Recipe 6: Poached Pears with Red wine

I am not a person who’d like to mix my loaf with liquor.

I am a die-hard foodie. The times when I diet are the hardest times ever in my life… harder than the breakups. And, in all honesty, I equally enjoy my happiness potions too. But, I never had a palate for food prepared with alcohol in it.

I always try hard to identify the taste of liquor in liquor-chocolates, rum in rum-cakes, and beer in beer battered prawns. But always fail miserably.

I mean, come on! Relishing a plateful of luscious prawns while drinking your beer makes things so convenient, right?

However, when the book instructed me to make poached pears with red wine, I took it as a challenge to my taste buds (yet again).

The highlight of this recipe was the poaching bit. In just two minutes after the wine started simmering, my entire house was filled with its awesome smell. The smell definitely excited my palate. And did not disappoint too.

The pears didn’t look as red as shown in the picture. However, tasted delicious. 

Sugar overpowered the taste of wine. But the perfectly soft pears took my heart away.

I don’t mind repeating this recipe in future. But, honestly speaking, would still prefer gulping down the wine straight from the bottle!

Cheers!

Recipe 5: Quinoa Stuffed Bell Peppers

“Bell peppers? I hate bell peppers!”

That was the very first thought that came to my mind when I read the next recipe in line. I am not a picky eater, but you’ll always finding me doing a raw-capsicum-raw-onion scan at the dinner table.

Forget about others, I myself was suspicious about liking this recipe. Hence, I decided to make it in very small quantity. So, all the ingredients were half their recommended portions.

The stuffing was made of quinoa. Not many of you must have heard about this ingredient before. It’s a funny grain with a slightly bitter after-taste. Not many would love it at first shot. It’s like wine. You have to acquire the taste for quinoa.

But the showstopper in this recipe was Dill. Just a sprinkle of 1 tablespoon of dill just before turning off the heat helped subdue the foreign trace of quinoa to a large extent. I also managed to finish one whole bell pepper on my own. Pat my back for that! :)

And yes, a healthy recipe like this won’t find any takers. So don’t waste your time convincing your friends to eat it. They. Are. Not. Gonna. Eat. It.

Recipe 4: Basa in Light Tomato Gravy

Returning from a taxing-and-at-the-same-time-relaxing trip to Goa, there wouldn’t have been a better recipe to resume the project with.

Why? Because the irony about this was, in spite of spending days on the coasts of the seafood land, I didn’t get a chance to bite into a single shrimp or a squid or a crab. I know that’s criminal! But there were other important to-dos to take care of.

So, here’s my recompense for all those Goan fish curries and pork sorpotels I missed – A mouth-watering Basa in Light Tomato Gravy! Courtesy: Maria.

Coming from an archetypal Maharashtrian family, I grew up bingeing on the scarlet fish curries with a thick bed of oil reminding you of the biggest oil spills in Gulf. And here I was cooking light gravy Basa. Thank God, mom was not at home!

It was an easy peasy lemon squeezy recipe. (Oh! Don’t judge me for that phrase. Someone at work used it, and ever since then it got stuck in my head, so I’d to take it out of my system!) The ingredients were simple, and looked ravishingly colourful on that plate. Check it out:

This recipe needed not more than 10 minutes for the preps, but over an hour for the cooking. But let me tell you, it was totally worth it! At least, it didn’t look like the last time’s disaster. Otherwise, sister wouldn’t have waited for a second to criticize it. She didn’t say a word and polished off her plate, which is a complement in itself. (You know, sometimes she could be a miser with words. The last time I broke up, she just asked for the updates… didn’t even bother to console her little sister. But you can’t blame her; for my track record with heart breaks has been miserable. Any sane person would not be bothered.)

Anyhoo! Let’s not allow heartbreaks to dampen our gastronomic spirits. I’m waiting for mom and dad to come home and join me for dinner. I’m sure they’d be a wee more expressive than sister dearest.

P.S: I didn’t use the white wine this time, as our little cat, Koko, was also on the guest list. However, I’m looking forward to do it again with wine. :)

Recipe 3: Ragi Pancakes with Mushrooms [Attempt 2]

Even the phoenix bird takes a little time to rise from its ashes. But this phoenix has risen overnight from the ashes of her failed recipe.

This time I didn't want any missed measures or replacement of ingredients to come in between me and my recipe.

Attempt 1 to make Ragi Pancakes with Mushrooms was not at all a successful endeavour. This is how it looked:

Though it doesn't look as appalling; trust me, it was awfully so. The fresh memories of this cooking disaster were haunting me. I took a long deep breath and entered the kitchen. 

Everything was rehearsed well in mind. Half a cup of ragi, quarter teaspoons each of baking powder and baking soda, half a cup of yoghurt (plain, mind you), 1 egg, salt and pepper for the pancakes. 100 gm sliced mushrooms, chilli flakes (not chilli powder), exactly 5 fleshy cloves of garlics finely chopped and exactly 1 teaspoon of yoghurt for the topping. Everything was set.

All I needed was to mix and blend and cook everything together well. I was confident that this time nothing can go wrong. And you may be surprised to know that nothing did. Not even an ounce of it.

Ragi has its own organic taste, and it got well enhanced with the egg and yoghurt. Mushrooms were cooked just right with chilli flakes giving it a mild spicy flavour. Plus, the flakes made it look aesthetically appetising. 

Take a look for yourself:

And for some added drama, here’s a picture that honestly compares the two attempts.

Moral of the story:
Be confident but not too confident, especially when it's the first time you are treading a certain path. And also, I need to buy a good set of measuring cups.

Recipe 3: Ragi Pancakes with Mushrooms [Attempt 1]

Yesterday, I learnt a very important lesson in La Cuisine: Cooking is like being in a relationship.

You have to be completely honest with the recipe. If you are going by the book, you have to stick to its instructions. You can’t lie about the quantities (Sorry, even a white lie is not excused). You have to trust the ingredients suggested, and not betray them with shallow substitutes. Not that you can’t cook anything with substitution. But if you are learning a new recipe, you better stay loyal to it. Otherwise, it’ll only be like a marriage that looks picture-perfect outside, but is broken into million pieces from within.

I confess. Yesterday, I committed adultery in kitchen. And the result was as appalling as a broken relationship. May be, worse than that. After all, there’s always some scope for a failed relationship to get mended, but not a failed recipe.

The recipe was Ragi pancakes with mushrooms. And I substituted everything with everything. Plain yoghurt was replaced with flavoured yoghurt. Chilli flakes were replaced with chilli powder. I still wonder what made me think that flavoured yoghurt will do its job! I was impatient. And impatience has no room in any kitchen.

And it didn’t just stop there. The instructions said quarter teaspoon each of baking powder and baking soda. Whatever went into that mix was definitely not a quarter teaspoon of anything. Too much baking powder and soda gave the pancakes a bitter taste. And the flavoured yoghurt (and by flavoured I mean... umm... blueberry flavour) gave the mushrooms a gummy fruity taste.

I was so demotivated after the whole fiasco that I thought I should better end this project. Or maybe not talk about the goof-ups at all, just upload a pretty picture and get done with it like nothing happened. 90% thoughts consisted of shutting down the shop. After all, I’m not as good as Julie Powell with cookery. Maria is not a veteran master chef like Julia Child. This whole damn thing is not as refined as Powell’s project. 

But then I thought, that’s why I should probably do it. I don’t want to open a Michelin star restaurant. I don’t want to please anyone with my culinary skills. People who know me already love me or hate me for whatever reasons they feel right. I want to do this for myself. Find out how I can take challenges in this unexplored territory. If I fail, I lose nothing at all. But if I win, I could at least walk into my kitchen as confidently as I walk in those presentation rooms.

So, my first attempt towards making Ragi Pancakes with Mushrooms was an epic fail. But, hell yeah! Here I am, following Kaizen and preparing myself for a second attempt to make the same Ragi Pancakes with Mushrooms. But just a little too perfect this time.

P.S. I could have uploaded a picture of my first attempt, which visually was not as disappointing as its taste. But it would be only a good idea to save it for a Failure-vs-Success showcase. (I just hope, it won't turn into a multi-photo collage) So till then, enjoy this comic from the internet. J

Recipe 2: Beetroot Salad

Sometimes a complex looking recipe can surprise you with its simplicity, and sometimes an easy recipe can make you go around the world. This one belongs to the latter category.

I grew up bingeing on my mother’s beetroot curd salad. So, another interesting beetroot recipe only left me excited.

Finding beetroots was easy. But, the second main ingredient required for this recipe is Gruyere Cheese. And it proved to be the most notorious ingredient I’ve ever come across.

After closing the Cookbook, the next thing I opened was howjsay.com to learn its correct pronunciation. (Yes, I’m that pseudo!) It took me days to find time to visit Nature’s Basket for Gruyere Cheese, some more to actually make the recipe, and even more to write about it. It was a crazy week at work, as I was torn between two teams handling two completely divergent projects; hence the delay.

The actual preparation was quite simple and fun. Since there was too little to follow as instructions, I tried to ape the presentation as well. It looked fab!

Here’s a tempting picture of this easy to make salad, provided you find Gruyere easily:

Perhaps I was too excited and ended up expecting too much from it. Or perhaps the ingredient hunting was too long and time-consuming a process. Or perhaps my taste buds were too accustomed to Aai’s curd beetroot salad. But, I would give this recipe 4 out of 10.

Looking forward to cook the next in line – Ragi Pancakes with Mushrooms.

P.S. As compensation, I made the Palak soup once more with renewed enthusiasm. Thanks to Didi for her farmaish.

Look what I stumbled upon!

Good morning!

No, this is not another recipe post. Remember, slow and steady?

It’s a quick update on an early morning serendipity.

Today I woke up in a very good mood. After all, last night I turned myself into a food blogger with two long posts. A triumphant awakening, we must say.

I thought I would finish reading the half-read introduction and do justice to the piece of writing. I feel extremely guilty for not reading any book from the prologue to the epilogue. So, I started reading, and stumbled upon this paragraph:

Did you get it? Did you get it? Did you get it?

It’s a weirdly beautiful coincidence. The author of the book and the reader share a single source of inspiration. Julie & Julia.

It’s now making a whole lot of sense, and becoming a whole lot of special to me.

Is it a coincidence? Or destiny’s plan in disguise?

Hmmm...

Recipe 1: Palak Soup

As I mentioned in my earlier post, Maria has divided her book, ‘From My Kitchen to Yours’ into monthly menus with soups, salads, starters, non-vegetarian and vegetarian main course dishes, and desserts.

I honestly can’t cook a full course meal together. And even if I were a pro cook, it would have been a difficult commitment. Hence, I’ve decided to go slow and steady with one recipe at one time. (Plus, I really want to savour this project.)

So, the moment the book was delivered, I excitedly opened it to check out what’s in store for me. They say, never judge a book by its cover. But let me tell you, I fell in love with the book instantaneously looking at the cover. The photography, the colours, the typeface, the illustrations, everything in the book looks oh-so-yummy. I bet you’d love it too. I need not describe what’s there on the cover, you can always Google it. I know, you guys are smart. So, moving on.

Deciding to read the preface and the introduction later, I eagerly flipped through the pages and reached the recipe section. Only to be taken aback.

‘PALAK SOUP’, it read.

I was heartbroken to see a spinach soup recipe. I don’t want to learn how to make a spinach soup! Who on earth wants to learn how to make a spinach soup?

Oh, no, no! Don’t get me wrong. I’m not at all a fussy eater. But come on, who begins such a fun project with a recipe as unsavoury as palak soup.

I somehow managed to cheer myself up and get ready to deal with a wicked bunch of spinach leaves.

Mother dearest, who trusts her daughter’s culinary skills like no other mother on this planet, warned me not to use the entire bunch and waste the whole thing. Wastage of food is not encouraged in our home, you see. I tried to explain her how changing the measures will make the whole recipe go for a toss. But she didn’t budge. And I was in the soup.

So, totally depending on my primary-level math skills, I noted down all the ingredients with revised measures, and finally managed to start the process.

The veggies started boiling. Forget about matching the colour of the concoction with that picture in the book, it was not even close to green. However, like a brave soldier fighting a lost battle, I continued doing what the book instructed to do with 100% faith in Maria and zero in myself.

And my faith did not fail me. Somewhere in between taking the puree out from the mixer and adding milk to the blend, it slowly started looking and smelling like a soup.

Koko, my niece (I would be mentioning her more often), and I enjoyed the soup, while mother kept regretting for forbidding me from making it in larger quantity.

Pseudo Chef’s Julie & Julia Project 2.0

The Project:

So, here is a Pseudo Chef doing Julie & Julia Project 2.0.

365 days. Around 70 recipes. One girl stuck in the crazy advertising work hours. And a kitchen borrowed from her mother on hourly basis.

Why? Four brief reasons:

1.  The movie Julie & Julia. It was so inspiring that I think, I have proposed this idea to almost all my friends who are good at cooking.

2.  Julie Powell. I didn’t really know that the movie is based on a real life story. I browsed through Powell’s blogs, and was seriously wowed by her commitment.

3.  Maria Goretti. One of my childhood heroes. Back then, she impressed me by her style and her choice of music, now she is impressing me by her secret ingredients. Maria might even detest this idea. I hope she doesn’t. But, remember Julia Child saying that Julie is not a serious cook? I am not a serious cook definitely. That’s why I call myself a Pseudo Chef. But I am very serious about this project, and about learning something new in a fun way. And this sure is the ‘funnest ways of them all’.

4.  I enjoy cooking, but hardly get time to enter my kitchen. I either can’t take time out of my schedule or always find the kitchen occupied by three dominating women of the house – mother, sister, and our domestic help, Lata Tai (order of dominance from least to most). So, this would be a good motivation for me to do that.

The Book:

‘From My Kitchen to Yours: Food, Love And Other Ingredients’

A debut recipe book by Maria Goretti, a model-VJ-actor-singer turned blogger-cook-author. The book is divided into easy-to-do monthly menus with soups, salads, starters, non-vegetarian and vegetarian main course dishes, and desserts.

Maria has always been one of the favourites from the-then MTV VJ gang. So, grabbing a copy of her debut was a mandate.

The Contender:

‘A copywriter by vocation. A dreamer by avocation.’

Well, that’s what most of my social media bios say. As far as the real story is concerned, I am just another almost-nearing-her-thirties-and-still-doesn’t-know-how-to-cook girl.

I’ve always been staying with my family, hence entering a kitchen to cook something independently was a rare phenomenon. However, ever since I’ve been a little particular about health and fitness (forced to do so by the newly acquired cellulite deposits around my waistline), I’ve been experimenting often.

Inspired by the famous ‘Julie & Julia’ story, I’ve signed on for an equally deranged assignment.

365 days. Around 70 recipes. One girl stuck in the crazy advertising work hours. And a kitchen borrowed from her mother on hourly basis.

Pseudo Chef’s Julie & Julia Project 2.0

From Maria’s Kitchen to Priyanka’s.

*Bowing down nervously*