I have migrated all my blog posts on this to my other blogspot. This was meant to focus on Books, Movies and Food. I realized it primarily had posts on food and that too many months apart at times.

Not doing justice to it at all. And definitely does not deserve a separate blogspot. From henceforth, I will be writing only at:

www.soumyamahapatra.blogspot.com

Prawns curry - Oriya style

I do not have pictures to go with the recipe right now. I wrote out this recipe for a friend and hence putting it up here right away. I will update the pictures at a later date. Hopefully within the week or so. But the dish is far more sinful in its taste than looks. So not much is missed without the pictures.

This is my mum's recipe. She is one of the best cooks I have come across. But it is not about the recipes with her, I have come to realize. It is the magic in her hands (as I am sure most of you will agree with about your mums too). I can follow her recipe to the 'T' and yet not get the supreme result she manages. Be it with a dish like prawns curry or upma. I make better tea than her though. Not self proclaimed, the mum and her husband (at great personal risk) have stated this time and again.

Ingredients

1. Fresh medium to large sized prawns (de-veined)
2. Two medium sized Potatoes
3. Two large onions cut into small pieces
4. Two tomatoes cut into small pieces
5. Ginger-garlic-green chillies paste (for best results make this at home)
6. Haldi powder, mirchi powder, jeera powder, dhania powder, any meat masala
7. Fresh coriander, washed and cut - a handful

Preparation

1. Marinate the prawns in haldi, mirchi powder and 1/2 the ginger-garlic-chillies paste. Keep aside for 20 mins
2. Cut potatoes into long strips (like for french fries) and shallow fry till done on high flame. Set aside
3. Shallow fry the marinated prawns for not more 3 minutes. Set aside
4. Take a large wok and add oil (about 4 tbspns)
5. Add the remainder of the ginger-garlic-chillies paste to the hot oil.
6. Add the cut onions and wait till they brown. Add the tomatoes to this.
7. When tomatoes are nicely cooked & soft, add 3/4th of the fresh coriander. Mix well.
8. Add the spices - jeera pwdr, dhania pwdr, meat masala (1 tspn). Stir well so as to not let the spices stick to the bottom.
9. Add the fried potatoes. Mix. Let be on slow flame for 2-3 minutes.
10. Add the prawns. Mix. Let be on slow flame for 2-3 minutes.
11. Add water (about 2 cups or as per your consistency requirement).
12. Add salt according to taste. Add more mirchi powder if required.
13. Let it simmer for 7-8 minutes. Check to see if potatoes are done.
14. Add the remaining fresh coriander to garnish.

Voila! Serve hot with rice.

Britania and Co.

"There is no greater love, than the love of eating"
Britania & Co. Restaurant - Since 1923

We heard about this place from various people and blogs. We were in Mumbai for sometime and decided to try out as many eating joints as possible. Britania was one of the chosen spots.

Sitting near Ballad Estate, Britania is always crowded. Be it a weekday or a weekend, one can expect to wait for 15-20 minutes to get a table. But it is such a nice spot that one does not mind. We got a table for us (two of us) upstairs. Though it is not the best spot from point of service, it lets you look onto the main section. There are all sorts of people eating all sorts of things. When S and I were there, there was a cartoonist sitting at a table drawing out everybody, there was a photographer taking pictures of the place and doing so from all different angles. It made for an interesting sight.

When we heard Britania, we heard Berry Pulao. No one spoke of anything else. So that was certain and we also asked for Mutton Sali Boti to go with chapati. The mutton berry pulao is yellow coloured pulao with hunks of mutton and liberal sprinkling of berries on top (and hence the name). The berries lend a soury crunch to the mutton pulao. Each mouthful is an explosion of flavours but at the same each flavour is distinct. It is one of the most unique dishes I have had. The mutton sali boti, a most delicious mutton gravy with potato crisps on top, was next with the chapattis. The mutton was cooked to perfection. Succulent melt in the mouth pieces but still held themselves together. The potato crisps helped add an extra zing to each bite.



I ordered a strawberry soda to wash all this down with. What I got was a bottled aerated strawberry rink called Pallonji's.

I loved the place and I loved the food. It is a shame I got to know of it after leaving Mumbai. Here is to more trips to Mumbai and better eating.

Corleone... the salad not The Godfather

We frequent this Italian place which was called 'Little Italy'. It recently changed management and is called Italia now. The menu and the quality remains the same. The food is all vegetarian and fantastic.

Over repeated visits we pretty much fixed on our order. The assorted crostini (little pieces of crisp garlic bread topped with all kinds of lip smacking goodness - artichokes, olives & cheese, tomatoes and parsley), Corleone salad and Tabasco pizza (thin crust pizza with sun dried tomatoes and cheese).

The Corleone salad is the most fascinating. It is an extremely simple dish. A bite is an explosion of flavours which are meant to be together. We decided to re-create it at home. We knew all the ingredients that went into and knew where to find them. So we began.

You need:

Iceberg Lettuce
Onions
Vinegar
Olives, capers, sun dried tomatoes
Sweet corn
Boiled potatoes
Olive oil

Wash the lettuce and cut it up into little pieces. Slice an onion and soak it in the vinegar for 2 hours. Boil sweetn corn till it is very soft.

Take lettuce in a large dish. Spread the vinegar onions, olive capers and sun dried tomatoes on top of it. Dice two boiled potatos and spread it on top of the dish. Sprinkle salt and pepper to taste. Mix it all up. Spread about one teaspoon of olive oil and the oil in the sun dreied tomatoes on top of all this. Mix in the corn into all this and you are done.




Serve with slightly toasted garlic bread or dinner rolls.

With soup to begin with, this makes for a complete, tasty and healthy meal.

Homemade Pizza - the best for anyday

I made Pizza yesterday night. I do a good job with it, if I might so say myself. I made vegetarian pizza, non-vegetarian pizza, veg extravaganza and non-veg extravaganza. That is four pizzas in all. S and I finished it all in one sitting.

All one needs to do is keep the entire ingredients ready, pre-heat the oven and begin with creating the best pizza I have had outside of The Pizzeria. I made different kinds of pizza. For the non-vegetarian bit, I used some Black Forest ham. I buy the pizza bases. That is much easier and I have never really found them to be lacking in taste or doubted their ability to become a tad crispy. The crispiness, by the way, I believe is essential for churning out a good pizza. I also use ready-made pizza sauce by Fun Foods. The one you see in the picture below. I have tried other brands and I have tried making the sauce at home myself. I have found this one the best yet and why tinker with that.


I made two veg pizzas of different toppings and two non-veg pizzas with almost the same toppings.

Mushroom, capsicum and onions. Not the favourite of the night.


Olives, Jalapenos and Sun-dried Tomatos. Definitely the better vegetarian pizza.


The winner of the night was clearly the non-vegetarian pizza with the very succulent ham topping. Ham, onions and chillies.


For the other non-vegetarian pizza, I just added mushrooms to the above.

Once the pizzas are ready with the toppings, just grate some cheese onto the top and stick it into a pre-heated oven. Be very sure that you are using mozzarella cheese. I have used the regular variety and it just does not cut the deal. It becomes hard and not very pizza worthy.


Pre-heat the oven on roast mode for 10 mins at about 250 deg. C. Post this, set it at 180 deg. C and 10 minutes. Put the pizza in. 10 minutes later, the most amazing cheesilicious pizza is done.

Band of Brothers

The husband insisted, for 3 years, that I watch Band of Brothers. I resisted. I am not quite sure why but the entire description of war and documentary did not sit too well with me. Then we found the entire 10 DVD set for a steal at Planet M and S had to pick it up. The rants of the stupid wife were not going to work today.

With the masterpiece on DVD I was forced to finally watch Band of Brothers. I am not quite sure whom to thank for it. Planet M or S. Maybe both.

Band of Brothers is an HBO original televisions series produced in collaboration by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks. This came soon after the runaway success of Saving Private Ryan. Band of Brothers documents the true events and actions of American soldiers in their campaign across northern Europe to destroy Hitler's reign of terror. It tells the true-life story of the soldiers of Company E of the 506th Parachute Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division. The fighters of Easy Company. The Company of Heroes.

The entire story lasts over 10 hours. It begins with the soldiers’ rigorous training at Camp Toccoa, Georgia and ends with their capture of Hitler’s lair – The Eagle’s Nest. Between this, we follow the heroes through D-Day landings behind enemy lines off Normany, into Holland, Belgium and finally onto Germany.



Each of the DVDs begins with excerpts from interviews with living members of the Easy Company recounting short memories of what was covered in that 1 hour. Each of these experiences anonymous, goading you to make the connect with who they might be. Lieutenant Dick Winters, who makes Captain before the Holland Campaign and Major after the Campaign in Hagenau or Sgt. Bull Randleman, who takes a shrapnel to his buttocks with dignity or Captain Nixon, Lt. Winters' friend.

The company faces deaths, hardships of all nature and many live to tell the tale. Some characters remain constant through the 10 episodes. Yet, each episode has been told from the viewpoint of different persons – one each time.

There are glorious details, gory scenes that can be described as part of this review. But that will not be doing justice to the story being told. Though it is only a story retold, Band of Brothers helps you relive their experiences. The characters paint the picture in front of you with emotion and with a truthfulness that most War movies lack. In most war movies it is difficult to discern the identities of the various soldiers, but not with Band of Brothers. It creates a personality for each soldier and it is hard not to cry when one of them dies or dance with joy when a campaign is successful. Band of Brothers brings about a greater amount of connect with the entire series by placing the true war heroes at the beginning of each episode. It lends a sense of realism to the entire viewing - if the living members chose to connect themselves with it, it must be true. Having them say in their words what actually happened, warrants a more serious outlook to what the Company of Heroes endured.

The final disc contains the final episode a documentary, We Stand Alone Together: The Men of Easy Company. It includes footage of Easy Company and interviews of the surviving members. In this it identifies the soldiers of easy company. The most moving but of the documentary was the visit by two Easy Company soldiers to the Ardennes forest on the outskirts of Foy, Belgium. This was where Easy Company had held the line against the Germans, in what later came to be known to military historians as The Battle of the Bulge.

From this day to the ending of the world,
we in it shall be remembered,
we band of brothers.

-William Shakespeare

Watchmen

Watchmen is a graphic novel scripted by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons. According to me, the two complimenting each other have created something which can well compete with the best known literature in the world.

It is an alternate reality set in the mid 1980s. Prior to this, superheroes existed in the world who altered the course of reality the way we know it. By 1985 the superheroes have become unpopular and a law has been passed which forced them to shed their masks.

1985. Two of the superheroes - Dr. Manhattan and Edward Blake - have been recruited by the Government and Rorschach, another superhero, continues to work alone outside the law.

The novel begins with the murder of Edward Blake, the Comedian. Events that follow lead Rorschach to believe that there is someone who has plotted to execute all masked adventurers. With this becoming the loose thread connecting it all, the various superheroes are introduced and the readers given a glimpse into their worlds.

Moore's writing is flawless. He presents the entire story through narrative boxes or sound bubbles. Every single word in the book is either spoken or thought by a character. The complex nature of the book with it moving between times and characters would shout out the need for narration. But Moore does such a masterful job of keeping each character's voice distinct that you will hardly notice absence of narration. Moore's writing is classy and mature in a manner that helps paint a complete picture of each character. The troubled Rorschach, the cynical Comedian, the understated Nite-Owl, the aware Dr. Manhattan.

Gibbons uses nine equally sized panels on most pages wasting not a single panel. He manages transitions between scenes rather well. Within panels the story could shift from Rorschach in NYC to Dr. Manhattan on Mars back to Rorschach in NYC. But Gibbons does not let you lose the story line and Moore's scripting keeps you connected with the multiple distinct thoughts being presented in such few panels. Gibbons' artwork is subtle though hard hitting. It does not ever dilute the seriousness that Moore has presented. His artwork is almost cinematic in nature and the reader can easily imagine seeing all this happening in front of them.

Between the two of them, Moore and Gibbons, have managed to make every piece of the rather convoluted plot make sense.

The suspense starts from page 1 of the novel and continues right till the end keeping one hooked and on their toes. The novel ends with a satisfying close.