March 12

Visiting Thailand was like a dream come true for me. Before you conclude that I loved it because of the night life and party opportunities, let me tell you that's not what fascinated me. I am a far cry from any party animal you might ever know. What fascinated me was their simple yet delicious cuisine steeped in organic flavors, the deep rooted culture which they were absolutely proud of and the beautiful pristine beaches - it was so calm and deep I felt like zen. Krabi stole my heart. I was totally convinced that if someone gave me an opportunity to relocate to Krabi, I would say yes right away!

I cant stop gushing about the Thai cuisine. While it is true that I was introduced to Thai cuisine formally only after I came to Pune around a decade ago. But when I went to Thailand there were so many new preparations I got introduced to. We didn't fine dine there, because the street food looked so appetizing and offered such a vast range of possibilities that it felt justified to blow half of our trip budget on the food alone! And I am not kidding there. We probably were one of those rare tourists who spent less on merchandise from Thailand than on food. Whatever we saw we wanted to try out, that's the benefit of being a non-vegetarian and seafood lover I guess ( of course barring the few weird street foods that we came across. I wont mention them here as I might risk loosing your interest on todays blog!) . I remember the best food we had in Bangkok was under some random flyover. There was a night pop up restaurant area and everything was made fresh before us. We had enjoyed a warm bowl of tom yum and Thai fried rice. The taste and memory of that evening still lingers on. By the end of our trip I felt as if I needed to extend my stay just to be able to taste all the other delicacies that I missed out.

During my trip to Thailand, we had been on a guided city tour where our guide took us to this lovely Thai joint and over our food told us about the wonderful history of Pad Thai. Pad thai, or Phad Thai is a stir-fried rice noodle dish commonly served as a street food and at most restaurants in Thailand. 

Pad Thai is a dish synonymous with Thailand but still it seems like a dish which has heavy Chinese influence. Pad Thai is locally known as "Gway Teow Pad Thai". Gway Teow is a Chinese word for ‘rice noodles’, which hints at a Chinese lineage. Noodles, stir-fry, and, especially, noodle stir-fries are quintessentially Chinese. In fact, just about every ingredient found in pad Thai isn’t native to the people after whom the dish is named.

If we look at the history of this dish we come to know that during World War II (1930s), due to less production in the rice fields, Thailand suffered a shortage of rice which was compounded by the floods. Thus for preserving the stocks of this precious grain, the Thai government started to promote noodles instead. A campaign was launched to  unite the nation through their culture. The campaign included changing the country’s name, commissioning a new national anthem, and creating a national dish – Pad Thai. They created the dish ‘Pad Thai’ as the national dish, in a bid to protect the rice resources of the country and promote a sense of national unity. Pad Thai was promoted heavily across the country with a campaign slogan "noodle is your lunch". The Public Welfare Department even gave out recipes of the dish to restaurants and even gave free carts to people willing to sell Pad Thai in the streets. Now how fascinating is that! If ever India decided to have such a campaign to have a national dish, I would be a forerunner in the tasting line. No matter which food wins, the food connoisseurs are the real winners.

But pad Thai wasn’t just about unity; it was also about nutrition. The late 1930s were a particularly difficult time economically for the country, and rice noodles, which were both cheap and filling, provided a much-needed antidote. Coupled with regional vegetables, bean sprouts, and inexpensive protein, it was the perfect, nutritious meal.

Traditionally Pad Thai is made from rice noodles, stir-fried with eggs, tofu, tamarind paste, fish sauce, dried shrimps, garlic, palm sugar and red chilli pepper and frequently served with lime wedges, bamboo shoots, spring onions, raw banana flowers, and topped with a sprinkling of peanuts. But then you can always tweak it as per the available ingredients in your area.

8th November

I already feel the winter! Bright sunny days, chilled evenings, fresh winter vegetables in the produce market, the compulsory addition of ginger in the teas...finally this year feels good. 

The weekend has just whizzed past and now while I write this on a Sunday night I feel like I need another weekend immediately to offset these two days. It has been a mad crazy weekend due to ten thousand things that had to be done before the Diwali week. Cleaning, cleaning and more cleaning. Gawd where does this much dust come from on 10th floor!! I will never be able to fathom that. Then there was shopping to do for the pujas - both from the local market and from amazon and flipkart. You never can let go crazy deals na, even if you are on the edge of being bankrupt, sniff. As much as I resent spending so much, I really was tempted for a few things. 

Finally I am beginning to reap some benefit from the social media after all these years! Brands have been reaching out to me more frequently now for collaboration and even though it might be very small scale right now, but I was super excited when I received my first collaboration product. So that also adds to my already tall list of work. It is exhausting but it is rewarding as well. It feels good when someone appreciates what you do.

Then there was another person on Instagram who one day out of the blue told me that they were gonna try out one of my recipes from the blog. that was a pleasant surprise but I felt so humbled. People actually saw value in the contents I create. Its not that I am talking to the wall most of the times. This makes me motivated to push harder, make better contents and do more experiments in the kitchen.

Something nice is coming up in Instagram this week. I am going to announce a contest there. So all those who have an Instagram account check it out. It has lovely prizes for the winners and also special prizes for some of the special mentions.

Now coming to the recipe. Busy week means I end up spending a lot less time in the kitchen, especially for making lunch. This weekend I just wanted to clear my fridge and also make something real quick for lunch. I would have just made Maggi with vegetables as I do many a times when I don't have time. But I remembered a Ramen recipe I had recently seen and wanted to try. I scanned my pantry for the necessary stuffs. Coconut milk check, spring onions check. Surprised? yes that's about what you need to make this amazing recipe.  I did an egg check also as I wanted to add a sunny side up egg. And yes I had a few paneer cubes ready for some other subzi, so I thought to throw them in as well. But the last two things are totally optional. 

This would make a delicious and comforting meal when you’re craving something warm, light yet satisfying. The toppings and noodles are extremely versatile, so everyone can pick and choose how to style their bowls and add on practically anything you want.

• Maggi Noodle / Ramen - 1 Packet
• Full fat Coconut Milk - 1 and a 1/2 cup
• Spring onion - 1/2 cup chopped
• Cracked Pepper - 1/2 tsp
• Sugar - 1/2 tsp
• Salt to taste
• Oil - 1 tsp

 

Equipment:

• Skillet

Procedure: 

1.  Cook the noodles as per instruction in water without adding the spice mix/ flavoring oil. Usually I bring the water in the pan to a rolling boil, add a pinch of salt and then drop in the noodles. With a fork I separate out the noodles and let them boil for about 5 minutes on high. Boil till the noodles are 3/4th cooked.

19 October

This year the autumn in Maharashtra doesn't feel like autumn at all. It feels like we are stuck forever in the monsoon season itself. Rain , rain and more rain is enough to drive us crazy. Thus to cheer myself up I checkout the vibrant fall pictures my friends are sharing on their social accounts from across the world. As much as I love Indian festivals around this time, I love the feeling of colorful autumn, thanksgiving and a white Christmas of the states. It takes me back to the time I was staying in Atlanta and how vibrant the entire place used to become during the fall season - the prettiest of all seasons! I remember the road trips along the Blue ridge parkway and the stunning visuals it presented. I couldn't peel off my eyes even for a second from the vista on both side of the road. I think I will create a separate blog post to revive the memories of a log cabin stay during the autumn in Chattanooga, Georgia.

So you get the drift. I am very much transported back to those red, yellow and magenta days whenever I hear the word fall or autumn.  And it has been my longest standing desire to prepare fall recipes. So this year I have been experimenting a few recipes with the fall theme on mind. I tried incorporating pumpkin in many of the recipes. And I found an interesting thing when I was doing research on the fall recipes. I liked all the pumpkin recipes which were more south east Asian interpretation of the American fall staples. I felt they are more zesty and flavorful. I might be totally wrong in this case, but going by the recipe ingredients this is what I felt. I never knew before this that even in Thai cuisine there is a pumpkin soup or a fall harvest salad. The ingredients they had used to make their versions aligned more to my Asian taste buds.

I am not at all a salad person. At least I was not at all a salad person before the lockdown. The only reason is that its too much of a work and the phycological thought process is that when it doesn't have a bread or rice in it, it is not going to be filling enough. But that notion changed during the lockdown when we started to focus more on healthy eating habits. Thus I started experimenting with different kinds of salad bowls. This particular salad was thought of as part of an Instagram contest (yes Instagram is kind of taking over my life, which I feel I need to restrict for good!) We wanted to create something fresh and feisty and different form the usual salads. It had to define our personality. That's very cheeky I know but yeah that's how the food should be. Its a reflection of myself I feel. And the Thai versions of both the harvest recipes - pumpkin soup and Autumnal salad felt like what would perfectly suite my palate.

When we think fall ingredients a few things instantly come to the mind - butternut squash, sweet winter pumpkins, crisp apples, pears, sweet potato and so on. They are so lovely ones that you can not just go wrong with any combination you choose.

This can be passed off as a both a fall and a summer salad. Its a feisty salad which will tease your taste buds with the spiciness of the bird's eye chilli, sweetness from the honey dressing, citrusy burst from the tropical fruits, buttery tropical vibes from saffron coconut prawns and to balance it all off the earthiness from the toasted nuts. It basically is a warm fall salad that will keep you cozy on a chilly fall night.

Marination Time : 30 minutes

Ingredients for Salad:

• Fresh Prawns with tails - 20 
• Peanuts - 1/4th cup
• Walnuts - 1/4th cup
• Pumpkin Seeds - 1/4th cup
• Onion - 1/2
• Cherry Tomato - 6
• Lettuce - 1/2
• Apple - 1
• Pineapple - 2/4th cup diced
• Mosambi/Sweet Lime - 1
• Salt

Ingredients for Prawn Marination:

• Saffron Strands 
• Sesame oil - 1 tsp
• Red Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
• Bird's eye chilli - 1 chopped
• Coconut paste (Optional) - 1 tsp
• Lime juice - 1/2 tsp
• Salt as per taste
• Shredded Coconut - 1/2 cup

Ingredients for Dressing:

• Honey - 2 tsp
• Lemon Juice - 1/2
• Fish Sauce - 1/2 tsp
• Sesame oil - 1 tsp

Ingredients for garnish:

• Roasted Pumpkin Seeds -  2 tsp
• Bird's eye chilli - 2 chopped

Equipment:

• Thick bottom skillet/ non stick skillet

Method:

1. Start by cleaning the prawns. Devein it, take the head off and leave the tail. It preserves the shape of the prawn.

2. Now marinate the prawn for 30 minute with marination ingredients mentioned above expect the shredded coconut.

3. While the prawns are marinating, dice the apples. In a bowl take 1 tsp lemon juice and 1 tsp honey and add the apples. Toss everything well and let it rest.

4. Now prepare the nuts. Take a skillet and heat it on medium. Once hot toss the walnuts first until they are fragrant and toasted. Same way toast the peanuts and the pumpkin seeds. Now keep both of them aside to cook down.

Note: If you are using toasted pumpkin seeds no need to toast it again.

5. Slice the onions. In the same skillet on medium, dry roast the onions for about 2-3 minutes, tossing them around with a spatula. Take them off heat and let it cool down.

6. Dice the sweet lime and the pineapples. 

Tip: If either of them are sour, then just add a bit of sugar and let it sit till the sugar melts.

7. Time to prepare the prawns. Heat the skillet, add a teaspoon of oil. Spread the shredded coconut on a plate or any flat surface. Now take one prawn at a time and coat it with the shredded coconut on both sides. Tip them in the oil and keep the flame on medium so that the coconut doesn't get burnt. Turn both sides and fry them nicely till it gets a light golden brown hue. Patiently fry all the prawns for not more than 30 seconds each side. Keep them on a paper towel to soak the excess oil.

Note: Adding saffron is optional. But it gives a very nice flavour to the fried prawns.

8. Now prepare the dressing. In a bowl take everything mentioned under dressing and give it a good mix. 

9. Now its time to plate everything. Start by laying down a layer of lettuce in the platter. On top of it arrange all the fruits, onion, halved cherry tomato, prawns and the toasted nuts. Drizzle the dressing on top generously. Toss everything in.

10. Finish off by garnishing it with pumpkin seeds, chopped bird's eye chilli and sesame.

Pro tip: You can even add some cheese on top to make it more luscious.

You can pair this feisty autumn salad with any autumn soup of your choice. I had served it with the Thai Spicy Coconut Soup. Check out the recipe here.

5th October

I am not very fond of thick soups and prefer clear soups. So much so that I don't even like any traces of cornflower or any such thickening agent in my soups. When I say clear it needs to be a clear light soup. Thus when asked to make pumpkin soup for an ongoing contest in Instagram, I was in two minds. Pumpkin soup is rarely clear, rather never clear, its usually a thick creamy soup. And as I said, I am not very fond of thick soups. So the question was how to make it palatable so that I will not hate it after I make it. I started looking at traditional pumpkin soups on the net. 

That's when I came across is amazing Thai version of the pumpkin soup. The creamy soup is a very interesting. Instead of the popular American pumpkin soup, the Spicy Coconut Pumpkin soup which traditionally made in Thai cuisine and loaded with fresh citrusy flavors from the lemongrass and kaffir lime.

It ticked all the boxes of the flavor profile I felt I would love- sweet, spicy, tart and a lil salty. It is made with pan fried onions, red pumpkin, pepper cloves, a hint of cinnamon, star anise, galangal, coriander root, lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves, chunks of fresh coconut, turmeric, garlic cloves, birds eye chili, lemon juice, fish sauce and finally coconut milk. It is filling, warm and comforting. It eventually turned out to be just a perfect autumn soup after all! 

Even if you miss a few ingredients here and there just do a dare to yourself and play around with some of the herbs to get something even more appetizing and unique.

Ingredients :

• Red Pumpkin - 1 cup, peeled and cubed
• Onion - 1 sliced
• Garlic cloves - 3-4 , chopped
• Ginger/ Galangal - 1/2 inch, finely chopped
• Lemongrass - 1/3 rd stalk , bruised
• Bird's Eye Chilli - 2
• Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp or Turmeric Root - 3/4th inch
• Kaffir Lime Leaves - 4-5
• Coconut - 6 -7 pieces
• Peppercorn - 4-5
• Star Anise - 1 petal of the star
• Cinnamon powder - 1/4th tsp
• Coriander powder - 1/2 tsp or Coriander Root - 1 tbsp. , diced
• Thick Coconut milk - 1/2 cup
• Fish Sauce -  2 tsp
• Lime Juice - 2 tsp
• Salt as per taste
• Sugar - 3 tsp
• Refined oil - 1 tbsp.
• Vegetable Stock - 2 cups (approx.)

Method:

1. Cut all the vegetables as mentioned above and keep it ready for next step.

Note: I used two different types of pumpkin here as you can see in the image. One with a light yellow shade and the other red. You can use any color of pumpkin to make this soup but the more it is pigmented the more vibrant the soup will look.

2. Take a pan and heat the oil on medium. First add the sliced onions. Sauté for a minute.

3. Then add the ginger, garlic and bird's eye chilli and sauté again for a couple of minutes.

4. Now add the remaining - dry red chilli, coconut pieces, pepper corn, star anise, pumpkin pieces. Sauté for about 3-4 minutes and let the pumpkin start to sweat.

Note: I have added two different type of chillies. The dry red ones for color mainly and the bird's eye chilli for the heat. You can vary the spice level as per your taste. The one I made was considerably spicy and maybe too much for kids.

Note 2: If you are using turmeric root, add at this stage and sauté it with rest.

5. Add 2 cups of vegetable stock or water to the pan . Add salt, sugar, kaffir lime leaves, bruised lemon grass, turmeric powder, cinnamon powder, coriander and fish sauce. Fold everything in and bring it to a boil.

Note: we are not adding too much liquid at this point because pumpkin itself also gives off water.

Note 2: If you feel that adding both kaffir lime leaves & lemon grass might be a bit too much citrusy, you can skip either of them and add only one.

6. Turn the heat down and let this simmer covered for about 10 - 15 minutes or till the pumpkins are mushy or easily break under the pressure of a spoon.

Note: If you are using raw turmeric root, then remove it now. Also remove the lemon grass.

7. Now slowly add the coconut milk and give it a stir to mix in. Let it simmer for about a minute on low flame.

8. Now take it off heat and let it come to room temperature before blending it. Add the lime juice now to the blender. Preferably first pulse it in batches and then one final time blend it all in. You can add more water/ stock if you want a runny soup.

9. Now sieve the entire thing through a juice strainer to get that beautiful smooth finish.

Garnish it with some roasted pumpkin seeds, bird's eye chili and a nice swirl of coconut cream. Serve it hot or cold as per your liking.

Pro Tip: Sweet potato or carrots can also be used in this recipe replacing pumpkins. It can also be paired with roasted shredded chicken or prawns for some additional proteins.