The Voice In My Head…

Last weekend was great fun - thx to all the Mumbai bloggers who attended! Am proud to belong to such a social bunch!

This weekend:
Will be in Goa - the magical land of Sun, Sand, Coconut Juice, Cotton Clothes & Fish. Lots and lots of Fish.

Speaking of fish though, I am so so sad, because I SO wanted to eat Patrani Machi at my Parsi friend’s Wedding, unfortunately also this weekend in Mumbai (darn my luck).

If I close my eyes, I can still taste the yummy food from the last parsi wedding I went to - which was too long ago. (If there are parsis out there who want to invite me to your weddings, I’m in)

In honor of the wedding that I’ll miss - & the food I’ll miss more (sorry guys, but your food is to die for) - here’s the recipe for Patrani Machi, the signature Parsi dish, which is traditionally made with hilsa, a local fish known for both its rich flavor and its innumerable bones, and is steamed in banana leaves. Enjoy!

PATRANI MACHI

In this dish, fish is topped with coconut-cilantro chutney, wrapped in leaves, and baked. Here lettuce leaves substitute for the traditional banana leaves. This is a popular dish around Bombay where fish and coconuts are fresh and abundant.

Serves 6 to 8

CHUTNEY Ingredients

1 cup unsweetened grated coconut ( preferably fresh)
1-2 small chilis
3 garlic cloves, coarsly chopped
1 Tbl. chopped fresh ginger root
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1 1/2 tsp. ground cumin seeds
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. brown sugar (optional)

Main dish ingredients

2 pounds firm, white-fleshed fish fillets
6-8 large lettuce leaves for wrapping (leaf lettuce works well)
1/4 cup melted butter or ghee
2 Tbl. fresh lime juice
1 lime, sliced

Method

In the bowl of a food processor or in a blender, combine the chutney ingredients and process until quite smooth. If using a blender, it may necessary to add one or two Tbl. of water and to blend the ingredients in batches.
Rinse the fish and cut into 6 to 8 serving sized pieces. Place each piece at the bottom of a lettuce leaf and spread a generous spoonful of the chutney on top. Fold the rest of the leaf down over the fish and tuck in the edges to form a packet.

Place the packets in an oiled baking dish and drizzle the butter and 2 Tbl. of lime juice over them. Bake, covered, at 350 F. for 30 to 40 minutes, until the lettuce looks wilted and browned. The lettuce may be eaten or not, as desired.
Serve with rice and Tomato Kachumber and garnish each serving with a slice of lime. Or serve the fish accompanied by a simple side dish of cherry tomatoes stir-fried with some oil and minced garlic.

Note: If you are pressed for time or are out of lettuce leaves, you can simply spread the chutney on top of the fish and bake approximately 10 minutes less. The chutney can be served by itself to accompany any Indian meal. Parsley can be used in place of the cilantro. from Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant

Recipe courtesy Richard Bennett

Yesterday got up early and made some (yumm imo) scrambled eggs for the family. Today decided to make waffles. First time I’ve done so, so was pretty much mum’s job, will try again myself next week.

Only thing that REALLY irritated me was that after everything was made & we were enjoying the waffles, mum tells me how ready made batter is available abroad & that all they do is just buy it in tetra packs & pour on the iron. So in essence, all the time and effort that went into me going through steps 1 – 7 after getting all the ingredients right & getting tons of bowls & stuff to wash (sieves & crap) could all be avoided if you live in a place where you can buy it in a pack. Merci.

Sweet Waffles

· 1 ½ Cups Milk
· 2 Eggs (full)
· 2 Cups Maida
· ½ Tsp Salt
· 6 heaped Tbsp Sugar
· 2 Tsp Baking Powder
· ½ tsp Vanilla Essence (if wanted)
· 6 Tbsp Ghee

The above mix should be ok for about 6 big waffles in an average size waffle iron.

(01) Sift Flour
(02) In another bowl beat the eggs and then add in the milk
(03) Add the egg/milk mix to the flour, slowly, stirring constantly to make sure there aren’t any lumps.
(04) Add salt and baking powder and beat well
(05) Pass the mixture through a sieve to remove any lumps
(06) Add sugar & essence and ghee and beat again. The consistency should be of thick cream
(07) Leave the batter for 30 mins before using.

(The same mix could be used for regular waffles without the sugar & you could pour a thick white Italian creamy sauce on top of it)

In other news - went to ‘Culture Curry’ for dinner with Geh, Prem, Sonal & DV. As usual with these guys it was a great night & we enjoyed ourselves laughing loudly & generally behaving half our ages.

The place is owned by the same - pesky? - guy who owns ‘Goa Portuguesa’ and is in fact next door & joined to the place (you can even order off the GP menu when at CC). The food was alright but nothing great imo - I’m used to eating the BEST goan food at home, so this just didn’t do anything for me. Couldn’t have asked for better company though

Be warned, more of a rant than a recipe follows this line.
Was invited today to attend a fusion cooking class at the Marine Plaza Hotel taught by their in house Chef Mark Crocker.

The class turned out to be a very simple one - four recipes:
#1 Baby Corn Flakes Crusted
#2 Stuffed Mushrooms topped with Cashew nut sauce
#3 Potato Wedges with Cheese & Chillies
#4 Onion rings covered with Papad powder

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Cape Gooseberries are now in season in Bombay and my mum who loves CG Jam (just like her mum) decided to make some. I was quite delighted & followed her into the kitchen. Honestly, am very amazed at how ridiculously easy it is to make jam - I would never have imagined!

As always, took lots of pics!

(01) This is the initial fruit - the “Cape Gooseberry” - complete with “Cape” very cute indeed! Step one includes basics like de-caping & washing.

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Someone wanted me to make carrot cake so I searched online & found a recipe here.

Bought most of the stuff I need the other day on my trip to the bazaar

Was trifle apprehensive as I was doing everything all alone - especially since I hadn’t learned this at a class or anything (remember my level is still below zero) but decided it would be a great learning experience for me to try something new all by myself right out of a recipe.

Started off by cleaning carrots & then grating them (see uncleaned carrots on left.)

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Who dareth call me a snob??? Off with his head!!

L’il pebbles here ventured into the bazaar today (yes Mr. President, I deserve a Bharat Ratna). Started off by going to the Supermarket and picking up tons of different dals: Toor, Mixed, Urad & Masoor. Also bought a couple of other stuff (like my fav. Amchoor Powder!) before venturing into the actual Bazaar Bazaar.

First up on my list was carrots. Found dude who had these & a whole lot of other veggies too (easier to get all things at one place, me thinks).

Also bought 4 to 5 other other green veggies: “pav” (1/4) kilos each:

Then bought some Kaacha Masala. Smarty pants asked for Garam Masala first (by this time dude had already figured out I was a seasoned bazaaree, so he dived in straight for the Kaacha Masala):

Then came the tomatoes:

And the Kaanda Battata (onions & patatoes):

These I got from another dude as first guy was too expensive. What I did was walk around a bit, ask for prices, check with some old ladies what prices they got & then bargain for little less. Worked pretty well. Especially since I took pics of both veggie guys - they were very thrilled - showed both of them their pics (”madam photo dekhao”) & got the prices down still further

Final maal was as follows:

T’was fun.

And I ain’t a snob okey??

I was very excited all the week after the only baking class I’ve attended and I was dying to try out the Dutch Truffle Cake. Been nagging Del the whole week about making one - we’re both absolutely new at this & it took us quite a while to find places to buy tins, the icing gun, the ingridients etc (not that places are hard to find, just that we’re very d-uh in this reg)

Went to sleep on Friday night (after yet another party!) all buzzed about the fact that we both finally could co-ordinate our scheds to bake the cake. As things turned out, I got caught up in work & it was only 4pm in the evening before we started anything.

We had decided to bake at Anita’s (Del’s sis-in-law) place (ty, ty, ty) as I didn’t know where anything in my house was placed & as we were a bit apprehensive about using the oven without anyone looking over our shoulders. Anita was very sweet & stayed out of our hair (& out of the kitchen) mostly except when we asked - and we did ask a couple of weird things…!! eg: is 200 ml = 200 gms? Yup, we’re brilliant.

Won’t go into detail - took us 3 hours altogether (should have only taken us 1.5 max) but we were total novices & had to keep reading & re-reading the recipe again & again & racking our brains trying to remember what Sharda had done… some sample of the many inane convos we had:

“did she mix this first?”
“yeah”
“no”
“are you sure?”
“no, I just can’t remember”
“shall we call Anita?”
“no, let’s try figure this out”
“oh heck, let’s just mix it already”

As far as we can tell, we made only one mistake - we bought Castor Sugar straight out of a store (we figured it was pretty much what we needed, even though Sharda had told us to grind regular sugar to a powder at home). What happened is that the Castor sugar in the store was very refined - but not quite enough - it wasn’t a powder & as a result it was slightly grainy. We had to beat the batter more than one would have to do normally & finally it was Anita who told us to stop beating the batter or we’d have just liquid instead of fluff.

That mistake aside, we managed everything (miracle of miracles!!) perfectly well, as close to the original (according to us) & without any help… which for two first timers like us was a real achievement!

And yes, I took pics (call Blogoholics Anon quick!)

(01) Grating the Chocolate

(02) Butter & Castor Sugar being beaten mercilessly

(03) Folding the batter (post cocoa mix being added)

(04) Close up of batter before being put in cake tins

(05) Cakes after coming out of the oven. Baked to perfection!!! (I was actually jumping - trust me - all around the kitchen yelling “Alleluia, ALLELUIA, Alleluia”

(06) Making the chocolate icing.. yummmmm (we got fatter just baking the darn thingie!)

(07) Applying the first layer of icing (two layers totally)

(08) The final product. I look terrible (what d’ya expect after hours of slaving in the kitchen??) but the cake looked FABULOUS

Do check out the designed icing (or whatever it’s called) I did on the cake (with the icing gun)- I enjoyed that whole part and it was totally surprising how easy it was! (excuse the extra choco on ends of plate):

“The proof of the pudding is in the eating”

Got great reviews from all who tried out the cake. We could have used more rum said some - but overall it was great.

I’m still so buzzed as I write this - can’t believe I actually made a cake. And praise God! Can’t believe it actually turned out so great.

We’re so happy, we’re planning on doing two more cakes (practice makes perfect et al) one for the 6th (Dayl’s bday) and one before Eli goes back (which probably is in 10 days or so).

Been a while since my last cooking class (well over a month).

Technically was a Baking Class & Sharda taught us to make the most delicious:
* Rich Chocolate Cake + Chocolate (Dutch Truffle) Icing
* Walnut Brownies + Fudge Icing
(The above two bases & icings are interchangable + you can even make the cakes without the icings which makes it 6 combos)
* Date & Walnut Cookies
(Also, as usual, the many variations on all the cakes/cookies. eg: Instead of Dates & Walnuts, one can use Chocolate chips etc etc)

By far this was the BEST class ever!!! It just all smelt so good!! lol

Del joined me for the class & we’re both going to try out the first cake this week (the Rich Choco one).

Monday was a crazy day at work. I know I’m much to blame because post floods I haven’t ventured into office (though I did do a lot of stuff from home)…. There was one meeting after another & by the end of it all I was pooped (even though I postponed the last meeting to Tuesday!).

Went for Music Ministry meeting “late” but they were already saying the final prayer (didn’t realise just how late I was!). The up side of it all is that I managed to sit down with Jan at home & had a relaxing 1/2 hour chat with her before heading home & to bed. Thank God for amazing friends.

Tuesday was only a little less insane than Monday. Had a string of meetings (first one early morning) at the Grand Hyatt. Heard long horror stories about how they survived the floods (& they even helped tons of other stranded folks, God bless them!) but how from the high vantage point they saw tons of others who didn’t - Kalina was definetely the worst hit area in Mumbai. It’s only when we hear story after story of the unbelievable things people went through on the 26th, that we truly understand how blessed we are. Was quite the 5 Star day, moved to a next set of meeting at the Taj Land’s End before calling it a day but apparently was not done…

Apparently the amazing (seriously!) Ty was in town just for a few hours before flying off to Europe. Had an absolutely brilliant night - he is so completely funny & down to earth & just plain amazing! Had dinner in Jamavar (the Indian speciality restaurant) though I was already totally stuffed from all the snacks I ate in his room (yes, made a total pig out of myself).

Jamawar was lovely. It’s run by Chef Farman Ali and Chef Venketash Bhat and the menu includes spicy moghalai dishes (which I especially appreciated given my cooking 101 class!!) I would never go to an Indian restaurant by choice (esp. when Citrus is next door!) but Ty wanted to eat Indian, so off we went.

The first thing that hit me was the ambience which was breath-taking (dim & colored lighting, most romantic). As far as food is concerned, have never been unhappy about dining at the Leela (7 restaurants to choose from!) & this time was no different. Recommend the Tandoori Platter (the prawns were the size of my closed fist) though everything we ordered (including the Aloo Mehti, which had great crunchy garlic) was fabulous. It’s not cheap of course (an average dish is about INR 600 + taxes) - but it is a five star experience - and if that’s your thing, you won’t be dissapointed at Jamawar! I certainly loved it.

Didn’t have the luxury of getting up late on Wednesday though - had another morning meeting - though sensibly had fixed it up near to home. Didn’t go into the city as I had a cooking class in the afternoon. It should have been my last Moghalai class but I missed Monday’s class so still have one to go.

Learned to make:
* Kadai Gosht
* Achari Chicken
* Amritsar Maachi
* Keema Nan
and the usual million variations

Was totally surprised how easy everything was. I already feel so confident (though it’s a totally different thing cooking at class & cooking at home) and it’s a far cry from my first class (where I couldn’t even put on on the gas range! lol)

Spent the evening with Sonya who’s totally showing (in other baby news, both Kath & Bens have delivered - girl & boy respectively - praise God!!) didn’t intend to stay long but was really too tired to move. Finished the night off with an early dinner (& looooooong conversations which we never can finish- what else is new???) with Art.

Finally got my internet access back after 2 weeks (it’s a small price to pay for the rains, only way we were affected, praise God). Am almost upto speed - have copy-pasted all the entries I made offline (from July 25th-31st). Scroll down if you wish to read.

Which leaves me only to update the first week of August.

Was a slow week. Didn’t go to my 3rd cooking class on Monday 1st August as it was raining pretty heavily. Found out later it was cancelled (had tried calling but phone lines were down). Visited Day & fly. Day came back from Luxemburg on Friday night which apparently was a small window at the airport after which they closed down again for a few days. Went to Music Min afterwards and slept early… Surprisingly I also slept way into the next morning & was the butt of some not too few jokes…

(someone naughty took this silly pic of me sleeping… lol)

Tuesday 2nd August was still raining so didn’t do much except for attending the prayer meeting in the evening. Was kinda annoyed because it was a group sharing thingie and I don’t like those. Still, I guess the core-group know what they’re doing. Got a chance to catch up with lots of the guys and it was sad because a lot of them really suffered during the floods (a lot of people in our group live in the bazaar and other low lying areas).

That thing I was praying about (& which had me down for the past 2 days) was resolved (somewhat) so I slept peacefully.

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