Street Food: Jalebi near Masjid station

The effect of time on jalebis is telling. The best jalebi is the one that is still warm crunchy and yet dripping with sweetness.
With jalebis, when left to their own devices, the crunch trends to soggy and a while later sweetness ferments to sourness, completely turning you of the treat.
I discovered this just-in-time jalebi walla not so far away from a regular haunt.
Traveling on the Harbor line to Crawford Market, I alight at Masjid station and am immediately in the midst of an avenue of street food vendors as I get off the railway over bridge.
A little ahead is the jalebi shop that produces these warm and indolently crispy treats!

Jalebi needs a batter of just the right viscosity. Squeezed out into smoking hot oil, the interconnected jalebis sputter excitedly till they've been turned off an inspected to see if they're done. Once of the oil, they're dunked into a large cauldron of thick sugar syrup to absorb sweetness to balance the deep fried crunchiness. Voila! The jalebi is ready!

Street Food: Malpua and Rabdi in Mumbai

The malpua that I grew up eating in Kolkata is a different creature from the one that I encountered in Pune and Mumbai. 

The malpuas of the east were akin to an appam, soft in the centre and a tapering crunchy edge--almost shaped like a flying saucer. 

The ones that I have had in Pune and Mumbai are akin to a deep fried pancake.

For a change I was struck at the lack of information in Wikipedia compared to http://www.ifood.tv/network/malpua. (Mental note to myself to update the Wikipedia article.)

So, I'd just come home after a gruelling session at office when I wandered away from my quest to buy chappatis and chanced upon the aroma of fresh malpuas in Tawakkal. 

Now this is not the Tawakkal of much fame and glory in town. This is smallish sweet shop in Mahim in  the lane that connects L J Road to Cadel Road and the Baba Makdum Shah Dargah.

The interesting part of the pricing is the jump of Rs 20 if add an egg. In my experience it changes the texture of the batter and makes it a little bit more fluffier. So I went ahead and before I could pay and fish out my phone, the eggs were cracked into the mixture, whisked and spread into the smoking hot oil.

Here is a video that shows how it is fried and then generously slathered with Rabdi. 

Very yum and all umami inducing!

Burnt Chilly Garlic dressing Marinated Pan Fried Chicken Thighs

I have Titin to thank for discovering FabIndia's Burnt Chilly and Garlic salad dressing as a marinade. This is an interesting concoction with heat, an piquant Indian 'spicy-ness' along with a nice tangy from the coconut vinegar.

I had bought some chicken thighs to cook for people who I'd invited one weekend. All of them had microscopic appetites so I still had the thighs sitting around in the refrigerator since even the drum sticks had not been consumed.

Chicken thighs, I realised, are a better deal than drumsticks since you get a large slab of meat with a little bone to trap the juiciness (drumsticks have lesser meat per piece) or even boneless meat (which tends to be less juicy since it lacks a bone).

Such realisations alert kitties about meat emerging from the freezer, and soon I was ankle deep in swirling cats and kittens. Ignoring the yowls of half a dozen always hungry kittens I plopped the dressing on the thighs.
Then I pacified the hungry felines with some milk before settling down to read the newspaper while the marinade did nice things to the meat.

As hunger struck I whipped out my trusty non-stick pan...

... and added oil with generously and put it on the fire...

The oil warmed to the occasion and soon the chicken sputtered happily in the oil...

A quick turn browned the other side and voilà! I had chicken ready for lunch. 

This is very easy to cook and difficult to go wrong with. The chicken cooks quickly and leaves the core nice and moist while the marinade tastes awesome as an enrobement.   

A Kolkata Pork Sausage

Childhood memories of the sausages I've had in Kolkata are a permanent aroma in my brain. Unlike the ones that I now get from a cold storage shop, the made-to-order early morning sausage experiences are etched fondly in some nice places in this cranium.

These sausages have a strong and aromatic song of their own. They start in as sides of pork  in a shop in Taltolla Bazar or in New Market... Perhaps earlier, even in Tangra. Baba lifts, prods and inspects before selecting a section of meat and specifies how much meat is needed and hands over the spices we mix and grind at home and some mint and parsley to  the sausage maker. He then proceeds to ritually insist that some more fat be added.

While a chap sitting at a corner quickly minces some onion and green chillies the the pork rind is dextrously sliced off, the meat and a little extra fat is coarse ground while some more hard belly fat is diced. Then all of this is mixed together with the spices, the mint and parsley, the onions, a little green chilly mince (and often some red chilly powder... that we omit). Squelched together dextrously into a rich, even and glutinous goodness.

Here's a video I found on YouTube that shows how the mixture is pushed into cleaned animal guts and braided into sauages

Once home, Baba pricks the sausages with a think needle to make sure they do not burst while they are cooked. Then a little water is added with a wee little salt and the sausages are simmered in a covered pan. 
The sausages soon release their own juices, seep liquid fat, and some very heavenly aromas! This hurried shot video does no justice really... You've just got to be there...

Once cooked some of the sausages end up with split skins, this is providential, since they release tasty goodness into the liquid that swaddles them and also because I use this as a neat excuse to quickly gobble them up :)

While most sausages have a singular unified taste, I love the granular texture of the meat in these ones, seeped with a bouquet of (very Indian) spices, the sweetness and bite from the onion, parsley and the hint of mint hiding somewhere while the little cubes of pork fat goodness induces umami. 

While one can make a curry out of these sausages, I like having them with bread, plain rice or naan... Just with the fat and juices the sausages produce while they cook.

These freeze and keep well in the fridge. For rather extended periods of time. Contrary to what people may tell you, they travel quite well. Else I would not be having them in Mumbai :)