Bitter gourd Recipe

Hi Guys.

I think this is for the first time onto my blog that I am gonna share a recipe.

And this is because I love the final taste that comes out of it. 

I had been making bitter gourd earlier. But that used to taste a lot bitter. I have tried a numerous ways in making it and so far this has come out to be a really wonderful one.

My husband likes this vegetable a lot and because I could not make them good enough, I didn't want him to give up on it. So I kept trying and here I have one nice recipe to share.I have developed this recipe over time suited to my taste and my ways of cooking.

I usually take 5 pieces of bitter gourd, 2 potatoes, 1 onion, 2 medium-sized tomatoes, 4 - 5 pieces of garlic.

At night itself, I peel bitter gourds , cut them vertically in two-halves, take out the seeds inside, cut into small pieces, wash into water, kept aside in a plate with salt mixed into it. That helps the bitter juice to separate out over the night. Don't throw away the peelings. Take them in a sieve, wash thoroughly and keep them aside as well with little salt mixed.

I don't have picture for that.I am sorry for that. Would update this post next time I would make them.

At morning, just give the pieces a nice squeeze and a wash again and same for the peelings as well.

Take a kadhai, put some oil. Put bitter gourd pieces into it. Fry till it turns little brown. Take them out. Now put the peelings and give them a light fry too.

What I usually do with potatoes is that I cut them into small rounds, and grease a pan with some oil, and put those pieces into the pan and give them a nice bake over a sim for 10-15 mins, on both the sides.  That gives them a nice crisp taste. I believe this can be alternatively done in oven too. But I prefer this way due to its ease. And I use such potatoes in many vegetables, like Bhindi, Cauliflower etc.

Now put some oil in kadhai, put sliced onions, garlic cut into small pieces. Give them a light fry till they are golden.

 Put tomatoes, you can either put puree or cut tomatoes in small pieces. Fry them for a while till they mix well. I put chopped green chillis also. Now put some salt, coriander powder, fennel seeds, and garam masala. Mix well.

Now put potatoes, bitter gourd pieces and the peelings. Cover it with a lid and let it cook for another 15-20 mins on sim.

It is ready to be served.

The "Jatt" factor!

This post had been lying in draft. And I had almost forgotten to instantiate the newly soaked in Jatt factor.
So, here it is.

Lately, I have found my keen liking for Punjabi movies. It is like if I am asked "Do you wanna watch any movie?" My response is like "Is there any cute funny Punjabi movie to recommend?"

I have only seen countable-on-finger number of these movies  and I have found them extreme funny.
The post has Jatt as part of its name owing to the reason that the names of all the movies that I have seen have Jatt in their names too - Carry on Jatta, Jatt and Juliet, Jatt and Juliet 2, Jatt James Bond, Naughty Jatts. Thats kinda funny I know.

Direction, script, actors, acting, music, their names even have been so interesting.
I haven't known that Punjabi cinema has been doing increasingly good with times.
Of course that is not a world class cinema. But it is kinda lively and lovely.

Being Punjabi though, I have not conversed over my life a lot in the language, so I don't really understand all of it. Neither can I speak it good enough. It is just that I CAN do it when I am talking to my grand-generation.
While I have The man around who is from Chandigarh and that makes him proficient in the language. And he comes to help me understand what I don't.

And with all that, I would say that I have got to be a fan of Diljit Dosanjh. And I like his night suit in Jatt and Juliet2 and that is my favorite Jatt movie so far. It just makes me burst into laughter everytime I watch it.
Oye Chotu ,Punjab police emotional vi hondi hey oye ! :D

Have a nice Jatt reading and watching ! :D

Friday Film !

I am going to talk about a movie which I had never heard of till date. It is a Bollywood movie directed by Rahul Bose.
And I am pretty much sure you would not even have heard of it.
Yea .. Hold on . I will tell you how I found it then.
So I was wishing to see a Bollywood movie and I was looking under the category of Foreign Movies ->  Indian to find one on Netflix. And this was the last movie on that page.
Oh ! I haven't yet taken the name . Damn Me !
It is "Everybody Says I am fine! "
I checked on IMDB and it was 6.1 on 10 and a 2001 film. I just thought of going with it.
And then it kept me hooked. And there was a factor other than entertainment that made me watch it . I was completely in awe that it was a 2001 make.
Such contemporary modern cinema, skinny girls, high revealing clothes, bold emotions, and sensual depiction. For a while, the whole of it gave me some New York kinda feel. Really.
Movie features some shots like Boman Irani, Pooja Bhatt and Rahul Bose himself.
For a moment me and my husband were discussing what were we actually doing in 2001. Could we 13 years back match up to the thoughts being shown in it ?
And both of us were like if this movie gets released today, it would not be out of date. No kidding.
Give it a try. I didn't regret.

Photo Essay - New York

So, it is about twoDayOnFootNewYorkCityTrip(This is Java based naming scheme (Java is a software programming language)).  "twoDayOnFootNewYorkCityTrip" , do you observe that ?

I am just killing your time with that. Leave it. New York has nothing to do with Java .

Go on and see some pictures I took while I was in New York moving around with no planned itinerary.

I am a kind who loves to explore a new place mostly walking. Of course, that comes with some pain, but sometimes it is worth.

And New York is actually one such place which is worth taking some pain. I mean I like it a lot.

Also because it is hard to drive over there. :P

So you better walk or of course, its subways are amazing beat when it comes to connectivity.

I have always visited New York as a  tourist and haven't stayed over for long, and I wonder why I always feel that I could not have enough of it.

Of course one would find a lot to read on New York, its lifestyle and great things in there. But here I am just trying to brief up my travel through these pictures which are too less to cover a city like New York. And many even would never be enough for that matter.

Moving Anti-clock, these 3 buildings are right there near Wall street. 1.)NYSE 2.)Place where First President George Washington took his oath, of course that is his statue in the picture 3.) Trinity Church 

This is from Rockfeller Plaza. It is like a complex with many skyscraper buildings which are occupied by some companies. It is a nice place to be at.

Thats colourful, brightly lit Times Square with LEDS flashing around. And I really like ForeverXXI.

4.) That is the Charging Bull near Wall street. Let me tell this to you, I have been here four times and never have I been able to get a picture with it. There is always a queue lined up to pose with it, and I always give up before  my turn, and also it just gets impossible to even have this bull's solo picture,like some good click of his, because before the camera clicks a picture at its super speed, one from queue would have already got up next to it. Phew !! It is really like that.

1.) It is a restro- chain which sells  Kathi rolls. 2.)Interior decor is so rusty Indian. 3.) Veggie Mix Roll 4.) Thats a dessert, Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS , thats one of Android versions ;) ) . It was so yum!I want that again..

It is New York Public Library. That was actually occupied. Read through pic 3.. "You are entering a Research Reading Room" .

Those are some random beauty clicks. Those were so colorful pretty tulips

 I liked all those Ann Taylor dresses. And that Desigual store was so very colorful and very expensive too. I am in that subway going to Chambers Street, near World Trade Centre

Those are some magnificent architectures of New York. You might spot them from the plane as well.

Anti clock . 1) WTC 2)Chrysler 3) Statue of Liberty 4) Brooklyn Bridge

Onto some roads. That school bus was at Wall street. There is actually a school over that street.
That Madison Square Garden is NYPenn Station where I got down from the train that I had boarded at Morris Plains, NJ. NJTransit is the name of the rail line running between.

Some random clicks. Those tombstones are for 9/11 attack victims.
And you can see even the shadow of another building so clear in that glass.

That amazing amazing sky. Those are Trinity church and WTC buildings.

Some signs you would not mind to follow to locate things and to move around hassle-free.

Those are two parks. Bryant park and Battery Park. Battery park is entry to get to Statue of Liberty.

Some tall skyscrapers New York is famous for. How low you bend down, whatever position you give to your camera lens, it becomes so tough to get an entire building into your camera focus. They are actually high ~!

Just some random shots yet again . I really like the second one, the one with wall lamp.

Hope you find the pictures interesting and the post too :) Period

Chemical Decor

Few days back, we were in New Jersey for his official reasons and we were staying up at Hilton, Parsippany.
The kind of decor this hotel had, took me back to my chemistry books of high school, and gave me some clicking sensation as well.
The theme looked so unusual but it appealed to me.
The names around, wall paintings, furniture had their concepts in theories of organic and inorganic chemistry.
Don't you believe me ?
Have a look ahead.

Some rocksalt based center table

Those chemical lab bottles were straight in front of the entry door

Conference rooms are not just conference rooms , but element conference rooms, and their names of course are of so useful industrial elements

And the ballrooms are Nobel. Remember Noble gases and Noble metals?

And that cafe house inside is Caffeine Lab

And those benzene kinds rings on the wall

And I am missing on the picture of the wall which had some chemical reaction formulas onto it. Sorry about that.
I hope you too find their decor attractive and this post too ;)

SkyDived !!

Let me tell you, I am never willing to sit by window seats in plane. But now I don't mind.
I know you would be feeling what does this have to do with the title of this post.
Well lets just see.

So it has already been two months of procrastinating this thing called sky dive
Additional info : - "Procrastination" - As I say this word, he is always like What?!?. Please use some simple words. It takes so long to say that.

He had taken date already from Skydiving team and I just used to call them up
 and get it scheduled for a later date. But this time, it could not be postponed anymore by the skydive services itself. So I had no option than to jump.

The pressure started building the moment I reached their premises. Loads of people were there which assured me of some courage. And I was actually clapping watching people to land down in those colorful parachutes.

And then it was my turn to get into the plane and fly off to 15k feet. And I was really scared. So the process is like there is a guide who jumps along. Infact one is tied to the guide with a harness. I was prepared with the harness on. We got into the plane and it took off and as it was getting higher , fear and excitement grew up in equal proportions. the guide has an instrument like a watch onto this wrist to know the height. And there is a camera onto his another wrist to capture video for the whole scene. And when it was 15K, he opened the plane's window, shot my last words into the video and shoooo. !!

We were under free fall, we were over the clouds, below the clouds, cutting through clouds, under that measured acceleration due to gravity and immense air pressure, we were falling and falling, and we kept falling till we reached height of 3k feet where the guide pressed a button to release the parachute. And it was a jerky stop. We were kinda floating at that height, and I could see that everything was smaller than usual, I was trying to locate him. The guide gave me a small ride in air steering parachute strings. And in a while we were set to land, just like an airplane does.

And on reaching grounds, I ran upto him and hugged him.
And only thing that I could envision into my thoughts was those clouds under me and I still see those clear. That feeling of free fall was like a dive away from life,  like it was another world, like I was a bird, like I was understanding life is an opportunity. That was just a wonderful experience, a story in itself.

And yet again, he brought my way a lot more than I can express. He is kinda cute you know !

And yea, point comes to why I have started liking window seats in planes, So it is like to see what would be the the height when it would be in air... and I tell him "I CAN jump from this height I think" "It looked same when I jumped" "I jumped from this much height" "This view reminds me of that wonderful day". And now I want that wrist gear for measuring height.

Here are some pictures from the day !

This moment is scary one.

And then it is fun !!!

You can shout the loudest !

And you can even dance!!

You can only rejoice once you are through free fall !

Some Sight seeing thing !!

And Back to Ground !