Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Recipe-Lentil Lasagne


Ingredients:
Lasagne sheets
Grated mozarella or Parmesan

For the filling:
250g brown or green lentils
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 celery sticks, chopped
2 red peppers
250g mushrooms500ml tomato puree
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Instead of separate vegetables, you can also put mixed vegetables we get in the shop

For the bechamel sauce:
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp maida
2 cup milk
Salt and pepper to taste

Method:
Boil the lasagne sheets in a pan filled with boiling water, salt and oil. Drain and keep aside.

To make the filling, cook the lentils in a saucepan filled with boiling water for 15-20 minutes, or until ready. Drain out the water and set aside.
In a pan, heat olive oil and fry the onion and crushed garlic. Add the celery and cook for few minutes, and then add the red peppers and mushrooms and cook. Alternatively, you can add in the mixed vegetables and season well with salt and pepper. Add the tomato puree and cook for around 15-20 minutes.

To make the sauce, melt the butter in a pan and add the flour. Cook till there are no lumps of the flour. Then add the milk and keep stirring till it becomes a medium thick sauce.

To assemble the dish, place two the three spoons of the filling as the bottom layer in an ovenproof dish. Pour in a little bit of the bechamel sauce and cover it with two to three sheets of lasagne. Repeat the process for as many layers as required and season the top most layer, above the lasagne sheets, with grated cheese. If needed, you can grate cheese over each layer.

Bake in a preheated oven, 180 degree Celsius, gas mark 5 for 30 minutes, or until browned on the top.

Serve and have fun :P!!

Monday, January 2, 2012

How could she?

My parents and myself were driving this evening, when my father was telling us a story he heard in BBC radio this morning. A very beautiful woman from Iran, was traumatized by a man, by pouring acid on her face for rejecting his marriage proposal. Here is the report I got when I searched it on Google.

Personally I feel such punishments are required, so that next time a man picks up an acid bottle to throw it on a woman's face, he thinks a hundered times! But on another note, I also feel it wouldn't serve any purpose to the woman. What is lost is lost. Throwing acid on his face as well, will not bring back what she has lost, will it? But never the less it is a lot better that some punishment is better than the man roaming around, like a hero!

It seems in the radio programme, it was said that when the man was asked to apologize he refused to do so. He should be beaten to death so that he knows the intensity of what has occurred because of him. Personally, I don't really know how it would feel to have a burning face from acid, but I do know how life can turn upside down when a guy, whose proposal you have rejected, is bent on destroying and ruining your life. At the moment I too would love to do something to make the guy's life hell, but when I think about it deeply, probably I too would pardon him, because what is done is done.

So thought I would share it along with all of you.

A Letter for answers

Dear God,
You have been extremely kind with me for the past one year. Though, I should not miss out on the last few months, where you turned out to be a quite rude and arrogant. But I guess it was all to make me a lot stronger for the coming year. I know we do write love letters to each other, and I love you a lot, but this letter is a little bit formal, filled with a few questions, or should I say,,doubts from this lover of yours.

1) In my previous letter you had guided me through this problem. But despite chanting all possible prayers and closing my eyes to the maximum possible, why is it that on certain days I am unable to sleep in my bedroom? At the same time, when I go and sleep next to my parents, you carry me over to wonderland in no time.

2) You had asked me to cook my heart out during this vacation, and I did. I promise you I did. But why is it that chopping onions always, and I mean ALWAYS, make my eyes water? I have tried all methods. Keeping the onion in the refrigerator for some time, even keeping a match stick in my mouth. But it is not working! HELP...

3) You promised me you would take complete care of me and love me till the end, and you do keep up to that promise. But at times you seem to have completely forgotten all of that and you bring along people who have no other role in my life, but to hurt me. You know I am very happy with you by my side, and the most caring family and the most lovable friends. Then why bring along such people, who do not care about me, and about whom I do not care one bit?

4) You know luck is a very important thing for everyone. So why is it that you have given this very important ingredient to one cook in abundance, when the other person has not even a teaspoon of this? Don't they have to make their life sweet and sour as well? Same goes with money. Why is it that some people are heaped with so much money that they don't know what to do with it, while there are millions of people out there who don't even have the money to have three proper meals in a day?

5) Why is it that every time I love some one deeply and truly, you have to make it a point for them to break my heart?

P.S: I still love you a lot, and will be back to my old self in my next letter! Hoping for a reply soon :)!

Love,
A true lover.