If you want a tangy, spicy chutney to go with your rice or flatbreads but you don't want to spend a lot of time in preparation and cooking what do you do? You can try out this easy peasy burnt tomato chutney which gets done under 15 minutes and has super amazing taste and flavors.

This burnt tomato chutney is very popular accompaniment in the north eastern states of India and is a common part of Assamese and Naga cuisine. Burnt, roasted or smoked spicy chutneys are regularly served along with a thali consisting of rice, daal, vegetable and meat or fish preparation. Sometimes mashed potato is also added in this chutney to give it body and a different taste.

The highlight of this chutney is the rustic smokey flavor from the charred tomato and chilies. This chutney is so good that you wont even need a separate vegetable dish if you have it with rice and daal. 

Ingredients :

• Tomato - 2
• Green Chili - 1  (Adjust as per heat tolerance)
• Coriander Leaves (chopped) - 1 tbsp
• Onion (medium) - 1/2 chopped
• Garlic - 3-4 cloves (optional)
• Mustard Oil - 1 tsp
• Salt - To Taste

Video :

Procedure:

1. Wash and dry the Tomatoes.

2.  Cut the tomatoes in large pieces

Tip - You can roast/char the whole tomato also, but cutting them into large pieces ensure the charred smokey aroma is more prominent in the chutney. Also it gets cooked quickly.

3. Place the tomato pieces and green chili on a mesh over open fire. Once black burnt spots start appearing turn over the pieces to get a uniform char on all sides. The amount of char on the tomatoes can be adjusted as per your liking.

Tip: At this stage you can also add garlic for charring. Garlic gives a little additional kick to the dish.

4. Take the charred tomatoes and chilies off the fire and place it in a plate. With a masher or your fingers mash the tomatoes and the chillies while they are still hot as its easy to mash them before they cool down.  

5. Now add chopped onion, chopped coriander leaves, mustard oil and salt and give everything a good mix.

Serve this chutney with your choice of rice or Indian flatbread with daal and enjoy!

January 12

Apart from Christmas, I love the winter months for its berries. Winters would not be the same without these tiny little gems of warm colors - scarlet Strawberries, dark blueish Blueberries, warm amber Gooseberries or the pretty purple Mulberries. They lure you to taste them and get lost in the juicy realm of ecstasy. I am not a fruit lover in general but I love all of these berries.

There was a time when winters would essentially mean a quintessential trip to the famous hill station of Maharashtra - Mahabaleshwar. I have lost count of the times I have visited the twin hill station of Mahabaleshwar-Panchgani in the last decade and never did I love a trip less. If not twice, at least once in the December-January span was a must. And one of the main reason was Strawberry - the signature berry of Mahabaleshwar, which is harvested in these winter months. The Strawberry in this region is so popular that its named as the Strawberry land of India. 

If you happen to visit Mahabaleshwar in winter months which is famous for its Gulabi Thandi (the cold air makes your cheeks rosy , hence the name), my recommendation would be to stay in a place which has a Strawberry farm like the Bhilare Farms on the Panchgani-Mahabaleshwar road. Its a pretty property with Strawberry farms around. The owners and the staff in this hill station are quite friendly and would walk you through the beautiful plantation of strawberry, blueberry, raspberry and mulberry. You can pluck and eat the fruits right off the ground, and also buy them in small quantities.

The Strawberry saplings are brought in from some of the best places in the world Italy, Spain, Poland and California, among others and cultivated here. Almost all year round this place had a nice and cold weather hence the Strawberries thrive beautifully. I mean if you travel even in the Summers, the morning might be a little warm but by the time the evening comes, everything will be pretty pleasant and you may even experience some chills later in the evening.

Also if you are interested, there is a Strawberry Carnival that happens in these hill stations every year around the Easter Weekend in March-April. It is to promote tourism and awareness about the fruit. It is a 4-Day celebration where you can pick fresh berries from the farms like Interdown, Camarosa, Sweet Charlie, Winter Dawn, Rania, etc. and not to forget the globally well-known Mahabaleshwar strawberry, gorge on a variety of strawberry delicacies, and learn about how strawberries are cultivated and take back with you a bagful of berrilicious memories. This event is organized by strawberry giant Mapro and they come up with a plethora of innovative lip-smacking dishes like strawberry chocolate pizza having rich dark chocolate sauce and topped with strawberries or Chocoberrywitch made from whole wheat bread coated with chocolate sauce and freshly picked strawberries. They even have Strawberry bhel! How interesting is that now? Apart from that you can always choose from their classic menu options like Strawberry with fresh cream or milkshakes. I can go on and on about Mahabaleshwar and Strawberries but let us come back to today's recipe - Fresh Strawberry Butter.

As part of the first Instagram Collaboration of 2021 we were asked to prepare something with Strawberry. I ran through many ideas, but I was sure that I wanted to make something which was not the usual like a milkshake or a jam. Then I remembered a preparation I had when I was in California at one of my friend's homes. A very simple and flavorful fruit butter which she generously slathered on the top of a croissant and with the first bite I was in heaven. The taste and the texture of that butter stuck in my conscience all through these years and I felt this was the perfect opportunity to recreate this beautiful recipe.

Fruit butters are very popular in America and perfect for your lunch table. Its is a sweet spread made of fruit cooked with sugar and whipped with butter. You can make delicious fruit butters with soft fruits like blackberries, raspberry, mulberry, blueberries, peaches or even apples. You can serve the whipped Strawberry butter with a selected choice of bread basket for brunch and transform it into a fancy affair! 

This is one of the most easiest recipes I have ever made and one of the most delicious. Did I mention super fun too? Got some fresh strawberry and a little butter? How about some sugar? And a little salt? Okay we are good to go for an amazing seasonal preparation right away! 

Store this fresh strawberry butter in the fridge for up to a week or in the freezer for several week. They store very well that way. But still it is recommended you make them in small batches so that you can enjoy them fresh. This fresh strawberry butter pairs up really well with a batch of piping hot and fluffy buttermilk biscuits. I will be putting up the recipe of the Buttermilk Biscuits in my next blog.

They are even great as personalized gifts. So the next time you want to gift someone who loves food , make this butter and gift it. They will love and bless you till the end :).

Be sure to try it out till the Strawberry season lasts, otherwise you will be missing out on something super delicious for sure!

Tips for Making Perfect Strawberry Butter

1. Avoid using a food processor as it can cause the butter and strawberry to separate from each other. 
2. Make sure all the ingredients are fresh
3. I recommend to make small batches as they are best eaten fresh.

Preparation Time : 10 minutes

• Unsalted Butter - 100 gm ( 1 stick) at room temperature
• Fresh Strawberries - 10 -15 medium (sweet and fragrant)
• Powdered Sugar - 1 tbsp + as required per taste
• Salt - 1/4th tsp

Equipment:

• Big Mixing Bowl (chilled for 10 minutes before use)
• Electric Blender or Hand Blender
• Spatula
• Sterilized Glass Bottle

Procedure 

1.  Wash the strawberries and pat dry with a kitchen towel. Then cut them into small pieces and add 1/2 tsp of powdered sugar. Mix well and set aside.

2. In a large mixing bowl cream the unsalted butter (room temperature), rest of the powdered sugar , salt with a electric mixer or hand mixer till the color of the butter becomes whitish, and the texture fluffy.

Tip 1: Make sure the butter is at room temperature. Keeping the butter out of the fridge for about 30 minutes to 1 hour helps in softening the butter and can be easily whipped. I used a hand blender for this recipe.

Tip 2: You can also use honey instead of the powdered sugar for a variation in flavor.

3. Now add the strawberries into the butter. If there is any juice below don't add it to the butter. Mash some of the fruit pieces with a spatula into the butter. Mix everything again until the butter takes a rosy pink hue. Taste the butter at this stage and adjust the sugar level or strawberry as per your liking. (I kept adding strawberries till I was satisfied!)

Tip: I prefer a chunky fruity butter - a butter which ample fruit pieces for that added texture and look totally works for me! Hence after whipping the butter with the strawberry I added some more strawberry pieces and just folded them in so that they retain their texture and bite in the butter and make them look prettier too.

4. Sterilize a glass jar and spoon in boiling water (jar should be heat proof). If you are not sure just have some warm water and dip in the open jar for a while. Take out the jar let the steam go off and it cools down a bit. Once the jar has cooled down, spoon in the Strawberry butter and store it.

How to Refrigerate the Butter

Store it in an airtight jar in the refrigerator for about a week or in the freezer for several weeks. I usually try to bring it to room temperature before serving but it spreads well even when a little cooler, thanks to all that whipping!

May you fill your New Year with new adventures, accomplishments and learnings!

Sending Good Vibes on your way, on this new year day!

Happy New Year!

January 1

Finally we have put behind the year which we thought would never end. A new year, a new beginning and new hopes of something better and fruitful. Although personally I think 2020 taught me more thangs than the entire 3 decade of my existence taught me. And I am grateful for that, really. If it wasn't for the pandemic I wouldn't have realized what exactly mattered to me and what I really like. I can see I added 55 posts to my blog this year and that was the highest in the decade I had this blog for. But I think I made at least 100+ unique dishes this year, not all of them are up in the blog yet because the post processing of photos and write up takes a lot of time. And managing a day job with social media can be taxing at time. Not to mention I feel lazy also at times when I am a little free. 

So what is the new year resolution you may ask. Um, I don't do formal resolutions as such. Because most of the time I keep forgetting them. So I just want to be good in things I do and learn more and more. Also want to explore all new avenues in the food and writing world. I wish I can be same creative  this year too. And mainly I wish that everyone is granted a good health this year.

Since I mentioned I want to keep learning new things, so I thought let us start the new year with a new kind of recipe from Lebanese cuisine - Toum. 

On the last day of 2020 I went out with a friend and we visited this restaurant named Cafe Arabia where we had ordered a non-veg grilled platter.  It came with grilled chicken, sumac chicken tikka, seekh kebab and shish taouk. But what fascinated me most was the beautiful creamy white dip. I couldn't figure out what it was, tasted like a mayo but was so so heavenly. So after coming back home I looked up and understood it is called toum.

Toum is a Lebanese garlic sauce that’s actually more like a spread because of its thickness. It’s super popular to spread it over Shish Tawook, grilled chicken, shawarma, rotisserie chicken and many other Middle Eastern dishes. Its smooth and buttery and tastes heavenly. Toum is pronounced Toom, and in Arabic, it simply means garlic!

It only asked for 4-5 ingredients and apparently it looked easy peasy. But I must agree that though this gets done in a jiffy, it is one of the most technical preparations I have ever made. Technical because you may not get to the right consistency if you are not following the right order of the ingredients! also the speed of blending and adding the ingredients is a key! 

The disclaimer is you may not end up with the perfect garlic sauce at the first try, but you will come to know what suits your taste buds perfectly. Like the first batch I made, I felt I need to cut down on the amount of garlic I used. Also on top of the basic toum you can keep on adding any additional flavoring agents you might like.

This sauce goes so well with any grilled or fried preparations - both veg and non-veg. 

What is Emulsification?

Emulsion sauces are made by mixing two substances that don't normally mix. To do this, you have to break one of them into millions of miniscule droplets and suspend those droplets in the other substance by vigorously whisking, or rather blending them in a blender or food processor. Emulsions are especially important in creating thick, creamy sauces. 

There are specific emulsifying ingredient which cause emulsification. Which means certain substances act as emulsifiers and help two liquids which do not usually mix, come together and stay together (either temporarily or permanently) when the mixture is agitated. In the case of mayonnaise, it's the lecithin in the egg yolks that acts as the emulsifier. 

How to make the sauce less pungent?

The germ consists of a tiny future stem and leaf.

The toum recipe calls for de-germed garlic by default but you can bypass it if you can stand a little pungency in your sauce, as de-germing definitely takes a lot of time and patience. But it is always recommended.

If you get fresh harvested garlic you can make toum with the germ on, it wont add to pungency much. But if you are working with old garlic, if you split it into half you will notice the germ has become a little green and well defined. And this adds pungency to the dish in which it is used as whole. 

How long can you store toum?

This refrigerates well in the fridge. You can easily store it for 3-4 months. As time goes by the strength of garlic to start to fade.

Preparation Time: 10 minutes  

• Garlic cloves - 1/4th cup (approx. 5-7 cloves)
• Canola Oil/ Refined Oil/ Olive Oil - 1 cup (you might not need all)
• Lime juice - 1/2 lemon
• Egg white -  from 1 egg
• Salt - as per taste

For garnish:

• Parsley/ rosemary chopped - a pinch

Equipment:

• Mixer Grinder
• Spatula
• Knife
• Sanitized glass jar for storing

Procedure (Mixer grinder - with egg white) 

Before we begin, most of the times toum is made with just 4 ingredients - garlic, oil, salt and lime juice. And it is recommended you use a food processor and not a grinder when you are making toum or aioli, because you are going to add the oil in a thin stream while the garlic is being blended. 

Blending the garlic into a smooth paste releases the emulsifiers contained within its cell walls, which stabilizes the sauce without eggs. Alternating the addition of oil with a small amount of liquid, in the form of lemon juice prevents the emulsion from becoming overwhelmed with oil and breaking.

So if you have a food processor and don't want to add eggs, you can check the food processor method mentioned below. 

If you are okay with adding egg proceed with the below process which has 5 ingredients - garlic, oil, salt , lime juice and egg white. And no the sauce doesn't have any stink of egg.

1. Using a paring knife, split each garlic clove in half lengthwise. With the tip of the knife, remove the germ from both halves and discard.

2. Take about 1/4th cup of  de-germed peeled garlics and a pinch of salt into a mixer jar and blend until it’s well mixed, scraping down the sides as necessary with a spatula. Now when the garlic is minced add the egg white and pulse again.

Note: Adding the egg whites to this toum is technically cheating, but it works every time resulting in the fluffy sauce you want which might be difficult to achieve if you using a mixer to make it or making it for the first time. Egg whites are a sure shot solution!

3. Now open the lid of the mixer jar and add a little lemon juice and 1/4 cup oil and pulse it again. Keep repeating it for at least 3 times before you get the fluffy buttery texture into the sauce.

Note: If your garlic sauce split or curdled. Take the whole sauce in a cup and add 1 cold egg white in the blender and add the curdled mix little by little and keep blending till it gets thick

4. Now take a sanitized glass bottle and store the sauce in it. Once it comes to room temperature, chill it for a couple of hours to let the flavours develop in the best manner.

Procedure (Food processor - without egg white) 

Place the de-germed garlic and salt in the bowl of a heavy food processor. Pulse garlic until very finely minced, occasionally removing the lid to scrape down the sides of the blender. Make sure you continue to pulse the garlic until it is completely pureed. The garlic needs to be fully broken down in order for the proteins and stabilizers to be released from within its cell walls. Add 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice and continue processing until a paste begins to form. With the food processor running, slowly drizzle in 1/4 cup oil in a very thin stream, followed by 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice. Keep repeating the process alternating between the two till you get a nice and fluffy sauce.

September 24 

Today I am going to talk about a very easy preparation. Its actually a ridiculously easy preparation which you can prepare in 5 minutes flat. In its basic form Pickled onions is nothing but Onions soaked overnight in a brine of vinegar, salt and sugar. But the one that I am going to talk about is spiced with a few elements to jazz up the flavors. The desi name for this is Sirke wala peyaz. Sirka is nothing but Vinegar.

We didn't really grow up seeing a restaurant culture during our childhood. Food meant only home cooked preparations. If we wanted to have something special, we would request our moms to make it for us. And specials were reserved for special days - weekends, birthdays, anniversaries, guests at home or the festive season. Hence each special had a very valuable place in our heart. Like the mutton curries which were only made on Sundays were traditionally called as Robibarer Mangshor Jhol or the Sunday Mutton Curry. Or the Rice kheer which was specially cooked on someone's birthdays. Or the seasonal specials like Ilish Macher jhol ( Hilsa fish curry). Each of these dishes has a box full of precious memories attached to them and will be the fodder for the stories which we will be telling our next generation. 

I grew up in IIT Kharagpur campus as dad was a professor there. During those days, like 20 years ago, the campus had only one shady food joint called 'Tikkas' outside the Institute premise where they served everything from breakfast to dinner. It was like the hangout mecca for both the Institute students, professors as well as kids of the faculty families. That was one place where there was no stature difference. The person sitting next to you in the table might be a day laborer and yet we didn't mind sharing the space with them. That place just had a different charm altogether in the non-restaurant era. So many innovations might have happened sitting on those rickety benches over cups of thick ginger tea and medu vada. So many love stories might have blossomed under the tin roof of the joint while waiting for the rain to subside during monsoons. And so many heated political discussions might have originated while munching on the piping hot samosas with the tangy imli chutney. We were happy with that. And we never felt that we needed some upscale, air conditioned space to elevate our moods for having a meal.

It was only during the college days that I was formally introduced to the concept of a proper restaurant. And that's when I first saw these tiny onions swimming in a pool of vinegar being served at the table and called 'sirke wala peyaz'. The first thought was, what have they done to the good old onions which I could have as salads. And then slowly I realised that this was a curated accompaniment quite common across all restaurants in the country. It took time for me to grow a liking for them. But gradually I did start liking them with a few homemade customizations. 

The best thing I like about these pickled onions over the desi version is they are easy to eat and more flavorful. Since you cut the onions in slices and place it in the brine, all the parts of the onion are fully exposed to the brining process unlike the desi version wherein mainly the outer layer of the tiny onions are pickled better than the internal ones. 

These things are very versatile. You can add pickled onions to pretty much anything and it will enhance the taste . They add a perfect, tart crunch to your rice bowls, burgers, subs, sandwiches,  salads, nachos, tacos, bhel and really anything else you can think to add them to. They taste best when you give them a day to rest and soak up the brine. Also it is very easy to preserve, just put it in a closed jar and in to the refrigerator and it will be good for more than a week.