Gingerbread Cookies

Gingerbread Cookies (Pic by June Carvalho)

THIS army of gingerbread men joins hands to wish 'Havenu Shalom Aleikim' (Peace Be On You) during this  Christmas Season 2012 and all through the coming year.

Tender Coconut Pudding

Tender Coconut Pudding (Pic by June Carvalho)

THIS delicious pudding provides the perfect sweet finale to a meal with predominantly Oriental or tropical flavours. The slivers of tender coconut add a delightful texture to the otherwise smooth pudding, almost melting in the mouth, and not chewy like fresh coconut gratings. The oohs and aahs that follow a spoonful of this pudding belie the fact that it's actually extremely simple to make. Don't be surprised if the next thing your guests do is to ask for the recipe...you bet they will, as mine did, and so here goes:

What you need:

1 tin Amul Mithaimate condensed milk

1 *measure fresh coconut milk

1 *measure dairy milk

2 tbsps gelatine

3/4 cup hot water

Slivers of coconut from two tender coconuts

Soak the gelatine in the hot water to soften. Stir to dissolve. Whizz the condensed milk, coconut milk, dairy milk and gelatine in a blender and transfer to a glass dish. Cover with cling film and refrigerate. When half set, sprinkle the slivers of tender coconut evenly on the pudding. Refrigerate until fully set.

*Use the emptied condensed milk tin as your measure for the coconut milk and dairy milk. 

PS: You can mix it the day before it is required and leave to set overnight in the refrigerator.

    

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Into no department of life should indifference be allowed to creep -- into none less than into the domain of cookery.

                             --Yuan Mei, Qing dynasty scholar

Pathrode / Patra (Colocasia Leaf Rolls)

Pathrode or Colocasia Leaf Rolls (Pic by June Carvalho)

COLOCASIA plants grow in profusion all through the year around my parents' house near Mangalore. During a recent visit, I brought back a few leaves to make (after a very long time), these rolls, also known as pathrode in Konkani. 

The leaves are stuffed with a batter of rice ground with cumin seed, red chillies, tamarind and a little jaggery and salt, and then tightly rolled and steamed. They are then sliced, smeared with a bit of chilli paste and shallow fried in ghee or coconut oil and served as a very filling snack. (The pathrode slices shown in the picture were yet to be fried). There are many variations of the pathrode. In one method, the leaves are chopped up finely and added to a thickish rice batter which is then steamed in thalis. The idli-like pathrode can be cut into cubes and dunked in a mutton or chicken curry. A plateful of this meat with pathrode curry is usually a satiating and filling meal in itself. Some communities use gram flour (besan) instead of rice.

The presence of calcium oxalate in these elephant-ear shaped leaves can cause an itching sensation in the mouth and throat. A considerable amount of tamarind is therefore used to counterbalance this effect while cooking colocasia leaves.

The stem of the plant, especially of the dark maroon variety, is used in a dish called allum dento that is cooked with green gram sprouts. This is a special dish during Monthi Fest, the Feast of the Nativity of Our Lady, that Konkani Catholics of Dakshina Kannada celebrate with great pomp and fervour on September 8 each year. Traditionally, the festival repast comprises strictly vegetarian dishes, usually an odd number of items - either 7 or 9 - and the meal is served on plantain leaves. In the northern parts of the district, however, fish curry and fish fry are also part of the festive fare.   

What I used:

4 colocasia leaves

2 cups of red rice

6 red chillies

1 tsp cumin seed

Walnut sized ball of tamarind

3 tbsps of jaggery & Salt to taste

Carefully trim the leaves of their spines.

Soak the rice, preferably overnight and grind with all the other ingredients till fine. Be careful to add just enough water to make an easily spreadable batter, neither too thin nor too thick.

Lay the biggest leaf, smooth side down and evenly spread a thin layer of the rice batter on the entire leaf, right up to the edges. Place another leaf, smooth side down again, on top of the first leaf and repeat the process of applying the batter. Repeat this by layering two more leaves. Fold the bottom corners of the leaves and the tip towards the centre. Now start rolling it tightly into a roll from the side. Tie up the roll with kitchen twine and steam for about 20 minutes to half an hour.

When cool enough to handle, snip off the twine, slice the rolls and smear some chilli paste, like the kind used for fish fry, and shallow fry the pathrode slices in ghee, coconut oil or any other cooking oil. Garnish with a tempering of mustard and curry leaves and some freshly grated coconut if you like.

PS: If the process of grinding the rice deters you, the easier way is to use red rice flour, with red chilli & cumin powders and tamarind pulp. Dissolve the jaggery and salt in the water that you need to mix with the powders in order to obtain the batter. Though I love shortcuts and simpler ways of doing things, I haven't tried this method out, but I believe it works.

Kerala Melas!

WHILE on our way to Kovalam beach last month, we made a pit stop at this little wayside place called BRITISH RESTAURANT for a glass of steaming hot tea. Yes, a glass of tea, as against a cup of tea because it is invariably served in glasses in these thattukadas of Kerala. Practical. No frills and fuss.

Since I was keen to have tea in no other place than a thattukada, we stopped here. The tea was good as it always is in these thattukadas, sometimes with a smoky flavour...I remember that from previous visits. 

The story of Asokan who runs this place is indeed interesting. He has rehabilitated himself from being a small time drug peddler and now makes a decent and honest living, along with his ever eager-to-please partner, by cooking and serving meals. 

A fairly good part of Asokan's early life was spent in the UK, and hence the name of his little eatery. However, the British influence ends there, because the food served here is typically Kerala fare. Apart from English which he speaks fluently, he claims to have a knowledge of Italian and French as well.

British Restaurant is on Facebook and at the time of our visit boasted about 750 'Likes'. 

We were quite amused by the signboard which read KERALA MELAS.  It's from there that I was inspired use KERALA MELA as the title of my Kerala trip photo album that I've shared on Facebook.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Cookery is not chemistry. It is an art. It requires instinct and taste rather than exact measurements.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Marcel Boulestin

Instant Ragi Dosa

Ragi Dosa 

RAGI or finger millet widely grown in Karnataka, is also the staple cereal in the villages of the State. High in fibre and nutrients and a rich source of calcium, it is a versatile cereal that is used to make dosas, rotis, mudde, breakfast porridge and idlis. Bakeries have started supplying ragi bread in a big way which, alongside wholewheat bread, is preferred by diabetics to the white bread made from refined flour.

My mother-in-law used to make a drink called ragi malt, which was a watered down version of the ragi porridge that we all gulped down as a mid-morning beverage, if it can be called that. It sustained us in the gap between breakfast and lunch time and more importantly, stalled the temptation to indulge in unhealthy snacking in between. She also made ragi dosas for breakfast, following no particular recipe or proportion...just a mix of wheat and ragi flours. At times she simply added some ragi flour to leftover rice dosa batter to make ragi dosas or to regular wholewheat flour to make ragi-fortified rotis! Sometimes she added chopped onion, green chillies and green coriander leaves for added flavour and a hint of pungency. She always bought whole ragi grain, got it washed and thoroughly sun-dried before sending it to be powdered at the local mill. Just as she did with wheat that was cleaned and sun-dried before milling.

I found ragi porridge the perfect weaning food over Cerelac when I started my babies on semi-solids.   

My friend Geetanjali, who keeps experimenting with healthy food options had recently made delicious ragi laddoos and also light as air cookies from ragi.   

Ragi items with their dull brown colour don't look one bit appetizing...but I just think of the health quotient and try to include this cereal more often in our diet. Here I have adapted a ragi dosa recipe from an old newspaper clipping, that I often make for breakfast. The original recipe calls for soaking the ragi grains overnight and grinding them the next morning. But the most convenient option is to use readymade ragi powder that is available in all supermarkets and wholesale grain stores. 

What you need:

1 cup ragi flour

1/4 cup wheat flour

1/4 cup black gram dal (urad)

1/4 cup green gram dal (moong)

1/4 cup Bengal gram dal (channa)

1 tbsp fenugreek seeds (methi)

A little cooking oil to smear on griddle 
Salt to taste

Soak the three dals and the fenugreek overnight. Grind fine. Add the ragi and wheat flours and salt to taste. Add sufficient water to make a batter of medium consistency, like a rice dosa batter. You should be able to spread the dosa easily on a griddle. If too thick add more water. Leave aside for half an hour.  Spread a ladleful of the batter and fry as for dosas on a heated, greased griddle.
Serve with a chutney of your choice - coconut or onion or red chilli chutney.

PS:  Half a cup of beaten curd may also be added to the batter.

Pink Lady

Pink Lady (pic by June Carvalho)

A lovely, smooth cocktail for gin lovers with citrus flavours for the added pizzaz....grenadine for that hint of sweetness and the appetizing pink. Serve in stylish cocktail glasses and watch your friends go pink and cheerful with this one....cheers to the happy hours!

What you need:

40 ml Bombay Sapphire or any other gin 
20 ml Cointreau 
15 ml Lemon juice 
10 ml Grenadine
Ice cubes

Shake up all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker. Don't forget to wear a smile as you're doing it... strain into a chilled, sugar-frosted cocktail glass and serve.

• To chill a cocktail glass, fill it half way up with ice cubes and top with water. Discard water and ice before straining the drink into the glass.
• To frost the glass, rub the rim with a wedge of lemon dipped in grenadine and invert onto a plate of sugar to coat the rim.

Brinjal Gojju

THIS quick and easy wonderful brinjal gojju* recipe was shared with me by a friend and I've found that it's a hit with even those finicky types who otherwise detest the humble brinjal. It's goes great with chapathis. The toasted, crushed peanuts add a crunchy, nutritive element to the dish while a wee bit of jaggery balances out the flavours of brinjal, tomato, onion and spices.

Brinjal Gojju 

What you need:

500 gm brinjal, diced
1 cup diced tomato
1 cup diced onion
1 cup peanuts, roasted,
skinned & crushed
1 cup green coriander, chopped
3 tsps red chilli powder
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tbsp jaggery, grated
1/2 cup cooking oil
Salt to taste

Tip all the above ingredients into a pressure cooker and cook under pressure (with weight on) for three minutes. Allow the pressure to drop completely before opening. Serve with chapathis.

*A gojju is typically part of Karnataka cuisine. It's essentially any vegetable, sometimes even a fruit like a pineapple, cooked with condiments that give it a balance of sweet, sour and spice. In the above recipe, tomatoes substitute for the usual tamarind as a souring agent.  

Modaks aka Kozhakattai

Modaks (Pic by June Carvalho)

MODAKS are a sweet treat (and I have an incurable sweet tooth) to celebrate Ganesh Chaturthi in India.

It's a little round potli (a little parcel) made of rice flour with a sweet filling of jaggery, coconut and cardamom for flavour.

Modaks ready to be steamed (Pic by June Carvalho)

I was inspired to try them out for the first time on Sept 19, Ganesha festival day, thanks to my good friends, Shobha and Chitra, who specialise in vegetarian cuisine. 

I'm yet to perfect the art of shaping them beautifully, but taste-wise, they were excellent. 


Do check both my friends' website / blog for the recipe:

www.cookingwithshobha.com and www.chittiskitchen.blogspot.com 

Baking cookies is comforting, and cookies are the sweetest little bit of comfort food. They are very bite-sized and personal. 
                                                                                                                               Sandra Lee 

Cashewnut Cookies

Cashewnut Cookies (Pic by June Carvalho)

I BAKED these cashewnut cookies on the weekend and they turned out really good. Crisp and crunchy. Not too sweet. Above all, uncomplicated and easy to mix, roll out and cut to shape.

Bake a few batches of assorted cookies and pack them to make lovely gifts for occasions like the birthdays of your dear friends. (I put these together with coconut cookies and chocolate and almond swirls).  Don't forget to add lots of love as the special ingredient. No store-bought gift can match the love and personal touch lent by the creation of your own hands.

Gift Assortment (Pic by June Carvalho)

What you need:
250 gm flour
150 gm butter
150 gm sugar
50 gm cashewnuts
A tbsp of milk, if required

Powder the nuts in a small blender. Cream the butter and sugar. Fold in the flour and powdered cashewnuts and knead lightly to a smooth dough. Sprinkle a little milk if required. Roll out to 1/8" thickness and cut out shapes with a biscuit cutter. Place on greased trays and bake in a pre-heated oven at 170 degrees C till light brown around the edges. About 10 - 15 minutes.
   

Dessicated Coconut Cookies

Dessicated Coconut Cookies (Pic by June Carvalho)

THESE pretty cookies are simple to mix and bake....try them out for yourself. Pack them along with a few other types of cookies, and you have your own beautiful gift assortment...

The proportions given in the recipe below yield 20 cookies.

What you need:

120 gm flour

60 gm castor sugar

120 gm butter

60 gm dessicated coconut

Glazed cherries to decorate

Cream the butter and sugar. Add sifted flour and the coconut. Knead lightly till smooth. Form walnut-sized balls and place a little apart from each other on greased trays. Top with cut cherries. Bake at 160 degrees C until light brown, about 15 to 20 minutes. 

Flowering Onion Stalk Palya

Flowering Onion Stalk Palya (pic by June Carvalho)

I'VE often wondered about the use of green flowering onion stalks found in the market once or twice a year. Thanks to my domestic help Ratna, I learnt how to transform them into a tasty dish using a few basic ingredients. Also, instead of coconut, roasted and crushed peanuts are used, which impart a slightly nutty and sweetish flavour to the dish. It goes well as a side with rice and curry and is particularly excellent with rotis. In Kannada, which is the language spoken in Karnataka, any preparation from vegetables, dry or semi-dry, is termed as a palya. 

Flowering Onion Stalks (pic by June Carvalho)

What you need:

A small bunch of flowering onion stalks
1 onion, chopped
3 flakes of garlic, chopped fine
1 sprig curry leaves
2 tbsps groundnuts, roasted and skinned
1 tbsp cooking oil
Salt to taste

Snip off the flowers from the onion stalks and discard them. Chop the onion stalks fine, as you might do for a beans foogath. Crush the roasted and skinned groundnuts.

Heat oil in a utensil and add the curry leaves, onion and garlic and cook till soft. Add the chopped onion stalks and the crushed groundnuts. Sprinkle salt and a little water. Stir, cover and cook till done.

Prawns Jeeraen Meeri

Prawns Jeeraen Meeri Curry (Pic by June Carvalho)

JEERAEN Meeri in Konkani literally means cumin (jeera)-pepper, so there are no prizes for guessing that the masala for this prawn curry employs both these spices alongside red chillies. However, I cannot fathom for the life of me as to why this curry is named after jeera and pepper, considering the minuscule quantities of both in comparison to the red chillies, but that's how it has been and no one seems to have felt the need to question that.

For those who don't like coconut in their food for health or taste reasons, this is a good option. The onion, garlic and tamarind ground together with the spices yield a fairly thick gravy.

When cooking prawns in a red curry, we generally use them in combination with any one vegetable such as diced vegetable marrow (called Mangalore cucumber or vellarikai), potatoes, bhindi (okra), or bottle gourd (lauki). Here I have used bhindi. Peas, potatoes and cauliflower team up well with prawns when cooked in a yellow or green curry.

What you need for 1/2 kg prawns:

12 Byadgi (dry red) chillies
1 tsp cumin seed
6 peppercorns
1 onions
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
A lime-sized ball of tamarind
12 bhindi
2 onions, sliced and fried golden
1 tbsp  oil 

Wash well, shell and devein prawns. Wash and wipe dry the bhindi and cut into 2" pieces. Lightly fry in a tablespoon of oil till they're no longer sticky.

Grind the first six ingredients (colour-coded red) with a little water to a fine paste. Put the paste into a cooking pan with two cups of water. Add salt to taste and drop the lightly fried bhindi in. Cook for about two minutes, then slide in the prawns. Bring to a boil and when the prawns are cooked, sprinkle the golden fried onion. Stir. Allow to simmer on slow flame for 5 minutes before serving with rice.

Mackerel Curry

Mackerel Curry (Pic by June Carvalho)

NOTHING fishy about this spicy-sour fish curry from Mangalore, which is like everyday fare for the people of the Karavali region of coastal Karnataka. Here I have used mackerel, but the gravy is the same for other oil-rich fish like sardines. Other varieties of fish like ladyfish (kane), silver fish (bili meen), mullet, shetka etc., call for a slight twist in the masala and occasionally the use of coconut milk, finished off with onion golden fried in coconut oil.

Once upon a time, in the not-so-distant past, the masala used to be manually ground to a smooth, fine paste in a huge, round grinding stone (called vaan in Konkani), a very necessary piece of equipment in all kitchens before convenient electrical grinders rendered them nearly obsolete. 

In both my grandmothers' smoke-blackened traditional kitchens, fish curry was always made in a well-seasoned clay pot or chatti (called kundlen in Konkani) on a wood-fired stove. The taste of the curry cooked thus, was unbeatable, with a certain smoky and earthy flavour that's hard to describe or replicate in modern kitchens.

The following day, the left-over curry if any, was called kalchi kadi meaning "yesterday's curry". Kalchi kadi was a simple delicacy in its own right after it was thickened in the pot over a wood fire. Only those who have savoured it along with a plateful of red boiled rice porridge (kanji) as a mid-morning filler will know what it means to relish kalchi kadi. Kanji with kalchi kadi might sound like poor man's fare, but was eaten across the board.  As children, though, we cooked up all sorts of excuses to avoid eating it at 11 am, having already had breakfast at 8 am and knowing that lunch would follow on the dot of 1 pm, the eagerly awaited tea and snacks at 4 pm, not to mention dinner at 8 pm...but that's exactly how leisurely and languid life was some 40 years ago, centred mainly around food...and fresh fish.

When I had temporarily moved to Sharjah to work for a couple of years, I had made it a point to carry a couple of those clay pots exclusively for cooking fish curry and maintained and handled them with the level of care normally reserved for fine porcelain! The clay pot seen in the picture, however, is the type used in Kerala.

This curry is best had with red boiled rice, with a piece of fried fish and a vegetable on the side. Mackerel curry always tastes better the day after it's prepared.

My spouse, known for his simple but wholesome food tastes, will easily forgo the most lavish five-star banquet just for a plateful of rice and fish curry. He feels like a fish out of water if he hasn't had seafood once in a couple of days...for him, seafood everyday would be the equivalent of sheer bliss!

What you need

for 4 big mackerel:

1/2 a coconut grated
8 Byadgi red chillis
1 tbsp coriander seeds
A small pinch of cumin seed
4 peppercorns
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1 onion
2 flakes garlic
A lime sized ball of tamarind

3 green chillis, slit lengthwise
1/2-inch piece of ginger chopped
Salt to taste


Clean and cut each mackerel into three pieces - the head, the middle and the tail.

Grind the first nine ingredients to a fine paste using a little water. In a cooking pot, pour half a cup of water and add the slit green chillies and chopped ginger. Put the paste and salt to taste, adding enough water to make a gravy of medium thick consistency. Bring to a boil and drop the fish in. Bring to another rolling boil and switch off heat.

Lakshadweep Laddoo

Lakshadweep Laddoo (Pic by June Carvalho)

IT was the packaging in thick brown paper, tied neatly with twine that caught my attention at the billing counter of the friendly neighbourhood supermarket.

Intrigued, I picked up two...the yellow strip around it read Lakshadweep Laddoo....now I've heard of and tasted a hundred different types of laddoos, but had never come across something called a Lakshadweep Laddoo. Lakshadweep, an island in the Arabian Sea, off the coast of Kerala conjures up images of swaying palms, beach resorts, scuba diving, fresh seafood and dry fish...least of all a sticky laddoo made from dry fruit and nuts! Tasty though.

Upon closer scrutiny of the label it was apparent that the laddoo was not in fact made in Lakshadweep (!), but in the little town of Kasargod in north Kerala, bordering Mangalore...wonder why it was called thus...marketing gimmick maybe?

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Pineapple Upside Down Cake (Pics by June Carvalho)

MY last post for this month is a pineapple upside down cake that I made for tea earlier this evening...saved a few slices of fresh, ripe, sugary sweet pineapple for this cake. It does look a little bit like a burnt offering doesn't it, but actually the the burnt looking edge is nothing but a creamed mixture of butter and treacle that I spread on the base of the cake pan...gives a wonderful caramel taste besides preventing the pineapple from sticking to the base.

What you need:

7 pineapple slices, fresh or canned
230 gm flour
230 gm sugar, powdered
125 gm butter 
3 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp mixed spice powder
A pinch of salt
5 tbsp milk
Cherries and green
tutti-frutti to decorate

To spread on the base:

1 tbsp treacle ] To be creamed 
1 tbsp butter  ] for base layer

First cream the treacle with the tablespoon of butter and spread it on the base of a 9 x 9 inch square cake pan.  Arrange 5 of the cored pineapple slices in the four corners and centre of the pan. Place a cherry in the centre of each pineapple and sprinkle some tutti-frutti in between the slices. Chop the remaining pineapple slices into bits.

Sieve flour with baking powder, spice powder and salt. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, adding the eggs one by one, beating them in. Add the essence. Mix.

Fold in the flour a little at a time, along with the pineapple bits,  mixing alternately with the milk, till it's all moist and put into the prepared pan. Spread evenly, with a slight depression in the centre. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 170 degrees C for 35 minutes or until cake tester comes clean.

Cool and invert onto serving plate.

PS:  The batter was a little too much to fit into this heart-shaped pan. I got four cupcakes from the surplus batter. These proportions are just right for a 9" x 9" square pan.

Lemon Delight

Lemon Delight (Pic by June Carvalho)

I'VE adapted this lovely  pudding recipe from a 1968 edition of the cookery book An Encyclopedia of World Cookery by Elizabeth Campbell that my husband had picked up for me nearly 20 years ago from Select Book Shop on Brigade Road, a shop that's renowned for its collection of rare and out-of-print books. This thick, hard-bound copy, with yellowed pages, is a veritable treasure trove of recipes from all over the world, classified according to the countries of their origin. The author's introductions to each country's specialties make for interesting reading, not to mention the recipes, which have me salivating as I thumb through its pages. The only drawback is that the book contains no photographs, so you're left to imagine for yourself what an unfamiliar dish might look like when you're trying it out for the first time.

Lemon Delight  (Pic by June Carvalho)

This pudding is listed as Lemon Sponge Pudding under recipes from Canada. Indeed, it is like  a sponge layer on the surface but the surprise element is that beneath the sponge cake-like layer lies a beautiful, moist, yellow custard. The pudding can be baked in individual ramekins or in a larger baking dish, but what's really important is to place the baking dish in a pan of hot water and then bake. The gentle cooking process in a water bath ensures a soft-textured, self-saucing pudding, with a refreshing, lovely, tangy flavour. Two lemons may be used as per the original recipe for a stronger flavour, but I've found that the juice and zest of one lemon strikes the right, delicate balance of sweet and tang.

Lemon Delight (Pic by June Carvalho)

What you need:

50 gms plain butter
250 gms powdered sugar
4 eggs
1 pinch of salt
550 ml milk
50 gms flour, sifted
Juice and rind of 1 big lemon 

Beat the butter and sugar. Separate the yolks and whites of the eggs. Beat the egg yolks and add to the creamed mixture. Add lemon rind, flour, milk, salt and juice in that order.

Beat egg whites stiff and fold in gently.

Set dish in a pan of hot water and bake at 180 degrees C for 30 to 40 minutes or until golden brown on the top. Serve warm or cold.

Mangue Cocktail

THE other day, in the process of taking an inventory of my tidy stash of wines and spirits, I rediscovered some long-forgotten bottles, their seals intact, lying at the back of the shelf. One of those was Mangue, a mango liqueur by Marie Brizard. I tried to sip it by itself but didn't quite relish it. Maybe my relationship with sweet, ripe mangoes is better than with a liqueur from it.

The next obvious thing to do in order to put the clear, orange liquid to good use, was to browse the Net for cocktails using it.

This mango liqueur cocktail is what I stumbled upon...it resulted in a beautiful, golden, neat, nice, long drink which I found really refreshing. There was a delicate blend of a multitude of flavours ranging from mango, bitters and vodka to tonic water. Absolutely lovely!

Mangue Cocktail.  (Pic by June Carvalho)

What you need:
60 ml vodka
30 ml Marie Brizard Mangue
2-3 dashes of Angostura bitters
Schweppes tonic water (chilled)
Ice cubes
Lime wedge for garnish (optional)

I half-filled a Collins glass with ice cubes, poured the vodka, followed by the mango liqueur, followed by dashes of the bitters, eventually topping it with chilled tonic water. Stuck a swizzle stick in and savoured it sip by sip till the very last drop!

Quite a stiff one that was. Halve the ingredients for a smaller one.

Aromas of Goa

YESTERDAY I had the good fortune of accompanying my friend Eslinda to Christ College, where she was to showcase a selection of Goan cuisine to students of the hospitality management course. Eslinda needed no hand-holding from me, but only to demonstrate a couple of vegetarian dishes, which she felt were really not her forte, just like most Goans in whose culinary dictionary, the word “vegetable” rarely finds mention, unless you comb it well with a powerful magnifying lens!

A line-up of hearty Goan dishes. (Pic by June Carvalho)

The Goan meat and seafood dishes a la Eslinda, were cooked to perfection with the authenticity lent by the use of the golden-hued Goa palm vinegar and fiery looking Kashmiri red chillies in the pork vindaloo and the recheiado paste tucked into the insides of the mackerel. Apparently, the red chillies are not as angry as they look, only lending an appetizingly rich red to the gravy, without making it unbearably spicy. I thought the chicken cafreal needed to look a little greener, but had no complaints about its taste. The red prawn curry (barely visible at the top end in the pic above) was excellent and teamed up very well with rice. To end on a sweet note were pan rolls with a coconut and jaggery filling.

The students were given a print-out of the recipes and were divided into teams to handle each dish at different work stations in the huge kitchen equipped with, among other paraphernalia, enormous gas stoves that hissed away, heating the bottoms of gigantic vessels.

Our initial apprehensions belied, the task of preparing around 60 portions of each dish seemed effortless and got done well within the stipulated time in a kitchen bursting with energy, a melange of aromas and generous lashings of fooling around as young students are wont to do. All in all, it was a good learning experience, not only for the students whose curriculum demands exposure to Indian regional cuisines, but also for the two of us who got a peek into the functioning of an industrial kitchen and a small taste of high pressure cooking.

Later we were invited to dine at their training restaurant, along with their faculty. The food was nicely plated by the students. They are still learning. The faculty members appreciated the hearty fare, one of them adding that a xacuti and a sorpotel would have made it a superlative experience. To which I would have liked to add: "Helloooo! A drop of cashew feni too!" but reminded myself in time that it was a cooking demo. And that we were sitting. In a mock restaurant. In a college. In landlocked Bangalore. And not...as wishful thinking might permit...on the sands of Betim or Benaulim!  

Here are some of the recipes that were prepared that eventful morning. More will follow as soon as I have the time to upload them...which also includes a few vegetables.

  

FISH RECHEIADO

“Recheiado” at first sight can confuse your sense of pronunciation. It is simply pronounced “rechad”, the "ch"  sounding like the "sh" in "sheekh" or "shammi kebab" with all those in-between vowels remaining obscure and the ending “O” remaining so silent that you hardly acknowledge its presence. But it’s this uniquely Goan fish fry that you’re after, so forget the disconnect between spelling and pronunciation. If you can say “rechad” without batting an eyelid, I'd say you’re fit to tuck into it. 

Fish Recheiado (Pic by June Carvalho)

What you need: 

[For four mackerals or white pomfrets]

For “rechad” paste:

12 red chillies

8 peppercorns

¼ tsp cumin seeds

12 flakes of garlic

2 tsp coriander seeds

½ tsp turmeric powder

½ tsp sugar

Marble sized ball of tamarind (soaked)

½ cup Goa vinegar

Salt to taste

Oil to fry.

For the coating:

Half a cup of gram flour (besan) mixed with about two tablespoons of fine semolina and seasoned with a  little salt and turmeric powder.

What you do:

Soak the “rechad” paste ingredients in the Goa vinegar for about 10 minutes and grind to a fine paste using the same vinegar in which it was soaked.

Scale and clean the fish. Smear a mixture of salt and lemon juice on the inside and outside of the fish and keep aside. With a sharp knife, slit the fish from its back on both sides and fill the cavity with the “rechad” paste.

Coat with the gram flour and semolina and shallow fry on both sides, in hot oil till crisp on the outside. Garnish with onion rings and lime wedges and slide from pan to plate.

PRAWN CURRY 

What you need:

1 cup prawns peeled, deveined, washed

2 green chillies

2 medium onions, sliced

1 tomato cut into quarters

1 200 ml tetrapak coconut milk

1 tbsp coriander seeds

1 ½ tsp cumin seeds

6 cloves garlic

4 dry Kashmiri red chillies

4 peppercorns

½ inch piece ginger

½ tsp turmeric powder

1 tbsp tamarind pulp

Salt to taste

2 tbsps oil

PS: You can also extract fresh coconut milk from two cups of grated fresh coconut, ground in three cups of warm water. Strain and use.

What you do:

Marinate the prawns in salt and a dash of turmeric powder.

Grind all the ingredients [except the green chillis and one of the sliced onions] to a fine paste.

Heat oil in a pan, fry the sliced onion and green chillies till translucent. Now add the curry paste, stir around a bit and add 1 cup of water and bring to a boil. Drop the prawns into it, add the quartered tomato and simmer for five minutes. If the gravy is too thick, add a little more water to obtain the desired thickness. Remove from heat and keep covered till serving time. Serve with rice. For 4 to 6 persons.

Mint and Date Chutney

Mint and Date Chutney (Pic by June Carvalho)

MINT chutney sandwiches are a welcome tea time snack, especially during summer. Thinly sliced cucumber sandwiched in between lend a delicate crunchiness to the mint chutney sandwiches and have a cooling effect. For a refreshing change from the usual mint chutney, try this mildly spicy-sweet version, in which dates are ground to give the chutney sweetness and substance. I had used Omani dates which are really soft and sticky. If using a harder variety, you could soften them by soaking in hot water for about half an hour. Drain and chop before grinding. A handful of raisins is a good substitute for the dates.

This chutney keeps well in the fridge for up to three days.

What you need:

1 packed cup mint leaves
3 tbsps grated coconut
1" piece ginger
3 green chillies
5 Omani dates
1/2 tsp tamarind paste
Juice of half a lime
Salt to taste
1/4 cup water

Stone the dates and grind with all the other ingredients to a fine paste. While grinding, add the water, a little at a time. The chutney should be of a spreading consistency and not too watery.

Spread on buttered slices of bread to prepare sandwiches.



  

Quick-n-Easy Brownies

BROWNIES (Pic by June Carvalho)

THESE lovely, scrumptious brownies are so quick and easy to make. Forget about earning brownie points...just wow your family and friends with this delicious treat. You cannot go wrong with cocoa or chocolate... 

What you need:

1 cup all-purpose flour

2/3 cup cocoa

2 cups granulated sugar

1 cup chopped walnuts

1 cup melted Amul butter

4 eggs

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla essence

Sieve flour, cocoa and baking powder. Whisk eggs, melted butter and vanilla essence. Tip the sieved ingredients in, the sugar and the walnuts and mix with a spatula till all the ingredients are moist. Line a 9" x 9" pan with grease-proof paper and pour the mixture in. Spread evenly. Bake in a preheated oven at 170 degrees C for 35 minutes. Let cool for 15-20 minutes, then turn over on cooling tray. When completely cooled, cut into squares. 36 pieces. 

This was baked in a microwave oven on convection mode.

Black Russian

Black Russian (Pic by June Carvalho)

RUSSIA meets Mexico like old buddies in this delightful, if potent cocktail comprising equal parts of vodka and Kahlua served on the rocks. Extremely simple to build and the perfect epilogue to an equally great dinner!

What you need:
45 ml vodka
45 ml Kahlua or any other coffee liqueur
Ice

All you need to do is fill an old-fashioned glass with ice (about 8-10 cubes) and pour the vodka over, followed by the Kahlua. Enjoy!

Clover Club Cocktail

Clover Club Cocktail (Pic by June Carvalho)

I came across this drink on a cocktails website and it sounded good and very doable, with an interesting history to boot. It seems to be a forgotten classic originating in Philadelphia way back in 1911, and now, nearly a century later, is experiencing a revival.

Needs gin, grenadine or raspberry syrup, lemon juice and also a raw egg white, which may sound queasy to some, but it acts as an emulsifier and gives the drink body and a foamy head. The grenadine and citrus strike a perfect balance between sweet and tart. Shake it up for a good 20 seconds in a cocktail shaker with ice to get a frothy finish and the head. Would have looked pretty in cocktail glasses, but I don't have 'em, so I served it up in wine glasses instead. My friend enjoyed every dainty sip of it. So did I. Who wouldn't? Truly a classic.

What you need for 1 serving:

60 ml gin (I used Bombay Sapphire)
30 ml lemon juice
10 ml grenadine
1 egg white
Cracked ice

Shake up all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker for about 20 seconds and strain into a cocktail or wine glass. Garnish with a lemon  wedge. Cheers!