Kalo Jeeray Kumrow

I gravitate towards a set lot of vegetables that stay ok in the fridge for a while and are easy to chop and cook in the morning. So, this time around, I wanted to buy something that I don't normally buy.

I bought myself half a large pumpkin (or কুমড়ো/kumro in Bengali)   and then wondered what I'd cook with it. Morning soon came and presented me with 20 minutes to rustle something up for lunch. Owing to its sheer dint of volume, the kumro/pumpkin was the first thing I laid my hand on when I reached for the vegetable tray.

I sliced off a crescent of the pumpkin and then looked around for inspiration to cook with.

I washed, peeled and sliced the pumpkin into little pieces and then decided to use as little as possible to cook. I realized that it would take sometime to cook so I nuked the pieces for a 2 minutes after spraying some water on them and covering them.

I had a few green chillies that the Sita (the vegetable seller) had throw in gratis. Two of them came to my rescue as did some কালো জিরে/kalo jeeray (as Bengalis know it) or kalonjee and a couple of bay leaves.

I put in a generous splash of mustard oil and smoked it before adding everything in and then tossed things around for a while. Then I covered the pan and turned the gas down to sim and started getting ready. 
I came back to a well cooked meal to which I added some salt and packed for lunch.

Zero Oil Egg Curry...

A lot of people in office are on a 'dieting' spree to become trimmer. So a lot of 'harrumph' happens when we share lunch and I get questions about 'how many teaspoons of oil' is in whatever I cook. Since a litre of cooking oil lasts me for months (even after using oil in some muffins), this irks me no end.

So one fine morning I decided to cook up some egg curry without any damned oil!


I 'd already hard boiled a few eggs the night earlier... So, in the morning I took out a couple of tomatoes, a little haldi, dhania, and jeera powder, a few cloves of garlic, and little nub of ginger. 

I puréed all of this together into a neat little paste before I did anything else...

I slapped the purée into my trusty non-stick pan...

... and simmered till I'd got a nice little 'reduction' happening that had imbibed all the flavours....

I also had come palak (spinach) that I washed and chopped up (almost as an after thought).

I put the palak into the reduction and added a wee bit of salt to get the palak to sweat out a bit...

And then I added the boiled eggs and I had my curry ready :)

Muli Tomato Palak

I'd impulsively bought a lot of palak (spinach) and mooli (radish) when I'd gone veggie shopping. I woke up and wondered what to  do with the combo. So...

I took some tej patta (bay leaves), whole dried red chillies, a pinch of haldi and a fair bit of ajwain (which has the  fancy carom seeds or mistaken as bishop's weed across the ocean in the West).

I sliced a few tomatoes, grated a large mooli....

... and chopped a large bunch of palak as well...

... and realized that I was looking at a veritable flag of Italy ... :)

I dunked all the masala and oil into my trusty non-stick pan and waited for things to sputter. I decided to do this instead of adding the masala to hot oil, since I wanted the oil to get more of the aroma as it heated with the masala for longer than it would otherwise.

I put in all the veggies together and simmered in a covered pan, stirring once in between.

Then I got ready to pack and leave for office while the last bit of cooking happened... Quick and easy morning cooking :)

(Just) Eat Around the Corner... (Bandra)

I have rather fond memories of the Just Around the Corner in Bandra. The experience of loading your salad plate with food and tottering back to gorge on the beef, seafood, chicken, vegetables, and other things shines bright in the culinary memory map.


So on a rather busy Saturday morning when I'd just finished rushing through baking a lot of chocolate sponge cake, I met Harini and Subha, and it was unanimously decided that we should go there to eat our hearts out. Actually the last statement is not applicable to BOTH ultra-intake conscious Subha and Harini.


After we reached (with Harini driving and cribbing about the grams she's gained), we were in for a surprise. The place had changed from an open inviting place to a completely opaque flex wrapped place and is now called Eat Around the Corner.


Interestingly, you can't find the place on Google Maps unless you search for good old Just Around the Corner :P. 

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We'd almost given up the place for closed when a thick and forbidding door sprung open and we squeezed in like we were getting into some Alice-in-Wonderland-esque forbidden garden. 


Once inside we realized that the place has been 'redesigned'. The Costa inside is gone. A metal detector gauges your threat quotient as the redesigned faux waterfall gurgles in the background. Subha noticed a notice that glares at you saying something to the effect that "This is not a cafe... Spend at least Rupees 350 or your are not welcome"!


Very alarming and forbidding!


Nevertheless a once inside, the familiar surroundings have been changed into a sterile and white decor. The counter now flows in the opposite direction to what it was earlier. As soon as once enters, once is corralled into a glass enclosed lane.


You start with salads (small or regular portion sizes only - no unlimited option now). The day we went we could choose from three vegetarian and two non-vegetarian options. The salads range from Rs 150 to around Rs 300 (depending on factors like portion size and veg/non-veg etc).
You cannot help yourself. A salad server will 'toss' your salads for you at his discretion. 


Having said this, the salads now look more enticing and more 'exotic' ingredients (for example, I had to choose between Tamarind Chicken, Chorizo, and Salmon). I settled for a small portion of shredded salmon salad, Harini chose a large portion of something that had all sorts of soaked pulses, and Subha chose a large portion of Greek salad with feta cheese. 

The Lovely Ladies with their Salads

Subha's Greek Salad (and Cinnamon Roll)

Harini's Salad of Soaked Pulses (the bread sticks are NOT gratis.. They cost a bomb!)

Salmon Salad for me...

What really got me happy was the desert spread.


Subha got herself a cinnamon roll and Harini and I shared a simple chocolate pastry. The desert counter in quite expansive and a feast for the eye. 
The cinnamon roll was excellent—a little sugar and crunch on the top layer and a cloying little heart of gluten and cinnamon in the middle. Compared to this the rolls at Cinnabon pale very rapidly.

Cinnamon Roll

A closer look at the cinnamon roll

The chocolate pastry was good as well. Simple things like this usually helps benchmark a pastry/confectionery prowess of a place. The gooey dark chocolate passed with flying colours :)

  

Chocolate Ganache...

Now that I'd a crack at the basic foam cake, I wanted to try out some frosting to make it nice and happy...
All I needed was some chocolate (I took 250gm left over Morde) and some of the thick cream (300gm) to get the goo going ..

So I went out and hunted out Punjab and Sind Dairy (a little Tweeting and some help from Titin did the trick :) ). They sell some amazing, heavy cream.
While the chocolate went for some chop chop...

The cream went into the saucepan for a quick low flame boil...

Just when the cream threatened to boil over, I cut the heat and sloshed in the chocolate shards.

It took a fair bit of stirring as the cream started melting the chocolate...

And voila! The rich (very tempting) pool of chocolate was glinting at me.

I took a cocoa foam cake that I'd baked an hour ahead and sliced it into two. 

I then poured and spread some of the ganache. I did this in stages of pouring and spreading since if I just poured, the ganache (still very warm and liquid) would just soak in...

...and sprinkled some walnut bits to make things interesting

The top slice quickly went on and then it was time to pour (the now solidifying) ganache on top of the cake...

A little tap here and there got the bubbles out as much as possible.

I slapped on some halved almonds to add some visual appeal and also create a 'boundary' for the slices to be cut.

And I was done... 
The entire cake now went into the fridge for an hour for the chocolate to cool and get all gooey. 

Nutella and Walnut filling...

This is a quick filling that I put in when I do not have much time to something more involving.

I take a cake (here this was a cocoa-based foam cake) and slice it into two halves.

Next I crack open a jar of Nutella. 

Tip: Buy from Crawford Market if you are anywhere near Mumbai. 30% or more cheaper than what you'd get from a super market. Alternatively, you can also hazelnut chocolate paste from places like Arife LeMoulde. (I still like Nutella :D )

But I digress...

I slather Nutella generously on inner surface of the bottom slice...

And then sprinkle some crushed walnut bits to make things interesting in terms of texture.

I also flip over the top slice and put on some more Nutella...

Then I slap the two slices together and I have my cake ready to eat...

Chocolate Sponge - The Foam Cake Quest begins...

I'd already tried the standard ritual of making a plain sponge cake to test the oven when it first came in. So I decided to add a little bit more by adding cocoa to the standard ingredients when I wanted to make the foam cake 'series'.

As a part of my new drive to reduce waste, I have started recycling aluminum foil at least once (if it is not soiled). So I re-used washed and dried used aluminum foil to line the baking tins. 

I started by sieving in half a cup of flour with a quarter cup of cocoa, and ½ tsp baking powder along with ¼ tsp Baking Soda.

I pulsed ½ cup demerara sugar in the grinder to make it more powdery.

Next I separated three yolks and added a whole egg into a mixing bowl.

I whipped the yolks with half the sugar till they almost tripled in volume.

Next I gently sieved in the flour and cocoa mixture and folded everything in taking care not to deflate the foam too much.

This done, I washed the whipping blades, dried them and then whipped the three egg whites with the remaining sugar as well, till they were stiff and I could hold them upside down without dripping.

I folded this in as well and then scooped up the batter into the tins. I added a cucumber and melon seeds to add a little bit of crunch on top and then baked the cakes for about 25 min.

Once done I peeled off the lining and let them cool before slicing it up to take for Subha, Harini, and Peter's 'shop warming' party. :)

Ingredients:
½ cup Plain Flour
¼ cup Cocoa Powder (unsweetened)
½ cup Demerara Sugar
½ tsp Baking Powder
¼ tsp Baking Soda 
4 Eggs