There IS Butter in Butter Chicken

Murg Makhani.  I think of it as the heartstone of Northern Indian cuisine.  If you're non-veg, of course.  I couldn't leave India without having Abdul show me how to make it.  I'm not sure I'll be able to replicate it at home, but I'll make a valiant effort.

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Butter Chicken

for 3 people

Marinade:

150 grams of curd (plain yogurt)

Red chili powder

Haldi powder (tumeric)

Garam masala powder

Dhania powder (coriander)

Chat masala

1 tsp Mustard oil 

Salt to taste

1 T Ginger garlic paste

Hang the curt to filter out the water and add all of the spices and other ingredients.  Mix 200 grams boneless chicken into the marinade and hold in the refridgerator for 2 hours.  Heat oven to 200 C and bake the chicken for 30 minutes.  Cut chicken into pieces.

Gravy:

First step: Onion puree

• 3 Onions
  

Cut the onion into thin slices and fry until brown.  Puree using a food processor.

Second step: Tomato puree (with kaju broken and magaj)

• 5 tomatoes
  
• 2 tsp broken cashew nut
  
• 1 tsp magaj (musk melon seeds)
  

Puree the tomato, cashews, and magaj.  I've seen Abdul mix these ingredients in a blender either before or after cooking them.  Also, the musk melon seeds are not required, according to Abdul and Preeti.  However, if you use all cashews, they tend to be a little sweet.  Since the nuts function as a thickening agent, you can use an alternate, less sweet nut.  We were thinking that pine nuts or sunflower seeds might work.

Third Step: Assemble & Cook Gravy

• 1 T ginger garlic paste
  
• 1 T refined oil
  
• 1 T butter
• 100 grams milk
  
• Cream for garnish
  
• All Indian spices
  
• 2 cardamom pods
• 2 cloves
• 2 bay leaves
• Fresh coriander leaves (cilantro)

Take a pan and add oil.  Add 2 cardamom pods, 2 cloves, and 2 bay leaves.  Add garlic ginger paste and sautee until brown.  Add mixture from Step 2 (tomato puree).  Sautee for 10 minutes.  Add 'all Indian spices' and the brown onion puree and cook well for 5 minutes.  Add the milk and butter, chicken pieces, and salt to tast.  Garnish with cream and fresh coriander leaves and serve.

Up Toward Mountains Higher

Princess Shannon has returned to India.  I (sorta accidentally) decided to give her a taste of life as I know it for the first part of her trip.  Darjeeling and Sikkim were two of the few places on my A list that I hadn't been to yet, so I roped Shannon into tagging along.  In discussing these plans with my colleagues in Hyderabad, I miraculously acquired another 5 people: Gina, plus Kate and Angela; Anup, plus his friend Apu.  It made for a nice-sized group to go and explore the wonders of India's northeastern provinces, and it definitely gave Shans a taste of what life as an expat has been like.

We flew to Badogra, which is the closest airport to both Darjeeling and Sikkim, and met up with a driver to take us up into the mountains.  As per the Indian norm, it was not without problems.  First our hotel was taken over by some visiting dignitary, so at the last minute, we were notified we'd be staying somewhere else.  Then, once we got there, our driver somehow managed to be standing outside this very tiny airport for the better part of an hour and still miss the crowd of 5 occidentals and 2 NRIs clustered at the entrance.  My expectation of and tolerance for these road bumps has increased mightily over the past year and a half.  I think, in many ways, this is a gift of patience that India has given me.  Forever more, I will roll with the punches just a little bit better, plan alternatives just a little more thoroughly, and know when I should insist that much more firmly.

Darjeeling was our first stop.  Perched at the top of a series of very windy roads into the mountain, it offers mist-covered views of the tea plantations and unbelievably beautiful glimpses of the Himalayan peaks, especially Kanchenjunga.  The ride up the mountain, though a little windy for those in the group who were on their first Indian road trip, was fairly uneventful.  We climbed through the lowlands, up into the tree line, passing temples and prayer flags hung through the trees, eventually driving alongside the famous toy train as it chugged its way up the mountain.  Amongst all of this peace and beauty, Shannon took a moment to wave at some kids by the side of the road.  Normally, this type of gesture is greeted with smiles and shy waves back, but this time, oh no....  One of the little boys, probably about 7 or 8 years old, stepped into the road behind our car and proceeded to thrust his hips at Shannon, miming that he was stroking himself.  Oh yeah, a little Darjeeling porn on our way up the mountain....super funny.  We all about died laughing.  Even the Indians amongst us said they'd never seen a kid do that in India.  See the beauty that Western cultures bring to the Eastern world?

While I don't think that the Viceroy Hotel should have been the same price as our original booking at the Elgin, it was completely serviceable.  Clean, neat, very helpful staff and a great location on the main mall.  In Northern India, the proximity to Tibet means you'll find at least two things in all of these Himalayan towns - monks and momos.  For our first dinner in Darjeeling, we decided to go in search of the latter and had an amazing meal of momos and thukpa at Kunga Restaurant, a Tibetan joint on the main road in Darjeeling.  We then wandered into town for the cheapest drinks ever at a local bar.  A weekend away in one of India's hill stations forces you to slow down a bit, enjoy the company of those you're with, appreciate nature and the much-cooler air, soak of the spirituality of its holy places, and just do everything at a much more leisurely pace.  It is good for the soul.

For our second day in Darjeeling, we headed out to see the sights and eventually to search for the local speciality - tea, of course!  We visited the Japanese peace stupa for some impromptu drumming practice and gorgeous views of both the stupa and the mountains in the distance. Darjeeling, like Leh has a heavy Tibetan influence, so we were able to visit one of the local monasteries; Shannon worked on spinning the prayer wheels and Anup got down with the people, the monk people, that is.  We then moved on to the Darjeeling Zoo and the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute - highlights were the whomping leopard sex, which I heard but missed seeing, and the sherpa practicum going on in the courtyard at the Institute, which I also managed to just miss, being absorbed in all of the tales of men lost to Everest over the years.  Gina assures me that both the sex and the sherpas were spectacular.  

After our animal adventures, we spent a significant amount of time and joke material trying to find this restaurant called the "Hot Stimulating Cafe," which apparently exists, but we definitely could not find.  In the meantime, we headed out to the tea plantations and the Tibetan Refugee Center.  I think many of us, being native or imported Californians, were thinking that tea plantations would follow the wine-tasting model, but au contrare.  We definitely got an up-close-and-personal view of the tea bushes, which look rather like boxwood, but there was no 'tasting room' to be had.  The refugee center wasn't as spectacular as the Norbulingka Institute in Dharamsala, but we managed to amuse ourselves watching the little kids play, and Anup even found a pick-up game of basketball - again, one with the people.  We hit The Elgin, where we were supposed to be staying, for high tea and had a very nice respite, along with our first taste of true Darjeeling tea.  Inspired, we headed back to the main road in Darjeeling to Nathmull's, and spent the better part of an hour sniffing and sampling white, black and green teas.  Apparently, one doesn't go to the tea, but rather has the tea brought to one. . . ah hah.

We hit the hay pretty early that night; matter of fact, Shannon didn't even rally for dinner.  At 4:30am, we were headed for Tiger Hill to catch the sun rising over the Himalayas.  There was much discussion as to whether the whole party would make it out at that ungodly hour or not, but we did.  Out, and all the way up to the top of the hill. . . . the very foggy, prayer-flag-swathed, and overcrowded hill.  As a native of Aptos, the fog made me feel right at home, but it wasn't so good for seeing the mountain range.  Our conversation went something like this:

Apu: Look! There's the mountain range

(all of us squint in the direction he's pointing)

Anup: Dude, those are just clouds.

Apu: Triangular clouds?

Me: Well, maybe I see the mountains. . . maybe. . . Yeah, I think I do!

Apu: (to Anup) See?!

Me: . . . Or maybe I don't. . . ?

And so on, and so forth. . . .

In the end, even with photo-enhancing software, I got nothing, not even triangular clouds.  I finally resorted to buying photos that were being sold from mornings where you could actually see the mountains.  And, of course, the day before was much better, supposedly.  But, hey - who can complain too much about an early-morning chai call with good company?  We would have been bummed if we hadn't tried.  After breakfast back at the Viceroy, our little party had to break up as Gina, Kate, and Angela headed back down the mountain and home to Hyderabad, and Apu, Anup, Shannon and I continued on to Sikkim.

The drive to Sikkim was beautiful.  I have come to love the Himalayan foothills for all of their fog and greenery, and for the degree to which they feel like home.  We saw a tourism poster for Sikkim that said "the Switzerland of the East," and that's a pretty fair description.  Steep mountains with stepped fields cascade into gorges filled with tumbling rapids.  In the lowlands, it is hot; up higher, it is misty and cool.  All of the architecture is steeply vertical, made to shed the elements.  Shannon and I only had a very brief day 24 hours or so in Sikkim, but it was still enough to get a taste of this lovely Indian state.  Highlights include:

• Getting a passport stamp, even though this is still India (?!)
• The hotel hook-up from Apu's friend, that ended up being a definitely B-grade option
• Gambling in Sikkim's first-ever casino for Shannon's birthday (and losing...wahhhh!)
• The human traffic lights (seriously?)
• The boys and their 'over-under' madness and preferring to sleep on the loveseat rather than together
• The beautiful pedestrian mall in front of our hotel that my friend William's dad helped to design
• Buying Dad a Nepali hat in the market, and taking a picture of how to wear it
• Visiting Rumtek monastery
• Shannon almost wetting herself on the way down the mountain - when will that girl learn that in India, it is unwise to drink multiple liters of water on road trips?

And then we're back in Badogra, and headed off to Kolkata!

Channeling Rosa Parks in Hampi

At the end of March, I went to Hyderabad for work and decided to make another attempt at going to Hampi (the last time, it was flooded).  Gina agreed to go with me, so on Friday night, we hopped an overnight train and headed south.  We had second-class AC sleeper tickets, so the berths were pretty nice and there was a very nice older Muslim couple who traveled with us and were very sweet.  They thankfully helped us tell the porter to wake us up in Hospet, so that we didn't keep going onward with the train.  This boiled down to us getting woken up and hustled out onto the platform at about 5:15am, but still, better than the alternative.  We caught a rickshaw and headed into the town of Hampi, still at dark o'clock.  Although he asked us which side of the river we were staying on, the rickshaw driver elected not to drop us there.  Apparently, it was easier to put us on the more populated side, but that was a pretty big bummer for us as we arrived a little before 6am and the ferry to our hotel didn't start running until 7.  Even though it was early for the restaurants too, we decided to go and wait at The Mango Tree until they opened.  We woke up the whole place once we got there; about ten people who work at the restaurant were sleeping on cots and mats in the courtyard.  They were very generous in welcoming us in and making us chai while they got the restaurant up and running.  I consequently loved the place.  Chai and hot breakfast before you're even supposed to be open - that is the way to my heart.

After breakfast, it was late enough to go back to the ferry and catch a ride across the river.  The river itself doesn't look big enough to require a boat, but it just barely is - especially with luggage.  We wound our way up the bank and through the sugarcane fields to our hotel, only to find out that they didn't have the AC room that we booked.  Since only one or two hotels in all of Hampi have AC, I was willing to compromise on a room with a fan and a non-working AC unit, and the hope that the manager would lower the rate to non-AC for us.  We got cleaned up, dumped our stuff and headed back across the river to see the temples in town.

Have I mentioned yet that Hampi was hot?  Like really, very, very, hot.  Like watering-all-the-time hot.  Consequently, our tour of the ruins was a bit laborious.  We spent most of the afternoon going to two of the three main temple groups in town.  We had a very nice vegetarian buffet lunch at one of the state tourist hotels and wrapped up our sightseeing about 3pm.  At this point, we started to get a glimmer of an idea.  First, it was hotter than schmuck.  Second, we had seen all of the most-famous monuments and weren't sure if there was much more worth seeing.  Third, if we took a night bus or train on Saturday night, we'd be back in Hyderabad in time for Sunday brunch with Jen on her last day, and a massage at Tangerine.  Hmmmm.....

I'm sure it's no surprise that we elected to go for an overnight AC bus to get home faster.  We were able to get the last two AC reserved seats, and so thought we were all set to head home.  I really should have known better, I mean really.  Traveling in India pretty much defines Murphy's Law on a regular basis, but I still make the mistake sometimes of expecting something different.  When we got back to our hotel we checked out and offered to pay the AC rate for the room.  Not only did they refuse to lower the rate, they also refused to acknowledge that there ever were posted AC rates, even though there was a defunct air conditioner in our room.  In the end, I didn't have time to argue.  I reversed the charges, after way too long on hold with both Make My Trip and Capital One, and we went on our merry way.  We hit Mango Tree up for one last meal, and then headed into town to catch our bus.

And this is where the fun really begins.... In hindsight, we decided what happened was that they overbooked the AC section of the bus and basically picked on the two foreigners as the most likely to be easy to screw over.  In any case, we go to get on the bus and the guy trys to walk us into the non-AC section of the bus.  We protest.  He insists we have non-AC tickets.  By comparing prices with a few other folks, we become sure that we paid for AC reserved.  Gina sits down in the AC section and refuses to move (go Gina!).  I contemplate getting off the bus to call the travel agent, as the man insists I should.  Gina says no dice - they might leave without us.  So, we sit down and refuse to move, Rosa Parks-style.  The two bus dudes yell at us a bunch and then try to 'refund' the difference in the ticket price so that we'll move.  We say 'no way' offer that to one of the other passengers and see if they take it.  Sure enough, they don't even bother because nobody would.  Then they try to get us to move to a full sleeper bus, supposedly Hyderabad bound as well.  Gina says, bad idea, who knows where it's really going.  So we refuse to budge again.  Bottom line - it worked.  At least to get us as far as Hyderabad.  We didn't sleep all that well - I kept thinking we'd get thrown off the bus at some point and the "AC" was intermittent.  But, we got to Hyderabad.  We ended up being the last ones on the bus, so rather than doing the last stop in Hi-Tech City like they were supposed to, they pulled off at a random intersection and told us to get off the bus and take an auto rickshaw.  In the melee that ensued, I left my Blackberry on the bus, so between all of the irritation and the lost equipment, I think the lying, thieving bus wallahs got the better of us.  After a half dozen aborted auto rickshaw negotiations, we finally got one to drop us across the street from the company apartments at Jayabheri.  Whew.

Brunch at Novotel and a massage at Tangerine did a lot to soothe my jangled nerves.  I had another saga trying to get my flight changed because for some odd reason, Kingfisher decided not to take any international credit cards, save Amex, that day.  I actually had to call my daddy and borrow his credit card for a fifteen dollar charge, if you can believe it.  However, in the end it all worked out and we got home safe and sound and were mildly soothed by our relaxing Sunday afternoon.

The sum-up on Hampi:  Don't go in anything that approximates a Spring or Summer month - Winter is where it's at.  Take the train both ways.  No lying, cheating, bus wallahs.  The ruins are beautiful, but they're fairly weathered.  Unless you really, really love hippi backpacker towns, you might want to spend your India travel time elsewhere.  I'm glad I went; I would have wondered otherwise.  And, Gina is a great travel buddy - I never would have channeled Rosa Parks on my own without her.

Cookin' With Abdul

Before I came to India, my biggest exposure to Indian food had been going to Indian buffet with Marilyn and Nader.  Since most of these buffet's don't really spend time on labeling the food accurately, nine times out of ten, I had no idea what I was eating.  Consequently, my entire experience of Indian food was a nameless but tasty assault on the senses, limited to the Walnut Creek and Concord Indian diaspora.  Adjusting to the onslaught of spices was surprisingly easy, with occasional re-sets of the palate at Sunday brunch.  I've come to love the food and I know I would miss it terribly and be crushed if I could replicate some of the dishes.  Consequently, I've asked Abdul, our cook, to teach me to make some of my favorites.  He loves an audience and has been very generous in sharing both his kitchen and his recipes.  Here's the first in what I hope will be a series -- Baigan Bharta, or as Aarif likes to call it "Megan Bharta."

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Baigan Bharta

for 5 people

500 gm baigan (eggplant)

1 T chopped garlic

1 chopped onion

1 chopped in tomato

1 chopped green chili

1 T garlic-ginger paste (see separate instructions)

100 gm chopped fresh coriander leaves (cilantro)

100 gm curd (plain yogurt)

vegetable oil

"All Indian spices" = garam masala powder, tumeric powder, coriander powder, red chili powder, cumin powder, dry Fenugreek leaves, whole cumin

Salt to taste

Cut the eggplant in half and fry until cooked well, then blanch the skin, [peel] and finely chop the meat.  As an alternate to frying the eggplant, you can also cook or roast the eggplant in the oven, and then to proceed to peel and chop. Mix the plain yogurt into the chopped eggplant and set aside.

Take a pan and add 1 teaspoon whole cumin, chopped garlic, chopped green chili.  Sautee mixture in oil until brown.  Add the onion and sautee until brown.  Add ginger-garlic paste, sautee 2 minutes and add chopped tomato.  Cook well for 5 minutes and add the eggplant mixture.  Add all Indian spices [approximately 1/2 tsp each] and garnish with fresh chopped coriander.  Sautee 15 minutes until cooked very well.  

Notes:

This mixture can sit for some time after it's prepared.  I've seen Abdul strain it through a fine sieve to drain off excess oil before he serves it.  Although he doesn't mention it in the recipe, Abdul usually adds the same amount of salt as the other spices, so ~1/2 tsp.  This is generally a side dish, served with fresh chapati or roti.

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Garlic Ginger Paste

200 gm fresh ginger

200 gm fresh garlic

Peel the ginger and garlic and cut both into small pieces.  Add a little bit of water and blend in a grinder or food processor.  The end result should be a thick paste, which can be kept in a covered dish in the refrigerator.  

Rishikesh, Part Deaux - Some things are even better the second time

I am woefully behind now (officially) on my blog.  Please bear with me as I update, because the last 6 weeks have been fraught with travel...and, the stories are good, so it should be worth the wait, I hope!

. . .

After Holi, we planned a trip to Rishikesh as the Q1 expats' swan song in India.  For me and Austin, it was the second go 'round, but for the others, it was all new.  I am SO glad that we signed on for the do-over.  We ended up with a good-sized group, nine of us, with guest appearances by Anupam from Hyderabad and Arjun, our visa-seeking roommate.  Austin did a fabulous job of planning (of course) and booked us with a really great rafting company, called DNA.  They took us on a 36km run down the Ganges with both Class IV and Class III rapids.  It was super fun.  The company was fantastic, the rapids were challenging, but we didn't flip the boat and everyone had a great time.  Mission accomplished.  And... I got a repeat on my beloved "burrotos" and "quesandillas" at the Ganga Guest House restaurant.  True Bliss - quasi-Mexican food in India is not to be taken lightly; it must be savored and appreciated, which is exactly what we did.  On Sunday, on our way home, half of us stopped in Haridwar to see the Hindu temples and part of the nightly puja ceremony.  The temples were extravagant - beautiful and a little terrifying, with lots of bloody dioramas and gorgeous mosaics.  The puja, even the little we saw of it, was pretty tremendous too.  Thousands of the faithful, bathing in the Ganges, leaf boats full of flowers, incense and candles to be floated on the river, and a hundred different ceremonies being conducted at once.  Just another quiet evening in Haridwar.

This is one of the few trips in India that I've done twice, but that's because it's well worth it.  I love the cold water and warm sun in Rishikesh.  The rapids are so much fun.  This time, the water was aqua-blue since the snow hadn't yet started to melt, and doing the longer rafting run was awesome.  I loved seeing the ceremony in Haridwar as well; it feels like a privilege to be able to participate in someone else's faith so directly and without any qualification.  And, there were lots of funny stories this time too... you have to love road trips - constant stand-up fodder, truly:  Gina declaring me the best bed-buddy ever (mainly because I sleep like a log) and the subsequent torrent of naughty jokes from both Gina and Anupam; Devindar stopping at 2am on a bridge over the Ganges and handing me a 2 rupee coin to toss into the river and "pray for a good husband, and quick;" finding beers in a dry town and having drinks with our guides, Eddie and Buphi; the mysterious monkey-chasing incident that left Devindar with three chipped teeth and a lead foot all the way home; and Sherry leaving her t-shirt and bra in the car, only to be returned by the very sheepish drivers weeks later, and with many giggles.  Ahh, India.

And, I must end with a shout-out to the Travel Dream Team - my roommates and colleagues are some of the best co-adventurers a girl could ask for.  Any time you have a trip planned and need another, give me a shout.