French Fries

Ingredients
1)Potatoes- 3 large/long
2)Salt - 1/2 tea spoon

Procedure
1. Take the three potatoes, peel off the skin and wash properly.
2. Take the potatoes in a bowl, add water(until the potatoes are fully immersed) and put the bowl in pressure cooker and put the cooker on stove.
3. Keep the flame high and wait for 3 whistles. Turn off the cooker and take the bowl and cool it for 5 mins(they should be dry).
4. Cut the potatoes into thin vertical pieces.
5. Take oil in pan and heat it. Put the falme in sim. After 2 mins add the sliced potato pieces and fry them for 8-10 mins, until one side of the each piece turn brown.
6. Once fried, turn off the stove and take the pieces into the bowl and cool them for 3-4 mins.
7. Now again heat the oil in the pan, put the flame in high. Add the pieces to it.
8. The colour of the pieces turns to brown soon. Take paper filters or newspaper. Once the pieces are fried(brownish in colour) take them into the news paper to remove the oil on the slices. 
9. Take the oild drained slices into a bowl and sprinkle salt on them. Easy way to do is, take the pieces in a bowl which has lid, add salt, cover the lid and shake it well.
10. Remove the lid, serve in a plate and add tomato ketchup. French Fries are ready.

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Swami Vivekananda School Visit

I had visited Swami Vivekananda School(alias Aadivasi high school) on 23rd June 2012. I went to the school as a representative of a company which has adopted the school for the welfare of the children. My main purpose of visit is to hand over the weekly donation for the food supplies and to spend some time with the children.
About School : It is a small school in Valvanda(Thane district) which comprises of three blocks. First block comprises of principal's office, staff room, kitchen room for preparing lunch to the children. Second block contains class rooms(only 3 classes are being taught - 8th, 9th and 10th.) Third Block is the hostel rooms for the boys. Another block is under construction phase(which serves as common function all as well as girls hostel). School has a decent strength in each class(above 60 students per class).
Journey : I reached Thane ST depot around 6:30 am. To reach the School(Valvanda) I need to take a bus that goes to Jawhar(as there is no direct bus to Valvanda). The bus came at 7:08 am. I managed to get the seat and bus started by 7:12 am. As we are going to remote area the road is full of ups and downs. Also there are many long U curves on the way. As the ST buses are famous for their speed on such damaged, semi built roads, I was literally jumping in the bus in all four directions. It was a good exercise and experience travelling in those conditions. Two important junctions on the way or Wada and Vikramgad. Wada is again a big junction which has good connectivity to many other small villages. We see many buses frequently moving in and out here. Vikramgad is another important area because from here onwards there will not be any mobile signal(except for TATA - weak signal).
          I reached Valvanda by 9:30 am reached 30 mins earlier than expected. I went to the school and received a warm welcome from the Principal. It started raining heavily after I reached the school. I was lucky. Went to the office room, enquired about the school progress, future plans as the school started one week back from today. Then went to the class rooms, thought of my childhood days on seeing the children. Went to 9th class room and took the Mathematics book to teach the same, however it is in Marathi and I havent learnt it. Thats the sad part. So I was just observing students, their reactions to teacher's questions, explanations etc. Then met few students outside the class rooms. Interacted with them about their background, their ambitions etc. It was really wonderful experience to know about them. It was already 12:00 noon by that time. I was offered the lunch that was prepared in the school. It was very tasty. After completing the lunch, went to Office room, completed the activities that I was assigned and left the school for Mumbai.
          I reached the Valvanda bustop by 12:45 pm. I was waiting for the Thane bus. Unfortunately after 1 hour waiting I got a bus which was to Vasai. I got the last seat in the bus. Now my jumping has been increased, My head was almost touching the bus roof. So I decided to get down at Wada and from there take another bus to Thane. I reached Wada around 3:00 pm. I was lucky again. I got a Thane bus immediately at Wada and got a seat at the centre of the bus. Now I felt like there are more ups and downs and turnings on the road. May be due to the effect of previous bus. Anyways I reached Thane safely by 4:30 pm. Overall it was a very good trip and memorable day to me.

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Dukes Nose Trek

 I had done a trek to Dukes Nose on 16th June 2012. It is actually a pinnacle and hence the name Nose. This name was given by the British. Previously it was known as Nagphani.

Trek Location

Name: Duke's Nose

Base Village: Kurvanda

Distance: 150Km (approx) from Mumbai

Route Glimpse: Travel on Mumbai-Pune Express Way, take Khandal exit, Locate INS Shivaji Board and reach base.

Ascent time: 90 mins

Descent time: 45 mins

Height of the Dukes nose: 825ft

Trek Experience: Started from Mumbai early in the morning. I reached the base in around two hours. There are two routes to reach the top, one is normal traditional route (left side one) and other is Jungle route. For ascent I went through jungle route. As the name suggests the path is very narrow and it is through the middle of the jungle. AS it was raining heavily that day, the path was slippery. Reached a flat terrain (500 ft above the base) from where I can see the dukes nose top (325ft more). The path from the flat terrain to the top is very steep and has 4 rock patches (pile of rocks - where little climb is necessary). The scenery was too good. Climate was awesome - rain added value to it. I reached the top. There is a temple on top. While descent, I had taken the tradition route. The rain had increased. Fog was everywhere, visibility of the terrain has decreased, and this gave a spectacular view. While descent had done the tree plantation (placed the seeds on the soil near the bushes). Reached base and returned to Mumbai.

                             

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Trek Introduction

What: Trek is one of the greatest exercises that helps one to improve both mental and physical strength. That is why walking at home or walking on road up to bus stop/office/bank is not trekking(It is a normal walk that just helps to reduce some calories).

Trek means walking, climbing to achieve higher altitudes, it symbolizes the heights we reach in our strengths.

How: To do trek, we select a hill, reach to the base village of the hill and then start walking towards the top of the hill(ascent), reach the top and return to base(descent). Both ascent and descent together constitutes for a trek.

Why: Once the trek is complete, we get confidence, sense of achievement, become strong, stamina increased, refreshed, realize and learn to overcome our fears/worries.

Learning Curve: To complete a trek successfully, we need to plan very thoroughly like what to wear, what to carry, what route/path to follow, what to eat, study the climate conditions on that day, what safety kit one needs to carry, what adverse things can happen and how to overcome them(what backup to take). Planning and execution is very important as we need to ensure that we are safe and sound after the trek. So trekking will help us to learn how to plan, execute a certain activity in our every walk of life.

Value Add: Simply doing a trek for one's own purpose (satisfaction, strengthen, passion) does not make it any special/great. Along with self endowment also do something for environment, for people around us like conservation, cleanup drives etc on the hill, educate the villagers in the base, and create awareness. This is what makes a trek very worthy and very special.

Opinion: Keep Trekking, be safe and do your part to save environment and improve the lives of the villagers.

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Groundnut Chutney

Ingredients
1) Groundnuts - 250 gm
2) red chillies - 3
3) Mustard Seed - 2 gm
4) Salt - 1 spooon
5) oil - 1 spoon

Procedure
1. Take groundnuts in pan and fry them without any oil for 5 mins, the colour of groundnuts become dark and blackspot appears on them.
2. collect the fried grouondnuts in a vessel and now take oil, mustard seeds and red chillies in the pan and heat them 2 mins, until the mustard seeds get fried and chillie colour changes.
3. Now take the groundnuts into the mixie jar, add the chillies(which are fried as per step2, only chillies not the oil and seeds) and salt and grind them well.
4.Open the jar, again mix with spoon the grinded powder and then add water(50 ml) and grind again.
5.Take the mixture into a vessel and add the fried oil and mustard seeds and mix well.
6. Some mixture will be left in the jar, add 10 ml water in the jar and stir well and then pour water from the jar to the mixture.
7. Serve the Groundnut Chutney.

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Spicy Noodles

Ingredients
1) Plain Hakka Noodles() - 150 gm
2) Cabbage - 30gm - finely chopped into small pieces
3) Carrot - 30gm - finely chopped strips
4) Capsicum - 1/4th of 1 capsicum - cut into small pieces
5) Soya Sauce - 3 spoons
6) Chilli Vinegar - 2 spoons
7) Ajinomoto(tasting salt) - 1/4th spoon
8) Tomato Chilli Sauce
9) Red Chilli Powder - 1 spoon
10) Oil - for fry
11) Salt - as per taste
12) Onion - 1 - chop finely as springs.

Procedure
1. Take water(300-400ml) water in a vessel, add salt(1 pinch) and boil it.
2. Add Noodles to the boiling water. Boil the noodles until they get soft. During boiling stir slowly(to ensure the powder present on top of the noodles is distributed evenly).
3. Drain the hot water, then pour normal water in the vessel, stir slowly and drain the water.
4. Apply 1-2 spoons of oil to the noodles, ensure that oil is properly distributed to entire noodles.(Oil added to remove stickiness).
5. Take the noodles in a plate - spread them and dry them under fan - 5-10 mins, Until the noodles are dried and they are not sticky.
6. Heat 2 spoons of oil in pan, add cabbage, capsicum, carrot. mix them well.
7. Add dried noodles, salt(3-4 pinches), Ajinomoto, Vinegar, Red Chilli Powder, Soya Sauce and mix thouroughly.
8. Serve the hot Spicy Noodles, apply onions on top of it along with Tomato Chillie sauce.

Note: For Schezwan noodles, add Schezwan masala(10-15 gm) at 7th step.
Keep the stove in high flame all the time or else keep in between medium - high flame(if felt that oil is over heated).
                                

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Gobi Manchurian Dry

Ingredients

1) Cauliflower - take florets(10-12)
2) All purpose Flour/Maida - 3 spoons full
3) Corn Flour - 3 spoons full
4) Garlic - (3 flakes - cut into small pieces)
5) Ginger - (small piece - cut into small pieces(same quantity as of garlic))
6) Ginger Garlic paste - 1 spoon full
7) Capsicum - (1/4th of the capsicum)
8) Milk - 1/4 cup
9) Green Chillies - 3 , cut into small pieces
10) Hot Water - 1/2 Cup
11) Soya Sauce - 3 spoons
12) Tomato-Chilli sauce - 2 spoons
13) Ajinomoto(tasting salt) - 1/4th spoon
14) Salt - as per taste
15) Onion - 1 Finely chopped spring onion
16) Oil - for deep fry
17) Red Chilli powder - 1 Spoon

Procedure
1. Take Water(200-300ml) in a bowl. Boil it.
2. Add florets to the boiling water. Let the florets boil for sometime.
3. Take All purpose flour/maida in a bowl, add cornflour, soya sauce(1 spoon),Ginger Garlic paste,Red Chilli Powder,Salt(1-2 pinches). Add boiled florets. Mix them well. Ensure that each floret is completely covered by the mixture prepared.
4. Take oil in pan and heat it. Place the florets in the oil. Deep fry them until they turn light brown/golder yellow.
5. Drain the oil and take the florets into separate plate.
6. Heat 2 spoons of oil in the pan. To it add Garlic, Ginger, Capsicum, Green Chillies, Onions. Fry them. 
7. Add florets, Soya sauce(2 spoons), Ajinomoto, Salt(3-4 pinches), Tomato Chilli Sauce, mix thouroughly and fry them till the florets turn dark brown.
8. Add Milk, then add hot water(which is boiled in separate bowl) and mix well.
9. Take the Gobi Manchurian into plate and serve.

Note: To have exrta gravy - Add 1 spoon of corn flour to a cup of water and add during the 6th step.
Keep the stove in high flame all the time or else keep in between medium - high flame(if felt that oil is over heated).

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