If Monsoon comes can soup be far behind?

Rain pittered and the some drops pattered on the iron staircase outside the kitchen window. My stomach demanded victual succour while the cranium tempted the eyes into succumbing to a rather tempting slumber.

A cauldron of stock from gleaned from the remains of the last potluck at my place was almost a divine suggestion at this point.

Pork Bone Soup Stock

A quick look at the crisper reminded me of a weekend cleaning fervour. Drat! No vegetables. 
Oh look! A neglected onion, a nub of ginger, and a handful of garlic. My heroes!

Rough chopped, the garlic browned and wafted an aroma that waited to sizzle with the onion slivers in the sauce pan.

Garlic getting browned

The onions join the garlic

Decisions! Decisions! Clear soup or thick? Nah! Neither. Something umami and rich. And it'd better be quick!

Soy sauce and oyster sauce

A quick dash of soya sauce (to reinforce the umami) and a gob oyster sauce later, the mix was getting ready to embrace the broth. 

Ah! The meat... I quickly got out the shredded pork pulled from the stock pot along with the shoulder bones and magically the hungry kittens appeared, howling for their share. 
(You cannot fool the feline nose!)

Shredded Pork from the Soup Bones

Add the shredded pork

Dora Dora Kitten is eyeing the meat!

Boiled Pork Skin bits

While the pork soaked up the goodness of the soy, I remembered the pork skin from the stock. So, I quickly chopped some and threw in the bits to add a bit of a bite and texture. The pork skin bits begged to bind things a bit, so they joined the mix and sputtered a bit.  

Getting ready for the broth...

Noodles! Ah dang! Of course... A wee bit of rummage in the larder revealed some dandy tea powder and buckwheat soba noodles.

Japanese Buckwheat Soba Noodles

Add the noodles

The broth went in little at a time, deglazing the saucepan and then, in went the noodles...

The Pork Broth

A splash of Chinese rice wine

... and then I ladled in lot of broth from the stock pot. Everything cosied up to each other and soon was bubbling contentedly in the sauce pan. So I splashed in a wee bit of Chinese Rice Wine for luck and turned the heat to a gentle simmer for a while.

Ladled into a bowl, bits of rescued cilantro and drop of toasted sesame oil now crowned my midnight saviour.

Slurp! 

Quick Tomato Carrot Stir Fry with Soya Sauce

This is one for the morning when I am loathe to cook and yet I want something that helps the taste-buds as the lunchtime beckons.


I started with a medium sized onion (about and inch and a half in diameter). This quickly got chopped into four and then another slice through the middle. A quick slap with the palm gave me little pieces that would add texture to the dish. A few cloves of Chinese garlic (easy to peel) got gently smashed by the blade and then roughly chopped next.

A couple of smallish tomatoes got chopped next

The carrot take a while to dice but once done I popped it into the microwave for a couple of minutes to soften them while everything else got started.

The garlic went into the hot oil and quickly started getting caramelized...

The onions went in next and got tossed around briefly to coat them with the oil to get the garlicky flavour on them but not too cooked since I wanted them to retain the crunch.

And then the tomatoes joined in while the microwave started beeping to remind me that the carrots were ready...

After adding the carrot I put in a wee bit of dark soy sauce to add some salt and the overpowering taste of soy...

A little shake and a minute later my lunch was all ready to be packed into my trusty Tupperware lunchbox.

Lauki ka sabzi... (attempt 02)

Another Tuesday morning comes rolling in with DoraDora (the cat) ambling in to edge TingTingay (the white kitten) out from her milk.


The fridge defrosted and left a pool of water and paw prints in the kitchen as I added to the Tuesday morning squelch...


The vegetables in the crisper didn't really jump out at me and scream "cook-me-now" after the defrost. I removed a sheaf of palak to see half a lauki (bottle gourd) peeking at me. This would be a nice languid morning I decided and reached for the lauki.

The dhania patta (coriander leaves/cilantro) wallah had given me some nice curry patta (curry leaves) gratis in his hurry to shut shop and go home. I got a sprig out along with a few cloves of garlic and quickly crushed them and tossed everything in the pan with a dash of haldi (turmeric) and some tej patta (bay leaves) and then morning washed by me a little too quickly...

Another day at office beckoned...

Bhaja Kari Inspired Beguner Torkari

I remember my mom making a dry fish preparation called Bhaja Curry with begun (baingan/aubergine). I think that it has its origin in East Bengal since I have not really heard of it elsewhere.


This dish needs a certain type of begun (baingan/aubergine) that I have not really seen since I moved away from Kolkata. Now, this type of begun is elongated and unlike the baingan  that I normally find in the market (either small or large but with a distinct shape that defines our memort of baingan) 

When I saw these with Sita (my vegetable vendor of choice), I bought them on a lark and then wondered what to do with them.


Making bhaja curry is quite impossible without the fish (and that too when you wake up on a work day morning). So I tried to replicate as much I could dredge from my memories of sitting in my grnadmom's kitchen in Bandel. Most of the memories were rather obscured by rather more vivid memories of one or the other dog in that kitchen—Honey, Gypsy, Sandy, or perhaps even Candy... Anyways...


I sliced the begun as quickly as I could...

Once all the begun was sliced, I put them in the vessel I use as an impromptu colander...


I sprinkled haldi (turmeric) and worked it into the begun without crushing or mangling them.

Then I put some dhania powder and worked that in as well, and then kept the lot aside as I prepared for the rest of the process...

Just before I started cooking I added a little salt to the begun as well, since adding it before would result it the begun releasing all the water in them and becoming a mangled useless pulp.


Now this is where I went completely away from the 'Bengali'ness of the original recipe.

I took methi, til (sesame), curry patta (curry leaves), and chopped some garlic as well...
All this went into the pan with whatever cooking I had at hand...

I added the begun and cooked the mixture by tossing the entire thing to coat the oil instead of using a ladle. If I used a ladle the thin and delicate begun slices would immediately mangle into a rather pulpy mass...

Idea is to cook the begun well while retaining the coat of spices without destroying the slices that provide the texture.


I knew that I was done when it looked like this....

Then it was into a recycled take-away dabba and I rushed to 

Palak Corn with Tomato

Waking up groggy on a Monday morning after a late night is a serious incentive to go straight back to sleep. 
However, I had to get my ass off to office AND feed myself some lunch. Hmm...
I'd bought some palak from Nerul on my way to Peter's place, so, I quickly washed and chopped it up and defrosted some corn for 30 sec.


A couple of cloves of garlic, a little nub of ginger, and a longer suffering tomato sputtered together with the corn for a few minutes and then I quickly put in the palak and got ready for office...

I packed my lunch box and off I went to office...

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 :)