My Chef cap on : Vegetable Biryani

Well, well after making this dish - The Vegetable Biryani for about ten plus times finally liked what I made recently. Though this is not an authentic vegetable biryani this version is still a finger licker :)
Here is the colorful aromatic dish and one of the favourites among my family.

Receipe through photos follows :

Cut the vegetables of your choice, usually carrots, potatoes, beans, onions, peas and capsicum are used. You can add paneer too.
In a vessel, put oil - little more than what's required for vegetables to cook.
Add whole garam masalas - cloves, cardomom, pepper, cinnamom,cumin, red chillies and bay leaf.
Add onions, followed by the vegetables of your choice and green chillies.
Sautee this mixture till the vegetables are half done.
For briyani vegetables are cut in to medium large size.



While your vegetable mixture is getting cooked, we can start to cook rice. Basmati rice is preferred, as it's aroma and texture are what rightly required for the Biryani.
Cook the rice along with whole garam masalas - cloves, cardomom, pepper, cinnamom,cumin and bay leaf. Add little salt because you have to add salt in the vegetable mixture too.



Once the vegetable are cooked, add ginger and garlic paste and saute for 2 minutes.
Add red chilli powder, cumin powder, corriander powder and salt.
(This dish is very rich in masalas, add masalas as per your taste)
Cook the above mixture and occasionally give it good mix, so vegetables are quoted with all the masalas.
Better taste the dish now and adjust as per your taste salt and spice.



Add yogurt to this mixture, this is done almost at the end once your vegetable are cooked fully.
By now you will have a vegetables in a gravy, with oil floting on top here and there.



Add coriander and mint leaves and mix.
Love the color of these leaves on the gravy in background, the aroma is very tempting to attack this dish now and we can do so as we are almost done.



Before attacking, we have to do important step - put vegetables and rice in layers.
For layering :
Soak saffron in water or milk, chop cilantro, roast cashews and raisins in clarified butter (ghee) and finally deep fry onions which are thinly sliced. These fried onions have a sweet taste which some what balances the spiced up rice.
Take a big bowl and first put a layer of vegetable mixture and then rice followed by cashews and raisins, cilantro, fried onions and saffron this forms one layer, continue the same till your vegetables and rice are all used up.

Here is the final top view of the yummy Vegetable biryani :)



Serve with plain yogurt or raita.
For raita, chop cucumbers, onions,tomatoes and green chillies mix with yogurt. Add salt as per taste and garnish with cilantro.

Enjoy this home made easy version of Biryani.



My Brother who is better cook than me used to make this dish really yum but his version was always loaded with lot of spices, I make it with medium spices so above I didn't write in terms of quantity of ingredients to add, it depends on once taste. Try, experiment and find out the perfect receipe yourselves :)

GoodBye Cincy!

As Life goes we meet strangers,
time makes them dear and near to you,
as days pass you will have a friend for life who was stranger in past.

As life goes on only thing constant is change,
we have to move leaving behind people we love and care,
moving ahead to meet new people and make new friends.

All our life's revolves around the way I have put in above lines. Sometimes it's hard to move on and accept the change, its difficult to come out of the comfort zone one had with friends around but that's how it works, one has to get going to achieve better things in life be it professional or personal as opportunities are rare and as rightly said - Oppurtunity knocks only once.

It's easy to move on if you have right attitude, that's being positive. Hoping the new phase will be better, somewhere a house waits to be made your sweet home and strangers are out there who might become your friends for life too.

I am writing all this because we had to just move from our beloved city of Cincinnati which was home for us for four years, where I have learnt things, met wide rage people who have thought me many things and this has helped me somewhat to see life in different perspective. This blog is to mark all those memorable moments of last four years.

Pacific North West

The vacation to Pacific North west was in our to do list this year but I was bit reluctant as we had 9 month old baby to travel with us. Nevertheless my husband dragged me into this and we did it no regrets and credit goes to our baby who was so much cooperative in this week long trip were in we travelled by all means of transportation air, land and water.

Mt Rainier




We took off from Cincinnati to Seattle, 4 and half hour flight our little angel managed it smoothly. From Seattle we drove straight to Mt Rainier National Park. Stayed two night at National Park Inn, a warm cozy place. Next day it was cloudy and Mt Rainier was engulfed in huge cloud most of the day and by evening it started to come back to view and there she was clam and beautifully standing. The park has many trails which doesn't disappoint anybody, we took :
Groove of Patriachs - after a beautiful drive along Steven Canyon, we headed to the trail and got see Douglas Firs, red cedar trees a memorable walk through old growth forest.
Nisqually Vista - easiest trail in Paradise area of park and gives breath taking view of Mt Rainier which stands decorated among beautiful strech of wild flora. This was my favourite spot in park, trully a paradise on earth.
Trail of Shadows - small simple trail in Longmire area, we took this early in morning the fresh air amidst the trees in forest and green meadows gave good kick to start a long day of hiking.
Reflection lakes - lakes are spread through out the park and sight of reflections of Mt Rainier on surface of silent water is breath taking, one can sit for hours admiring the beauty of mountains, the reflections and the calm serene environment.
We wrapped our MtRainier Visit with the beautiful sunset view at Paradise area, from there we drove to Mt St Helens.

Mt St Helens



Through out the drive to Mt St Helens there are many view spots which gives you good view of the entire area, this historic place is part of Pacific Ring Of Fire. The place where most devasting volconic eruption occured in 1980, Johnston Ridge Observatory screened movies which are very informative. Weyerhaeuser has hand planted around 18 million seedlings in this area which was swept away by the eruption, as we drove through those trees we were apprecitive of this initiative as today these sappling stand about 70 feet tall filling the entire area green where once it was covered by mud ash.

Quinault Rain Forest









Lake Quinault Lodge



Next we headed to Olympic National Forest, Olympic National Park and Forest are interwined. Beautiful fresh greenery through out, entired Quinault Rain Forest first this was my first visit to rain forests hence I was excited to see the immense fresh lush green trees, plants and wide variety of fauna extensive vegetations and ecosystem live. The stay at lake Quinault lodge was comfortable, an authentic lodge facing prestine lake Quinault, calm and peaceful.

Ruby Beach - Sunset



We drove to Ruby Beach during sunset and there it was diminishing sun, cool breeze, whispering waters at shore, here and there standing proud rocks enjoying as water splashed at them now and then and sun set spread exotic mix of colourful rays which was worth to just stare and stare and we stood there admiring the beauty of nature at its best.

Hoh Rainforest







We continued our trip next day to Hoh Rainforest populated with different variety of trees and unique compared to Quinault Rain forest in vegetation, water stream in trails and greenery just lead us effortlessly in to forest.

Lake Crescent - Sunset



We reached lake Crescent that evening, a huge deep lake and water has bright blue color, mountain view with water between gives a spectacular view especially during sun set.

Mountains view at Hurricane Ridge



The last stop was Port Angeles the Hurricane Ridge, wild flowers everywhere and lots of trails which gives specatacular views of mountains in the area, got to see the Cascades ranges too. The drive to Hurricane ridge itself was very scenic and as we descended higher it was getting more and more beautiful.

Thus comes an end to the exhilarating journey of Pacific North West, biding adieu to the mountains, wild flowers, unique trees and fresh air. As we roamed thorughout this area in one place or the other we could always spot the bold and beautiful Mt Raineir as she stood there high and proud gaurding the entire region. Truly a must trip to make if you like outdoors, trekking and nature lover.

Flash Back

Few instances in my life, which have taught me a lesson:

In my school days I had a hobby of collecting proverbs, in my dairy I have over thousands of them. One of my friend had asked me, what's the use of collecting and writing them, I then had just replied its my hobby and I liked writing down the lines which meant me, which inspired me. One day I started to read my collection, few lines made me confident, few thrilled, few made me understand way of life basically they taught me to be better and from then on I always read my collection. This taught me to do what I like and without thinking whether it will be of any use or not, I look this instance as an analogy to my daily life too, do what you want and like without bothering what you get from doing it even the momentary bliss you get from doing what you like is enough.

My Grandpa always emphasized on grammar of English language, he used to throw questions to me and my cousins every time he used to say English is very important, learn the basics of language, having good command over the language is very essential to be successful in any field. As a kid we all were eager to get away form this lecture as quickly as we can but over the years those words of his kept on lingering in my mind, every time I prepared for competitive exams I understood how shallow my knowledge of English was, I always thought if one knows to speak and write that was enough but I failed to understand how important it is to know Grammar, the semantics of the language I regret it today as I am not fluent writer, words don't flow out of me nor a avid reader hope I overcome both of these, better late than never.Wish I had continued my habit of story writing.

My Mom put me into Bharatanatyam dance class, I did really like it and did a stage show too. In between we shifted our home and in the new vicinity there were lots of kids, playing took a priority over my dance classes and those classes went for toss, I discontinued them and regret it till date. As a kid sure I was distracted and we all do but loss is too much to repair. Listen to elders may not be always but they now better than us and have better perspective than us experience teaches everybody good take from this for me was remain focus and determined in what you want no matter what comes over.

I could never be friendly to person who as once spoiled the friendly space between us, any act which hurt me by the other person was enough reason for me to distance me from that person. But lately, I have realized that giving other chance to the relation is really worth it. No body is perfect we all make mistakes accepting a person in spite of his or her negatives is how life goes on, its is how we happen to make few friends for life time that's the reality. One way if you think, it gives a better bonding that way because you know the true nature of person and it won't hurt you as you are well aware of other person's attitude. If you like or love a person accept them as they are, it's not true only in case of life partners it does mean to any kind of relationship in life.