Simple Pleasures

This post is not about food, it's about the simple pleasures of life. I've let myself get caught up in the madness of life and work so much that I have forgotten many of the simple, fun and pleasurable things I used to do. One of my greatest loves has always been baking, and like with regular cooking, one needs an appreciative audience for this too. Though I have a devoted audience at home concerns about weight and general health led me to more or less give up on baking. After all baking is for pleasure and you can't expect me to get excited about baking ragi biscuits! So the baking languished and the hubby wandered around looking disappointed.

Today I thought to hell with it...let me bake again. And I did. Nothing earth shattering, just a simple sponge cake with a whole lot of raisins in it. Hubby was at home and was eager to help and join in the fun. We had a blast! An inspired idea had us picking out raisins and various dried fruit from a huge jar of muesli that was being ignored for many months. I bunged them into the batter and we had a lovely home made cake dotted with assorted dried fruit.

Sometimes we must bend the rules and live a little too. I had such fun baking and the the joy on hubby's face was simply priceless. As much as you love someone, you must remember to do the little things that make them happy. That's what life is about, isn't it?

A half hour's effort and what splendid results...and I'm not talking about the cake!

The recipe for the cake is here.

Lunch at Mainland China, Vashi - a singular experience

Living in Navi Mumbai can leave one feeling pretty isolated so I thank God for the Internet every day. But one needs to have a real social life too, where one meets people face to face. It was time to make some new friends and a chance conversation with a new acquaintance led me into the unexplored world of the kitty party.

I was excited and a little embarrassed at the same time - I mean, a kitty party! But it was time to put aside all preconceived notions and give myself a chance to just go out and have some fun. And I did.

The venue chosen was Mainland China in Vashi. Now Mainland China as a restaurant chain has a formidable reputation built up over many years and many outlets all over the country and I was quite looking forward to going there. I was going to meet eight strangers (and one close friend!) and it was nice to have some sort of comfort zone, even if I hadn't been to this Vashi outlet more than once before.

One lady from the group was already there as my friend and I walked in. We got comfortable and before we knew it the waiter was at our table asking us what we would like to order. We said we were waiting for at least seven more people and we'd like to wait a bit. In another two or three minutes another waiter came by to take our order. We said the same thing and pointed to the large table we were sitting at and at all the empty spaces. We asked for the drinks menu thinking we'd at least order a drink.

The a la carte menu arrived. We specified we were going to all have their un fixed lunch because it would be easier for all. I reminded the waiter to get the drinks menu. The un fixed lunch menu arrived and with it an eager senior waiter type, all ready to take our order. There were still just three of us at the table. I asked for the drinks menu again.

We had some questions regarding the un fixed menu and the eager fellow went off to look for someone who knew how the un fixed menu works. No sign of the drinks menu yet. I finally lost patience and raised my voice asking one of the senior staff wandering around if they had a problem with serving us alcohol or any other drink. Many apologies and the drinks menus arrived.

Meanwhile a few more ladies arrived and our table began filling up. Introductions flew around, the fun had begun. The un fixed menu has soup and dim sum too and we all asked for both. Meanwhile the Chinese tea arrived. I don't like the stuff so I opted out but I did notice that there seemed to be a huge amount of tea leaves floating in every cup. The tea drinkers requested that the tea be strained and served because they couldn't enjoy the tea with a mouthful of leaves with every sip.

We continued chatting and joking and I was having a good time. Then the soup arrived. No sign of the drinks, by the way. Two beers, one cocktail and one mocktail had been ordered. Soup was served to all and voila! the drinks arrived and guess what? So did the tea! So we had soup, drinks and tea all together.

The dim sums also arrived but we were barely halfway through our soup. Now the un fixed menu has 3 pieces  of the dim sum per person but we were served 2 each and we had to demand that the third one be brought. It felt so silly but if you say 3 shouldn't you serve 3 and be done with it?? By this time the main courses began to arrive and the portions were unbelievably small. Why would the restaurant serve combined portions in dishes the same size as their regular single portion dishes? Why make the customer feel cheated? We insisted that they serve everything in their individual portions.

The food took forever to get to our table and when it came the waiters milled around dumping food on our plates, shouldering in from both sides literally giving us no room to even sit. It was simply unbelievable.

We finally chose our desserts and instructed them to bring each one individually. Guess what? They didn't. Everything came combined again and there were waiters actually serving half a scoop of ice cream because there were 9 people and six desserts had been ordered. Which part of 'bring everything individually' they didn't understand I honestly don't know.

This is possibly my worst experience eating out ever. I don't remember what the food tasted like because I was too pissed off to appreciate it. The service was beyond abysmal.

Being in the food business myself I am always willing to understand, be considerate and forgive a random mistake. But this was simply ridiculous and I had to hold myself back from holding a basic training session in courtesy and table service at Mainland China, Vashi.

Lunch at Mainland China, Vashi was a singular experience indeed. And it will remain so. I have been to other outlets, one of my favourites is the one in South City Mall, Calcutta. This one was a shock to the system.

I apologise to this long post, rather this rant...but I had to say it.

A Reunion and a Breakfast

College Reunions seemed always to be something older people were attending and suddenly I was attending one myself. They say life begins at 40 and yeah, some parts of life were beginning all right! The excitement and anticipation built up as we found class mates and friends through our best online friend finder, Facebook. And then one Friday after frantically finishing work, we were off to Pune to our beloved Deccan College to meet friends we hadn't seen for years. Some we last saw roughly 16 years ago. Much revelry, much fond abuse and many hugs later there we were, together again.

A reunion is a strange animal...it brings back memories of a time long past but that time feels like it was just yesterday or the last week. The intervening years feel like the blink of an eye. I felt I could simply reach out and touch that past, touch the person I was, the people we all were. So much has changed for all of us yet there we were, the same as we were all those years ago. The same sense of friendship, of closeness, of belonging. Everything had changed yet nothing had changed at all...

A regular haunt in the old days was Vohuman Cafe near Jehangir Hall hospital. With Hormazd uncle reigning supreme at the counter shouting at Mohammad or Satish to hurry up and collect the toast butter, or at some poor hapless customer for not having change to the loud buzz of conversation, the smell of eggs frying and butter melting on to hot toast, it was all familiar and comforting to be back. Prices have gone up and the place is a bit spruced up - a fresh coat of paint and a new false ceiling with lots of lights - but the feeling of being back at Vohuman is as wonderful as ever.

Here is a picture of Hormazd uncle with big star Salman Khan, that uncle insisted we all admire :)

And here's Hormazd uncle again, the eternal ladies' man..

Endless plates of bun maska, toast butter, masala omlette, double half fry (palti marke) and chai after chai after chai. What a perfect breakfast we all had as we sat around the old marble topped tables joined together higgledy piggledy.

Replete after a huge breakfast and a flood of memories we were all quite full.

One never quite grasps the impact a reunion has till one has been there. For hubby and me it was a journey back in time as we relived our courtship, completed writing his PhD thesis, attended endless excavations across the country, sat up endless nights playing cards, drank litres of booze, learned about archaeology and about life. It was like it happened again. I spent nearly 10 years at Deccan College, undoubtedly the best years of my life... I would go back in a heart beat.

Photo credits go to my friends Tridib and Jubal. Thanks :)

Chocolate Peanut Butter Squares by Nigella

The first Nigella book I bought was How to be a Domestic Goddess and it is one of my most favourite books of all time. Not just among cook books, but among books in general. After drooling over the pictures and sighing over the delicious recipes and enjoying her seductive writing style it was time to get into the kitchen and try out some of the goodies for myself.

The recipe for Peanut Butter Squares called out to me! They were, she said, a homespun version of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Now these are never available here in India and if I had a chance to recreate them in my own kitchen who would dare get in  my way?!

So I did try them out and they were gorgeous..simple, no fuss, straight forward gorgeous. What makes me like them even more is how ridiculously easy it is to make them. No cooking involved, no fancy techniques, no fiddly equipment, nothing. A cake tin, a couple of mixing bowls, a spatula, a fork and a microwave, if you have one. If you don't, a saucepan works just as well.

So here's how you make the Peanut Butter Squares. My recipe is slightly adjusted using ingredients that I had.

50 gms dark demerara sugar
200 gms icing sugar
50 gms butter (unsalted if you can get it, I used regular Amul )
200 gms smooth peanut butter

300 gms chocolate
1 generous tbsp butter

1 8x10 square brownie tin

Take a clean mixing bowl and mix the two sugars. Make sure the icing sugar is not lumpy. If it is just whizz it in your mixer and it will be fine. Add the butter and the peanut butter and mix it all up. Use a fork and work it together till you get it all fairly well mixed. Butter the tin and dust with a bit of icing sugar. Press in the peanut butter/sugar/butter mix to cover the entire base of the tin and press nicely into the corners. Smooth out the top with your spatula or just go in with your hands and flatten it out nicely.

Melt the chocolate in your microwave or in a double boiler. Heat water in a saucepan and place a heat proof bowl on the bubbling water with the chocolate in it. Be careful, don't let water get into the chocolate. Once the chocolate is melted add that tablespoon of butter and blend it in nicely. Your chocolate should glisten beautifully. You can use plain dark chocolate or a combination of dark chocolate with milk chocolate, whatever works for you.

Pour the chocolate onto the Peanut butter base in the brownie tin. Smooth the surface and let it cool in the fridge till it is set absolutely firm. Resist temptation and leave it alone for at least a couple of hours so it sets properly. Cut into squares and enjoy!

As simple as it is to make them, these little babies are sinfully rich. Indulge only occasionally :)

Going, Going, Goa!!

Going to Goa is like a pilgrimage for me. We look forward to a lazy week of doing nothing, eating plenty of superb food, reading and generally lazing around. K and I like to drive from Mumbai all the way to Goa. Well, he does all the driving, I just enjoy the ride! And there were, once again, on our way back to that wonderful place, Goa.

At Mangaon we stopped at a little shop on the main road itself for some fresh mango kulfi. K enjoyed it so much we stopped here again on the way back. This massive slab of kulfi cost all of Rs.25.

We usually stop overnight somewhere on the way. We have stayed at Ganpatipule on one trip and this time since we were going for a shorter period, decided to drive all the way to Sawantwadi before stopping for the night. If you are ever there and need to stay the night, The Mango is a great option. Exceptionally clean rooms, well furnished, prompt and friendly service and the best prawn curry I've ever eaten! Sawantwadi is also known for its papier mache and wooden handicrafts.

We stopped for lunch at a new highway restaurant on the ghat section before Chiplun. The food was fresh, flavourful and surprisingly not hot with chillies. We found this to be the trend at all the highway stops on the way to Goa and on our return trip too.

Refreshed after a good night's rest at The Mango in Sawantwadi we proceeded towards Goa. There's a major section of the highway being broadened and work was on in full force.

And then there we were! In Goa! We stayed at a resort in Benaulim, further south from Margao. We first stopped at our favourite shop in Margao and stocked up on some ready masala paste packets and choriz pau to munch on. The taste of Goa...fresh and spicy!

Once we'd checked in and dumped our bags we went in search of lunch. Now if you're familiar with Margao you know about Longuinho's. We found a restaurant bearing their name in Benaulim itself and we trooped in ready to pig out on some good Goan grub. Crisp batter fried prawns, Beef chilly fry, and king fish curry with rice. Bring it on!

In the next few days we ate at many places across Goa and made some amazing discoveries too. Whenever I remembered to whip out the camera I took pictures. At other times I was too busy enjoying the smells and flavours so I have no pictures.

If you're in Goa check out Branco Bar and Restaurant in St Inez. The Salted beef tongue was simply divine.

Rava fried Mussels

The Salted Beef Tongue

Pan fried squid with LOTS of garlic!

If you are in South Goa come to Pedro's on Benaulim beach. The best crisp fried squid on Earth is here, I promise. We ordered it twice and they were consistently good. This is one meal I regret not having pictures of.

The drive back was an adventure in itself. It took us roughly 48 hours to get back because we had car trouble. It also was a chance to really connect with locals at Kharepatan and then again in a little village before  Hathkhamba. The car finally said enough a couple of kilometers outside Sanghameshwar so we spent the night there. And discovered amazing food in a hole in the wall little eatery. There were modaks made with Kopra Paak (grated sweetened coconut) with fruit pulp added. It seems this is a local speciality. Sitafal, strawberry, chocolate (!), and mango were available. K proclaimed the mango ones to be the best.


No journey on the Indian highways is complete without stern and sometimes philosophical warnings to drive carefully. Here's my favourite one.

"You are a traveller, not a competitor"

And then there are kulfi and falooda vendors too

Learned people say that the journey is as important as the destination. Truer words were never spoken. What a wonderful country we live in.

Chinese Breakfast on the Street

This morning I woke up seriously early, at 5.30am. The motivation was that strong! We were going to try out the breakfast sold on the street at Poddar Court, somewhere beyond Esplanade in Kolkata. I looked on good old Google and found that we had to go to Sun Yat Sen Street. This turned out to be a little beyond Benticnk Street which, I was told, is full of shoe shops.

Well, we found Poddar Court quite easily and looked for the Chinese vendors. There were a bare handful and I saw more luchi torkari (puri and potato sabzi) sellers than the Chinese guys. However, the few that were there made our morning.

The first thing I saw was a tray laden with glistening pink and white fresh pork sausages. I immediately bought some.

Then as I glanced around to see what all was on offer, Dada walked up tome with a plate full of fish momos.

The sausage seller agreed to keep my parcel while I sampled the goodies from the others. The fish momos were quite nice. Not spectacular but nice. 

We wandered over and checked out one seller who seemed to be doing brisk business. We tried the Pork fried momos. He offered us steamed fish momos too but we'd already tried those from someone else. This quite offended the fellow and he very sulkily commented that his were made with 'pure' fish..no onions, and were the real thing. We tried them out to appease him and they were quite nice too though I will admit, they were different. 

The street is quite messy and the stalls are all higgledy piggledy sharing space with a tea stall, vegetable vendors and even flower sellers. One one side was a lady selling soup with rice dumplings. The was even a table where you could stand and enjoy the soup. The table was provided with a caddy of soup spoons, forks, chopsticks and little steel saucers for the garlic sauce.

The soup was lovely! Hot, mild broth with tender green garlic shoots, and two delicious rice dumplings that were flavoured with fish and pork. Just perfect for a nippy morning.

By now we were quite stuffed so we looked around to see what else there was and keep it in mind for next time. There was this one man selling Pork rolls and pork chops. No, not the pork chops you'd imagine but the typical bengali potato covered chops made with pork! A marriage of Chinese and Bengali cuisine, no doubt. He also had these interesting flat large puris studded with decent sized whole prawns. We will try these out next time.

 On the opposite side of the road was a vegetable vendor selling a variety of leafy greens - mustard greens, radish greens, Kolmi shaak, methi leaves, green garlic, bok choy and Chinese lettuce. And there were flower sellers too with a medley of colours making the morning bright and cheerful.

And of course we brought some goodies home..
Here's one. This is the size of the dinner plate and is stuffed with rice. We shall find out just how it is at lunch today.

If you're in Kolkata and are up for an adventurous and delicious breakfast check out Poddar Court very early one morning. Everything's gone by 8am so come in early! You can eat like a king without spending even Rs.100 here.

Oh, and Merry Christmas to you!

At home with Moni

So here I am back in Kolkata again. This is my fifth trip here in less than two years and I am beginning to enjoy being here so often. Now most people look forward to going home to their mother's house, especially for all the good food that their mum will cook. Unfortunately my mother hates cooking... and the irony is that she's a great cook. Anyway, since I have just arrived she has enthusiastically shopped and is all set to cook a whole lot of goodies.

My visit here has begun with her signature manghshor jhol. Every Bengali Mom has her own version that her children weep with joy over..and Moni (that's what we call my mum, short for Manisha) made this Bong classic for me. The epitome of comfort food and mother's love all rolled into one, manghshor jhol is one of my all time favourite dishes. And it was simply superb! Mama was sent to the particular mutton shop in Jagu bajar to buy the mutton, mashi brought it over to our house in Dhakuria and Moni marinated it the day before I was to arrive. She cooked it in the morning and I feasted on it at night.

This morning I asked Moni to cook some veggies in the typical Bengali style. So she made Shaak Ghonto. This is essentially palak or spinach cooked with a medley of vegetables. Brinjal, radish, potato and raw banana or plantain along with the spinach were cooked with ginger and 'mouri' or saunf paste. As with most Bengali dishes, a dash of sugar makes an appearance and this dish is finished with milk. Bori or daal vadi is fried and then crushed and sprinkled on top of the finished preparation. The resulting ghanto was simply superb!

I find cooking vegetables extremely tedious, especially with all the precise cutting and chopping involved. But Moni cut everything meticulously into tiny squares and patiently cooked this beautiful medley of vegetables. She might say she doesn't like to cook but I think I disagree :)

Well, I'm here for two weeks and I have lots to look forward to, that's for sure!

Chicken Curry in a Big Hurry

I'm a great devotee of short cuts, ready marinades, spice mixes and marinades that make cooking quicker. I love to cook and if I can cook something quickly, there's nothing I like better!

So there I was on a Sunday morning, not really in the mood to cook something elaborate but I wanted a good lunch nonetheless. So it was one of my favourite dishes that I opted to make. I always have the ingredients for this in stock and it took me about half an hour to put it together. This chicken curry needs just a few ingredients and is really easy to throw together.

1 Chicken, cut into pieces
2 pkts Knorr Punjabi Chicken Curry masala
1 pkt Dabur Coconut Milk

2 onions sliced
2 potatoes, cut into fat chips

oil
salt

Marinate the chicken in the masala from one packet of the Knorr PCC masala. Add water to make a paste and coat the pieces well. Let it sit for a bit if you have the time or cook it straight away. of course, waiting is always better.

Heat oil in your wok or large pan. Fry the potatoes till they redden nicely. Add in the sliced onions. Stir and fry till the onions are pink. Dunk in the marinated chicken pieces and cook it all well. Let the pieces sear nicely and then simmer for a bit.Add the second packet of the Knorr PCC masala. Mix the chicken and the onions and potatoes well and let them all cook a bit. Say 5 minutes, undisturbed and covered. Add very little salt as most of these ready mixes have salt in them already.

Snip open your tetrapak of Dabur Coconut Milk and pour it in. Stir it well and add half a cup of water if needed. Stir it nicely and let it come to a boil. Simmer again covered. Leave it alone for another 10 minutes or so. Once the chicken pieces are cooked through and the potatoes are done, it's ready to serve.

Add some fresh chopped coriander leaves for an extra punch. Serve with plain hot rice if there's lots of gravy or have it with rotis, parathas or bread.

Pickled Pink! Parsi Prawn Pickle

I had been planning to make a batch of Prawn Pickle for a while..a few months, in fact. I've also been meaning to get back to writing this blog again. So here I am today, fulfilling two goals in one day!

Prawn Pickle by Katy Dalal

This pickle is tangy and sweet and has a nice bite to it too. With vinegar, red chillies and jaggery melding together their distinctive flavours and the prawns showcasing it all, this is one of my favourite pickes.

4 cups Prawns, shelled, deveined, and washed

curry leaves

8 - 10 Green Chillies

2 tsp salt

2 cups Kolah's Sugarcane vinegar

Make a paste in 1/2 cup vinegar with:

16 dried red Kashmiri chillies

2 whole pods Garlic

3 Tbsp cumin seeds

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 tsp Methi or Fenugreek seeds

1 tsp turmeric pwd

1/5 tsp Badisaunf

1 & 1/2 cup jaggery

2 cups oil

Take a largeish saucepan and heat 2 cups vinegar. Put in the prawns with the green chillies, curry leaves and salt. Bring to a boil and cook till the prawns are nearly done. Leave aside to cool.

Heat the 2 cups of oil in a large karhai or wok or pot. Make sure you really use two cups...this is a pickle! Once the oil is nice and hot put in the ground masala paste. Stir the paste to mix well into the oil. Be careful here because the masala takes time to separate and meld with the oil. Don't stir too vigorously or you might splatter hot oil on yourself. Mix thoroughly till all the paste is combined and is frying nicely. Once the oil separates and the whole spice mix is giving out its wonderful aroma add the jaggery. You might want to adjust the amount of jaggery according to how sweet you like the pickle to be. Blend it in well.

Ladle the prawns into this mix without the vinegar. Just use a slotted spoon. Stir and mix it all in well. Pour in the vinegar a little at a time, maybe half a cup, and stir to combine. Bring to a boil adding vinegar to make a sufficient amount of 'gravy'. Cook for about five minutes checking that the prawns are cooked.

Your Prawn Pickle is ready!

Cool it really well and decant into clean glass bottles.

This recipe is from my Mom in law's first cook book Jamva Chaloji. I learned to love food and to respect fresh ingredients from her and I also learned to eat well and enjoy good food. She, and hubby introduced me to a world of great food and many different cuisines. I wish she was here cheering me on as I discover more food things every day...

Red Hot Chilli Prawns

My brother is here and I'm trying to spice up my cooking. He's just back from a holiday in Indonesia where he didn't really enjoy the food....so these days i do try to cook something special every day.

Today I was thinking of making my usual prawns in coconut gravy but I needed to spice it up. I ended up making something completely different indeed!!

1 cup large prawns
1 tbsp jeera garlic red chilli paste
1 large onion minced
2-3 hot green chillis
1/2 tsp jeera
200 ml coconut milk.
turmeric
salt
chilli pwd
oil
curry leaves
3 cloves, an inch sized stick of cinnamon
Chopped fresh coriander leaves.


Heat oil in a wok and drop in the cloves and cinnamon, add the jeera and let it sizzle. Add the curry leaves and the chillies, slit or in pieces. Stir for half a minute or so and add the finely chopped or minced onion. Don't let the onions burn. Stir well and once they are mildly brown add in the spice paste. You can make this paste yourself or buy it off the shelf (as I do). Mangal makes a good one and so does Atash. Add the salt, turmeric and a spicy chilli powder and a bit of water so the dry spices don't burn.
Once the spices are mixed in well, stir in the prawns (shelled and deveined, of course!). Mix well to coat with the spices. Pour in the coconut milk and let it cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Keep an eye on the prawns and be careful not to over cook them. Add in a generous amount of chopped fresh coriander leaves and you're done!

Serve with fluffy hot steamed rice and some poppadums.

Pancakes!!!

I learned how to make pancakes when I was ...maybe...9 or 10 years old. I made them recently for breakfast, after a really long time and was flooded with memories of my childhood. This was one of the first things I could cook from scratch without anyone's help and ma allowed me to make it quite often :)

The thumb rule that I remember for pancakes is 1+1+1.

1 cup of milk
1 egg
1 cup flour, sifted.
Mix all three in a large bowl and add some salt. Let it rest in the fridge, covered, for at least half and hour.
In a small non-stick pan, add a little oil and ladle in the batter, enough to cover the base. Once it bubbles, flip the pancake and cook the other side. This should take about 3 to 4 minutes in all.

You can make them thick or thin, as you prefer. To make thin pancakes, simply add some milk to the batter.





Serve hot with honey, peanut butter, Nutella, cheese spread, jam, marmalade, sauteed mushrooms....whatever you like!! We had ours with honey and with bacon rashers.

Akuri- Masala Scrambled Eggs, The Parsi way..

4-6 Eggs
1/4 cup milk.
1 cup Tomatoes, Chopped
1 cup Onions, Chopped fine
Chillies
fresh Coriander, Chopped Fine
A sprig of curry leaves
Ginger Garlic Paste
Jeera powder
Turmeric
Chilli powder
Salt
oil

In a non stick frying pan heat oil and fry the onions on a medium flame till almost caremalised. Don't burn them. Add the tomatoes and the chillies, the sprig of curry leaves, a teaspoon of ginger garlic paste, half teaspoon each turmeric, chilli and jeera powders, mix well. Cook till tomatoes are cooked through and the oil is released. Lower the heat. Add salt and the chopped coriander and mix well.
In a cup or bowl beat the eggs and milk. Pour it slowly into the pan, stirring constantly till all is poured in. Keep the heat low or the Akuri will thicken too fast. Remove from heat when it comes to the consistency you like- loose and runny or firm or somewhere in between...
Serve with rotis, warmed Brun bread or with regular sliced bread.

Add a dollop of butter just before serving :)

Grilled Chicken Livers

This is what Hubby has requested I make this evening to have with drinks...
Its an extremely simple recipe, practically cooks itself...and with delicious results.

Chicken livers, cleaned.
Cajun seasoning
salt
neutral oil

Sprinkle the Cajun seasoning liberally over the chicken livers and let it marinate for a while. Add salt too.
Heat some oil in a non stick pan and fry the livers quickly over a high flame. Reduce heat after a minute and let it cook further. Don't cover, let the moisture evaporate while cooking. Once the livers have turned pink inside, they're done.
Serve in a pretty platter with toothpicks and napkins.

In case you don't have Cajun seasoning, make a mix of some fried garlic, chilli flakes, a little pepper, salt and you get quite ggod results using this combination too.

Sorse Ilish or Ilish in Mustard Sauce

We were at the fish shop this morning and I chanced upon a small Ilish, all silver and glistening. We have friends coming home for dinner tonight so I snapped it up. As soon as I got home I called up my mum and asked her how to cook this Bengali classic dish.

Here is what I did-

Sliced Ilish pieces, washed.
3 green chillies
Mustard paste
mustard oil
kalonji seeds
salt
turmeric
Fresh coriander leaves.

Wash the fish pieces and coat with salt and turmeric. Keep aside. Heat the mustard oil in a kadai and drop in the green chillies and the kalonji seeds. Let them all splutter. Slide in the fish pieces and fry on a low flame. Be gentle as the fish tends to break. Pour in the mustard paste and some water. Let it cook covered for a few minutes till the fish is cooked through. Remove to your serving bowl. Pour a tablespoon of mustard oil on the dish and sprinkle with well washed fresh coriander leaves.
Serve with hot rice.



This is one of the very few recipes where neither ginger nor garlic paste, not even onions are used. It is an extremely simple recipe, ready in less than 15 minutes....but sublimely delicious to eat.

Chicken Salad with Home-made Honey Mustard Mayo

This divinely simple salad is what we had for dinner yesterday...thanks to my dear hubby..

We were both tired of the usual rice/roti/dal/subzi routine and I was a bit off the cooking wagon. So hubby volunteered..

The salad is quite simple-

Take a cup each of cubed carrots, potatoes and medium cut french beans, all boiled but firm. Boil them separately. Cool and combine in a bowl.

Boil some chicken with salt and pepper. Once cooled, chop into small cubes or strips. Add to the veggies.

For the mayo-

Crack two eggs in your blender, add a tablespoon of honey, a good squeeze of mustard, a pinch of salt, two tbsp vinegar, some pepper and start blending with a thin stream of neutral oil. About a cup or a bit more is what you'll require.
Once the mayo is done, add as much as required to the salad and refrigerate the rest in a closed container.

Mix the salad and add a dash or two of tabasco for a bit of bite.

Serve the salad absolutely chilled.

Of course you can add other veggies to the salad- beetroot, cucumbers, lettuce, cherry tomatoes, whatever you fancy. Of course ham, salami, chopped boiled eggs will work wonderfully well too. Hubby used what we had at home.. The true joy of the salad of course was in the mayo- not your generic store bought variety but home-made and absolutely delicious and simple.

Hubby's tip- use chicken leg meat, preferably as breast meat tends to dry out and taste stringy.

As usual it was polished off before I could take a picture...