Nale Raje Goli Baje

If you are thinking of asking me what made me make this batter wait till you reach the end of this delicious post.Today my mother taught me how to make Goli Baje,a special dish of our native place South Canara.It is a popular evening snack found in every other house over there.I have some silly but fond associations with this mouth watering stuff.*'Nale raje, goli baje' is a colloquial rhyme which me and my brother tell to till this day before a holiday.Also every time it rains, it is understood at home that this shall be our demand.

What is nice about the dish is that one does not require exemplary culinary skills to make it.Believe me when I say it is as easy as eating it.These golden orange globules are crispy,crunchy and fluffy.In no time they melt in the mouth, one can actually lose count while eating them.Here is the recipe of how my mother makes it:

THE REQUIREMENTS:

• Maida/all purpose flour- a cup.
• Kadle hittu/besan/gram flour-a tea spoon.
• Sour curds-half a cup.
• Finely chopped green chillies-a tea spoon or as hot as you want it to be;-)
• Ginger-a tea spoon.
• Curry leaves-a few.
• Cumin seeds-a few.
• Asafoetidia-a pinch for digestion.
• Coconut pieces-a few, if you want them.
• Sugar-a sprinkle or as sweet as you want it to be;-)
• Salt-as essential.
• Oil-ahem...very essential!
• Time-a little.
• Appetite-a lot if you are successful in making them!

THE SIMPLE METHOD:

Step 1: Smile, be confident.

Step 2: Take a mixing bowl .Mix all the above ingredients except the oil:p.The batter should not be too thick or thin.Keep the consistency like that of an idli batter and make sure there are no lumps.

Step 3: Keep the batter aside for an hour or so and listen to your favorite music or read a book.

Step 4: Get back to the kitchen, heat the oil in a frying pan for now is the time for some power packed action.Use a spoon or use your hands to make these balls.Drop them in the oil carefully.I must say that initially it is hard to give them a spherical shape, amorphous forms do not affect its great taste though.Deep fry till they turn golden brown.

Step 5: Look at what you made with some self admiration and serve it to your courageous folks with pride.

THINGS TO NOTE:

• I somehow find the taste better if this batter is kept for fermentation for a longer duration.
• If you are a little hardworking, coconut chutney is THE combination with it.

Here is what I made this evening!

Slurp!Good night.

PS: *Nale raje-Tomorrow is a holiday:-)

-R.

Thursday Challenge #6-Pets

"If having a soul means being able to feel love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals are better off than a lot of humans."

-James Herriot-

These photographs are of the pet cemetery at PFA situated in Kengeri, Bangalore.They were taken by a dear friend of mine way back in 2008.I have visited this place with him a couple of times and what touched me most were those words of grief and love on the tombstones.A strange serenity fills this place while many pets here are laid at rest.All the more it made me wonder how beautiful this world would have been if our pets had a lifespan longer than a human friend...

To know more about PFA and their work visit:

• People For Animals-Bangalore
• Deccan Herald-And Here The Pets Rest
• Manorama News-The Week-Good Mourning

To see more of pets, visit this week's TC here.

Have a good day.

-R.

Way Leads On To Way

Image Courtesy-Clipartoday

“No one else can ever make your choices for you.Your choices are yours alone.They are as much a part of you as every breath you will take,every moment of your life.”

-Dr.Shad Helmstetter-

Life is all about the choices we make, believe me each one of them counts.I am being given one right now and something inside me tells that this one is meant for me.I am making a decision which is going to stay with me forever.Having chosen a career where every little thought and move matters this was never easy.The last few months have been quite distressing but decisive.Long hours of studies, innumerable entrance exams, cut throat competition, annoying counselling and admission procedures, unavoidable anxiety, sleepless nights and whimpering days-these and the worst of the worst were my only acquaintances.It was easy to give up, I detested to.There were times when I could do nothing but break down.I then kept reminding myself that no matter what, why and how it happens I always will want this for my own good.

Somehow in the process of learning medicine I have learnt the art of handling most of the crisis of life with the best of my capabilities, whether I fail or succeed comes secondary.I also am fortunate enough to have folks at home who let me take the wildest of risks.Something that surprises me is that I am almost nearing a quarter of my life and I still have not earned my first salary, this fact does not bother them and never will! No matter where I go I can always come back to them and this assurance keeps me going.I owe them myself for I am nothing without them.

I have always believed that there are no short cuts through life.You either go up or down.How much you believe in yourself when you are in the latter phase is the only thing that can carry you forward.But like many amongst us, raising above my level of comfort or crossing my boundaries has always been a problem.I feared change.But I have learnt my lessons the hard way and now there is no looking back.I have realized success is more than bringing my dreams to a realization.At the end of the day it is in being happy for the choice that  I have made, in the path that I have chosen.If life throws you a lemon and you do not know how to make a lemonade like how Joan Collins advises, what do you do then? I suggest by experience-salt it, dry it or make a pickle out of it but definitely do not let it rot!

My new journey is now about to begin.Standing at this milestone of life with all my heart and mind I am off for my Masters in a week or so and this entire feeling after all the hard work is weirdly amazing.I am ready to work to flourish and flare through it.At this moment I  am made to remember a poem which is one of my all time favorites.Six years back when I joined medicine it had kind of inspired me.What I like about it is the freedom of interpretation that it gives to a reader, one can take it the way he wants.There is madness and uncertainty in each line, very much like life! It tells us that way leads on to way and there is no end if you decide to begin, isn't that true? I am sharing it here with you, read it and keep yourself on the move.Make a difference, a good difference:-)

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveller,long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could 

To where it bent in the undergrowth; 

Then took the other, as just as fair, 

And having perhaps the better claim, 

Because it was grassy and wanted wear; 

Though as for that the passing there 

Had worn them really about the same, 

And both that morning equally lay 

In leaves no step had trodden black. 

Oh, I kept the first for another day! 

Yet knowing how way leads on to way, 

I doubted if I should ever come back. 

I shall be telling this with a sigh 

Somewhere ages and ages hence: 

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-- 

I took the one less traveled by, 

And that has made all the difference.

-Robert Frost-

Need lots of blessings and wishes.

-R.