#notarecipepost

We had heard that this time around the winters will be harsh. Till December it kind of looked like every other year. Expected cold at night and warm in the day. But from the new year onward Pune seems to be under a spell of massive cold. The last couple of days has been exceptionally cold. Super windy throughout the day and the air feely icy. Yesterday around noon suddenly there was a weird kind of haze all around. It looked as if a layer of fog was spreading. But fog at 12 PM seemed a bit out of the place. I thought it might be smoke but then it remained the same way all through the rest of the day. So that possibility was also ruled out.

It was only from today morning's paper I found out that Pune was hit by a dust storm. In one of the rare instances, the city has been shrouded by a strong dust storm that originated from Saudi Arabia and the air quality index became poorer than that of Delhi. I remember something similar happened last or last to last year when there was a dust storm in Rajasthan and it carried all the way to Maharashtra. 

It feels so cold now a days that it seems as if Christmas has come back and it might start snowing anytime! I am not kidding you. When I stepped out in the balcony today morning, I felt frozen instantly. The air was so cold it reminded me of when I was in Omaha and it was nearly 0 degrees outside, I felt shivers even after being inside a puffy long coat.  We were staying in Marriot Omaha for a business trip and I had to step out to get some fruits and bread from the nearby Whole Food market. It was unbelievably cold outside, I felt my nose becoming numb and face turning red in the short 5 minutes walk to the store. That night we had snow. Thus when I felt the same kind of numbing feeling on my nose in the morning I jokingly told this friend of mine, that if it starts snowing tomorrow I am not going to be surprised. Well the surface temperature of Venna lake (Mahabaleshwar) did almost reach 2 degrees last week after all!

With the omicron and the cold wave weekend plans now mostly look like being at home and binge watching some good movie. This time it was Happy Potter Reunion. I had been meaning to see it from the time it was promoed, watchlisted it in January first week and finally could make it this weekend. The teenage starcast of the movie looked so different from the last time we saw them in the 7th part - more matured and elegant now. The special traces the franchise’s journey through all eight movies, making callbacks to particularly beloved movie moments and staging recreations of elaborate sets for the actors to marvel at together as they reminisce. 

But half way through I got so nostalgic that I switched to watching the actual movies to to corelate to what the actors were reminiscing about. And I have noticed a peculiarity of the Harry Potter movies - your perspective & understanding of some of the events happening in the movie transforms when you watch it at various ages. But I discovered no matter what the given age is, I always love to watch the series and get glued to it. And out of the 8 parts I think the first two part will always remain as my favorites as these two movies make me feel the childlike innocence and wonder associated with a fairytale wizarding world.

With the grand feasts going on in the movie, I was super tempted and needed something to satiate my cravings. So I got these gorgeously sinful red velvet pastries delivered from Sweet Truth. Don't laugh but this was the very first time I tasted a red velvet pastry/cake and I was blown away! I don't know why I never tried red velvet earlier but I should have. I have had the chocolate pastries form the same brand earlier but this particular pastry was really really good. And they were so pretty that I could stop myself from shooting them with a Christmas themed setup. Its shot in artificial light in the evening and I loved the way it turned out post edit. The cold winter evening turned into a magical one with Chamber of Secrets and the slice of Red velvet pastry. Enjoy the pictures.

18 January 2022

We have entered a brand new year and the year didn't start quite as anticipated. It was a rather muted beginning and enough to pull many of my plans upside down. If you don't want to hear a long monolog then just scroll down to the recipe.

Often in life we feel let down by people. It maybe your husband, your partner, your family, your friends or even your colleagues. If they are someone we deeply care about then the hurt is more acute. "Why did they do this to us when we really care for them", "I wouldn't have done this to them if I was in their place" , "they are so insensitive to our feelings", "they only care about themselves" - all these are the normal questions that crop up in our minds immediately. Even if we agree to an extent we might also have contributed to the situation, still we want to blame the other person a little more. Because we expect a lot from close people. And our expectation from others become the benchmark of our happiness or sadness. If we just pause for a moment and think, so they failed to meet our expectation but was I myself able to meet my expectation? Instead of what they didn't do for me, we need to ask what did I do for myself? I let myself feel sorry, I let myself become weak and I let myself wallow in sorrow because someone else did something. Maybe because we never set expectations from ourselves at all, which kind of feels like a lack of self love. Others are not obligated to value us, but we are. Unless we see value in ourselves how can someone else see it? Though I cannot call it like a new year resolution, because I never made those but its kind of a thing I need to work on this year - setting my expectations straight for myself. I need to become a stronger individual and become valuable to myself. I need to ask myself everyday how can I meet my expectations than waiting for someone else to fill in.  Would I be able to create a better version of myself? That's a wait and watch. 

So how do I start this self expectation journey? The first thing I did was changing my skincare routine. Sounds vain? I would say otherwise. The first step all this expectation journey was making myself feel good from outside and inside. I gifted myself a bunch of paraben free, cruelty free, vegan and clean skincare products and chalked out a minimalist regimen for myself. 18 days into the year and touchwood I have kept up with the schedule so far. It is giving me results as well. And I am happy with the line of products I had chosen for myself. Let me know if anyone of you is interested to know them and I can give a list of the products I found beneficial for my sensitive skin.  Also let me tell you one nice tip that I am following, give a 5 minute massage to your face post washing it. You can use your fingertips or a massager. This helps depuffing your face, drains the lymph nodes and helps boost collagen. This thing really does wonders. The next thing was to feel good from inside as well. Now I start my day with a glass of warm water, honey and lime juice. I also have a raw garlic pod (this is still a very loathsome job for me so still not able to put into a regular habit) on an off in an empty tummy. Garlic is a very powerful little thing which boosts your immunity and helps the body in more than one ways. Just look it up on Google and you will know. I have also started eating optimal meals - doesn't mean I am not at times ordering in, but turning towards more leaner and balanced meals. Like you know instead of trying of diet fads I am sticking to food that we have eaten while growing up and never faced any health problems like obesity etc. On weekends I am trying out combinations of protein, carbs and minerals for a wholesome meal. I am not a dietician myself so just trying to eat in regulated portions while keeping the menu interesting. I am now incorporating a little more time into yoga in my morning exercise routine. Especially breathing exercises. I am also making sure the screen time is limited before sleep hours. I have pulled out all the old books from my bookshelf and reading is the last thing I do before sleeping. And the final thing I am doing for myself is letting me be more creative. I have started working on an unfinished novel, cutting down on all the hyper activities on Instagram (contests, collaborations etc.), watching travel videos and good movies to get more ideas on writing. Apart from personal there are some professional goals as well but I wouldn't bore you with them. So that's how my new year started on a nutshell. Fingers crossed to keep this going till the end of the year.

I had ended the last year on a nice note with finally being able to travel to Meghalaya with family. That blog is coming out in snail's pace but yeah it will come. So in the background of the photos you see a nice forest, thats the photobook I made and printed from Vistaprint. I had discovered this gem of a website 6-7 years ago and from then on it has become my one and only destination for getting high definition albums done for my travels. This time I was so smitten by the Meghalaya photos post edit that I went ahead an ordered an XL sized album form their website. I cant tell you how incredible the album looks. Its like a coffeebook print and all the memories just come alive the moment I turn those pages. The one in the background is from Shnongpdeng.

Now coming to the recipe for today - Motorshutir Pur or Green peas stuffing. Winters in Bengal are synonymous to nolen gur and koraishutir kochuri (Peas kachori). Fresh tender peas fill the market scene and it is hard to resist their temptation. We make a nice filling from the fresh peas, gently stuff it inside dough balls and roll it out to make stuffed flatbreads or pooris. Last year it was my mom who made amazing pea stuffed flatbreads for me, but this year the onus fell upon me if I wanted to enjoy the peas. There are several techniques for Motorshutir pur, the one that I made is a recipe followed in our family from generations.  Its an easy recipe and even beginners or bachelors can try it out. 

One might scoff at me saying who gives a separate recipe for Motorshutir pur? Where is the Kochuri part of it? But in my defense I must say that after tasting many kochuris and pea stuffings I have come to the conclusion that if you don't get the pur right, then the parathas or pooris that you make with the stuffing doesn't taste nice. So you can say technically the stuffing or the pur is the core of a good kochuri or stuffed paratha. And hence a separate post to give it its necessary respect. 

Also this pur is so versatile that you can make this into small pakoras, use it as a sandwich filling or just eat it as is ( I really do that), its simple and delicious. 

I used this filling to make peas paratha and that recipe will come in my next blog.

Meanwhile you can checkout some other Bengali snacks :

• Motorshuti diye chide bhaja
• Vegetable Chop
• Kachki macher bora
• Dim Toast | Dim Pauruti
• Macher dimer bora

Equipment:

• Pan
• Mixer grinder

Procedure: 

1.  Shell the peas. Wash and drain the water and let them air dry for sometime.

Note: This recipe is best made with winter peas when they are still tender and sweet. I got about 1 cup of shelled peas from 1/2 kg peas with shell.

2. Now take a mixer grinder jar and add the raw peas, green chili and ginger.  Blitz this to a fine paste, scraping sides and adding a little water, as needed. You might need to pulse a few times until you have a nice and smooth paste.

Tip: Many people suggest boiling the peas before making a paste, but in our home the paste is made from raw peas. The texture and taste is much better this way.

3. Add salt and blitz it one more time to mix it well.

Note: You can add the salt while cooking this mixture also, whatever you are comfortable with.

4. Now heat some refined oil in a pan. When the oil is hot temper it with whole Jeera and Hing.

5. When the spices are fragrant add the pea mixture. Add sugar and cook on medium flame stirring occasionally until the mixture dries out and gathers around the spatula in a lump. This will take about 5 minutes.

Let the mixture cool before you use this stuffing for pooris or parathas. 

Let me tell you the mixture is so delicious that at times I have it as is, as its hard to resist!