Start of 2012: Agneepath

Hi friends,

It's already the month of April and 1/4th of 2012 is already gone....time is flying faster than ever!!  With that said, I haven't written a post in a long time...so here I am with some movie reviews that I have seen in the last 3 months.  I must say it was an interesting mix of movies watching Agneepath, then Kahaani, and finally Agent Vinod.  You might think different of each movie...but this is just my opinion with what I felt after watching the movie, so please don't be offended with this review.

Agneepath:
First of all, this movie was remake of 1990 blockbuster of Amitabh Bacchan's Agneepath.  Do not make comparisons because you will not find many (well, there are similarities but not that many)!!  The new movie is completely reworked to give a new look with eliminating one of the main characters from the old one, guess who?  Also it's totally violent and very bloody (It's not for kids), and has a very over-the-top climax, BUT I really liked it.  The performances by the star cast were phenomenon including Hrithik Roshan, Priyanka Chopra, Rishi Kapoor, and Sanjay Dutt.

Hrithik Roshan: He looks rough and tough :P...haha..no kidding.  His one punch can throw a goon miles away and his one look surely kills the ladiesssss in the theater without a doubt!!  He looks just too good.  The only negative comment I have for him is that he had no strong dialogues apart from the only line of "Mera naam - Vijay Dinanath Chauhan" unlike the old movie where Amitabh Bacchan's every dialogue would have the audience waah-waah and clapping.  I guess the director thought that Hrithik's looks will be enough to substitute for the old movie's dialogues :P....which works for me...but not for the Big B's fans, I guess!!

Priyanka Chopra:  She looks amazing in the Marathi look...I think this look really suits her.  She acts well and not over the top and that balances out her character and her role in the movie as well!!

Rishi Kapoor: I am a huge fan of Rishi Kapoor from childhood and have seen a lot of his movies.  I really feel that he had his own style in Bollywood and set his own league where his competitors were actors like Amitabh Bacchan and Vinod Khanna (two of the best actors of their era)!  Rishi Kapoor was par excellence as Rauf Lala and proves to be a versatile actor by giving stellar performance in a negative role.  He really surprised me with this villainary side of him!!

Sanjay Dutt: All I can say for him in this movie is, SCARY!!  His look may have been inspired by the Voldemort (from Happy Potter) but I think this Bollywood Kancha could give Voldemort run for his money!!  I don't think anyone else will even be considered to be put in the Best Villain category for 2012 alongside him because he stole the show!!

Overall, I really liked the movie and the songs are really good too, not to forget Katrina's Chikni Chameli is foot tapping along with Gun Gun Guna (very danceable), and Abhi Mujhme kahin (soft emotional with Sonu Nigam's touch - he is great with emotional songs).  Also the picturization of the song "Deva Shri Ganesha" is magnificent with huge idol of Ganeshji!!

Now, being said all that, old is gold and the old Agneepath will always remain the best (apart from some cinematography that was fantastic in the new one).  There are many reasons for that: 1) There was no Mithun Character in the new movie!! He was the soul of the old movie with his great comic timing. 2) Amitabh Bacchan had a persona, a personality that can speak a lot about Vijay Dinanath Chauhan and he owned each and every dialogue he said which made you believe that he is out for revenge!! AND 3) The new movie had a lot of blood-shed which was completely unnecessary and unrealistic!!  I mean over-the-top climax will make you say "did they really think we're stupid?"....how do they assume that the audience will believe that after being stabbed million times, and being punched by Sanjay dutt (I mean look at him, his one punch would throw you out of the country :P), Hrithik will not only have the energy to lift Sanjay Dutt, but his wounds will automatically heal when he is trying to hang Sanjay Dutt on a tree???  In my guess, Hrithik would have been dead the second he received a punch from our beloved Kancha!!  But that's Bollywood!!  Anything is possible :).

Agneepath is total entertainer and I recommend watching it if you don't mind the bloodshed...but don't watch it with your kids!! This movie set a great start to 2012!!

.....Next up is review of Kahaani

Stranger!

All of a sudden, it feels like I have become stranger to my own blog, sadly :(.  Work has really kept me busy and that's the reason I have not had any time to update the blog or write any new posts.  Time is really flying and we are already half way into March of 2012!! Can you believe it??  Just wanted to let the blog readers know that I am still around, and aware of the fact that the blog hasn't been updated in a long time, but hopefully I can return back to my regular blogging soon, at least write one post a month to keep up!! Well, that's it for now, will get back to you all soon :).

See ya!

Shahi Paneer - A different take!

Ok, so I am kind of behind on writing some of my posts and am trying to get to them one by one over this weekend.  So, I thought why not start with a food post since that's what I started my 2011 blog with.  I started my 2011 blog year with writing my experience of cooking Shahi Paneer and surprisingly, I will start 2012's blog post with Shahi Paneer as well, but with different take than the last one :).

Over a week ago, my brother wanted to try out Shahi Paneer and he found a recipe from online, I think it was showmethecurry.com.  The recipe was different from when I had tried it earlier (my earlier post: Shahi Paneer), but he wanted to try it and I liked their recipe as well, so we gave it a try.  We made some changes to the recipe to make it our own way, but it turned out great.  It was spicy and delicious!!!  The credit goes to my brother for finding the recipe and trying it out and I helped and supervised as needed.  Before I put the recipe, here is a picture of the Shahi Paneer we made :).

Home made Shahi Paneer

Ingredients:
Vegetables:
Tomatoes (3-4 medium size) or tomato sauce, Onions (1 big or 2 small), Garlic, Green Chillies (1 or 2 jalapenos)

Spices:
Red chili powder, Coriander powder, Cumin powder, Garam masala, Shredded ginger, Salt, Sugar

Other:
Cooking oil, Cashews (3/4th cup), Milk(1 cup), Water, Cilantro, Paneer(1/3rd of frozen 1 lb. paneer)

Preparation:
1) Soak cashews in milk for about 15 minutes.
2) Finely chop onions, green chilies, garlic and cilantro
3) Shred the ginger
4) Cook paneer in butter or oil, and once they turn slightly brownish, keep them aside.
5) Take the tomatoes (or tomato sauce), onions (3/4th), garlic, green chilies, ginger, and make puree from it.
6) Blend the cashews and milk until they smooth.

Process:
1) Heat oil on medium heat in a utensil
2) Add finely chopped onions and stir until they turn brownish
3) Add remaining chopped green chilies, and garlic and stir them
4) Add the onions/tomatoes puree to this mixture and stir everything together
5) Once the oil starts to separate from the mixture, add cumin powder, coriander powder, garam masala, and little bit of red chili powder
6) Mix everything and let it cook for 3-4 minutes.
7) Add cashew and milk mixture in this and mix well.There should be no lumps in the gravy!
8) At this point, if needed, add little bit of water to make more gravy
9) Add salt, and little bit of sugar and let the gravy come to boil
10) Taste the gravy and add any spices per taste if you feel if something is missing
11) Once the gravy comes to boil, add the paneer and mix well
12) Let it cook for another 2-4 minutes and turn off the heat
13) Garnish with cilantro or crushed cashews.
14) Be ready to eat this delicious dish!!!

Hope you enjoy this recipe and I am def. going to make it again since it turned out so good.  It wasn't even much time consuming!!  Have fun :)

Bye bye 2011, Welcome 2012!!!

First of all, let me start this post by wishing you all a very Happy New Year!!  I wish you all a colorful, joyful, successful, peaceful, and wonderful 2012 :D.  I feel that 2011 has just flown by but with lots of happenings, a lot of good , and some bad.  I just want to list some of those events to highlight my 2011 year and welcome the happy new year of 2012!

Starting with the best event of 2011 was the day which will be remembered forever, India winning the Cricket World Cup after 28 years.  It was my favorite world cup for sure since I followed it so closely.  That event followed by 2 of the next best things, me completing my MS course work successfully by presenting my MS project and  graduating with my MS degree, and second being my brother graduating with his bachelor's degree!!  Following that, I had one of my best vacations in Florida with my brother enjoying all 7 theme parks to the fullest.  Can't complain!  I made lots of new friends for life in 2011.  I also mastered in the field of cooking which was one of my main goals of 2011 and now I can call myself a decent cook :D.  All these things and many more (small and big) events have filled 2011 with lots of good memories.  But there are also times which you have no control over, which leave a bad mark on your mind, and I happen to experience one of these bad incidents when I got in a terrible car accident.  It left a bad image on my mind and left me very emotional about the whole thing for couple of weeks including a terrible ribs pain, but I was grateful and thankful for one thing and that is me walking out of it alive!  It was one of the worst experiences of my life that I might not forget but it is something I am leaving behind in 2011, carrying forward all the good memories.

With that said, I look forward to 2012 and wait for what it has in store for me!!  What about you guys?  Do you have any 2012 resolutions?  Hope you all had a great 2011 and have a fantastic 2012!!

Enjoy!

Happy Diwali and Happy New Year!!

Hey friends,

I want to wish all my family, friends, and blog readers a very Happy Diwali and a very Happy New Year.  Diwali is a festival of lights and may this Diwali and New Year lighten up your life with love, happiness, and lots of success :).

The Adventures of Tintin

I had read The Adventures of Tintin comic book long time ago, when I was in college, from a friend who had one of many stories of Tintin.  I really enjoyed reading it and not all comic books are fun and engaging but this one was!  After so many years, me and my friend got in a conversation which led to the discussion of how we both liked The adventures of tintin comic books.  My friend had read all of its books but I had just read maybe one or two stories.  So without further delay, I went to the library and got Volume 2 & 3 of The Adventures of Tintin comic books where each book contained 3 stories.  Volume 2 has The broken ear, The black island, and King Ottokar's sceptre stories whereas Volume 3 has The crab with the golden claws, The shooting star, and The secret of the Unicorn.  I also found out that there is a cartoon series of his books which is also fun to watch and might be quick to finish up instead of book :P..hehe.  However, beware that the cartoon stories are slightly different from the book series.  In fact, one of the book series that I watched online "The shooting star" is compressed in small version of cartoon series with only 20 minutes whereas the book story covers a lot.  Also, I found out that there is Tintin's movie coming out this December (The secret of the Unicorn), and after watching the cartoon series of the story, I definitely want to go see the movie.

Let me tell you little bit about Tintin and why I enjoyed reading the book so much.  First of all, Tintin is a mystery solver, smart, and intelligent, but also someone who invites trouble to himself.  He has a loyal and equally intelligent dog, snowy, who saves him when he has put himself in worse situations!!  In fact, snowy has better sense of humor than Tintin :).  I don't know how this guy manages to land himself in the unexpected places and situations and also get out of it without a hiccup (well there are definitely hiccups, but it's funny how he manages it).  Also I like how the location of each of his stories is in different parts of the world and even places where ghosts will be scared to go :P, but he stays brave, strong, and goes to any limit to reach to the evidence with snowy, following his master, even though he doesn't agree with Tintin all the time, but that poor dog has no choice!!

Well that's just my 2 cents of reading Tintin's comic books.  I will probably get some more volumes of the book to read so I can finish the complete set of The Adventures of Tintin :).

Bread & Green Chilies Pakoras

Bread pakoras, by far, have been the easiest recipe I have tried which has turned out to be really tasty and yummy snack!!  I have taken down the recipe from http://www.manjulaskitchen.com/2007/10/20/bread-pakora/ but made a minor addition.  Even though the recipe is on the site with video, I still want to give you guys my side of the recipe with an excellent alternate to bread pakoras which my mom suggested.

Ingredients:
- White bread (I used wheat bread since that's the one we use)
- 1 cup gram flour (besan - 1 cup is enough for only about 4 to 5 bread slices)
- 1 spoon rice flour (to add crisp to the pakoras.  If you don't have rice flour, meda works as a substitute.)
- 2 green chilies finely chopped (I used jalapeneo peppers)
- Cilantro finely chopped

Spices:
- salt
- pinch of asafetida (hing)
- 1 spoon cumin seeds (jeera)
- red chili powder

Other:
- Oil to fry the pakoras
- Water to mix in the batter

Process:
- I used 5 slices of bread
- Cut the crust from all sides of the slice
- Cut the bread in 2 equal pieces
- Mix all of the following: Gram flour (besan), rice flour, asafetida, cumin seeds, salt, and red chili powder.
- Add water to this mix to make it smoother.  Make sure you don't make it too liquidish but just enough to dip the bread slices in.
- In this mix, add green chilies, and cilantro and mix everything well.

Frying Process:
- In a frying pan heat the oil on medium heat.
- Once the oil is ready, dip the bread slices in the batter you just made one at a time and drop it into pan (slowly, so that you don't splash the hot oil).
- Put only 2 to 3 pakoras at a time in the pan (depending on the size of your pan).
- Turn them occationally and let them cook until they are brownish in color.
- Repeat this process until you have cooked all your pakoras.
- Your crispy, tasty, delicious pakoras are ready to eat.

Now about the excellent suggestion my mom made during the process of this pakoras.  Make the batter as described above but instead of bread, you can make pakoras out of green chilies (jalapeneo peppers).  Follow the process described below and you will have some mouth watering, spicy, and extremely delicious green chilies pakoras.

Green Chilies Pakoras Process:
Ingredients:
- 3 green chilies (jalapeneo peppers)
- coriander powder
- salt
- sugar

Process:
- Cut each jalapeneos in half from the center top and cut 2 to 3 big pieces (removing the middle white stuff and seeds)
- fill the pieces with coriander powder, little bit salt, and little bit sugar.
- Keeping it together, dip this mixture into the batter and fry it.
- Remove from the pan when they are cooked brownish.

Trust me....you will love these pakoras!!
Enjoy :)