exposing the brick...

...is hard work.

Typically, the rowhouses in Baltimore are brick boxes. There are a few wood framed rowhouses still around the city - and we looked at one that was beautiful - but for the most part they're all brick. There was even a law at some point in the 1800's requiring the houses and buildings be constructed with brick because fires were much angrier then and entire cities would be destroyed in hours.

I like the fact that our 200 year old box is made of brick.

In most houses, the brick would be covered with plaster. In our case - and many others - drywall would be hung over the plaster. The drywall is typically the easy part. The plaster should have been outlawed along with the wooden houses. I've read some articles about how the plaster would fall off in large pieces. Our plaster holds on to the brick for dear life.

A few tips:
-Wear gloves, dust mask and safety glasses;
-Your brick might not be pretty - test an area to make sure it looks good;
-We used hammers, prybars, mallets and a good dose of elbow grease;
-A labradoodle could do this - DIY 100%.

We haven't committed to doing huge areas just yet. Here's what we have so far.
This is in what will be the living room:



In this area, rather than hanging the drywall on furring strips, it was glued to the plaster for added fun!


Eventually, the television will hang on the wall above the fireplace - oh my, I hate that wallpaper. Play Cornhole.


John McCain makes one angry.


Speaking of fires... do you think there may have been one in the basement at some point?

The next step is cleaning the brick, which creates an incredible amount of dust and sore biceps. More on that later.

Oh, and we have to do something about the dining room:


Meet Kanga and Jaxxon - renovations are exhausting, but plaster tastes delicious

CARROT AND PEANUT COOKER SAMBAR

CARROT AND PEANUT 'COOKER' SAMBAR
This is a hot favourite among the children at home. On the days when my grey cells are too tired and refuse to budge, I take the help of my grandchildren to plan the menu, and their unanimous choice would be carrot and peanut sambar. No roasting, no grinding and no slogging. The quick method is to just set a pressure cooker with the dal, vegetables, and rice in the three separators and then relax. A nutritious, pleasant looking and mouth watering sambar, along with steaming hot rice will be ready in less than half an hour.

Ingredients

Carrots – 4

Tur dal (Red Gram) – 1 tea cup

Peanuts – a handful

Tamarind – 1 small lime size

Sambar powder – 2 tsps

Salt – 1 ½ tsps

Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp

Rice flour – 1 tsp

Cooking oil – 1 tsp

Asafoetida – 1 pinch

Fenugreek seeds -1/4 tsp

Dry red chillies – 2

Curry leaves – 6

Method

1. Soak peanuts in hot water and set aside.
2. Wash the tur dal well. Add ¼ tsp of turmeric powder and 3 cups of water and set it in one separator of the pressure cooker.
3. Peel, slice and arrange carrot slices in another separator. Don’t add water, as the steam in the cooker is enough to cook the carrots.
4. Take a small steel cup with water and drop the tamarind and sambar powder into it, and place it beside the carrots.
5. Now arrange the separators in the pressure cooker. Add an inch of water at the bottom of the cooker. Place separator containing rice and water first. This is optional in case you want to make rice.
6. In the second separator, place the dal and turmeric mixture. Finally place the separator with carrots, and the cup with tamarind and sambar powder.
7. Close the lid. Pressure cook for 3 whistles on a high flame and then switch off the flame.
8. Do not open the cooker now, as the cooking process continues until the cools down. Once the cooker has cooled down (takes about 10 minutes) its ready to open.
9. Now heat 1 tsp oil in a vessel, and add asafoetida and mustard seeds. When the mustard splutters, add the fenugreek seeds and roast till it becomes red in colour.
10. Next add the broken red chillies and fry till crisp.
11. Add curry leaves.
12. Now remove the carrots and dal mixture from the cooker and add to this seasoning.
13. Drain the peanuts and add it to the dal as well.
14. The tamarind and sambar powder would have dissolved in the cup of water. Squeeze out the tamarind seeds and fibre and discard. What you will have left is a thick mixture of tamarind juice and sambar powder. Add this to the dal as well.
15. Stir all the ingredients till well blended, and boil for a few minutes.
16. Make a paste with rice flour and a little water and add it to the sambar and boil for 2 or 3 more minutes. This step is optional, and can be done if you want to thicken the consistency of sambar.
17. Garnish with fresh coriander leaves and serve it with the steaming hot rice. A spoonful of ghee will enhance the flavor.

In case you do not have a pressure cooker you can still make sambar in a large heavy bottomed vessel.

1. Boil dal and turmeric till soft and set aside.
2. Soak tamarind in water for 15 to 20 minutes, and extract the juice.
3. Add all the fried seasoning (Steps 11 to 14), and sambar powder to the tamarind juice and boil. Next add carrots, and the ground nuts, and continue boiling till the carrot is soft.
4. Now add the cooked dal and continue to simmer, and follow the rest of the steps from 19 to 21!

Enjoy quick, tasty and flavorful sambar!

Broken wheat kichadi

I had two packets of broken wheat to be used. I remembered reading a pongal recipe using the same. I tried making pongal with some veggies added. It was very bland. So next time decided to make it in the lines of Pongal's counterpart ie. Kichadi. This is a spicier version of Ven-pongal - (rice+ moong dal+cumin+pepper)

broken wheat - 2 cup

moong daal - 1/2 cup

water - 5 cups

turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

chili powder - 1 tspn

cumin powder - 1 tspn
black peppercorn - 5nos

cumin seeds - 1 tspn

cinnamon - 1 "

crushed cloves - 3 nos

green chili chopped - 2 nos
Finely chopped veggies - 1 cup

I used onion,carrot and bell pepper. You can use any available veggie.

salt to taste
ghee -1 tblspn

Wash broken wheat and dal together. Take a pressure cooker. Heat a tablespoon of ghee. Add cumin seeds, peppercorn,cinnamon, crushed cloves and green chilli. When cumin seeds splutters, add the chopped veggies. Saute for 3 minutes till onion turns translucent. Add rest of the ingredients - broken wheat, moong dal, turmeric powder, chilli powder, cumin powder. Stir in water. Add salt to taste. Mix well.

Pressure cook for 3 whistles and cook for 5 minutes lowering the flame. Open the cooker, when the pressure is released. Mash with a spatula.
While serving add a dollop of ghee and serve with papad or raita.

Note: Next time, I will increase the turmeric quantity to get a better visual appeal. But for that, it was very tasty and filling.

This complete meal is heading to One Dish Meal Event hosted by Archana