Ordinary People

- Not mine but found it profound so am posting this

Walking on the road, you pass so many people. Some look confident, purposeful, well-dressed, well-maintained. But the majority appear so ordinary, wear ill-fitting clothes, unfashionable footwear, have too much fat or too little, nothing remarkable about them, nothing attractive.

But yet someone somewhere eagerly waits for this unimpressive man to come home every evening.
Someone's entire world turns around the strength of this frail-looking woman.
Someone's very purpose in life hinges on this brash youngster cutting through traffic.
Someone knows only the shelter of these old arms each time their world begins to crumble.
Someone will count hours, minutes, and weep like a child when this pock-marked face alights from a long-distance train.

Someone will cave in, crack up, and never be the same again if this one person disappears from the face of the world.

There are no ordinary people. Drive carefully.

Reciepe for Chicken Curry

So lets start on a basic recipe for Chicken Curry:

Now coming for a vegeterian.. I would like to clarify that I am just a converted vegie and janab personally is responsible for the loss of life for many a chiks (the winged veriety)

So for a group of 4 1 kilo of chicken would suffice. Any thing less will not do justice to the hungry stomachs crying out for food. So the beauty of this simple recipe lies in the marination.

• Ask the butcher to make medium sized pieces. Dont Wash the chicken but do check for any wood pieces or foreign material. (may be you would like to remove the blood clots too)
  
• Take 200 ml curd, almost 1 teaspoon garam masala, Salt to taste and half a tea spoon turmeric. Add 1 table spoon each Garlic and Ginger paste to the curd too.
• Mix well with the cleaned chicken and keep covered in a cool place (preferably the Refrigerator) for 1 to 2 hours.
• Take oil in a heated pan and add 250 gms chopped onions
• Saute for a while till the onion turns golden brown
• Add 4/5 green chillies (sliced longitudinally) and fry further for 2 mins.
  
• Add the chicken mix (With the Marination) and cook and slow fire for 15 mins. Turn the mix occasionally.
• Cook till you can see the oil leaving the Masala.
• Add Water if you need curry and cook more for 5 mins. Once the checken is properly cooked and the curry has the right consistancy remove from fire.
  
• Garnish with chopped corriander and a little garam masala powder and keep it covered.
• Before serving just mix it well ans serve with chopped raw onion and a slices of lemmon.

Extra shots: If you want to add potatoes. Quarter them (with or without the peel as per your taste) and add them to the Onion in the pan just before you put the Chicken in. Let it fry a bit and then add the chicken. The other steps will be the same. Just ensure that you add a bit more salt to the curry as Potatoes will need a bit more salt.

Its better to estimate the salt on a lower end as you can add if needed. If salt is more then its difficult. Trick to solve that problem is to add pototoes and a spoon of lemon juice.

Hope this comes out really well. Do give your feedback and I can update the recipe with your comments.

Some easy reciess..

My Brother wanted some recipes he wanted to try at home. After years of eating the lard filled food from the various resturants and road side vendors, he finally wants to try cooking. :) So here are a few I do use. The amounts are all approximate and the results are not repeatable. I have not been able to create the same dish twice :) But yeah most of them are eatable, and many even without the extra spice and pickles to mask the tatse ..

So after I have given my disclaimer.. I will start..

Rice:

Now rice is something which is easy as well as the most difficult. The ingredients are really very simple. but timing is the most important element. Still trying to perfect this still a but long way to go. Cook it less and the rice will be hard.. Cook it a bit more and you will get porridge instead of rice. If you dont mind a bit of under or over cooked rice. the below mentioned way should give you something eatable.

• For one person take 1/2 cup of Rice (standard luch type hunger) For thoroughbred Rice eater take 2/3 to 3/4 cups of rice.
• Wash it twice with water
• Drain the washing water and add twice the amount of water for cooking. e.g: for 1/2 cup of rice add 1 cup of water. Add a little more (may be 1/4 of the cup)

For Gas:

• Put on Medium flame for 12 mins approx. Cover the vessel but leave a small opening for the steam to go out.
• Keep checking every 4 mins. When the water rice does not look wet, check a few grains to see if they are hard. If you can crush the grain with a little pressure, your rice is done. Take it off the flame, remove the lid and keep searve after a few mins.
• If a little hard, Just switch off gas, but dont remove the lid. The rice will cook in it's own steam.
  
• If hard, just add 1/4 water and put for 3 more mins and follow above procedure.
• Note: You will need to check this again and again for getting the rice well cooked but the grains still different.

Microwave:

• Put the washed rice in a Microwave safe vessel and add a little more than twice the water. Same ratio as above. Put on high power for 12 mins. For more rice put a few mins extra.
  
• Note: Microwaves come in differenet powers. Mine has the power of 900 watts. 12 mins on 900 is enuf to cook 1 cup rice in 12 mins.
• For 700 Watts use 15/16 mins
• For 2 cups for 900 I use 17 mins. A safe will be to use 12 mins and then check. If needed just microve for 3 more mins.
  
• If the rice is not yet cooked but the water has dried up, just add a little water, this is fine.

Just try this and give your feedback.