Pinku-Enchanted Life

Vada Pao the quintessential Bombay street food like all true street foods is essentially a very simple dish which uses flavors which 99% people would love. What’s not to love about fried potatoes and warm bread, anyway? Since our anando mela sees a fair amount of non Bengali navratra celebrating guests I made it a point to have two chutneys to go with my vada pao. The first a green coriander, mint chutney with no onion or garlic and the other the ‘must’ dry chutney that goes with vada pao made with red chillies and garlic. To my surprise I ran out of Vada paos even before I finished my Sali boti and that says something. Here is the recipe for all of it. Warning: the recipes may not be totally authentic for I do let my tongue and mind overrule most cook books. Ingredients: 1 kg potato – boiled peeled and mashed Pao – I got store bought ones Vegetable oil Asafoetida – a tsp, I like the flavor so usually use more, you can use a pinch if not too happy with it Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp Green...

Having an infant in the house means you get used to waking up at odd hours and acting as if nothing is amiss. Today the infant was actually kind and gave me about six hours straight night sleep (a huge rarity these days when the normal is to get up every two hours) so when he wailed at 5:30 and wanted a feed I got up in an instant. Having fed the baby and put him back to sleep I noticed the time was almost six and sleeping now meant being late for work so I decided to bake instead. I had just baked a winter fruit cake (Orange) and now I wanted to try my hands on a winter vegetable; the red juicy carrots. There was only one hitch I had run out of eggs. That is when I remembered the flax seeds which have been lying unused for a while now. Here are the ingredients I gathered: 1 cup white flour (maida) 1.5 cup grated carrots (the red juicy ones) Half cup powdered sugar (take a lil less if the carrots are really sweet) Half cup olive oil 2 tbsp flax seed powder 2 tbsp curd 1 tsp baking powd...

Our gang of girls at work is forever into planning the next fun thing to do. From being dressed in sync to shopping sprees to sneaking out for a lunch or movie or even at times planning a socially relevant protest - we are upto it all and more. Last weekend bored with the office canteen food and craving something nice talk started about doing a pot luck. Most of us being non-veg lovers the food of course was going to be predominantly non veg we did decide on a couple of veg dishes as well keeping in mind the token vegetarian in the group and also to provide ourselves from the overload of non veg. I was told to get a fish dish and it better be finger licking good I was told. Monday was set as the D day. The weekend being ample prep time. Now Sunday was also Jamai shoshti or the Day of the Son in Law in Bengali households. Mom was getting ready to cook up a storm in the kitchen. With outside temperatures already hitting 45 degree plus I managed to dissuade her and instead opted for a lun...

Brownies are those gooey chocolaty things that one digs into with or without reason. To have a brownie is sheer indulgence. The high chocolate content gives me the perfect kick and while I will eat only a small piece of cake, a brownie is always in the bigger is better category. So it happened that I was holding onto a cupful of rum soaked dry fruits & spices which were leftovers from the Christmas cake.  I didn't want to bake more plum cake for two reasons. One the process is lengthy and secondly I had baked quite a few in December and didn't feel like doing it again. A brownie seemed a better alternative. I replaced the usual walnuts with the soaked fruits and hoped it wouldn't be too weird a taste. Well the outcome was a finger licking good brownie with just a hint of rum to take its addictive qualities a notch higher. Ingredients: 125 gm Maida (white flour) 1 TSP Baking powder 200 gm i.e half tin condensed milk 3 TBSP Butter 2 TBSP Cocoa Powder (I used Cadbury's...

The past saturday found us excitedly heading towards Jawahar Lal Nehru Stadium to attend the Street food festival being organised there by NASVI . Last year I had heard a lot of good things about this festival and also read up a two page write up in Brunch by Vir Sanghvi which left me salivating for these treats from the streets. So off we went, the hubby, kid and me to check out the fare at the JLN Stadium grounds. Post working out the parking format (essentially about getting your car to climb the pavement and sitting there) we walked up to the gate, paid the entry fee of Rs. 50/- per head and were all set to explore. We decided to take a quick round of the place before choosing the stuff we would like to eat. Bihar, Jharkhand, Assam we looked at before settling for a Chicken 65 at the Karnataka stall.  A big chicken leg wrapped in a spicy batter and deep fried till the outer layer is crisp, the inner layer is cooked and yet the juices have been left intact is what we got on our ...

Christmas for me is incomplete without some serious plum cake eating. Since for the past year or so I have been baking with a vengeance I thought this year the Plum cake too should be home baked.  Research on the hows, do's and dont's took me through various books, blog posts and videos and I finally figured out a recipe that I was reasonably sure would work for me and was close to the taste and texture I had in mind. To me a good plum cake is a dark, well baked almost over baked, moist, filled with dry fruits kind of cake which is rich in spices and has a distinct aroma. Sharing herewith the recipe. Do give it a try and let me know how it goes: Ingredients: To Soak the Fruits ( do this atleast 4 weeks before you expect to bake. Remember to stir it atleast twice every week) 2 cups - chopped dry fruits - include all that you like. and then some. Add lemon and orange peels if you can, they add a lovely fragrance 1 1/2 - cups liquor - I used dark Rum, you can choose to use red wi...

Image from Google " Growing up we had one TV channel DD and double censorship reigned. One imposed on the content by govt. the other on viewing hours by parents. Our real entertainment was friends. Whether playing games, munching on snacks made by one of the moms or retelling pranks played or books read. Friends were what kept us involved, engaged and happy. We didn't know of friendship day then, friends were everyda y.  Now with multiple channels of entertainment and engagement I guess we need a special day to remember our friends as well. So that's how I have spend my hours today reliving memories of friends the very many I met at various points in time. Some I am in touch with some sadly not. Hope to correct that someday." Was my FB post on the occasion of Friendship day and many friends remembered the simpler, saner times we lived in with a tinge of nostalgia.  And I thought I was done with the celebration of this occasion created I suspect by some greeting card c...