Sunday, January 12, 2014

Vegetable Omelette for Breakfast

A good way to have share of both vitamins and protein on a Sunday morning

Ingredients*:
  • 3 Eggs
  • Vegetables (lots of sliced mushrooms, onions, red tomatoes, and green pepper).You could add more like red, yellow pepper, baby corn etc.
  • Freshly ground small piece of ginger  and few cloves of garlic (optional)
  • A small bunch of coriander leaves 
  • 1 tbsp oil (I use extra virgin olive oil)
  • Oregano, chilly flakes (I use extra generous amount) for garnishing, salt to taste
* portions for 1 omelette




Procedure:

  • Heat 1 tsp of olive oil in a pan, add few red chilli flakes and saute the diced onion, green pepper for couple of minutes
  • Add the remaining veggies (they cook quicker so add later - (mushroom/ tomatoes etc) and saute for another 4-5 mins. Set stuffing aside.
  • Heat a pan, sprinkle very less oil and spread the beaten eggs (add little salt while beating)
  • Turn over once bottom is sunny yellow and spread the precooked mushroom stuffing
  • Once other side cooked (takes 2-3 mins), roll the omelette to ensure stuffing doesn't spill out
  • Good to go!

South Indian Breakfast - Pesarattu

A request from a friend made me experiment with home made version of Pesarattu.

Ingredients:
  • 1 cup whole green moong
  • 1/4 cup of raw rice
  • A small piece of ginger (I use an extra generous amount)
  • A small bunch of coriander leaves 
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • 2 green chillies
  • 2 tbsp of oil, for the dosa while cooking
  • 1/4 cup of minced onions for garnish 




Procedure:


  • Soak the moong dal and rice together overnight. Grind together with rest of the ingredients (ginger, garlic, some of the coriander) and some salt + water. Consistency is the key: The batter should be little coarse and not too watery (a bit on the thicker side - more thicker than regular dosa batter)
  • Heat a pan and spread one ladle-full of batter into a dosa
  • Sprinkle some oil and spread the minced onions, coriander, green chillies on top
  • Cover it with a lid for few mins, turn over carefully once bottom side is golden borwn and again toast for few mins
  • Serve with ginger chutney/  pickle


Hampta Pass Trek Review

Hampta Pass Trek review

This is account based on Sep 29th batch, and a trek review would vary largely based on the time of the year you undertake it. 

Apart from common takeaways of every trek like meeting diverse set of people, making great friends and other learning one gets (which in itself can be another article :)), below points are restricted to only Hampta Pass specific points.
Top 5 pros of the trek:
1. A good trek to start with for non- experienced trekkers.  Relatively  easier of the Himalayan multi-day treks. Distance per day being only 6-8kms (except pass crossing day at ~12kms)
2. Altitude gains and drops are not very drastic but gradual making it easy to acclimatize.
3.  Terrain is easily manageable with basic fitness. No technical expertise needed (atleast in conditions witnessed in Sep/Oct).
4. Visit to the hidden blue jewel of Chandertaal Lake in the Spiti and Chandra valleys, is definitely a big bonus in this trek
5. Accessibility is a plus point, one can conveniently reach Manali with good overnight bus connectivity from Delhi & Chandigarh. One can ofcourse sight see around Manali or even extend trip to cover Lahaul Spiti on own as last day of trek serves as gateway to this region.

Top 3 cons:
1. The trek is rugged for most patches and you just wish there were less boulders.
2. Landscapes are pretty much monochrome in brown & barren (at this time of the year), thus leaves one yearning for more twists or breathtaking moments as one can find in lot of other treks.
3. Leaves a nature lover slightly disappointed due to lesser variety of fauna and almost absence of flora. Heard valley is in bloom in Jul/ Aug though.

Album up here.


-Neeta Dixit
Hampta Pass batch, Sep/Oct 2013.

Year 2013 in Travel

Jan - Mumbai
Feb - Hyderabad,Gwalior, Agra
Apr - Amritsar, Hyderabad
May - :(
Jun - Hyderabad
Jul - MumbaiLadakh
Aug - :(
Sep - Bangkok
Oct - Hampta Pass, Nashik
Nov - Hyderabad
Dec - Jim Corbett National Park, Hyderabad, Mumbai