Childhood Treats

I'm so glad Nikita decided to bring me in on this adventure. We've shared so much of our lives already, it only makes sense to take this blog on together too!

As she explained, we've been friends for quite a few years. Before our long distance relationship began, Nikita lived on Long Island, which is where I live now. We didn't live far apart and since our moms are BFFs we got to hang out pretty often. We would play Power Rangers, reenact Disney movies, and make mud pies. Ya know, normal stuff for 90's kids. I would go over to her house once a week for piano lessons, and when her older brother, Stan, had his lesson we would watch Rugrats with the volume down really low because I wasn't allowed to watch it at my house. We went to summer camp together, had countless sleepovers, and went to nursery school together (even though Nikita was a grade below me). We basically did everything together - including vacations.

We've been lucky enough to travel to a lot of places together, but the trips that I really hold close to my heart are the ones we took when we were younger. Growing up, our parents had a close group of Indian friends, many of whom had kids around our age. They planned so many trips to Splish Splash, Sesame Place, Lake George, Vermont, and much more. Every place was within driving distance, so once the day came each family would pack into their respective cars, drive to a meeting point, and caravan to our destination. Be it a day or weekend trip the cars would be full, forcing us to cross our legs because of some cooler/tote/food on the car floor. And we knew that if we wanted a snack (car rides make you hungry, you can't blame a kid) we would be met with the response, "There's a kheema dog in that bag."

What is a kheema dog, you ask? Good question. Kheema is an Indian meat dish of ground beef or lamb mixed with lots of spices. It's usually eaten with rice or rotis, but for our road trips its vehicle was the hot dog bun. As children we devoured them. Nothing hit the spot after a morning of water rides quite like a kheema dog. Unfortunately, after so many years, it is hard for me to eat a kheema dog. I think I overdosed on them. Nikita, however, loves kheema and loves kheema dogs so I figured a great first contribution to this blog would be this childhood snack.

Now on these road trips (and every other time we sat in the car) we listened to this one tape of children's songs. It was our favorite and was unfortunately lost a long time ago. This: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJhcGepfG04 was one of our favorites on that tape and because of that we thought that "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" by the Beatles was a children's song. For several years. Whoops..

Memoriesss, all alone in the moon-- I'll stop there.

I'm gonna do what Nikita did in her first post and share some step-by-step pictures first with the recipe to follow. Because I live at home I have access to a lot of these specialty ingredients. But if you can, you should invest in some of these ingredients! They add a great flavor to anything.

 Browning onions!

Look at all that water!

Goodbye water

Almost there..

Kheema Dogs
Fills 6-8 Hot Dog buns

Ingredients:
1 lb. ground beef or lamb
2 Tbsp. canola oil
1 medium onion, diced
1 Tbsp. garlic paste (or minced garlic)
1 tsp. chili powder
1/4 tsp. turmeric powder
1 tsp. garam masala
1 tsp. roasted ground cumin powder (or regular)
1 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1 packet of hot dog buns

Steps:
1. Heat the oil in a saucepan on a medium flame. Add the onions and saute until they are browned.
2. Add the garlic paste and stir.
3. Add the ground beef and stir to mix with the onions.
4. Let the meat brown for about 10 minutes. Break up the big chunks with your spoon - you want small pieces so they fit inside the bun.
5. The meat lets out a lot of water when it cooks so now you want to let that evaporate out. Just keep the kheema on a medium-high flame, stirring often to prevent any sticking. This should take about 5 minutes.
6. Once most of the liquid has disappeared, add all of the spices - chili powder, turmeric powder, garam masala, cumin powder, and salt. Mix well.
7. Add about a 1/2 cup of water, cover the pan, and cook for another 5 minutes.
8. After 5 minutes, turn the flame off and spoon the kheema into a hot dog bun.

Enjoy!