flat out like a lizard drinking!

Home, home which is lovely but rather busy...like the Australian expression

"flat out like a lizzard drinking"

So many things to get happening, visits to accountant with paperwork stuff. India really does love its' paperwork and does not seem to have got to the stage of save a tree- so we are producing much paper to be filed and apparently we have to keep records for 10 years.

Home, iI am enjoying my home if it is rather breifly as I rush off to the workshop....the garden is still mostly alive after 3 + weeks in the hands of staff- you can see the lemon grass is rather dryed, that kind of sums up everything.

Karllu almost killed the grape and rhubarb I brough from Australia but a little TLC and they are coming back.

 Under the lemongrass someone has been busy. A Teetar [like a small pratidge, bigger than a quail] has hidden a nest and I am noticing a new egg every few days.

 I am standing on the house's garden steps and from here I have the rich, pungent aroma of billy goat assailing my nostals and filling the house. If you have never encounterd billy goat perfume [ and you would remeber it if you had] it is pungent and musty- obviously very sexy in the goat world but not a scent likely to occur in a perfume bottle. My lovely Spot is over tied under yonder small tree the other side of the fence.

 He is still as friendly and playful as when a baby, loves being played with and patted, yet now I need a bath if I even lead him around by his lead! Spot loves to self clean [and really self-pleasure] rather vigorously , I know Praveen had not noticed this before but the other day got his first eyeful- shocked!! wanted him nuetered or eaten immediately. took a bit of talking on my part to assure him it was perfectly normal and even his prescious dog George was up to the same thing when not being noticed.
Ohh it is funny as Praveen learns more of the farming life.

 My little Chortu the tortoise is awake and active. When I come home of an evening I whistle in the garden and about 10 minutes later Chortu arrives for his dinner. Last night he had a tomato and was obviously still hungry and he kept circling around the step very loudly indicating he is now hungry enough for 2 tomotos an evening!

 Matilda the cow is producing buckets of milk which Praveen is making into yoghurt [souring really] and then churning to make butter every few days, this he later happily cooks up and makes ghee. According to him ghee for cow is a health food. One I keep telling him is better in small batches!!

When I am in Australia I eat like a starving person, can't taste enough cheese, bacon and good bread. These are all things I would have in moderation if everyday available but because they are a treat I over indulge and so pack on at least a kilo per week I am away...now home suffering from that extra tyre around my middle and appreciating good Indian home cooking.
Really Indian veg food, for me, is the most satisfying day in day out, I feel lighter and healthier for eating that way, even if I do have momentary lapses.
This is a new rice dish- a twist on Konkyian Cooking...my version because I forgot where the new  recipe went.
Special Rice

• cook up some basmati rice and set aside.
• in pot put a dab of oil [2t]
• add mustard seed
• cumin seed
• nigella seed
• fenugreek seed
• fennel seed [or which ever of these you have- this combination is really Bengali Panch Poran and so a step away from Konkyian but yummy]
• sizzle until seeds splutter
• add chunks of onion
• heaps of garlic
• 1t ginger -fine dice
• 2-3 T nuts- raw peanuts, pine nuts, chirongi [Indian pine nut type things] or even cashews
• few green chilli to taste and saute slowly  until onion goes sweet and caramelized
• add 2 T urad dal or mung dal - a lentil that is peeled and split you can get from Indian shop- optional adds to texture and protein content and taste
• cook until dal has turned golden
• stir through few teaspoons red chilli powder [ to taste]
• 1/2 t tumeric
• 2 t corriander powder
• 2 t of green mango powder or 2 T tamarind paste and fry a few minutes to get flavours moving [ might add dab of water if seems dry]
• stir rice through

Enjoy- soo tasty be careful not to have that extra serving. Praveen did last night and then had a sore belly he was so full!!
so lovely to be home, and we appreciate having plenty to do in the workshop
so off to another blistering day - kushi, kushi!