Chef ?????ban sakti thi...ya hun abhi bhi

My love for cooking is not very old compared to my undying love for having good food...I discovered I love to cook and cook well when I was in college...5 yrs of hostel life taught me quite many tricks and ways to make food taste better...like how to make a simple do minute maggi taste like...waooooo....how to make real yummy fried rice out of the hostel rice...fish curry from the fried fish served once a week. I discovered my talent best when I was in charge of food committee at "Mosiac" our annual Northeast festival at TISS....during my post-grads ....yaar khana bahut sahi banaya tha, my fren "A" who is a hardcore cook and me took full control of DH kitchen and what yummy dishes we cooked...kobi singju....nga toina thongba...hei (fruit) thongba, mairen champhut etc etc aur bahut kuch banaya tha abhi yaad nahi hai.
Kabhi kabhi lagta hai mujhe chef banna chahyeh tha...well I had the option of becoming a chef...after +2 I got through the hotel managment school ....but delhi and MH seemed more hype & cooler during that time...not that I regret joining MH ...I loved every moment of it....wat fun we had...chef toh mei abhi bhi ban sakti hun.....lekin ghar mei...lol

Recipe-Mixed vegetable

Mixed vegetable my style:

The above pics. looks very yummy hai nah...lekin jitna yummy dikhta hai usse bhi jyada yummy hai yeh...sachi...my boss feels I am the Manipuri version of Kylie Kwong...I think she was just trying to be good to me....but I was mighty happy with the comments...meh and Kylie Kwong waooo...mera sapna pura hogaya...hehehe jokes apart this mixed vegetable is tried, tested, liked by all my frens/family and now my boss...so here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
-One medium size Phul gobi (kobi lei in Meiteilon)
-2 Gajjar
-200 gms peas.
-2 medium size potato.
-2 tomato's.
- 100 gm French beans.
-4-5 green chillies
-Coriander leaves.
-3-4 Spring onion.
-one small size garlic.
-1 medium size onion
-1/2 tbsp Turmeric.
-Red chillies powder for color.
-Salt to taste
Method:
-Chop all the veggies and remember to make big pieces of Phul Gobi.
-Take a non stick pan, add 1& 1/2 tbsp refined oil.
-Add the chopped garlic and fry till it turns light brown.
-Add the chopped onion and fry for 3-4 mins.
-Add the slit and chopped green chillies.
-Add the potato cubes and stir it well. Cover the pan and cook on medium flame for 8-10 mins.
-Add the peas,gajar,chopped tomato & french beans, stir it well and cover the pan.
-Add the cauliflower after 5 mins.
-After cooking for 10-15 mins add turmeric and chillie powder.
-Cook till the potato is done.
-Add salt and garnish with chopped coriander leaves.
Serve hot with chapati/rice.

Recipe-Cha wai and hawai maton singju

Sinju is another manipuri mei world famous item, its a snack for us. Sinju is more like a vegetable salad made from mixing of various vegetables indigenious to Manipur like tumnikhok, compret,haibi mana and other vegetables. The pic. above is another type of sinju made from hawai maton (pea leaves), cha wai (a typr of rajma), tumnikhok, spring onion, green chillies, ngari (fermented fish) and salt of course. Aisa hai ke yeh sinju jo khayega woh eek baar khaoge toh khate reh jaoge wali baat toh jaruur hogi...here's the recipe

Ingredients:

-200 gms Hawai maton

-200 gms cha wai.

-Four to five Spring onion

-One medium size onion

-Five to six Tumnikhok

-12-15 green chilies

-Ngari

-Salt to taste

Method

-Wash the cha wai and pressure cook it with the chillies(if the cha wai is fresh only 2 whistle and if its the dried and socked one then 4-5 whistle).

-Chop the spring onion, tumnikhok and onion.

-Steam the ngari and mix it with the green chillies and salt. Make a fine paste.

-Mix the paste with the chopped spring onion, tumnikhok, onion and hawai maton.

-Add the cha wai at the end and mix it together. Bingo the mouth watering sinju is ready...enjoy.

Recipe-Nga thumyakpi and maroi nakuppi kanghou

In Meitei cusine side dishes plays an important part, every main course is has a side dish like a morok-metpa (chilli chutney) with vegetable kangsoi (a type of vegetable stew), kanghou, bora (pakora), singju (a type of vegetable salad). Maroi nakuppi and nga thumyakppi kanghou is a a yummy side dish and the two items makes it a lethal combo, I don't know how meitei's acquired the taste of nga thum yakpi (sun dried salted sea fish) and we do have some really yummy items made using nga thumyakpi and here's one of the yummiest.

Ingredients:

1. Three medium size nga thumyakpi.

2. Abt 8-10 Green chillies.

3.250 gms maroi nakuppi.

4.1/2 tbsp turmeric.

Method:

-Sock the nga thumyakpi in water for 30 mins, take the skin out ,clean it and cut into medium size.

-Slit and chop the green chillies.

-Chop the maroi nakuppi.

-On a non stick frying pan add 1 tbsp refined oil and fry the nga thumyakpi for abt 10 mins on medium flame.

-Add the green chillies and fry for 2-3 mins.

-Add lil turmeric and fry for 1-2 mins.

-Add the chopped maroi nakuppi and fry for another8-10 mins.(Maroi nakuppi takes very little time to get cooked) add salt to taste....the yummy kanghou is ready.

A wedding to remember....

A grand Meitei wedding, the best part about the wedding or the highlight is the bride's attire, the potloi, the jewellery, the mandap, the rituals followed are all so grand and done so beautifully that one feels in love with that. The above pics. are of my frens wedding, I flew esp. to attend the wedding and I am glad I was a part of the grand wedding....the first Manipuri wedding I attended from begning to end..., I've never attended any of my other school frens wedding and this one I wanted to attend. The songs sung were very modern I have heard all kirten type earlier,now people sing all krishna and radha songs and the funny part was the manipuri films playback singer's were singing the wedding song, I got to knw from my frens younger brother that these days the playback singer sing at all weddings...which to me is very interesting. After the wedding when the bride was going to grooms house, on our way alot of people had lined up to see the bride some kids commented "hema malini man le ko" hahaha that was funny....my fren "B" looked very very beautiful in the wedding attire and the couple looked like just made for eachother.Over all I did had a great time and did managed to take some good pics. which was of course my priority.

The day that was in...saada dilli

I love to be in Delhi...to shop...meet my frens and enjoy all my fav. food, Chole Bhature tops my list of fav. food in delhi, followed by the India mei world famous momo's...and of course all the food my very good fren A makes...yummm. I just love to eat these things and I am always cribbing in Agartala that I don't get to eat this and that...lekin jab mei delhi aati hun tab apne saare arman purey kar leti hun...the only thing which has changed abt Delhi food is the price and the no. of eateries which has come up in the past 5/6 yrs...otherwise all my fav. food tastes the same and I love that part abt the food here...I went to CP and Dilli Haat today...two places I love to visit for good food and shopping...over all I had a good time...met a school fren after 9 yrs and he was still the same...to my surprise...acc. to him I've changed beyond recognition....hahaha...I met my ex- colleague and good fren N at Dilli Haat...we did had a good time talking abt the Ahmedabad days... the day in saada dilli was sure good...despite all the running around I had to do today...