Pasta with White Sauce

The subject of our talk during the evening walk today was near by places for a weekend trip from MYSORE.Today paper says Jog is wonderful to visit this season and it is on the list for next weekend said a friend of mine.
Jog falls is in Shimoga district of Karnataka. Not very far from mysore and so ideal for a weekend trip.
I was told by my family that this Joga Jalapata ( Jog falls, is fromed by River Sharavati, and falls from a height of some 830 feet, which is about 253 meters andso is the highest plunge water fall in India.

Wikipedia says:
There are many waterfalls in Asia - and also in India - which drop from a higher altitude. But, unlike those falls, Jog Falls is untiered, i.e., it drops directly and does not stream on to rocks. Thus, it can be described as the highest untiered waterfalls in India.River Sharavathi splits up into four different tracks which are named in accordance with their perceived trajectories[3]. Going from left to right respectively in the picture, the names and the reasons for naming are:
Raja (King): Named so because of its apparently 'dignified' and 'serene' fall.
Roarer: This stream appears out of a mass of rocks, making a tremendous amount of noise.
Rocket: Consists of a large volume of water streaming out of a small opening at a very high speed.
Rani (Queen), also called Lady: The stream has a winding, twisting trajectory, said to resemble the movements of a female dancer.
The world famous Jog falls has begun wearing a new look.
The splendorous falls provides an enchanting view as it falls from a height of nearly 890 feet. The falls, which is usually crystal clear, has turned red with the release of nearly 60,000 cusecs of muddy water from the Linganamakki Reservoir. The reservoir is said to be receiving nearly 1 lakh cusecs of water following incessant rains in its catchment area. The flood situation in parts of Honnavar in Uttara Kannada district in the downstream may worsen if the discharge from the reservoir exceeds 2 lakh cusecs of water. However, for the Jog Falls will make for a scintillating sight.

As it usually does our talk then drifted to what was on the menu for dinner at each ones place. As one said she would prepare pasta ,I was reminded of Pasta with white sauce and vegetables that I had not cooked in a long time. With all ingredients it can be cooked in a jiffy. It did taste good I should say.

PASTA WITH WHITE SAUCE

INGREDIENTS:

2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp. flour (maida)
2 cups of milk
Cheese ( two spoons grated
Pasta ( any type)
(chop all the vegetables very fine)
Carrot
Beans
Peas
Cauliflower
Onions
Capsicum
2 garlic cloves
Salt to taste
Black pepper powder
Pasta seasoning.
Method:
This tasty dish can be cooked in few simple steps.
1. Cook pasta and keep aside.
2.Steam all the vegetables other than onion, capsicum and garlic
3.In a small pan , stir fry garlic , onion and capsicum in a little butter
4.In another deep bottom pan, melt the butter, stir in the flour... when it is slightly done add the cheese ,stir fried vegetables, salt and pepper to taste.
5. Add the steamed vegetables.
6. Cook well adding milk all at one and cooking over medium heat until it thickens.
7.Mix with the cooked pasta and serve hot.
In a small melt butter. Stir in flour.

Ciao for now.

E FOR EMBARRASSMENT

God knows that it took me one month to do a market research on smaller cars, preferably a hatch-back and friends and relatives stopped talking to me because I would only speak about cars and cars.After loads of test drive. I decided i would go in for the Maruti Brand , because of their customer service. Fell for the Black coloured Zen Estilo. Ever since in love with my Black Beauty.

All this was way back in October. Then began the series of calls which come in for the first three free services...

The first one went off without a hitch. For the second one, the I spy you began..They call and I am not in town, I call they don't have a vacant spot to take up the service. Finally we decided the 12th of June. They sent a driver for the pick up (Exclusive service for their lady customers, I was told!!). He checkup what all he could and then took it after announcing that he thinks the vehicle is fine but they will call up if there are any charges.

Friday evening my vehicle arrived back, no problems what so ever. I was delighted to see the dues written zero,signed the received letter and thanked him.

After half hour when I decided to take the girls on a drive notice that the car wasn't responding the the remote signal of the key.

I was perplexed.Nothing could go wrong.. It was fine when he brought it. No !!I hadn't checked that .. Did I? Well I opened the car manually and kept wondering.. My face seemed so puzzled a friend who was quite acquainted with cars and its mechanism.... said " don't worry.. usually they turn off the central remote control button when they are washing cars!!!!!!!!!" OH what a relief.. I was a bit glad.With a smile on my face that things , we parked at a library and i was again wondering aloud . Two men around who tried to help me out said madam you cannot do all this.. go to the service station .This seems to be a major problem not some button off on issue!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Service centre gene call maadi!! (call the service centre).

Uff , my smile was off now. Thank god the number of the person who did the servicing was on the tag... Called him Poor man, he seemed as perplexed and offered to send someone first thing next day. I kept wondering all night,, in the process got worked up.

Next day I expected him to what he promised. Be at my place at 10 sort out the issue.Obviously he has better job!!As usual I was expecting too much when I believed serviceman I thought. He was supposed to arrive at 10, and I had to attend a course at 11 so , I called him and said I will come to the service station. On the way, I got worked up all the more . But when I met Ms.S who was quite nice to me all through the purchase of the vehicle and been my point of contact ever since.I burst out loud..."What is this S??? Don't you think it is easier if you sorted out everything when you take the car for a service. I thought your customer service was too good!!! But then see I cant even close my car from a distance (so what don't i have hands to go near and lock it manually , my previous car did not have a remote sensing key... , well anyway will behave as though I grew up with this luxury) Don't you think it is bad that I have to rush here first thing in the morning?

She was calm and composed,and said with a smile "please leave the car here madam I will see to it it is done ".

NO S i have to go out and be at a place by 11 I need to get it done now..

I was being stubborn. I have every reason to be. I am the customer, they cannot afford to displease me!!!

she tried frantically to get hold of the person who did the servicing of my car, he was late that day.. with no other engineer around she was also wondering what to answer when a Breakdown service personnel ( his badge said so) walked in.

Seeing the both of us in that mood and mode he offered to help.

What happened next was the reason of the title, an anticlimax for the scene I created!!!

He took the key saw that it was fine... he checked all the doors.

The door of the Boot , the fifth door (dikki) was not closed. That was the only reason the central locking wouldn't recognise.. I went red and stayed red all day with Embarrassment , can't write any more lest the words turn red.

Have you ever been in such a situation? I hope not.

The only saving grace of the day was the course I went to. Here are some pictures of my work I learnt during the 10 days..

Roshi with Seeni Sambol

I was not really cooking much these days with the wedding season around here. I really got to eat delicious stuff day in and day out.As a result the blog was not updated But now after almost a month of this festive food I was really ready to try something new and have a change to my palate...
Coming to my rescue is my Maldivian friend N.I glad I came to know her wonderful person that she is she says she isn't a great cook but her mom certainly is. I had a chance to eat their bread/roti Roshi ( roti's made of maida)with a spinach salad called kuhlha filafiath. Since I cannot pronounce it right I will prefer to stick to call it Spinach salad.
That was a delicious combo and I had to try it for dinner. Since I didn't have the ingredients for the spinach salad... she suggested a Srilankan seeni sambol dish as accompaniment. Both are so simple to make and delicious to eat.

Here is a picture of my plate.
Roshi with Seeni Sambol

This is a staple dish, most people eat Roshi for breakfast and dinner . This was a super hit on my dinner table. This Roshi looks more like our own Roomali roti but I guess easier to make.This goes with any kind of dal or curry, dry or gravy ones.This can be a easy substitute to the tortillas to make delicious wraps.
Ingredients
1 cup plain all purpose flour (Maida)

3 small spoons of sunflower oil

salt to taste

and boiling hot water ( about 1/3 cup).

METHOD:

Take the clean sifted flour into a large bowl, add a pinch of salt (to taste).Make a mixture of it by adding oil. The make a large hollow in the centre Add boiling hot water , little at a time mixing with a metal spoon. Once there are clumps stop adding water and let it cool a bit , not to hurt your fingers. Then knead the dough well as soon as it is cool enough .Work around till you get a nice pliable dough, which is not sticky yet is soft.Make this dough into equal sized balls.
Roll out each ball into a round , thin flat roti, dusting it a little with flour to avoid sticking.
Meanwhile heat a flat pan or tava and cook them like normal chapatis or roti's but without any oil.Flip on both sides till both are cooked evenly and serve hot with any side dish of your choice.

It is through practice I think we get the perfect thin and round roti's. Mine were decent enough to get her nod!!! even though one went in the shape of my country showing my patriotism.

SEENI SAMBOL:

A traditional caramelised onion relish from Srilanka,, which she said I could make without one of the ingredients (Maldive fish) in it to suit my veggie needs. This is a typical combination of sweet and hot condiments, a traditional accompaniment to this is a thin flat bread called Roti,but can be served with any kind of bread actually. The name coming from Seeni as in sugar and Sambol a combination of spices. I here give N's recipe.

Sliced Onions - 4

Ground dry Red Chilly - 1 tbsp

Coconut Milk - 5 spoons

Sugar - 2 Tbsp

Cinnamon powder ( can use the bark if powder is not at home, remove the bark after cooking)

cardamom beans (few from one pod is enough)

Salt oil to saute

sprig of curry leaves
(Maldive fish ( for the non vegetarian variety))
In a heavy skillet add two to three spoons of oil. Saute the curry leaves and sprig of curry leaves. then add the onion and salt to taste. Let the onions saute and then add sugar, red chilli powder cardamom beans and cinnamon powder. Let the onions caramelised without getting burnt. The trick is to keep it a bit moist all along.

Then this dish is ready to be served..

( Mine wasn't as caramelised because I did not add a lot of sugar.I preferred it spicier to sweeter, and I used dry red chillies instead of the powder).

I am sure this will be a tasty variant for you all to try out and give me a feed back which will encourage me to try out more of her recipes.