Hogger's Delight

Tuesday, July 20, 2009

2009-07-21T20:12:00.000-07:00

Egg curry and jeera rice for dinner after a very long time
Was surprisingly easy to make given the ready special Kolhapure andaa curry masaala
Fried onions, green chillies, tomato, the masala.
Added water and boiled eggs.....thats all!!
If no ready masala, put dhaniya, ginger-garlic, grated coconut, cinnamon, some garam masala instead

I thought that was an excellent end to the day but I was in for a surprise.......Utsav and Aranya got fresh watermelon.....and the best part was that it was seedless!!!
Ameya very generously gave up half of his share to the three of us.....Utsav later noticed that neither of us even asked him to reconsider.
Fresh juicy (and seedless) watermelon..........perfect way to beat the summer heat

July 20, 2009

2009-07-21T20:00:00.000-07:00

Made plain old moong dal khichdi.......easy to make, healthy, tasty in its own right
make a tadka of jeera, ginger-garlic, black pepper.
add equal amounts of rice and dal, salt, red-chilli and water (i usually add 4 times water for a nice liquidy consistency....different people like it differently)

Sunday, July 19, 2009

2009-07-19T20:04:00.000-07:00

After 2 relatively passive days (as far as food is concerned), today was quite exciting.
Started the day with a bang - had fabulous Goan style prawn curry and rice made by Ameya.

Made Shevayi (Semiyaan) Upma for lunch. Same recipe as normal upma (use shevayi instead of rava). Again took only about 15 mins all inclusive.
Fry mustard, garlic, green chillies, onions. Add shevayi, fry till light brown. Add water, any cooked vegetables and cook for a few minutes.

Went a little wrong in the amount of shevayi, so wasnt full enough. Me and Utsav made a peach-strawberry smoothie......peaches, strawberries, sugar and milk in a blender.

Went kayaking in the Allegheny with some of the ECE gang. An amazing experience in the wide Allegheny, underneath the majestic Pittsburgh bridges with downtown, Mt. Washington and the evening sun serving as beautiful backdrops.
But the point is that such a physically exerting activity made us really hungry.
Made a giant kadhai full of pav bhaji. There were talks of it having the potential to feed an army and all. But 6 of us hungry guys was enough to make an almost clean sweep.
I'll give the recipe of the basic 20-25 minute bare-bones version which I usually make.
Fry onions, capsicum, ginger-garlic paste, tomatoes(puree/diced/whatever form), dhaniya, red-chilli powder, salt and the all-important pav bhaji masala.
Add separately cooked vegetables, water, potato flakes(or mashed potatoes), butter.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

2009-07-16T20:40:00.000-07:00

Made chole and rice with Simranjit at his place.
Chole, Rajma are THE most easiest things to make considering the plentiful canned gerbanzo/chick pea (chole) and dark red kidney beans (rajma) in the US.......its so easy that one often tends to lose the appreciation for it......so beware.....dont make this too often.
10 minutes of effort is all you need provided you have the right ingredients
Fry finely chopped onions, ginger-garlic paste, cinnamon, cloves, dhaniya, chole masala (or any North Indian masala - garam masala, etc.), tomato puree, salt, red-chilli
Add the canned chole and water and boil for a couple of minutes.

Finally had free food today after a really long time. ECE had its summer barbeque. Food wasnt great (normal grilled tasteles American veggie pattie), but who cares....it was free. And the cookies and Mango slush were good enough.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

2009-07-15T20:56:00.000-07:00

Mataar usal (green peas curry) and bread (a ज्हकास Marathi combination not found elsewhere)
My list of high taste/time ratio items is increasing day by day. Took all of 15 mins in the morning before going to college.
Seaprately cook peas for a few minutes.
Fry onions, ginger, garlic, dhaniya, jeera, a little bit of any masaala, red chillies.
Add the peas, water, salt and let boil.
Add grated coconut, lemon juice.
Optionally add potato flakes to improve the consistency.

I was about to sleep and write this tomorrow but I'm stuck because my delicious dark chocolate chip brownie is baking in the oven and is taking too long. Unfortunately I cant have it tonite.....It will taste best only tomorrow after it has cooled down.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

2009-07-14T21:00:00.000-07:00

Had 'fodneecha bhaat' (read indian fried rice) for dinner.
this is a very simple tasty dish which my mom makes when the previous day's cold dry rice or bland khichdi is left over and needs some spicing up.
so i had yesterday's rock-hard bissibelle bhath left to which I added some cooked rice and fried the mixture in a tadka of mustard, heeng, turmeric, onions, red chilli and salt.
the whole thing took only about 10 mins.
and you dont have to have left-over food to make this......its a very convenient dish to make otherwise too when you are short on time.
to increase the nutrional value, put in some separately cooked vegetables. green peas go very well with it.

Monday, July 13, 2009

2009-07-13T20:24:00.000-07:00

Made bissibelle bhath for dinner (its a Kannada variant of saambar rice).
Another of those high ratio items ( i need a good name for this taste/time to cook ratio).
The student edition of bissebelle bhath, biryani, khichdi all have the same recipe, except the main masala. Just add everything you want.....vegetables (fry onions), rice, daal, spices,water all in the cooker and you're cooking time is over. In this case use saambaar masala or special MTR bissibelle bhath masaala and tamarind juice.

Banana wafers and bissibelle bhath form an excellent combination.....we were fortunate enough to have Phanas wafers brought by Utsav's parents from Goa were a good substitute to banana.

Sunday, July 12, 2009

2009-07-12T20:24:00.000-07:00

Made excellent kaanda pohe for lunch (the quintessential Marathi breakfast). realized that it takes just about 15 minutes

fry onions, badishop(saunf), turmeric, green chillies.
while the onions are frying, wash the pohe. using a sieve is better than washing in a closed bottom vessel....if the pohe are soaked too much, you tend to get khichdi rather than pohe (experience talking)
fry the pohe in this seasoning. add salt, lemon juice, coconut. shev is also an excellent topping.

drove a truck today for the first time.....was helping out Utsav and Aranya with moving some furniture....it made me realize the alternative career path of a truck driver :)
that reminded me of the Indian highway dhabas and synonomous Indian truck drivers.
And co-incidentally I had Punjabi dhaba-like food for dinner......some left over mixed vegetable, naan and stuffed paratha.....leftovers which Ameya had brought yesterday from Tandoor restaurant

Saturday, July 11, 2009

2009-07-11T21:42:00.001-07:00

Made khaman dhokla for breakfast - but this time directly from the Chitale ready mix.
Excellent taste with nice fluffy texture....3 of us had breakfast....all at the cost of $1 and 10 minutes of cooking effort

Friday, July 10, 2009

2009-07-11T21:21:00.001-07:00

'Built' upma from 'sources' rather than from the ready package (I think I'm spending too much time in academics) Build time was only 15 minutes including preparation (chopping onions)
I never knew I could make such tasty upma in so less time. The top position of biryani in the list of items with high taste/(time to cook) ratio is certainly in danger.

I think I should make the recipes I use open source from now onwards. Note that I try and use a high degree of parallelism to save time(usually i put something in a microwave/cooker and go for a bath and its ready after I come):
Parallely pre-cook any desired vegetables. (For a beast like me, 10 minutes in a small microwave is sufficient)
Fry chopped onions, chopped chillies.
Add rava and fry it a little.
Add diced tomatoes, cooked vegetables, water, salt.
Stir a bit and its done.

Had Rajma and jeera rice for dinner.
Another of those meals with a very high taste/time to cook ratio.

Rajma:
Make a Punjabi seasoning (oil, onions, garlic, ginger, turmeric, asofoetida, dhaniya, jeera, garam masala, red/green chilli, cinnamon)
Add diced tomato, canned/cooked rajma, water.
Boil for a few minutes.

Jeera Rice:
Fry jeera in oil. Add the rice and fry a little. Add water and let it cook

After eating the hot rajma-rice in our hot kitchen, we had to have some chocolate-chip ice cream to cool ourselves.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

2009-07-09T21:11:00.000-07:00

Chicken Biryani for lunch at the UPitt food trucks. Had good taste, wasn't oily and excellent quantity, but a little too dry.

Masoor daal and rice for dinner at Simranjit's place.

Was chatting with my old school friend Jayesh the other day. He's in UK and the poor chap dosent know cooking and is out of home for the first time. So he's been living for quite a few months now on junk and ready to eat. So it occured to me how fortunate I am to know cooking. A thought came up - Cooking is the solution to all problems in life - you get to eat healthy, nutritious, tasty food. Its a good source of entertainment and you get a nice sense of satisfaction at the end of it. Besides, its cheap (you need to be a student in the US to realize the value of money to this extent - especially for a hogger like me, considering the quantity I eat, I would go bankrupt in no time).
And believe me, if I can cook (and I must say that I cook reasonably well), anyone can.....I learnt cooking just last year(after 24 full years of only eating) only after I was forced to.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

2009-07-09T21:04:00.000-07:00

I'm changing the format to mention just the highlight of the day. Got irritated with having to mention the same breakfast every day.

Finally made wada paav. It was an experiment with mixed results. Was not close to the proper wada pav by any means but by my standards and considering the fact that I'm in Pittsburgh, it was a grand success. Got the taste quite right. But the texture was totally screwed up......Used potato flakes instead of boiled mashed potatoes. This made the potato mixture very loose and it disintegrated while frying. So couldnt make the big wadaa's which we are normally used to eating. And ofcourse, wheat bread instead of paav didnt help too much
But still overall, I was quite happy with myself and gave me the satisfaction of eating wada paav.

Sunday, July 6, 2009

2009-07-05T20:33:00.001-07:00

Breakfast: Cheese sandwiches and chocolate-chip cookies at campsite

Lunch: Headed back. Since we had the car with us, went to the Udupi restaurant in Monroeville (otherwise inaccessible). Excellent wada-sambar and onion rava masaala dosa

snacks: apple

dinner: good old simple varan bhaat, tup aani limbu (been a really long time since I had this all time favourite)

Saturday, July 4, 2009

2009-07-05T20:28:00.000-07:00

Breakfast: turkey-hummus sandwich. fried egg at Simranjit's place.

Lunch: Some left over Chinese fried rice and chicken gravy at Simranjit's place. Since that wasnt enough, had a couple of chapatis and left-over sambar (the one i had cooked when we had idli-sambar i dont remember when)

snacks: a McChicken at Walmart

dinner: Camping at Racoon State Park!!! Barbeque burgers at campsite. late night bhutta made on the campfire with limbu-masaala and all

Friday, July 3, 2009

2009-07-03T22:07:00.000-07:00

Breakfast: had enough of cereal. made chutney sandwiches with tomato. used this instant chutney powder which when mixed in water produced chutney. it was lying in the cupboard all these months and I had no idea it was so easy to use.

Lunch: cooked some dry batata-kaanda bhaji (we call this variant 'kaachryaa' in marathi) and had it with poli.
Also had Hemant's left over veg. fried-rice from Little Asia restaurant.

Snacks: khakra in Schenley Park while studying.

Dinner: Pulliogare rice (using the MTR mix). I was so impressed by yesterday's boiled veg. soup that I made it again today as I had some cold and felt like having somthing warm.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

2009-07-02T19:39:00.000-07:00

Breakfast: same again. but today i topped it up with a nice garam gul-poli and tup (from Ameya's place). The tup's still doing good....no signs of fungus yet.

Lunch: Left over kadhi-khichadi and an apple

Dinner: I opened a ready to eat Pongal pack. Before opening the pack, I imagined that it would be good enough for me and Ameya. Ameya said that he wasnt hungry. So I thought that I would keep the left over for tomorrow. But I was stunned on opening it. My 4 year old cousin sister probably has more than that in a single meal. So even though it was tasty, I was obviously hungry after finishing it. So I made 3 slices of yummy french toast. But my stomach just wouldnt give up. So I made a good amount of boiled mixed-veg soup and finally sealed dinner.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

2009-07-02T19:30:00.000-07:00

Breakfast: same ofcourse

Lunch: tup-saakhar poli roll and lasun chutney poli roll (this reminds me of good old school days coz it used to be my typical lunch tiffin in school when my mom didnt have time early morning to make anything else - i used to leave home for school at 6:30 am)

Snacks: khakra, apple, tea made by Ameya and Parle-G

Dinner: Veg. biryani and chicken soup. biryani/pulav is one the items i can cook having the highest taste/(time to cook) ratio. pav bhaji is probably next on the list.

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

2009-06-30T20:21:00.001-07:00

Breakfast: guess. no incentive for right answer.

Lunch: nice ukad-pendi with daane and khobra

Snacks: coffee and parle-g (been a long time since I had that classic combination)

Dinner: kadhi-khichadi (a day for awesome combos)

Monday, June 29, 2009

2009-06-30T20:19:00.000-07:00

Breakfast: back to the boring weekday cereal. Got corn-flakes for this week. tried to make it more interesting by adding almonds, raisins, strawberry pieces.

Lunch: poli and last week's bataata bhaaji

Dinner: poli and paneer bhurji at Simranjit's place. Last week's brownie for dessert

Sunday, June 28, 2009

2009-06-28T21:20:00.000-07:00

Breakfast: MTR ready to eat upma, shev, shankarpaale from Ameya

Lunch: nice bhurji with mirchi, capsicum, masaala

Dinner: Masoor daal and jeera rice at Simranjit's place

Saturday, June 27, 2009

2009-06-28T21:17:00.000-07:00

West Virginia trip
Food was the lowest priority
survived all day mainly on sandwiches and typical picnic junk food

Friday, June 26, 2009

2009-06-28T20:52:00.000-07:00

Breakfast: irritated with the same old cereal. had tomato-cheese-salad dressing sandwiches

Lunch: कुस्कर्लेली poli and sambar

dinner: a Subway veggie-delight sub (had to go to the airport to pick up the car for Saturday's West Virginia trip)

new developments about the freefood cam: Rohan got some working matlab code which basically detected food on the table. His enthusiasm (and ofcourse my love for food....especially free) inspired me to think how i could help. i thought of some simple code to communicate this free food alert generated by Rohan's code over the internet to anyone who wanted it. I realized that I already had most of the required code pieces ready (as part of my Distributed Systems proj last semester). So I spent some time in Schenley Park and got some basic working code. Need to integrate it with Rohan's code now.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

2009-06-28T20:49:00.000-07:00

Breakfast: same

Lunch: idli sambar as planned. felt great to have it after such a long time (around 6 months)

dinner: rice with left over sambar and mutter paneer at Simranjit's place

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

2009-06-24T20:55:00.000-07:00

Breakfast: same old everything

Lunch: मसाले भाथ (ready to eat mix from Ameya's home), पापड

Snacks: apple, oatmeal-raisin cookie, idli and chutney made by Prasanna. The idlis were an experiment by Prasanna. The experiment was so successful that he's going to make more idlis tomorrow and i'm going to make sambar and we'll have that for lunch. Been a very long time since i've had idli sambar. Also had some nutty caramel chocolate from the CS lounge. CMU has taken free food to the next level - the CS lounge has a table where anyone who has left over free food keeps it. There's a webcam on top of it hooked up to an internal web page which refreshes some once every minute. Rohan came to know about it for the first time today. It excited him so much that he decided to do some processing on the image such that it will automatically tell you if there is food kept on the table. He even started writing matlab code for it today.

Dinner: Me and SImranjit made excellent mutter paneer at Simranjit's place. We used tofu for paneer. We had got 'firm' tofu (there's soft, firm and extra-firm). i think extra-firm will be better than firm. the firm was a bit too soft.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

2009-06-23T21:08:00.000-07:00

Breakfast: same again. had blueberries too. also had a besan ladu from Ameya's home

lunch: chapati with the other day's left over potato sandwich bhaaji, peach yoghurt, carrots

snacks: lemon tea, canned orange, peanuts

dinner: pav bhaji at Simranjit's place (my 20 minute recipe using potato flakes). Frosted brownie for dessert

Monday, June 22, 2009

2009-06-22T20:31:00.000-07:00

Breakfast: Same old chocolate chip cereal and chocolate milk. Some strawberries, Ameya’s burfi, a small piece of Ameya’s birthday chocolate brownie with chocolate frosting (prepared by me using Betty Crocker cake mix)

Lunch: Yesterday’s left-over kurma, chapatis with tup (hopefully that will be a default from now on, if the tup works out well), blueberry yoghurt, baby-cut carrots

Snacks: Cheetos, lemon iced-tea, maaza-mango, chocolate cookie from yesterday,Ameya’s bakarwadi-style kachori, apple

Dinner: Yesterday’s left over chicken and paneer with chapatis, and some strawberry cake from Ameya’s birthday. Its 10:45pm and I’ve brushed my teeth to prevent me from being tempted to dig into more cake.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

2009-06-22T20:27:00.000-07:00

Breakfast: Masta lavang-yukta kaanda pohe with daane, matar, khobra and शेव

Lunch: batata sandwich toast (the kind baba makes in the sandwich toaster). Use of potato flakes made it really quick and easy. I think I’ve pretty much got the filling required to make batata-wada…..next on the hit list.
Also made tup with unsalted butter. Repeat experiment after the fungus infected experiments last year…….so this time kept the gas on for a longer time till it almost burnt…..hopefully it will work this time.

Snacks: no snacks this time as had to prepare for the free unlimited Indian dinner that night

Dinner: Unlimited free Indian dinner as volunteer at the fundraiser CRY Festival in the Park in Schenley Park behind CMU(My job was to take care of the Chicken Tikka Masala stall J ). Hogged samosas, papdi chat, cookies, chips, iced tea, paneer butter masala, some veg kurma, gulab jamun and not to forget my own chicken tikka masala (3 hours at the stall gave such a sense of ownership that I took away 2 full boxes of remaining chicken). Looking forward to the charity cricket match coming up soon. Apart from the fact that I got to eat Indian food without any restraints, I was happy that I played a small part in a thousand-something dollars being generated for under-privildged Indian children all in the matter of an evening in the park.