Another few days and I will be back to the US. I should be more excited given that I have been away from my home for more than 3 months, but its a mixed bag of feelings. I always hate leaving India. Though I have friends and my husband in the US, India is still the place I would truly want to be. Family is here. Friends are here. Life is here. Both countries have their own charm, but being an Indian at heart, I have never been the kinds who has been able to stay away from India for extended periods of time. And that is why whenever I come, I stay in India as much as I can (since I can afford to). Thankfully I have a husband who understands that and for the sake of my (and his) sanity lets me spend as much time as I want here.
Since I am almost ready to go, I thought I will get some recipes from the awesome cook we have at my parent’s place. Plus, its a delight to be able to take step by step photographs of someone else making the stuff, in comparison to what I have to do in the US, where I stop midway, clean my hands, take a picture, get back to the next step and repeat the same process of cleaning, capturing and then moving on to the next step.
So now I have a lot of masala for Garam Masala Tuesdays and hopefully unlike the past few months where this series was put on a back seat, we will see some seriously good stuff on the blog. Read More →
I have been enjoying Delhi food after a long time! Today, I went to Moet’s (a restaurant in Defence Colony, Delhi) and shared a chicken sizzler and roomali roti-kakori kebab combo with my mom-in-law. Kakori kebabs are these extra delicate lamb kebabs that are generally marinated with raw papaya and wrapped around skewers and grilled. Their name comes from a village by the same name near Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh (a state in northern India). The Nawab (ruler) of Kakori village developed these kebabs to address the complaints of the British (who were ruling India at that time) that the meat was very tough. Well, besides railways and introducing us to the English language, I think this is another thing I am grateful to the British for! Thanks to them and their complaints, we get to eat melt in your mouth delicious kebabs!
On Sunday, I went to this Italian restaurant, Tonino’s that is on Mehrauli-Gurgaon road, and had amazing chicken chops with al dente spaghetti. My mom-in-law ordered a grilled fish which was very nicely cooked and flavored. For dessert we had a chocolate lasagna (I know!)- layered chocolate cake with hot chocolate sauce spread in between each layer and served with vanilla ice cream. Not only was the food good, so was the ambience. The restaurant is like a Tuscany styled villa with a verandah, outdoor seating, and trees all around. At night they put candles everywhere and make it a really romantic place to take your loved one! Alas, I went with my in-laws, which wasn’t bad either but the romantic setting could not be tested!
I remember when I was in Moscow for two years and visited Delhi on a month’s break I had made a list of places/things I wanted to visit/eat. On the list were Khan chacha’s rolls (at Khan market), Nizam’s rolls (at Connought Place), Choor choor naan that you get outside LSR (my under-grad college) and chicken momos either from Sarojini/Dilli Haat, and the oily, greasy chowmein that is popularly known as Indian-chinese! I have already ticked off IIFT dhaba’s paranthas and The Big Chill. The list would be incomplete without mentioning Dal makhani, butter chicken and butter naan. (Well, butter chicken can also be ticked off since I had it at Saket the other day with my friends) And I also would like to have gol gappas and a better version of aloo-tikki chaat (I had the latter at a wedding but wasn’t too impressed). Yes, I am on a mission!
Anyway, coming back to what I have been cooking. Well, practically nothing! I make tea regularly (if you would consider that cooking! and I know some of us actually do!) but besides the chicken biryani and what I cooked for the party at my parents place- I have not been cooking in India.
So, the other day when my mom-in-law got some chicken legs from Khan market, I thought of making some grilled chicken legs as an accompaniment to a glass of chilled beer. Instead of making plain tandoori chicken I thought of giving the chicken a coriander flavor. Now, I have been experimenting with my in-laws microwave and today gave their grill a try. It took longer than I expected to cook- but once cooked, the chicken was soft and delicious. We were out of lemon, but I’m sure some lemon juice on top would have made an excellent appetizer. And the glass of chilled beer- well it was the icing on the cake!
I had made these yesterday evening and could not take any pictures since the lighting in the house is all yellow and it was not flattering to the dish. I saved two pieces thinking I would make them as an afternoon snack but we were out the whole day. The moment we came back and since there was still some daylight I quickly went to bake/grill the kitchen. But by the time they were ready it was dark outside. Man, the trouble I go through to get a good click. So anyways, I was stuck with another yellow click. A little photoshop helped reduce the yellow but still doesn’t do justice to the dish! Well, when I make it the next time, hopefully I’ll get a good shot!
P.S: This post was written more than a week back, but due to no internet connection for the past few days and the fact that I had been travelling I have not been able to post it till today. Not that anybody cares, or do they???Hmmmm……
*Update August 12, 2012*:The picture just above of these aloo puffs was taken almost two years back with a point and shoot camera. The picture above that was taken two days back with a DSLR. There is still a long way to go to improve my photography (also note that the first picture was taken in a rush as my guests were about to come and I still had some stuff to take care of) but it has surely improved. But the thing to note here is that the puffs made two years back were made from homemade puff pastry while the smaller sized puffs I made two days back were made from store bought frozen puff pastry sheets. Notice any difference? I found the homemade ones better but its always such a pain to make homemade puff pastry, that the convenience of store bought pastry draws me into buying it!
Updated June 18, 2016: The post has been updated with newer pictures. These aloo puffs (spicy potato filled puff pastry) make a great dish to take for a pot luck, or for brunch, or a evening snack. I took them recently to a get together and these were devoured. I love that they taste like a samosa, but with a flakier crust and without spending time in the kitchen frying. The reason I am keeping the old pictures is so that you can see how my photography has evolved, and how it still keeps evolving.
Original post dated Jan 2011:
I did not blog for one day but feel that its been ages since I blogged last. Weird! I wanted to blog about the aloo puffs (Stuffed puffs with a spicy potato filling) I made on Sunday but could not do so till today. There are two reasons for the delay.
One, my computer – it got infected by a virus and I could not access anything! Luckily, I was able to switch on my computer in Safe mode and delete the root cause file. Then, I installed MalwareBytes, and that too deleted some infected files and when I restarted, my computer was back with me! What a relief! But it did give me a scare!
Two, yesterday I was busy mapping out what all I have in my pantry and the refrigerator. The thing is, in two weeks time I am leaving for India on a looooong vacation. 🙂 🙂 So, I have two weeks to finish the frozen blueberries, cranberries and the other stuff I have in the refrigerator that I am sure V will not use. (Yes, V is not coming along :(!). And, yesterday was spent figuring out how I would do that without throwing it all in the dustbin!
Well, now, the list is made and each day, for the next two weeks, I have some experiment lined up. Its going to be real busy in the kitchen till I leave. For today, I had Indian styled chowmein and a raspberry cake on the list. Tomorrow, it is okra and chilli paneer and of course, Office Thursday!
On Sunday, I used the leftover puff pastry dough (from the time I made the apple turnovers) to make some puffs stuffed with a spicy potato filling. These puffs are very popular in Indian bakeries and a famous to-go for tea parties at home. One of my friends had made these puffs as a snack for us on our trip to Vegas. So, while thinking of ways to use up the leftover pastry dough- I though this was the perfect way to use them.
V loved them. I mean he loves everything I make (I think he is just nice) but these puffs- he really did love them. Even looking at the pictures now while I was writing my blog, he was like- I want more! 🙂 The pastry puffed up beautifully and the filling was perfect for Sunday breakfast!
