Summer Refresher

On Saturday we were hosting the book club over at our place, and for some reason, including being unemployed, I decided to go all out on the food. Hyderabadi cuisine, followed by a dessert buffet. Yes, a bit crazy that way. And of course, given the elaborate menu, how could the drinks be plain old wine or vodka out of a bottle? I considered making melon sangrias with white wine but the effort to juice melons sounded too much, not to mention a bit uncertain since I’m not a good picker of ripe melons. So, to add a desi twist to the proceedings, I decided on aam panna margaritas, and they actually worked out delicious!!! Might just become one of my favourite summer drinks J

Ingredients:

Aam Panna squash (this is a cheat but it worked out to be so much less effort!! I used the Druk one) – 2 bottles
1.5 bottles Smirnoff Vodka
1.25 litres of water
Crushed ice – lots of…

Just mix the three ingredients together and serve with pride. If you can’t resist the urge to jazz it up, add slivers of mango peel, thinly sliced lemon or mint leaves, but they are unnecessary to the experience. This makes about 30 servings, depending on how generously you pour. Pictures? Are you kidding? We wiped out three pitchers of the stuff!!

The Menu for the night?
Bagare Baingan
Khatti dal
Hyderabadi Dahi wadas
Tamarind Rice
Curd rice

Paan kulfi, served on pan leaves
Rose-flavoured pannacotta topped with fresh mulberries, served on rose petals
Dumroth
No-bake cheesecake topped with grapes
Melon balls steeped in Malibu, with a chiffonade of mint
 

Of sandwiches, picnics and Enid Blyton...

Have been overdosing on Enid Blyton lately, in company with Chubbocks, who also loves the Five Findouters ( on a separate note, how great is it when your kid shares your fictional tastes, eh?). And honestly, it’s impossible to read anything by Enid Blyton without wanting a good snack alongside, especially the kind of stuff she mentions and manages to make sound intriguing, even though if you decode it rationally, you realize it’s not really ambrosia she means. Sandwiches. Buttered toasts. Tomatoes. Lettuce. Hardboiled eggs. Potatoes in their jackets. Lemonade. Seriously, I don’t know how she does it, but I’m drooling halfway through anything by her.

And longing for a picnic, of course, since her adventurous characters are always going off on little trips and having picnics. Now, you can’t have a good picnic without sandwiches, in my opinion. You can have a grown-up picnic with cheese, a baguette, some grapes and a bottle of wine, but that’s too sanitized for a Blyton mood – for that you need some really good sandwiches and cake. The trouble is that I find most sandwiches boring, dull and dry. They don’t seem to have that quality of being luxuriously delicious, and yet convenient – convenience seems to trump gourmandizing every time. So this weekend for the kids and my picnic in the park, I had to improvise and come up with my own sandwich ideas – and they were truly delicious. I’ve finally got a repertoire of sandwiches which taste fab and live up to my Enid Blyton dreams J.

Our picnic menu yesterday: Santorini tomato salad, green salad with figs as described below, multigrain bread, pita bread, homemade hummus, chholia kebabs ( substituting for falafel), lettuce, grapes and strawberries.

1.       Openfaced sandwich with salad:
Spread a layer of dhania chutney on the bread. Top with a slice of cheddar cheese, ideally, not processed cheese. Add the salad just before eating, else it will sog through!! Salad – two kinds of lettuce including lollo rosso, cherry tomatoes sliced in half, sliced scallions walnuts and fresh figs in a dressing of olive oil, honey, lime juice, salt and pepper.

2.       Openface sandwich with Santorini tomato salad
Spread either the dhania-peanut chutney or Boursin garlic and herbs cheese on the bread. Top with cheese if using chutney, else skip it. Layer on the Santorini tomato salad just before serving.

3.       Sandwich with paneer-yogurt dip, tomato and cucumber slices
Self explanatory – spread a thick layer of the dip, top with tomato and/ or cucumber slices and top with another slice of bread.

4.       Sandwich with guacamole
Self explanatory again – thick layer of guacamole, and if you really want, some sliced tomatoes on top

5.       Middle east inspired
Thick layer of hummus, topped with salad, falafel or tomatoes, scallions, cucumber

6.       The dessert sandwich
Thick layer of Nutella, then thinly sliced bananas and if you want to be self-indulgent, chopped toasted hazelnuts, roast almond bits…

PS. I use multigrain bread

PS2. These should be assembled just before eating as the dips etc can sog the bread if left too long.

My experiments with microwaving

My oven can always be counted on in a crisis - to misbehave, that is. Time and again, when I have just finished mixing a batch of cake batter or I have guests coming over for dinner and have planned on a baked main course, thar she blows - blew rather, because today I just blew my top and hoofed her out of my kitchen. That was after I had the butter all nice and melty for a Victoria sponge, and the oven, after two rounds of recent repairs, just suddenly refused to switch on! I had also planned on my version of mac and cheese so let's just say it wasn't the best time for any kitchen equipment to get all diva on me.

Anyhow, the desire to bake was overwhelming - despite yesterday's fiasco which started with me trying to bake a pound cake and ended with me turning out a pound pancake( more on that some other time). So I quickly looked up some microwave recipes for both the dishes and set to work. I must say, I am quite pleased with how they turned out, though I have ordered a new oven which should be winging it to my house pretty soon.

Mac and cheese: My kids love cheesy pasta sauce, and I insist on their getting their requisite servings of veg. So here's a somewhat gourmet yet healthy version of mac and cheese:

1 cup penne/ macaroni
2 cups mixed vegetables - carrots, beans, peas, yellow and red bell peppers - diced
1 large onion, diced
3 tbsp flour
1.5 tbsp butter or ghee
Salt to taste
2 tsp herbs - fresh or dried - basil, oregano, rosemary, thyme, sage, marjoram
1 pod garlic, crushed
1 tbsp olive oil pomace
1 cup of mixed cheese - cheddar, mozzarella, romano, parmesan, any other hard cheese you'd like ( leicester...)
1 cup low fat milk
1 tsp mustard
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat the olive oil. Add the crushed garlic, then the onions and saute till onions are translucent and soft. Add in the other vegetables and the herbs and saute briefly ( 2-3 mts). Then cover and cook until the vegetables are al dente - cooked but still with a bite.

Meanwhile, put 4 cups of water into a saucepan to heat; add salt. Once the water starts boiling, put in the penne and cook for about 8 mts, until the penne is al dente as well, then drain well.

Heat the butter in a saucepan. When hot, turn the heat down and add the flour. Stir until the mixture forms soft lumps, then turn the heat off. Add a little bit of the milk and make a paste of the mixture. Then add the rest of the milk, mustard, salt and pepper and start heating the mixture, stirring so no lumps are formed. Then add in the cheese and stor on a low flame, until the cheese is melted.

Mix the vegetables, pasta and cheese sauce and put into a microwave-safe dish. Top with a little parmesan, if you're feeling indulgent, and breadcrumbs for added crunch. Microwave on high for 3-4 minutes, then let sit for another minute or so before serving.

Victoria sponge
Weigh 3 eggs, in their shells. Use the same weight of butter, sugar and self-raising flour.

Cream the butter until pale and fluffy. Add in the sugar and beat the butter and sugar together. Add a tsp of vanilla extract. Beat the eggs one by one and add them to the butter-sugar mixture one by one. Then fold in the flour, a little at a time. Add half a cup of milk to keep the mixture extra moist for the microwave.

Pour into a microwave-safe vessel and bake for 6 minutes.

Cut the cake into two horizontal halves and sandwich together with raspberry jam.

I served this with caramelised oranges, and it tasted divine.

Caramelised oranges:
110 gms caster sugar
100 ml orange juice
3 oranges, peeled and segmented

Melt the sugar in a heavy-bottomed saucepan and melt over medium heat. Never stir the pan, just swirl it as the sugar starts caramelising. Meanwhile, heat the orange juice on another burner, and bring it to the boil. As soon as the caramel turns golden brown, pour in the hot orange juice carefully ( it will sputter, so be careful) and stir until the mixture becomes a smooth liquid. Add in the orange segments and let sit.

Spread some of the caramelised OJ onto the cake top.

Serve the cake with the caramelised oranges on the side.

Paan Kulfi

I wanted to do something different and special for Deepavali this year in terms of dessert. Given my thankfully diminishing sweet tooth, I usually stick to kheer and some sweets bought from the neighbourhood mithai shop - Milk cake etc. But having taken the plunge into desi mithai by making besan ke laddus with the kids for Dussehra, I had to up my game for Deepavali, which means adding a touch of madness - sometimes divine, sometimes just the Agra variety - to the recipe. That's when I hit upon Paan flavoured Kulfi.

Fessing up - had never made Kulfi before. And did not have the patience to spend hours slaving over milk and reducing it down, so I went with the tried and tested Tarla aunty shortcut method - her shortcuts never fail!! - and used a mix of condensed and evaporated milk to reduce my effort. Threw in a couple of meetha paans into the result before freezing, and voila, a new, improved, grown-up version of kulfi was served up to the applause of family at Deepavali lunch. But then, they'll applaud anything!

If you want to try at your own risk, here's how:
3/4th liter full cream milk
1/2 tin ( 200 gms) condensed milk)
1/4 cup evaporated milk

Mix all three and set to boil, then reduce to a simmer and let it simmer away on low flame, stirring occasionally, for about 1/2 hour, until it reduces by about a third.

Let cool, then whizz in the blender with a couple of meetha paans - or even plain paan will do if you're going for the betel leaf flavour as opposed to actual paan flavour.

Pour mix into a suitable container - i.e.flatbottomed rather than round-bottomed - I used a tupperware box - and freeze for 4-6 hours or overnight.

If you want to fancy up the serving, pose the prettily cut pieces of kulfi on some betel leaves, scatter a few rose petals etc etc...

Mexican 4 bean salad

I love Mexican food – the flavours are always so fresh and tongue-tingling. And despite its similarity to Indian food, it is different enough that the tastebuds get a break! I’ve had some amazing Mexican food over the years, starting from the time restaurant Rodeo opened in CP in Delhi. They served authentic delights like Sopa de Queso – a truly wonderful cheese soup, perfect for misty winter nights in Delhi, as well as the usual suspects – burritos, tacos, enchiladas, churros and of course nachos with salsa, guacamole and sour cream. Could there be a better way to start an evening?

In the US, apart from a fab chili which I had with dad on a business trip to Seattle and recreated at home many times since, I’ve also had the most exquisite Mexican food in Minneapolis. Tomatilla salsa and all kinds of other fabulous dishes which I still remember with joy, though their names have faded off my aging mind long since.

We have Mexican or Mex-inspired dishes at home quite a bit. I love avocados so guacamole is typically rootling around in the fridge somewhere, ready to be smeared on a baguette or cracker as a snack or on toast for breakfast. Salsa is a staple at parties – it’s such a great dip with chips. And of course, since the kids love cheese, it’s an easy weekday dinner to do quesadillas and serve them up with salsa, guac, sour cream and a bit of Mex-inspired salad on the side for a really healthy, fresh and delicious meal.
4 bean salad
1 tin ( 400 gms) 4 beans – given my fondness for beans, I’ve been tripping ever since I discovered cans of beans at my local grocery – they have all sorts, from azuki and black beans to fava beans, cannellini, butter beans and the more usual borlotti and garbanzos. The 4 bean mix has garbanzos( chick peas), kidney beans, lima and butter beans
½ yellow capsicum, diced
½ red capsicum, diced
½ green capsicum, diced
1 onion, sliced fine
1 clove garlic, minced
1 handful coriander
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1.5 tsp cider vinegar
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp sugar
Salt to taste

Run the tinned beans through some water to get rid of the high sodium content. Add in the chopped vegetables, cumin seeds, cider vinegar and olive oil, lime juice and seasoning. Toss well. Top with finely chopped coriander – I use scissors to cut the coriander finely. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Add finely chopped chillies or chilli powder if you like. I also add in diced avocados occasionally.

The Perfect Accompaniment

We had idlis for breakfast today. Fluffy, pillow-soft idlis, punctuated by the spicy-sour-buttery taste of coconut chutney and spinach huli(sambar). The perfect way to start off a day.

And as usual, I was left to lament why on earth we couldn't have a dosa breakfast for a change - proper crisp paper dosas with all the accompaniments. I know why - none of us at my place - me or my maids - can spread the dosa with any kind of command that lets the batter know who's in charge and curl up crisply. No, we get blobs of fat dough connected with paper-thin wafers. But even more egregious is that I can't get a perfect dosa when I eat out either, no matter how famous the South Indian restaurant. And here's the reason - the accompaniments are at least half the pleasure of eating a good idli or dosa. And for some reason, no restaurant gets these to be as good as the home made variety, except for the potato masala. Recently Samar Halarnkar wrote a column lamenting that very fact.

I'm not sure where the current interpretation of coconut chutney arose - as a bland, soulless bit of fresh coconut, finely ground and topped off with a random tempering of curry leaves and mustard. It adds almost nothing to the mouthfeel of an idli or a dosa - the texture is as gravelly as a perfect idli and the blandness means that there is no added flavour. And then we get the watery soups aflush with tomatoes  and coloured a lurid yellow-brown served up as the hotel version of sambar. The right chutney and sambar add a zest to every bite, they go together with the dosa/ idli like the proverbial horse and carriage. A bland or malformed accompaniment takes all the zing out of dosa-eating for me.


Why can't restaurants take a tip from the millions of homes all over South India which do such a great job of creating the perfect chutney and sambar every morning? A sambar which does not have a weird concatenation of vegetables thrown in - for example radish and brinjal, which no self-respecting housewife would cook together, but which restaurants apparently feel work well together. A chutney which has the right balance of spice, acidity and sweetness from coconut to explode on the palate and add interest to every bite?  Sambar which adds a rich mix of the right flavours?

We tried. We bought a branded non-stick dosa pan from Prestige. The pan, after a couple of weeks, rose in the middle, as if emulating a poori, with the result that dosas began to burn to cinders in the center while the edges were pillowed like thattai-idlis. We tried Tefal non-stick pans. We tried making the batter at home. We have now retired hurt. So whenever the urge for a paper dosa gets too much, we wend our weary way to the nearest Sagar Ratna. I place my order, in the foreknowledge that the experience will fall short of my expectations. And I hope that someday, restaurants allow me to cart the perfect chutney and sambar from my home to go with their perfect paper dosas.

Either that, or that my mom reads this and gets inspired to invite us over for her homemade dosas and chutney!!!

My perfect chutney
Ingredients:
1 coconut, grated
3-4 green chillies
1 lemon-size ball of tamarind, soaked in half cup lukewarm water for 10 minutes
Handful coriander leaves
1 tbsp roast chana
1 in piece of ginger, peeled
Salt to taste

Squeeze the tamarind ball to extract the juice fully, then strain. Grind all the ingredients together finely, adding a little more water if necessary. To temper, heat a little vegetable oil ( 1 tbsp) in a wok. Add mustard leaves and wait for them to splutter. Then toss in a teaspoon of urad dal and wait for the dal to brown gently. Add a handful of curry leaves and a pinch or two of heeng. Turn off the heat and pour over the chutney.

Serve with piping hot idlis or freshly made dosas if you're lucky enough to be able to make them!

Dessert Boreks

Boreks are a Turkish cigarette pie – made with puff pastry and typically stuffed with something spicy, like spinach and feta, minced meat etc. For a dinenr party recently, I had a Middle Eastern menu with Falafel sandwiches and Moroccan 7 veg stew with couscous. I wanted something from the region for dessert but not a dish like semolina halwa which would taste too Indian, or anything else that required intensive labour – I’m quite lazy that way.

Suddenly, I remembered that we had puff pastry sheets at home and decided to try my hand at a dessert using puff pastry. Given my somewhat temperamental oven, I wanted a dish that could be cooked on the stovetop, so a fried puff-pastry would be the easiest, I figured. But what would I fill inside???

Date halwa, of course!!!

Ingredients:
1.5 cups deseeded dates
½ liter warm milk
Jaggery to taste
½ cup almond shards, roasted in ghee

Soak the dates in the warm milk for half an hour. Then put into a saucepan and cook over a low flame until meltingly soft; add jaggery to taste, allowing for the fact that readymade puff pastry tends to be a bit salty, so the halwa has to compensate. Whizz in a blender until pureed. Mix the almonds in and set aside.

Roll out the puff pastry dough as thin as a chapatti. Cut into 2 inch squares. In the center, spoon out about one and a half teaspoons of the date halwa, then fold the square into a triangle. Use the tines of a fork to seal the edges and add a decorative crimp.
Fry in hot vegetable oil, or if you have a cooperative oven, bake for 10 minutes until golden.

Serve hot with pistachio icecream.