Hummus

Real hummus, makeshift non-pita bread

Its time for a comeback. And a comeback of this sort, battling laziness and the lack of time, doesn't just happen. It needs inspiration. And I found inspiration here. And here. And also in a recipe Anand shared with me yesterday, straight from his Israeli friend's home.

So if you're looking for inspiration to get back into the kitchen, this could very well be it. Easy to do, gorgeous to look at, simply yummilicious to taste, and you can do it all be done in no time at all!

Here's what you need:
1 cup kabuli channa (white) soaked overnight
1.5 tablespoons Tahini (easily available in stores, thought Praerna tells me you can do without it too!)
Olive oil
Lime
Salt
Pepper
Jeera powder
Chilli powder
Chopped coriander, to garnish

Here's what you need to do:
Pressure cook the channa for about 20 minutes, in sufficient water and a dash of salt. When it cools, put the channa with just a little bit of the boiling water in a blender.

Add in one and a half tablespoons of Tahini.

Next, slice a nice ripe lime in half and add in the juice of one half. Save the other half for later.

Then, in goes the olive oil, salt, pepper and the jeera powder.

And we're done.

Pour yourself a nice tall mug of beer right about now. Here's where you start chilling, because lunch is going to be ready in no time at all.

Pulse till nicely pasty, and pour into a serving dish/bowl.

Drizzle with the juice of the other half of the lime and some more olive oil. Sprinkle with chilli powder and freshly chopped coriander. And we're done!

Erm, almost done, save the makeshift non-pita bread. Which in our case was actually store-bought pizza base, which i cut into wedges, slathered with butter and toasted on the tawa till golden brown.

Together, even the makeshift pita bread totally hit the spot.

But I'm determined to make my own pita bread the next time. And Anand has promised to show me how, illustrations and all.

To go with it, I whipped up a quick salad, because one must have some veggie quotient too!

Sambar with palak

Sambar-with-a-twist

Its been a peaceful Saturday. The first in a long while. And I spent the morning tending to all the things I have ignored all week long. The mound of clothes piling up on the bedroom chair, the overflowing laundry basket, the dusty corners of my kitchen, the cobwebs in the balcony, the dining table strewn with random objects (that dont belong there!), and the list is endless. So the day passed by rather quickly, involving such things as changing pillow covers and sheets, taking things down from the kitchen shelf and dusting the area and neatly replacing the boxes, making the dining table sparse like it should be, doing a giant batch of laundry, putting away clothes. And the best part -- Im not complaining :)

Some days are just meant for all things homely. And today was one such. I also had in my fridge what was an utterly green and fresh bunch of palak. It was utterly green and fresh day before yesterday when I bought it, but having soaked a cupful of channa that couldnt be wasted yesterday I had to put off using the palak until today. So while the bunch had lost its really verdant color and crunch, I knew it had to be used now or never.

And what better way to make the Saturday more homely, than with some good ol sambar rice? Except this sambar is a combination of the versions I have heard and read about. So without really following a recipe, I tend to go with the flow and do things as I feel. Like in this instance, throwing in some palak into my pot of sambar.

What you need (for 2 people, 1 small cup of dal):
2 cloves of garlic
1 medium onion
1 medium tomato
1 handful french beans
1 medium carrot
1 small bunch palak
1 green chilli
2 tablespoons sambar powder
2 teaspoons tamarind paste
Mustard seeds, asafoetida and curry leaves for the tadka

What you need to do:
Chop up all your vegetables. The carrots, tomato and beans roughly, but the onion and garlic chopped fine.

In a pan, heat some oil. Throw in the garlic and onion. Saute well till the onions are translucent. Next, throw in the chopped beans and carrots. Saute till lightly cooked.

In a pressure cooker, add the washed dal and adequate water. To it, add the sauteed vegetables.

Next, chop the palak roughly and add it in.

Add the sambar powder, a pinch of asafoetida and salt to taste. Add some more water if required and cook for about 3-4 whistles.

When cooked and the pressure has released, open, add water if required and give it a good stir. Simmer the sambar for 4-5 minutes. Add in some tamarind paste and bring to a boil.

In a small pan, heat up some ghee, when its hot, add in the mustard seeds, asafoetida and curry leaves. Add in the sputtering mixture to the sambar.

Done!

The best thing about sambar is that you can virtually throw in every vegetable, and follow a sequence of rather simple, almost robotic steps and you just cant go wrong. I hope this is as much of a reminder of the warmth of your home, as it was for me.

Caramel custard

Remembering an old favourite, and trying to get it right

With a lot of weekend time on my hands all of a sudden, I have been catching up everything I have ignored for a while. That includes catching up on the many blogs I read, and sifting and sorting through my pictures/movies/data. While going through my hard disk today, I discovered some unposted pictures that were meant to go into this blog. Thats what led to the noodles post earlier today.

I also found a bunch of pictures from a cookout Anand, the husband and I had at home the last time he was down. And I was reminded of the best, most perfect caramel custard we turned out...

It also reminded me about how I have been missing in action from my kitchen, my blog and the hobby of cooking in general. This is such a simple recipe that Anand shared with me, I realised I had almost everything I needed ready at hand. So inspired by the most perfect caramel custard, I decided I must give it another go. Here it is!

What you need:
500 ml milk
2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar (for the custard)
3-4 tablespoons sugar (for caramelisation)
Vanilla essence

What you need to do:
Boil the milk, and add in 1/2 cup sugar, stirring continuously so it is completely dissolved. Set aside to cool.

Crack open the eggs in another bowl and beat till really fluffy. Set aside.

In a pan, spread the sugar out for caramelisation, pour a few cap-fulls of water to moisten it and begin to caramelise on a medium flame.

The sugar will first dissolve, then begin to bubble and slowly caramelise.

If you like it sweet, stop when it is golden. For those who like it slightly burnt, let it cook a while longer.

Pour into the mould and set aside.

Combine the eggs with the milk and mix well. Then pour the mixture into the mould.

Pressure cook for about 20 minutes. And it should come out looking something like this.

Voila! Done!

Strawberry souffle

A simple-to-make dessert with wonderful results

It all started with the office cook-out. A tradition that features new joinees cooking for the rest of the office. Yes, the whole freaking office. All 50 of them. So as luck would have it, my turn came. And with it, I was clubbed with 3 fresh-out-of-college boys, who dont cook. I consider myself a novice. I can barely cook for more than 3 people, with confidence. And here I was, with the daunting task of cooking for 50 very hungry people, with very high expectations. That, and the will to generally rag the new joinees.

So the menu was decided. We wanted to keep it simple. Chicken curry, paneer butter masala, jeera rice and green salad. And just as an add-on, I thought Id experiment with a quick-fix idea for souffle, that my super efficient and pro-cook friend Praerna had shared with me a while ago. Shes my ultimate recipe-yellow-pages, and comes to my rescue in my moments of doubt about quantities, recipes, what-to-make-moments and generally anytime I need some home-maker-kind-of-support. And for that I am SO grateful :)

I knew Id have to probably quadruple the quantities, but Id have to make it at home and let it set overnight. When the night in question arrived however, I was faced with a huge power cut and resorted to spending the evening in the office. The "evening" ended at 10 pm. So of course making dessert was out of question, and it promptly got dropped off the menu. But to address my thwarted intention to make souffle, I decided I should make some for myself and the husband this weekend. VC likes fruity desserts (I know that sounds very UNmanly, but he does! And theres no other way to say it!), so this sounded perfect. Besides its simple and so easy-sounding that is would be a crime NOT to try it!

Here's what you need (for about 8 servings):
1 packet jelly, in any flavour you like. I used strawberry, but Praerna tells me it tastes lovely in orange.
1 big box of curd. I used Nestle, but any of the other packaged store-bought curds will do.
200 ml fresh cream

Here's what you need to do:
Prepare the jelly in advance, and set it fully. This takes a few hours. Since I planned the previous night I let it set overnight.

Hang the curd in a muslin cloth for at least 5-6 hours. Again, I left it overnight, and I have to say this gave me a wonderful result. The curd had lost all its water and reduced to less than half its quantity. Which is exactly how you want it to be.

When the jelly is fully set, grab a whisk and break it up, till its nice and scrambled into tiny bits.

Next, add the hung curd and mix it together. If youre using a balloon whisk and dealing with possible CTS like I think I am, this can be quite laborious and takes longer than if you use an electric hand mixer.

When the curd and jelly are slightly mixed up, add in the cream. All 200 ml of it, and continue to whisk, till its nice and smooth.

My souffle turned from a deep magenta pink to a lovely soft and smooth light pink. At this point, simply stick a finger in to this gorgeous velvety mixture, lick it, and taste for sweetness. I added a leeeeetle bit of powdered sugar, because I felt it needed it.

Stick the bowl back in to the fridge and let it set.

Done!