Tag Archives: Christmas

Chicken/Beef Cutlets

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A perfect crust and a warm mushy inside, pan fried in 3 minutes… for those days when you need a break from the kitchen!
“Your veal cutlet gets up off the plate, It walks down to end of the counter and beat the shit out of my cup of coffee. I guess the coffee just wasn’t strong enough to defend itself. – Tom Waits, American actor and composer”
The Fact: The word ‘cutlet’ originates from the French word côtelette. It finds itself in the European wiener schnitzel, the Japanese katsu and even in the Russian chicken kiev. In most cuisines, a cutlet is a thin slice of veal, pork, or mutton, run through flour, egg and bread crumbs and then fried in a pan. In the Indian sub-continent, however, cutlets originated to ensure that food never went to waste. Left over bits of meat and vegetable were shaped into patties, spiced up, rolled in breadcrumbs, fried and then served as entrees or snacks.
The Inspiration: Much like the fact above, I’ve grown up eating the Indian-style cutlet, which allowed my mother to throw in absolutely anything we had left over from the previous day. But on most other days, her mince cutlets were the yummiest appetizers or sides we looked forward to, especially when the meal was a simple daal and rice. When I got married, my mother in law kept the trend alive. I… I’m simply furthering tradition… and of course, on days when you need a break from the kitchen, these cutlets, which I keep frozen in my refrigerator, are your dream come true!

The Ingredients

Makes about 15 – 20 patties/cutlets

  • 500 gm chicken or beef mince
  • ½ bunch of coriander leaves; finely chopped
  • 20 mint leaves; finely chopped
  • 1 medium-sized onion
  • 1 medium-sized tomato
  • 2 – 3 medium spicy green chillies
  • 1 heaped tsp ginger garlic paste
  • ¼ tsp haldi or turmeric powder
  • 1 tsp dhania or coriander seeds powder
  • ½ tsp turmeric or haldi powder
  • ½ tsp red chilli powder
  • ¼ tsp kanda lassoon masala (optional)
  • 2 tbsp vinegar
  • ½ tsp sugar
  • 2 cups water
  • 2 slices of dry bread
  • ¼ cup bread crumbs or semolina (rawa)
  • 2 tsp salt

The Method

Making the cutlets

  1. Wash the mince and transfer it to a bowl. Do not drain in a colander.
    Mince meat
  2. Sprinkle 1.5 tsp salt, the finely chopped coriander leaves and the finely chopped mint leaves over the mince. Mix well and keep aside.
  3. Chop the onion, tomato and green chillies into large bits and blitz them with 2 – 3 tbsp of water for a few seconds. How fine you blitz the mixture depends on whether you want your cutlets smooth and pasty or with fine bits of onions and tomatoes to bite into. I personally prefer the non-pasty cutlets and so blitz the ingredients for only a few seconds.
  4. Next, heat a skillet on medium flame. Add 2 tbsp of oil to it and allow the oil to heat up (not until it reaches smoking point, but just before that). Once hot, add the blitzed onion, tomato and green chilli mixture to the skillet and lightly fry for about 2 minutes.
  5. Create a well in the centre of the skillet. In this hot part of the skillet, add the ginger garlic paste, haldi/turmeric powder, dhania powder, red chilli powder, kanda lasoon masala, and sugar. Fry the spices in the hot centre of the skillet to enhance their flavours and then, mix the spices with the blitzed onion and tomato mixture. Add the remaining ½ tsp of salt and fry again. Do not burn or over-fry the spices at this point.
  6. Next, add the mince to the skillet, once again in the centre of the skillet, to fry off that raw meat smell. After a couple of minutes and once you can no longer smell the meat, mix the rest of the mixture with the mince thoroughly.
  7. If using chicken mince: Allow the mixture to fry for about 2 minutes. Add a cup of water, stir well and cook on high flame for about 3 minutes. Then, simmer and cook until the water dries up completely, while stirring from time to time.
    If using beef mince: Allow the mixture to fry for about 5 – 7 minutes. Add 2 cups of water and allow to cook on high flame for about 5 minutes. Then, simmer and cook until the water dries up completely, while stirring from time to time.
  8. As the mince cooks, soak 2 slices of bread in a little water – just enough water to completely soak the bread and make it pasty.
  9. Making the cutlets
    Once the mince has dried, cool it. Add in the soaked bread and mash it up with the mince. The bread helps to give the cutlets structure and bind them. Make small balls until you’ve used up all of the mince mixture. The size of the balls can vary based on your preference.
    Mince balls for cutlets
    Roll the mince balls in rawa or bread crumbs sprinkled on a dry plate.
    Coating the mince balls with rawa (semolina)/bread crumbs before frying
    Flatten the balls and smoothen out the edges.
    Flattening the coated cutlet balls
    I use the broad end of the knife to flatten the balls and then smoothen out the edges by rotating the cutlet on its flat side between the knife and the palm of my other hand.
    Coated chicken/beef mince cutlets before frying
    You’re cutlets are ready! Fry them to eat them right away or place them in a box and freeze them for later use.
    Coated chicken/beef mince cutlets for freezing before frying
  10. Frying the cutlets
    Remember that your cutlets have already cooked. All you want now is a lovely golden crisp outside. Remember that if your cutlets are frozen, thaw them for about 10 minutes before frying them. Heat a frying pan with 2 – 3 tbsp of oil. Don’t let the oil smoke. Place the cutlets in the frying pan and allow them to sizzle for a minute or two on a high flame. Then, turn down the gas to a medium flame and cook for another couple of minutes.
    Mince meat cutlets frying
    Flip the cutlet and allow the other side to brown in the same way.
    Mince meat cutlets frying
    Remove the cutlets and place them on a kitchen towel or on kitchen paper and serve hot. You can eat these cutlets as a snack with tomato ketchup or green chutney, or can serve it as appetizers before the main meal. You can also serve these as sides with a simple meal of daal and rice.Mince meat cutlets ready to serve
    Bon appétit!

 

Chicken Cafreal

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Chicken in red and brown curries is the norm; a green gravy, though not a recent discovery, is a refreshing change. This recipe blends some local spices to bring together a lovely Portuguese dish that’s loved and respected along the south-western coast of India. Nothing quite compares to the perfect ‘hot n sweet’ balance this dish offers. Give it a try!

 

“Pounding fragrant things… is a tremendous antidote to depression… juniper berries, coriander seeds and the grilled fruits of the chilli pepper. Pounding these things produces an alteration in one’s being — from sighing with fatigue to inhaling with pleasure. – Patience Gray, cookery author”
The Fact: This famous Goan dish is a version of grilled chicken from the former Portuguese colonies in Africa. The name is believed to have originated from ‘kaffir’, which is what the local Africans were called.
The Inspiration: I came home last Tuesday evening knowing exactly what I wanted to eat for dinner—chicken curry with rice. But bored of the many red and brown curries I’m used to making, I decided on a spicy green version, which I learnt from my mother in law … something I’m sure you’ll love only if you have the palette for spice 🙂 This recipe blends some local spices to bring together a lovely Portuguese dish that’s loved and respected along the south-western coast of India. Nothing quite compares to the perfect ‘hot n sweet’ balance this dish offers. Give it a try!

The Ingredients

Serves about 8 – 10 people

Spice mixture before grinding

  • 800 – 900 gms chicken on the bone, cut up into medium/small pieces (medium: 2 – 3 inch pieces, lengthwise; small: 1 – 2 inch pieces, lengthwise)
  • 2 onions (1 large + 1 medium)
  • 3 cups coriander leaves or dhaniya patta (use a large tea mug to measure, or American cup measurements)
  • 5 long green chillies (use dark green spicy chillies; if using the light green ones that only add flavor, increase the number of chillies to 8 – 10)
  • 4 tbsp 8 – 9 sauce (This is a date-based sauce with raisins, tamarind and other ingredients; it’s used in a lot of Goan dishes and is available in a few local stores. If you absolutely cannot find it, you could make the dish without it, but note that the sauce is a key ingredient, so you’re definitely missing something.)
  • 4 tbsp tomato ketchup
  • 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
  • 18 cloves of garlic or lassan
  • 1 inch of ginger or adrak
  • 8 cloves or lavang
  • 8 peppercorns or kalimiri/kalimirch
  • 2 one-inch sticks of cinnamon or dalchini
  • 1 tsp cumin seeds or akha jeera
  • 1 tsp poppy seeds or khus khus
  • 15 cashew nuts
  • 5 tbsp oil
  • Salt to taste

The Method

  1. Wash and drain the chicken pieces for 5 – 10 minutes.
  2. Marinate the chicken in turmeric powder, 8 – 9 sauce and salt, for about 30 minutes, if not more.
    8 - 9 sauce marinade

    Chicken marinating in turmeric powder, 8 - 9 sauce and salt

  3. Dry roast the cloves, peppercorns, cinnamon, cumin seeds, poppy seeds and cashew nuts in a pan or in the microwave. Allow them to cool.
  4. Grind together the large onion, coriander leaves (washed), green chillies, garlic, ginger, cloves and all the roasted ingredients, with about half a cup of water, until a thick paste is formed.
    Spices being ground for the cafreal or green sauce

    Cafreal or green sauce

  5. Place a skillet/vessel on medium heat. Add the oil to it and let it heat up as well. The oil should never smoke – any ingredient tossed into the oil at smoke point will burn.
  6. While the pan and oil are heating up, slice the medium onion. Sauté the onions till they turn a lovely golden brown.
    Sauteeing the onions
  7. Place the marinated chicken pieces over the onions and without stirring, allow the chicken to brown a little – say for about 2 – 3 minutes. Then, toss the pieces around in the oil and onions, and allow to cook for about 5 minutes.
    Marinated chicken placed over the sauteed onions
  8. Add the green paste, which you ground earlier, to the skillet. Toss the chicken around in the green sauce. You’ll notice the green paste and the brownish chicken marinade come together to form a dark green, thick gravy.
    Chicken with the cafreal sauce
  9. Add the tomato ketchup and adjust the salt.
  10. At this point, add water to your liking. About 1.5 cups of water will allow the chicken to cook and give you a semi-dry chicken, which can be eaten plain as an appetizer or with rotis (Indian bread) or bread. Anything more than that, say 3 – 4 cups of water, will cook the chicken and give you nice gravy, which will go perfectly with hot rice.
  11. Cook the chicken until fully done, say about 10 – 15 mins, or until the gravy has thickened enough. Note that if the gravy is too spicy and you can do with a little more sweetness, add some more ketchup; but avoid making it too sweet.
    Chicken cafreal

Serve hot as an appetizer or with rotis; or then with rice as the main meal. Bon appétit!

 

 

That Perfect Rum-Oozing Christmas Fruitcake!

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The perfectly moist, heavenly, rum-packed Christmas fruitcake! You have to try it to believe it! 🙂

 

The Fact: Fruitcake was often put into ancient Egyptian tombs because it was thought the preserved food would not spoil on the journey to the afterlife.
The Inspiration: With Thanksgiving just over, it’s already time to prepare for the next big celebration—Christmas! Despite all the Christmas clichés, the season brings with it this beautiful warm feelings right in the middle of a wintry cold December. Along with the family holidays, delicious meals, subtle and beautiful decorations, the Christmas tree, and the melodious carollers, there’s also the traditional Christmas cake that’s a ritual in so many homes. In my home, the scene’s no different—my mornings begin with the sweet sound of carols, the crazy annual cleaning’s in full swing, shopping’s on the cards, gift lists are being prepared and the sweet smell of sherry, rum and brandy is wafting through my kitchen as I type. Yes, my Christmas cake ritual has been set in motion. It’s a tried and tested recipe that’s been handed down to me by my mum. Isn’t it time for you to make this lovely, rum-oozing Christmas cake recipe your own?
So before the season kicks in, here’s wishing you a joyful Christmas and a good-food-filled New year!

The Ingredients

Makes one 10″ cake
  • 100 gms raisins
  • 100 gms currants
  • 100 gms almonds (soaked overnight and peeled)
  • 50 gms pistachios (soaked overnight and peeled)
  • 50 gms peeled cashew nuts
  • 50 gms orange peel or finely grated orange zest (approx 4 – 5 oranges)
  • 50 gms candied ginger peel
  • 50 gms glace cherries
  • 250 gms softened butter
  • 100 gms muscovado or Demerera sugar
  • 150 gms regular white sugar
  • 250 gms plain flour
  • 1.5 litre dark rum (I’ve heard of friends using sherry instead, but haven’t tried it myself, so feel free to experiment)
  • 4 large or 5 small eggs
  • 2 heaped tsp mixed spice (Mixed spice is a mixture of Allspice powder [powdered form of a specific pepper, called Pimenta dioica], cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg.) – For this recipe, you can make mixed spice with six 1″ sticks of cinnamon, 1 tsp cloves, 1 tsp ground/finely grated nutmeg. To it add 1 tsp ground ginger. Roast all the spices on a pan or in a microwave. When cool, grind all the spices to a fine powder. Store the extra powder in a glass, airtight container—remember, the aroma is the key so don’t let it escape!)

The Method

Soaking the fruit

Chop the raisins and currants, lengthwise, each, roughly into three bits.

Currants beings chopped

Finely slice the orange peel, candied ginger peel, almonds, pistachios, and cashew nuts, lengthwise; do not julienne them or they’ll get lost in the cake.

Chopped almonds, pistachios and cashew nuts    Chopped orange peel    Chopped candied ginger

Mix together the cut fruits and toss them into a large glass jar with a tight lid. Leave enough space at the top, almost one-fourth of the jar. Use two glass jars if required. Pour 1 litre rum over the fruits and ensure that the rum completely covers the fruits. Tightly seal the bottle to prevent the alcohol from evaporating. As days go by and the fruits soak up the rum, the level of rum will reduce. Keep topping up the jar with rum so that the fruits always stay completely covered with rum. Store the glass jar in a cool, dry place away from direct sunlight; you do not need to refrigerate the jar. These conditions allow the fruits to soak in as much rum as they can.

Chopped fruits soaked in rum

Allow the fruit to soak for as long as you can. I usually soak the next year’s fruit this year so that the fruit has soaked for a whole year. I’ve noticed that the fruits develop a lovely deep colour and the flavor is quite indescribable. I do this year after year—trust me, there’s no down side to it. Fruits stored in the right way, with the rum level always higher than the fruit level, can stay good for up to 2 – 3 years. So, the procedure in this recipe is actually for next year’s cake while I’m using last year’s fruit batch this year. If you haven’t already gotten started yet, start now so that your fruits have had at least 2 – 3 weeks of soak time before you bake your Christmas cake.

Bottle of chopped fruits soaked in rum

Preparations for baking the cake

Caramelize the sugar: If you prefer a dark brown colour and a lovely caramelized flavor to your cake, which is my preference, caramelize the sugars first. To do so, place a non-stick skillet or frying pan on the stove on low to medium heat. Make sure that the pan is not too small or the caramel will boil and overflow. Add the brown and white sugars to the pan while it’s still cold. Both sugars melt at slightly different temperatures, but that doesn’t matter. Allow the sugar to melt untouched, while gradually prodding the edges from time to time. Once all the sugar has melted completely, sprinkle a quarter cup of water over the caramel to prevent it from hardening while you ready the batter. The caramel should be a deep golden brown at this point; not brown-black. WARNING! Take care as you pour the water because water causes the caramel to sizzle quite a bit. Make sure your fingers are far away from the pan. Don’t worry about dirtying your stove because caramel cleans up very easily with regular water. Once the sizzling has stopped, stir the sugar and water and keep the caramel aside to cool. Remember that water prevents caramel from hardening; without water, caramel tends to harden, making it difficult for you to add it to the batter later.

Butter and brown sugar blend

Ready the fruits: Using a slotted spoon, measure out 550 gms of the soaked fruits (that’s all of it if you’ve used the measures suggested above). Try to drain out as much of the rum as you can. Store the rum; it’d be criminal to discard it 🙂 Chop up the glace cherries and mix it with the fruit mixture. Sprinkle the fruit mixture with a generous handful of flour and toss the fruits in it so that the fruits are lightly coated with the flour. Keep aside.

Prepare the cake tins: Grease one cake tin. I used a 10”/25cm wide and 2” deep, round tin. You could also use a standard 9”/23cm round tin or a 9 x 2” square tin. But remember that if you use the smaller tin, you might end up with a little batter to spare. You could pop that extra batter into cup cake moulds; but avoid overloading the cake tin instead. Spray the tin with grease or lightly grease it with butter.

Preheat the oven: Preheat the oven to 140C/275F/Gas 1.

Making the cake batter

For your cake batter, beat up the butter and eggs together in a large bowl with an electric, hand-held or free-standing beater. Add the caramel to the mixture. If your caramel is too hot, the eggs will scramble at this point. You don’t want this to happen, so get started after the caramel has sat for a few minutes. Beat the mixture well until fully blended.

Add the four and mixed spice and beat thoroughly until blended.

Whisk in about half a cup of the leftover rum (which is what I do—but if you have a lot of kids around or don’t like a very strong rum flavor, use a quarter cup or skip this step altogether).

Stir in the soaked fruits. Don’t beat this in as the fruits are very soft and may break up completely. You also don’t want to overdo the beating because the fruits will settle to the bottom of the cake—again, something you don’t want. So, be gentle.

Pour or spoon the batter into the readied cake tin and pop it into the oven.

Christmas rum fruitcake batter

Baking the cake

Bake the cake for a total of 2.5 – 3 hours in the centre of the oven, or until the cake feels firm to the touch and is a rich golden brown. Check after two hours, and if the cake is a perfect colour, cover with foil.

Note that while this baking time of 3 hours might seem ridiculous, you should know that most other cakes bake at 180C/350F/Gas 4, which is way higher than what this Christmas cake bakes at. This duration ensures that the fruits in the cake cook well and their flavors are well incorporated in the cake. Also note that oven temperatures work differently—so check your cake after two hours and again in another 30 minutes. Don’t let the cake dry out too much.

Remove the cake when a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Leave the cake to cool in the tin. When still warm, pierce the cake at intervals with a fine skewer and pour in a little extra rum. Allow the cake to cool completely.

Christmas rum fruitcake

Storing the cake

Wrap the completely cooled cake in a double layer of grease-proof paper and a third layer of foil OR one layer of foil and a second layer of cling wrap. Store the cake in a cool place until Christmas! You can store this cake for up to three months outside a refrigerator and even up to a year in the refrigerator. Remove the foil and cling wrap only when you’re about to cut the cake, and even after that, place the remaining cake or the uneaten bits back in the foil and cling wrap as suggested earlier. The layers keep the cake moist and retain that lovely rum aroma.

To keep the cake moist, feed it with rum every 3 weeks. Remember to wrap it up all over again before you store it.

Bon appétit and Feliz Navidad!

Greetings from The Chill Grill

Banoffee Pie

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Make this one out of love for the name of the dessert, if not the banana-toffee combination 🙂

 

“Q. Ever wondered where the phrase “to go bananas” came from?
A. Why try when banana pancakes, choco-banana cakes, banana splits, and banoffee pies are all capable of driving you crazy?”
The Fact: Banoffee Pie was invented in 1972 at the Hungry Monk restaurant in England. It is rumored to be Mrs Thatcher’s favourite pudding.
The Inspiration: It was 10pm on the 11th of August, the eve of my birthday. As weird as it sounds, I love baking my own birthday cake, but this time, I wanted something different… “Why not some pie?”… thought I (rhyme attempt alert!).

The Ingredients

Makes 12 – 15 servings
The Base
  • 100 g melted butter
  • 250 g digestive biscuits; crushed (wrap up the biscuits in a soft cloth and beat it up any way you like; it can be a lot of fun)

The Toffee Filling

  • 100 g butter
  • 100 g Demerera sugar or any other soft brown sugar (avoid the regular white sugar because it makes the dessert too sweet)
  • 400 g condensed milk (sweetened)

The Topping

  • 6 – 8 ripe, but firm bananas (make sure that the bananas are sweet or the topping ends up being quite tasteless)
  • 250 g whipping cream

The Method

  • Take a 9-inch, loose-bottomed pie pan/tart pan and tip the crushed biscuits into it.
  • Add the melted butter to the crushed biscuits and mix well. Using the back of a spoon,  press the mixture into the bottom and up the sides of the pan, firmly, to form the pie shell. Chill in the refrigerator until the filling is ready.

Biscuit base pie crust

  • Place a frying pan or a skillet on the fire, on medium heat. Add the brown sugar to the pan. As the sugar starts to melt, add the butter.
  •  Butter and brown sugar blend
  • Stir together lightly and then leave undisturbed till the sides begin to melt. Nudge the edges from time to time, but avoid disturbing the melting process. Remember that you want the lovely burnt caramel colour and aroma; don’t worry about burning the sugar too far as long as the stove is on medium heat and not on high. The colour of the toffee depends on the colour of the caramel. 

Butter and brown sugar blend

Butter and brown sugar blend for banoffee pie

  • When the sugar has completely melted, add the condensed milk and bring the mixture to a boil on medium heat, stirring continuously. Turn off the heat as soon as the now-formed toffee takes on the right colour.

Toffee for banoffee pie

  • Pour the toffee into the biscuit base and leave undisturbed to cool. Move to the refrigerator and leave until the toffee becomes firm. This should take a few hours if the toffee has been cooled sufficiently before refrigerating.

Toffee for banoffee pie

Toffee for banoffee pie

  • After the toffee is firm, slice the bananas and place them over the toffee layer. Avoid slicing the bananas too much in advance because they’ll turn black due to oxidation, and won’t make a pretty plate.

Sliced bananas

Sliced bananas decorated for banoffee pie

  • Quickly whip up the cream and place it over the bananas. You can add your layers in any way you like it and can vary the thickness of each layer too.
  • Chill the dessert before serving it, if not, it makes the servings difficult and messy to cut through.

     

    Eat away. Bon appétit! 🙂

Banoffee Pie

Baked Fish in Lemon Garlic Butter Sauce

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Happy Easter and welcome back! So, this Easter, while I decided to send all my readers on that delicious roast chicken chase, I decided to go fish. And what a lovely dish it turned out to be!

 

“A fishnet is made up of a lot more holes than strings, but you can’t therefore argue that the net doesn’t exist. Just ask the fish.” – Jeffrey Kluger
The Fact: Most fish can see in color and use colors to camouflage themselves or defend themselves. Most fish also have the best eyesight for their habitat and can see you peering at them in a fish tank. Some fish can even see polarized and ultraviolet light.
The Inspiration: Since Christmas was all about chicken, this Easter, I decided to restore the balance and go fish.
My Easter meal wasn’t extended to the entire family; it was restricted to Ally and me, and so a single Black Pomfret worked perfectly. Sunday started off with a quick trip to the fish market, a quick stop at the vegetable market, a lovely lunch with mum and dad, and finally, destination “Home” to cook the lovely fish. 
It was one of the simplest and quickest meals. And so, for those of you who hate the long kitchen hours and are looking for something fancy yet quick, you’ve found just the thing. I certainly enjoyed the lazy cooking style, the lovely flavours, and the fishy mélange of a formal meal and silly company (Ally and me, of course; I’d have it no other way 🙂 )
Happy Easter, everyone! And don’t forget to ‘Go Fish’.

The Ingredients

This meal serves 2–3 people.
  • One Black Pomfret (locally known as halwa) weighing approximately 600 gms (Adjust weight to feed more/fewer people)

You can use any other fish, such as the Red Snapper, White Pomfret, Basa, the John Dory and so on. I love the taste of this particular local favourite; blame it on the relatively high oil content if you please, but in case you’re concerned, note that 2- 3 portions of oily fish a week is recommended to help maintain heart health.

Fresh black pomfret

  • 2 big lemons
  • 1 medium-sized onion
  • Quarter cup orange juice (optional)
  • A palmful of peeled garlic cloves (approx 25 – 30 cloves) Note: I love garlic and usually use a lot of it.
  • 3 tablespoons butter
  • Freshly ground pepper
  • Fresh or dried parsley (I couldn’t find any fresh parsley, so used the dried version)
  • Kosher or rock salt to taste
  • Any veggies of your choice (I used mushrooms, red and yellow peppers and carrots)

Baked lemon garlic fish ingredients

The Method

The Preparation and the Marinade

  • Preheat the oven to 190C or 374F.
  • Make sure that your fish is scaled, cleaned thoroughly, and the innards removed. I usually get the fish cleaned at the fish market itself. It’s an easier and quicker solution.
  • Wash the fish well and pat it dry with a kitchen towel. Season it with half a fistful of rock salt, freshly ground pepper (as much as you like) and some parsley. Remember to rub the seasoning into the fish, on the outside and lightly on the inside by making a fine slit at the bottom, on both sides.
  • Leave the fish to rest in a baking dish as you prepare your lemon garlic sauce.

Making the Lemon Garlic Butter Sauce

  • Pound the garlic cloves using the mortar and pestle; I don’t really think that the finely ground garlic paste works, but if you like the taste of whole cloves, go ahead and use them whole.
  • Slice the onion.
  • Squeeze the lemon juice from one and a half lemons; the remaining can be used for decoration.
  • Add the butter, the freshly squeezed lemon juice and the orange juice to a saucepan on medium heat and allow it to simmer.
  • Add a pinch of salt, a little bit of ground pepper and a sprinkling of sugar to the sauce. The sugar and the orange juice balance out the sourness of the lemon juice that can sometimes become a little overpowering. Taste and adjust the flavour as per your liking. Allow the sauce to simmer for a minute.

Lemon butter sauce

  • Simultaneously, place a frying pan on medium heat. Add about 2 tablespoons of the sauce to the frying pan. (Hope you’ve turned off the sauce by now. The sauce should smoothly coat the back of a tablespoon; it shouldn’t be thicker or thinner than that.) Once the sauce in the frying pan simmers, toss in the pound garlic. Some chefs prefer adding the garlic directly in to bake, but I found the outcome a little too raw for my liking.
  • After sautéing the garlic for a few seconds, add the onions.

Onions and garlic mixture

  • Sauté the mixture until it is slightly brown. Don’t burn it.

Cooking the fish

  • Allow the mixture to cool for a bit and then rub it over and into the fish.

Marinated fish

  • Chop your veggies anyway you like them and place them around the fish.
  • Pour the sauce over the fish and the veggies.

Ready to bake fish

  • Bake for about 25 – 30 minutes. Use a small knife or fork and check to see if you can easily separate the fish flakes. If yes, your fish is done. The fish meat should be opaque white and not transparent.
  • If you want a browner top, use the grill or the overhead flame in your oven for about 2 – 3 minutes; not more.
  • Remove from the oven and serve hot.

Ready to bake fish

You can serve the fish with plain or garlic toasted bread. Don’t complicate the meal any further. Cut as you like. Note that if you use fillets instead, they should cook in about 15 – 20 minutes, are easier to serve and simpler/neater to eat if you’ve got company.

In case of any leftovers, refrigerate, but not for more than a day or two. Tuck in. Bon appétit!

Baked fish in lemon garlic butter sauce

No Bratwurst, No Switzerland

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There cannot be a sausage tastier than this … not until another sausage proves me wrong!

 

“Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made.” – Otto von Bismarck
The Fact: In 320 AD, because of their association with pagan festivals, Roman Emperor Constantinus I and the Catholic Church made sausage eating a sin and their consumption was banned! This led to sausages going underground until the ban was lifted.
The Journey:The title’s an exaggeration, of course! Switzerland’s famous for its wine, cheese, fondue, raclette, rösti, chocolate and certainly, the Alps, but the one thing I couldn’t dream of leaving Switzerland without was a bagful of vacuum-packed Bratwurst sausages that I’d handpicked from the Christmas markets around Zürich Hauptbahnhof (Zurich HB), the largest railway station in Switzerland. And although these sausages are supposedly available all over the world, there was something about this perfectly cured, steaming-hot Bratwurst pork sausage coupled with the minus temperature around Christmas, the carols playing in the distance and the warm Glühwein I was happily drinking.
Bratwurst sausage packaged
 
Everybody dreams of visiting Switzerland at least once in their lifetime; my dream was no different. As luck would have it, I was given the opportunity when I was asked to visit Zurich to meet a business client, right around Christmas. It was a dream that was getting bigger, brighter and certainly more probable each day in December of 2013.I did everything a lot of what I would have loved to do in the short while I spent in Zurich—I worked of course, walked around in my new boots, window shopped at the super expensive Bahnhofstrasse, took a train ride to Lucerne, briefly walked around Lake Lucerne, took a cable car ride with the most exquisite view, went up Mount Pilates and got a perfect view of the Alps, clicked a lot of pictures all along the way (something I’d do almost anywhere), stayed in a quaint little hotel right off the Enge train station, strolled around the Christmas markets for a good 2 hours, explored Old Town, shopped and almost got broke, and yes, that includes the sausages.
 Christmas markets around Zurich HB
 
 Zurich old town
 
 A view of the Alps
 

Bahnhofstrasse

The Ingredients

1 packet of Bratwurst Sausages

 The Method

So, here’s what I did with the Bratwurst after getting home. You can’t go wrong with this and it’s apparently the best way you could eat a Bratwurst sausage (but I speak only for the pork one since the sausage is also available in veal and beef and not they’re not quite the same)…

  • Thaw the Bratwurst sausage if it’s frozen.

Sausages

 

  • Boil some water; enough to cover the sausage.
  • Drop the sausage in the boiling water and allow it to cook, covered, for 20 minutes.
  • Remove from water, slice it up if necessary, and serve right away.

Bratwurst Sausage

Serving suggestions: Plain ol’ sausage by itself is amazing; however, you could also serve it with toasted brown bread with a little butter, or a salad on the side. Try not complicating the plate with too much stuff, or the sausage won’t get its due.

I think I’m going to make one right now! Bon appétit!

Apple Pie

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I believe in kicking off the winter with this crunchy-crusted, warm, moist, and totally droolable apple pie. And so should you!

 

“If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the Universe.” – Eugene Field
The Fact: The term “as American as apple pie” traces back to 14th century England. The Pilgrims brought pie-making skills and apple seeds to America. As the popularity of apple pie spread, the phrase grew to symbolize American prosperity.
The Inspiration: Whether I plan it or not, winter, in my house, is born with the not-so-ceremoniously baked and eaten apple pie. It’s a thrill—the buying of the ingredients, the baking, of course, the lovely, warm apple and cinnamon smells that waft through my home. Like, I said, it almost christens the winter, my favourite season. The sequence played out this winter too, but this one was special—it was the first ever apple pie in my lovely new home. And like always, it was perfect!
  Just baked Apple Pie

The Ingredients

Serves one 9-inch pie; approximately 10 servings

Pie Crust

  • 2½ cups (350 grams) all-purpose flour
  • 2 tablespoon (30 grams) granulated white sugar
  • 1 cup (226 grams) chilled butter
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • ¼ to ½ cup (60 – 120 ml) cold water

Apple Filling

  • 8 cups peeled, cored, chopped or sliced (¼ inch pieces) apples; remember to use an apple variety that is crisp (not powdery) and doesn’t lose shape easily. The apples should be sweet; preferably a variety that you’ve sampled before and are familiar with.
  • ½ cup (100 grams) granulated white sugar; you can also use a combination of white and brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 1 – 1½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg (optional)
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons (30 grams) butter
  • 1½ tablespoons corn starch or corn flour

The Method

Making the Pie Crust

  • Chop the butter into ½ inch pieces. Try to use your fingers as little as possible to prevent the heat from melting the butter.
  • Sift together the flour, sugar, and salt. Add the butter and lightly knead together until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Remember that the more your fingers touch the mixture, the faster the butter will melt, which is what you do not want. Alternately, you could use a food processor.

What this step does is it coats the flour molecules (or the glutenin and gliadin) with fat, preventing them from absorbing too much water in the next step. Water when in contact with wheat flour forms gluten, which makes dough elastic. But for preparations such as pies and tarts you do not want too much gluten to form because it makes the dough tough and gives it structure, which works for breads but not for soft, flaky crusts.

  • Sprinkle the cold water across the mixture and gently bring the dough together. Do not pour in the water. Stop when the dough just holds together when pinched. If necessary, add more water. Do not knead or process more than a minute.
  • Form a ball of the dough and divide into 2 portions. Lightly flatten each ball using your palms. To prevent the dough from sticking to your palms, sprinkle the dough with loose flour.
  • Cover each disk with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about one hour before using. If you do not cover the disk, it will harden and cracks will form, making it difficult for you to roll the pie.
  • After sufficient chilling, remove one portion of the dough from the fridge and place it on a lightly floured counter. Using a rolling pin, roll the pastry into a 12-inch circle. Remember to sprinkle the rolling pin and counter with loose flour to prevent the dough from sticking. As you roll, keep turning the pastry circle a little each time. This will allow you to roll out a uniform pie. Also, always roll from the centre of the pastry, outwards.
  • Gently transfer the rolled pastry circle to a 9 inch pie pan. You can do this easily by folding half of the pastry circle over the rolling pin and then moving the rolling pin to the pie pan and unfolding it. Brush off excess flour and trim the edges of the pastry to fit the pie pan. Cover with plastic wrap once more and chill in the refrigerator.
  • In the same way, roll out the second pastry disc. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator.

Making the Apple Filling

  • In a large bowl combine the sliced or chopped apples, sugar, lemon juice, ground cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Gently toss the mixture so that all the apple pieces are lightly coated with the other ingredients.
  • Allow the mixture sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes or more to allow the juices to seep out. Now, place the mixture in a strainer and collect the juices separately. Allow the juices to drain for 30 minutes or until you have about 1/2 cup of juice.
  • Lightly boil and caramelize the collected juices with 2 tablespoons of butter in a saucepan. Heat for about 5 minutes or until the liquid has formed a lovely caramelized syrup and has reduced to about 1/3 cup. You can also use a microwave to form the syrup.

Putting together the Apple Pie

  • Remove the pastry crust (the one in the pie pan) from the refrigerator and allow it to soften at room temperature for about 15 minutes.
  • Transfer the drained apples slices from the strainer to a large bowl. Sprinkle the mixture with corn flour. Now, pour the syrup over the apples and toss the mixture to coat the apple pieces.
  • Transfer the apple mixture into the chilled pie crust, evenly.
  • Moisten the edges of the pie shell with a little water and then place the top crust over the apples. Gently press the edges together.
  • Tuck any excess pastry under the bottom crust and then crumple the edges using your fingers.
  • Using a sharp knife, make five- 2-inch slits from the centre of the pie outwards. This will allow steam to escape.
  • Cover the pie with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator while you preheat the oven.

Pre-baked Apple Pie

Baking the Pie

  • Preheat the oven to 425°F (220°C).
  • Cover the edges of the pie with a foil ring to prevent it from burning after about 30 minutes.
  • Place the oven rack at the lowest level. You could also place a baking sheet on the rack before preheating the oven to catch any apple juices. Note that if your oven tends to overheat, use a baking stone and raise the pie pan to prevent the bottom from burning.
  • Place the pie on the rack and bake for about 50 to 55 minutes.
  • Pull the pie out when juices start to bubble through the slits and the apples feel tender (not mushy) when a toothpick is inserted through one of the slits.

Just baked Apple Pie

Serving the Pie Remove the pie from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool for about 3-4 hours before cutting. Serve warm or at room temperature. It’s practically impossible to wait, but trust me, resist it; it’s totally worth it. The wait allows all the juices to seep pack into the filling, thus making for a divine, moist apple pie, with a crisp pie crust. You can store the pie at room temperature for 2 to 3 days. It might not survive, but if it does, refrigerate after Day 3. Have the pie for dessert, at tea time or just about every time you walk by the kitchen. You can serve it with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream, but the original, plain pie, is the best, in my opinion. Bon appétit!

A slice of Apple Pie

Red Velvet Cake

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Some find a little bit of heaven in their red velvet cake; others think it’s overrated. My thoughts—I love red. I love cake. So, why not?

 

“You’re only human. You live once and life is wonderful, so eat the damn red velvet cupcake!” – Emma Stone
The Fact: The Red Velvet Cake was invented during the Great Depression when food was a rare commodity, let alone cake and food colouring agents. To up their sales, the food colouring company Adams Extract lured customers by creating the Adams Red Velvet Cake recipe. They also gave away free Red Velvet Cake recipes at grocery stores to sells the red extract. The ploy worked. The cake became an overnight hit.
The Inspiration: With Valentine’s Day just round the corner and every website and restaurant featuring their oh-so-glorious red velvet cake, I just had to give this advertised cake a try… especially since I’ve never made the cake before. So, irrespective of the grief I got from some of my friends about conforming to tradition and expectations and all the clichés surrounding this day, attempt it I did. The outcome, though not the ideal ‘red’, was a pleasant surprise and a lovely dessert for just about any day of the year.
20140216_184311

The Ingredients

Serves approximately 12 to 15 people
Cake
  • 2 ½ cups sifted cake flour
  • 2 tablespoons cocoa powder (regular or Dutch-processed)
  • ½  cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 1 ½ cups granulated white sugar
  • 2 large or 3 small eggs
  • 1 cup buttermilk (if you don’t have buttermilk, you can make some in a few minutes; read here)
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 2 tablespoons liquid red food colour
  • 1 teaspoon white vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda

Red Velvet Cake Ingredients

Cream Cheese Frosting
  • 2 cups cream cheese, room temperature
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  •  1 cup confectioners’, icing or caster sugar, sifted
  • 1 ½ cups chilled heavy whipping cream (or any cream that forms stiff peaks when whipped)

The Method

Making the cake

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) with a rack in centre. Ready your baking pans (either one or two 9 inch pans) by spraying them with grease or lining them with butter. Preferably, also line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper.
  • In a mixing bowl, sift together the flour, salt, and cocoa powder.

Flour, cocoa powder, and salt whisked together

  • In a separate bowl, using a hand or electric mixer, beat the butter for about 2 minutes or until soft.

20140216_121352

  • Add the sugar and beat for about 2–3 minutes, until light and fluffy.

Blending together the butter and granulated sugar

  • Then, add the eggs, one by one. Beat well after each. Finally, add the vanilla extract and beat just until combined.
  • In a measuring cup, preferably a glass or stainless steel one, whisk the buttermilk with the red food colour. The red colour stains easily. Try to use glass or stainless steel equipment as far as possible to prevent staining.
  • Alternate the flour mixture, the buttermilk and the butter mixture and combine by whisking on low speed (to prevent you and your kitchen from bring splattered with the mixture). It’s a good idea to begin and end with the flour.

The batter coming together  The batter! 

  • In a small cup combine the vinegar and baking soda. The combination will fizz; before the effervescence dies down, quickly fold it into the cake batter.
  • No work quickly. Pour the batter into your pan (divide your batter evenly if using 2 pans). Smoothen out the top with a spatula and pop the pan(s) into the oven.
  • Bake in the preheated oven for approximately 30–40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Cool the cake(s) on a wire rack.
  • After the cake has cooled sufficiently, use a blunt knife and pry the cake away from the cake tin. If you’re not a fan of the frosting, you can eat it right away.

Red velvet cake without the frosting

  • If you’re going to frost it, refrigerate the cake after wrapping it in plastic or shrink wrap for at least an hour, if not overnight. A chilled cake is much easier to frost because it doesn’t crumble as easily.

Making the frosting

In the bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the vanilla and confectioners’ sugar and beat until combined. Gradually add the heavy cream and whip until the frosting is rich and thick. If you don’t have heavy cream and it doesn’t form stiff peaks easily, beat the cream separately and then add it to the cream cheese. Taste the frosting and add sugar or cream as per your liking.

Assembling the cake

If you’ve baked two separate cakes, you can assemble them straight away, and build a two-layered cake, with one layer of frosting in between. Alternately, using a serrated knife, you can cut your cake into four layers, horizontally. You can also use twine, wrapped around the cake, and pulled together to cut the cake evenly across.

Place the top of the cake onto your serving plate (since this is the least even layer of all). Spread a layer of frosting over it. Place another cake layer over the frosted layer and add a layer of frosting to the second cake layer. In the same way, frost the remaining layers. You can serve the cake as is if you want the lovely red layer to stay on top, or then, you can go ahead and frost the outside and top of the entire cake stack. I don’t like too much frosting or decoration. I love the plain ‘ol cake, or then, with one layer of frosting. You can do it as you like it.

A slice of red velvet cake

Top the cake with anything you like. Some of my options are cocoa powder, chocolate shavings, red velvet cake crumbs (the easiest to do), strawberries, and so on.

I would eat this cake any random evening, but make sure you have someone to show it off to. The hard work’s got to be worth it! 🙂 Bon appétit!

A slice of red velvet cake

Roast Chicken

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There’s nothing better than a piping hot, straight from the oven, moist, tender, gloriously golden-brown, aroma-filled roast chicken on a bed of roasted veggies!

 

“A hen is only an egg’s way of making another egg.” – Samuel Butler
The Fact: Gainesville, Georgia, in the United States, is the “Chicken Capital of the World”. There, eating the meat with a fork is considered illegal.
The Inspiration: I love chicken! My entire family will vouch for it. To me, chicken is an indulgence; an experience all by itself. I can eat it in any form and any combination, although, on some days, nothing can ever beat the straight from the oven, piping hot, moist, tender, gloriously golden-brown, aroma-filled, roast chicken served on a bed of roasted veggies.
I’ve been making and eating, actually, eating (thanks to my mum and mother in law) and making chicken all my life. But in my household, somehow, a majority of the time, we ended up combining chicken with some gravy and eating it with our staple, rice. I’m not complaining, like I said, I love the bird. But ever since I got married, experimentation has gotten so exciting, with my favorite guinea pig, Ally (my husband) and me for samplers. So trial and error is my thing now, and that’s exactly how I stumbled on to this glorious recipe. It’s something I created in my kitchen on Easter Sunday with whatever I could find in my kitchen. I do hope you enjoy this recipe!

The Ingredients

  • 1.5 – 2 kg chicken (whole; with skin) Switch the chicken with turkey for a beautiful Thanksgiving meal.
  • 2 medium-sized onions
  • 2 carrots
  • 2 tomatoes
  • 5 – 6 baby potatoes
  • 150 gms mushrooms
  • 1 big apple
  • 1 orange
  • 2 sticks celery
  • 1 bulb garlic
  • Olive oil or melted butter (use olive oil for a healthier meal)
  • 2 lemons
  • 1 small bunch fresh thyme, rosemary, bay or sage, or a mixture
  • Kosher or coarse salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • 3 feet of twine

The Method

Buying your chicken

Since chicken is an easy-to-find ingredient in my locality, I simply run down to the local chicken shop or the supermarket and pick up any whole chicken, with the skin intact and the insides cleaned. I also look for a chicken with thighs that have that perfect swell to them. This usually means a higher fat content, which also means a juicier and a more moist chicken. The breasts are too lean for my taste; however, this is something that’s up to you—based on your liking and your health.

When it comes to picking the right size, simply weigh your chicken. I prefer a 1.5 – 2kg chicken, which suffices for about 4 – 6 people, and also leaves a little for when you get home late with a growling stomach.

Preparing your chicken

  • Before you begin, wash your chicken thoroughly—inside and out, and also under the skin. Then, drain the chicken.
  • Ensure that your chicken is kept at room temperature—either fresh or refrigerated, but kept out of the fridge for at least 30 minutes before cooking. This is important to prevent your chicken from cooking unevenly or drying out. If you cook cold chicken, the heat dries out the meat on the outside before the inside is done. Room temperature meat cooks more evenly and fewer juices leak out or evaporate during cooking.
  • Preheat your oven to 240°C/475°F.
  • Take a tray or baking dish that has enough space to hold your chicken along with all the vegetables. Also ensure that your tray is hollow enough to hold all the juices that ooze out while your chicken and veggies are cooking. If not, all the juices will spill over and you’ll have quite a task after your chicken’s done.
  • Break the garlic bulb into cloves. Peel about 10 – 12 cloves and leave the remaining cloves unpeeled. Roughly smash the peeled cloves. I used a mortar and pestle; you can smash it any way you like. Add the juice of 1 lemon and about 2 tbsp of melted butter to the mashed garlic. Season this concoction with salt and freshly ground pepper.
  • Dry your chicken with a kitchen towel. Don’t ignore this step. Then, using a fork or a skewer, prick the bird all over. This will help any marinade or seasoning to easily seep into the meat rather than stay on the surface. Place your chicken in the baking tray or dish.
  • Pour 3/4th of the garlic concoction all over the chicken and using your fingers, rub the marinade in; don’t forget to go under the skin and into the chicken cavity as well. The more the seasoning seeps in, the tastier your chicken will turn out. Leave your chicken to marinate for about 20 minutes.
  • Take all your veggies (along with the apple; not the orange), but don’t peel them (except the onions of course); I know I didn’t. Wash your veggies thoroughly under running water, along with a soft brush if required, and then, roughly chop them. Note that you can throw in any additional veggies you like or can skip the ones you don’t quite fancy.
  • Take the tray in which the chicken is resting, lift the chicken and pile in all the veggies (under the chicken), along with some of the unpeeled garlic cloves. Drizzle the remaining garlic concoction and about 2 tablespoons of olive oil (or melted butter) over the veggies. Then, place the chicken over the pile of veggies.
  • Prick the remaining lemon all over, using the tip of a sharp knife or pop it into the microwave for about 30 seconds. (This will bring out the lemony flavour). Place the lemon inside the chicken’s cavity, with the bunch of herbs.

Trussing your chicken

Trussing or tying up your chicken snugly is an important part of roasting chicken. While a lot of chefs prefer to leave this out completely, which is also alright, I prefer to truss the chicken for several reasons—it makes for better presentation and prettier photos, it makes the chicken more compact and helps it cook evenly (by retaining heat and moisture), and it also prevents the tips of the wings and legs from burning.

Place your bird with the breast upwards. Place the twine horizontally under the tail bone or the end of the cavity. Then, hold the legs together, cross both ends of the twine across the chicken and pull the twine tightly. Now, taking the twine ends upwards, towards the neck of the bird and away from you, cross the twine around the wings and completely across the neck as well, tie the twine beneath the neck. Honestly, you can truss the chicken in any way you prefer, as long as the wings and legs are held close to the body of the chicken.

Cooking your chicken

With the trussed chicken placed (breast upwards) on top of the vegetables in the roasting tray, cut your orange in half and squeeze some fresh orange juice over the chicken and the veggies. Pop the tray into the preheated oven. Turn the heat down immediately to 200°C/400°F and cook the chicken for 1.20 hours, which is the ideal time to cook chicken. A lot of chefs prefer to add the potatoes a little later, but on trying their method, I found my potatoes slightly undercooked. So I suggest tossing them in right away.

After about 35 – 45 minutes, check on your chicken. You will notice a lot of juices collected in the tray. Open your oven door and scoop up the juice, only to pour it right back over the chicken and the veggies. Keep doing this until the chick looks nice and moist. Don’t let too much of the heat escape while doing this, so hurry. If you notice that the veggies look dry, add a splash of water to the tray to prevent them from burning.

After 1.20 hours, remove your tray from the oven. Alternately, using a meat thermometer, check if the temperature of the inside of the bird has reached about 70°C/160°F. Remember that your chicken will continue to cook even after you remove it from the oven. Its temperature will gradually increase to 74°C/165°F, after which, it will start to cool. At this point, transfer the chicken to a board to rest for 15 – 20 minutes. Resting the bird allows the juices that were released to be absorbed back into the meat, which is the lovely flavor that you do not want to forego. To retain the heat, cover the bird with some tinfoil.

Making the gravy

Although I love serving the roast chicken just like this, as you can see in the picture, you could also keep the chicken aside and use the veggies to make a lovely gravy.

For the gravy, sauté all the veggies in some butter, along with about 1 tablespoon of flour. Preserve some of the veggies and mash the remaining, finally, passing the mash through a sieve. Bring this liquid to a boil while seasoning it with salt and pepper.

Carving your chicken

  • Remove any twine from the chicken. Using a carving knife, cut down between the leg and the breast of the chicken. Then, cut through the hip joint and bend the leg backwards until the hip joint pops out. Repeat on the other side.
  • Next, cut off the wings from both sides.
  • Next, cut through the drumstick-thigh joint on both pieces. You should end up with four portions. Now, angle the knife along the breastbone and carve one side off, then the other.
  • Place the carved portions on a serving platter. Pour some of the homemade gravy over the carved portions and serve hot.

To see how this is done, check out this link: http://www.wikihow.com/Carve-a-Chicken, or look it up on YouTube.

Note: Throwing the remaining carcass away is a sin. Using your fingers, pull all the meat off. Don’t forget to turn the carcass over and get all the juicy bits from underneath.

And while the fight for the ‘prized’ chicken leg continues at my Easter dinner, please tuck in. Bon appétit!