And so some time was spent in delhi trying to nurse a sick sister back to health and then it’s been this crazy circus of a go live weekend and frankly quite traumatic experiences with paperwork and digital work and a migration from an old laptop to a new laptop that have all successfully managed to keep away from experimenting much and sticking to the tried and tested..!
Nursing the sick sister to health turned out to be tons of fun with making pasta and risotto and chocolate biscuit pudding and corn bake and of course.. Haldi wala Doodh aka Haldi Milk aka HM!
And then through it all there were also these…
If this one’s Love at First Sight… 
then what do you call this…? 
The Extra Marital Affair!!!
Coming back to the real business of life… try making an elder sister fussy about the smell of warm milk drink HM and all your nightmares will seem small! So there we were following instructions to the tee.. while the milk is heating up put in 4 freshly wounded (yes wounded and not crushed) peppercorns into the milk… find a cup of any size you wish for it will eventually be negotiated to a smaller one come what may… add in an exact half tsp of sugar and an exact half tsp of haldi to the cup… boiling the milk and the haldi can make for quite a disaster when it comes to your olfactory nerves… so warm milk, haldi in cup and remember to seive the malai off when pouring the milk! (haldi flavored malai… ~eeyyuuu!) And then stir it all and give it the special halwai touch by pouring it back and forth between cups and find in you the patience to stand over the patients head as he/she rants about not wanting to drink it till it’s in their hands! ~phew!
(Dearest Diu… Get ekdum perfect super soon! HM works well for the physiotherapy so please please DIY! 🙂 We luv you!)
That said… I was taught some wonderful shortcuts to some lovely thai food and when I came home and tried them… they worked like a charm!!! 🙂 Hat tip to Dipali Chachi and Diu!
So we woke up on this wonderful thursday morning thinking that the worst is now behind us in terms of work and paperwork and we can put back in place the ritual of taking food to office! There was broccoli, green, red and yellow capsicum (yeah yeah.. bell peppers! ~sheesh!), carrots and green beans and a knife desperately waiting to go at them! So bright and early with a cup of black tea to keep me company these happy veggies were chopped up!
Then came the surprisingly easy part! Just follow the instructions on the pack!! 😀 A lil bit of oil, the curry paste, a tetrapak of homemade’s coconut milk, a lil bit of water, all the veggies… one happy boil and there it is!
Thai Green Curry just as they would serve it in your gully-ka-high-end-thai-restaurant! And one helping of steamed rice.. butter it up if you wish! (it does do wonders… one happy dollop of butter!) Anyone who tasted it at work thought I had laboured in the kitchen and kept trying to guess the ingredients.. someone went ginger.. another went lime… a third just smiled and dove into it!
Lucky for me I wasn’t putting in too much effort in the kitchen for the Boss called and said ‘hey you’ll be there by 11 right?!’. Poor lil me looks at clock and decides to have a bath and skip breakfast.. packup the food and run for it was 1015 by then! (Crime, shame, torture to make people run to office when their first planned action of the day is only at 230 in the afternoon!) And if I was complaining about the Thursday here’s to the Friday where Super Boss calls at 8 AM and goes hey come in ASAP! ~sheesh! (Now it’s a different story that the a couple presentations to people really high up went really really well… and on zero notice! pats self on back! but also continues to crib!!)
By Friday’s morning fiasco boss owed us lunch so it was a glutton fest at the food court.. and a coffee and sandwich nicely sufficed over a long pending dinner conversation with the Pinchester! 🙂 Costa and Pincha – always very chilled out! Lovely Bangalore weather and a warm cup of the Cafe Mocha as the breeze takes over!
After the mad crazy week it’s only natural that coffee will also put you to sleep! Knocked out cold and awoken only by 12 noon on Saturday and pretty much dying of hunger.. knowing only 100 bucks in wallet so can’t order takeout food either without going through the pains of changing and walking to atm! (and the chinese food guy is right next to the atm..!) so no.. not happening!
Open Fridgesame! Half of the broccoli and bell peppers were still there calling out to be chopped and cooked!
And there was that pack of the Pad Thai Noodles! Nice very very straight, flat, white sticks for noodles I must say! Anyways.. put those to boil while you chop the veggies and brush your teeth! 🙂
Roast some peanuts to perfection and keep aside for the garnish.. and then again..
… follow instructions on the pack! 😀 A lil bit of oil… stir fry the veggies.. I had some sprouts begging to be eaten as well so in they went too and well… it’s a nice touch if you’re a sprouts person! Then goes in the masala in the pad thai pack.. a lil bit of water… some more stir frying… ! By then the noodles should be boiled… drain in colander… wash down with cold water to avoid them sticking together and becoming noddle halwa… add them into your stir frying wok and again… stir fry for a couple more minutes! Toss in the roasted peanuts… yes – stir fry..! And you’re done!
I settled down with this and an episode of My Family and went right back to sleep! 🙂 Ahh.. the joys of a supra lazy saturday!
Sunday shall find me experimenting with Dahi Vada’s and Lauki ka Halwa..! If it turns out well I shall tell you about it… if not I shall sit in a corner and mope over the bowls as I find the courage to eat them! wish me luck!
The Vegetarian C(r)ook! 