cooking for one…….noodles with soup

With K declaring he had a dinner meeting which meant he wouldn’t be gracing the dinner table with me in tow, I was wondering what to rustle up for a quick meal……….every once in a long while, this happens. And am sure I am not alone in what I feel………sometimes cooking for one is more difficult than eating alone!! As I rode up in the lift I tried to think of what leftovers I could make do with, came up with nothing…the fridge, for the first time this month has nestled no leftovers!! The rain since afternoon, now down to a drizzle gave me an idea…….i smiled and as soon as I unlocked the door, kicked off sandals and put away handbag I walked into the kitchen. I decided to play the “how soon can you serve yourself a decent dinner” game…the fact that I was famished helped a great deal. My fix was simple, yet filling and I must add delicious (even if I not so graciously am saying it myself!!). I cooked some Hakka noodles into my creamy mushroom soup instant mix from Knorr soups. I’m not a fan of preserved food. i haven’t eaten too many ready to eat meals either. even stuff like soup and pasta, i like to make from the basic ingredients. but i do stock a few packets of soups for emergencies and hunger striking in the middle of one of our favorite weekend indulgences of watching movies till the morning!! also with K being severely kitchen challenged, i need a back up if i fall ill. but more often than not, i hurriedly use up this stuff when i realise i have been hoarding in vain and the expiry date is approaching rapidly. In less than 12 minutes I sat down to some TV and a dinner that left me very satisfied. Of the 12 minutes, 2 minutes were spent clicking photographs!! never mind the monochromatic colour of the soup, i thought i’d add a dash of colour with the i used a kitchen cloth my mom gave me even if hearts aren’t really my favorite motif!!In fact this quick dinner allowed me the time to not only post this one but I actually overcame my techno phobia and figured out how to upload the pictures I had taken of the baby aloos with kalonji from my phone too!!

a really long me me

I have been tagged for a meme by the Kitchen Queen - Anu……thanks so much…..this is a long one and you’ll really need the patience of an angel to get through this. So here they are 7 random facts about me…..they’re all descriptions actually

1. i got my pet name Anu because my older than me by 45 days cousin who began speaking before me couldn’t say ‘ra’, the name stuck on and thats how i am known to most people. a lot of surprised / shocked expressions read the ‘real name’ printed on my wedding invitation!!
2. i reconciled my psychology degree with my management post graduation by becoming a behavioural trainer. i love the training room and it gives me a high like no other. when i quit, it sent shock waves through the orgn and i felt super about being so valued professionally. but i couldn’t take the pseudo corporate BS anymore, cant work a 9-7 and wont be able to fulfill my dream of owning a coffee plantation and a restaurant and retiring before i am 40 if i die at work. i now am a training consultant and writer and the kicks are fantastic!!
3. i’ve known my husband of 3 yrs for the last 11 yrs. we met at a good for nothing computer class and were ‘good friends’ for 5 yrs. neither proposed, we just knew we wanted to be together.
4. we wanted to elope, but our families reconciled and spoilt it for us!! we had one of the most unconventional weddings. the symbolic tying of thali happened with 20 people in the apartment we were to live in post marriage, we waited for the registrars office to open an hour later for the civil ceremony ( i married an atheist), had lunch at a hotel and went to our respective homes with family. the next day till 5 pm the both of us supervised everything at the venue for the reception, rushed home, got dressed and stood for 4 long hours smiling at everyone despite very painful high heels at a fabulous and huge reception for 500 people, bid everyone goodbye, chucked the heels, counted out the crockery, cutlery, etc, made payments and left at 1.00 a.m. the 12 day honeymoon we went on the next day was the only thing we really enjoyed in this whole jamboree!!
5. i love dogs and cats, have owned three of each at one time and its a myth that they dont get along. its for the first time in my life that i don’t have a pet now cos i live in an apartment.
6. i love to shop, am a keen observer and can imitate well. am also very animated when i speak. my lola kutty, Hema Malini, Rakhee and a few real people i know acts are big hits. but i am painfully shy and have to be very high or in the company of my closest friends to do this.
7. people i barely know who ask me questions such as “why did you quit working/ what do you do the ‘whole’ day at home / when are you giving us ‘good news’?” are all answered with a “how is this any of your business” from me, said with a straight face. i loved to see them squirm, feel stupid and embarrassed and try to pass it off as a joke because thats the last thing on earth they expected me to say to them!!

whew!! i am tagging ambica and archana and anyone else who’d like to participate in this me me.

baby aloos with kalonji

A couple of days ago I cooked up a meal for a friend who came over……we’ve been catching up after ages….. I had a simple meal for lunch, rice, roti, tomato dal, bhendi stir fry, dahi and kalonji aloo. The last one is a favourite with K and at one point of time; he wanted to eat this at every meal!! I haven’t met too many people who are passive to aloo…….and there was a time when I wondered what all the fuss over the aloos used to be about…….. Infact, I not so secretly used to refer to dum aloo as DIM aloo!! Then I discovered baby aloos and they made cooking with them a little more interesting……….i mean if not anything, the dish looked very cute!! Now baby aloos are a must buy on my veggie list and I have made them in many ways……..they never disappoint……aloos allow you to brighten up or dress up any meal in a jiffy…I have grown to respect them and look forward to them on my table…….. I discovered kalonji aloos too quite by chance…in the days when I’d just started cooking and couldn’t really tell one spice from the other, added kalonji to a tomato chutney I was making and discovered the sharp taste that tickled everyone’s taste buds…..Kalonji now has pride of place in my spice carousal……this dish is a surefire hit, will add glamour to your meal and can be made in less than 15 minutes if you have a pressure cooker. Unfortunately my camera batteries have died on me, and I couldn’t take a picture, I’ve one from the phone though which I will upload once I figure out how I can get it on to my computer. Here is the recipe for kalonji aloos

Baking escapades continue chocolate class update and turning a year older!!

With all the things happening around me and threatening to engulf me, the one thing I really missed was my blogging….not just posting….i haven’t cooked up anything worth a post, but taking a peek into all the kitchens that I usually do……I turned a year older on the 9^th and this time decided that I wouldn’t fall apart freaking out….if I don’t feel it, I don’t look it right?? With the internet playing such a major part in everyone’s life, I spent a good part of 3 hours cumulatively on the phone and responding to messages….its great to feel so loved….we’d planned on a quiet do ….cos hadn’t I mentioned that K is kitchen challenged and the last thing I wanted to do on my birthday was to cook and clean up after people ….. so a quiet dinner with friends it was….K gave me some snazzy gifts that left me smiling like a Cheshire cat….so all that hint dropping worked in the end!!

The update on the chocolate making classes is that there’s been terrific response…. I have two per week as I’d planned and they’re going well…… am quite happy that I have worked out a schedule and am able to put the house back in shape within the hour of the class getting done with….its fun to watch people take tentative steps towards chocolate and its very satisfying to see them leave so happy…one participant even got her four year old to call me and thank me for teaching his mom to make chocolate at home…his favourite he said was white chocolate!!

Yesterday I made a huge batch of chocolate which I will donate to the church. On my birthday, the priest came home to pray for the family and wish me…this apparently he is doing voluntarily and visits at least one member of the congregation a day…on special days…I was so touched that I offered to make chocolate hampers which he could give them…. I said he should call me once he runs out of them so I can replenish the stock….he was thrilled at the idea…..so my first batch is made, packed and ready to be sent to the Church…..mother of course thinks I will get the best seat in heaven for this gesture, I am not convinced that the one above can be bribed with a little home made chocolate!!

On K’s request I made another batch of Jam tarts. This time with proper tart moulds….i went shopping to stock up on chocolate making supplies and ran amuck in the store….i picked up baking dishes and an icing bag with a few nozzles to experiment …so beware…I shall be subjecting you to all my experiments!! (atleast visually!!) all in all I’ve had such a busy time that I have not realized that its almost the weekend already!! Which in a way is really good…cant remember a time I was this busy even when I worked at a corporate job fulltime!!

Launching Home made chocolate classes

Ladies and Gentlemen……..I have an announcement to make. I have formally launched (re-launch…actually) my own Chocolate making classes. It’s called Culinary Escapades to encompass my love for all things food. I took a few classes last year and made chocolates for family and friends …it was around Christmas time when word got around and I had many enquiries for classes and orders. It was festive time and I just went with the flow, doing pretty well and thinking about how this could be a pretty good optional vocation for me…..but I guess there were other plans in store for me!! My niece arrived on the scene and I had to lend a helping hand….with the frequent shuttling between Hyderabad and Bangalore and not spending more than a few days on home turf for almost 4 months, chocolate making took a decided backseat…….I had been toying with the idea of restarting the classes, and finally got a listing in the local newspaper. I plan to offer 2 classes a week, with the first one lined up for tomorrow……am as excited as can be!! I’ve had lots of calls for inquiries and registrations for the classes on Saturday and Tuesday……So wish me luck all of you and I shall be back with my report on how it all goes…..in the mean while i am leaving for you a platefull of assorted chocolates that i made this morning….Dig in!!

Baking Escapade # 3 with Cookies / biscuits

I didn’t think I would do it…but I did!! Baked another something because I was feeling lousy about not having pictures for my previous post!! That’s back to back baking!! I hope the euphoria remains!! For a baking dud like me, this is like having passed the board exams with a distinction!! The net results are far better than yesterday’s effort that I was crowing about in the previous post…..i feel like taking small steps towards climbing that mountain called baking which from childhood I was told is where the ogre lives!! I am a terrible procrastinator and most of the excuse I make for being so is that the task is very difficult and I will need all my ‘time and energy’ to tackle it. When you finally get down to doing it, you realize that it was made difficult by just your imagination….by no stretch of imagination am I trying to say that baking is easy…far from it…but its challenging enough not to take the fun out of it….and boy!! am i having fun or what…i just love the way the kitchen fills up with the lovely smells….and no i don’t rush to switch on the chimney for once….I have also discovered something…..unlike cooking (which you may slave over for hours together) baking is an absolute attention grabber!! The incredible “you made this” look is to die for!! and this time I altered a few things in the tart recipe from here. Only as much as I dared. The result is about 30-35 cookies.

Baking Escapade # 2 with Jam tarts / biscuits

Since the success of my chocolate cake, I have dreamed and drooled (which by now’s a regular feature) over baking recipes. I mustered the courage to buy a desserts only cookbook too – Egg less Desserts by Tarla Dalal. it has a pretty good collection of Indian desserts, cakes, cookies etc also a few easy to do assembly desserts. i thought it would be a good place to begin, though I didn’t own any of her cook books, I admire the lady for having taken the Indian cooking –writing scene by its neck and having a vice like grip on it long before all the other celebrity chefs came along. i love the way she breaks down even the most complex recipes and presents them in a very simple ‘can do’ manner. She also gets full marks from me for innovation. All these accolades are based on the fact that at the small bookstore I was browsing, there was such a mind-boggling array of cookbooks with so many titles that I was reeling. It’s a tribute to her success as a food writer and her innovation and re-invention as a cook (with a huge heap of credit to the people who manage her work too!!)

Anyways, yesterday I ventured to make the simplest recipe in the whole book. One that called for the least ingredients!! Unfortunately I didn’t get to take any pictures of the jam tarts because they got polished off with that much ferocity by K. infact the batch that I had kept aside to be photographed this morning was consumed through the night…all this writing is making him voraciously hungry for snacks!! This post minus the pics is specially for N, my comment fairy and dear dear friend. She asked when I was going to post something and I thought the lack of a photograph is a lousy excuse for not posting a recipe!! Here’s to you N….the next time you’re here I promise you garam adrak chai and jam tarts!!

I was quite happy that not only was the recipe very simple, it was totally fool proof. I was a little skeptical since it called for no sugar. The result was a very buttery crisp cookie and the tartness if the plum jam (my mother doesn’t smother it in too much sugar) went perfectly with it. Since I didn’t have tart tins I just cut the dough out in various shapes with assorted cookie cutters and put them to bake. Using the cookie cutters reminded me of my childhood when we would be “called upon” to cut out biscuits using horlicks bottle caps!! We’d eat half of the dough till my mother would get mad and ask us to get out!! Somehow the dough tasted better before being baked!! And though my mother would make allowances for the pilferage, she’d tick us off anyways. This whole drama made it even more exciting and added to the taste of the cookie dough!!

No such thing with me though as this was a solitary escapade. However what really tested my patience was that the electricity kept going on and off and baking 3 batches of cookies that would take about 30-40 mins took about 2 hours to finish. By the time I could preheat the oven, the lights would go off ….. I was ready to bake the electricity board by the end of it!!

Here’s the recipe for jam tarts. I simply followed the same recipe, cut out the dough with a cookie cutter and baked them as biscuits, topped with my mother’s plum jam and served.

chinese ho jaaye??

I am a sucker for Chinese food…at least the kind that we get here…. Indian Chinese…..when I was little (yes, I once was) and I’d be asked what kind of food I liked, I’d reply smartly with “I can eat Chinese food 365 days a year” yes I was that crazy…..infact I managed to convert K who hated the stuff….cos all through our courtship we’d only go for Chinese dinners and lunches….so much so that he stopped asking me what I wanted to eat…he’d just ask “where do you want to eat?” meaning which restaurant……I’m not kidding when I say I can eat any kind of Chinese….good, bad and even sometimes downright ugly…from the Taj to the bandi’s famous and not so much, I’ve had it all and loved it!! I hadn’t really attempted to make anything more than chilli chicken and noodles in the past and I can experiment only one dish at a time….i would be a nervous wreck if I tried anything more ambitious…so it was Chinese night last night….what strikes me always is how simple the cooking process really is…once you trudge through the enormous cutting and chopping that is!! Dinner was ready in about 20mins actually…what with K keeping crazy hours because of his writing and then the Wimbledon adds to my already frayed nerves……this seemed to be such a blessing.

Recipes are here……….