The Timid Cook

Almost Caesar salad

2011-08-29T12:44:00.004+05:30

Actually its almost caesar and part waldorf (a very small part though)!

My home is overflowing with good cooks giving me little reason to venture into the kitchen. But, I do miss my erst while experiments with food. Which? All of it...all of the posts on Timid Cook are my experiments.

Yesterday, I shook off my lethargy (difficult but I did it) - opted for a caesar salad variation, drew up a ingredient list and went shopping Sunday morning and tried it out Sunday night! And it wasn't half bad. Ma liked it. (Which is a big compliment)! So here it is -

You will need:

1 head Romain lettuce, torn - I found "lettuce" at the Spencers on Rash Behari Avenue and didn't quite mind that this was iceberg and not romaine!

4 slices of bacon, diced - I was more liberal here and went a wee bit overboard. Much more than 4 slices (but in this case, more is really merrier)!

2-3 thick slices of good hard bread, cubed. [I looked for the easy way out ... but couldnot find any croutons] 4 tbsp parmesan cheese grated. In the end, I didnot use any cheese, parmesan or other - the dressing sans cheese was quite heavy.

For the dressing:

2 tbsp Mayo (I used a low cal eggless one ... alas am allergic to eggs)

400gs Yogurt (Two 200g tubs of mother diary yogurt - actually 300 g is fine. One tub and half of the other)

1 fat garlic crushed - but I simply grated it over the bowl where I was making the dressing.

1 tsp mustard powder (recipe calls for dijon...anything at hand will do, I guess)

1 large lemon juiced

A few liberal dashes of Worcestershire sauce

1/4 cup olive oil

How to:

Wash and dry lettuce and tear it into bite sized pieces. Put in a bowl and set aside.

In a pan, fry diced bacon in their own fat, remove and then fry the bread cubes in this fat.

I toasted 4 slices of bread till crispy. Cubed them with a bread knife and then lightly tossed them into the bacon fat. Set aside. Or omit this step and use croutons.

Combined all the ingredients for dressing a plastic container with a lid. Whipped well using a knife.

To serve, pour over salad, garnish with fried bread cubes!

PS - If you find good thick greek yoghurt, lucky you. If you dont, then use any normal unflavored yoghurt. To strain, I set a metal sieve onto a pan. Lined the sieve with a muslin cloth - actually a square of an old cotton sari belonging to ma; the poured the yoghurt on to the cloth and left it there. Within 1 hour or so, the water had nicely drained out and the yoghurt was easily lifted using a spoon from the cloth.

I toasted 4 bread in a toaster till crispy. Cubed them with a knife. Then tossed them into the pan where I fried the bacon. An easier alternative could be a packet of croutons?!

PS - The two recipes inspired me to make my own melange salad. Caesar & Waldorf.

Chillie Coriander Pasta

2009-10-06T21:38:00.002+05:30

Ocassionally, I do get it right!

I cook up a quick salad for my brown bag lunch (actually white plastic container in a white plastic packet lunch). While I have been eating really healthy (and keeping trim), the food is really bland. Not bad...just bland. At work, all of us eat together in a long room. And while everyone readily dig into the assorted fruits I bring, salad is left for me, untouched. Mostly.

Today, was different. However, most of my colleagues just happened to be out. Only four of us at lunch, two of whom are vegetarian and the salad I made had chicken. So, here it is, if not interesting enough for anyone else, then, atleast for me...to remember the recipe.

You will need:
Canelloni pasta: a handful really, 15-20 if you want to be picky. Any pasta would do, I presume
Boiled shredded chicken: a small cupful
Garlic: 1/2 tsp diced
Dried red chillie: 1
Coriander: 1/4 cup
Salt, freshly ground pepper
Oil: 1 tbsp

How to:

Cook the pasta as per the instructions on the packet. Drain, keep 2-3 tbsp of the water in which the pasta was cooked in.
Heat the oil in a pan.
Add the diced garlic and red chillie julienned. You can de-seed and put the chillie if you can't stomach hot. I just love the smell of chillie cooking...although we - Ma, R & I were all coughing and gasping from the fiery fumes!
Add the chicken and stir.
Add the drained pasta.
Add 2-3 tbsp of the reserved liquid
Add the coriander
Season with salt and pepper.
Stir to mix-well and remove!

Viola! Done.

Brinjal fried in eggy batter

2009-06-18T20:16:00.006+05:30

I am awfully allergic to eggs. It runs in the family (of all the things I could have inherited...). And it is agony for me at lunch time when nearly everyone bring egg in one form or the other. Sigh! I can only gaze in envy and dismay. And here I have to mention that dimer dalna - bengali egg curry is one of the things I can make well.

Today was no exception - two boiled eggs, one omlette, one egg roll, one egg chowmein and on top of it all, J - the VSO volunteer joined us for lunch and this is what she brought:-

Talang Tortang (I hope I got that right) - Brinjal fried in eggy batter.

You will need:

Eggplant 1
Egg 1
Oil 2-3 tbsp
Salt to taste
Soy sauce

How to:

Wash and pat the eggplant dry. Prick it with a fork.
Roast it whole over a naked flame (like for baigan ka bharta).
Let it cool, remove the peels - which should have turned flaky by now. Keep the tail on.
Flatten it by pressing gently.
Beat the egg. Add a little salt.
Heat oil in a flat pan.
Dip the flattened, roasted eggplant in the beaten egg and fry for about a minute.
Remove and eat with steamed rice.

J said that it tastes really well with soy sauce sprinkled on it just before eating but she found the local soy sauces sweet - I assured her that salty soy sauce is available and I have no doubts that she will soon locate one. Afterall, three days after she joined (first time in Calcutta, ever), she attended our NGO's 20th anniversary in saree having found a boutique which stitched her choli overnight and 4 months later she had found herself a music teacher and has already learnt three rabindra sangeet and which she sings very tunefully, albeit with a sweet accent! She also cooks well.

Jackfruit curry

2009-05-17T11:46:00.004+05:30

Lunch at Suruchi. Doesn't quite have the same zing as 'Breakfast at Tiffany's" - however that was one session of gluttony (on my part).

After 8 long years I went to Suruchi yesterday for lunch. An air con has been added, some attempts at beautifying, thankfully more or less unchanged. .The ocassion was to introduce two visitors from UK to Bengali food. One of them stuck to vegetarian and the other tried bits of non-veg items from us. I sat in a corner and ate. And how. Rice, musoor dal, aloo bhaja, kanchkolar kofta curry, echor er dalna, bhetki fry, bhapa ilish, a bit of chingri, gokul pithey and ampora sarbat. This is what I ate. Regretfully, I had to turn down pabda, parshey, galda chingri and mangshor jhol that others had ordered. Afternoon at work was AGONY - felt comatose. Luckily recovered sufficiently to be able to have echor-er dalna for dinner at home! So here is the recipe for Jackfruit curry - Echorer dalna (the way its made at home, by K our cook):

You will need:

Jackfruit - 1/2 kilo
Onion - 1
Garlic - 3-4
Ginger - 1/2"
Tomato - 1-2
Potato - 1
Turmeric
Salt
Sugar
Cooking Oil
Water

For the Garam Masala
1 green ilaichi, 2 cloves, 1/2" cinamon stick in a mortar - Coarsely grind
1 bay leaf

How to:

Cut the jackfruit. I find it difficult so I ask the vendor. But if you do happen to be adventourous...remember to remove the bits which feel plasticky!

Cut it into small cubes. Wash and clean. Smear with a pinch of turmeric and 1/2 tsp of salt and cook in a pressure cooker with a little water for one whistle. Drain and set aside.

Heat 2 tbsp oil in a kadai. Add the sliced onions, ginger and garlic paste. Stir. Add the cubed potatoes and fry.

Add the tomatoes. Season with salt. Stir well.

Cook till the potatoes are half done.

Add the jackfruit. Add the ground garam masala and bay leaf, 1/2 tsp sugar. Adjust for salt. Add one glass of water, cover and cook on low flame for 20 minutes or till done.

Remove from fire and eat - with rice!

PS - This dish can be made without onions, garlic and ginger. If you want more curry, add more water, lesser for a thicker curry.

J's Filipino shrimp vegetable stew

2009-05-07T19:36:00.011+05:30

Ah the horrible weather. Can there be anything worse that this humidity? There is: A bad cold, runny nose, headache and humidity. Funny how both have been bogging me done for nearly two weeks and yet I haven't got used to them :-).

This afternoon, J, the VSO volunteer physiotherapist was eating what looked like a large bowl of soup with bread. She offered me some and I thought why not? I tasted a bit and the tangy soup was HEAVEN. Forgot my cold and the heat and humidity. I quickly looked around for a bowl, finding none, I grabbed a tea cup and a large spoon and took a proper helping (which J, bless her soul and her culinary skills, shared readily enough). "Liked it"? "Yes, Yes, yes...," I said. To which she replied - "Good. This means you can live in Phillipines happily". Very Very happily I thought. So in between the never ending job list, thursday staff meeting, she gave me the recipe and hurrah ... she gave me local substitutes, all available easily! We did have a small problem trying to figure out whether she used paalak or pui sag. Then she said - either would do...any green would do, I think. I have put in spinach because I thought it looked like spinach. The stew can be made without shrimps if you want something vegetarian. So here is J's Filipino shrimp vegetable stew.

You will need

Eggplant: 1 cubed
Lady's Finger: 4 cut into two
String Beans: 5-6 cut de-stringed and cut into two
Spinach leaves: 4-5 leaves shred coarsely
Onions: 2 quartered
Tomato: 3 quartered
Shrimps: Handful
or Shrimp flavoured cube: 1-2
Tamarind powder: 250gms
or Tamarind pulp: 1 lemon sized ball
Salt to taste
Water: 250 ml

How to

Wash and cut all the vegetables and drain.
Devein the shrimps, remove the shell and keep aside.
Stir fry the shrimps lightly and reserve.
Grind the shells in a mortar and soak in a little bit of warm water. Strain the shells through a seive. Remove the shells and reserve the water.
You can omit step 3 & 4 if you manage to get hold of shrimp flavoured stock.
Boil water in a pan.
Add the quartered onions and tomatoes and cook over medium flame till the tomatoes become pulpy.
Add the shrimps, vegetable and salt.
When the vegetables are slightly cooked, add the tamarind powder or tararind water got from soaking a small ball of tamarind in hot water and strained.
Cover and simmer till vegetables are cooked.
Eat & Enjoy!

PS - Makes about 2-3 large soup bowls but depends upon who is doing the eating! It would be one helping for me!!

Ghol

2009-04-19T13:49:00.005+05:30

Sunday. Ah! After a long work week, it is something I look forward to and my usual routine is to slum it out. Spending an heavenly hour or two at my local library or dropping in on any one of my two close friends. Today, I dropped in at M & S's. They had this long over due naming ceremony for their two kids yesterday. A lot of Biriyani was leftover. 'Do you want some'? M asked. No baba ... its too hot, I said (temperatures have been soarding to 40 degrees). I asked for something cold - water was all she had. Then she started putting in ingredients into a bowl while talking to me about this and that. Turned out, she had made "Ghol". Slight variation from ghol as we bengalis know which is a variation of or similar to the punjabi lassi.

Her ghol is a digestive, more than a summer cooler.

You will need:

Curd 250 gms
Mint (pudina) : 1 small bunch
1/2 tsp each of whole cumin, black pepper - roasted and ground
Juice of 1 whole lime
2-3 green chillies
A little water - 1 o 2 tbsp
Salt 1/4 tsp
Rock salt 1/4 tsp

How to:

1. Whisk the curd properly. Strain it through a strainer or muslin cloth.
2. Mix together in a grinder - the pudina leaves, the roasted ground cumin and black pepper, green chillies, salt and rock salt, lime juice with a little water.
3. Fill 1/4 of a glass with the whisked and strained curd.
4. Add 2-3 tbsp of the pudina paste
5. Stir well with a spoon.
6. Fill the glass with cold water.
7. Adjust seasoning.
8. Serve

Note: Make the ghol as thin or thick you want to. Skip the chillies if you want. And the lime can be skipped too if the curd is not too acidic. You can add dhania (coriander leaves) in place of mint. Or you can add both.

It was wonderful. Especially after a huge helping of biriyani (which I had earlier vehemently refused) when the temperatures have been soaring to 40 degrees!

Raw Mango relish

2009-04-05T07:52:00.005+05:30

It's been HOT and HUMID. Thus begins almost all of my posts on my other blog.

Enough about that....Tis the time of raw mangoes which then means lots of chutneys, pickles and relishes. The sweet irony of it all is that raw mangoes are sour (khatta). It takes a brave person or a toothless one to eat one. But its very sourness combined with loads of sugar and we have the most heavenly coolers.

Now a days my lunch box is accompanied by a miniscule steel container - filled to the brim with sweet relish made from raw mangoes. At work lunch begins by all of us passing our lunch box around at the start and when we have collected (from others) and given to all, begin eating. Quite often, the tiny box comes back to me - licked clean! I have been requested to look for a large tin - which my ma somehow always remember just as I step out of the house!!

So here it is - Raw mango relish - as K makes it.

You will need:

Raw mangoes: 4 (these are usually small)
Sugar: 3-4 tbsp (might be more)
Salt: 2-3 tsp
Water for steaming
Cumin: 2 tsp
Dried red chillie: 1-2

How to:

Slice the raw mangoes into strips and de-stone (or pod or seed or whatever it is called). It doesn't matter how you cut the mangoes - basically into chunks. If the mango is very fresh then you can keep the peel - otherwise remove the peel before cutting the mangoes.
Put the mango chunks in to a Kadai or pan. Add water - just enough to cover the mangoes.
Steam on medium to low heat.
Add sugar and the salt and mix well. Keep stirring to prevent it from sticking to the pan.
Slowly the water will evaporate and the mangoes will become pulpy.
In the meanwhile, dry roast the cumin powder and the dried red chillie for 30 secs or so on a hot pan / tawa.
Remove and crush / grind and add to the pulp in the kadai.
Adjust salt - sugar according to taste and remove from fire.
Cool and refrigerate.
The whole thing should not take more than 30 minutes (lesser actually for those who are not all thumbs like me)!

And guess what - not only is it finger licking good (the only decent way to eat aachar's and chutneys) - it also keeps well for nearly 2-3 weeks (or till it finishes - whichever happenes to be earlier)!

I am not a paratha person at all - but this tastes REALLY good with parathas.

A long while

2009-01-15T21:02:00.002+05:30

Quite a while since I have last posted here and yet when I check my blogs' traffic, I am amazed to see the number of visitors to Timid Cook and yet I have been updating my other blog, now renamed to Notes from wherever I happen to be, more regularly. I thought I wrote better than I cook. Ah well, I live and learn.

In the meanwhile, I have been staying at chez parents where our excellent but tempermental cook K has been serving me all sorts of wonderful meals and generally doesn't like anyone entering her domain - the kitchen. Ergo, the kilos have piled on and my cooking has dwindled to the ocassional breakfast.

But soon, I plan to start posting K's goodies. And good they are.

Till then, "how to cook dal" and "how to make tomato chutney" and "how to cook koi mach" continues to rule the roost at Timid Cook.

Donate for a Heart ~ A Campaign to Heal

2008-08-19T20:01:00.003+05:30

Srivalli of Cooking 4 all seasons is holding a fund rasing event for 28 year old Anita Lakshmi who suffers from Coronary Artery disease. She has two children, aged 3 & 6. She requires around Rs.5-6 lakhs, something which she and her parents can ill afford.

Please do follow the link and read the entire post at Donate for a Heart ~ A Campaign to Heal!

Fried Chicken, Hyderabadi (well almost)

2008-03-11T10:39:00.002+05:30

Last week I had a joyous reunion with a school pal, "bees saal baad"! Two and a half days of almost non-stop yakking, some shopping, endless cups of tea. She made this really easy and very tasty dish for us and since she hails from hyderabad, it (this dish) is sort of Hyderabadi!!

You will need:
Chicken: 1 kg cut into pieces
Onions: 2 medium, finely sliced
Oil: 3 tbsp
Salt to taste

For the marinade:
Garlic: 6-7 pods
Ginger: 1" pc
Green chilli: 1
Coriander leaf: one handful
Salt: A pinch
Yogurt: 100gms

How to:

Wash the chicken pieces and drain.
Grind coarsely the ingredients (except yogurt) for the marinade in a mortar / pestle.
Combine the ground ingredients, yogurt with the chicken and keep for an hour.
Heat oil in a large non-stick pan to smoking.
Lightly saute the onions.
Add the chicken pieces to the pan and fry on high flame.
Gently turn the pieces over to ensure proper frying on both sides.
When the water released by the yogurt dries up, add a little water and rest of the yogurt marinade.
Adjust salt.
Lower flame and cook till the chicken is done.

There will be no gravy in this dish and can be eaten with rotis or naans...but worked just as well as an accompaniment to beer on a warm evening!

Arusuvai Friendship Chain

2008-02-20T16:36:00.003+05:30

And, I hand over the baton (or secret ingredient) to Sushma of Cook Spot

In case you missed the earlier posts on Arusuvai Friendship Chain, I was sent a secret packet by Bhags of Crazy curry.

This is what I did with the contents of the secret packet.

And so...now on to another great recipe from Sushma.

Soya snack for My Legume Love Affair Event

2008-02-04T10:28:00.001+05:30

This is my entry for the “My Legume Love Affair” event hosted by the Well Seasoned Cook.

Happily, my sis R has just returned from a trip to Bagdogra where she learnt a nifty soya bean snack recipe. Our common friend Madhu P cooked this up in a jiffy one cold evening and they had a great time gobbling it up in between R’s singing and Anand's (Madhu’s husband) strumming the guitar!

I was a bit worried if soya bean is a lentil (poor knowledge). But I have proof that they indeed are. “Peas, beans and lentils are known as pulses. They are the seeds of plants belonging to the family Leguminosae, which gets its name from the characteristic pod or legume that protects the seeds while they are forming and ripening. With approximately 13,000 species, the family Leguminosae is the second largest in the plant kingdom...”. More here at the Vegetarian Society.

You will need:
(This is what I used, the proportions can be varied)

Soya beans: 1 cup full
Pepper corn: 10
Mixed herbs (oregano, thyme, rosemary): 1 tsp
Salt to taste
Water: 4 cups
Oil for sautéing

How to:

Bring the water to a boil in a saucepan and remove from fire. Add 1 tsp salt to the water.
Add the soya beans, cover and let soak for 20 minutes. Drain.
Grind the pepper corn. I used a good old fashioned steel ham-dista (mortar and pestle).
Heat 2 tbsp oil in a frying pan.
Add the soaked and drained soya beans and stir.Sprinkle the herbs, crushed pepper corns .
Stir well and fry over high heat for 5-7 minutes, adjust seasoning.

Hey presto! Your snack is ready.
I tried it yesterday and although A and I didn’t sing or strum the guitar, I enjoyed it too, huddled under a warm blanket watching TV on a cold winter night.

Hariyali Matar

2008-02-01T16:47:00.000+05:30

What a lyrical name for this simple and yet tasty dish. It lay buried in my recipe book -- perhaps overlooked because this was not one of R's, written in her beautiful handwriting but in my horrible scrawl. This was given to me by Hema who studied french with me in Alliance Francaise Kolkata. She took cookery classes on weekends and very kindly gave me a few.

You will need:

Coriander leaves: 1 cup
Garlic 8 cloves
Green Chillie: 6 (I used half a chilli only)
Onion: 1 medium
Little water

Grind the above to a paste

Tomatoes: 2 cups finely chopped
Peas: 2 cups boiled (I used frozen peas and had only to thaw them)
Turmeric: 1/2 tsp
Coriander powder: 1 tsp
Water: 1 cup
Oil: 6 tbsp
Garam masala powder: 1/4 tsp
Salt, sugar

How to:

Heat oil in a pan and add the ground coriander paste.
Stir fly lightly till oil separates.
Add tomatoes and stir fry till they become soft.
Add peas, turmeric, salt, a pinch of sugar and water.
Mix well, simmer till gravy is thick.
Sprinke the garam masala and remove.
Serve with rice or rotis.

Thanks Hema, wherever you happen to be. I tried your recipe 6 years after you had shared it with me...and it was wonderful and worth the wait.

How to cook dal: Arhar

2008-01-24T07:54:00.000+05:30

Another recipe for the number one search on Timid Cook: How to cook dal!!

Am learning to buy in smaller quantities despite the hassles of shopping more. Larger quantities, I have learnt are not really economical because they attract weevils or worse (eeks). Also, I am cooking in smaller quantities. Just enough for one meal. That way we are eating hot fresh food and not storing them away in the fridge and re-heating (where they lose their taste and sometimes I forget about them and discover later, lurking in a corner and looking distincly alien with variety of growth in it not to mention the smell)!!

I didn't look up the recipe. I just followed my hunch or rather memory of the dal from the local dhaba. And I'd say it turned out pretty well and cooking time was 20 minutes max. Just the thing for a cold winter night.

What I used:

Arhar dal: 1/2 small cup about 3 full tbsp (to be precise)
Water for pressure cooking the dal: 2&1/2 cups
Turmeric: 1/2 tsp
Salt: 1 tsp
Onion: 1 small
Garlic: 1-2 pods
Tomato: 1 small
Hing (asefoetida): 1/2 tsp
Dried red chillie: 1
Mustard seed: 1/4 tsp

How to:

Wash the dal with several changes of water, drain and put in the pressure cooker with the turmeric, salt and fresh water. The rule for pressure cooking is that water should be approximately slightly less than double of the other ingredient in this case, dal. But given the cold weather and the fact that arhar dal takes a bit longer to cook than say masoor or moong dal, I added 2 and 1/2 cups of water. Let it cook for quite a few whistles. (I let it cook for 7 whistles of the cooker and found that the dal was still a bit hard. So I simply added a bit more water and let it cook for another 5).
Chop the onions, garlic and tomatoes.
After the dal is cooked, add oil to a small kadai or pan. Add the mustard seed and hing powder.
When the seeds start popping, add the garlic, onions and stir till they are browned. Keep stirring or they might stick to the pan.
Add the tomatoes and fry till the tomatoes release their juices.
Then, add the cooked dal. If the water has evaporated while pressure cooking, add more water. Arhar dal is usually thicker than other dals, so don't add too much water.
Bring to a boil, adjust salt and remove.
Eat with chappatis!

Note: The red chillie can be added while tempering (before the mustard)....but A can't eat anything remotely hot. Also, while serving, add a generous spoonful or lump of ghee and if not, then buter! This step I omitted (lower calories for A)!

PS- We finished it all up and really fast and so there are no photos to show....alas!

Is it Pizza?

2008-01-23T10:56:00.001+05:30

It looked liked it, smelt like and tasted like it too ... but dare I call it a pizza? Well why ever not? And it was quite easy to make. I actually made it in the commercial breaks while watching Gerard Depardieu in "My Father the hero"!

What I used
(I made two. The following are the ingredients per pizza)
Pizza base: 6" diameter
Capsicum: 1
Tomato: 1
Onion: 1 (A insisted)
Salami: 2 slice
Salt
Olive oil
Cheese

What I did

Brushed the pizza base with olive oil.
Sliced the capsicum, onion, tomato in to thin rings. Quartered the salami slices.
Layered the the pizza base, in order - the tomato, onion, capsicum, salami.
Topped it up by grated cheese.
Grilled the pizza in my OTG at 210 deg for 15 minutes. And viola!

Note: The cheese had melted nicely all over but the base had become crunchy. That wasn't bad to eat...but I still have to figure out how to keep the base soft.

R' Coffee-honey-cashew cake

2008-01-18T11:23:00.000+05:30

Hmmm...both A and I were suddenly yearning to eat a coffee cake. Now that I have the werewithals (an OTG - a diwali gift from A), I googled to look up a recipe and I found as expected tons of recipes of cakes to eat with coffee...all sorts of cake. Not the recipe I was looking for which was well...a cake with coffee. So, e-mailed R for a recipe for cake with coffee as an ingredient (and honey too, A added) and trusty R promptly sent back one and subsequently revised the proportions for a very small cake mould which would fit inside my small OTG. And yesterday, with shaking hands, heart thumping wildly, I tried it out.

You will need:

Flour: 1 cup

Baking powder: 1 tsp

Clove and cinamon powder: 3/4 tsp

Ground nutmeg: 1/4 tsp

Chopped walnut/almond/cashew: 1/3 cup (I used cashew. R's says walnut is the best but others will do.)

Instant coffee: 1&1/2 tbsp

Hot water: 1-2 tsp

Powdered sugar: 1 cup

Honey: 1/4 cup

Eggs: 2 lightly beaten

Butter: 150 gms

Milk: 1/4 cup

Here's How:

Sift the flour, baking powder, ground spice and a pinch of salt ina bowl.
Add the chopped cashew.
In another bowl mix the sugar,honey, butter and water and coffee well.
Then add the flour spice to it along with egg, milk.
Mix to form a smooth batter.
Grease a mould and pour the batter in to it and bake for 40-60 minutes till a knife inserted comes out clean. (I baked the cake for 40 minutes at 210 deg C).

Note: Lightly dust powdered sugar on top of cake or Spread coffee cream on top of the cake

For coffee cream: Mix 250 g butter, 2& 1/3 cup icing sugar, 3tsp heaped instant coffee, 6 tsp hot water well, to form a creamy paste and spread on cake top with a spatula or cut the cake horizontally into two and use it to sandwich it.

(I didn't do either....just served the plain cake as is, fresh from the oven).

How simple the above recipe reads doesnt it? And it is too. But if I described my process...it would take pages and probably be a primer on how not to do it but despite or perhaps inspite of it all, the cake was quite OK. It was rapidly eaten up and pronounced quite good for a first effort. And what's more, if I can do it...so can anyone...So try it out.

Thanks to A for mental support.

Thanks to R for the recipe, long distance encouragement including answering three phone calls on silly issues like I have added the milk before the water or how does one grind the nutmeg etc?

Thanks to J who didnt say anything at the enormous amount of dishes to be cleaned although she did say that while this cake is nice, the one didi (R) sent was BETTER!

Arusuvai Friendship Chain: Amaranth Spinach Tomato Mushroom Soup

2008-01-12T11:56:00.001+05:30

The secret packet that Bhags sent me contained Amaranth seeds also called Rajagiri -- completely unknown territory to me. In fact, Bhags took pity on me and told me what it was!! I found a recipe which I altered a wee bit and it turned into one of my favorites: A hearty, healthy soup meal!

You will need:

1 cup amaranth seed

3 cups water

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1 bunch spinach (or young amaranth leaves if available - I used spinach)

2 ripe tomatoes, skinned and coarsely chopped

1/2 pound mushrooms (I used 6-7) stemmed and sliced

1&1/2 teaspoons basil

1&1/2 teaspoons oregano

1 clove of garlic minced

1 tbsp onion, minced

Salt and pepper to taste (the original recipe called for Sea salt or a salt substitute)

How to:

A good place to start was to stick up the recipe on the kitchen wall.

Add one cup amaranth seeds to 3 cups of boiling water

And cook for 12-15 minutes. This is how it will look...a bit messy.

While amaranth is cooking, stem and wash spinach, then simmer until tender. Drain and chop it. Blanch tomatoes in boiling water to loosen skin, then peel and chop. Mince the onion and garlic.

Heat oil in a pan over medium heat and add garlic and onion. Sauté approximately for 2 minutes. Add tomato, mushrooms, basil, oregano, salt, pepper. Add tomato. Cook for 10 – 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Lightly mash tomato as it is cooking.

Then pour the amaranth into the spinach-tomato mixture. Raise flame to high and let the whole mixture come to a boil, adjust for seasoning, remove...

...and treat yourself to a hearty soup, with bread of your choice.

Thanks due to U for loaning me his cam...photos (a bit blurry) up on Timid Cook for the first time.

Thanks to A, for bravely tasting it altho' spinach and tomatoes are a no-no for him and he is kind of allergic to mushroom :-(

Thanks Bhags...I found out that I could!

And lastly.......

Umm...what a load of dishes to be cleaned....

PS- I know I have to pass it on....but blogging has taken the wind out of my sails....I will get around to it shortly....so, in this post, I don't have two names to pass it on to...yet.

PPS - Sushma of Cookspot is the next link in the Arusuvai Friendship Chain. I have sent her a secret packet and am waiting eagerly to see what she cook's up!

Shahi Bharta

2008-01-10T11:20:00.000+05:30

Bhags sent a mail to me yesterday convinced that I had chickened out of the Arusuvai Friendship Chain. Afterall, I couldn't even figure out the contents of the secret package she sent me!! I assured her that I would be coming up with my post on it soon, in the next few days, infact. Till then, here is a recipe that R sent me. It combines brinjals with prawns

You will need:
Eggplants: 2 large, seedless variety
Mustard oil: 3 tbsp
Onions: 2 minced
Garlic: 1tbsp minced
Small prawns: 1/2 cup, shelled
Oil for frying
Egg: 1
Salt, sugar and red chilli flakes

How to

Cut the eggplants into halves , boil, de-skin, cool, mash and then keep aside.
Heat 3 tbsp mustad oil in a pan, add the minced onion and garlic, saute.
Add the shelled prawns.
Fry for a while and then add 2 chopped tomatoes and the mashed eggplant.
Stir fry till the oil separates.
Gradually add salt, sugar, red chilli flakes and finally a shredded fried egg. Mix well.
Serve with rotis

Viola! Although R has written serve with rotis, a hard core bengali like me would obviously prefer it with rice!!

Pabda Curry

2008-01-06T11:47:00.000+05:30

Ask a bengali about his / her's favorite dish and more often than not, the answer would be: Mach-bhat (Fish and rice). And yet, we (A and I) don't eat fish all that regularly. Not because we don't like it all that much, rather we haven't got a fixed schedule for shopping or even a menu plan. Whenever we happen to be in the vicinity of the three good fish shops (aren't they called fish mongers?), we might pick up some. I had picked up some pabda from David's in E Block Market in Gurgaon. And now that our water supply was back to normal (after four harrowing days without), I felt brave enough to cook the pabda!

There are many other ways of cooking pabda, but this is the only one I know. So here goes. (This is how I make it. There will be slight variations from person to person. This is just in case there are people out there, who like me, in my early days, thought each recipe learnt was the ONLY way to make it. Anything else was not the correct way)!!

You will need:
Pabda: 1/2 kilo or 4 fish
Brinjal / Aubergine: 1
Kalonji / Kalo jeera: 1 tsp
Turmeric: 3-4 tsp
Fresh coriander: a handful
Salt to taste
Oil for frying

How to:

Wash the fish, pat them dry and smear well with turmeric and salt. Keep aside.
Slice the brinjals lengthwise into 1 to 1&1/2" strips. Wash the pieces, smear with turmeric and salt.
Heat oil in a pan (about 2 tablespoon) and lightly fry the brinjals. They don't have to be deep fried. Remove the brinjals.
Heat oil to smoking in a pan. Then add the fish. If they are big in size, fry them on or two at a time. Warning: Stand well away from the pan. The pabda's splatter hot oil, everywhere! I solved the problem by holding the lid of the pan in front of me like a shield!!
Each piece takes about 2-3 minutes frying on each side. Remove the fried fish.
You can make the curry in the same pan, but I like to use a kadai for the curry or 'jhol'.
Mix 1 and 1/2 tsp turmeric in a small bowl of water. Stir well to ensure that the turmeric is dissolved and there are no lumps.
Add 1/2 tsp oil in the kadai. Add the kalonji and wait till it splutters (about 30 secs).
Add the turmeric water into the kadai.
Stir briskly, on high flame till the water dries up.
Add half cup water and repeat the process at least two more times.
Then add water for the curry: about 500 ml or half of a normal mineral water bottle. Bring to a boil.
If you don't mind chillies, add couple of green chillies and 1 tbsp grated ginger to the curry.
Add the brinjals.
Add the fish.
Let it boil along with the curry for 3-4 minutes.
Lower flame and cover. Let the curry cook for another 7-10 minutes.
Uncover, add the chopped coriander.
Remove from flame and serve hot with rice.

Note: Having enjoyed your meal of pabda and rice, don't forget to clean the splattered oil. The turmeric in the oil leaves dreadful stains! But I am sure you will agree, that's a small price to pay! Bon Appetit!

Hearty Soup for a cold winter day

2008-01-02T10:59:00.000+05:30

First day of the new year dawned cold, crisp and a minor crisis of taps running dry. (It has now developed in to a major crisis since we are still without water second day). We were constantly assured of the problem being resolved in the next half hour which kept getting delayed. Around 2, I tore myself away from the net and went into the kitchen and cooked up this one dish meal...a winter favorite for us and really easy to make.

The original recipe is a non veg one with "lardon fume". But the veg version is equally easy and tasty as well.

You will need:
Onions: 1
Spring Onions: 3-4
Garlic: 3-4 (or less if you dont much care for garlic)
Bay leaf: 1
Peppercorns: 5-6
Tomato: 2
Carrots: 2
Cabbage: 1/2 a medium sized one
Pasta: 1 cup
Chicken stock cubes: 2
Salt to taste
Olive Oil
Water

How to:

Heat 3 tbsp of olive oil in a deep pot (I use a pressure cooker).
Add the bay leaf and peppercorns.
Add the onions and spring onions and fry till they turn pink.
Add the tomatotes and the veggies, lower flame, cover and cook till the tomatoes release their juices.
Add the pasta, the garlic (which I smash using a heavy spoon), the stock cubes, 2-3 cups of water and cook on high heat for 5 minutes. Then lower and cook till the pasta is done (as per the instructions on the pasta packet which is normally 10-12 minutes).
Adjust for salt, you could add some chillie flakes if you like and hey presto...

Ah! Hot thick soup warming your belly on a cold winter day or night....

The Non-Veg version differs only in one ingredient and in the first step. The rest is identical:

In a pot, add the strips of smoked bacon directly, without the oil. As it fries, it releases its fat and then follow steps 2-6. Hmm...it tastes out of this world. And beware, this heavy soup is somehow siesta inducing. So be ready to crawl under a heavy quilt after this meal, and so logically keep this dish for a lazy weekend!

Arusuvai Friendship Chain

2008-01-01T22:34:00.001+05:30

Oops! I have gone and done it. Said yes that is to the Arusuvai Friendship Chain. Where a food blogger sends a secret ingredient to another and the recipient has to then use that secret ingredient to make a dish and then pass it on to two or more people.

Well, one fine day Bhags asked me if I'd like to participate and in a moment of utter fearlessness I said YES. And I have been quaking ever since. Well, today, she tells me that she has mailed me the secret package. God...I know, I just know, the same postal system which manages to either delay or lose all my regular mail, will very promptly and in perfect condition, bring me the secret package any day now.

Although the whole idea is to well make a chain of friends who blog about food, I hope I have some left at the end of this...

Plain musoor dal

2007-12-11T10:01:00.000+05:30

(This extremely basic recipe is for all those of you who keep coming to Timid Cook via the search for "How to cook dal" and there seems to be many such searches! Hope this helps)!

Last friday, we returned from a short trip to Goa, sun tanned and over stuffed (with goan goodies), extremely happy but to a bare refrigerator. We were too tired to go shopping immediately so I had to make do with what I could find. Rice-musoor dal-begun (brinjal) bhaja! Ah! Comfort food.

There are varities of musoor dal recipes...the difference being the ingredients used for tempering or "chowNk". This recipe uses a small onion, garlic and cumin seeds.

You will need:

Musoor dal: 1 cup
Turmeric: 1/4 tsp
Bay leaf: 1
Red Chilli: 1
Salt to taste

For tempering
Onion: 1 small
Garlic: 3-4 cloves
Cumin seeds: 1 tsp
Oil: 1-2 tbsp

How to:

Wash the dal well with several changes of water. Drain.
In a pressure cooker, put the dal, turmeric, the bay leaf and the red chillie and salt to taste.
Add 1 & 3/4 cup water (a little less than double the quantity of dal) and cook for two whistles (might take more in winter). Leave aside for the steam to escape and the lid to open.
Slice the onions into fine rings. Mince the garlic.
In a kadai, heat oil and add the cumin seeds.
When the start to splutter, add the onion and garlic and stir well. Cook till the onions turn pink.
Add the cooked dal to the kadai.
Add water to make the dal thinnish. Sometimes, while cooking the dal in the pressure cooker, all the water evaporates.
Adjust salt and cook the dal in the kadai on high flame for 4-5 minutes.
Remove from fire and serve with rice (along with other veggies ... I prefer this dal - rice combos with fries or "bhajas" - brinjal or parwal or aloo and sometimes, fish!

Bon apetit!

Orange Peel Cake

2007-12-11T09:43:00.000+05:30

Saturday was the coldest night that Delhi has had for a very long time. 6.8 degrees. Shiver me timbers. But this also had a happy flipside. R sent me a surprise package, which arrived intact thanks to her fabulous packaging and the weather: An orange peel cake. Scrumptious. I gave a slice to my help J and her comment was that I should get the recipe so that we can eat it more often. So, R obliged.

You will need:

Flour: 2 cups
Baking powder: 1tsp
Sugar: 1 cup
Eggs: 3
Vegetable oil: 3/4 cup
Orange essence: 1 tsp or Orange marmalade: 1 tbsp
Vanilla essence: 1 tsp
Orange peels: 1/2 cup
Warm milk
Butter

How to:

Mix 1 & 1/3 cup flour and baking powder and sieve this three times.
In a bowl, add 3/4 cup oil and 1 cup powdered sugar. Mix well.
To this add two tbsp flour followed by one egg and mix well. Then add another 2 tbsp flour and another egg. Repeat this till all the three eggs are in the batter.
Add a bit of warm milk to smoothen the batter.
Add 1 tsp each of orange essence and vanilla essence. If you don't have orange essence just add 1 tbsp marmalade and 1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence and add half a cup of chopped orange peel.
Grease a tin with butter or oil and dust with flour. Pour the batter and bake in an oven (preheated for 5 minutes) at medium for 40-50 minutes or till a inserted knife comes out clean.

Mmmm....just the thing with a hot cup of coffee!

Okra with Panchphoron & Brinjal with spring onions

2007-11-21T20:15:00.000+05:30

I was really eager to attend the wedding of a friend's sister today. I had been planning on this for quite some time. The saree, the jewellery, A's clothes (phenomenal for me...since I always start planning with 5 secs left to spare)! And then last night, I got fever with chills and shakes and how. And this is really ominous since chills and shakes usually is a sign of Malaria. Today, thankgod, didnt have another attack but my temperature hovered around 100 deg C. At 7pm, I sadly gave up the idea of attending and called up my friend to explain...it sounded really lame over the phone. But what to do? That done, I had to prepare dinner. Thankgod I had bhindi, spring onions and brinjals. Could whip up two dishes in about half an hour. Another 15 minutes, 5 rotis were ready and we had our simple home cooked dinner (in place of the no-doubt lavish spread at the Sheraton...).

The bhindi recipe is one I learnt from m-i-l. Before this, I had never heard of bhindi being cooked this way and was a bit iffy about it at first. But really, its quite tasty and a regular fare for us.

Bhindi with Panchphoron

You will need
Bhindi / Okra 250 gms
Onion 1 medium sized
Panchphoron 1 tsp (equal parts of black mustard, anise, methi, cumin and kalonji)
Salt to taste
Sugar 1/4 tsp
Oil for frying

How to

Wash and drain the bhindi. Cut them into 1" pieces.
Heat 2-3 tbsp oil in a kadai.
Add the panchphoron.
When they start spluttering, add the onions and saute till they turn translucent.
Add the bhindi, the salt and stir well.
Cook over high flame for 5 minutes.
Cover, lower flame and leave for another 5-7 minutes or till the bhindis are done.

Brinjals with spring onions

Strangely, I never liked this dish although this is a popular bengali one, till I got married. A likes all things with brinjals in it. He likes them in pizza too (yes...). But once I made it (and it turned out good and really easy to make) I started liking it too!!

You will need:

Brinjal / Aubergine 1 medium
Spring Onions: 3 - 4
Salt to taste
Oil for frying

How to

Wash the brinjal and dice into small cubes, smear with salt and keep aside.
Cut the spring onions into small pieces about the same size of the brinjals.
Heat oil in a kadai to smoking and add the brinjal.
Stir well and fry till softened.
Add the spring onion and stir well.
Fry for another 3-4 minutes and remove from fire.

Both are very subtle flavored, with minimal or no spices, easy to make and tasty too!

Akbaree pasand

2007-11-07T16:00:00.000+05:30

Recently, I have been having a long distance reunion over email with a few old pals. We have been busy getting an update on our lives. I happened to mention I had a food blog. To which, my old pal S now living in Australia, had his own recipe to share. But be warned. This is for the really adventurous!

1. Drive to supermarket , pick up a kg of lamb/beef and Shan ' s kashmiri mutton masala
2. Put on a kadai, throw in the mutton with the masala and cook for 10-15 minutes while you down 3 scotch on the rocks.
3. Garnish as per suggestion on the box . And there was a time when I couldn't fry an egg ... brings tears to my eyes when I see what I have accomplished.

For those not into dare devilry, here is another recipe from R: Akbaree Pasand. She got it from somewhere. The USP of this recipe is that it works for both mutton and chicken! And it makes a change from usual mutton or chicken curry! She swears its easy. It reads easy. (Apparently it's an Aghan recipe).

You will need:

Mutton or chicken 1 kilo
Onions: 4 medium or 3 large ones
Shahjeera: 1& 1/2 tsp
Shahmarich: 1& 1/2 tsp
Jaiphal (nutmeg): 1& 1/2 tsp
Oil for cooking

For the marinade
Fresh curd 350 -400 gm
Red chilli powder 2 tsp
Salt 2tsp or to taste
Sugar
Garlic paste 3heaped tbsp

Marinade according to the meat: Mutton should be marinated for 3 hours and chciken for 40 minutes or so.

How to

Heat about a cup of white oil in a wok / kadai.
Add 4 medium chopped onions or 3 very large ones as you see fit. Fry for a few minutes.
Now add the marinated meat and fry till the oil separates (12-15 minutes for chicken and about half an hour for mutton).
Then add shaajeraa powder, shaamarich powder and jaipahal powder and toss and turn,(they should be 1 1/2 tsp to 2 but nutmeg 1 1/2 will do).
Lower flame and cover and cook till done.
When serving sprinkle fresh coriander leaves, onion rings or fried onions (beresta ) and whole green chillies.

Note: The dish is cooked without water. If the dish is made using chicken, the bones can be used but for mutton, minimal bones are preferred.

Jeera Chicken

2007-10-21T16:51:00.000+05:30

R was here. For ten whole days. At first I was a bit nervous about my very basic kitchen. No mixer, juicer, blender. No toaster. No OTG. Very very basic. Turns out, I needn't have worried on that account. I was very eager to show off my house keeping -skills. And to some extent I did. But for some strange reason, whatever I cooked...fell flat and how. I even over boiled the rice to a unholy mess. Yikes. And served it to not only her, but even to two friends of hers, who had dropped in to say hello. I am lucky that one of them gave me a beautiful lapiz lazuli pendent, before he tasted my cooking. Eeps. So much for my bragging. Even A's vouching for my cooking (that is my cooking before R's arrival) seemed false. And to think I had the guts to keep a food blog. Anyhow, I managed to salvage the situation a little bit. I did make couple of passable veggies dishes. (The rice was still over boiled). So I am afraid of posting anymore of my own recipes. Instead, I have here a recipe for Jeera Chicken that R picked up from a programme on TV. And like she is wont to, remembered it properly without bothering to write it down. It was YUMMY. And yes, Shubo Bijoya to everyone.

You will need:
Chicken 1 kg, cut into medium pieces
Onions 2 large, cut into rings
Green Chillies 3, Chopped
Fresh corainder 1 1/2 cups, chopped
Cumin seeds / Jeera 3 tsp
Jeera powder 1 1/4 tsp
Dhania powder 2 1/2 tsp
Mustard oil, Salt and Sugar as required

How to:

Heat 4 tbsp mustard oil in a kadai / wok.
When the oil is hot, throw in 1&1/2 tsp jeera seeds; When the seeds start to pop, add jeera powder followed bythe dhania powder. Stir.
Add 2 tsp salt, sugar 2 tsp and a little water.When the oil floats to the top, throw in the chicken pieces and toss so as to coat the pieces well with the spices.
Let it fry on high for about ten minutes. Sprinkle a little water in between so that the chicken pieces don't stick to the pan.
Then lower the flame. Pour water to make the curry. Cover and cook till the chicken is cooked.
Again increase flame to reduce curry and then adjust sugar and salt. Take off fire.

To garnish

Heat 4 tsp mustard oil in a wok. Add 1&1/2 tsp jeera, chiilies, onionrings and lightly fry for two minutes. Add coriander and remove from fire. Garnish the chicken and serve!

Bon appetit!!!!

Lemon Dal

2007-10-04T11:54:00.000+05:30

Dal is such a must for me. Dal (of the day) along with rice and veggies are always my first course. And since we have dal day in and day out (almost), a variation in the recipe is always welcome. Lemon dal is one such variation. It makes a nice change, once in a while. Like with most recipes on this blog, mine is a variation on the original. The lemon comes from the leaves of the lemon plant and not from actual lemon itself. (Although I have a recipe from a very interesting book Life & Food in Bengal by Chitrita Banerji which uses both the leaves as well as slices of lemon). This is my variation.

You will need:
Masoor dal: 1 small cup
Turmeric: 1/4 tsp
Lemon leaves: 3-4
Salt: 1-2 tsp
For tempering
Oil: 1 tsp
Jeera / Cumin: 1 tsp

How to:

Wash the dal, with several changes of water. Drain.
In a pressure cooker, add the dal and 2 cups of water and the turmeric.
Close the lid and cook for one whistle of the pressure cooker. (Might need two in winters or at higher altitudes).
Remove cover and stir the dal properly.
In a pan, add the oil and the jeera. When the jeera start spluttering, add first the lemon leaves and then dal to the pan.
Keep on high flame.
Adjust salt and also, add water if the dal has become too thick. It should be fairly thin.
Let it boil for 3-4 minutes and remove from fire.
Serve with rice and veggies (of course).

Note: It could possibly be a nice and different soup for non rice eaters!

Chappati Corn Rolls

2007-10-02T11:15:00.000+05:30

Today is 2nd October the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi and therefore a holiday through the length and breadth of India. Holidays always have this getting-up-late-lazing-around-after-a-huge-breakfast feel. Specially if the holiday comes in between a work week.

The first two are fine...but the huge breakfast is a perennial problem. I have always been a milk and cereal or tea and toast breakfast person. Alas, not hubby dear. He would like oily parathas, eggs and bacon and all sorts of cholesterol laden fatty oily food. And like all such things, incredibly tasty. So the challenge before me was manifold:

Make it tasty enough to make him forgo parathas / eggs etc.
Make it low cal enough to make it healthy without him realising it.
Make it with the odds and end that there are in the fridge / kitchen
Go make it myself, curbing the enormous desire to sit in the verandah and enjoy the wonderful teeny tiny nip in the air on this lazy morning
Also, I have sacked my irascible maid ...just yesterday.

So I summoned up all my courage and made a hodge podge of ingredients and recipes learnt from m-i-l, my s-i-l (a terrific cook) and ofcourse R (even more terrific a cook if possible).

This is what I found in my fridge / kitchen and therefore used

1/2 a capsicum (bell pepper)

1 cube amul cheese

1 small cup corn

1 small onion

6-7 garlic

A pinch dried Thyme

Olive oil

Atta / Whole wheat flour

A tiny bit of butter

This is what I did of the above

Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a pan.
Add the garlic and stir till the garlic releases its aroms (couple of seconds)
Lightly saute the onions till they turn pink
Add the capsicum, dried thyme, followed by the corn
About 3 or 4 minutes later, add the grated cheese and mix well.
Season with salt to taste.
Remove from flame, cover and keep.
Knead the atta in to a dough and roll out five (size of a quarter plate) thin chapattis.
Add 3-4 pods garlic crushed into a small bit butter (about a tsp full). Melt a dash of butter (I kept the butter in a small bowl on top of the pan with the corn mix).
Put the rolled chappattis in a pan - be careful about not burning the chappatis otherwise they will get hard.
When each chappati has been dry fried (their colour change) on each side, use a spoon to put a bit of the garlic butter on each side.
When done, remove from fire, add the corn mix, roll and serve. Viola!

End result: All rolls gone, a breakfast fit for a holiday, happy hubby and most importantly, low cal.

Low cal, despite the cheese and butter. How?

Butter: I used only one curl of butter. Curl? Well when you run a knife on the surface of the slab of butter, the knife will cut it out in a thin curl. And since I melted it, it was enough for all 5 rolls. And instead of lathering it on the chapattis, I dabbed a bit on each chappati. This is better than putting the butter in the corn mix. You'd or rather I'd need a huge amount to convince hubby that I had indeed used copious amounts of butter.

Now the cheese: I did grate one whole cube of cheese (enough for two sandwiches). However, I used only 1 tsp on the grated cheese, again sprinkled on top of the cooked corn...so that its taste was definitely identifiable!! The rest I put away in the fridge, in a small jar.

Oil: I used only 1 tbsp of olive oil.

And I was actually going to put the corn mix in lightly toasted bread. But we are all out of bread and hubby was feeling a tad lazy. And I, still dressed in my night rags, couldn't venture out.

So, the chappati innovation.

Note for other Timid Cooks like me: Bread, Pita bread are easier options than rolling out chapattis.

Note for Interpid Cooks: You might be right about laughing at this silly recipe if you happened to be anyone other than a Timid Cook. So please be kind to me, when you read this!

Ma's Prawn and Sausage Fried Rice

2007-09-28T10:35:00.000+05:30

Ma sprung this Prawn and Sausage fried rice on us during a do, long back when we were in the middle-east. Just like she does everything. No fuss, no elaborate planning, no discussion. Just go ahead and do it. I think she only made it just that once. And never afterwards. Like I remember the wafer thin, amazingly tasty sooji biscuits she ahd learnt at a cookery class. I still remember them although she made it only once when I think I must have been 6 or 7 . No matter how much I cajoled her - she never made them again.

I spoke to ma last night and asked her for this fried rice recipe. She absented mindedly said yes. Later, I shot off an email to R as well, just in case. This morning, I find the recipe in my mail box with an accusing note from R: "How cum you don't remember that I had cooked this dish for you when I had come visiting you in Paris? And yet you remember the time long back when ma made it"? Not deliberately, dear R, first time makes the strongest impression, right?

You will need:
Pre-cooked / left over rice: 2 cups
Onion: 1 medium diced finely
Green chili: 2 sliced finely (optional)
Tinned sausage: 1 cup, cut into roundels
prawns: 1/2 cup small prawns
Mixed vegetables like carrots, beans: 1 cup
Ajinomoto: a pinch
Salt: 1 tsp
Sugar: 1/4 tsp
Vinegar: a dash

How to:

Saute the sausage in oil. Keep aside.
Parboil the carrots, beans. Drain and keep aside.
Lightly fry the prawns. Trick is to heat oil in a pan on high flame. Drop in the prawns, stir and remove immediately. Should not take more than 30 secs.
Heat oil in a pan. Add the onions and fry till they turn pink.
Add the chili, sliced capsicum, the veggies.
Add salt, sugar, a pinch of ajinomoto (optional) and a dash of vinegar.
Add the prawns.
Stir to mix well.
Lower flame, cover and keep for couple of minutes so that the aromas mingle well.
Viola! Its ready to eat.

Note: This is really easy. Left over rice, sausages out of a can and any veggies that you might have in your fridge!

Cabbage Khichdi

2007-09-15T20:44:00.000+05:30

I have managed, in this heat, to catch a cold. My head feels heavy and my movements lethargic. On top of that, my cook did no a show, but she was kind enough to inform me about that. I was not really feeling up to doing much cooking, so I made a one dish meal. This is a recipe that A taught me and it has been a life saver (mine) on many an ocassion.

You will need:
These are the proportions I used; these can be easily varied

Cabbage: 1/2 of a medium sized cabbage
Rice: 1&1/2 cups
Peas: a handful
Tomato: 1
Onions: 2 - quartered
Potato: 2, halved
Garlic: 4 cloves smashed
Ginger: 1/2 tsp grated
Bay leaf: 1
Cinnamon: 1" stick
Cumin seeds: 1 tsp
Cloves: 2/3
Green elaichi: 2 pods
Salt: 2 tsp
Sugar: a pinch
Oil: 2 tbsp

How to:

Shred the cabbage, wash well and drain.
Wash the rice and drain.
In a pressure cooker, heat oil. Add the cinnamon, cardamon, bay leaf and elaichi.
After 30 sec (by this time, the spices will have released their aroma), add the cumin seeds.
When the cumin start spluttering, which is almost immediately, add the cabbage, peas, garlic and ginger and turmeric and salt. Stir well.
After a minute, add the tomatoes. Stir well.
After a minute, add the rice. Stir well otherwise, the rice will stick to the pan.
Add the quartered onions and the potatoes.
Add 2&3/4 cups water - the same cup that was used to measure out the rice.
Cover the cooker and cook for one whistle. Remove from flame. Let the cover drop by itself. Don't lift the weight on top of the lid to release the pressure.
Viola! Done. Enjoy. Bon Appetit.

Note:

The onions can be sauteed right in the begining right after adding the cumin. Any other vegetable can be used too.
Since it's a khichdi or Khichudi in bengali, it can be accompanied by fritters - begun /brinjal, parwal /potol, papads.

And it does not take more than 20 minutes start to finish.

Faux Uttapam

2007-09-11T19:52:00.001+05:30

A feels very hungry post his evening walk and the temptation to pick up the phone and order some calorie laden take away is enormous. So I am forever on the look out for easy at the same time tasty (enough to keep him away from fatty food) recipes. Also, if I am at work, my maid has to cook it and can't have any thing very complicated nor do I want to spend much time in the evening cooking something which requires a great deal of effort (should I be around). This is one easy and tasty recipe. And fool proof. Always turns out great and does not require exotic ingredients.

You will Need:
Semolina / Sooji: 1 cup
Curd: 2 cups (meaning double the amount of the sooji)
Onion: 1 small finely sliced
Garlic: 3 or 4 minced
Capsicum: 1 small finely sliced
Carrot: 1/2 cup finely sliced
Cabbage: 1/2 cup shredded
Coriander leaves: a few finely shredded
Oil for frying

How to:

In a bowl, add the sooji and double the amount of curd. I used one cup because that's all I had. Sometimes, you might have to add a bit more or less of the curd. It should be thicker, than the dosa batter. (The batter won't spread by itself on the pan. You will have to spread it out using a ladle or spoon).
Add the chopped veggies. These are strictly, optional. It tastes just as good with just onions.
Season with salt (about 3/4 tsp)
Heat 1 tbsp oil in a flat pan over high flame. Spread the batter out - should not be spread thinly; it might break while frying.
Keep on high flame for about a minute or so. Then turn it over carefully and lower the flame. Cover and keep for a few more minutes.
Press lightly with a wooden spatula so that all the batter inside is cooked as well.
The whole thing should take 6 to 7 minutes.
Serve with sauce of your choice!

Note: Its quick, uses less oil, simple to make, tasty. However, you CAN while frying, add a bit of butter to the oil or use only butter, if you are not counting your calories. It tastes terrific when fried in butter. You can fry them out in any shape. Normally they should be round and the size of a quarter plate. But you can make mini pizza size or like today when strangely while spreading the batter, it took a oblong shape. Tasted just as good!!

R's Noodles for Comfort

2007-09-06T09:51:00.000+05:30

I have a biggish collection of cook books. Not for trying out recipes mind you. But to drool over the exotic recipes while I eat my every day fare!! (Ok, weird I know...). A new addition to this collection is one on Noodles. Udon, Soba and what not. I have gone through it cover to cover several times...but somehow, have never tried out any, although I keep meaning to. Instead, I bugged R several times to send me her own personal recipe - this I am going to try out. Perhaps tomorrow. It is really tasty. Try it. And simple. No fancy ingredients.

Poor R has been suffering from a very bad back and despite that (or perhaps I harrassed her a bit too much), she typed out the recipe and sent it to me. So here it is:

You will need:

Noodles: 200 or 250 gms (she hasn't specified what type of noodle - so can I dare to say "ordinary" noodles?)

Green chillies: 3-4

Assorted vegetables (carrots, beans, mushrooms, cauliflower) : 2 cups

Green Capsiscum: 1 medium sized

Garlic chopped: 6-7 cloves

Soy sauce: A dash

White vinegar - 1/2 cup

Maggie Chicken cubes: 2-3

Oil for sauting the vegetables

Salt, Pepper, Sugar

This is How:

Boil the noodles and plunge in cold water. Drain, smear some white oil and keep aside.
Chop the green chillies and put them in a pan with the vinegar. Add a little bit of water and bring the mixture to a boil. Remove from fire and keep aside.
Julienne the beans, slice the carrots and mushrooms.
Parboil the beans and carrots (and cauliflower if using)
Slice the capsicum finely.
Saute the mushrooms in white oil with pepper and salt.
Heat some oil in a pan and throw in the chopped garlic.
Add somefresh chopped chillies, then add parboiled veggies,
Add the sauteed mushrooms and the capsicum
Then add two tsp sugar and finally a little soy sauce, vinegar and chicken cubes.
Finally, add the noodles. Mix well, taste and adjust seasoning.

Viola! There you have it. The chillies in vinegar is optional. Really. But it does add such a lovely tang to the noodles. The recipe reads so simple and easy...but believe me, its Comfort food.

Note:

You can add your own combination of veggies. Shredded, sauteed meat / prawns too can be added. A would insist on adding eggs too....
Chicken stock cubes are usually salty. So is vinegar and soy sauce. Be careful about the quantities.

Carrot Mushroom Fusilli

2007-08-13T20:31:00.000+05:30

Just around 6pm, I feel so hungry. And the temptation to pick up the phone and order a take away is enormous. And that means my carefully planned dinner is put in to the refrigerator for tomorrow. I almost succumbed. And then I remembered a line from Everbody likes Sandwiches:

Just thinking about dinner — let alone getting up the energy to make it happen seemed like too damn much. But being the frugal girl that I am, I didn't want to order in take-out…Instead, I did what most modern cooks do. I went online to epicurious and typed in a couple things I had in my fridge and out popped a couple super simple recipes.

I did not go onto epicurious. Instead I looked in my fridge and kitchen and cooked up an easy dish with what I found.

Here is what I found:

1 small carrot
half a cube of Amul cheese
Dried mushrooms – a handful
Fusilli – a handful
Garlic – 3 cloves
Salt, pepper and dried rosemary
Olive oil

This is what I did:

Put the dried mushroom in a pan of water and let it simmer for 20 minutes while I watered the plants on my balcony. I also pruned some of them, in case you are wondering that my balcony must either be enormous or I must be having a veritable hanging garden. Neither. By the time I had finished with the plants, the mushrooms were tender. I drained them.
Next I put a pan of water to boil for the fusilli.
Then I scraped the carrot and washed it. And then using the peeler, I got really fine strips of carrot.
I chopped the garlic finely.
I grated the half cube of cheese.
I put a little olive oil into the frying pan and added the garlic.
As soon as it started to brown, I added the carrot strips and mushrooms.
Sprinkled some salt, paprika and dried rosemary.
Then I added the drained pasta and mixed well.
Lastly, I sprinked the grated cheese on top, turned off the flame and covered the pan and let it sit for couple of minutes.

The dish really looked good. The beige of the mushroom nicely contrasting with the orange of the carrots. (Alas no photos). And then, I ate it all up.

Upshot of this: The small quantity served as an appetizer and now I am really hungry and not really looking forward to the homely dinner. Eeeps!

My very own Yogurt dessert

2007-08-05T13:21:00.000+05:30

Have come up with my very OWN recipe. Yes its quick, its ludicrously easy, and its only yogurt. But I did it myself. Yahoo... Dear readers, you must be wondering at this point that I must be either completely nuts or egotistical. Neither really. I have this idea deep within me, that I am not much of a cook. And have never really tried very hard to overcome that bias deep within me. I make elaborate preparations but lose steam mid way. I have huge compilations of recipes collected from all over. But can never seem to find them. On the rare occasion that I cook for anyone other than A, I get R to make up a simple do-able menu for me. There were three other dishes that I cooked along with this yogurt dessert. Those I leave for another time.

First, as the name suggests, you will need yogurt. Millions do it on a daily basis through out India and elsewhere. But the problem was, that I was not among them. My cook would do that for me. And today, she had left by the time the milk arrived (rather late in the day). I tried to look it up on the web..and the two links I found (both american) mentioned using a thermometer to check the temperature of the milk etc. Now, that is not something I have seen my mother, or mother-in-law or my maid do. I knew the basics, so I thought I'd give it a shot. Without a thermometer that is.

You will need:
Milk 250 ml (I used double toned milk)
Sugar 1tsp
Vanilla essence
Yogurt to seed
Pistachio nuts: 5-6 coarsely chopped
Honey

How to

Heat the milk. Add 1 tsp of sugar to the milk. Remove from fire when it boils. Let the milk cool to room temperature.
Add 1/2 to 1 tsp of yogurt to seed, in the pan you are going pour the milk into. I was going to have a guest for dinner. So, I poured the milk into three small terracotta jars (the size of a small teacup).
Add 1-2 drops of vanilla essence in each of the jars. Cover with foil and set aside (inside a microwaver or like I did, on top of the refrigerator).
Once the yogurt sets, put it in the fridge for chilling. The yogurt set in about 4 hours time (It might take longer if the weather is cold).
Just before serving, add the crushed pistachio nuts, and sprinkle honey on top.

PS - There must be a similar recipe for this; But I came up with this myself. And that, has to be an event and a rare one at that.

PS2 - Dear R, Have I made the grade then?

Lau Ghonto: My short cut

2007-08-04T11:49:00.000+05:30

Lau or Lauki is a summer staple for us bongs. For others too since the markets and mandis seem to be flooded with it. Tired of making the same old dal-lauki dish, I got a bit adventorous and tried "Lau Ghonto", from my bible to bengali cooking: "Baro mashey tero pod" (Thirteen courses for twelve months" written by some one's great grandmother.

You will need:
Lauki: 1 (The one I had was about a foot long)
Daler bori: 5-6 (Lentil dumplings)
Cumin grains: 1 tsp
Bay leaf: 2
Green Chillie: 2
Coconut flakes: Half a coconut
Kabuli Chana: These are the small dark variety, soaked the night before
Milk: 1/2 cup
Atta: 2 tsp
Salt to taste
Sugar: 1/4 tsp or less

How to or really what I did:

1. Peel the lauki and wash the gourd well.
2. Slice finely
3. Grate the cocounut
4. The kabuli chanas should be soaked the night before, but hey, I already had some
boiled ones left over in the fridge. Boiled channey stay well and are a handy
addition to salads.
5. Heat 1 tbsp oil to smoking in a kadai / wok.
6. Add the boris and stir. They will brown in a few seconds. Take them out and keep.
7. Add the cumin grains and bay leaf to the remaining oil in the kadai.
8. When the cumin grains start popping (which almost immediately), add the sliced
lauki.
9. Add salt (about 1 tsp)
10. Add the sliced chillie. This is optional, but chillie does give a very nice flavour.
11. Add half cup water.
12. Cover, lower flame.
13. The lauki should be cooked (softened) in about 5 minutes. But it would still
remain watery.
14. Sprinkle some sugar...just a few grains really, add the grated cocounut and the
kabuli chana.
15. The water will dry up in a few more minutes.
16. While waiting for the water to dry up, stir 1 tsp of atta in the milk so that
there are no lumps.
17. Add it to the lauki.
18. Stir well and remove from flame.
19. Keep the lid on for a while, so that the milk is soaked well into the lauki.
20. Use a pestle to lightly grind the boris.
21. Sprinkle them evenly over the lauki and serve!
22. Best eaten with, as all things bengali, rice.

PS - So what was my shortcut? I didnt have coconut. And so I left it out. Tasted quite nice without it.

Panicked Paneer

2007-06-25T08:09:00.000+05:30

We returned home yesterday to a near empty refrigerator and hungry stomachs. It was simply too hot to go out for dinner, so I asked A to get some paneer. It was almost 8pm when I ventured into the kitchen to find that I was left with a motley bunch of ingredients. I made a mish mash of the various paneer recipes I knew to come up with this:

Ingredients or what I started with
So, at random, I chopped 2 onions.
2 small capsicum / Shimla Mirch cut into sqares (like in chinese dishes)
Eeks. Out of garlic...completely
One potato cubed (that's all that was there)
Paneer 200gms
Panch phoron (bengali 5 spice)
Jeera powder / Cumin 1/2 tsp
Coriander powder 1 & 1/2 tsp
turmeric powder 1/2 tsp
Oil
Salt

Here is how I did it:
1. I heat 2 tbsp oil in a kadai
2. Added panch phoron. Panicked as I was, I forgot the 5 spice combination and made up one of my own (jeera / kalonji / methi / anise / ajwain instead of the mustard).
3. Added powdered jeera, dhania and turmeric to the oil and fried well with a little bit of water. (When the water dries up, repeat the process couple of times so that the masalas are well cooked).
4. Then I added the cubed potato (I had to cube really fine since all I had was one aloo), stirred well. Added a cup of water, salt, covered and lowered flame to cook till potato were softened.
5. Egad. I had to fry the onions in the oil first. Which I didn't. Never mind.
6. In between, I managed to heat some water with a little bit of salt. When it started boiling, I removed it from flame and add the paneer to it, cubed (so that it could soak up the salt).
7. In another pan, I heated 2 tbsp oil, fried the diced onions and capsicum. Then I drained the paneer and added it to the pan. Till it was lightly fried.
8. In the meanwhile, in my other kadai, the potatoes had softened. I put another half cup of water in to make some gravy, adjusted the salt, let it come to a boil. 9.Then I added the onion/capsicum/paneer fry to the gravy.
10.Added half tsp grated ginger. Covered it and let it cook over low flame for a few minutes.
11. Adjusted seasoning and then served with chapatis (which thankfully came out fine).

And what do you know...it was nice. A asked for second helpings and we finished all of it. Phew.

Umm, so, the lesson I learnt was:
It is not the recipe which is important (it is, but not overtly so, atleast when u are cooking at home and in a rush), but keeping a cool head while all about you is hot (the weather -- it was so humid and hot...I had difficulty in keeping the sweat trickling down everywhere, but mostly into my eyes) is equally important while cooking!

Bok-Phul Bhaja

2007-06-19T12:36:00.000+05:30

After the terrible heat wave when temperatures went up to 47 degrees and continuously for nearly a week, we have had the blessed rains and how. This weekend was so wonderful, waking upto overcast skies. Rain mean kichudi and lots of fries (vegetarian and non vegetarian). This would include: fried parwal, fried brinjal, fried fish and "bok phul bhaja". Oh god, how long has it been since I have eaten some bok phul bhaja. I was about to pen down my recipe (the way it is cooked at home, and infact pretty much the way its cooked, or should I say deep fried!) when I found this nifty recipe already up at Senskitchen. So, do follow the link for the recipe.

Bok phul, looks like this and its scientific name is (had to search for that)is Sesbania grandiflora Leguminosae!

I thought we were alone in eating bok-phul ,(we as in bengalis). But apparanently, not so. Accroding to a FAO , in Vietnam, Sesbania grandiflora (Leguminosae) form a delicious ingredient in the very popular local sour soup called canh chua.

More pictures and description on this page.

Mimi's Veg Macaroni

2007-06-18T09:42:00.000+05:30

Another recipe from R. The comments too are hers.

Its funny how friendships develop often over recipe swaps or over kitchen news. It was a bit like that with Mimi. Although we had known each other from before, we began talking about food and then friendship simply followed.

I learnt three very basic recipes from her and am writing as I remember them. I first sampled each from mimi's reserve of recipes. Then I tried them out and only then did I write them down in my dog eared very pathetic looking old recipe diary.
I do hope that I have kept it close to what was said by Mimi in the first place---she was good at anything she did and though she had turned vegetarian after joining IISCKON, she always had a non veg recipe, ready on her lips -- as fresh as if she ate them the day before.. As I write this, many memories of her are flashing by--so its really an ode to her, for she left us all in 2003 August 25th. Here is the first of those recipes:-

Mimi's Vegetarian macaroni

You will need:
2 pkts of macaroni boiled with salt water and dried under fan and slightly smeared with oil after cooling
1/2 cup prefried tiny cauliflower florets
1/4 tsp hing or asoefetida
1/2 cup Capsicum cut into small squares
1/2 cup carrot cut into small squares
1/2 cup beans julienned or diced
1/2 cup peas
3 tomatoes cut into very small pieces and pureed

How to:

Put keep 2tsp soyasauce,3 tsp vinegar, 3-4 green chillies cut into small pieces in a pot with a lid.

Add 3-4 tbsp oil to a pan. Throw in carrot, beans, peas and hing.
Add a bit of salt, according to taste. Cover the pan and allow the veggies to soften.
Do remember to stir the veggies a few times, though.
When the veggies are a bit soft, add capsicum. Add the tomato puree.
When puree starts to dry add soya sauce mixture,sugar and finally the prefried cauliflower. Set aside.

In a pan add 2 tbsp oil,add the macaroni and fry. Add the vegetable mixture to the macaroni and stir for three to four minutes. Mix well and remove from fire.

Enjoy!

Merguez Meal

2007-06-17T14:58:00.000+05:30

Just the other day, we were reminscing about France. What do we miss about it? Food mostly. "Cheese", I said. "Merguez" said A. We first tasted this spicy north african sausage in France. With Couscous Royale.

Later on, I was brave enough to pick up some from the super marche and make my own dish. Rather simple it was (but sometimes, simple is best) and ofcourse, the Merguez did its own trick and the dish was marvellous. Definitely not gourmet, but damn good nevertheless.

You will need:
6 merguez (2 for me, 4 for A)
1 large or 2 small capsicum / green bell pepper
2 large tomatoes (smaller if you prefer less tart)
2 large onions

(That's it). No salt, no oil. Just a frying pan. And remember to keep the windows open and an exhaust fan switched on, if you do have one in your kitchen.

How to:
1. Put a frying pan (large enough to hold 6 long merguez) on high flame.

2. When the pan's heated up, put the merguez in.

3. Within a minute of so, the fat from the merguez will start oozing out.

Roll them over so that they are evenly fried, in thier own fat!!

4. Add the onions, tomatoes and bell pepper (all together, order doesn't matter).

5. Keep rolling the merguez to get them evenly fried (in their own fat).

6. When they are done, put them on the dish and eat!!

The fat from the merguez gives a lovely flavour to the onions / pepper / tomatoes.

Its a wonder that something so simple could taste so GOOD!!

Well, do try it...out, while I go and wipe the drool of my keyboard! (Just kidding).

Oh yes, ofcourse, to be eaten with bread of your choice.

What's Cooking elsewhere

2007-06-16T14:10:00.000+05:30

Its been nearly an year since I have posted anything on Timid Cook.

1. I have been extremely busy to put it mildy.

2. Have found one after the other, two good cooks (thankgod) (one replaced the other)

3. Been plain lazy.

Ergo, no posts.

Our PC went down to a virus attack and had to undergo major surgery. As a result, lost all my bookmarks. This is good and bad. Bad, because had a great list of food blogs. Good because I can now look for and discover new blogs.

I was surfing with a plate of plain dal-chawal-ghar-ka-khana balanced precariously on my lap, eating with my right hand and handling the mouse with my left, when I came across Tandoori-Turkey-Kabob.

Mind boggles at the fusion-i-fication.

Mutton, chicken, fish tandoori is normally what we eat. Why not Turkey? Why ever not.

We usually eat anything tandoori with onions, the green mint and yogurt chutney, perhaps some naan / tandoori roti (normal fare at restaurants big and small. I have never been so intrepid as to try a tandoori all by myself. Timid Cook that I am).

But the Tandoori-Turkey-Kabob was served with roasted potatoes and sauteed red cabbage and kale seasoned with garam masala and deglazed with cider vinegar. And looked terrific too!!

Really enlivened my plain dal-chawal lunch.

Mustard Chicken

2006-09-26T08:26:00.000+05:30

The last recipe I posted was three months ago. It has been an incredibly busy three months. Went for a long shoot at Wai village in Satara district, bang in the middle of monsoon, when the river Krishna was in spate. Had a quick holiday in Jakarta and enjoyed the cuisine as much as I could eat in the one week I was there. And only now, I have some breathing time. So here is another quick and easy chicken recipe, given to me by R.

You will need
500gm boneless chicken pieces
1 tsp dark vinegar
1 tsp white pepper powder
3 tbsp mustard oil
3 tbsp mustard paste
3 tbsp poppy seed paste (khus khus / posto)
3-5 green chillies
Salt to taste
¼ tsp sugar

How to
1. Wash and marinade the chicken pieces with a little salt, 1tsp
each of vinegar and white pepper powder for about an hour.
2. Heat mustard oil in a pan and add chicken pieces.
3. Fry till light brown.
4. Add 3tbsp each of mustard paste and poppy paste seed paste.
5. Add 3-5 slit green chillies, salt and a little sugar.
6. Add 1 cup water and reduce heat. Cover pan and cook till
tender.
7. Add more water if needed. Cook till gravy thickens.
8. Serve with rice.

Bon Appetit!

Koi Macher jhol (Koi Fish Curry)

2006-06-25T20:55:00.001+05:30

Koi Mach or Gangetic Koi is also known as Climbing Gouramie. It belongs to the perch family. (Perhaps the sporty cousin of the kissing gouramie??). This is one of my favorite fish dishes ever. And I have never cooked it myself. Never had to. Ma and K (our temepermental cook) have always obliged. K dictated this recipe to R who then emailed it to me. (Its a bit different from the other koi recipes available on the net, the most common being tel koi or koi in oil).

Koi is widely available. So do try this one. I guarantee that you won't be disappointed.

You will need:
Koi 1 kilo
Potato 1 large
Turmeric powder 1 heaped tsp
Cumin seed 1 tsp
Cumin powder 1 tsp (made into a paste with a little water)
Coriander powder 1& 1/2 tsp (made into a paste with a little water)
Bay Leaf 2
Ginger grated 1 tsp
Salt
Sugar
Water 2 cups
Coriander leaves
Oil for frying

How to:

1. Ask the fish seller to de-gill the fish. Smear salt on fish
and wash well.
2. Drain. Smear 2 tsp salt and 1 heaped tsp turmeric on the fillet
and set aside for 5 to 10 minutes.
3. Slice the potato lengthwise into sections.
4. In a wok / kadai heat 1/2 cup oil to smoking.
5. Medium fry the fish (if required in batches) and set aside.

6. In the same kadai, add the cumin seeds, bay leaves.
7. When the cumin seeds start crackling, add the potato sections
and stir.
8. Add 1tsp cumin paste, 1 tsp coriander paste, a little turmeric,
1 tsp ginger paste, a little salt and a pinch sugar.
9. Stir well and fry a bit.
10. Add the water.
11. After two minutes add the fried fish and cover.
12. Cook for 5-7 minutes or till potatoes have softened and fish
well soaked in gravy.
13. Add the coriander leaves remove from fire.
14. This curry has to be eaten with steamed rice (a must).

Note: K prefers to take cumin grains, grind them using a shil patha (a stone block with fine carvings to aid in the grinding. The spices are ground using another stone not unlike in shape to a rolling pin - also carved - but smaller). Same for coriander. I, on the other hand, would have little qualms of using powdered spices and making them into a paste with a few drops of water!

Moong sprout cutlets

2006-05-01T19:44:00.000+05:30

R got this recipe from somewhere and passed it on to me. Quick and easy.

You will need:
Potatoes 2 cups boiled and mashed
Moong Sprouts 1 cup
Green chillies 3 finely chopped
Grated ginger 1 tsp
Garam Masala 1/2 tsp
Carrot 2 tbsp chopped
Bread 2 slices
Oil or ghee for frying
Salt to taste

How to:
1. Boil the carrot pieces and mash them gently.
2. Soak the bread slices in water and squeeze out the water.
3. Mix well the potatoes, carrots, bread slices, green chillies,
ginger, salt and garam masala.
4. Take lemon sized portions and shape into cutlets.
5. Press about a tablespoonful of sprouts on one side of the
cutlet.
6. Shallow fry on both sides using a little ghee.
7. Serve hot.

Aam Paana

2006-04-25T20:15:00.000+05:30

I am EXCITED. I tried something new. And it turned out FINE.

I was out buying veggies on Sunday when on an impluse, I picked up two Green mangoes. Unripe that is. Rushed back home and rang my faithful R. I had a pencil and paper at hand. "Tell me how to make Aam pana".

She gave me the recipe in her style (which means some one who is not a timid cook and would immediately know all proportions and finer details). I had to ask her to repeat with exact measurements. That meant tsp, tbsp, minutes etc. I varied it a bit. Egad. If she reads this post, she might say, "That is not my Aam pana". In any case, it tasted really nice. Not at first though. It was yummy after I chilled it. Try it, its easy enough.

You will need:

(I used only two small mangoes. If you use more, you will, hopefully be able to increase other ingredients appropriately. I will, stick to two mangoes till I am perfectly sure about it)!
Green (unripe) mangoes 2
Cumin seeds 2 tbsp
Mint leaves 1 small bunch
Rock Salt 1 heaped tsp
Salt 1/4 tsp
Sugar 2-3 tbsp (you can can vary this. I used about 1 & 1/2 since A is not allowed sugar).

How to
1. Wash the mangoes well. Really scrub the skin.
2. Use a knife or a fork and slash / prick holes on to the skin of the mangoes.
3. Boil them in a pan with a little salt (about 1 tsp).
4. Plunge them in cold water to cool them and then peel them.
(This is a very messy process. But I guess practice makes perfect).
5. Dry roast the cumin seeds on a "tawa" or any pan (actually).
6. Coarsely grind them.
7. Mix the ground cumin seeds, rock salt, mint leaves, sugar, salt in a mixer / blender (I really don't know the difference between the two).
8. In a frying pan, add a tsp of oil.
9. Sprinkle some cumin seeds (about a pinch really), one red chillie (I used red chillie flakes), and then added the blended pulp.
10. Add about 2 cups of water (250 ml).
11. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes.
12. Adjust seasoning. Here you can make it more tangy, salty or sweet, according to your taste.
13. Strain (I did) all the pulp away and chilled the juice.
14. Actually, I put it in the freezer (don't quite know why) and had to thaw it (which i did by just letting it sit on the kitchen counter. Its really hot here, right now). But when it unfroze, it tasted really, really yum.

Usually, Aam pana is served as an apertif. But last night, we had it as Digestif and loved it.

The portions were really small: Half a glass each.

2 recipes for Chocolate Mousse

2006-04-22T09:55:00.000+05:30

Menu I never cooked

One Saturday last winter, A sprang a surprise on me by inviting a couple I had not yet met. Naturally, the first thing I did was to PANIC. And at once, shot off an email to R.

Me: Din-Din scheduled for Friday so hurry up with your suggested menu. OK???
R: Have loads of errands, studies and am again going early for practice session-will try to squeeze in a few doable recipes by your standards.

She had by next Friday, emailed me several easy (do-able by my standard recipes). And I knew she was terribly busy. And sadly, the dinner got cancelled and I never really had the chance to try out any of them. But perhaps, you can. Here they are bit by bit.

Recipe # 1
Eggless Chocolate Recipes

What you will need:
Milk 2 cups
Sugar 5tbsp
Gelatin 2tsp
Cornflour 1tbsp
Cocoa powder 3tbsp
Plain chocolate 40 gm(1 slab)
Coffee Powder 3/4 tsp
Vanilla Essence 1/2 tsp
Cream whipped till fluffy 3/4 cups(150gm)

How to:
1. Mix cocoa and cornflour in 1/4 cup milk in a small bowl.
2. Boil the rest of the milk with sugar in a heavy bottomed pan.
3. Add cocoa and cornflour paste to the boiling milk stirring continuously.
4. Add chocolate broken into pieces.
5. Cook on low heat for 3-4 minutes till chocolate dissolves.
6. Add coffee and remove from fire.
7. Put 1/4 cup water in a small pan.
8. Add gelatin(unflavoured),dissolve on low heat.
9. Mix gelatin solution with chocolate custard.
10. Chill in the freezer till a little thick but not set.
11. Beat this thickened chocolate custard.
12. Beat cream and essence till slightly thick and fluffy.
13. Add whipped cream to the chocolate mixture. Mix gently.
14. Transfer to a serving dish or pour in individual mould or glasses.
15. Refrigerate till set.
16. Decorate with whipped cream or add one dollop or spoonfull of cream on top if you don’t know decorating.

R: Its easy -try it-wont go wrong if you don’t mess up badly.
Me: Baby, is this easy?? Gelatin? Where do I get that frm?? I Meant easy by my standards, not yours. Give me vanilla icecream + fruits + something stuff. Also give me your easiest coffee (parina) recipe.

Reply : sent you some more recipes and don’t know why it didn’t reach you-am a bit busy-am trying to send-takes time to type out the recipes.

Recipe # 2
Quick and easy by baby standard chocolate mousse

What you will need
Dark chocolate 300 gms
Butter 2 tbsp
Fresh double cream 6 cups
Castor sugar 1/2 cup

How to
1. Break chocolate into small pieces ,transfer into a bowl and add butter.
2. To melt this mixture put some water in a bigger vessel and place bowl with chocolate in it and cook till it is smooth and even.
3. Remove from heat and allow it to cool.
4. Mix half of the cream into it.
5. Stiffly beat the remaining cream with sugar, fold this into the chocolate mixture and refrigerate for 30-40 min.
6. Take a piping bag with large star nozzle and pipe this chilled mousse into individual glass and refrigerate. You can also pour it instead of piping.
7. Serve chilled
R: Do this a day before your guests come- all sweetdishes are best done ahead.

To continue....

2 Recipes for the New Year!

2006-04-15T14:37:00.000+05:30

Today is Poila Boishak. Or the first day of the Boishak month which marks the Bengali new year. And so, can food be far behind? So here are not one, but two recipes -- both courtesy R. A mutton dish from Lucknow (or so the name suggests) and then for the sweetdish - Malpua. Both are not R's own. Definitely not the Malpua which happens to be a great favorite not only in Bengal but elsewhere in India as well.

Enjoy!! Have a great year ahead.

Lucknavi Ghosht kaa achar
(Loosely translated it means Mutton Pickle from Lucknow...although its not a pickle).

You will need:
Mutton Half kilo
Ginger garlic paste 1 tbsp
Red chilli powder 1 tsp
Turmeric 1 tsp
Dried red chillies 2-3
Khaskhas (Poppy seeds) 1 tbsp
Cloves 4-5
Cardamom 3
Aniseed(saunf) 1 tsp
Cinnamon 1 stick
Sesame seeds 1 tsp
Corainder seeds 1 tsp
Sugar 1 tsp
Salt to taste

How to:
1. Marinate the mutton in ginger garlic paste,salt and sugar for
an hour.
2. Dry roast the poppy seeds,cloves,cardamom,aniseeds and cinnamon.
3. Grind these to a paste.
4. Heat oil in a pressure cooker. Add the whole red chilli.
5. Add the meat and the ground spices,turmeric powder,red chilli
powder.
6. Pressure cook the meat in 1 cup of water(for about 6-7
whistles).
7. Open the lid of the pressure cooker and simmer till liquid
evaporates and dish is dry.
8. Keep stirring to prevent from burning.
8. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and whole corainder seeds.
9. Serve hot with parathas or rotis.

Malpua

You will need:
Milk 1 1/2 litres or 7 cups
Khoya or Mawa grated 50 gms
Green cardamoms 3
Refined flour 3 tbsp
Ghee to deep fry or white oil will do
For sugar syrup
Sugar 2cups
Natural yellow colour (optional) 1/4 tsp
For garnish
Pistachios 15-20
Saffron a few strands

How to:
1. Boil milk in a thick heavy bottomed pan, reduce heat and simmer
till it is reduced and reaches a coating consistency.
2. Add grated khoya and mix well.
3. Allow it to cool to room temperature.
4. Reserve 2 tbsp of sugar and form sugar syrup with the rest of
the sugar and two cups of water.
5. Dissolve saffron in 2tbsp of hot milk.Add it to the sugar
syrup. Chop pistachios finely.
6. Add refined flour and reserved sugar to the reduced milk. Mix
well and make a batter of pouring consistency using a little
milk if required.
7. Heat sufficient ghee in a wide mouthed flat bottomed kadai.Pour
a ladleful of batter to form a small pancake.
8. Cook on low to medium heat.
9. Turn it over when it starts to change colour slightly. When
both sides are done, drain and immerse in sugar syrup.
10.Sprinkle chopped pistachios and remaining saffron on malpuas.
11. Reapeat till all the batter is used up.
12. Serve hot.

Bon Appetit!

Aunty's Cauliflower Recipe

2006-04-11T07:21:00.000+05:30

(I can't think of any other name)

Soon after we had moved into our own place in Calcutta, our neighbours came over and brought with them a plate of this wonderful dish. All of us relished it and R, went over and got the recipe from the lady next door and so happily, not only did we only got to taste it from time to time, the "lady" next door became our dear aunty. So here goes:

You will need:
1 large cauliflower
1 tsp ginger paste
4 tsp garlic paste
3 medium onion
4 tbsp white vinegar **
2 tsp sugar
salt to taste
2-3 green chillie paste
3 tbsp oil
1&1/2 cup water

How to:

1. Cut the cauliflower into biggish florets.
2. Pierce the thick stem portion to facilitate easy seepage.
3. Place in a bowl, the ginger, garlic, onion juice (reserve the pulp), sugar, salt to taste, and vinegar. Marinade the cauliflower florets for 1 to 1&1/2 hours.
4. Turn the florets from time to time so that they soak up the marinade evenly.
5. Heat 2-3 tbsp oil in a wok or kadai.
6. Add the reserved onion pulp and fry till light brown.
7. Add the cauliflower and not the marinade and fry for 6-7 minutes.
8. Take a pressure pan or cooker, add 1 and half cups water, cauliflower, the marinade and cook till done. 1 whistle should do-if not two whistles.

Bon Appetit!

** (In my blissful ignorance before my entry into cooking, vinegar to me meant - white or red. Simple. This basic simplicity turned my first shopping venture into a nightmare. At the supermarche - I was faced with rows and rows of vinegars in all sorts of colour and ingredients. God. What do I do??? Give me my simple white or red vinegar back and now). I am wiser now. But since this recipe has been provided by R and she has not mentioned the exact type of vinegar, I am putting it down the way she has and yet I hesitate).

Quick Rice Pakodas

2006-04-08T09:36:00.000+05:30

Work has been punishing. And not only has my blogging suffered, but everything around me. Its like I live at office and go home for a few hours. Well, here is a recipe thats just the thing for a hurried and harried schedule. One of R's. And what's more she says, it make a perfect quick and tasty snack when guests arrive and you are not prepared. Quick Rice Pakoda! And since I swear by her culinary skills, sense and advice, she mut be correct!

You will need:
4 tbsp cooked rice (leftover would do)
1 large onion finely chopped
3 green chillies finely chopped (optional)
1 small bunch coriander leaves finely chopped
1 egg
oil for deep frying
salt to taste

How to:
1. Mash the rice and mix it with the other ingredients.
2. Shape into oblong balls and deep fry till light brown.
3. Serve hot with tomato ketchup (or any other chutney or sauce of your preference).
4. Viola!

Kadai Murgh Afghani

2006-03-12T17:15:00.000+05:30

I have always loved cook books. Almost all of R's cook books have been gifted by me. Doesn;t matter if I tried out recipes from them. I just love going through the recipes. Infact, there was a time when I couldn't sit through lunch and dinner without leafing through one. (OK, weird, I know). And the exotic recipes more than made up for the simple daily fare that I happened to be eating. Actually daily fare plus exotic recipes from cook books was the ideal combo for me. I don't have those books here with me. They are with R. But ocassionally on a weekend, I look up a food blog...but its not quite the same.

What with the avian flu scare and chicken being a big no-no, I asked R for her Aaghan chicken recipe (she got that out of a book and then added her own twist)...to read through while I ate decidely vegetarian meal. So here it is:

Kadai Murgh Afghani
(Can't vouch for it to be authentic afghani but its very tasty and looks great too).

You will need:
Chicken 1 kg
Cooking oil 6tbs
Garlic paste 3½ tsp
Whole red chillies 5-6
Coriander seeds 3tsp
Tomatoes chopped 4 ½ cups
Green chillies chpped 3-4
Ginger chopped 5tsp
Corainder leaves chopped 5tbp
Garam masala 2tsp
Fenugreek or methi powder 1tsp
Salt 2tsp

How to:
1. Clean and cut chicken into medium sized pieces.
2. Pound red chillies and corainder seeds into a paste.
3. Heat oil in a Kadai and add garlic paste and saute over medium flame till light brown.
4. Add red chillie-coriander paste, followed by tomatoes and bring to a boil.
5. Add green chillies, ¾ of the ginger and 1/3 of chopped coriander, reduce heat and simmer for 4-5 minutes.
6.Add chicken and bring to boil.
7. Reduce heat to allow gravy to simmer,stirring occasionally until oil separates from masala and the gravy becomes thick and chicken tender(approx 15 min or so).
8. Sprinkle garam masala and methi powder, stir for two minutes. Adjust seasoning.
9. Pour the chicken into a dish and garnish with leftover ginger and coriander.
10. Serve with rice or rotis.

Bon Appetit!

Dal with Radhuni

2006-03-05T08:55:00.000+05:30

Here I am, after an enormously exhausting week. I worked late everynight and returned home at 4.30am on Thursday. I was alone today and (A having gone to his parents for weekend) and so instead of eating out (which I do when I am alone), I rustled up a simple bengali meal. Aloo posto, Radhuni dal and rice. And savored every bit of it. So for Weekend Herb Blogging, at Kalyn's Kitchen here is the recipe forDal with Radhuni

Radhuni is a herb used (to my knowledge) by bengalis mostly. I looked up the net to find out more about it (for the benefit of non-bengali readers of my post) and to my surprise found radhuni is the seed of celery! Perhaps my knowledge is scant, but I can think of only a very few dish that requires the tiny dark grains of radhuni. And yet, these dishes cant be cooked without radhuni. There is simply no substitute for it! It looks a lot like "ajwain" or Carum / Carom. But that's where the similarity ends. It has a very distinct flavour. And only a pinch is required, otherwise, it could overpower the dish!

(For Two)
You will need:
1 small cup of masoor dal (Marc has explained dals very well here)
1/2 tsp radhuni / celery seeds
salt to taste
1 tsp oil for tempering
green chillies optional
1/2 l water

How to
1. Pressure cook / boil the masoor dal with 1/2 tsp turmeric and salt. Reserve.

2. In a kadai / wok, heat 1 tsp oil.

3. Add the radhuni seeds.

4. When they crackle, add the dal.

5. Add water if dal is too thick or cook on high flame to reduce if too watery.

6. Adjust salt.

7. Eat with rice and veggies of your choice!

Bon Apetit!!

Rohu and cauliflower curry

2006-02-25T10:26:00.000+05:30

This isn't an original recipe. Its a staple Bengali dish. But it is one of my favorites. I checked up the net to get some background on Rohu (Rui in bengali) and to my amazement found a link from Wikipedia which stated that its popular in Punjab. Good for them. Just as well. What with the Avian Bird Flu, perhaps its safer than Butter Chicken?!

Here it is then: Rui machcher phulcopi diye jhole: Rohu and cauliflower curry

You will need:
6 pieces of Rui fish
1 small cauliflower
4 small or 2 medium Potatoes
1/2 tsp cumin seed
1 tsp cumin Powder
2 tsp coriander powder
3/4 tsp turmeric for the curry "jhole" &
about 2 tsp to coat the fish before frying them
6 tbsp oil for frying the fish
2 tbsp for the Curry
Water for the curry

How to:
1. Wash the pieces, drain / pat dry. Sprinkle liberally with salt and turmeric and mix well (with hands). Careful....turmeric so does stain the fingers and nails.
2. Heat oil in a kadai / wok till it smokes. (It must smoke otherwise the fish pieces will stick to the pan and you will end up with scrambled fish).
3. Add the pieces into the oil a few at a time in batches. Now, some people prefer it lightly fried, I prefer it deep fried (till the fish turn brown...unhealthy but like all things unhealthy, very tasty)!
4. Slice the cauliflower into biggish florets, wash, drain and then parboil them with a little salt. Drain and set aside.
5. Cut the potatoes into largish cubes. Wash well and drain.
6. Heat oil in a kadai. Add cumin seeds. When they crackle, add the cubed potatoes. Fry for a while.
7. Add the cumin, coriander & turmeric powders. Season with salt.
(R taught me this - Add 2-3 tbsp water and fry the masalas on high heat. Repeat this proces couple of time. This helps to fry the masals well. Only then proceed to step 8).
8. Add Water. Here you aer adding water to make the curry About 1 large cup (specifically, 1/4 l). Cover and lower flame.
9. When the potatoes are nearly boiled, the water reduced, add the cauliflowers, the fish and 3-4 slit green chillies (can do without if you don't like them...but it does add a lovely flavour). Adjust the water for the curry...you might have to add some more. This is after all a curry.
10. Add a pinch of sugar (to even out the flavour).
11. Cook over high flame for 5 minutes.
12. Serve with steamed rice!

Notes:
1. The correct procedure would be to fry the cauliflower florets separately (instead of parboiling them in step 4) and then add them in step 9. This is a latter day, attempting-to-be-healthy-variation. Both taste equally good.
2. Parwal / Potol can be used instead of cauliflowers. They will have to be fried and not parboiled!

Weekend Herb Blogging : Methi Chicken

2006-02-19T09:20:00.000+05:30

First time, I managed to catch Kalyn's Weekend Herb Blogging.

Fenugreek. We call it methi and use the leaves fresh or dried or even the yellow grains. Widely used all over the world (or so it seems See Gernot Katzer's Spice Pages ), it is supposed to have a host of medicinal properties including a must for diabetics. Read more here.

That apart, it has a very distinct flavour. To the simple chicken curry, add methi and viola! A new dish entirely (whereas really, it was just a teeny tiny variation). Makes a great dish to serve at dinners (and yet is so easy to make, that it almost feels like cheating)!

This recipe was given to me by R. It was slightly more intricate. But I changed some of the steps (easier for me to remember) and to my delight, I found it tasted the same!

You will need
1 kg chicken cut into pieces
3 bunch methi leaves
3 bunch coriander leaves
3 green chillies (optional)
2 medium or 1 large onion
6 garlic pods
2 tomatoes coarsely chopped
1 tsp sugar
salt to taste

How to:
1. Wash the chicken pieces and pat dry.
2. Chop the coriander and methi leaves and grind into a paste with the chillies (if using).
3. Marinade the chicken pieces with the methi-coriander marinade for a couple of hours. ( I cheat….and don’t really marinade for couple of hours)!
4. Slice the onions finely. Grate the garlic.
5. Heat 3-4 tbsp oil in a kadai / wok.
6. Add the sliced onions and grated garlic till the onions are pink and translucent. (Sprinkle half a tsp of salt. This helps to fry the onions faster).
7. Add the chicken pieces (and not the marinade) and stir so that all the pieces are fried properly.
8. Add the chopped tomatoes.
9. Fry till the tomatoes softens and the juices come out of it.
10. Add the marinade and and stir to mix well.
11. Cover, lower gas and cook till done. If you are using a pressure cooker, the till one whistle.

Serve with rotis or rice!

Bon appetit!

Note: Methi is slightly bitter to taste and therefore, do add the coriander with it. If you are using dried methi leaves, then halve the quantity.

You are what you eat meme

2006-02-13T22:00:00.000+05:30

I was tagged by Marc of Mental Masala

I actually had to think very hard about my top 10.
(Alas, no photos)

My favourite foods:
1. A pot of freshly brewed (and not boiled as most people tend to do in north india) Darjeeling tea, with just a dash of milk and 1 tsp sugar. Ah! I can have it any number of time and at any time, but must have first thing every morning. Although my cooking skills (whatever little i have learnt and so late in life) are sketchy, I remember learning to brew my first cup / pot when I was
four years old.

2. Two crispy toasts. Not soft, not hard. But toasted to a golden brown. Sans butter. Dip into tea and eat. Savor! My staple breakfast with 1 cup of freshly brewed cha. I make do with whatever bread is available around my place of residence, but still have fond memories of the Soft american bread with rye on crust that i had at my aunts in NY, when i visited her for a month in 1984!

3. Rui macher phulcopi diye jhol: Rohu / carp gravy with cauliflowers. Easy to make and always tasty. How I dreamt about it, while eating all the salmons, halibut, haddocks and soles while I was in Paris.

4. Soupe de Poisson : Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.The proper one is ofcourse where your soup bowl is sealed with a thick layer of cheese. And you break through it with your soup spoon to the delicious steaming hot soup below!

5. Prawn in coconut milk gravy: Derived from the Portuguese from the time when they landed in India / Bengal.

6. Fish Moilie (also called Meen Moilie): South India fish curry in coconut milk and quite distinct from the prawn in coconut milk gravy of bengal.

7. Mutton Curry: Made from the tender meat of a young goat. Young goat. And not Lamb. I prefer to have it a sunday, for lunch. And follow it up like a true blue bengali, by a good siesta!

8. Creme Brulee: Again, from my days in Paris. Cafe Le Royale Jussieu in the 5th Arrondissemnet. A step by step detailed recipe of it is given here. Don't forget to read the comments this post attracted (Just for laughs)!

9. Beignet: Puts every make and flavour of donuts to shame. Really.

10. Apple Upside Down cake: My sister's recipe. Which I thought was an apple strudel and it reminded me of the Sound of Music...odd combination that...but darn good cake, that.

Harder is to find food bloggers to tag. Since I am timid, in all matters related to cooking, I have only Sailu to Tag.

I would also like to tag non-food bloggers. Am I then, disqualified? I hope not.

So, hey there Rezwan, you are hereby memed / tagged.

That' still just two. (Sorry).

Mixed Vegetable Casserole (K)

2006-02-05T17:54:00.000+05:30

This is exactly how I have this recipe scribbled in my book of recipes.

After having mastered recipes using a single vegetable like bhindi (okra), Cauliflower and cabbage, ‘K’ our temperamental but gem of a cook taught me this recipe. The cleverness of this recipe is a) as always (with my recipes) it is very simple b) can be made at any time. No special planning required.

The ingredients can be varied increased or decreased. So can the seasoning. Its makes a pleasant change from the koftas, kormas and polaos. (Truth be told, I’d rather make this dish than tackle koftas, kormas and polaos)!!

You will need:
2 cups Peas (shelled)
1 small Cauliflower
2 cups Beans
2 carrots
2 small potatoes
1 onion finely sliced
2 garlic cloves grated
2 tbsp oil
1-2 green chillies (optional)
1 to 2 cubes of maggie chicken or vegetable or any other seasoning (also known as bouillion or stock)

How to:

1. Cut the carrots and potatoes into small cubes.
2. Julienne the beans (that means take the long bean and cut it into little pieces but make the cut at an angle breadthwise. De-string the beans before you julienne them. And sometimes, if the beans are very fresh and young, there is no need to pull the long stringy bit which runs vertically from top to bottom).
3. Cut the cauliflower into tiny florets.
4. Par-boil cauliflower with salt(that means for couple of minutes). Drain. Throw away the water.
5. Par-boil the other veggies together. Reserve the water.
6. Heat 2 tbsp (or less if you prefer) in a non-stick pan.
7. Add green chillies (if using), onion and garlic. Stir.
8. When the onions turn pinkish, add the veggies.
9. Add ½ tsp turmeric
10. Crumble one cube of Maggie seasoning (I use chicken flavour. Vegetarian cubes would do just as well I guess).
11. Add ¼ tsp sugar (evens out the flavours), taste and then add salt. Remember, the seasoning cubes are usually very salty, so careful about adding more salt.
12. Add the water used to boil the veggies.
13. Cover and cook over low flame for 3 to 4 mintues till the veggies soak up the seasoning.
14. Before removing, add a handful of chopped coriander leaves.

Bon appetit!

Note: This dish has been called a casserole. Perhaps because K serves it in one. Normally, all the casserole dishes I have read involves baking (I think). No such complications here.

Simple Chicken Curry

2006-01-31T23:03:00.000+05:30

I have such a soft corner for this chicken dish. Is it because it was the first non-vegetarian / meat dish I learnt? Or because its so easy to make is always tasty even if you vary the contents. Or is it because with slight variations you can have an entirely different curry? Whatever be the reason, it is, comfort food, for me.

You will need:
1 chicken (about 1 kilo)
2 large onions
6 garlic pods
1" ginger
2-3 each of cloves, cardamom
5-6 grains of whole black pepper
1" stick of cinamon
1 bay leaf
2 tsp turmeric powder
2 tomatoes
2 Potatoes quartered
Salt to taste
Oil
Coriander leaves for garnishing

How to

1. Wash chicken pieces well. (This is for those of you who get it fresh). De-frost for those who pick it up from frozen section of supermarkets. Pat dry / drain and sprinkle with about 2 tsp of salt and the turmeric powder. Use hands to mix well with the chicken pieces.

2. Slices onions finely. Grate the garlic and ginger separately. Slice the tomatoes and keep aside.

3. Heat oil in a pressure cooker. (About 2-3 tbsp)

4. Add the cinamon, cardamom, black pepper, bayleaf.

5. In about half a minute or so, they will release their "aroma". This is about when the pepper corn will start popping!

6. Quickly add the onions and stir to mix well with oil. Fry till the onions are light pink.

7. Add the grated garlic and stir till they are lightly browned. Be careful. Garlic can burn very easily and we dont want them burnt. Just browned.

8. Add the chicken pieces, and mix well with the onions. Add the grated ginger. Fry on high flame. After 2 minutes, stir so that the pieces on top are at the bottom and vice versa. In about 10 minutes or so, all the pieces will be fried.

9. Add the sliced tomatoes, cover with a lid (but dont close the lid). Lower flame and cook for about 3 to 4 minutes. The tomatoes will go soft and mushy and release their juices.

10. Mix well. Add about 250 ml of water (about 2 cups). You can add more water if you prefer more gravy. (I do). Adjust the salt.

11. Add the sliced potatoes.

12. Close the lid and let it cook for one whistle of the pressure cooker. If you are not using a pressure cooker, then cook till the potatoes are done.

13. Take off the lid and add the chopped coriander leaves and cook over high flame for 1-2 minutes.

14. Serve hot with rice!

Note:-
Adding potatoes is optional. You can also add more garlic and onions if you so prefer. If you dont want to add tomatoes, curd works fine. If you are using curd, add it to the chicken in the begining with the salt and turmeric or you can add it at step no. 9 in place of the tomatoes.

Mutton Rupali

2006-01-24T23:32:00.000+05:30

We had just moved into a new set of apartments in Kolkata and R & I were living by ourselves, while our parents were still in the Middle East. R had taken over (forced to), the running of our apartment. And immediately after we had moved in, all of us kids put up a play, another of my great ideas! But I came down rather heavily on R during our rehearsals and she quit! But at the end she did ennoy it from the sidelines and felt proud (she claims shen did), when our over acting was a roaring success. And as a part of the after play get together, she russled up a mutton recipe which like the play was a roaring success! And the unanimous decision was to christen this recipe “Mutton Rupali”. So here goes - Another great and totally original recipe from R.

You will need:
1kilo mutton
1tsp cumin seeds
4-5 green chillies
1 medium onion
6 flakes of garlic
1” ginger
Raw papaya – 2 piece
1tsp corainder seeds and leaves
2tsp khus khus or posto or poppy seeds
1tbsp garam masala
1tbsp ground coriander powder
2tbsp lime juice
1 cup curd
4 tbsp butter or ghee (clarified butter)
salt
1tsp sugar
red chilli powder(optional)
Coriander leaves

How to:
1. Grind the chillies, onion, ginger, garlic, papaya and spices to a smooth paste.
2. Mix the paste with the curd.
3. Wash the mutton pieces and prick them with a fork (allows the spice mixture to seep into the mutton) and dry them.
4. Rub with salt mixed with lime juice and set aside for half an hour or so.
5. Heat oil in a pressure cooker. Add the mutton pieces and cook for about 2-3 whistles.
6. Open lid and set aside.
7. In a pan add ghee, then put the mutton and the paste and cook over medium heat till tender and palatable. (This will take sometime depending upon the tenderness of the mutton).
8. Garnish with onion rings, lime wedges, corainder leaves chopped and slit green chillies.

Bon Appetit!

Sweet Tomato Chutney

2006-01-14T23:08:00.000+05:30

My cook has been ill these past few days. To complicate matters, work (usually hectic) has been maddening just now. We had to take a brief on phone, develop three scripts, find a celebrity (one with the right profile -- all India appeal, clean as a whistle background, willing to give us couple of hours and do it free of charge...its is after a public service spot). And the A turns up with a kilo of tomatoes. Once in a while, OK. But tomatoes are a no-no for him. Doctor's order.

So, I get up wearily really early and make a sweet tomato chutney, which I then take with me to work to share with colleagues. Felt a bit mean. But its really better this way. So here is a the recipe for sweet bengali tomato chutney. Simple and easy.

You will need:

1 kilo tomatoes (any sort except the small cherry ones)
Heaps of sugar
1/2" ginger either grated or sliced really thin
A bit of salt
One dried red chillie
1 tsp mustard seeds
fresh coriander, chopped

How to

1. Heat a tbsp of oil in a Kadai / wok. If you are using a pan make sure its a deep one

2. Add the dried red chillie.

3. Add the mustard seeds.

4. When they start to pop, add the tomatoes.

5. Cook on high heat for three to four minutes and then lower flame and cover.

6. When the tomatoes have softened, add the sugar. About 3 tbsp. Taste and adjust. This chutney has to be sweet. Be sure to add the salt..about 1/2 tsp. This takes care of the tartness of the tomatoes.

7. After another few minutes, the tomatoes should have all become pulpy, and become a thick mass.

8. Add about 1/2 cup of water. Cover and let stew.

9. Check frequently. The chutney shouldn't be too thin or thick.

10. Add the grated ginger. Let it stew for couple of minutes more.

11. Add the chopped coriander leaves and cook for a further two minutes.

12. Remove from fire and let it cool down.

13. Traditionally, chutney is eaten last after any bengali meal. It is ladled onto the now empty plate on which lunch was eaten and the chutney is eaten by hand.

14. Quite a few people like to eat it mixed with plain steamed rice... but that is really for those who are used to it. Chutney by itself is rather nice. Bon apetit!

Note: You can vary the proportions to suit your taste. You can have it less sweet if you wants. Works just fine. I prefer it sweet though.

R's Apple Upside Down Cake

2006-01-07T12:06:00.000+05:30

This recipe is entirely R's. She must have got it from somewhere and added her variations. I don't know why, but I was under the impression that this was an Apple Strudel. R set me right --- "Its an apple upside down cake". The first time she made it, she was in school (class 5 or 6 ... yes that early). And as she is wont to, had her luxuriant tresses in a wild bird's nest on her head. Dressed in a nightie, she took over the kitchen in a very authoritarian, brisk, no nonsense manner, while I could only watch
with amusement (nothing more I could do, since I could not contribute anything to the process, except tasting the batter). And I have loved it since then!! I still haven't tried it and don't thing am going to in the near future (Can always beg her to make it for me when I visit Kolkata). But for those of you who can't have that pleasure, you can always try it... and enjoy it. It's foolproof since the proportions etc are R's and not my haphazard ones!!

You will need
About 4 medium sized apples(the red smallish apples, the ones you get in winter, here I mean in India), peeled and decored and then cut into thin slivers or slices lengthwise.
1 & 1/2 cups flour
3 or 4 eggs whipped in a blender
1 cup sugar (ground)
1 cup sunflower oil
1& 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1& 1/2 tsp baking powder
Half cup milk
About 4tbsp ground brown sugar
75 gms butter

How to:
1. Sift flour and baking powder through a sieve, keep aside. R does it on a clean piece of newspaper. Less messier this way!

2. In a deep bowl beat together oil and ground sugar.

3. Add about 2 tbsp of the seived flour and a bit of the blended egg. Whip by hand held blender or spoon. Add more flour and egg. In this way mix and add and alternate the two till all the flour and egg have been added.

4. Add milk to help in the blended process.

5. Add the vanilla essence. (Be sure to give into tempatation and taste the batter...its not only wonderful, but helps to check if you have got the sugar and vanilla right)!

6. Melt butter in a pan and when warm, add brown sugar and wait till blended well.

7. Pour the butter in to a greased baking round dish.

8. Arrange sliced apples in a circular fashion starting from the sides and gradually filling in.

9. Pour the cake batter over it.

10. Bake in an oven over medium temperature for an hour or till a knife comes out clean when inserted.

(Don't forget to enjoy the aroma of the cake baking!! At this point, I usually start drooling...)!

11. Cool and turn the cake over onto a plate. Then you will have the browned apple layer at the top! Bon appetite!

Note:- This be make about more than 10 generous slices....for people with normal appetite. Unlike me. I'd leave one slice each for baba, ma & R and K (our cook) and hog the rest myself.

Note2:- I was in Kolkata two weeks ago and went to a small gathering of friends. I hit upon the bright idea of getting R to bake me this cake. Which she promptly did. My friends all oohed and aahed over it and ate one slice each. The rest was kept away for eating later on by my host and his wife. I feel really mean to say this, but I could have eaten the cake all by myself and taken something else for my friends??!!

Dal for the family and close friends

2006-01-05T13:17:00.000+05:30

H, a friend from work, dropped in yesterday. I was not alarmed. There was afterall mince meat that hubby dear cooked all by himself, one veggie dish, some rice and rotis (chapatis). But when hubby himself said that he didnt want the mince meat, I got suspicious. He is afterall a die-hard meat eater. He sheepishly said that it want very tasty. Oh Oh. My dear cook is not too great either. So I one hungry guest, one hungry hubby and two dishes both badly cooked. Quick fix idea (which I try every time and never fails) is to rush and get some kala dal from the fauji dhaba next door. Sure enough, it worked. This prompted a story from H . His father, after his wedding, had postponed all dinner parties till such time his wife had learnt enough. The date arrived 6 months later. She had cooked 8 dishes. They were stationed in Amritsar at that time. Everyone enjoyed the food and when asked which dish they liked the best, everyone said in unison, "the dal". The dal was the only dish she had not cooked and got it from a local dhaba!!

I have a very easy and fast dal recipe....it is NOT a party dish. But works well for family and really close friends. It is really very simple to make. And once you make it, you realise how easy it is to vary the dal and the various ingredients to make your own combo.

For a great explanation on dals / lentils/ pulses, See Mental Masala's December Dal post.

You will need:

1 small cup (a little more than the tiny coffee cups) arhar dal, washed and drained
1 green bell pepper / capsicum / shimla mirch cut into long strips
1 or 2 tomatoes coarsely chopped
1 carrot, cut into long strips or sliced into roundels
1 medium onion sliced finely (optional)
3 or 4 garlic pods grated
handful of peas
5 or 6 florets of cauliflower (taken from one big one)
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp turmeric powder
Salt to taste
Cooking oil

How to:
1.In a pressure cooker, heat one tbsp oil and add 1 tsp cumin seeds.

2. When the seeds crackle, add the garlic and onions and stir.

3. When the onions become translucent, add the veggies and stir.

4. Add 1 small tsp of turmeric powder and the salt, to taste.

5. Add the dal and stir. The dal will in a bit, stick to the pan.

6. Add water. The rule for a pressure cooker is, to add a little less than double the quantity of the main item, which in this case is the dal. But since there are a few veggies along with the dal, add 3 to 3 & 1/2 cups of water. Close the lid and cook for 2 or 3 whistles. This again depends where you are. At high altitude or cold weather, pulses take more time to cook and hence more whistles.

7. Remove from fire and wait for the steam to go out by itself and the cover to drop (open). If the dal has become too thick, put it on the fire and add a little water and check and adjust seasoning.

8. If you donot have a pressure cooker, any pan with a tight cover will do. But it will be preferrable to soak the dal a few hours in advance, drain and then cook.

9. Now, if you don't want to use onions, add the veggies straight after the cumin. You can vary the dal used too. Masur and chana (bengal gram) dal works just as well.

This takes not more than half an hour from start to finish and is always, tasty! Bon apetit! I should know. Back in Paris, we practically survived on it.

Spinach with mixed vegetables

2005-12-28T20:55:00.000+05:30

Am very very overdue on my blogging...I was away on a short but very happy trip to Kolkata. 9 days, where I did all the things one does going back to one's home turf. But really, food reigned supreme. Consuming food that is. I got Ma, R and our cook to make all the stuff that a) missed b) couldn't cook as wonderfully as they can. So here is the recipe for one of them: Palong sager ghanto. Or Spinach with mixed vegetables. This is not a new recipe. There are variations to it. My recipe is the way we eat at "chez parents" in Calcutta. Its wonderful. More than that actually. Comfort food.

(Unlike the common perception that Indian cooking is very spicy...a lot of bengali recipes do not involve many spices. Spices are added to enhance the subtle flavors of the ingredients. Not over power it). This is a classic example. The vegetables, fresher the better combine to give a delightful flavour.

Spinach with mixed vegetables
You will need:

1 kilo spinach
2 medium potatoes cubed (not too small)
2 beet
5 or 6 broad beans halved
handful of peas (a handful after shelling)
2 or 3 carrots
1 medium eggplant / brinjal cubed
1 tsp five spice (made of equal parts of cumin seeds, black cumin seeds -- also called nigella, fenugreek seed, aniseed and black mustard grains)

This recipe can be cooked using a few or all of the above veggies, with spinach. More the better.

How to:
1. Wash, de-stem and chop the spinach well. You can de-stem and wash if you prefer. Either way works.

2. Cut all the veggies into cubes...not too small or large. Important thing is to have the veggie in more or less similar sized cubes.

3. Heat oil (3 tbsp) in a pan. Kadai or wok is better than a flat pan.

4. Add one red dried chillie. Then add the five spice (panch-phoron).

5. When they start crackling /popping /sizzling, add the veggies. Stir well and cover. Lower flame and let the veggies cook. You can sprinkle a little water. I really mean sprinkle. Using your fingers.

6. When the veggies are softened, but not soggy, add the spinach. Since spinach is when raw, voluminous, put a little bit a time. Mix with veggie and wait for it to subside a bit, which happens more or less within half a minute or so, and repeat till all the spinach is in the pan.

7. Season with salt. We also like to add a little bit of sugar. Fraction of the quantity of salt. The idea here is not to make the dish sweet, this salt-sugar combo somehow, enhances the flavour more than only salt.

8. K, our cook, sometimes, adds half tsp each of coriander powder, cumin powder, chillie powder and turmeric. But she told me, turmeric alone is OK. Chillie powder is really optional, as is green chillie.

9. Cover and keep on low flame. The spinach is cooked usually in about 5 to 10 minutes max. Stir vigorously so that the veggies don't stick to the pan and they are well mixed with the spinach. some people like to leave a little bit of gravy. I like mine without. The dish is not dry. The veggies are soft and puply.

10. Each of the veggies contribute their individual flavours and together combine to make this dish, well, comforting, at the least!! Serve with rice and dal. Bon appetit!

Potatoes in Poppy seed paste

2005-12-15T07:15:00.000+05:30

Posto (dried poppy seeds) is such an essential ingredient in Bengali kitchens. These are dried poppy seeds. Must have been introduced to us by Afghan traders because weak as my knowledge is on flora, I don’t thing the poppy is native to Bengal.

It is used in a variety of dishes but the most common is probably aloo posto. I remember when I was staying in the Middle East, the entire Bengali (Indian and Bangladeshi) community got their veggies, fish and spice shopping from a Bangladeshi store. And the store stocked everything including betel nut and leaves. One thing that they didn’t stock was posto. It was illegal to import Posto since poppy is also the source for Opium! Till some one from either the Indian or Bangladeshi embassy intervened and requested the relevant authorities in the emirate to allow posto imports. Posto as used in Bengali dishes is not narcotic! And though the source is the same, it is far removed from Opium!

Much later on, in France, I tried Aloo posto on my own. The dish took about 15 minutes and I followed the simple instructions and to my amazement, found it tasting just like Ma made!

(For two)
What you need:

3-4 medium potatoes
1 tsp Black Cumin seeds
1 tbsp posto seeds
Salt to taste
2 Tbsp cooking oil

How to:
1. Peel and dice the potatoes into little cubes. Wash well and drain.

2. Grind the posto into a paste using a little bit of water. (I didn’t have a wet grinder and so I used a rolling pin and ground them on the kitchen counter). Needn’t be a fine paste.

3. Heat oil in a pan and add the black cumin seeds.

4. You can add in 2 green chilies (sliced). This is optional. But the green chilies do add a nice flavour. You can take the chilies out after a while.

5. When the cumin seeds crackle, add the potatoes. Stir well.

6. Sprinkle a little water (about ¼ cup). The idea is to cook the potatoes faster and not to have a gravy.

7. Lower flame and cover.

8. When the potatoes are nearly cooked and soft, add the posto paste, stir.

9. Cook for a couple of minutes further and remove from flame.

This dish is usually eaten with rice and dal (any sort). Dal, for those who don’t know is lentil soup and we have varieties of dal.

The swooning Mullah

2005-12-13T07:00:00.000+05:30

Mullah Gash Kardeh (The swooning Priest / mullah or that which makes the mullah swoon).

I got this one out of an Irani cook book. Can't vouch for the authenticity of either the recipe or the book. (I mean I HAVE seen scores of Indian cook books written by non-Indians and the recipes are so different from the original that most Indians would find them funny)!!

But I have to say, authentic or not, it is very easy to make and quite tasty. It is a vegetarian recipe.

I was at that point hunting around for vegetarian recipes with Brinjals or eggplants (A's favorite) to coax him away from red meat(Cholesterol problems).

A ofcourse thought that it could be improved by adding vast quantities of "mouton" and when I refused, he made me make the vegetarian bit and then added his own meat variation.

So here is the recipe in two parts: The original vegetaraian swooning priest. And then A's meaty variation. Bon Appetit!

(For two)
You will need:
2 small eggplant or one large plump one
3-4 tomatoes
2 onions
(The above three should be sliced into roundels / rings)
3-4 cloves of garlic
salt, pepper
Lots of coriander leaves, chopped finely
1/2 cup hot water
1 tsp oil

How to:
1. Slice eggplant, tomatoes and onions into roundels / rings. The eggplant should be 1/4 inch thick
2. Slice tomatoes into roundels
3. Slice onions into roundels
4. Grease the bottom of a dish (which has a tight lid) with a little oil. About 1 tsp.
5. Place in order, eggplant, tomato and onion (eggplant at the bottom, tomato above it and then the onion ring). When one layer is formed, place again in order eggplant, tomato and onion.
Between each veggie, sprinkle salt, pepper and coriander leaves finely sliced.
6. Grate the garlic and sprinkle over the layered veggies.
7. Pour half a cup of hot water into the dish. (It will fill only a little bit, but that will do. The veggies need not be immersed in water. Infact, they shouldnot be immersed in water).
8. Now, tightly close the lid. (If the lid does not close tightly, cover the top of the dish with a sheet of foil and then put the lid).
9. Cook over low flame for 40-45 minutes.
10. The veggies will release their juices and should be soft and pulply but you can (requires some finesse, lift the layers out...tastes fine even if they are reduced to a pulp, it looks better intact, when served).

You can eat them with bread I guess. Rice works for me.

Now, the non-vegetarian bit.
You will need (in addition to the above):
1/2 kg of mince meat (beef or lamb)
3-4 garlic cloves finely grated
1" piece ginger finely grated
salt to taste
Cooking oil

1. Heat oil in a wok / frying pan
2. Add garlic and stir so that they don't stick to the pan.
3. Add the meat and stir well.
4. Add the ginger.
5. Fry for 10 minutes (or a little bit more), over medium to high flame.
6. Add the cooked veggies (step 10 of above recipe)
7. Season with salt (check first, since the veggies already have salt in them).
8. Remove from fire and well...enjoy!

Note:
1. If you are an irani or know about Iran and happen to read this recipe and find it a far cry from the original recipe, please donot get angry with me and please be kind enough to let me have the correct recipe. I will appreciate it highly.

2. We Indians prefer loads of onions, garlic and ginger. Please add as much or as little as you prefer. But remember, while cooking the meat, do add the ginger. Donot omit it.

La Belle Meunière

2005-12-10T15:50:00.000+05:30

The first time I tried this dish was at Mocambo in Calcutta. That was in the late 80's. Since then, I have gone back several times to Mocambo. And I am extremely glad to report that this dish remains as delicious as ever. (Restaurants do have a way of deteriorting over time...both in quality of service and food).

Literally, its means the Beautiful Miller. I have no idea how it this dish got its name.

Once when I was feeling very intrepid, I asked the chef for the recipe. He very obliginging told it to me. And I, duly reported it back to R. (Whatever I could remember of it). R, ofcourse added her own variation - her special touch. And I must say, that too was very delicious. I haven't tried it myself. But I vouch for the delicious ness of R's version of La Belle Meunière.

You will need
Bekti fillet or slivers of moderate thickness (somewhere between a normal slab and over thin sliver).
Salt to taste
Pepper
Ajinomoto (yes MSG)
A sprig of parsely finely chopped for garnish
Cream
Butter

Here's how:
1. Wash the fillet, pat them dry with kitchen towel.

2. Mix a bit of cornflour with white pepper and salt.

3. Sprinkle this on the fillet.

4. Heat oil or butter (either one works, though butter is definitely more delicious) in a flat pan and lightly fry the fillet

5. Arrange the fried fillet in succession on a plate. Pour sauce (recipe given below) over them and serve immediately.

The Sauce:

1. Heat 50g of butter in a non stick pan over low flame.
2. Add a pinch of salt (be careful, we dont want to make the sauce salty), pepper, a pinch of ajinomoto.
3. Pour half cup cream.
4. Add the chopped parsley.
5. Remove from fire.
The whole procedure should take about 2-3 minutes.

Those of you who reside in Calcutta or are going there (I am next week), do go to Mocambo and try it out. And those of you who can't, here is the recipe, R's variation. Bon Appetit!

NOte: Any white fish will do, if you can't get Bekti

Potatoes with Black Pepper

2005-12-05T21:59:00.000+05:30

The very first of the handwritten recipes given to me by R is one I never tried till much later, by when I had already gotten a hang of the basics. And a very basic recipe it was. Its certainly not one R came up with herself. She had chosen this one because she was sure, even a novice like me couldn't go wrong with it: Potatoes with Black pepper. And why didn't I ever try it. Well it's not that I didn't. Everytime I decided to try this one and opened the book and read the first line, I had to give up. For the very first line says: "Before cooking this dish, boil the potatoes (in their skin) few hours in advance and then cool and de-Skin". In those early days, my day would be a mad rush to finish the house work (never ending it seemed) and then with a few hours left for A to return from office, I would go to the kitchen and cook the three dishes which was all I could manage in a day. And so never having planned the boiling of potatoes a few hours in advance, I would sigh and turn over to other recipes!

But now I am wiser. I know, that I can boil the potatoes (in their skin, mind you) whenever I want to and not few hours in advance and cool them by holding them under the tap! Hey presto!

So, just for the sake of those days when I didn't know any better here is

"Potatoes with Black Pepper"
You will need:
A few potatoes (600g in the original recipe)
4 tbsp vegetable oil (if you are a begginner and want specific measurements), less or more according to your preference, if not a begginner (but then you wouldn't be reading this basic recipe, would you???)
3/4 tsp salt or like they say "to taste
1 & 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp finely chopped coriander or parsley

How to
1. Before cooking this dish boil potatoes still in their skins, a few hours in advance or boil them when you'd like to cook and just plunge them in cold water.

2. De-skin and cut into small cubes

3. Heat oil in a non-stick or any other frying pan and set over minimum flame.

4. When the oil is hot, add the potatoes and stir gently or you will end up with mashed potatotes.

5. Stir for a minute. Sprinkle salt.

6. Lower flame, cover and cook for 5 minutes. In between, dont forget to stir. (Otherwise, non-stick or not, the potatoes will stick to the pan and cook unevenly).

7. Now sprinkle black pepper.

8. Uncover and cook for 1-2 minutes over medium heat, stirring every now or then, allowing them to brown. (You can also, shake the pan by the handle in a to-and-fro motion. This results in the potatoes rolling around nicely).

(Note: I have NEVER managed to get them evenly browned all over. But they taste good all the same).

9. Sprinkle the leafy garnish of your choice and Viola!

10. Instead of the pepper and coriander and parsley, you can alternatively sprinkle the potatoes with salt and mixed herbs of your choice (thyme, oregano or rosemary).

There is a trick to boiling the potatoes. They shouldn't be over boiled that they collapse while you try to de-skin them. Nor should they be so firm that despite the salt and pepper and herbs, they taste like boile potatoes alone! That is something, this timid cook is still perfecting!!

R's expert comments: This extremely simple and modest recipe can be a great soother when one is ailing from cough and colds and the taste buds in our tongue become quite quite inactive making everything tasteless. Its quick, simple and strangely during those times, very tasty and comforting; So its a must for a new learner, a new kitchen entrant and especially when one is down with COLD. It certainly ends up warming you and the tastebuds.!!!!! The black pepper shouldnt be powdered one from a packet but right out of a pepper mill and never mind if the greens are not there, just pepper itself can be a wonderful flavour.

The Timid Cook

2005-12-05T18:53:00.000+05:30

Well here goes! My own blog about food, eating,cooking with a lot of trepidation, hesitation and loads of help from R!

Infact, I had started my other blog Notes from France as a blog to note my cooking experiments. But somewhere three posts down, it became what it was to be : Notes from France and then became Notes from wherever life would take me.

I have always enjoyed food. Preferring quality over quantity. And have been fairly open about sampling different cuisines. But it has only been in the past 5 years (since I have got married), that I have taken up cooking. Or rather forced to. Not that I don't enjoy cooking. But somehow, lack that something which differentiates good cooks from mediocre ones. Even today, 5 years later, my cooking is erratic. I myself don't know how that same old recipe will turn out - Good, great or horrible.

And yet, my ma, my sis R are great cooks. R is ofcourse more than a great cook. She is a FABULOUS cook. And she has been a constant guide over phone and email, helping to transform me from a non-cook to a cook, albeit a TIMID one.

Infact, the 30 odd basic recipes that she wrote for me, in between doing a million things that one has to do in bong weddings, was and is my bible. A bit tattered, dog eared and smeared by turmeric and spices, I am lost without it. Dear sweet R, in her fabulously neat handwriting, managed to find time to write them down.

That gift was the most valuable one for me and I clung onto it. I was so dependent on it that when in one recipe I found salt wasn't
mentioned in it, I rang up R to ask why she hadn't written it.

"Oof oh! I must have forgotten to write it. And anyhow everyone knows that except for desserts, one has to put in salt. So go ahead and add salt". Relieved, I put down the phone and added salt. She must have been amazed at my lack of such basic knowledge, but really, at that point of time, if she had added an instruction to stand on one leg and cook, I would have done exactly that.

I have been bugging R for a very long time, as have been others to collate all her recipes and get them published. But she has been for whatever reason, loathe to go about it. So here I am with my stories and her recipes. If nothing else, I will have another
collection of recipes to pour over while eating lunch. (That's one more quirky passion of mine. I have to, simply have to go through a cook book while eating my lunch / dinner. No matter if the plain rice and dal I am eating is a far cry from the exotic recipes in the cook book I am reading)!

Bon Appetit! (Recipes from the next post onwards)!