Culinary Confessions - Part Three

Chapter 11: Cutlets to the rescue!

Cutlets may be only in one form but what goes into it are various combinations - all delicious. I attempted to cook paneer pudina cutlets and mushroom galouti (mushroom cutlets). The paneer pudina cutlets are probably the easiest dish to create - rightly so, cause I managed to cook them! :D For anyone who would want to whip up a quick and tasty snack, I recommend you try out these cutlets. All you need to do is combine grated paneer, pudina (chopped), green chilies, cornflour and salt. Once they are combined, make small balls and flatten it out and they are ready to pan fry. You can sprinkle a bit of chaat masala just to have your palate wanting some more.

Mushrooms are probably the second most used “protein” in our house after cottage cheese. I was extremely eager to try out this recipe - it was going to be a completely different way we would use mushrooms. In a pan, drizzle some oil and sautee garlic, green chillies and mushrooms.

Cooking Tip: Pan fry mushrooms with a bit of oil and it will give out its water and eventually evaporate. This helps the mushrooms retain their flavour and also add on the natural flavour of it to the dish.

To the mushrooms, add on your desired masalas. Since this is a mushroom galouti, we added indian spices such as chilli powder, turmeric, garam masala and cumin powder with a pinch of salt. Once the mushrooms are cooked, blend it to a paste. To the paste, add one boiled and mashed potato (as mentioned earlier, no dish is complete without potato!), gram flour, paneer and coriander and combine them well. Make patties and pan fry them and ta-da, delicious mushroom galouti is ready. This whole experience for me was very exciting and refreshing because it was one of the few times that we would use mushrooms in a different form rather than just using it for pasta or biryani which are equally delicious although!

Chapter 12: Can’t go wrong with Maggi!

It goes without saying that every household in India would have a packet of Maggi and also all the Indians studying abroad too would have not just one but many packets of maggi stored! I decided to experiment with maggi - I know its a crime but believe me it’s not all that bad! Please don’t judge! I decided to bring together the 3 most indulgent ingredients together - maggi, cheese and potatoes in order to make maggi cheese balls.

This recipe does involve a few processes but trust me, it’s worth it! First off, you need to cook the maggi and strain it, to which you must add mashed potatoes, corn flour, the one and only maggi taste maker, chilli powder, turmeric powder, garam masala, cumin powder (hope I haven’t forgotten any masalas), green chillies and salt. Combine them well and flatten it out and add a cheese cube. Cheese tip: it needs to be a processed cheese. Wrap the cheese inside and then coat the balls, first with maida slurry and then with maggi crumbs (uncooked). Do not worry, this may seem like it will be waste but it isn’t. Again, please do not judge me! Deep fry them until it turns golden brown.

Okay, so now, you may have used one packet of maggi to make the crumbs which were used to coat the balls. By doing so, you are getting an extra packet of maggi masala to be used later and this is just heaven; I mean it’s a God sent gift! The value of this extra packet of maggi masala is priceless. I told you there would be an upside in all of this!  

Chapter 13: Capocuoca (chef in Italian)

The reason behind the title of this chapter is because I went all chefy one day and decided to make an authentic Italian dish: Gnocchi. And yet again, potatoes are proving themselves that they are indeed the base of every dish! Woohoo!

Ok I’m back from potato world; the first step is to make the dough for which you need to combine the mashed potatoes with flour. The flour needs to be added in small quantities and the dough must be soft. This was, for me, a pretty difficult process cause the dough becomes too sticky and difficult to work with. And that is why the amount of flour to potato ratio must be accurate.

Once the dough is formed, you then can shape it into gnocchi like shapes and use a fork to make an imprint too at the end. Lay out the gnocchi on a tray (dusted with flour to prevent a sticky situation) and you can refrigerate it too for later if you would like. Add the gnocchi to a pot of boiling water and the gnocchi will come afloat once it is cooked through.

The sauce to go with it can be as simple as a butter sauce or pesto or a tomato sauce too. I served the gnocchi with a butter sauce. You could also make a pesto sauce and it is by far the simplest sauce to make: all you need to do is blend basil leaves, walnuts, garlic, olive oil and salt and you’ve got yourselves a tasty bowl of pesto. This too can be kept frozen for later use. Achievement unlocked: gnocchi!

Chapter 14: Sugar Therapy

I did have a go at many desserts as a matter of fact; I shall share some of those experiences here for you all.

One of the first desserts I attempted to cook was churros! And the main reason I wanted to make these were because I was craving for it and that was it - I looked up videos and found a simple eggless recipe to make churros. Honestly, I don’t know what I would have done without youtube! Saviour! To make the churros, you need to add water to a pan, to which you must add butter, sugar, salt (a pinch only), vanilla essence and flour. You must turn off the heat and combine them. You then need to transfer this mixture into a piping bag and pipe them into hot oil.

Interestingly, I did not have a piping bag, so I made one. I took a zip lock bag, cut off the zip part of it and turned it into a cone and cut the bottom of the cone in order to pipe out the mixture. I must admit, it was a messy job. Nevertheless, I piped the mixture into the oil and for some reason, they were getting stuck to each other. And up until now, I do not know the reason why! Huh!

Once they are cooked, you take them out of the oil and drain them on a tissue paper; roll them in a mixture of sugar and cinnamon powder and you have the best tasting churros ever! For me at least :P

I took it up a notch and had a go at apple crumble. It may sound like a technical dish but really it isn’t. It is one of the easiest desserts to make: you need to peel and chop apples and coat them with brown sugar and cinnamon powder and lay this onto a baking dish. To make the crumble, you need to combine flour, butter and sugar. To make the crumb is actually a very interesting process. You need to combine them with your fingertips in order to get the crumb texture and it was so exciting to see that texture develop in front of my eyes. For me, it was as though I had climbed Mt. Everest! You then spread across the crumbs onto the apples and bake it! As simple as that - So simple that I could end this recipe in just one paragraph! Hahaha!

Cookie cravings never seem to end in our family! The first time I baked cookies and it was all impromptu. One day, my superhero says that she has found a nice recipe to bake honey walnut cookies and I’m like “Let’s do this!” To start off, you need to bring together butter, sugar, honey and oil until the mixture is light and fluffy. Honestly, when I watch cooking shows and they say this, I was confused and didn’t quite understand it. But once you give it a go, you get the point of light and fluffy. In another bowl, you must combine, flour, whole wheat flour, baking powder and salt. Till date, I am unsure why salt is added to many desserts cause it is just a pinch of salt that is added - musings! You then mix the dry and wet ingredients together and to that you must add walnuts and cinnamon. Be careful with the amount of cinnamon that you add cause it has a very overpowering taste and the end result might be cinnamon cookies rather than honey (I’m saying this from experience). Knead this to a dough and take small amounts of the mixture and make small balls, flatten them out and lay on a baking tray - ready to bake! Cool them off and serve it with a warm chamomile tea! I was just trying to sound all cookbook-y!

Conclusion:

Although we have come to the end of this short story, it does not end my cooking tales. My love for cooking has grown and been nurtured in this time frame and I am thankful for it.

I would definitely have to thank my family for being the guinea pigs to all my recipes and encouraging me to cook more. They have been a constant support in my life and I owe them my everything.

I would definitely like to thank youtube and all the recipes out there from which I was inspired into cooking.

Special shout out to my superhero, my mother, she is the backbone of our family and the nucleus of our home; for she makes our house a home.

Thank you everybody for reading this and keep cooking!