To welcome the ‘cold wave’ in Bengaluru, i made my tradtional Kumaoni staple for lunch today. This is what gets us fired up on a cold/snowy afternoon in the hills. Let me describe the dishes in detail
Top left is Ras. A flavourful broth made of whole legumes and cloves slow-cooked in an iron wok (which gives it the distinctive black colour) for 5 hours. Then tempered with garlic, ginger, chillies in 4 dollops of ghee
Next is Palak ka Kaapa. Spinach lightly fried in red chillies sputtering in mustard oil. A little turmeric and salt does the trick. It’s finished off with a spoonful of wheat flour to thicken it
A simple salad of radish, onions and tomatoes slathered with stone ground coriander and green chilli. Sprinkle some salt and a dash of lime and you’re done.
Now comes the fun part. Bhaang ki chutney. Hemp seeds roasted and ground with chillies, coriander, lime and salt. The heat From the roasting and The lime take the edge off.
All this is had with rice or roti. I went with rice. And yes, this is not the way to it. Not in fancy dishes. Just dunk all the dishes in a steel plate, mix them with your hand and slurp away. And remember, deep sleep for next 2 hours is guaranteed
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A short thread on my days with diabetes after surviving Covid:
I got admitted to hospital in May 2021 with a major cytokine storm brewing inside me. The doc had put me on steroids. In hospital, I was on IV 16 hrs/day. My fasting glucose levels reached 400.
I returned home after 5 days in hospital and continued to be on steroids for the next month. My HbA1C levels were 9.8 and I was put on medication, with advice that I should take insulin if the levels breached 200.
I was determined to not take medicines for the rest of my life.
So when my quarantine got over (after around 45 days of contracting covid), I started walking 30 minutes a day, twice a day. Then, I started climbing -- up and down a flight of stairs five times at first. And then increased it gradually.
So I took my car out on the NH for the first after buying a Fastag for her in January 2020. A short thread on what happened now that one has to pay double fee if your Fastag doesnt work. 1. I had paid 400 bucks for it. There are four tolls on Blr-Hassan Highway.
Each charges Rs 45 for a one-way journey so i thought I had enough balance to get me to Sringeri (no tolls after crossing Hassan). 2. First toll was a breeze. I was through in 5 seconds. 3. In second toll plaza, the boom barrier wouldn’t lift. The attendant scanned my card.
4. It has been blacklisted, he said. So what’s the way out? He showed me the recharge counter around 50 metres out. But i cpuldn’t go and recharge. I had to pay double the fee to get out of the toll plaza.
The Himalayan traveller’s lunch: If you were fortunate enough to have travelled through the Kumaon hills some 16-17 years back, this is the standard fare you would have found at every bend. (But not anymore; tourists who demand Maggi and omelettes have ruined local food joints)
1. Aloo ke gutke: Boiled, diced potatoes are fried in mustard oil. A wet masala of coriander, chilles, salt and turmeric is added. Garnished with green coriander.
2. Gauhat ki daal: Eateries serve boiled bengal gram but I wanted a little more zing so i cooked this simple daal. Horsegram boiled and tempered with garlic, cumin and ghee 3. Salad with green chutney
When I hear of a plane crash or pilots bailing out, my mind races back to that day in Dec 1999. This is a slightly long, emotional post, so please bear with me. I write this because I can’t even imagine what Wing Commander Sahil Gandhi’s family must be going through right now.
My mom called me while I was at work. Her voice was trembling. 'Pankaj's plane has crashed,' she said even as I tried to understand who or what she was talking about. (Flight Lt. Pankaj Joshi was my cousin; he was a fighter pilot).
He was posted in Chandigarh at that time and was flying a MiG-21. 'We have to rush to Chandigarh,' my mom said. 'Did he eject? Did he eject?' I kept asking her. She said she had been told he was OK but we had to rush to Chandigarh to take care of him.