Songs and Memories-1- German Christmas & Rains

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrTnxXI1AUg  You can listen to Taal se taal mila via this link...

Remember this song from Taal? I find it beautiful, the audio as well… Not just because of the amazing A.R. Rahman but also because this was one of the happy songs I would listen to, away from home in ‘students’  city Darmstadt, back in my German Internship days…

Since I had always idolized my father and wanted to be like him, I had taken along his favourite Talat Mehmood’s ‘dukhi’ tapes; which I somehow, later, understood were not good for me and confessed to an Indian elder-brother-like Indian friend the office people introduced me to. I called him ‘Basav bhai’. 

Office people's X-Mas treat for me- 'Kinder punch':)

AIESEC Darmstadt makes roll-call:) at Mainz.

Mr B. Patil and his wife Kiran were very kind to me. Basav Bhai asked me to not listen to those tapes. Simple enough… But I needed something and hung on to them and confessed again to another Indian friend I acquired at the Christmas fest Aiesecers took me to in, Mainz, a city nearby. This was

Devraj & I clicked by Rupa, @ Museum Apotheke

Devraj! The ever helpful and smiling brother to Devrupa, who in turn, was to become my confidante later… Devraj promptly invited me over to their place in beautiful Heidelberg for the weekend. The brother and sister are IT people and Bengalis with Hyderabadi accent! Devraj took us around the castle city and also sent me off with the Taal cassette tape! This music brought a new lease of life into my evening meal cooking time or simply after office hours!

Rupa & I, at the Heidelberg Castle, in the rain:)

Nils, my bubbly flat-mate had made fun of Aishwarya’s picture on the cassette-cover, “Indian girls make naked pictures? Are they not traditional?” I explained, “No, no, she is wearing skin coloured leotard!”

Nicole, my other flat-mate remarked on some instrumentation of one of the songs, probably ‘kanhin aag lage lag jaaye’… “This sounds like some European music I have heard before…” I had to say, “It is quite possible… Our film music has a lot of western influence…” But they all liked the whole album overall and I was in any case, very proud of our national treasure, A.R.Rehman. I probably left it for them before coming back, just like the red chilli powder requested by Frank my third flat-mate, along with other spices…

Frank, his grandma and sister Anne

Coming back to the song above, ‘taal se taal mila’, while for us Indians the rain is a wonderful phenomenon not just because we are an agricultural nation but also because it is a welcome change in the warm climate; whereas, for the westerners it is more of a hassle. So, when dancing and singing in the movies seem already funny to them, dancing in the rain must seem ridiculous! In their kind of cold weather, it is quite understandable. So, when during my Christmas invite at flat-mate and fellow AIESECer (Students Exchange organization), Frank’s parents’ place, after numerous questions whether to carry umbrellas by his younger sister Anne, Frank refused confidently, it was only natural that she gave it back to him when it rained heavily during our walk!

And I took a photo!:D 

Hope you enjoyed this:)

Smoked Baingan ka bharta, Mommy-style

Clicked by my brother at Botanical Gardens, Lucknow, circa 2004.

We miss the way people make us feel and she made me feel really special. Sharing today, my mother’s Baingan-ka-bharta recipe… My brother and I were planning to shoot the video but I was so tempted to cook and eat ASAP, and Bhai had a meeting to attend, so, we shall have to make do with my phone-photos. Here’s our favorite smoked bharta recipe... Hope you enjoy it too...

Smoked Baingan-ka-bharta:

Preparation & Cooking time: Total 20 mins.

Serves 3 people (We are voracious eaters of this dish)… We couple it with roTi/chapaati. Ideally we should have daal also, but we do not like anything to interfere with this favourite indulgence, not even coriander! The videos on youtube were also off today!

Ingredients:

2 large Brinjals

5 medium onions/ equal to more than the mass of brinjals

6 Green chillies (hot variety)

Half tea-spoon red chilli powder

Salt 2 teaspoons or to taste

A pinch of turmeric

Coriander leaves for garnishing

2 Table spoons Ghee or oil

Method:

1.       Slit brinjal on four sides to eliminate the possibility of worms, leaving the crown/top on.

2.       Roast the brinjals on open and low flame, carefully cooking it all over. The brinjal needs to leave skin and also become soft inside.

3.       In the meantime, you can chop onions while turning the brinjals around on flame (after every few seconds as the peel comes off), holding the crown.

4.       Keep roasted brinjals on a flat plate.  Now, press the water out of the brinjals by keeping some heavy vessel on them for 5 minutes.

5.       Chop green chilli. (You can also make roTis now if you want the bharta to be smoking hot, like I did).

Roasted, peeled, mashed brinjal

6.        Now, carefully allow to drop all the water from brinjals and take the burnt peels off them.

7.       In a round vessel, mash the brinjals with a fork. The top/crown can be very enjoyable so ensure the part close to it is also cooked well.

phulka/roTi

8.       Warm up ghee or oil in a wok.

9.       Saute onions for 2 seconds only. (We like the ‘khach-khach’ sound and taste of them in bharta!)

1.    Add red chilli, turmeric, mashed brinjal and green chilli and salt.

1.   Mix well, switch the stove off to keep the onions as firm as possible, garnish with chopped coriander and serve with roTi.

P.S. You could add tomatoes and ginger right after onions if you like but the smoked flavour would diminish...

My mother used to also make bharta with boiled brinjals… Then she would definitely add tomatoes, chopped green garlic leaves and also boiled peas.