Staying away from home on business assignment and having a
short break from my usual activities.
Sometimes the best therapy that you could give for yourself is to take a
break from your regular routine and explore the unexplored things in life. When I stay away from home, I definitely miss
family, that is for sure and there is no doubt in it but I enjoy this solace at
times. There is no rush and compulsion
involved now; be it in cooking, getting up early for the regular chores, rushing
back home to attend my duties or comfort people by giving a fake smile when
going through some hard time. Here I am
all alone, there is no one to check if I
am okay, no one to check how my day was, and living a life with no holds
barred. When I get back home after the short break, I
have always observed that I would be fully energetic. I would be treated special by everyone; DH
would make tea for me, Jr. H would keep his books/toys arranged properly in shelf,
friends would eagerly be waiting to catch up on the missed fun, family get-togethers,
and a lot and lot more tiny things which
I will start seeing newly and maybe these could be some reasons I like to be
distant from my routine world at times.
DH and Jr. H are very cooperative during my travels and they
are managing the house perfectly. I was
bit concerned earlier on how Jr. H would manage on settlement in his new school
as I would be away from home but to my surprise my little boy is settling very
well. He is gaining popularity among
teachers and students by his ever smiling nature. He is sending me the filled in worksheets and
assignments and not to miss his appreciations from teachers. Thank God, I am quite relieved about it now.
Moving on to today's post, this is one of a long pending
post from draft which caught my eye sight today because I miss eating spicy
things here. Even at Indian restaurants,
the feel the hotness is not as like at my home. I
am just satisfying my taste buds by looking at the pictures. Pumpkin and capsicum compliments each other in
color and taste. The mild sweetness rendered
from yellow pumpkin and the crunchy texture from green bellpepper goes
very well when cooked in tamarind sauce with flavored spiced powder made from
ground Indian spices.
Ingredients:
Pumpkin - 200 g (cut in small tiny cubes)
Capsicum/ Bellpepper - 1 (cut in small tiny cutes)
Tomato -1
Sambar Powder - 2 tablespoon (I prepare homemade powder but
can also be brought from Indian store)
Salt To taste
Tamarind water - 2 cups (Extracted from soaked tamarind
pulp)
Oil - 2 tablespoon
To Temper:
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Fenugreek seeds - 1 tsp
Red chillis - 3 or 4
Curry leaves -few
Preparation:
1. Soak tamarind pulp in warm water and extract the tamarind
juice. Can also be replaced by tamarind
sauce.
2. In a heavy bottomed pan, heat oil and throw in the
tempering items one by one followed by cubed capsicum and pumpkin dices. Later add in tomato, salt, and sambar powder
and mix well.
3. Pour in the
extracted tamarind pump, mix well, and let it boil until the raw smell goes and
mixture gets thickens. When it boils,
mix well with a ladle once in a while so that it wouldn't be burnt at the
bottom.
Can be mixed with rice with a teaspoon of gingelly oil and
it would taste yummilicious.
No comments:
Post a Comment