We all know that brown rice is healthier than it's white version. But what I didn't know was that the milling and polishing process that rice goes through to whiten it strips away 90% of vitamin E, 80% of vitamin B1 and magnesium, and significant amount of iron, B3, B6 and fibre. Rice is fattening, and as long as I am eating it, it would be some consolation if I could get some nutritional benefits from it. As per the BBc GoodFood magazine, brown rice is packed with nutrients since it retains its bran layer and its germ and it is linked with lower risks of heart disease, diabetes, obesity and even certain types of cancer.
In India, marriage is the most important thing that happens in your life. Infact, marriage is your life. So, when you reach marriageable age, your family and friends start searching for a partner for you, irrespective of whether you drop subtle and obvious hints that you have already found the partner of your dreams or that you are secretly married with two kids or that you are gay and unable to perform, eh perform normal wifely/husbandly duties. Unless you are really lucky, you end up getting married.
With the significance marriage has in our society, not only do you end up getting married but you also receive an invitation to a wedding every other week. What is the course of action to be followed once you get your invite?
Summer vacation is about to end and Qya has successfully managed to empty his brain of the "A,B,C's", "1,2,3's" and everything else he learnt in the past year. With Ben 10, followed by Tom & Jerry, followed by Oggy and the Cockroaches, followed by numerous other aliens and creepy crawlies that walk and talk and jump and do the unimaginable, who had time for something as mundane as "A B C"? To save my home from being blown up, I sent him to "summer camp" during the vacation. I am not entirely sure what Qya did there, but seeing that he was very happy about it, I believe he was unleashed on the school grounds with his friends and allowed to perform gymnastics and somersaults, and perhaps allowed to fly around in an iron man suit (since that's what he tries to do at home). In all fairness, the summer vacation was also a period of learning and discovery - of a different kind - which were the best hiding places in the house? How hard could you throw a ball at the window without actually breaking it? How loudly could you screech without hurting your throat and the entire world's hearing ability? What was the easiest way to make Mama go mad?
I have tried making naan several times using recipes from the internet, cookbooks and cookery shows. But all my attempts flopped like SRK's Ra One and I always ended up with tough, rubbery or partially cooked flour balls. Rolled up and thrown from my Bangalore home, I am sure they would've bounced all the way to the Depsang valley in Ladakh and pulled down the Chinese tents that so bothered our leaders and put our media into a frenzy. And we could have somehow blamed the Pakistanis for it. (The two birds with a single stone thing). But as a peace loving person, I want my naans to be just naans and decided to give it one last try.
Verdict: Finally, these naans turned out to be good. They were soft, and blistered on top and made the perfect bread for curries and gravies.
Hats off to Kundan Lal Gujral who decided to experiment with the food he served in his restaurant in pre independence Peshawer. He ended up cooking chicken in a hot tandoor or clay oven which was normally used to make bread at the time. (Now that is the kind of "innovation", "pro-activeness" and "out of the box thinking" that you always hear about in whatever organization you work for.) So good was the resulting Tandoori chicken that Nehru, who got taste of it, decided that it must be served to visiting foreign dignitaries at banquets. Today it is a staple on menus around the world.
