The Real Kela Kat !!!???

The experiments have come to a grinding halt due to a very misfortune incident !!

Without much ado the details follow:

1. Bajji and Pakoda Mix was bought
2. A single Raw Banana was bought
3. Two Potatoes were bought
4. 4 Banglore Mirchi were bought
5. The banana and potato were nicely peeled and finely cut
6. The Bajji Powder was mixed with water in a proportion as was instructed
7. Kadai was strategically put on the stove and oil was poured in

(A three-quarter smile escaped the Hithchiker's mouth at this point with the preparations)

8. With the same pride as that of a Guest of Honour, at the act of lighting the inaugural lamp for an important Confluence, the Hithchiker lifted the Lighter, turned the knob of the stove at the right angle and nudged the switch. Nudged it again..and again.

#$@!!@%!^#!$^#^!^!^!!$!$#$$!$!$!@#$ (no emoticon has yet been discovered for such an emotion)

Lo ! the pride vanished into thin air...just at the designated place for the Cylinder, a cylinder shaped emptiness stared at the hitchhiker.

Panicked at the rate of gas-usage (the cylinder was given on a nominal use basis you see...) the landlord seemingly has taken it away from the kitchen!!!!!

Its truly a gloomy day for the Hitchhiker's Kitchen :(

PS: Suspicions are also ripe on the only other person (needless to say my roomate) who has access to the cylinder. The recent post of his do raise the hitchhiker's eyebrows ....

http://graveled.blogspot.com/2008/08/eureka.html

Considerable Progress…

After burning my fingers on making the elusive Dosa as mentioned in the earlier post, I should say I travelled quite far. Sufficient "post-mortem" done on the dead dosas, after gathering the nuances of Dosa-Making from my Mom, revealed that a lot of things can go wrong even in making as simple a thing as a Dosa. It seems the Pan should be sufficiently hot, the batter should not be too thin or too thick etc etc. My roommate proved he had a lucky hand when he produced a Good Dosa in the midst of my string of Bad Dosas. This clearly proved that Dosas after all are bound to certain laws and would come out well no matter who makes them :P

Charle’s Law for Dosas:-
Ceteris paribus, the quality of a given mass of an ideal Dosa improves or deproves by the same factor as the temperature (in Kelvin) of the “Frying Pan” increases or decreases over the optimum.

After mastering this mantra, there was simply no looking back. I just kept flipping one Good Dosa after another.

DISCLAIMER – One can only aspire to make “Good Dosas” by following the Techniques mentioned here. Perfect Dosas are made only in Heaven and Home.

Coming up Next ….Ummmmmmmmmm…. Upma !!

D for Dosaaaaaa !

Ratatouille, an awesome animated movie philosophizes "Anyone can cook!". In it, there is this rat which stops stealing food like the other rats and starts Cooking ...and in due course excels in it...! Well..true..Anyone can indeed cook...but...can anyone cook anything !?

9:00PM (2 ppl Friday Night, hungry to the core)

The story begins with me attempting to make not a delicacy like Ratatouille but a simple "Dosa". Now, there could be 10 steps in which you can make a dosa. But, you can knock off the first 5 if you buy a pack of ready-made "Instant Dosa Mix". Now all you need to do is follow the instructions at the back of the pack. The instructions tell you to just add water OR...wait for it...water AND curd to prepare the batter. The first one is quite safe which I tried before successfully. Now they dont tell you the difference in the methods. So I went for the 2nd alternative.

God knows whats the exact chemistry between curd and the dosa mix is, but I can tell you one thing ... its not chef friendly. When you use a non-stick frying pan...all you expect out of it is that it doesnt start sticking around. But in this story, the batter and the "non-stick" frying pan did just that. They "stuck" to their task. The curd being the culprit. No matter from what angle you prod the-dosa-in-making on the pan, it refuses to budge.

I even try to politely grease it (with oil) and nudge it...but aaaahan....Dosas, they say come in different sizes. But the one I ended up making came in the most singular dimensions in the entire planet. May be they make Dosas like this on Pluto. You can convince someone from the Xulu jungle tribe who survives on eating leaves all his life that what I made can be called Dosa. But you simply cant convince yourself.

So, after 15 iterations, I took the best decision for the day... Dosa for dinner.. RULED OUT !


PS: Ratatouille is usually served as a side dish, but also may be served as a meal on its own (accompanied by rice). Tomatoes are a key ingredient, with garlic, onions, zucchini (courgettes), aubergine eggplant, bell peppers (poivron), some herbs, such as herbes de Provence. There is much debate on how to make a traditional ratatouille. One method is to simply saute all of the vegetables together.

PS2: Eggplant or Aubergine is same as Brinjal

PS3: FYKI ...firstly, there is no Xulu jungle tribe...and secondly even if they exist you cant simply CANT break ice with them by starting a conversation about Dosas

PS4: 10:15PM- My roomie (the silent partner in the whole charade) and myself rushed to the nearest dhaba (in-time) to catch some rotis and vegetable to salvage the day !!