Panakas & masala majjige - the Indian mocktails!

“Of hunger and thirst, thirst is the greater imperative.” 

Yann Martel, Life of Pi

Just as we wear woollens in winter & cotton in summer, food & drinks need to match the season.  There is a reason why fruits & vegetables are not available throughout the year.  Nature takes its own course & we should let that be!  April, in India, is a month to keep yourself hydrated.  Here are a few traditional recipes to beat the heat!

Panakas get their true flavor when jaggery is used.  Demerara sugar is the closest option that I know of.  Sugar is fine but less exotic & it misses the tang that jaggery has.  Nevertheless, panakas during summer are to die for!

Musk-melon panaka

Ingredients 

• 1 cup of musk melon mashed
• 2 cups of water
• 2 cups of musk melon finely chopped
• 1 cup of jaggery or demerara sugar (or any available sugar)
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon cardamom powder

Method

Grate jaggery in 2 cups of water & mix until it dissolves.  Strain the mix as jaggery contains certain impurities.  Add the mashed melon, chopped melon, cardamom powder & lemon juice.  Mix well. If you find it too thick you can add more water.  Serve chilled.

Green mango panaka

Ingredients

• 2 raw mangoes peeled & chopped
• 2 cups water
• 1 1/2 cups grated jaggery or demerara sugar (or any available sugar)
• 1 teaspoon cardamom powder
• 1/2 teaspoon roasted cummin(jeera) seeds powder

Method

Boil the chopped green mangoes in 2 cups of water until they soften.  Allow it to cool. Blend & strain the juice.  Dissolve grated jaggery in 2 cups of water & strain the jaggery into the mango juice.  Add cardamom powder & cummin seeds powder.  Serve chilled.

Masala majjige / Spiced buttermilk

There are different variants to this drink. Some add a lot more spices like garlic & red chillies but I prefer this one as it was my life-saver when I was vacationing in a small village with no electricity & 48C temperature!!  Instantly cooled my body & got rid of heat rashes the natural way.   The drink was stored in a clay pot & wrapped with a soaking wet cloth & hung under a tress to keep it chilled.  My first exposure to natural refridgeration!  

Ingredients

• 2" ginger
• 1 small onion chopped
• handful of coriander (cilantro) leaves chopped
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 cup of curds (yoghurt)
• 3 cups of water
• 1 teaspoon roasted cummin powder

for seasoning

• 5-6 curry leaves  
• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
• a pinch of asafoetida (optional)

Method

Coarsely grind ginger, chopped onion & coriander in a pestle & mortar.  In a vessel, add one cup of curds to 3 cups of water & whisk until there are no lumps.  Add the coarsely ground mix.  Seasoning: in a small pan heat 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil, add mustard seeds & wait until they crackle. Add curry leaves, asafoetida & turn off heat. Add the seasoning to the curd-water mix.  Add cummin powder & salt to taste.  Serve chilled & mix well before serving.

Home-made tomato puree & mayonnaise

“Cooking is probably the most important thing you can do to improve your diet. What matters most is not any particular nutrient, or even any particular food: it’s the act of cooking itself. People who cook eat a healthier diet without giving it a thought. It’s the collapse of home cooking that led directly to the obesity epidemic.” - Michael Pollan, extract from The New York Times.

I completely have to agree with Pollan that most people love junk food like french fries because this otherwise messy & tough snack to make at home is today, a large scale mechanized product that you can grab out of your freezer & eat them thrice a day if you wish! 

Same goes for ready-to-use products like ginger-garlic paste, tomato purée & mayonnaise.  In my opinion great flavours lie in natural products the essence of which cannot be found in prepared products.  A little planning & efficient time management is all it takes to get the base ingredients right.  

It isn't time consuming at all to make the purée & mayo.  Regardless of how laborious & time-consuming you think it is to make them, I suggest you give it a shot.  Try making tomato purée & mayonnaise with the instructions given below & use them to make 2 dishes that I prescribe.  See the difference of mechanized versus home-made ingredients for yourself!  

How to make tomato purée 

Take 6 large ripe tomatoes.  Drop them into boiling water for a minute & take them out.  One slit on the tomato & the peel comes off easily.  Now cut the tomatoes into half, pull out the seeds & cut the green tip of the tomato.  Discard seeds & blend the pulp to get a smooth puree.  

Some suggest blending the seeds & then straining the puree.  There have been reports that the seeds of hybrid tomatoes cause gall stones & are carcinogenic.  Si I prefer them without the seeds.  As for texture, the purée, in my opinion is a lot smoother when you chuck the seeds out!

Now for the challenge, try making

 Tomato-almond-pesto

Puree of 6 tomatoes

Handful of fresh basil leaves

1 cup of almond paste

(blanch almonds : drop them in boiling water for a minute, remove skin & blend with little water to make a smooth paste)

2-3 cloves of garlic chopped

60ml olive oil

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Any pasta of your choice

In a sauce pan heat 60ml olive oil.  Saute garlic until they turn brown, pour in the purée& bring to a boil.  Add the almond paste.  Roughly chop basil leaves & drop them in the sauce.  Let this simmer for 4-5mins.  Pour this over any paste of your choice & sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.  You will see a world of difference when you add home-made puree to this!

How to make mayonnaise

Read instructions entirely before you begin

3 egg yolks

500 ml vegetable oil

3 teaspoons vinegar

2 teaspoons lemon juice (1tsp if using indian lime)

salt & pepper to taste

Beat egg yolks thoroughly for 2mins.  Add 2 teaspoons of vinegar & beat for 30secs.  Add salt & pepper & beat for another minute.  Gradually add vegetable oil & continue to whisk vigorously.  Adding more oil could break the mayonnaise so ensure the process is very gradual.  When it thickens too much add 1 teaspoon of vinegar.  

Now for the challenge, try making 

La salade macedoine

2 carrots

200g beans (haricots)

1 small turnip

200g fresh green peas (If not using fresh baby peas, boil them separately & add at the end)

1 stalk of celery

1 cup of mayonnaise

1 teaspoon dijon mustard

salt & pepper to taste.

Wash, peel & chop carrots, beans, celery & turnips in 1cm cubes.  Bring about a litre of salted water to boil in a casserole & add carrots, turnip and green peas.  After 4mins add celery & beans & boil for 7-8mins.  Drain the vegetables & pass some cold water through them. Set aside.  In a salad bowl, mix dijon mustard to the mayonnaise & add the vegetables.  Season with salt & pepper.  You can add orange juice or honey or any other spice of your choice to give it some extra tang.

When cooking for family, we take extra care to chose the right ingredients.  We live in an age where food adulteration & toxins have become a part & parcel of daily living.  The least we can do is cut down on this dependency of industrialized products for our basic necessities.  Of course they may not seem practical while cooking for a large group of people but you can try to incorporate while cooking for your family.  

Excess mayonnaise can be used to prepare a nice sandwich the next morning or as an accompaniment to an evening snack.  Tomato puree can be reused in soups or as substitutes for tomatoes in your main course.

 

Super simple desserts

Super simple desserts

Thai mango pudding

This refreshing summer pudding is a child's play.  Conserving the natural goodness of  mangoes, this pudding is naturally yumm & so light you could indulge in a couple of more helpings. 

Preparation time: 5mins

Cooking time : 15mins

Ingredients

• 2 ripe mangoes
• 3 teaspoons of gelatin
• 1/2 cup hot water
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1/2 cup sugar

Method:

Peel mangoes slit them into half & scoop out the pulp.  Blend the pulp along with the sugar to get a smooth puree & leave it in the blender. If the mango is not sweet enough you can add in some sugar.  Into 1/2 a cup of boiling water add the gelatin & whisk until its free of lumps.  Add this & the coconut milk into the blender & give it a gentle 30sec blend. Pour this mixture into cups of different shapes & drop it in your freezer until set.

Serve it bowls with a few chunks of mango or drop in a cherry & some whipped cream.  When I have children coming over, I serve it with ice-cream or jam.

Once, I dropped a few chunks of jelly into the mix before setting them & put the mix into one large glass bowl that was lightly greased with vegetable oil & once it was set, I turned it over onto a large serving plate.  That made the kids go crazzzzy!

Make-your-own-layer dessert

Preparation time: 5mins

Cooking time: 3mins

Ingredients

4 slices of leftover cake (sponge, plum cake, any tea cake)

1/2 cup cream cheese

1/2 cup fresh cream

3 teaspoons sugar

any fruit (fresh or canned)

marmalade or fruit jelly

 4 cookies

chocolate sauce

4 teaspoons brandy or cointreau

Method

Take 4 irish coffee glasses or martini glasses.  Place a slice of cake into each glass & pour over some brandy to moisten the cake.  Whip cream cheese, fresh cream & sugar.  Layer this mixture over the cake.  Work your way up the glass by separating each layer with the cream cheese mix. 

i.e. cake - cream cheese - fruit - cream cheese- marmalade - cream cheese etc

Drizzle with chocolate sauce & one crushed cookie on each of the glasses & serve.

Chocolate covered berries 

Preparation time: 5mins

Cooking time: 20mins

Ingredients

Ensure the following fruits come with stalks

A few fresh strawberries

A few fresh cherries

A few cape gooseberries

200gms of dark chocolate (70% cocoa)

Sugar (in case you dont like dark chocolate)

Method:

Wash the fruits well & leave the stalks on.  Roughly break the chocolate. Melt the dark chocolate on a double boiler. (2 heatproof bowls one with water placed on heat & another above it containing chocolate.  Heat the water so that the chocolate above melts gradually.  Whisk chocolate as it melts & once completely melted turn off heat immediately) Pat dry the fruits.  Holding the stalks of the fruit, dip them in chocolate upto the stalk.  Ensure each fruit is well coated in chocolate & place them on butter paper & refridgerate till chocolate hardens.  Once out of the fridge serve immediately.

The magic of one meal dishes

 The magic of one meal dishes

Unexpected guests? Cant find the right ingredients? Pressed for time? Then one meal dishes would be the best bet!  Not only are they quick to make, they are nutritious & tasty.  You can never really go wrong with it since there are so many elements to a one meal dish & none of the ingredients dominate.

One meal dishes are prepared across the globe & are a safe bet for any palate.  Some of them could be time consuming but considering its complete in itself you definitely save time on making other courses to a meal.  It is also magical when it comes to packing food for a picnic, for a party, to lunch at office or school.  Since there are multiple ingredients mostly fine chopped, they are not very messy to eat or to serve.  At the end of any one meal dish is a full & happy tummy, one big pot/pan/dish & a few cutleries to wash.  One of the few things that keep the cook & his guests happy.

Today I would like to share with you 3 awesomely easy one meal dishes for 3 different occasions.  A hearty summer salad meal called salad nicoise, an asian noodle recipe with stir fried veggies & crispy chicken & a party.

Salade nicoise

This is a traditional french recipe which was popularized in America by the genius Julia Child who endorsed it in her debut cookbook "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" & subsequently through television series in the 60's.  It is light, refreshing & super healthy salad.  The original recipe does not contain rice but to make it a one dish meal, I prefer the one with rice.

Preparation time : 20mins

Cooking time : 10mins

Ingredients (for 4 people) : Ensure all ingredients are chilled before preparation

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• 200g boiled & cooled rice
• 200g tuna
• 200g corn
• 4 ripe, firm tomatoes (bite-size slices)
• 4 hard boiled eggs (quartered)
• 1 small green bell pepper (julienne)
• 4 filets of anchovies
• Handful black olives (deseeded)
• Parsley (substitute: cilantro (coriander)) 

Vinaigrette : mix equal amounts of olive oil & sunflower oil, red wine vinegar, mustard, salt & pepper

In a large salad bowl add the tuna, corn, tomatoes, bell pepper, anchovies & olives give them a good mix.  Pour in the vinaigrette & mix until all ingredients are well coated.  Add the hard boiled eggs at the end & give it a slight mix.  Be careful not to break the egg quarters.  You can also add partially boiled egg with oozing yolk on top of the salad just before serving. Garnish with parsley or cilantro.

Crispy sesame chicken with noodles (serves 4)

Preparation time : 10

Cooking time : 20mins  

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon salt-reduced soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1 ginger-garlic paste
• 1 teaspoon red chilli paste
• 1 tablespoon sesame seeds
• 300g chicken breast, cut in strips
• 280g dried egg noodles
• 2 spring onions, sliced
• 400g mushrooms, sliced
• 1 carrot grated
• 1 bell pepper julienned (optional)
• 1/2 head cabbage, shredded

Instructions

To make marinade, combine soy sauce, oil, ginger-garlic paste, red chilli paste & sesame seeds in a bowl. Add chicken and ensure it is well coated. Set aside. 
Cook noodles as per directions on the packet, drain & set aside.

Place a frying pan over a medium-high heat. Add chicken and marinade. Stir-fry for 8-10 minutes until cooked. Remove from pan and keep warm.

Add spring onions, mushrooms, ginger and bell peppers to pan. Stir-fry for 2 minutes. Add cabbage and stir-fry until softened. Add chicken and noodles to pan. Stir to combine then serve.

Basa fish fillets on a bed of mashed potatoes with tomato & dill (serves 8)

This light & juicy fish fillet is so easy to make that you will find all the time to entertain your guests & give them the shock when you step out of the kitchen in a jiffy with this yummy delight.  The plating in itself gives this dish a restaurant like chic.

Preparation time : 10mins

Cooking time : 20mins

Ingredients

• 8 basa fish fillets (can try red snapper too)
• some flour to dust the fillets
• 16 fresh ripe tomatoes (chopped)
• 6 cloves of garlic finely chopped
• 8 onions finely chopped
• 6 table spoons olive oil
• a bunch of dill rougly chopped (can use fresh basil to give a totally different taste to the dish)
• 1 tablespoon of dried herbs
• salt & pepper as desired 
• 3 cups of white wine

For garnishing:

a bunch of parboiled french beans

a bunch of parboiled baby carrots

lemon slices

For mashed potatoes (20mins)

• 1 1/2 kgs of fresh potatoes peeled & quartered
• 100 gms butter chopped
• 2/3 cup of hot milk

Cook potatoes in a saucepan of salted water for about 20mins until  they become tender (not falling apart).  Drain potatoes & place them back in the saucepan & mash them using a masher.  Add butter & hot milk & continue to mash until its fluffy & soft.  Ensure the mix is smooth & free from lumps. You can seive through this mixture to get a silky smooth puree.

Method :
Preheat oven at 200C.  Dust one side of the basa fish fillets with flour, salt & pepper.  On a heated non stick fry pan,  brown one side of the fillet for a minute & place the seared sides down in a baking dish.  
In a shallow pan add the olive oil, garlic, onions & stir fry until the onions turn soft.  Add the chopped tomatoes, dried herbs, a pinch of salt & let it simmer for about 3-4mins.  Add the dill, white wine & simmer for another 2mins.  
Pour this mixture onto the fish & bake for about 15mins.

On individual plates, make a base with the mashed potato about 2 inches thick & wide enough to place the fish fillets.  Cut each fillet into two & place them over the mashed potato. Ensure the tomatoes coat the fillets & sauce runs around the mashed potatoes.   Place a handful of beans & carrots at the side of each plate & serve hot.  
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Whether it is a simple one meal dish for a tired soul after a hard day's work or a picnic or a party meal on a week-day, one meal dishes are wholesome, healthy & come in very handy.  To make them extravagant, I always have nachos & dips served before & if need be, a simple cake with chocolate sauce.  My next blog will carry easy desserts that can go with the one meal dishes. 

Types of cooks

TYPES OF COOKS

 TYPES OF COOKS

Cooking food for oneself or for one's family is all about keeping it simple, nutritious & tasty. As for a cook time management in the kitchen is crucial to bringing food to the table.  People come with varied styles of kitchen management.  I have classified them as the following :

The multi-taskers : Multi-taskers are the types that are confident cooks who come with years of experience.  They are the ones who can easily start working on a soup, main dish & dessert all at one shot on 3 different burners & be out of the kitchen in an hour's time.  Their kitchen is often messy & they improvise on the ingredients used or the recipe itself.  Unless they have practiced a particular dish several times they cannot arrive at providing the right taste to the dish.  Meaning, if they cook, for example, a regular tomato soup thrice it would taste different every single time.  My mom is a multi-tasker & we, at times, enjoy the fact that it tastes different & on other occasions are unhappy that it was less good.

The meticulous cooks : Meticulous cooks are the types that pre-plan & chart out their meals.  It begins with checking if the required ingredients are stocked, are of good quality etc.  They tend to chop their veggies, have the utensils ready & then begin cooking.  They use specific vessels for every step of preparation (specific container to boil eggs, particular pan for meat, another for veggies etc)  They are able to recreate the same taste every time they cook & thanks to all the planning, their kitchen is prim & proper at all times.  Flip side of it : they are slow, cannot adapt to change (milk curdling, sudden malfunctioning of kitchen equipment) and are incapable of finding alternative solutions to problems.

The something-out-of-nothing cooks :  Some people are gifted with the natural sense of cooking.  They are the saviors who can open the fridge, pair the left overs & create tasty meals that have no names! Imagine that you've had a tiring day & your tummy is growling for some comfort food then having a something-out-of-nothing cook is a dream come true.  Since everything they make is new, experimental & unexpected the consumers are always in for a surprise.  Of course, there is a risk of the surprise being good or bad. Downside of this - they can go terribly wrong with the pairings & if left overs are not monitored you are never sure if what you ate was healthy.

The master chefs: This is the most superior class of cooks whose kitchen is spotless, the food excellent & absolute gourmands that can eat, sleep, talk, walk just food! This is exactly what makes them the true kitchen perfectionists.  Food is a very essential part of their lives & they enjoy every minute spent in the kitchen.  They rarely go wrong & whenever they do its a well kept secret that the person consuming that food would be clueless about! Negatives - they tend to go overboard with cleanliness & quantity.  Meals are often rich & not necessarily healthy.  Kitchen & food form an integral part of their lives which might not be the case of the person consuming their food.

I am a something-out-of-nothing cook & I enjoy being that type.  Life gets a little nasty when I have to cook a meal for several people but the confidence of being able to bring something tasty (if not presentable :P) keeps me going!  People recollect that weird left over combination I made & such happy memories remain etched in my mind and the people I have cooked for which makes "cooking" as such a great experience for me.

What type of a cook are you?  Do you know of other types of cook that I might have failed to mention?  Do let me know of what you think.  In the days to come I will share with you some tips for easy home cooking.

Cordially,
Anne