Tender Feelings

The trembling of a dew drop on a petal

The glistening of a metal

The smile on a baby’s face

The love’s tender gaze

Baby birds nesting in the leaves

Among uncurling new leaves

The pale green leaf unfurling gently

Touching the soft skin gently

Mothers holding their babies to breast

Hugging them to their chest

Love and tenderness are clear to see

Evoking emotion in all who see

A Dark Anatomy by Robin Blake

This is the first book I am reading by Robin Blake. It is set in 1740s England and of course is a murder mystery. A local gentlewoman has been found dead with her throat cut. The body is found in the woods by the workers of the estate who go searching for her, when her horse comes back riderless. The coroner who is the main character of the story is called in, as this is an unexplained death.

This is a story that is intriguing in many ways. The murder and the attempt to find the truth is one puzzle. When trying to uncover what happened the author gives a fairly good account of what the state of policing and of forensics was. The policing was practically non-existent and as for understanding of the human body and its complexities was in its infancy. The human nature and simplistic outlook of the people is well portrayed. The coroner is a very meticulous man and works hard to discover the truth with the help of his friend who is a doctor and usually performs the post-mortem. He sets about getting his jury together to hold the inquest when the body disappears from the ice house where it had been placed till the doctor could view it.

Granted the woman was not well-liked and there were none who mourned her death. The husband is the prime suspect but has an iron clad alibi. He does not want an inquest or a post-mortem and wishes the coroner would treat it as an accident. How can this be if the throat had been cut from ear to ear? Surely the husband has something to hide, especially since it was known that the marriage was unhappy one and he had been trying to get a divorce from his rich Jamaican wife. He surely needed the money as he was working on a building project. The architect who manages the project also appears to have something to hide. The workers in the estate have little information that can help in finding the truth.  

Who would benefit from her death and subsequently from taking away the body? Was this the work of the murderer? In order to hide the truth that might be revealed if the post-mortem was carried out? Was it the body snatchers who were stealing dead bodies and selling them to anatomists for dissection? Was there any truth is the rumours that the lady was a werewolf? There is such mixture of beliefs and myths and what in the present day may sound totally ridiculous was a firm belief of many in those times.

This is a very descriptive novel with details of the times and also out of the need to detect crime. After all there are no fancy gadgets to use but only the human mind and thinking. It is however a different flavour to the other murder mysteries that I have read which were set in different times. The discussion and thinking relate to philosophy, medicine, law, truth, anatomy, religion and so on. Many subjects dealt with to give a good mystery and a small lesson in history. Well worth a read. I shall look for other books by this author.

Doodhpak (rice pudding)

This is one of my favourite Indian sweet of all time. The ingredients are not many and the preparation is simple. However, it does take time and patience. I usually make enough for it to last a few days so that I can have my fill and a good recompense of the time spent stirring the milk. It is the perfect sweet to eat with or after a meal or even on its own. 

Ingredients

4 pints of full cream milk (2 litres – the semi skimmed will not work as creaminess is the essence of the dish)

Sugar (adjust the amount your preference)

Almonds, pistachios and cashew nuts (a small handful of each)

Raisins (a small handful)

8 – 10 pods of cardamom

Rice – a small handful of nice fragrant basmati rice

Preparation

Gather all the ingredients and roughly chop the nuts as well as wash the raisins. Put the milk in a pan on the heat. Add sugar, nuts and raisins to the milk. Break open the cardamom pods and crush the seeds and add into the milk. Wash the rice and have it ready. Once the milk comes to boil add the rice into it. Now turn the heat down to medium and allow the milk to continue boiling gently. 

It would be prudent to keep an eye and stir the milk often so that it does not boil over or start sticking to the bottom of the pan. The dish is ready once the rice gets cooked. However, you can boil it to get the consistency you want. I prefer it fairly thick and leave the milk to cook till it reduces to half the original amount. Take it off the heat and cool for a while in the pan. Then stir the milk to break up any layer of cream that forms on top. This, now can be placed in the fridge to chill.

Here are some other recipes of the same dish -

http://www.indianfoodforever.com/desserts/doodh-pak.html

http://www.khanapakana.com/recipe/6e735e2e-2e79-4f7b-96c2-204466fcecee/doodh-pak-rice-milk-pudding-or-dudh-paank

http://www.vahrehvah.com/Doodh+Pak:3015

 

You can leave the rice out altogether and you would get rabdi. This is fairly thickened milk with the nuts and raisins and tastes wonderful too. This rabdi can also then be frozen and had as ice cream or kulfi. There is a slight variation also when you can add fine vermicelli instead of rice. However the vermicelli has to be slightly browned in a small amount of ghee before adding the milk and nuts and letting it cook till the vermicelli is cooked and the milk thickened to right consistency. 

Here are some recipes for seviyan (vermicelli pudding) -

http://renus-kitchen.blogspot.com.au/2009/08/seviyan-kheer-sweet-vermicelli-pudding_31.html

http://recipe2cook.com/kheer-recipes/vermicelli-kheer-seviyan-kheer.html

http://vegindianrecipe.com/seviyan-recipe/

Potato Gnocchi

I love Italian food and have always bought gnocchi from the shop. I have often looked at the recipes for making gnocchi and shied away with the thought of making it. Now I have time on my hands and thought I must try making basic potato gnocchi and if all goes well, to experiment with different kinds of gnocchi. Upon reading the basic recipes it seemed to me that just mashing potatoes with a masher would not really work as you needed air in there to make the final product fluffy. So I spent time to look for a potato ricer. Do you think I could find one when I looked? It is always the case that when you want something you can never find it and once you buy is after hunting in many places you will see it on every shop shelf! Finally I saw it in a shop and jumped with joy. Then the realisation that I do need the right kind of potato too! So off to the shop to buy red potatoes.

Ingredients (makes for 4 servings)

750 gms of red or Desiree potatoes (helpful if they are smallish as they need to be boiled whole)

200 gms of flour (I used the plain one but you can use bread flour or durum wheat flour)

Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation

Put the potatoes in a pan and cover with cold water. Boil the potatoes till a skewer goes easily though them. It takes about 20 – 25 minutes. Peel the potatoes and mash then using the ricer. The use of ricer ensures there is plenty of air between the particles of the potato and allows the water to evaporate more. Sprinkle salt and pepper to taste on top of the potato and leave it to cool for a little while. Then add 200 gms of flour and slowly work it into the potatoes. Do not knead and over work the mix as it will get sticky and you will end up adding more flour, which makes for heavy doughy gnocchi.

Once it has all come together place it on a lightly floured surface and just bring it nicely together in a ball. Then divide the dough into 4 parts (make a round shape, cut in into half and then quarter using a knife). Then each part can be rolled by hand to a long sausage shape about an inch in diameter. Then, using a knife you need to slice into the dough, making pieces that are about half inch. Then you can roll each gnocchi over the prongs of a fork making indentations. This roughing up of the surface is necessary for the sauce to cling to the gnocchi.

At this point you can either cook the gnocchi right away or you can put gnocchi on a foil sheet and put in the freezer. This is important as if they are put in a box or freezer bag they will clump together and not keep the shape. To cook, bring a pan of water to boil and drop the gnocchi in it. It is better to do them in small batches as it cooks within a minute or two, rising to the surface. Using a slotted spoon remove the gnocchi and place into the sauce. You can make tomato and basil sauce or just pesto sauce. You can see my blog about making your own pesto sauce. (http://mrigajoshiwilliams.blogspot.com.au/2011/10/pesto-versatile-sauce.html )

This time I used basil pesto. The gnocchi turned out to be real soft and melted in the mouth. Strange how different that is from the readymade gnocchi which in hindsight is a lot more solid and chewy. There are many recipes of gnocchi and here are some which I looked at –

http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/8775/step+by+step+gnocchi

http://www.bestrecipes.com.au/recipe/potato-gnocchi-L491.html

http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/how-to-make-gnocchi-like-an-italian-grandmother-recipe.html

http://cookalmostanything.blogspot.com.au/2006/02/ultimate-gnocchi.html

http://allrecipes.com.au/recipes/tag-2204/gnocchi.aspx

http://www.lifestylefood.com.au/recipes/543/potato-gnocchi-with-tomato-sauce

Enjoy!

The Play of Dark and Light

The soul is sad

Making me mad

Why do the dark clouds cover the light?

Making me lose sight

The priorities get jumbled

Like jigsaw pieces jumbled

Anxiety spreads

Anger spreads

Like waves from me

Like ripples of a pond leaving me

Let them spread so they leave

Hoping they miss others as they leave

Slowly the waters become calm

Ripples of the mind start to calm

The sun comes out from behind the clouds

The light comes piercing through the clouds

The black dog of darkness runs away

Pushing dark thoughts away

The heart feels gladdened

The soul uplifted

I smile again

Ready to spread joy again!

Bhindi Sabji (Okra)

This is one of my favourite vegetables and my eyes light up at the sight of the bhindi sabji. It is cooked in many different ways in many countries of the world. It is also called lady’s fingers (the green seed filled pod that is edible). The variety is slightly different in Australia than in India and UK. The vegetable is thicker and bigger than what I have been used to in the past. When I first saw it here I wondered if it would be actually tender. I was pleasantly surprised that it is nice and soft but the seeds do tend to be bigger. I also have to get used to the cooking time.. for some reason the change in variety and also electric hob makes my sabji turn to mush! So I would suggest that one keeps a sharp eye on the pot while it is cooking to get an estimate of the time. Having a heavy non-stick pan is good too as when I had thinner pans they burnt the bhindi very quickly. Another thing I love the taste of potatoes with it and so usually add that to it. 

Ingredients

300 gms of bhindi

2 medium potatoes

1 medium onion

2 small green chillies

1 inch piece of fresh ginger

Half spoon of mustard seeds

2 tablespoons of olive oil

Salt to taste

Half tea spoon of red chilli powder

Half teaspoon of turmeric powder

2 teaspoons of coriander powder

1 teaspoon of cumin powder

2 cloves

Small piece of cinnamon

1 small dry red chilli

Preparation

Finely chop onion, ginger and green chillies. Chop the okra in 1 to 1.5 cm size pieces. The potatoes are to be chopped to a similar size.

Heat the oil in a pan and add the mustard seeds. When they start to pop add the cloves, dry chilli and cinnamon stick to it. It will heat up within a few seconds. Next add the finely chopped onion, ginger and green chillies. Fry until the onions are soft and golden. Then add potatoes to the pan. When the potatoes are half cooked add the bhindi into the pan. Leave the lid off the pan when cooking. Stir but not often as the bhindi starts breaking up when cooked. Once the bhindi is added you can wait a few minutes and add the spices to the sabji. The spices take a few minutes to cook and this time also allows the vegetable to all cook together. The bhindi should be just cooked but still crunchy. The spices have nicely blended in as well. Add freshly chopped coriander to garnish.

You can make it the same method but without potatoes. If you wish to have really crunchy bhindi then you can add more oil and so more or less shallow fry the bhindi. I have known people to add a table spoon of plain yogurt just before the sabji finishes cooking and this makes the bhindi less sticky. I have also known people to add fresh tomatoes along with the spices. This does add a sour flavour which tastes well. But alternately you can use some lime or lemon juice to give that sourness. Of course you can increase or decrease the amount of ginger and other condiments to suit your palate.

http://www.indianfoodforever.com/vegetables/bhindi-bhaji.html

 

http://www.tarladalal.com/recipesearch.aspx?term=bhindi this website gives about 59 different recipes for bhindi. I must say that I rarely make it any different as I prefer to not add any fluid to the bhindi as it increases the stickiness and can make the sabji pulpy if cooked a little too much.

http://indianfood.about.com/od/vegetarianrecipes/r/bharvaanbhindi.htm stuffed bhindi is another good recipe but not the one I attempt often as it is best when having all similar size bhindi for them to cook together. In this reciepe you find that a paste is made from stuffing. However, gujarati style you mx all the spices together (without any flour) (coriander, cumin, salt, chilli powder, turmeric powder and a couple of spoons of oil plus optional is a pinch of sugar) This mixture will allow you to fill the bhindi though the lengthwise slit that you make, going  just over half way deep into the bhindi. The onions and ginger can form the base like the earlier version and add the bhindi to the pan after the onions are softened. If any mixed spices are left over then they can also be added into the pan. Again leave the lid off the pan and do not stir the sabji much. You can toss them in the pan though to keep the heat even through the bhindis.

To Love

I look across a crowded room

Suddenly there is no one else in the room

It is such a cliché love at first sight

Love pushes into my heart with might

The breath quickens

The heartbeat quickens

The world suddenly seem lighter

The future dreamy and brighter

The touch of his eyes on my face

Makes a blush creep up my face

My eyes adore him

Wishing always to look at him

So much said with eyes

So much unsaid by eyes

The first look lingers

The love you can almost touch with fingers

We are drawn towards each other

Wishing just to be with each other

The gentle breeze playing with my hair

Fragrance of roses in the air

The scent of roses always bring

That first memory of loving

Now that you are gone

My eyes searching on and on

The heart slowed

The breath pained

The eyes flow hot tears

Your memory like hot spears

Life seems an endless waste

Refusing to make haste

Time to heal this broken heart

Time to move on from this part

Then once again my eyes meet another’s across a room

Suddenly there is no one else in the room

Again!!!