Khao Suey

I remember eating Khao Suey in some Asian type restaurant which served even Burmese food in Bangalore, years ago. Seemed like a lot of work to eat, forget the cooking. But it was totally worth it. I was mostly fascinated by the assembling of the main dish in the big bowl which contained the curry and noodles and then the little bowls around it, waiting to be picked from. They mostly contained garnishes and accompaniments like chopped coriander, browned garlic, caramelized and crispy onions, chopped green chilles, and the likes. It seemed like the perfect dinner when there's a nip in the air. Now there was no nip in the air here as such, even with the temperature drop. Only dust, as always. But since my successful attempt with Thukpa, I figured I'll give Khao Suey a shot too. I looked up various recipes and strangely all of them were different from one another. One said to make a ground paste for the curry base, one said to just use cumin and turmeric, you know, such things. So I went ahead and mixed and matched like I do with my wardrobe. Thankfully it turned out better than my experiments with my wardrobe.

Note: Cook 1 packet of egg or veg hakka noodles as per instructions on the packet, and keep aside.

Ingredients for chicken marinade:
500 gms boneless chicken cut into bite size pieces
1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp red chilli paste or powder
1 tsp salt

Method:
1. Marinate chicken in above mentioned ingredients for 3-4 hours or overnight.

Ingredients for curry/sauce/soup base:
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 dried red chillies
2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp red chilli paste or powder
1 tetra packs of coconut milk
Salt to taste

Method:
1. Head oil and add cumin, turmeric and dried chillies.
2. Add chicken with marinade along with chilli paste and a cup of water and cook for 7-8 mins or till done.
3. Add the coconut milk and let it bubble up before you take it off the heat.

Garnish:
1. Heat oil and saute sliced garlic till golden brown.
2. To the same oil add finely sliced onions, say 2 of them. Saute till dark brown.
3, Chop coriander, green chilles.

Place the cooked noodles in a wide serving bowl, pour the chicken curry over it and top with the garnishes. You could replace chicken with mushrooms and other vegetables as well.

My flatmates also liked this means it's a hit.

Waffles with Caramelized Bananas and Honey

The Flipkart Big Billion Day was upon us and everybody was all ooh-aah and everything about it. I also downloaded the app (yes, I'm a cavewoman when it comes to apps) to see what the fuss was all about. As expected, the first thing I click on was the kitchen appliances section. And lo behold, by the grace of tech Gods, I saw one waffle maker. That too for Rs. 899 only. One brand called Lifelong it seems. Now only time will tell if it's going to stand the test and taste of time. Anyway, now that I have procured the maker, I presumed with the making. Of the waffles, of course. I came across too many recipes. But decided to figure this out on my own. Couldn't be THAT off considering I'm one pancake queen. So here goes:

Makes 4 waffles. 2, if you want to stuff all the batter into that waffle maker and cause spillage and dense waffles.

Ingredients:
1 cup maida (plain flour)
1 cup milk
1 egg
1/2 cup oil
2 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt

Method:
1. Mix dry ingredients and keep aside.
2. Mix milk, oil, yolk from the egg (keep the white aside to be added later) and vanilla and keep aside.
3. Now make a well in the flour mixture and pour the wet ingredients to this and mix till incorporated. Don't over mix, else you'll have waffle shaped leather type thing to chew on.
4. Whisk the egg white till nice and frothy. Like cappuccino froth maybe. Gently fold this into the batter.
5. Pour 3/4th ladle of the batter on each waffle mould of the preheated waffle maker.
6. Close it and wait till you see steam coming out from the sides. Also, there will be a red and green light where green turns on means it's done.

I topped this with caramelized bananas and honey. You could choose chocolate sauce or maple syrup or basically anything else you'd like.

Also, I've learnt this a little too late, but still. Taking some effort to make your food look nice makes you also feel nice. Especially when the picture comes out good, when you don't have a fancy-shmancy camera and only a phone.

Cream Cheese Swirl Brownies

I remember watching a romcom, years ago, where Patrick Dempsey and his friend are about to have cream cheese swirl brownies. I wondered what that would be like, and it also opened me up to doing different things with brownies. I never got to try the cream cheese swirl ones because no one made it commercially and it wasn't even made in bakeries or restaurants. I let it pass. But ever since I got my oven here in Gurgaon I've been trying out various brownies - mocha, bacon. It was time to give this one a shot. So, I did. They turned out pretty great and was a hit with friends and colleagues too. How could it not be? It's like a mouthful of cheesecake AND brownie together!

I did look up recipes but all of them involved using cocoa powder and not chocolate. I went with my instincts and added the cream cheese element in my regular brownie batter itself. Thankfully, it worked.

Ingredients for the brownie:
1 cup dark chocolate chopped up
1/2 cup cold salted butter cut in pieces
3/4 cup brown sugar (or regular)
3/4 cup flour
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

For the cream cheese swirl:
1 pack cream cheese (150 gms) at room temp
1/2 cup powdered white sugar
1 egg

Method:
1. Mix all the ingredients for the cream cheese swirl together and keep aside.
2. Melt the chocolate and butter and whisk till smooth,
3. Add eggs and mix well.
4. Add vanilla and sugar and mix well.
5. Add the flour and fold it into the chocolate mixture.
6. Tip the brownie batter on to your baking tin and leave a few spoonfuls for the swirls.
7. On top of the brownie batter pour the cream cheese mixture.
8. Now add the remaining brownie batter spoon by spoon on different spots. Use a toothpick and run it all over the batter to create swirls.
9. Bake in a preheated oven for 30 mins at 180 C.

Let it completely cool off before cutting it up into pieces. Trust me, this is one heck of a dessert and really quite simple to make.

Creamy Spicy Chicken Curry

I don't know what to call this curry, to be honest. It's rich, creamy and a tad spicy - all of which you can alter to your taste. What's different with this curry is the ground paste I add in the end which makes it rich and bloody delicious!

Marinade:
1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp sugar
1/2 cup curd
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt to taste

Mix all of the above and marinate 1 kg chicken (on the bone cut into pieces) with it for 4-5 hours or overnight.

Ingredients for curry:
4 onions chopped, sauted in oil till transparent and pureed
4 tomatoes pureed
1 tsp jeera
2 green chillies slit
1 tsp ginger-garlic paste
1 tbsp ghee/butter/oil

Method:
1. Heat ghee/butter/oil (I went with butter), add chillies, jeera and then tip the onion puree into it.
2. Cook till it turns light brown in colour and add ginger-garlic paste with salt. Saute for 2 mins.
3. Add turmeric and chilli powders and mix well.
4. Add tomato puree.
5. Add the chicken with the marinade into this onion tomato mixture.
6. Cook for 25 mins or till done.
7. In the meanwhile make the paste which goes into the curry in the end.

[Ingredients for paste:
2 onions finely chopped
Handful of cashew nuts
1 inch cinnamon stick
4-5 cloves
4-5 cardamoms
1/4 cup fresh cream

Method:
1. Saute chopped onions in oil/ghee with cloves, cardamom, cinnamon till they're brown in colour.
2. Cool and blend it in your mixer with cream and cashew nuts till it's a fine paste.]

Cont. with curry..
8. Once chicken is cooked, add the paste and let it cook for another 2 mins.
9. Take off heat and garnish with coriander leaves.

You can alter this by omitting the cream or even the cashew nuts. But don't leave out the browned onions because it adds a nice caramel flavour to the dish. It sounds odd, but it's delicious. Serve with rotis or rice.

Bacon Brownies

Not too long ago, a colleague and friend brought us a bar of Bacon Chocolate from the U.S. Don't pull a face - it was the best thing I've tasted in years. It was as if chocolate met bacon, they dated in someone's kitchen and then I got to attend the wedding. It was all kinds of awesomeness. Now, I did know about bacon brownies but had never tried them - baking or otherwise. After the successful encounter with the bacon chocolate bar, I figured I'd give the brownies a shot. They turned out good. But there's always scope to improve - and by improve I mean, add more bacon!

The short version: Add 1/2 cup of fried bacon bits and 4 tsp bacon fat to your regular brownie batter.

Ingredients:
1 cup chocolate
1/4 cup salted butter
3/4 cup brown or regular sugar
3/4 cup flour
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup fried bacon bits
4 tsp bacon grease/fat

Method:
1. Microwave the chocolate and butter for 30 - 40 seconds and whisk till completely melted and smooth.
2. Add eggs and vanilla, and mix well.
3. Add sugar.
4. Fold the flour into the batter.
5. Add the bacon bits and fat to the batter.
6. Bake in a preheated oven for 20 mins at 180C

Let it cool completely before demolishing it.

Potato and Poached Egg Curry

Thanks to my Mangalorean lineage, I love coconut - in, on, under, over, however! In this recipe, eggs are poached in the curry. I don't know if we went to Israel or they came to Mangalore for a holiday, but there's a Shakshuka connection somewhere in the eggs poaching in curry/sauce. Why this is a quick dish for me is that I make the coconut based masala and store it in the fridge way before. It becomes the base for my chicken, mutton and vegetable curry. It's most convenient when you're a working person, and all you need to do it cook the vegetables out in the masala. You can then either add any kind of stock or simply use coconut milk for some gravy.

Serves 4

Ingredients:
3 tsp of the ground coconut masala
1 tbsp ghee or oil
1 medium onion finely chopped
1 tetrapack coconut milk (200 ml or approx a cup)
1 medium tomato finely chopped
1 tsp tamarind pas
2 large potatoes cooked and diced
4 eggs
Chopped coriander for garnish
Salt to taste

Method:
1. Heat oil/ghee and add onions.
2. Let it turn golden brown and then add the curry paste.
3. It will turn darker in colour (2-3 mins) and then add the tomatoes and salt.
4. Add coconut milk and a cup of water to dilute the curry.
5. Let it come to a bubble before you add the potatoes.
6. Now gently crack each egg open into the curry, at four different spots.
7. Cover and lower the flame. Let it cook further for 5-7 mins or till the yolks are set.
8. Garnish with coriander and serve with rice.

Coconut Masala Paste For Curries

This is my safe base as I'd like to call it. After a day's work, I'd like to get done with cooking for dinner in minimum time so I can unwind and rest well before a good night's sleep. This masala really helps my cause. For a quick curry I cook vegetables or meat in this paste along with coconut milk, stock or just water. Sometimes I add chopped tomatoes and tamarind pulp for some sourness while cooking the curry.

Ingredients for the ground masala:
8 dried red chillies
4 cloves garlic
1 inch piece of ginger
1/2 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp peppercorns
1 tsp turmeric
1 cup grated coconut or 1/2 cup coconut pieces
4 cloves
1 inch piece of cinnamon

Method for the masala:
1. Saute all ingredients one at a time in 1 tbsp oil or ghee.
2. Grind to a fine paste with water.
3. Use immediately or store in air tight container in the fridge.