All Along The Watchtower

I was lucky enough to catch a talk by Ramachandra Guha the day before.

Worship them or hate them, but you've got to love the IIT guys for giving us non JEE crowd the opportunity to watch such greats speak 10 feet before you, at MoodI.

The second time I happened to stumble upon his name with the help of this post. I remember spending an entire evening on the Ray and Keshavan website, and admiring the brilliance of his brand designer wife, Sujata Keshavan.

They talked so fast, and they talked so true, it was hard for me to not be in a total awe of them.

It was during one of those early school days Sundays, when I used to be glued to the sofa in my pyjamas all day, that I heard Sookie freaking about how her risotto was sent back by a customer. She then went on to make risotto for the rest of the episode. Back then, I thought "Wow. Such intricate things people eat. There is so much of sophistication to be experienced in life."

6 years later.

"Oh pish posh! Let's make risotto today!"

You can say I have started my sophistication journey earlier than I had expected, or that engineering has made me become more fearless to try out supposed 'intricate' food. But the explanation I like best is, I have a 2 month break, I want to cook and Italian food for the win. :P

So here it goes.

2 tb spoon oil and butter each, 3-4 cloves of grated garlic, 1 chopped onion (maybe more if you'd prefer), about a cup of rice, 4-5 cups of chicken/vegetable stock, 3 tb spoon of cream, salt, pepper, and cheese svad anusaar!

Heat a pan, add the oil and the butter.

Once it heats up, dump in the garlic and then the onion. And watch them sizzle, and give out one of the best aromas imaginable.

Once it all starts looking greasy and translucent, pour in that cup of rice. Coat the rice with this oil, butter, garlic and onion mess.

Once this is done, start adding small cups of the stock into ze rice.

If you want, you can pretend the rice are people and have a loud sadistic laugh pretending to be an evil clown drowning a city full of people.

(Though it is advised that you skip this step if there are people at home. Else, you will be at the receiving end of uncomfortable questions from your mother. Er, um. No. I have never done this.)

Keep stirring the stock and the rice. Within a minute or so, you shall see that the rice has very conveniently absorbed all the stock.

Is i just me, or does this freakishly look like the Yeti's paw? Subliminal messages, you say?

*shudder*

After all the stock disappears, add another cup full. Keep repeating this, till the rice is soft and cooked. That will take about 20 odd minutes.

You'll also notice, that the rice will have grown. It's absorbing all that chicken stock no?

The little rice people will be fighting for space.

While this is happening, keep some grated cheese ready.

If you show great self restraint, and don't steal a few bites of the cheese at this point, they say you go straight to heaven.

So of course, I am going to hell. (I mean, look.at.teh.cheese!) *drool*

Anyway, once the rice is cooked, add the cream and the cheese, and stir it around for 2 min or so.

Just, the creaminess and the smoothness of it all makes you want to cry a bit.

Now, don't forget to add salt and pepper in the end.

Serve it out. To feel extra Italian, sprinkle on some mixed herbs or any herbs that you have.

It's all about the taste really, who cares about precision?

And, the final touch of coriander will make it look oh so pretty.

And you're done.

Now, please. Do yourself a favour, and go make yourself a plate.

Fearlessness is the only quality you truly need to in the kitchen :)

And now, please excuse me, while I scrounge on left overs.

Mumbai weather has been unusually kind to us city folk.

When your bare feet hit the floor in the morning, they are icy cold. The blanket has become a life support of sorts. And of course, jackets and hoodies are making their appearances after being stuffed at the back of the wardrobe for months.

I feel the 2007 winter rushing back all over again.

The only thing that can make you enjoy this winter better is that mug of coffee. And if you crave some umami, you better reach for that reassuring bowl of Onion and Cheddar cheese soup.

2- 3 tablespoons of butter, 2 medium sized chopped onions, a clove of grated garlic, a bit of flour, chicken/vegetable stock, milk and cheese (Cheddar preferred).

It's simple as hell really.

You heat up the pan. Add the butter, watch it melt furiously. Dump in the onions, and saute them. Here, you are recommended to stop for a second and just smell the brilliance of butter and onions.

Once the onions become a bit translucent, add a bit of grated garlic. Then, shake it up baby now, shake it up baby. Twist and SHOUT! Twist and shout! C'mon c'mon c'mon c'mon baby now, c'mon baby. C'mon and work it on out, work it on out!

Ok, sorry. I think I lost track there somehow. *mutters**stupidbeatlesplaylist*

Coming back, add the tiniest amount of flour to this mixture. Maybe a tablespoon or so. Any flour will do. (Even if you don't, I doubt the Earth will blow up) You see that this soaks up all the butter. It's the funniest thing. Anyway, just plop in the stock at this point ( It depends on the amount of soup you'd want to make) and cover it with a lid for a good 5-7 minutes.

Once you take of the lid, the most gorgeous smell will hit you. Don't panic. Such levels of awesomeness in food, do occur.

Add salt, and pepper. Taste it.

(Don't you love the fact that you get to keep tasting the food at stages to "check the flavours"? Who cares if it brings down the final amount to half the originally intended amount!)

Stir it up. And finally, add milk. Not a lot, maybe half the amount of stalk you added. If you have an urge to be extra unhealthy, and desperately want to make you jeans feel tight at all places, add cream as well. Two minutes more on the stove, then tip it over in your bowl and you're done.

Refrain from slurping still. You need to add the final crumble of cheese (Cheddar preferred. It's not too salty, and just perfect), and another dash of pepper.

And there it is, winter bliss in a bowl.

Good ol' toasted bread goes perfect with this. Garlic bread, even more so :)

So do yourself a favour, and make this steaming reassuring bowl of soup already.

You know you want to.

For me, it always starts with that inexplicable widening of the eyes and a 'I need to do this right now' message running through my head.

If I fall in love with the idea of a particular book, I will drop all and run to the bookstore to get a copy. And of course, I wont sleep until I finish it. If it is a random song I fall in love with, I shall listen to it on loop until the lyrics are embedded in my memory. If my mum asks me to clear the table on a 'Monica' day, I shall not rest until the kitchen and the fridge is spotless. Well, you get the picture.

It's with every little thing I do. It needs to happen that very instant, or I shall die a restless soul.

This is the incident of 2 days before I had to leave for Kolkata. I woke up in the morning, dragged myself out of the covers, switched on the laptop and sat with my orange juice to decide my IMDb Top250 movie of the day. It was precisely at that moment the 'ping' of my feedreader caught my attention.

A few hours later, I was dazed and wide eyed. Total credits to the food blogs of course. These images of food later overflowed into a lot of conversations I had that day too. Many people accused me of making them hungry minutes after they finished lunch. I got a bunch of angry phone calls from a couple of mothers too. It seems they had to cut short their afternoon nap, to feed their kids for the second time. I was talking of food in THAT much detail.

This one particular recipe caught my eye, and looked fairly simple to make. So I decided to take the plunge.

Spicy Honey Chicken , they call it :)

A bowl, a spoon, boneless chicken, vegetable oil, grated garlic, cumin powder, coriander powder, red chili powder, salt, (and anything else you have at home, which would make sense. I tried to be cool and added something on the lines of a pinch of 'Chaat masala', and something brilliant smelling called 'Meat Masala' :P ), and honey.

Apparently, all you need to do is mix everything in the bowl minus the honey. Check for the taste, balance it the way you'd prefer (Extra spicy, lemony, whatever) and just marinate the chicken in this mixture for 5 minutes. Place it on the grill for 20-25 minutes.

Voila!

Oh wait, and finally, just coat on a layer of honey on the chicken which looks and smells gorgeous by now. Let it be on the grill for another 5 minutes. And then truly,

VIOLA!

(Can you believe how ridiculously simple this is?! Of course I had to drop everything else and make this! )

Lets take a closer look, shall we?