Ready to Puff Roti from Pillsbury

My First IFR Product Review
Rating: Yuk

So I got all excited the other day when I saw the "Ready to Puff Roti" in the freezer of my favorite Indian grocery store. A pack of 6 frozen rotis for $1.49 was not a bad deal at all. I usually order 100 rotis for $20 and freeze them in packs of 10. They reheat very well in the microwave and are almost as good as freshly made rotis. So these Pillsbury rotis at 25 cents a piece sounded great especially if they "puffed" up like the one on the package.

With salivary glands in check, we made it home very eager to try these rotis. Maybe I was just too excited and it was not warranted. But tell me, who wouldn't be ecstatic about not having to knead the dough, roll out about 12 rotis, roast them and clean-up the mess on the counter - and in my case, on the floor. My 6 year old loves to make rotis with me. She has her own latna (or belan) and half of the flour goes straight to the floor. "It's because of gravity, Mumma!" Sure. Why not get Newton to come and clean up?!

The RTP Roti was a major disappointment. It darkened in color as soon as it thawed on the tava (open griddle). It really was an ugly shade of brown. And out of 6 rotis, only one puffed up completely. There were two others that tried their best to meet the promise of the packaging. Of the remainder, two had holes or had a tear in the middle and the other just didn't even make an attempt and lay there limp and uninterested. Now I think I know how to make rotis "puff" - I have an almost 100% success rate (Ok! 90%!!)

Dejected, we sat at the table to a dinner of dark brown rotis with fabulous guvar that I had made. The taste? More like after-taste. The texture was too smooth to be appealing. They weren't as bad as the rotis we got in our hostel where it was a case of "I-hold-and-you-tear" to get a decent sized scrap to dunk in the watery dal or wrap around some awful subzi. But they're just not worth it. I won't be buying these again, that's for sure. I'd rather make my own and clean up the mess.

A Winter Storm calls for Spicy Jeera Chicken

Chicagoland winter storm

We're in the midst of another winter storm here in the Chicagoland area. I can barely see the home across the street from me. Of course, the media is more interested in where it is going to go: NYC and Boston rather than where it is at and what is occuring here. But then someone from Beantown once told me: Midwest? Oh! We only fly over that!

Spicy Jeera Chicken
Another Indian Food Rocks original recipe

1 tray thin sliced chicken
OR
2 chicken breasts
1/4 cup plain yogurt
5-6 finger hot peppers
OR
3 Thai green chillies
8-10 fresh mint leaves
2 cloves of fresh garlic
1/2 inch by 1/2 inch piece of fresh ginger
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1-2 tbsp jeera or cumin seeds
freshly ground black pepper
salt to taste
Oil for shallow frying

1. Put garlic, ginger, hot peppers, lemon juice, mint leaves, yogurt and salt to taste in the blender and blend into a chutney. This is your marinade. Taste it and adjust the tang and salt to suit your taste. Be prepared for a jolt of heat when you do this. It is quite concentrated!! Do this before you proceed to the next step. You don't want to take a chance with E.coli!
2. Put the chicken in a shallow pan and pour this mixture over it. If you are using chicken breasts, take a steak knife and make random cuts in the meat so that the marinade can permeate into the meat as much as possible.
3. Allow the chicken to marinate for about half hour or so, preferably in the refrigerator. In the meanwhile, you could cook something else to go with this. Vegetable Pulao, maybe? Or just put your feet up and gain control of the TV remote!
4. Pour oil in a flat large saucepan, just enough to coat the bottom. Heat the oil and when warm (not smoking) sprinkle the jeera (cumin seeds) all over.
5. Gently put the chicken into the oil and pour the marinade over it. You could cover the pan as the chicken cooks. It's up to you. I like to have the flavors waft into every corner of my home!!
6. Sprinkle the chicken slices with freshly ground pepper so that they are nicely coated with it.
7. Turn the chicken over to the other side, do the fresh ground pepper thing and cook until almost done.
8. Then turn the heat up and dry up all the extra sauce. You need to keep turning the chicken over to ensure that it does not burn and to prevent the sauce from sticking to the bottom of the pan. As the sauce dries up, keep pasting it onto the chicken using the turner. It splutters all over the stove but, believe me, the mess is worth it as the chicken is delicious!!
9. Once there is next to no sauce in the pan, drain the chicken of excess oil by placing it on paper towels, making sure to take as much of the dried out sauce as you can. Enjoy the tangy sauce draped all over the chicken and the zesty crunch of the jeera with every bite!!

Eat this hot with pitas or by itself or with pulao.

If you have young child at home who won't appreciate the spice as much you might, you can do what I did:
- while making the chutney/marinade, I used just one hot green pepper
- I set aside some marinade for my daughter's two chicken slices
- I added the remaining hot green peppers and used that for us
- I made her chicken in a separate pan
- I also did not use fresh ground black pepper on her chicken

A cold winter. Near blizzard like conditions outside. Yum spicy jeera chicken!!

Spicy Jeera Chicken Tenders

Stuffed Brinjals

Brinjals are Indian eggplants. They are much smaller than the regular eggplant or the baby eggplant that you find in the regular grocery stores. Brinjals are also known as aubergines. They look like this and this and are quite delicious. Kids hate them. As I once did.

Stuffed Brinjals
An original recipe

6 small Indian brinjals
2 large red potatoes, sliced like french fries
1 large clove garlic
1/2 cup roasted peanuts
1/8 cup roasted sesame seeds (or subsitute with tahini)
1/2 teaspoon coriander powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
1/4 teaspoon mustard seeds
pinch asafoetida
1/8 teaspoon turmeric powder
1/4 teaspoon cumin seeds
2 blobs of tomato paste
1/2 teaspoon red chilli powder^**optional
1/2 teaspoon garam masala (any will do)^**optional
1 teaspoon tamarind extract
salt to taste
1/2 cup oil

Who said this was low cal? Not me!!

Make a paste from the peanuts, sesame seeds and garlic in a blender, adding about 1 cup water.
Add the tamarind extract, coriander powder, cumin powder, some turmeric powder and salt to this paste.
Slice the brinjals as if you were going to quarter them but don't cut through to the end, so that each brinjal just kind of opens up.
Stuff the brinjals with this paste. Leave some aside for the sauce.
Heat the oil and toss in the mustard seeds.
When they start spluttering, add the asafoetida, cumin seeds and turmeric powder
Add the sliced potatoes and fry till they are cooked.
Remove the potatoes and attempt to drain the oil on a paper towel. Season with salt.
Drop the stuffed brinjals into the oil.
Add the rest of the paste and the tomato paste.
Add the chilli powder and garam masala.
Cover and cook over low flame until the brinjals are tender, stirring from time to time.
Add water if the sauce starts thickening and drying up.
Just before serving, stir in the fried potatoes and garnish with some fresh chopped cilantro, if you have any.

Apparently brinjals are stocked with vitamin B and its relatives. As well as potassium, iron and zinc. They are also an excellent source of fibre. But they are like the potato: they absorb oil. Since there is a fair amount of oil in this recipe and then you have peanuts as well as sesame seeds, the fat content in this recipe is quite high. One trick to eat less is to up the heat. Yes, add more chilli powder. Try this with hot rotis or pitas or nan.

Indian Food in Orlando, Florida

We went to Mickeyland for the second time in 2 years. I got my fill of the rides in the aircraft itself. We were bumped around for more than an hour. The last visit was just as bad. I remember the last time: we made our descent towards Orlando in a thunderstorm, the lights in the aircraft went off and the plane rocked from side to side. All the adults were screaming for their loved one or their Mom. I screamed for both. All the kids, however, were laughing. Well, they were headed for the parks!

I found a wonderful Indian restaurant on Rt 192 in Kissimmee called New Punjab Indian Restaurant. We ordered masala lamb and methi chicken. Both dishes were excellent and I would seek out that restaurant again, should we ever head back to Orlando. I've had more than my fill of both Orlando and Disney, though.

Another restaurant worth mentioning is Thai Thani which is right across from Sea World. It has terrific ambience and the food is excellent, too.

Memories of Versova and Handy Tip #1

I don't remember how I found this site but stumble upon it I did...It's so odd. The pictures are my memories but the pictures are not mine. Strange. But then again not so strange. Every sixth person in the world is an Indian! Here is the web site I am so enthralled by: The Bombay Travels Scrapbook

Kudos to Ramona and Noel for their beautiful web site capturing the very essence of Bombay. And, Pune. Amazing but Pune University is also etched in my memories!! As are Chitale Bandhu!!

Some Handy Tips
That Your Mother Did Not Tell You

Handy Tip #1: Optimizing a can of Tomato Paste
Ever needed to use just a couple of spoonfuls of that super thick tomato paste? Like from the small Contadina Tomato Paste cans? Then stored the can as is in the 'figelator', forgotten about it and discovered it only on the next garbage day when it is looking so sorry that you don't even want to touch it again?

For those few spoonfuls, you end up throwing away almost all of the can of tomato paste??

I know I used to. Most of my friends did, too. No more!

All you have to do now is use the quantity you need and then spoon the rest of the paste onto a plate in large blobs about an inch in diameter, if you can get them to be round! Put the plate in the freezer till you are done cooking whatever you needed the tomato paste for. Make it a habit to do this as soon as possible otherwise the can will end up in the refrigerator with an ad-hoc lid. The blobs will be frozen by the time you are done cooking. Save them in freezer bags and use one or more blobs as and when you need them. You will waste less tomato paste. You will also buy fewer cans of tomato paste as one tomato can will go much farther than it did before.

This is America, who cares? I do. Wasting food is criminal. I cringe when I go to Denny's on Tuesdays and the waitress tells me I can order whatever I want for my daughter; after all, it's 'Kids Eat Free on Tuesdays' and I won't have to worry about having spent hard-earned $$ on food she did not want to eat. I wonder how many people order stuff their kids don't really want or need. I wonder how much of it goes from the kitchen to the table to the trash-can. I wonder how many starving children it would have fed.

If you still remember what this post was about, I will be adding more Handy Tips as I go along.

Handy Tip#2: Making Your Herbs Last Longer