50 lines and Tikkas @ -5 deg C

50 lines of stitches at -05 deg C: Locked in NY snow blizzard. It is too cold to do any thing but roll a skein of wool in one's fingers or make a warm lunch ( well, I did both). Crochet gives me that valuable time alone in midst of a crowd in airport or in between medley of sounds at home (you know, the TV, pressure cooker, ipod, phone and a new ps3).

Thanks to the blizzard, I got to spend some valuable time with my family. By the way, let me bring to your kind notice that this family mentioned above consists of just one another person than myself and yes, we are indeed in love our close knit family. :)

Now, that one another person was pretty dejected due to the stalled work and broken garage. He was stuck at home and facing boredom for the first time. Out of desperation, he comes and exclaims, " We should have a blast! Regardless of how much the weather tries to cease the fun." I said an OK... (where the 'K' is pretty prolonged), "I will make some paneer tikkas and zafrani pulao. How does that sound?". He grins...and grins again. Making these tikkas are pretty simple. All you need is a damn good oven and you have an excellent dinner already.


We enjoyed the warm and subtle pulao with some flavorful tikkas right out of the oven while watching an Audrey Tautou movie (Priceless!). Yes, our latest french addiction should I say?

Here is the recipe for the tikkas and below comes the zafrani pulao recipe.

Ingredient:-
1 cup of rice
1.5 cups of water
1/3 cup of warm milk with a tsp of saffron threads
1 tsp broken almonds
1 tsp of broken cashews
4 cloves
2 cardamoms
1 star anise
1 inch cinnamon
1 onion sliced thin
2 tsp of sugar
2 tbs of ghee
salt to taste


Method:-
Wash and clean the rice. Keep aside.
Melt the ghee in a pressure cooker. Add the shah jeera, star anise, cloves and cardamom. Fry for a min.
Add the sugar and wait till it turns light brown. Add the onions and caramelize them.
Add salt and cleaned rice. Mix well.
Add the warm milk mixture and stir well.
Add two cups of water and cook for one whistle.
Heat 1 tsp of ghee and fry the nuts. Garnish on the rice once ready and serve hot.

A happy new year to all my readers!