Breezy seaside

This is my first effort at painting a seascape. I always feared painting waves. Somehow I had the feeling that painting waves would be a disaster. But after trying different landscapes I couldn't avoid painting a sea. Having said that, today I have just painted a very distance sea. Next time I am going to paint seascape, it would be crashing waves in details. But before that I need to study the anatomy of crashing waves. Lets see what Google and YouTube can provide me.

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Phulkopir singara.. The typical bengali Cauliflower samosa

In one of my previous posts "Tale of many cities", I had written about cities and towns where I had stayed briefly or for long. These cities have their own bundle of memoirs. Sweet or savory each city has offered many "MUST EATs". One such city which remained unaccounted for in my post was Agartala. Baba was posted to this capital city for some months. Although because of my studies Ma n me could not shift to Agartala, being an avid traveler like ourselves we did make it a point to visit or rather stay in Agartala for a month(of course during my sem break). And what did I like about Agartala? The lazy and peaceful life for starters, the bengali sweet shops in every nook and corner and the "SAMOSA", crisp and thin on the outside and extremely delicious in the inside. I never liked Samosa so much, except for Ma-made Aloo Phulkopir Singara(Aloo Gobhi Samosa). But this beauty was an exception. Not too large, just the perfect size, this Samosa is To Die For.

We bongs are a weird lot(no offense meant). While we love to have aloo in all our veggie as well as non-veggie recipes, we love our Samosa (or Shingara সিংগারা )with other veggies specially Gobhi along with aloo.Come winters , when the beautiful florets start blooming in the market, its almost customary to make Singara at home. 

I am not bounded by the seasonal constraint here in US as we get Cauliflowers around the year, so I decided to make these favorites at home a few days back.

So here goes the ingredients and the how to make:

For the outer covering:
A cup of flour
2-3 tbsp oil
salt to taste
a pinch of baking powder

Mix the salt, baking powder and oil to the flour. Now start adding water slowly and kneading. Knead till dough becomes smooth and firm. Cover and keep for half an hour.

For the filling:
half or full cauliflower depending on size, cut into small florets
1 medium potato(chopped)
roasted or fried peanuts, crushed coarsely
frozen peas half a cup to 1 cup
a tsp of cumin seed
salt to taste
chopped green chilies(2)
chopped coriander
a tsp turmeric
a tsp aamchur
1 inch of ginger grated
2 tsp of roasted cumin seed powder

Heat oil , temper the cumin seed. Now add the chopped potatoes and cauliflower and green chilies. Toss on high for few minutes, add turmeric and salt. Cover and cook for 5 minutes. Now add all the spices and peas, mix well and toss , sprinkle a little water if needed. Cover and cook till done. Lastly add coriander and roasted peanut. Keep aside to cool.
Now take the dough, pinch out small balls from it. Roll the ball thin to a circle (more like an elongated circle). Cut into half. Take one half. Brush a little water into the straight edge, and form a cone. Fill the cone with mixture. Seal the top perfectly. Deep fry on medium flame.
Enjoy!!

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The homemade PIZZA

A couple of months back I had severe allergy and eczema. The eczema has not yet completely gone. The doc asked me to go for an allergy patch test. Oh its one the worst medical tests. Anyways the verdict: I have severe allergy to nickel and benzoic acid. And that means "NO CHOCOLATE", no tinned foods , no salmon, no blah blah blah and of course possibly "no eating out". Imagine life without Chocolate.. a sweetaholic person like myself, this is no less than a punishment. Poor me... buuuuhhuuuu..
Anyways since we have stopped eating out, I thought of making a pizza at home, with almost everything homemade. From the crust to the sauce, all was made at home. And believe me, the pizza came out really delicious.
So here's what I used and did
Ingredients
For the base :
about 1 and a 1/2 cup flour
2-3 tablespoon olive oil
instant yeast - a sachet
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt

For sauce(U can use ready-made tomato sauce) :
2 Large tomatoes
a little butter
2 garlic pods
a tsp of olive oil
any Italian seasoning(I used oregano, basil)
chilly flakes
crushed black pepper

For toppings
shredded mozzarella cheese
any veggies U like
I used Red bell peppers, cherry tomatoes(cut into halves and deseeded), mushroom, onion
Pepperoni(if U like, else skip) 

 Preparation
If using instant yeast ,proof the yeast in 1/4 cup lukewarm water ,1/2 tsp sugar. Let it bloom for 10 mins or so until it doubles. In a bowl, start kneading flour, salt and olive oil. After a couple of  minutes of kneading, start adding the yeast slowly and keep kneading. Make a perfect dough. Smear a deep bowl or utensil with oil and keep this dough in the bowl , covering the bowl with a lid in a warm place. You can keep it in your oven or microwave. In an hour the dough should double its size. Meanwhile for the sauce, I blanched the tomatoes. Remove the skin of the tomatoes, make a puree. In a pan heat olive oil. Add crushed garlic. Add a little butter for that wonderful aroma. Now add the tomato puree. Add salt as per taste, and the other seasonings and crushed black pepper. Simmer for a few minutes.

Now after an hour, take the dough, punch it to release all air, and roll it into a nice large circle. Place on a pizza pan or baking sheet and bake at 400 F for 15 minutes. Keep checking, do not burn the crust.

Once the crust is done, smear a layer of tomato sauce, top it with your veggies and other toppings. Top with a generous amount of shredded cheese. Bake till the cheese melts. I kept on broil for 2 mins. Enjoy your home-made pizza.

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The mountains

Its almost a year since I have restarted painting.  Now I realize how immature my paintings were a year back , lacking all the technical details. I am trying to learn all these technicalities and I still have a long long way to go. In between I switched from watercolors to acrylic. Its fun to work with acrylics, although it dries off way too fast, its forgiving as well. If you make mistakes you can easily rectify by re-painting over it.
This is a painting on 11 x 14 canvas, with acrylic. The second one is with the flash on.
Pitfalls :
I still cant get the clouds correct.. :( .
The green color is a little too over  powering. 

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Cheesy buttery garlic rolls

The other day I baked my first bread. I was contented with my result, but wanted to improve. So again I tried today. And wow, the bread(roll actually) came as wonderful as I could imagine of. Simply simply perfect and sooo delicious. No I am not bragging. Better no more talks.
Here's what I did:
Used: 1 sachet of active yeast(around a teaspoon)
A cup and a half of All Purpose flour(the first day I had used half maida and half aata, the roll was not so very very fluffy as today's)
A teaspoon of sugar
A teaspoon of salt or as per taste
A bunch of cilantro
3-4 pods of garlic
A few green chilies for our Indian palate
around 2 teaspoon of butter
Mozzarella and Parmesan cheese
A tbs or two of olive oil

For active yeast proof the yeast in 1/4 cup lukewarm water and a teaspoon of sugar. Let it bloom for 10 mins. Now in bowl start kneading flour, salt, olive oil with the yeast mixture. You may not require the whole yeast mixture. Use till you get a smooth perfect dough. Keep the dough in a bowl in a warm place, covered for an hour or so. I kept the bowl in my microwave with the microwave door open.
Meantime, blend the butter, garlic , cilantro and chilly to a spreadable consistency.
After an hour, the dough must have risen to twice. Punch it down. Now roll it into a rectangle of approx 1/2 inch thick. Spread the garlic butter . Sprinkle the grated cheese.

Roll the rectangle and then slice into discs. Place them in an oil smeared baking tray. Microwave the remaining butter. Add a little more chopped cilantro. Brush the top with the garlic cilantro butter mixture. Sprinkle a little mozzarella. Keep for another 45 minutes. Meanwhile pre-heat the oven at 375F. Bake fore 20 minutes.
Happy Baking!!

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A tranquil Sunrise

Although I did learn sketching, I never really learnt painting. At my drawing classes, saw girls and boys learning oil painting. At home during free time , I usually tried my hand with the poster colors. 

Now I yearn to learn painting. There are so many technicalities of which I had no idea before. I have been watching a few videos of Wilson Bickford at youtube. He is a professional artist and teacher. Wish I could learn from him personally. His paintings are amazing and inspire me with different ideas. This painting is inspired from one of his paintings. 

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Romantically moonlit

The full moon always captivates me. I believe that "Chaandi" चांदनी (Full moon in hindi) magically transforms even the ordinary things to pure beauty. Since childhood I had cherished this dream of visiting and seeing the TAJ on a full moon night. What magic the full moon does to the grandeur of TAJ, I cant imagine.

There is this park in Gwalior Phool Bag(hope its still there). So one such चांदनी रात of a lazy balmy summer, my parents and I had gone to this PhoolBag to enjoy the cool summary night breeze. And while taking walk along the lanes of the park, I saw the beautiful full moon with a solitary leaf bare tree in its foreground. The scene made quite impact. Summer it was , with no homework and studies, so the moment we came back that night after our evening stroll, I took out my poster colors and drawing book and painted the scene engraved in my memory. I really don't know why I had painted it in monochrome. 

While doing this painting those memories came rushing into my mind.

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