Much ado about Mushrooms!

A lot of people have this question, Is Mushroom a vegetable?
Some vegetarians even avoid eating mushrooms as they consider it to be a non-vegetarian.
I can understand why the question arises. They are one of the foods, which can be cooked in both vegetarian and non-vegetarian cooking methods. It's one of those fleshy, thick foods, which is very sumptuous and filling, it provides good amount of protein with very less fat.
Why I talk about mushrooms, you may ask. Well, it was supposed to be the build up for the mushroom recipe, am about to write about. So let me jump right in.
I have named it "Mushroom mania" (Just being fancy). It's an Indian style mushroom curry with not much of a twist.

Mushroom Mania

Ingredients:

• Button or portabella mushrooms (Chop each into 4 pieces) – 250 g (about 10-15 mushrooms)
• Medium onion thinly chopped lengthwise – 1
• Medium tomato finely chopped– 1
• Ginger – 1 inch
• Garlic – 4 pods

For Temper

• Cinnamon stick – ½ inch
• Cloves – 2
• Fennel seeds – ¼ teaspoon
• Cumin seeds, mustard seeds, urad dhal - ½ teaspoon.
• Cooking oil - 2 tablespoon
  
  

For Flavor/Hotness

• Curry leaves – 8-10
• Chili powder – ½ teaspoon
• Pepper powder – 1 teaspoon
• Meat masala – 1 teaspoon
• Salt – to taste.
• Chicken broth – 1 cup
• Coriander leaves – handful.

Method:

1. Mix the mushrooms with pepper and meat masala and marinate it for 15 minutes.
2. Set the stove on medium heat. In a saucepan, add all the items listed under "for temper" and sauté a bit until the mustard seeds pop.
3. Add the curry leaves, Ginger and Garlic and sauté until the garlic smell goes away.
4. Add the onions and sauté it until it becomes translucent.
5. Set the stove to low heat and let the onions cook for at least 5 minutes.
6. Add tomatoes and mix well; let the tomatoes cook for another 5 minutes and observe that tomatoes are in a semi mashed state
7. Add the chili powder and salt, mix well and let it cook for another 2 minutes.
8. Add the chicken broth, mix well and set the stove to medium heat and bring to boil and let it boil for 5 minutes
9. Add the marinated mushrooms, mix well and add coriander leaves on top and boil for 2-3 minutes.
10. Set the stove on simmer and let it cook for 10 minutes.
11. The mushroom curry is ready to eat.

Why, what was done:

• Chicken broth gives it the additional flavor and also makes mushroom texture to be a bit like chicken and juicy.
• Meat Masala can be substituted with garam masala, if you want it hotter.
• This Curry can be eaten with Chapatti or Rice.
  
   
  
  
   

My experiment with sleep !

Sleep is a very important activity you do every other night. many do it during the day too. Its one thing which you can actually enjoy doing while you are bored. bored of your mind, have a good sleep, its a good remedy for boredom. Lately, i had experienced this weakness in me. I couldn't sleep well. I was having sleep, but very short ones and it took me ages to get some sleep. the reasons were quite obvious. I was definitely not bored and to make things worse, a lot of thoughts and worries, some unnecessary ones too.

This lack of sleep continued for about a week, i had been getting sleep only for about 2-3 hrs every night and it continued the same way for a week. This was when i decided to take actions. I am a person who sleeps for 8-9 hrs straight normally. Missing a lot of time in sleep made me worry. so i started some experiments to make me sleep better.

First, I thought Tiredness may cause sleep. so I decided to get as Tired as possible. I walked a lot, worked a lot and even went to gym and played till i dropped ( literally !!). I got myself so tired that i was lazy to cook stuff for dinner but hunger could cause sleep problems, so i ate my quota of food. then, my experiment failed for 3 days continuously. even though i was very tired and having bit of cramps in my body, i wasn't sleeping well. Interestingly, my sleeplessness had increased in time rather than a decrease i expected.

My Roomie suggested that i sleep early, considering that i go to sleep at 12 and do not get sleep till 4 am, if i had slept at 9 or 10 pm, i may get sleep sooner by 1 am at least. So i decided to try it out. I went to sleep at 10.30 pm. It didn't work out well, since it just extended my wake time on bed by an extra 2 hours. so my second experiment also failed.

I was getting little bit frustrated about this sleeplessness, and it was starting to show up on my day to day works. so I had another experiment underway, I found that my friend who had severe cold was taking a cold tablet, which had severe Sedative effect that he slept for hours together uncontrollably. So this struck me an idea to try taking that same tablet and see if i can sleep well ( preferably uncontrolled) and also it was a very good alternative to sleeping pills and have no side effects ( since sleep was the side effect ). so during the night, before sleep i took one tablet and went to sleep ( that's what i thought) but didn't sleep, i was lying on bed, turning and twisting in all directions, changing positions, waiting for the drug to take effect, but all it gave me was a dizzy feeling that was close to sleep but not the actual one. so i got up in the middle of night to take another pill, still no effect till morning 5 am then i did sleep for a shocking 2 hours, then woke up at 7 am. This got into my nerves too much that i let out my frustration on a unusual spot - Facebook (that was a very bad idea, looking at the responses i got from people).

By now it was about 10 days into sleeplessness. I was turning into a Insomniac as days progressed. I was really worried, because even with a really bad time in my life, i never had a problem with this sleep. So it made me think more about why this was happening to me now. When i had not many problems and when i happened to have found a way to tackle some of my problems at least.

An Idea then Flashed in my mind, I don't know if it was a brilliant one, but it changed things. It was an epiphany while looking at a Facebook status. which said " if u can't beat them, better join them." So i realised, when i was trying to get sleep, i was actually trying to beat insomnia. I was forcing myself to do something my mind was not intending to do. so I did my fourth experiment, I spent my whole Friday night without sleep. I planned not to sleep the entire night and the whole next day. I set my mind that i would not try to sleep. keep doing some work or pass time but not sleep. so best way to avoid sleep is to keep yourself busy. Best way to do it was work. hence i spent the entire night in my lab working on an experiment. It takes about 3 hrs for a single person to perform the experiment on their own, so it ate up most of my night time, then i watched a movie a really funny one " The Hangover". By the end of the movie, it was about 5.00 am, I was starting to feel little sleepy.

So another way to avoid sleep is to pump up your adrenaline. best way to do it, with just your laptop in front of you was to watch something exciting. It was a tough choice between Action and Horror. I went with Horror, I watched "Hostel" again for a second time, That was one movie i had decided not to watch ever again ever in my life time. so it kept me grossed and engrossed in it till 6.00 am, then i decided to screw it and go outside, as it was sunrise. I had my camera with me, so walked around the campus took some pictures (check out my Facebook page) which came out really well. It was my second time in 2 yrs that i saw the Sunrise.

Coming back to the experiment, I successfully avoided sleep on Friday night, and continued this the following Saturday. I had plenty on hand to make myself comfortably busy. Cricket match, Cooking, eating, A evening drive in a friends car and some phone conversations. the Saturday night was ridiculously awesome. I just remember me, lying down on my bed to relax myself as my roomie was asking something to me, after that it was all sleep. I sleep for 11 hrs continuously, It was a very deep sleep that there weren't any dreams. Finally my experiment turned out to be a success. I finally achieved a proper sleep for a night against my insomnia and i hope it continues for good.