Nostalgia...La Quinta Moments!

Today, after a l-o-n-g time, I found one dear colleague, on my orkut profile. (Thanks to Orkut/Google, I am able to keep in touch with my friends and colleagues.)

It was a pleasant surprise. Talking to him brought back memories of my two years with HSBC. I had a wonderful time...infact had it not been for marriage (read relocation) and my love I would not have quit.

Not that I am sad about it, just that I miss ( a teeny-weeny bit) working at times. All who know me, family and friends inclusive, are like...."Don't you get bored at home?"...."You are such an active person...how can you sit at home?"....."What do you do?"...."Don't you want to work?"...."Life must be so lonely when hubby leaves for work!"....etc etc.

NO, I do not feel lonely, or sad, or bored....I'm making good use of my time. Being at home doesn't mean idle (don't believe me..ask all home makers/home engineers) ! I am reading all that I wanted to but couldn't because of my work, painting, dancing, doing my bit for the society in the form of social service, catching up with old friends, spending time with my husband ( I just can't get enough of him...lol...you have to give it to me..its just been a little over a year of our marriage), giving myself an adrenalin rush with all the adventure sports like bungee jumping, sky diving etc (fyi-a couple of months back both of us did the world's highest bungee in Macau) , cooking (my passion) & photography and ofcourse blogging (my new found love) and my blogger friends across the globe. 24 hrs just aren't enough! ;-)

The 2006 thanksgiving and christmas I was in Florida. The place has fond memories, I met my love here, for the first time. (blush blush) ...lol

Anyways, I was staying at a hotel (La Quinta) with my group. There were five of us. Me being the youngest and the only girl in the group. It was fun. At times we wanted to have the yummy chaats etc. (you can't deny an Indian his/her chaat-pakodas)

It was one such evening, when we bought potatoes and sev to make papri chaat....and (ahem) champagne to innundate the spiciness and celebrate our efforts...lol.

I had microwaved the potatoes ( remember we were in a hotel...not much cooking appliances in the room) and used the papri mom had given me while leaving India. The chutney was brought by another colleague( Indians never leave home without food..lol). Onions by another...a pot-luck kinda thing.

The chaat was lip smackingly delicious. The result of all the effort was awesome, especially as we had little or no utensils/appliances.( I had used a swiss knife to chop the potatoes) :-)

Heres' the simple recipe-

PAAPRI-CHAAT

Ingredients-

2 medium sized boiled potatoes chopped in cubes, or ( cut the potatoes in half and microwave them in a bowl with some water for 3-4 mins)

1 medium red onion, chopped finely

1 medium sized tomato, diced

6-7 sprigs of coriander (half a bunch), finely chopped

salt to taste

3 tsp chaat masala

2 tsp fresh lemon juice

1 tsp oil (I used mustard, any cooking oil would do)

a pinch of red chilli powder or 1 green chilli minced

1 cup puffed rice ( called as 'moori' in bengali, 'murmure' in marathi, 'laai' in northern india)

10-15 papris (flattened crisp disc shaped flour fritters, mildly salty)

3 tbsp beaten curd mixed with 1 tsp of sugar

3 tsp imli chutney (tamarind sauce/dip)

sev (bhujia) for garnish ( a common indian tea-time snack)

Method-
In a bowl, mix well the potatoes, tomato, onion, coriander, a little salt, lemon juice,oil,minced green chilli/red chilli powder and chaat masala. Now add the puffed rice and mix well again.
Tip: We add the puffed rice at the end or else it will become soggy.
In a serving plate, layer the papris.
Spread the mixture we just made with puffed rice, on top of the papris.
Then, the next layer will be of the beaten curd with sugar.
Top it all with the imli chutney.
Garnish with sev.
Serve....yum yum...(my mouths' watering again.)

N.B. The papris, sev and imli chutney can be bought at Indian grocery stores.