Poha Aval Uppuma: RIce Flakes Breakfast Dish

Poha is a breakfast dish popular in the western state of Maharashtra, India. At its basic it is rice flakes cooked with little salt and green chilies. It can be enhanced with addition of vegetables such as  green pepper, potatoes, onions and green peas. If you want your poha crunchy, you can add some peanuts. Whichever way you  make it,  it is a dish with calorie count and minimal preparation..

Instructions

poha or aval (thick): 1 cup
green chilies : 3
gurry leaves: a sprig
shelled and skinned raw peanuts:  as many as you prefer
mustard: 1 teaspoon
salt to taste; turmeric: 1/4 teaspoon; a pinch of powdered asafoetida

1. Soak poha in two cups of cold water for 30-45 minutes. Poha will absorb all the water and double in size.

2. Drain the soaked poha in a colander to remove any residual water.

3. Heat oil in a deep skillet. Add asafoetida and mustard. Let mustard pop. Add curry leaves and green chilies.

4. Add peanuts and roast till they turn gold brown.

5. Add poha, salt and turmeric. With a spatula turn over the mixture completely. Remove from heat when poha is cooked completely.

Serve hot with coconut chutney or pickle.

Optional

If you vegetables in your poha, cut them finely and add them along with green chilies. Cook till they become tender and then add the poha. Adjust the salt accordingly.

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Pongal Season, Chennai January 2015

January is absolutely the best month to be in Chennai. The weather is incredibly balmy, trees are leafy and green, the mosquitoes behave themselves and the entire city is colorful and in a celebratory mood for the Pongal festival.

It is the season for music festival, arts and crafts shows, textile exhibitions and weddings.

It is the celebration of nature's bounty, winter harvest and the beginning of Sun's northern ascension. In a country where still seventy-five percent of the population lives in villages, Pongal brings farmers and their livestock to the center stage in a grateful acknowledgment of their labor and toil in feeding the country's billion people. Pongal itself means an overflowing cooking pot and every Tamil kitchen at the appointed hour witnesses the milk and rice boiling over the cooking pot. Unsurprisingly, the three-day harvest festival  is also celebrated with varieties of food preparation based on rice and vegetables.

Just before the start of the festival, roadside are filled with carts and stalls of fresh winter vegetables, sugarcane, raw turmeric and fruits.

It is the time for families to do things together.

Even the birds get to partake in the feast!

If cultures reveal their heart and soul in what they celebrate,then Pongal festival is Tamil culture at its best.

Happy Pongal!

The Art of Gian Lorenzo Bernini

St. Peter's Baldacchino, Cathedra Pietri and Gloria

An odd confluence of sightseeing choices exposed me to many works of Bernini and what a wonderful experience it turned out to be! Bernini was the architect responsible for creating the vast piazza with its perfectly aligned colonnades of St. Peter's Basilica and much of its interior decoration including the Baldacchino, Cathedra Pietri and Gloria. He was also the principal architect of Piazza Navona. His sculptural masterpieces were renowned for their multi-dimensionality, dramatic tension and psychological intensity. Many of his sculptures (Rape of Proserpina, Apollo and Daphne and David) focused on that single dramatic moment when a major action is about to happen-in the Rape of Proserpina, it is when Persephone is grabbed by Pluto and we are witness to Persephone's resistance and despair and to Pluto's very ungodly and unattractive mien. In Apollo and Daphne, it is exactly at the point when leaves begin to sprout from Daphne's feet as she turns into a tree to escape Apollo's clutches.  I am posting here photos of some of these great art. Enjoy.

Rape of Proserpina, Borghese Gallery, Rome

Rape of Proserpina

Paulette Bonaparte

David about to fire the slingshot

Apollo and Daphne

Four Rivers Fountain, Piaza Navona

Piazza Navona

Left Colonnade of Piazza San Pietro, Vatican

St. Peter's Baldacchino

Statue of St. Peter on the Piazza

Right Colonnade 

St. Paul and Other Angels

Map-Cut Art

I love maps and even more I love crafting with them. One of my favorite map cutting, especially old city grid maps. I find the art of map-cutting very meditative. Even though it involves the use of knife, the task of cutting each little grid on the map into a lacy whole is both calming and reflective. What I have discovered is that as one cuts along the various lines, sometimes new shapes and images reveal themselves. The maps of Sofia, Bulgaria and Rome, Italy are transformed into birds in flight here.

I start with a city map that is in a square grid format. (I find these maps on Wikipedia.) I cut out each of the square little by little.Then I colorize the open grids. Now the fun begins: I turn it around this way and that to see if I could see any interesting shape within the cutout. I snip away little pieces here and there till I come with an image. I glue a backing paper to the cutout and sometimes as a final touch I coat it with wax (last photo).

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Yarn Bombed Mixed Media Altered Cigar Boxes

Plain wooden boxes are like catnip to me. I have to paint, sketch, scrap, embellish and alter them in any direction my muse takes me. This was a $5 cigar box.

It has been sitting in the attic for several months. I brought it down to my studio a few days ago with no idea as to what I wanted to do with it. I decided that I would yarn-bomb it. Currently, I am on a yarn-bombing spree.  I do not knit or crochet but  wrap knitting yarn around objects in a variety of ways using glue to hold it in place. You could call it yarn-bombing redux :)

In the photo above, you can see the design with yarn and fabric. I gave the box a funky look by adding tall legs which were also yarnbombed.  Now the humble box is a magnificent gallery stand for all kinds of objects!

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Art on Wood with Paint, Yarn and Inca Gold

Art on wood--my favorite medium. Materials used: wood boxes, acrylic fluid paints, yarn, Inca Gold by Viva Decor. Can you tell my favorite colors?:)

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Curried Cauliflower

Cauliflower, which is becoming a trendy vegetable, got a shout-out from the New York Times in a recent article. The article called cauliflower "a feisty vegetable that can take a punch" and recommended cooking it with bold spices in high heat. It goes on to say "Asian spices marry well with cauliflower". Well indeed. In northern India, cauliflower (Phool gobi) is one of several winter time vegetables eaten with roti or Indian flat bread.

One of my favorite ways of making gobi curry is the one I learned from my mother. What my mother used to do was to add a tablespoon or two of gram flour (besan) when the curry is almost cooked and give the curry to good toss and saute it for a few extra minutes. What one gets is a texture and taste of pakoras without the oil and the deep frying.

Here is how to do it:

1. Cauliflower
2. Usual spices (salt, turmeric, chilli powder, masala)
3. One tablespoon of olive oil and one tablespoon coconut oil
4. 1-2 tablespoon of besan (gram flour)
4. Black mustard for tempering

Instructions

1. Cut the vegetable in medium sized chunks. The vegetable should be able to retain its shape after cooking.

2. In a pan heat oil and add the mustard.
3. After the mustard has finished popping, add the cut cauliflower.
4. Add the spices and saute in low heat till cauliflower is cooked. Cook it al dente. That is, it should still retain its shape and crunchiness.

5. Add the coconut oil now and sprinkle the besan on top. Toss with spatula so that the oil and besan coat the cauliflower uniformly.

6. Turn up the heat little and continue to saute till the besan turns brown.

7. Remove from heat and transfer to a dish. Serve with rice or roti.

Enjoy. Thanks for visiting