Collar neck - a successful attempt

Sewing class was among the best things that happened in my life.  What started out to be a hobby turned into my passion.  My teacher was good in teaching the basics and some more advanced concepts.  Due to family responsibilities and health reasons, I could not enroll for many classes.  But the courses offered are an ocean and what I had learnt is just a drop.
But with what I had learnt, a few things slips out of mind even with some proper notes.  Collar making was one of them.  Though I did remember many of the concept, some basic nuances I forgot.  So one time when I tried to sew a collar kameez it turned out to be a disaster.

      

I had to convert it to a high neck kameez and camouflage the deep neck cut with a patch work.  It worked out great and totally saved my kameez, but I did not have the courage to try it out again and salvage it later.  There are a lot of tutorials in the internet about a collared neck, but nothing exact to the method that I had learnt.  Then recently I discovered this youtube channel, Savi Fashions.  If only she had come a bit earlier, I would have been more confident about my collared necks. 

  

Kameez before collar

The collar piece

Notches at the centre

After attaching

The 1/4" glitch

The final pic of the kameez

How it looks from the back

She described the exact method that my teacher had taught me and I gladly tried it out.  The collared neck kameez turned out very good.  But only a small glitch.  I had taken the measurement wrong.  I measured about a 1/4"  less and so one side ended up a bit less.  But I am more confident now and I will not make this mistake again in my next kameez.
Thank you once again Savitha madam.  Your tutorial really helped me.

Gongura Pulihora

I have already posted one recipe called 'Pulicha Keerai Masiyal' earlier.  The Pulicha keerai is called Gongura in Andra Pradesh and its a delicacy there.  Its used in many recipes that softens its sharp tangy taste.  One such very famous recipe is Gongura Pulihora.

The Puliodorai or the Pulihora which is famous both in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka is prepared with Tamarind.  This Pulihora prepared with Gongura is equally delicious as this green has the tangy taste to it.

Ingredients

• Gongura - 1 bundle
• Green chillies - 3 to 4
• Cooked rice - 3 cups (or as needed)
• Salt to taste
• Oil - 5 tbsp

Roast and Grind 1:

• Dry Red Chillies - 15
• Dhania seeds - 2 tbsp
• Seasame seeds - 1 tbsp
• Fenugreek seeds - 1 tsp

Roast and Grind 2:

• Bengal Gram - 2 tbsp

To Temper:

• Mustard Seeds - 2 tsp
• Dry Red Chillies - 2
• Fenugreek seeds - 1 tsp
• Hing - 1/2 tsp
• Curry leaves - 1 sprig
• Roasted and peeled Peanuts - 2 handfuls

Method

First pick the leaves alone from the stems and discard the stems.  Wash the leaves well and keep aside.  Heat a kadai and dry roast the 'Roast and Grind 1' ingredients.  Grind them together to a coarse powder and set aside.  Then roast and grind the bengal gram alone.  Now in the same kadai, add about 2 tsp of oil and add the green chillies, broken in half.  Then add the Gongura leaves and keep tossing till they wilt completely.  Grind them without adding any water.  The moisture in the greens will be enough to grind it.

Heat the same kadai and add about 5 tbsp of oil.  If this oil is sesame oil it will give a good fragrance and the taste will be richer.  The add the ingredients given in 'To Temper' list one by one.  Then add the ground Gongura leaves paste to it and keep stirring it all the moisture leaves it.  Add the required amount of salt to it.  At one stage, it will become one mass and look more like a halwa.  It will not stitck to the kadai.  This is the right stage to add the cooked rice.

You can preserve this paste in refrigerator for about 2 weeks and mix and serve with rice as needed.  Here I have given 3 cups of rice measurement.  So instead of adding the rice to the mixture, please add the mixture as required to the rice.  This way any excess paste can be stored and used later.

This goes well with appalam, or potato fry or any vegetable.  But the peanuts in them will give a nice crunch and flavor to the rice that you can eat it without any side dish.

PULI - movie review

Yesterday we went to watch the Puli movie.  It was a matinee show and the tickets were totally sold out.  We had chosen to watch the movie despite its poor reviews for the sake of its director.  Chimbu Devan is the director of '23aam pulikesi' and 'Irumbu kottai murattu singam'.  Though the latter did not fare well at the box office, the former was a huge hit and a turning point for the hero.  This director chooses to play with plots best suited for children.  But then the reviews were true.  My seven year old did not understand the plot and the gory killing scenes were far from any child's entertainment.  It was atlast a love story with interesting twists and turns.  A old wine in a new bottle.  The villain captures the heroine and the hero goes after 'the damsel in distress' and rescues her from the cruel antagonists.

There are two heroines in the movie.  One being Shruti hassan and the other is Hansika.  Shruti hassan is the love interest in the first half and Hansika in the second half.  In fact Hansika is introduced just before the interval.  The costumes could have been more Desi type.  It is said these 'Vedalam' group comes from a distant land.  So the fact that Sridevi's and Hansika's costumes are more western based could be excused.  But why does the others costumes also have a western touch.  Could have concentrated more on the costumes I guess.  There could have been more cladding for the ladies I guess.  I could see Zippers in a few Vijay's costumes and the fact everyone wears boots and shoes in ancient India... I am not sure if this is true.  Same with the hairstyles.  How does the young vijay get such a military cut when others grow such long hair, including the father Vijay.

The fact that it is being compared to Baahubali is a bit of a stretch.  There is nothing to compare.  The story line of Baahubali to the costumes to the portrayal of the characters, everything is an exact fit.  And when the defect shows, the story is so mesmerizing that we don't notice them.  But the film makers say that the comparison is made in terms of the grapics.  There is this fact that Puli has 2500 VFX shots while Baahubali had used just 2000 VFX shots.  What these technology terms are and how they are reflected in the movie just goes above my head.

There were a few times when the comedy part kicks in and the theater is a laugh riot.  For as far as the fantasy part goes, Chimbu devan has done a very good job.  Creating an entire world for the Lilliput, the giant tortoise, the unbreachable fort, the vedalam characters and many more are simply good and the graphics has helped him to turn a dream a reality.  Puli is a film, worth watching once to bring those nostaligic 'Vittalacharya films' memories back.