Beans & Greens - Ribollita

Dear foodies,

I've been whining about the weather here a little too much in the last two posts and I think I got heard :) Yesterday was beautiful! It wasn't exactly warm, but good enough for me to walk around with a light jacket. So armed with my camera I went around taking photos of the vibrant blue skies spotted by the fluffy clouds. Everything just seemed so much more beautiful and I bet ppl who saw me on the road thought I must be crazy trying to photograph fallen leaves and pine cones and playing hide n seek with a squirrel :))

This is when he saw me, and then he kept circling the tree a little faster than I could and when he had gotten me pretty confused as to where he was, he ran down to the foot of the tree, dug up a tiny hole, buried his nut a.k.a Ice Age., and scurried off into the parking lot behind :))

Onto the recipe, I was in the mood for having soup a few weeknights back and saw that I had a can of cannelleni beans and some arugula in the fridge to use up. Last year on one of my 'kill-time' visits to Tjmaxx I picked up two cookbooks dedicated to soups (it was winter :D), the photos were soo tempting that I could not resist them. So I picked up one of the them and started flipping through the pages until I found one using cannellini beans for which surprisingly, I had most of the ingredients, even the ciabatta bread! The soup is called Ribollita, and I learnt from a search of the name that, it comes from the Tuscan region of Italy. Its uses fresh vegetables and bread, country style cooking all the way. The word actually means 'reboiled' and is another perfect example of how cooks have always tried to use up leftovers. This soup actually starts off as a Minestrone, gets eaten with bread the next day and is then reboiled the third day to end up as Ribollita! Somebody totally miscalculated and made a whole lot more soup than they needed! hehe

Ingredients:

• 1 can - Cannellini beans
• 3 nos - medium sized ripe Tomatoes, diced
  
• 1/2 cup - carrots, diced
  
• 1/2 cup - Onions, chopped
• 1/4 cup - green peppers/capsicum, chopped
  
• 1 tsp - Garlic, roughly chopped
• 2 tsp - Thyme leaves
  
• 2 tsp - Vegetable base + 2 1/2 cups water or veggie stock
  
• couple of handfuls of Greens - I used arugula.
  Recommended options: Tuscan kale or savoy cabbage, increase the cook time to 5 mins if using these
  
• 2-3 thick slices of day old Ciabatta bread, torn into smaller pieces
  
• salt and pepper to taste
• 11/2 Tbsp - Extra virgin olive oil + for serving
  

Method:

1. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat and cook the onions, green peppers and carrots for 5-6 mins stirring occasionally. Add the garlic, thyme, salt, freshly ground black pepper to taste and continue to cook for 3-5 more mins until the veggies caramelize lightly.
   
2. Add the tomatoes and cook for 3 min so they soften. Now add the drained & washed cannellini beans, water, veggie base and bring it to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 10-12 more mins until the flavors come together.
   
3. A few minutes before turning off the heat, add the washed greens, cover and cook. I switched the heat off as soon as I added the arugula as they are tender enough to get cooked in the residual heat.
4. If serving immediately, stir in the bread pieces next and add more water if needed to have a thick consistency. Check for seasonings and serve with a drizzle of olive oil. Since I was having it for lunch the next day, I skipped the bread step to avoid a really thick soup.
   

Notes: The recipe starts off with the trinity - onion, carrots and celery. I did not have the last one and used a little chopped green peppers instead, I also skipped the garnish of parsley, not a huge fan of it.

The soup was really yummy, the thyme was the star. If you notice they aren't any extra spices used, the ingredients used shine through and give the soup all its flavor. I liked the arugula in this too, since I did not overcook them and also left them whole with no chopping, they had some texture left and remained a bright green. I had the soup with some toasted ciabatta bread with olive oil for lunch the next two days, aboslutely loved it! This is one hearty and satisfying soup, and its surely going to give me company many more times this winter.

holding on...

Dear Foodies,

to summer, cos winter is here, ALREADY! I think Fall flew past us overnight when we were asleep. The temperatures have dropped by 20 degrees and the trees are already shedding their leaves before changing colors...aah :(, very unfair! I am going to miss all those lovely bright hues of orange and pink that took over the skies every evening for the last 6 months. My patio faces the west and so every evening as I get back from work I get to watch a play of lights and shadows in my living room, and I sit right next to the window absorbing the warmth of the sun filtering through the glass sipping my coffee/tea, hmmm...I am going to deeply miss it.

I've been keeping myself warm by staying in the kitchen, baking :) I've gotten tired of having cereals in the morning and it got to the extent where I was skipping breakfast, bad, very bad. I told you how my body does not approve of it on the weekdays in my previous post that . So I switched to eating bread instead, and that allowed me to try my hand at baking too. The first few attempts were a huge success while the last one was not...more about that later though.

So the last two weekends I baked a white bread and a whole wheat+spelt one trying to capture the warmth from the sun in them. I used them in many ways through out the week for breakfast, evening snack and even dinner with a warm bowl of soup. Yes, winter is here :(( :(( The added advantage though of having bread for breakfast is, tossing the slices in the oven takes only a few seconds, and then I just need to add a dollop pf jam and I can head out with my 'to-go' breakfast :) So I can sleep a extra 3-5 mins in the morning that would have been spent eating cereals, every extra minute in bed is precious you see :) The recipes for these breads coming up :D along with the snack time ideas could you throw in your breakfast choices too ?

Slump time

Dear Foodies,

...at 3'o and its surprisingly regular. I have lunch at 12 on the dot on weekdays and its usually light, I don't want to fall asleep on my keyboard at the office and hurt myself, the table isn't comfortable either! So right around 3'o clock I get hit by a snack attack, I feel like munching on something which is also fun to eat. Sometimes even a cup of coffee or tea will do the trick, but the key is getting my hands on something, and yaa, they shouldn't be noisy to eat :D

My choices so far have been assorted dry fruits, raisins and prunes. I bought a pack of pepperidge farm assorted cookies once but that's way too much fat to casually munch on. Weekends are totally different in terms of routine for me, I sleep late, very late, eat breakfast when it should be lunch, following my mood and nothing else. There are no body clocks interfering but the weekdays see a totally different person. I need to eat something in the morning, by 12 I am waiting for lunch, 3'o is snack time, I get back home and have my cup of coffee/tea and some light dinner later. Any change in routine will warrant a grumble from the tummy :D Surprising how well the body prepares itself!

I made these baked muthia's last weekend after seeing Aparna's post. I stuck to Ashwini's recipe for the most part and they were yummy though a lot thinner than the originals. I had a them with some home-made yogurt topped with coriander leaves and some aloo bhujia and it was part of my brunch :P

What are your go-to's for snack time ? Any healthy, low-cal options that you've tried and liked ?

Bambino or vermicelli..!

Dear foodies,

I din't know bambino wasn't the name of the product but just the brand name until a few years back. Just like how maggi == noodles until I discovered Italian cuisine :P and LG== hing/asafoetida! I started taking notice of the word vermicelli on the pack only after I came here I think...hmm, until then it was just a word in the jingle. How many of you thought the same ? (please don't single me out) But well, whats in a name, its the taste that matters. I absolutely love
bambino
...err vermicelli upma, its such a simple and tasty breakfast/tiffin item and ...its quick! It is one of my favorite lunch box dishes too, just as good served cold and I like it with a sprinkling of sugar on top, no, not the powdered sugar we usually find here, but the granular kind that lends a nice crunch.

So if you need a breakfast idea or even a evening tiffin for this weekend, here's one

another day, another version...

Ingredients :

• 1 cup - Vermicelli
• 1/2 cup - Peas and diced Carrots (I used frozen)
• 1/4 cup - sliced Onions
• 2 nos - Green chillies, slit through
• 1 nos - broken Red chilli (optional)
• 1/2 tsp - Mustard seeds
• 1/2 tsp - Cumin seeds/jeera
• 10-12 - Peanuts (can be substituted with cashews)
• 1 tsp - Chana dal
• 4-5 Curry leaves
• 2 tsp - Oil
• Salt to taste
• 2 tsp - lime juice or lime wedges for garnish and coriander leaves (optional)
• 1 3/4 cups - water

Method:

1. I like to roast the vermicelli a little even if its the pre-roasted kind. Heat a pan with 1 tsp of oil, on medium heat. Roast the vermicelli until it turns a light brown color, stirring regularly to avoid burning them. Remove from heat and set aside.
2. Add the rest of the oil to the pan, splutter the mustard and cumin seeds, roast the peanuts and then add the chana dal, once they turn a deep orange, the red & green chillies, curry leaves go in.
3. Next add the onions and saute until they soften and turn translucent. The frozen (or fresh) peas and carrots go in next, saute them for a couple of minutes. In the meantime, microwave 1 3/4 cups of water and add it to the veggies along with salt.
4. When the water comes to a boil, reduce the heat a bit, add the vermicelli, stir to avoid lumps. Cover and cook for 5-6mins until they soak up the water and soften.
5. Take off the heat and add the lime juice or serve the wedges on the side. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve with a sprinkling of sugar and some pickle.

I made this for a late brunch one weekend and had it with fresh cut-mango pickle my mom had made when she was here. Sometimes I skip the pickles and sprinkle some karapodi/idlipodi on top and some yogurt too on the side. When I was in school, my mother would make a tiny potlam/pouch of sugar for me to add right before I had it for lunch, cos the
bambino
vermicelli upma would still be warm when she packs it in the morning and the sugar would dissolve if added right then, pampered... yes! :D You can substitute the peas with edamame or lima beans, other veggie options could be corn, diced green beans, capsicum, tomatoes, boiled and cubed potatoes Or just skip them all together :D Whats your twist to this recipe ?

Happy Friday!
(and hattrick for me, yayyy!)

Should I too ?

Dear foodies,

What say you ?
If you've already been here (psst, its her b'day today) and here, then you know what I am talking about. Its NaBloWriMo time, ok ok, don't run, its National Blog Writing Month! I have always tried to blog more often but I never really do it, so this is going to be another attempt, to post every single day this month, well if not everyday, then hopefully every week day :) (see, I've already made room for excuses!!)

But hey, Happy Navaratri to all of you!

Have the celebrations begun at your place ? Here is a photo of the kolu/bommala koluvu/doll arrangement in my home at Hyd by my mother. This is a fun festival for kids I think, (not that the rest aren't :P), I remember helping my mom set-up a zoo, a village scene, cricket ground, temple scene and so many more each year, and this was just for the area beside the main arrangement. There isn't one this time :(

On the topmost level is the Ashtalakshmi set, below that the Dasavatharam (no, its not Kamal hassan! can you believe that all the results for a google search of the word relate to the movie!!) collection and below that in the chettiar family, the cutest of the lot. We had an older pair of dolls with the famous wobbling head, but over the years they got chipped. They represent the business class and have tiny vessels containing grains, salt and spices. We had other dolls to depeciting various mythalogical characters over the years, like Lord Rama, Lakshmana, Sita and Hanuman; Radha-Krishna; and then there were dancers, soldiers and many others. Each family has their own unique collection and some handed down through generations. My mom has three main steps this year with two tinier ones at the bottom (odd numbered always), we've also had six main steps a few years, aah miss those days. I have so many little stories connected to this festival, but I can't use up all of then in one day right?, so stay tuned :D

Now tell me what you did or how you remember celebrating it as a child ? I'm off to listen to the VP debate now.

Stir fry Mustard greens

Dear foodies,

When I try out new greens, the two recipes that I lean on are a basic dal or the stir fry method. Both are recipes with no complications and the greens get ample room to showcase themselves giving me a chance to decide if I like them :) This time I bought a bunch of mustard greens. The only other time that I had cooked with them was for making Anita's recipe for sarson da saag, yummy!

Mustard greens taste like none of the other greens, they have a slight bitterness and a texture to them, and the saag was a wonderful way to enjoy it. The only time I had eaten sarson da saag was in Delhi while accompanying my father on a business trip. It was way back in school and the only memory I have of it was that I liked it :D So when I tasted the saag I made the flavor was a pleasant surprise, no it did not rekindle any memories, those were lost right ?, but I liked the taste. A nice variation from the greens that I was used to on a daily basis. This time around though my intention was to repeat that dish, by the time I got around to making it I ran out of tomatoes and corn meal. So I turned towards the stir-fry method. I was in a mood for peanuts half way through the cooking process and towards the end grated coconut found its way in too. Both these don't feature in my basic method but I did not complain that night :)

Ingredients:

• 1 bunch - Mustard greens
• 1/2 tsp - mustard seeds
• 1/2 tsp - Cumin seeds/jeera
• 1 tsp - Chana dal
  
• a pinch of asafoetida/hing
• 2-3 nos - dried Red chillies, broken
• 1/2 cup - sliced Onions
• 1 clove - garlic, sliced (optional)
  
• 2 Tbsp - coarsely powdered, roasted peanuts
• 1 Tbsp - grated/dessicated coconut
• 1/2 Tbsp - Oil
• Salt to taste

Method:

1. Throughly wash and roughly chop the mustard greens. Slice the onions. Heat a cast iron skillet or pan with the oil. Splutter the mustard and cumin seeds. Add the chana dal, let it brown a little, then the broken red chillies and hing.
2. Add the sliced onions ( & garlic) and saute until they soften and turn translucent. Toss in the greens, salt and about 1/4 - 1/2 cup of water. Cover lightly and cook on medium heat until the greens are tender, they take a while to cook ~ 8-10mins.
3. Meanwhile, heat another small pan and dry roast the peanuts. Start them off on the cold pan and remove from heat when they starting changing color. Cool and crush them in a motar/pestle or coarsely powder them.
4. When the greens are almost done, add the peanut powder and coconut. Stir and cook for a few more minutes. Serve hot with chapati or rice.

I had them with chapati's that night and had them in a sandwich the next day. I really liked the peanuts and coconut in this, they kinda a balanced the bitterness for me. The greens still had some texture to them and were not a total mush. How do you cook your greens ? Any other ways you use mustard greens ?

Sinless cravings - eggless maple cake

Dear foodies,

Yes, I went off again, and this time I was not planning on doing that. I don't know what came over, I was checking my blog everyday looking for comments that were surely not there. I was coming by all the other blogs to0, but I hardly delurk. I don't know why. Just din't feel like it, I was still cooking and taking photos now n then, but somehow I lost interest. Suddenly nothing I cook pleases me and I've been getting home soup from Panera bread and calling it a day. Much more comforting that cooking something, disliking it from spoon two and then having to find ways to get rid of it! I guess its one of those phases, atleast I hope so :(

So well, a few weekends back I suddenly felt like eating something sweet and baked. A yummy cake if possible, I wish we got pastries here like we did in India. But I was not going to get any of the eggy, butter laden stuff from the store. I went into the kitchen and randomly put together ingredients to come up with this little coffee cake and was surprised by how it turned out given the lack of any butter or oil or eggs or sugar for that matter! I present to you a eggless coffee cake flavored by maple syrup. Pardon the quantities though, I was baking just for myself and so the tiny portion :)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup - whole wheat pastry flour
  
• 1/4 tsp - Baking powder
  
• 1/8 tsp - Baking soda
  
• 2 Tbsp - Apple sauce
  
• 1 tsp - ground flax seed + 2 Tbsp soy milk
  
• 1 tsp - Vanilla essense
  
• 11/2 Tbsp - Maple syrup
  
• 1 Tbsp - orange blossom honey (or use more maple syrup)
  
• 6-8 - Blackberries ( or any berry you like)
  
• Slivered almonds for the topping
  

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 375 F and grease a cake pan, (mine was a 1 1/2" deep 6" dia bowl, seen in the first pic)
   
2. Combine ground flax seeds and soy milk in a bowl and heat for 30 secs in the microwave, remove and mix rigorously with a fork, heat it for another 30 secs and mix again. Set aside to cool.
   
3. In another bowl sift together all the dry ingredients. Add the wet ingredients to it and combine lightly. I like it less sweet so taste and add more maple syrup if you want.
   
4. Add the berries and fold them into the batter, if using frozen (like I did) add them directly into the batter so they thaw in the oven while cooking.
   
5. Smooth the surface and top with the slivered almonds. Bake for about 15-18mins. Check for doneness by inserting a toothpick in the center, it will come out clean when ready.
   

This was a more like a expt while baking, I kept a note of what I was adding just so I know if its gonna work or not. I am glad it did! No eggs or butter or oil or sugar and still you get to eat a cake, now thats really nice :) Its not cloyingly sweet and so is a perfect coffee/tea time cake, it was good for breakfast too. I'm going to try other flavor combos retaining the method, I got a few more cans of the applesauce too, the brownie trial is paying off more than I expected :)

And hey, this is perfect for Vaishali's Sweet Vegan event featuring what else but mouthwatering Vegan desserts! Her blog is filled with yummy recipes from all over the world but with her own spin on them. She makes them sound so simple & delicious you won't even realize they are all vegan, hop on to her blog for details.

Undrallu/Steamed Rice cakes

Dear foodies,

This year on Vinakaya chavithi all of you got together and schemed against me by talking about the festivites and your delicious offerings to the elephant Lord. I had not planned on making anything special, a quick sugar candy/dry fruits neivedyam in the morning and I was out of the house. I changed my status message on the messenger, wished everyone I could find online, put a nice blog post wishing all of you, and then started going around ...that was the mistake. Each one of you had a solid plan chalked out on how you were making the day special, hmph! 

And all the foodie photos got me hungry for some authentic festive food too :( I am not a sweet lover, I think I've mentioned that enough in this space, no mood for frying things up either. As I was composing that post I tried looking for a post of undrallu on my blog, I had made them the last two years for Ganesh chathurthi and was so sure I had blogged about them, atleast I thought so. Not finding the post though confirmed by dinner plans :) Undrallu it was, with the condiment made specially for it, a yet another awesome traditional combo, puli-inji/allam-chinthapandu pachadi. Here's my version...

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup - Rice
  
 * Use 1 1/2 cup idli rava if you want to save time

• 1/4 cup - Moong/chana/toor dal 
  
 * I used a combo of the later two, while the first is the traditional choice

• 3/4 tsp - whole Peppercorns  
  
• 1/2 tsp + 1/4 tsp - Cumin seeds/jeera
  
• 1/2 Tbsp - Ghee/oil
  
• 5-6 - Curry leaves
  
• 1 - dried Red chilli
  
• Salt to taste
  
• 1 Tbsp - grated/bite sized coconut for added flavor (thanks anon!)

Method:

The upma stage
1. Soak the rice in water for about 30-40 mins. Drain and spread them on kitchen towels to dry. Once most of the moisture is lost, blend them to a coarse powder along with the dal,  pepper and 1/2 tsp jeera. I got approximately 2 cups of the coarse powder/rava from this.
   
2. Microwave 1 1/2 cups of water. Heat ghee in a sauce pan, add the 1/4tsp of the jeera, next add the curry leaves and broken red chilli. Once they splutter, carefully add all the water to the pan with salt. 
   
3. Stirring continuously, add the rice-dal rava (and coconut) , try to avoid any lumps. Cover and place on medium-low heat for a 5-8mins. Since the rice was soaked and then ground, it does not take long to cook. Turn off heat when done, but keep covered for a few more minutes. Drizzle a little more ghee if you want now.
   
The idli stage
4. In the meantime, place a pressure cooker with a few inches of water to heat. lightly grease a pan that fits inside the cooker. When the rice-dal upma is cool enough to handle, form into into oval shape balls, moisten your hands if needed, so the mixture does not stick to them. Arrange them on the greased pan, close with the lid and steam them for 8-10mins, or until you get a steady stream of steam coming out of the cooker for about 5 mins. Serve hot with some puli-inji or kara podi/idli podi or sambar
   

I got about 8 of these, I steamed 4 in the cooker and 4 in the microwave. The batch in the microwave was slightly yellowish and not steamed through as well as the cooker batch. But I am sure you can use the microwave in a pinch. 

I'll add the recipe to the puli-inji and karapodi in the next few posts :) Until then, if you are looking to add sweet potatoes to your meal but are bored of the baked potato like I am, but still want to enjoy them,  try these two wonderful recipes: Baked fries and Thai stew.

Dum aloo, family style

Update: Photos found and added, yayy!

Dear foodies,

I know, you must be wondering, ' Is this a joke!! Where are all those big sized, high resolution photos that she has been throwing on us lately? Right? right! Sigh....I could not find any more photos of this dish :( I am sure I took some really lovely photos of this dish, they had come out really well :( But now I cannot find them :(( They are not on my laptop or on the external hard drive, I might have deleted them by mistake, but I cannot see how :(( Has this happened to any of you ?

For those who noticed, this photo has been sitting on the sidebar for more than a month having the 'coming soon' tag on it. I am sure if it could really move, it would jump out of that sidebar and shout out at me. Sonu, a reader with a very keen eye noticed this and sent me an email asking me if I ever intended to post the recipe :D So without any further delay, pictures or not, this dish deserves a post and so here it is.

I will not claim this to be authentic, but its dum aloo to me, our family's style! Its one of my favorite ways of eating potatoes and my mother makes it the best. It has a nice khata/tangy flavor mixed with the spiciness of the dish. Baby potatoes work the best in this recipe.

Ingredients:

• 10 nos - small baby Potatoes
  
• 1 nos - medium Onion, cubed
  
• 3 nos - vine-ripe Tomatoes, cubed
  
• 1 tsp - Tamarind extract (adjust to taste)
  
• 1 nos - clove of Garlic
  
• 1" dia ginger piece
  
• 1 Tbsp - Oil + for roasting potatoes
  
• 1/2 tsp -Turmeric
  
• 1 tsp - Jeera/cumin sides
  
• 1 tsp - Garam masala
  
• 11/2 tsp - Red chilli powder
• 1 tsp - Dhaniya powder
  
• 1 tsp - Amchur powder
  
• Salt to taste
  

Method:

1. Scrub the potatoes clean and boil them in salted water until cooked through. They should still hold their shape though, and not turn into a mush.
   
2. Pre-heat the oven to 400F. Drain the potatoes, peel them when cool enough to handle. Pat dry with a cloth and spread them on a baking sheet, spray a little oil and roast them in the oven to crispen the edges. Bake for 10 mins then place on broil for the last few minutes. Adjust times based on your oven temperature and cooking times. You can also do this on the stove-top by heating 1-2Tbsp of oil and roasting them on all sides.
   
3. In the meantime, boil the tomatoes and onions in 1 -1 1/2 cups of water, until the onions turn translucent and the tomatoes squish easily. Cool them and grind to a paste along with the ginger and garlic. Based on the tanginess of the tomatoes add the tamarind extract.
   
4. Heat oil in a kadai and splutter the jeera, then add the turmeric and ground paste. Simmer it for 7-8 mins until the raw smell goes away, add the spice powders (garam masala, red chilli, dhaniya powder and amchur), salt and cook for a few more minutes until the oil separates out of the gravy.
   
5. Add 1/2 cup of water (or less), the roasted potatoes and simmer on low heat for 10 mins, allowing time for the masala to get soaked by the potatoes. This gravy needs to be clinging to the potatoes so you get a the tanginess with each bite of the potato.
   

I could have a bowl of it just by itself, you can do that too :D But if not, serve it with some chapati's or jeera rice (or pulao), we had it with both :) If you cannot find baby potatoes, then use the medium sized potatoes like yukon gold or red potatoes, cut them in half and boil, prick them with a fork to get them to cook evenly. Don't forget the salt :) Enjoy!

lights on...Action!

Dear foodies,

I usually cook in the evenings and more often that not the main problem I face while taking photographs is with the lighting. I've always disliked the yellow tint of the bulbs and the first thing I did after moving in was to replace all the lights in my apartment to energy saving white light bulbs. My kitchen counter opens into the hall and dining area of the apartment and so I have to turn on all their lights while clicking to get decent light on the food. Inspite of all these, there is always a tone adjustments made in the post-processing stage. Now with winter fast approaching even the slight day light I see when I get back from office is fast diminishing, and that got me worried. 

I did not know if I should invest on a couple of high intensity lamps,  or buy a product specific for photography. I read high praise about the Lowel ego lights successfully used by food bloggers, but it is expensive. It was definitely way out of my budget, at this point of time I would rather choose to invest on more lenses than a lighting system. So in the midst of all this confusion Jai's DIY idea for a tabletop lighting system was just perfect for me. I always have enjoy doing such projects, you get to have hands on fun and fiddle with stuff you usually stay away from, and did I mention that I love using tools! Assembling the coffee table, book shelves, bed stands etc are things I thoroughly enjoy. Even in engg I would look forward to our 'workshop sessions', It was like the 'games periods'  in school.

But I must say, I was totally out of my element when I went shopping for this one. I cannot recollect the last time I shopped for anything electrical, if you ingore the bulbs :) I roamed through the electrical wiring and lighting shelves countless times today unable to make up my mind. I think it took me 2hrs shopping for the teeny list Jai put up. 

What did I use ? The only particle boards the store had were the ones used for shelving,  I dropped the idea to use them as that would have involved sawing to get the right size, and I was going to skip the saw (don't have one).  I asked them for the smallest and cheapest piece of wood they had and was pointed towards the 2x2 birch wood sheets, perfecto! Then I don't know what I was looking for but saw a few sheets of plastic that resembled the cross stitch board Jai mentioned, it was called a lighting panel. After that name I could not waste any more time, 2 of them were in my shopping cart. I still don't know what they are used for! :D

Next I bought the dowel rods, screws....hmm I could not recollect what it was used for and after about 15mins of browsing thru the whole collection they had, I walked away with none :D After these I headed toowards the electrical section, one I was avoiding until now. Luckily after another 15-20mins I found a helpful store assisstant who helped me pick the best combo that fit my requirement. I bought 4ft of lamp wire, 2 each of 3-way sockets, plug and cord switches. She asked me to buy electric tape which I did in my ignorance and never used in the project. I spent 30-35$ on the whole. I bought sockets and switches that would support the use of 3-way bulbs, so that if I choose so, I can vary the intensity of light.

I had 40W bulbs (energy saving kind), screw drivers, a borrowed power drill and adhesive tape at home. I skipped the saw, staplers and extra screws and the translucent paper too. The last one only because the store din't have it and I was too hungry to go spend time in another store.

The room was not as dark as it looks but definitely underlit, the only other light was on the far end of the living room.

So after all this, I spent a good 3 hrs setting it up, I took my own sweet time figuring out how to wire the sockets and plugs :)) The rest was breeze, and again a looooot of fun. Thank you soo much Jai for your a brainwave of a idea and clear instructions :) I had no trouble piecing it together, and was as excited as Edison when the bulb glowed :)) 

Anyone looking for a productive weekend plan, this one if just for you :)