Culinary Confessions

Chapter 5: Soup Stories

I am going to tell you a story about Bok Choy - Chinese cabbage. I am extremely fond of Chinese Cuisine; yes even though I’m a pure vegetarian, I do enjoy Chinese cuisine and yes you do get vegetarian food in this cuisine. Fun fact: you get more vegetarian food in China than you can imagine! I came across a recipe for making bok choy broth with noodles! YUM! I knew exactly where I could find bok choy and headed on to the store and picked it up for the first ever time in my life. I was ecstatic and was awaiting to use this wonderful green vegetable. I must admit, I was a bit confused the first time I saw the vegetable in its purest form. I questioned myself whether this was the right vegetable and asked about 3-4 people just to confirm my doubts. The OCD in me will never end! I got home the bok choy and realised I have no idea how to prepare it - what a wow moment! Nonetheless, youtube to the rescue and I managed to swiftly look through some videos. Believe it or not, but making soup ain’t as hard as expected. What needs to be bang on are the flavours and once that is on point, everything else falls into place. You get the water boiling, add on the standard Chinese spices: ginger, star anise, soy, garlic, vinegar and chilli sauce. To this boiling, flavoursome pot of goodness, add on your most preferred vegetables; I add bok choy, mushrooms and carrot.

Cooking tip: Cook the noodles in the broth, in order for the noodles to soak in that awesome flavour and then be gobsmacked by it!

And that’s it! There is your classic noodle soup! Meant to be “eaten” - anytime! :D

Chapter 6: Cottage Cheese All Day

In our household, paneer is a staple; it is as important as rice! Yes, we love paneer :P

The first recipe I tried out with paneer was Garlic Paneer: create a marinate consisting of cornflour, pepper, chilli powder, garlic paste, red chilli sauce and oregano. All you need to do is marinate the paneer in this mixture and pan fry it. Um um ummmm :)

I wanted to take cottage cheese to the next level, so I attempted at making Paneer Manchurian - a classic Indian - Chinese dish. For some reason, I thought I would just pan fry some paneer with a bit of oil.

Cooking tip: Never do the above! You will be left with paneer that is hard and dry - not a great texture I must say.

The base of the dish, however, is the sauce and this is pretty simple: oil (obviously!), garlic, spring onions, tomato sauce, chilli sauce, soy and vinegar. It goes without saying that salt is needed according to taste.

Taste: check! Texture: Ugh!

The third time was the charm: Chilli Paneer! A favourite among us Indians and for good reason. The secret to this recipe is to take the main two components of the previous recipes and merge them together - match made in heaven! So you marinate the paneer with pretty much the same ingredients as mentioned above with the addition of maida and you fry the paneer. Warning: the oil splutters so beware! Make the sauce and combine the two together and you have got yourselves a good ol’ bowl of chilli paneer - comfort for any situation.

Chapter 7: Grocery Shopping!

I am not a shopaholic; I used to love shopping only for two things: books and stationery; ‘now added to the list’ (get it?), grocery shopping! I totally and utterly love grocery shopping - it instigates the peace within me - zen mode on.

It gives you a chance to see what are some of the new things you may want to try; it inspires me to come up with some wacky ideas. It teaches us about fresh produce and how we must always use fresh ingredients no matter what - ground rule of cooking.

I walk through all the aisles, knowing I would not have anything to buy but will look through them just to broaden my knowledge of food. Maybe this is why no one likes to go grocery shopping with me cause I take my own sweet time. Now maybe they know why I dislike going shopping with them for clothes and what not!

And it was in one of these trips to the shop that I came across Fennel. I had heard about it, seen it on television and always wondered what would this taste like? What could I possibly make out of it? More to come about fennel in the next chapter. Keep Cooking!

Chapter 8: Discovery of Fennel

Fennel is now one of my favourite vegetables. The minute I saw it, it was love at first sight. I was captivated by it; by the bulb at the bottom, to the stalk and finally the fronds - so beautiful in its own essence and existence. I had no idea how to use it or what I would make out of it but the way I felt clearly gave me the signal to pick it up.
I’m back home and narrating this beautiful love story of fennel to my mom as though I just wanted to admire it and not even use it. Don’t worry I did use it. I started to look up how it is to be treated and prepped. There were many who said that the fronds can be used but there were some others who said it was best not to use it. I decided not to use the fronds as this was the first time I was cooking with it and I wanted it to be as perfect as possible.

Heated a pan with some olive oil, sauteed some garlic with butter and added the fennel to soak in as much flavour as possible. I then garnished it with some chopped parsley and viola! The best salad ever with as few ingredients as possible.

Cooking tip: For this particular recipe, it is best to serve the fennel hot!

I would definitely want to experiment more with this beautiful vegetable and make as many dishes as I possibly can!

Chapter 9: Om Nom Nom

Disclaimer: Potato is a God sent gift and we must respect it to the highest level possible! I love potatoes! And it is such a versatile vegetable and can be consumed in ways which would ignite the utmost level of happiness within us. Here, I am going to share my love for potatoes with you all.

People always criticise potatoes for being too fatty and what not! Although, my opinion is that potatoes are the base of innumerable dishes and without them, the world would not be complete. Be it mashed, boiled, sauteed, fondants, grated, pan fried or deep fried, they are enjoyable in every which way. Personally, I love mashed potatoes the best! But I am going to pen down my experience of grated potatoes here.

One of the ways I used grated potatoes was I made them into potato pancakes :) It is the most simple recipe: all you need to do is combine the grated potatoes with corn flour, gram flour, pepper, jeera (cumin seeds) and chilli and pan fry this mixture and ta-da! You’ve got yourselves some really delicious potato pancakes.

Another variation of the grated potatoes could be, potato waffles. For my version of potato waffles, I combined grated potatoes with cream cheese, spring onions, chilli flakes, oregano and salt with some flour for binding. Take a scoop of the mixture and spread it across the waffle pan and you’re done! It can be eaten as a snack or for breakfast itself cause that’s the charm of potatoes!

Chapter 10: Misses :(

Quinoa, the most decorated healthy grain. I too wanted to know what the fizz about quinoa was. I had absolutely no prior knowledge about quinoa, no idea how to cook it, what to make with it etc. One day, I decided to make quinoa pulao and started to look up ways to make the same. The first step is to soak the quinoa for a good 60 minutes. A heads up for all of you: this is first time I’m attempting to make pulao; yes any kind of pulao. I was excited to use all the masalas (whole spices): bay leaf, green cardamom, cloves, star anise as well as all the goodness of spices like turmeric, chilli powder, cumin powder and coriander powder. Just a whiff of all these aromas and your mouth starts salivating for some sumptuous deliciousness. You then need to add the drained quinoa and cook on low heat.

Final product was delicious; you could taste the quinoa, the spices all individualistic in their flavours but an amalgamation of them a flavour bomb in your mouth. The recipe that I tested out was for a trial to see how my family would enjoy this dish. Some of us consumed it immediately after it was prepared. The remainder was kept aside for the evening and by then, the taste had gone bitter and all that deliciousness had evaporated.

Cooking tip: Always (and I mean always) consume quinoa immediately after it has been cooked. If only I had read up on this more ….

Well, that doesn’t stop me from having a go at quinoa again!