Thursday 31 May 2007

The Salon Comes to the House

Mama, Aunt Sybil and I needed hair cuts so we called our door to door barber over. He did the job for a fraction of what we would have to pay at the beauty parlour.When my sisters and niece were here last summer they went to a swanky salon and paid Rs 250 for a haircut. I tipped the barber just Rs 25 for all of us. I 'll put the pictures out once I 'm done with the film.
There was a time I could afford the stylish salon, but now I can 't so what 's the big deal.Paul says be content in whatsoever circumstance you 're in...whether it be plenty or little.Hurray!

BEAT THE HEAT Part 2
We have other homemade concoctions to keep cool in the summer.There 's a mango drink called panna. You wash and boil green mangoes, with the skin on. After they are soft. Cool them. Discard the skin and seed and put the soft flesh in a pan, add a little water , sugar according to your taste, roasted cumin powder, little salt and a few mint leaves and simmer for a while . Make sure the mango pulp is well blended with the water. The liquid should be of a thin consistency.Strain the drink. Cool and chill. Serve with ice. Its really refreshing and energizing. Try it people. Its a hit here.If you can 't get cumin powder don 't worry you can leave that out.Try Indian shops.
The other drink is called sattu. (Hope I 'm not boring you) Comes from the Hindi word saat which means seven. Its a drink made from the powder of 7 grains. You take equal amounts of wheat,barley,millet,oats (cereal),chickpeas,corn and soy beans and grind them in a heavy duty food processor.We get the sattu powder ready made in the shops so we don 't have to grind it. In the West the Indian shops might have it.
If you want to have it as a breakfast dish, you can mix the sattu with milk or water ,the consistency should be thick. Add chopped fruit and dry fruit of your choice and honey or sugar and dig in. You can chill it too.I 'd like a little lemon juice with it.
Sattu can be had like a sherbet. Just add enough water , sugar or honey and I 'd put in lemon juice for added flavor chill, top with ice cubes and serve.
Its good for health too and they give it to nursing infants.Later on I 'll tell you about lassi, a cool drink made with plain yogurt.
Today the electricity is playing hide and seek. In the past 3 hours we 've had 4 or 5 outages. Very frustrating as I have to shut down the system and restart it each time. Flintstones where are you?
They are airing the Indian version of "The biggest Loser" show on one of our channels.There are 2 Christian heavy weights on it. One is a professed atheist and the other Robin Solomon is a born again believer.
They had the Indian version of Big brother too, which I found rather distasteful most of the time, specially when people got into each other 's faces and under their skin.They were the worst examples of humanity according to me and I think children and teens ( anyone of an impressionable age) should not be allowed to watch it.My mama has great sympathy for a disgusting cabaret dancer called an item girl in
India. I feel she is the lowest form of human life. Look what the show did to my nice mama!

3 Fertilize my soul:

Rebecca said...

Believe it or not, I have never watched any form of Big Brother...don't know why other than I am not interested in reality tv. I have enough reality to deal with in my own life!!! I am very interested in your recipes though...if it ever gets hot here I will be sure to be out to the shops to buy some magoes to keep my Dad cool!!! Waiting for your answers...hmmmmmmmm

Janet Jeyapaul said...

I love the recipes ... with mint and mango it must be yummy..here in Chennai the Christian community indulges in water to wine concotions ...grape juice is popular .. my cousin Cynthia who also takes taftee with me bottles up grape juice by the dozen... talk about being sober ..:)love JJ

pai said...

definitely will have to check out the recipes. i'm hoping i can find the sattu at a local asian market. if not - i'll search the internet.