January 18

It doesn't feel like winter anymore. While I type, the blinds are drawn in the room, the fan is running on its maximum and I am wearing my summer pajamas, not to mention sipping on chilled lime juice as well. And on days like this, I miss the old 'gulabi thandi' days of Pune. January never felt this way before.

And I think it is due to this kind of weird winters we are having this time I do not feel like having the usual mach-bhat (fish - rice) fare on a daily basis. Don't get me wrong, I am an avid lover of Bengali food and nothing is more dear to me than a good Bengali meal. Still now a days I feel like trying out something light and quick. Not to mention cook something which gets my creative juices flowing especially in the Kitchen.  

I had a collaboration dish to prepare this week and I had some gorgeous Basa fillets from Fresh2Home sitting in my pantry which I was waiting to make into something unique. I grabbed this opportunity and decided to do some quick baking. Yes, once a non-baker, I am finding a lot of solace in baking these days. The anticipation of waiting to see how the dish turns out after it comes out from the oven is very exciting for me. And anyways even in Bengali cuisine we already are used to make a lot of steamed dishes, so nothing new for me, just the technique is a little different.

The dish I am going to talk about today is Baked Basa in Butter garlic and Lemon Sauce. Delicate Basa fish fillets are baked to perfection in a lemony butter sauce flavored with garlic and Rosemary. Its an under 30 minutes dish which is perfect for your date nights when you want to stir up something gourmet or even for your usual weekday lunch or dinner to just add a bit of pizzaz to the menu.

Now a dish which heavily depends on a butter sauce, needs to have a good quality butter to make the right texture for the sauce. By chance I came to know that President Butter which is a higher-end French butter that's widely available at American supermarkets is also available in India now on Amazon or BigBasket. If you are staying in US or even travelling to US, most of the times you will see the hotels, B&Bs would serve small chiplets of President Butter with the breakfast. And I was so used to it while I was staying there. After coming to India I had kind of not expected to find them there. And finally when I did , I was super surprised. President Butter reached out to me for a collaboration post and I think I can say this was one of my most memorable collaboration. Where even after the collaboration was over, I kept using the rest of the butter in various sweets and savoury dishes and I am in love with its beautiful flavour and texture. It's a solid beautiful butter with a nice mellow aftertaste. This is a lovely creamy smooth, cow’s milk butter with a nice light flavour, which compliments whatever I added it to. Also this butter comes in a foil wrapper and an outer box which helps in keeping the butter airtight and fresh for longer period.  I am absolutely in love with this butter! Checkout the pictures to get an idea how lovely even the color of the butter is.

 

14 January

Happy Makar Sankranti and Pongal to all my readers.

It is an auspicious day today across India, where harvest festival is celebrated today. The harvest festival celebrated across India - Lohri in Punjab, Pongal in Tamil Nadu, Bhogali Bihu in Assam and Poush Parbon in Bengal are all harvest festival that marks the significant shift in season that happens around this time when the sun enters Capricorn (Makar in Hindi and Sanskrit) and starts on its Northward journey, a transition called Uttarayan in Sanskrit. 

Makar Sankranti has a host of signature delicacies from across the regions prepared exclusively to celebrate the auspicious festival. During Poush Sankranti or Poush Parbon in Bengal it is customary to prepare Pithe - Puli - Payesh. All the earthen molds come out of the pantry and the kitchen is heavy with the sweet smell of the famous Bengali Nolen Gud being incorporated in all of these traditional recipes by the mothers and grandmothers of the house. 

It wouldn't be really unfair to say, that the prime focus of the festival is food and it should be so, after all that is what Harvest festival should be about - celebration of good food from the beautiful produce of the land. As a kid there is one image that is vividly etched in my memory is that of my dida in front of the mud unun (hearth) on a very cold foggy morning molding the rice pancakes or pithas. We did have gas and all the modern facilities in the house during that time. But since that was a one off occasion when all the mashis ( aunts or grandma's daughters) with their families were present at my Grandparents home. And my Grandpa being an avid traditionalist and food lover had urged dida to setup the hearth in our big courtyard and make pithe in earthen molds. It was terribly chilly that day and foggy too. We kids were very small and huddled in our respective sweaters and shawls and tupis. While our dad's were fully armed with Monkey caps, thick sweaters and mojas. We all sat around dida, in a half circle, while our noses were red with cold. So when the hearth was lighted we kind of snuggled closer to it just to be a little warm. And to keep the elders warm - several rounds of fragrant ginger- cardamom chai made their rounds. Soon the smell of the steamed pithe (rice pancakes) started coming form the molds and the anticipation rose considerably. We kids have never experienced a pithe in such a traditional setup. The first steaming pithes were soon served to us and the impatience of having them made us pop those things right into our mouths only to realize how hot they were! But the moment we tasted the molted jaggery inside the rice coating, all the other senses numbed and it was sheer ecstasy. That was my most favorite Poush Parbon ever, and it was sadly never recreated because later on all of the families would never get vacation time at the same time.

I relocated to Mumbai and later to Pune due to work. And now I am a resident of this state. My association has been somewhat that of around 15 plus years now with the Marathi manus. So it is obvious that I had started to take fancy for many of the regional delicacies Marathis have. Like Puran Poli or Gul Poli (Jaggery flatbread) which they typically prepare at this time of the year and have it with sweet milk. Also the tradition here says to have Til and Gud together. That is considered as a auspicious combination during this festival and also they are two of the most winter-perfect foods that helps to keep the body warm and also increases the immunity at the same time . Til, gud ghya ni god god bola', is a common expression used to greet family and guests in Marathi households during Sankranti celebrations. The expression literally means "Have til and gur and talk sweetly".

Keeping up with the "trying new things" this year, I decided to make a few things from both my worlds and then tweak it a little. So instead of Gul poli, it was a Til Gud Paratha today where the chunks of jaggery kneaded with wheat flour , generously sprinkled with roasted sesame and fried on slow flame with ghee. It reminded me of all those time when mom used to make sugar parathas for me as a kid. Just that this is way more fragrant because I used nolen gud in this case. Check out the recipe below:

 

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.

 

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