11 September

- No Recipe Post ~

|| ॐ गं गणपतये नमो नम: 

श्री सिध्धीविनायक नमो नम: 

अष्टविनायक नमो नम: . 

गणपती बाप्पा मोरया ||

Presenting some of my favorite Ukadiche Modak shots from this year's Ganesh Chaturthi. This is more a photoblog.

There were many firsts this year in terms of shooting the prasad and Bappa. Last year I remember when the pandemic had hit us and we spent Ganesh Chaturthi in the confines of our home, for the first time I brought out my DSLR to shoot food photos. Before that my DSLR was purely used for travel photography. I had never imagined in my wildest dreams that one day I would start food photography, open an Instagram page and becomes suddenly so passionate about food photography, techniques, editing, composition etc. I started taking food pictures with my phone around the time pandemic hit, because like everyone else I was feeling stressed locked at home and needed some good energy through creativity. It was just a casual hobby until I took the first food photo with my DSLR.

You must be wondering why I didn't use my DSLR to take photos earlier. It was out of sheer laziness. Getting the camera, putting the right lenses, setting up a tripod just to take a food picture didn't sound too enticing to me. Point and shoot was more my genre. Plus I didn't know then that to take one single food photography there would be so many steps right from cooking till the final editing. This all changed when I took the Rawa modak shot on the first day of Ganesh Chaturthi last year. I observed that the photos of food which were taken with the DSLR were much more crisp and with beautiful depth of field. Even minimal editing made the final shot look superb. That was the beginning, after that it had been a long learning curve if 1 year so far and there are so many things I have picked up by observing other food bloggers. I feel proud at times looking at some of my recent compositions, how far I have come from last year in terms of food photography. But then there is so much more to learn, this is just the starting line. And this entire learning process is such an exciting journey. Especially, its magical what you can achieve on the editing board. While the composition needs to be good, but still with a little bit of imagination you can practically create amazing pictures. It fascinates me to no extent. When I got my hands set on Snapseed I was excited. When I learnt Lightroom, it felt exhilarating and finally when I edited the first ever drip shot in Photoshop I felt like a speck in the wide universe. Photoshop is absolutely stunning in itself. I mean don't laugh on me because I am gushing about a software which everyone knows is brilliant. But just feel from the eyes of a person who is beginning on their photoshop journey. Its simply amazing. It is a different world altogether and now I am hooked. Technology has really made magic available at fingertips. 

These lovely modaks were made by Pooja Parsewar Bachewar. 

I always wanted to create a perfect drip shot. But my tripod had been giving me some pain and I never felt confident about pulling it off. This time I took Ganapati bappa's name and plunged into the idea. The only challenge was, since my tripod was not helping me I had to find someone to hold the spoon with the ghee while I took the shot. The default choice was mom. But to convince her to hold the spoon, make her wait till I got the perfect shot after trying for N number of times, keeping a check on the receding light on a rainy afternoon and wrapping up shooting before my mother's patience ran thin was a humongous task. I think all you photographers who engage their mothers for making action shot would empathize with me right now. It is a tedious job , but at times things do fall in the right place. I do not have any BTS (behind the scene ) for this shoot because of the above mentioned reason. I had to clean up everything before she got ticked off :D. But someday, I promise, some of these days I will try to do a detailed BTS and put it up on my blog. Fingers crossed.

Bappa came in his bal avataar this time. The cute little Bappa really made us all fall in love with him.

Post Featured on Corriander Leaf Restaurant's Blog. Check it out here

29 March

Happy Holi to All!

Its early morning and its Holi! Last night it rained somewhere hence the weather feels a little cold. Much respite from the hot and humid feel of last evening. Since we ourselves are not able to play Holi this time seems like nature is compensating it with a pleasant weather. This is the first year where no one of us even played with gulal (dry colors) let alone wet. But I still felt okay, because at least for once, we saved some water.

But when it is Holi one needs to make something special at home. We weren't expecting any guests this time, so thought of making something which was easy and could be made in a small batch. Since Gujiyas and other things were too much work, I decided on Malpuas.

When we think of malpua, the immediate thought is of those gorgeous fluffy thick pancakes with crispy golden edges and dripping with sugar syrup. Any Indian festival seems incomplete with these signature sweets. But to make any traditional sweet, a lot of effort needs to be put in. That has always been the reason why I didn't have a fascination in making any Indian sweets from scratch. To add to it is the fact that I am a savory loving person. Thus the effort to make sweets just doesn't make sense to me. but what if we could make our signature dishes with half the effort or even less? It is possible and it does taste amazing too. The recipe I am going to talk about today is one such recipe.

This recipe belongs to my mom. As a kid I used to love having sweets. Hence my mom had learnt making different kind of sweets and snacks which she used to serve mostly as evening snacks. Now she also didn't like to slog in the kitchen for hours hence she developed a lot of recipes which could be made in a jiffy and would still taste heavenly. The bread malpua is one such innovation of hers which I still remember till date.

Thus this diwali, when I really didn't want to eat some store bought sweets, I thought of giving it a try. After making it I can safely say its one of the most easiest sweets I have ever made in my life which tastes this good. It barely took me half an hour to put together this delicious sweets. And the first bite into one of the malpuas, sent me back though the time to those evenings in Kharagpur when mom would serve exactly the same kind of malpuas to me while I was slogging over my study books. It used to bring an immediate smile onto my face and momentarily I would be lost in the goodness of these sweets.

I really felt a lot of happiness preparing this dish, as it brought back a cartload of memories which are so dear to me. Give it a try, I am sure kids and adults both would love this. 

• Bread Slices - 3
• Ghee - 1/2 cup
• Sugar - 1 cup
• Water - 1 cup
• Fennel (Sauf) - 1/2 tsp
• Saffron - a pinch
• Malai (Fresh cream) - 2 tsp
• Milk - 1/2 cup
• Rose water - 1 tbsp

Garnish:

• Chopped nuts - 1 tsp
• Dry Rose petals - 1 tsp
• Saffron strands

Equipment:

• Frying pan
• Deep Pot

19 November

Happy Men's Day to all the wonderful men out there!

I know it is not as hyped as Women's day but nonetheless there are times when we want to cheer for all the men in our lives who have been a great source of support and love in our journey of life.

And I don't think it should just be limited to specific defined relationships we share with men but also beyond that. It maybe just a colleague who is very supportive or even a house help. It can be your male pet who is your emotional lifeline or the server at your favorite food joint, who cares for your choices and customizes the food accordingly. Thus the choices to express your gratitude are infinite, it is just a matter of perspective.

For today I would like to express my gratitude to a dear friend of mine who had always been a constant source of encouragement and support even during the darkest hours. 

He is a certified chef and a successful entrepreneur and thus whenever I make any dish thinking about him it stresses me a lot because I know somewhere his chef instincts might kick in, especially if its something different I am trying my hands at and I might not be up to his expectation. But then again he has always been encouraging in everything I made so that assurance makes me become more adventurous at times.

We had a collaboration planned this week to make something special for the men in our lives to celebrate Men's day. While thinking about what to make I started to think about the dishes we had most number of times and what were the common favorites. There is this one soup - lemon coriander soup made by a restaurant on the F.C Road which would be our unanimous choice if I were to state one favorite dish. But if I went by the numbers of which dish we had most of the times in the past couple of years - it would be tea hands down! 

You would say what is so great about tea, it is just an everyday beverage. But not when you are not a tea lover. Funnily both of us were not tea lovers in the beginning. But for all the adda sessions we used to have, our default location would be this newly opened tea café again in the F C road - the Wagh Bakhri tea lounge. A beautiful cozy café with the most affordable and lovely teas. Since it was a tea joint obviously we always ended up ordering teas and eventually over the time each of us had a favorite tea of our own! Thus I guess tea is one of the most elemental thing in the whole journey we had together. And it was not just us, who ever we recommended the place to fell in love with the flavorful and creamy tea they served.

Check Out the DIY Background I made for this shoot.

Since tea is the one thing that we possibly had a zillion times at least over these years it was only fair that I tried to create something which would celebrate its essence and the association it has with us. Thus I decided to give a twist to the conventional Crème Caramel which is commonly referred to as the Caramel Custard.

Crème Caramel is one of the oldest and classic desserts known and it continues to be on the favorite list for many people across the globe. I had it first, when I came to Pune. The toffee like flavor of the caramel had intrigued me when I bit into the soft dessert. There was nothing in there which one wouldn't love - gooey caramel, creamy custard and vanilla overtones. To give it a twist, I decided to infuse the age old recipe with milk tea and cinnamon. Cinnamon was mostly to give it a nice wintery vibe because why not! 

I hope all of you enjoy this simple recipe. And once again a very happy Men's day to all of you.

Check Out the DIY Background I made for this shoot.

• Full fat Milk - 500 ml
• Large eggs - 3
• Egg yolks - 2
• Castor Sugar - 100 gm
• CTC Tea leaves - 3 tsp
• Cinnamon powder (optional) - 1 pinch
• Vanilla extract - a few drops 

 

Equipment:

• Non Stick Skillet
• Pan to make tea
• Pan to make custard
• Custard molds

Procedure: 

Before you start making the caramel keep your mold ready in which you are going to make the caramel custard.

1. We start by making the milk tea which is the core aromatics of this recipe. No rocket since here, we just make tea the normal way we do. So we heat the milk with sugar and also throw in the tea leaves right in the beginning when we start boiling the milk. This will help in getting more color to the milk. Once the milk starts frothing switch off the flame and keep the pan covered to let the tea flavors steep in completely into the milk.

Tip: You can throw in some kaffir lime leaves as well at this stage of making tea. It gives a nice citrusy floral tinge to the overall custard. Or you can add lemongrass too, just for the citrusy aroma.

2.  Next we make the caramel. Heat a non stick skillet in high heat [do not burn the pan though!]. When the pan is heated up,  lower the heat to medium and add the sugar as per the volume of caramel you want to make. The heated up pan will help in melting the sugar faster. Stir  gently with a metal tablespoon until the sugar has dissolved. The base of the pan will no longer feel gritty when you run the spoon over it. 

At this point stop stirring the mixture and let it start browning. It will take about 2-3 minutes on medium flame for the caramel to start getting a golden hue. Watch the syrup carefully and when it starts to turn golden at the edges, swirl the pan to ensure even coloring. 

Once caramel is a deep copper color, lower the heat to the lowest or you may turn it off for a bit too.

Tip: I am recommending to keep the skillet on low heat as that will keep the caramel liquid for you to work on it. But if you feel it may burn turn off the heat for a bit, use the caramel and when you find it getting hard, turn the heat on medium again to make it liquid.

Note: I have seen people recommend to add water when making caramel but I didn't add when I made the caramel and it turned out perfectly fine.

3. Now you have to quickly work on the next step as caramel tends to solidify very quickly. Place the molds on a tray and spoon in the caramel from the skillet into the molds carefully. Be very careful as the caramel would be super hot and can give you bad blisters! We fill about 1/5th of the mold with caramel. 

4. Now is the step to prepare the custard. Combine the milk, cream, sugar in a saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally. Remove the pan from the heat.

Whisk the eggs, yolks, cinnamon powder and vanilla in a medium bowl and then slowly add the hot milk mixture, whisking constantly. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve. Portion the custard among the molds. It should just about fill each one. 

Now take a big vessel with a flat bottom and place the molds at a distance from each other in the vessel. Fill the vessel with water until it comes one-third to halfway up the sides of the molds(be careful not to splash water into the custards). Cover the molds with a plate (steel).Now cover the vessel with another lid and put the flame to medium. Let it get cooked in the steam for about 30 to 35 minutes until the edges are set but the centers still jiggle slightly when gently shaken. If the centers are more wavy than jiggly, cook them for some more time.

Note: You can use custard premix also in this step.

5. Remove the main lid off the vessel and let things cool down a bit before fishing out the custard molds from the vessel. Now transfer the custards to the fridge to chill for about 3-4 hours or overnight.

Note: If you are going to serve it a day after, make sure you are keeping the custard molds covered else they might dry out in the fridge.

6. When you are ready to serve, just take out the molds form the refrigerator, place a plate on top of them and then turn it upside down. The molds will release the custard onto the plate and the gooey caramel will flow down all its side. You can serve it as is or can top it off with anything you like.

7. For the caramel half nest you can use the same caramel you made in step 2. Take a bowl and grease it with some oil. Now take a spoon of caramel, tilt it a bit to make the caramel start dripping and take it over the bowl and in cross cross motion keep moving your spoon over half of the bowl to create a mesh. Don't bother about the design of the mesh, it can be anything you can manage to make! The caramel will soon solidify. Now very carefully take out the bowl from under the nest and there you have your half nest. You can make a full nest too your choice. If you see some uneven shape just carefully break away those parts to create a uniform half dome.

Check Out the DIY Background I made for this shoot.

14th November

Wish you all a very Happy Diwali! Stay blessed, stay healthy and stay happy.

Today it will just a quick 'mishti mukh' [sweet for the mouth literally] on the occasion of Diwali. Super hectic week and weekend due to all the ongoing Diwali preparations. 

Chaler payesh is the quintessential sweet recipe from Bengal. Payesh is prepared with rice and full fat milk and when it is made during the winter months, we always add the seasonal favorite nolen gud to add sweetness, flavor and color. Its a mandatory accompaniment with the meal during all the special days and festivals- Durga Puja, Diwali, birthdays, anniversaries etc.

Preparation Time: 5 minutes  

Cooking Time: 15 minutes

Serves: 2

Cuisine: Bengali

Ingredients:

• Gobindo bhog chal / Indrayani Rice/ any fragrant rice- 5 tsp
• Full cream milk - 400 gm
• Bay Leaf - 1
• Raisins (Black or normal) - handful
• Nolen gur (optional) 2 tbsp
• Sugar - 2 1/2 tsp

Procedure

1. Wash and keep the rice soaked in water for 30 minutes.

Note: I have used both gobindobhog rice or Indryani Rice (which we get in Maharashtra) for this kheer and both works amazingly well.

2. Heat a heavy bottomed kadhai and add the full cream milk. Add the bay leaf. Let it come to a rolling boil and then add the soaked rice. Reduce the flame to medium. Keep stirring it continuously so that layer doesn't form on the milk.

Tip: If you are using Indrayani Rice, by nature the rice is a little hard, so in that case add the rice and milk together in the kadhai to give the rice some extra time to cook.

3. When the milk is reduced to half add the sugar. Keep stirring frequently it till the rice is cooked completely.

Note 1: If you are not using gud then increase the amount of sugar to equal amount of rice. In this case 5 tsp.

The recipe for perfect sweetness is 1:1 rice to sugar.

Note 2: Please do not leave the kheer to cook and wander off, as it gets cooked it will quickly start sticking to the pan. Additionally you do not need malai to form on the top of the kheer which will mess with the final texture. So keep stirring every 1 or 2 minutes.

4. Add the raisins at this stage

5. Meanwhile grate the gud and make a paste of it with water and keep aside.

6. When the payesh is almost done, switch off the flame and add the gud to it. Fold in. Make sure you add the gur only after heat is switched off else the milk might curdle.

Let it rest for a while. Top it off with some chopped nuts fried in ghee, rose petals or liquid gud. Serve the payesh hot or cold.

Meanwhile some of the Diwali pictures from this year.

October 20

"Chefs don't make mistakes; they make new dishes" - Elizabeth Briggs

Happy International Chef's Day to all the lovely chefs (professional and home chefs), you all are just awesome! 

I mean seriously, if there is one thing the lockdown has done to most of us, is that it has brought to life the inner chef within us. Cooking was always a therapeutic thing for me. When I am upset, cooking made me happy. When I am happy cooking made me exuberant. The romance of the colors and flavors in the wok is like the best ever romance series for me, even better than the Hallmark Romances! The excitement of creating something new, serving it to loved ones and the final accolades - even if it is hard work it is all worth it at the end!

With no or limited access to restaurants, we all have started making things we never thought we could. Or never thought we needed to make, because it was always there at the tap of a food delivery app. After mastering the staples, now people are exploring and stretching their limits. I have been doing that a lot and enjoying every bit of it. Even if there had been a couple of hiccups, and recipes gone wrong here and there, one thing I noticed, the more I cooked and explored the more stronger my sense of flavors became. I could easily visualize many of the tastes of the final dish even without tasting them just by the ingredient combinations. And then adding the touch of experimentation on top of the recipe to tweak it at times and give it a nice personal twist. Never felt so happy pushing my thought limits as I feel while making something new. 

All this experimentation streak has really made me see beyond my favorite cuisines - Indian and South East Asian. I explored American, European, Arabic, Sri Lankan, Bangladeshi and even planning on some African cuisine soon. In the process of exploring food, I also started reading a lot about food. It was not always physical books but I found good content even on Instagram and facebook. There is this lady who had found an ancient diary when she bought an almirah and has taken up a project to create every dish of the diary throughout the year. Then there is another lady who is doing a series of feature on cricketers who have started on the food business, their food stories. Even some homestay pages talk about local cuisines and how to make them. In a nutshell, there is so much to know about food and cuisines that 24 hours just feel inadequate. The more you see, the more Google keeps suggesting you. Reading has always been a love for me, and I really enjoy knowing and exploring so many facets of food. It almost feels like I am in the wrong profession, I should have definitely my heart set on food domain. 

But when there is no immediate chance of switching the work domain do what you can do best - make things you never tried before, taste things which are not in your usual list of items, read more about the story around a particular recipe and so on. Its not just enough to create a recipe. You need to feel the food, its elements, why you need to add certain aromatics or spices, what happens when you change a few things here and there. Food is as much as a science as any other sciences. 

Coming to today's recipe. I am not at all a sweet loving person. And I was completely opposite as a kid. I used to gorge on sweets. But I think once I hit the teenage, the love for sweets was replaced by love for savory things and its still the same. But having said that, I do love to east sweets occasionally. Especially during the festivals or just a random afternoon craving on a hot day. Only thing is I do not life sweets which are overtly sweet. Mild sweet stuffs are more my forte. This recipe was the outcome of a blueberry frozen dessert I had read about once. A couple of days ago it felt really hot in the afternoon and I wanted to have something cold and nice. Since I didn't have ice cream on me, I thought of whipping up a small batch of frozen yoghurt cups. Fortunately I had granola in the pantry. So wanted to add a nice crunchy layer below the creamy yoghurt layer. A little butter an honey mixed with the granola tasted so divine that I almost felt like gorging on the entire base I had prepared as is. I had to really fight the urge! For the yoghurt part I was wondering what flavor to add. I didn't have any fruits at that time so the  next best option that came to my mind was rose. Rose flavor beautifully compliments any sweet dish, thus incorporating the same into a frozen dessert form was a risk worth taking. And the risk taking did payoff. Apart from looking super pretty, it tasted so lovely and refreshing too. I added ample amount of rose petals to add to the aromatics as well as the overall look of the cups. See for yourself if you like them or not.

This recipe is perfect for the hot summer days. But since it is festive time, sweet little things to munch on is never a bad idea. This recipe would be loved by both the young and old alike. So don't wait, go ahead and give it a shot. Psst...it event tastes divine when it melts!

October is also marked as the Breast Cancer Awareness month to help increase attention and awareness for this disease. It is also called the pink month. Hence this pink themed recipe as a small step towards spreading the awareness and removing any taboo talking about it. Cancer is a reality which I have seen closely even in my family. Both the person who is going though this and the family needs all the empathy we can extend at their hour of need. This post is dedicated to all the brave folks who are putting up against this with a smile and to all those women who need to be cautious about even the slightest change in their bodies. We are all in this together.

Ingredients for Yoghurt:

• Yoghurt (Dairy or non dairy) - 250 gm 
• Rose Syrup - 2 tbsp
• Pink food color - 1 drop / Beet root powder - 1/2 tsp
• Dried rose petals (optional) - 2 tsp
• Castor sugar / powdered sugar - 3 tsp * (adjust as per taste)

Ingredients for Base:

• Granola - 4 to 5 tbsp 
• Honey - 1 tbsp
• Butter - 1 tbsp

Ingredients for Garnish:

• Dried Rose petals 
• Honey

Equipment:

• Muffin mold - 4 cups

Method:

1. Start by melting the butter in a microwave safe bowl. I usually put it in microwave mode for 30 seconds if I am using butter directly from the refrigerator.

2. To the melted butter add the honey and mix well.

3. Now add the granola to this honey-butter mixture. Fold in. 

Tip: Adding honey and butter gives it a yummy taste to the granola.

Note 1: I used Kellogs cranberry granola. You can use anything of your choice.

4. Now prep up the yoghurt. In a bowl add the yoghurt, rose syrup, food coloring and rose petals. Mix it well.

Pro Tip: If you do not have yoghurt you can make this with any dahi as well - homemade or store bought. Just convert it into hung curd by pacing it into a strainer or muslin cloth and letting it hang for about 30 minutes till the water is drained and it becomes nice and thick. Converting it into hung curd will result in a thicker and more creamy outcome whereas if you do not remove the water it will end up being a little glassy.

5. Now take the cupcake molds. I used silicon ones. Brush the base and sides with butter. Now spoon in a layer of granola mix evenly on the base of each cup. Press the granola mix firmly to the bottom. They should occupy about 1/3rd of the cups. Now transfer this to the freezer for about 15 minutes to harden the base.

6. Take out the mold. Arrange a few petals along the sides of the mold ( they will be visible once you demold the cups). Then top each off with the yoghurt mix.  Sprinkle a few rose petals on top. Transfer the cups back to the freezer and let it set for minimum 2-3 hours. 

Tip: You can also add some chopped nuts on top

Take them out when you are ready to eat. Top them off with honey and have them right away.