Dreaming of: Breakfasts in the park

Today is the kind of weather that makes it absolutely criminal to sit inside, especially in a room with no windows. So therefore, I have my Bohemian 'birdie' to keep me company.

It's a day for a healthy, leisurely breakfast but in the absence of that most key ingredient, time, French toast in my favourite nook at home will have to do.

Here's looking forward to days where relaxed breakfasts in the park are possible - here's looking forward to weekends!

Feel full, not foolish

New Year resolutions are aplenty. And some I know I will forget.

But the most important one this year is to eat healthy. And by healthy I mean a completely balanced diet - a diet of inclusion and not exclusion. A plate should be made of the rainbow and be consumed intelligently. Food is meant to be thoroughly enjoyed, bite by bite and in moderate quantity. The body should be able to process everything that is put into it - not just the 'healthy' stuff.

As somebody said, "eat just enough that you feel full and not foolish". Maybe that 'somebody' is just me.

Happy and colourful 2016 everyone!  

Eat like a local

Eat like a local. Finally.

Did something I should have done long ago. Accomplished something that's been on my list for two years now. Put laziness aside and practised, practised, practised. It just took a withering glance from somebody to get me here - while I didn't appreciate the look of derision at the time, I'm grateful for it now.

While most might wonder why the big fuss, for me it's a moment of great pride.

I am no longer the idiot foreigner who didn't try hard enough to embrace the way majority of the world's population eats. 

I am no longer the lazy Indian girl asking meekly for a fork at a Chinese/ Thai/ Vietnames/ Japanese restaurant. 

At my favourite restaurant, I am now free of the acute frustration of having to pronounce caa correctly (Cantonese for 'fork' which sounds a lot like cha, 'tea') to make a hurried (and often) frowning girl understand that I want tools to eat with while she makes me acutely aware of wasting her time. 

I no longer have to be part of a party of two with a fork for one (yesssss!)

And, as a colleague pointed out, I can now be deemed 'intelligent' by the Chinese elders (woohoo, I am suddenly all smart and super brainy now :)

So, bring on that lovely, complex, exciting East Asian food. I am ready to eat things they are meant to be eaten.

Yay!

Blogging on the go: jasmine memories

Handful of tea leaves, one cup of green tea with an incredibly poetic name - green pond reflecting the falling star - from the Sichuan region of China. Powerful enough to stir up 23 years of memories from Jamshedpur, India.

No, I haven't been drinking Chinese green tea for most of my life. It was the bold fragrance of the tiny jasmine flowers released by the addition of hot water. Those tiny flowers floating serenely above the forest of green triggered a part of  my memory box that I rarely visit.

Vivid rushes of excitedly collecting raat ki rani while waiting to go to school at 7am; observing snails manouvre the garden path littered with jasmine; my grandfather slowly walking down the steps to walk in the jasmine garden; studying on the steps while intermittently staring at the garden and the world beyond the boundary wall; playing with friends, running up and down the verandah; nights spent staring at the moon from the bedroom window; looking up from a book to see my then crush (now husband) riding by on his golden Saffire right when I was thinking of him. 

Jasmine, the background fragrance of my growing up years.

Prawn rice: a recipe

I cook so infrequently that I actually feel a great and deep sense of accomplishment on occasions I have managed to cook for two days in a row. So imagine my sense of pride when I realised this is my 8th straight day of cooking regularly. And that means - 1) I've been eating right, 2) I've been sleeping well and 3) I've been spending less. Yay! 

As they say, "success breeds success" and I am so encouraged by these positive changes that I want hope it leads to a lifestyle change! Anyway, this morning my lunch options were last night's dal chawal or bread omelette. Craving for something interesting, I decided to put the leftover rice to use, made super yummy prawn fried rice in less than 20 minutes and skipped off to work. The contents of my lunch box helped me smile through what would have been a morning full of grimaces!

Ingredients

1. Boiled rice, fluffed
2. 1/2 big capsicum cut in cubes
3. 1 small onion, diced
4. 1 spoon olive oil
5. 6-7 peeled prawns, defrosted if frozen
6. Salt
7. Pepper
8. Soya sauce

Prep

Heat the oil for a minute or so on a low flame

On a medium flame, add diced onions and cook till slightly translucent, stir frequently

Add the capsicum and while stirring frequently, make sure it cooks through while staying slightly crunchy

Add the defrosted prawns and mix well 

Add salt and pepper as per your liking

Once prawns are cooked (they cook real fast), add the rice and mix very well

Once every grain seems coated with the oil and seasoning, top off with soya sauce

Mix well and, serve. Or in my case, pack!

Happy, skippy lunch is ready to go :)

Morning rush = no pictures. The only picture was sneaked in under the rather bemused expression of my senior colleague!

What was in your lunch box today? Let me know and I'll try it :)

Poha in a mug

Poha and I go back a long, long way.

From tiffin box lunches in school, to being the favourite 'hot' breakfast in LSR and SIMC canteens, to the sev laden 8am poha from aluminium drums provided by the enterprising ladies of *beep* Bombay Mumbai, to the legendary Indori poha jalebi, to Kavita didi's fantastic nimbu heavy poha, to MTR's ready-to-eat 3 minute poha version. Phew!

Today, the easy-to-make-tasty-to-eat poha makes for one of my favourite breakfasts on days I have time to make it in the morning. Only now-a-days, it's poha in a mug!

What is your favourite go-to 'hot' breakfast? Let me know, and I'll try it! :)

Marriage is: matar pulao and tamatar alu

Like the perfect marriage, there can be no perfect picture to post at the seemingly perfect time on a less than perfect (and active) blog.

So, without any further ado, I'm going to launch right into my latest obsession - matar pulao! And mind you, it's no ordinary pulao this - it is the recipe of my ancestors; a great Raisurana secret, no less! My grandmother used to  make pot fulls of this mythical pulao on Sunday afternoons and the family would literally scarf it down. And my aunts and mom, party to the secret, would just pick up a pressure cooker of matar pulao right off the stove and rush out the door for family picnics in the winter sun. 

The world's best picnic entails sitting under some trees, on a random water tank somewhere in Golmuri or Telco (Jamshedpur references), with hot matar pulao on a paper plate accompanied with salad, lemon juice and tamatar chutney. Beatles playing on the car stereo. And the family. Perfection!

That's the Raisurana part of the story. As the title suggests, this post is about marriage, indicating two sides of a story. 

In the absence of lemon juice; ingredients for a salad; gud and panchforan for tamatar chutney, I decided to couple the matar pulao with tamatar alu from the husband's family. This tamatar alu has to be the simplest and bestest recipe ever. It is the most constant standby in my recipe book. Can't find inspiration? Make tamatar alu! Don't have much time? Make tamatar alu! No dal in the house? No worries, watery tamatar alu can sometimes be better than thick and rich tamatar alu! My mother was less than impressed with this 'lazy' combination but believe me, once she tries it, she'll be converted for life!

So, I know that the pictures aren't great but the look on the husband's face while having my grandmother's recipe along with his family's staple, was worth more than a thousand good pictures!

Every marriage has it's own unique flavours. Mine tastes like matar pulao (peas pulao) with tamatar alu (potatoes floating in tomato gravy). What does your marriage taste like? I would love to know!

Not just another pasta sauce: A recipe

I'm back in my cooking phase. The kitchen is busy again. And the weather is just wonderful right now. It's the onset of a beautiful, cold, windy HK winter. And I am sitting at my window listening to "From London With Love" and feeling happy, and content!

On evenings like this, a bowl of hot aglio olio spaghetti accompanied with some steaming spicy sauce is all that's needed to spell perfection.

Ingredients 

1 big pink onion, sliced in half moons

3 medium sized tomatoes, de-skinned and pulped

2 bell peppers, preferably in different colours, cut into long strips 

4 garlic cloves, chopped

2 dried red chillies

Mushrooms (optional, for vegetarian preparation)

4-6 chicken sausages (optional)

Salt 

Pepper

Oregano

Parsley

Red chilli powder

Chilli flakes

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 teaspoon butter

1/2 cup red wine (optional)

Prep

On a frying pan, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil on high heat

Once the oil is hot, add the sausages, if they spit and crackle reduce the heat

Brown the sausages on all sides - don't sear, just brown

Once done, take sausages off the pan

Turn the heat up and add the onions and bell peppers

Sear them till slightly blackened

Add salt and garlic, mix well

Once the onions are soft and start browning, add the red wine 

At medium high heat, combine well and let simmer till wine is reduced by half

Add the tomato pulp and mix well with the sauce

Add pepper, chilli flakes, oregano and chilli powder

Mix well and add the sausages back in

Cover with a lid and let simmer for about 20 minutes

Depending on your taste and preference, you can either take it off the heat when it is still slightly runny or when the sauce is nice and thick.

And your pasta accompaniment is ready! 

Now just pour out a glass of the same wine used in the sauce, serve up a big bowl of paste, take a seat by the window and let out a big sigh of content! :D

And by the way, the leftover sauce can be used over the next few days in sandwiches, as a dip, a snack and in Maggi!!

After work snack attack

Odds and Ends

The past week was about making the best of odds and ends lying in the fridge. With work schedules bordering on crazy, 'visit supermarket' was just another unchecked item on the list. But happy to report that we have survived and, re-stocked!

I learnt how far a few boiled potatoes, 1/2 a cabbage, 1 brinjal, 1 tomato, 2 onions, rice, dal, crackers can actually go. And I learnt exactly how useful it is to have ready-to-eat dim sums stocked in the fridge.

With some help from the folks at Secret Ingredient, we ended up having a fancy meal as well!

Making it all on our own is the most rewarding feeling ever. Bumps on the road hurt while they last but as always, in hindsight, "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger" (Kelly Clarkson singing in my head)!

Two days, two smoothies: Recipes inside

With the cold winds picking up, weekend laziness is setting in. And it's a good thing the husband and I are not averse to a liquid diet. So it's time to bring on the smoothie experiments!

Started the weekend with hot lime water and a fruit, while waiting for the husband to wake up.

And then head to the fridge, scour for fruits and chop-chop, put them in the blender!

Very berry smoothie -
Strawberries, blueberries, black grapes, 1 big apple and coconut water. Whizzzz and drink up!

Fibrous and filling smoothie -
2 apples, 1 big pear, 2 heaping spoons Greek yogurt, 1/4 glass milk. Whizz it.

Two smoothies for two days of the weekend!

Have a great week ahead everybody... And a Happy Diwali!!

Pasta in mushroom sauce: A recipe

What's been cooking?

 

Well, nothing much! Just emerging from a crazy work schedule (which involved eating Korean food in Korea!!), and all set to dive into more of the crazies starting next week. Been keeping the cooking, and definitely the experimenting, to the minimum. The husband's been busier than me and lets accept it, it's really not much fun cooking for one every single day. Thank god for online delivery websites - of which there are aplenty in the 'Kong.

 

Yesterday I made wheat pasta in mushroom sauce. It was fun to make and yum to eat. Here's the recipe for all of you pasta lovers out there!

 

Ingredients -

1. 2 packets mushroom
2. 1 big capsicum 
3. 1 1/2 tomatoes
4. 1 big onion, finely chopped
5. 1 zucchini, thinly cut round slices
6. 7-8 baby corn, cut into small chunks
7. 1 packet rigatoni semolina pasta
8. Salt, pepper, chilli flakes, oregano, basil 
9. 1 tablespoon olive oil
10. 1 cup water 
11. 1 teaspoon butter 
12. Some feta cheese/ parmesan flakes/ grated cheese

Prep -

Boil and drain the pasta as per instructions. Reserve some of the pasta water.

Cut the mushrooms, capsicum and tomato into chunks, add 1 cup water and give it a whir in the blender till it has a purée like consistency 

In a pan, heat the oil and add onions. Sauté. 

Once onions are slightly pinkish, add zucchini, baby corn and all the seasoning 

After zucchini has become slightly soft, add the purée. 

Bring it to a boil adding some of the pasta water if the sauce is too thick 

 

 

Just before adding the pasta, pop in some cheese (but not too much as the pasta water would already make it slightly creamy) and 1 teaspoon butter. Mix well. 

Add the pasta and coat it well with the sauce, cook for 2-3 minutes. 

Serve.

Make sure you enjoy the thick, creamy chunky sauce! :D

You are what you eat!

These beautiful elephants at the Elephant Parade just prove - 

"You are what you eat!"

 Bananas

Moon cake

What are you?

My first 'master class'

Decided to go for my first cooking class in HK, and the first in many years. Must say I loved it.

Grassroots Pantry's 'First Date Recipes' three-course menu was so compelling that the class had to be signed up for. On the menu were grilled figs and panko crusted halloumi salad, orzo pasta and raw banana banoffee pie (my old love from the days of Big Chill Cafe).

The restaurant itself is tucked away in a little corner and was as cute as button. Couldn't get as many pictures as I would have liked but I'm pretty sure I'm going back there soon-ish!

Was great to see so many people there at 10am on a Saturday and the class was led by Peggy, the Executive Chef and founder of Grassroots Pantry.

She started with making the grilled figs and OMG, who would have thought it would have been so easy to make?! Although I was little disappointed that we didn't get to cook along, it was great to be able to watch her cook and ask her as many questions as we wanted. And many of those simple tips and tricks are hard to be found anywhere besides a live demo session.

We got a chance to taste each dish, made with fresh organic ingredients, after the cook. And WOW!

Grilled figs and panko crusted halloumi salad with Middle-Eastern dukkah dressing

Tip - For a good dukkah, always roast your nuts and spices before pulsing them in the food processor. This helps to release their natural oils.

And, if you are a vegetarian and can't use eggs for the wash, whisk flax seed with water and use that instead!

Roasted eggplant, cherry tomatoes and morel mushroom orzo pasta 

If there was some way I could capture the fragrance of that searing morel mushroom, I won't be writing a blog post right now. I couldn't help but wonder that if this is what one tiny pan in a tiny kitchen smelled like, wonder what the Masterchef Kitchen feels like?

Tip - While making pasta, make the sauce and blanche the pasta simultaneously. And just before you think it's the right kind of al dente, take it off the heat, strain and cook it in the sauce. That way the pasta will really pick up the flavours. That's how the Italians do it, Penny said. And always, always, salt the water used for blanching the pasta.

Raw banana banoffee pie with salted almond and pine nut caramel

Saving the best of the last, the session ended on a sweet note. This pie was so spectacular that there were squeals of excitement when Peggy sprinkled the choco-chips on top. And because it was so simple, so elegant and so HEALTHY, it deserves more than one picture!

 

Tip - If not using butter, coconut oil works as a stabiliser and can be used instead.

Peggy made vegetarian cooking and flavours look so good that it was difficult to miss the meats.

All in all, a morning well spent, lots of notes scribbled, new techniques learnt and a sprouting of new ideas to execute in the kitchen. Definitely keeping an eye out for the next class coming up. Thanks Peggy!

The sister starts to cook: Making tea

There are two things that the four members of this Raisurana family have in common - love for beautiful things and love for good, interesting food.

And my sister, Anisha, has a special talent for foraging through the heaps of things in the house to come up with forgotten treasures. Last time she went home, she dug out mummy's 40 year old brooch collection. This time she found this gem of a tea-set. Both of which, I had never before seen in my life so of course, I lack in super powers.

While Anisha loves good food, she loathes dislikes cooking. So this time, we decided to share her cooking experiences on the blog and thus keep her motivated to learn this delectable art. All good lessons start with the basics and she chose to start with a 'tea party' of two on a rain-soaked evening.

By the looks of the tea, the first encounter with the kitchen was a success. What do you think?

Tea, anyone?

Lazy cook goes to cooking class

While last Saturday it was time for this lazy cook's 'lazy breakfast', this Saturday it's time for a cooking class!

Can't wait to go and learn new techniques, new recipes, meet some new people, have some conversations around the thing that binds us all - food! First cooking class in HK - yay! Hope to take some pictures and share soon :D

Cooking with secret ingredients

"How can you order from there? It's against everything you stand for!"
That's my sister's (slightly) over-exaggerated reaction on hearing I was excited about a Secret Ingredient (SI) recipe.

What's SI you ask? It's this super cool service in HK which allows you to choose your meal and then sends across all the ingredients, chopped and ready to cook with the recipe and their 'secret ingredient'. What better way to cook than without the trinity of hassles, washing-cleaning-cutting?

After hearing about them last year (and unwittingly benefiting from their SEO), I finally decided to try their recipes. Tried the oregano chicken ratatouille last week

 ... and loved it so much that ordered the Chennai Fish and Prawn Curry early this week. This is such a boon on days I get home at 8pm only to have an evening of work and multi-country calls to look forward to!

Since their recipes keep changing every week, I'm looking forward to a whole lot of 'secrets' floating around in my kitchen! :)

Just to re-emphasise, this blog and SI might have similar names but the only thing we have in common is no 'secret ingredient'.