Embrace or Embarrass?

The other day one of my school friends came out the closet on Facebook. Well, to be more precise, this person expressed that they were relieved and happy to come out of the closet. I am not really that convinced by the confession/Facebook status; not that this person’s sexuality matters to me one way or the other. Anyway, I left it at that considering the sensitive nature of the topic.

   

**Spoiler Alert!** 

   

Now, my friend is not the topic of discussion here. A couple of weeks back, I watched a pretty good Malayalam movie that briefly touches this topic. I was impressed to see Malayalam cinema come of age. The casting director made a smart choice by selecting an actor who is perhaps considered the epitome of masculinity to play the gay character. Brave too, some might add.

    

Having said that, I was quite shocked, as was the protagonist in the movie, by the reaction of  the hero when he discovered the main character’s sexuality. I mean, why would someone be shocked and disappointed if a person is not straight? Why the self-loathing? To quote R, another friend of mine, “A brilliantly shot film with a masterful pace of suspense, however [sic] encapsulated with such blatant homophobia. Is this what bravery means nowadays in mallu Tinseltown?” My thoughts exactly.

    

To the entire Mumbai Police team, bravo for introducing the theme to mainstream Malayalam movies, sincerely. But shame on you for shaming gays and lesbians, that too in front of a narrow-minded set of people. Apologies Mallus, but we are a narrow-minded lot, for the most of it.

My Awesome Summer Vacation

Woah! Now that was an awesome two months. I simply loved the tempo of those 8 weeks – hectic yet relaxed – preparing for the Purple Theory cookery classes, weekly trips to Lulu Mall, working out religiously and regularly at the gym, giving in to persistent cookie baking requests from the tiny two, going for late-night movies with the whole family every weekend, trying out new dishes, meeting friends after ages, attending cake decorating classes and so much more. 

   

It was quite a bonus getting a Thai Basil stem from an acquaintance and to see the plantlings pot well. What more. I managed to bring one pot back to Bangalore.    

A few of the things that I made this summer

Yet another highlight of this vacation was the exciting experience of making fresh pasta. Fresh pasta is really so easy to make, and it tastes so different. Don’t get me wrong; the readymade ones are good, it’s just that fresh pasta is way better. I did not take pictures of my handmade pasta (lasagne & fettucine) as we were all too busy licking our forks. 

   

As for the 75-bucks-a-piece lemons that I bought, I made lemon curd besides other lesser things. Totally worth my money. It was something that I’d wanted to taste for a long time anyway. So, I made it one early morning when the rest of the household was still in bed. Haya and I had a jolly good time making it. Haya entertained herself by whisking the custard and I was thrilled watching the slow transformation of the custard. Haya also enjoyed licking teeny tiny slices of the precious citrus fruit.

     

For the lemon curd, I followed the recipe here. Joy of Baking.com is a website that I now follow for its great instructions, clear videos, detailed explanations, and life-saving tips. The lemon curd turned out good. It tastes so tart and tangy. Yum! It goes really well with cupcakes and even plain ol’ bread. 

    

I used a bit of the lemon curd to sandwich cookies. They look like fried eggs, don’t they? Well, I had initially planned to sandwich heart-shaped cookies, but I ran out of cookie dough and time, which is clearly evident from the not-so-perfect circles. 

Cut-out cookies with Lemon Curd

The cookies are very easy to make. By the time your oven is preheated, the cookies are ready for baking. I especially liked the short baking time, which meant that I could pretty much churn out cookies to match the ceaseless demand. I believe I baked the whole thing in 3 batches. Did I forget to mention that the kids downed the first batch in minutes? I got the recipe here.

I wasn’t planning on making any changes, but I was pretty much forced to. I had been delaying the kid’s request for cookies. First, there were no star-shaped and heart-shaped cookie cutters. Once we bought those, then there were no eggs. I’m sure by now you’ve sensed my half-hearted effort to bake the cookies. I mean, what good comes out of eating loads and loads of butter and sugar. Anyway, next we ran out of vanilla essence, as if that was the most essential ingredient. Heehee. At long last, I felt bad for the kid and finally decided to bake the cookies. That’s when I realized that we did not have any unsalted butter. The original recipe calls for margarine. It would be a joke to look for margarine in a place where even unsalted butter is a rare find. So I substituted the butter with table butter and skipped the salt that the recipe called for.

Heart-shaped cookies for the two lovely girls

Easy Cut-Out Cookies

Ingredients:

Butter - 1 cup, softened (not unsalted)

Sugar - 1 cup

Eggs - 2

Vanilla essence - 2 tsp

Maida - 3 cups

Baking soda - ½ tsp

Method:

1.       Cream together the butter, sugar, and eggs. Stir in the vanilla essence.

2.       In a separate bowl, combine flour and baking soda.

3.       Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture, and mix well to form a dough.

4.       Roll out the dough, not too thin. Cut into different shapes using a cookie cutter. Place the cookies on an ungreased baking sheet.

5.       Bake at 375°F/190°C/Gas 5 for 8 minutes.

These are soft cookies that need to be stored in airtight containers. They last about a week, but I bet they'll be long gone before the expiry date.

Strength is the capacity to break a chocolate bar into four pieces with your bare hands - and then eat just one of the pieces. ~Judith Viorst

When Life Gives You Lemons

I was frantically shopping at the very very popular and populous Lulu Hypermarket, when I was left speechless by this wonderful sight.

Some of the simple joys of life – lemons

I was just short of drooling when I saw this vibrant yellow fruit. For me, these are lemons, the actual thing - big, yellow, shiny, and aromatic as heaven. Even the seemingly exorbitant price did not deter me from picking up a couple. Now, I don’t even want to cut it open. I haven’t been this excited anytime recently. After all, I hadn't seen these lemons since I last visited Dubai.

Welcome to the Lab

 Proudly presenting the Purple Theory Lab aka Kitchen where all sorts of experiments are boldly performed.
     

So, tiny sparks of ideas and that desire to share good food got me to this project. Mom, S-i-l and I will be conducting cooking demos for our respective dishes. I look forward to the cooking sessions. At the same time there are butterflies in my stomach. Wait a minute, that's coz I haven't had my breakfast yet.

I better get started. I have about 65 recipes to write. Yikes. Moreover, the first set of notices would have reached their destination by now. Now, lets see.

Pen. Check. 

Paper. Check.

Calls. Waiting.

(Trrinng Trrinng )

Oops, gotta go.

Chicken Bread Cups

Here’s one that you can quickly assemble when you have unexpected guests at your doorstep. Better yet, make some for your evening cravings.
  

    
I made these bread cups a little before lunch, so I could serve them as a starter. The kids slowly nibbled through quite a few, while the grownups popped them right in.
   

Chicken Bread Cups

Ingredients:

Bread – 12 slices

Butter - as required

Chicken - 1 cup, boiled and minced

White sauce – ½ cup

Tomato ketchup – to garnish

Method:

1. Slice off the crust of all the slices, and butter both sides.
2. Arrange the buttered slices of bread in the muffin tray to form cup-like shapes.
3. In an oven preheated to 400°F/200°C/Gas 6, bake the bread for 10 minutes or till golden brown.
4. Cool on a wire rack in the muffin tray for about 5 minutes. The bread cups are ready.
5. To make the filling, combine the minced chicken and white sauce. Season as required.
6. Place a spoonful of the filling on each bread cup.
7. Garnish with a swirl of ketchup. Serve warm.

Words of Wisdom

Tip #1: I used stale bread for the bread cups. Silly mistake. Turns out they aren't as pliable as I'd imagined.  I call it the stale bread debacle.So, it would be quicker, easier, and less messier to use fresh bread.

Tip #2: I shredded my chicken into long strands and ended up with the filling coming off the cup with each bite. You need to mince or shred the chicken real small.

Tip #3: For the more calorie conscious, I say skip the butter and lightly dip the slices in beaten egg whites before arranging them in the muffin tray.

   

Now, this is not one of those dishes I found on the Internet. I took it straight out of a Vanitha Paachakam from my mom’s collection, something I resort to during my no-Internet days in Kerala.
    

I made a few with a crumbled liver filling 

PS: Normally, I wouldn't label these bread cups as fusion food, but I had to fuse the broken pieces of bread with beaten egg. Hence the label.

The beauty of these bread cups is that you can add all sorts of toppings. Next time, I'm going to try a fruit-based filling.

Vegetables are a must on a diet. I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread and pumpkin pie. ~ Jim Davis

Fish Croquettes

Last week, we bought a big, whole kingfish and made fish fry, fish biryani, fish curry, fish pie, some more fish fry, and finally fish croquettes. Now this is something that features a lot during Ramadan and then sometimes when we get really good fish.

  

   

These are my mom-in-law’s croquettes – easy-peasy as opposed to mine, which feels complicated. Or does it just look effortless because she breezes through the whole process?

Fish Croquettes

Ingredients:

Kingfish – 250 gm
Salt – to taste
Turmeric powder – ½ tsp
Chilli powder – 2 tsp
Potato – 2 medium, boiled and mashed
Onion – 1 medium, finely chopped
Curry leaves – a handful
Ginger-garlic paste – 4 tbsp
Green chili – 3, finely chopped
Bread crumbs – as required
Egg – 2, beaten
Oil – to fry
   
Method:

1. Make a marinade with chili powder, turmeric powder, salt and water just enough to brings it all together Marinate the fish in this marinade for 10 minutes.
2. Shallow fry the fish till just cooked. Allow it to cool, and then flake the fish.
3. Combine mashed potato and shredded fish, and season as required.
4. Heat some oil in a wok. Add chopped curry leaves and onions. Saute till onions become soft and translucent.
5. Add ginger-garlic paste, and saute well in low heat.
6. Once the raw smell of the ginger-garlic paste disappears, add green chili and saute.
7. Combine the fish and potato mixture with the sauteed masala.
8. Shape the fish croquettes, and dip each croquette in beaten egg, and then roll it in breadcrumbs.
9. Deep fry the croquettes in hot oil. Serve hot.

While I don’t like condiments with my snacks, these croquettes tasted exceptional with ketchup – the sweetness of the ketchup really complemented the heat of the croquette.




Ever since Eve started it all by offering Adam the apple, woman's punishment has been to supply a man with food then suffer the consequences when it disagrees with him”. ~ Helen Rowland

A Meen Pie

What caught my attention in this article that I found while scouring for Kerala-style fish dishes was the tempting, refreshing picture. I bookmarked the page right away. I knew I’d recreate that pie at least once.
   

My Sunday Fish Pie

Sundays in my house normally mean indulgence – sleep, food, mall-hopping. Today's theme was food. After a sumptuous lunch and a few hours of non-stop chattering, I knew that I needed to stimulate my slumbering self. So, I got some Bluefin Trevally (Vatta in Malayalam; Hammaam in Arabic) from my fish monger and got started with my version of the fish pie.
  

I did not depart much from the original recipe. I omitted the peas and parsley (nobody wants to eat greens on Sundays). I added a little garam masala as suggested in the article. I did not add the eggs because I did not have any. The best part of this dish is that I got an excuse to make my mashed potatoes...Yum!

Fish Pie

Ingredients:

Any big fish – ¼ kg (cooked in a little water, turmeric, and salt)

Onion – 1, finely chopped

Ginger-garlic paste – 1 tsp

Paprika – ½ tsp

Chili powder – ½ tsp

Ground pepper – ½ tsp

Oil – 2 tsp

Spring onions – ½ cup, chopped +1 tbsp for garnishing, finely chopped

White sauce – 1 cup, thickened

Mashed potatoes – about 12-15 ice cream scoops (here's the recipe)

Method:

1. Flake the cooked fish.
2. Saute the onions in a little oil.
3. Add the ginger-garlic paste when the onions turn translucent.
4. Once the raw smell of the ginger and garlic disappears, add the powders. Saute for about 30 seconds.
5. Add the fish and spring onions, and saute for about a minute.
6. Add the white sauce, and combine well.

Assembling the pie:

1. Grease a baking dish, and spread the fish mixture evenly over the base of the baking dish.
2. Layer the mash over the fish. You can scoop the mashed potato over the fish for even layering and added effect. 
3. Bake the fish pie at 375°F/190°C/Gas 5 till the potato starts turning brown.
4. Garnish with spring onions. Serve hot.

The fish pie was out of the oven around dinner time. The only delay in digging in was the time I spent clicking these pictures, sub-standard as they are.
I also managed to click a picture during the dinner dash. Since there are many fish lovers in the family and even more mash fans, the pie disappeared within minutes. It kind of reminded me of a cartoon where Jerry wipes out an entire table full of food.

Life is too short for self-hatred and celery sticks. ~ Marilyn Wann

Artisan Bread

"Of all smells, bread; of all tastes, salt."
George Herbert, English poet (1593-1633)
   
 I couldn't agree any more.
   
January was decidedly a month for baking. After trying out this easy and versatile recipe for bread, I baked lots of buns and rolls. I originally used this recipe to make pizza base.
   

I was over the moon when a batch of stuffed buns and plain buns came out so beautifully. It is one thing when you are dabbling with the familiar, but it’s something else altogether when you do something like baking your entire batch of rolls in a microwave oven for which you have no temperature control. 

I was thrilled and amazed to see the braided roll turned out so well; I can barely braid my own hair, let alone dough!

Bread Rolls with Pizza Dough

Ingredients:
Maida - 2 ½ cups

Salt - 1 tsp

Extra virgin olive oil - 1 tbsp

Warm water - 1 cup
Honey - 1 tsp
Dry active yeast - 1 sachet (I used 2 tsp – a little less than the whole packet)

Method:

1. In a small bowl, mix ¼ cup of water with the honey and dry yeast. Let it sit for about 3 minutes until the yeast starts to bubble.
2. In a bigger bowl, combine the flour, salt, and olive oil.
3. Add the yeast mixture and the remaining ¾ cup water. Mix to combine, and knead the dough until it is soft and elastic, about 5 minutes.

4. Place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover the bowl with cling film, and let the dough rise for about an hour or so. 
5. After an hour, knead the dough gently for a minute, just enough to let out the air. 
6. Make smaller balls, and shape each ball as you like. 
7. For a crescent-shaped chicken roll, roll out a ball to about an inch thickness. Cut the disc into quarters. Stretch or roll out a quarter so that it looks like an elongated triangle. Spoon some chicken filling on the base of the triangle and roll the dough towards the tip of the triangle. Shape it like a crescent. 

8. For the triangle Aloo buns, roll out a ball to about ½ an inch. Spoon some filling on the center of the disc. Close the disc by folding 3 sides over to the center. Shape it into a proper triangle. Make sure you seal the seams really well and leave enough dough for the seams; otherwise the seams will crack open while cooking. 
9. Place the rolls on a baking sheet lined with butter paper. Leave space between the rolls for the dough to expand. Cover the baking sheet with cling film, and let the dough rise for another 15 minutes. While the dough is rising, preheat the oven to 220°C/425°F/Gas 7. 
10. Adjust the oven to 190°C/375°F/Gas 5, and bake for about 25 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.

Note: In my microwave oven, I set the convection+microwave combo to High for 3 minutes followed by  Medium for 4 minutes.

I was just reading for pleasure here when I came across the pizza dough recipe. Lucky me :)

Coffee makes it possible to get out of bed. Chocolate makes it worthwhile. ~Author Unknown

You Gotta Try This Panna Cotta

The first time I laid my eyes on a Panna Cotta was on the popular cookery contest, Master Chef Australia. This dessert piqued my brain, just the way Lemon Curd and Cream Anglaise did. Moreover, it seemed like a dish that most contestants whipped up effortlessly. After months of daily torture on TV, I finally tasted my first Panna Cotta (one with lime syrup on top) at our anniversary dinner. One word – heavenly – the dessert, not the dinner (what with a 2-year old and all).

 It made sense to search for a panna cotta recipe after tasting it once. So, I was quite disheartened to see the generous use of heavy cream in my new favorite dessert. The fat content, along with the dearth of heavy cream out here, ensured that I wouldn't make this very often. Tail tucked right between the legs, I visited my mom one weekend. To my utter delight, mom served me Blueberry Panna Cotta for dessert. Imagine my delight. She got the recipe from a reliable source, so the recipe was failproof. 

I made the Panna Cotta twice after I got back home – once with a blueberry topping right out of a can (with a ghastly chemical after-taste) and another with a freshly-made strawberry compote of sorts that was sour enough to cut through the richness of the dessert (now, that’s just Master Chef Australia talking).
   

 Vanilla Panna Cotta

I simply loved the rich red color of the compote!

• Milk – 1 tin
• Condensed milk – 1 tin
• Corn flour – 4 level tbsp
• Gelatin – 2 heaped tbsp
• Water – ½ cup
• Fresh cream – 2 packets (Amul Tetra-pack cream will do)
• Vanilla essence – 1 tsp

 Strawberry compote:

• Fresh Strawberries – 15
• Water – ¼ cup
• Sugar – to taste
• Lemon juice – 1 tsp
• Cornflour – 1 tsp (optional)
• Butter – 1 tsp (optional)

 Method:

1. Soak gelatin in water.
2. Mix milk, condensed milk, and cornflour in a saucepan. Cook over a gentle heat until thick. Stir constantly.
3. Allow the thickened milk to cool, then add the soaked gelatin to it, and mix till the gelatin dissolves completely.
4. Combine the fresh cream and vanilla essence with the milk mixture.
5. Pour in individual serving bowls or in a pudding dish, and allow the Panna Cotta to set.
6. Serve with blueberry preserve or strawberry compote.

Blueberry Panna Cotta ready to be savored

Half empty within 
minutes of serving!

To make the strawberry compote:

1. Wash the strawberries, remove the stem, and roughly cut them into quarters.
2. Cook the chopped fruit, sugar, water, and lemon juice in a saucepan on low heat.
3. Add butter once the strawberries are soft and start disintegrating. The butter lends a gloss to the compote.
4. Add cornflour mixed with a little water to it and stir well.
5. Allow to cool. Spoon over chilled Panna Cotta.

Next time, I’m going to skip the vanilla and instead add some coffee powder - Mocha Panna Cotta!

I want to have a good body, but not as much as I want dessert. ~Jason Love

Is it time for an Intervention?

I love to read.
I read just about anything that can be read.
I read the back of the cereal box every time I have cereal.
I read the user manual of any new device. Yes! The entire booklet.
I read leaflets enclosed in medicine boxes, you know, the one about side effects and all.
In short, I read every word of practically every printed/written matter.

Yet, I skipped whole sections of Robin Cook’s Intervention. I was so bored by the book. What a disappointment considering my expectations from the author. What was he thinking? Riding the Dan Brown wave? More precisely, riding the Dan Brown-induced threat-to-Christianity wave? I’d barely gotten through The Lost Symbol before I swore off these history+Christianity combos. And then came Intervention, that too when I was really lusting for familiar medical action.

Now which author is going to follow suit? Forsythe? Follet? No, please not Grisham. Calling all for an intervention before things start getting outta hand!