Let's give it to the Exams!

Exams. I love the preparation leave for exams. The mind is under so much pressure and yet the creative aspects flower the best during this time. The pressure of getting to know the syllabus, of finding the texts online, of making a time table, of failing to study, of being tired of trying to study can be really really frustrating. The mind looks for escapes. The mind conjures all the stagnant creative powers of the entire semester and puts it in one direction, be it a really nice status update, a few sketches, poetry, or even cooking. And trust me, people are in almost always in a disbelief that

you, yes you, actually did any of it.

This evening I was tired of not finding a certain essay online, also I was really frustrated in my attempts to begin the syllabus as five minutes through a text and I was already in the middle of a deep sleep. After tossing myself in the bed for some time, banging my cell phone, throwing the pillows away, making and dropping the idea of going out in the rain, I finally realized that I am hungry and wanted to eat something really really yummy.            

                             

Even though I love everything that I make, I did not want to eat any more of bhindi, jeera aloo, aloo beans etc. You get the idea. I surfed the internet for some evening easy to make snacks but all the recipes had something or the other that I didn’t have in my kitchen. Then I went to the kitchen, grabbed a few basic things just to see what I can come up with. Trust me, half way through the recipe and I still did not have any idea of what might become of it. In fact, the end product was completely different from the roughly imagined dish I had in the beginning. In case you’re wondering what I made then it was Bread Veg Manchurain. It might not be a new dish, or a very common one for the ones who cook on a regular basis. For someone like me, it was a moment of Eureka.

Ingredients:

For the Manchurian balls:

3 brown bread slices

1 cup of boiled and mashed soya chunks

½  onion, finely chopped

½ capsicum, finely chopped

½ cup sprouts

1 tsp coriander powder

Refined oil

Salt, to taste

For the sauce:

Ching’s secret Veg Manchurian Miracle Masala ( :P )

Procedure:

Put the bread slices in water and then drain the water out of them. Mash the bread and add all the other ingredients. Add 1 tsp of oil in the mixture. (Input from a friend). Make small balls from the mashed mixture. Heat a frying pan. Add oil to it according to the way (Deep or shallow fry) you want it to cook. Fry them till the outer surface is golden brown. I did a fry somewhere between the two ways, the balls turned out fine. Take another pan or kadhai. Follow the recipe on the back of the Miracle masala.

Alternatively, you can also fry ginger garlic paste in 2-3tbsp of oil. Add some finely chopped green chillies. Add all kinds of sauce you have at home, Green chilli sauce, Garlic Chilli Sauce, tomato Ketchup, Soy Sauce etc. Add two drops of vinegar. Add the Manchurian balls and sauté it for some time. Do not forget to let me know how it turns out to be because I made it with miracale masala even though this was my original idea. *Lazy person Alert*

My dish turned out to taste really nice. Tell me what dish your mind cooks during this semester exams. Yah, I got pretty excited in discovering that one doesn’t need cornflour to hold the Manchurian balls together. And I made it with BREAD. I wouldn’t have experimented if it weren’t for the preparation leave. One does need to give some credits to exams. Apart from studying, our brain is capable of doing so many different things. Exams are the only time to realize it. Sorry, if the title of this post is misleading.

PS- I would have clicked some pictures had I known I will be writing a blogpost later.