RCI Bengal

Hello, hello, hello. Here I am rising from my stupor only to insist and prod that you cook Bengali Food for RCI-Bengal.
Light years ago I had signed up to host it and then promptly forgotten all about it until Dear Asha poked my memory which was hibernating through the cold North East Winter.

There are apologies due and then there are more apologies due to all those who came and found nothing on my blog all these days, yes not even a reply to the comments. "Cheeeeeeeee, how rude that Bong girl is", hushed people in dark corners of the Blogosphere, given that they didn’t have better things to hush about on a boring blog day.

And in response all I have to say is let bygones be bygones and don your apron, scour the net and cook up a Bengali dish. If you don’t want to eat it at the end of the day, I don’t care, just take a nice, alluring pic and post the recipe on your blog anytime between now and eternity. No sorry, that’s too long, let’s say the next one month. So the deadline is fixed at April 15th, 2008.

Send me a mail in this format:

Recipe Name
Recipe URL
Blog Name
Blog URL
Blog Author

No need to send me the pics, but do have them in your own posts, as the saying goes “Proof of the Cooking is in Clicking it”

You can add more things in the mail like the offer to transfer funds in millions from your bank in Timbuctoo to my account or the promise to enhance appendages I don’t even own. But all this is not necessary and will NOT be posted as part of the round up.

Given that I was away too long and am not sure why I don't see Dining Hall and whether Food Blog Desam is up and whether people still visit my blog, I would rely on any of you hitting on this post to spread the word around.

So pamper me and bring on your entries for RCI-Bengal, a event started by Lakshmi and hosted this time around by humble me. And mail me at rcibengal@gmail.com

Also remember to link back to this post from your entry posts in your blog

Bollywood Balle Balle

Imagine this. Early Morning, am tuned in to NPR while trying to concentrate on the road instead of dozing off and what hits me but the song "Saawariya....blah, blah, blah". I was not particulalry fond of the movie or the song but it being on NPR at 7:15 in the morning, robbed sleep off my eyes

NPR discusses Hollywood forays into Mumbai, and says,

"And though Hollywood likes to think of itself as the world's biggest movie town, those billion-plus movie-mad Indians are served by a home-grown movie industry — the entertainment machine some refer to as Bollywood — that annually puts out more than twice as many movies as its U.S. competition. Hollywood, no surprise, is hungry for a piece of that market."

To make a place in the Indian market for themselves Hollywood is now trying to produce Hindi Movies. Ok they first tried to woo Indian audience by dubbing SpiderMan 3 in Bhojpuri but the Makad Manav didn't really charm the Indian audience it seems, so they thought ok let us just produce the next WXYZ by Karan Johar. Karan Johar was not in town or whatever and they got hold of Sanjay Bhansali.

"That's why Sony became the first major Hollywood studio to produce a Hindi-language film."

The film was "Sawariya" which failed miserably but,

"Sony executives say they plan on making more movies in Mumbai. There's even a sense that one of these days, movies from India may become as much of a force in the world as Hollywood pictures. " Amen to that

And now Disney is making an animation feature Roadside Romeo for the Indian Market.

And why is this on my food blog, because,

""Culturally, India is much more connected with our own movies and our own stars, much like our food," says Uday Singh, managing director of Sony Pictures in India

NPR Story here

Yogurt Parfait with Dates

Weekend is over, it is cold & drizzling out,

3 loads of laundry -- done,
3 dishes cooked for the week -- done,
tomorrows lunch -- done,
the bathroom scrubbed – partly done,

a dinner attended -- done,
Ma-in-laws birthday celebrated -- done,
3 rounds of grocery stores -- done,
Dump the daughter on the hubby – done kind of,

Indian Chinese Restaurant for lunch -- done,
Called up home – done
Found a 24” suitcase for a friend – done
Scour the hardware store to find the perfect color for basement wall – still searching

A single serving of yogurt parfait to be done for the blog -- done
Take the shot -- done
Shared the parfait with D and S (there was only a single serving remember) -- done
Blogging -- waiting

Yogurt parfait with dates and pomegranate

Get some thick yogurt

Drain the whey by doling out the yogurt on a sieve and letting it drain. If you don’t have a sieve use a colander lined with cheesecloth

Add figs and raisins on the bottom layer

Add half the yogurt

Drizzle some honey

Add rest of the yogurt

Add chopped dates, pomegranate seeds, honey and a sprinkle of flax seeds

Refrigerate and serve chilled after an hour

Use any other fruits and layer according to your choice

Blogging -- DONE !!!. This goes to Chandrika for AFAM -- Dates. Heard she is still accepting entries, is she...