"I'll have what she is having"
or
"It is so nice when you can sit with someone and not have to talk"
or
"I thought you didn't believe men and women could be friends"
or
"There are two kinds of women: High maintenance and low maintenance"
Well, I bet you are guessing where I am headed. Back to 1989 New York City. When Harry met Sally, we all fell in love. Since then I have said it aloud several times - I am proud to partake of your pecan pie. Aloud in my head. Always ending with a glint in the eye with a whoop in my stride. And the word "PECAN" stayed. All these years later I bring to you a recipe; A Caramel PECAN pound cake. It is fingerlickingly tempting! Hurry! Preheat your oven.
Cream 100 g butter with 11/2 cups brown sugar for 4 minutes or so. Now add 5 eggs, but add one at a time while whisking with the electric whisk at mid speed. Flavour with 2 tsp vanilla extract.
In another bowl mix 2 cups all purpose flour, 2 tsp baking powder and a pinch of salt. Sieve and add to the above bowl. Gently fold it all in and then add 1 cup of butter milk and continue folding. Chop a cup of pecan nuts and tumble them in and once again blend it all in.
Use a bundt pan. Grease with oil and pour the batter in. Bake at 180-200 degrees C for 30-35 mins. The baking time does vary from oven to oven. use the needle technique to check for perfect baking.
Time to get a glaze ready. In a semi deep pan melt 1/2 brown sugar and then add 4 tbsp butter. Stir continuously. To this golden heaven smelling sauce add 2 tbsp corn syrup and 2 tbsp cream. With a spatula mix well and throw in half a cup of chopped pecan nuts.
Once the cake is ready and is at room temperature, glaze it with the caramel sauce.
Where is your cake knife?
There is something to be said about burnt sugar cakes. They remind you of an English Grandma from the country or the church. The thing is that this genre is losing its remembrance because you simply cannot bake a burnt sugar cake out of a packet. You just have to have to make the burnt sugar yourself and you have to make it fresh. The flavour of a burnt sugar cake is just so unique. I have discovered that almost all burnt sugar cake pictures show them glazed and iced, I have not done that, I preferred to retain the genuine caramelisation in the cake flavour but I reckon that inspite of icing and frosting the strong gorgeous flavour of burnt sugar will remain.
Sharing a simple recipe. Thanks Kavery.
Melt half a cup of sugar over low heat until clear medium brown. You do not need to stir much. If you feel tempted to stir, then quickly water your pots of make a phone call. Once in a while gently shake the pan. This will stop the sugar from sticking. Add 1/2 a cup of hot water and now stir constantly to avoid lumps.
In another bowl mix 2 and 1/4 cup of flour, 3/4th cup of sugar, 1 tsp salt and 3 tsp baking powder. Add half a cup of butter, can use about 50 grams and blend with a cake whisk. Now pour in 2/3 of the burnt sugar mix and beat at low speed. In 2 minutes add the rest of the burnt sugar and again whisk. In a separate bowl beat 2 eggs with a tsp vanilla essence. Add 2 tbsp warm milk. When folded pour this liquid into the batter mixing bowl. Gently fold till smooth. Your dough will be slightly golden brown in colour.
Bake at 150 degrees for about 40 minutes. As it depends from oven to oven, check with a needle and adjust your baking time. The cake is springy.
I am listing a course meal for you.
Annam (rice) with Neyyi (ghee) is served throughout the meal until the end. You are being served on a Vistari which is a large plate made of several leaves sewn together.
Modhati Muddha(first bite) is an appetiser of Ooragaaya (spiced pickle)
Pappu (lentils - plain or with vegetables)
2 or 3 Koora bowls(curries - veg and non veg)
Rasam or Charu (Kadi)
Perugu (Yogurt) or Majjiga (Butter Milk) accompanied by a spiced pickle
Sweet, if you are celebrating something
Paan
Are you satiated? Now tell me which state of India are you in?
Yes, you are being served a celebratory meal in Andhra Pradesh/Telengana. Cuisine in this part of India, influenced by cultures, inhabitants and topography is absolutely unique from the rest of the nation. The variety the cuisine boasts of is multi faceted. Options are available for every hour of a day. Telugu food is cooked by Andhra-ites living in their own land and also by Telugu speaking people in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu which of course has a nuance of local influences.
One such Kannadika has shared this recipe with me. Kavita is one of those South Indian Brahmins who lives for her meats and fish. Food is her manna. Inspite of very long work hours at a gym and at her bank, she cooks on many days of the week and is always updating me with new recipes and food trivia. Here is one of her teachings. To die for!
I cooked with a kg of mutton on the bone. I used goat meat.
Take 2 large red onions and chop them lengthwise. Freshly make a tbsp of ginger garlic paste. Take equal stalks of Coriander leaves, Fenugreek leaves and Mint leaves - about a palm full of each. Chop roughly. Chop 2 large tomatoes. Grate half a coconut and blend with 2 tbsp of curd.
In a warm cooker bowl, heat about 3 tbsp oil. Season with 4 green cardamom seeds, 1/2 an inch bruised cinnamon stick, 6 peppercorns and 6 cloves. When this sputters throw in the onions and toss till pink. Next goes in the ginger garlic paste and in another minute go in the leaves. Stir well for a minute and season with a tsp full of chilli powder, 2 tsp coriander powder, 2 tsp cumin powder, 1/2 tsp turmeric and salt to season. Toss about for another minutes and pop in the tomato pieces. After adding the pink meat mix well and at medium heat keep stirring the mutton every now and then ensuring nothing sticks to the base. I did this for 15 or 20 minutes for sure. In your kettle heat 11/2 glasses of water and pour the same into your cooker bowl. With your spatula gently mix the meat and paste in well. Cover the cooker bowl with its lid and pressure cook the mutton till soft. I waited till I heard 10 whistles.
When the hot gas has all naturally released from the cooker, open the lid. Ensure the meat is tender and there is some gravy. Check for salt seasoning. Bring to a boil at high heat and pour in the coconut curd mix. With a ladle fold in the white mix.
That's it. Ladle out portions onto a bowl and mate it with 'parathas' and lose yourself!
I was watching an episode of Luke Nguyen's Vietnam. This recipe fascinated me. It was like being in the lanes of Hanoi all over again. Shopping for little nothings from quaint corners, buying local art with the blazing red eye catching flowers on canvases everywhere, sitting to eat on really low plastic chairs and thanking the heavens with every intake of the brilliant textures of quail-squid-clams-what not, hearing the shrill sweet noises of rubber horns on local rickshaws, drooling over innumerable mugs from the romantic coffee repertoire, and wanting to eat more and more and everything that was on display at every street joint. Yes, Vietnam wins hands-down amongst many destinations that I have been lucky to visit and a re-visit with girlfriends is now on the bucket list. Who wants to come with me? You can enlist only and only if you are a lover everything that is delicious.
Back to my recipe. I could not remember all the steps that the brilliant chef was showing on telly and I also would not be ambitious to recreate his version because his essential ingredient was fresh green little bunches of peppercorns which he plucked from trees in a pepper plantation. This lucky act of cooking amidst the green under the liquid blue sky on a rustic stove itself I am sure will make his creation top class. But try my version that I share with you from my black and white modern kitchen in Mumbai. My recipe is a take-off from his with my own twists in it.
I used a kilo of chicken on the bone. Wash it well and marinate with about 4 pods of crushed garlic, 2 tbsp red wine vinegar and about 20 pearls of roughly crushed peppercorns. Keep it overnight.
Also remember to source 1 large tender coconut with abundant water in it. Dice 1 tomato. Keep ready half an inch of 'galangal' and bruise it. Also keep ready a sprig of lemon grass. I like to use 4 or 5 red bird eye chillies for the recipe.
On the day of cooking which is the next day, shallow fry the chicken making both sides burnt golden. Slice 1 red onion and take 4 or 5 pink shallots. Side-wise make slant cuts of 6 or 7 baby corn tubes.
In a warm wok, add the chicken along with the pan oil, the baby corn, the onions, the shallot, the 'galangal', salt to taste, 2 tsp freshly ground pepper powder, the bird chillies and the tomato. Toss everything in the heat for 3 minutes at high flame. Now is the refreshing addition to the recipe. Pour in the whole coconut water and bring to a boil. Toss in the lemon grass and allow the chicken to simmer at medium heat for a good 10-12 minutes till it softens. Pierce the meat to ensure it is soft. Add about 3 tsp full fish sauce.
Pour on sticky rice or brown rice and dig in while it is fresh from the wok. Delicacy...sublimity..., sophistication.... rich sweetness.......peppery sharpness - these are the sensations which will overwhelm you.
What if Vishnu avatar Parasurama had not thrown his axe across the sea from Konkan to Kanyakumari? Would we still have Kerala? A land of temples, churches and mosques? Is that really why it is considered as God's own country. I would like to believe that pristine beaches, emerald backwaters, dense forests, exotic wildlife, deep rooted cultures, jeweled lagoons and bays, long river networks and mind blowing food is what win the state its name. I have not seen enough. But I have seen enough to believe in the miracle called Kerala.
Even before that I met Angela. She was recruited just before me or maybe even earlier in the Customer Service team at Standard Chartered credit cards, Bangalore. Our work was intense and chaotic. We would vacillate between fire-fighting and crisis management. Lunch breaks were treasured moments. We would share our lunch boxes. She was lucky. Her mom packed her food. Often she would get the Erachi Varattiyathu aka the Kerala beef fry and I would partake of this hand-created bliss and reach heavens or maybe God's own country itself!
Beef is not available here any more. So I tried the recipe with mutton. I recommend you use beef and that you use the boneless variety. Rest, just follow this recipe. It is bang-on.
For this recipe, I used half kilo mutton as in lamb and I kept it on the bone. So, first steps would be that in a pressure cooker you boil the mutton with one red onion sliced, 1 tsp ginger garlic paste, salt to season, 1/2 tsp turmeric powder and 3 cups water. Allow about 6- 7 whistles. The meat should cook well.
Take 1/4 of a dry coconut. Slice them. Fry them till golden. Set aside. Take a hand full of fresh curry leaves. Set aside too.
Take 2 tbsp broken cashew and grind into a paste with a tad bit of water.
Now take about 2 red onions and slice them long. Fry them till pink. Add 2 slit green chillies and half the above curry leaves. Toss for 2 minutes.
To this add 1/2 tsp ginger garlic paste. Next add cashew paste. Stir for 2 mins in low heat. Add chilli powder depending upon your taste remembering that it is a spicy preparation, 2 tsp coriander powder and 1/4 tsp turmeric powder. Suate well.
Chop one large tomato into medium small pieces. Add to the above wok. When you do this increase the heat to high flame. Stir well so that the mix does not stick to the surface of the wok.
I added the meat now with about a cup of the water it was boiled in. Blend everything in with your spatula. Season with 1/4 - 1/2 tsp garam masala, 1/2 to 1 tsp freshly ground fennel powder and 1/2 tsp pepper powder. I also poured in 1 tsp white vinegar now for acidity. Cover and keep at low heat now for the meat to roast.
In about 5 minutes, add the fried coconut slivers, the rest of the curry leaves and some freshly chopped coriander leaves. The final colour will be a delicious blackish brownish gold and the meat will be tender and well roasted.
Transfer to a dish. Enjoy with ghee rice or the traditional "puttu". I served it with plain crisp "dosas".
President H.W. Bush said broccoli tastes like medicine. In 1990 he banned the cooking of it in Air Force One. A slogan in 2002 by one produce company saying " broccoli and bush, we are both good for America" failed to change the president's mind about the ban. Wonder if he would have been re-elected had he eaten some broccoli.
I am sharing a broccoli recipe. It is indeed indo -western in its flavours. You will feel the sense when you have it. And I promise you even your Bush alike broccoli hating child will love this dish.
I learnt this recipe from Prajakti, my little ex neighbour who had made this for her mom in Kolhapur. For me to think that Prajakti is wedded and kidded itself is a lot to handle. Then to learn a recipe created by her is just too much. And too too lovely!
Take a mid size broccoli flower. Cut broccoli florets keeping a little bit if the stem. Blanch in hot water. Set aside.
In a small blender make a paste with 3 tbsp broken cashew nuts. I use broken ones to save some money. Blend this cashew paste with a cup of milk and about 2 tbsp fresh cream. Do the blending with a fork or a gentle hand whisk.
Grate about 1/2 an inch of ginger. In a pestle and mortar crush 6 pods garlic and 1 large green chilly. You can use a garlic crusher too. Chop a large red onion in long slices.
In warm 1 and a 1/2 oil lightly fry the ginger, garlic and chilly for 1/2 a minutes and toss the broccoli with a dash of salt. Make the green vegetable crisp and warm.
Separately again in 1 and a 1/2 tsp warm oil caramelize the onions till they are pink and crisp. Add the cashew-milk-cream mix. Gently blend in medium heat and season with salt and pepper or chilly flakes.
To serve place the broccoli on a plate and spoon on the sauce ensure generous coating of the green florets. Enjoy with multi grain bread or even as it is.
I call this my Monday Magic recipe. You have done the groceries last weekend and you don't want to step out to buy stuff until Friday. The family wants something delicious and new, 'new' being the operative word here. You don't have much time on your hands and you need already-at-home ingredients.
I give you a magical solution dear chicken likers.
Marinate a kilo chicken on the bone because bones emit a juicy flavour with ginger, garlic and coriander paste seasoned with salt and chilli powder and sour curd and set aside for 6 hours. For the paste you should take 1 inch ginger, 6 pods garlic and a fistful bunch of coriander leaves with stalks. The sour curd quantity will be 200 grams.
Finely chop 4 onions.
In a wok, heat 1 tbsp oil and 1 tbsp ghee. To this pool throw in 2/3 cloves, 5/6 peppercorns, 2/3 green cardamom and 2 dried bay leaves. In less than a minute add the onions and let them turn brown. Next just add the whole chicken with the marinade. Stir and mix well. Cover with a lid at medium heat. The chicken should cook in its own juices. Please don't add anything, no water at all. Keep removing the lid and stirring every now and then. Once the chicken is soft add 1/2 tsp 'garam masala'(can be store bought at an Indian store for those living abroad) and increase the heat. Just toss it around for another long minute.
You will serve delicious, juicy, tangy, kicky chicken to the lucky eaters. I bet you they will bless you!
