Rushina's Recipes - Creamy Vanilla scented Brown Rice Pudding (AKA Kheer with a twist)

I thought you might want a break from the salad recipes I have been putting up so I decided to share a tried and tested favourite that I came up with after I found Navdanya. I use all organic ingredients for this. The Brown rice breaks down much better than white, giving the pudding a lovely creamy texture without the need to add any cream. The jaggery also lends an earthy sweetness that is more rounded than the sharpness of white sugar. And the fact that this one does not require too much watching, (though you do need to give it an occasional stir) makes it an ideal one to have simmering while you dig into a good book on a day off. And when it is done, put it in a bowl and chill.

Serves 2-4 Time 1 hour

2 cups cooked whole grain brown rice
3 cups milk
1/2 cup grated palm or other jaggery
1/2 cup raisins
1 vanilla pod cut open and seeds and pulp reserved

Directions

In medium saucepan, combine rice, milk, jaggery and raisins and vanilla pod and bring to boil. Reduce heat & simmer 20 minutes, stirring frequently or until the rice has broken down. Remember it will thicken as it cools so switch of flame a little before it reaches the consistency you desire. Remove from and garnish with additional raisins and chill.

Chew on this - Culinary Souviners.

So I am off to Singapore today. I am looking forward to the trip. There are lots of foodie experiences on the menu and lots of food shopping. What was the food like? Is always the first question I ask when someone I know returns from a trip. I love to get them talking about their gastronomical adventures. Of course the best part of it all is when they whip out a special something they picked up just for you!


The connection between food and travel is natural. Food is an instant memory prompter: a single bite or even just a whiff of something is enough to instantly carry you to that the extraordinary feast at the Sarova Shabba in Kenya when you dined by candlelight on a meal of chicken grilled with green chilies as a river flowed by. Culinary Souvenirs are little piece of my holidays I can bring home, attached to the memory of great food experiences they effectively bridge that gap between nostalgia and practicality.

One evening you're standing in your kitchen, cooking dinner for your family and, the scent of basil at that precise moment it releases its flavor into the tomato soup bubbling away in its crock-pot assails your senses, carrying you back to that lovely meal you had at the idyllic Bagni Iris in Italy with the sea washing up on the beach and the romance of Italy in your blood.

 

One of the most fitting things to bring back as a memory of a trip is a Culinary Souvenir. Food plays the part of a window into the culture of the places we visit. We visit local restaurants; share meals prepared in the homes of friends, old and new and explore markets and shops marveling at the strangeness and sensuousness of new cuisines. And culinary souvenirs also widen the spectrum of options where gifts for people back home are concerned. After all they are functional, come with a story attached, and bring gratification in being thought about.


Alcohol, Wine, Chocolate and Cheese are things most picked up as culinary souvenirs but there are a variety of other options available. From ingredients; herbs, spices, spice mixes nuts, dry fruit and cooking mediums; oils, vinegars to dries, preserved, pickled foods, cured and salted meat and seafood and even cookware, crockery, cutlery, flatware, glassware and serving dishes.

Wild Oregano from Greece or Turkey, Lavender from the South of France that entraps the sun in its aroma… Herbs and herb mixes make good gifts and souvenirs. They have long shelf lives, do not occupy too much space and are welcomed by cooks of any stripe. Look for indigenous herbs from other countries you visit as well - New Zealand’s Kinaki wild herbs packages Horopito a local herb with a peppery flavor which always sparks of interesting conversation at my dinner table.

And Spices! There are as many Spices as there are countries in the world and bought closer to source, they tend to be of a better quality with a longer shelf life. Look for chilies from Thailand, Mexico, India, Hungarian Paprika, Saffron from Spain and Vanilla pods (just a single pod makes a great gift) and Cinnamon from Sri Lanka. The number of spices available in the world is beaten by the variety of spice mixes available. Bring home Pesto mixes from Italy, Zahter (great to sprinkle over bread with a bit of olive oil and grill) and Ras El Hanout, the king of spice mixes (used to flavor Tagines) from the souks of Morocco. Closer home, every regional cuisine has special spice mixes. Look out for local masalas such as Bottle Masalla and many other fragrant blends to spike curries, rub on meats and flavor vegetables with.

Wherever you go in the world you will find local oils and a bottle brought back can add variety to your pantry. Truffle oil is a must from France or Italy but go past the obvious for the lesser know. Look for local Walnut oil in Italy for example, it makes flavorful salad dressings. Pick up Austrian Pumpkin seed oil or oil pressed with lemons or infused with herbs, spices, garlic or chilies. I was gifted Horopito infused Apricot oil in New Zealand and it still makes a great story when I serve something cooked with it.


All manner of ready sauces are available to stir into meats, curries and pasta or use as dips for starters are available in the by lanes and corners of the Culinary world.. Porcini Mushrooms and sun dried tomatoes in olive oil, Moroccan preserved lemons, Spanish Jalapenos. Pickles that run the gamut from hot Indian Achars to pungent fermented, Kimchi of Korea and smoky sweet relishes from England. Try the Serbian Avjar, a sweet pepper paste, fiery PiriPiri sauce from Africa or Wasabi from Japan.

Carrying fresh seafood and meat could be more hassle than it is worth. But you could bring home canned Sardines from France, Smoked Salmon from Norway, Back Bacon from Canada, Chinese dried sausages, Salted dried “Billtong” from South Africa and Salamis or cured meats like Serrano and Parma ham from Spain or Italy (ensure you buy them in large pieces – unsliced, so they don’t dry out as quickly as pre-sliced meats).

 

And don’t limit yourself to food for your culinary souvenirs. There is indigenous cookware and serving ware to be found in every country you visit. Look for paella pans in Spain, Tagines in Morocco and Copper Urlis in India. A Samovar or interesting coffee mug can be an interesting addition to a friend’s collection.


The most extraordinary Culinary Souvenirs are of course your memories and the selection presented above is just a beginning of the treasures waiting to be discovered on your travels. Whether your next trip is for business or pleasure, drizzle some olive oil over it, add some zest of lime, spike it with chilies and fill it with flavor! When you are done experiencing it, trap a little bit in your suitcase and bring it back!

A few things to watch out for:

Customs restrictions. Some countries have restrictions on what food stuffs and souvenirs you can carry in, so check those out. You don’t want to carry a few dozen Alphonsos from Bombay and then find that you have to ditch them at the airport in Australia or blow all your money on raw milk cheeses from France only to find you can’t carry them into the USA!

Tips and tricks
Buy wines, at the higher priced end of the market than at the lower, you will get a wine that you probably couldn’t afford at home. Half bottles are a good buy for more regular indulgence.

Try not to leave all the shopping for your last day or the airport shops. Space out your shopping over the period of your holiday, souvenirs bought from the local shops around your hotel or resort, rather than from the point of departure will offer more variety. Also exclusive boutiques tend to focus on packaging and price more than quality or quantity.

When you visit local festivals or street and flea markets, try to go with locals. Your foreigner status will be a beacon and might attract unsavory elements but at the same time be wary, ask yourself if there might be a hidden agenda at work. Taxi drivers could be getting a commission, or a kindly shopkeeper might just be trying to bring custom to his cousin’s otherwise empty restaurant.

The Cook'ing' Monster

Dear Rushina,

When people ask me what my hobbies are, I automatically say ‘cooking’ and they automatically reply, “Oh? What can you cook?” And if there’s a friendship to be made, what follows is a respectably long conversation about the foods I love cooking, punctuated with a lot of swallowing and lip-smacking (one’s own of course). It has occurred to me that no one ever asks about the things you can’t cook. Which is funny, because the failure to cook presents as great an opportunity to forge a meaningful bond as accomplishments in the kitchen. For example, I cannot bake.
And not because I haven’t tried. Mrs. Lal, my home economics teacher in school had magic hands. Watching her bake sublimely fluffy muffins and cakes made me feel like I could do the same. I returned home for the holidays, inspired by her classes and proceeded to turn our kitchen inside out and impress my parents. I followed all the steps (neatly handwritten in my home-ec notebook), used the same ingredients, waited for the stipulated time for the cake to bake and opened the oven to find that my cake never rose. I blamed the baking soda and tried again with a fresh packet and failed. Then I tried another brand and failed. Then I tried yeast and failed. My cakes, brownies and even cookies (which don’t rise too much) never rose to the occasion. Finally, my poor father who had to taste each batch regardless of the outcome, gently suggested that I try using the oven for something else.
Some years later, blaming my disastrous baking summer on my age (I was thirteen), I decided it was time to put down the white flag and wage a war against baking soda again. This time secretly during the day, when my parents were at work. We also had a new cook by then so she encouraged me without knowing what trauma awaited her. Unfortunately, all the ingredients conspired against me and all I had to show for my efforts was hot gooey batter and a very demoralized cook (she was on my side). The ceasefire was once again in place.
I have used the same oven to bake fish and roast meats, with great success. But baking cakes, cookies etc remains my valley of the shadow of death, that dark secret place of shame that lurks in my happy world of cooking.
After you introduced me to the purple foodie’s blog, I haven’t been able to get baking out of my thoughts. Perhaps its time to fight my cook‘ing’ monster.

Theyie

Food Gazing

Dear Rushina,

You know those annoying people in restaurants who always keep glancing at your table to see what you’re eating? I’m one of them. When it comes to eating out, especially at restaurants which are new or you don’t visit often, checking out other tables is a great way to figure out what’s good and what the dishes look like. If you do it enough (like me), you realise how territorial some people are about their food. Elbows suddenly prop themselves on the table, screening delectable dishes from your gaze. Some even start draping themselves over their food, “My clothes and posture be damned! No one can look at the food I’m eating”. It’s no wonder that eating and sex are often equated, most people prefer do both without strangers watching.
But then there are those rare times when your roving eye meets a sympathetic diner. They let you look, they even lean back and sometimes, you feel comfortable enough to start a conversation (albeit across the restaurant, and in my case, usually in my broken Hindi). Mumbai in that sense, (no offense) is full of shameless foodies who recognise a kindred spirit. And they’ve been very helpful in my recent forays into vegetarian (pipe organ sounds) restaurants in Chembur.
My friend Divya, also a professed carnivore (‘but no dogs’, she said to her Naga friend), introduced me to cheese sada dosas at Ganesh Sagar, opposite Maitri Park. And thus began my journey into that dark labyrinth that is vegetarian cuisine. Around my third visit to Ganesh Sagar, as I was eating my cheese sada dosa, my eyes began to wander, elbows went up and bodies were draped. Then finally, on my fifth visit, desperate to order something new, I craned my neck and looked around. A kind woman on the other end of the restaurant saw me, leaned back and showed me her food. That’s how I now have another favourite order at Ganesh Sagar – Cheese paratha and bhendi masala.
My friend Sheila tells me she’s not a foodie. Thankfully, she does get hungry quite often which works very well for me. We were over at Martin’s, the small cubicle of a Goan restaurant in Colaba over the weekend. Sure enough, as we began to order, my gaze drifted to the other table where a woman was passionately relishing her pork vindaloo and clearly didn’t mind that I was watching. Her partner was delicately picking at sausages. As we’d already ordered beef chilly fry (YUM!), we decided we’d have sausages ‘just like the ones the gentleman over there’ was having (we pointed discretely).
But sometimes, you get it wrong. The food you point at, isn’t the one that turns up on your table. Like yesterday at Subhalaxmi, another vegetarian restaurant walking distance from TISS. As we walked across the main dining area into the AC section, I spied a man digging to yummy looking angry red noodles. With Indian Chinese cuisine, that usually means ‘Szechwan noodles’. So we ordered some and instead got a tamer looking version (quite good nevertheless).
This has got me thinking though, is only looking enough? Or is it time for us to walk over and start a conversation?

Theyie

P.S. Given my topic, I clearly couldn’t get any photos to accompany my post today. I don’t think the restaurants or their patrons would have taken to it kindly.

Chew on this... The Gastronomy of Marraige

Last Sunday I arrived back from a day trip to Bangalore, exhausted but on a foodie high. I had spent the day with my friend Uma, one of the best cooks and even better bakers in the world. I am unable to even make chapatis so bakers go on a special pedestal for me) in the world. The house was quiet, it was past 1:00, the kids were asleep, Aman tangled into an indicipherable mess of blanket, bedsheets and bakugaans. And tiny Natasha, gently snoring and sweetly sprawled over her father. And my darling husband who had endearingly tried to fight sleep and stay awake for me but obviously lost the battle the moment his head touched the pillow. As usual!

I went to unpack and put away the food I had brought back, a mess of delicious new things Uma had pressed on me; a dozen deliicious Legume buns she had baked that morning, from a signature recipe she charmed out of an artisnal baker in Paris, smoked chillies from Mexico, smoked Monteray jack cheese from a new Indian cheese maker - I was already thinking of a pasta in a spicy smoked cheese sauce, and Thai chillies and avacados from her local supermarket. As I went to put the last in the fruit basket next to the bananas I saw the buns in the microwave. S had baked them that afternoon.

I remembered the mms I had recieved earlier in the day, a picture of buns and sausage rolls that he had baked and his excited call afterwards. His voice positively thrummed with life, at the afternoons worth of baking. And again, I was full of reverance. You see, I am bread challenged. I cannot make bread, not even rotis. That I have found a world of substitutes is a story for another day. Today I have another theme to talk about.

Its funny how a stray sentance or action sometimes becomes the theme of ones thought sometimes. I was reading a charming food memoir called The Gastronomy of marriage, on the plane. Not an earth-shaking book (in fact I find myself skimming bits in places) but still a tangible, very warm, human exploration, of hurdles - similarities and differences - that couples overcome going from being individuals to couples in the context of one of the most basic of experiences: the sharing of food.

And standing there with that plate of rolls in front of me I found myself looking at my marriage in the same context. I have often said that S completes me, but just how much, he completes me came to me at that moment.

We are opposites in so many ways; he is organised, I am chaos personified, he likes mithai, I trip on gourmet chocolate, he likes parathas, I cant make rotis to save my life, he is the logical, practical half to my emotional, impulsive opposite. And in this we complement each other. And he is both my strongest supporter and biggest critic. And he BAKES bread and makes rotis. He also safeguards my image as a mom because on Pizza nights he does the bases and I do the sauce, when we wrap, he will make the wraps and I do the fillings, he makes fab dosas I do delish sambhar and tonight I would do pasta to complement his bread!

S has eaten through my One bowl dish years - the years when as a new bride I would cook one bowl dinners - pasta, lasagna, pulao, fried rice, noodles, casseroles anything that ensured a minimum of work and vessels to wash. He survived my Thai high, that phase in my life as a cook when I was obsessed with Thai and cooked it EVERY week.

And even if he didn't eat everything I cook without complaint, wash bartans because I hate to, chop onions because he can't bear to see me cry or wake me up with big cups of fresh brewed filter coffee, the fact that he bakes, makes him the perfect husband....

Oh hell who am I kidding, I would chose to marry him again a million times over, regardless!!!

Did you have interesting changes happen in the way you eat after you met you other half??? Do share your stories in the comments below...

Postcard from Theyie - About food of the Ao tribe in Nagaland

Dear Rushina,
I’ve gone on and on about axone and the magical way in which it can transform a good pot of pork. But I would be doing a great injustice to Naga cuisine if I just stopped at what I love about Sumi (from the Sema Naga Tribe) food. The Ao tribe in Nagaland is known for a number of fabulous ingredients and dishes. Arina would be happy to know that this tribe cooks up some of the most delectable vegetable preparations (straight from the meat eater’s mouth). My favourite, being conjured up mentally as I write this, is Rüsep (don’t know if I’ve spelt it right). An potpourri of assorted native leaves and vegetables, Rüsep unravels in the mouth in layers of deliciously contradictory flavours and textures. And I have had the good fortune to be related to and know some really wonderful Ao women in my life! Each makes her Rüsep differently, like a signature, preferring some vegetable over the other or putting more of one. One version that I enjoy in particular is the one my good friend Naro makes.
In 2007, after having taught in college for a year, I decided to take a big step and move out of home (where I lived with my parents) and into a staff quarter on the college campus. The college I taught in is situated in a truly idyllic village called Jotsoma, about half and hour’s drive from Kohima, the capital of Nagaland. It’s also much colder than Kohima, which is quite cold to begin with. As I settled into my new apartment, I would more often than not invite myself to Naro’s apartment, to chat, eat and laugh. And as winter approached, the dish of choice was Rüsep. Naro’s version has a hearty amount of Mezinga, a thorny local jungle vegetable, which is bitter, has a hot peppery taste and stings the tongue, just perfect for the Jotsoma winter. A prolific and accomplished cook, Naro would expertly whip up a rich broth of local snails (from the terrace fields) and pumpkin and serve it with Rüsup and hot local rice. Needless to say, these were cherished times.
I have since made it a point to learn how to make Rüsep from the Ao women in my life. And I have learnt that I have a long way to go. Making Rüsep is an art that requires patience (you slow cook the vegetables), knowledge of how each of the vegetables taste and therefore what each can contribute to the overall flavor (something I am still wary of doing given my aversion to vegetables). And then of course, there’s the fact that I’m in Mumbai and very far away from the wealth of local plants and vegetables at home. So I have to make do with the wealth of vegetables here which are very alien to me. Nevertheless, the occasional craving for Rüsep finds me frantically sniffing and tasting (raw) vegetables in the market. The other day, I made some, here’s what I put in it.

Brinjals – the small purple ones, the weird (really) green, grey patterned ones, the green ones; bitter gourd (just one), dried yam stem (from Nagaland), dried bamboo shoot (again from home), and some bamboo shoot water. My very average photography skills apart, I have discovered that Rüsep doesn’t photograph very well (Can foods/dishes be ‘photogenic’?). Something I know you will be able to help me correct. Till then, you’ll just have to taste and see.
Theyie

Around Town with Arina - Sampan Cooking Class

On 31st March 2010, the Sampan restaurant hosted a first of its kind Chinese cooking class with Chef Penpa. As soon as Rushina asked me if I wanted to go, I jumped with joy! It was double excitement for me; first it was Chinese food and to top that I would get to meet THE Chef Penpa. I have loved Indian Chinese food since I was a child and the first complete meal that I cooked on my own at the age of 12 was an Indian Chinese one. My love for Chinese cooking borders on obsession, but I am not alone, my whole family shares my love for Chinese food. It is our comfort food and in the Suchde home when we can’t think of what to cook (or don’t want to) the fall back is Chinese food.

And Sampan is a family icon. Most Oriental food lovers who have spent a significant amount of time in Mumbai would have at least heard the name of Sampan if not dined there. Ever since I could hear, I had familiar sounding memories of it through my parents and sister; about driving, across town to the Holiday Inn (as it was then called) at Juhu for meals on Sundays and holidays. In fact even today, a good 15 years or so down the line we still smile at how our mouths water when we think of Sampan. We were all sad when it shut down so the news of the Accor group reviving the erstwhile Holiday Inn as Novotel, and the iconic Sampan restaurant was welcome news to us.

Sampan meaning a flat bottomed wooden boat (perhaps because of its location by the seaside at Mumbai’s Juhu beach) has existed since about 1984-85. And Chef Penpa has been the driving force behind it from the day of its debut. The menu began with Cantonese but over the years chef Penpa has added to it dishes he has brought back from his extensive travels and experiences training under Master Chefs in Singapore and Hong Kong. Several spicy Sichuan dishes, an array of dimsums, steamed clay pot rice preparations (which became the house speciality) and fine sea-food and poultry dishes have enriched the menu and a recent addition of Sushi and Sashimi complete the Oriental dining journey for Food lovers.



Being a vegetarian I was happy that they maintained a balance in paying attention to vegetarians and non-vegetarians. In fact for once the Vegetarians got a fairer deal with the vegetarians with two of the three dishes demonstrated being vegetarian and a vegetarian version of the non-vegetarian one being demonstrated.

A part of me was still surprised that a chef was gladly sharing his recipes with people. The class began with Sesame Prawn/Vegetable Toast, a popular starter that is also loved by Bollywood’s first family, the Bachchans as Chef Penpa proudly proclaimed. One bite and fond childhood memories came rushing back, just like the scene in the movie Ratatouille when the food critic Ego takes the first bite of the Ratatouille cooked up by Remy the rat. My sister had taught me this recipe when I was a teenager but both the recipe and the memory had faded with time but this sesame toast was just like my sister used to make crisp, golden fingers crusted with sesame seeds.



Next on the menu was a Veg. Hot & Sour soup. We have been making this soup at home but it just never seemed right so I was pleased to have found the perfect recipe. Watching it being cooked and having tasted it I now have a benchmark to meet when I make it next. Striking the right balance between hot and sour it could not have been more perfect. The chef also shared ideas for non vegetarian variations of the soup using chicken (preferably) or fish.



And then came the piece de resistance the most awaited dish of the evening. Clay Pot Rice. I sat up to pay extra attention to this one, earlier in the day I had been warned by everyone from Rushina, to my family and friends to learn it properly for various reasons. Rushina wanted to learn how to make it but was unable to attend the class as she is working furiously on her book. And the others just wanted to eat! And let me tell you, hands down, (or should I say chopsticks) It was by far the best clay pot rice I have ever eaten, perfectly moist, but not too gooey. And here’s a tip for all you Clay pot rice fans, just like Hyderabadi Biryani, is not Biryani till it is made in the traditional manner; the secret to a great Clay Pot Rice is the clay pot it is made in! Without that, it is just fried rice with vegetables or meat in a sauce. (Clay pots are available somewhere in Crawford Market; I shall hunt them down and share the details here. Keep watching this space – Around town with Arina!)



And then, when we thought we could not handle any more stimulation of the palate we were served the cherry on the top, a Jasmine and Ginger Iced Tea presented by the Beverage Manager. It made the perfect companion to wash down the aromatic fabulous Chinese meal on a hot day. Its bright golden yellow color and the spike of the ginger added the right zing of spice to the sweetness of the sugar and tangy lemon juice, a great drink to kick back at the poolside or beach with a favourite book in hand.



All in all it was a fun evening, the staff was warm and friendly, Chef Penpa has to be one of the most down to earth and sweetest Chefs I have ever met. Happy to answer all the questions, pass ingredients around for us to touch, feel and smell, and even allowed people to come right up to his work station to get a closer look.

I left with a full tummy, a big smile, a goodie bag with a Sampan apron, some fortune cookies, a small bottle of their signature hot garlic sauce and best of all the recipes!

Introducing Arina (And a few other things)!

I am happy to share that the A Perfect Bite family is growing.

You have already met Theyie through her writings on this blog. Now I would like to introduce the newest face to join the APB family.

Arina Suchde, might be known amongst food circles for her stint with Tulleeho and the many workshops she has conducted for them. I met her via them when they backed me up for a workshop I did. What I did not know then and most do not know even now, however, is that Arina has been a foodie for most of her life.

A vegetarian who does some mean veggie cooking (think Chimichurri Corn Sandwich, Veggie Mayo Sandwich a la Arina, Sandwich Uttapam and Idli Bhaji (Pav Bhaji flavoured idli that we are dying to try), Arina trips on cooking with garlic, pepper and potatoes. She loves the aromas of sautéing garlic, french fries cooking in hot oil, fresh lemon grass, rich chocolate cake and the sound of water splashing on a hot dosa tawa, potato wedges sizzling in the oven, potatoes hitting hot oil and veggies being stir fried are music to her ears. In fact the words DEEP FRY – Brings a sparkle to her eyes and water to her mouth! (But we knew that with the French fries!) I would like to invite you to join Arina every Thursday (starting today) as she follows delicious aromas to check out foodie things around Mumbai in “Around Town with Arina”. She will dish up the latest cooking classes, find the foodiest finds and suss out scrumptious offers.


For those of you who are curious about her, Theyie is the opposite of Arina. She really is Mad about Meat. Don’t believe me? You will when I tell you she trips on cooking with meat (like we didn’t know), bamboo shoot, axone (pronounce Ahone this is a Naga fermented bean paste) gojujang, angothi (ahoti) a Naga ingredient that goes well with beef, she loves the smell of roasting meat, and the smell of beef at that precise moment when the fat melts. The sound of meat spitting on firewood is music to her ears. Her sole vegetarian pleasures are Bhindi and dal – which she can have in any form and in copius amounts. Theyie is mystified that anyone would pay to eat vegetarian food at a restaurant, cooks fabulously , is a fountain of knowledge on Naga cuisine, and loves to exercise her appalling Hindi with Natasha (my daughter) every chance she gets. In case you have missed it, Theyie writes lovely foodie letters about Naga cuisine (mostly) to me as Dear Rushina every Monday and goes Mad Over Meat on Tuesdays.

The Meaty bite and the Veggie bite at our celebratory lunch at Salt water cafe.

Our weekly ‘strategy’ meetings are a riot, with the first 15 mins spent deciding what to order (or what to cook), and constant distractions as we update each other on what we ate while apart or something we cooked or ... well you get the picture....

But slowly with each new meeting, I get to know them better, suss out strengths, push them to discover new horizons for their talent and in doing that I hope that I am nurturing the foundation of a company out of the years of hard work eating, drinking and writing! No seriously! It is great to have such fabulous enthusiastic women work with me and I am looking forward to it... Watch this space, we have lots of great stuff coming.

And for those of you not in the know, A Perfect Bite recently got itself a spanking new PAGE ON FACEBOOK, please, do join to stay updated on the antics we get up to behind the scenes! In fact here is a behind the scenes look at the Cupcake shoot we did for mE Magazine!

A Perfect Bite (AKA Rushina)

Rushina's Recipes - Piquant Cold Potato Salad

I love potatoes. With their versatility, accessibility and ease of, cooking, potatoes are the most handy mood lifters and can be quite a healthy option (it’s how you cook them that counts.) I always have some boiled spuds in the fridge. It's terribly hot and just the thought of entering the kitchen is enough to send one mad. On days like that having cooked potatoes in the fridge is a boon.

And Potatoes are unnecessarily maligned. Potatoes only get unhealthy when combined with too much fat; cheese and cream. Think about this - just one average potato contains 45% of the daily requirement of vitamin C, as much or more potassium than either bananas, spinach or broccoli, trace amounts of thiamin, riboflavin, folate, magnesium, phosphorous, iron and zinc.

This is an easy salad to put together for hot lazy days. Substitute Hung yoghurt for Mayonnaise, for a lighter version. Add lettuce and cooked sausage or chicken for a full meal. A healthy, delicious snack, side dish or meal in one!

Piquant cold Potato Salad
1/2 kg baby potatoes, skins on, boiled, and halved
1 tsp mustard
1 tsp mayonnaise
2 tbsp minced pickled jalapeno peppers
1 celery ribs, thinly sliced
1 finely chopped onion
1/4 tsp pepper
2 tbsp whatever fresh herbs you have on hand (coriander, chives, green onion

In a large bowl, combine everything. Serve chilled.

Dear Theyie, of Meat cooked with lentils, Parsi and Irani food

Dear Theyie,
The Kerhu you write about, reminds me of a similar looking lentil we have in Uttaranchal. I am not sure what the proper name for it is, we simply call it the Naurangi Dal. It has similar long (but thinner and flatter kidney shaped beans in a rainbow of colors ranging from green to reddish brown, maroon and even purple. Although sold as a dal they are not as good for making dal (they do not break down as other legumes do) as they are for making stuffed parathas. I wonder how they would be cooked with meat like the Kerhu with Pork dish you wrote about. I have run out of them, but Navdanya carries them so I will try to get some on my next trip there and perhaps we could add that to our list of dishes to cook together.

Dhansak the Parsi dish you talk about really is delicious. When I was at Mayo Girls in Ajmer, my local guardian was Gul Marfatia, a lovely Parsi lady that had about 30 wards from both the boys and the girls schools. Those were our hungry years. We believed we lived in MCP (Mayo College Prison) and were starved because we were not allowed to keep tuck (food from home). We would go to any lengths for food – literally! So you can imagine what a highlight it was to visit Gul Aunty on our monthly outing Sundays. It took a lot to host 30 something children for a meal, but that was Gul aunty for you gentle, generous and big hearted. The patterns of our visits typically started with us spilling into her house and settling down in various sections of it. A tall glass of Lemon Barley water (a local brand that we still ask for from people visiting Ajmer) would be served to tide us over until a sumptuous lunch of Dhansak was laid.

Dhansak is the name of the main dish as well as the whole meal built around it. Chunks of meat are slow cooked with lentils and Dhansak masalla until falling off the bone and served with white rice that is browned by a special method. Side dishes include fried meatballs and a cachumber (salad) of finely chopped onion tomato and coriander distinctively flavoured with Kolah’s vinegar, the vinegar that is characteristic to Parsi cuisine.

As luck would have it, though, your post came into my inbox as I happened to be working on my cookbook, on a chapter that deals with another Mumbai cuisine of Persian influence; Irani cuisine. Everyone has heard of the Irani cafes of Mumbai, those places time has forgotten, but are the most tangible and well known landmark of the immigrant Irani community that has been intrinsic to the growth of this city we live in today. But in all that we seldom give thought to Iranian home cooking. In my chapter on Irani cooking, I enter the home kitchens of Shahnaz Anand, affectionately known as Pushi aunty. A second generation Irani - her father was the legendary Agha – Pushy aunty has been a part of my life since her elder daughter Isha and I became best friends at Mayo.

Pushi aunty is an exemplary cook - who has to her credit a cooking show on Doordarshan as well as many fans of her cooking amongst friends of her husband (actor Tinoo Anand) and her daughtes – her kitchen is always deliciously aromatic and table always set for the extra guests that invariably drop in. Over the years she has instructed me in the nuances of various aspects of cooking, but most especially Irani cuisine, often sharing memories of being Irani and settling in India. Of course as a result of eating her addictive cooking, I have also ended up unable to live without two quintessentially Irani ingredients. Zaresht berries and Limoo Omani.

While Zaresht Berries, the legendary berries used in the iconic Berry Pulao have become failry well known thanks to the Berry Pulao Britania Cafe serves, Limoo Omani are lesser known. Limoo Omani, also known as kala nimbu are lemons that are boiled in salted water and then dried till hard and are used in irani/persian /middle eastern cooking to add a haunting, sourness to certain dishes. It is used to make a fabulous dish called Gormeh Subzi, that I have just finished refining and will be putting in my book but your email reminded me of another recipe that Pushy aunty taught me that I am not using in my book. Kheema (mince) with Channa Dal is one of those soul satisfying recipes that you cannot stop eating. Unlike other lentils, Channa Dal holds its form through the cooking and offers a deliciously silky contrast to the grainy mince when eaten. It also tastes better for breakfast the morning after it is made with hot fresh Pav.

Keema Chana Dal with limoo Omani
1/2 c oil
2 onions, sliced thin
Khada Masala (whole spices) - 2-3 cloves, a small 1 inch piece of cinnamon
2 green chillies1 kg meat or chicken mince1 tsp ginger garlic paste 2 tomatoes peeled, seeded and diced Spice powders - 1/2 tsp lal mirchi and haldi 1/4 tsp jeera powder Water if required1 tsp Salt1 ½ c Chana dal, soaked
1 limoo amoni
Heat oil in a large thick bottomed pan. Add the whole spices chillies and onions. Fry until golden. Add mince and ginger garlic paste, brown well (about 5-8 mins). Add spice powders, and cook for 30 seconds till they are cooked. Add the soaked chana dal and allow to cook. Add tomato and cook stir frying occasionally until the tomatoes disappear. Add a bit of water here if you think it is required. Crush and add 2 limoo Omani. Pressure cook for 1 whistle. Open but do not dry out water keep a little wet. Eat with Roti or Rice or Pav.