Poha

I abslutely adore Poha. It's spicy, it has potatoes, what's not to love? Poha are flattened rice flakes. I'd never heard of them before I started cooking Indian food, but Poha can be found at your local Indian or international grocery store.

Ingredients:

• 1 c Poha*
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1-2 green chilies
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 2 tsp tumeric powder
• 1 tbsp oil
• 1 large potato, cut into bite size pieces
• 2 limes
• salt to taste

Like I mentioned, Poha is flattened rice flakes. I've seen the store selling two kinds. Thick and thin. I honestly don't know the difference, but I always buy the thick kind!

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a pan with high sides. Once hot add the cumin and mustard seeds.

2. When the seeds start to pop, add the onion and green chilies. Cook until onions are translucent.

3. Add tumeric powder and cook a minute longer.

4. Add potato pieces and stir well to distribute the tumeric powder. If the pan seems a little dry you can add a little more oil. Keep an eye on this and stir every so often so it doesn't stick to the bottom.

5. While the potato's are cooking, dump your poha into a colander and rinse in water. Let it sit for at least five minutes (just wet from the rinse, not soaking).

6. Once the potato's are fork tender add the poha and let it cook for an additional five minutes. Squeeze in the juice of one lime and add salt to taste.

Your poha is ready! It is best eaten with some toppings. We add peanuts (that have been fried!), pyaaz (onion with lime juice added), and bhujia (they're like little crispy sticks). There are different kinds of bhujia you can buy as well!

Valentine's Day 2015

We had quite a lovely Valentines Day this year. Raj was in India for a month for his sister's wedding and to visit with his family. He got home on February 13th. Just in time!

Even though we live in Indianapolis, we make the long trek to Chicago O'Hare because he can fly out cheaper from there. We decided that instead of rushing back home that Friday, we would just stay in Chicago and spend our V-Day there!

I picked Raj up around 3 p.m. It was SO wonderful to FINALLY see him after a whole month. That was the longest we had been separated since we started dating. It's kind of a weird feeling at first, but we quickly got over that and was right back to normal!

Raj had booked us a nice hotel. We decided that since we were in Chicago, it was probably best to do our V-Day dinner that Friday instead of trying to fight the crowds on the actual 14th.

We went to Giordano's for some deep dish pizza (and margaritas!). Raj and I agree that it was the best pizza we'd ever eaten in our lives.

We decided on a medium deep dish with BBQ chicken and green peppers. OM NOM NOM. This made for amazing cold leftovers the next day.

After dinner we decided to go back to the hotel. Raj was pretty jet lagged and I was impressed he was even able to go out for dinner that night.

So, the actual V-Day was no less spectacular! Raj took me to the Willis Tower (previously known as Sears Tower). At first I wasn't too thrilled. I mean it didn't sound all too exciting, but I rather enjoyed myself. Aside from being ridiculously cold, we had a great time!

After that we spent a little time on Devon Street (otherwise known as "Little India". I'd never been and it was really cool seeing all the Sari shops and stores that sold Hindi movies. I finally got a marble chakla. The man selling it to us was like "you roll chapatti?" hahaha! If only he knew!

Then we had to make the looooong drive back home, but a three hour car ride with Raj after a month apart is nothing to complain about! =)

Dahi (yogurt)

When I first learned you could make yogurt at home I was mind-blown. I was even more mind-blown when I realized how ridiculously easy it is! While I am still learning to like this plain yogurt (I'm so addicted to my favored Chobani yogurt!) Raj loves it!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 gallon whole milk*
• 1/4 c. plain yogurt

It's very important that you use whole fat milk for this recipe. I've never tried using anything like 2%, but from what I've heard you shouldn't.

Directions:

1. Pour milk into a heavy bottom pot. 

2. Bring milk to a boil on medium heat. Stir it every so often. Be careful not to scald the milk, or let it boil for to long! As soon as it starts boiling and a foam appears, take it off the heat. 

3. Keeping the milk in the same pot, let it cool down until it is warm. This is very important, you don't want it to be too hot when you add the yogurt. 

4. Add the 1/4 c yogurt, and just stir until it's mixed. You may have to use store bought yogurt for the first time to get this started, but once you've made your own yogurt you can just use the last bit that's left to make a new batch!

5. Now all you have to do is wait. You want to store the yogurt some place warm. When it's really cold outside, I may set my oven to "warm" or the lowest setting and turn it off once your milk starts to boil. You want to store your yogurt somewhere warm.

6. Check your yogurt after about four hours, if it is solid, place it in the fridge until cold. If it's still liquid, just place it back in it's warm place (sometimes this process can take me up to eight hours).

I should have snapped a photo before digging in!

There you have it! Yogurt! The liquid is normal, don't mind it. I'm not sure if it's alright to drain it, but Raj likes for me to leave it in. 

You can leave it plain, which goes very well with Indian food, or you can even add flavor! I bet it would be good with a blueberry compote mixed in, or fresh fruit!

Enjoy =)

Indian Weddings are Beautiful pt. 2

I've been struggling to find words to go along with this post. Raj has been sending my photos of his sisters wedding and I so wanted to use them. Again, I still know so little about the tradition behind a Sikh wedding (and Raj acts like he hardly knows either!) that I'm afraid I can't be too insightful. What I can do, however, is share some beautiful photos! If you have questions please ask and I will do my best to find you an answer!

Such a beautiful dress, and an even more beautiful bride!

Raj's mom and dad!

Who could this dashing man be?!

Off to the honeymoon!

This was an arranged marriage. One of my earlier post talked about a love marriage and an arranged marriage. My next post I'll be talking about my thoughts on an arranged marriage! I hope you enjoyed these beautiful photos!

Indian Weddings are Beautiful pt. 1

I'd been sitting on this one for some time now. I don't yet know just enough about Indian Sikh weddings to write a detailed post, yet the photos from my Raj's sisters wedding are just too gorgeous. Over the next couple of days I'll mostly be sharing photos with tid bits of information that I do know about them.

So today, I'm sharing photos of Raj's sister getting her Mehndi done. Mehndi, what the heck is that? Well if you're an American you've probably seen booths at fairs offering Henna tattoos, it's very similar. From what I understand, there are other celebrations where mehndi may be applied, but its quite common during your wedding. Mehndi is a paste that is applied in eleborate patterns all over the hands, arms, legs, and feet.

Look closely at her hands, you'll find all the letters to spell out Ishneh, the name of the groom.

So beautiful right?!

This can stain the skin for many, many days. I've also heard that some think if it stains real dark, your husband will love you more. I hope since I'm white mine will come out super dark! Ha!

It's also not just the bride who has this done. She will have hers done more elaborately, but other members of the family will get it done also

Raj's mom and dad!