The Boy in the Dress by David Walliams

For those of you who do not know David Walliams, I first came across him in comedy skits with Matt Lucas. There are some real gems in their series Little Britain. So when I heard about the books David began writing I thought I must read them as I am sure they would be fun. However it has been a long time since the first book that I got around to read it. Life just happened to interfere with my plans.

This is a book written for young people but can also be enjoyed by adults for it shows us life from the child’s perceptive, something that we forget once we grow up. This story is about Dennis, a 12 year old boy, who lives with his older brother John and his lorry driver dad. His mother had left them. Dennis remembers his parents fighting but also the love and care his mother had given him. There is only one slightly burnt at the edges photo he has of his mother with John and himself that was saved from the bonfire by a gust of wind.

Life was ordinary and so boring. He has a good friend, loves to play footie, watch daytime chat shows, and look at fashion magazines. He feels sad that his mum was not around and when he cries he gets told not to be a girl! His father catches him leafing through a Vogue magazine and throws it into the bin telling him boys should not be reading this girlie stuff. Of course he is teased about it by his brother. The book is telling us how we perpetuate the gender stereotypes.

At 12 he is just beginning to notice girls like Lisa who is in John’s year. He has the good fortune to spend some detention time with her. Seeing her doodling and sketching dresses like those in fashion magazines he gets talking to her. They find mutual interest in all kinds of fashion and its accessories. Dennis gets invited to spend a Saturday with Lisa and check out her stash of Vogue as well as he own design sketches. But there was more than just sketches as Lisa was good with her sewing and had turned some of her designs into dresses. Dennis’s eyes light up at all these beautiful clothes and as you can guess he gets persuaded to wear one of them. Lisa does a complete makeover on him and presents him in the mirror as Denise.

Will he be persuaded to wear the dress outside the house? Who all will think he is a beautiful girl? What will his father, brother, best friend, school mates, teachers and the head master think of him? It is a good tale about individuality, growing up, being non-judgemental and supportive as we are not defined by one single thing, least of all our fashion sense.

I could not put the book down as I wanted to know if there was a happy ending. You feel the emotions along with Dennis and want to jump in and tell the stuffy adults off. I would say it is a book to be read by all.

Devil May Care by Elizabeth Peters

I have read many of Elizabeth Peter’s books with Amelia and Emerson Peabody the archaeologist couple who are involved in mysteries and murders on digs mainly in Egypt. I have thoroughly enjoyed their adventures and seen them fall in love, have a son who grows up and follows in their footsteps through the series. So when I picked up this book it was certainly a surprise that it was not a part of the Amelia Peabody series. In fact there are other series by this author and also non series books of which Devil May Care are one. I had not even read the synopsis and so had not even an inkling of the story that unfolded.

The story begins with Henry (who I gather at once is a stuffy pompous lawyer) and his fiancé Ellie. Ellie has to go for a few days and house sit for her rich aunt in Virginia. It appears that Henry did not know about this ‘eccentric’ aunt and now that he does is very interested in the fact that she is rich. Henry plans to drive Ellie there and stay overnight, giving a lift to Aunt Kate to the airport the next day. Along with Aunt Kate one wonders as to what Ellie sees in Henry who is constantly thinking of the ways in which he would change her behaviour and her style once they are married. He is also calculating the worth of the contents of Aunt Kate’s home as he wanders around. Kate keeps hinting that Ellie could do better. 

While she was away, Kate said that there was a local family, who came and did the house chores and a young man who did the extensive gardens. At dinner, she also introduced Ellie to her friend Ted, who lived nearby and visited often. It was a long time since Ellie had visited her aunt and was looking forward to spending some quiet time on her own there. Next morning she departed with Henry with a cryptic ‘And the ghosts are no trouble, they are very quiet types’ thrown in among the list of things that needed doing and animal issues that Ellie had to keep an eye on. 

Ellie thinks about this but dismisses it as there has never been any talk of ghosts even if this was an old 18^th century building. The first day seems to pass peacefully but as she is going up to bed she sees this person as an image on the wall in the landing of the stairs. It is clear and seems to dissolve as she goes up close. While this unnerves her a little she is not scared. But then she is woken in the middle of the night. There is a noise outside and she looks out of the window into the garden. Who is that couple in the garden? What are they doing? Why have they started running? Who is that man who came out of the shrubs to follow the running couple?

This frightens her and she calls Ted for help. This tale gets all around the village. The ghosts seem to have the people divided. It is all about the history of the 6 families who originally lived there. There are some dark parts to the lives of the people long gone. The young man who looks after the garden turns out to be the local doctor’s son, who looks strangely like the ghost on the wall, but is willing to help Ellie when the ghostly antics increase in intensity. 

The pace of the book is steady and many small but intriguing incidents occupy your mind. Why is Henry not answering his phone? Do the locals want to publicise the ghosts to increase tourist trade? As sightings escalate Ellie thinks it is time to inform her aunt. But where is Kate? No one seems to be able to get hold of her and the place she is staying at is closed. Will a séance help to find out what the ghosts are up to?

As Donald the gardener has been helping and supporting her, is something more than friendship developing? So were will all this lead?

This story certainly kept me hooked right till the end. There are lot of detailed descriptions of the house, the history of the families, the people and events. It is a good read with some mystery, some ghosts and some romance.

Moong Dal with Palak

The only way I used to eat spinach as a child was with moong dal. I was happy to have the tangy and hot dal with rice or even parathas and the spinach blended into the taste of the dal. This can be had just as soup as well on a cold winter day. I have not made it that often myself as I find that you need a half bunch of spinach as the most when making the dal for 2 people. This means that either half a bunch kind of wilted away for the lack of inspiration or I would have to make twice the amount of dal and freeze half to be had later. Unfortunately I have found a couple of such frozen moong and palak dal containers in my freezer as I have not remembered to use it up.

Ingredients

200 gm of moong dal without the husk

½ - 1/3 bunch of spinach chopped

A medium onion finely chopped

4 cloves of garlic finely chopped

1 inch of ginger finely chopped

Green chillies finely chopped (have deliberately not written how many as you need to put according to how hot you can take, I generally put really hot green long chillies about 2 -3)

Tomatoes (2 medium fresh tomatoes or half a tin of tomatoes)

Spices:

Salt to taste

Red chilli powder 1 teaspoon

Cumin powder 1 teaspoon

Coriander powder 3 teaspoons

Turmeric powder 1 teaspoon

Handful of chopped fresh coriander

For tempering:

Teaspoon of whole cumin

A couple of small dried red chillies

4 cloves

A small piece of cinnamon stick

Quarter teaspoon of hing / asafoetida

3 teaspoon olive oil or any vegetable oil

Method

• Wash the moong dal in cold water. Place in a large pan and covers with water. The water should be 2 inches above the lentils. Bring it to boil and then simmer until the lentils begin to soften.
• Make the temper / tadka – Add the oil and whole cumin to a pan and heat. As the cumin starts turning brown add the dried red chillies, cloves and cinnamon stick to it.
• Once that heats up add the finely chopped onion, garlic, ginger and green chillies. Cook till onions begin to lightly brown.
• Then add the tomatoes and the rest of the powdered spices. Cook till you can see the oil rise back out of the masala (paste) you have made.
• Then add this masala to the cooked lentils. Slowly simmer the lentils to completely get the taste of the spices into the lentils.
• At this point you also add the chopped spinach into the lentils as it does not take very long to wilt. Adjust the amount of water based to get the right thickness for the dal - for it has to be more liquid when you have with rice than with parathas.
• Just before serving you can add the fresh chopped coriander.

Have a go at making this dal and it is especially good on a cold evening. I find that most of my cooking I do is on estimate that comes from practice of many years and so you do need to think of the amounts in terms of your tastes and the amount of lentils to be comparable with what measure you normally use for lentils for your family. Enjoy!

Palak / Spinach Parathas

A few weeks back I saw a website that came up in my Facebook news feed about making different types of parathas. Since I know a few different recipes myself, I was intrigued to see what kinds were in this recipe link. Scrolling down the list palak parathas caught my eye. Now I do feel I should have more spinach in my diet but always find it difficult to think what I can make besides the moong dal and palak. Just realised, that I have not penned that one and will do so after this one. I am not very fond of palak paneer as the palak is gets cooked to a pulp.

The palak paratha recipe was to my mind very lengthy and it involved blitzing the spinach in a mixer and using the pulp instead for water to knead the dough. Of course various condiments and spices were to be added to this dough. This would provide nice green parathas. I did not want to do the additional blitzing of spinach which meant I would not be sure of how much dough I would eventually make and additional washing up. So I adapted the recipe and made these wonderful tasting parathas.

Ingredients

1/2 bunch of spinach finely chopped

2 cm piece of ginger finely chopped

1 medium sized green chilli also finely chopped

300 gm of plain wheat flour / chapatti flour

A teaspoon of salt

Water about 225 ml

5 table spoons of Olive oil.

Preparing the Dough

• Place the finely chopped spinach, ginger, chilli and salt in a bowl.
• Add the flour and 1 table spoon of olive oil next and mix them together.
• Then start adding water a little at a time while bringing the dough together.
• Once all the dough is brought together knead it for a few minutes.
• Finally take a teaspoon of olive oil in your hand and knead the dough to make it smooth.

Normally I set aside the dough of parathas and chapattis to rest but with this one I try not to keep it resting for more than 10 minutes as the palak can make the dough too soft.

Preparing the Paratha

• Put a flat griddle or tawa on the hob to get it heating. Have a small bowl of oil and teaspoon to brush the paratha with oil as it is cooking. It is useful to get a foil ready to cover your parathas and keep them warm.  Take a dough ball big enough to fill your palm. You should be able to make about 7 balls / portions from that dough.
• Flatten it a little and cover it with flour before rolling it out. This use of flour as you are rolling out keeps the dough from sticking on to the rolling pin (Gujarati word is velan) or the surface you are rolling it on. Some people can use the work surface tops or wooden or marble patlo (a Gujarati word for the surface you roll out your chapattis on).
• Roll out the dough to as about 2 mm thickness.
• Put on the hot griddle and wait for it to warm up and start to get cooked. Turn it over once and brush with oil. Then turn over again and brush the other side with oil. The cooked paratha will have some blistering and darkening patches.

I would recommend having these palak parathas with raita or moong dal or even just mango pickle.

Palak / Spinach Parathas

A few weeks back I saw a website that came up in my Facebook news feed about making different types of parathas. Since I know a few different recipes myself, I was intrigued to see what kinds were in this recipe link. Scrolling down the list palak parathas caught my eye. Now I do feel I should have more spinach in my diet but always find it difficult to think what I can make besides the moong dal and palak. Just realised, that I have not penned that one and will do so after this one. I am not very fond of palak paneer as the palak is gets cooked to a pulp.

The palak paratha recipe was to my mind very lengthy and it involved blitzing the spinach in a mixer and using the pulp instead for water to knead the dough. Of course various condiments and spices were to be added to this dough. This would provide nice green parathas. I did not want to do the additional blitzing of spinach which meant I would not be sure of how much dough I would eventually make and additional washing up. So I adapted the recipe and made these wonderful tasting parathas.

Ingredients

1/2 bunch of spinach finely chopped

2 cm piece of ginger finely chopped

1 medium sized green chilli also finely chopped

300 gm of plain wheat flour / chapatti flour

A teaspoon of salt

Water about 225 ml

5 table spoons of Olive oil.

Preparing the Dough

• Place the finely chopped spinach, ginger, chilli and salt in a bowl.
• Add the flour and 1 table spoon of olive oil next and mix them together.
• Then start adding water a little at a time while bringing the dough together.
• Once all the dough is brought together knead it for a few minutes.
• Finally take a teaspoon of olive oil in your hand and knead the dough to make it smooth.

Normally I set aside the dough of parathas and chapattis to rest but with this one I try not to keep it resting for more than 10 minutes as the palak can make the dough too soft.

Preparing the Paratha

• Put a flat griddle or tawa on the hob to get it heating. Have a small bowl of oil and teaspoon to brush the paratha with oil as it is cooking. It is useful to get a foil ready to cover your parathas and keep them warm.  Take a dough ball big enough to fill your palm. You should be able to make about 7 balls / portions from that dough.
• Flatten it a little and cover it with flour before rolling it out. This use of flour as you are rolling out keeps the dough from sticking on to the rolling pin (Gujarati word is velan) or the surface you are rolling it on. Some people can use the work surface tops or wooden or marble patlo (a Gujarati word for the surface you roll out your chapattis on).
• Roll out the dough to as about 2 mm thickness.
• Put on the hot griddle and wait for it to warm up and start to get cooked. Turn it over once and brush with oil. Then turn over again and brush the other side with oil. The cooked paratha will have some blistering and darkening patches.

I would recommend having these palak parathas with raita or moong dal or even just mango pickle.