Weekend Trip: Shivasamudra

Distance: About 125kms
Direction: Towards Mysore/Mandya.
Best time to visit: After monsoon (August to March)
What to see: Waterfalls.

Start early in the morning, say 7.00am. Take the mysore road. Stop at Kamath or Adigas for breakfast. After  Maddur, take the left towards Shivasamudra. Roads are in ok condition. There are 2 water falls to be seen. If you plan well and start little early, you can also visit talkadu.
An alternate route is via kanakpura. This road is supposed to be more scenic and better roads, but options to eat are non existent.

Desserts: Ras Malai

Preparation Time: 0 mins
Cooking time: 1hr
Refrigeration time: 5-6 hrs
Serves: 6 (150 ml serving)

Ingredients:
2 lt of full cream milk.
1 tea spoon vanilla custard powder
2 tablespoons sugar
6 Rasgullas.
2 pods of green cardamom.
Handful of almonds & pistachios

Method:

1. Take a thick bottomed pan and heat milk in it. Heat it on slow until it has reduced to half the original quantity. Keep stiring once in a while, but do so very slowly keeping in mind to not to break the creamy formations at the top. This hardened milk formation will add texture to the ras malai later.
2. When the milk is done, add custard powder. Mix the custurd in 100 ml of cold milk and then add to the boiling milk. All this while, keep stiring to avoid formation of lumps.
3. Add sugar.
4. Take the rasgullas and squeeze them gently to remove all the sugar syrup out of them. Cut the rasgullas in half. Doing this will ensure that rasgullas take the milk preparation as there ras and this will add to the flavour of ras malai.
5. Add the rasgullas and cardamom powder to the milk and boil on high flame for 1-2 mins.
6. Allow it to cool a little bit and then carefully pour the prepration in a serving bowl.
7. Decorate with thin flats of almonds and pistachios.
8. Refrigerate for 5-6 hrs. Serve chilled.

Note: My personal observation is that ras malai tastes better if it has been refrigerated overnight.

Weekend Trip: Pondicherry Trip

Distance: About 320kms
Direction: Towards Chennai.
Best time to visit: After monsoon (August to March)
What to see: Beaches, French Colony, Arubindo Ashram, Aruville, Pichavaram Forests.
You need atleast 3 days to do this trip.
Start from here on Day 0, in the late afternoon. Do a night halt at Tiruvanamalai. This should take about 3.5 hrs to do. Visit the tiruvanamalai temple in the morning and reach Pondi by 10am on Day 1. Tiruvanamalai to Pondi is about 3 hrs.
Visit Arubindo ashram, Aruville and french colony until evening 5. Then go on to the Promenade beach for the evening.
Day 2 morning go to Paradise beach. Start early to avoid day time traffic. Afternoons and evenings spend in shopping or roaming around in the french colony area.
Day 3: Start really early morning. Pack breakfast and go to Pichavaram forests. It is about 60 kms from Pondi towards chitambram. Take a boat ride to the beach and the mangrove forest.

Return via Pondi or Chitambram. If you take chitambram route and if time permits, do visit some temples there as well.

Weekend Trip: Coorg Revisited

Distance: 250kms
Direction: Beyond Mysore.
Best time to visit: After monsoon (August to March)
What to see: Water falls(Abbey falls), Raja's seat, coffee estates, talcauvery, Tibetan settlement.
We started from Bangalore at 2pm on a Friday evening. You need to take right on the Mysore ring road. Tibetan settlement is near kushalnagar. Since, we started late in the day, we directly went to Madikeri. Coorg is famous for homestays, so always try to stay in a homestay. For food, East End hotel is very famous.

Golden Temple - Kushal Nagar

Abbey Falls

Homestay

Talcauvery

Weekend Trip: Kolli Malai

Distance: 300kms
Direction: NH7 near Salem
Best time to visit: During and after monsoon (June to March)
What to see: Water falls. Misty hills
Start from bangalore at 6. Break for breakfast at A2B, just before krishnagiri. Roads upto Salem are 4 lane toll roads. After that even the state highwat 79 & SH95 are also in great shape. Last 38 kms is ghat section with 70 awesome hair pin bends.
Go prepared for a bath under the falls. To reach falls you need to climb down 1200 steps. Very tiring, but totally worth it.

Weekend Trip: Hogenakkal Waterfalls

Distance: 170kms
Best time to visit: Just after monsoon (July to Feb)
Directions: NH7 towards Salem
What to see: Falls..what else. Do take a coracle ride.
Start from bangalore by 6. Stop at A2B for breakfast. Its midway between hosur and krishnagiri.

Weekend Trip: Mysore

Distance: 125kms
Best Time to visit: Though out the year. Start early to beat the crowd
Directions: Take mysore highway.
Whats there to see? Srirangapatna, St. Philomena's Church, Zoo (pretty huge and well maintained actually), Palace, Chamundi hills, Brindavan Gardens (reach there not before 5pm)

Special mention: do stop for breakfast at Kamat Lokaruchi which is just after Ramnagaram while going. While returning do take a tea break at Maddur tiffany's and have there Maddur vada.

Weekend Trip: Nandi Hills

Distance: 60kms
Best Time to visit: Though out the year. Early mornings. Plan to reach there by 7am
Directions: NH7. about 25-30 kms from Bangalore airport.
Whats there to see? A small hill, with one fort. Its quite cool during early morning hrs. During rainy season, there is lot of mist all around.

Dessert Dressing: Chocolate Sause for ice creams

Ingredients:

1 leveled table spoon plain butter.
3 leveled table spoon cocoa powder.
1/3 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tes spoon lemon juice.
1 pinch of salt.

Method:

Mix butter, water and cocoa together. Put it on heat and boil it. Add sugar and lemon juice. Keep it on low flame till sugar melts and dissolves. Stir continuously. Add salt. Can be stored for a few days in fridge.

Snacks:Gol Gappa

To serve: 6

Ingredients:

1 raw mango (if possible)
About 100 gms imli (if no raw mango, else little less)
1.5 cup of mint leaves (make a thick paste along with 3 green chillies)
Black salt to taste
2 pinches of roasted hing.
Chat masala 2 spoons
Plain salt to taste
1/2 leamon's juice.
1.5 spoons jeera powder.
1/2 cup coriander leaves
50 gol gappas.


For filling:

You can use either potato filling or chick pea preparation.

Boil potatoes. Cut them into very small pieces. Sprinkle some salt, red chilli, mint chatni, imli chatni.


Method:

Snacks: Pav Bhaji

To serve: 8

Ingredients:

2 medium sized onions
3 inch ginger or 1 spoon paste
5 cloves of garlic or 0.5 spoon paste
1 medium sized (6 inch dia) of cabbage and cauliflower
2 medium sized capsicum
6 medium sized tomatoes
1.5 cup Peas
6 medium sized boiled potatoes
2 green chillies
2 spoons degi mirch
16 pavs.
1/4th bunch of coriander leaves.

1 pinch hing
Salt to taste (2-3 spoon salt)
2 spoon chat masala (alter as per taste)
Butter 100gms
1/2 packet (50 gms) MDH pav bhaji masala
1/2 spoon garam masala


Method:

Take a heavy bottomed wok, put atleast 2 table spoon of oil. When heated, put hing and then add onions that have been shredded in food processor Make sure onions are shreaded and not onion paste nor onion pieces. Fry them until they just change color (dont allow them to become golden brown). Shred cabbage and cauliflower. Add them one after another. Put some salt as well. Cover and cook for 5 mins. After that add shredded capsicum and peas. Add little more salt. Also add a little bit of pav bhaji masala. Cover and cook on slow heat for 5-10 mins. Add tomato paste and mashed potatoes. Mash potatoes coarsely. Add little more salt and also add 100 ml water.
After this no more salt has to be added, so make sure that it has enough salt. Also add remaining pav bhaji masala. Cover and cook on slow for 10 mins.

In a separate vessel, heat 1/2 of butter Add degi mirch and then add another 50 ml of water.

Once the bhaji is cooked, add this mirch mixture to the bhaji.
Sprinkle some coriander leaves.

Cut the pavs in half and use the remaining butter to roast them.

Starter: Tomato Soup

Ingredients

10 medium sized tomatoes.
1 medium sized beet root.
1 medium sized carrot.
2 table spoons green split dal (moong dal split).
4 cloves of garlic
1 inch ginger.
5 pieces of cloves (long) crushed
1 inch cinamon stick.
1/2 medium sized onion.
Salt to taste.
Pepper to taste.
Bread crumbs or bread sticks.
Little butter.

Serves 4-5

Method:

Take 1 tea spoon ghee and roast onion and garlic.
Add tomato, 2 cup water, lentil, cloves, ginger, beet root, grated carrot, cinamon stick and cook it in pressure cooker. 1 wistle and then on slow for 5-10 mins.

Take it out, cool it and beat it in mixie. Strain it using seave. Add 1/2 cup milk, salt, pepper and boil it for 2-3 mins.

Put it in soup bowls and add little butter and bread crumbs.

Snacks: Dhokla

Ingredients

1 cup besan
1 cup sooji
1 cup curd.
Salt to taste
1 pinch haldi powder.
2 bread slices. (sides cut)
2 tea spoons eno.

1 green chilli
2 tea spoon ginger paste.
2 table spoon leamon juice
2 tea spoons sugar.

Kadi patta, green chilli, mustard seeds for tadka.

Serves 5-6

Method:

Mix besan, curd, bread, haldi, salt and sooji, soak it and allow it to rest for 40-60 mins.

Add eno, green chilli and ginger paste and steam it in pressure cooker like you do it for idli.
Steam it for 15 mins on medium-slow heat.

Cut into 1 inch sq pieces and put the tadka.

Make sugar solution with little water and then add lemon juice.

Sprinkle this mixture over the prepared dhokla.

Snacks: Methi Mathi & Matar Mathi

Methi Mathi

Ingredients:

1 cup Wheat flour.
1 cup refined flour (maida)
0.5 cup Besan
0.5 cup sooji
1 pinch baking powder
1 tea spoon salt (adjust according to taste)
1 bunch methi (1 handful) or 2-3 spoons dried kasori methi.
2 table spoons grated coconut.
2 green chillies.
2 table spoon ghee/refined oil

Method:

If using fresh methi, crush it using grinder into coarse paste. Crush green chillies as well.

Take all the flours and sooji and baking powder and sieve them together.

Heat ghee to luke warm. If using refined oil, heat it to high and allow it to cool to luke warm.

Mix oil with flour mixture, a little at a time. End result should be when pressed tightly, the flour mixture should hold together, but it should not be wet with oil.

Kend using little warm water. Add the methi paste also.

Dough should be hard.

Make small rounds and press with hand. MAke them atmost 2-3 mm thick.

Fry in refined oil. Use thick bottomed vessel. Frying must be done at low heat, but when about to put the fresh mathi to fry, increase the heat to high. Similarly increase the heat to high when about to take out. It should take about 5-8 mins of frying till they turn golden brown.

Matar Mathi

1 cup maida
1 cup wheat flour
1 tea spoon ajwayn.
Salt to taste.
Ghee /oil for kending.

Mix ghee as described above. Kend the dough as done for methi mathi.
Divide dough into 2 or 3 portions. Flatten it so that they are not more than 2-3 mm thick. Fry as for methi mathi.

Cleaning bathing towels

Last weekend when washing my towels I realized that even after being washed properly, over the period of last few years they have lost there soft fluffy feeling. A little google search reveled that I was not the first person to face it.

To restore softness back to the towel, what was suggested most was to rinse the towel in vinegar mixed in water. Wash the towel, remove all the soap from it by rinsing. Take a bucket with just enough amount of hot water, add quarter of a cup of vinegar per towel and leave it soaked for few hours. Vinegar will help disinfect the towel, will help get rid of detergent residue and repeated such treatments will make the towel softer.

I am done with first such treatment. Lets see how it works out.

How to determine what inverter I need.

With the worsening power situation in our cities, Inverters are becoming an essential part of our lives. In this post I will just summarize how to determine what capacity inverter to buy.

Step 1: Determine your usage. I.E. list out what all appliances you would want to run on the inverter.
For our calculation let us say that we are going to run 2 CFLs, 1 fridge, 2 fans and one laptop+1DSL modem on inverter.
In my house the power rating for these appliances are
CFL 25W = 2*25 = 50Watts
Fridge 300W
Laptop 90W
Modem 25W
Fans 40W = 2*40 80W

Total usage = 545Watts or 545VA

Add 25% to it as conversion loss , 545+136=681 VA is the bare minimum rating of the inverter that you would need.
In the market, generally 800 VA is what is available. So that is the one that you should be getting.

Step 2: Determine how long you would need your backup system to run.
Assuming that you are going to run at full load, how long would you want your backup to run.

For my usage, I decided that I would want my backup to run for at least 4 hrs.

The ampere hour attribute of the inverter battery determines how long it will last.

So 800 VA *4 hrs = 12 V * Ah is the formula. Here your battery is 12V battery. Ah is the ampere hour.
This gives 266 Ah.

So an inverter with a rating of 800 VA with a battery pack of 250 Ah is what I need to run my backup for roughly 4 hrs at full load.

Running on a minimal load, however will help me achieve more mileage out of my inverter.

A key factor to keep in mind when buying an inverter is to check the rating of the battery because this is where the big money is hidden and this is where the sellers will try to dupe you.

Generally sellers will talk about "optimal" load(which will be 60% of the maximum load) when informing you about the duration of backup.

Hope this helps.