Breakfast, my favourite meal of the day...

So, JB and me decided to have breakfast out today morning. got up early, got dressed and set off hoping to find some breakfast place open at 8.30am in the morning. None of the three on our list were open. So we decided to come home and make a mean breakfast ourselves, and this is what we had...

peanut butter, nutella and banana mini-sandwich

Salmon and cheese mini-sandwich

Tomato and oregano bread with fried egg

orange juice

Some fruit, musk melon and watermelon wedges

... and cold chocolate milk for JB and piping hot darjeeling tea for me to wash it all down.

Fabulous breakfast but looks like our appetites have taken a royal beating ; the marmite and mulberry jam went back into the fridge untouched and the sausages and ham were never opened.

We'll probably have french toast with chocolate sprinkles tomorrow.. yummm!!

Trifle pudding..

I heard someone say this once.. "The trifle pudding is my favorite dessert because of it's balance of colours, textures, tastes and flavours..".

In a uncharacteristic moment, I served custard with a lot of fruit to some friends who had come over for dinner one night. One of my guests who had almost always been served elaborate desserts at dinners at our home, and who I always saw picking at her food, gorged on my humble custard taking 2-3 helpings,relishing each morsel. The talk on the table that night, moved on to the lovely trifle pudding her mother used to make in her growing up years. And so; inspired by the talk, I set out to make some pudding for dinner one night.

What I used was a simple recipe..

My pudding was made in a large round transparent glass bowl (its a colourful dish so the bowl showed off the richness)

We lined the base of the bowl with a regular cake.. I am told sponge cake is a better option,but a nice and buttery tea cake crumbled, adds more flavour.

Next disslove jelly crystals in some boiling water and pour the mix on top of the crumbled cake and put it in the fridge to set.

Chop some colourful fruit of different kinds .. I used pomegranate seeds, strawberry, green apples (you can use the red ones, but green look prettier), black seedless grapes, banana slices.

Make some vanilla custard (with milk, sugar, custard powder.. a brand like weikfield will do), let it cool a little and put the chopped fruits in the custard.

Wait for the jelly to set ( I used raspberry jelly) and pour the custard on top of the jelly and put the bowl in the fridge again to cool the custard.

It will take approx 2 hours for the trifle pudding to set well. Scoop some out in a bowl making sure you've got everything.. the cake, jelly, custard and fruit, mmmmmm........

Almost every indian food website has its version of trifle pudding recipe so this is mine and its awesome and relatively low fat.. It has no cream

The picture is the trifle pudding which got partially devoured before I took the photograph :)

tea...

20 and counting.... yeah, that is the no of tea varieties you will find in my kitchen cabinets.

I was shocked myself..... ok! ok, there are a couple of tisanes thrown into that lot too.... rivals a mean selection at a tea shop or a cha bar.

My tryst with tea started when I was barely in my teens. kadak chai with adrak and a hint of cardamon is what I started with then (can't stand it anymore!). Living that long in Kolkata, the hub of tea trade, I learnt to appreciate tea, real tea.

Dolly's tea boutique in Dakhshinapan (in Kolkata) is where I bought most of my tea from (and still do, if my sister manages to make a trip there for me). It is an interesting place, the walls of the tiny boutique are layered with tea cartons, the rich smell of tea wafting all over, done up tastefully with brightly coloured block print cushions and tablecloths and little potted plants and bric brack from indian handicraft stores. Dolly, is a tea taster herself and sources the tea from her store from tea auction houses in Kolkata. Almost all tea of that quality is exported. People like Dolly (she was one of the first), realised that there was a market of tea connoisseurs in India too, so saved some of our best to sell here in India too.

I saw another tea store in the departure lounge of the Kolkata domestic airport.. Manjushree plantations and went crazy.. the loot (a part of it he! he!) is in the picture. My favorites.. darjeeling second flush and orange pekoe from the nilgiris

Now, back to my steaming hot golden brew..vintage collection Darjeeling tea from Manjushree plantations.. their website is under construction, so no link..

Awesome Pumpkin Salad from a food show

I love watching food shows on the telly. My first memories of one of those is a Jamie Olivier show which I used to watch every Sunday at 1 pm on most days with JB (the son).

And then suddenly there were a plethora of food shows on practically every channel starting with Nigella Lawson and Kylie Kwong on TLC to khunti kodai and ranna ghor on local Bengali channels. I was spoilt for choice. My son watches the shows with me with equal enthusiasm if he is around. When I am surfing, I am usually looking for a food or a cookery show and I can sit through them all.

This recipe is a dedication to my fondness for food shows of which I am a huge fan.

Pumpkin salad

This is a Nigella Lawson recipe which I improvised slightly to suit our dietary requirements and it tastes as good as it looks..

Pumpkin : cut into bite size pieces...... 750 gms

Onions sliced and soaked in vinegar for at least 2 hours... 2 medium size

Pine nuts peeled and roasted......... about 2 tablespoons

Spice mix......1.5 tablespoon (you can use your own combination, I used salt, chilli powder, fennel powder, cajun spice mix)

Thick yoghurt.....2 tablespoons ( the original recipe uses feta)

Parsley and basil ......finely chopped, for garnish

Olive oil..... 2 tablespoon

In a bowl pour 1 tbsp of olive oil and the spice mix on the pumpkin peices and mix thoroghly. Bake the pumpkin on a baking sheet at 180 deg C for about 20-30mins.

Once done, take the pumpkin out and cool. In a mixing bowl, toss the spiced pumpkin pieces with onions, herbs and the pine nuts with the remaining oil. Pour the salad out on to a serving dish and dot the yoghurt unevenly onto the salad and serve garnished with a sprig of fresh parsley... and enjoy!

.. the tangine

bubbling away in my emile henry clay pot....

Chicken Tangine with Fennel for dinner tonight...

S,my foodie friend (and I don't mean that only in keeping with Jones way.. she is a real foodie) told me about tangines.. moroccan stews of various kinds,cooked in a dish of the same name, a shallow clay pot with a tall conical lid (see picture above), a few weeks back. I have attempted make them a few times after that, with moderate success..

After picking up fennel bulbs from a new, well appointed, gourmet store in the neighbourhood, aptly called, The Providore, I decided to make a Chicken Tangine much to the delight of my family.

It is a simple recipe with onions, garlic, ginger, saffron threads, salt, tumeric and a moroccan spice mix (ras el hanout, is what they use, I had to make do with a pared down version) with parsley sprigs or corainder leaves as bouquet garni; dunked into the pot with the chicken and fennel..and cooked for a couple of hours on a slow flame.

Served the stew with some couscous to my oohing and aahing family :)

Baking at last...

Bread making was always a disaster...mine always looked great, but were either too hard or too soft or just unevenly baked or textured, ever since college days. How did I still earn my hotel management degree.. well bakery and confectionary was only 1 of the 17 subjects we did at school, and yes, there were ways to get by :) ...

which was sad, because I love bread.. all kinds from the scrumptious croissants and baguettes in Paris boulangeries to the maska bread with a hard crust, from a local 50 year old Parsi bakery..

I figured my problem was with the quintessential eukaryotic micro-organism called 'yeast'. I am yet to learn how to work well with yeast.

So I gave up baking all together for many years. And then, I discovered quick breads.

Quick breads are breads made without yeast but with a chemical raising agent like baking powder, baking soda etc. They can be either savory or sweet.

So here I am, baking a batch of scones, at midnight, when the rest of the household is asleep, so that I can grieve for my baking disaster in private, if need be, i.e.

Well, it was'nt so bad this time. My scones are unevenly shaped and a little darker than I expected them to be, but boy!, they are delicious. My midnight feast tonight was a lovely warm scone, fresh from the oven, with a low fat version of clotted cream and jam. .. which I made !!!!

touche!

Aloo methi with a twist..

No, you don't need to buy the fresh methi (fenugreek) leaves, have the maid clean it the day before, chop, cut blah blah..

You can use Kasoori methi out of a packet or if you have enough help in the kitchen or are enthusiastic enough .. make your own kasoori methi. So the recipe, here goes...

Potatoes: 5-6 medium size

Dried methi or kasoori methi: 2-3 tablespoons

For tempering

Methi seeds: 1 teaspoon

Whole cumin seeds: 2 teaspoons

Green chillies: 2-3 nos

Garlic cloves: 5-6 nos.

Boil potatoes in the pressure cooker till done. While the potatoes are boiling, soak kasoori methi in a cup of water.

One the potatoes are done, peel and chop into small peices.

Crush the garlic cloves and green chillies with a mortar and pestle or the back of a large knife together.

Heat oil in a kadai or frying pan and temper with whole cumin seeds, methi seeds and a pinch of hing (asofetedia).

When the seeds start spluttering, put in the crushed green chillies and garlic cloves. saute for a couple of minutes.

Put in the potatoes and give them a good stir in the kadai or frying pan.

Now, squeeze out the methi from the water and sprinkle it on the potatoes and mix well.

Saute for a 4-5 mins more and then remove from heat and serve hot with chapattis and hot yellow dal.

Comfort food.. yummm!!!

Homemade kasoori methi in a jiffy..

Wash a bunch of methi leaves well so that all the mud etc is cleaned out well.

Pluck the leaves off the stem and place them on a dry kitchen towel to wipe off the water as far as possible.

Flatten the leaves on a plate in a single layer and put it in the microwave for a minute.take the plate out, stir the leaves and put it back for another minute or so till the leaves are completely dried out.

Store the dried leaves in a airtight glass bottle and use as and when required.

beet and gajor chechki.. an colorful bengali side dish

This is recipe nor the next one are originals. They have appeared on my blog because I tried them out and they were a hit with friends and family. The photos are original though!

I usually use 3 beetroots and 2 medium sized carrots.

Some green chillies: slit

kalo jeera (nigella seeds)

salt: to taste

tumeric and chilli powder - to taste

Cut the beetroots and the carrots into matchstick size pieces.

Heat about 1 teaspoon of oil in a kadai or pan. Once the oil is smoking, put the green chillies and kalo jeers (about1.5 teasp) till they start spluttering.

Put the carrot and beetroot in the kadai, stir well, cover and let it cook for a while

Once the veggies are cooked slightly, add the salt, tumeric and chilli powder and stir. Cover and cook till well done.

Really, it is that simple.

kumror, chana chechki

Kumro and chana, with apologies to minakshi dasgupta

I started out to make a chechki which is defined as a stir fry of vegetables cut into small peices with a tempering of panchphoron or kalo jerey or whole mustard seeds. We like our veggies like cut big and chunky so I decided to do a variation, which was somewhere between a ghonto and a chechki.

so here goes..

Ingredients

Pumpkin, approx 300gms, cut into large chunks

2 medium size potatoes

Kabuli chana, soaked overnight and boiled: 1 1/4 cup
Parval or broad beans : about 150 gms
1 onion- grated
3-4 dried red chillies
a green veg - one can use potol or sheem (english names pointed gourd and broadbeans)
masalas
salt
Red chilli powder
tumeric
corainder and cumin powder
garam masala powder

tempering
panch phoron
Pour a little mustard oil in a kadai. once the oil is hot, put in the dry red chillies and about a 1.5 teaspoons of panchphoron. After they start crackling a little bit, add the grated onion and saute for a while. Add the vegetable one by one in the order they cook.. potatoes, punpkin and then the beans or potol. Cover and let is cook for a while. Mix all the masalas in a little water and then pour it into the kadai, mix well. Add a little hot water at this point if you want a little gravy. Add the chana and mix well. Cover and let is cook till done.

Serve with steam rice.

Ready to eat...