My Scrawls

We all enjoy reading forwards that we receive. Even I take immense pleasure in devouring the jokes as they are real stress busters. Off late most of the jokes that I receive would target “Sardarjis”. Honestly speaking though I enjoy the wit or humor part of the joke, I do not like to offend a particular sect.

How did the sardars fall prey to these jokes? How do they take the jokes targeted them?

We all are aware of the famous “BARAH BAJ GAYE”, a remark that intends to imply that sardars lose their sense at twelve O’ clock. Here is the story behind this remark that I found in Wikipedia.

During the Mughal rule in India, non Muslims were generally humiliated and mistreated. Nadir Shah raided Delhi and was in the process of carrying away treasures and nearly 2200 Hindu women along with him. The news spread like a fire and is believed to have been heard by Sardar Jassa Singh who was the Commander of the Sikh army at that time. He attacked Nadir Shah’s caravan the same midnight and rescued the Hindu women.

This happened again and again. The Sikh army attacked the looters at or around midnight 12 O’clock or noon 12 O’clock and rescued our treasures. The looters concluded that it is very difficult to fight against Sikhs at 12 O’clock, as the Sikhs get some Extra Power at that time. The attacks were so ferocious, that the Muslims began dreading the expected attacks of the Sikhs at 12 O’clock, midnight or noon. It was these people, who are believed to have coined the phrase that “Sardaron ke barah baj gaye”, which it seems might have evolved into the snide remarks purporting that Sikhs lose their senses at twelve O’clock.

Here is the story behind the origin of sardar jokes that I received as a forward.

The British army, during their rule in India, was stunned to see the valiance of the sardars. It is they who started cracking jokes intended on sardars so as to humiliate the sardars!

Well I am not sure about the veracity of these stories! Many joke books containing sardar jokes have been compiled by Sikh authors themselves (Khushwant Singh as an example) Here is a cute joke (Person A and B instead of Santa and Banta )

Two person were in conversation on the beach
A: Ise ‘beach’ kyo kaheete hai?
B: Tumhe nahe pata?
A: Nahe pata.
B: Woh to Aasmaan aur Zameen ke beech mein hai esliye eesai beach kahete hai.

I have few sardar friends and have seen them taking these jokes on a lighter note. Leave alone sardars now-a-days we do see jokes on “Mallu”, “Bihari”, “Madrasi” etc! My belief is not to hurt anyone…so I have stopped forwarding jokes offending any particular sect. What about you?

General Barah baj gaye, Sardar jokes, Sardarji jokes

What Zucchini is all about? Well here is the report of the extensive research that I did on zucchini Special thanks to Deepa vaini! But for her I wouldn’t have explored so much about this veggie.

Zucchini resembles cucumber. They are a part squash or pumpkin family. There are many varieties of Zucchini. Their skin color could be dark green or light green or even yellow! The flowers of the zucchini plant are also edible and used for preparing salads.

Zucchini , Credit: http://hamptons.guestofaguest.com

Zucchini, Credits: www.bonappetit.com

Zucchini has very low calorie content and has about 95% water. Zucchini is a rich source of Vitamin C and also has good amounts of Vitamin A and Potassium.

I bought dark green Zucchini. I am used to the fact that any veggie that I buy should be rich in its native color. The same fact applies to Zucchini too. Before buying make sure that the Zucchini is very firm and dark in color. Do not select the ones that are soft. Darker the zucchini, higher its nutritional content.

I had peeled the Zucchini… but it’s good to use it with the rind since most of the nutrients are in the skin

Though they resemble cucumber, I couldn’t relate zucchini with cucumber in terms of the taste. Zucchini has a bland taste/flavor! Zucchini curry tasted (somewhat) like Snake Gourd curry (podalangai in Tamil). Zucchini tastes heavenly when it is transformed as “Zucchini curry” or “Zucchini bread”, “Zucchini muffin” etc…

Zucchini can be used in salads, stir-fried, grilled or baked. Here is the Zucchini Curry that I had prepared.

Few interesting info:

Zucchini is botanically a fruit but treated as vegetable! Some say that it is the swollen ovary of zucchini flower.

Anu's Kitchen

Carrot, Beans, Okra, Egg plant, Tindora… ah… boring to repeat the same! Why not try out a new veggie? I shop groceries at an international fresh market. In the vegetable aisle, there are so many veggies that I haven’t tasted in my life! The name “Zucchini” amused me and I bought it too.

I started surfing the net so as to find out what could be prepared with this. Here is the dish that my neighbor suggested me. All she mentioned was to shallow fry zucchini with onions and bake it. I modified, giving it a slight Indian touch, by adding garam masala

Zucchini Curry

Ingredients:

Zucchini
Onion
Tomato
Curry leaves
Pepper powder
Garam masala
Salt to taste

Preparation Method:

• Peel and chop the zucchini.
• Heat oil and do seasoning with mustard, cumin seeds and curry leaves.
• Saute onion till it turns brownish. Toss it with zucchini and tomatoes.
• Add salt, pepper powder and garam masala.
• After tempering, bake the mixture at 350C for 30 minutes.
• Zucchini curry is ready!

This zucchini poriyal - curry - bhaji can be had with Rice, Chappathi or Dosa. We used zucchini curry to prepare bread sandwich. It tasted yummy!!

PS: Instead of baking the curry, we can deep fry the zucchini (as we do Okra / Potato fry)

Anu's Kitchen Zucchini bhaji, Zucchini curry

Grand Canyon National Park | Grand Canyon West Rim - Skywalk | Grand Canyon South Rim - A Short Tour

We visited the West Rim and the South Rim of the great Grand Canyon, in the month of November 2008. Fall had just started there. We admired the colorful trees in the Grand Canyon National Park. Grand Canyon is a steep canyon carved by the Colorado River. Grand Canyon National Park is situated in Arizona.

We started our journey from Las Vegas (Nevada) towards the West Rim of the Grand Canyon. All we could see in our journey was mountains and vast desert!!!!

The west edge of the canyon is owned by “Hualapai indian tribes“. It’s noted that the popularity of the Grand Canyon West has been increased only after the opening of the Grand Canyon Skywalk. Grand Canyon Skywalk was opened to the public on March 28th 2007.

The Skywalk at the Grand Canyon West is about 2 hours drive from Las Vegas. From the main highway we need to take a poorly paved road to reach the Skywalk. This is the road to reach the Skywalk at West Rim of Grand Canyon…

Road to the Grand Canyon West Rim - Skywalk

Road to the Grand Canyon West Rim - Skywalk

America vil epadi oru roada? Yes! We had to drive through this worst road for a stretch of 14 miles. Still we enjoyed the drive

The Skywalk is about 4000 ft above the floor of the Canyon. How would you feel on walking through a glass bridge jutting 70 feet into the canyon and 4000 ft above the floor of the canyon? Remember this is a glass bridge! You are standing on transparent surface thousands of feet above the Colorado River!!

If you are not afraid of heights (not acrophobic) and bold enough to walk thru the glass bridge and enjoy the scenic beauty below you… then this is the right place for you to have fun! For safety reasons people with heart condition are not allowed to take a walk here. We are not allowed to take snaps on the Skywalk

Oru thick glass mela nadakanum… yetho andharathula nadakara madhiri erukum… adhan skywalk nu peru vechierukanga.

After experiencing a thrilling “Sky Walk” adventure in the West Rim of the Grand Canyon, we reached the South Rim to enjoy the scenic beauty of this steep canyon.

There are many view points in the south rim of the Grand Canyon. We explored few of them. Mather point, Yaki point, Yavapai point, Hopi point, Maricopa point and Mohave point are the observation points that we checked out. At the Yavapai point, there is the Yavapai Observation Station, which sells books and displays information about the geology & history of the Grand Canyon. The Yavapai and Yaki points are considered to be the best viewpoints in the Grand Canyon South Rim!

South Rim of the Grand Canyon is open through out the year as opposed to the North Rim, which remains closed during the winter months. North Rim is at a greater elevation than the South Rim; hence the temperature here is much lower than the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. It’s noted that most of the visitors come to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.

The sky was clear and the weather was pleasant. Gentle breeze swept across us as we started to explore the Grand Canyon. It was amazing to see the splendid beauty of this vast canyon. Our eyes turned voracious as they feasted on this breathtaking scenic beauty.

Here are the few snaps that we clicked at the viewpoints in the South Rim.

A view of Grand Canyon South Rim

Near Yavapai viewpoint

A view of the Grand Canyon South Rim

Are you planning to take a tour to the Grand Canyon? Read this before you start planning. We visited the Grand Canyon with our parents. All of us enjoyed this memorable tour

Travel Grand Canyon Rough roads, Grand Canyon South Rim, Grand Canyon trip details, Grand Canyon West Rim, Yavapai point views

Rava Dosa is one of my favorite dishes. Unlike ordinary dosa, this recipe does not need much time for fermentation. For making ordinary dosa, we need to the leave the batter for about 6-7 hours to ferment. For Rava Dosa, the ingredients need to be soaked for just 1 hour. This is apt for the jiffy tiffin making.

I have used poha (aval) in preparing the Rava Dosa. I powdered the poha in the mixer. We can also use wheat/maida instead of poha.

Rava Dosa with coriander chutney

Rava Dosa with coriander chutney

Ingredients:

Rice flour: 1 cup
Poha (nicely powdered): 1 cup
Rava: 2 cups
Onion
Green chillies
Curry leaves

Preparation Method:

1. Mix the rava, rice flour and poha with buttermilk and water.
2. Make a thin batter adding enough water.
3. Finely chop the onions and green chillies and add it to the batter.
4. Heat the oil and do seasoning with mustard, cumin seeds and curry leaves and add it to
        the batter.
5. Leave the batter for about 1 hour and then start making the dosa.

Tips and Tricks:

• Since Rava Dosa cannot be spread on the tawa (pan) like the ordinary dosa, we need to
     pour the batter starting from outside and then finishing off in the middle.
• Cook the Rava Dosa in high flame for 1-2 minutes. After turning the Rava Dosa, change it
     to low flame.
• By adjusting the flame accordingly, the Rava Dosa comes out without tearing off.
• As mentioned above, the batter should be thin enough so that it can be very easily
     poured on the tawa.

Rava Dosa should be served hot with chutney or sambar.

Anu's Kitchen rava dosa, Rava Dosa recipe, Tips for making crispy rava dosa