Feeling Happy ! Bought my new Mercedes-Benz V class
Feeling accomplished ! Got promoted to Senior Executive level
Feeling excited ! Travelling to Corsica
Feeling amused ! Someone misspelled Tzatziki
Feeling Blessed ! My daughter topped the class
Yes….its all about happiness….we are all chasing the happiness bubble ! Women want to measure happiness by achieving balance in every sphere of their lives and men want tangible money and dicey career achievements. We are all burning ourselves in pursuing the utopian thought of ultimate happiness. Probably our obsession is in turn making us feel worse and forcing us to a sense of comparison. This has been the fundamental dogma from the day dinosaurs perished well maybe before that but I have not seen the big bang or Eve bite into apple. (I saw the dinosaur fossils at Natural history museum 🙂 ……PJ )
What’s wrong in being OK. Its alight to cry and it’s definitely fine if you can’t buy that three bedroom flat or get that must awaited promotion. Or else we are trapped in the vicious circle of life called “Pursuit of Happiness”.  Every mortal and immortal object is in motion then how could we clasp onto this one pursuit.
Yesterday while watching Despicable Me I just realised that those rambunctious bunch of simple-minded homunculi Minions has a simple message scribbled over it.
Don’t judge me I was born to be awesome NOT Perfect!
This whole year I have realised that if you have just one supportive relation in your life then you can surely bank on a wealth of happiness. One non-judgemental conversation is life’s satisfaction for that moment giving you strength to fight off depression, boosting your self-esteem and definitely licensing  the opposite of happiness. (Done…I have used happiness the fifth time..now)
Please leave your comments below if you have any thoughts on happiness (beep). On that note let’s go “Bapples” over bananas. 🙂
- For Dumplings
- 2 Raw banana, peel the skin with a peeler
- 1 potato,for binding (optional)
- 1 tbsp Gram-flour
- 1 tsp chilli powder
- 1 tsp aniseed
- 1 fresh sprig of coriander,finely chopped
- 1 tsp cumin powder
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp freshly ground pepper
- 1 green chilli, finely minced
- salt to taste
- Oil for frying
- For Gravy
- 1 onion,grind into fine paste
- 1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
- 1 plump tomato,cut into pieces
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tsp cumin powder
- 1 tsp coriander powder
- 1 tbsp chicken curry powder or garam masala powder,available at any asian store
- salt to taste
- 1 tbsp refined oil
- Pressure cooker the peeled bananas and potato unto two whistles.Let it cool down.
- Then in a mixing bowl mash the above and mix all the remaining ingredients and shape it into medium sized dumplings.
- In a deep bottomed vessel heat oil at high heat and then slowly leave the dumplings in a batch of 2-3 balls. The above contents yield approximated 6-7 balls. The oil is very hot so please handle with caution.
- My mother’s advice was to always leave the dumplings at the corner and then gradually move them to the centre with a spatula.
- Let it cook on each side for 2 minutes. Until the dumplings are golden brown and crisp on the outside.Drain the excess oil on a paper towel.
- They can be served as is with letup as a very healthy starter.
- Use 1 tbsp of the above oil which was used for frying.
- Then add the ginger garlic paste and fry for 1 minute.
- Add the onion paste and fry on medium heat for 5 minutes.
- When the raw smell of onion has gone then add the chopped tomatoes and fry until the oil
- separates.
- Then add the dry spice powders and salt. Fry for another 2 minutes.
- Finally add 1 1/2 cup of water and adjust the gravy thickness accordingly. In the final stage leave the dumplings in the gravy and let it simmer for 2 minutes.
- Remove from heat and serve immediately with hot rice or naan or tandoori roti.
About Warli Painting
The backdrop used in the above pictures is a Warli Painting. The story behind the painting is quite ironical. I had driven my hubby almost mad so that he could get me some rotten or rusted metal sheet for my food photography. Not only is he camera-shy he is also too polite to ask people for abounded stuff also. To the rescue came my father and sister and the I would give the entrée credit to them. My father has picked up this abounded metal sign board from the junk yard. My sister filled the entire canvass with earthy colours of muddy huts and adorned the metal sheet with traditional folk art which blended so well with this recipe from my mother.
Warli painting in India is an ancient tribal art dating back several hundred years. The Warli tribe painted walls of their homes to mark important occasions such as weddings and the rice harvest. AÂ tradition with the tribals to decorate the mud walls of the huts with paintings made in rice paste.The paintings are mostly located in a cluster of villages on the border of the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat, about 150km from Mumbai (Bombay).
This art is a 2 dimensional, with no perspective or proportion. Warli painting is simple and linear with the maximum use of triangular shapes. As the universal energy YIN/YANG; concept having the upward facing triangle representing the Male and the downward facing triangle representing the Woman. It also represent fertility as the tribal belief revolve around the cycle of Birth and Death.
The early painters drew inspiration from everyday lives for their themes. Thus, a typical Warli painting will have a village landscape with farms,animals and trees. In this spiral formations of men and women are doing Tarapa Dance in concentric circular designs is symbolic of the circle of life.
