Sugary Coconut laddus (narkel naru, nariel ka ladu) - A must for festivals in Bengal

The festive fervor never dies here in Bengal and so does the food. The pujas has just passed. The remains of pandal structures almost cleared by the infamous KMC, the festive newness still lingering and will soon usher in the Kali puja with eye catching lights and crackers. It is around the same time, in fact the same day that we will celebrate Diwali - the festival of lights as well. The fervor of Durga puja never dies. it merges with another festival to yet another festival. The festive circle continues and before realizing it's puja time again.

The puja time is beautiful with all its customs, rituals and magnanimity. Food, perhaps, is one of the factors that makes it more alluring. Bengalis are known for their way with the food, and today I will share an age old Bengali custom festival food. It's called 'nadu', 'naru' in our part of the country. It's actually coconut laddus where variant proportion of grated coconut, sugar, jaggery are being mixed to give a lovely texture and taste.

Some use only sugar, which makes it white and some jaggery, which makes it dark brown and some mix both to attain a different texture.

First you have to grate the coconuts finely. Mix it with sugar/ jaggery and stir is continuously in a thick bottomed wok on slow flame. Keep stirring till you attain a sticky texture. Remove from flame and quickly make round circles by moving portions of the mixture between your palms.

Making 'narus' are not as simple as it sounds. You have to be careful to shape off the coconut mixture while the thing is still hot. Be careful not to burn your hands. The nicely shaped 'narus' look beautiful and they taste really good. Go ahead and try it out and keep me updated.


Photo copyright: Mimpi

Mutton Rogan Josh: Hot, spicy, irresistible kashmiri delight

Mutton Rogan Josh tastes as good as it looks. The lovely red hot spicy juice smears the tender mutton to make it the yummiest thing on earth. If you are counting on your calories then I would advise you to go through a serious lifestyle regime afterwards instead of resisting the temptation of not eating one of the world's best food.

Preparing the dish is simple too. Mix mutton with curd and little salt, and keep aside. Heat oil/ ghee in a pan and put whole garam masala, when they start to crackle, put chopped onions and fry till golden brown. Add ginger-garlic paste and fry again for two minutes. Add all the masala powder and fry till oil comes up.

Add mutton with marinade and stir fry on a high flame for 2 minutes. Now add water and salt and cook with closed lid till meat is tender and gravy is medium thick in consistency.

Add cream and saffrom dipped in milk, and stir well and cook for another 3 minutes. Garnish with chopped coriander. This best goes with basmati rice, pulao or tandoori/ rumali roti.

Enjoy!

Tomas Transtromer: Metaphysical visionary poet wins Nobel

Tomas Transtromer, the Swedish poet, sometimes oblivious and sometimes real and powerful, won the 2011 Nobel Prize in Literature for 2011. Even though well known in Sweden (and a strong contender for the prize for many years now) his works have been published in English, the poet is not on the known list for the poetry readers. Currently, I have the opportunity to read through a few of his poems. The nature transcends beautifully into the real world with a distinctive theme of isolation and togetherness. His poetry is universal and he lives poetry.

Mr. Transtromer, 80, has written more than 15 collections of poetry, many of which have been translated into English and 60 other languages.

“His poetry is both universal and particular, it’s complex but very direct at the same time. He’s worked for much of his life as a psychologist, and the work is characterized by very strong psychological insight into humanity.”

Two Cities

There is a stretch of water, a city on each sideÐ
one of them utterly dark, where enemies live.
Lamps are burning in the other.
The well-lit shore hypnotizes the dark shore.

I swim out in a trance
on the glittering dark water.
A steady note of a tuba comes in.
It's a friend's voice: "Take up your grave and walk."


Storm

The man on a walk suddenly meets the old
giant oak like an elk turned to stone with
its enormous antlers against the dark green castle wall
of the fall ocean.

Storm from the north. It's nearly time for the
rowanberries to ripen. Awake in the night he
hears the constellations far above the oak
stamping in their stalls.

The Half-Finished Heaven

Cowardice breaks off on its path.
Anguish breaks off on its path.
The vulture breaks off in its flight.

The eager light runs into the open,
even the ghosts take a drink.

And our paintings see the air,
red beasts of the ice-age studios.

Everything starts to look around.
We go out in the sun by hundreds.

Every person is a half-open door
leading to a room for everyone.

The endless field under us.
Water glitters between the trees.
The lake is a window into the earth.

(C) Tomas Transtromer

3 negative experiences on Facebook and the effects

More and more kids and teens are spending time on social networking sites. Facebook is no.1 on the list of priority. Facebook and other social networking sites are great to revive, maintain and extend relationships. It just takes clicks to connect to your childhood friends or tether to new found friends. As much as Facebook is known to renew relationship its also a major tool in shattering relationship. A research shows that the more time kids and teens spent on Facebook, the more likely they were to suffer from ailments like personality disorder, paranoia, anxiety and alcohol use.

According to a new study, the three most-common negative experiences are:

Ignoring or denying "friend" requests
Deleting public messages
Seeing a 'Top Friends list' on which one doesn't appear or is ranked lower than expected


All three of the major negative experiences are ones that can be found only in the world of social networking. In real life, one does not walk up to another person and ask to "friend" him or her. Experience in social interactions in the real world often doesn't translate to the virtual world. Even the word "friend" means vastly different things to different people in the social networking world.

In such scenario, ending up having a shattered relationships have far fetched implications. Children, teens and even grownups get so involved that they do not know where to draw the line. Virtual friendship is healthy as long as you know the limitations of it. Many use social networking sites as important business tool marketing their products. it's but obvious that those people befriend with a purpose on mind. Without being judgmental, we should be mature enough to understand the limitations of the social networking sites. Ending up with broken hearts is the last thing we would want, both online or offline.

Roadside Masala Chai as good as Saffron Tea

Everyday I see a man sipping steaming hot tea on the roadside stall. The bus in which I travel invariably stops there and I contemplate the moment as much as the man does. The tea is served in semi wet earthen pot. Lots of milk, lots of sugar and lots of love in no specific order and you are served with the cheapest yet the most recharging of roadside teas. The stall man is eternally old. Ever since I have seen him he has been like that - frail, half-bent in tattered clothes and eternally happy. His defunct glasses, among many, are the first thing that would catch your attention.

He literally boils the milk, sugar and little dust tea in a tumbler that's never been washed off the stains. The boiling continues as the office goers and the morning walkers gather to the lovely aroma of the secret masala that the man never shares. The flavor is somewhat gingerish, cardamomish and something more and something different. The passengers are glued to the shop till the signal turns green when they are forced to take their eyes off the morning saga.

And as I watch the man and his insipid tea stall, I am reminded of the saffron tea, expensive and exquisite, that I had on one of the five star tea joints, many years back.

We felt the tremors, the shudders of the earthquake !

Magnitude 6.9 - SIKKIM, INDIA

Never felt the quaking effect before. It was weird, funny and scary! It must be 6-15 pmish when I felt the tremor while still on bed with a book. The pages fluffed and fluttered and fell off my hands as if my fingers have gotten numb. The bed started to move to and fro. In the beginning I thought someone has gotten under the bed and trying to push it upwards. But soon, it was moving to and fro.This continued for about 2-3 seconds but I chose to say nothing. Have had a bad experience before when friends nullified my perception of the tremor. So kept mum.

After a while, I got up from the bed and called my mom, who was reading the newspaper the next door. She also felt it. But she thought it was her physiological changes. She even planned to see the doctor the next day. But when I told her what happened she was relieved and knew that it was the earthquake. Father was watching the TV on the 2nd floor. He attributed the tremor to his hypertensive bouts until he found out from the TV channels.

Later we found out, that the earthquake was of medium intensity and was felt strongly in northern India. It was terrifying to look at the extensive breaking pictures in the TV. The shakes, flutters, tremors, the cracks and even deaths - it was terrifying. It was 6.8 on the richter scale.

"Earthquake prediction is called the Holy Grail of earthquake science, and has been considered impossible by many scientists", however recent technology has possibilities of tracking seismographic changes. We will know in the future, sometime, an earthquake is going to occur. Awaiting that day.

Just hope the earthquake ends with the two bouts that we already have experienced. Just hope people are safe with little damages before the pujas.

Everybody be fine and stay safe.

Magnitude 6.9 - SIKKIM, INDIA

Luchi and kosha mangsho: every bengali's favorite guilt food

Luchi and kosha mangsha is something that every bengali would love to indulge in, especially today when the health regime being taken care of in almost every household. Let's face it. However delectable this dish is, it comes with associated calorie hazards. But, I do not mind indulging in it once in a while.

After all, we only get to enjoy it once in a blue moon. Perhaps the reason why it's more craved.

Luchi is much similar to puris and kosha mangsho is the most spicy, hot, red and gourmet's delight. It is the mutton/ lamb cooked with typical Indian spices like cumin, coriander, red chili, turmeric, garlic, onion, ginger, garam masala. Be generous with the spices and the grease (oil, ghee). More the better. Forget the calories, forget the health meter, eat it guilt free.


Image credit: Wordpress Bong Bong