Yummicious Potato Salsa

How to make Potato Salsa

Potato salsa is a very easy to make snack, very yummy... a must include in your house party menu. Everyone will love it, both your vegetarian and non-vegetarian friends. It is much healthier than other deep fried snacks. I will share my version of potato salsa from my kitchen.

Ingredients required - potatoes, mayonnaise, Italian seasoning, oregano, tomato sauce, hung curd, olive oil.

Step 1: Cut the potatoes into thin slices (not very thin like potato chips). Do not peel them. Potato peels will enhance the taste and crispiness. Cook them in water till they are half cooked. Remove them and keep them dry .

Step 2: Sprinkle olive oil, oregano, chili flakes, black pepper powder and salt on to the potatoes. Mix them well. Spread them in a flat pan. Bake it for 20 to 30 minutes at 200 degree C or till the potatoes are crispy and golden brown in color. Instead of baking, you can also put them on flame, stir them till they become crispy and golden brown in color.

Step 3 : To make my version of salsa dip, in a bowl mix equal amount of mayonnaise and hung curd. You can also use normal curd/yogurt. Add two teaspoon of tomato sauce and one teaspoon of chili sauce. Add good quantity of Italian seasoning or herbs. Mix them well. Salsa dip is ready. 

Enjoy!!!

Help Others to Help Yourself

Small things make big differences

We all have heard about massive floods in North East, Bihar and many other places in India. Thousands of people have lost everything. Now is the time again when we can show some selflessness to the needy people. We can help them in small possible ways. If you work for some company or organization, please tell your Employer to get connected with an authentic and authorized NGO (if not connected yet). If you are an individual or self employed , then approach an NGO directly.

Connect with an NGO

For people like me who are relocating to a new place, this is a good opportunity to help others and help ourselves. Since we are shifting to a new place and we can't carry everything with us, why don't we give most of our stuff to the needy people? It is any day better than dumping our stuff somewhere. I work for a good Organization who got linked with a good renowned NGO. I received an email from our HR about giving non monetary support to these affected people through this NGO. It was strictly mentioned not to give monetary support. I myself is against giving monetary support to NGOs. I have heard about many NGOs who are virtually there in papers, emails and presentations but not in reality. All money actually go to the pocket of the people who run such fake NGOs. Beware of such organizations . 

Help Flood Victims 

After reading the email from HR, I went home, took out my two big suitcases, put everything I could in them. They include my woolen clothes, my favourite overcoats, curtains, bed sheets, blankets, towels, sarees, shawls, utensils, shoes and food which could be kept for long. I am listing them to give you an idea on what and all you can give to these needy people. I am sure there are many more things which you could give them.

I always believe in one thing... Help others to help yourself. This is one of those time where I am helping others to help myself . Now it's your turn. Please help these people, trust me,  it is in your interest .

Make-Over of Left-Over Roti

Tasty and Healthy Roti

Roti/chapati is the staple food of many parts of India. Roti is normally eaten in lunch and dinner. My North Indian friends say No matter how stuffed there stomachs are, their meals are incomplete without a bite of Roti. It's like in Eastern and North Eastern India people say their meal is incomplete without rice. I remember when I used to stay with my childhood best friend, she would come back from office party where they were served many varieties of food and drinks. But she would come back saying I am hungry, there was no rice, and then she would join me for dinner. 

Today I will tell you an interesting recipe which you can make with your left over roti. It is very easy to make, very tasty and healthy also. Collect your day's left over roti  from lunch and dinner. Before going to bed tear the roti into small pieces, spread them on a big plate or tray. Keep it inside the fridge. Don't cover it. Next day morning take the roti out of fridge. 

Crispy Healthy Roti Recipe

Ingredients required: Small pieces of roti , olive oil , Italian herbs/seasoning, one or two garlic cloves.

Step 1: In a pan pour two teaspoon of olive oil. You can use any other cooking oil. 

Step 2: Finely chopped the garlic cloves, put it in the pan. Stir it till it becomes golden brown .

Step 3: Pour the roti pieces in the pan. Stir it well in medium flame. Add the Italian seasoning, salt, chilli powder. Mix them well. Stir it for another 5 mins or till all the ingredients are mixed well and golden brown in color. Cool it down.

You can keep this yummy healthy and crispy snacks in a tight jar and keep it for 3 to 4 days. I normally take it to office for healthy munching during work. 

Enjoy !!! 

Be like people of Manipur (or Don't?)

Super cool people of Manipur

If someone asks me who are the coolest people in India, I would say people of Manipur. I am not saying this because I am a Manipuri, I am saying this because they are actually super cool. Sometime ago people made hue and cry about intolerance. Media was covered with news on intolerenace. #intolerance was trending on twitter. Many celebrities also talked on this topic, some got into controversies. But let me tell you, you will find the most tolerant people in Manipur. 

Being one of the least heard and ignored states of India, many people don't know that  there were frequent economic blockade in Manipur, cutting off normal movement of trucks on National Highways 2 and 37 which are lifelines of Manipur. All goods and commodities reach Manipur through these highways. During this time every item would cost at double or triple the original price. Petrol would cost up to 300 per litre, gas cylinder would cost more than INR 1000. Despite this rocket high price people will continue to buy stuff. Due to less supply very few petrol pumps would be open. There would be very long queue for petrol. People would stand in the queue from 3 am in the morning (I am not kidding). No one talks about intolerance. Instead people would find out some fun activities to do like play some games, chit-chat while waiting for their turns. I didn't hear anyone complaining . 

Last year November demonetization happened. Like people of any other State of India, people of Manipur were also affected. There were long queues in front of banks and ATMs. I live in Delhi and everyday I heard about people cribbing. But Manipuri people didn't crib about it. Instead they took it as a medium for recreation. People would have early dinner and come out of their houses, wait in the queue, play some games, women would be engrossed in never ending chit-chats. Young girls and boys would come all decked up as if it's not ATM queue but a fashion show ramp.

Disclaimer : This is completely my personal observation, not facts. I may be wrong in some of the points. 

Janmashtami Prasad ... Juicy and Yummy Rasagulla

Juicy Rasagulla

This year Janmashtami I couldn't go to ISKCON temple. So I decided to have Pooja at home. I planned to make rasgulla to please Krishna ji. I wanted to distribute Prasad to my neighbors and near ones also. Rasagulla is one of the easiest sweets to make, quite healthy as compared to other desserts which are filled with too much sugar and ghee. To make around 30 to 40 small rasagullas I got one and half kg of toned milk . 

Juicy spongy Rasagulla Recipe

Ingredients Required: milk, sugar, elaichi powder, lemon 

Step 1: Boil the milk in a pan. Reduce the flame. Add fresh juices of two lemon. Keep stirring until the cottage cheese lumps get separated from the milk. After milk has become completely thin and lumps are separated, put off the flame.

Step 2: Separate the tender cottage cheese from the liquid using a strainer. Pour cold running water on it. With the help of a thin cotton cloth remove all liquid from the cheese. Squeeze the cloth till the cheese is soft and dry . Let it cool down . 

Step 3: When the cottage cheese is cold, knead it for 15 mins. 

Step 4: After kneading for 15 mins, let it rest for 5 mins. After that make small round balls of the dough. You should be able to make around 30 to 40 small balls .

Step 5: Pour water in a pressure cooker. Add sugar and small pinch of elaichi powder  into it to make sugar water. It should not be in syrup form. Adjust the quantity of sugar depending on how sweet you want your rasagulla to be. Let it boil for 5 mins.

Step 6: Put the white balls in the pressure cooker one by one. Keep space for rasagulla to expand. So don't put all balls in one go. You may want to do in 3 or 4 rounds depending on the size of your pressure cooker. Close the pressure cooker lid, let the flame be on till 3 whistles. Let it rest. When you open the lid, you will see the white balls converted into juicy rasagulla, double the size of the original round balls . 

Enjoy !!!

Girls Safety... A big Question Mark

Are our girls safe?

12 years old girl was raped and killed, 8 years old girl kidnapped and raped... these are the news I am getting to read almost everyday. It is indeed very sad and disturbing. This disturbance made me write this post sitting in a flight. In my 3 hours of flight I was thinking about this major crime, what is the root cause and how to fight it. I am not an expert, I am just trying to put some valid points for awareness and alertness. 

When the topic is about girls being raped or molested, accused are of two types... known person or a stranger. A known person could be your friend, family or relative. It is hard to think that any of our known contact could think of harming or abusing us. But our inner instinct is unbiased, it will treat everyone equally. Always listen to your inner instinct, it's your saviour inside you. If your inner instinct signals something negative about anyone or any situation, run away. This anyone could be a known person or a stranger. And situation could be any situation. Second saviour after your inner instinct is your mom. Mother is our shield. A Mom knows best about her child... what is good, bad, right, wrong. Perhaps a young child  couldn't foresee what trouble is coming to her but a Mom could sense it. It's mother's responsibility to make sure her child is surrounded by good people in the family. This applies especially for big joint families and extended families. As a mother always be open to your daughter, educate her about child abuse when she reaches an age of 3 or 4. Continue to educate and discuss this topic on regular basis so that your child will also open up with any foreseen danger or warning.

Second type of person who could harm us is a stranger. Again here I would emphasise on listening to your inner instinct. If you sense something not right when being around a stranger, run away. Trust me it could save your life. Delhi is infamous for being the crime capital of India. Living in Delhi for many years I follow some safety measures myself which I would like to share with you. I always carry a pepper spray in my bag. When I think that I may need it I take it out from my bag and hold it in such a way that I can spray it easily and quickly to anyone. In my car side pocket there is a hammer and a pair of scissors. Car is a machine, any part of any machine can break down anytime. Scissors will save you when your seat belt gets jammed and you are unable to open it. Hammer will help you when your car gets locked accidentally including power windows. Break the window with the hammer. These scissors and hammer could also rescue you when someone tries to attack you when you are inside your car. But be very careful these defense equipments can attack you instead if they get into the attacker hands.

Self Defense

Self defense is the best defense. Parents should make their children go for self defense classes like karate, boxing etc. It's okay to miss their music class or dance class but don't let them miss their self-defense class. We all should learn at least some basic self defense steps. When someone tries to grope you or grab you, use your nails and teeth, bite their ears , scratch their eyes. Use your knees and elbows to punch them, kick them and you  know very well where to kick. The point I want to put is our safety is mostly in our hands. Be safe. 

How do I care less about likes on Facebook?

Are Facebook Likes Important?

Today someone asked me on Quora... How do I care less about likes on Facebook?. At first glance I thought what a stupid question, but on serious note many people are going through this emotional dilemma, especially teenagers and young crowd. I remember, a colleague once told me that his niece was depressed because her FB posts got less likes. I would like to share my thoughts on this. Hope it helps to overcome emotional imbalance due to social media likes or no-likes. 

•    First of all, treat your FB timelines as an open diary visible to your friends and family. Unlike personal diary, you allow your open diary to be read by people. 
•    Keep in mind that whatever you are posting or sharing is primarily for yourself so that you can read them or refer them later in future, smile at your stupidities and achievements when you look back. Feel embarrassed on some embarrassing posts which you didn't realize that they were embarrassing at that point of time. Use it as a medium to self evaluate the changes in you, to know how have you evolved yourself.
•    Engrave in your mind that likes and comments from people are secondary. It is good if people like your posts. But it is also totally okay if no one likes or notices your posts. Whatever you posted, you posted for yourself and not for others.

Love Yourself

Last important bit... love yourself, live your life first for yourself, then for others. Stop comparing yourself with others. If you have FB account, trust me you are luckier than more than half of the world population. Learn to be happy and content with whatever you have in your life. Work hard on achieving your dreams. Stay happy!

My long awaited trip to Mata Vaishno Devi Temple... Jai Mata Di!!!

Darshan to Mata Vaishno Devi Temple

Many years ago I saw in my dream that I was going to Mata Vaishno Devi Temple, was surprised to find myself arrived at a Majestic Shivji temple. Since then I wanted to go for Mata ka Darshan. But somehow it was not happening as people say Mata ka bulawa nahin aya (Mata is not calling you ).


I guess this time even Mata wants to see her child. I didn't have to do much effort, things happened so smoothly. Very quickly my cousin Priscilla and I planned our trip, she was coming from Chandigarh, I was going from Delhi. I took a night bus from Delhi to Katra. I wanted to go by train but I didn't get any ticket. So I chose a sleeper bus. It was my first travel by sleeper bus, normally my travels are by flights. Bus was to start at 8pm from Delhi but it started at 10pm. I was supposed to reach Katra at 8 am next day morning but reached at 10am. Bus journey was good, I slept throughout the journey, only complain was it started 2 hours late. Priscilla arrived Katra at 4:30am. She waited for me at the CRPF Camp Katra. For going to Vaishno Devi temple you need to take a pass free of cost. The offline queue for pass was very long so we took the pass online. If you plan to go by taking an online pass, don't forget to carry printout of the pass.

 
It is around 12 kms climb to Vaishno Devi temple from Katra. It is at the top of the hill. Another 2.5 kms for Bhairo Baba Mandir. People say Mata Vaishno Devi's darshan is incomplete without darshan to Bhairo Baba. You can trek, ride a pony, take a chariot or take a helicopter to reach the top. One side pony ride will cost you around INR 700 per person. Helicopter ride is for INR 1005 per person. I wanted to do the darshan by trekking. We started our trek at 12:30 afternoon. If you are trekking don't forget to buy a walking stick which costs just INR 10. It will support you when your legs start paining because of long steep walk. Frequent announcement was made for trekkers to check their Blood Pressue and Sugar level before coming for the yatra. Every 2 or 3 kms there is a Dispensary. We took around 5 and half hours to reach the top including halt in between for food and rest etc.

We had to climb up another km to go to the CRPF reception. We reached there thinking we would rest, stretch ourselves, give some rest to our super exhausted body. We wanted a bed badly. We had the shock of our lives when the CRPF staff at the reception told us that they had information only for darshan and not for stay. What the heck??? Why would we need to inform them for darshan? It was too late to realize that there was a big miscommunication. One thing with due respect to CRPF, Indian army is far more organized and disciplined than CRPF (my personal observation). We had been advised to look for a room at one of the Bhawans or dormitories which meant we had to hunt around for a room or a bed and it was raining heavily. We went to couple of bhawans who said all rooms were full, people booked 2 or 3 months in advance. We went to a dormitory run by the Shrine board which has around 600 beds. We were given the same answer... Dormitory is houseful. I said There are more than 300 beds I am sure there would be some cancellations. The man at the counter said he would have that information at 12 midnight. It was 9pm. We planned to have our dinner and wait. By then my legs were in bad pain. But I slipped a smile when I received email from my FitBit app congratulating me for crossing 30k steps in one day.

Jai Mata Di

Jai Mata Di ... Mata Rani is great! After we were done with dinner, security guard of the dormitory called us to tell that there were 2 beds which got free. We rushed and got those two beds. A bed costs just INR 120 per night. We planned to rest and go for early morning darshan at 4:30 am next day. However other fellow yatris suggested us to go for darshan the same night. There would be more rush next day morning and we might have to wait if it was morning Arti time. We liked their idea. It was 12 in the midnight when we went for darshan. At Mata Rani premises day and night are same. There were full of lights and lots of enthusiastic people praising Mata Rani. For a while, all my pains were gone, I was eager to have a glance of Mata. It took one hour to have a 20 second glance of Mata Rani, but it was totally worth it. I got to know that there were three holy pindies evolved from one single rock form - Maha Kali, Maha Lakshmi and Maha Saraswati. Mata Vaishno Devi is considered to be an incarnation of the three Supreme Energies.
 

Trek to Bhairo Baba Mandir

Next day early morning, we went to Bhairo Baba Mandir. Trek to Bhairo Baba Mandir is more steep and tougher, passage is narrow. There were very less people going up to Bhairo Baba temple and monkeys have created menace around. I would suggest not to walk alone, always carry a walking stick. I had a very peaceful darshan at Bhairo Baba Temple. There were structures of Bhairo Baba and Hanumanji. Pujari told me that Bhairo Baba and Hanumanji will be found together only when Mata Vaishno Devi is there. He also told me that all these structures of Mata Vaishno Devi, Bhairo Baba, Hanumanji were natural evolved and not created by human.