THe Family that cooks together... Weekend indulgence - Pasta from Scratch

 

Ok so we are all Pasta lovers around here, Aman likes his straight with Olive oil, salt, pepper and Parmigianino Regiano. Something that Natasha has picked up. (She still wears Diapers but she will go to an Italian restaurant and ask the server for “normal pasta with Olive Oil”). And because we like to do stuff with the kids on weekends, by popular majority (3:1) the final menu this weekend was homemade Pasta and Pizza, with yours truly wanting to just sleep...

Of course it’s easier to buy ready pasta and there are some great brands available in India now, but Fresh pasta is softer and has its own subtle, eggy flavour, making it can be therapeutic for the adults (an absence of fire, sharp edged things and urgency make it the a perfect kitchen project to undertake with kids - it’s like play doh, give them a little bit and they will be so busy making things out of it they will not bother you! Of course you might have to eat transformers and behead a few doll shaped pasta bits after).

It was a collaborative effort as usual with S in charge of the Carb part of the meal and me providing all the trimmings. He did classic Fettuccine that needed a light touch so I tossed them in plain but FABULOUS olive oil and sea salt for Natasha the pint sized gourmet and an intensely garlicky olive oil and coriander sauce for the adults spiked with my pickled green peppercorns.

Garlic and Green Peppercorn Sauce

1/2 cup olive oil/ butter

½ cup garlic cloves

1 bunch coriander/parsley stems and leaves separated and chopped fine

1/4 cup fresh / pickled green peppercorns

Salt to taste

Method

Heat oil or butter, add the garlic and allow to cook on a low flame until aromatic. It should be golden all over and starting to brown. Add the finely chopped coriander stems and stir fry until bright green. Crush and add the green peppercorns and add, mix well. Allow to heat through and add the chopped coriander leaves. Add cooked Pasta and some of the cooking water from the pasta, mix well taste and adjust salt if required. Serve hot!  

Feasts of friends and food - Ross’s Momos

With everything that has been happening especially through July, I did not get around to posting an extremely important event in my life and the life of this blog. I have mentioned Ross AKA Roshan Tamang on this blog. But for those who might have missed it I am going to introduce him one more time....

On my CV, it says I am a blogger before all of the other things I have added to my skill set over the years; writer, stylist, author, consultant... When I began blogging almost 9 years ago, I had no idea where it would take me. And the man that got me blogging was Ross. 

On a sabbatical from work, we were posted in Chandigarh, a strange new city and a small baby. I  would spend hours surfing the net, looking for something to engage me in, in the hours until my husband came home from work. At the time, chatting was a new phenomenon (this was the time of ICQ for those of you who remember it.... and unaccompanied by the baggage of suspicion it has today). In my online explorations, I happened upon someone who was interesting to chat with. Intelligent, he made interesting conversation and indulged me by spending hours chatting almost every day. This stranger and I became great friends. So much so that it got to the point, that I would harrow him by typing in CAPITALS until he dropped whatever he was doing to chat with me!

So, in what I suspect was a move to give me something to occupy my mind my mysterious friend suggested I try my hand at blogging. The rest as they say – is history. We are still friends and his name is Roshan Tamang. Every time I achieve something - no matter how big or small - I have what I call a Ross moment, a moment of remembering him, and thanking him, for taking the time out to give me attention all those years ago. And the most fascinating thing about our friendship was that we had been friends for more than a decade but had never met!

Untill the 9^th of July 2010. 

I was travelling to Delhi for one of my demos at Nature’s Basket and happened to chat with Ross on Gchat (where we meet these days). I cornered him on never having time to meet me. So we made a date for me to finally visit him at home for a meal of Momos made by him and something made by me. Momos is something Ross had taught me how to make over the internet all those years ago and had always said he made well. By the time I landed in Delhi it had evolved into a full fledged feast with the slaughter of a fatted calf... well pig in this case. 

"I am making momos" He messaged me, and I have a lot of friends who want to cook for you so you don't cook, we will just chill with a few drinks and good food and talk." Well I was not going to complain about what was turning out to be my idea of a fabulous evening! And I have no idea how I got through the day, I was so looking forward to FINALLY meeting him.

I arrived late after I was done with work and the party was already happening. After initial introductions in which I met a whole bunch of Ross’s friends, (who instantly became friends for me having heard about me from him forever!) we rolled up our sleeves and got down to making Momos, led by the expert, Ross. And then once a towering steamer was cooking away a humungous amount of motley shaped momos, Ross showed me how to make a potent chilli paste to dip them in once they were done.

Here is his recipe.

Ross’s Momos

“The recipe I will share is of meat Momo, something I picked up from my mom as a kid and improvised over the years. You may want to improvise it further, but do remember traditional Tibetan momos do not have fancy ingredients in them”

Ingredients for filling:

250g mutton, beef, chicken or pork finely minced
250g onion finely chopped
2-3 cloves of garlic finely chopped
1 inch of ginger finely chopped
Salt to taste

Ingredients for dough:

White flour (maida)

Ingredients for sauce/chutney:

2 ripe tomatoes

Bunch of coriander leaves

5-10 red chillies

Salt to taste

Method:

Mix meat, onion, cloves, ginger and salt in a large bowl. If meat is lean add a tablespoon of vegetable oil, this prevents the meat filling from becoming too dry when cooked. For vegetable fillings, butter is added. Let the mixture marinade for a while. Mix the white flour with water and knead into a smooth and consistent dough. Don’t make it too hard or too soft. Once done, cover the dough, do not let the surface dry.

Now roll out the dough into small rotis, like mini-pooris. Try and keep the size and thickness consistent. Remember: too thin and the filling will poke out, too thick and the floury taste takes over. Take the rolled-out dough in one hand, add a spoonfull of the filling pinch the edges of the dough to give it a curved shape or a rounded dumpling-like form.

Bring the water in the momo cooker to a boil and place these dumplings on a well-oiled container and steam it for 15 minutes.

For tomato sauce/chutney, boil tomatoes in water till well cooked. Alternately, poke tomatoes with 4-5 tooth picks and char them over gas stove till the peel burns and the flesh gets cooked. Peel off the tomato and put it in a grinder with red chillies (pre-soaked in hot water) and make it into a paste. Garnish with chopped corainder leaves. 

Arrange the momos amd chutney on plate and serve hot.

Of cookies and sepia memories

All of last week Aman has been excited about today, Raksha Bandhan, the day when sibling all over India reaffirm their love for one another. I guess S and I have done a good job of raising him because he is excited about his little sister tying him a rakhi. He even got together with S to bake cookies with him for her! As a mother I am touched to see this bond that is strengthening between my children.

But as a sister I have been trying to avoid thinking of Rakhi.

Me as a baby in his arms above as our Foi (maternal aunt) ties him a Rakhi on my behalf.

You see, Rakhi for me has always been about Ashu Bhai. Even before I learnt what Rakhi was, even before my own real brother was born, I remember being dressed up to tie him and his elder brother Hasit Bhai their Rakhis. But cousin was not a relationship I ever knew the meaning of. They were my brothers.

Hasit Bhai passed away when I was still very young and with time the memories of him have faded to sepia save for a few. Such as the one of him teasing me mercilessly, calling me ‘Butter’ which was his name for me and my chasing him all over the house to exact retribution, of our Sunday afternoon jaunts to the Pastry shops of the Taj or the Oberoi, when we would buy a whole lot of delicious pastries and come home to share them with family. I also remember that he was willing to do anything I wanted, including going against my father to get my hair cut. It was a trait his younger brother Ashu Bhai shared, this desire to make me happy – I just had to ask.

Ashu Bhai with all three of us sisters on one of the many Rakhis we celebrated together! 

Unlike Hasit Bhai, I knew Ashu Bhai in the adult phase of my life. As I grew, he was everything a big brother could be, eater of all culinary disasters and an endless source of kharchi (spending money). He stood by me through my getting married, having babies. He cheered me on through all my achievements big and small as I grew in my career and not long ago gave me the ultimate compliment he could have as the businessman he was, offering to invest in any business I wanted to start – I just had to ask. I never did but I liked knowing I could.

But most of all he loved my children, spoiled them, showing me shades of the grandfather my father would have made if he had been around and made them HOPELESSLY addicted to chocolate!

And today, I cannot help thinking back to last year, the first time in my whole life that I did not tie him his Rakhi. It was not for a lack of trying but it just did not happen because life came in the way. I still remember the last time I saw him whole, he gave me his characteristic smile as I left moms one morning. I had always made it a point to go down to meet him whenever I went to mom’s and hug him when I met him, but again that time I let life get in the way and left without doing either. Something I will always regret because I have learned that death leaves no space for second chances with telling someone you love them because soon after that he was struck down by a stroke.

And I feel the void of him not being there anymore. I feel it so very, very acutely today.

But he taught me something and I hope that it is something we taught my children together by example. That love is unconditional, it is not based on perfectly cooked food, it is not based on meeting every day and is not dependant on telling each other your feelings. It transcends all of that to just encompass us in a relationship.

I think we did, because Aman’s cookies turned out a little less then perfect, the chocolate chips were more than a little burnt, but Natasha ate them with great appreciation - reminding me of another time when a sister baked a more than burnt cake hard as a rock and a brother that ate it with relish and even asked for more...

Modern Shravan recipes with a twist!

I created some more recipes with a twist for Shravan for HT Cafe. They appeared on Saturday in the Weekend Fix section.

Thought I would put them up here as well.

California Pistachio and Coconut milk soup (Time 25 mins serves 4)
Singhare ka Atta is flour made from Waterchestnuts. Water chestnuts have been a part of the culinary annals of India for eons. This flour qualifies as a fast ingredient because the Shigara occurs naturally and is harvested when in season. The plant bears edible nuts in hard-shelled fruits that resemble the head of a water buffalo with two large curved horns hence the name Shingara. It is these nuts that are made into flour that is used as a staple during fasts, to make chapattis, paranthas, sweets vadas and also as a binder or thickening agent. Use California Pistachios with their deep green color they give the soup a lovely pale green color. Fasting food is generally high in carbohydrates and Pistachios being the nut with the lowest fat content and hightest amount of dietary fibre significantly add to the nutritional value of the meal.

1 tbsp Shingara atta
2 green chillies sliced
½ c California Pistachios blended to a paste
250 ml coconut milk
250 ml water
2 tbsp oil
Rock or Black salt, to taste

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the, chillies and splutter, add Shingara Atta and stir in well. Add coconut milk, pistachio paste, water and salt. Bring to the boil, reduce heat to medium and simmer for 5 mins, Taste, adjust seasoning and serve hot with a little green chilli on the side.

Baked Potato with Coriander salsa (Time taken: 30 mins. Serves: 4)

½ kg potatoes, boiled with very little water peeled and cut into thick slices
½ cup cream
½ cup toasted peanut
1-2 green chilies1 tsp oil
Black salt to taste

For Coriander Salsa
Whiz I cup coriander, 1 tsp raisins, 1 green chilli, juice of one lemon and a little black salt in the blender. Set aside.

Place chillies salt and toasted peanut in a blender and process to a crumbly paste. Transfer to a bowl, add cream and mix well. Add salt and stir in well. Set aside. Brush a baking dish with oil. Spread peanut mix on the bottom and layer potatoes over. Top with remaining peanut mixture and bake until moisture has completely evaporated. Serve hot, topped with coriander salsa.

Saffron Sama “Pudding” (Time 30 mins Serves 4)

Morio, Veru Arisi, Vari che Tandul Sama or Khodri is a wild grain which is ground into flour. The seeds are sun-dried, then threshed to remove the husks. When roughly ground it is cooked like rice, in salted water. The fact that is found wild and harvested and also considered a 'cool' food makes it a viable choice on fasting days. The apples and apple juice in this recipe add natural sweetness so do take care to check sweetness before adding jaggery.

4 cups apple juice
3 tbsp ghee
1 c Sama or Vari che Tadul
1/2 tsp saffron strands (dissolved in 1/2 cup hot milk)
1 tbsp butter
1/3 cup cream
Grated Jaggery to taste
1 c grated apple
Dry fruit for garnish

In a medium saucepan bring apple juice to a slow, steady simmer. In a large heavy 4-quart pan over medium heat, melt ghee and add sama. Using a wooden spoon, stir for 1 minute, making sure all the grains are well coated. Add the hot apple juice (1/2 cup at a time), stirring frequently. Wait until each addition of juice is almost completely absorbed before adding the next 1/2 cup, reserving about 1/4 cup to add at the end. Stir frequently to prevent sticking. When the sama is almost done, dissolve saffron. Stir in cream, grated apple and jaggery and stir well to combine. Transfer to warmed serving plates and serve immediately garnished with dry fruit.

Peanut Butter Cups from the 'inventor of recipes"!

I love compliments, its’ something a friend has been ragging me about off late but I continue to be a sucker for them! And the compliments I love best are the ones I get on my cooking. So I was thrilled this week to have several compliments come my way for the cooking I have been doing.

So you can imagine how thrilled I was when Sourish Bhattacharyya, an extremely discerning Delhi based food and wine journalist and Executive Editor, Mail Today, loved the Pistachio Pesto Pasta I cooked up at the US F&B launch and graced me with a new title “inventor of recipes” in his column!(His writing is not available online, unfortunately but you will find stray articles here and there. I recommend you go look for them, he writes really great stuff!)

Here is a sneak peek at the Peanut Butter Cups I am doing on the 28^th at my cooking Demo at Nature’s Basket, these were originally designed as part of the Amuse Bouche series for the launch of the Delhi store of Nature’s Basket and are a classic example of the endless ways one can get creative with food. A melange of flavours created using ready ingredients in the US F&B showcase, they are sophisticated to look at and yet simple enough for a child to make!

Peanut Butter and Cranberry Cups (Time 10 mins, Serves 4)

120 g Peanut butter
60 gms Sunsweet Cranberries, chopped
80 ml Hershey’s chocolate sauce
100 g Mascaporne cheese
60 g Chopped Pecan nuts

Equipment
4 transperant shot glasses or tiny bowls.
A piping bag or syringe

To make
Lay out four shot glasses or bowls on a platter. Use a piping bag to pipe the peanut butter into swirls at the base of each of the four little glasses or bowls. Top with a fourth of the chopped cranberries. Drizzle with the chocolate sauce, it should  fill any crevices left by the piped peanut butter and cranberries to make a pretty pattern on the sides of the  glass containers.  Add a dollop of mascarpone cheese and sprinkle with a fourth of the Granola mix. Chill untill ready to serve.

Of painting a love story with Plums at the Nature’s basket US F&B Showcase

"PFA a list of SKUs for the US Food and Beverage showcase" they wrote. "We’d like you to create recipes from them."

Now these are the sort of challenges that I love, being given ingredients and told to create a dish. Like a fresh palate of paints and a clean sheet of paper. So I very enthusiastically opened it up only to my enthusiasm diminish with each product name I read as I progressed down the list. All sorts of delicious ready to eat things but nothing to actually work with!

And then there they were, my saviours, right at the bottom of the list and almost missed by me. California Plums. I asked for a few to play with because I like to experiment with any new ingredient for a while to see how much I can push the limits with their use. But when they arrived and I held the solid weight of one in my hand, the shiny crimson magenta skin just called out to be bitten into. I did and almost immediately realised two things.

One, that often when we eat plums we miss out on their beauty - their crimson-purple skins with the glowing translucent flesh instead – and Two, that I had to keep the plums as whole as I could or risk doing them a grave injustice.

At first I thought of halving them and filling them like I had done with California Peaches in the past, but then I thought no, these plums, My plums needed more finesse in presentation, A Carpaccio? Yes that would be perfect!

A Carpaccio is traditionally a dish of fresh raw meat or fish served sliced extremely thin and (very appropriately in this case) named after the Venetian painter Vittore Carpaccio, but it has inspired a slew of dishes with all sorts of vegetables in haute kitchens all over. And a Carpaccio offered the perfect vehicle for my dish to ride on.

As I ate that plum, I mused to myself my instincts told me that they needed something decadent paired with them, something strong and spoilt to contrast with their fresh unspoilt quality.

Gorgonzola! After all can it get any more spoilt then that?

But my plums would need some dressing to really lead that BAD Gorgonzola on... Perhaps a touch of salt to bring out their delicious juices - sea salt since only the best would do, a drizzle of honey to accentuate their sweetness and something more – that final touch to make them perfect.... ...

Green chilli! Yes! That would give my beautiful plums the oomph they needed to hold their own beside the sharpness of Gorgonzola!

So I sliced up the plums on a mandolin, and bathed them in a bath of sea salt, Cider Vinegar, Wild Forest Honey and Green Tobasco (we are so well acquainted with red Tabasco but Green Tabasco is fabulous, entrapping the venomous sting that only green chillies can bring as opposed to the more glowing heat of the red chillies).

Then I laid out the seductively perfumed slices on a white plate to bring out their beautiful colours and drizzled over a little of the juices with their slightly pickled green chilli notes to would lending the perfect accessory to boost them as I scattered over crumbled Gorgonzola.

As I served up this love story of California Plum and Gorgonzola, I could not help thinking to myself that this Carpaccio was the prettiest dish I have ever made.

I will be recreating this dish on the 28th at my cooking Demo at Nature’s Basket on 28th August after which I will put up a picture and the recipe.

Friends and feasts - Korean BBQ at Da Seoul in Delhi

The perfect gathering at the laden table!

Brajesh, long suffering husband of blogger Kim aka Karishma of Jhovaan who has learned he can't eat till he shoots! Thanks for shotting us B!

 Lovely Kimch!

What we ate!

Lets call them Pork wraps for now!

The most delicious thing about food is that it offers an instant connect, no matter who we are or what our cultural roots are, food is universal. Offering the shared flavours of friendship and community it encourages intimacy, creates memories and helps nurture relationships. In fact rare are the people who do not warm up to the thought of food and talking about food is my favourite theme to start a conversation with, or break the ice when I meet new people.

And the gathering around our table last night was proof of that. We met at Da Seoul, a little Korean restaurant in Ansal Plaza that is overshadowed by Oriental Bloom on one side and a kitschy karaoke place whose name I have forgotten on the other. The choice of venue was Theyie’s who some of you will know from her posts on APB (she has shifted to Delhi for those who have been wondering why her ‘Dear Rushina’ posts have stopped. Hopefully she will settle down and be back to writing them soon).

So Theyie loves this place for two reasons the MEAT (of course) and the fermented food, both of which appeal to her Naga palate. But we also had Ross aka Roshan and his wife Raj who are from Darjeeling, Karishma who is Manglorean, her Husband Brajesh who is from UP and me from Gujarat (yes my ancestors had a very restless night in their graves!).

And we had a great time, seated on the floor, around a low table in a little Tatami room, trying to make ourselves heard over the raucous laughter of a group of loud Korean gents enjoying themselves in the room behind us. We began salivating almost the moment a selection of Kimchis was spread out before us. Service was very prompt and fuss free. And then as we began tasting out way around the table, the large brazier was set before us and a platter of beautiful fatty pork was brought in. Conversation continued as Theyie and Raj set about cooking the pork. Ok I was too busy eating and talking to bother with the names of stuff (for once I had not been handed the menu and asked to order!) but I will do a proper post on Korean food to tell you all that.

The pork sizzled on the pan and once it was beautifully golden and crispy Theyie showed us how to dab it with some chilli paste (which I thought was Gojujang, but Theyie called something else) and wrap it in some lettuce before putting it in our mouth. It was a delicious bite, the pork was fatty, succulent and hot, the lettuce cool and crunchy and the chilli paste was spicy and subtly sweet. When we finished cooking all the Pork, the plate was changed and in came a Beef version, with lovely slices of fat marbled beef accompanied by thick slices of onion and mushroom. As Theyie and Raj did their thing with cooking it, the rest of us finished with the pork.

And then while the Beef was cooking Theyie passed around rice in little steel covered bowls. And I discovered the magic that had been silently waiting in my little plate. We’d been picking bits and pieces of things from all the different bowls in front of us and putting them in out bowls before eating them. Adding the Chilli paste to the side as something like the Pork required it. And while I had been eating, a chemistry of its own kind was happening in my bowl, as all the juices that had been running off from the various Kimchis and the chilli paste combined. A Chemistry that just blew me away when I mixed in a spoonful of rice and some of the liquid component of the Squid soup that came in just then.

It was A Perfect Bite of that evening, everything coming together in one mouthful just like the stellar combination of dining companions that were already forging new friendships and planning other meetings!

Mumbai Food bloggers dinner! Virtual Deliciousness on the Menu!

Mumbai Food bloggers dinner! Virtual Deliciousness on the Menu!

Food blogging has revolutionized the world of food writing. Today people who would not normally write, are writing and people who would not normally read stuff like this, are reading. And the dinner that A Perfect Bite hosted on Friday the 13th of Augustat the Grand Hyatt's new restaurant Fifty Five East was proof of this. Ironically, food bloggers have long been unsung heroes in the world of food writing, considering some of the best food writing comes from these unexpected sources. I remember a time when researching an article meant that one reffered to oodles of books and papers. But throwing something at google can simplify research a lot these days, because of the millions of food bloggers out there, thanklessly toiling to get that post on something delicious up.

I mean think about it, food blogs, are one man (or woman) wonders driven by a solitary individual who eats, buys, cooks, pays, shoots (photos mostly but sometimes even game!), edits and writes, (in addition to holding down a real job and living a real life) to deliver that regular post. It is a tough extra job! An endeavor driven by passion and dedication. (If there was a deity for food bloggers, it would have many hands too). And it is a well known fact that I was a blogger first, and everything else later. Even today I am a blogger first. Yes, I write on food all over the place and do yummtious food projects and all, but I am a blogger first at heart and I still save my best stories and recipes for my blog, (and this is a secret we are not sharing with my Editors)!

So when the Hyatt offered to host a group of my foodie friends to dinner at their new restaurant, Fifty Five East, I thought it was the perfect setting for a bloggers meet. In fact I couldn't have found a more global venue to be a backdrop to this very exciting meeting if I tried! With it's show kitchens that embrace the idea of “eating out of the pan, off the grill and out of the wok”, offering a variety of choices including Thai, sushi, and Lebanese, Indian and Western and a FAB dessert section its made for a gaggle of foodies like us to slowly savour it's charms! I had dined at the Fifty Five East on two occaissions already and it was fast becoming my favourite place to meet with people on occaissions when good food was important to the meeting but should not overwhelm.

After all on the menu today were some of the foodiest of foodies and nothing could distract from that. Here is a taste. I will give you a perfect bite of each of these in the coming weeks!
 
Now Cooking - http://nowcooking.blogspot.com (member of APB team)
Vikram Doctor (who reminded me that he is a blogger too technically! ) - http://blogs.economictimes.indiatimes.com/onmyplate
Finely Chopped - http://finelychopped-k.blogspot.com/ 
Purple Foodie - http://purplefoodie.com/
Lotsafood - http://lotsafood.blogspot.com/
Homemade Happiness - http://home-madehappiness.blogspot.com/p/about-me.html 
Eating out in Bombay - http://eatingoutinbombay.blogspot.com/ 
Lulu loves Bombay - http://lululovesbombay.blogspot.com/ 
Sunshinemom of TONGUE TICKLERS (http://tumyumtreats.blogspot.com/)
Nonchalant Gourmand - www.nonchalantgourmand.blogspot.com
Ifoodie - http://www.ifoodee.wordpress.com/
Bombay Foodie - http://foodiezone.blogspot.com/
Follow my Recipe - http://followmyrecipe.blogspot.com/

Waking up to breakfast...

July was one of the toughest months I have lived through emotionally in a long time!

It began with shifting home, which was a very positive move, both personally and professionally, but I felt I was betraying the first home we ever owned by leaving it for a better model. And then the day of the shift, I returned from Delhi with some sort of horrid viral and proceeded to collapse, literally! I think I slept through virtually the entire move and poor Shekhar had to handle everything himself! Then came the biggest blow, the loss of someone I loved so much. This was quickly followed by strife on the work front as well, for me and for someone very dear I work with. And then mE magazine closed down. It just felt like too many endings! I found myself questioning things. I have always believed that life sends us the tests and our measure is in how we get through them but REALLY did it have to be so many at the same time. But I guess that was a test in itself. Letting go doesn't always mean you have failed, sometimes it just means you are strong enough to let go.

All of a sudden, I who cannot sit still without doing SOMETHING did not want to do anything. Meeting people, working, eating, reading about food, felt frivolous in the face of the avalanche threatening me. So I went numb. Dealing half heartedly with things I could not ignore but for the most part I just zoned out. I languished about my new house, bummed around Facebook.

Untill I woke up suddenly one morning while I was making breakfast for my husband.

Natasha, my almost 3 year old daughter was off to school for the first time that day. Where had time flown? It seemed like just yesterday when we brought her home, tiny and curled up in her blanket like a question mark that seemed to ask "what is in store for me?And yet there she was, a tiny little person.A tiny NOISY little person, positively fizzing! Buzzing around the house infecting us with her excitement, instructing her dad to pack her tiffin like he did her Bhaiya's, harrowing me to get her bathed and dressed 3 hours in advance!

And amidst all this as I cooked Shekhar's breakfast, my senses seemed to have awakened from hibernation. I suddenly smelled, REALLY smelled the tomatoes as they hit the hot pan and sizzled, my mouth actually watered watching butter as it melted onto the hot toast. As I plated the breakfast, sliding my new creation - roasted tomatoes topped with a perfectly fried egg sprinkled with grated cheese onto toasted bread, I realized just how much I loved doing this daily activity for my family.

Juggling the kids, home and our work, there really is never any time to go out on 'dates', especially since we have no help after 7:00, having chosen to be hands on parents. BELIEVE me dinner out with two kids would TRYLY defeat the purpose! And although I do cook lots of exciting things through the week they need to account for kids, guests and the ladies that work for us so menus need to be simple and account for everyones likes and dislikes. Besides, inevitably, special dinners just never seem to turn out as planned. Kids sense when you want them out of the way and make it their business to make you REGRET feeling like that. By the time you actually get down to dinner you might want to go to bed more! TO SLEEP!

But breakfasts are different. Breakfasts are the beginning of the day. We are all up, refreshed, hungry for the day full of promise that stretches ahead of us. (On weekdays it also means one kid is out of the way at school!) But most importantly breakfasts are customizable. I can do anything I want, make it as elaborate as I want, just for Shekhar. So most mornings, I will browse through fridge and cupboards and plan a plate for him, picking things he likes and bringing them together into a delicious whole. My biggest reward is the look of bliss he gets when I get things right and the breakfast is perfect!

Most days it will be one sunny side egg over a cheese slice, over hot toasted bread and the cheese will have gotten beautifully melty and gooey. The whole would be sprinkled with salt and freshly ground pepper with a grilled tomato on the side. In fact this is Shekhar's signature breakfast, so much so that Aman (my son) calls it the Papa breakfast.

And often I will vary this, likt that day when I had a brain wave. I thought since S loved of the combination of eggs cheese and tomatoes so much, why not try to combine the tomato and the fried egg by cracking the egg over a layer of tomatoes and laying the whole toast topped with a cheese slice? The logic being that the tomatoes would get beautifully caramelized but would allow the egg to stay soft as opposed to the crispy fried. It worked kind off - the results were delicious, only I have to cook the tomatoes much more.

Some days (usually Sundays when we have Brunch) I will add a couple of sausages to the plate as well (If Aman lets them get there). And when I cook sausages, I always save a few cooked ones to rustle up a sausage omeletfor breakfast the next day. I heat a tbsp of oil, pour add 3-4 beaten eggs seasoned with a little salt and pepper and cook till egg starts to get cloudy. I arrange slices of the sausages with red chillies all around and cook till the omelet is set and sausages are heated through. Great with buttered wholegrain bread.

OR for a truly decadent Sunday omelet, combine 1/2 cup sliced sausage with 1 tbsp each pickled jalapenos and gherkins and 1/2 cup Pecorino cheese, toss well and set aside. Heat oil in a frying pan. Pour in 4 eggs that have been beaten with a little salt. Cook on low flame till egg is almost set. Place filling in the middle. Cook for 2 minutes fold opposite sides over filling and serve.

I will end with this recipe I cooked up or a Me recipe feature a long time ago because it so perfectly garnishes this post.....

Basil scented sunny side ups  (Serves 4 , Time 10 mins. plus a little prep time)
If the only thing you do well is a sunny side up, stun your breakfast guests with a couple of these sensational eggs. Add some chilli to the mix and take a bite from in Latin American cuisine by serving a spicy basil scented a single sunny-side-up egg over freshly steamed white rice so the yolk and oils run into the hot rice.... Heaven! Basil with its spicy, mildly peppery flavor complement eggs perfectly but this is what I call a 'template recipe' because by merely changing the herb you use you could vary the entire recipe.

For Basil Scented Oil
2-3 cloves garlic, crushed
A handful of basil leaves (or any fresh intensely aromatic herd herb)
½ cup rice bran oil (I use Tandul)
In a small pan heat oil untill hot but not smoking. Add crushed garlic, stir and allow to cook untill fragrant (not more than one minute). Take off flame and add Basil leaves. Stir well, cover and leave to infuse for at least and hour (overnight is better). When completely cool strain into the bottle of the oil spritzer.  

For eggs
4 eggs at room temperature (cold eggs from the fridge will splutter and soil the surface of your sunny side up)
Crushed pepper corns
Salt to sprinkle

Method
Place a non stick frying pan on a low flame and warm up but do not heat too much, place pancake ring on pan. Spray pan and ring well with Basil scented oil using an oil spritzer. Crack an egg carefully into the ring. The egg will sizzle at it hits the pan, using a fork or a toothpick burst any bubbles that might form.  Once the egg white has solidified you can remove the pancake ring. Allow egg to cook untill it is done to your taste, sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste and serve.

Basil is truly an incredible herb. And its spicy, mildly peppery flavor complement eggs perfectly. Look for fresh leaves, they have he best flavour but frozen and dried leaves are worth the effort also in a pinch. The leaves can be used cooked or eaten raw. Crush, chip or mince the leaves and add to recipes, or add whole leaves to salads. Sprigs of basil make a wonderfully aromatic garnish.Try deep frying them for a decadent topping on Thai dishes. If you end up with too many the best way to preserve them is in a pesto sauce.

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Pictures courtesy - Indiasutra.com