Orange (oil-free) Cake!

Home baked bread...

Momos !!!

Bhuni Hui Keema - Kaleji

Crab Masala - Chettinadu Style (@Karaikudi)

I am sure all of us are well aware of the greatness of the female of the species, our species to be more precise. Also conveyed nicely in the quote - "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned". But I think the real sense of the meaning comes true when the woman isn't scorned but is hungry AND is pregnant!

So on one fine Saturday morning sometime in the past 7-9 months, I get served a deman along with tea and Parle-G! It was short and simple...

"I MUST HAVE CHENNAI-STYLE CRABS TODAY"!

See, what men sometimes don't realize in the first 2 trimesters - they realize well by the third one - and that is, most things during pregnancy aren't up for discussions in the lower or upper houses. They are ordinances that are automatically converted to law and must be carried out in letter and spirit within 2-4 hours (sometimes under 30mts also!) of being enacted (read - spoken).

And so started my search for Chennai style crabs in the land of steamed seafood pots and soft-shell crabs. Fortunately, being in New Jersey - I was close to the real birthplace of the Indian civilization - and almost everything Indian is available within a 20 mile radius.

The above picture is from Karaikudi in Central Jersey, the guy there quickly understood the situation and we were served our custom-prepared crabs despite Saturday afternoons being buffet-only affair. I think he acted from experience...

...attempt at Dal - Baati - Churma :)

If there was one place where something so dry, literally, as a vast stretch of nothing but sand, but still had the mystique, the warmth, the simplicity and of course, a cuisine to die for - Rajasthan it is! But long before my first visit to the state, it was in Lucknow, more than 15 years ago, that I had my first taste of this famed Rajasthani combo of Dal-Baati-Churma. I still can vividly remember how much "ghee" that thing demanded! With dishes with names such as "Palang-Torh"...not much is left to imagination about how seriously people in this princely state take their food.

And then there was - GHEWAR!

Folks, there are Indian sweets and then there is ghewar. Resembling something like a sweetened, edible version of a honeycomb - this unimaginably awesome treat is a trap unto itself. Long before Lays came up with the caption of "..betcha can't eat just one..", people familiar with the phenomenon called ghewar had fallen victim to the food-trap of not being able to stop after one helping.. What have I not done to get my hands on a box ghewar !?!?

In place where water is precious resource and dry red chilies are often the base ingredient in meat dishes, it will be unjust to not mention the illustrious "Lal Maans". I am still to find a simpler recipe for a mutton dish!

Now, about the picture that you see above - A common condition for Indian expats is a combination of 2 things - explored-all-Indian-restaurants + nothing-in-fridge-is-interesting, this leads to a reaction, usually from the hungrier of the two between the husband/wife - known as... I'd @#$%^% make something different!

Moral: ...some things should NEVER be cooked in western appliances! But it wasn't that bad. Especially, the churma :)

Ulli Kozhi / Chicken Cry - Malabar Style! (Cry = Curry + Fry, recipe courtesy Mallugirl)

Almost 5 years back, when I moved from Mumbai to Chennai - the first reaction from the HR PoC was..."WHY?".. Well, maybe the question was there in my mind too, buried under layers of reasoning I'd tried to feed myself, trying to be convinced about the decision. But who am I fooling? There was just one basic reason to be honest - the economics behind it! After all an air ticket from Mumbai to Bangalore was < the KSRTC ticket from Chennai..

So here I was, a guy from Lucknow - moving from an addictive-chaos called Mumbai to a complete unknown city. But then maybe I shouldn't say unknown. For starters, the humidity wasn't much different. Well yeah, 5-7 degrees more thrown in to keep things in a constant state of "pre-heat".

Cut to life in Chennai, 3-4 months hence...

I was lucky as hell to find my roomie from graduation times working in the same company so ended up shacking up with him, awesome group of people to work with at the new place and at time, the biggest downside was the process of buying the weekend stock of booze from TASMAC! Ask anyone who's done this, TASMAC is probably single most tragic retail experience one can go through! By this time, I had made the transition to "Chicken-65" and "Kotthu Paratha" as appetizer options from the days of "Seekh Kabab" and "Malai Tikka" from Mumbai...

I was pleasantly surprised at what Chennai had to offer as gastronomical options. Being the un-enlightened North Indian that I was, it took the company of good work colleagues, some of whom are now "family friends"...for me to be completely bowled over by what Chennai and cuisine from south of India in general had to offer. Places like Dakshin, GRT Temple Bay, Moonraker's, Amravati, Ponnuswamy, Anjappar, Karaikudi + at least 25 more such joints, introduced my taste buds to true bliss. Appams with mutton korma, crab masala with Kerela porotta to mutton varuval...with goddamn' anything! Chennai simply rocked!

The above featured dish is my attempt at trying to re-create those flavors in a distant land…