Eat: Cooking for one

I have learned more about cooking since I went solo - about five years ago when I first moved out of my family's home to live and work in Saudi Arabia. Over the years, it has been all sorts of things to me: exciting, boring, rejuvenating, humbling, frustrating, and more. Over and above all this, though, I have learned so much. And not just about cooking, but about staying healthy, about nutrition in general, about worldwide cuisine, about sharing, about conserving resources, (and about optimising them as well), about natural food photography vs. blogging photography vs. advertising food photography, about recipes and how to write them, about translating the names of ingredients from one language to another, about storage of food, about how to purchase fresh ingredients and how to recognise when food has gone bad - and so much more. Eventually, it emboldened me to start this blog!

Here are a few moments from my experiences:

• I was busy surfing the net, having kept some lamb meat in a pressure cooker. I never heard the whistles of this cooker as this was a different kind where the weight simply rotates above the lid without making any noise. The lamb got burned completely as I forgot about it for over an hour. When I opened the lid, the pieces were burnt into black, coal-like bits! (Learned to pay more attention to the kitchen when food is cooking, and bought a kitchen timer on my next visit to India - which I still use!)
• Learned to dice and half-fry onions in a large batch to save time. I would store those half-cooked onions in a large box and take as much as I needed to make food till that supply got over. I don't do that any more, though, as I have a very small fridge in my Blackpool quarters).
• Learned to use an oven to cook some dishes like fish and chicken. I had never used an oven either in India or in Saudi Arabia. And here, I am talking of the big oven that comes below the hob, not a microwave or a simple OTG that I HAVE used in the past.
• Learned how to differentiate between different European vegetables. These are available at greatly hiked prices in India, where they are sold as exotic foods. To give you an example, while a small piece of Broccoli is sold for 40-60 rupees in Mumbai, the same is available for a few pence in the U.K. Well, the prices are comparable because a U.K. pound is still over 80 INR, but in comparison to U.K. prices, broccoli is as cheap as cauliflower.
• Started taking pictures and shared them on social media. Everyone has been appreciative, not the least my own daughters who now wait for me to visit India so that they can ask me to cook all those delicious things I make when I am abroad.
• Learned how to store stuff in a small fridge and freezer. In the accommodation where I live, I barely have 100 litres of space between the small fridge and the freezer. I have to really optimise how I use that space in the best possible way. I end up cutting long things like drumsticks, ridge gourd, long cucumbers, etc. I turn the large tomatoes into a tomato puree. I squeeze out the water from the lamb and meats to shrink the bags of raw meats. I buy and store only as much as I know the space I have left. (The other half of the 200 litre space is shared with a flat-mate.)

Here are a few of the best things I have made over the years. You can see more in my Facebook albums.

Molokhia soup

Prawns curry with rice

Masoor pulao and kadhi

Chicken masala

Batata wada

Lamb burgers

Pav bhaji

Lamb curry

Cluster beans and potato - the humble guvar with aloo

Spinach, Punjabi style

Dal-chaval palidu

Bhajia kadhi

Masala dosa

Bombay potato

Shirkhurma

Paya - trotters

And so, it has been a pleasant experience for me. Do share your own experiences as cooks - whether you are with your family or alone somewhere on Planet Earth. Thank you for reading. 

Eat: The convenience of ready to use/ready to eat food

Today, I am going to write about ready to use stuff. Whether it is about using such stuff to cook food quickly in your kitchen, getting your hands on preserved ingredients when fresh stuff is inaccessible, or getting your hands on prepared stuff that can be added to your pan so as to save time - or, whether it is about ready to heat and eat food - the truth is that these foods and ingredients are here to stay, whether they are healthy or not, and whether you like them or not.

So, just browse the website of any grocery store online, and what do you find? Over 60% of the products belong to one of these categories. Let me go down the list one by one.

A. Stuff used in the kitchen to prepare or decorate food:

1. Using items that help you to cook faster: This list includes cut and diced items like vegetables, meats etc. They are mostly in the frozen foods section. Who among us has not purchased these from time to time? So, be it mixed cut vegetables, diced and quartered pieces of boneless meat, shelled and deveined prawns, garden peas, cut and diced okra - these are the most frequently shopped for items. To be fair, there is no harm in purchasing them if they have been fast frozen at the place they were cleaned and diced. I am not sure, though, that this actually happens. The index of freshness of food is nowadays indicated by food miles: how far or how long did the food travel or stay without preservation. Obviously, items that are frozen at the place of produce are the best, such as frozen berries or cold-pressed oils. Modern belief is that frozen foods that were frozen rapidly after being cleaned or processed or harvested are nutritionally as good, or sometimes, even better than fresh food that has stayed on the shelf for a long time.

 This category also includes ready-made mixes that help you conjure exo

tic dishes in a jiffy. I am, of course, referring to items like "Chicken Balti mix", "Lazeez Haleem mix", "Beef ragu mix" and so on. It also includes frequently bought items like sambar powder, idli mix, medu vada mix, rabri mix and so on. The list is endless. You just need to follow the instructions on the box, and voila! your exotic food is ready.

2.Using items that are otherwise inaccessible or not easily available: In this category are items that mostly are difficult to procure. It may be a situation such as mine. I am based in Blackpool, and this place generally does not have Indian food stores. I am therefore unable to quickly find condiments and spices that I need. This applies also to Asian vegetables such as cluster beans, small aubergines, tinda, etc. I found frozen cut vegetables of all these kinds in Preston! Curry leaves are another rare commodity in Blackpool Now, you can either go to Preston every few weeks to buy fresh curry leaves, or, as I do, buy dried curry leaves available in a bottle. These stay unspoiled for months! You can find almost any leaf in dried form in a supermarket - whether Indian, or European. Ever bought coriander that is dry and available in a bottle? Do try it.

3.Using items that are available fresh, but you still buy them frozen for convenience: This is a somewhat gray area, but modern consumers often do this because they feel it is an easier way. This prevents the need to visit the grocer every day. Some people will buy fresh, then store it in the freezer having zip-loc'd it/ Still others will save the additional bother and simply store frozen food purchased from the counter. It all depends on your budget. I would prefer to buy fresh and store what I don't need immediately, but refer to the paragraph above on possible benefits of freshly frozen food (an anachronism, but there ... you have it!)

B. Ready to Heat and Eat Foods:

These are the fastest growing segment of foods. Available in the past as microwave dinners, they have now taken on a completely different complexion. All you need to do is to heat and eat them. You can find them on supermarket shelves all over the world. They cater to every palate, every culture and every taste. You can now eat Japanese, Thai, Korean, Indian, Indonesian, or even Chilean food bought off the shelf of Marks and Spencer in the UK, or Big Bazaar in India. These foods invariably have preservatives, additives, colourants and other agents to keep them without spoiling even without refrigeration. It is the multi-layered packaging that is the secret to these foods staying fresh until the use-by date. I am not referring to freshly packed cooked foods, but sealed foods that can be kept without cooling.

C.Cooking and storing food in the freezer for later consumption:

During my discussions with friends offline and online about this post, I was reminded of this third category. I am sure we all do this with leftovers. Well, not all of us, but quite a few of us. We do this because we don't want to throw away our labour of love. We also do not want to eat the same food again and again. So, we put aside some of that food into the refrigerator - either in the lower, normal fridge section (to be consumed in the next few days), or, as is postulated here, into the freezer section to be eaten after a much longer period of time. Now, mind you, some foods preserve well, while others become soggy and inedible - such as rice. 

So, dear reader, tell me, have you used some of the above kinds of foods or not? What is your opinion? Do share in the comments section. Thank you for reading this post.

P.S. All images are copyrighted to their respective brands.

Review: Sapori Restorante Italiano in Blackpool

Located on Clifton Street, Sapori Restorante Italiano Blackpool is a unique restaurant that has earned plaudits from every guest who has visited it in the past. Luckey, my restaurant-hopping colleague and I went to this interesting place on a weekday. It was her treat this time, and she had taken care to book a table for us. Which was just as good, as Sapori, ranked 11 among the 700+ eating out places in Blackpool by TripAdvisor, can get pretty busy even on a weekday.

Sapori means Taste in Italian

This was to be a typical Italian dinner, so we occupied our allocated table by 07:10 p.m. The waiters were upon us within a minute, so it was up to us to tell them to hold off for a bit while we studied the menu. It is a fairly large menu with antipasti, pane, pasta, carne and many more categories. They have a bar where hard spirits are available, as well as a wine menu and soft drinks. We did not look at the desserts as we were full up to the gills after the starter and the main courses.

Eventually, we settled for a shared antipasti, a Crocchetta Di Pesce (described as Smoked haddock and spring onion fishcake served with home-made tartar sauce), followed by a separate main for each of us. While Luckey ordered a Salmone (described on the menu as "salmon fillet cooked in a sauce of white wine, dill and cream served on a bed of mashed potato with vegetables ", I settled for Gamberoni (described as King prawns cooked in a sauce of garlic, tomato and a hint of cream. Finished with Gran Marnier). We did have a drink each that complimented the menu items to some extent. 

Here are the pictures of the foods we ate:

Haddock fishcake

Salmone

Gamberoni

Contemplative

Two foodies on the prowl

A section of the guests around us

It was a delicious meal. The king prawns were very tasty and the gravy of tomatoes and cream was excellent indeed. I did taste the salmon as well. It was not spicy, and it was really smooth and well-cooked. The fishcake was great as well. No complaints at all.

At the end of the dinner, we thanked the staff. One of them, who is one of the owners, greeted us personally and requested us to visit again. 

Ratings:

Food: 5 stars
Presentation: 4.5 stars (I deducted half a star because they used soy sauce in all the three dishes to decorate them - no variety).
Ambiance: 4.5 stars
Hospitality: 5 stars
Overall Rating: 4.5 stars

Recipe: Bohri style paya masala (Trotters)

Hey friends. I am going to share with you my own take on making PAYA. What is paya? As you might have probably guessed, paya is a derivation from paay or pav - which are crude Hindi versions of leg. As opposed to "Raan" which is the fleshy thigh muscle and bone from a sheep or a goat, paya refers to the non-fleshy portion of a goat or sheep's lower limb from the knee joint downwards to the hooves. This is what payas look like when you purchase them from a butcher.

Before paya (or trotters as they are called in English) can be made to look like this, they are actually part of the lower limb of these animals, and hence covered with skin, muscles, etc. The butcher needs to remove all these outer stuff and boil the legs to get to the bone and cartilage structures that you see alongside. The hooves may still be covered with dirt, so you must clean the hooves completely, often with a sharp knife before you can start using them.

Now that you have obtained the trotters, let us go ahead and cook them. But before that, let me add that many Middle Eastern cultures cook trotters from larger animals such as oxen or bull, or even from a camel. The preparation of these is beyond the scope of this post. I will describe only how paya from goats or sheep is prepared.

Ingredients: 

1. Paya, 6 in number - cleaned and cut into 4 pieces each, such that there is a knee joint piece, a shin piece with a long bone and a sliver thin long bone attached to it, and two halves of a hoof - 4 pieces per paya.
2. Chick peas, about 50 grams
3. Chick pea flour - about 2 tablespoonsful
4. Fresh yoghurt -100 grams
5. Whole spices - cinnamon sticks, cloves, black pepper, cumin and black elaichi (1-2).
6. Ground spices - Ginger garlic paste - 5 grams
7. Ground powdered spices - red chilli, turmeric and garam masala
8. Julienned ginger - a few, for garnishing
9. Coriander leaves - chopped, for garnishing
10. Onion 1 large or 2 medium - cut long and thin
11. Cooking oil - 2 tablespoons
12. Salt, to taste

Preparation:

1. Put the clean paya into a pressure cooker with water enough to get a stock solution at the end of the boil. Add salt, a few green chilli (optional) and a few ml of cooking oil into the mix and then close off the cooker and cook the paya for at least 10 minutes at high flame. The cooker should start whistling at around 6-7 minutes. Continue to cook as paya takes a  little longer to cook. When the lid cools down sufficiently, open it, and then check if the paya is well-cooked. If yes, the outer tissues should be soft and easy to remove off the bone. If not, they aren't ready as yet, and you need to close back the lid and cook some more.  Your paya and the stock will probably look like this:
   
2. Separate the paya from the stock which will be all needed.
3. Wash the whole chickpeas and boil them in a pan till they are soft. Drain the water and keep the chickpeas aside. Add the boiled chick peas to the paya stock.

       4. Blend the yoghurt and the chickpea flour together so that no lumps are visible or felt.

Method:

In an open kadhai, heat some cooking oil. Drop in the whole spices one by one, allowing each to splutter. Once they are all done, remove them carefully into a saucer. (Well, you can't get the cumin out). Next, add the onions and fry them till they are brown. Reduce the flame, add ginger garlic paste, powdered spices and salt, and cook for a bit longer, say about 3-4 minutes. Next, add the yoghurt-chickpea flour paste and continue stirring and cooking the entire mix for the next 7-8 minutes, turning the flame on to about 80% of maximum. Once you start smelling the roasting of the flour, reduce the flame again, adding the paya stock to the mix.

By now, you should have a broth-like liquid that looks a bit like this:

As this mixture keeps cooking, add the whole spices back in. Now you are almost done. Just before you add the paya to this mixture, you will be at the penultimate step of your preparation.

At this stage, the paya soup is almost ready. The oil has started to separate and the whole concoction is looking very tempting. Add the paya now, keep stirring, then close the cooker again for about 10 minutes to finish off the cook. When the cooker has cooled, open the lid, garnish the paya with coriander and julienned garlic and serve hot with nan or tandoori roti.

And that, my dear friends, was how my paya turned out.

Post-note: I have come across other forms of the paya preparation. The variations include the following:

• Yoghurt is mixed with the onions and ground into a paste instead of the chickpea flour
• Normal flour is used instead of chickpea flour
• Chickpeas are not added at all.
• The stock and the paya are the end-product and served as a soup instead of a masala
• Paya is eaten with khichri instead of roti

What other variations have you seen? Thank you for reading. Do add your comments.

Live: Living up a birthday

I wrote a post on my 57th birthday and how I spent it on my UK blog. Do take a look >>>

Read THIS.

I had always wanted to see what Ma Kelly's looks like inside. In the end, it was just another pub, but what I liked about this one was that it has eight live shows with singers and, sometimes, dancing girls, every day. I was witness to two singers as my friend Luckey, her friends Robs and Lydia and I whiled the evening away with drinks and some peanuts. Here are a few photos:

The stage

The stage 2

With Grace, who is known to me

Luckey (centre) and her friends Roberto and Lydia with me

That's all here ... Live a full life!
Oh yes, I danced a lot.