delhi, Flora, flowers, photography, poetry, trees, Uncategorized

Being With God

March 27, 2023 Jasbir Chatterjee Leave a comment

Fallen Semal flowers, 26 March 2023, Delhi

Inspired by these pics I clicked recently, (see top), here’s my latest poem…

Being With God…

A big yellow orange Semal flower
Dropped from a tree
Into a little pool of water…

A ray of sunlight pierced through the tree,
Embracing it with its loving arms,
Making its orange-yellow hues
Glow with delight;
Oblivious to what lay ahead…

And then another yellow orange flower
Dropped from the tree
In the other corner, on the hard ground below.

A black, gleaming car ran over it
Turning it into a squishy patch
Of yellow-orange pulp…
Oblivious to the misery outside, A small group in a temple close by kept singing…

“Why fuss so much
About yourself, your wealth?
It will all go.
Only God’s name stays.
Be with God and keep glowing.

— Jasbir Chatterjee

delhi, recipes', Uncategorized

Alu-posto recipe, simple and quick

March 24, 2023 Jasbir Chatterjee Leave a comment

Alu-posto, cooked innovatively, March 2023

Just like the makke-di-roti-te-sarson-da-saag combo of Punjab, West Bengal too has a special combo, which is, bhaat-urad-dal-alu-posto. See the pic below.It is ideal during Delhi’s hot summer and what makes it special is the saunf (fennel seeds) tadka to dal with desi ghee and the poppy seeds (khus khus in Hindi, posto in Bengali) paste added to the alu (potatoes). When we eat them together, they leave behind a lovely feel-good feeling.

I recently discovered a short cut method of making alu-posto. In place of raw potatoes and posto paste, I used boiled potatoes and posto powder. I microwaved the posto first for a minute. After it cooled down, I turned it into a coarse powder in a mixer grinder. I added this along with some panchforum to the already browned potatoes in oil.

My cooking time was less, as I didn’t have to wait for the potatoes to soften and the posto paste to lose its moisture. My alu-posto dish, (pic on top), to my pleasant surprise, tasted just as good as the conventionally made one.

N.B.:

1. Poppy seeds are banned in many countries including UAE. In India, though they are expensive, they are easily available, thank God.😊

2. Use only 3-4 tablespoons of posto per dish.

3. Posto and Fennel help in digestion and cool the nerves.

4. I added some chana dal to urad dal during boiling to minimize the stickiness.

I googled about posto to check if anyone uses it the way I have explained here and I couldn’t find anything. So I have posted my version here.