Shaami Kebab

When Sonia was here she made lots of

delectable food, which is

her special talent.

She conjured up shaami kebabs one day.

Let me share the recipe.

For that you need mince meat.

It can be either lamb or beef.

The Americans call it hamburger.

You boil or pressure cook the mince meat

with chopped up garlic, ginger,

and garam masalas which are

whole spices -

cardamom, pepper corn,Cinnamon stick and cloves

bay leaves , dried red peppers and salt.

You also have to add channa dal

or gram lentils to it.

This is what it looks like after the meat and spices are well cooked.

Now you have to grind the mixture.

We use my grandmother 's old grinding stone

called sil-batta.

You can use an electric

blender/mixer.

But it always comes our better the old fashioned way.

The grinding stones have to be kept plucky

by "sharpening" them.

Grinding stone women come around with a chisel and hammer and do the job for you.

Sonia completed the task very adroitly

You have to discard the larger spices as they

are too big to grind.

This is the ground meat

Now you chop up

fresh green coriander,

onion

and green chili

mix it with the meat and form little patties.

Heat mustard oil until it smokes and releases its flavors.

Shallow fry the patties in this oil. You can use any kind of vegetable oil We are using our old iron griddle

called tava. It is also used to bake our chapatis.

Its a must in Indian households.

Here they are.

Shaami kebabs to be eaten with chapatis, nans,

rice or even in a burger bun.

Now who wants to try them?

First Shower

Mid morning the sky draped itself with dark clouds
The heavens opened their casements
and the dam burst.

Thisty nature eagerly drank
from the abundance
Washing itself free from dust, dryness and drab.

This is the song of the rain

It was a thirst quenching day.

The first real shower of the monsoon

Its Comin '

It is raining in some parts of western, central and east coast of India.

Elijah 's cloud as small as a man 's hand is growing larger.

Enough of the hot pestilential
glare of the sun

In the evening the sky became grey
and the air ached for the thunderstorm
which did not come.

A cool refreshing breeze tickled us ,
the precursor of precipitation.
I took these pictures of the trees waving up
at the heavens.
Trying to catch the attention of the
vapors above
*******************
Let me show you this short video of an early morning dust storm

taken in the first week of June.
Abner is playing outdoors.


As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.Psalm 42:1-3 (Bible)