Potato Pulao

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......Potatoes contain many of the essential nutrients that the dietary guidelines recommend Americans increase in their diet. Potatoes eaten with the skin provide nearly half of the Daily Value for vitamin C and are one of the best sources of potassium and fiber. One medium-sized potato has 110 calories and provides complex carbohydrates needed to fuel our brains and bodies, giving us the energy we need for a busy lifestyle......

[Source]

Oh common....we don't need any of these reasons to have our POTATO .. Right.. so here I made a simple Aloo Pulav and sending this off to both Dhivi's "The Potato Fe(a)st" and Sia's "Ode to Potatoes" events..:).. and they say more the better...so, this is just my first entry to u guys..:)))



Simple Ingredients:

Diced Potatoes - 1 can ( Yup, I was too lazy to peel, cut and boil the potatoes..:))
Rice (Boiled) - 1.5 cups
Ginger Garlic paste - 1/2 tbsp
Butter - 1 tbsp
Onion - 1 medium sized (chopped)
Green Chillies - 1 (thinly slit)
Biryani Pulav Masala - 1/2 tbsp
Salt - to taste
Turmeric - 1/8 tbsp
Red Chilli powder - 1/2 tbsp
Fresh Coriander leaves - few

Simple Preparation:

Heat the butter in a wok, add onions - saute them for untill brown. Then add ginger-garlic paste, green chillies and then diced potatoes. Mix the contents well and Cook for about 2-3 minutes.
Add in the salt, turmeric, biryani pulav masala and redchilli powder. Cook for a while. Finally add rice.
Garnish with fresh coriander leaves.

This is the most simplest pulav one can ever make.. and surprisingly its an all time favorites for many others like me!



UPDATE: When Cham of 'Spice Club', left a comment saying this 'Potato Pulav' is her kid's favorite, then I thought why not send this to dear Vanamala's "KID'S FOOD EVENT" ...:)



~ Siri

WBB: Soya Moussaka

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'Moussaka' means 'moistened' and 'Vegetable Moussaka' is a traditional Greek dish made with lots of vegetables. I changed few ingredients from the original recipe - Soya chunks instead of chickpeas to make it more nutritious and healthy. It is also a nice winter comfort food. Reposting this dish, which I make very often for Rajitha's WBB:Soya event, originally initiated by Nandita of Saffron Trail.

This dish is adapted from "Vegeterian - the best ever recipe collection" by Linda Fraser. It has an awesome collection of vegetarian recipes neatly sub-categorized as soups, salads, main course and side dishes. I got to know about this book when I happen to visit my friend, then I quickly noted down some nice recipes to experiment in my kitchen...:D.



Soya Eggplant Moussaka
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Ingredients:

1 medium Eggplant
2 Tomatoes
2 tbsp olive oil or PAM spray
1 cup Spaghetti sauce or tomato puree
1 Onion
1 tbsp chopped green chillies
1 Green Bell Pepper
1 cup toor dal (or any other lentils)
1 tbsp chopped Garlic
1 Bayleaf
200g Soya chuks
3 tbsp of chopped coriander
3 tbsp of low-fat yogurt
1 Egg
3 cups Vegetable stock
1/2 tbsp Garam Masala
1 tbsp Corinader powder
Salt and pepper
Parmesan cheese (optional)

Step-by-Step Preparation:

1. Sprinkle the eggplant pieces with salt and place in a bowl. Cover and place a weight on top. Let it sit for atleast 30mins, to allow the bitter juices to be extracted.

2. In a pan, boil vegetable stock, lentils and bay leaf, cover and bring to boil and simmer for about 20mins until the lentils are tender but not mushy. Drain thoroughly and keep aside.

3. Soak the soya chunks in warm water for about 5 minutes or until they become soft.

4. Heat little oil in a skillet, add chopped garlic, boiled lentils, Soya chunks, tomatoes, chopped onions, spaghetti sauce(or tomato puree), coriander powder, garam masala and little water. Boil and cover and simmer for 10min. Stir occasionally and keep aside.

5. Preheat oven for 350F.

6. Rinse the Eggplants slices, drain and pat dry. Heat remaining oil in a pan and lightly fry the slices in batches for 4 mins, turning once so both sides are browned on low heat.

7. Arrange a layer of eggplant slices in the bottom of a shallow, oven proof dish or roasting pan then spoon a layer of soya mixture over the top. Continue layers until all the eggplant slices and lentil mixture is used up.

8. If desired, sprinkle some grated Parmesan cheese.

9. Now, beat the low-fat yogurt, egg and salt and pepper together and pour the mixture over the vegetables.

10. Bake for about 45 minutes or until the topping is golden brown and bubbling.

11. Squeeze some fresh lemon juice for a nice tangy taste and garnish with coriander. Serve immediately. This main course dish usually served with warm fresh bread for a hearty and satisfying meal...:)

Off this Moussaka also goes to What's Cooking Wednesday!.. at Shan's place.

Remembering a Mahatma....

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"Just an old man in a loincloth in distant India: Yet when he died, humanity wept."

January 30th, 1948

It was this day in the year 1948 that Mahatma Gandhi, an icon for ahimsa ( non-violence) was assassinated in the capital of India, New Delhi. The tragedy occurred as the gaunt old man walked to a prayer-meeting and was engulfed by one of history's great ironies - a life-long pacifist and promoter of non-violence struck down by an assassin's bullet.

and here I share with you all a story of an eye witness - Vincent Sheean, an American Reporter.

"I got a taxi and went out to Birla House in time for the prayer-meeting. This time I was alone. I stationed my taxi under a tree opposite the gate of Birla House and walked down the drive to the prayer-ground. It was not yet five o'clock and people were still streaming in on foot, in cars and with tongas. As I came on to the prayer-ground at the end of the garden I ran into Bob Stimson, the Delhi correspondent of the B.B.C. We fell into talk and I told him about the journey to Amritsar and what had taken place there. It was unusual to see any representatives of the press at the prayer-meeting; Bob explained that he had submitted some questions to the Mahatma for the B.B.C. and thought he might as well stay for the prayers since he was on the premises. He looked at his watch and said: 'Well, this is strange. Gandhi's late. He's practically never late.'

We both looked at our watches again. It was 5:12 by my watch when Bob said: 'There he is.' We stood near the corner of the wall, on the side of the garden where he was coming, and watched the evening light fall on his shining dark-brown head. He did not walk under the arbor this evening but across the grass, in the open lawn on the other side of the flower-beds. (There was the arbored walk, and a strip of lawn, and a long strip of flower-bed, and then the open lawn.)

It was one of those shining Delhi evenings, not at all warm but alight with the promise of spring. I felt well and happy and grateful to be here. Bob and I stood idly talking, I do not remember about what, and watching the Mahatma advance toward us over the grass, leaning lightly on two of 'the girls,' with two or three other members of his 'family' (family or followers) behind them. I read afterward that he had sandals on his feet but I did not see them. To me it looked as if he walked barefoot on the grass. It was not a warm evening and he was wrapped in homespun shawls. He passed by us on the other side and turned to ascend the four or five brick steps which led to the terrace or prayer-ground.

Here, as usual, there was a clump of people, some of whom were standing and some of whom had gone on their knees or bent low before him. Bob and I turned to watch - we were perhaps ten feet away from the steps-but the clump of people cut off our view of the Mahatma now; he was so small. Then I heard four small, dull, dark explosions. 'What's that?' I said to Bob in sudden horror. 'I don't know,' he said. I remember that he grew pale in an instant. 'Not the Mahatma!' I said, and then I knew.

Inside my own head there occurred a wavelike disturbance which I can only compare to a storm at sea - wind and wave surging tremendously back and forth. I remember all this distinctly; I do not believe that I lost consciousness even for a moment,
although there may have been an instant or two of half-consciousness. I recoiled upon the brick wall and leaned against it, bent almost in two. I felt the consciousness of the Mahatma leave me then-I know of no other way of expressing this: he left me. ...The storm inside my head continued for some little time-minutes, perhaps; I have no way of reckoning.

...lt was during this time, apparently, that many things happened: a whole external series of events took place in my immediate neighborhood - a few yards away - and I was unaware of them. A doctor was found; the police took charge; the body of the Mahatma was, carried away; the crowd melted, perhaps urged to do so by the police. I saw none of this. The last I saw of the Mahatma he was advancing over the grass in the evening light, approaching the steps. When I finally took my fingers out of my mouth and stood up, dry-eyed, there were police and soldiers and not many people, and there was Bob Stimson. He was rather breathless; he had gone somewhere to telephone to the B.B.C. He came with me down the steps to the lawn, where we walked up and down beside the flower-bed for a while. The room with the glass doors and windows, by the rose garden at the end of the arbor, had a crowd of people around it. Many were weeping. The police were endeavoring to make them leave. Bob could not tell me anything except that the Mahatma had been taken inside that room. On the following day he told me that he had seen him carried away and that the khadi which he wore was heavily stained with blood."

[Reproduced from Vincent Sheean's account as appears in: Sheean, Vincent, Lead, Kindly Light (1949); Ashe, Geoffrey, Gandhi (1968)]

Vincent Sheean was an American reporter and author who had covered trouble spots around the world in the years prior to and during World War II. In 1947, Sheean traveled to India and became a disciple of Gandhi in an attempt to find meaning in the violent and disruptive events he had witnessed during his years of reporting.

Source: Eyewitness to History

UPDATE: Who plotted Mahatma's murder?