Book Review & A Quick Weekend Lunch: Easy Indian Cooking- By Hari Nayak
Sometimes I cook, without any available story for it. It is just a resultant of a gut feeling that creeps in all through my system for a consistent number of hours. I slowly sense “things” about the dish I want to make, trying to fill in little vacuum places within my cells,muscles and brain. The look, the taste, the smell…its a unavoidable package. And almost in an animated form my eyes dilate, and I spring up from whatever I have been doing, perked with an irresistible rush of energy, and make a dash towards the kitchen, as if it is the last opportunity in my life to...
Read MoreMy Story of Durga Puja: Incantations of Favourite Foods
Durga Puja came and went. Although India doesn’t have an Autumn and its share of auburn leaves, this time of the year is the closest one can get to ‘Fall’. Autumn has always been homecoming and times for families to get together. Sometimes, this intention is not always as you would have wanted it. This year, not everything was happy and joyful. On and around Vijaya Dashami, few very precious people on earth held the deity’s hand and went on their brisk return to the heavenly abode. Like they say, ‘Even the Gods need good people’. The skies were overcast...
Read MoreI’m in a “New York State of Mind”!
On my flight to JFK, my co-passenger on the next seat was a very serious looking Dean of a private University in Hyderabad. Not only did he disrupt and disturb me all the 9 direct hours from Brussels to JFK, with his obnoxious snoring, he also was a very bad man. No, no..hold on…not bad because of misbehavior! But bad, because he doesn’t like New York. Unbelievable. “I’ve said over and over to so many people that I’m really just not all that into New York. I have this idea that New Yorkers and people who love New York, just really like the idea of New York. This is my attitude: who really...
Read MoreEataly, New York:Everything Eataly-an!
Let me start with the last. “Let’s go to Eataly!”, he said. He has stayed in the Americas for the last 15 years or so, with enough travel and food experience around the world to be termed a global citizen. So, when he suggests that my trip to NY won’t hold good, if I do not walk and/or dine at Eataly (Pronounced how you are read it!), I simply agree to it…presuming it was Little Italy, he was referring to! I smirked, thinking he was showing off his Mediterranean accent, complete with the lisp! Turns out, it wasn’t Little Italy, but the place is actually called...
Read MoreKashmiri ‘Wazwan’ Gosht
“Wazwan” (Inspired)Kashmiri Gosht (serves 10-12 friends, we consider extended-family) Mutton-2 kilograms Onions-1 kilograms,finely chopped Whole Kashmiri Chillies(round whole chillies with a sweet skin and a hot interior) Kashmiri Mirch powder-3 tablespoons Aniseed/Fennel paste-2 tablespoons Whole fennel seeds-2 teaspoons Tomato Puree-2.5 cups Garam Masala powder-2 teaspoons Whole Fenugreek-4 teaspoons Shahi Cardamom- 6-7 numbers,lightly crushed Crushed peppercorns-3 tablespoons Yoghurt (to marinate the mutton) Salt to taste Pinch of saffron(soaked in 1/4th cup of warm milk Oil-3...
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