To all ye who want to paint with light ...

I should have started this blog many moons ago as I started experiencing the joys of rediscovering the art of photography. But as the saying goes - it's better late, than never!
So, here I am, in the hopes of recording what I learn as I progress from ignorance to enlightenment; about what my eyes can see that my camera can capture; and, what my mind imagines and my camera paints with its capabilities.

Please feel free to add any comments and share your wisdom (tips or tricks) that you have picked up along the way.

And do check out my How-To and Birding pages as well.


Sunday, April 18, 2010

Day 44 - Cooking Kheer (the Indian rice pudding variation)

Kheer means thickened milk in many of the Indian languages. However, kheer is never really consumed on its own - it always has another ingredient added to it for texture and taste.  Each region in India has its take on the Kheer - some like to cook it with rice, some with rice vermicelli, some with cream of wheat, Indian cottage cheese or paneer, and even some mild-tasting vegetables!  Yes, and fruits of course!

I made the variation with rice, having my roots in the eastern part of India, where rice is the staple for most of the population.  I adapted the recipe to my own tastes and usually add a little bit of desiccated coconut, raisins, lots of almonds, pistachios, and a generous splash of rose water.  Different flavours come together to make this really decadent.  And since this is the dessert of choice for my first batch of students, I had to do a dry run to fine-tune the process.








The pictures of the nuts and raisins were handheld - I was feeling too lazy to get the tripod out.  And I also feel a little constrained with the tripod as far as angles go.  If I want a bird's eye view of the food, I would have to put it on the floor, which I really hate doing (since my dining area was really dark today with the weather being so gloomy)!  These photos were done with my kit lens.  

I also used my new speedlight powered down to 1/16 in the third photo to illuminate the background a little bit.  Since I can't sync my flash with my camera yet, I had to handhold the flash and sync it with the shutter release.

P.S. I recently realized that my camera doesn't have a PC connector either.  So, I'm going to get hit with buying two universal translators as opposed to just one for my speedlight.  :-( 

2 comments:

  1. love these! I want to work more with food!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you! I love to eat, so I guess that translates into better pictures! :=P

    ReplyDelete