Recipe of the month: Vegetarian Samosa

This weekend, I thought I’d make samosas at home from scratch. Although I do eat samosas, I am rather picky about the filling and more often than not, I come across samosas that I don't like. 

My ideal samosas should be crispy, not oily and have a simple and mildly spiced filling. The heavily spiced varieties that have two dozen ingredients crammed into them just don't do it for me. I particularly detest biting into a chunk of pungent coarse whole spices. That is the reason I am quite weary of ordering samosas from unfamiliar food establishments. I tend to stick to the places that make them the way I prefer. 

I feel quite lazy to prepare samosas at home since they are not at the top of my list of favourite deep-fried snacks. On the occasions that I have prepared them at home in the past, I’ve taken the easy way out by preparing the filling and then using store-bought spring roll sheets to wrap them in. This time I thought why not do everything myself especially since my husband loves homemade samosas. It turned out to be not as time consuming and labor intensive as I imagined it would be. And the results were good so it was indeed worth the effort 😊

Here is my samosa recipe. I have slightly modified it from the way my Atthe (mother-in-law) makes them. Samosas are highly customizable so you can modify the recipe based on your preferences. My MIL serves her samosas with a coconut based chutney. I prefer mine with a chilli sauce and mint chutney. 

Here is my rendition. I hope you give it a try.

Social Networking - the good, the bad and the ugly!

"It's not what you know but who you know that makes the difference" 

                                                       -Anonymous

I am a self-confessed social networkoholic. I am neither proud nor ashamed of this statement. I wouldn't go to the extent of calling myself an addict because I'm confident that I can bear the trauma of all my connections to the world of social networking being severed 😆 Although I must admit that on occasion, I do have to keep myself in check to prevent crossing the fine line into addiction. 

I used to be a member of several social networking sites but when it started eating away my free time (which was meagre to begin with), I restricted myself to Facebook (FB for short). I often wonder how I used to spend the time that I now spend on FB before it became an irreversible part of my daily routine. I'm assuming that my life must have been far more productive back then. 

For me, personally, the rock bottom of social media usage was when I was hooked onto a motley assortment of games. I used to fervently go about tending my make-believe crops, virtual fish and imaginary restaurants on a daily or sometimes even hourly basis. Don't judge me for it takes guts to admit this 😆 Fortunately, after a while the whole ritual started to tire me out. Not to mention the annoyance at seeing all the invitations and news feeds by similarly idle people (I finally was able to see how lame the whole thing was). I decided from then onwards that I would not waste my time on such frivolity. 

For a while after that I began to play more mentally stimulating games like Word Challenge and Geo Challenge but that slowly lost its appeal as well. On the upside, these games did contribute significantly to my vocabulary and geographical knowledge. Hey, I can correctly identify the flag of Lesotho you know 😏 

If games weren't enough to distract people from their "real" lives, absurd and trivial status updates are considered useful tools to provide an alternative route of escape. In the spirit of full disclosure, I'm guilty of that too! 

I remember when I actually used to call my friends more often and send them emails from time to time. Nowadays it is just so easy type a quick note on someone's wall or send them an insipid message on social media. I often even wish my friends and family for birthdays or anniversaries on FB and then feel guilty about not making a greater effort in remembering and conveying my wishes. It is a bit sad that one doesn't even need to apply the slightest bit of brain power to remember a loved one's birthday...FB will even do that for you. It is rather tempting to become lazy (and stupid) with the advent of these social networking sites.

Many times I wish I could go back to the era of the 80s and 90s where people used to write letters to each other and when long-distance phone calls were a luxury. At least the anticipation of hearing from someone would be the highlight of the day. Being a little private and inaccessible is more mysterious and exciting. Makes people wonder what you are up to!

Movie review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 2)

If you have read some of my previous posts, you will know that I am a die-hard Harry Potter fan. I have read each book more than 4 times and watched each movie umpteen times. It just never gets old for me. 

As is the case with most of the books vs movie adaptations, the Harry Potter books are far better than the movies; there is no question about that. I have always felt that a movie can never do justice to a writer’s vision (there are a few exceptions of course). I can’t help but wonder if people who haven’t read any of the Harry Potter books can really understand the nitty-gritty of the background and premise.