Mommie's Random Ramblings

Rava Idlis in Romania - Instantly!

2012-02-02T20:07:00.000+02:00

One fabulous thing living in Romania has done for me is to have woken up the slumbering Mallu side of things! I was never an experimental mallu when it came to the food department. And I'm loathe to admit that before getting here I never bothered to attempt making a sambar or a rasam myself! We would just get up go to the nearest south indian joint for our dosa-aappam fix.

Well, now I don't have a choice in the matter. I don't have a never ending supply of MTR instant mix packets and the trips back home are few and far in between. So we have to make do with an incredibly limited supply. This last weekend, I woke up desperate for some idli-chutney! How my tongue craved for those flavours - dear oh dear! Take it from me, it is physically painful to experience such craving!

The husband was super pleased when I declared that I was going to make idlis for breakfast. "You have more MTR packets!?", he asked in gleeful surprise. "Nope. I'm going to make it from scratch.", was what I said.

And all I got for encouragement was a very deep groan and an upset puppy look for destroying his idli dreams! I promise you, that expression is what probably did it. Now, I simply HAD to make it! Like I said before, no choice in the matter.

Now, firm plans are all very good but the reality of the situation here is that we get no urad dal, no boiled rice and there was certainly no time for fermenting my impossible to put together idli batter! Rava idlis was the only way to go since rava/sooji or semolina is the only ingredient I do get here. Unfortunately, all recipes I found recommended using coarse sooji and we only get very fine sooji here. :(

Nevertheless, brave-on I did. Post some tweaking on proportions and raising agents, I turned out super-soft steamed idlis with chutney made with dry dessicated coconut - NOT fresh coconut, which we do get here but I didn't have any of - and some gun powder from my kerala stock.

The pleasure of having replicated these tastes in my firangi kitchen with next to zero authentic ingredients is only topped by a silently eating toddler licking his fingers and asking for "shum-more"!

Spongy yummy-licious perfection on a plate!

Instant Rava Idli (using fine semolina)
1 cup Rava/sooji
1 cup Plain yoghurt
1/4 tsp Baking soda
1/2 tsp Eno fruit salt (this I got from India to make dhoklas, which I am yet to try!)
1 small Grated carrot
1 tsp Mustard seeds
2 tsp Curry leaves
1/2 tbsp Minced ginger
1 tsp Salt, to taste
1/4 to 1/2 cup Water
1 tbsp Vegetable oil

Mix rava and salt and set aside
.
Splutter the mustard seeds and curry leaves in hot oil.

Add minced ginger and fry on low heat till the kitchen smells like the kitchen in a southie restaurant!

Add rava (mixed with salt) and mix well.

Stir in the grated carrots.

Add soda followed by the yoghurt. Turn off heat and mix thoroughly so that each grain of rava has been dampened by the yoghurt.

Take it off the hot stove and let this mix sit for 20-30 mins while you make the chutney.

After 20 mins, set the idli steaming water to boil while you prepare the batter.

Stir the mixture well and add water to it in small quantities. Stir it in till you reach a thick almost-pouring consistency. DO NOT make it too thin, it should be just runny enough for you to be able to scoop up spoonfulls without dripping.

Add Eno and mix well. Eno will react instantly and the mixture will start bubbling.

Immediately scoop up spoonfulls into your idli moulds - there should be enough batter to make 16 medium-sized idlis.

Steam for 15-20 mins on med high heat. A toothpick inserted in the middle should come out clean.
Let it cool a little before taking it out of the mould.

To take the idlis out of the mould cleanly, dip a knife in a glass of cold water and run it around the edge of each idli.

Serve warm with coconut chutney and/or gun powder.

Coconut chutney (using dry dessicated coconut)
1/2 cup dessicated coconut (the kind you get to decorate your baked goods)
1/2 inch piece fresh ginger
1-2 green chillis
1 dry red chilli (optional)
1 small red onion, roughly chopped
salt to taste
warm water to grind

Grind everything into a fine paste.
Your chutney is ready!

Kids tales...

2012-01-20T21:24:00.001+02:00

Do you know the children's tale about the smart rabbit who tricks a lion? The one where the rabbit convinces the lion that there's another bigger lion inside a well claiming to be the king of the jungle and therefore tricks to the lion to jump into the well when he sees his own reflection. So anyway the story goes on to say the lion drowns and dies and all the animals are happy to be rid of him. I know, not the most appropriate sounding story the way I've described it. But the actual story is really not all that scandalous. :) My little fellow heard this story recently on one of the apps on my Android phone and asked me, "What does 'dies' mean?" I didn't think that THAT would be the only thing that caught his attention in the whole story! But then, I should have known 'coz it was the only word that he probably didn't know the meaning of - so a fair question from him really.

Now I am a god fearing individual and have also introduced my son to the concept of a higher power but I don't like giving him reasons only from a religious context. We've always tried and built in logical reasoning for things first and then follow it up with Godliness of things. But this was a bit of a situation we had. Braving on, I told him about the difference between life and death. One is when you're heart is beating, the brain is working (yes, he knows about those things), we can think, talk, walk, do things, respond when interacting with people etc and the other is when there is no life and you can't do any of those things. Then I told him that when someone dies, they are in heaven with ambaati (mallu for Bhagvaan/God) etc. So I was happy with how I handled it.... and then one day while coming back from school....

He was sitting quietly in the car next to me and then suddenly asked,
"When you die, you can't move?"
And I said, "Yes."
"And you're with ambaati?"
Again I said, "Yes, in heaven."
"But why does ambaati not let you move or talk?"

For a few seconds there, I was seriously at a loss on what I could say to a 4-year old to make him understand the concept of..... frankly, it was so deep, I just didn't know where to begin. I don't even know what parts of which concept I should have been explaining! I'm sorry to tell you all that I did not have an answer for him, and had to tell him so.

Kids! They really do take you by surprise!

Another time, we were going to school and passed this one house shaped like a square on top of a square, which has walls that look like a beehive. The little fellow calls it the beehive house. So on this particular day he says, "mamma I don't think the beehive house is very nice." I thought he was talking about the aesthetics of the building but was surprised when he continued, "It has no balconies. How can they get some havaa (hindi for breeze or fresh air) inside their house? How can they let the germs go out of the house if they don't have a balcony?" So I told him he was right but that the house had a garden and they can get a lot of fresh air in the garden. But he refused to give in, says "Yes, a garden is nice but you can't stand in the garden when its raining. You'll get wet. In a balcony you can go out and then come in and then go out again if you want even when it's raining."

LOGIC!
I guess we are doing a decent job of ingraining a liking for logic in his mind. Not sure its such a good idea anymore though! :)

Red Velvet Cup Cake

2012-01-19T11:35:00.004+02:00

Now, even though my cupcakes don't look RED, the recipe I used is one for Red Velvet cake. Unfortunately, I didn't find good quality red food colouring to really zing up the visual appeal of these cupcakes. But honest to God, these taste divine. I have a family and neighbourhood full of quietly munching mouths and vigorously nodding heads to vouch for them! So give these a shot with some good quality red food colouring to perk up your next round of entertaining guests or just as a special treat for you!

When my little monkey turned 4 years old!

I stake no claim for this recipe, it comes directly from Foodwishes.com

Red Velvet Cupcakes
1 + 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
3 tbsp cocoa powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
4 tbsp softened butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup buttermilk (mix warm milk with 1 tsp lemon juice to make buttermilk at home in 5 mins)
2 tsp white vinegar
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tbsp GOOD quality red food colouring

Preheat oven to 180 C.
Sift the flur, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt together and set aside.
In another bowl, beat the butter and sugar together till smooth.
Add the eggs one at a time and beat well to incorporate thoroughly.
Add vanilla essence, vinegar, buttermilk and red food colouring to the mix and beat again.
Add the flour mixture to this in two batches. Mix thoroughly using a wire whisk.
Don't over beat but make sure there are no lumps and the mixture reac a smooth slowing homogeneous state.
Scoop into lined cupcake/muffin moulds till a little more than half full.
Bake for 20 mins at 180 C till toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.
Cool in tray for 10 mins before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Imp: Do not ice / frost the cupcakes till they are completely cool or the icing will melt.

Cream Cheese Icing/Frosting
I've never been much of a fan of icing on cakes. As a kid, I used to always get a tummy ache or something like food poisoning every time I ate iced cakes. Perhaps that history has something to do with my aversion. But ever since I forayed into the world of baking sweet treats, I've seen so many recipes for awesome looking icing options that I was tempted enough to try it out myself finally.

In this case, I've tried to use a very popular version of cream cheese icing. I like the flavour of cream cheese as it is, but I've never had it as cake decoration. Given that I LOVE cheese cakes, I guessed that mixing cream cheese with sugar and vanilla wouldn't taste too bad and braved on. Ofcourse there were multiple email exchanges with some of my American friends on where I can find cream cheese here and, more importantly, what it's called! And so I went and found myself a very American brand of Branza Topita (cream cheese in Romanian) called Philadelphia!

Here are the ingredients:
50 gms soft butter
150 gms cream cheese @ room temperature
vanilla seeds from 1/2 a vanilla pod (or use good quality vanilla extract)
1 cup powdered sugar (this was quite sweet for my taste, but
about 1 tbsp lemon juice (adjust to your tastes)

Whip the cream cheese till smooth, add the butter to it and mix well.
Add the sugar in batches till you reach desired levels of sweetness.
Add vanilla essence and lemon juice and mix again.
This gives a very smooth icing but it is thinner than what I normally see in shops. If you want to make it thicker, use more cream cheese and sugar.
Spread on your cake or cupcake with a flat edged knife or spatula.
Decorate with sprinkles or cake decors of choice.
Cool in the fridge before serving to let the cream cheese and butter harden a little.

Party!

The Birth-Day Saga

2012-01-18T18:19:00.004+02:00

FOUR. That's how old my monkey turned yesterday. All grown up so fast. There are lots of things planned for his big day and also at the end of the week for a full blown party! But before that.....

.... some reminiscing :: *Yuk Alert - Read at your own risk* **I still can't forget that Thursday morning four years ago when I was lying in bed while the husband was wearing his shoes to go to work, and asking me how long his leave application should be for, when my water broke! I waddled into the bathroom and called my doc from there! But ofcourse, I refused to leave the house before having a proper bath AND washing my hair!! I wasn't going to arrive at the hospital feeling mucky, knowing that there would be no hair wash in sight for a minimum 3 days! Naturally, this threw my already panicky husband into top hysteria mode! Thank god my mom was there to keep him and my dad both calm! :)

Now anyone who's known me for any length of time will know that I'm the one known for hysterics. Specially when one talks about doctors and intrusive examinations. Considering this was going to be the mother of all "intrusive" situations, I was surprisingly calm throughout the 30 min car ride (now you know why the husband wasn't in the best of spirits) to the hospital. I think everyone already knew that it was only the calm before the storm. The 2 seconds of peace before the sh*t hit the fan! I was already on the verge of it when I found out that I was first going to meet a doc diff from my regular Ob-Gyn 'coz my doc was in surgery when we arrived. And when she did arrive and said the word C-Section, that was it! My levels of hysteria reached hitherto unattained levels! The anaesthesiologists had to come into the room and tell them to let my husband come into surgery to keep me calm!**

The rest, as they say, is history! The little monkey who arrived with such fanfare and stuck his tongue out at the whole family when they first went to see him in the nursery has now turned four. He has turned into a cheeky little squirrel with a personality completely unique to himself. Kids these days seem to know exactly what they want and how they want it from a very early age, and this one is no different. I was clearly told what he would like on the menu for his birthday meal and there really was no room for discussion!

And so, atleast to me, "I want chicken with rice and dai-dai for dinner mamma!" translates to Hyderabadi Chicken Biryani and Boondi Raita!!! :D

So the thing about this type of biryani is the use of mace, mint leaves and ofcourse good quality basmati rice. Also, you cook the chicken and rice together in layers so that the rice takes on all the flavours from the steam rising from the chicken marinade as it cooks. It's one of those dishes that improves with time. Meaning, make enough to have healthy portions for leftovers that will taste divine the next day!

Now, DO NOT be put off by the number of ingredients here. The process itself is quite simple!

For the Rice
2 cups basmati rice
1 tsp oil
1 tsp zeera (cumin seeds)
Salt to taste

For the Chicken Marinade
400-500 gms chicken, no skin, bone in (I had to make do with boneless chicken breast though)
Handful mint leaves, chopped
2-3 small pieces of javitri (mace)
1-3 green chillies (optional)
1 tbsp ginger paste
1 tbsp garlic paste
1 tsp zeera (cumin seends)
1 tsp chilli powder (I used sweet paprika instead to keep the spice levels kid friendly)
1 tsp haldi (turmeric)
1 tsp zeera powder (cumin powder)
1 tsp dhania powder (coriander powder)
2 small bay leaves
a 2" stick of great quality cinnamon
3-4 cloves
2 green elaichi (green cardamom)
1 black elaichi (black cardamom)
2 tbsp oil
400-500 gms plain yoghurt
Juice of half a lime (optional)
Salt to taste

Other stuff you'll need
3-4 red onions, sliced fine
2-3 tbsp oil to fry

For assembling the biryani:

Handful mint leaves, chopped
Handful coriander leaves, chopped
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp zeera powder (cumin powder)
1 tsp saunf powder (fennel powder)
2 tbsp ghee (or use melted butter)
8-10 pieces sauted cashews
2 tbsp sauted golden raisins
previously fried onions
3-4 strands of saffron soaked in 2 tbsp warm milk

Marinate the chicken with all the spices on the list and keep aside for 4-6 hours. Min 2 hours. I generally do this the morning of the day I'm making the biryani.

Heat the oil in a wok or frying pan and fry the onions till they turn brown and crisp. Make sure you adjust the heat so that the onions don't burn or char. This process caramelises the onions beautifully and gives a hnt of sweetness in every spoonful of your biryani. You can skip this if you're worried about the oil content but honestly, it makes a world of difference.

Soak the rice for 30 mins and then add salt, zeera and oil. Cook in the microwave till about 3/4ths done. Generally, to cook 2 cups rice I use 4 cups water and microwave for 20 mins. For the biryani, cook for 12-15 mins. Test th rice after 12 mins to make sure its beginning to expand in size and has changed colour to a crisper white. Pressing a couple of grains between your fingers should smash it but leave a grainy residue. Once you reach this state, drain and set aside. You're now ready to assemble the biryani.

Find a heavy bottom dish with tall sides and a tight lid that has no openings to let the steam out. If you don't have a tight lid or your lid has ventilation, use a kitchen tea-towel on top of your dish before you put the lid on. This should trap the steam in and keep your rice moist.

Now pour out all your marinated chicken to the bottom of your cooking dish.

Layer 1/3 of the rice on top of the chicken. Sprinkle half the fried onions, cashews, raisins, mint and coriander leaves. Sprinkle part of the garam masala, zeera powder, saunf powder. Add a little of the melted butter and saffron milk.

Layer the half of the remaining rice on top and repeat the previous step.

Top the whole thing off with all the remaining rice. Empty out the saffron milk on it.

Close tightly with the lid and cook on high flame for 5 mins. Reduce the flame to medium and cook for another 10-12 mins. Finally, lower the flame to minimum and cook for another 10 mins.

Turn the flame off, take the dish off the stove top and let it rest for a good 10-15 mins before serving.

While serving, try to take all the layers right down from the chicken to the top layer of rice to get a good mix of colours, textures and flavours on your plate. The saffron, chicken marinade and the spice powders give the rice a variety of colours which is quite pretty to look at.

And that's it! Serve hot with some cold raita and papad.

Note 1: If you've marinated your chicken in advance and fry the onions while your rice is in the microwave, the whole process takes about 45 mins. Its really quite do-able, despite what it reads like. The only thing to keep in mind is the cooking after the assembly. Don't let the dish continue sitting on the hot stove stop because that can char or even burn your chicken from the bottom.

Note 2: If you have resources to cook this on coal fire, slow cook it for about 45 mins after assembly to get the most divine flavours in your biryani. It will better than anything you've ever had. Personal experience talking here - the husband made it once over coal fire and the dynamics change quite drastically, in a brilliant way - if you know what I mean!

Boondi Raita (I like to keep the raita low on spice and let the Biryani flavours do the talking. Adjust spices to your tastes.)

2 cups thick plain yoghurt
1/2 cup milk
1 cup boondi, keep 1 tbsp separately
1/4 tsp chilli powder
1/4 tsp cumin powder
1/4 tsp pepper powder
salt to taste
1/4 tsp chat masala
5-6 coriander leaves, chopped

Mix the thick yoghurt and milk. Add as much milk as you need to reach the desired consistency for the raita. I personally like to keep it quite thick, but do remember that the boondi wil absorb some liquid and you might want to add milk to compensate for this.

Add all the spice powders but keep a little aside for sprinkling before serving.

Add the boondi and stir well.

Put away in the fridge till ready to serve.

To serve, give the raita a good mix and then sprinkle the reserved spice powders on top. Place the chopped coriander leaves in the middle of the bowl and top with the reserved boondi to give your raita a crunchy kick.

Enjoy!

Coming up next, Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese frosting (icing).

A smooth beginning....

2012-01-05T13:27:00.004+02:00

Happy New Year fellow bloggers! Wish you the best of luck, happiness and family time in the new year.

For me personally, and for my family, this past year was a very busy one even though you wouldn't generally be able to tell from my posts. For some reason, I've tended to keep my blog posts rather impersonal. Atleast there's very little of our lives in there except stuff that's revolved around food. In anycase, we've laughed and cried and fought and had tremendous fun together this year and I feel a little sad letting go......

Hoping the new year will bring me a little more drive to keep these pages updated more regularly. :)

Here's my New beginning for this year.

Berry-Orange Smoothie (an anytime of the day special)
This is a recipe I'd adapted from one of the websites I subscribe to - finecooking.com

1/4 cup frozen strawberries
Juice from 1 orange freshly squeezed
1 tsp Vanilla essence
1 Tbsp Honey
1/4 cup thick plain yoghurt

Whip it all together in a blender for 20 seconds and pour into your favourite smoothie glass. Have chilled in the summer or chilled in the winter while you look out at some foggy or snowy views from your window. :)

Cheers!

Back at it..... finally.

2011-11-21T11:53:00.001+02:00

So we've been back a whole week now and things have slowly gone back to routine. Funny how life slows down a tad once you're back from India. :) Sunny boy's gone back to school, Daddy ofcourse is firefighting at work, and I've unpacked and reorganized winter wear once again and even managed a coffee out with friends AND a girl's night out! Had a blast, even though we were all back home and cozy under our blankets at a very tame midnight! It was a super week for sure.

The kitchen's been quite busy since we got back. It seems I've finally found my groove again! Yay! Hopefully, the posts will also trickle in now. :)

Our first grocery trip after our return was a disorganized affair. I had no usual 'list from the week' and so I mostly winged it with the usual milk, eggs, bread, meat and veggies. That means that I missed quite a few key ingredients. There was very little rice at home and almost no pasta at all. We somehow managed to get through the week. Ofcourse, I could have gone back for the things I missed but I HATE grocery shopping! Honestly, I find it to be the most boring activity, second only to sorting clothes for a wash! Ugh! I stretched it as far as I possibly could. So much so that Saturday morning we really had no choice but to go back to the store. :)

One key item missing from my non-existent list that week was lemons. I had only half a lemon sitting the fridge. It was quite dried out and with a little coaxing in the microwave gave me about 1 teaspoon of juice which was used up immediately in the Hari chutney (coriander and mint chutney) that I always have to stock in the fridge for the little fellow. He loves the stuff and it's my goto solution for difficult eating days.

I'd discovered the lack of lemons early on in the week and added it to my list but by Thursday evening, there was this one recipe that was quite stuck in my head and I was dying to try it out. The need was strong enough for me to trudge through thick fog and icy cold breeze to my friend's place who lives about 200 yards away from our house. Temperatures here are now hitting -5 C so believe me when I say that it was not the smartest of plans. She refused to believe I was coming by, with kid in tow, at 7 in the evening just to get lemons. Turns out she too had only limes, not lemons, and so I thought to myself, that simply just will have to do!

After all that, the recipe turned out wonderfully and I will now be using only limes and not lemons in it in the future. I had made extra for my lunch for the next day but the Daddy and Boy managed to wipe it all clean in a single sitting! Finger licking good - KFC eat your heart out! :)

Thick Japanese noodles in a Shrimp-lime sauce

Egg noodles to serve 3
12-15 jumbo shrimps
2 cloves garlic, chopped fine
1 inch ginger piece, sliced into fine strips
1 tbsp soya sauce
1 tsp sweet chilli sauce
1 medium carrot, chopped
1 red capsicum, cut into chunks
1 handful green beans, chopped into bite sized pieces
1 pinch lime rind
juice from 1 lime
2 cups chicken broth
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp cornstarch or plain flour
2 tbsp vegetable oil

- Set the noodles to cook as per package instructions.
- In a wok, heat the oil, add the ginger and garlic and once it gets aromatic, add the shrimps.
- Stir fry till the shrimps are cooked. Drain them and remove to a plate.
- Add the carrots, capsicum and green beans and stir fry for 2 minutes.
- Add the soya sauce and sweet chilli sauce and mix well to coat all veggies.
- Give it all a good stir and add 1 cup of the chicken broth. Let the veggies reach a cooked but still crisp stage.
- Add the shrimps and lime juice and rind.
- Once it comes to half a boil, add the remaining broth mixed with cornstarch or plain flour.
- Turn off heat after 2 mins, once the broth has thickened a bit and serve hot over the noodles.

Slurp it up!

India trip.... already hitting nostalgia

2011-11-14T18:25:00.001+02:00

So the hectic-ness is finally over. The wedding's done with, a cracker of a diwali is behind us and we're now back and settled-in at home.

This was our first Diwali in India with family after three whole years. Amazingly, the little fellow had never ever experienced our most favourite time of the year in India before this! He turns 4 this Jan and we've never been in India for Diwali since his birth! We'd come to this realisation last year when we were celebrating Diwali here at a friend's place with phul-jharis that they managed to bring back with them on their trip back from India immediately after Diwali. The little boy was completely mesmerised and we felt awful for not having planned things better. This year, I had my heart set on spending Diwali in India with family and thankfully the wedding date was close enough to the festive season for us to include both in a single trip.

It was a complete blast! My in-laws have just moved into a gigantic sarkari house and we had quite the time doing it up with about 700 candles! The kiddo hugely enjoyed lighting the phul-jharis and watching the intrepid mamu (my brother) and daddy lighting rows brightly coloured anaars together and letting loose some beautifully sparkling rockets. They were both quite the heroes of the week for him!

===========================================================

This trip was also when, after a really long time, I experienced a lot of bong (short for bangla) being spoken at, to and around me! In fact, I don't think I've heard this much bong since our wedding, and that was more than 7 years back! :) My in-laws don't speak very much bong at home. It's mostly English with a little bit of bong and almost no hindi. So it's quite amazing how much bangla I understood this time! I was happily able to follow all the excited chatter and also the rib-tickling jokes from the pishis and mashis and meshos who'd all descended from Cal (no, we do not call it Kolkata). I was being able to follow enough to have people come up to me and hold full on descriptive conversations with me in bong while I responded in English. The only thing I found funny (for myself) was that each time someone said something to me and I wanted to say 'yes' in reply, I automatically responded with a 'da'! That's Romanian for yes!! It was so strange.

I'm guessing one reason is that I haven't still mastered the art of saying 'hain' in that peculiarly Bong way that has a touch of nasal inflection right at the end. Also, I guess for me bong is still as much of an alien language as Romanian. Whatever the case, it was interesting to me when I did it the first couple of times, after which I forced myself to nod and give a neutral 'hmmm' to them in response. :)

============================================================

The wedding does demand a separate post but I can't help but mention it here as well! It was such an important part of our trip and quite honestly the only reason for it; diwali or no diwali! :) After an entire year of planning it finally came down to 4 days. If things were to go wrong, they would go wrong and we would just have to grin and bear with it. Thankfully there was no cause for worry and things went off smoothly. Everyone was happy, the food, which none of us could enjoy because of all the running around, was superbly scrumptious we were told and the house and the wedding venue looked spectacular!

Most importantly ofcourse, I loved each outfit I finally wore for each occasion - mind you they were all stitched from scratch and involved many rounds of ideation, fittings, alterations and back and forth! My sis-in-law's blouse for her wedding sari was still not final the day before the wedding! Nightmare! And this after she had spent hours sitting with the designer working out colour combinations to match her sari with the odhni that she got made and the jewellery that was bought specially for the wedding day. Somehow, she managed to get pink & gold (sari), to work with green & gold (jewellery) and an orange, gold net odhni to look spectacular! The odhni and the blouse were meant to tie it all together 'coz they were both designed from scratch keeping the colours in mind. The blouse eventually turned up the night before the wedding and it FIT perfectly! phew!

The little boy was never left out of any of it mind you. He was most vocal when his bua was getting mad at the tailors and designers throughout the process and very loudly proclaimed his support for her saying, "you're right bua! they have to fix it!" Hilarity ensued, ofcourse! We also discovered that the chap's a bit of a party animal. At the punj Sangeet that the groom's side threw, the little chap simply refused to step off the dance floor and kept dragging my and his 3-left-footed daddy back onto the dance floor. I finally managed to drag him away no later than 11:30 pm only on the promise of more dancing at the Mehendi the next day at our home!

Now that we're back in our actual home, he's already missing all the activity and buzz from India and has repeatedly asked us when we're headed back next. :)

Soon sunny boy, soon. *fingers crossed*

Spicy Wonderballs - My 'from-scratch' Golgappas

2011-07-30T17:57:00.008+03:00

I realised today that I never did get around to posting some of my most surprisingly successful recipes from the trials made for the Indian Showcase. So here is my recipe for making crunchy golgappas from scratch at home! Yes, you did read right. From scratch - at home! It does take some time and patience though. But you can make a nice big batch and box them in an airtight container to bring out when the chat cravings hit you.

Time for a little info: Golgappas are traditionally a street-side snack. And while every part of the country generally has a distinct cuisine, this is a pan-Indian favourite. Every region has a different name for it! So golgappas for the north and north-west, panipuri in the south-west parts of the country and puchkas on the eastern shores. The difference will be in the subtle flavour change in the pani or the spiced water and the stuffing that make these balls heavenly. Mind you, no self respecting Bengali will acknowledge you if you refer to their dear puchkas as panipuri and no true blue mumbaikar will give you a second glance if you ask for golgappas instead of panipuri! It's a super sensitive subject with most! But they all taste truly spectacular and very originally Indian.

From-scratch Golgappas

This recipe makes about 30 golgappas.

2 Tablespoons Maida

6 Tablespoons fine Sooji

1/4 cup water (you may need 1-2 teaspoons more of water)

Mix the sooji and maida together and knead with the water to make a nice tight dough.

Keep it covered with a wet cloth for 10 minutes.

Make 30 small balls with the dough and keep them covered with a wet cloth or tissue while you work on rolling each one out.

Heat oil in deep wok on medium flame. Note here that the flame should not be very high or the puris will not be crisp. This is key to making them crisp like you get at your favourite chat shop back home.

Make sure you have atleast 1 inch of oil in the kadhai to be able to immerse the puris down into the oil while frying.

Get hold of two or one big cotton towel(s) from your kitchen and wet them well. Spread it out on the counter next to where you'll be rolling out the little balls of dough.

While the oil is heating up, roll each ball into flat little discs - do not use any oil while rolling them out. If you're good with the rolling, roll them out into 1 inch diametre rounds. If not, just roll them out into whatever shape - it really doesn't matter at the end - as long as they're a shape you can stuff into your mouth! ;)

After rolling each ball, place them between two layers of the wet cloth. This rests the discs and helps the puris fluff up and stay fluffed after frying. This is a very important step again.

Start frying only after you have rolled out all the balls.

When you begin frying, start with the first ones you rolled not the last ones.

Make sure the heat is on medium and fry in batches while gently pressing the puris into the oil to help them fluff up.

Drain on tissue/napkin once they become a golden colour and store in an airtight container after the cooked puris have completely cooled.

To serve: Knock gently on the top of a golgappa with your finger to crack it open. Stuff it with your usual combination of boiled potato chunks, boiled chickpeas, green and tamarind chutneys. Dunk it in the spicy panipuri water and pop the whole thing into your mouth to get that very very Indian explosion of sweet, sour, spicy and salty flavours. For the spicy water, I use an intense version of the green chutney, which can then be toned down when the water is added. I'll add links to the chutney recipes as I add posts on them - hopefully soon!

The Birthday Cake

2011-07-25T21:01:00.006+03:00

I've made loads of different versions of chocolate cakes in the past so I wanted to do something different while keeping the flavours simple. I had seen a recipe for a vanilla cake a while back that used sour cream and I wanted to give that a shot but ultimately went for the more traditional butter version when I got down to whipping things up.

It wasn't a true white since I used processed butter. Sour cream versions tend to be whiter is what I've heard. The cake came out soft, fluffy and deliciously spongy.

Here's the recipe for the White Vanilla Cake I made for the hubby's birthday.

6 tbsp or 85 gms butter

3/4 cups sugar

1 cup plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 pinch of salt

3 egg whites (should be roughly a 3rd of a cup)

a little less than 1/4 cup milk

1 tbsp vanilla essence

Note: I used a handheld whipper/blender for all the mixing/whipping.

Set a rack at the middle level of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees.

Sieve together the flour, baking powder and salt. Do this 2-3 times.

Combine milk and vanilla essence.

Beat the butter and sugar till it becomes light and fluffy.

Add 1/3rd of the dry ingredients to the butter mixture then add half the milk mixture.

Blend till incorporated completely. Its likely to be a little lumpy at this stage, that's okay.

Add another 1/3rd of the dry stuff and then the remaining milk. Blend again.

Add the remaining 1/3rd of the dry mix and blend well one last time.

In another clean and dry bowl, whisk the egg white till they just reach the soft peak stage.

Take about 1/3rd part of the egg whites and fold into the prepared flour batter. Do this carefully and slowly without agitating the whipped egg whites too much or they'll fall flat.

Pour the rest of the egg whites into the batter and work it all into the batter in the same way.

Prepare a cake pan with parchment paper at the bottom and pour the batter into it.

Bake about 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool on a rack for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a rack, remove the paper and let it cool completely.

Serve it with a dusting of powdered sugar or with a light lime sauce like I did. Enjoy!

The Birthday Dinner

2011-07-20T12:00:00.009+03:00

It was P's birthday yesterday and I have to say this myself but I really did outdo myself with dinner! He'd been asking me to make some fresh salsa at home for sometime now 'coz we just don't like any of the ready-made salsa jars they sell here in the shops. I had picked up a tonne of tomatoes on my last trip to the grocery store with that intention. So I thought I'd give it a try and ended up building a meal around the salsa - it really was that good! :)

Here's what the menu looked like at our Mexican fiesta: Chicken Quesadillas and Refried Red Kidney Beans with sour cream, homemade salsa and tortilla chips on the side. For dessert, we had a White Vanilla Cake with sugar dusting - recipe in my next post!

Chicken Quessadillas

2 chicken breast pieces, cooked and shredded

1 large onion, chopped small

1 bell pepper, diced (any colour you hae handy will do)

3 tbsp chipotle sauce

bunch of coriander leaves, chopped roughly

6-8 corn tortillas

1 cup mixed cheeses, grated fine (I used smoked cheddar plus an italian hard cheese variety I had handy)

Mix the coriander, shredded chicken, onions and diced bell peppers together and toss it with the chipotle sauce.

Heat your grill pan and brush with oil.

Place a tortilla on the grill and top it with your chicken mixture.

Add some salsa and grated cheese on top and then cover with a second tortilla.

Once the bottom tortilla has crisped up, gently slide the assembled quesadilla onto a plate and flip it back onto the pan to let the 2nd tortilla crisp.

Once both sides/tortillas are adequately cooked and crisp, slide onto a serving plate and cut into segments. Keep a 200F oven to keep warm if you're doing big batches.

Serve warm with fresh sour cream & salsa.

Note: The chicken can be cooked anyway you want: boiled, grilled, sautéed or stir-fried. Season it with salt, pepper and a little bit of cumin.

Pico de Gallo (that's what fresh uncooked salsa is called apparently)

4-5 ripe tomatoes, diced

1 large onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1/2 to 1 whole jalapeno, chopped

1/4 cup coriander leaves, roughly chopped

1 tsp sugar

salt to taste

1 tsp cumin powder

1 tbsp white wine vinegar

Save about 3 tablespoons of the chopped tomatoes in a bowl.

Blitz all the remaining ingredients in your food processor till well combined but still somewhat chunky. About 10-12 seconds.

Add the reserved tomatoes and blitz again for 3 seconds.

Chill for a couple of hours before serving with tortilla chips.

Refried Red Kidney Beans

This was the first time I've ever tried making this at home. I've had it only once before this at a friend's house and she's mexican herself so it was a very authentic version I had. The recipe below is quite good but not as great as hers. Also, I think she used the more traditional Pinto beans.

1 can red kidney beans

1/2 jalapeno pepper

3 tbsp smoked bacon bits for frying

1 small onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, chopped fine

1 tsp cumin powder

salt to taste

Drain the red kidney beans and reserve the liquid.

Mash up the beans well with a potato masher.

Fry the bacon bits and drain the bacon fat into the beans.

Remove the bacon bits from the pan and saute the onions and garlic till soft.

Add the bean mash and season with salt, cumin powder and jalapenos. Mix well.

Add the reserved beans liquid to achieve a creamy consistency.

You can also add some or all of the bacon bits. Just before serving, I added a tbsp of the bacon bits to the mix and microwaved it for a couple of minutes.

Note: If you've planed enough in advance, you can avoid using the canned beans and instead use the real thing. For this, soak a cup of red kidney beans over night and pressure cook it the next day with some salt, 1 tsp cumin powder and 1 tsp minced garlic. Reserve the cooking liquid for adjusting consistency while mashing. Mash once well cooked and cooled slightly.

Top with cheese before serving with tortillas or as a side with Quesadillas like I did.

We licked our fingers clean at the end of that meal. The salsa really was the highlight of the evening and took the meal to a whole new level. I heartily recommend having this quick to put together condiment always available in your fridge! Mind you, it does disappear fast! :)

The Trip, the Wait & the Food

2011-07-14T18:56:00.006+03:00

One very hectic and awesome trip to India has just been done with. Along with a serious case of Delhi Belly a mere 2 days post arrival, watching a phenomenal movie by the same name, wedding preps (for a close family member), rip-roaring inclusion in the yelling and screaming that goes with "wedding" territory and full gusto participation in a beautiful engagement ceremony; I also took the kiddo off to Kerala to re-acquaint him with temples, elephants and ofcourse the maternal grandparents! :) One crazy month-long ride later, I'm exhausted but satisfied; And happy to be home!

The next thing on my agenda? I'm waiting for the final instalment too Moonshine! Also waiting to find company for it!! And if anyone reading this doesn't know what I'm talking about, I soooo envy you! You haven't discovered Harry Potter yet and will get to experience the thrill half the world did more than a decade ago. You get to experience all of the highs and lows for the first time ever! Dash it all, strangely I'd give a lot to be in your shoes right now. Knowing I still have 7 crazy fantastic books to read - no brainer man!

So! While we all await the big day, I've taken to going back to my kitchen to keep me calm. :)

The recipe I followed was called Brazilian Chicken, but honestly it could quite comfortably be something you'd find coming out of a Goan or South Indian kitchen.

1 tsp cumin powder

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp coriander powder

1 chicken breast, no skin or bones

1 onion, chopped fine

1 tbsp ginger paste/minced

1/2 jalapeno, chopped fine (or use 2 green chillies slit)

1 tbsp garlic paste/minced

1/2 can tomato pulp (or use 2 fresh juicy tomatoes)

200 ml coconut milk

olive oil

1 tbsp lemon juice

salt n pepper to taste

Chop the breast fillets into rough chunks. these should be slightly bigger than bite-size pieces for easy handling in a frying pan.

Mix the cumin, coriander powder, turmeric, salt and pepper in a bowl and rub all over the chicken pieces.

Heat the oil in a frying pan and place the chicken pieces into the hot oil. Turn once to brown all sides evenly on a medium heat. The chicken should be well cooked - about 5 minutes. Drain and set aside.

Squeeze the lemon juice onto the chicken pieces and set aside.

In a sauce pan, saute the onions, ginger and garlic paste, jalapeno peppers till soft.

Add the tomatoes and cook on medium heat for another 5 minutes.

Add the coconut milk and stir well.

Once it comes to a light simmer, add the chicken pieces into the sauce. Cover and cook for another 5-6 mins to let the flavours seep in.

Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot over plain rice.

In over my head!

2011-04-19T19:42:00.008+03:00

I've taken on a mammoth task. And only beginning to realise how mammoth, mammoth can get!

So I'm part of the International Women's Group in town. It's made up mostly of women who're all in the country careof their husband's work, finding themselves at a loss as they try and rebuild homes in a new and alien country where most people don't speak their language or even English. The group members all help each other find their feet here and also in the process find new friends! The group's been a saviour for me and given me so much confidence in my ability to adapt to such new environs.

There are a host of things we all do together and every other month or so, one of the women will do a showcase on their country to relive some moments of their life back home and also to educate us about the different parts of the world! In recent months I've learned a lot about Mexico & Belgium. And also ate some scrumptious food from both countries! And next it will be India that gets spoken about! Currently, I'm the only Indian in the group, so I'm doing this by myself and hence the realisation on how big this can get!

In addition to all the info on my country, my plan is to have an assortment of tastes from India for people to sample. Trouble is, I cook such little Indian here (given the dire straits in the ingredients availability department) that I'm having to first do samples of everything I'm planning to make for D-day! And since I'm only just getting started in it, I've only now realised that 2 weeks is NOT enough for me to test everything and then make big batches of!

Anyways, today was my day for making Mathris. And thankfully they turned out perfect! Having trolled the web for recipes, I finally adapted one to the ingredients I have available here! Posting it here for my records.

Mathri (with ajwain)

1 cup plain flour

1/4 cup semolina or sooji (fine)

2 tbsp oil

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ajwain

1/4 cup warm water (plus more)

oil to fry

Mix together the flour, sooji, salt, ajwain and oil till the flour is a crumbly consistency.

Add 1/4 cup water and mix again to form a tight dough. You may need to use 1-2 tbsp more water. I did this in the mixer so it got done in a flash.

Knead the ready dough with your hands for a couple of minutes.

Divide into small equal sized balls. Should make about 15-20 depending on the size of the balls.

Roll them into smooth balls and flatten between your palms.

Roll them out with a rolling pin and prick the discs with a fork so that they don't fluff up while frying.

Heat the oil on medium high (gas mark 5 or 6). Use about 1 inch oil in the wok.

Fry in batches flipping the discs over midway through cooking process. They take about 5-7 minutes in all to get done. Make sure your heat is not too high or the mathris will not be crisp once cooled.

Once both sides have turned golden, drain on kitchen paper and box in airtight container once cool.

Serve with any pickle of your liking or do what I'm going to do tomorrow. Make Moonshine's tomato chutney pickle and have it with that! HAHAHAHAHAHAHH!! *hysterical laugh*

Sweet somethings

2011-03-15T09:54:00.004+02:00

Some tastes are truly reminiscent of your childhood. The memories of those carefree days spent in the summer running around doing absolutely nothing other than having fun come rushing back when I'm having something that was closely linked to my childhood. One such epiphanic moment was induced through a dream I had a few weeks back.

My paternal grandfather used to make this special payasam (kheer) in his little temple on the ancestral property every Sunday as an offering to the Gods during his morning puja. One of the grandchildren would be generally dispatched to bring the prasadam (part of the offering made during the puja) back to the main house when he rang the temple bell. It was such a novelty for us dilli-wala kids that during the summer vacations whenever we were in town, we would always get first dibs on this highly important & special chore. Special 'coz my grandfather would bless the kid who came to take the prasadam and for me that was part of the charm. He would drop the banana leaf with the still HOT prasadam into my outstretched hands, smile and say run back before you burn your fingers! Gosh! Those were such different times! Sitting in a sterile apartment in Romania now while writing all of this makes me long for those earthy experiences in a desperate sort of way. It's sad that my son will never get to experience any of that even if he does get to know the extended family at some point.

So anyway, I woke up one morning having dreamt of that particular payasam made by my grandfather. It was always the same payasam that he made. With rice, coconut. jaggery and ghee(clarified butter). A combination that was quite literally - divine! We call it Nayi Payasam in Kerala and it has always been my absolute favourite kind of payasam. I probably liked it best because of its association with my grandfather, who passed away very early in our childhood. I never had a chance to know him beyond a gracious figure who made the best payasam in the whole world. Now, having dreamt of this yummy treat, it was truly impossible to let the idea out of my head. I knew I had enough jaggery at home. And I'd just have to use dessicated coconut instead of the real deal - 'coz I still haven't bought myself a hammer and grater to crack open and use a fresh coconut! The real problem was the missing ghee as also the fact that ghee is in anycase a big no no! So an emergency call as made to my maternal grandmom to ask her for a solution: no ghee and no fresh coconut! Help! :)

True to form, her recipe rocked my world. Ofcourse it was not a shade on the original from my dreams, but it got me the flavours I was craving for. And here I am, sharing the joy.

Payasam

1/2 cup rice, soaked

150 gms jaggery

200 ml coconut milk

2-4 tbsp freshly grated coconut (or use dessicated coconut like I did)

1/2 cup milk

1/2 tsp cardamom powder

handful cashew and raisins, sauted in a spot of butter

Cook 1/2 cup rice in 2 cups water on high for 10 mins in the microwave. The rice should be just cooked and have reserve water in the dish.
Pour into a heavy bottomed vessel and add the jaggery to the rice.
Let it melt in, mix well and cook till the whole thing thickens to a porridge-like consistency.
Add the coconut milk and let it all come to a boil on a medium heat.

Add a little milk to get desired consistency. It should ideally be a thick gooey consistency but not one big chunky blob.
Take it off the flame and add the cardamom powder.

In a small pan, fry up the fresh coconut in a little ghee or butter. Then add the coconut to the rice mixture.

Mix in the sautéed cashews and raisins and transfer your payasam to a serving bowl.

Serve hot or cold as preferred.

My coffee story

2011-03-09T20:35:00.004+02:00

Moonshine did a post on her coffee troubles a couple of days back. My comment on her post led to the realisation that I too had a LOT to say about Coffee!! Hence this post.

I was never a coffee drinker as a teen or adult. Was always more partial to tea. Maybe 'coz my parents almost never had coffee at home. Strange for a south Indian family. Except on Sundays after breakfast. I never thought to ask why and it was just a matter of fact for us. Just as the sky is blue, and the stars are bright, Mom made coffee after breakfast on Sunday mornings. They've always followed the same routine and still do. I never used to have that coffee though. Dad and mom had it, and overtime I think my brother to grew to like it. But it never held any temptations for me. I used to nurse my cup of tea when everyone was having coffee.

And then the CCDs and Baristas came to town. It was now "interesting" (read cool) to go have coffee. And I did too, but never because I liked the coffee. In anycase the cups were too big and I was more interested in the desserts in anycase! It was just a nice place to hang out with friends and occasionally with P before we were married. Although dilli haat and the bhelpuri there was a bigger favourite with P and I.

The only coffee I used to like having was the South Indian filter coffee at Saagar. It had become woefully mediocre in recent times though. In anycase, like a friend said to me recently, the taste of the coffee never seemed to hold up to its aroma. I so totally agree! In my mind, it always tasted different when I smelled it - does that make sense? It was just frustrating that it did not actually taste as good as it did in my head!

Despite not being a coffee fan I've always loved the thought of having a coffee machine at home. The idea was to fill the house with the yummy coffee aroma. I've always loved how it smells even if I never drank the stuff. Naturally, this was not a luxury I felt comfortable splurging on - coffee machine to make my kitchen smell divine - ha! When we got to Romania, I finally had my first chance to go make a grab for one when the in-laws were visiting us last year. They don't have tea, only coffee. I had no clue what to look for in the machine. So we bought the simplest looking tiny 4-cup capacity machine.

Having good tea here is next to impossible. They have these strange fruit infusions (made my Lipton!) that they call Tea! Such sacrilege! So the lack of good tea slowly moved my preference enough to try out coffee. And the first real cup of coffee I had was while we were holidaying here in a place called Brasov. Now, if I was having coffee I usually stuck to cappuccinos or mochas. But the sister-in-law insisted I try the espresso. Frankly, at that point I did not know the difference! My very first espresso: thick, hot and rich with two creamers. I was genuinely hooked! All I had in that one week was espresso!

Since then, I've been on the hunt for a local coffee powder brand that would quench my coffee thirst. I was finally successful about a month back when I found a nice little coffee shop that ground my chosen beans fresh for me.

In six short months, I've gone from being completely indifferent to coffee to having very clear and specific requirements on how I like my coffee: strong, milky, hot! and sweetened with 2 heaped teaspoons of demerara sugar. Next step, understand the different roasts!

When in a rush - head to the microwave

2011-03-03T14:31:00.010+02:00

Lunch time! But there was very uninteresting stuff in the fridge. Generally this calls for an order-out situation. However, what do you do when you want something truly Indian in its flavour variety and you live in Eastern Europe?! Frustrating, to say the least! I was certainly in no mood to cook nor was the rumbling tummy going to wait for any elaborate situation I might consider planning in my head - not that I was! Went through the pantry and found only a half pkt of maggi (the one from India, we don't get any here) that fit the bill. Now, that would really fit the bill/craving but I am not a selfish lout so I chose not to finish the last bit of the much-loved-by-everyone-here pkt all by myself. By this time the stomach had stopped its rumbling and was now doing a very low menacing growl - "give me food right now or I will jump out and eat your head!"

I knew the next decision would have to be quick and final. I had just about enough time to cook that maggi before the faints hit me. And just then I spotted that unopened bottle of a Romanian spice mix paste that to me tasted a lot like a milder form of achaar ka masala! Minus the heat and the sourness ofcouse (surprising 'coz the Romanians really do like to pickle stuff in vinegar). So I threw together one very quick meal - ready in exactly 15 minutes - if you're willing to burn your mouth with scalding hot food! I was quite willing and on hindsight would seriously recommend that you wait those extra 5 minutes. Let the damn thing cool down to humanly consumable temperature levels if you want to taste any flavours at mealtimes for the next 2-3 days.

Jiffy Achaari Pulao

2/3 cup rice

fistfull of soya/nutrella chunks (use granules if you prefer that)

fistfull frozen peas

salt to taste

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

2 tsp spice-mix paste (you can use the masala from any bottled achaar you might have at home, mixed pickle, mango pickle, nimbu, whatever)

1 tsp curry powder (skip this of you're using the achaar)

2 tbsp fresh orange juice

few sprigs of coriander leaves

Dump everything into a microwavable bowl.

Add double the quantity of water (for 2/3 cup rice, I used 1.3 cups water).

Cover the bowl with cling-film and cook on high (my microwave maxes out at 800W) for 15 mins.

Fresh out of the microwave! Doesn't look like much. Needs a little fork action.

Much better now.

EAT!

The proportion of rice and water is important if you want the rice to be nice and fluffy.

Note: Be careful while removing the cling film or you'll scald your fingers with the escaping steam.

Fungi Mania

2011-03-01T11:18:00.007+02:00

So my obsession with mushrooms and pasta hasn't really ended. Also, I had the remaining box of mushrooms sitting in my fridge waiting to go bad. :) Grabbed it last night to whip up another original that had everyone smacking their lips. This recipe really has no connection to my last post except the fact that I combined mushrooms with pasta this time.

Tagliatelle with 'Fungi'

Tagliatelle pasta for 3 portions

1 cup sliced mushrooms (I used my remaining brown champignons)

1 cup frozen mixed veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots)

1 tbsp red pesto (I still need to translate stuff on the bottle but I think mine had sundried tomatoes)

3-4 tbsp red pasta sauce (Any readymade pasta sauce you can buy from the supermarket. I used one with mushrooms in it. Please avoid bolognese sauce if you want a different flavour to the sauce.)

1 tbsp salad dressing with garlic and sundried tomatoes

Salt to taste

Olive oil

1 tbsp margerine

3-4 cloves of garlic, chopped

Boil water in a big vessel.

Add salt and tagliatelle pasta.

Cook for 8-10 mins till the pasta reaches your desired level of done-ness.

Drain and toss with 1 tbsp EVOO and oregano.

For the sauce:

Heat oil and margerine in a pan and add the chopped garlic.

Add the sliced mushroom once the garlic begins to brown.

Once the mushrooms start sweating and shrinking, add the pesto and stir to coat well.

Add the pasta sauce. I used a tomato and mushroom based sauce.

Add the pasta to the mushroom sauce and toss to coat well. Transfer to another bowl and set aside.

In the same pan, saute the thawed veggies with a sprinkling of sundried tomatoes and garlic powder.

Mix with the pasta and serve hot with garlic toast.

Smooth Salmon

2011-03-01T10:00:00.011+02:00

Since we get all sorts of fish here (some quite tasty) I stick to Salmon. Ridiculous right? You can say that again and I'll join you in it. RIDICULOUS! I'm quite the fish virgin. I haven't cooked much fish myself nor have I seen too much cooked when I was a kid. My mom was a fish virgin too! :) We never knew how to buy fresh fish and the whole experience was always a bit icky (in my head).

So its been established that I don't know much about fish and am very wary about getting the wrong kind home and stinking up the house for 3 days. Yes, I've had that unpleasant experience once in my more adventurous fish days. Had to throw the whole lot out and freeze our butts with all the windows open for a day (when it was -10C outside) so I could air out the stinky kitchen and living room! So it really is a once bitten twice shy situation for me. Therefore, safe salmon it always is. It helps that its one great fish for the hubby and we all love eating it! Last week someone told me about this awesome sounding salmon pasta recipe that had a mushroom sauce that sounded simply divine! It had full cream and mascarpone cheese in it. My mouth was salivating uncontrollably when she was describing the recipe for the sauce to me. Unfortunately, cream and mascarpone are a big no no right now. So I decided to do my own mushroom sauce.

Baked Salmon with Mushroom Sauce

1 cup sliced mushrooms (I used brown champignons)

1 tbsp plain flour

1 cup milk

1 tsp fresh dill (i used frozen dill)

1/4 cup dry white wine (I used Sauvignon Blanc since that's all I had at the time and also served it with the food)

2 tbsp black olives (chopped, pitted)

2 stalks spring onion greens

1 small onion

1 tbsp minced garlic

1 tbsp good quality margarine (let's keep that heart healthy!)

olive oil

For the salmon

500 gm Salmon fillet (no skin)

1 tbsp Minced garlic

1 tbsp Black olives (chopped, pitted)

Salt n Pepper to taste

Sauté one small onion and minced garlic in margarine

Add a dash of olive oil to the pan
Add the mushrooms and 1/2 tsp salt to get the mushrooms to sweat
Turn down the heat to mediumOnce the mushrooms look done, add 1 tbsp plain flour and stir till the flour looks cooked
Add the dill and stir quickly while adding the milk to the whole mix
Let the whole thing come to a gentle bubble
Add the wine and let it heat through
Turn off the heat and add some chopped black olives and spring onions. Stir it all in.
Cover and let it sit for about 10 mins to let all the flavors mingle. There's quite a bit going on in there!

In the meanwhile,
Pat dry the salmon fillets and rub in salt, pepper and minced garlic.
Top with chopped black olives and let it sit for about 10 mins.
Bake in a 190 C oven for 25 mins.

To serve, pour 2 tbsp of sauce on the plate and place the salmon fillet on it. Drizzle some more of the sauce on top. Garnish with chopped spring onions and black olives.

I served it with a simple shredded carrot side.

ONE Minute Cake Anyone?

2011-02-20T18:37:00.006+02:00

I have at least 2 posts that are WIP at the moment, but something always comes up to interrupt my thought flow and then the lethargy kicks in big time. And that means, not a single completed post in over a month! But just right now, I tried something so simple and quick that it has to be put in here before I even know what I'm doing!

So, seriously! Give me 2 mins and I'll give you cake! A fudgy, moist chocolate brownie/cake at that! Top it with some ice cream, and you'll have the jiffiest dessert ever served at a party! The best part is that it comes in single sized servings. So perfect for those days when u crave a brownie fix!

Okay so enough already. Here's how you make it.
4 tbsp plain flour
4 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tbsp oil
2 tbsp water
A pinch of salt
A pinch of baking powder
1 straight sided microwave friendly coffee cup
(yes! I did say 'cup'. Use one that's got straight sides and is and not one of those fancy conical shaped ones. This helps in the even distribution of heat while cooking and should avoid half cooked results.)

Add all the dry ingredients together in the cup and then mix well.
Add the oil and water to it and stir well.
Cook at high in microwave for 1 minute. My microwave maxes out at 850W.

Enjoy! Predictably, there are no pictures to go with this. It was gone before I could say 'Camera'!

Some gyan...

2011-01-05T19:58:00.009+02:00

So this is going to be another Shrimp-related post. I feel like I've been doing a lot of shrimp dishes lately, but its been fairly spread out - in any case we're shrimp fans. And since the jury is still out on the cholesterol count from shrimps, I still use them occasionally. The combination of good cholesterol and bad cholesterol is what the debate is about. However, I do try and keep the extra fat that goes into any shrimp dish to a bare minimum. So, no more shrimp in coconut milk or shrimp cocktail for a while. boohooo! :(

You guessed it, we have a cholesterol situation to deal with. The husband's cholesterol reading is soaring quite a bit and we've decided to cut back on a LOT of things. Being the loving wife, I munched through all the remaining packets of chip at home - so as not to "tempt" him into reaching out for them.

Jokes aside, I had never before appreciated how difficult it is to keep to a low cholesterol diet! Did you know that the recommended daily allowance for cholesterol is just 300mg for an adult! That's just 3 gms! A single cookie can have much more than that sometimes! Really REALLY difficult to think up tasty meals that don't taste like cardboard! Nothing that I'd been cooking recently could do without oil, not to mention the red meat we'd been gorging on. All my yummy treats using mayo are also out! Poor P. He's now been off meat and eggs for more than a month now. I told him I'd make him omelettes with egg whites and he almost threw up at the thought! So, its either a proper fried egg/omelette or none at all for the man. We've now negotiated a once a week deal.

When you know you can't use a particular ingredient, its funny how all the recipes that attract you are those that have that one ingredient in copious quantities! I really wish we could go back to a dal-chawal diet to get this fixed. Plain old bharatiya khaana, but there's no dal here!!Its not ALL bad though. Beans are considered very good, as are garlic, fish, soy-based stuff, peanuts (P LOVES them), other nuts (in controlled quantities), fresh fruits & veggies, white meat. And then you also have Red Wine to add to the list. It really is a decent list. Only, you have to push yourself a little to get something fun out of a meal. Therefore, from hereon, you're likely to see me trudge through some serious fish recipes and the likes.... Wish me luck people, its a tough tough job!

As I've learnt, for cholesterol count, there are two important things you take into consideration: LDL (bad cholesterol) and HDL (good cholesterol). The intent is to up the good and reduce the bad. Shrimps are high in cholesterol content but the amount of good cholesterol they contain is very high. Therefore, when taken in moderate quantities, shrimps are good for your system. Ofcourse the way you cook them is key. If you batter-fry them or dunk them in a whole load of garlic butter sauce, you pretty much negate anything good that you started out with. I'm learning as we go so there's going to be a whole load of experimenting in the coming time.

This recipe I tried had no mayo or coconut milk (which is our fav combination for shrimps) but instead was rich in natural Vitamin C, which is great for cholesterol control I hear! Check my recipe for a complete meal of Shrimps in Orange Sauce with Stir-fried Tofu side and Rice noodles. (note: orange juice, tofu, & shrimps are all good to curb your LDL and bring up your HDL)

1 packet tiger prawns/shrimps

0.25-0.5 cup orange juice, freshly squeezed

1 tbsp plain flour or corn flour (cornstarch)

2 tbsp Honey

1 tbsp Soy sauce

1 tbsp Red wine vinegar

1-2 tbsp Chilli sauce

2 tsp ginger, minced

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

handful chopped spring onions, for garnish

1 tsp oil

Heat the oil in a frying pan and stir fry the ginger and garlic till aromatic.

Turn down the heat to medium and add the shrimps and let the flavours mingle.

Mix all sauces together in a bowl and add to the pan while stirring continuously.

Once the shrimps are curled up tight (cooked) and the sauce has thickened a little, turn off the heat.

Garnish with spring onions and serve immediately.

For the Tofu Stir-fry:

1 package firm tofu, sliced into long strips

1 red pepper, sliced into long strips

1 tbsp oil

1 tbsp chilli paste

1-2 tbsp soy sauce

Heat the oil in a wok and add the red peppers. Stir-fry for 3-4 mins.

Add the tofu and all the sauces.

Stir fry quickly so that the sauces are absorbed evenly by all the tofu chunks.

Be careful how you handle the tofu once its heated through. They become delicate very quickly and can break easily.

Transfer to a bowl and serve with the shrimps and plain rice noodles.

Craving Chinese

2011-01-04T19:27:00.013+02:00

Yo China was quite a favourite with us when we were back home. I know what you're saying! "GOD awful food - what is wrong with you!?!?!" It wasn't really that bad when it first started out. Their American Chopseuy was really quite yummy. But what really got me licking my fingers was their Honey Chilli Potatoes. It's an appetiser category and something that we always ordered a double helping of whenever we visited the place. Ofcourse, once I was preggers, we stopped going there (ajinomoto scare and all that) and then before I'd stopped nursing the little chap, we left town, region, country all at about the same time! Needless to say, one hasn't seen or thought of Yo China in quite a while.

A few days back - facing another one of my un-inspired moments in the kitchen - I was craving some good Chinese food - Indian-style! The fare you get here is just not the same. The Hot and Sour soup is just not hot or sour enough. The Sweet n Spicy stuff - same situation. So, when one's craving home food what do I do? Open Google Chrome and type out random stuff in the addressbar before hitting enter. It's amazing how even the most random search terms can put you in reach of something that's just 'perfect' for what you're looking for! Google for me is GOD!

Sh!!! Don't let any of my previous/current/future employers hear any of this, ever! What with me touting of being in the Knowledge Management space n stuff! SHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

So! I wanted the honey chilli potato flavours but as a main course dish. (Note to self: Learn how to make decent American Chopseuy) I did not have the presence of mind to phrase my seach terms appropriately and substitute potatoes with..... well anything! Blame the un-inspired mood for it if you like - I certainly do! ;)

And yet! Despite me and my dead grey cells working overtime, I managed to find the perfect recipe! Um..... sort of... I did combine ideas from a couple of recipes eventually. The grey matter finally kicked into action. :D

Here's how you make Honey Chilli Chicken (my style!)

1 chicken breast, boneless and skinless

1 egg

2 tbsp plain flour

1 tbsp corn flour (desirable but I didn't have any)

salt n pepper to taste

1 tsp grated/minced ginger

1 tsp minced garlic

2 green chillies, split down the middle

2 tbsp soya sauce

2 tbsp ketchup

2 tbsp honey (add as per taste)

1 tbsp chilli sauce (add more to adjust sweet & spice balance)

2-3 spring onions, chopped

1 tbsp sesame seeds

2-3 tbsp oil for shallow frying

Cut chicken breast into bite-sized pieces.

Mix flour, salt & pepper and toss chicken pieces in this to coat well.

Crack the egg into the chicken and toss again to coat all pieces with the egg.

Heat the oil in a shallow frying pan and fry the chicken pieces in batches till cooked through. Set aside.

In the remaining oil, fry the minced ginger and garlic till your kitchen is filled with some wonderful aromas.

Mix together all the sauces and add to the ginger-garlic in the frying pan.

Once the sauce looks like its thick enough, add the chicken and mix well to coat the chicken completely.

Garnish with green chillies, sesame seeds and freshly chopped spring onions.

Note: Adding corn flour to the chicken coating will make it crisper when fried.

This dish has a very thick sauce and is good to eat with fried rice with veggies. Or enjoy on its own as a snack!

A quick look back....

2011-01-02T16:59:00.006+02:00

Beginning to the new year demands a post - I guess! Not that I've ever been regular here in any way. :) But this really has been an important year in many ways.

- We finally settled down! After more than 2 yrs of hopping, skipping, and jumping through hoops for the Romanian authorities, we finally got our long term visa. phew!

- The little fellow went from baby boy to little boy! Up until May 2010, he referred to himself as 'baby' and then we were ready for school, and the switch to 'little boy' was successfully made! That really was a HUGE deal! :)

- I managed to finally find my space in a non-working, non-corporate environment and also managed to enjoy myself a little in the process! ;)

- We had our first ever house guests who stayed for more than 2 days! The in-laws came a stayed with us this year for the first time since we were married. And I got my 1st ever chance to wine n dine them - my style. What a roll that was! Come on people, make your trips to Eastern Europe now. :)

- Our first skiing trip in Romania materialised! Such a beautiful country and such wonderful people. Skiing is something that will definitely remain on our winter plans from hereon.

2011 - here we come!

Quite simply, Jamie Oliver!

2010-11-10T17:57:00.005+02:00

Jamie Oliver has been a favourite for a long time now. His cooking is eclectic, fun and a riot all the time! Its a different matter that I'd never tried anything from his shows before 'coz he uses way too many ingredients for me to ever have everything together when I want to make anything from his collection. SO it was a huge surprise when I landed with a recipe which I did have the ingredients for (well almost!) and even more surprised when I saw how simple the whole thing was!

A pork shoulder piece is not a very easy to handle subject. For me, pork in any case is a bit of a challenge. I've had many a disastrous attempts with this one particular meat type. This recipe sounded simple enough for me to give it a shot.

Jamie's Spicy Pork & Peppers Goulash (serves 3)

A 1/2 kg piece of pork shoulder, no skin, no bone (should have some streaks of fat running through it)

salt and pepper

1 medium red onion, sliced

1 jalapeno pepper, chopped

2 bell peppers sliced, red and orange

2 grilled peppers from a jar

1/2 can of italian pomodoro tomatoes

1 tbsp of red wine vinegar (if your tomatoes are already sour, avoid)

3-4 tbsp sour cream

1 bunch parsley leaves, chopped

1 tsp smoked paprika powder

1 tsp cumin powder

1 bunch fresh oregano leaves, picked

1 lemon, zested

olive oil

Preheat oven to 180 C.

Cut little ridges all over the meat and rub the salt and pepper mix over it generously.

Heat some oil in a deep ovenproof pot or stockpot/crockpot on the gas. Brown the pork shoulder piece on all sides in the hot oil on medium heat. About 6-7 minutes.

Once the fat has separated, take the meat out and set aside.

Now add onions, jalapenos, paprika, cumin and oregano to the pot and cook on a low heat for a few minutes till the onions have gone soft and pale.

Add the sliced peppers and grilled peppers and the tomatoes and mix well.

Put the pork back into the pot and pour enough water to just about cover the top of the meat.

You can add the vinegar at this stage if using.

Bring to a boil and then cover with a tight fitting lid or like me, use aluminium foil to cover the pot and place in the preheated oven for about 1.5-2 hrs.

While this is cooking, prepare your spiced sour cream by mixing together the cream, lemon zest and parsley.

When the pork is done, it will be so soft, you'll be able to pull it apart with a fork!

When done, take the pork piece apart and shred using two forks. Taste the soup in the pot to check for a balance of mildly sweet, tangy and spicy flavours.

Add the meat back into the pot and serve over hot rice with a dollop of the spiced sour cream on top.

On Morocco

2010-11-09T19:19:00.007+02:00

In the last week, one afternoon I had exclusive access to the TV when the little fellow was sleeping and I sat and watched inane programs all afternoon just 'coz I could! Didn't realise I'd missed watching TV so much! Its already a desperate state for us and he's not even 3!! We'll really have to plan this better or we might as well move the TV into his room next week!

Generally when you finally sit down to watch TV, you'll be zombie-eyed in 5 minutes with all the crap that they have on. Thankfully, on this particular day there were also some good shows on air at the time. I watched some adventure reality programmes and then also watched an episode of planet food. They were focussed on Morocco this time and I learnt some really interesting things about their cuisine. I watched the host, Ben O'Donoghue, eat camel meat, learn to make a chicken tagine the traditional way and then saw him break bread with a nomadic family in the middle of the Sahara dessert! The most inviting stuff was part of the street food that was on offer in a local street market in Marrakesh. The place was like a full-on carnival and apparently is open all year round. This market is now also a UNESCO World Heritage site. What an amazing afternoon I spent, drooling over yumminess that I could almost smell in my own home!

So! Any guesses what this post will be about? Morrocan food naturally! :)

This cuisine has a mix of strong & delicate flavours. They love cumin, saffron and chickpeas! And the recipe I tried has two of these ingredients. In it's homeland, this dish would traditionally be cooked in a tagine set on a coal fire but since I didn't have any of that, I just used my poor old non-stick pan and cooked it on the stove top. But I can just imagine the earthy tones the tagine and coal cooking combination would give to this very hearty meal.

Morrocan Chicken with Chickpeas & Raisins

4-5 pieces chicken thigh, skin on

1 onion, chopped

4-5 garlic pods, minced

1 tbsp cumin

1 tbsp turmeric

1 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp cinnamon powder

zest of 1 lemon, grated

1 tbsp plain flour

4 cups chicken stock

2-3 tbsp honey

1/2 can chickpeas

2 fists full raisins

salt & pepper to taste

oil

Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Heat a couple of tbsp of oil in a saucepan and brown the chicken on all sides on medium heat.

Remove the chicken and drain out some of the liquid if there's too much and put the pan back on heat.

Add the onions and garlic and saute for a few minutes till the onions become soft.

Add the cumin, turmeric, paprika and cinnamon powder. Fry for a couple of minutes.

Add the chicken stock, honey, lemon zest and the flour. Stir well and scrape up all of the spices sticking to the bottom of the pan.

Add the browned chicken and cook covered for 10-12 minutes.

Add the raisins and chickpeas and cook for another 15-20 minutes uncovered till the chicken is well done.

Check for salt and pepper at this stage again and season as required. Your chicken broth might have salt in it already so be careful with the salt.

Serve with plain hot rice.

Marble Marvel!

2010-10-22T18:26:00.009+03:00

It really is a marvel - this cake recipe! And the cake that comes out of the oven is soft, spongie and light! It's pure perfection!

Haven't baked anything in a while and my son had been asking me to make him some muffins for a while now. I'd been putting it off thinking he was just generally throwing a fit didn't really know what he was asking for! Why such a thought entered my head after knowing the child so well, is a complete mystery to me! Ofcourse he knew what he was asking for! The last time we were in Starbuck's which he calls the "cake shop" I was told very pointedly, "Mamma I want muffin cake like that! Will you make it for me?" How the hell was I supposed to ignore the request now! Sooooo, today was the chosen day. I looked at a lot of muffin recipes but I was a little sick of the chocolate options given everywhere. Now, my son really likes chocolate but I don't particularly care for it 'coz the cocoa powder we get here is really strong and I prefer having the chocolate flavour at a softer level. Fruit-based muffins weren't an option 'coz I have no fruits other than banana and the husband hates bananas! Gosh, we're a difficult to please group aren't we! Btw, I never knew before today that you can make a banana chocolate muffin! Sounds positively awful to me, but then again what do I know! :)

So finally, I quit the muffin hunt and looked for cakes instead. I thought I'd just put it into the muffin moulds to satisfy the toddler. I'm not sure how I landed on a page for a marble cake but once I saw what it looked like, I HAD to do it! For the uninitiated, this is a vanilla-chocolate half n half cake, with the vanilla and chocolate halves swirling into each other. Sooo good!

And then I found this quick recipe from Rachel Allen which I immediately put to the test. Results? Perfect!

Here's how you make these little bites of "yummy for my tummy"!

225 gms sugar

225 gms butter (softened)

225 gms flour

4 eggs

50 ml milk

2 tbsp cocoa powder

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 180 C with the rack in the centre.

Grease your cupcake/muffin moulds or cake pan with butter.

Whisk the eggs and vanilla and keep in a bowl.

In a separate bowl, beat the butter and then whisk it well with the sugar.

Mix the beaten egg slowly into the creamed butter and mix well.

Sift the flour and baking powder in to the bowl and work the flour in well but do not beat too vigorously.

Add the milk and fold in well again making sure no lumps remain.

Divide mixture in half by transferring half of it into a fresh bowl.

Add the cocoa powder to one half. Sift it in and then fold quickly.

Now you have two bowls of cake mix. One with vanilla and the second with chocolate.

Spoon in 1 tbsp of the vanilla mix into the cake pan and then 1 tbsp of the choc mix. Repeat alternating between the 2 mixes to layer the base of the cake pan completely. If you're doing this for cupcakes, just place 1 tbsp each of vanilla and chocolate next to each other in your mould.

Now take a toothpick and lightly swirl the mixes around in the cake pan. Don't over do it or you won't get the marbled effect.

Bake for 35-40 mins till a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Cool before transferring to a wire rack.

And yes, they were gobbled down as soon as they were cool enough! :)

A short history n then the good stuff!

2010-10-19T14:14:00.008+03:00

Sorry about the lull there for a while. I've picked up another interest that's kept me "tied up" - you'll get the poorly dealt with play on words in just a minute! :)

When I was a kid, summer vacations were long and boring once our customary trip to kerala was done with. And my favourite pastime in those days was to pick up scraps of stuff and concoct something arty-farty from it. I've done newspaper/paper holders, the usual pen holder with paper mache, stuff to hang on the walls in my room (which I shared with my little brother at the time and he was always highly offended by all the girlie looking frumpy stuff hanging from the walls) and many more things that were not always displayable, but still much loved. A couple of years back, I was heavily into making my own bead necklaces. I bought a lot of raw material for it which unfortunately I couldn't lug to Cluj due to airline weight limits. So that interest had a sudden death. And then I got here, the cooking started and How! :)

Very recently I was introduced to a Fibre Arts club here in Cluj and the ladies who're interested meet every week at Starbucks. "Fibre" Arts 'coz its for all sorts of fibre-centric enterprising stuff - knitting, crocheting, needlework stuff (cross stitching) etc. I have tried my hand at knitting way back when.... but nothing in the last 15 years and when I first went to a meeting, it was just to get a general idea of how things were. And then one of the ladies handed me a couple of needles and said, "here you go - now knit"! And that was how I began. My first "project" was a headband-cum-ear muff thingy for myself which I chose to make in red and white for some reason! I was so excited to find myself knitting decently, I did google searches & youtube searches to teach myself some cool knitting patterns. I even did a couple of sample complicated designs for my own entertainment! Needless to say I surprised myself, the hubby and the women who say me trying to kill someone with the knitting needles that first day! And I started another project almost immediately. The club was very generous and loaned me both the needles and also the wool! And now I'm knitting a checkered scarf for the hubby! Since I was busy relearning to knit and it is such a patience requiring exercise, the foodie in me had to necessarily take a back seat. Fortunately for everyone here, last night's disastrous meal (half cooked chicken with some random veggies!) was such a monstrous affair, that I've got to salvage my very battered sense of pride with some yumminess today! The recipe will come once I decide on what I want to do! :)

Speaking of food (!), it's Greek food that's really caught my attention in recent times. Every single item I've tried from this cuisine has come out well and been so well appreciated. So its very much Greek that does it for me! :) The other day, one of my neighbors was talking about doing a moussaka for a dinner party she was doing and I remembered that I hadn't posted my Moussaka recipe online at all! And though I don't have any minced meat handy today, I am going to look up some Greek recipes to try soon!

So here's my moussaka recipe finally folks! Long process, but very simple and very tasty.

Moussaka (A baked greek dish with layers of mincemeat, eggplant and a cheesy sauce)

1 large eggplant, sliced into rounds and rubbed with salt

2-3 tbsp olive oil

1 small onion,chopped small

2 garlic pods, minced

1 tsp oregano

1 pinch all spice powder

1 pinch ground cloves

small stick of cinnamon

500 gm mince meat (traditionally, they use lamb mince but I haven't really found good quality lamb here so far so I used a beef+porc mix)

1 can tomato pulp

1 bay leaf

1/2 to 1 cup breadcrumbs

Salt and pepper to taste

For the sauce:

1.5 tbsp unsalted butter

2 tbsp plain flour

1.5 cups milk

salt to taste

1 pinch nutmeg

1 egg yolk

1 whole egg

1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated

1/2 cup gruyere cheese, grated

Set aside the sliced eggplant in a colander for 30 mins so that the salt can draw out all the liquid from the vegetable.

During this time, you can prepare the sauce:

Make a basic white sauce. Heat the butter and the flour once the butter has melted. Add the milk slowly while stirring constantly to avoid lumps.

Add salt and pinch of nutmeg. Whisk till the mixture is boiling.

Transfer to a bowl to cool.

When cool, add 1 egg yolk + 1 whole egg and whisk well. Make sure that the mixture has coooled or you'll end up with scrambled egg sauce!

You can now add half the cheese to the sauce.

For the meat:

Heat oil in a pan and fry the onions. When onions are brown, add the minced garlic.

Add meat, oregano, all spice, ground cloves, cinnamon and fry for a few minutes while breaking up any large chunks of the meat. Season with salt and pepper.

Brown the eat and then add the tomato pulp, bay leaf and simmer. Cover and cook till the mixture thickens. About 10-15 minutes. Then turn off.

Fry the sliced eggplant in batches till golden brown on both sides and drain on paper towels.

Preheat the oven to 350F.

To assemble the dish, grease a baking dish and scatter breadcrumbs as a base.

Make 4 alternating layers of the meat mixture and the sliced eggplant and then top with breadcrumb and the sauce. Sprinkle remaining cheese on top and bake for 40 minutes.

I served it with a very simple cold tomato and cucumber salad.

Pulled Pork - done right

2010-09-29T16:46:00.013+03:00

Done right by my standards in any case! :) I've never made it before and have had it only about once in my life I think. So I'm sure there are more than a few recipes out there that'll have more claim to fame. But this is what worked for us, and so in it goes into these pages for record!

The recipe is almost as is from this page I found while browsing but can't seem to relocate. Even the pictures are inspired from there! :) Will add the link for it soon!

Pulled Pork

0.5 kg piece of pork (I used boneless pork butt)

1 onion, chopped small

2-3 garlic pods, crushed

1/3 cup tomato ketchup

2-3 tbsp brown sugar

2 tbsp red wine vinegar

2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

2-3 tbsp tomato pulp (without skin)

salt n pepper to taste

1 tsp paprika

1-2 tsp hot sauce like pimento or tobasco

Preheat oven to 170 C.

Rub the salt n pepper on the pork and set aside. I cut my pork into two pieces for ease in cooking.

In a large bowl, mix everything else together and taste to check for balance in your sauce. Adding more sugar, vinegar or hot sauce and adjust to your taste.

Save some of the sauce (about 3-4 tbsp) in a separate bowl and then add the pork pieces to the sauce and make sure they're coated well and all over.

Bake in oven for 4-5 hrs till the pork is completely done and can be picked apart using a couple of forks.

Let the meat rest for a while and cool before you start working it with the forks.

Before serving, heat the saved sauce and toss in the shredded pork to heat through.

Serve with bread and salad leaves.

We had them in burger buns. Yum!

Pool party - No water, but loads of fish!

2010-09-26T11:39:00.008+03:00

Last weekend, we had a pooled dinner thingy with friends and I'd been wondering what I could do that would be quick and yummy and also have some fish in it. We were to have a pav-bhaji dinner and I needed something to go with it. I considered and discarded chole 'coz you know - chole is boring! :) Besides, I wanted to do something that wasn't purely veggie. I finally chose fish as my ingredient for the day 'coz our friends don't eat any red meat. And since I only know how to buy fresh salmon - that's the way I headed! So after much thought and planning, I decided to do fish cakes. Now, I've had fish cakes only about once or twice in my life. I prefer fried fish to any other type of fish preparation so fish cakes have hardly ever been on my plate.

The fish cake recipes I looked up were a mix of only fish, fish with potatoes and veggies and loads of spices. Now, though I'm not a big fish eater, I do know that people who like fish, like to taste the fish in the food! :) So my for my recipe, I kept the potatoes to a minimum and added no other veggies. I dallied for a while between going with a purely western or Indian spice mix. The continental version really was very interesting; But I decided finally on doing Indian 'coz really, who has dill-flavoured fish with paav bhaji! :) I HAD to do a trial run for my recipe the previous evening 'coz - well, 'coz I don't like being unprepared and REALLY don't like last minute surprises! :) Considering that my very difficult to feed toddler gobbled down my first batch, I gave the recipe a thumbs up and stuck with it for D-day. Here's how I made my fish cakes turned fish chops!

Salmon Cutlets/Chops (makes 18-20 pieces)

0.5 - 0.7 Kg Salmon fillets

1.5 pkts of instant mashed potato mix

1.5 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper powder

3/4th tsp garam masala

1 tsp cumin powder

1 tsp chilli powder

1-2 green chillies, chopped fine (deseed if you want less heat)

2 spring onions, chopped fine

3-4 garlic pods, chopped fine

handful coriander leaves, chopped fine

1 cup breadcrumbs

2 eggs

Oil for shallow frying

Steam the salmon fillets (de-skinned) for about 8-10 mins till it becomes a pale pink colour and is springy to touch.

Set aside to cool.

Prepare the mashed potato pkts as per package instructions.

In a large bowl, shred the cooled salmon into tiny pieces using your fingers and mix it in with 1.5 pkts of prepared mashed potato.

Add salt, cumin, pepper, chilli, garam masala, green onions, garlic, coriander leaves and green chillies to the salmon-potato mix.

Work the spices into the mix using your hands till well incorporated.

Roll the dough into 18-20 even sized balls and press down on them light holding them between your palms for a disk-shaped patty.

Heat frying pan with 2 tbsp oil. Crack one egg into a bowl and whisk well. Use more egg as per reqt.

Dip each patty in egg and then coat it with the breadcrumbs before frying it on medium heat.

Fry in batches of 4-5 till both sides are evenly golden in colour.

Serve hot with ketchup and/or green chutney!

Note: For a "pure" Fish chop, you can exclude the potato mash and make the dough using just Salmon. I know you can do this with Salmon 'coz its an oily enough fish to hold together even without the potato.

I did intend to serve it with some spicy green chutney but in the last minute rush, I completely forgot about it and ended up carrying a bottle of ketchup instead! But for anyone giving this recipe a try, I must recommend taking time out to get the chutney organized. It really adds to the flavours here.

Tiramisu!

2010-09-22T17:58:00.006+03:00

Yesterday was a really really busy day for my little kitchen. Other than the almost last minute plan of making a go of the kerala/malabar parathas, there's been another little idea that's been toying with my peace of mind for a long long time. And this was already on the agenda and resting in the fridge well before the southie craziness hit me! :)

Desserts are a must have for me on my repertoire and over the last few months I haven't really tried anything big in terms of desserts. This one has been long planned for; from much before I ever knew that cooking was going to turn into such a passion. The elusive "good Tiramisu" is quite a phenomenon in New Delhi. If you find a good place that'll serve you a good sized portion of authentic stuff, you make a record and make sure to come back for more n more! I remember looking up the recipe once long back and wondering about mascarpone cheese (the stuff that makes it so light and fluffy) and where I could possibly find it in Delhi. The name of the cheese stuck with me and had been pushed back into some recess of my memory. After all these years, when we moved to this part of the world and on one of my explore-the-supermarket rounds I came across it, I didn't instantly recall what I wanted to use it for. But it seemed so important to me, I went back to the cheese aisle to get a small tub of it anyway! Can always look it up I figured. And although I did eventually work out what I wanted to use the mascarpone cheese for, that first tub never got converted to Tiramisu.

Last week though, I'd picked up another couple of tubs of the cheese and was determined to try it out this time. I kept telling everyone I saw that I was going to attempt the Tiramisu so that it would act as a push for me to finally get my hands dirty! But it just kept getting pushed back again for some reason or the other. I think I was a little intimidated by this dessert! :)

The last weekend, we visited a restaurant and had their specialty Giant Tiramisu! It was so good that I had to try and make it at home! And yesterday happened to be D-day! :) Now, this isn't the absolutely traditional way to do it 'coz I didn't use the zabiglione (which is the trademark Italian custard that makes the Tiramisu what it is). I haven't tried making it yet so I don't know if it is complicated. It sure sounds complicated enough though. :) Working with eggs (whipping it stiff etc) is a bit daunting. So my recipe below has no eggs at all - vegan version it is!

No Egg Tiramisu (makes 4 servings)

10-12 pieces piscot/laydysfinger cookies - this is NOT bhindi my fellow countrymen :)

250g mascarpone cream (cheese, cream cheese)

250 ml. espresso coffee, cold

4 tbsp rum (or marsala wine if you can find it)

200 g cream

6 tbsp powdered sugar

4 tbsp cocoa

1 bar good quality dark chocolate for grating

In a large bowl, beat the mascarpone cream until it becomes creamy and soft.

In another bowl, combine the cream with the powdered sugar.

Mix the contents of both bowls till everything's melded into a smooth creamy consistency.

In a flat container, mix the coffee and rum.

Get your glasses/bowls or other individual containers ready and then dip the cookies into the coffee mix.

Soak only one side but make sure that its not dripping liquid. Place at the bottom of the bowl. You can break it into smaller pieces to make it fit.

Now spoon in a portion of the cream mix and flatten it out with a small spatula.

Soak another set of the cookies and place on top of the cream to make another flat layer of cookies.

Top with some more cream. Repeat 2-3 times till the bowl is full in alternating layers of the soaked cookies and cream - How the heck can you go wrong with that combination!! :)

Chill for at least 4-5 hours or overnight.

Before serving, dust with cocoa powder and sprinkle grated chocolate on top of each bowl and DIG IN!!

Ooo..oo.. Happy Days!!

2010-09-22T15:07:00.010+03:00

The other day while on a video chat with my parents in India, we were discussing food - yeah big surprise eh? My mom wanted to know if there was anything that I wanted shipped from there in the next few weeks 'coz there people coming and going etc. But what stayed with both me and P from that conversation was the fact that they mentioned what was on the menu that day - Kerala/Malabar Parathas and chicken curry! Gawd, I still can't stop salivating at the thought of gorging on some hot parathas with any southie curry! And this, after we've just managed to have a good go at it last night for din-din!! So you can imagine our state that day -spent thinking about the yumminess that is south-indian food......

er.. did you miss what I just said? Let me say it again - YES!! I DID manage to make malabar parathas for dinner last night - much to the husband's utter surprise and profound delight! AND THEY WERE AWESOME!! :D

The whole business of getting the parathas to look and feel authentic is a time consuming and utterly tiring process. But so totally worth it! Even the little fellow told me - "It's super mamma!"

Amazingly, I had almost no non-veg at home last evening and I was much agitated about what to serve with the parathas - 'coz honestly, this meal was planned only 'coz we HAD to HAVE the kerala parathas asap! I haven't made a purely veggie dish in a long while and since non-veg was in any case unavailable, I brought out all the veggies I could find. Seeing them all laid out in front of me instantly reminded me of a vegetable kurma. This Kurma is a mixed vegetable curry that uses yoghurt, nuts, milk or sometimes coconut milk as its base. What I made was a thicker version that used both yoghurt and nuts.

Vegetable Kurma

For paste:

8-10 cashew nuts, soaked in warm water

4 tbsp grated coconut (I used powdered/desiccated coconut)

2-3 green chillies

1" piece ginger

2 cloves garlic

1/2 small onion, chopped

5-6 fenugreek (methi) seeds

small piece of cinnamon

2 cloves

3-4 tbsp yoghurt

3-4 tbsp warm water for grinding

For Kurma:

1 tsp black mustard seeds

1/2 to 1 tsp tamarind concentrate, mixed in 2 tbsp warm water

3 potatoes, chopped small

1 cup green beans and peas mixed (I used the frozen kind)

1 red/orange bell pepper, chopped small

1 small onion

salt to taste

1/2 tsp turmeric

2 tbsp oil

1 slit green chilli (optional)

a few curry leaves (optional)

Grind the first set of ingredients into a paste using as much warm water as required to get a smooth consistency. Do not add too much water as a runny mix will not grind well.

Heat the oil in a pan, splutter the mustard seeds and add the slit green chilli and curry leaves.

Add the potatoes and mix well.

Turn the heat down and cover & cook till potatoes are half done.

Add the rest of the veggies and cook covered for another few minutes.

Add the prepared paste to the veggies and combine well. Add a little water if the paste is too thick.

Let it come to a boil. Add salt and turmeric and simmer for a few minutes.

Taste to see if the yoghurt has given the dish enough sour flavour. If not, add the tamarind water as per taste and stir.

Once the veggies are soft, turn off the heat and transfer to serving bowl.

Serve with hot steamed rice or with rotis/parathas/kerala parathas

Note 1: You can add any seasonal vegetable to this dish - cauliflower, carrots, french beans, peas etc.

Note 2: My version was an almost dry dish. However you can turn it into a curry by adding more yoghurt, milk, cream or even water. Adding 1/2 cup coconut milk to the dish will give it an even more interesting touch.

Kerala/Malabar Paratha (makes 6-8 parathas)

2 cups all purpose flour

2 tbsp oil

salt

1/2 to 3/4 cups water

oil for cooking

Mix the flour and salt and then rub in the oil till it is crumbly but still dry.

Add the water a little at a time while working the flour to form a smooth non-sticky dough. Add a little more flour if it becomes to sticky.

Apply a little oil on the surface of the dough and keep for an hour covered with a damp tea towel.

Work the dough well and section it into 6-8 even-sized balls. Roughly the size of a tennis ball.

Take one ball and roll it out on an oiled counter so that it is as thin as possible. The shape you roll the dough out into does not matter at this stage. Just make sure its as thin as possible.

Now starting from any on corner of the rolled out dough, form pleats in the dough just like you do for a saree or for a paper fan.

Pull the pleated dough length-wise a little to elongate it (the dough will be quite elastic by this time so you'll be able to do this without breaking it).

Next, roll it into a spiral. Dab a little oil on top and set it aside while you work the remaining balls.

Heat a wide base tava/frying pan on medium heat and add a tsp of oil.

Roll out the spiral shaped pieces using a very light hand to a thickish disk shape. Do not press down too hard while rolling it out.

Cook on medium heat till both sides are golden brown. Repeat for each spiral roll.

Once you have about 3-4 parathas ready, take them between your palms and clap your hands together so that the parathas are slapped against each other. This has ZERO affect on taste but doing this a couple of times will help to separate the layers that you broke your back over while pleating.

Your very authentic kerala/malabar paratha is ready to serve!!

Enjoy!

All-day breakfast anyone?

2010-09-15T12:17:00.005+03:00

Somedays I get into a really vile mood about having to cook and clean all the time! I can already picture P raising an eyebrow at the "somedays" bit. :) So anyway, last week saw more than a couple of evenings full of a cribby me. And I'm not a huge fan of the home delivery options we have available here so I really didn't want to order in. Opening the fridge finally to see what I could throw together into a salad or cold sandwich ended up as an even bigger irritant. No raw material for a veggie salad or cold sandwich. There were literally three things in the fridge - eggs, bacon, & milk! There was some other stuff too but anything that involved more than frying an egg was really out of the question for me that day. It was to be an all-day breakfast situation then I decided.

I remember I'd seen a recipe a long time back where the eggs had been cooked in a muffin tray with bacon wrapped around it. I really had no patience to go hunting for the recipe so I told myself that a bacon & eggs combination can hardly ever go wrong. And braved on to turn out what I now call my:

Bacon-wrapped Egg Muffins (serves 3 adults)

5 eggs

6-7 strips of bacon (the longer they are, the better)

2 tbsp milk

salt n pepper to taste

a few drops tobasco sauce

a handful of chives, chopped

1 carrot, chopped small

1 green onion, chopped

1 packet cheese tortellinis, cooked and drained

1-2 tbsp pesto sauce

2 slices cheese, cut into small strips (optional)

Fry the bacon strips but don't let them cook completely or become too crisp. Drain on kitchen paper and set aside.

Grease the muffin tray with some bacon fat or butter or oil and line the sides of each muffin mould with the bacon strip. If one strip isn't enough to go around the cup, add an extra section from a 2nd bacon strip.

Line the bottom of the moulds with one spoon of the carrot and green onion mix.

Crack one egg into a bowl and add a dash of milk, salt n pepper, tobasco and chives.

Whisk it till foamy and then pour into the bacon-lined mould so that the egg is surrounded by the bacon. Do not fill to brim 'coz the egg will rise as it cooks.

Repeat for each egg. I did each egg separately 'coz I wanted to be sure the baby ate one whole egg. To make this even less time consuming, you can whisk all eggs together and then pour it into the muffin tray.

Bake on the middle rack of a preheated oven at 200 C for 15 mins.

You can top it with the cheese slices and put it back into the oven for a few mins to let the cheese melt. ut this not really necessary. It was just as good and heavy without the cheese.

Serve hot with some warm tortellini freshly tossed in some pesto sauce.

We loved it so much, P decided to do his own version over the weekend. He made his with separated eggs. Whipped up the egg white and put the untouched yolk at the bottom of the mould. The yolk was just done when it came out of the oven and so was moist and fresh. The next time we make this, we're going to try and get a more wobbly consistency for the yolk.

Coffee Jelly!

2010-09-08T12:08:00.011+03:00

I'm always on the look out for desserts that are fun & exotic looking but simple to put together. Try a different take on homestyle cafe mocha and turn it into a crowd pleasing dessert! It's so simple, you'll fall off your chair in surprise - atleast I did! :)

This is a super simple recipe from my mom-in-law's kitchen. Every time she makes it, she gets rave reviews and requests for seconds and thirds! :)

Coffee Jelly with Piscot (soft rusk) & Whipped Cream (Serves 4)

2 cups water

2 tsp instant coffee (or use 1 cup of your favourite espresso)

3-4 tsp cocoa powder

1 pack of gelatine (10 gms)

4 tbsp sugar (adjust this as per taste and the sugar quantity in your cocoa powder)

whipped cream

Make slightly less than 2 cups (400 ml) coffee using your instant coffee powder.

Add cocoa powder to the still boiling coffee and turn down the heat.

Add sugar to taste and take it off the heat.

While this is cooling, dissolve the gelatine (I used a 10 gm pkt of gelatine for this) in 100 ml of cold water and let it sit for 5-8 mins till it turns spongy.

Heat some more water in another pan and immerse the gelatine container into the hot water. Stir well till the gelatine has dissolved. Takes another 5 mins for this to happen.

Spoon in some of the coffee into the gelatine container slowly so that the temperature of the gelatine water is about the same as that of the coffee.

Now pour out the whole mix back into the coffee and stir to dissolve well. Make sure there are no lumps anywhere.

Pour out into your serving containers/glasses/bowls or a single large bowl and cool in the fridge for atleast a couple of hours till well set.

Serve with a dollop of whipped cream and some chocolate shavings on top. I also served some Piscot or soft rusk with it.

How strange these coconuts are!

2010-09-08T10:09:00.014+03:00

Surprisingly, Romanian supermarkets stock coconuts and even mangos! The country is hardly a tropical paradise! I mean we're hitting 8C at the begining of September for crying out loud!! So the real story is this - the mangos are fairly insipid and you really can't enjoy them as fruit, you can do decent salads with them though. Even more surprisingly, the coconuts here are strangely devoid of any water! Now the general rule I follow while buying coconuts is to first shake the hell out of them in my attempt to hear a healthy quantity of water inside it slosh about and then check eyes of the coconut to make sure they're not squidgy. But here, I picked up a coconut and shook it well only to find it completely empty! It was such an alien feeling, I actually shook it again while exclaiming loudly!! Had quite a few people give me strange looks! Words simply cannot express a South Indian's reaction to a hollow coconut. Up until that point in life, it was truly unimaginable for me to think of coconuts without their trademark sweet water! I really don't know whether they drain the water out of them to keep them fresh for longer or what. Dang it all! WHERE did that water go!!!

In my enthusiasm, I went ahead and bought one to see if the fake feeling coconut tasted anything like the real thing. The problem is, I completely forgot that I don't have a hammer or anything heavy enough at home to crack it open yet. So have been stuck with this one coconut in my fridge for a while now. The other day however, an obliging Indian friend took me to a special aisle in my usual supermarket here where I found cartons of coconut milk! It was such a happy day! A LOT of the southie stuff that I'd like to make needs coconut, as does anything Thai that I might want to attempt. Besides, coconut tastes of home - good old mallu land - and my mommy! :)

Here's my very very very very successful recipe using my very first carton of coconut milk in Romania!

Chilli Prawns in Sweet Coconut Milk (serves 3.5 adults)

15-18 tiger prawns, cleaned, deveined and tails cut

1 block of tofu, cubed

2-3 tsp red/green hot chilli paste

4-5 galic pods, minced or 1 tsp garlic paste

1 tsp ginger paste

2 tsp soya sauce

3-4 tbsp tomato ketchup

1 cup coconut milk

1 small onion, chopped fine

2 stalks spring onions, white and green bits both chopped

1 carrot, chopped small

10 stalks of fresh chives

oil

Shallow fry the tofu cubes till they turn golden brown in colour.

Mix together the ginger paste, garlic paste, chilli paste, one chopped green onion and pound it to a paste using a mortar-pestle.

Fry the paste in a frying pan with a little oil on medium heat. Use groundnut oil if you have it. I didn't, so I used olive oil.

Add the tofu and soya sauce and let it cook and absorb the spices for a couple of minutes.

Add the remaining chopped onion and then fry.

Add the ketchup and taste for saltiness and spicyness at this point. Add more chilli paste or soya sauce (or salt) as per taste.

Add the prawns and carrots. Cook on low heat till the prawns are cooked through.

Turn off the heat and add the coconut milk, giving it a good stir.

Add the remaining chopped green onion and chop chives into the pan.

Cover and let it sit for a few minutes to let the flavours mingle.

Ganish with some freshly chopped chives and serve with steamed rice.

Note: Be generous with the chilli paste when you're tasting for spicyness because the coconut milk will hugely cut the spice quotient with its sweetness. Add your spice accordingly or you'll end up with a very sweet dish.

Note 2: Skip adding the coconut milk to end up with a dish of Spicy Chilli Prawns & Tofu. Serve with freshly made Singapore Rice Noodles

The loud ooh and aahs emanating from the hubby were reward enough for this ready-in-20-minutes wonder. :)

A Mexican-inspired mishmash

2010-09-04T16:55:00.008+03:00

I got hold of my very first bottle of true Chipotle sauce when the family came visiting. It was brought on special request along with some fresh green chillies (which I immediately chucked intot he freezer)! 'Coz I've just been dying to have something really hot and spicy - there's nothing half as spicy as I'd like here and the one time I did think I found Ardei Iute (spicy green chillies), it turned out to be muckily bland! What a disappointment that was and I was stuck with truck loads of it to pawn off into a variety of salads for supposed "flavour"! Even if you are merely acquainted with Indian tastes, you'll know what I mean. :)

So the chipotle sauce bottles have been calling out to me in my dreams these past few weeks and I finally decided to do something about all the yelling in my head - talk about being obsessive! :D

Here's my recipe for Chipotle Chicken in Red Wine Sauce (try at your own risk! :D)

4 chicken legs with skin

3-4 small potatoes, peeled and sliced thin

1 large carrot, sliced into rounds

2-3 garlic pods

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp chipotle sauce (bbq flavour)

2 tsp dijon mustard

1 sprig rosemary ( add only if you like rosemary, else skip)

1/2 tspgarlic powder

1 tsp dry oregano

1/4 cup red wine (I used cabernet sauvignon)

salt n pepper to taste

1/2 tsp paprika powder

Preheat oven to 180 C.

Mix together salt, pepper, paprika 1/2 tsp chipotle sauce and 1 tbsp oil together and toss the sliced potatoes and carrots in it.

Spread the veggies in a layer in a wide mouthed baking dish. Sprinkle the garlic powder on top.

Mix together remaining oil, chipotle sauce, salt, pepper and mustard and coat the chicken legs with this. Prick the chicken meat with a fork in a few places to let the mix seep in.

Pour the wine on top of the veggies and lay the chicken on top of the veggies.

Bake on the middle rack for 1 hr.

Lip smackingly yummy! :D I only wish I'd toned down the rosemary a bit 'coz we're really not fans. Next time, I'll substitute oregano or maybe cilantro/coriander.

A Rush Job

2010-09-04T15:47:00.006+03:00

Hot chunky tomato soup - that's my idea of a good start to a meal or even a light meal by itself. And if you're recovering from a cold, it's my favourite option for sure. The last couple of weeks have been lean on the trying new recipes front. Haven't been particularly well with a runny nose, croaky throat and a particularly cranky toddler who was going through similar symptoms. Here's a soup I made in exactly 15 mins with as little raw material available as there could ever be.

Pulpy Tomato & Baked Bean soup

1 can tomato pulp (or use 3-4 de-skinned tomatoes)

1 can baked beans

2-3 cups vegetable broth/stock

4 crushed pods of garlic

2 tsp worcestershire sauce

1 tbsp oil

1 tsp mustard seeds

a few coriander leaves

2 tsp brown sugar

1 tbsp light cream

salt n pepper to taste

Heat the oil and splutter the mustard seeds.

Add the tomato pulp and cook on medium flame for 5 mins.

Add salt, worcestershire sauce and garlic pods and cook for another 2-3 mins.

Add the baked beans and give it all a good stir and then add the stock. Let it all come to a boil.

Check for sweetness and add brown sugar as per taste.

Turn off the heat and add the coriander leaves.

Add the cream and give it one stir. Cover and let it sit for a few more minutes.

Garnish with a dollop of cream and some freshly crushed pepper before serving hot with some crusty bread.

Adding some chopped celery and/or bacon bits would give this soup a zesty flavourful touch. I didn't have either so we had it plain with baked pesto salmon for dinner. It took me exactly 20 mins to whip up a complete dinner for all 3 of us. Quite successful, except that the husband had a scratchy throat that night! Oh well, now that we've all done one round, here's to happier non-sniffy days!

My very first sambar

2010-08-26T09:46:00.013+03:00

The family left last week and now we have an empty house and a cranky child who's missing everyone desperately. Over the weekend, we were looking for something to do that would keep us entertained and away from home. I promptly invited ourselves over to a friend's place for lunch and was given enough of a guilt trip by the husband for such unheard of behaviour to whip up a cake to take with us as dessert. Lunch was fantastic! We're probably in the final stretch of summer here and so it was blissful to spend a lazy lazy Sunday afternoon with friends out in the open with the sounds of neighbours having a pool party(!) around us. Having an abundance of totally authentic idli and doshas with chutney, sambar and gunpowder in the middle of easter europe all served up by a true-blue sardarni was no mean feat! :) I realised later that day that Monday was Onam and that we'd enjoyed our sadya (festive/celebratory meal) one day in advance. Inspiration really did hit me finally and strongly enough to attempt a decent sadya for Onam.

Now being a southie, I'm quite ashamed to say that I've NEVER really tried making sambar. I've taken the recipe down from my mom and my grandmom tonnes of time, but generally read them over to the maid/cook and left her to handle it. Since the maid/cook was almost always from Bihar or W. Bengal, I shouldn't have been surprised that the sambar always ended up tasting more like dal. Given my current situation, there is really no scope for a cook to help out with the cooking and so this year's Onam (Kerala's harvest festival) meal fell to me to handle all on my own. I have a terrible memory (quite an anti-thesis to my name I know), so I was hardly able to recall any of my mom's recipe. And it would really have been too much to ask my mom yet again for a recipe she's given me atleast 400 times! And the prospect of getting an earful on an international call was not inviting at all. So off to google I went.

I do remember some of my mom's tips to know how to be careful about the instructions I read online. Add a little sugar or jaggery to the sambar to give it a kick; Be careful about the amount of methi (fenugreek) seeds you use to avoid a bitter twang; Add a little hing (asafoetida) to the tadka (tempering) etc.

My first problem in making a go of it was that I don't have the correct kind of dal to make sambar here. I don't have any Arhar/Toor dal at my disposal. The only thing I have and can continue to find here is Masoor dal (pink lentil). Thanks to moonshine for her confident advice "it really doesn't matter, use whatever" - I did just that, with very good results! :)

I served the sambar with carrot thoran and inji thaiyr (ginger flavoured yoghurt) and ofcourse plain rice. Traditionally, the Onam sadya will have literally about a 100 dishes. But my father's always said that if you have your inji thaiyr under control, it represents more than half those dishes! Makes life so much easier! :)

Sambar (w/ masoor dal)

1 cup masoor dal

2 tbsp tamarind pulp (I have tamarind concentrate, so used a little less)

2 medium carrots, sliced

2 medium potatoes, chopped into large pieces

5-6 shallots

french beans, chopped (I used the frozen variety)

2 medium tomatoes, chopped

salt

1/2 tsp turmeric powder (haldi)

2 tbsp brown sugar (or use a small piece of jaggery)

1 tbsp sambar powder

For the tadka

1 tsp mustard seeds (sarson)

5-6 fenugreek seends (methi)

1 pinch asefoetida (hing)

2 dry red chillies, broken into halves

1/2 tsp grated ginger

2 whole garlic pods, crushed

few curry leaves (I didn't have this)

1 tbsp sambar powder

2 tbsp oil

Cook the masoor dal in 2.5 cups of water with salt and turmeric and set aside.

In a large vessel or pressure cooker, bring 3 cups of water to a boil. Add the tamarind pulp to the water before the water boils.

Add veggies - carrots, beans, potatoes, tomatoes and onions. Add salt and cover a cook for 15 mins.

After about 7 mins, add the sugar and 1 tbsp sambar powder to it and cook covered again.

Once the veggies are done, add the cooked dal, mix well and cook again for another 5 mins. If you're using a pressure cooker, give it one whistle.

Once this is done, turn the flame to low and prepare the tadka in a small saucepan.

Add the oil to the saucepan and when its hot, add the hing to it. Next add the sarson, methi, dry red chilli and crushed garlic pods.

Let the garlic cook a little before adding the grated ginger and curry leaves.

Then add the remaining Sambar powder (this is a tip I learnt online and it really works miracles).

Add the whole tempering to the cooked dal and let it cook on a medium low flame for 3-4 mins before transferring to your serving bowl.

Note: Mallus don't usually use garlic in their sambar, although it is used in other parts of south india. We like garlic, so I decided to add it right at the last minute.

Note2: The 1 cup of dal was a bit overestimated and I turned up with enough sambar for 4 people. All proportions here are for 1 cup dal so please adjust as per the sambar quantity you want to end up with.

Carrot Thoran (stir-fried carrots with freshly grated coconut and a mild tempering)

3-4 carrots, grated

3-4 shallots, sliced (alternately use 1 medium onion)

1 cup coconut powder (or freshly grated coconut if you have it)

1 inch piece ginger, chopped small

2-3 green chillies, split

1 tsp urad dal

1 tsp uncooked long grain rice

1/2 tsp mustard seeds (sarson)

1 dry red chilli, halved

few cury leaves

2 tbsp oil

Heat the oil in a frying pan/wok and add the mustard seeds till they splutter.

Add the urad dal, rice and red chilli. The rice will turn white and puff up in the hot oil.

Add the curry leaves, ginger and shallots and give it all a good stir.

Add the grated carrots and add salt.

Give it a good mix and cover and cook for 2 mins on medium heat.

Add the coconut and green chillies. Cover and cook for another few mins.

Open and mix it around till any/all liquid has evaporated.

Garnish with fresh coconut shavings and serve.

Inji Thaiyr (This is had as a pickle since the flavours are really intense. Generally made in very small quantities)

1/4 cup yoghurt, beaten till smooth and creamy

1 inch piece ginger, chopped fine

2-3 green chillies, chopped fine

salt

Mix everything together with the yoghurt and let it sit in the fridge for a couple of hours to let the flavours mingle and become nice and strong.

The meal was good and everything turned out decently. The sambar needed to be a little more sour, so I added a few drops of lemon juice right before serving. :) For dessert we had a very proper semiya payasam (a milk-based sweet made by boiling milk, sugar and vermicelli together till thick and gooey and spiced with cardamom). This I got packaged and ready to take home at the end of our lazy sunday! "VeryMean" you're an absolute doll and this meal was totally thanks to you! :)

hindi chini bhai-bhai

2010-08-06T13:46:00.012+03:00

When we were kids, our weekend evenings used to be reserved exclusively for watching whatever hindi movie Doordarshan (national TV before the cable came to India) would show. I remember once they were showing a movie from the 60s on the Indo-Sino war. I don't remember much about it except that it was in black & white and had one scene with soldiers in the trenches yelling out to their counterparts across the border - "hindi chini bhai-bhai, yeh zameen humara hai, isko chhod do" which roughly translates to the "indians & chinese are brothers, this land is ours, please leave." I have no other memory of the movie except this one bit. And this I remember only b'coz all of us cousins used to get together to play cops & robbers as kids and have some version of the same thing that we used to sing to the cops!! Imagine a robber calling out to a cop and Singing "we're brothers, give it up dude"! Quite Deewar-esque! :)

Anyway, why the rambling about inconsequential stuff? 'Coz this a page for my random ramblings people - or did you forget?! :D

Yesterday, I was looking to do something interesting for dinner with the packet of frozen king prawns that I had and after looking around, quite unsuccessfully, for recipes for prawn fried rice, I created" one all my own! One note I'd like to make here is that its always best to use cooked rice that has been sitting in the fridge for a while. Using freshly cooked rice tends to turn the rice mushy when you're heating it with the veggies etc. The cold rice will ensure that each grain of rice is separate and pearl-like once you're done cooking. :) But that's just my preference! And yesterday's plan for a meal involving rice was a delayed one, so I have to say that I just went ahead and used the freshly cooked rice (it was still smoking when I put it in to saute!)

Once I was done, I thought I'd gone a little overboard with the Chinese Five Spice in my veggies and decided to tone it down using a little bit of the green chutney (mint and coriander) that I'd made in the afternoon. I know it sounds like a messy combination, but it was such an interesting amalgam of flavours - truly hindi chini bhai bhai!

Here's what you need for my Indo-Sino Prawn Fried Rice (chinese spices & indian flavours)

10-12 king prawns

1.5 cups rice, soaked (serves 2 adults & a baby)

5-6 large mushrooms, sliced thin

1 large carrot, sliced long and thin or use your peeler to peel long thin slices off the carrot

1 large red onion, sliced thin

1 small cucumber, sliced thin

4 green onions/scallions, sliced thin

1 tbsp chilli oil (I make this at home using 2 tbsp of red chilli flakes in a 200 ml bottle of EVOO)

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp worcestershire sauce

1 tsp pimento sauce or any hot sauce

1/4 tsp chinese five spice powder - use more if you're okay with a stronger flavour :)

1 tsp minced ginger

2 tsp soya sauce

1 tbsp tomato ketchup

2 tbsp lemon juice

water to cook the rice

salt & pepper to taste

Olive oil

1 tbsp green chutney

1. Put the soaked, strained, cleaned rice into a microwave-safe bowl and add 2 and 3/4th cups of water. Season with salt, cover with cling film and microwave on high for 18-20 mins.

2. While the rice is cooking, chop up all your veggies and thaw the prawn and pat dry.

3. Sprinkle coarse salt, garlic powder, pepper and paprika on the prawns. Heat olive oil in a skillet and add the prawns.

4. When the prawns begin to curl up tighter, add the worcestershire and pimento sauces and give it a good stir.

5. Once the prawns are cooked through, remove to a plate and set aside. Next we will do the veggies in batches.

6. Heat some chilli oil with some coarse salt in the skillet and add the mushrooms. Once the mushrooms start leaving their juices, add the sliced onions and saute for another 3 mins or so till the onions loose their raw favour.

7. Remove the cooked mushrooms and onions from the skillet and set aside on a plate.

8. In the residual oil, add the minced ginger and sprinkle the five spice powder to skillet next. Add the sliced carrots, green onions and cucumber and saute for 2 mins. Add salt to taste. Remove to same plate as the mushrooms and onions.

9. In the meanwhile, your rice may have already cooked. If so, spread it out on a large plate and leave it a cool place to cool. Once the veggies are done and the rice has cooled, heat about 1 tbsp of oil and add the rice to your skillet or wok in batches, mixing well to ensure that the oil gets to all grains of rice.

10. Add the soya sauce to the rice and mix well. Next add the ketchup and mix well again.

11. Take the rice off the heat. Add 1 tsbp of lemon juice to the prawn before mixing it with the rice and veggies. Add the remaining lemon juice to the fried rice, combine well and serve!

Note: if you're starting out with cold rice, you needn't take the rice off the heat. Take a call based on how mushy your rice is getting after all the sauces have been added. You don't want it to be a big lump of squishy muck.

If you want to give it that specifically Indian kick like I did, stir in 1 tbsp of green chutney to the rice before serving. Enjoy your yummy indo-sino mess! :)

Note: I'll post my recipe for green chutney soon. I need to get my chutney recipes recorded somewhere in any case.

A Simple but Un-Pronounceably Named Greek Meal in a Bowl

2010-08-02T17:15:00.009+03:00

The family will be coming over for the next couple weeks starting next week and I've been digging up everything that I successfully tried - specially the chicken-based things I made 'coz we've turned into voracious dark meat-eaters lately and my mom-in-law prefers chicken to almost everything else. So I'm being the decent daughter-in-law and lining up a list of things that she'll find edible! :)

I first made this quite some time back, when I was still travelling back and forth between Indian and Romania, and had completely forgotten about it till recently. Wouldn't have happened if I'd gotten around to posting the recipe to the blog!! Amends are now being made and this will definitely feature prominently on my menus henceforth. I remember that I was trying to redo a lemony chicken soup back then. We'd had at the soup at a chinese restaurant and totally loved it. It was a really lightly flavoured soup that tasted of lemon and coriander with strands of egg white floating in it - quite yum. I can't remember now if it had any noodles in it. So anyway, I was really looking for something chinese-esque, quite far removed from greek food when I started out. When you see the ingredients list, you'll know why I finally chose this recipe. Kotosoupa Avgolemono - heard of it? It was certainly the first time for me!

Kotosoupa Avgolemono is a Greek summer soup that's light but incredibly tasty and we have it on nights when we don't feel like a heavy dinner. It is sufficiently filling to be treated as a meal in itself but you can accompany it with bread or even a salad if you want more crunch. Alternatively, tone down the rice quantity that goes into it and have it as a broth-y soup before main course.

Kotosoupa Avgolemono (chicken & rice soup with lemon & egg)

3-4 pieces chicken breast, boneless, skinless

4 cups chicken stock (use the best quality you can find or make it at home if that's what you do!)

1/2 cups of rice

1/4 tsp oregano

1 tbsp of olive oil

1 egg

juice of 1 lemon

1/2 tablespoon of water

salt n pepper

Boil the chicken in a large pot of water (add salt and pepper to taste) till cooked through.

Skim off any foamy scum that rises to the top of the pan during cooking.

Remove chicken pieces to cool and reserve a little bit of the broth after straining it.

Bring the chicken stock to a boil and add the rice, oregano and olive oil to it. Add salt and pepper as per taste. If you don't have ready chicken stock, use stock cubes and boil the chicken in it instead of plain water. In which case, strain and reserve the whole stock once the chicken has been removed.

Chop the chicken into tiny pieces.

In a new bowl or cup, separate the egg white and whisk it till foamy. Now add the yolk and lemon juice to it along with 1/2 tbsp water. Whisk well.

Slowly add about half cup of the hot stock into the egg-lemon mixture while whisking continuously. Do it slowly so that the temperature of the egg mixture is brought up to that of the stock without making scrambled egg out of it.

Once the rice is cooked, reduce the heat for the stock and pour the egg mix into it. Stirring slowly and only once.

The soup will instantly change and become translucent and creamy.

Make sure you keep the heat on simmer and do not let the soup come to a boil.

Add the chicken pieces to the soup and serve warm with crusty bread or just as is.

Note: It was nothing like the recipe that I originally wanted to replicate but it is a definite keeper. My hunt for the original elusive recipe continues and if anyone has ideas, please do let me know!

Last Day of School & Some Revelations

2010-07-30T19:20:00.004+03:00

Today was the last day of school for the year here. And my toddler is now at home for a whole month. He LOVES going to school and playing with his friends so I'd been telling him the whole week that he'd be on holiday for a little while starting next week (I'm still not sure if he's old enough to understand the concept of time, but one tries nevertheless).

June to August are the summer months here and most people in the country start taking their vacations from July onwards so the schools and classrooms all have thinning population. The last 2 weeks in July are when the kindergarten kids spend even more time playing outside than usual.

Today, when I went to pick up the little fellow from school, they were all outside playing (running around) on the basketball court. My little chap in the meanwhile was sitting on his favourite blue chair (a plastic one he insists on taking with him whenever they leave the classroom!) on one side of the basketball court facing away from me. As I walked upto him, he turned around and saw me, smiled and said, "come mamma, come sit next to little boy." So I sat down and I asked him if he was ready to go and say bubye to everyone before the holidays. And he said, "litta' while mamma." So we sat there for a couple of minutes just like that. Eventually, I had to ask the inevitable question as to what he was doing sitting there and he says very matter of factly, "Looking at trees." I was genuinely taken aback and amused all at the same time. He was actually sitting there appreciating nature - just chilling!

Later back at home, he bullied me into sitting out in the balcony looking at people & traffic go by while talking non-stop ofcourse. When the angle of the sun changed and it was shining right into our faces, I asked him if he wanted to go back inside for a while 'coz it was getting uncomfortably hot and he says, "I'm not interested." !!!!!!!!!! This time I just laughed out loud! Actually had a couple of people stare up at us from the street! I realised later that he'd probably heard me use the phrase sometime. It's one of the things I sometimes say when he throws one of his impossible fits - "I'm not interested in talking to little boys who throw tantrums." It was amazing that he used the same exact phrase back.

It really knocks the wind out of you when you see your tiny things turning into individuals with their own ideas and will. On second thought, they come into the world a will all their own! So it's the new ideas and opinions that really get added to all of that super-charged will! :)

Don't grow up so fast little boy! Stay mamma's baby boy a litta' while longer!

BIG Fat Chewy Chocolate Chip & Mint Chocolate Cookies

2010-07-28T18:14:00.006+03:00

BIG Fat chewy chocolate chip-mint chocolate cookies - can there be any other heaven after that!?! Very seriously doubt it!

I had an expat meeting today and since we do informal snacky meetings, I wanted to take something that was interesting but simple to put together. I had originally planned to make my jam sandwich cookies but then thought I'd try something new and take it with me if it turned out to be at all edible! On a whim I looked up some recipes for chocolate chip cookies and saw a picture that really did it for me! :D So then I just HAD to HAVE IT!! Decision made - simple! That's how mostly how arrive at a majority of my recipes really, the picture has to trigger something in my head and that's that.

These cookies have that chewy quality that you get in your regular coffee shop cookies but you have the blissful satisfaction of knowing that you made them yourself and can actually make them as giant sized as you like... heheh!

Here's what you'll need

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup white sugar

1 tbsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp cinnamon powder

1 egg, make sure this is at room temperature

1 egg yolk, make sure this is at room temperature

1 cup chocolate chips (I used semisweet)

1/3 cup mint chocolate sticks, chopped into little pieces (this is optional)

Sift the flour, baking soda, cinnamon powder and salt and set aside.

Melt the butter in the microwave and mix with the sugars. Blend well.

Next add the whole egg and the one extra egg yolk (all websites I checked mentioned that it is very important to have this at room temperature), mix well again till nice and creamy.

Pour into the bowl of dry ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon till just blended.

Add the chocolate chips and mint chocolate pieces. Blend again using the wooden spoon. Do not overwork the dough at this stage.

Refrigerate for atleast 2 hrs.

Put the oven tray in the centre rack of the oven and preheat the oven to 170 C.

Get the dough out of the fridge and work it a little to soften slightly.

Tear off 15-18 roughly even sized chunks of the dough and lightly pat them into a roundish shape.

Bake for 15-20 mins as required. Once the edges turn golden brown, you can take them out and cool them on a rack.

If you want them chewy, put them into airtight containers once they're sufficiently cool. To have them crisper, leave them out longer.

If you feel that they're not completely done once they're completely cool, you can pop them back into the oven for another 5 mins or so. These cookies are really forgiving that way! Just make sure you test them when they're completely cool - that's when they get chewy.

The whole lot got wiped out at the meeting and I have to d another batch for the hubby and little boy! I have to say this myself, but the pictures I took are even better than the original one that I drooled over. :D Coming for coffee anyone??

Warm & Aromatic Rainy Days

2010-07-27T10:30:00.013+03:00

After an unusually warm week (for eastern europe), we've had an uncharacteristic bout of rain since the weekend and its gone back to being cold and dreary again. I don't like rainy days but rainy nights take on a different mood altogether. Brightly lit rooms warmed with family chit-chat, sitting around the table or just cosying up on the couch watching the little boy play "Dhush!" with his cars - makes the sound of falling rain take on a romantic sound rather than the wet and cold obviousness.

Good food is essential to sustaining the mood and if I were back in India, hot pakoras or tikkis with spicy chutney with hot tea would just have been a must in the evening followed by some yummy rajma-raita-chawal and green chilli pickle. I can still make Rajma here but the pakoras & tikkis would still be sorely missed. Maybe I'll try making tikkis one day. But my western taste buds take over these days and rainy days make me want to eat things that are warm scented, smokey (not smoking) hot and preferably with enough sauce to mop up with large chunks of bread. :)

I've never tried turkey before. As in, have never eaten, let alone cooked it! The husband is quite fond of it though. We get turkey salami for his sandwiches all the time! I tried a turkey sausage once and was frankly quite ready to bring it back up! So, it was with much apprehension that I agreed to buy turkey legs to cook at home for a full fledged meal! I'd looked up recipes for what I could do with it but kept putting it off saying I didn't have any celery (a most feeble excuse if ever there was one!) and also 'coz all recipes required either marinating it overnight or cooking it for 2-8 hrs. The darned thing sat in the fridge for a week before I decided it was time to stop procrastinating and take the plunge! I made sure I had some leftovers from the day before for myself - just in case I didn't find the turkey palatable. Most recipes I looked at were for grilled turkey so when I found one for making a turkey stew, I thought I'd give it a try. Making the usual thing isn't fun at all you see! :)

This recipe would be especially yummy and wholesome in the winters. And frankly, you can substitute any meat for the tukey. :)

Turkey Stew with Seasonal Veggies

1 tbsp olive oil

2 turkey legs (skin on, bone in)

2 small onions, one red and one yellow, roughly chopped

2 stalks celery, roughly chopped

4 cups chicken stock

2 medium carrots, slices into 1/4 inch rounds

2-3 radish, cubed

2 potatoes, diced

few sprigs of rosemary

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp paprika

extra salt and pepper for seasoning

Note: you really can add whatever veggies you have handy.

Wash the turkey legs and pat them dry. Stand the turkey leg up and make deep incisions into the flesh.

Make a dry-rub by mixing together the salt, pepper and paprika and rub it all over the turkey leg.

Heat the oil in a skillet and pan fry the turkey pieces till the skin is browned all over.

Put in the chopped celery and onions and till onions become soft.

Add 2 cups chicken stock, rosemary, oregano and add salt & pepper. Once this is simmering, transfer to an oven proof dish and cook covered with aluminium foil at 160 C for 1 hr.

Take out after an hour and add the rest of the chopped veggies and remaining stock. You can add more salt & pepper at this stage if required.

Cook uncovered till the veggies are nicely done but not overdone. About 45 - 50 mins more.

Take out of the oven and separate the meat from the bones. Discard skin and bones.

Serve with thick slices of warm bread.

I never knew that turkey cooking in the oven can fill the house with such wonderful aromas. Will definitely make this again!

Taking a Chance

2010-07-22T17:53:00.027+03:00

I define TRUE Yumminess as dishes that despite a lukewarm response to certain food categories compel you to reach for a second helping after polishing off a gigantic first! :) And I'm happy to report such delight in watching P wrapping up dinner last night!

Succulent prawns (an absolute family favourite with us) with yummy garlic lemon butter flavoured pasta was on menu last night. It's the pasta that the husband is not a huge fan of. He's okay with it but he'd rather have something else if given a choice. So I generally tend to do a pasta dish as a salad. Or if I have absolutely nothing else at home, it's easy to whip up a pasta meal with store bought sauces and the fewest ingredients possible. Last evening, I was looking for a prawn recipe and came across this combination which sounded interesting enough to take a chance on. :)

Jumbo Prawns with Garlic & Lemon-butter Pasta

10-12 jumbo prawns, peeled and deveined (I used one packet of frozen jumbo prawns but I'm sure the fresh ones will be outstanding)

2 tbsp bacon bits (or 2 bacon rashers)

handful of mushrooms, quartered

1/2 yellow pepper, sliced into thin strips

1 onion, chopped small

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 long green chilli, chopped fine (I used the mildly hot one)

2-3 small radish, sliced

1 tbsp butter

2 tbsp lemon juice

handful fresh coriander and/or mint leaves, chopped fine

salt & pepper

spaghetti for 2 people

Boil water in a large pot for the spaghetti. Add salt and add the spaghetti to cook as per packet instructions.

In another deep pan, fry the bacon bits till nice a crisp. Remove the bacon from the pan leaving the fat in the pan.

Season the prawns with salt n pepper and use the bacon fat to sear the prawns on both sides. it won't take more than 2-3 mins to do both sides. Once done, remove from pan. Note: if there was too much bacon fat in the pan after frying the bacon, please feel free to remove as much as reqd!

Next heat butter in the pan and add the minced garlic and then onions & mushrooms. Saute till onions are slightly translucent.

Add the yellow peppers and green chillies and stir for about 1 minute.

Add the bacon back into the pan, stir and then pour in the lemon juice. Scrape up all the bits sticking to the bottom of the pan to make sure you get every bit of the flavour into the veggies.

You can add some water from the spaghetti if the sauce is not enough for the amount of spaghetti you have. Note: There should be enough sauce to just glaze the pasta.

Turn the heat off and add the drained pasta directly from the hot water into the pan. Mix to coat well.

Add the prawns, sliced radish and chopped mint & coriander and mix well.

Serve hot with garlic toast.

Quick..... Yummy..... Healthy..... DESSERT!!!

2010-07-20T15:26:00.002+03:00

The easiest dessert ever and so yummy its just wrong! Best of all, you simply cannot get anymore healthy with desserts!!! With no further delay, here's how you make the yummiest Shrikhand (flavoured yoghurt) ever!

3-4 cups of thick yoghurt (use low fat if you want but we have to hang it so make sure its thick)

3/4th cups of sugar

few strands of saffron mixed in 1 tbsp warm milk

1/4 tsp crushed cardamom seeds

1 tbsp sliced almonds

1 tbsp sliced pistachios

Hang the yoghurt in a muslin cloth or in a sieve lined with tissue paper for about 1 hr.

Once all the water's drained out and the yoghurt is nice a thick, mix it well into a smooth consistency.

Add the sugar and cardamom powder and mix well.

Add the saffron flavoured milk and combine again.

Add a little bit of the chopped nuts and mix.

Chill for atleast 2-3 hrs before serving.

Garnish with the remaining sliced nuts just before serving.

I DID have awesome pictures for this awesome dessert, but they got deleted when the laptop crashed earlier this week. So pictures will come when I make this again - which will be very soon I can assure you! :)

Kuchh Chatpata Ho Jaaye

2010-07-09T17:41:00.008+03:00

One thing I absolutely Hate about not living in India is that I don't have access to my fav chaat waala! It's such a spirit damper! I sometimes get these "super cravings" for something chatpata (a uniquely indian mix of spicy, tangy, sweet and salty) that I just don't know how to deal with! So I thought I'd try resolving that issue once and for all - by concocting my very own chatpata solution! And even though I knew I wouldn't reach the skills of the neighbourhood haldirams or even the chaat wala, I knew I'd atleast get a bite of home out of it! :)

So here goes my very first attempt at - Pyaaz ki Kachori

1 cup plain flour

2 tbsp butter (unsalted)

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup water

Oil for frying

For the filling:

1 large onion chopped fine

1/2 tsp nigella seeds (kalaunji)

1 tsp fennel pwdr (saunf pwdr)

1 bay leaf

1 green chilli chopped fine

1 tbsp gram flour (besan)

1/2 tsp corainder pwdr (dhania pwdr)

1 tsp chilli pwdr

1/2 tsp garam masala

handful chopped coriander leaves

1 tbsp oil

salt to taste

Mix the flour salt and butter together till you get a crumbly texture. Knead into a dough using water adding a little water at a time. You might not need the whole water. Keep covered with a tea towel or wet tissue for 10 mins.

In the meantime prepare the onion filling. Heat oil in pan. Add the nigella seeds, fennel pwdr, bay leaf, green chillis and onion till onions are soft and beginning to change colour.

Add gram flour, chilli pwdr, coriander pwdr, salt and garam masala and fry for a couple of mins.

Turn off the heat and add the chopped coriander.

Let the mixture cool and take out the bay leaf.

To make the kachori, divide the dough into 8 equal portions.

Roll out each portion to a 2 inch diameter circle and place one spoonful of the onion mix in the middle. Wet the edges with a finger dipped in water.

Stretch the dough over the filling to seal it.

Lightly roll out the dough again to form an even thickness disc shape.

Make an indentation in the middle of the disc by pressing your thumb gently.

Heat oil to smoking point and then lower the flame to med high for deep frying the kachoris.

The kachoris take a while to cook through but need to be fried in hot oil else they soak up too much of it. So you'll have to fiddle with the heat setting every now and then.

I served them with green chutney supplied by a very kind Indian neighbour of ours who was super sympathetic to my plight and offered me some of her already prepared chutney! It was spicy as hell and tongue-ticklingly yummy! Thank you shaku aunty!

Thrown Together

2010-06-26T11:03:00.013+03:00

A quick fix for days when I don't feel like doing any cooking is salad. I generally have pre-packed salad leaves stocked in the fridge, so whipping something quick with it is a no hassle job. It's also nice to have something that's decadent to munch on without too much hassle. Sounds oxymoron-ish but its really quite possible. Here are my quick fixes from the week.

Crunchy Green Salad with Fresh Strawberries

1 pkt green salad leaves (I like to use the ones which has a variety of colours)

3-4 cherry tomatoes, halved

4-5 fresh strawberries or any other seasonal fruit chopped (apple, plum, oranges, or pears)

4-5 olives (I had only the green ones but the black ones would be excellent as well)

2 chicken sausages (chopped into bite size pieces)

2 Tbsp creamy salad dressing (you can make your own or use smthg from a bottle - I used Ceasar dressing)

salt & pepper

Heat the chicken sausages in the microwave on high for about half a minute. You can avoid this if you like your sausages untouched.

In a bowl, add all the salad ingredients and the sausage.

Toss them together before drizzling over the Ceasar dressing.

Add salt and freshly ground pepper.

Dig in!

You can also add some burnt garlic butter to the salad for an extra kick. To make this, heat a teaspoon of butter in a skillet on high and add finely chopped or pressed garlic to it. Make sure the flame is on high and the butter's really hot so that the garlic starts browning almost immediately. Stir it around with a wooden spoon so that it doesn't char. Remember the garlic should be just burnt (deep brown) but not charred (black). I didn't bother with this though.

Jam-Sandwich Cookies

(makes about 10-12 medium sized cookies)

1 cup plain flour

1 pinch salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter @ room temp

1 tsp vanilla extract

4 tbsp castor sugar

5-6 tbsp of your favourite jam (I used blackberry jam)

In a bowl, beat the butter until smooth.

Fold in the sugar and combine till well blended

Add the vanilla and mix well.

Slowly add the flour till just incorporated into a soft crumbly dough. You can chill the dough wrapped in cling film for an hour at this point for easy handling but I braved on directly.

Lay out a sheet of cling film and place the dough on it. Place another sheet of cling film on top before rolling the dough to 1/4 inch thickness.

Use cookie cutters to carve out fun shapes for your cookies. I used a flower-shaped mould.

When you've got one batch of cookies cut out, lay them out on your baking tray lined with wax paper or alum foil and re-roll the dough out between your sheets of cling film to avoid cracking. Continue cutting out cookie shaped till you've used up all your dough.

Remember to make even number of cookies for the sandwich tops and bottoms.

Use a smaller cookie cutter or the tip of a nice sharp knife to cut out windows in half the cookies. This will be where the jam will peep out of the sandwiches once assembled. I used my knife to cut out little triangle windows.

Preheat the oven to 180 C and place the rack in the middle.

Put the cut out shapes into the fridge for 10 minutes so that they retain their shape while baking.

Bake for 10 minutes or till the cookies turn brown. Cool on wire rack.

To Assemble:

Dust the tops of the cookies with the window with castor sugar. These will be the sandwich tops.

Flip the full cookies and add a dollop of jam to the underside of the cookie.

Place the prepared top cookie on top and press gently to form your sandwich.

Store in air tight container for upto a week - they won't last that long though!

Note: if you want to have them crisp, assemble just before serving.

I've finally joined the British Council Library here and now have a decent stock of English (!) books to read. Bram Stoker's Dracula accompanied by a crunchy salad & hot lemon tea, followed by crisp jam-sandwich cookies - a fun mix! :)

Orange Juice Cake

2010-06-20T11:20:00.011+03:00

The obsession with using oranges continued for a while and the second recipe I tried was a cake. Blowing my trumpet or not, I'll just HAVE to say that it was the most wonderfully flavoured cake I've ever had! Definitely in the top 3! My moulinex blender came with its recipe book and this recipe came from there. Although I've never tried any recipes from the books that come with the equipment, I was interested in trying out this one because of the oranges! Best of all, I baked a cake but all I had to wash was my blender! Cleanup was a cinch! :) And the whole house just smelled divine - while it was baking and each time we warmed a slice!

Here's the recipe for Orange Juice Cake.

Juice from 4 oranges + rind from 2 oranges

3 eggs

3/4 cup + 1/4 cup sugar

175 gms butter (at room temp)

3/4 cup plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

Take rind from 2 oranges (before you juice them) and chop it up really fine in your blender.

Whip together the eggs and 3/4 cup sugar till well blended add the butter and whip again.

Add the flour and baking powder and blend well.

Add the orange rind and 1/4 cup orange juice and blend one last time.

Grease and dust a cake tin with butter and flour and pour out the cake batter.

Bake in a 150 C oven for 40-50 mins till a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool before taking it out of the mould.

Dust the top with powdered sugar if you want.

To make the orange sauce that goes with the cake, bring the rest of the orange juice to a boil with the 1/4 cup sugar till it reaches the desired consistency.

Serve a warm slice with a dollop of whipped cream and a little orange sauce drizzling on top. YUM!

Note: Instead of adding the baking powder with the flour, I've found that mixing it with the orange juice before adding it to the batter makes the cake much softer. It will bubble up when the acid reacts with the soda so make sure you do this in a tall enough glass/container.

Screaming HEALTHY!!!!!!!

2010-06-16T17:10:00.009+03:00

I'm not a huge Fish person. The only thing I CAN have without any sort of second thought is fried fish with oodles and oodles of masala! :) I can't stand the fishy-ness of fish and handling it raw is as much of a challenge. But one has gotten over the last bit overtime with handling all the non-veg in the course of my kitchen endeavours. But handling a whole fish is still out of the question. I wouldn't know the first thing about chopping raw fish. So fish-based dishes are quite a challenge for me. One 'coz I never know what fish to buy or how to buy it and two 'coz I don't even recognize the names of the fish we get here!

So far, I've been sticking to frozen salmon fillets and its worked out great. But off late there isn't any frozen salmon in the frozen foods isle! So I'm feeling quite stuck! I know that white fish is the healthiest and I'd looked up some white fish names. Thought I'd try buying Cod. Had no clue if it'd be fishy. So I used a recipe that would marginalise the fishy flavour in case it did have one. The sauce was a definite hit although the fish did turn out to be too fishy for our liking. I'll probably try the sauce again with perhaps salmon or even chicken/pork.

Thought we'd have it with some potatoes instead of the usual accompaniment of rice. But I'm also quite sick of having the mashed variety so it was baked this time and in keeping with the health-conscious mood, used hung yoghurt instead of cream.

Baked Potato with Herbed Greek Yoghurt

4 potatoes

1 Tbsp olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

300 gms plain thick yoghurt

1 stalk finely chopped celery

1 Tbsp finely chopped chives

Preheat the oven to 230 C.

Scrub the potatoes and pat them dry before rubbing a mix of olive oil, salt & pepper all over them.

Place on a baking tray and bake for 50 mins till the skin turns nice and crisp on the outside and soft on the inside.

In the meanwhile, hang your curd (you could use greek style yoghurt to avoid this step if you like) in a fine sieve to let out all the curd whey (which is very healthy btw so collect it and have it as a cooling drink on a hot day if you like!) for about 30 mins.

Note: if you don't have a very fine sieve, line it with a paper towel before putting the curd in.

Combine the yoghurt, chives and celery and chill.

Serve with hot sliced potatoes.

Cod in Rosemary & Tomato sauce (this is definitely one of those ready in under 30 mins kind of dishes)

1 tbsp olive oil

1 onion , chopped small

1 can tomato pulp (it was easier to use a can but you can roughly chop up 3-4 fresh and really juicy ones instead if you like)

1 heaped tsp light, soft brown sugar

a few fresh rosemary leaves

1 tbsp soy sauce

4 fillets of Cod

a few shakes of pimento sauce

salt and pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a saucepan and fry the onions till light brown.

Add the tomatoes, sugar, soya sauce, pimento sauce and rosemary leaves and bring to a boil. Note: If you're using fresh tomatoes, try puréeing half the quantity before adding to the saucepan to get a nice chunky sauce.

Turn down the heat and simmer for another 5 mins and taste to check seasoning. Iseally the soya sauce should add enough saltiness to the sauce but you can add salt and also pepper at this stage to your liking.

Slide the fish into the sauce and spoon it the fish pieces to make sure they're covered in the sauce well.

Cover and cook for 10-12 mins or till the fish is cooked well and flaky.

Serve hot!

Note: Try a variation by using another herb like fresh or dried sage or thyme instead of rosemary. Just remember to use half the quantity if using dried herbs.

Wasabi & Prawns - This time not together

2010-06-14T19:52:00.006+03:00

We've been in love with Sushi for a while now. We were at a Sushi bar for one meal every weekend for a while. Took a break in the middle there for a bit - but probably heading back to that routine again soon! :) I'd thought about taking sushi making classes here (they have them at the japanese centre but never got around to it). Anyway, I'd bought some frozen tiger prawns last week (not really with the intention of trying anything remotely 'sushi' with it) but in any case I completely forgot about them. They stayed unopened in the freezer till this weekend when I was hunting up leftover ice cream for an inconsolable toddler. Half the packet was instantly turned into a tex-mex inspired prawn fried rice and the rest simply HAD to go into prawn cocktail. P and I are both hugely fond of prawn cocktail and although I was originally intending to use a ready-made sauce from a bottle, it didn't taste as nice I wanted it to. So, made the sauce from scratch and it was totally yum! So the prawn-wasabi combination will just have to wait a while longer.

Coming back to my intention of developing sushi making skills, I'd also bought some wasabi paste on our trip to the US earlier this year and hadn't opened the tube as yet. But just didn't feel like trying something so radically new that day. I wanted to have something that would be a definite 'family pleaser' and if I'd got the sushi wrong, it really would have been disastrous! Eventually, modified an egg-based recipe I found online to suit our tastes and came up with something I very unoriginally call my Wasabi-ed Chicken Teriyaki - had it wrapped in lebanese bread with some greens. And that was dinner. I did make a sauce to go with it, but it was really strong and not really our thing - the toddler LOVED it though! HE moved the sauce bowl next to him and used the serving spoon to slurp it all up!! I had to sneak in the chicken from the side between every other slurp!

Note: No pictures for the chicken 'coz they really didn't look that great but the prawn cocktail - now that's a different story! :)

Recipes for both creations below (includes the sauce recipe that the little boy loved so).

Prawn Cocktail

10-12 large prawns (I used frozen ones with only the tails intact although I removed the tails after cooking just easier to eat that way)

1 cup mayo (we love heinz mayo so that's what I used)

1.5 tbsp tomato ketchup

3-4 drops tobasco

1 tsp worcestershire sauce

1 tsp fresh lime juice

If the prawns are frozen, thaw them out first (don't put them in warm/hot water or they'll cook!). I put them in a colander for about an hour and ran some cool water over them later to crack up the remaining ice. Once they're dry (u can use kitchen towels for this), pop them into a medium hot skillet so that they'll dry-cook. Once they lose their transluscent colour and become sort of white or pink, as the case maybe, (the prawns also tend to curl up tighter as they cook) take them off the heat and cool. Remove the tails and keep them in the fridge till ready to serve.

Mix together all the sauces to make the cocktail dressing and chill till serving time (atleast 2 hrs).

When ready to serve, mix the prawns and dressing. Line a big bowl or individual smaller bowls with finely chopped spring onion, iceberg lettuce or slices of cucumber and spoon in the prawn mixture. The greens give it a wonderful crunch that goes really well with the creamy sauce and the succulent prawns.

Wasabi-ed Chicken Teriyaki

4-5 tbsp soya sauce

1 tsp wasabi paste

1/4 tsp pepper

1 cup bread crumbs

2 skinless chicken breast pieces

chilli flakes

salt and pepper to taste

4 tbsp canola oil

1/4 cup soya sauce

1/2 ts ginger paste

2 tsp light brown sugar

1/4 cup water

1 tsp all purpose flour

finely chopped spring onion greens

Mix the breadcrumbs, chilli flakes, salt and pepper and set aside.

Cut the chicken into 2 inch pieces that are less than half an inch thick or just use a mallet and bash it up to the required size (this is important or they won't cook through).

Mix the wasabi paste into the soya sauce and and dunk the chicken into it to coat each piece thoroughly.

Heat a skillet and add oil for sauteing chicken.

Coat individual chicken pieces with the breadcrumb mixture and saute in batches over med-high heat till cooked through.

Remove chicken onto kitchen towels to drain.

Add soya sauce, ginger paste, sugar and water to saucepan scraping up any browned chicken pieces.

Add flour to a little water and add to sauce

Boil and stir till sauce thickens.

Drizzle sauce over chicken and have as salad with greens straight or in a pita pocket or with fried rice. We had it wrapped in lebanese bread.

An Excellent Convert

2010-06-09T18:09:00.008+03:00

I've never tried making any kind of steak at home so far. And up until recently had no clue how to buy it either. So it was inevitable that sooner or later it would turn up on my menu for the week's plans. Oh no no, I'm not as well organized as all that. What I mean is, I generally make my shopping list for the week based on the kitchen shenanigans I'm hoping to carry out. It's a different matter that most plans end up involving basic ingredients and then I just take it from there. But sometime, I WANT to make something specifically and then I am necessitated to bring order to my shopping list and explicitly list out everything I'll need for the recipe. Handling Steak was one such long cherished wish. Since I hadn't had the time to research any steak information or recipes or even pictures on my trusty associate - the world wide web - I had to wing it a bit. Bought my steak meat (or so I thought!), rapidly worked out an assortment of veggies to go with it (all while standing in front of the veggie aisle and so based on whatever looked the freshest), and then headed to get some bottles of sauce into the trolley.

Note to self: I must do a post on the basic items I like to keep in the pantry. Makes life so much easier when I'm completely out of ideas and need to throw together something quickly.

I was a fairly happy woman at the start of the week. I had a fridge full of everything I needed to rock the week. (what a wonderfully exciting life I lead! :P) Mid-week, I finally had time to check back with the associate on good ideas for my wonderful slices of steak. Notice I said slices? Yeah, I really did say slices. The idiot that I am, I never gave a decent thought to what a steak should look like before I bought it! It never crossed my mind that whatever little steak I've had at restaurants, have never been wide flat slices! When I did do a detailed translation of everything that the packaging said in romanian (!!!!), turns out I'd bought meat cut and prepared to make snitzel!!!!! "How the heck was I supposed to know!" was the immediate annoyed thought that flashed through my mind. The obvious fact that a visual understanding of the meat in question would have been a good idea was admitted to late, albeit grudgingly. So now I was looking to improvise and this is what I did with my steak snitzel cuts.

Dijonese Snitzel Steak

4-5 slices of beef steak slices cut for snitzels (this is essentially a thin cut of steak)

3 tbsp dijon mustard

1 tsp chilli sauce (any that's really hot)

salt and pepper to taste

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

handful of chopped mushrooms

1 cup mixed yellow and red peppers chopped into bite size pieces

1 onion chopped into even sized chunks (tey and keep all veggies at an even size)

2 tbsp olive oil for frying

Coat the meat with a mix of mustard, chilli sauce, salt and pepper. Leave it for 2 hrs to marinate.

Heat the oil in a skillet and cook the steak slices on both sides to reach your desired level doneness.

Once all steak pieces are done, tip the mushrooms into the fat remaining on the skillet till partially done.

Add the onions and peppers in stages. Stir fry to take the uncooked edge off but keep the veggies crispy.

Empty the skillet by emptying all veggies onto the steak slices

De-glaze it with the balsamic vinegar.

Pour the resultant sauce on top of the veggie cornucopia and steak.

I served it for dinner with a mixed salad (apple, plum, greens, tomatoes, carrots and smoked cheese. Topped with extra virgin olive oil + oregano as dressing) and herb toast. Not a bad convert at the end, wouldn't you say?