More on Internet Friends and Gratitude...An evening with Finely Chopped

Just yesterday I wrote about a Facebook friend and his generosity to us. K and I have been fortunate to have quite a few Internet friends, some of whom are in Mumbai and we meet them quite frequently. Among these are Kalyan Karmakar of Finely Chopped fame and his wife Kainaz.

Not only do we share an interest in blogging but we also are passionate about food, and that's what makes us meet over and over again, exploring new tastes or simply going back to old favourites like Bohri Mohalla, and Ling's, to name just a couple. And sometimes we meet at home.

Yesterday we met at Kalyan's home for dinner. There wasn't any occasion but there was a very good reason. They'd just returned form a holiday in Prague and there was something they wanted to share with a bunch of freinds. Smoked pork sausages stuffed with bacon! Of course we went!

What a lovely evening it was... there were chicken kebabs made by their cook (we all agreed she should start a kebab and paratha stall somewhere - the kebabs were that good!), potato wafers that are irresistible as usual, and a simple dinner of those sausages chopped and fried with potatoes, and Kalyan's Spaghetti with Pesto and Bacon which he has now refined to a sublime, delicious dish.

I was, for once, too taken up with the food to take photographs so I am sharing Kalyan's photos here.

Photo credit: Kalyan Karmakar

Photo credit: Kalyan Karmakar

Photo credit: Kalyan Karmakar

You will find Kalyan's recipe for pesto here.

As we drove home late in the night the hubby and I mused over how lucky we were to have met warm hearted and generous folk like them who were so eager to share goodies bought from lands afar - only because they knew we would really enjoy them.

Food can be magical and for us, it is food that has found us some incredible friends.

Marathon Bloggers Project 52

Pesto Pull Apart Rolls

I have been looking through the past recipes done by the bread baking group We Knead To Bake to do one for February. I also wanted to make a bread to welcome the hubby home - he'd been away for a few days. It's also a working day today so I wanted something quick and easy. The Herb and Cheese Pull Apart bread that they did in January last year fitted the bill perfectly. This was the first bread the group did together at the start of WKTB in 2013.

I browsed around to see what the other members had done with this recipe and chose to follow Saee's recipe for Pull Apart Pesto Rolls. I had plenty of pesto in my fridge and this would be a great new way to use up some of it.

I'm reproducing Saee's recipe here. I haven't tweaked it at all.

Pesto Pull Apart Rolls 

200 gms Maida or white flour
2 tsp instant yeast
2 tsp sugar
3/4 cup warm water
2 tsp butter
1 tsp salt
extra butter for brushing
3-4 tsp pesto

In a small bowl or glass mix the yeast and sugar and pour the warm water over. In a separate bowl or directly on your work surface measure out the white flour. Make a well and pour in the yeast sugar mixture and start bringing the dough together with your fingers. It will get sticky but will come together very soon. Knead it on the counter top for a bit.

On the side take the 2 tsp of butter and the salt and combine them together making a smearing movement in a tight circle using your fingers parallel to the surface. Once the two are combined and the butter looks light and foamy work it into the dough. Once you add the fat the stickiness of the dough miraculously disappears.

Knead the dough well, stretching it as you go, for a good 10 minutes. Roll into a ball and place it in a bowl to raise. Cover with a damp cloth and leave it somewhere warm. It will double in 20 to 25 minutes max.

Remove the dough back on to a floured work surface. Punch out the air and knead for a minute. Roll it out into a flat oblong not thinner than 1/4 cm. It doesn't matter if the shape is not perfect. Spread the pesto evenly across the flattened dough going out to the edges.

Roll the dough carefully into a log. Cut the log into nine pieces and arrange them in a 9 inch round baking tin. Leave it to rise for another 20 minutes. Remember to leave some space between the rolls so they have room to rise.

Once the rolls have doubled and look squashed up next to each other pop them into your oven and bake for 20 minutes at 200C.

The tops should be a nice light golden colour. Brush the rolls with butter while they are still warm. Cool completely and they will come out of the tin very easily.

The same basic bread recipe can be used with a variety of fillings - Nutella, herbs and cheese, finely diced bacon or ham with cheese... just use your imagination and enjoy yourself!

Marathon Bloggers Project 52

We Knead to Bake #2 2014

Pantry Staples Class with Saee

Most cooking classes these days are about cup cakes, bread, desserts or cuisines like Mexican, Thai, and the ever popular Chinese. Learn 5 easy pasta recipes, 6 simple salads, 3 desserts in a jar recipes, 5 healthy main courses -  the list goes on and nothing captures the imagination any more. And one day Saee said she was thinking of doing a Pantry Staples class - I leaped up at the idea and told her I was coming for sure.

Saee's been taking bread workshops for a while now under her own My Jhola brand and even has customised classes where an interested student can Bring Home My Jhola and learn in the comfort of their own kitchen using equipment that they have instead of an overly professional and sometimes intimidating studio kitchen.

The Pantry Staples Workshop was one of the most informative and fun workshops I've been to in a long time. We made

Spicy Tomato Ketchup
Basil Walnut and Parmesan Pesto
Pumpkin Seed butter
Saffron and Cardamom Lemonade Concentrate
Strawberry Vanilla Jam

The hubby loves jams and has a collection of home made jams sitting on the shelves. His mum made jams at home and his sister makes some amazing jams too. Saee regularly sends over jams that she's made as do other foodie friends like Rushina. In fact, US based food blogger Niv Mani also brought over some of her own home made jams all the way to add to his jam collection! When I saw the Strawberry Vanilla Jam on the list for the workshop I knew I had to attend this one :)

Gourmet foods can easily be made at home and Saee's workshop was a demonstration of just how easy some of these are. You don't need any fancy equipment or gadgets, neither do you need any special utensils or vessels. We're also becoming more aware of the presence of artificial preservatives and flavourings in commercial foods and many of us would like to be able to cut those right out of our diets. This workshop showed how easily that can be achieved.

Most ingredients are now commonly available and are not prohibitively expensive any more. Basil, for example, is now available with most local vegetable vendors and if, like me, you shop online it's not a problem at all. It's the same with almost all the ingredients that we used in the workshop so one doesn't have to worry about not being able to make the same stuff at home for lack of ingredients.

I came home with a bag full of goodies and a head full of recipes. The biggest surprise for me was the Pumpkin Seed butter. I have a million food related hangups and can shut my mind to a whole lot of things. If there's a healthy label attached, it doesn't help matters. I didn't expect to like the butter and though I was interested in the process of making it I was fairly confident it wasn't something I was going to try out myself. Well, I have changed my mind. This is something I could easily enjoy slathered on toast in the mornings!

Here's a look at what we made-

Walnut Basil Pesto with Parmesan



Pumpkin Seed Butter

 Spicy Tomato Ketchup

Chunky Strawberry Vanilla Jam

Saffron Cardamom Lemonade

(Lemonade Photo Credit - Saee Koranne - Khandekar)

Keep your eyes peeled for Saee's next workshop. Trust me, you will learn interesting things and you'll have a whole lot fun too! 

Marathon Bloggers Project 52 2014

A can of tuna, a bottle of pesto, a jar of spaghetti

It was one of those days when roti sabzi, daal chawal or any variations of these just didn't appeal. So I went through the fridge and the pantry cupboard to see what I could find. A can of tuna, a bottle of pesto and a jar of very old spaghetti is what I came up with. Just perfect for a simple dinner! Of course I added a few more ingredients, but barely.

1 can tuna chunks
enough spaghetti for 2
1 small jar pesto
olive oil
fresh cracked pepper
100 ml cream
A chunk of cheese. I used Aged Cheddar

Boil water and set the spaghetti to cook. Add salt to the boiling water, and add a good splash of olive oil and toss after you drain. reserve a bit of the water, about half a cup should do.

Heat a large saucepan and empty the jar of pesto. Add a couple of ladles of the pasta water. Stir quickly to mix. Dunk in the tuna chunks and the accompanying brine or oil. Break the chunks a bit. Add the cream and stir to make a nice sauce.

Take a plate. Put a heap of the spaghetti in the middle and then top with a generous amount of the pesto cream sauce. Crumble some cheese on top and drizzle some top quality full flavoured olive oil for extra zip. Mix the spaghetti and let the sauce coat all the strands.

Tuck in!