Egg rolls

With my exams over and few days left before flying to India, I decided to try out something different from the usual sabzi roti for dinner. Since my hubby loves eggs I decided to make every bong's favorite snack egg roll. Oh we bongs love to devour egg roll. Every lane of every colony in Kolkata has a stall of these mouthwatering egg rolls. And they are too easy to make at home. So I started with 4 parts of maida , 2 parts aata, you can change the ratios as needed, more or all of maida will make it more tasty while...

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Life is beautiful

There she sat in the park watching her daughter Ananya play with Deep. Suddenly her eyes were flooded with tears. Today Payal was the happiest woman in the world, a sweet daughter , a loving and caring husband and a respectable vocation what else can one need in life. But ten years back she would have never dream t of such a life. Born to a very orthodox family, Payal was the fifth daughter in a row. Because all were expecting a boy atleast this time, she was welcomed only by her mother. Within a year of her birth, her mother was...

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To her with love

Today is 3rd of June. Two years back , this day Aru was with Meenal. It was her birthday and just 2 days later was Aru's birthday. Since last few years they had been celebrating both of their birthdays together on the same day. They had outed the whole day, had a beautiful candlelit homemade dinner. But today Aru is all alone. He has just returned from the Village hospital. Tired and exhausted he lies on the cot of his small quarter. He tries to dose off, but thoughts keep propping up. They had loved each other so much , rather...

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Pomfret in tomato gravy

My husband simply loves fish and thanks to him after marriage I have started devouring fish like never before. previously it was mostly him cooking fish, but recently I have started trying my hand in all possible fish recipes. We bengalies are fanatic about fish(except me.. I never liked fish atleast before marriage) and only fresh water fish is preferred.So we usually get Rohu and Hilsa (every bong's favourite.. we call it ilish), and have tried various concoctions with these. A day back we bought lovely looking pomfret. Now hubby...

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Caramel Pudding

What do you call a person who hates milk? Well whatever it is called , my dear hubby is one such person. I have to trick him constantly with milk recipes. Someday I prepare a shake the other day I end up making kheer (although I do not know how healthy it is). So now a days I very frequently make the dessert of Caramel Pudding which seems to be a healthy alternative. All you need is: 2 eggs, 2 cups milk, a slice or two of white bread, 1-2 drops of Vanilla essence , 2 - 3 tablespoon sugar for pudding , 2 tablespoon sugar...

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Days of Udaans and Buniyaads

Today unknowingly (or maybe knowingly) I watched the silliest TV program. The program was all about mistrusting your spouse or girlfriend/boyfriend. Watching the program become unbearable for me only after few minutes, where hidden cameras and objectionable questions were peeking into the very personal life of a person. So this the state of shows and programs today. When at a single moment we have more than 200 channels to surf through at the click of a button , we hardly have any viewable programs. Gone are those days, when we children...

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Bhapa doi.. (Yogurt pudding)

This recipe is again from my Ma's kitchen. She says she had read it on the can of a condensed milk. A very quick and simple recipe for people like me who have a sweet tooth. You need to have:A can of condensed milk, A container (around 500 gms) of plain yogurt. 1-2 cardamom podsDesired:pistachios (pista) , almonds , raisinsTo do:Hung the curd in muslin cloth for 10-15 mins. Now add condensed milk , a pinch of cardamom powder and whisk till completely blended. Add cut almonds pista. Ma adds a little of rose water and a drop of pink food...

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Chhanar Dalna (Paneer kofta )

The other day I was left with a litre or more of milk in the fridge. Since hubby was leaving for an official tour , I was in no mood of making a dessert of the milk. So i decided to make Chhanar dalna . Chhana in bengali means paneer, and dalna is a curry. These are small paneer balls in a thick gravy. My Ma makes it amazing.Now I thought of trying my hand at it. So here goes my recipe:Ingredients: For Chhana:Milk a litre or morelemons/ lime juiceFor the paneer balls :Green chilies,salt, little of aata,a boiled potato, coriander, gingerFor...

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Season of colors and festives

After a long time Iam writing, just finished off my mid-sem so felt like scribbling something.This time of the year makes me very nostalgic: days of school, days of my childhood. After a year long wait for Durga Puja , the 4 day festival of a Bengali is back. Fragrance of shiuli phool (parijaat) in the air, cool morning breeze , cotton puff clouds in the sky,cool and pleasant evenings, lots of shopping for the 3-4 days outings ... all speak out loud and clear that Ma Durga is coming to her parental home. Yes thats what we bengalies...

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Uma ... Shakti

Recently I have been watching quite a many women oriented films...films depicting the fight of women for individuality. And time and again these thoughts keep popping in my mind........After so much of development and education, "WOMAN" still remains the acronym for "Sacrifice" in our society. One thing I really appreciate about the western society is its equality for the fairer sex. Here She drives buses, runs companies, is a homemaker, dons the Miss Universe crown, is the CEO, visits the unknown space , in a nutshell does everything...

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Chicken fingers do pyaza

This one is from my hubby. When it comes to cooking non-veg(primarily poultry: egg or chicken ) he is the most creative person I have seen. He loves egg the most and has hundreds of ideas to cook it. With chicken he tries all unconventional styles. And his cooking is super duper fast, very tasty and with a bit of more oil.So one fine evening (fine as I was little tired to cook), my hubby offered that he would try out something. We had some frozen chicken fingers(ready to eat with 15 mins of oven heating). The other necessities were: onion, garlic , chillies, tomato and chicken masala (salt ofcourse). He first suated the chicken...

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Rice cutlets!!

For those who know me from near, I am a big foody.... (oh! please dont laugh, I know my physique doesnt say so). I love to devour on anything thats tasty and I love to try out anything and everything. Ironically my first tryst with cooking came very late in my life, after 2 decades on the planet. When almost all my college friends knew how to cook, I only knew how to boil egg. My baba's strict instruction "No cooking while you are into studies". Since Ma was a school teacher Baba helped her with cooking. But I was never allowed to do so. Once in high school, I was having a holiday. That day before leaving for school Ma had...

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My India

After a long time I am back..meantime I had started writing a few blogs but never came to the ending.. Hopefully this blog of mine sees its ending.. Staying abroad for a year, I miss my country very much. I miss everything of India, the hot summers, the monsoon, the festivals, the food, the people, the roads, the traffic .. oh this is an infinite list.. above all I miss the Indian soil..(is it just a figure of speech.. nah.. I really cant smell the aroma of soil after the first rains here..). And when ever someone asks about my country, I proudly say that I am an Indian, and with that I start boasting about my country, all...

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Heavenly abode

Here goes my travel account... our trip to the San Juan(its pronounced "San Huan" because of Spanish explorer ) National Forest. After lots of planning, net surfing n little packing we set off on a sunny Friday. We had taken an SUV on rent. The journey would take around 16 hrs. We would be crossing Texas, New Mexico and finally reaching Durango Colorado. We started of around 11, driving through the green pastures and farmhouses of Texas. This part of Texas is beautiful. There are cultivated farms,beautiful farmhouses, cattle and horses...

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My First blog

So here goes my first blog.. this just the penning down of my thoughts..Today it rained the whole day.. although the mercury has not yet scored high.. still it was a wonderful relief.. and with rains came running into my thoughts sweet memories of the rainy days of India..During my school days.. I prayed earnestly for a rainy day.. and in those rainy days I still remember making paper boats and floating them in running streams of water.. My paper boat never made the journey as it got wet.. i had once even tried to make a boat from stiff plastic sheet(to prevent my boat from wetting n sinking), but the plastic boat never took...

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