Millet Buddha Bowl

I have been wanting to this for a long time now, mostly because it looks wholesome and colourful and that somehow makes it more edible for me. I guess this idea originated from a Burrito bowl or as Google says, it is a hippie version of healthy food. At some point it did feel like I was eating Pulav with raita, but it is a good change once in a while to see and know that you are eating something healthy.

This was my first time making it and I just made it with what was at home. I will give the alternatives in the recipe too.

For Millet Buddha Bowl (serves 4)

For grain mix:
Foxtail millet – 3/4 cup (you can use any millet/rice/grain of your choice)
Sprouts – 1/2 cup (I used matki or moth beans)
Olive oil
Salt & pepper
**You can add herbs of your liking to add more flavour. I used thyme as well.

For sauce:
Hung curd – 1 cup (I used  yoghurt instead which made it more like raita:))
Lemon juice – 1 tbsp
Fresh herbs – 3 tbsp (Italian basil, parsley, dill, etc.)
Garlic – 1tbsp, finely chopped

For stir-fry vegetables:
Use vegetables of your choice or what your family likes. Onion and garlic give a good flavour.
Add spinach or any leafy vegetable since it will blend with other vegetables easily.
Broccoli, bell peppers, baby corn, tomato, cabbage, beans are some of the other veggies you can use.
Salt & pepper

How to make:
– For cooking fluffy millets, check out this link. Once the millet has cooled down and separated, it is ready to be mixed.
– Boil sprouts (Avoid overcooking. If cooking in pressure cooker, keep it for 2 whistles)
– Mix millet rice with sprouts, olive oil and other seasoning

– For sauce chop all the ingredients to the hung curd with salt to taste and give it a good mix.

– Chop chunks of all the veggies.
– Heat a pan with some olive oil, throw in some garlic & onion first and then the other veggies. Cook it for 5 minutes. Alternatively you can roast them in the oven.

Millet Buddha Bowl

 

 

Bengaluru quirks #3

When you walk the roads of Jayanagar and find a tiny shop with ‘Jalaram’ and ‘Gujarati items’ on the name board selling khakra with irregular brown baked spots on it and Pav that smells like it’s fresh from Bombay, and they also sell Dhokla & Khandvi (which is already sold out), you know you have arrived at the right place. You are happy about the changes in the city.

I personally was happy to find old connection to my new home.

#businessinbangalore

Bengaluru quirks #2

I dread each time there is a plumbing situation at home. The one decent plumber we thought we found has started to act like the student who excuses the class, either due to sudden death of a relative or some health issue.

If they have to give excuses to work, how do they earn?

#businessinbangalore

Bengaluru quirks #1

I was waiting outside Venkatappa Art Gallery and it just felt natural to have a cup of tea. Just that, the canteen lady refused to pour a cup of tea because I didn’t have five rupees change.

#businessinbangalore

Looking for my crazy…

It’s been a while now, since I have been trying to connect the dots for myself, though it’s only been a few weeks since I have seriously started doing some self reflection. I recently saw this unique stand up comedy by Hannah Gadsby called ‘Nanette’; a powerful one. One of the things she mentions is to tell your story so that you can connect; maybe to someone who can help you, maybe to someone who is going through the same, or it might just make people aware that such a story exists.

I surely don’t have such a powerful story as hers (not that I have to compare), but I feel I need to type it out somewhere so that it gives me a sense of clarity or just reduces the baggage.

My story for me begins with the day I just happened to realise how much I enjoy solitude. It just dawned to me that there is a world outside the conservative home that I was brought up in and there are places and people out there. I also think this seed was sown by my father unknowingly when he used to talk about stories of his friends from different places and the odd jobs he did.

So yes, the age when girls thought of their looks, dreamt about their future, goals and what not, I had just one thought in my mind, I wanted to travel to new places and meet a lot of people. There was no real goal or ambition nor had I thought of a career. To get away, I had to get hold of something that would make sense to the people around me, so I choose this exotic course which no one had ever heard about (at least the people I knew hadn’t heard of it) and off I went to do the course.

Yes, I grew passionate about the course and where it was leading me. Far away from home that I was, I had to jump from one friend’s house to another relative’s home during the few days of holidays. I was living in villages, walking alone on endless empty roads, making friends with tea stall guy.Without consciously trying I had started living what I had imagined for more than a year; I was going places and meeting people. I was in a different kind of high. People who have often traveled talk about this feeling; the feeling the out-of-the-comfort-zone experience, going with the flow and all that. So yes, I did all that, I didn’t merely travel, I stayed, I lived in places and moved almost each year and  would go home in between jobs.

Most of the time I was day dreaming and being content but also with a slight nagging feeling of wanting someone with whom I can share this. The feeling was not of wanting a partner (or maybe it was) but it was about wanting a place I belong, wanting my family (even if not always). There was a struggle between the two worlds; a world where I was a friend at a stranger’s place and a world where I was a stranger at my own home.

People who knew me from before were probably confused of the path I was taking, or they didn’t understand it (I, for sure couldn’t explain it). Gradually I was referred to as being weird / different / bold / courageous / loner depending on what the situation called for and my feeling towards it also depended on how I felt. Most times, I felt proud and cool about myself, but there were other times when I longed to be simple and uncomplicated for others (at least for the people I really cared about).

Soon, the balance between these feelings was gone, and I was stuck with the thought that I wasn’t simple and normal enough for people. I was too ‘crazy’. I think it was then that my crazy slowly but steadily went into hibernation for a long period.

In between, I have continued to juggle with experiences, shifted cities, found a place to belong, people to share my stories with and yet there is this hollow feeling inside. I think it is mostly a feeling of doubt and fear. Will the people around me accept my crazy? Will I be able to balance it this time? Will I handle the lessons I am going to learn better than before?

Recently I went to a nearby park with my husband who is a partially obsessed runner. While he went behind his obsession, I put my earphones and the new favourite song on loop and went for a slow walk around the lake. I sat down on the bench to look at the cloudy day, the trees and the birds. I decided to climb up the small hillock and just sit by myself watching pigeons fly (an old habit), watching an old man meditate and still listening to the same song.

I felt my crazy is waking up… slowly but steadily. It is.