Meghalaya Smoke-cured Pork Salad with Honey Whiskey Cider Vinegar Dressing

Mary returned from Shillong after an extended 'sojourn' and back brought goodies... Whee!
One of the things that got me all excited was the smoked pork and beef that she got back from home. Resisting the temptation to gobble up the entire (and meagre) stock of the exquisite meat was (and is) difficult. 

A growling stomach reminded me to keep is simple and quick while I tried to decide what to make myself from brunch so I pulled out the first good looking bell pepper from the fridge and tossed, washed and the cleaned the cherry tomatoes that I got from Dadar.

The yellow bell pepper adds a little Warhol to the mix...

A fistful of cherry tomatoes..

 The broccoli beckoned from the crisper and was quickly distributed into crisp little morsels that would do well to contrast both the colour and the texture. Pottery class has resulted in a surfeit of bowls and one of them was quickly pressed into service to do a quick 2 minute nuke of the broccoli florets while I got the other things in place...

Broccoli Florets

 The smoke pork wafted out from the freezer and filled the kitchen with a heavenly aroma as I broke off a bit and chopped them into small morsels...

Smoked pork from Meghalaya...

I wanted a dressing that would be balanced with a little warmth so I pulled out a little whiskey and got the apple cider vinegar (from Himachal) and some glorious honey from the Pune apiculture institute... A teaspoon of each went into a shot glass and whisked with a dash of olive was all ready to make my Sunday happy :) 

Honey, Whiskey and a little Cider Vinegar for the dressing

All ready to pour some goodness...

 The pepper quickly got chopped into little pieces and tossed into my salad vessel...

Yellow bell pepper pieces

Next, in went a fistful of cherry tomatoes to add some sunshine and burst into happiness when I bit into the brunch...

Cherry tomatoes to the mix...

The steaming warm and yet still crunchy enough broccoli came out from the microwave and quickly joined the mix

Microwave quick steamed broccoli 

A warm layer of broccoli...

The pieces of meat went in after this...

Add the smoked pork shreds...

... a sprinkle of salt, a splash of the dressing and brunch was ready...

Allegedly Oriental ...

This one goes out to @Ipsita for shaking me out of lethargy and getting me to start posting again... Here goes... Again...


I'd just lugged all the pottery pieces that I'd made and that'd just been glazed and fired. I was hungry as hell and thought it would be good to try out the bowls to see if they really withstood a nuking in the microwave.


I've inherited a fair bit of oriental sauces when @Subha and @Guru moved to Singapore... Here I thought was a good opportunity to put one of them to good use. Now I can't really categorize this one... Is it is a soup... Or is it a salad... Where do I place it on the map? Since two of the four ingredients originate in the orient, I am going to call it 'allegedly oriental'...


I thought my Sunday deserved some colour, crunch and slurp, so I peered into my long suffering fridge and spotted some Napa Cabbage, a couple of red and yellow peppers, and some broccoli. Nice mix, I thought, of greens, yellows and reds! The peppers would be nice and 'sweetish' unlike the green ones, the broccoli would give a nice little something to bite into while the cabbage (I hoped) would spring a little crunch in the mouth.

A little aside... I always wondered at the many variants of 'cabbage' that is consumed across the orient. I love Bok Choi (báicài or 小白菜 )  but always end up associating the Napa Cabbage (dàbáicài  or 大白菜 ) with soupy things for some reason. Putting both in the microwave produces some interesting results depending on how long you nuke...

For example, Napa Cabbage microwaved at 900w for about 3min produces a near cooked but still crunchy-ish effect. Pushing it for 5min or more releases more liquids and also makes the cabbage more slurpy and limpish...The entire process took about 15min including the cutting of the vegetables. I first washed and diced the broccoli into florets and the bell peppers into little diced pieces.

These all went into the fresh-from-the-glazing-furnace bowl and I also threw in some finely minced garlic...

Next the well washed cabbage leaves got sliced and stuffed on top. The thought process was that if the cabbage stayed near the bottom, the juices they released would stay there and not bless the rest of the stuff (especially the broccoli) with much succulence.

And then I just put on the lid and microwaved it for 5min. I pulled out the dish and mixed the entire lot with a generous dash of the Wo Hup Oyster (flavoured) sauce... Voila! My lunch was ready... :)

Quick Wok Tossed Noodles with Spinach & Broccoli

I'd told Subha that I'd try and stir fry something in the wok and give it to her to taste when I met her next. When Guru and Subha said that they'd meet me on Saturday, I remembered what I'd promised.


I opened the fridge and saw nothing besides eggs, spinach, and some broccoli to toss with the noodles.

I sliced and smashed some ginger and garlic to start things off...

All this while the noodles dunked around in some boiling water...

The noodles soon were out and got rinsed in some cold water to prevent them from cooking further..

I warmed little oil in the wok

And then tossed in the ginger and garlic mince.

It is not a happy thing if you want to cook and photograph when you are using a wok since the searing heat cooks things in seconds... This got over browned in about 5 secs!

I quickly added the veggies and tossed them around

I added the noodles

... and rounded things by adding a splatter of toasted sesame seeds.

Guru and I gobbled up most of this.


While packing the noodles for Subha, I grated some lemon rind on top..

... And... We have some nice (and very quick) noodles :)

Simple Vegetable Stew

I'd intended to make this yesterday in the night, but I reached home, played with the cat and promptly fell asleep.
Not a very interesting thought when  you've got to chop vegetables AND cook in the morning. :(


I learnt how to make this stew from my dad. However, usually the stock is always from the boiled meat (beef or pork). In this instance, I wanted to make it with just vegetables...


I took whole cloves (lavang), cinnamon (dar chini), cardamon (elaichi), tej patta (bay leaves), and pepper. To give a little twist I added some kari patta (curry leaves) and of course crushed some ginger and garlic. Now, for those from the South of India, the curry leaves would be a normal fixture, but I have grown up consuming stews sans this... 

Next, the vegetables got chopped...

While all the spices sputtered in hot oil in the pressure cooker...

I first added the tomatoes and quartered onions since I like a bit of their juices to pick up the fragrance of the spices and take them to the other ingredients. I use very little oil, else I could just add everything in and the oil would take it everywhere.

Next everything else went in and got stirred around...

Then I just added water and pressure cooked everything for two 'whistles' of the pressure cooker while I prepared to leave for office...

I waited impatiently for the cooker to cool enough before I packed my lunch box...

And almost scaled my palate as I rushed through breakfast (of the same stew...)

Try this one... And Bon Appétit!