Ringing in the year of the monkey

The year 2015 was in a hurry to get over. It was just January 2015, that I was making a list of all the things I will and will not do. By the time I looked at the list a second time round 2015 was over and I was planning my year end trip back home. Is it just me or did this year really roll that fast.

For me the year 2015 was well spend with a little drama here and there , emotions running high , some lovely moments spend with special people , some understanding and a year end trip that was so amazing. (Note to myself: should travel more).

This New Year’s Eve I wanted to be far away for the crowd and the noise and spend it with people who matter. I decided to cook for the three lovely people in my life and just relax at home. I know some of you must be thinking I am boring and getting old. But the truth be told I have experienced New Year’s Eve when the countdown started and we are all scattered in different sides in the club and by the time people kissed friends and dear ones ringing in the new year we were standing alone with the drinks in our hands fighting the mob to get to each other. The damn crowd.... so from that year onward I make sure that I am with people who matter, it doesn’t matter where.

This year I wanted to cook for my people and just relax at home. Eat drink be merry in your pajamas. These are some of the things I cooked

Pan friend bell pepper and mushroom with herb butter 

Cold Asian noodle salad

Roasted tomatoes with chilli garlic and fresh herb with garlic bread

Greek yogurt dip

Southern style butter milk chicken fry with homemade honey mustard dip 

The spread

With the onset of another new year, the most important thing is the LIST. The list of resolutions that I make but  fail to follow. This year I have my list ready. I will share with you all the list and will tell you all , how many I managed to follow

THE LIST::

·         Read more .Gone are the days when I use to curl up with a good book. I have made a list of all the books I want to complete reading. I will dearly miss the Gariahat Bedouin junction when I used to go, beginning of every month to get my fixation of buying books satisfied.

·         Eat healthy and only when I am hungry not when I just want to eat something.

·         Start working out at least 4 times a week. Need to reduce the 15 kg that I have gained over the last 2 years

·         Cook more and Blog more.  I am a very lazy person and only spend my weekends sleeping. This year I will at least put up one write up once in every 10 days  7 days

·         Save money

·         Cut down on 1 bad habit

·         Be motivated to go to work regularly

This is the shortest list ever that hope to follow .I am sure I can write some more resolutions but I don’t want to waste the time (the shorter the list the better I will feel even if I fail to accomplish even one point on the list.) as I want to get a cup of tea before I sit down to watch the new serials that I have started to watch, Downtown Abbey. The buffering is almost done.Till then happy and health new year to all of you. Much Love.

chilli beef

There has been no recipes, no stories, no cooking for the last couple of weeks. I won’t lie. I was not sick nor was I super busy. I did cook food to feed my eternally hungry tummy. I was plain lazy. I sat on my bed with the laptop and planned and planned what to write for all the occasions and the festivities. Errr, they are still in the pipeline, I guess. The only thing I did on my weekends was sleep. I love to sleep and will never compromise on the same. My Nani used to keep on asking me when I will sit down with my books during my boards because I slept for more than 7 hours where as all my cousins according to their parents slept for like less than 5 hours and studied to ace the exams. A lot of days I remember just waking up to study after all the planning but never managed to keep my eyes open. I came up with innovative ways to sleep and not be caught. Anyway I didn’t do a bad job. I passed will pretty good marks.

If we were to be paid for being lazy, I would earn a six digit package a month any day hands down. In order to not compromise on my sleep and to eat some good food I have come up with my own cheat version of a lot of one pot meals. A little preparation and you can go back to being lazy but end up enjoying a good meal at the end of the day.

Beef chilli

INGREDIENTS

1 kg beef (I asked my butcher to cut it in thin strips)

3 onions (cut 2 of them into quarters and grate the remaining one)

3 bunches of spring onions (dice the onion part into cubes and finely chop the green part)

2 capsicums (diced into cubes)

8-9 fat cloves of garlic (I normally smash the garlic with the blunt end of the knife and then mince it)

½ inch ginger grated

A handful of green chillies finely chopped and soaked in vinegar

4 teaspoon of soy sauce

Pepper powder

A pinch of paprika powder or chilli powder

1 tablespoon corn flour

Salt and sugar to taste

Oil to try

                          

Water as needed

METHOD

Wash and pat dry the beef

Marinade the beef with half the garlic, ginger, the grated onion, corn flour, paprika powder, salt to taste, 1 tablespoon soy sauce and a little vinegar.

Keep aside for minimum one hour.

In a big pot or cooker add a little oil and sear the beef pieces.

Keep aside. Let it rest for 15 minutes.

In the same pot add the remaining ginger, half of the remaining garlic and fry till the raw smell of the garlic goes away.

Add the beef pieces and the marinade and mix everything nicely so that the beef pieces get coated in the marinade. There will be a little juice that will come out of the meat when you keep it to rest. Add the juice for the flavor.   Add water and bring to a boil. Cover and cook till meat is tender and all the water evaporates.

Remove the beef pieces.

In the same pot add a little oil.

Add the remaining garlic and fry. Once it starts to change colour add the onions and fry till transparent. Add the beef back to the pot and also throw in the capsicum. Mix well. Fry for a min or two on high heat.

Add the remaining soy sauce, chilly vinegar and a little water, scrape the pan and mix all the lovely flavors. Add sugar and the pepper powder and mix well.

Do a taste check.

Before removing from heat add the chopped green onions.

Lazy lunch... Dhone Murgi

I have been very lazy and haven’t gone near the kitchen for almost a week. My excuse it’s too hot. Believe me its 37 degrees outside. And thank you very much I can do without going near all the heat and sweat. I am happily eating whatever my cook will make for us, even if it looks not very appetizing at times.  I have this thing, the food should look good, it’s very rightly said you eat first with your eyes. I definitely do first eat with my eyes. Now I cannot instruct her too much because my cook knows only Marathi and I with much difficulty speak Hindi with a lot of words in Bengali in it. So major communication gap. I have to literally dance a little every time I try and explain her how I want her to cook something.

Since my cook decided to take a little break herself, I had no option but to break the “do not enter the kitchen” mode. The easiest option was to make a chicken curry and rice. Fast, easy, nothing much to be done and I had chicken somewhere in the freezer which meant no going out in the sun. This curry is something that you can cook with the basic things that we have in our kitchens and takes 20 odd minutes to cook. The faster the better.

dhone murgi

INGREDIENTS

1 Kg Chicken

250 gram Curd

2 Red Onions roughly chopped

2 tablespoon Ginger Garlic paste

3 tablespoon Coriander powder

4-5 green chillies

5-6 Baby potatoes (I used baby potatoes because I bought some to make Aloo Dum but my laziness 

got the better of me. Normal potatoes cut into half will do just fine.)

2 Dry Chillies

1 Tomato chopped

A pinch of Turmeric

Salt and Sugar to taste

Mustard oil

A handful of chopped Coriander

METHOD

Wash and keep aside the chicken.

Marinade the chicken and potatoes with half the coriander powder, curd, salt and keep aside for 30 minutes to an hour.

Heat the mustard oil in a pan add the Dry chilies, once it starts to change colour add the onions and fry till light brown.

Add the ginger garlic paste and fry together till the raw smell is no longer there.

Add the remaining coriander powder, turmeric, green chilies, sugar and fry in low flame for about 3-4 minutes till the spices start releasing oil.

Add the marinated chicken and potatoes and mix everything well,

Cook without cover for 5-6 minutes mixing everything well and frying the chicken. At this point add the tomatoes making sure that the chicken is coated in all the spices.

Once the curd starts releasing water, put a lid on and cook till chicken and potatoes are cooked.

You may need to add a little water.

Do a taste check and garnish with fresh chopped coriander.

Crackling Sesame Honey chicken

My weekends are not on Saturdays and Sundays like all normal people. It’s on Wednesday & Thursdays. Not fun right. You bet!! The entire days I sit at home, read books, watch random stuff in YouTube, snoop about people in Facebook and watch random stuff again. Yeah so that’s what I do the entire two days mostly. On my weekends, I am a lazy person and if I am not dying then I prefer not going out at all. After literally fighting and sweating my way through Mumbai traffic to work, I don’t really miss the chaos on my weekends.

This last week, the entire five days at work, my friend Preci and myself have been going through different food recipes and decided to cook something together. Yes I have passed  the bug to browse food blogs on to my friends as well. We spend our times lusting over, yes lusting over the different recipes in random food blogs … we decided to make a version of honey sesame chicken that we found easy enough to make.. It needs an oven but since in my humble abode in Mumbai there is no oven or a microwave, we decide my trusted frying pan it is. Yes I do stay without a microwave. But unfortunately we could not face the 37 degrees outside and canned our plan and decided to treat ourselves to cupcakes instead in the evening.

I dreamt of this sweet and sticky chicken for an entire week. How could I let go of relishing this with my fingers sitting on the bed and afterwards licking my fingers for kingdom come.  So I decided, that enough of being lazy and appointed Prince, R’s boyfriend as my sous chef. He loves his food and was more enthusiastic than I was. From chopping onions for me to marinating the chicken, he did it all. He kept on saying that the chicken should be marinated properly Di.  We should do it properly. So here's to doing it properly.

So this post is dedicated to you Prince, for making my dream of licking my fingers come true.

Honey sesame chicken  

INGREDIENTS

1 Kg chicken

Half cup honey

3 spoonful of Siracha sauce (hot sauce)

2 teaspoon of ginger garlic paste

3 tablespoon of dark soya sauce

2 thinly sliced onions

250 grams mushrooms

1 tablespoon of Dijon or English mustard

Salt to taste (remember you are adding soya sauce, and that salty)

2 teaspoon of roasted sesame seeds

METHOD

Wash and clean the chicken

Marinade the chicken with soya sauce, honey, siracha sauce, salt, chopped onions, ginger garlic paste and mustard.

Keep aside for at least an hour.

In a frying pan add a tablespoon of oil and once hot place the chicken and fry both the sides till light brown.

Add a little of the marinade ,cover and cook till chicken is tender and cooked.

In the meantime chop the mushrooms and add to the marinade.

Once all the chicken pieces are cooked add the mushrooms with all the marinade and cook till mushrooms are soft and the marinade mixture has reduced.                                                                

It becomes a light sweet mushroom sauce for the chicken.

Add the roasted sesame seeds on top of the chicken.

Devour with a loaf of bread and a big bowl of salad of your choice.

P.S : I ate mine with white fluffy rice . I was craving for bhaat . In order to reduce my weight and get fit I am trying to avoid rice you see but at times (almost every time) I bow down to my temptations.

Posto Murgi

I simply remember my favourite things and then I don’t feel so bad.

M for MANGOES , himshagor aam.

N for NOTUN GUR .... think patishapta , rice kheer or narkel naru

O for ORANGES on a cold winter afternoon after the lunch while soaking up the sun.

P for POSTO 

One of the few simple happiness in my life is to eat aloo posto ( potato curry with khus khus or poppy seed)and then the bhaat ghum ( bhat in Bengali means rice and ghum is sleeping , siesta as the Spanish calls it ). The happiness and fulfilment that you achieve after the bhaat ghum is something all Bengalis can relate to.

Posto or poppy seed is an oilseed obtained from the opium poppy. The kidney-shaped seeds are used whole or ground as an ingredient in many food preparation.

I never was a fan of posto to be very honest. I liked it now and then. Back in Kolkata mostly on Wednesdays or Thursdays aloo jhinge posto (potato and ridge gourd curry with poppy seed paste) was a staple side with rice. My ever growing relation with posto started after I shifted to Mumbai.   Now that I need to prepare everything from scratch when the craving kicks in, I mentally kick myself for making faces when it was made at home.  D , my boyfriend however loves his posto.  To be honest I started to cook with poppy seed paste because he loves it.  For me mostly posto has become a comfort food. So on those days when I have lost my senses with the work pressure, I make this chicken curry with Poppy seed paste. The sleep afterwards is an added bonus.

POSTO MURGI recipe

INGREDIENTS

1 kg Chicken

Poppy seed paste 4 tablespoon (grind the poppy seed with 3-4 green chillies)

2 big Onion (roughly chopped)

1 big onion paste or you can just grate it in a grater (I used onion paste)

2 teaspoon Ginger garlic paste

6-7 Green chillies (take 3-4 out of this and grind with the poppy seed)

200 gms curd

2 dry red chillies

½ inch Cinnamon

5-6 Cloves

3 tablespoon Coriander powder

8-10 whole Peppercorns

1 Bay leaf

Salt and Sugar to taste

METHOD

Wash and pat dry the chicken pieces.

Marinade the chicken pieces with onion, ginger-garlic paste, coriander power, curd and salt. Keep aside for an hour.

Heat oil in a Kadai. Add the red chilies, bay leaf, cinnamon, cloves and whole pepper corns.

Within 30 seconds add the chopped onions and fry till the onions become soft and turn brown.                                      I love the smell of piaaj (onion) bhaja (fry).

Add the marinated chicken once the onions turn a nutty brown colour.

Cook without cover mixing everything together. In Bengali we call it KOSHANO.

Cook without lid for 5-6 minutes and after this add a little water, keeping in mind that the curd will start releasing water.

Cover and cook till chicken is done

Add the poppy seed paste, green chilies, sugar. Check and adjust the salt.                 

Cook in high flame for another 3-4 minute and turn off the flames.

Add a little ghee (clarified butter), OPTIONAL.

Best with fluffy white rice .

Warm and colourful on a lazy Saturday

It was one of those cloudy Saturdays when you feel like doing literally nothing. I guess the weather 
left the same. The grey clouds and the sweet sticky air. Perfect to sit back and stare at the world outside. The bulk of my day was spend curled up with one of the few books I have carried from Kolkata all the way here spending extra on my luggage weight. I always feel it is a little piece of home that I have with me.

I was forced back to reality with a phone call from one of my dear friends telling how difficult it is to travel the streets of Kolkata with all the on-going preparations of Durga Puja. Sitting at my Santa Cruz house, I could very well picture the mad carnival, the sweet sticky smell and all the too familiar noises. The lazy grey clouds no longer seemed appealing. I wanted something warm and colourful and a distraction.

I wanted something bright and warm. What better than a loaf of good Italian baguette and bright red tomatoes. Bruschetta it is. I quickly started chopping some tomatoes and put on a big griddle pan on the stove to grill my bread. 

Bruschetta is an antipasto (starter dish) from Italy consisting of grilled bread rubbed with garlic and topped with olive oil and salt. Simple, easy, warm and a dash of colour to brighten up the grey day or grey mood. 

My version of bruschetta with loads of tomatoes, garlic, basil and a generous splash of olive oil.

Bruschetta  recipe

INGREDIENTS

One loaf of good quality baguette

4 ripe red tomatoes

A good handful of basil

5-6 cloves of garlic

Olive oil

Salt

Mixed herbs

Pepper

Olives 

METHOD

Add caption

Place a griddle pan on the gas stove on medium high.

Slice the baguette and rub nicely with garlic cloves.

Toast the breads and keep aside.

To prepare the topping…

Rub the tomatoes with a little olive oil and char grill them on the gas stove.

Keep aside.

With a damp cloth rub off the charred tomato skin.

Roughly chop the tomatoes and set aside in a bowl. Add crushed garlic, olive oil, basil, salt & pepper to taste and the mixed herbs.

Mix well.

Equally divide the tomatoes on top of the baguette slices.

Top it with a dash of olive oil.

Warmth and happiness in a plate. Enjoy with a glass of Red and go back to being lazy