gradually stir in the couscous. Reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Stir in the strips of chicken, check the seasoning and simmer for a further 5 minutes.

Garnish the soup with the coriander and serve with the lemon quartes for squeezing over.

Personal notes- I did not had paprika and used chilli powder instead. Not a big fan of sweet curry or soup so I did not use granulated sugar the second time. It actually tasted better but it is up to you. And neither did I use whole chicken- chicken thigh fillet or breast fillet works fine and don’t think you need to boil the broth for an hour. Just make sure chicken  is cooked and easy to tear into strips.

Enjoy!    

Friday 30 November 2012

Grug

Grug is an Aussie frictional character and I love it. The existence of this creature was unknown to me until last week when one of our colleague mentioned it.  I googled it yesterday eating my rice and curry lunch druing lunch break and now it is on my favourite cartoon list.


I have been living here for over 10 years and I get little excited when I see a 100% Aussie stuff. With the markets overflowing with Chinese products and television full of American production Grug is such a releif as it was created in our own backyard. Created by Ted Prior in 1979 Grug is a little funny guy and looks like a haystack with a face. Ted lived with  his two young children in a small farm in New South Wales and while reading them stories he came up with an imgainary bush animal and that is how Grug was created. There are series of books you can buy and here is the link to the website  http://www.mygrug.com/ if you want to find out more about Grug. While I go and look for a book to buy enjoy this grug cartoon

I Want to be a Child Again!


I want to be a little child again! I want to feel the same excitement as walking to the school for the first time. The love for my school uniform- green blazer which had my name ' Seema' inscribed in the inside pocket and I used to show it to everyone "Look! It has my name". When mum used to ask me to sing nursery rhyme "I’m a little teapot" for the millionth time, I had the same energy like it was the very first time. My first pet were little tadpoles swimming in a Horlicks bottle and was little sad when they hopped away but I understood they had to get back to their mummy. My brother was my best friend and we hung out together all the time. The best memory of our friendship is sitting quietly on the porch at Grandpa’s house in the evenings waiting for the wild rabbits to appear. Every time the steam engine passed by our house we used to run to the veranda and wave at the travellers without expecting them to return our favour. It was a carefree life where happiness was found in simple things- anger was lost after one cry and forgiveness was easy because I was a child.

Saturday 22 September 2012

Dikyi Ukyab has my vote!

Dikyi Ukyab is my favourite artiste at the moment. My aunt posted her video on my facebook page and since then I have been listening to her everyday. She has a lovely voice and I even requested Awaaz SA fm (Adelaide)to play her song.

Diki was born on 1 March 1991 in New York. She has been constantly travelling back and forth to Nepal and I'd say has perfect Nepali accent without any 'gora' twang. Currently she is pursuing a Bachelor's degree in Political Science and Anthropology at State University of New York (SUNY). 

Dikyi's debut album, 'Silver Lining' was released on August 7th, 2011, in Nepal and has created sensation.  Her first single 'Jaun' topped the charts at #1 on Kantipur FM and Image FM. Her second music video performing 'Ke Bhaye Ko' (directed by Araaj Keshav) recently topped at #1 on Top of the Pops (Image Channel).

I liked her FB page just now :-)  and so excited for her, she has already been nominated for so many music awards. Go Dikyi!
Here is Dikyi' song. Enjoy!

Monday 17 September 2012

Glow in the dark nail polish

Recently my friend got me Glow in the Dark nail polish. It is amazing, I even switched off lights to show it to my friends. It will be a perfect nail polish for Halloween party. Love the colour too. Thank you Danni Pugh.

For Teej- bindi nail art

Happy Teej to all the ladies.
Teej is a Nepalese festival- The first day of Teej is called Dar Khane Din. On this day the women, both married and unmarried, assemble at one place, in their finest attire and start dancing and singing devotional songs. Amidst all this, the grand feast takes place. The jollity often goes on till midnight, after which the 24-hour fast starts.

We had a Teej-cultural program in Adelaide on staruday and I wore a pink saree I had bought for my brother's wedding. It has shades of orange and pink and heavy embroidery.


So I decided to do something traditional and simple for my nails. It is very easy and finally my own creation. I had some gold bindi (is a forehead decoration worn in India and Nepal) lying in a box. All I did was paint all my nails with a pink nailpolish, then immediately stuck the bindis onto my nails. Let it dry completely and then apply a top coat nail polish. Give a good coat around the bindis. Here is a picture of my nailart for you.


I had to wear saree and rush and I lost dimond stud attatched to the bindi and did not had time to clean around my nails but hey.. it looks pretty good. I think golden nail polish on the edge of the nails would look good too.  

Saturday 1 September 2012

Denim Nail Art



Mila Kunis wore this nair-art for her photoshoot. Saw the instructions on how to create this look and here this week's nail art. For this I used  
  1. Base coat (I purchased on Friday. Looks pink but it is colourless)
  2. Blue nail polish for base colour
  3. White nail polish
  4. Top coat nail polish.
  5. Old tooth brush to apply the white paint
  6. Sponge to give a blue dabbed denim look
  7. Bindi (I bought a long time ago in India- to give a button look for my denim pokets)
  8. White nail art pen (I used to draw stitch line)
  9. Black nail art pen (for nail art on the middle finger)
  10. Red nail art pen (")
  11. Nail polish remover and 12) ear buds to clean up the mess.


I am copy- pasting what I found on the net- very easy step-to-step instructions. Sorry, forgot to save the link to it.

To create a denim look, I started with a dark blue base.
Then I used a small, coarse paintbrush to paint vertical and horizontal lines with white acrylic paint.
And then, to make it slightly faded, I added another layer of the blue nail polish with a sponge.
Once dry, I finished with matte top coat and added stitching details and a few studs to look like buttons.

Here is my nail art. I am pretty happy with it. Took a long time as there are so many layers to it.
Tip- be gentle when dabbing blue nail pollish with a sponge and apply less to give a white washed look. Apply nail polish to the bottom of glitter before you paste them on your nails and give a thick coat of top coat on it.



Here is a link to youtube tutorial to give you better idea.


Saturday 25 August 2012

Newspaper Nail Art

When I went to our usual catch-up dinner  with friends, I saw one of my friend had beautiful nail-art apprantly 3-D nail art. She goes to nail parlour to get it done. I was pretty sure, there ought to be something on the web. I started browsing and found a whole heap of websites for nail art. Since then I have started trying out different nail art. It is a fun world where you can play with colours and techniques. My collection of nail-polishes are growing bigger and bigger every week. I found this really cool nail art in the web and it is really easy. Anyone can do it.

You will need
Base colour- I picked grey nail polish
Rubbing alcohol  (I bought mine from pharmacy)
Top coat nail-polish
Newspaper



Paint your nails with base colour and let it dry completely.
Then dip your nail in rubbing alcohol for 10-15 second and immediately press newspaper into your nails. Newspaper print will transfer into your nails and then finish off with top coat. Here's picture of how my nails look.

Tip- firmly press newspaper into your nails and even out pressing it gently. I did not apply even pressure and the newsprint is not that prominent.

Here is the video to the nail art which will give you better idea. Enjoy!!!

Friday 17 August 2012

Cup Cakes

Two years ago my cousin bought this book  and since then I have baked quite a few cupcakes from this book and there is going to be more baking. My cupcakes pictures in facebook always gets lots of likes so I assume it looks good and I gotta admit it tastes pretty good. :-)  Have circulated my cupcakes among my friends and I have had good comments. I am uploading recipe for one of the cupcakes I baked recently and took it to my friends party. It was a hit. Hope you will like it too.

For some reason, I seem to get more cup cakes than dozen as mentioned on this book. I usually use only half of the stuff. Here is the picture of my cupcake.

                                              


Baked cheesecakes

125 g (4/2) digestive biscuit crumbs (I break  the biscuits into small pieces and crush them with rolling pin)
5 tbsp unsalted butter, melted ( microwave for about half a minute)
450 g (1lb) ricotta cheesse
450 g (1lb) cream cheese, softened
2 tsb vanilla esssence
175 g (6 oz) icing sugar, sieved
3 eggs
150  g (5 oz) fresh blueberries

Preheat the oven to 160 degree C (325F/ Gas mark 3). Place12 paper baking cases in a muffin tin.

Put the digestive biscuit crumbs into a medium bowl and stir in the butter. Spoon tablespoons of the crumb mixture into the cases, pressing firmly into the bottom. Chill until set.

In a large bowl, beat the ricotta until smooth. Add the cream cheese, vanilla and icing sugar blending until smooth. Slowly add the eggs, blending well. Spoon the mixture into the cases.

Bake for 25 minutes. Remove tin from oven and cool for 5 minutes. Then remove the cupcakes and cool on a rack. Chill until time to serve. Serve topped with blueberries/

Store covered for up to 2 days in the refrigerator.

Enjoy

Saturday 14 July 2012

MY LOVE AFFAIR WITH GARDENING

My love- affair with gardening started at my grandparents beautiful garden in Dothray Tea Estate Darjeeling, India. I was probably six years old and my brother was three. Almost every school holiday, mother would pack our bags and we would head towards Dothray Tea Estate. Sometimes grandpa would be in town on business and we would head down together in the evening in Tea Estate’s sturdy Land Rover car.
Every visit, when the car headlights would cast its bright light on the house, pet dog Bhatuwa would lead the way barking with grandma rushing towards us with  big relief. We could see she was worried. After eating a hearty meal cooked by grandma and little chit-chat next to the fireplace we were tugged in bed.
It was a big bungalow amidst scores of green tea garden as far as eyes could see, far from the maddening crowd. I vividly remember the house with a long veranda and two sling chairs made of white canvas with a wooden frame. I and my brother often sat on these chairs in the evening waiting for the wild rabbits to wander in the garden. When we were bored, we played a game. We would take turns to go under the chair and lift the person sitting.  Oh what fun we had- wonders of childhood.
Next to the gutter in front were the lovely yellow nasturtiums with round leaves that grew in abundance. The flowers in the main garden in front were planted in circles- rose bush in the middle like a sun, followed by pansies, carnations, globe amaranth, chrysanthemum, marigold, cock’s comb, gladiolus and many others like the revolving planets on its orbits. I thought it was a very clever idea. Sometimes, a gardener would come and I used to watch him dig and plant flowers. When my grandparents were on their feet I would ask if I could help them and they would put me the simple task of weeding. I loved it. Some sunny days, we would all go out in the front lawn and spread a mat. Mum, grandma and aunty would be knitting or stitching while we played or sometimes we simply lied down and enjoyed looking at the clear blue sky. Some lucky day grandma made us toys with scrap clothes- doll with long dress for me and a boy wearing a cap for my brother. It was all followed by little snack and tea in the evening and it was lovely.
Apart from the flower garden, grandma and grandpa also had a huge vegetable garden. They used to plant all sorts of vegetables from tomatoes, spinach, coriander, peas, potatoes, sweet potatoes. We used to follow grandpa whenever he went on this trip. Grandpa in front with plough on his shoulder followed by me and my brother behind me, we liked it that way. Grandpa is a man of few words unless he has few glasses of whisky. Since my brother had just started talking he used to ask million questions. It usually used to start with “Grandpa?”  and grandpa would mutter “umm?”  “Where are we going? “ “umm”  “Why is that butterfly flying?” “umm” “Where is that butterfly flying?” “umm”. Amazingly my brother was satisfied with these replies or he knew how to decode these messages.
A wild plant called tomatillo grew in abundance in the vegetable garden and we used to eat them while grandpa dug the field. Once he called us out to show us the biggest number of potatoes he had ever dug. It sat lined up in a row like me and my friends in the classroom. Sometimes everyone would come to the vegetable garden and help grandpa dig and collect the produce.
There was a little stream next to entrance which always had white datura flowers in bloom. We were told they are poisonous and not to pluck them and never to let out feet out of the entrance. We could hear the stream flowing and occasional calls of birds while we played in the pine tree trunk which had recently been chopped. Grandma gave us bottle cans, little tinker which was our pots and pans.  Grandma was an excellent cook and my tummy would rumble every now and then. We used to take a break from our play and run to the kitchen to check whether lunch was ready. Grandma used to point at the grandfather clock which stood on the sitting room and  tell us “When the small arrow and big arrow touches 12 then it is lunch time”. We then took turns to check once every now and then to see if it did.
Grandpa would come home riding on a company horse for lunch. After lunch he often let us ride on the horse, one full circle around the house. It was usually a siesta time after lunch and in the evening sometimes we all went on a stroll around the tea estate. One could see scores of green tea plants all around, with cobbled path for people to walk in between. Sometimes we saw half a body of women plucking and collecting tea-leaves between the tea plants. They would always yell “Namaste” to us and then continue with their task. The baskets of precious tea-leaves when full were sent off to the factory to be processed which would later land somewhere in Europe and Australia in a gentleman’s tea cup.
Thapa Uncle, who took care of grandpa’s horse took us on a stroll sometimes. He took care of the reins while we sat on the horse and off we went up the hills. He would pass us each a branch of wild fruit which looked like a dry tamarind that made a rattling noise every time we shook it. We would rattle-rattle and horse would trot-trot. One day, we found a  nest with little baby birds in one of the tea bush. I wanted to take them home but Thapa Uncle gently said no by telling us that it is a sin to separate baby birds from his mother. And how would we feel if we were to be separated from our mother. I was petrified of such a thought and that was probably my life’s first lesson.
Our trip to grandparents abode was short lived but there are so many beautiful memories to cherish.  Iron stove in the kitchen and warmth and conversation around it. Chicken that became victims of wild jackal and the day grandma let Batwa loose and screamed “Go and get him and I will make a cap out of its skin” and the memory of us laughing at her. The peacock that stopped visiting us for food and we later learnt was killed by the villagers and eaten. Walking all the way up the hill with grandpa and watching village football match half shrouded with mist. My answer “showed it to grandpa” when mother asked and “showed it to mother” when grandpa asked about my school homework. Mother’s laughter and trying to undo my pyjama’s multiple knots as I didn’t know how to tie a bow string knot.
Dad got transferred to Gangtok (Sikkim) and soon we went to live with him in a big crowded building.  There were no gardens to play and wander. But we all loved flowers so we planted them on pots and had them lined up on the edge of the building below our windows. Dad applied for an office quarter and few years later we moved there. It was much better there and dad cleared the nearby land for our vegetable garden. We moved to another single storey house and had ample space for gardening. Dad set up a beautiful garden all around the house. Together we collected varieties of flowers. We had roses, chamomile, pansies, marigold and flowers I don’t even know the names of. Dad loved his garden, he never swept the floor inside the house but he had special broom for the garden and you would see him brooming the garden. It was neat, clean and beautiful.
Wherever I've lived we always and have planted flower everywhere we lived- in Gangtok, India, unit 112 Student Village in Toowoomba, in Brisbane, now in Adelaide and I will continue this legacy wherever I go. I cannot imagine life without flowers. I miss my Dad and Grandma and love my grandpa who taught me to love flowers. This story is dedicated to you all.

Friday 13 April 2012

Ekla Chalo Re

I heard the song "Ekla Chalo Re" when I was in hotel room while my fiancee was taking shower. A powerful voice of Amitabh Bachhan blaring from a small television stuck to the wall. I have always been fasicinated with the Bengla language, my mother used to say "It is the sweetest language in the World". It indeed is, this song proved it. Few days back, at home in Adelaide I was talking to my cousin about this song and she mentioned it is infact written by Rabindranath Tagore or Rabindranath Takkur as patriotic Bengali person corrects. He is indeed a jewel of India who received a Noble prize for literature in 1913 for his 'Gitanjali'.

The song was one of the key anthem of the Anti-Partition Movement in Bengal Presidency during Indian freedom movement.

The original poetry written by Tagore in Bengla
Jodi tor đak shune keu na ashe tôbe êkla chôlo re,
Êkla chôlo, êkla chôlo, êkla chôlo, êkla chôlo re.
Jodi keu kôtha na kôe, ore ore o ôbhaga,
Jodi shôbai thake mukh firaee shôbai kôre bhôe—
Tôbe pôran khule
O tui mukh fuţe tor moner kôtha êkla bôlo re.
Jodi shôbai fire jae, ore ore o ôbhaga,
Jodi gôhon pôthe jabar kale keu fire na chae—
Tôbe pôther kãţa
O tui rôktomakha chôrontôle êkla dôlo re.
Jodi alo na dhôre, ore ore o ôbhaga,
Jodi jhôŗ-badole ãdhar rate duar dêe ghôre—
Tôbe bojranôle
Apon buker pãjor jalie nie êkla jôlo re.

and the translation in English by Tagore himself

If they answer not to thy call walk alone,
If they are afraid and cower mutely facing the wall,
O thou unlucky one,
open thy mind and speak out alone.
If they turn away, and desert you when crossing the wilderness,
O thou unlucky one,
trample the thorns under thy tread,
and along the blood-lined track travel alone.
If they do not hold up the light when the night is troubled with storm,
O thou unlucky one,
with the thunder flame of pain ignite thy own heart
and let it burn alone.