Creating, collecting, and sharing thoughts and ideas. And learning along the way.
Food is love. Plus art. Oh, and it keeps you alive. That, too! You might not find a single recipe here, but you may find the inspiration to go create one. Unless, of course, you’re left speechless because you’re drooling so severely at the sight of these glorious images. Regardless, you are NOT always what you eat.
So, what’s good for breakfast on a snowy morning? Well, anything at all! Anything you please!
I’ve been known to whip up an omelette just as fast as I can steam a batch of idlis or roll a few parathas, but on this snowy morning, the breakfast of choice was a simple one:
Two slices of multi-grain toast: one spread with peanut butter, the other with orange mamalade; two eggs not-so-scrambled; a glass of OJ.
It hit the spot, spot-on!
I had recently put up a lovely post on all things quiche: the lovely delicate pastry shells, both regular and mini size that contain all sorts of fillings.
Well, this is no quiche, but it sure looks like one. It could be called a frittata of sorts, but it contains no potatoes. And it’s certainly not a quiche because there’s no pastry holding its contents.
What it is, is a stand-alone omelette. Only it’s cooked on a stove-top but on so low a flame and with a covered lid that the egg mixture sets beautifully. Also, the onions, tomatoes, green chillies and cilantro are finely chopped and sauteed first, folded into the frothy beaten eggs, and then transferred into a sturdy pan.
What you’ll have fifteen minutes later is a gorgeous omelette that looks like a quiche or a pie. Ideally, there must be nothing sticking to the bottom and it ought to slide off onto a plate with ease, or at the very least must be able to cut firmly into wedges or squares.
Serve with toast, pitas or rotis. Makes a hearty entree any day. This was my slice from last evening. There were three more where that came from, BTW!
Well, any number of things, of course. But I think if its a Sunday afternoon lunch to be made from scratch, well, then, only a palak-dal (spinach-and-lentils) will do.
And of course, the ultimate subzi to accompany that is an Alu-Gobi (potatoes-and-cauliflower).
Have it with rice. Or roti.
Enjoy!
Get your quiche on! And don’t be afraid to improvise! Click on the link below the picture for more.
Time for the old posts to come out to the new blog! This one was first published in my private blog on Thursday, December 04, 2008.
On a cold wintery mid-morning, what better a thing to bake than a loaf of my banana-walnut bread? So, here it is. I used a large round pan (actually my cheesecake pan), but technically, I suppose, a loaf pan ought to be used… Well, these things don’t matter too much to me—loaf pans, cake pans, cheesecake pans, square pans, they’re all one and the same. What’s of import is what’s inside them!
The other thing I made just now is choley—with a twist. I added a can of black beans to the standard garbanzo (or chickpeas) beans. Serve it up with hot steaming white rice, and its an entrée fit for a king, don’t you think? 🙂
Lovely blend of East and West in cooking techniques and choice of dishes, no? A slice of the banana-walnut bread will go nicely with a cup of tea or coffee. And the choley will be dinner, of course.
Bon Appetit!
I remember the McAloo Tikki I had in a McDonald’s in Bangalore too! Plus, priceless dialogue from Pulp Fiction on the Royale With Cheese.
So, what’s as special as cake on your birthday? Well, if you’ve got a thing for samosas– homemade ones at that– then you’d probably want those for your birthday!
Which is what a friend of my firstborn asked for as a birthday present!
So, next thing I knew, I was being recruited to “help” make them!
We made two kinds: one batch with a traditional potatoes-and-peas filling, and the other with a keema-and-peas filling.
And when I say scratch, I mean scratch from the very scratchiest scratch. That included kneading the dough, rolling it for the wrappers, making the two fillings, preparing each samosa in the traditional triangular shape, crimping the edges, and finally frying them to a golden brown.
See the slideshow below if you’re in the mood for a DIY. And good luck!
Time to dig up these old posts… this one from a couple years ago, first published on Tuesday, December 09, 2008.
Take for example this absolutely fantastic pasta dish I created yesterday: I added as the key seasoning several dollops of my tomato chutney (made with tons of roasted garlic, cumin, onions, dry red chillies, karipatta, some chana dal, and tomatoes of course– all blended together and then tempered with a tadka of desi ghee) to a stir-fry of mixed veggies and diced boneless chicken tenderloin (marinated in homemade yogurt and spices), and folded it all in with whole-wheat spaghetti cooked separately.
The result? Fantastico! The Italians would kill for it. As would the Greeks, the Argentinians, the Chinese, the Japanese, the Koreans, the Indonesians, and of course, the Indians!
See for yourself! Is that art, or that art?! And if you think the sight of this is an assault on the eyes, I wish that you could have only smelled the gorgeous flavors that wreaked havoc on the rest of the faculties!
So, here’s to chutney today. Remember, its so much more than just that. It’s the very essence of the dish, without which this pasta suprema dish would be nothing more than a bland weekday dinner.
May it be, that just like this chutney, we pause to look for and recognize the various things in life that may appear ordinary and peripheral, but are, in fact, what makes life special.
