Tips on Cooking Spinach

If you were born in 80s or 90s, you would have probably heard about Popeye - the sailor man cartoon character. I'll stop here without explaining further about Popeye, Olive or Bluto. But in all the Popeye stories, eventually Popeye would eat spinach that makes him stronger and overcome the power of Bluto.

Does spinach really has the power to make one stronger? I'm not too sure. But what I'm sure (based on Google search) is its one of the important food for women to take during pregnancy. Its key ingredient, folic acid, is very essential for growth of the foetus. It has more protein and other ingredients which are essential for both mother and the child inside. 

But cooking spinach is not that easy. If you do not add rice flour or have a smasher, it may take half an hour or more to cook completely. Does anyone has that much patience to wait?

Today wife and I tried a different way to tackle this problem. At first, I tried to blend it in a mixie. What I found was while the lower portion of the jar extracted spinach juice, the top portion had spinach intact. That's when wife suggested me to use vegetable chopper instead.

Chopping spinach using vegetable chopper

We found that the chopper is an ideal tool as it cuts the spinach into fine pieces, but not too fine to make it become a spinach paste.

Chopped spinach

The finely chopped spinach greatly reduced the time to cook!

Have you tried some new ideas to cook spinach faster? Please share your ideas in the comments form below.

Review: The Way Of The Bow

The Way Of The Bow by Paulo Coelho

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The way of the bow is a story of an archer who had mastered not only archery, but how to use the skills he had learned to live at peace. The story begins with a stranger asking for a man named Tetsuya at a boy who probably lived in the neighborhood. The boy was startled when the stranger asked for Tetsuya, the most famous archer. All these years the boy and the neighborhood knew Tetsuya only as a carpenter.

When the stranger finally met Tetsuya, he challenged Tetsuya to prove that he had perfected the art of archery and so he be announced as the best archer in the world. Tetsuya observed the stranger's posture, the way he held the bow, drew the arrow, set an eye on his target and the way he released the arrow towards the target. He immediately understood that the stranger had perfected the art, but failed to control his mind. In order to prove his point, Tetsuya took the stranger to a broken wooden bridge in a mountain, went to the middle of the bridge, balanced himself, took his bow and with a borrowed arrow shot at a target he had set at 20 meters distance. He then asked the stranger to repeat what he did in order to be accepted as the world's best archer.

Failing to do so, the stranger accepted his failure, bowed in front of him and left with the promise that he would never reveal the identity of Tetsuya to anyone. On the way back home, the boy led with his curiosity, asked Tetsuya to teach him the real art of archery.

Tetsuya taught the boy about the bow, the arrow, the target, the posture and finally the flight of the arrow in a philosophical way. The teaching ended when both the boy and Tetsuya reached the carpentry workshop. When Tetsuya bid a goodbye to the boy, the boy asked him to share his own story.

Long ago, when Tetsuya was working for a great nobleman, he spent most of his time with booze and girls to the extent that he fell down one day and was almost dying. An archer saw Tetsuya in an unconscious state, took him to his place and medicated him. Upon recovery, Tetsuya asked his saviour to teach him archery as he had found the art to be meaningful than whatever he had done in his life so far. After teaching archery to Tetsuya,the man took his arrows leaving the bow as a souvenir and asked him to leave and do what he loved to do. Tatsuya realized that he loved carpentry and that's how he ended up starting a carpentry workshop.

After reading the book, every reader would find himself at peace, draw inspiration from the story to love what he/she does and strive to evolve into a better archer. For archery, as Paulo Coelho writes, is not just about leaving the arrow from its bow with precision, but with soul.

The Way of the Bow is available for free download from here.

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My First Cooking Experience

Cooking is an art, so says many. I'm not a great fan of cooking, or for that matter, eating. I am a vegetarian by choice and I eat almost anything but bitter guard. But still, there are occasions when I try to master the art, just to make sure that I can survive, should a need arise.

So, here is my first (?) cooking experience (I had cooked in the past, but since this is the first time I had taken a picture of my cooking, I'm going to call this as my first experience :P).

The items on the dining table are rice, saathamudhu (or rasam), baby spinach, salad and raitha along with yogurt and fruits. I haven't consulted a dietitian to find if this is a perfect meal, but I liked it ;).

How to sell a book?

"Narayana! Narayana!", sage Naradha chanted the name of Lord Vishnu when he entered sage Valmiki's hut. "How are you Valmiki, author of 'The Story of Ram'?", he asked.

"Good to see you sage Naradha," Valmiki welcomed Naradha into his Ashram. "To be honest, the book is not doing well! I'm worried about my royalty," Valmiki replied with a sad expression on his face.

"Alas! Several years ago, all the Devas, including Lord Indra, prayed to Lord Vishnu. They prayed to the supreme God to restore Dharma and bring in peace to the earthlings. That was the time I asked you to write a book on Lord Ram!"

"I remember that day very well sage Naradha! Back then, I was a bandit with no home or family to look after me. It was at that time that we met when you showed me an alternate way to live a life with dignity."

"True indeed!", replied Naradha. "Narayana! Narayana!", he chanted the name of Lord Vishnu again.

"With blessings from Lord Vishnu and you as my beacon, I went to Ayodhya and other places where Lord Ram had been to, interviewed a lot of people and wrote my first book. I even chose the title of my book as "The Story of Ram."

"Narayana! Narayana! I heard that the book had captured the life and messages of Lord Ram very well?"

"True, sage Naradha. The book had come out very well. I submitted a draft version to the publishers, and they felt pleased!"

"Then what is your problem sage Valmiki? What is the reason behind the sadness on your face?"

"The publisher sent me a pigeon yesterday with a message saying there is a steady decline in the demand for my book. They added that they have no choice but to stop the production until there is a demand enough to at least recover the production cost."

"Narayana! Narayana!", sage Naradha exclaimed in surprise!

Naradha walked out of sage Valmiki's hut, became oneness with nature and contemplated, "What is wrong with the people of Ayodhya? What made them decide that they no longer want to read or hear stories about the great hero who is the architect of Ayodhya and established Ram Rajya!".

"Narayana! Narayana!", sage Narayana chanted the name of Lord Vishnu as he entered into sage Valmiki's hut again. "I found a solution," he said, lighting up sage Valmiki's face with a smile for the first time.

"Sage Naradha, you are my savior! You first changed my life from a bandit to a writer, and now you have a solution to my problem in selling the book! I have no words to express my respect and gratitude towards you."

"Narayana! Narayana! Let all credits go to Lord Vishnu, the protector of all life", both sage Naradha and sage Valmiki meditated on Lord Vishnu for a minute.

"What should I do now, sage Naradha? I am waiting for your command,", sage Valmiki asked Naradha.

"To become a successful author, writing a good book alone is not enough! You should have a marketing strategy to popularise your book."

"I cannot see your point sage Naradha! Can you explain the marketing strategy further?"

"It's simple Valmiki! Introduce some controversial chapters at the end of your book, which will take care of popularizing it!"

"I see your point now, sage Naradha! The controversial chapters will make people talk about my book, and soon words will spread about it!"

"You got it! But there is a difficulty, which I will leave it up to you to face it", sage Naradha said with a meaningful smile on his face.

"I can see the difficulty myself, sage Naradha! People had accepted Lord Ram as the incarnation of Lord Vishnu, the true savior of every life on mother Earth. The controversial chapters may not appeal to the people, and so they may collectively decide to discard my book!"

"Shrewd!"

"I know how to deal with that problem sage Naradha! I will introduce a controversy in Ram Rajya by telling people that Lord Ram had accepted Goddess Sita after she spent a year with the evil Lord Ravanan."

"But sage Valmiki, did not Lord Ram asked Sita to prove her chastity by invoking Agni Pariksha?"

"Sure, he did. But Goddess Sita invoked the Agni Pariksha in Sri Lanka, which is far away from Ayodhya! I can use this point to separate Goddess Sita from Lord Ram."

"Narayana! Narayana! Sage Valmiki, I am afraid you are out of your mind!"

"I understand why you are saying so, sage Naradha. But with all due respect to Lord Ram, believe me, Naradha! This controversial chapter will only intensify the love between Lord Ram and Goddess Sita".

"How so, I wonder," said sage Naradha.

"Goddess Sita is pregnant now. The separation will allow Lord Ram to focus on administrating his country while Sita Devi will be looked after by Shri Hanuman and myself at my Ashram".

After contemplating on Valmiki's idea for a while, Naradha said: "But I still do not think that is enough to popularise your book."

"True Naradha! That's where the final chapter comes in."

"Please tell me about the final chapter as well sage Valmiki," said Naradha

"I will raise Goddess Sita's children and educate them with all that I had learned so far. When the time comes, I will teach them "The Story of Ram," and will ask them to sing and popularise it to the people of Ayodhya and other countries as well."

"Very shrewd! The controversial chapters will become more authentic because it would be sung and popularised by Lord Ram's children themselves! That's a clever strategy, Valmiki! My best wishes to you for becoming a successful writer."

"Please accept all my respects for you," sage Valmiki prostrated before sage Naradha and sought his blessings.

"I bless you that "The Story of Ram" will become a triumphant epic. Generations to come will sing and praise Lord Ram's life and his messages and may you live even after your life through your book", blessing sage Valmiki thus, sage Naradha chanted "Narayana! Narayana!" and let sage Valmiki finish the final chapters, the life of Ram after Ramayan.

Turning Points: Young Jammy Came Out of School in Flying Colors.

The year was 1999. One misty March morning, young Jammy, then a class XII student, was summoned by the newly joined Physics teacher to her room.

"Ma'am, you asked me to come and meet you", he said entering the teacher's office.

"Yes, come in", she said. She stopped evaluating the term test papers, kept the bundle aside and asked him, "How much do you think you'd have scored in the term test young boy?"

"I'm not sure Ma'am", he replied, his face lowered.

"I saw your report card. Your performance was consistently poor in all the tests conducted so far", the teacher said with a concern.

"Focus on MPC. That's what will get you into Engineering", young Jammy recollected what his brother said at the starting day of Class XII.

"But what is MPC brother?"

"Maths, Physics and Chemistry. It's enough if you score a pass mark on other subjects", his brother advised him.

"If you do not take your studies seriously, you are going to fail my dear boy", the teacher said, breaking his chain of thoughts.

Jammy looked out of the room through the window staring into the empty sky. The rising sun had made the mist disappear by then. "I'm saying this because I know that you are from the general quota, and you need to score well to get admission in a good college", the teacher said, trying to catch his attention. "At least, try not to fail in any of the subjects", she added in a dictating voice.

He thanked the teacher silently and left her office. After a few weeks, Jammy went again to meet the teacher, but this time without a summon. The exam results were announced by then. Seeing that she was busy with his classmates, he waited outside of her room. He could have entered inside, for she was congratulating only his classmates for their scores and suggesting them to apply in the best university. But he opted to wait so that he can meet her alone.

Though the teacher was aware of his presence outside of her room, she did not want to meet him. She thought she was not ready yet to hear the bad news when the other boys were telling her about their remarkable performances and how they are going to apply in some of the best universities towards their graduation.

After a while, when everyone left, she called Jammy in. "So, how many subjects did you fail?", she asked.

"None", he replied.

With a big expression on her face, she asked the next question, "How much did you score then?"

When she was expecting the score in 40 to 45% range, he replied "84%" silently and left her office.