The Pooja Thali Decorum

So here I was, the first day of my marriage, first day waking up in my sasural, I was ordered to take a bath and get ready for the pooja. We were not to consummate our marriage until after the pooja was done so my husband had slept with the guests in the living room and I had slept with my husbands female cousin and my sister in our would bedroom. Since it was not the master bedroom, it didn't have a bathroom and I was asked to use the one in my mils bedroom which had a bathroom since it was the master bedroom. After bathing i was handed over my milk glass after much frowning that I drank a whole glass of milk instead of a small cup of tea. The mug looked somewhat like the one in the picture. 

I drank my milk and like a good girl, kept it with all the dirty dishes in the sink for the maid to do it as I was used to in my own home. Somehow the stupid maid broke the handle and i was promply instructed that I was to wash my cup every time hence. It was't a big issue for me to do it as I am a pretty self reliant person and don't mind doing my own work, but it was the blameful manner in which it was said is what hurt me. One the festivities were over and the guests were said goodbye to, still every single day I was harnessed over washing not just my own, but also my husbands and all my in laws cups and china that was deemed "too delicate to give to the maid" to wash. I ask, if it was just so important for that china to be washed by someone other than the maid, why every person couldn't do his own cup and saucer? And if it was so difficult for you to do it, why not use a china that CAN be washed by the maid? Why is the bahu used as a maid who is working a level below the maids who has to do the work that is deemed unfit for the maids to do like washing delicate china or doing the delicate laundry or scrubbing the toilets? It was so frustrating that I had to buy my own china and keep the current one decorated in the showcase unharmed just so I would be rid of being in the kitchen thirty times a day to wash everyone's tea and coffee mugs.

So back to the pooja, I was asked to decorate the pooja thali and since i am not that religious and dont much participate in poojas, i just knew the basics. 

So for you now What all you should include in a pooja thali:

1) Haldi Powder

2) Kumkum

3) Rice grains (Uncooked ofcourse)

4) A Diya with oil and waat(bati) in it

5) A sweet/sugar/dry fruits (mostly include sugar if you don't have anything else,it should suffice)

6) A few flower petals possibly from genda or any other flower that has small petals

Now the above things are fairly basic and remain constant for any pooja but the things below may vary from different poojas. It is best to befriend the panditji and directly call him and carefully note down all the ingredients he describes to include in the thali.

If it is a house pooja without a pandit, the above things should suffice. Make sure you have enough flower petals to go around for everyone to make an offering or enough sugar or sweets to go around as prashad or enough teerth made to go around for everyone present. 

The Biryani Incident

       I have been meaning to write this blog for the past 3yrs, since the day the whole process of getting arranged married began. I feel it is pertinent to explain that I am an Indian Bahu who has been married for 2.5yrs now but there are still so many times(read most times when around in laws) that I feel like the bumbling blundering newlywed that I was 2.5yrs ago.

      So what changed in 2.5yrs? Well I am more patient with the daily taunts and don't let the small things bother me anymore, I can smile through it when one of them points out my incompetencies as a daughter in law and don't work myself up to impress them too much anymore as now I am very sure that nothing is enough no matter how hard you try. Because we are always the daughters in law and not the daughters. So rules are always different for us.

      So the other day I was given some chicken and ordered to make biryani out of it. Now let me tell you what happens when ur an only daughter of an upper middle class nuclear family. You are convent educated, attend an engineering college, get served delicious food made by a mother who loves you more than life and are showered with love and gifts by your dad for being the daddy's princess that you are and in turn you give them good grades, study hard, be friends with but don't fool around with boys and make mummy and daddy proud of what a jewel they have raised. Nowhere in all this education is included how to make a biryani, which side of the plate the rice is served or how much are you to talk in front of the sister in laws husband.

      So, back to the biryani. I was in a fix but as usual, I turn to technology when I need a solution, the engineer that I am, so youtube came to my rescue. After watching a couple of recipes, I decided to chuck it and made my own with some store bought masala. Here's how..
Ingredients:
1/2 kg chicken boneless or with bones
1packet everest biryani masala
4 large onions roughly chopped
4 tbsp garam masala
4 tbsp dhania powder
4 tbsp jeera powder
4 tbsp ginger garlic paste
2 tbsp red chilli powder
500 grm dahi
250 grm oil
1 tspn haldi powder
4 tbsp jeera
4 tbsp ghee( desi ghee or vanaspati)
2.5 cups basmati rice
10 approx Pudina leaves
Salt to taste
Kesar water optional

Process:
1) Wash chicken pieces thoroughly and put in a larg bowl.
2) Add as much dahi to cover all the chicken. Now add dhania powder, jeera powder, garam masala, 6tbsps biryani masala, ginger garlic paste, crushed pudina leaves, 1 spn ghee, red chilli powder, haldi powder and salt. Mix well till every inch of all the chicken pieces are coated well. Poke the pieces with a fork to make tiny holes in them so the marination can penetrate inside well.
3) Keep it aside for as much time as you can. If your marinating it for more than 2hrs please put it in the fridge else it might go bad in our hot Indian weather.
4) At the time of preparation ,In a pressure cooker, add all the marinated chicken along with the gravy and add 6tbspns of oil to it and half a glass of water.
5) Cook for 6 to 7 whistles. Open slowly and put a knife through one of the pieces to open and check if it is thoroughly cooked. If not then add a little water and take a fee more whistles. Make sure it doesn't burn from the bottom.
6)While the chicken cooks, heat the remaining ghee in a large kadhai. Slow the gas and add the jeera. After it has crackled, add the rinsed basmati rice to it. Careful because the water remaining in the rice may cause the ghee to splatter so do this using a long spoon and on a slow gas.
6) Keep churing the rice carefully amd slowly so it doesn't stick to the bottom of the kadhai and the long grain of the rice doesn't break.
7) When you think the rice has become a bit hard and fried or just that its been around two mins since you are churing the rice, add enough water to cover the rice twice over.
8) Add a table spoon of salt.
9) Cover the rice and let it boil. Check every 5 mins. Pick up a grain and see if it can be crushed entirely between two fingers. If it can than switch off gas. Dont overcoom the rice, biryani rice is always a bit al dante.
10) Drain the rice water ( keep a little for later) and keep the rice aside in a closed box.
11) In a kadhai add 2 tbspn of oil and all the chopped onions and stir them on medium flame until they are slightly brown.
11)In a serving pot, put a thin layer of rice, add all the gravy and chicken on top of it as second layer,add all the onions as third layer and all the remaining rice as layer of rice to top it of. Pour some kesar and edibe rose water on the top if you have it.

      That's it. 2 hours of slogging and you serve the biryani and all you get is, you gave me only one piece, implying that I intended to eat the rest of the biryani myself and serve only a measly piece to them. But after 2.5yrs of marriage, you take that as a compliment that the biryani turned out so well that the critics from hell are actually asking for more. Oh well.. all in the days work..