[SCM]: Baigun Bhaja

[My fascination with Bong food goes back to my good old childhood days, where Durga Puja and Navratri used to be my favorite festival. Khichdi at Durga Puja has no match, and the amazing chutney served with it, ahaa. Also my pados ki aunty used to make amazing fish for me. My liking for bong food has been well documented earlier. This recipe is dedicated to kharagpuriya bong at whose home I made this last week, the to be bong bahu who will eat a fish-head during her wedding, and my poor friend who spends nights in shady bengal hotels traveling on thelas, eats jhal mudi and sells tide:). And haan to the Amdavadi Bahu who loves cooking :)]

Baigun Bhaja (Serves 3)

Ingredients:

• Big Fat Brinjal (One or two, depends how hungry you are, please check for small pores in the Brinjal, if they are there be careful, isme keeda lag jaata hai kai baar]
• Mustard Oil or Sarso ka Tel (extremely high on calories, superb on taste, if you don't have this, please don't try this dish)
• Ginger-Garlic Paste
• Turmeric and Red Chillies powder

Method:

Wash the Brinjal (they use the max pesticides on poor Brinjal, wash it properly, and then wipe it with a dry cloth). Cut it into slices, slices shouldn't be wafer thin, nor they should be very thick. Medium thickness slices. Cut them but don't leave them for long, Brinjal has Iron in it, so like Apple, it oxidizes and turns dark. Its very high on Vitamins and Iron, but don't worry, we will kill it all :).

Take a bowl, put 2 Tb Spoons of Ginger-Garlic paste in it. Add a tea spoon of mustard oil, half tea spoon of turmeric and hald tea spoon of chillies powder. Mix it well. Remember its not like pakode ka batter, it shouldn't be too much, you just need to put that masala on the slices.

Take a pan, heat it, put mustard oil in it. Remember less oil and Brinjal might burn, or turn dry, a nice bhaja is always soaked with oil. Put the Brinjal slices in the bowl with paste in it, coat it evenly and shallow fry it in the pan.

While frying notice the sides, they will turn crisp, the center soft and yellow, fry evenly on both sides. Don't fry it too much, otherwise it will be too oily, just the right amount. The center should taste like oily bharta, and you know its done.

Goes well with Khichdi, simple Daal-Rice and even as a starter with alcohol. Yes after a long time I have found new company for alcohol :)

[SCM]: Desi's Mashy Mayo Wich and Thakela Sunrise

[Through Simple Cooking for MBAs or SCM I want to share a bit of whatever I try out in kitchen, you can ping my roomie, it tastes decent :), and its easy to make. For all my friends, living on those lonely sales stints, or sitting in distant plants, girls who always have wanted to cook but then finally don't, guys who think they can cook if they make maggi, those who are bored of their cooks, or thinking of throwing a home party, you can try a few out. Didn't take any pics today, will put them up next time around.]


Desi's Mashy Mayo Wich (serves 3)

Ingredients:

• Vegetables: 3 Potatoes, 2 Tomatoes (1 tomato diced, 1 sliced), 1 Onion (diced), 2 green chillies (finely chopped)
  
• Brown / White bread: 9 Slices
• 1 Tea spoon oil (use Saffola, good for heart, and would help increase my friend's sales)
• Butter / Amul Lite (based on what mood you are in, nothing tastes like Butter, but I think Lite is Ok)
• Masala: Jeera whole (1 tea spoon), Red Chilli powder, Chat Masala, Salt, Pepper
• Mayonnaise (take the veggie one, its tastier, there is healthy option available too, fat-free one in stores, made of mostly milk solids)

Method:

Boil the potatoes (wash them, put them in a cooker, now handling a cooker totally depends on you, my cooker is awesome, and I am comfortable with its setting, Apeksha's cooker behaves differently, totally your call. For me I sink them around 3-4th in water, put 6-7 whistles as I want to mash them, Jeera-Aloo would require 4-5 whistles). Then mash them.

Heat a bit of oil in pan, now crack Jeera in it. Now Jeera cracks earlier than Rai (mustard does) so don't heat it too much or you risk burning the Jeera. Best way is to heat it, then sim the gas a bit, then add couple of Jeera seeds, if it cracks put the rest.

The sugandh / khushboo / fragrance which follows is better than your Chanel's and Boss's. Its mahaan (most prominent places where you find the smell, Jeera rice, Dal Fry made with Jeera ghee and aloo jeera).

Put in the mash potatoes, mix chat masala and red chillies powder. Slightly heat it and mix it well. Take it off the flame, add diced tomatoes and onions. Cool it a bit (the sandwich mix is ready). Put salt and pepper to taste (remember you have added Chat Masala which has tonnes of Salt, so be careful while adding salt)

Heating the bread is not a simple act, there are multiple variations to how you can do it. The most boring is the videshi method of putting it in a toaster or microwave. Boring!!!

Best is the desi tarika, put them in a pan / tawa, put Lite / Butter, let it slightly melt add Jeera powder in Butter (you can add Red Chillies Powder too), put the Bread on Top, nicely butter it with Amul Lite (remember not that many calories, you can add your bit:)) and heat it. Let it be nicely brown (slightly soft or crunchy, whichever way you like it).

For the wich to be ready now, keep a slice of heated bread on a plate, put the potato as one of the layers. Close it with a slice, put mayo on it. If you are cal-conscious use a knife to spread it, otherwise use a spoon :). Remember even this has salt (so keep this in mind while using salt earlier). Now put the tomato slices on this layer and close it.

Its a fact that Sandwiches cut diagonally taste better than stand alone or beech se cut sandwiches.

Btw it's ready, eat it :). You can add cucumber to it, might go well. Goes well with Thakela Sunrise.

Thakela Sunrise (Serves 3)

Ingredients:

• 350 ml Minute Maid Pulpy Orange
• Ice Cubes 12
• 5 Tea Spoons Glucon D (preferably Orange flavor)
• Bacardi White Rum (90 ml) (depends if you want a mocktail or a cocktail)

The objective of this drink is to energize you on a boring day, and its amazingly refreshing. A sunrise for the thakela :)

Remember cocktails are all about measures, you won't get the right feel if the measures are not right.

Method:

Mix it, if you have a cocktail mixer, shake it. And its ready.

Let me know if you try something out, in case you don't be happy to know that your friend keeps on trying things out :)

Simple Things again...

Its awesome, the feel of having simply cooked jeera fused daal & chawal after a week of nonsense eating. Pizzas, subway, manglorean style chicken gravy, dosas, chinese stuff, ice cream and a bit of C2H5OH. But nothing gave me as much satisfaction like today.

Simple things, like cleaning up my closet, washing clothes, reading a book, cooking food, having a nice simple chat with my friend yesterday night are always the stuff which keeps me going, still I wonder why I run away from it.

Simplicity from work to food to other things in life, is the way to go. [Ref: Hrishida movies :)]

For the past year or so my association with things simple were with something else, although in a different form, that simplicity has gone, now I need to be back to what simplicity originally meant to me.

And hope all things simple which I like will fall in place too.

The Story of Indian Railway Cutlet

Have you ever noticed Bhartiya Railway- “Aapki Sewa main” (In Your Service) written in small circles on the berths in railway coaches. For me the service by Bhartiya Railway is represented by the quintessential Railway breakfast, Cutlets ?

Those small patties, covered with bread crumbs, deep fried, cut in various shapes (circular in west, heart shaped in east, other shapes which I have seen include a rhombus, small squares etc.) are part of the morning happenings of any train journey. After seeing (or smelling) the great railway toilets in morning (usually flooded, soiled and you know what all) & a quick brushing of teeth along with junta, many a times with finger (as one forgets the brush?) the smell of these cutlets is the first welcome thing which invigorates all senses, especially "the smell" which ends all smells. The smell of railway cutlets is unique, much unique than that of soil after first rains, or that of Chanel no.5 . Any other smell which comes closer is that of railway window railings, purely metallic and very very unique.

These cutlets are mostly made of potatoes with a few seasonal veggies, mostly peas, carrots etc. Although the best ones always have that bit of beetroot in them, they always have. They are the mostly nicely packed item which Indian Railways provide, well wrapped in the aluminum foils, in fact there is a bit of sogginess prior to the crispiness of these cutlets due to the foils which adds to the taste. They always serve two cutlets with bread butter (2 slices only, never ever more than that). I always make a sort of a sandwich out of the first and the second one I just get lost in its taste. One can’t forget the contribution of Sauce here (enriched with Kaddus ?) this tomato ketchup is always packed in those small plastic sachets, bright red in colour, it always adds to the flavour of cutlets.

Cutlets taste best with the watery coffee (which is much better than the watery tea). Although if one gets tea of the quality of Chaudhry Chai waala (near nandurbar station, en route Ahmedabad to Nagpur) one shouldn’t miss that.

Cutlets compete with Omelets in morning, and from the look on the faces of people who buy omelets one knows who wins ?. Cutlets also get an enhanced version in Rajdhani or Shatabdi where they are accompanied with fried green peas or a bit of French fries at times. But the basic taste remains the same.

I just hope I keep traveling, enjoying my journeys on Indian Railway and keep enjoying the wonderful moments it brings along.

Long Live the Indian Railway Cutlet, one of the best breakfasts in the country…

What Having Fun was... What it is?

Comes from my conversations with few buddies... mix of their and my incidents :)

As a Kid having a cold drink was fun. I still remember the time when my dad used to take me to Indian Coffee House, ordered a Special Dosa for me (with one Kaju, costed 14 Rs. then). He would order a filter coffee and watch me munch on the dosa. And then came the cold drink. Ahaa, that straw and that first sip was awesome. From Gold Spot to rarity of having coke, it was all fun. And yes The Green Boxed Frooti (Rs. 6) was awesome too.

As a kid I loved having an ice cream. Didn't we always dream of a chocobar or a vanilla cup. It was so awesome when I went out with my family to have that. Maybe once a month, maybe once in 2 months. But it was awesome. Arun Ice cream's vanilla cups were the best :)

As a kid I loved ice cream. The best thing was Nirula's. Chocolate was simply the best. They used to give me one after I showed them my report card, and I also got coupon for my birthday :)

Those were the days. Sipping Beer, or whisky at Banshankari's famous hang-outs. Seshgiri or its not so far sister concern (codename: 3 gigolos :)). We got drunk, had chips from some HOT CHIPS, cold drinks from the same store, and then we talked...

and talked

and talked

a movie used to play, a guy used to enter kop-bhavan, 2 guys were always coding something on a red laptop which was hotter than a frying pan, and we ended up playing karaoke with Golmaal or discussing Nihilism, science fiction & indian cinema.

And there are moments which me, and a few others dont like that much, but it gives some sort of fun to others. Like, loud music, dark discos, late night drinking and talking sessions etc etc.

But then like today, there are awesome mornings to cover them all up, from disc-asur to Idli-esh. We had the best breakfast one can ever have to start the day, filter coffee, 5-6 types of idlis, 4 types of dosas, podi with oil, benne (white butter).

I know what kind of fun is best for me, and I will be back soon, as soon as this 2 year thing comes to an end.

कहानी २५ पैसे के बोरकुट की

On all those cycle journeys back from school me, my namesake and few more friends spent most of our time chit-chatting, drinking water from my Milton bottle and taking numerous stops. Strangely each stop and its activity was the same for years.

The school was some 15 mins from our home Krishna Vihar in morning (or even at 10 mins at times), but in afternoon it took us half hour or more. We had 3 stops, first in Yamuna Vihar (water drinking and discussion on girls and on latest Kaands in school stop), Kaveri Vihar Market (detour from our route, chedu's pravachan, his our fascinations of kimberly drummond (different strokes) & ms. winslet of titanic and experiments with sanskrit :)), and finally the borkut stop :D...

Borkut stop was our final frontier of freedom, 1Re coin helping us buy 4 of them, we were usually 3, so one for each and then carefully splitting the final pack in 3 parts. Or mixing borkut with aamkut and imlikut just at 25p :). Borkut is btw a pachak product made from Jungli Ber's power along with chatpata masala (like hajmola). Aamkut is amde form raw mango and imlikut from dried tamarind.

Those were the days were a rupee bought me that much pleasure. Jalebi in those days was Rs. 40 a kg and we were full in 5Rs.

And yesterday whn I stpped out with another of my namesakes we spent 98 Rs for 2 pieces of Jalebi and 2 Pieces of Gulaabjaamun. Oh I forgot 5ml of Rabdi which accompanied it. Felt bad, but world has changed.

And so have we...

मदन - कहानी एक Pub की

***Starring ***

Chipu
( I have decided to write a book on the life and times of this guy)
Rattu
Bhussu


***And***

Dandit
Mimpy
Bho-Bho-ti
Pat-rick
Nippu


***Friendly Appearance***

KAddu
Piddu
Anit Pacob Jillpose
Khakre

***Scene-1 ***

Somewhere on quite nice crowded street on Bangalore (crowd is implicit in Bangalore), ambling around are three stupid looking individuals, quite visibly mistaking the road as a Bird Sanctuary. ( For people in Bangalore I am referring the set of perpendicular roads connecting from Jyoti Nivas College-Koramangala 4th Block side to Forum-100ft road connection).

But enough of birds, these guys have never got them, one of them although carries the distinction of breaking eggs :), lot of them :D. Who's interested, Chipu, Rattu and Bhussu just want some beer, and they will get it at Madan Pub. Small shabby looking place where evil ideas thrive, men with rotten faces, dirty lungis and unbrushed moustaches laugh like Ashok Vatika Sita Kidnappers, light is dim, TV always throws a classic Rajkumar Classic (the same one always where he plays a Rajkumar) and waiters serve with uncut nails filled with smudge..yuk

But beer is cheap and thats Ok, for us :)

This place was discovered by Fake Kannada speaking Bho-Bho-ti, patronised by the wide assed king of bangalore, Pat-Rick & made popular by rattu. Anit Pacob Jillpose lived in Pune but he dreamt of going to madan, and Khakre cracked up as we muttered him stories of Madan.

Madan Rocks, no... Madan Mahaan hai :)

In an area full of beautiful chiks and chikkis, this is the place, where Men can be Men, and not those spiked hairs, loose jeans, jockey showing lean kids, they can hold their drink with pride and drink and bask in the glory of the super dim lights which make you look, evil.

I dont remember whether Mimpy visited it, but this is a place liked by 3 of us who came here tonight, me, Bhussu, Chipu. Bhussu loves drinking, and following it up with Hyderabadi Biryani, Drinking loves Chipu, and will always love him. As for me, I can walk downstairs to pick up Mysore Pak off Adayar anand bhavan :)

But as Mimpy says, yeh ek Mahaan jagah hai, so ashtumaadi

Kahani starts when Nippu comes to Bangalore... till then wait maadi

Vada-Pav, Totos and ... Girls :)

Vada Pav is God's Own Food in Mumbai. Have gulped thousands of them since being in Mumbai, it comes in various formats and my favorite one is one near NM (Vile Parle) and at Shetty's in front of my college gate.

This place in Bandra, Totos- Garage Pub is really quite nice. The first time I was there back in Aug'08 with my friend we ended up standing on a small table on the side, enjoying the view of tonnes of good looking girls on the Table on View, and obviously having Beer :). I really like the place, a Chicken Roll near Carter Road CCD and a Brownie nearby always precedes the events at Totos. Overall good place...

Girls... well I hardly have had any luck with them... lets not talk... ;)

Kissa-1:

Sometime in August, me along with two of my friends, goto Totos. We drink a bit and then come across few of my friends juniors from his college. So we sit and share the table. Enter this girl, who we all know has to be good (otherwise the story won't be told :)), who comes and sits with us (seems she knows someone among the Juniors). So everyone is talking and fortunately I get a seat in front of her which gives me the freedom to talk with her for ages (it was just two hours:)). Ahha, and her boyfriend too ... he was sitting next to me. But who cares, the girl was good, enough :D

So when all the bills were cleared, she leaves a Rs. 10 tip (or maybe 20, I was drunk, but my bill was already cleared) . I told her why Tip, I think I brought a Pitcher to the Table too, why not Tip me.

"What would you do with this?"... kuch nahi, mujhe tip do, isse vada-pav khaaunga :)

Shocked and Stunned, she Tipped me :), my friend who was the closest linked to her was hiding his face and all other laughing. Don't know why they were, because I kept the note and had an awesome vada-pav of it the next day :)...

Kissa-2:

She is a nice and pretty girl, (self claimed hottie, which I dont agree :P), He is the CUTEst kid in the batch (so much so kid that he was asked for AGE proof at Totos :)). I thought will do them both a favour.

I two years of Vada Pav- for Preety Girl given that she takes Cutest Boy and introduces him to the CUTEst girl at Totos and helps him to hit on the Cutest Girl :). (No one knows who the CUTEst Girl was, rest two are friends )

Cutest Girl was sitting in a corner (with no boys around). So again will the vada pav make it, or break it. I offered Pretty Girl Beer, she refused, but then when I offered her Vada Pav, she agreed. So she took him to meet the CUTEst girl, and the rest as they say was LEGEN...DARY (Barney Stinson's Blog)

Kissa 3:

My friend enginerd was roaming in Bombay it was the day of Chatt and thousands were performing Pooja on Juhu Beach, enginerd was there too, to have a glimpse of Priyanka Chopra who apprantely was there too. I divert him to this party of bloggers (also on http://www.thevoiceinmyhead.com/2006/10/29/mandira-meets-bloggywood/) hosted by my once favorite blogger (once because I hardly read anything nowadays :)). As I was lucky enough to get invited, I thought if I am in Bangalore why doesn't my friend get the chance to have a bit of fun.

But the passing of invite came at a cost, I asked enginerd to buy 4 vadpavs from NM (or mithibai) get them packed and hand it over to the hostess. Surely something that she would remember for quite some time :) (in a party where people are bringing wine and flowers over, that was surely a differentiating factor :)).

2 years later at my college canteen I see her sitting ( i never met her but wrote for her blog sometimes long back), so I go and meet her, and remind her of the vada-pav. She recognises me on the basis of Vada Pav :) and then she remembers me as desh and then we talk :).

Conclusion:

Girls come and go, a vada-pav is forever :P

Dahi Vade and Women

An excerpt from the conversation between Pushpa and Urmila(Bindiya Goswmi) from the 1979 Hrishikesh Mukherjee classic GolMaal.

Pushpa: Le Dahi Vade kha le
Urmila: Nahi Mann nahi kar raha
Pushpa: Arre Dahi Vade khane ka Mann nahi kar raha. Agar kisi Ladki ka Dahi Vade khane ka mann nahi karta to do cheeze ho sakti hai,

• ya to woh dheere dheere ladki se ladka ban rahi hai...
• ya to usse PREM ho gaya hai

Ek din mujhe bhi Dahi Vade khaane ka mann nahi kiya, teen din baad pata chala ki mujhe Bunty se Prem ho gaya hai :) (and bluntly blushing)
Bol ri! Kya naam hai unka

Urmila:(sharmate hue) Lucky naam hai...continued

Some questions arising from the same,

1. Is it true? Girls visiting the blog may share there own experiences with Dahi Vade, boys may just share there opinion?
2. If a person doesn't it Dahi Vade how can a she become a he, and is the process reversible, maybe a new innovation in the Gender Change operations?
3. What if a boy rejects to eat Dahi Vade, what are the possible scenarios?
4. Why Dahi Vade, what if Sambhar Vade was the rejected entity?

That's enough for now, I am no expert on Woman... Wooooo... Man! issues like Naresh neither am I a philosopher of the rating of the quark. But I want an answer. Maybe if the theory is found to be authentic next year we will have girls throwing/eating away Dahi Vada plates in response to Valentine Divas proposals.

I have my own way of resolving issues and maybe whatever sounds complicated to me is best resolved by relating it to food. My favourite director maybe just gave me an opportunity to do the same.

Do answer the questions, additional practice for the RC section at Billi this year.

p.s.- Golmaal is one of my favourite movies, yesterday night while watching it along with Kapil and the quark, we realised this is the only sequence in the movie which didn't make sense to us. Rest of the movie we had a great time playing Karaoke with the dialogues and songs in the movie. Error rate of us getting the dialogues wrong was minimal.

Update: In the words of the quark

Regarding dahi-vade it might be post modern dilemma of love, food and women & gender... :)

Technorati Tags: Hrishikesh Mukherjee, GolMaal

The MTR way...

After the horrendous loss of India on Friday, the weekend was surely going to be a dud. Morning I woke up thinking that whatever I saw on friday night was a dream. But my message box full of Stupid SMSes suggesting that I was wrong spoilt it up. So I thought better roll out for a movie Namastey London, well was waiting for that one for long time I thought.

Thankfully I was also accompanied by my idli-hating, but foodiprising nonetheless friend Vaibhav. We along with couple of more pals checked into MTR. Ok now I have been to Urvashi-Lalbagh area like umpteen times but still it took me so much time to trace MTR. One of my friends suggested the place long back but you see something are destined to happen when it should.

We checked-in and as per the legend we were in a waiting queue, lucky enough though as the uncleji cleared us off in 5 mins. I have heard about people sticking like 20-30 mins to catch a glimpse of the idlis.

So after getting in walking on a historically pictographed staircase, we entered into a superbly cool place on the first floor. Well first I thought that it was the place which made it so cool, but later realied that the AC’s were playing their part well. Actually the place looked like one of my native homes in the village which was quite cool, so maybe the confusion. even the Wash Basin was the unique one with a pedal instead of a Tap.

Well some food now, we had Badam Halwa, Rava Idli with Sagu and Masala Dosa. Needless to say everything was quite draped in Ghee, as the waiters were in their loongis. It was followed by a Coffee which was something like I have never tasted before, too strong but refreshing. the cost is a little high but MTR makes it up by the quality of food they serve.
For me Masala Dosa was the standout dish and for people who like Ghee this place is awesome. The place gives that 20’s-30’s bit of feel. Feels like you part of a British Contingent in 20’s or discussing a the Indian National movement in the 30’s. One of my pals told me that earlier they served food in Silver Ware. That should have added to that feel.

Anyway Mavalli Tiffin Rooms is surely the place to go in Bangalore, especially for the not so Weight Conscious guys and who have got the bit for taking the feel of a old Bangalore. By the way the movie also wasn’t too bad after that, but still MTR was all on my mind for the weekend.

Technorati Tags: MTR, Food, Bangalore, Restaurant Review

Bangalore and my Belly

I was instructed by my favourite professor at college before leaving. Abhishek better look at your weight. Well I have been following him and looking after it.

First few days into Bangalore and I felt that Cauvery Water Supply for Bangalore has got parallel connections for Sambhar and Chutney. Anyway I have always loved South Indian food or for that matter any kind of food but excess of anything is not so good. But I still tend to manage it.

Chapter-1 Prasiddhi and Annakuteera

Former was better but I have been more loyal to the second one. Prasiddhi taught me that Banglorians are as addicted to Gobhi Manchurian as they are to Idli/Vadas. Both have fed me with Idli, Vada, n number of Baths (as it is written on menu), Ice Creams and Juices.

Chapter-2 Chandni Chowk and The Village

So after my initial tryst with Sambhar, Chutney's, Vadas, idlis and dosas Chandni Chowk was something good. I mean had Tandoori food there and better I didnt pay for it my friend did. So did he when we visited Village at Indiranagar. Nice food, anyway I have realised that from time I have started making moneyI have started noticing things like ambhience service quality and all that crap. They kind of looked Phoney in the good world of food but I dont know how they have crept in.

Chapter-3 Chinese...

Chung, Beijing bites, Rice Bowl, Gobhi Manchurian and Chinese movies have been really nice to me in Bangalore. Leave Chung where me and Vaibhav were fooled by a unusual sounding dish which turned out to be an omelet or Rice Bowl where food sucked somehow and Beijing bites which has been ok I feel more Chinese now. Suppose I could start working in a Chinese Restaurant now.

Chapter-4 Corner House

This has been my favourite part of Bangalore till now roaming on MG, Brigade and then going to Corner House. DBC and Hot Choco Fudge are awesome and I am glad Happa took me there that day. I have been there three times and feel like going there every weekend.

Chapter-5 Liquor oops...

I would better not say anything about it but from all my experiences I will never drink beer or whiskey sort off drinks. Vodka suits me so that’s ok. No more on that.

Anyway all these chapters close reminding me of DTC. Anyway I should better try to be a non-member now. Me living life now the Bangalorian way but I don’t think they must be eating such diverse food as me. Anyway now another career eludes me; a person writing Food Reviews. I mean I can earn money and eat too. Food has kept me involved in Bangalore, sometimes though my brain thinks that do I think from my belly???