tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45042084231402502022024-02-20T17:09:13.723-05:00Kitteh CooksUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger91125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4504208423140250202.post-80274551958214764772014-06-14T22:50:00.003-05:002014-06-14T22:50:36.272-05:00Basmati with chickpeas and herbs
We had a difficult time explaining to my friend's general factotum, who was helping us cook, what on earth this is called. 'Lekin didi yeh kaunsa biryani hai?' Somehow 'Basmati and chickpeas Babulalji' just didn't seem to work. So we called it Choley ka biryani. Once again from Ottolenghi, this time from Jerusalem, we served it with this yummy yummy chicken sofrito, which I didn't make so no Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4504208423140250202.post-89045319215823619992014-06-14T22:34:00.003-05:002014-06-14T22:34:36.689-05:00Roasted Aubergines with Yoghurt Sauce
More Ottolenghi. I must say I had my doubts about this. Thyme? And then the aubergines came out looking all sad and pathetic. And I'm thinking okay I know I'm all don't over spice it, let the flavours of the vegetables shine and all, but maybe too much shining? But nope, it was perfect.
So he calls it buttermilk sauce, which it probably is, but of course I couldn't be bothered to make Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4504208423140250202.post-80010762787028650162014-06-14T22:15:00.000-05:002014-06-14T22:15:30.980-05:00Stuffed Zucchini
My favourite cousin got me my first Ottolenghi book, Jerusalem, as a present in February, and then I went and bought Plenty at the book fair. They've been hanging out in my cookbookshelf all this time and, on the occasion of dinner birthday party for two beloved friends, I fished em out to plan menus. Now these recipes are a little daunting, partly because he seems to use a hundred things in Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4504208423140250202.post-41441405608345311412014-01-26T05:28:00.004-05:002014-01-26T05:30:19.211-05:00Corn Chowder
Back in November, I went on my first proper trip to the hills with friends since I moved to Delhi three years ago. Fuck more than three years now I come to think of it! Anyway, it was planned with The Writing Twins, and they brought friends with them. The six of us had a hysterically good time, ably assisted by the mascot and theme song, and have been planning a reunion hangout ever since then. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4504208423140250202.post-15202320143843992522014-01-26T05:27:00.001-05:002014-01-26T05:31:07.512-05:00Grilled Garlic Chicken
I like to call myself a non-practising non-vegetarian. This is because I don't have a problem with meat per se, only with pork, fish and seafood, I hate the smell, and with beef and mutton, it's too chewy. But my biryani must be mutton, I love murg malai kababs, have adored the beef broth soups I ate in Colombia, and am generally happy to pick the meat out and eat. This of course leads people toUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4504208423140250202.post-56830766671165872852014-01-26T05:15:00.001-05:002014-01-26T05:15:56.627-05:00Mushroom Bourgignon
Gosh I started making this recipe way back in 2009, and have been meaning to post it ever since. It's become a staple favourite of mine, especially in cold weather, and I have evolved so far from the original smitten kitchen recipe that I don't even know if it still is what I claim it is!
The thing I love about this is that it's thick and mushroomy and SO YUMMY, and it's super easy to makeUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4504208423140250202.post-9346455170930198282014-01-23T00:36:00.001-05:002014-01-23T00:40:22.475-05:00Sundays with Joe: Puff Pastry
One week, 2B1M suddenly sent me a link to pasteis de nata, which she'd seen on pinterest or something, and then I grinned and sent her here. That was the weekend we'd planned on puff pastry, so it all dovetailed nicely, and we set out on this magical adventure. Which was totally worth it.
Joe, of course, has an excellent tutorial, so I'm not even going to try and break down the actual Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4504208423140250202.post-49519753976326961152014-01-23T00:25:00.000-05:002014-01-23T00:40:33.118-05:00Sundays with Joe: Pasteis de nata
My dear baking-loving friend 2B1M and I have decided that we are going to try and bake our way through Joe Pastry, especially since he has all those recipes we've been dying to try, like puff pastry and croissants and eclairs. So, during the week, in all our food porn reading, we decide on something and on Sunday, bake it. This means we can offload it on colleagues on Monday morning and refrain Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4504208423140250202.post-2858761287271801532014-01-22T23:22:00.002-05:002014-01-23T00:40:43.885-05:00The Scientist's evil potato bake
Many years ago (something like twelve or thirteen urk) I made a friend in college. She was a local and used to periodically take me home with her and feed me real food, as opposed to hostel mess. In fact I used to carry a toothbrush in my bag so I could disappear at the drop of a hat heh. Her very cool father let us drink from his posh bar and make cocktails and whatnot--there was a notable Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4504208423140250202.post-28823297878970834982014-01-03T07:28:00.001-05:002014-01-03T07:28:06.482-05:00Gingerbread cookies
As a kid I never liked ginger cookies (I think everyone says this heh). For the life of me I don't know WHY I ever decided to bake any (maybe I wanted to do a house but chickened out), but I did for my 2012 christmas cake party, and they were such a hit, even with me, that I have made them a bit of a tradition now. The recipe is from the lovely Annie, of course duly tweaked by yours truly.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4504208423140250202.post-79492658666911475232014-01-03T07:24:00.004-05:002014-01-03T07:24:54.115-05:00Christmas is here!
And you have two recipes! First up, Christmas Cake.
When I moved to Delhi in 2010 the Dragon and I were thrilled with our spanking new house and decided we wanted to have a christmas party. We made many plans but I don't remember if we did bake all the things we planned, and we didn't have many guests--only the Glare if I remember right--but I did make my hero Joe's Old School Fruitcake for theUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4504208423140250202.post-79202760271593863792013-11-16T22:27:00.001-05:002013-11-18T03:18:28.137-05:00Wholewheat pizza!
You might remember my excited experiments with pizza in the past. Recently I discovered how easy it is to get fresh yeast in Delhi and since then my pizza making has gone to a whole new level. For starters, please ditch the false lore that states pizzas require sauce and cheese. They don't. No, really. Second, also toss out the idea that they need to be round. Ever since my pizza revolution, as Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4504208423140250202.post-45173132847020530182013-06-09T08:46:00.001-05:002013-06-09T12:35:40.242-05:00Peach Pie
A very long time ago, when my extended family still lived in Malleshwaram, one weekend on a visit we ended up being fed pie at The Only Place. It was peach pie. I fell in love. No, really. But somehow, I don't think I've ever eaten much peach pie since, even when I lived in phorens and whatnot. I did however acquire an addictive love of stone fruit, peaches, nectarines, apricots, cherries and myUnknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4504208423140250202.post-27481322968890576162013-06-04T09:00:00.000-05:002013-06-09T08:48:17.202-05:00Bhindi, goddess style!
Bhindi/okra has always been one of my great loves. But it's slimy and gross and I would only eat it carbonated, as my father likes to say. This is true. Growing up spoilt there was always one bowl of it that had been cooked BLACK that as just for me. And I was VERY possessive of my burnt bhindi. As time went by though, learnt about deep friend bhindi, bhindi made north Indian style with Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4504208423140250202.post-74933022074149221212012-12-12T23:28:00.001-05:002012-12-12T23:28:36.510-05:00Idli/dosai + Chutney
So, as part of thingies for ze uzzer blog, I posted this. And it's totally worthy of crossposting, and proof that I HAVE TOO BEEN COOKING!
I have been cooking a LOT. I have invented recipes and adapted
recipes, found a new favourite chocolate cake and, my biggest
achievement in the kitchen, become a good maker of south Indian food. In
fact, with the copious demands from the Poo and Kutti, I Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4504208423140250202.post-45519896540522114062011-12-08T04:14:00.001-05:002011-12-08T04:14:22.450-05:00I'm still cooking, I swear!
either I gotta stop wanting to photograph everything, or I gotta be happy with homey chilled out recipes. Anyway, I have an oven again, and it's cookie season! Recipe recommendations anyone?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4504208423140250202.post-88872751544476295042011-07-19T07:03:00.002-05:002011-07-19T07:06:06.582-05:00Carrot Cake and life lessonsThe first time I heard of carrot cake I was, obviously, revolted. Carrots! Orange vegetables with their very distinct and strong flavour in a cake! Impossible. Gajar ka halwa was made barely palatable only by the addition of obscene amounts of ghee. And raisins. How could you put carrots in cake and expect it to taste nice?
Of course, one day, I finally ate some. It was cake, after all, and one Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4504208423140250202.post-71911018933727092042011-04-09T11:10:00.002-05:002011-04-09T11:57:51.334-05:00Butterscotch cake with Caramel toppingStaying at the sister's I was asked to bake. Unfortunately, the large and varied group of people meant that my choices were restricted. So I thought about it and decided it was time to try a caramel cake. I know Deb has one, and Dragon makes it a lot. But somehow it's just not caramel enough for me. So I trawled my other two go to sites, and got the cake from Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4504208423140250202.post-63364114087174977492011-04-02T02:59:00.001-05:002011-04-02T03:01:37.771-05:00Piña colada cakeI thought of this before Deb posted, I swear. And you'll see it's not like her recipe. I've been very taken with the idea of making up my own recipes lately, especially ones that incorporate fruit and booze. So I thought, how can I turn a piña colada into cake? I thought about fresh coconut, or frosting with coconut, but I don't like coconut, except as milk. So I decided to put Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4504208423140250202.post-60205624239696511642011-03-27T03:36:00.000-05:002011-03-27T03:36:39.237-05:00Lemon pound cake with lemon glazeA cousin whose birthday I missed was the perfect excuse for this. She inhaled the tres leches I had left over, and would emerge from her book blinking sleepily to say 'cake? I heard cake!' every time anyone said anything that rhymed with cake, and so, even though she wanted chocolate, I begged her to choose something else for me to make. She graciously allowed me to choose, with this as the Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4504208423140250202.post-1614849098305573742011-03-13T23:49:00.003-05:002011-03-13T23:49:42.848-05:00Link party!Lisa from Sweet as Sugar Cookies invited me to link up my sugar cookies! I feel so important...
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4504208423140250202.post-21416878055928319872011-03-09T02:44:00.000-05:002011-03-09T02:44:04.510-05:00Sugar cookies!Adapted from Annie's Eats
For the party we had to celebrate my job at a place I've always wanted to work at, Dragon and I had a party, themed and everything. So I made sugar cookies, in white, orange and black. (Okay, only the orange ones were orange!) The recipe I used needed icing, so while the chocolate ones turned out delectably chocolate, the plain ones were a bit sad, but the ones covered Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4504208423140250202.post-16180258206213766512011-02-18T09:05:00.001-05:002011-02-18T09:09:00.151-05:00Lentil soupOr, I'm sick of dal, and I can't be bothered to make veggies.
For pre-cooking and background, see this.
1/2 cup uncooked brown lentils (masoor dal), pre-cooked
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp oil
1 tsp garlic paste
You can also add any herbs you like, paprika and tomato would be nice, also rosemary or thyme if you like them.
Cook the garlic paste in the oil, add the cooked lentils and Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4504208423140250202.post-27816872540454484722011-02-18T08:59:00.002-05:002011-02-18T09:09:51.571-05:00Any dal (this one is awesome with arhar)For pre-cooking and background, see this.
1/2 cup uncooked dal, pre-cooked.
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp mustard seeds (big black ones)
1/2 tsp jeera powder
1/2 tsp ginger garlic paste
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 small tomato finely chopped
5-6 curry leaves (fresh if pos, dried also work)
Heat the oil and put the mustard seeds in. When they start to pop, add the rest of the spices, curry leaves (Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4504208423140250202.post-22063762749941467352011-02-18T08:57:00.005-05:002011-02-18T09:10:33.362-05:00Masoor dalFor pre-cooking and other background, see this.
This works with any dal actually.
1/2 cup uncooked dal, pre-cooked
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp dhania powder
1/2 tsp jeera powder
1/2 tsp ginger garlic paste
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 small tomato finely chopped
fresh coriander (optional)
Fry the spices in the oil for a couple of minutes. Add the ginger garlic and cook for a minute. Add Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0