Food has always been my favorite thing in this world. Be it home cooked or the neighborhood dhaba or that expensive restaurant. No wonder Cheeni Kum and Bawarchi are some of my all time favorite hindi movies. Fancy cooking is my hobby. Like they say for winners - "I don't cook different things, I cook them differently". Take for example an omelette, usual the Indian way of making a masala omelette would be to beat the eggs, put some spices and onions into the mixture and pour it over the hot oil in the pan. Then maybe *attach* a few pieces of breads over it. I would change it to fry a little cumin seeds in the oil first, then saute the onions and other vegetables for a while, spread them evenly over the pan surface and finally pour beaten egg slowly over them. Let it cook for 10-15 mins on low heat (simmering - my favorite), sprinkle some basil and oregano then flip it over for another 5-7 mins for low heat cooking. If you want to fatten it like a cake, cover the pan with a lid. The heat will make it fluffy and thick.
I've been experimenting with omelette, Noodles, Dal-Chawal and other odd stuff for more than a decade now. Sometimes the experiment succeeds and sometimes it fails so miserably that I had to throw the whole thing or even worse that it sticks to the pan so hard that even the cleaning lady struggles with it. But you know, like they say "Experiments makes way for discoveries".
Cheeni Kum was a great movie. It portrayed Amitab as a perfectionist cook who wants everything to be done his way. I watched it more than 20 times and I still remember some of its dialogues The "Hyderabadi Zaffrani Puloa" was made popular by this movie. This was the dish that went sweet by mistake and became a reason for Amitabh and Tabu to meet and fall in love. I was fascinated by the word Zaffrani (which is basically a surname) and how Amitabh would say that in the movie so I thought of trying out this dish at home. I called over a very close friend to cook the dish with me. I had never tasted the original Zaffrani Pulao so I don't know if it was even close to it but it certainly was better than a normal pulao. We had it for lunch.
About a year back, I invented the Egg-Buns, similar to the Mac D's Egg McMuffins. It was Saturday morning and I wanted to make something different for my wife and kid. All I saw in the fridge was eggs and a few buns. To make the Egg-Buns, I made a big hole all through a bun, kept it on a hot pan and poured beaten egg batter into the hole. Then simmered it for 10-15 mins, solidifying the egg batter inside the bun. It came out really well and I made 4-5 Egg-Buns for breakfast that morning. Needless to say my wife was very happy, no not because the egg-buns were good but I saved her a day of breakfast making ;-)
There's one more quick and tasty snack that I want to mention here, the "Mexican Papad Wrap". Its a variant of masala papad. All you do is take a papad, roll it like a cone, hold the edges with a kitchen tong and deep fry it for a few seconds. Then chop onion, tomato (without the juicy part), green chilly and masala mixture and stuff the papad cone with it. Its goes great with Beer.
My favorite food show is the Food Safari. I just love how they describe foods from different parts of the world. They start by showing the popular and commonly used spices and stuff for that place then go on showing how these are used in day-to-day cooking. Now whenever I cook rice, I put a slice of lemon (slice not juice), a slice of ginger and a few cloves and coriander leaves to cook with it. It gives a totally different taste to steamed rice. Nigella Kitchen is also a good show but because of the host, it becomes a little difficult for me to *just* focus on the beauty of the food being prepared.
Haaa! I've written so much about food that I've started feeling hungry again.
I've been experimenting with omelette, Noodles, Dal-Chawal and other odd stuff for more than a decade now. Sometimes the experiment succeeds and sometimes it fails so miserably that I had to throw the whole thing or even worse that it sticks to the pan so hard that even the cleaning lady struggles with it. But you know, like they say "Experiments makes way for discoveries".
Cheeni Kum was a great movie. It portrayed Amitab as a perfectionist cook who wants everything to be done his way. I watched it more than 20 times and I still remember some of its dialogues The "Hyderabadi Zaffrani Puloa" was made popular by this movie. This was the dish that went sweet by mistake and became a reason for Amitabh and Tabu to meet and fall in love. I was fascinated by the word Zaffrani (which is basically a surname) and how Amitabh would say that in the movie so I thought of trying out this dish at home. I called over a very close friend to cook the dish with me. I had never tasted the original Zaffrani Pulao so I don't know if it was even close to it but it certainly was better than a normal pulao. We had it for lunch.
These are some of my favorite scenes from the movie. In the first one, Amitabh describes the pulao recipe and in the second one he explains why chefs\cooks are the greatest artists in this world: "Issiye hum, duniya ke sabse bade kalakaar hain". Move to 2:09 in the second movie clip. For some reason I am unable to set the start time for Youtube movies here.
About a year back, I invented the Egg-Buns, similar to the Mac D's Egg McMuffins. It was Saturday morning and I wanted to make something different for my wife and kid. All I saw in the fridge was eggs and a few buns. To make the Egg-Buns, I made a big hole all through a bun, kept it on a hot pan and poured beaten egg batter into the hole. Then simmered it for 10-15 mins, solidifying the egg batter inside the bun. It came out really well and I made 4-5 Egg-Buns for breakfast that morning. Needless to say my wife was very happy, no not because the egg-buns were good but I saved her a day of breakfast making ;-)
There's one more quick and tasty snack that I want to mention here, the "Mexican Papad Wrap". Its a variant of masala papad. All you do is take a papad, roll it like a cone, hold the edges with a kitchen tong and deep fry it for a few seconds. Then chop onion, tomato (without the juicy part), green chilly and masala mixture and stuff the papad cone with it. Its goes great with Beer.
My favorite food show is the Food Safari. I just love how they describe foods from different parts of the world. They start by showing the popular and commonly used spices and stuff for that place then go on showing how these are used in day-to-day cooking. Now whenever I cook rice, I put a slice of lemon (slice not juice), a slice of ginger and a few cloves and coriander leaves to cook with it. It gives a totally different taste to steamed rice. Nigella Kitchen is also a good show but because of the host, it becomes a little difficult for me to *just* focus on the beauty of the food being prepared.
Haaa! I've written so much about food that I've started feeling hungry again.
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