breakfast recipes – TASTE MEMORY

I have been hating to read news in the last couple of days. While I understand some things are beyond our control, I still find anxiety hitting my myself every morning. What shall tomorrow bring, I wonder.

Here’s what’s nice though. Us, in his native place, enjoying our vacations. In this part of Haryana, I love how life slows down. Even basic things like white butter feel so heavenly. I feel like my expectations from life take a backseat and I focus on making every day peaceful.

Firstly, the trees and birds here are so beautiful. Hardly find any crows. There are sparrows, purple sunbirds, babblers, grey doves, bulbuls, black drongos and whatnot that I spot here. And it amazes me. The trees make me awestruck too. Fragrant flowers of Madhu malati creepers, beautiful bougainvilleas, wild sunflowers, flowers blooming on Neem trees and whatnot. It’s just amazing how some households have mango trees, ash gourd trees, mint plants and whatnot. Love it all.

I also like how my mother-in-law takes charge of chutneys every morning. Sharing two recipes here:

Red chutney: pound a clove or two of garlic with some salt and red chilli powder. Add a few drops of water. Now throw in some curd and churn again. There you have it! I love it with rotis/parathas.

Mint chutney: Take half a cup of mint leaves that you have thoroughly washed. Take 2 small onions. 2 green chillies. Salt to taste. Anar Dana or raw mango pieces. Half a tomato. And that’s it. Make a coarse chutney and enjoy with rotis.

I constantly remind my kids to paint, colour, cut papers, do something or the other with their hands. Just to keep the anxiety away. I’m not going to deny the fact that here is where they see their highest screen time but what to do. It’s difficult to keep them entertained. But that said, I love it when they enjoy their drawing class (yes, we found a teacher here) and how they love to play with puppies in the parks. The catch-up time with their grandparents is something we all love to see.

My daughter the other day, insisted on making popsicles. So here’s a quick recipe we tried.

Watermelon popsicles: Chop some water melon cubes, hand-blend and strain the juice. Add a tsp of sugar/jaggery/khaand, a pinch of salt and a few drops of lemon juice. Freeze it in small steel glasses. Enjoy!

How are you dealing with vacations? Do you miss your school routine?

Lastly, I want to ask you all: have you tried frying puris in pure ghee? It’s delicious! Puris made in ghee are much, much better than puris made in oil. Do try.

PS. I loved the Jalebis my FIL got from a nearby Vita store. In love with them! It has the perfect sugar, the perfect softness and the perfect crunch.

I hope there’s peace and only peace that we find in future. Do share how vacations are treating you, the recipes you have fallen for and your ways of slowing down.

It’s January, and I’m already learning my lessons; both in the kitchen and otherwise. Don’t beat yourself up. Learn to pray. Think happy thoughts (the toughest). Believe in yourself a bit more. And, yes, don’t forget to make your bed, every morning.

Moving to my food experiments, there are so many YouTube chefs that I follow; I have been wanting to try their recipes. One of them is Maangchi, who makes Korean dishes and shares the authentic recipes on her channel. I keep looking for the vegetarian part of her videos and make notes of the things that I can create in my kitchen.

My husband, the other day, said that one of his friends can get reasonable strawberries from some place. So, I asked him to get me two packs of fresh strawberries. Well, that was after I saw Maangchi’s video of strawberry jam. I was really keen on trying it; and my fridge was out of jam anyway.

The jam turned out to be yum, and since the day I made it, I haven’t been able to put the jar down. Believe me, guys, homemade jams are delicious, and way, way better than the store-bought ones that are filled with endless ingredients.

With this one, I kind of wish to make a fruit jam in every season. You can have this jam with any kind of toasted bread or even crispy roti or paratha for that matter. Spread it generously on a crispy slice of bread and enjoy the goodness of the berries.

Recipe: Homemade Strawberry Jam

Ingredients

Strawberries (2 packs – normal ones that are available in most food markets)
Sugar – 5 tbsp (or as per your wish; I wanted to use as little as I could)

Method

Now, first things first, wash the berries and remove the tip of each piece.
2. Dump them in a big, solid vessel with the sugar.
3. Put this on low to medium flame for about 15 minutes with the lid on.
4. Switch off the flame and start mashing it with your potato masher. Keep the jam aside to cool.
5. Store in a clean jar.

Note: All right, so here’s the deal with this jam. When I kept it on the flame, and closed the lid for a few minutes, I noticed that the strawberry mixture was bubbling and coming out of the vessel. Then, I shifted the mixture into a bigger vessel and put a heavy kitchen item on the lid so that the mixture doesn’t come out. Well, guess what, my stove was red with the bubbling jam mixture still escaping from the vessel. So, if you want to avoid this from happening, use a big vessel and after about 8 to 10 minutes, keep a watch on the jam; stir it to avoid the spill. Also, a lot of people use lemon juice in their jams; I didn’t, because the strawberries that I had were citrus enough.

Make this jam at home and get ready to put smiles on people’s faces. A good start for January, no?

TASTE MEMORY

Tag: breakfast recipes

Slowing down

The art of jamming