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~* My experiments with food *~

By: usernotfound | Posted Jul 04, 2009 | Food | 423 Views | (Updated Jul 04, 2009 02:55 PM)

It's a Saturday morning and I am again at office fiddling with the mobile handsets and logging their behaviour under normal and abnormal test conditions. Doesn’t sound too exciting right? It really isn’t. Especially for a lazy late riser like me office on weekends means the end of the world. There can be nothing more terrible and terrifying than spending a weekend stuck in my damn cubicle. The goddamn clients wanted offshore people to be at the office while they prepare themselves for their Independence day celebration (4th July). so here I am merrily sitting and typing on my pc. Thank god there is MS, I wont at least die out of boredom cooped up here.

Well frankly speaking it doesn’t seem so bad working in a peaceful atmosphere when only a handful of people are present in the floor. The pedestal fan (less people no A/c) whirrs tirelessly behind me giving me company. Electronic sounds emit from here and there occasionally giving the proof that people are actually working and not sleeping in the comfortable darkness of the floor(again less people less number of lights).

The worst part of coming on a weekend is the lunch time. My office has two towers in its premises and my tower is quite far away from the canteen. So its a real pain in the neck to go up to the canteen for lunch, with no friends to accompany you and the rains beating down relentlessly. Everybody feels the same way, hence they have an easy solution at their hands. Look up for Dominoes number, give them a call and have a pizza party at the company's expense. So it is meant to be a no hassle job. Sit back and enjoy your food and work. But the problem is the food itself. Though we work for US clients still Dil hain Hindustani and stomach bhi hindustani. So this paapi pet protests against an overdose of pizza. No offence meant but guys really don’t care about it. And why the hell would they care, it’s us girls who gain weight like crazy even while eating a cup cake.

So this poor girl is forced to think otherwise when a weekend assignment come on her way. I came home very late last night, but since I was determined not to eat pizza for lunch today, so I started thinking of something which I could make easily and fast. Let me mention again, I am a decent enough cook but terribly lazy to put together a seven course meal. My way of cooking always highlights on how easy the dish is. After thinking for a while I decided to experiment and came up with a nice and tasty recipe. Chalo I decided to share it with you all, in case there is any one like me who is lazy to cook but expects something decent to eat. So here is the recipe which I call as "Soya granules Pulao".

Ingredients (serves two):

Basmati Rice - 2 medium cup

Soya granules - 15-16 granules (or according to your wish)

Curd - 3 tea spoon

Tomato - 1 small

Onion - 2 medium

Carrot/Peas - According to your wish

Ginger-Garlic Paste - 1 tea spoon

Jeera poweder - 1/2 tea spoon

Coriander powder - 1/2 tea spoon

Garam masala(full nt powder)

Kismis, cashew - according to wish

Salt to taste

Sugar - only if you prefer the pulao to be a bit sweet

Refined oil/Ghee - 2 1/2 table spoon

Preparation:

The first job is to soak the soya granules in water. Now here is a tip, if you have very little time and want the granules ready in a jiffy then prepare some lukewarm water and add a spoon of salt to it and put the granules in it. Your granules will be ready for cooking in less than 15 minutes. While the granules are in the water, finely grate the onion and keep it aside. Grate the tomato separately. Chop the carrot into very small fine pieces and keep it aside. Also its preferable that you wash and dry the rice before you start off.

Once the granules are ready, heat a little oil in the pan and lightly fry the soya granules for two minutes. This will help in reducing the odd smell of soya granules. Keep this fried granules aside. Now mix one tea spoon of ghee and 2 table spoon of oil in a pan and heat it. Once the oil is heated put the garam masala into it. Once the flavor of garam masala startes coming put the grated onion into it. Fry till it becomes light brown. Keep stirring it occasionally so that it doesn’t get burnt. Also you can keep adding 2-3 table spoon of water occasionally while frying the onion to make sure that it dosnt get burnt. Once the onion is done put the grated tomato, curd, ginger-garlic paste. Sauté for 2-3 minutes. Add jeera and coriander power, stir well for another 3-4 minutes. Once it takes a fine thick shape put the fried soya granules and the diced carrot into it. Stir well for 5 minutes. Now add the rice to it and mix well. Let it cook for 2-3 minutes.

Contd in comments

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usernotfound

Jul 04, 2009 10:21 AM (Updated Jul 04, 2009 10:22 AM)

After this pour a 2 medium cups of water and add the cashew, kismis, salt and sugar according to taste. Remember the water should be adequate enough for the rice to get cooked, so it should be measured by you. Here is another tip, its better if you can add lukewarm water instead of plain water, it enhances the taste.

Once everything is mixed put the whole thing in a pressure cooker and cook it till one whistle.

That’s it your pulao is ready to be eaten. It takes almost an hour including the arranging and cooking time. Its a pretty easy affair only the frying of the grated onion takes some patience, otherwise its pretty easy.

Now that I have given you the recipe let me go back to my work before my manager catches me doing TP over the net ;P. (Pssst let me know how it turned out if anyone of you try this)

Wish you a happy weekend!
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sydbarett

Jul 04, 2009 10:38 AM

Thanks for the recipe. Glad I found someone who's getting tired of eating Pizza.

I always find things like french toast, Poha, good old bread-omlette, corn flakes, etc easy to prepare and great to eat. Wholesome too. Nothing better to top it with a bit of mango shake. Somehow i'm getting this feeling that soon India is going to export all it mangoes so I'm hogging meself on all the Maldas that I can get.
...Read More

veda123

Jul 04, 2009 10:43 AM

All said and done,pizzas can never replace the Indian foods as far as satisfaction is concerned.The recipe is interesting.Perhaps garlic paste can be replaced with a bit of asafoetida,since only sattvic meals are prepared in our house.A nice post....Read More

kdrocks

Jul 04, 2009 10:52 AM (Updated Jul 04, 2009 11:04 AM)

Thank you,Thank you.It’s nice to see a vegetarian recipe here.Now I can tell my wife to follow the method that you have described here and prepare it tomorrow as it is a Sunday.Yippee,your recipe has come just in time.Thanks for it.My wife is an excellent cook too.She knows to prepare a variety of yummy dishes and boy I am happy to just savour it.Keep posting nice delicious recipes here,err,especially Vegetarian,please :-D .Keep penning.Cheers and God Bless all....Read More

usernotfound

Jul 04, 2009 10:55 AM

You will always find me company in the group which denounces pizza. Ironically at one time i was a huge fan of pizza hut, almost all weekends i would end up eating something or the other with my friends there. But then one fine day i heard that a freind of mine had developed high BP at this age and the doc credited it all to the regular intake of pizza and other junk food. though i am a huge foodie being a bengali, but still i would not prefer to have BP at this age, from then onwards i have knowingly controlled the junk food intake.

Yeah and you have said it right, by the looks of it, India will be exporting every good thing outside. At one time i remember 'galda chingri' was a common thing and every bengali could feed on that but now hardly u will find prawns of that size in the market, everything is exported outside. Also hilsa, where do u find good hilsa now a days like we used to have when we were kids?
Its a pity that im out of bengal so can not gorge on maldas but it was one of my personal fav too.
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usernotfound

Jul 04, 2009 11:02 AM

Yeah u have said it right galic can be replaced with asafoetida. but ginger has to be there. it cannot be replaced by asafoetida.either u put it or u dont. Well u can try it once and let me know then i can also try it out maybe. Good tip you gave here maybe i should add it in the DP itself :)...Read More

Raj_onlyone

Jul 04, 2009 11:02 AM

I Love Rice .... And Rice Pulao is a dish once can experiment in different way ....

nice post ....

keep sharing such foody experiments .... lol
...Read More

usernotfound

Jul 04, 2009 11:04 AM

yeah buddy, pizza are good once in a while like when you dont have anything good in the vicinity and want to go for a different kind of food. BUt regularly feeding on pizza is really not our cup of tea and also rough on the pocket :)...Read More

oldreviewer

Jul 04, 2009 11:05 AM

that was a great recipie barnali. plus i have suggestion for the pitza days. keep a subway number handy and enjoy a healthy fast food !!

usernotfound

Jul 04, 2009 11:07 AM

pehle kyu nehi bataya that you need veg recepies? I keep on experimenting with so many new things all the time, i can put it up here is public demand is good :P hehehehe... chalo then i will become a well known chef like Sanjeev kapoor if not a well known writer...:D

Kal prepare karke batana kaisa tha i hope if an ameture cook like me can do justice to teh recepie the bhabhiji surely will :)
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usernotfound

Jul 04, 2009 11:10 AM

my experiements always follow the golden rule ''NECESSITY IS THE MOTHER OF INVENTION'' :P
Jab sar pe aa padhti hain tabhi hum kitchen namak jageh pe time pass karte hain :) but chalo atleast with the number of good responses i got today it will give me an impetus for venturing into kitchen more frequently in days to come :P
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usernotfound

Jul 04, 2009 11:13 AM

wow welcomeeeeeeee, itne din baad a comment from you. it must really be my lucky day today :)
And yeah i had taken ur review wala suggestion and had a subway few months back, but seriously i didnt like it at all. it was all frozen and no taste at all. in fact me and my friend had to leave it midway and wash it off with a good fruit juice :(
maybe because we didnt know what was really good out there that the plan had backfired.
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JaveedAhmedM

Jul 04, 2009 11:16 AM

Is there a Rice Cooker Under your Desk... LoL

What is next ....''My experiments with........''

L&T, IT, Canteen, Desi Food, Desi Gal...

Thanks for Sharing the Recipe...

Psst. Will It be Edible? Lol
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usernotfound

Jul 04, 2009 11:22 AM (Updated Jul 04, 2009 11:22 AM)

well the edibility depends on the cook. A good recipe can be turned into a bad trash if the cook dosnt know the basics. So it all depends on the person. For me it turned out good enough and my office friends would vouch for that too...Read More

astrofreak1234

Jul 04, 2009 11:29 AM

It seems the MS comment eater ate my comment :(

I don't eat soya and I hate pizzas. You broke my heart, you could have shared a recipe for prawn pulao or something..sob..sob

psst I can vouch that if my baby does something she will do it perfectly..
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oldreviewer

Jul 04, 2009 11:30 AM

well i too dont like to be stuck up in an office on a weekend ( actually, to be totally frank with u, i dont like it on any day! )so we're in the same boat i guess. amzing that u didnt like a sub. which one did u have. maybe it got soggy getting to u. they have a toasting facility also, and u can choose the dressings as per ur liking. go to the outlet personally nce and try a tuna sub in wheat bread with a little chilly sauce and mint sauce. guaranteed ull like it !!...Read More

usernotfound

Jul 04, 2009 11:43 AM

welcome here. Aare prawn nehi but i have an excellent recipe for chicken. its the best i have prepared and easy too. I can share that if you want. i assure u its an amazingly mouthwatering recipe.
So sad u dont like soya, this one is a real good thing that i tried in a long time.
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Raj_onlyone

Jul 04, 2009 11:46 AM

when I m in good mood ... I like to do cooking ... its fun to be in kitchen

usernotfound

Jul 04, 2009 11:48 AM

i dont rememebr now, but it was something with chicken and not fish. since we never had tried it before, so we thought to go the safe way by choosing chicken. It also had all the dressing and mint sauce also i guess. but i dont rememebr the name maybe i can check it out at the outlet and let u know. but it things were too cold anf frozen. the veggies in it were fresh but out of teh freezer which made out eating experience quite deadly. The whole sub tasted like canned food right out of the freezer. Also since it was so cold, within a few minutes it became soggy and the bread became too bad for that.
Now that u have suggested tuna sub, i may as well try it some time soon. dekhte hain. then i will give u the feedback
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usernotfound

Jul 04, 2009 11:50 AM

even i am like that. bas wo kitchen tak jana hi musibat hain, but once i start cooking i am too dedicated towards it. then i wont stop without coming up with a good taste finally. Actually cooking is an art if u have the basic understanding of salt and sugar u can as well come up with a good dish....Read More

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