Halwa Poori and what not.......

Pooris come with many yummy combinations. In some states in India it is served with Geela/ rasdar Potato bahji with tomatoes and peas in, some places they serve it with semi dry potato bahji like in West Bengal or they are even crazy about potato Posto and Allo dhum and they serve poories or luchies, as t is known in Bengal, with these combinations. Below is the picture of Allo Posto a poppy seed paste slightly dry gravy curry of Bengal

Come to Maharashtra, you would find people loving it with different kinds of Srikands, mango, cardamom, saffron, pista you name it you have it. (No  pictures)

Come down south, in states like Karnataka, you would find it being served with Pallaya, a kind of mild kurma kind of concoction, and also it would come with some green mint or coriander chutney as extras. (I don't have pictures of the Karnataka style Poori Bhaji)

 Further down, when you come to Tamil Nadu, you would find the best Poori Masala, the aroma wafting through the packet (if you plan to pack it) which is made of Banana leaves, oofh, you won't even have the patience to wait to get home to gobble it down, it is that yummy!
The masala is nothing but the potato masala filling  of Masala Dosa, if you ask me which is best combination, I would give Poori Masala of TN the number 1 position.
Our very own Poori Masala of TN

Okay , now there  is another version also, which Halwa Poori, which is usually made in North Indian for some Pooja, and this is given as a prasad to young girls. This combo too is quite yummy.
It is not just poori and halwa it is also comes along with some yummy dry channa baaji.
I read this somewhere in FB, "Nani ke ghar jayenge! Halwa poori khayenge!! Mote hoke aayenge!!!", and immediately I was reminded of the days long ago, when I was young, our North Indian neighbors used to call me for their special pooja and serve me and my other friends this as prasad.
Sadly, now neither do I have any Nannies (grandmas) alive, nor can I afford to be more moti, but since I had to relive those moments from the past, I decided to make this combo today.
Of course, past is past one cannot recreate it however much we try, but still......no harm in trying to recreate as much as possible.

The Punjabi's also love the combo of  Kadhu Wala Poori, (yellow pumpkin) here is the picture:

And their favorite is also Channa with Poori:

BTW all these dishes were made by me sometime or other.

Seeing all these pictures I am sure many of you are feeling really crazy with hunger, my choice as stated above  is Poori Masala anytime, what is your choice?

Mother's Day Special!

Today, again, I am left with only memories of my mother. It has been almost 24 years since my mother passed away. Last year in December, I lost my father too at the ripe age of 94. Two lovely people, who loved us unconditionally. If you have been following my blogs I am sure you must have read many stories and anecdotes, about my mother and my father. I don't want to repeat myself again. Memories are always there, but during such special days, they come out as if some dam has been broken, and they just tumble out relentlessly.

Keeping my thoughts to myself, I just share this with all of you











My mother wore this beautiful saree for my wedding. It was actually a nine yard saree. She always loved green and red combination, she even had a beautiful green and red Mysore silk saree too. After she passed away, each of us took a few sarees of hers. I took this saree as I knew she loved it very much. It had worn out in some places so I made it into a 6 yards saree.

How I wish there was a clear picture of this saree worn by her during my wedding.

Whenever I wear it, I feel as if I am enveloped with her extraordinary love for life, and her zest of enjoying every bit of life. She didn't have great desires, only small ones, and little things were enough to make her feel very happy and blessed. Despite going through many ups and downs in her life she was never grumpy, for her cheerful nature and her beautiful smile never left her.

Mother's Day Special!!

Some Good Hindi, and Tamil Short Films

Recently while I was watching some cookery shows in Youtube, I happened to accidently  come  across, some really interesting Short stories filmed with some known as well as some unknown actors, with good directors, with the duration of each film being from 8 mins. to 15 to 30 mins.
Some were from well known authors too. I have become totally hooked to these short, very profound movies.
I really missed the old Hindi serials which were aired in DD years ago.  In those days they didn't have such crazy Saas Bahu  serials with every character being very wicked and scheming, with everybody wearing designer blouses and sarees with heavy costume jewellery etc.
The stories used to be very simple and with lot of food for thought, we would be led to ponder over the story in depth for a long time. Mostly they were stories written by famous Hindi novelists. The actors were dressed in a simple manner, and they also acted very well. Some short stories of Tolstoy and other Russian authors too were made into short films. They were so good, intellectually stimulating.
 Then came the invasion of our television,  with serials made by the likes of people like Ekta Kapoor, and others followed her style : they were called Soap Operas likes the ones that had people hooked to them all over America.  I too was a big fan of Bold and The Beautiful and Santa Barbara.The B&B  is still running and Santa Barbara ended years ago. They had stopped airing B&B, and though one can still watch it in the net,  it has become very boring, with the actors becoming quite old, and their children continuing in the same path.
My TV watching has been cut down to just some travel, cookery, and some repeats of comedy serials like, Friends, Seinfeld, and Frasier. Somehow I never get tired of watching these comedies, and now they have stopped Frasier, and Seinfeld, really sad.  

Coming back to the present, I was thrilled to see some sensible type of films that didn't all of your time: it was such a relief!
I am posting some links to two short film which  I am sure you all would really love watch: they are short Hindi movie, but you can watch also many Tamil, Malayalam, Bengali, Telugu movies too, most of them come with sub-titles in English. All of them are award winning short movies.

Here are the links for you:https://youtu.be/ZmVPCnxN-1A

https://youtu.be/N1R6Fyf5V6M

Everyday, I watch a few of them in all languages, and I am very happy to share them with all of you.