Vermicelli Upma for Breakfast

 Ingredients:

• 200g Roasted vermicelli packet
• Mustard oil
• Finely chopped capsicum, ooty carrot, beans
• Chopped onion, tomatoes, green chilli
• Frozen peas (optional)
• Salt, Garam masala powder, Dry ginger powder
• Mustard seeds

Steps to Cook:

• Heat 1-2 tablespoon mustard oil in a pan, add vermicelli to it and stir it with a spatula for few minutes until vermicelli is gently roasted. Take out roasted vermicelli and keep it aside.
• Add another 1 tablespoon mustard oil to same pan and heat it. Add mustard seeds, green chilli and chopped onion and stir it until onion is light brown. 
• Add garam masala powder, dry ginger powder, salt and stir it for 1-2 mins. Following this add other vegetables (capsicum, carrot, beans, peas, tomatoes), stir for 1-2 mins and cover the pan, leave it for 2-3 mins. Uncover pan and stir on high heat until water from vegetable dries out.
• Now add roasted vermicelli, mix everything well. Following this add enough water to just cover all contents of the pan, let this mixture simmer for few mins and then cover the pan. Uncover pan after few mins and dry out water as desired. 
• Vermicelli upma is now ready to serve!!  

Easy to Cook Paneer Fried Rice

Ingredients:

• White Basmati Rice - 1.5 small cups
• Paneer - 200g
• Half Small Cabbage
• Scallion/Green onions - 1 bunch
• Half Small Zucchini
• Soy Sauce 
• Green Chilli Sauce
• Virgin Olive Oil
• Salt, Ginger powder

Steps to Cook:

• Cook rice with 3 cups of water in a pressure cooker (Switch off stove after 2 whistles and let out all steam without opening cooker, let rice stay in cooker for another 5-7 mins before opening it).   
• Heat 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil and then add small cubes of Paneer to it. Fry paneer for few minutes until it turns light brown. Then take it out from frying pan.
• Fry finely chopped onions and finely chopped Zucchini for few minutes in same pan. Then add finely chopped cabbage and fry it for few minutes. Following this add finely chopped green onion stems and fry it for 1 minute.
• Add soy sauce, green chilli sauce, ginger powder (as per taste) and continue frying for few minutes (or until vegetables are cooked). Add some salt (be conservative, if required more can be added later) and mix it well.
• Now add cooked rice to fried vegetables and mix it well. Continue stirring for ~4-5 mins. and then add paneer cubes to it, mix well and stir slowly for another 2 mins.
• Paneer fried rice is ready to serve now!! 

Gran Torino

A must watch for all the Clint Eastwood fans and definitely worth watching for everyone else who appreciates a well made movie. Its a treat to watch Clint Eastwood reprise the role of a man of few words who looks like he means business when every time wields a gun (for all the Clint Eastwood movie virgins, check-out Dirty Harry, Good, Bad & the Ugly, etc). The movie revolves around the interactions between Walt Kovalski (Eastwood) and his neighbors, a Hmong family living somewhere in mid-west in a predominantly immigrant community. The high points of the movie are 1) casting, can't imagine anyone other than Clint Eastwood playing this role, he even carries off the lighter scenes pretty well, all the Hmong actors are good considering that none of them is a career actor, 2) depiction of human emotions is handled quite well, bringing to the fore the fact that all of us share the same set of emotions irrespective of our outward appearance, behavior or ethnic/ geographical origin, 3) climax of the movie is simply awesome. Now only weakness in my opinion is that like most of the movies directed by Eastwood, this one is a tad too dramatic this kind of dilutes the emotional impact of the story.

Rashomon

The idea of a movie based on an event being told from the view points of different characters involved always fascinated me, so it was awesome to finally watch the movie which pioneered the concept, "Rashomon" directed by Akira Kurusowa. The movie was made in 1950 and is considered one of the classics, a multitude of people have written their opinion about the movie since then, and here are my personal reflections about it. The central event in the movie is a young couple traveling through a forest spotted by a womanizing bandit. The bandit takes a fancy for the beautiful wife and the series of events so unfolds that he rapes the wife and the husband ends up loosing his life. Each of the participants in this event, that is, the bandit, the young wife, ghost of the dead husband and a woodcutter who discreetly witnessed the whole drama narrates the chain of events. The interesting part being how the different narrations are slightly different from each other, each one trying to project the narrator in favorable light, beautifully highlighting one of the basic weaknesses of human nature. Also, we get subtle glimpses of social aspects of life in contemporary Japan, like the male dominance in society, evident from the scenes where both the husband & the bandit treat wife as a commodity. Cinematography, sound effects, direction everything is superb, all in all a very solid story handled perfectly by a legendary director.

Sorry Bhai

This is definitely one of the better hindi movies I have seen in recent months. There are multiple things which make this a very watchable movie, to begin with the cinematographer did an excellent job in capturing Mauritius in all its resplendent beauty, combine that with a bunch of competent actors and an unconventional story handled with care. Now a story about a person falling in love with his brother's fiancee would be considered a bit unconventional for a movie anywhere in the world but more so for a hindi movie to be released in India. Kudos to Onir (director of movie) for handling the story sensitively without making it overtly melodramatic or too heavy to watch. Watch out for the cracking chemistry between Shabana Aazmi & Boman Irani (enacting the role of mother & father of the 2 brothers in the center of the story) and the scene where Sharman Joshi tells his elder brother Sanjay Suri that he has fallen in love with her fiancee (& vice-versa). So definitely rent the DVD and check-out this movie if the plot does not offend your sensibilities or moral values & you think that such things though not common place may happen in real world too or if you appreciate well made movies. And yeah, icing on the cake is that music is pretty melodious too.