7 secrets of happiness and Alu-kopir chochchori

Okay, so before we go to the eighth secret of happiness -the yummy alu-kopir chochchori, let us quickly go through  the first seven:

1. Delink your happiness from possessions. As long as you have a long “To possess” list – you cannot be happy!
2. Seek happiness from your achievements
3. Keep yourself extremely busy – so much so that you crave for some free time, and when you actually get it, it feels like the best thing on earth. Believe me lots of free time are the root of many troubles.
4. Take very good care of your physical being – your health, your weight, your skin and your appearance in general.
5. Re-kindle an old passion – it can be reading, writing, gardening, cooking, pottery, art, craft, anything you can get lost into for hours without even realising. Please don’t choose shopping –it has to be something which is either free or very cheap…..remember rule no.1!
6. Involve yourself in some social service. Look around for work that needs to be done and don’t wait for the Municipal Corporation or an NGO to do it …do it yourself. Trust me, it gives you unparalleled satisfaction.
7. Keep-in-touch. With parents, relatives, friends, ex-colleagues, your babysitter – all the people who touched your lives in some way and are far away now. NOW…that does not mean hook yourself to Facebook or Twitter or Orkut. I by no means want to belittle these wonderful networking platforms, they have made the world a small place in the real sense, but how you use them to your benefit and not to detriment – is up to you!

My recipe today is another simple dish which is a very integral part of all Bengali households – alu-kopir chochchori. We used to have it with roti’s on normal mornings and with luchi’s on special mornings.

Alu-kopi’r  chochchori

Ingredients:

Potato: 1 large

Cauliflower: ½ , cut into little florets

Jeera: 2 tsp

Dry red chillies : 2

Salt: ½ tsp

Oil: 1 tsp

How to:

Step1: Roast 1 tsp of the jeera and the dry red chillies and grind them into a coarse powder. (For pictorial details of this step check out kochu kumror chhokka)

Step2: Chop the cauliflower and the potatoes into small pieces. If you wish, you can peel the potatoes, I donot.

Step3: Heat 1 tsp of oil and add 1 tsp of jeera.

Step4: Once the jeera is fried properly, add the potatoes first, and then the cauliflower after 5 mins. Potatoes are added first as cauliflower cooks very fast.

Step5:Add the salt, stir and cover.

Step6: When both the cauliflower and the potatoes are cooked, (in about another 5 mins), add the roasted jeera  pdr, mix well and your chochchori is done ! Goes very well with rotis, plain triangular parathas and puri/luchis.

How to make sprouts at home

Most of you would guffaw at the title – “How to make sprouts?”  Who would want to know? In fact, who wouldn’t know? What’s there to make?  Doesn’t it grow all by itself, when left alone? 

Well, even I thought so before I met this fellow buyer at the super market. I have been seeing old ladies selling varieties of sprouts on various pavements in Mumbai ever since I landed in this maximum city 11 years back. And I always thought people especially working women picked them on their way back home probably because they couldn’t manage to plan ahead for the evening’s dinner and these ready sprouts acted as the knight savior.

Well, as it turns out, that’s not always the case. There are people who think that making sprouts need a special gadget called “The Sprout Maker”.

Now it so happened that this pretty lady, whose name I wanted to ask, but could not, was checking out all the varieties of packed sprout pouches, holding them close to her eyes, taking them farthest her extended hands were capable of, trying to smell them through the plastic cover and finally decided that I was a better judge. Probably she was impressed by the speed at which I grabbed the veggies and shoved them into the trolley…she had in all probabilities mistaken my rush to be my expertise in spotting the best vegetables on the shelf.

“Do you think these are good? They are not yesterday’s no?”  Honestly, I was the last person to answer that. Why even Hubby was a better judge for this kind of stuff. But I couldn’t tell her that. Atleast not now. When I am blogging about how to cook I should be knowing how to choose my ingredients too! Moreover that’s easy, who doesn’t know that fresh things are always better than packed ones!

“Difficult to say, I have never bought these” I answered honestly “But why do buy these; you can make them at home, no?”

The beautiful eyebrows made 2 gorgeous contours which translated into surprise.

“But wasn’t it is cheaper to buy them than to invest in another gadget?” Her kitchen is already over flowing with them, she complains.

Now it was my turn to be surprised.

“What gadget?” I ask.

It was then that the pretty lady in blue told me that she is buying ready made sprouts for months now, since her gym dietician has put her on a sprouts diet. The gym had also offered her a designer “Sprout Maker” which cost Rs. 5999 after a hefty discount, but she had figured out that buying her sprouts from the mart would be cheaper, and would also spare her of one more gadget. Her house was anyways filled with scores of them, some to ward of evil spirits and some more to invite good ones.  God Bless Her!

It was then that the knowledge dawned upon me that there are still naïve souls in this part of  the world who think sprouts can be made only with a gadget. I quickly explained how she can get her sprouts at home daily without any extra gadget or any extra cost. Only thing she would need to spare was a prior notice of 24 hrs !

Ingredients:

Any whole seed that you want to sprout – Moong, alfalfa, Bengal gram, white/green peas, chick peas, moth, practically - you can try any seed !

How to:

Step 1: Wash the seeds

Step 2: Soak them in 3 times water

Step 3: After 8 hrs, drain the excess water, cover and let it stay

Step 4: Sprouts are ready after 12-16 hrs. Consume/cook immediately or refrigerate. DONE !

Note: The shoot will keep growing with time, not to worry. Just take out a handful whenever you want and enjoy a light, tasty and healthy snack anytime ! However do consume the refrigerated sprout within 7 days :)