MAKING FOOD AT HOME

                 Last weekend, Keeesha and I made an Indian meal!  First, we took a trip to an Indian grocery store called Milan.  This was an amazing experience because it was very authentic in all the foods it sells.  Along with all the ingredients that we could not find at a regular grocery store, we picked up several packages of Indian sweet cookies, bottled guava and mango juice, and a bag of sweet puffed rice.  As we checked out at the counter, a man came in with a bag of samosas ready to be sold: fresh, hot, and only 75 cents each! We just had to try one. I bit into it first, and tasted potatoes and some type of spice.  Wrapped in a thin, crunchy, fried shell, many textures were present in our samosa. As our bites ventured closer and closer to the center, the taste got spicier and spicier.  I finally had to surrender and take a sip (well, maybe a gulp) of my guava juice.  On the way back to my house, Keeesha and I sampled the sweet puffed rice.  Man, does that live up to its name (the only two ingredients are puffed rice and sugar).  If you bite an individual grain of the rice in half, you can actually see the sugar crystals inside!   
                Back in my kitchen, we cooked everything we planned accept for the Mushroom Fried Rice dish.  Kaju Katli was the first thing we made. It's a dessert with a nutty, (from the cashews) sweet flavor. The instructions called for spreading it on a plate and letting it sit, so that is what we did. The mixture still dries and hardens into candy on a plate in my kitchen counter, and we absolutely can't wait to taste it.  We both sampled the batter before we poured it onto the plate, and it had a fantastic flavor and texture! Then we made Potato Bajji.  This was the hardest and longest one to cook because we had to heat oil and deep fry the potato slices in a pan!  First we mixed the batter that consisted mainly of flour, water, and a bit of chili powder.  Then we cut the potato, slathered the slices with batter, and gently plopped them into the oil, where they cooked until they showed a golden brown crust.  The smell of oil still lingers in our house, a reminder of all the cooking that happened.  We winded down our kitchen time with a drink called Nimbu Pani, a delicate lemonade-like drink sweetened with dates and honey.  Now, after chilling overnight, it has very light, honey/lemon flavor.  Water and dates boiled for ten minutes first, and then we added lemon zest, lemon juice, lemon slices and honey to boil for three more minutes. 
                 Of course, we filmed it all (with Keeesha's phone), and there is a lot of footage.  Please be patient because even though Keeesha is experienced with videos, it will still take a long time with so much to go through and edit.  In the videos we tried to show everything we did. For a while no one acted as camera man, so some things on the sides of the frame might be unclear.  Also, my awesome mom and sister were talking and even helping in some of the scenes with hot oil because neither Keeesha nor I have deep fried foods at home before.
        Hopefully you can watch the videos soon!
 --Gracie