My World of Food and Travel

Woohoo!! I am just back from a fabulous trip to Goa – the bestest trip ever to Goa. I am bursting at the seams with so many stories and so much to share with you guys. I hope I will be able to keep the excitement intact for the next few weeks, because, oh woe is me – I have a tremendous work schedule before me at office and I have to travel from tomorrow. Nooooo! *shudders in horror* Okay, let’s just stick to our happy ‘woohoo’ for the moment and not think about work.  Now, I am not much of a shopper, more so at touristy places, but I make it a point to buy at least one local-made thing from the places that I visit. This time in Goa, I bought the famed Goa sausages (they are not called Goan sausages, apparently). We get them in the cold storage shops in Bangalore (Lusitania Foods, Frazer Town), too, but it is more fun to buy the same thing from the place it actually belongs to, no?  Luckily for us, we were there on a Friday which turned out to be Market Day in Mapusa. A...

A few weeks ago I saw the very delectable Jamie Oliver cook up an Indian storm in his oven. He called it his Empire Roast Chicken. It looked deliciously succulent and charred with tendrils of smoke arising as Jamie sliced through it. I was ready to reach out for a drumstick when he placed the chicken pieces on a board. I knew then that I just had to make this Indian roast chicken for Sunday lunch.  Thus, I set the husband in motion on a Saturday evening. He dutifully brought home a whole bird which I planned to marinate overnight.  As I was about to get my spices ready for the marinade, I looked up Jamie’s recipe for the roast on the net.  And just like that, I changed my mind. I am sure his Empire Roast Chicken would have tasted so much better, but my inability to follow recipes made me decide to roast my chicken in my own desi style. Perhaps my experience with cooking the herb-roasted chicken would come handy! Later, as I went about toasting and grinding spice...

Gosh! It has been so long since I wrote anything on food. I have a folder full of food photographs, the recipes of which now escape me. However, I do remember this one, thankfully!  Monday looms large and I also have to rush to make dinner. So I will make this a very short post. Just the recipe and I will spare you from my ramblings.  I hope my chilli lemon chicken tickles your taste buds. You have all the liberty to take the recipe to your level of spiciness. Mine is just average, I guess. Lemon Chilli Chicken (Inspired by Priyadarshini's Red Chicken ) Ingredients: 500 gms chicken, cut into medium sized pieces 2 onions, finely chopped 2 green chilllies, slit lengthwise 1 teaspoon garlic, crushed 1 tablespoon lemon juice, freshly squeezed Salt to taste Refined oil for cooking Roast and grind (use a mortar and pestle, if possible) : 4 dry red chillies 1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds (methi) 3 teaspoons coriander seeds (dhania) Method: Heat a litt...

This is another kitchen experiment of mine that came out quite well. I was planning to cook something special for Ma’s birthday and before I could come up with a menu, Deta went ahead and bought some whole chicken legs. Now, I love to cook whole legs, they are delicious and remain juicy and moist instead of drying up. In the past, I had made crumb fried chicken and my own version of KFC chicken using whole legs. I didn’t want to put up the same fare again. And so, I concocted this easy recipe, Indian at heart and yet inspired by the techniques shown in Masterchef Australia, a program which I follow dedicatedly (much to the husband’s chagrin). We were a big group at dinner that day and I was really glad to see my dish being appreciated by all. Thank God, there was no disaster that day and everything ended on a happy note. Here is my recipe. Spicy Chicken Roast, Indian-style Ingredients: 4 whole legs of chicken, washed and patted dry 1 stick of butter 1 teaspoon re...

And so Diwali is over and my parents have left. I did a lot of eating and cooking during the whole time my parents were here. While I made Ma cook for me my favourite dishes, I tried to return the favour by making some new dishes as well. Ma eats sparingly nowadays, blaming it on her age, but Deta is still eager to try new food. He saw a packet of Basa fish fillets one day at the shopping mall and wanted to know how it tasted like. I bought the fish fillets and experimented a little at home. The first attempt turned out to be a big disaster though everyone put up a brave face and said it was fine. I knew better. So, I chucked all my great ideas about creating a new recipe and decided to stick to the tried and tested formula of a fish fry in my second attempt. That, thankfully, went about quite right and I even made Deta try his hand at frying the fish. Nobody had to put up an act of valour at the dining table that day. Here is my recipe for spicy crumb fried fish. Spicy Crum...

Gosh! I have not posted on food for so long! And I have cooked so much in the last few weeks, too. Let me haste and put down at least one dish here. I had bought a big bunch of basil leaves some days back for my Thai Green Curry . I am a big, big fan of basil and can have it in any amount in a dish. The husband finds it a bit overpowering so I have to control myself a bit while putting them in the green curry. As a result, I had a small left-over sprig of basil in the fridge, after the green curry was over and done with. I wanted to use them in a chicken dish, although I was not at all sure about the recipe. Usually, the recipe comes into place as and when I am cooking.  Basil always reminds me of the restaurant Chin-Thai in Versova when I used to live in Mumbai. It was a small place, mostly frequented by patrons for home deliveries and take-aways. But the Thai food that it churned out was terrific. My favourite order used to be steamed basil rice and Thai green curry, bot...

I first tasted crab in Goa when I was well into my mid-twenties. It was actually a stuffed crab where you just had to lift the ‘lid’ (shell) and eat the shredded crab meat. “Then you have not tasted a real crab,” said whoever came to know of it. Apparently, you had to break the shell with a cracker, scoop out the meat with a long thin instrument and then savour it. That is how you should eat a crab in the real sense (in a civilized manner).  I remember sitting at Mahesh Lunch Home in Juhu (Mumbai) with my sis when we saw a waiter carrying two huge crabs, their pincers tied with twine, going up to another table. He presented them to the guests for size approval and went back to the kitchen after they had made their choice. We had stared goggle-eyed at the process. “Eww! How can anyone have those things?” Sis and I had shuddered. Crabs looked so menacing then! Circa 2011, I am to be found sitting at the dining table, concentrating hard at breaking open the crab shell with my...

We generally wake up late on the weekends. Breakfast, hence, is quite a late affair. While I do try to make something special for the family for breakfast, the late morning hour and grumbling tummies don’t allow much experimentation. We were out for a late night movie the other day and just could not shake off our slumber the next morning till quite late. By the time I woke up, my father –in-law had already made a stack of hot chapattis.  I should have died of shame! He was confused as to what vegetable to prepare and had left that task to me.  I quickly took stock of the vegetables in the refrigerator and found a packet of small brinjals/ aubergines/ eggplants. I didn’t want our weekend breakfast to be very plain and at the same time not too rich, either. So, this is what I came up with – my version of Masala Baingan or Spiced Brinjal.  Let me take you around to the recipe. Masala Baingan (Spiced Brinjal) Ingredients: 8 small brinjals, keep the stalk ...

April is the month my in-laws had got married. March was when my parents had tied the knot. So, we celebrated another wedding anniversary at our home last Wednesday.  The husband, who had single-handedly cooked for my parents’ anniversary dinner, opted to do the same this time around as well. I had no complaints, given his culinary skills; although the aftermath of the ‘kitchen-storm’ can be a little daunting. Once again, I found myself entrusted with the task of preparing the appetizer. Last time, for my parents’ party, I had come up with Amritsari Fish Fry . It was inspired by a conversation we had in office. Call it sheer co-incidence, but the same thing happened this time also! Nowadays I seem to find my cooking mojo in my work-place!  We have this office boy who makes the round of everyone’s cubicles at around 12.30 pm, half an hour before the scheduled lunch time, to get orders from people who had not brought their food. Not that we can order for stuff su...

I am house-sitting for my sister. Well, sort of. My parents are also present and I have a feeling that I am here just to unwind while they looked after my toddler. But, I will cook.  Now, here is the problem. Sis and family will be leaving India soon and so her kitchen is kind of…un-stocked. I took a look at her shelf and planned to make her signature dish of crumb-fried whole chicken legs , a super tasty and super easy recipe with hardly any ingredients required. But as luck would have it, the shop ran out of whole legs.  “Will chicken wings do?” the husband spoke over the phone from the shop. Why not, maybe I could make honey-drizzled grilled chicken wings . But I did not want to use my sis’s oven. I am very scared of using others’ kitchen gadgets. What if my clumsiness resulted in some fuse or blow-out? Quite possible.  So, what do I cook? The husband was getting restless and I had to say something.  “Okay, get the wings.” ...