Conscience check

No one knows what it's like

to be the bad man
To be the sad man
behind blue eyes

These were the lyrics of Cover Song, "Behind blue eyes" by limp bizkit i was listening to today morning in metro, when i saw a small plumpy kid running entering the metro with huge tattered Lojas Americana polythene moments before doors getting closed. The moment doors of metro closed, he took out his merchandise in anticipation of selling it. Not many people were interested in buying the stuff, and their looks gave it away that most likely the stuff was stolen. I saw the kid going to other end of metro and simply taking one of the empty seat and getting lost in own world within few seconds. Even i had made up my mind that stuff was pretty much stolen and most likely find its way to people selling stolen goods outside my office and was kind of suddenly repulsive of the kid. Why, why why did this kid had to do all this.. And again i heard some lyrics

No one knows what its like
To be mistreated, to be defeated
Behind blue eyes
No one knows how to say
That they're sorry and don't worry

After listening to these lyrics, the very thought of me getting repulsive of small kid made me repulsive of myself. What do i know of his past or his conditions to judge him.

Long back i had played a game called Caesar III. And the Society was made of two classes. Plebeians and patricians. The idea was Plebs work while patricians did not. Plebs were poor and patricians were rich. Not too long into game and i realized one important aspect, Too many plebs meant city was on fast track growth and with growth plebs prospered. they received facilities whcih they hadn't dreamt of earlier. Slowly many plebs converted to patricians faster as result of growth. But higher Patricians also meant there were only few plebs left who actually worked. Lesser work meant city went into degradation mode. And i realised a simple fact of the game system, that i had to maintain balance between plebs and patricians for me to succeed as a governor. This was the first time i had started drawing parallels between the game and our real world today.

Before i played the game I used to blame government that it didn't do much for us middle class or lower class and how rich people used to get everything. I interpreted (maybe wrong?) all government cared was to have working country. Their aim was not to make sure that everyone gets all facilities, but to make sure they had a working country. They had to maintain a balance between all stratas, other wise there wouldn´t be anyone left to do a job which is usually down by lower strata and country will come to hault. And the governemnt will not be the one which will help you get to higher class with more facilities and lesser of that work which one hated to do. It was in our individual hands.

With this interpretation came another realisation, inequality of this kind meant, i had to come in terms with fact there would be all kind of people in this world i would come across. Some doing anything for survival and some doing anything to get to that higher class with more riches. Some legally, some illegally. And i had no right to judge them, after all it was darwin's theory at play. I could complain of things not being fair, but i had no right to judge. But i did judge a "kid" today without knowing anything. And the whole episode leaves me with just couple of questions

Am i conscienceless for even being after educated i decided not to judge someone else´s right and wrong?
Or
Am i conscienceless to have judged someone after having decided not to.

But one thing is clear and can be summarised by another couple of lines from the same song which has been going around in my head since morning..

My dreams, they aren't as empty
As my conscience seems to be

Dhokla / Steamed Gramflour Cake

Native of Gujarat , this dish is probably one of those snacks which suits to everyone´s palate in India. It has that touch of mild spice as well as mild sweetness with mix of nutty flavor of chickpea flour with tendency to melt in mouth which makes it a one of the most favorite Indian snacks.

I have read and tried over 7-8 dhokla recipes over last 5-6 years. And i am gonna share what according to me closely resembles the dhokla I am used to having and pretty much with all ingredients available in Rio.

Ingredients

Main ingredients
1 cup (200ml) Besan/chick pea flour
120-150 Gms yogurt
1 Green chilli very finely chopped
1 Tea spoon Salt
1 Tea spoon sugar
1 Tea spoon Grated ginger
1 Tea spoon Grated garlic
1 Tea spoon ENO fruit salt (plain or lemon flavoured)
1 Table spoon of lemon juice in case you are using plain ENO.

Garnishing
1.5 Cups Water
2 Green chillies (longitudinally slit)
2 Tea spoon mustard seeds
1 Big lemon
2 Tablespoon Sugar
2 Table spoon finely chopped fresh Coriander
2 Table spoon of oil

Cooking utensil needed
Here you have two-three options
1) Pressure cooker steamers
2) Traditional steamers
3) Make shift steamer

Its A fairly simple Recipe
Take a bowl and add chickpea flour in it ( i have covered how to make chickpea flour at home in my previous post, in case its not available in your locality). I use 120 gms of yogurt Initially. The amount of yogurt you use should depends on consistency of yogurt you use. If its watery then use less and if its thicker use more. The idea is after you mix yogurt with flour thoroughly, you should check the dropping consistency of the mix. If you lift with big spoon and drop it back in bowl and it flows like water then your mix is too thin add a bit more flour. In case The mix is dropping like big lump, its too dry, add a bit more curd. The ideal consistency is where the batter is thick and and when you do the drop test in bowl it should flow intermittently with effort.

Make sure there are no lumps. The add all other ingredients other than ENO fruit salt i.e. Green chillies, Salt, sugar, Grated ginger, Grated garlic. Mix all the ingredients thoroughly and keep the batter aside.

Now its time to prepare utensils for Steaming. Those of you who already have p´ressure cooker or traditional steamers would already be knowing the process, but for people who don't have these utensil a makeshift steamer can be made like i did.

I used a deep sauce pan like this




And combined it with metallic spice box commonly available in market such that complete metallic spice box could go inside the deep sauce pan.



Now there are two ways to work with this combo, either use internal steel Cups for moulding or the main outer box for moulding. I have tried both the methods.

1) In case you decide to use internal steel cups for moulding. First fill the deep sauce pan with 2-3 cups of water. Bring it to boil. While water is coming to boil, Oil the interior of steel cups and put them inside the main outer box

2) In case you decide to use outer main spice box for moulding. First fill the deep sauce pan with 2-3 cups of water. First keep the internal cups inverted inside in the deep sauce pan to make false elevated bedding over which you keep the main outer box later. In my case the inner cups were of heavy so while boiling they din´t move much. In case your spice box comes with lighter inner cups use something else heavier to elevate over which you can keep main box. By keeping the main box elevated you ensure the boiling water during steaming process doesn´t mix with the batter during steaming. Oil the interior of main spice box and keep it ready.

Once your steaming assembly is ready just start boiling the water. Once you see the boil coming in water. Mix 1 Tea spoon of ENO salt in batter simultaneously adding 1 tablespoon of water on it. Whisk for 2 minutes. You´ll see the whole batter swelling. At this point start pouring the batter into moulds. (steel cups in case you chose 1st option and outer box in case you chose second option). Make sure You put batter only up to 40-50% mould height, as during steaming process the batter will swell.

Once poured into moulds, if choosing 1 st option then keep with outer box inside boiling water or if second option main outer box over the elevated base in pan. Cover and steam for about 12-15 mins. After 15 mins insert a fork and remove, check if anything is sticking onto fork, if not batter is cooked, if sticking steam for another 4-5 minutes. Do not over-steam as it would flatten the dhokla.

Once ready remove and keep aside for 5 minutes.

Now for garnishing, take shallow pan, put two table spoon of oil, once heated, add Mustard seeds, once they start splintering add longitudinally slit chillies, fry for a minute. Add sugar and 1.5 cups of water. Once water comes to boil add lemon juice of 1 big lemon. Mix for a minute and keep aside and let it cool. Once the the water is cooled down pour over the mould (or moulds) . let dhokla absorb the water. If you chose second method of making in big outer box then cut in pieces as you wish.

Dhoklas made in small steel cups of spice box

spices Dhoklas made in Main outer spice box and cut into triangular pieces

Feel free to add a comment or questions if you have any.

P.S: Notice my Rio Spice branding just above the plates. One of the few cute coasters, wifey bought from Hippie faire in rio. Its made with spices inside the glass :)

How to make Besan a.k.a Chickpea Flour at home

Like i said in my previous post, the one thing you miss here in Rio is Indian food. But sometimes missing things is good. You do things which you would never have thought of doing. Take this for example : One fine day you crave for dhokla. But hey Leave dhokla you don´t even get the basic ingredient used in making dhokla if you ever thought of making one, this basic ingredient being Besan a.k.a Chickpea flour. Well it so happened i was craving so much that i decide to research and make besan myself. Took me only one try to make it and came out wonderful.

We were able to make alloo pakodas (like Potato fritters) and onion Pakodas (onion fritters) with this besan. We also made dhokla with the same, which though took a w tries before we mastered it :D

So for making besan at home you need following.

1) Chickpeas (Kabuli chana)
2) Fine Sieve (channi)
3) Coffee grinder

I personally use the Black and Decker coffee grinder attached below. It has one juicer attachment and lower part is used for grinding of Coffee/grains/peanuts.

Black and Decker coffee grinder


Chickpeas

The most important aspect of making Chickpea flour in such a grinder is that, one has to keep in mind most of these coffee grinders are attached with blades which are good for lighter grains of Coffee and not meant for milling. So one has to take care of how much of Chickpeas do you put in one go. Ideally i put a small handful (around 5-6 tablespoons) at one time in dry grinder. After 80-90% of chickpeas have been finely powdered. I use a very fine sieve to collect fine chickpea flour. and transfer back the coarse left one to dry grinder along with another 4-5 spoons. Generally for my cooking i need about 2-3 rounds of grinding. So its not so time consuming.

Home made besan/chickpea flour

I Have sen people on many forums asking shouldn´t chickpea be roasted before grinding, Well from my experience its not needed. The chickpea flour we got was just as good as we used to get from markets in india (good enough for making fritters/dhokla/indian crepes).


Below i have attached example of dhokla we made with home made besan. And Except for the shape it was very much like dhoklas you would get in indian markets.

Home made dhokla

I will try and cover Home made dhokla recipe which works well for us in my next post.

Rio - The move, the happenings, the rant

Well in my hope of reviving the blog again and rant out i am back!! lets see how long this stint lasts!

Its been almost 8 months (after almost an year wait for my work visa) that i have been in rio.. Absoulutely have fallen in love with the city But still there are things i miss or like to rant about!

1) Top of the list is lack of good Indian restaurants/dhabas and indian spices:
Ah i miss thoise tandoori chickens/ chicken tikka masalas and tandoori rotis. We did work our way around for indian spices by managing with available brazilian spices which are very much enough for day to day cooking. But when it comes to making delicacies oh i miss fenugreek, amchoor (dry mango powder), Pav bhaji masala, Chickpea flour, Lentil varieties to make dosas and idlies. And to add salt on wounds apparently all these things are abundantly available in Sao Paulo! Dang!!! kill me already...

2) Everything is so friggin expensive: When it was time to move me and ujjwala decided that we won't be bringing in our furniture cos a) we had no idea what kind house we´ll be taking in, and b) we expected to find better furniture here. Trust me when i tell you, you would probably end up finding furniture of worst qualities and 10 times the price you would find in india. Add to this the misery of uncertainty over time of delivery. For example when we bought our furniture they gave us this rough idea. Anyday from monday to wednesday next week and anytime from 10:00 AM to 5:30 PM. But this is just not limited to furniture , take real estate take electronics take anything , everything is so costly. And in most circumstances even with a lavish budget you end up compromising on quality. For example it took us to 3 months to find a decent apartment which according to me was worth the rent. The rent which i considered to be lavish before i moved to rio that turned out to be petty for areas like Zona sul. Take the case of electronics, a) they are costly, b) Uncertainty over delivery date and time c) Branded companies here charge you to install their own electronics d) If you do get it installed by other guys who do it for much cheaper, well you loose your guarantee then.

3) Red tape/Bureaucracy. : This was one thing i wanted to say i miss and am glad. And if you have been to India you would know what i mean. I had heard most of American expats friends coming to India Complain about how slow things are here. And how long it takes a thing to get down. And to be honest i agreed with them, in fact i was so happy to be getting rid of the same when i was moving to Brazil. But in fact i was being naive. Sometimes you actually feel that Brazilian Red tape dwarfs the Indian bureaucracy.

4) Friends: This i do not blame totally on country itself. But inadvertently is related to any move you make. If you are totally new to place you have to make new friends. without knowing anyone around socialising actually becomes difficult. but one thing You do hope to find is, some own country men with whom you could discuss few things in local language or sometimes are more comfortable. But to my horror when i came here i couldn´t find single indian family/bachelors here (in person on streets or through many networking sites like internations/facebook/expat-blog). The life was indeed becoming tough when we accidentaly saw some tourists (one in saree ) and we got introduced to an indian family they knew here has been settled for 40 years. And to my further "utter" horror, they told us there are not many indians except for couple of families (who furtther to make matter worse were far away from our age-group) but something is better than nothing right?? Guess what its been 8 months and we haven't met these other two families till date. But we ended up finding indian families here thanks to sudden O&G crowd influx. But sadly most of these guys live far away from happening Zona sul but much better developed and Americanized area call Barra. Plus there were my colleagues with whom we did socialize and slowly our friend circle has grown so much that we hardly get time for ourselves.

Though my rantings can go on i think its enough for day. Now lets come to good things which actually make me sad that after 1 and half years it would be time to go back

1) The Food. Anyone who has had Brazilian Feijoada, picanha and Churrasco will vouch for me when i say, that any hardcore non-vegetarian will absolutely adore teh place for its food.

2) Caipirinihas: Strong and sexy drinks with various fruity flavors (though my favorite is lemon) its made of local drink called Cachaca. Six of these and you will forget all your stress :)

3) Brazilian love for India: Almost every Brazilian i have met has been so happy to have met Indian. They have this hunger for learning more about India and its culture (thanks to one of the old soaps here by name "Caminhos das India" ) that it seems they are more Indian than me.

4) Lapa : If you are a party person, this is the place to be on any given night, though i assure you you´ll enjoy this place most on Friday and Saturday nights, with jam packed streets with people holding on their booze and shouting/singing/dancing on streets. The first experience scares the shit out of you but once you get into groove you wouldn´t want to party in any other place.

New things i have learnt thanks to move here

1) How to make Chickpea flour from Scratch
2) Expertised in making proper Dhokla from above :P
3) Making Dhaba type Tandoori chicken
4) Making Ghee
5) Making Rasgullas

This one takes the cake
4) Making Paneer ( the way you get in Indian market in cubes) from milk

Soon.. i´ll share all the recipes and my day to day rants :)