We had to wait so long for the lasagna that I forgot to take photographs of the whole baked dish! I managed to photograph the last serving though

The recipe:

Broadly, you would require lasagna sheets (a flat variety of pasta), bechamel sauce (White sauce), ragu (tomato sauce), cheese and vegetables/meat/poultry (optional). These ingredients can be layered as per your choice and baked.

I will list the recipe for each of the above ingredients below and then explain how I made the lasagna.

1. Lasagna sheet: Prepare this first as this is the bottleneck and requires time for drying.

• 400 g All-purpose flour (Maida)
• 5 small eggs
• 100 g chopped spinach

1. Beat the eggs. Add spinach to it and mix well.
2. Place the flour on a working surface in a mound and create a well in the centre. Pour the egg spinach mixture in this well and mix in the flour into the mixture starting from the inner wall.
3. Knead the dough into an elastic ball, with consistency similar to that used for making rotis/phulkas. Use cooking oil if it turns too sticky.
4. Wrap the dough in a plastic wrap and allow it to rest for atleast 3 hours.
5. Divide the dough into 4-6 parts as per your convenience. Roll out each part as you would roll out rotis. Although I had read that the dough needs to be stretched instead of being compressed, the outcome was good enough when I rolled out by applying pressure downwards. The sheets should be as transparent as possible, without tearing.
6. Cut the round sheets into rectangular pieces of convenient sizes. As the sheets have to be dried at room temperature, size of pieces should ensure that cracks aren’t formed in the process. Depending upon the weather, it could take less than a day for drying.
7. Extra sheets can be stored in an air-tight container and used within a month.

2. Bechamel sauce:

• 50 g butter
• 100 g maida
• 500 ml milk
• Salt to taste
• Italian herbs, chilli flakes (optional) 

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan. Add maida and mix quickly.
2. Add milk to it and stir till the sauce thickens.
3. Add salt and other spices to taste.

3. Ragu:

• 3 large tomatoes
• 1 small onion
• 2 pods garlic
• 1-2 tbsp oil
• Salt to taste, Italian herbs, oregano

1. Heat the oil in a saucepan. Add crushed garlic, chopped onions and saute till it turns light brown.
2. Deseed the tomatoes and chop into small pieces. Add to the saucepan.
3. Boil till the mixture thickens. Add salt and other spices to taste.

Assembling the Lasagna:

1. Cook the lasagna sheets in a wide pan containing boiling salted water. Cook 4 pieces at a time for about 3 minutes till it turns tender. Pasta will be completely cooked during the baking process anyway. Remove from the water and plunge it into a bowl of cold water to stop the cooking. Dry the pasta out with tissue paper.
2. Preheat the oven to 180 deg C. Grease a deep baking dish with oil.
3. Apply a layer of béchamel sauce and place lasagne sheets over this, in an overlapping manner. Apply a layer of ragu over the lasagne and a layer of vegetables. (I used carrots, mushrooms, red and yellow pepper. Vegetables could be microwaved for a minute to cook them partially). Continue with similar layers one on top of the other.
4. Grate cheese and add this as a layer in the middle. Top the assembly with lasagne sheets and a layer of cheese again.
5. Cover the dish with aluminium foil, such that it doesn’t touch the top of the lasagne.
6. Bake the lasagne for 40 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 10 minutes till the cheese turns slightly brown.
7. Test the centre of the lasagne with a knife to see if it is cooked.
8. Lasagna may be refrigerated and reheated before serving.

Phew! I told you it is a lot of work. Trust me, it is worth all the efforts.

Found this wonderful recipe for all  kinds of homemade and healthy frozen yoghurt Replace pomegranate with any other fruit of your choice and you may choose to add fruit pulp too!

I didn’t buy Grenadine syrup, but made my own Grenadine, using Deeba’s recipe:

Deseed 2 pomegranates. Put the seeds in a pan with 1 1/2 cups of water, add 8 tbsps sugar. Bring to a boil & simmer for 5 minutes till flesh is soft (will turn light pink). Cool & push the syrup through cheesecloth. Pour the concentrate into a bottle & refrigerate. Dilute as required & use as a base for a cooler.

You can find other images on my tumblr webpage.

Not surprisingly, my last 3 experiments have been borrowed from her recipe book – 2 of those successful experiments are here:

Oats and Almond Brownies:

Recipe is here.

Simple Veggie Pizza:

Recipe is here.

I stumbled upon this simple, yet fab recipe for ice-cream from Deeba’s blog. I love her passion for baking, her clever adaptations of ‘alien’ recipes, her food photography and her aesthetic sense! Her blog says it all and more.

This is my no-frills version of the low fat roasted peach and plum eggless ice-cream. I lllhhhuuuuuuuuvvvvvv mangoes and I was too lazy to roast the peaches But the ice-cream was fab, albeit a humble cousin of Deeba’s ice-cream Njoi!

]]> http://thejasvee.wordpress.com/2009/07/29/ice-cream/feed/ 2 MissT Picture3 ice-cream recipe Picture2 Picture1 http://thejasvee.wordpress.com/2009/07/28/fun-with-origami/ http://thejasvee.wordpress.com/2009/07/28/fun-with-origami/#comments Tue, 28 Jul 2009 09:49:40 +0000 MissT http://thejasvee.wordpress.com/?p=45 ]]> I rediscovered my love for Origami recently, when I was on this page. Back in school, we used to get Origami books, complete with colourful Origami paper and illustrations. I couldn’t wait to get my hands onto the superior quality paper with a distinct smell! Anyways, back to the present.

Origami was the perfect solution to many of the ‘issues’ I was grappling with – lots of free time at work, lots of waste paper generated at work and the ‘artist’ in me that keeps popping up at the most inappropriate times.

Origami can be useful too – Here are some of the items I picked up instantly:

A basket (to hold sugar sachets), a bird (to hold clips) and a bin (to hold my Origami stuff!)

Origami can make great gifts  too! For me, Origami = Recycle – Reuse – Recreate

love chai

love cooking

love their feet

love trinkets

love books

always talk about their cultural roots

love colors

always wish their visitors a happy weekend

love bokeh

don’t reveal their faces

love to live their lives simply

love to travel

…

Funny how they are all jus the same! Now am wondering why ‘I’ like them all

iPhone    Dance      Colours BodyShop FabIndia  pastries

SuDoKu    Facebook Flickr   DigiSLR  spicyIndianfood   pyaarDostietc

ElizabethArdenGreenTeaperfume  cookies   laptop  Liberty Dreamz

CalvinNHobbes Absolut   aDDa     timepass     IrishCreme

CCDTropicalIceberg   laziness   creditcard    StarbucksCappuccino

rains  MANGOES gelato    SubwayVeggieDelight     humour

kindness empathy    wondersofNature      Bullet      gifts L^2

CornerHouseDBC     dhaba    Crocs       gibbons          pranks    love

FairPrice     NCPA    CafeMondegar  Tea! sms        PrithviTheatre

mustardsauce flavouredYoghurt     mushrooms       alto

avenueRd  RangaShankara      junkjewellery      bags     Zara   skirts

Mango   NewYear    watercolortubes forgiveness  FountainSizzler

BigChillmudpie     Nokia    Theobroma   innocence memories  

 childhood  sleep handicrafts  Desi      holidays!   peace choice

VVPuramEatStreet  YummySnacks  microwave  cinnamon Esplanade

beaches    Brio’sBrownieShake    Beatles  music tears  heartbreak

hope youth        conversations F.R.I.E.N.D.S  ParentsnSiblings

teacher  mistakes     truth   happiness   smile Tropicana Google

budgetairlines meditation ocean thoughts   kulfi   rose  tigers NHAI

PFA (Please find attached) the file as per your request on 13th of Jan, 1953 at 10:11 hours (IST)

————
Ever seen a mail with a cc list longer than the body of the letter, like the one above? A simple, harmless query is enough to set off the trigger for a mail that can bombard the inboxes of thousands of unsuspecting recipients. But, I must give credit to the foresight of this guy! He would have spent more time compiling the cc list than on composing the mail itself. But he has valid reasons for each and every person on that list.

Boss – See, I am sending her this highly confidential organization chart. Dont blame me later on huh!
Boss ka baap – See, I am spending 10% of my time grooming the future leadership material (by giving her the damn org chart she had requested for!)
 

Secy – Take a print out of this email conversation for future reference and make sure you file this correctly.
 

Receptionist – Let the poor lad in, if ever she requests an appointment with me. (Am just keeping everyone in the loop)
 

Security guard – As you can see, she does not pose any credible threat to my own personal safety or to that of any other employee of the company. Let her go through the security check, baggage check or any other formalities as you may deem necessary, without much fuss.
 

Lawyer – Keep a copy of this and ensure that it doesn’t breach the corporate governance policy of the company. (Cannot afford to get into such mess later on)
 

Doctor – This might help you understand what could be the cause of my panic attack or the allergen behind my last allergic reaction. Please save this in my medical history.
 

Wife – She is only a colleague and we have interacted only on this single occasion, for purely professional reasons. I have not seen her, met her or talked to her.
 

Sub-ord1/2/…, sub-ord’s sub-ord1, sub-ord’s sub-ord’s sub-ord’s sub-ord1/2/3/4/5..: I remember you guys had spent more than 10000 man hours in coming up with this org chart. Due credits to you (Let her bug you guys for further information… I am clueless)
 

intern1, intern2, old intern, really old intern: I remember some of these guys had worked on the org chart for their summer internship. Due credits to them also (You know who is to be blamed if there are errors in that org chart)
 

colleague1 in Mbai, colleague2 in HK, colleague3 in NY: I am keeping you guys in the loop, so that you may download her with the relevant details, if you have the bandwidth for her.
 

neighbour1, neighbour2: Just to let you know that I do some work during office hours. Dont bitch about me when you are hobnobbing with the boss in the smoker’s zone.
 

colleague-who-has-quit: Out of sheer emotional attachment. Just keeping you updated on all that is happening in the office.

You see, I HAD to buy something from Body Shop to avail of that 40% discount, in order to offset that notional loss from buying the same product a few days ago, at only 20% discount! It is the same principle as Dollar Cost Averaging that you apply while buying stocks, right? Never mind, that there is no resale value for a Body Shop product.

How can I resist when I see Emporio Armani sunglasses selling at 60% discount?! (My mind quickly rationalises that it has actually been 3 years since I bought a pair of good sunglasses and how I desperately need a pair of shades that will protect me from premature under-eye wrinkles and how it will save me the money I would have to otherwise spend on age-defying gels,…) Since I couldn’t believe my eyes, I bombarded the saleswoman with a ‘few’ really innocent questions – Is this damaged? Does this have polarizing lenses? What is its original price? (to calculate and see if the discount is indeed 60%)? Is this an outdated model? Is this genuine? Then why are you selling it a discount? (!!!) When she answered all these questions to my satisfaction, I just couldn’t help but shed tears of joy! Now, how can you expect me to just walk away, after taking so much of a sales-person’s time?? (psst psst…60% discount!!! Whoa!!!)

Nothing is free in this world. Not even window shopping. Call it a principle if you may, but I feel ‘obligated’ to buy something after spending HOURS in the aisles of a Watsons (=Health and Glow) or Popular (= Landmark) or Fairprice (= Foodworld). I love looking at new products and sometimes, it takes quite a while to read the instructions to figure out the utility of that item! The process of discovery takes me to other sections as well. Once I have figured out what I want to buy, I have to figure out which is the most popular brand (going by the share of shelf-space), the SKU with the best value for money, the best price (in Rupees ), the highest discount, the right colour, the right quantity,… So there are a whole lot of decisions to be made. It takes time!

Then there are the testers for all those cosmetics. That’s how I fell in love with cosmetics, you know. A tester is all that it takes for a woman to go ahead and splurge hundreds of dollars on cosmetics. If she doesn’t get to see the wonders of a smudge-proof eyeliner or smell the cranberry body lotion or try on the new dragon-fruit shade of lipstick, how will she spend more than half her monthly budget on cosmetics?! Personally, I think it is an art to figure out which one of those dozens of testers that you have applied on to your left arm is the one that you want to buy. Of course, there is the risk of buying the peach flavour, although it was the mixture of the combination of apple and coffee flavour (on your arm) that you actually liked.

Sometimes, I go ahead and buy something I don’t want, just to tell the saleswoman she was wrong about me. Ever seen that look on a saleswoman’s face – ‘Oh you penniless little kid, why should I waste my time showing you this diamond engagement ring?’ The only way to teach her that every customer is God is by buying it. Right, no?

There is one other time when I buy things I really don’t want. That is when a shopkeeper gives a real good deal – two cardigans for the price of one. It is far below my reserve price – I can’t let go of that now! It may go out of fashion before it is winter again. I can live with it.

Shopping gives me a sense of control over my life. When nothing is going the way you want it, you binge or sulk or shop! On one of those days when you miss the bus, mess up a presentation, have a bad lunch, find out your crush is a committed guy or find out you have gained a few extra kilos, you realise that the only thing that is totally under your control is going to Corner House and ordering Litchi with cream and ice-cream and chocolate syrup and nuts and pineapple syrup and chocochips and…

There is one more time I want things I don’t need. Owning an iPhone is also a way of showing you have arrived (rewarding yourself for having earned all those degrees), living your dreams, redeeming your childhood (remember the ipod deprived childhood) and pampering yourself (at the end of 24 hour work day). The same reasons hold true for craving for all those gizmos that you don’t need (but you must own, nonetheless).

Now, you know there are so many reasons why I cannot help being a shopaholic.