Two Heart Warmers: A Dog’s Tale and Some Caramel Custard

It was their midweek movie night. A ritual she and he have been following for many months now. They would finish their dinner, do all the chores for the day, curl up in bed and click a movie on. Tonight it was Hachiko: A Dog’s  Story. 

They laughed while they watched. She giggled each time Professor Parker Wilson’s Akita puppy refused to fetch ball. His heart warmed at the story of a special bond between a dog and his master. And melted when he saw tears roll down her eyes.


He stroked her hair when she wept, watching Hachi wait at the station for his companion, who’d never come back…

They walked up to the balcony in silence. The late night air was not nippy enough for their warm hearts and her hot, pug-nose. Since she was a child, her nose always got hot at the tip when she cried a lot. She never knew why!

They sat on the balcony talking about their own pets. He had Sultan, Moshi and Kaya. She, Jimmy, Gittu, Doogie and Miss Webby. He told him once again how Kaya, his Cocker Spaniel would rest her snout on his neck and sleep. She chirped (for the upteempth time) about how she would put the German Spitz twins Doogie and Webby in her t-shirt and roam around. They continued talking about their own doggy memories…

The light from the receding traffic fell on their faces, revealing the glint in their eyes. That’s when he abruptly said- let’s never get a dog. And she nodded in silence. Too scared to go through the pain and loss both him and her had gone through in their past.

He squeezed her hand and went in to get the Caramel Custard she had made earlier that evening. Maybe that could act as a picker upper, he thought.

The Caramel Custard was still warm. The familiar taste of the amber-colored caramel caressed their taste buds, helping them to loosen up a bit. The jiggle-y custard underneath was the perfect soul soother, these two dog lovers so needed tonight…

Ingredients for Caramel Custard are:

3 cups milk
4 eggs
1/4 cup + 1/4 cup sugar
Vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon butter (unsalted)

Pre-heat oven to 325° C.

Boil milk still scalding hot. Caramelize one-fourth cup of the sugar in a saucepan till you get a nice amber color. Line the ramekins with butter. Pour the caramel immediately into the ramekins to coat the base evenly.

Beat eggs in a glass bowl. Start adding the hot milk little by little. Keep mixing with a whisk so that you don’t “scramble” the eggs! Add one-fourth cup of sugar and vanilla extract. Mix well.

Pour the milk and egg mixture into the caramel-lined ramekins. (Use any other baking dish if you don’t have ramekins.)
Keep all the ramekins in a larger baking dish. Pour hot water into the dish to cover three-fourths of the ramekins. Bake for 45 minutes. Poke a small skewer at the center of the custard. If it comes out clean, the Caramel Custard is done.

Let it cool down before you chill for a few hours.

Slide a knife around the edge of the custard, invert on a clean plate and serve.

Sensational Cricket & Some Home Baked Cake

So, I was craving some homemade cake. And what better way to enjoy it than for a double celebration- B&P’s second wedding anniversary and Superman Sachin’s first double century in ODI cricket.
I had to celebrate it with the perfect ingredients for happiness: flour, eggs, vanilla, and sugar. The result: phenomenal! This cake tastes of vanilla and is studded with walnuts and raisins.

Here are the ingredients and the recipe:

1 cup flour
1 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups castor sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 extra large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
50 gms coarsely chopped walnuts
50 gms raisins

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a 12-cup Bundt pan. In a bowl, sift the flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.

In a mixing bowl, beat eggs till they are fluffy. Add the flour and mix well. Alternate mixing dry and wet ingredients. Next to add is the vegetable oil followed by sugar. You can also use a regular blender or cake mixer. Add the vanilla extract. Mix well. Scrape the cake batter into the prepared pan. Dust the walnuts and raisins with some dry flour. Top them on the cake batter. Bake for approximately one hour.

To check if its done, insert a knife or a toothpick in the cake. If the center comes out clean you know its done.
There is nothing better that the aroma of fresh baked cake filling up your kitchen and house…and your tummy!
 On that note, I hear a little voice inside me saying- Give me another slice! I guess that voice is only going to get louder and louder from here…

Sunny Side Up!

What do you do when you have broken five eggs?

 
You fry them!

:-)

 

P.S. I am an optimist, I look at the bright side of things.

Noodles With Hoisin Chicken & Shrimp

This is straight-out-of-a-recipe book. Its that good. Most ingredients are easy to find, some even sitting in your own pantry. I picked the bottle of Hoisin Sauce from a Chinese grocery store. But most supermarkets also have it.

The original recipe has lamb in it, but I made it with chicken. (Photo from the cookbook The Asian Kitchen by Lilian Wu)

The ingredients for Noodles With Hoisin Chicken and Shrimp are:

2-3 cups egg noodles
250 gms boneless chicken cut into thick slices
250 gms shrimp (deveined and cleaned)
3 cloves of garlic crushed
2 inch fresh ginger crushed
2 spring onions
100 gms French beans
100 gms fresh bok choy
2 hard boiled eggs
2 tbsp hoisin sauce
2 tbsp dark soy sauce
2 tbsp orange juice
2 tbsp cooking wine
1 tsp brown sugar
1 tbsp corn starch
1 tbsp veg oil
3-4 dried red chilies

Marinade the chicken and shrimp with crushed ginger and garlic, orange juice, 1 tbsp cooking wine, brown sugar, veg oil, 3-4 dried red chili, 1 tbsp soy sauce and keep aside for 30 minutes.

Prepare a sauce with 1 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp cooking wine, and 2 tbsp hoisin sauce. Mix some corn starch with water separately. Cook the marinated chicken-shrimp in a wok for about 7-8 minutes. Add the sauce you have prepared after the chicken becomes tender. Let it simmer for about five minutes.
Add the corn starch mixture to thicken the sauce. And cook for another 3-4 minutes stirring all the while.

Heat water and add some salt and drops of veg oil in a broad vessel. Blanch the halved French beans and bok choy leaves along with the noodles till they are done. Do not overcook or cover while cooking. Strain the noodles. Add the noodles to the chicken – shrimp sauce and mix well.
Garnish the noodles with green onions and boiled eggs. This recipe was originally made with lamb (boneless), but I tried this with chicken and shrimp and it turned out equally authentic.
There you have it- another one from my Asian-inspired  kitchen!!

*If you are using lamb, the marinating time goes up to at least four hours.

A popular Chinese belief is that noodles served on birthdays should not be broken. If you break the noodles, you shorten the person’s life!

Street Food Finds Its Way Home II

Okay, I think I have a writer’s block, but not a chef’s block. Do chef’s really have a block? Or they just make do with a chopping board!

My saga with Calcutta street food continued over the Family Day weekend with some egg rolls, stuffed with homestyle meatballs.

This is an easy-to-make-at-home food if you are a perennial street food lover. The ingredients for Egg Roll With A Chance Of Homestyle Meatballs are:

2 cups flour, made into a dough, I add few drops of vegetable oil too
8-10 (cooked) meatballs, broiled in the oven for 6-8 minutes
5-6 eggs (extra large) or as many rolls that are being made
1 medium size red onion thinly sliced
1 tomato thinly sliced
7-8 green chilies finely chopped
2-3 tablespoon chopped coriander
A dry spice mix of equal quantities of (half teaspoon) salt, chaat masala, dry roasted cumin-coriander powder, red chili powder and black pepper powder
Lemon juice
Tomato ketchup
Chili Sauce
Oil

Make golf ball-size dough balls and use a rolling pin to make think flat breads. Dust dry flour for better rolling. On a non-stick frying pan, toast both sides of the “roti”/ flat bread. Beat an egg and pour over the toasted roti. Drizzle veg oil all around and some on top of the smeared egg. Flip over and cook for 2 minutes on each side.

  Top each egg-layered roti with ketchup-chili sauce and the spice mix. Line neatly the sliced onions, tomatoes, green chilies, coriander, few drops of lemon juice and the meat balls. I like to cut the meatballs into small chunks for ease of rolling.

Roll tightly on a piece of paper/ paper napkin, make sure you seal the bottom. Serve immediately. This is a great way of bringing street food on your dinner table. These rolls are quite filling and can be made without the meatballs or with a spicy chicken stuffing or leftover tandoori chicken or even seekh kebabs.

Street Food Finds Its Way Home

Calcutta has an impressive liquid dictionary of street food. Every corner of an urban neighborhood will most likely have one famous guy who has probably been plating the best alu-kaabli or phuchka or jhaalmuri in town!

I know, I know…like any literate person, I should say Kolkata. But for me Kolkata will always remain Calcutta, just like Mumbai will forever be Bombay. Its the erstwhile names of the cities which if said in the same breath with the most local foods found on the streets, leaves a mouth-watering residue of tastes and memories.

Its these same memories that has egged me to write this one. I grew up in Patna, which has its own share of the veritable Bengali influence- from the streets to your home!

I was a notorious epicurean of street food and was guilty of literally eating off the hands of chaat-phuchka and roll walas. Even had incongruous longings to marry a phuchkawala at age 12! But was brainwashed by my Mum from doing so. I had no issues with hygiene and cleanliness, and pretty much had the stomach for any kind of spicy food from the roadsides. I specially longed the goli kebabs and meat cutlets from a small place where a really fat halwai doled out the best goli kebabs and mutton kabiraji I have ever eaten. It is however another story that most of his “high profile” customers were half-drunk, semi-conscious men on their way back home from a drinking binge.

My parents had strict rules about us NOT going to that place. I would bribe our driver to get me a take-home from there, and relish every little crumb from the brown paper bag with lip smacking arrogance.

I do not know if my Mutton Kabiraji is as good as the ones I used to have many years ago. But I have given it my best shot. Though I am rather unhappy with the quality of pictures I took while deep frying these cutlets.

For the Mutton “Kabiraji” Cutlets you will need":

500 gms mince meat (lamb/beef)
2 medium red onions thinly sliced
4-5 garlic cloves paste
1 inch ginger paste
4-5 green chilies finely chopped
Handful of coriander leaves chopped
Half teaspoon asafetida powder
2 teaspoon red chili powder
2 teaspoon black pepper powder
2 teaspoon chaat masala
Pinch of sugar
Vegetable oil for deep frying
2 eggs
Bread crumbs
Salt

Mix meat, onions, garlic-ginger paste, chopped ingredients, chili powder, pepper powder, asafetida powder, salt and one egg. Use your hands to mash them up nicely. Add some chaat masala, sugar and salt mid-way of mixing all the ingredients. Check if the meat forms into tight balls (a little bigger than golf ball size). Balance the taste/ heat according to what you like.
   Make medium size meat balls and shape them as cutlets (oval shaped patties) between the palms of your hand. Heat oil while you are doing this. Prepare two dishes, one with a beaten egg and the other with bread crumbs. Dip each cutlet first in the egg batter and then roll it in the bed of bread crumbs. Now deep fry the cutlets till they turn into nice, golden browns. Serve hot with green chutney/ tomato ketchup and onion rings.

My Mum makes another variation by boiling the meat with the spices and garam masala first. I have tried that too and I think its a good option for people who have issues handling raw meat.
P.S. A tip for people like me who can’t always get the right size to their cutlets is to fit your filling at the back of a small oval-shaped cheese grater and press tight with your fingers. The grater acts like a mould and your cutlets will be the same size and shape always. Impressive, eh?