Blouses, Blazers and BMI

Dear Rushina,

When I went home this time,I was bombarded right left and centre by unsolicited comments about my weight. The last time I was home, I was 59 kilos. I knew I had put on weight since then but I never really gave it much thought. Probably because the kind people of Mumbai don't accost you on the street to tell you how fat you've become (no euphemisms here). When enough people had come up to give me their appraisal of my form, I began to wonder if there was any truth to their comments. On one cloudy evening, I walked into my parents dressing room. With my mom watching and my sister by my side, I finally took that step I had been avoiding for over a year, on to the weighing machine. I didn't look down, simply waited in dread as my sister waited for the needle to point. 72 kilos she said, as my mom gasped and my heart fell. Suddenly I knew why I had so much trouble zipping up my favourite lace Mango dress (at that time, I had told myself I was in a hurry and zips were difficult things to manage when you were short of time). People were right after all. And silently, I thank God that home was a place where people tell it like it is, whether you liked it or not.
The weighing was followed by a quick meeting convened in my parents bedroom. My sisters huddled together, calculator in hand to calculate my BMI (Body Mass Index)even as my parents counselled me on the virtues of maintaining a healthy weight. (All doctors btw, parents, and sisters). My sisters told me that although I was in the upper limit of acceptable BMI, if I wasn't careful I would become obese. With family history of hypertension and adult onset diabetes, the smart thing to do would be to curb my gluttony and lose some weight.
My mother had. And she's my hero for it. Learning one day that her blood sugar was too high for comfort, my mom changed her lifestyle overnight. Gone were the days of elaborate (and how!!) pork and beef dinners. My parents became near vegetarians (meat only once a day, and that too mostly white meat, an epic sacrifice by any self respecting Naga's standards). They began walking everyday. In two months time, my mom had not only lost weight, her sugar levels were normal. And she's managed to keep it that way ever since.
Since then, I slowly weaned myself from having two meals of pork or red meat. I walked regularly. Returning to Mumbai, I found it easier to control what I ate because there was no readily available red meat on campus. I indulged my love for dal and continued to work out. I am now 69 kilos. My recent trips to Zara have not been as distressing since I can now fit into a medium size comfortably. There is a glorius floral silk blouse that is worth giving up a steak for. As much as I love eating, I have to remind myself how much I love a well constructed blazer as well.
There surely must be a way to be a foodie and fit into your favourite dress. I plan to find it.

Theyie

Bacon Musk Melon Salad

My sister and I have been holed up in my hostel room for more than a month now. Both passionate foodies and cooks, we began suffering from kitchen withdrawal around the second week. Symptoms include loitering longingly at supermarkets, ranting incoherently about stoves, pots and pans and spices and vacant stares punctuated with sighs of utter misery. So imagine how deliriously overjoyed we were when a friend invited us over to cook in his kitchen. In Godrej Nature’s Basket, the fresh and fragrant musk melon helped me to decide on this salad.



Ingredients
(Serves 6)
1 packet of Keels Bacon, cook in microwave for 2 mins
100g Flat green beans, string and cut into half
1 Packet of Trikaya Pok Choy, cut into bite sized squares
1 medium sized Musk Melon, cut into bite sized squares
1 Red Bell Pepper, Cut into bite sized squares
1 Yellow Bell Pepper, Cut into bite sized squares
2 White Onions, quartered
1tbsp Roasted Sesame Oil
½ Cup of Port wine
In a non stick wok, add roasted sesame oil, add bell peppers, onions, pak choy and green beans. Stir fry for 2 mins on high flame, add bacon and port wine. Stir fry for 3 mins. Add musk melon, toss, garnish with boiled egg, halved and serve.

A Corn(y) Affair

During the monsoons, one craves for different kinds of food: chai, pakodas/bhajiyas, hot soups, and a favourite of most, corn. Corn can be had in many forms; boiled or roasted with different seasonings like salt, pepper, chaat masala, red chilli powder, lemon juice to name a few but each person has their preference so it can be pretty much anything. Corn is used in a lot of cuisines for different dishes, salads, soups, fritters, chaats, baked dishes, pasta, pizzas, pancakes, in rice dishes , the options are endless.

With the local bhutta (roasted corn cobs) walas by the sea side diminished over the past few years luckily there are a lot of places in the city corn can be found in different disguises. The simplest form of corn can be found in movie theatres and malls at the boiled corn stalls that serve fresh hot boiled corn with different seasoning as per your choice. Soam serves delicious corn khichdi and corn panki. All time favourites of a lot of Mumbai-ites, New Yorker and Cream Center offer amazing creamed corn enchiladas, corn-capsicum quesadillas and cheese corn balls. Samrat at Churchgate have chatpatta corn bhel for the corn lovers. Blue waters at Oshiwara serves one of the best tandoori makkai (corn) in the city.

Corn is such a thing that can be had as a light snack or be used to make a hearty filling dish depending on the time of the day or one’s mood. It tastes equally good hot or cold and goes well with a lot of other ingredients. Here is one of my all time favourite recipe I came up with when I was in one of my experimenting moods and was looking for a fresh change from the usual. It was also featured in Me magazine a couple of months back.

Tri Coloured Corn Soup

Serves: 4

Ingredients:
2 ears American Corn
1 small Red Bell Pepper
1/4th Cup Spring onion leaves
4 Cups Vegetable/Rice/Noodle Stock
Salt to taste

Method:
De-seed bell pepper and cut into squares, place in baking tray, drizzle with olive oil. Roast in a preheated oven at 150 degrees C for about 10-15 minutes.
Meanwhile boil the corn and remove the kernels. Keep a handful aside.
Puree the rest till completely smooth adding stock as required.
Take the corn puree in a thick bottomed sauce pan and add stock to get desired consistency. Add salt to taste and boil.

While the soup is boiling. Make a paste of the roasted bell pepper. Keep aside.

Make a paste of the spring onion leaves and keep aside.

Remove 2/3rd and keep aside in a bowl or sauce pan.

In the remaining 1/3rd add the bell pepper paste and mix well and let it simmer for few minutes. Keep aside.

Take another 1/3rd in the sauce pan and mix the spring onion paste and simmer for few minutes.

Can be served in 3 small glasses as shots or small bowls in a platter.

Rushina's recommentations why don’t you – put together a Pasta!

(image courtesy http://www.italien-pasta.com)

As I put together a quick pasta for his tiffin this morning, my husband was busy ticking of some of his favourite pasta meals I make and it struck me, pasta - usually drenched in white sauce and smothered in cheese - is everywhere these days but this incredibly easy to cook but the potential of this versatile ingredient has barely been explored. The fact is Pasta can be the base for an amazing spectrum of dishes from soups and salads to whole meals in one.

I always use imported Italian dried pastas. These stretch the budget somewhat but a 500 gm packet usually makes it possible to stretch dinner into lunch. But any Italian dried pasta is preferable to a domestic equivalent because besides the fact that Italians do pasta so well they would never sell an inferior product these pastas are also made from Durum wheat Semolina which is high in protein and gluten. Local pastas like Bambino and others of its ilk are usually just maida, with no nutritional benefit and also fall apart on cooking!

Pasta should be cooked in plenty of well-salted water aim for enough water so your pasta has enough room to “swim” and doesn’t end up sticking together and for saltiness the equivalent of seawater. Once you have added pasta to the boiling water, stir it well so it doesn’t stick to the bottom. Check on your pasta so you can tell it’s ready when it is “al dente”, or tender to the bite but with a slight resistance. Only mix your pasta with it’s sauce when you are ready to eat. When ready to eat “refresh” past by immersing briefly in boiling water and then mix with the sauce.

Pasta should be integrated with the sauce so toss the pasta with the sauce well just before serving over a low flame. The shape of your pasta will determine the sort of sauce you serve it with - light thin sauces are better for delicate long pasta like spaghetti or vermicelli and thick meaty sauces for thick, short pasta, like penne and fusilli. That said sauce for pasta should be of a thick almost jammy, chutney-like consistency with no watery residue collecting at the bottom of a bowl of pasta. Serve pasta in wide shallow soup plates like the Italians do - it makes it easy to eat. Pasta is often served with Parmesan and its will be great if you have some handy but ready cheese will do in a pinch. Just avoid that pre-grated stuff you get – it’s not worth the price you pay for it.

I like to keep cooked pasta in the fridge. Just toss in olive oil once it is cooked and stoer in an airtight box. It makes for a great way to bulk up salads. Combine lettuce, steamed diced beans, finely chopped leafy veges, fresh herbs, cooked sweetcorn, chunks of carrot, and whatever else takes your fancy and toss with pasta in a dressing of honey, lemon juice cooked, chilli powder and pepper. Add finely chopped green chillies for added fire!

At the end of long days I like to toss hot penne liberally with olive oil, finely chopped garlic, lemon zest, plenty of lemon juice, parmesan, freshly ground black pepper and salt. Sometimes I will add several handfuls of rocket or spinach leaves if I have some. Just mix well so the rocket wilts and serve immediately. 

Another quickie pasta I sometimes do is Ligurian pasta dish in which I add chunks of peeled potatoes (they’ll take as long as the pasta to cook) to the boiling water with the pasta. Then about 5 minutes before they're done I add a cup each of trimmed French beans, peas, spinach, snow peas and any other tender greens I have to hand. Everything gets cooked almost together and after draining it out I stir in a good-quality basil pesto or sauce of my choice while it is still warm. It’s great with lots of grated parmesan.

A variaton of the above is a rich stew in which I cook add the chunks of peeled potatoes (they’ll take as long as the pasta to cook) to boiling stock spiked with ginger garlic and chillies, adding whatever vegetables I have handy carrots, beans etc 5 minutes before the pasta is done. Everything gets cooked almost together but this time I don’t drain it, just stir in salt, fresh herbs EVOO lots and lots of freshly ground pepper and serve steaming hot.

The beauty of Pasta is that even if I have nothing else at home, I will always have garlic for garlic pasta! Its easy peasy to make too! Just heat 1 cup olive oil till warm (not smoking), add a handful of broken dry red chillies and half a cup of coarsely crushed garlic cloves, (it will splutter like the dickens so keep covered). Give everything a few minutes to come together and when the garlic is browning at the edges remove pan from the flame. Leave for half an hour so flavours can develop and meanwhile cook pasta, (spaghetti works best but whatever you have will do in a pinch). As soon as the pasta is cooked al dente drain out the water, return to pot and replace on flame. Add salt to taste and Garlic chilli oil. At this point I like to add a cup and a half of finely chopped fresh herbs (coriander, parsley, green garlic, celery or a bit of them all) for zest but finely chopped tomatoes, olives and grated parmesan are also options. Toss well, serve as warm as possible and watch it disappear. 

Spain, Portugal, Italy and Pork

Mad about Meat, Mad about Football

There are two very good reasons for not cooking today. One, its Friday, it rained like crazy all week and you deserved a break. Two, three football matches! Oh wait, and three more on Saturday and three more on Sunday. (Yes, I too am salivating as I write this and for many reasons as well). So yes, why cook when there’s so much football (and eye candy) on tv? My suggestion is that you stock up on beer or juice if you don’t drink and as many cold cuts are your fridge will allow. For those supporting European teams, here are two particularly delectable possibilities and the ways you can have them.
Chorizo enjoys pride of place in every Spanish and Portuguese kitchen (Spain/Portugal fans are you listening?). Pork meat coloured a deep maroon by the paprika added to it and embedded with fat, Chorizo is dry and chewy bursting with intense sweetness before tapering out into a spicy, salty aftertaste. It works (I am told my trusted beer drinking friends) fabulously with beer.
Or try Parma Ham (the more fancy name is prosciutto) from Italy, which is traditionally thinly sliced (the Deli should do that for you) and served as an accompaniment with drinks. Or try this easy salad recipe that will take one commercial break to whip up.

(Photo Courtesy: www.thea4angel.com)
50g Parma Ham slices
20 Fresh Spinach leaves, washed, cut into bite sized pieces
1 packet of Oak leave lettuce, shred into bite sized pieces with hand
4 Figs, slice each into 6 pieces
Dressing
1tbsp EVOO
1 tbsp any dry white wine in your kitchen
2 crushed sage leaves
In a bowl, place ingredients, pour dressing on top. Add salt to taste and grind dried green peppercorns and toss. Serve with forks .

Rushina's Recipes - Happy Father's Day, Dad!

I made Spinach soup for the first time in 13 years on the day I wrote my chapter o my father in my book. It was the hardest chapter to write in the book. Just like I had circumvented making the soup, I had been postponing the writing of it, not because I didn’t know what to write, there was a lot, but for once, the words would not come out.

14 years to today, I lost him, suddenly and quickly while we were on the most idyllic holiday in South Africa. At the Ullusaba Lodge in Kruger National park he suffered a fatal heart attack. As deaths go it was a grand one, standing up until the last moment, at which point he lay down looked around at most of his family and closed his eyes. Forever.I was the only one that was not there. I stepped out of the room exactly 2 minutes before he died. Ironically it was fathers day that day too. There is an inevitable melonchaly in memories that are edged with the keen sadness of lost time. Inevitability had been the atmosphere all of the preceding week. More urgently that morning when my mother had us kids brought down. But finality had not been a possibility. It was inconceivable ….”the end”. They transferred him to a secluded spot to lie in peace until the embalmer was able to come down from Johannesberg to pick him up and I sat with him as he lay there. Perhaps to make up for not being there those last two minutes or perhaps just not wanting him to be alone. So I sat on the floor next to him his body in repose, like he was sleeping, the counterpane neatly stretched over him. Running my fingers through his hair I talked to him for hours, telling him things I had never been able to say before. 

A sense of loss was slowly pervading me. Images flashed through my mind, like a film reel gone wild, its end flapping in the air, accelerating as it reached “the end”. I knew the tears would come eventually, likely in great spates and the cleansing would take place. The bright colors of experience would be wash down to the sepia tinted monochromes of memory. But it could wait …for a while. I could not bring myself to move just yet. And then I suddenly reared up in almost physical pain! I realised I had never told my dad I loved him. Funny how three silly words from a foreign culture can come to become so important... we certainly do not have them in India! But in those moments I realized that I had never EVER said I love you Papa in as many words. And niether had he. 

But he did love us, he had shown us in so many ways that last week almost like he wanted to leave us with the best of himself. And in doing so he gave each of us memories that would last a lifetime. There had been an increasing bittersweet air to things as we did them all of that last week. Statements he had made came back. His being in some idyllic family pictures at breathtaking locations, something that had never happened because he would be taking the pictures usually. His warm hug a couple of days into our trip when I was missing Shekhar (who was my boyfriend then and so sore a point that we never spoke about him) and Dad’s quiet affirmation, “Why don’t you enjoy me while I am here, you will have the rest of your life with him? And then when I was crying a few days later because of some silly reason his exasperated question “Why must you cry every time? You have to learn to face odds, I will not always be there to protect you!” and then that last night, at dinner, as we finished the soup course (Spinach soup) he turned around and said,  “This is good, but not as good as yours, you make the best Spinach soup.” His last words to me, EVER!!

I like to think my dad is up in Heavan, having a drink with my father in law with our dogs Alex and Nonnie at their feet. And I like to think that every time my son comes back to me with one of his clever rejoinders or my daughter gives me a naughty smile before she shocks me by saying something unheard of from a two year old, they raise their glasses and cheer.

Please celebrate your father this Father's day, tell him you love him and if you don't have a special recipe for him, I will lend you ours...

Love you Dad. Always and forever!

Spinach Soup
     
Cooking Time : 15 Minutes, Serves : 4

1 kg spinach, cleaned, washed and chopped coarsely 
2 onions quartered
8 cloves garlic
Salt to taste
2 tbsp butter
1 onion, diced fine
2 tbsp wheat flour
2 cups milk
Pepper to taste
1/2 cup cheese, grated

Method
Place all the spinach leaves, the quartered onions, 6 cloves of garlic in a preassure cooker with 1/2 a cup of water and cook. Alternatively microave untill Spinach is a dark dense mossy green. Grind to a smooth paste. Heat a pan and add the butter. Once melted add the onion and stir fry unill transperant, add the wheat flour and stir for few minutes till it turns light brown in color and smells cooked. Add the milk and stir briskly to avoid lumps. Allow to cook untill the mixture thickens. Add the spinach paste and stir continuously till smooth. Add salt pepper and cheese. If it is too thick add milk, water or stock to thin to soup consitency.

Tuna Olive Salad and Fabio Cannavaro

Dear Rushina,

So Italy plays Paraguay today. For those of us who only follow football during the world cup, a great way to get an idea of how well the teams are matched out is to go to the FIFA website and check the ‘Head to Head’ box. You pair the teams playing against each other, and the box gives you the statistics (http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/statisticsandrecords/headtohead/team1=ita/team2=par/index.html). Judging from this box, Italy seems to be the stronger team. Of course that won’t be why I’m supporting them. I’ve had a crush on Italian captain Fabio Cannavaro since he galloped onto the TV screen and into my heart at the 1998 World Cup. (He had chin length hair which flew in the wind when he ran…sigh!).
Ok, before I digress, I think what I’m trying to say is that I’m really looking forward to this match. Since I’ve been trying to eat healthy, I’ve been trying to think of a salad I had munch on throughout the game without feeling (too guilty). Here’s what I plan to eat tonight.

Tuna, Olive and Corn Salad
1 can of Tuna
1 can of Sweet Corn
½ Cup of Black Olives, rinsed and halved
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 yellow bell pepper. Diced
1 small raddichio, cut into small square pieces.

For Dressing
1 tsp Saveurs deSapalisse Almond flavoured oil
1 tsp White wine vinegar
1 tsp Garlic flavoured Olive oil
1 tsp Salt
½ tsp Black pepper

Mix salad ingredients in salad bowl. Mix ingredients for salad dressing in bottle, shake vigorously and pour over salad ingredients. Toss and serve.

The heat of Naga chilli Times Of India Crest June 12, 2010

The Naga chilli has a wonderfully fruity flavour. But to taste it, you have to survive its incendiary spice!

Ever since the Naga chilli scorched its way to world fame as the hottest chilli in the world, dethroning the selectively bred Red Savina, it has been the hot favourite of cooks and foodies. But there's much more to the Naga chilli, also known as the Naga jolokia and Raja mirch, than its heat. I had the good fortune to discover the Naga chilli when a friend and fellow food writer, Theyie Keditsu, presented me with 12 chillies.

This fiery number, however, first caught my eye when I was interviewing Chef Vivek Singh of London's Cinnamon Club restaurant a couple of years ago. He was in the news for having created the world's hottest curry. A curry so hot that diners were asked to sign a disclaimer before daring to sample it. That curry contained six Naga chillies along with other hot peppers.

Naga chillies clock in at over one million units on the Scoville scale (the measurement of spicy heat). That's more than double the spice quotient of the Red Savina pepper, 100 times spicier than jalapeño pepper and 20 times hotter than cayenne pepper. The only thing hotter is pepper spray that's used as a weapon in chemical warfare and used to fend of assailants. Which is probably why India's military is set to harness the Naga chilli's firepower to combat terrorists, immobilise criminals and quell riots.

When Theyie, who is Naga, delivered her precious gift to me, I just looked at my treasured bounty at first. What a riot of colour. Who can forget the glorious colours, from lemon yellow to raging orange, deep to almost fluorescent green, and every imaginable shade of red from glowing auburn to flaming crimson. . . If only we could make a salad of these beautiful chillies, but it would be a killer since a single chilli can season a full pot of curry, I thought.

I needed to get an idea of its intrinsic taste, so I decided to taste a tiny bit. Slicing the tiniest corner of the tail end of one of the chillies (the most potent bit of a chilli is towards the head, where the seeds are located) released a distinctly viscous, sweet scent that gave way to a sharp grassy after-note as the tiny sliver reached my tongue.

Heat is the natural defence mechanism of chillies, in fact almost all spices. So it was but natural that this little thing would hurt me back. But once the pain of the heat had flared away on my tongue, I was left with a far deeper flavour that was sweet, juicy and savoury all at once. It was well worth the pain.

The fruity flavours suggested that the chilli would do well in a sweet-spicy chutney. So I concocted an apple and Naga chilli chutney and had Theyie taste it. Her eyes widened and a smile appeared, along with a purr of delight. Theyie explained, as she dug into the chutney with a spoon as if it was an ice-cream, that in Nagaland the chilli is taken very seriously. Mostly eaten in chutneys or preserved as pickles, the chilli's formidable heat is always the highlight of dishes to which it is added. Priced between Rs 1, 000 and Rs 1, 500 a kg, the chilli is expensive by local standards. It's a matter of prestige to offer dishes containing Naga chillies, and hosts make sure guests know what they're eating. So my chutney was cheeky after all, as it allowed chilli connoisseurs like Theyie to rediscover the flavour of the pepper that is often overpowered by its heat.

Now I needed to preserve the rest of my chillies so I could savour them for longer. First I sliced one chilli and dropped the pieces into a glass jar. Then I heated 250 ml of rice bran oil till it was hot, but not smoking, and poured it over the sliced chilli. Since the aroma of the Naga chilli is quite overwhelming, I could already smell the whiff rising from the oil. I discovered its real aroma when I opened the bottle a few days later. Sitting on my shelf, the oil had turned a pale orangey-red and absorbed the fragrance and heat of the chilli, becoming a great condiment in itself. Fruity, spicy and delicious, it was great to drizzle over soups, add to salad dressings and dress grilled meat.

I got almost similar results from dunking one of the chillies into vinegar. It worked beautifully in tandem with my Naga chilli oil and as a pre-cooking marinade for meats. The vinegar also gave me the idea of a Naga chilli vodka. And since good ideas should never be ignored, I sliced up two chillies and tossed them into a bottle of vodka. They are doing well there if the last whiff I got of them is anything to go by. I am looking forward to deliciously warm winter tipples this year.

To focus on heat as the sole merit of the Naga chilli is to do it an enormous disservice. But then, one must be clueless about an ingredient to widen the scope of its use.

Beer Flavoured Spicy Pork Slices

Mad About Meat
As you know I can’t stand beer. But I have more than a few friends who would grow gills and live in a sea of beer given the chance. So whenever I make a meat snack, it is not unusual for them to take a bite and comment that a chilled bottle of beer would be the best accompaniment. Sometimes when I’m cooking for my friends and they’re already drinking beer, I steal some to marinate meat or pour some into the pan as I fry the meat. The beer infuses the meat with a subtly nutty flavor. Here’s an easy tried and tested recipe.
For Marinade
1 Cup of Beer
1 tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice
1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
2tbsp Sweet and Spicy Tobasco Sauce
1 tsp Salt
Mix ingredients and pour marinade over pork slice. Leave for two hours.
For Pork Slices
1 kg Pork, thin slices (If you’re making it super spicy like I do, choose loin cuts nearer the shoulder, it has more fat and balances well with the chilli. If you want it bland, choose leaner cuts from the center)
4 clove of Garlic, minced
1 tbsp of freshly ground ginger
3 tbsp Dried Red Chilli Flakes
1tbsp Refined oil
2 cups of Beer
1 cup of Bell peppers, cut into squares
Directions
Heat oil in deep non stick pan, add garlic, ginger and chilli flakes and fry on low flame. Add Pork along with marinade sauce. Close lid and cook on high flame for 30 mins or until dry. Add 1 cup of Beer, close lid and cook for another 30 mins on medium flame.
Check to see if pork is cooked, add bell peppers and 1 cup of beer and stir fry on hight heat until peppers are cooked.
Serve hot with beer.

Chew on this - travelling throught the Rice bowls of the world...

Having grown up in India, rice has been the center of my culinary experience for as long as I can remember. But as I discovered world cuisine, I also came to marvel at the universality and diversity symbolized by this grain!

Universal as it is, rice is simultaneously intensely personal as well. Every rice based cuisine in the world has its own indigenous rice, its own traditional manner of cooking it, celebrating it and eating it. From the better known Italian risotti, Thai Jasmine and Japanese Sushi rice, to rarer Senegalese Ceebu Jën (red rice) and Bhutanese Black rice, each is cooked and eaten differently. Join me as I travel the rice bowls of the world.

The next time you dig into a plate of Berry Polov at Britania you will be happy to recall that rice is an integral part of Iranian culture, rice dishes or Polows play an important role in marriage ceremonies and parties (Zereshk Polow), funerals (Kishmish Polow) and New Year celebrations (Sabzi Polow, with fried fish). Iran is home to the fragrant, aromatic Sadri rice that is unique to that part of the world and in high demand among Iranians, who give great importance to the quality of their cooked rice.

But the rice dish that has made the biggest mark on India's menus comes from China. Fried rice. Legend has it Fried rice originated in China some 4000 years ago as a means to use up leftover rice. Finely diced vegetables and meat were stirfried with cooked rice and served for breakfast. It is still a means of using up leftovers that is made all over the world but who would have thought that the same Fried rice would one day be a dish in its own right, here in India? Fried rice is to be found in every South East Asian cuisine but the most famous version of it is the Indonesian Nasi Goreng.

While rice based cuisines have a lot of dishes in common there are a many distinct indigenous rice preparations awaiting sampling as well. Indonesian cuisine is home to another particularly noteworthy meal as well, The Rijsttafel or "rice table". A legacy of the Dutch plantation owners - who liked to sample selectively from Indonesian cuisine - a practice that evolved into a traditional meal in which a rice dish and numerous side dishes are laid out to pick from at will. The Dutch carried it back to the Netherlands with them and it is today enjoyed in both Indonesia, and the Netherlands.

Rice is also used as an ingredient in many forms. Perhaps as widespread as steamed rice is the home-style rice gruel, best known as the Chinese Conjee. This dish in which rice is cooked down to a porridge is found under various guises in many world cuisines. Most Asian countries also use rice flour to make a staggering variety of dishes; noodles, translucent skins for dumplings and steaming hot stuffed buns.

Perhaps the most famous Japanese offerings to world menus from are Sushi and Sake. Considered one of the healthiest dishes in the world, Sushi are rice cakes flavored with rice vinegar, combined with a variety of ingredients - raw fish and fresh or pickled vegetables and are served with Japanese Wasabi. Sake is Japanese rice wine, an acquired taste.

Outside Asia, Africa, was the other place where rice was domesticated. A number of rice dishes hail from this part of the world Senegalese Cebbu Jen - or rice-fish - is the most popular. Many rice dishes have also been perfected by the Egyptians. The Ruzz mu'ammar bi-I-tuyur, or baked rice with milk and pigeon, is regularly served in restaurants in major cities such as Alexandria.

Rice is not as prevalent in wheat eating Europe but there are a few regions where rice is celebrated. The Lombardy and Piedmont regions comprise Italy's rice bowl and while the Italians do not eat too much rice, Italy is famous for its aromatic, slow cooked risottos. The other hub for rice in Europe is the French Camargue region where rice cultivation began in the 18th Century. Taking advantage of the rich French cuisine, farmers in Camargue have turned to producing high quality rice for special dishes and the Roulé de Feuilles de riz au thon, or "rolled rice with tuna fish", is an example of Camargue's specialty cuisine.

One thing is for sure, wherever you go in the world; you can find comfort in a bowl of rice and as the Chinese philosopher Confucious said "In the eating of coarse rice and the drinking of water, the using of one's elbow for a pillow, joy is to be found."

Mushroom and Brown Rice bowl

The first monsoon showers are here and I had the last of Mausaji's mushrooms left from Dehra Dun so I cooked up this favorite recipe for dinner yesterday. Its easy, healthy and FULL of flavour, always managing to charm the worst eater! Brown rice is an excellent substitute to your regular white rice. It is rich in fibre and carbohydrates. The bran and rice germ in the grains also help control blood sugar, cholesterol and let you  remain alert even after a rice meal! Mushrooms are counted as one of the lowest calorie vegetables and yet they are extremely high in protein lending themselves excellently to all sorts of dishes! The garlic and pepper are warming for the coming monsoons and will help ward of cold and sore throats...

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups celery, coarsely chopped

1 large onion, chopped coarse

handfull of garlic cloves, crushed

2 tbsp olive oil

3 cups water

1 cup brown rice

2 cups mushrooms quartered

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon red chilli flakes

1/2 tbsp crushed peppercorns

1/4 teaspoon pepper

Directions
In a large skillet, saute celery, onions and garlic in olive oil until tender-crisp (about 5 minutes). Add chilli flakes and crushed peppercorns. Add the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Cover and allow to cook on a low flame untill rice is tender and liquid is absorbed (about 45 mins). Allow to stand covered for 10 minutes before serving. Fluff rice lightly with fork and serve.

GYAN and legends 

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You can find brown rice and all sorts of local rice varieties at Navdanya stores in Mumbai and Delhi.  

Shitake Mushroom and Iceberg Lettuce Salad

Dear Rushina,
Do you remember the time I had to throw a birthday party for a friend? You helped out by giving me an insane amount of Shitake Mushrooms. Inspired by the way they taste in your mushroom stuffed rice rolls (the first time, I took notice that a vegetarian dish could taste so good), I decided to follow suit and stir fry them in roasted sesame oil before using them. Suffice to say, the night was a hit, a sinful amount of food was consumed and thanks to your little trick, I managed to keep the vegetarians happy with the mushrooms. The next morning however, I realised that there were lots of leftover shitake mushrooms. And we were also still too stuff from the previous night to eat any heavy meal. So I made salad.

Here’s the recipe.
Ingredients
½ cup Shitake Mushrooms, Sliced
1 tbsp Roasted Sesame Oil
1 packet of Trikaya Iceburg Lettuce, Shred with Hand
½ Cup of Spring Onion leaves, Cut into 2 inch long pieces
For Dressing
½ tsp of Salt
1 tsp Real Apple Juice
1 tsp Rayo Chilli Oil
1 tsp of Roasted Sesame Oil
½ tsp of Keya Japanese Seasoning
Directions
For Dressing
Place ingredients in a bottle and shake well.
For Salad
Soak Shitake Mushrooms till soft, slice and stir fry with roasted sesame oil. Mix Mushrooms, Iceberg lettuce and Spring Onion leaves in a Salad bowl, Pour dressing and toss.

Mad About Meat - Pork

Duna’s Pork Ribs

If there is someone who is more mad about meat than I am, it has to be my sister Duna. She also happens to be the most fantastic cook I know. Her dishes are never overly elaborate or complicated. Yet she possesses that rare ability to draw out the flavour of the meat and other ingredients. I admire her most for her egg curry. I know that sounds simple, and I have tried more than once to recreate her bamboo shoot, egg and tomato curry with a fair degree of success. But I always return to her version. Perhaps good cooks are condiments in themselves.

Ingredients for Marinade
6 tbsp of Oyster sauce
2 tbsp of Kikkoman Roasted Garlic Marinade & Sauce
1 tbsp of Worcestershire Sauce
2 tbsp of Soyabean Sauce
11/2 of tbsp of Salt
2 tbsp of freshly ground garlic
1 tbsp of freshly ground ginger
11/2 tbsp of red chilli powder

Mix ingredients, brush pork ribs with marinade and leave for 2 hours

Ingredients for Pork Ribs
6 medium sized pork ribs
2 tbsp of Garlic
1 tbsp of Ginger
2 tbsp of Sesame Oil
2 medium tomatoes, sliced
10 roasted dried red chillies
4 Cups of Water



Heat Non-Stick Wok, place pork ribs and cook on high flame with lid closed. Let pork ribs cook for 15 minutes.
Add garlic and ginger, add 2 cup of water, close lid and cook on high flame for another 15 minutes.

Add red chillies, 1 cup of water, close lid and cook on high flame for another 15 minutes.
Add tomatoes, 1 cup of water, close lid and cook on medium flame for another 15 minutes till water has evaporated.
Add sesame oil and braise ribs on medium flame for 15 minutes.



Serve Hot with Rice.