There is a world of things that need to be done. Inside and out. To who I am, what I do, where I live. So instead of what I usually do which is worry and then overcompensate by being utterly relaxed, this time I’m going to try this. Just simply doing. And doing another thing. And then doing it again. One step after another.

(c) thebigdurian

Sometimes, especially when the skies are like lead and the rain just won’t let up, or other times when it feels like winter inside you, a shot of hot, dark, delicious chocolate sets the world in order. As the warmth pools in your stomach and begins to slowly radiate through to your fingertips, on its way warming your heart and un-furrowing that brow,  this is love and warmth and a hug in a mug.

And it tastes darned good too. Good enough that you really shouldn’t save it for a rainy day. Hot chocolate needs to be shared – on cozy evenings in, days spent planning a project, sharing nervous revelations, exhilarating secrets, tentative self-discovery, a reward at the end of a really hard piece of thinking, or a quiet moment to kickstart your mind. Really when is NOT the right moment for a cup of hot chocolate!

The point I’m making is this. Hot chocolate needs to be had. And man I had a good cup made for me a while back I just can’t get off my mind.

Now there is no one way to make it but to make it good, you’ve got to start with good things. Good chocolate, real milk and not water…really! And just a little care. This cup I’m talking about was actually a mug filled with about 20g of good chocolate, 2-3 pieces. I like my cocoa dark so I would use a dark, semi sweet chocolate. (Another version I liked used one mini Mr.Goodbar and a mini dark Hershey’s piece). And god as I write this, I think I’m going to try my hot chocolate with a splash of gran marnier tonight!

The chocolate was then melted. In a Microwave which isn’t romantic but it’s easy and quick. So choose what you’re feeling and go with stove-top or microwave accordingly. No one needs to know. Now this next bit is key. The chocolate was whisked! A pinch of salt was added and whisked in with that melted chocolate. Warm milk was poured over the chocolate and then whisked some more.  Because the cup lost some of its heat, another 30 seconds in the microwave warmed it up perfectly.  I’d top it off with a dash of cream if the mood demands it but my god that cup was good to go. Frothy, deep cocoa flavor, salt just making it lovely and satisfying.

Now I know I’ve just gone on and on about hot chocolate which is beyond simple to make and not the least bit insightful for most but really, me, a passionate lover of chocolate,  I had no clue how to do this. All my previous hot cocoa attempts were either too wimpy or far too rich to be anything but sinful. This cup was almost wholesome!

It’s that time of the year when even in Bombay, wintry feelings start to envelope you and ideas of roaring fireplaces and cozy razais start floating around in your head. So, with images of Christmas and holiday planning and Christmas carols everywhere, I think a few cups of hot chocolate are definitely called for.

Except it really isn’t that easy. Bombay feels like the hottest it’s ever been – can’t go 20 minutes these days without a drink of cold water to stay sane. Can’t go 5 minutes out in the open without feeling like your skin is melting.

I remember another hot summer many years ago when we were making our way to Jodhpur and our flight was meant to make a stop in Jaipur before continuing on. But it got cancelled mid-way, leaving us stranded in a strange town.

During this memorable summer vacation where temperatures hit 49°C, my beautiful young mother with my baby brother and a pre-teen me in tow had to find a way to get to Jodhpur from Jaipur before dark and the whole thing felt a bit like an adventure, a little scary, a bit of the thrill of the unknown, but most of all – HOT! The only way to get to Jodhpur turned out to be a beat up old, un-air-conditioned Ambassador taxi with the curtains at the windows our only feeble defence against heat and dust.

We made our arduous way to Jodhpur, the 3 of us piled in the back of the Ambassador and to make things extra uncomfortable, in the interest of modesty my mother made me wear a shirt under my sleeveless dress and I remember feeling like I was being tortured. Like I was being wrapped in foil to be left out in the sun to roast.

This journey was, in short, the most uncomfortably hot hours I’ve ever spent anywhere – parched, too many thick layers of clothing, no sleep and never ending!

This memory was very fresh last weekend as Bombay boiled over and my Thar Desert roots gave me a special appreciation for the cool comfort of air-conditioning and the need to stay hydrated.

So, in order to keep the dehydration at bay we’ve been eating fresh, crunchy salads or just plain fruit for dinner most nights. Now I’m not really a salad girl but it’s been a fun month of discovery and I loved what I did one night with a fresh pear, some grapes and cheese.

Fresh Pear Salad - Serves 2 for a very light dinner

1 fresh, crunchy pear sliced thinly

1/2 a small head of lettuce, roughly torn

Thin slices of Gouda or probably any cheese you have on hand

Handful of juicy, sweet and plump grapes, quartered

Vinaigrette:

2 slender spring onions, just the whites, minced

1 or 2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar

1 or 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Salt & pepper to taste

Toss all the salad ingredients in a large bowl. Whisk together the ingredients for the dressing. Pour dressing over salad and toss well.

And dig into the freshest, coolest, crunchiest salad that sings when the little grape pieces yield their sweet, cool juices in your mouth.

This one was for my poor husband who suffers (ha! I wouldn’t mind suffering like that) through all my sweet obsessions, experiments, what have you – all the while craving something..anything!..a little savory, something with a little meat in it. So I threw him a bone…er…I mean an egg.

I’m not sure what to call them yet… they’re my bacon, egg and cheese cups that I would have loved to make with actual puff pastry but in a rush, ended up improvising with some frozen paratha instead.

So here goes!

Breakfast Cups

Makes 6

1 large onion
2 rashers of bacon or chicken bacon (which is what I use…I’m sorry!)
6 eggs
¼ to ½ cup grated cheddar cheese, depending on how cheesy you want it.
2 frozen paranthas or puff pastry preferably I’m sure, although I haven’t tried it.

Preheat your oven to 180°C and lightly grease a muffin tin.
Dice the bacon and fry in a skillet till done but not too crispy and remove from the pan. If you’ve used chicken bacon, add and heat the tiniest bit of oil to the skillet before adding the onions. Let them cook till lightly golden. Stir in the bacon and set aside.

Divide the paratha, puff pastry or pie crust to line 6 cups of the muffin tray. Spoon a little of the onion and bacon mixture into each of the pastry lined cups. Use a spoon to settle one wobbly yolk over the bacon and onion mix in each cup and then spoon the whites around the yolk. Don’t fill right to the top, about two-thirds is good. Season with salt and pepper and top with grated cheese. Place the muffin tray in the oven and bake until the egg is set and cheese is golden, about 20 minutes or so.

Well pots of pepper at any rate.

Growing up, I wouldn’t call myself an odd or picky eater but I did have a couple of teeny quirks. I loved okra a.k.a bhindi or ladyfinger, which is sadly a widely hated vegetable. And I hated bell peppers a.k.a capsicum, which is pretty much indispensable in my kitchen these days.

Ever read about people hating coriander/cilantro with a passion because it smells a bit off to them (ickily descriptive New York Times article on why)?  I think that’s how I felt about capsicum. They always smelled and tasted a bit funky. I religiously picked them out of my food and piled them neatly on the side of my plate.

But now! They look like little lanterns in all their pretty colors and they taste fantastic, particularly the yellow and red ones. Raw they’re crunchy, sweet, juicy and a bit like I’m eating some sunlight. Cooked they transform into so many kinds of awesome. They’re great in salads, stir-frys, tomato-based pasta sauces, in my fancy mac-n-cheese, with eggs, in eggs, roasted, in sandwiches and oh plenty more. I’ve fallen for peppers quite hard to be honest.

My latest favorite thing to do with them is to make my version of a peperonata which is a capsicum stew that can be almost jam-like and packs a flavor punch when added to any number of things:

• On toast topped with a fried egg
• Cooked with a little garlic and an additional splash of extra virgin olive oil, it’s great with some al-dente spaghetti
• With a little turmeric and chili powder cooked along with it, mashed up paneer stirred through it – easy weeknight dinner
• A little bacon, ham or other deli meat browned and added to the mix – the possibilities are endless.

It’s flexible and luscious and even manages to lift up some shop bought pizza crust to something quite delicious. Which is exactly what I did one tired weeknight. Whipped up some peperonata, spooned it onto the shop-bought crust, sliced some mushrooms and olives, browned a little ham, a little cheese and you’re off. 15 minutes in the oven and that’s dinner!

A little off topic but that dark brown stuff on the other pizza in the picture is olive tapenade. I was trying something. That pizza got topped with some strange things but turned out quite good to my surprise. Experimenting…that’s the good stuff. Maybe it isn’t right to call these things pizzas but what the hell…they were perfect for that night.

Peperonata

Onions – 2 large, chopped or sliced, however you like.

Bell peppers – 2, red or yellow or both, diced or sliced, depending on what you did with the onions

Olive oil – 2 or 3 tbs

Dried oregano, pinch

Dried basil, pinch

Dried rosemary, pinch

Or a couple of healthy pinches of any dried herb mix you like.

Salt to season.

Sauté the onions till they start to turn a pretty yellow-gold. Throw in the bell peppers. You probably want to season it with some salt at this stage. Add the dried herbs. What you want is for the peppers to slowly cook down a bit and turn really tender so the heat’s got to be quite low. You’re cooking for about 25-30 mins, stirring a few times.  When you’ve got the peppers as tender as you like them, you’re done. You could eat this hot or cold, in any of the ways I’ve mentioned here or any other way you like really.

Go crazy with this and make your own peperonata. It’ll be great to know what you do with your versions.

Breakfasts are my absolute favorite of all meals, especially those not on the run. There aren’t too many things as satisfying as the idea of a crisply laid out table on a sunny porch, overlooking a lush and still-damp green lawn, chirping birds…maybe a swimming pool off to the side…and you know…not costing Rs.1850 + taxes to enjoy.

This love for all things breakfasty has led to many fantastic brunches that melt away in a slightly alcoholic haze as the afternoon sun glints off our glasses and silverware and we find ourselves struggling to split the bill and calculate a decent tip. It has also translated into some pretty awesome home cooked meals obviously not limited to the AM because Chez Sugardrops is an All-Day-Breakfast and Open-Bar establishment.

Some of the highlights of this long-standing love affair range from the simplest fried egg on buttered toast to elaborate pancakes and tortillas. There have been luscious stewed apples with cinnamony french toast, crusty potato and sausage hash, boozy bourbon banana bread, elaborate roast pepper and chorizo frittata and pancakes in so many forms – ricotta pancakes with a fresh peach compote, buttermilk pancakes with dried blueberries, eggnog pancakes courtesy joythebaker (whose love for pancakes is legendary), chocolate pancakes with strawberries – all with endless drizzles of maple syrup.

One might notice a tendency towards the sweeter breakfast but one of my current favorites is this gorgeous omelet which is a Sunday morning staple at my in-laws’ place. Nothing fancy, no precious ingredients, just the simplest combination of onions and tomatoes cooked till they’re perfectly savory-sweet.

Mum-in-law’s omelets (for 2)

1 medium onion, chopped

1 small tomato, chopped

2-3 eggs, whisked

1 tablespoon butter or oil (honestly? butter!!! Whoever invented butter should be sainted!)

More for the omelets if needed

Salt and pepper to taste.

Heat a skillet on a medium flame, melt the butter and add onions. Stir till coated and then turn the heat down and brown the onions, almost caramelizing them, 10 – 12 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in the chopped tomatoes and season. Cook down till the mixture is quite dry. Probably another 10 minutes.

Meanwhile whisk your eggs well and add a dash of cream if you like – I usually add milk and feel quite good about my less indulgent choice.

Remove the onion-tomato mixture to a bowl and divide for 2 omelets. And make an omelet as you usually would. Which in my case means turning the first one into a sort-of scrambled egg because it broke while I tried to flip it but this doesn’t mean that’s how you should do it

So I like to bake…but I also find it extremely daunting. Like for example my first ever, proper, new-york style baked cheesecake which I made last year…it needed to bake in a water bath, in a spring-form pan. Every thing I read about it scared me with visions of a soggy crust. And then the first ever chicken I cooked in my oven…I was scared it would be pink inside and nothing is grosser to an ex-vegetarian of Jain extraction than undercooked meat.  And my first yeasted bread…well…you get the point.

And Pie Crust loomed above it all. The thought of all that binding, rolling, freezing, the secret ingredients in all the many recipes I came across, the time investment required –  lets just say I’ve let many a cherry and strawberry season go by with no pie to show for it. No longer! The next time strawberries show their pretty little heads in Bombay, they’re going to be pied.

So this newfound courage came with a very encouraging post on Chez Pim and just enough instruction so that I felt like I had a watchful guardian angel of pies on my shoulder. I wanted to bake a little something as a pre-birthday treat for A and his only desire is for variety i.e. something I haven’t done before. I’d had a hankering for cinnamon all month long so I decided to man up and make us a double crusted apple pie.

That recipe and those instructions made it Ea-sy! And working the flour and butter with my hands was..I have to say…pretty pleasurable. I even got to inaugurate these adorable heart-shaped cookie cutters I’d bought a couple of years ago. I love when things just come together like that.  For the pie filling I combined ideas from Simply Recipes and Amateur Gourmet, upped the spices and added a splash of freshly squeezed lemon juice as I was using sweet Red Delicious apples and didn’t want the pie filling to be completely one-note, sugary sweet. I’ve got a recipe if you click on the link below. But lets just say, once it was out of the oven, we waited 47 minutes before we just couldn’t take it anymore. It looked LOVELY! I was thrilled. I posted pictures everywhere and emailed them to everyone. And we ate pie for 3 days and were generally thrilled because it turned out delicious!

Ingredients

1 Pie crust recipe from Chez Pim

Filling

5 Apples (I used 4 Red Delicious and 1 pear)

1 heaping tsp ground Cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground Nutmeg

1/4 tsp ground Clove

3tbs Flour

2/3 cups (scant) sugar

3 tsps raisins soaked in 1 tbs of bourbon

Splash of lemon juice to taste

Preheat your oven to 190°C (about 375°F).
Toss together all the filling ingredients – use your hands.
Line your pie dish (I used a 9″ glass pie dish) with half your rolled out crust as per the very helpful instructions on Chez Pim.
Tumble your apple pie filling onto the bottom crust.
Roll out your top crust and place it on top of your filling. Again, follow instructions on Chez Pim. I used some extra dough to cut out adorable little pastry hearts and placed them around the edge of my top crust.

To bake, I followed instructions from Simply Recipes. Baked the pie at 190°C for 20 minutes. The crust was pretty and starting to turn quite nice and gold with the edges a little darker. I then reduced the heat t0 175°C (around 350°F).  As per instructions, I attempted to place aluminium foil all around the edges but this didn’t really work as they all fell off during the baking process. This was done to ensure that the edges don’t burn but I figured I’d take burnt edges over burnt fingers and didn’t bother to fix the foil again.
Let the pie bake for another 40 minutes or so and then transfer to a cooling rack. Wait an hour…if you can…before you dig in.

My cooking isn’t going quite as well as planned as I reach home later and later every day. So most nights, its either left-overs, home-delivery dinners or eggs on toast (the best!!). But yesterday, the planets aligned in my favor. I read a recipe at Steamy Kitchen that sounded easy and refreshing. I was craving some pasta. I happened to have some basil that needed using up. My husband stash of peanuts wasn’t depleted. And I also happened to – for no real reason – have bought some coriander the night before as if guided by some other-worldly power.

In other words, I had everything I needed and a good mood to boot. This resulted in one of the nicest dinners ever. It was fresh, tingly, zesty from all the lovely herbs and the lemon juice.

It was unctuous and flavorful from the olive oil, garlic and cheese. The sauce coated the perfectly al-dente spaghetti just beautifully. And…as it’s my husband’s birthday week, I thought I’d show him how much I loved him by adding 2 things he loves and I am quite indifferent to – peanuts and peas!

My usual pasta attempts go down pretty well with A but with one constant that keeps him from rating them higher than a 7.5 on 10. No meat. But…as I was filled with all this love and other rainbows and butterflies feelings, I added some sausages and really…I know I’ve raved enough about this meal but it was just that good for me. And Him! He gave me a whopping 9.25 on 10 and loads of snuggles for the rest of the evening! Yay! I gave myself a 10 on 10 :p

Basil, Coriander and Peanut Pesto – adapted from Steamy Kitchen

2 cups loosely packed fresh basil and coriander leaves

1 tbs unsalted peanuts, dry roasted

1 tbs salted peanuts, dry roasted

2 cloves garlic

½ cup extra virgin olive oil

Juice of half a lemon

Salt and pepper to taste

½ cup grated cheese (I used regular processed cheddar and it still tasted great!!)

Onions, peas and chicken sausages for frying.

Place the basil and coriander leaves, salt & pepper, garlic, peanuts and half the olive oil in a food processor and process. Stop to scrape sides. Process further. Stir in half the remaining olive oil.

Heat a frying pan and add the remaining olive oil. Cook the onions till soft, add the sausages and cook till golden. Add peas (pre-soaked in hot water) and cook for about 2-3 minutes.

Add the pesto to this and heat through before stirring in the cheese and lemon juice.

Serve with any pasta shape cooked al-dente.

*Pest image courtesy Getty Images

Over the last week I had baked and done my share in polishing off a lemon cheesecake and a banana loaf cake. Needless to say, the effects showed. I found myself looking in the mirror this Saturday morning and couldn’t help but notice that my cheeks looked rosier and fuller. While that description is lovely if you’re a 7 year old girl in an Enid Blyton book, it has rather the opposite effect in a girl of 27 (ok almost 28). So I wondered how all those food bloggers manage, what with all the delicious things they are constantly cooking up. And I promised myself that I wouldn’t bake again for at least 2 weeks. And I kept my promise too – technically.

A and I spent Sunday at his parents’ place and within 15 minutes of arriving, my sister-in-law and I were shortlisting cupcake AND cookie recipes. We figured since we were spending the day together, we’d make the most of it and be each others assistant. SO, we made Martha Stewarts one-bowl-chocolate-cupcakes with chocolate frosting AND Dorie Greenspan’s World Peace cookies via SmittenKitchen’s Deb.

I used my mom’s frosting recipe because I specifically asked her for it and it’s a recipe that I have licked out of bowls for many many many years. So many birthday cakes my mom made for us and for other kids had some variation of this frosting and it always tasted delicious and I ALWAYS got her to ‘test’ the shapes on my hand (I’m very helpful like that). And of course I always helped with the ‘cleaning’ of the bowls. Especially the chocolate version…the taste of that is sort of imprinted in my DNA now. I dream about her birthday cakes with her beautiful buttery frosting….oh but I digress.

I think I might have messed up the frosting – it was more sugary and less chocolatey than I wanted. But A liked it and I liked it the next day out of the fridge too. So I will stand by my love for this special frosting (the recipe for which is at the end of post).

The cupcakes weren’t spectacular but they were still satisfying. We’ll have to try out many other recipes which will be oh so difficult but it’s a sacrifice we will make in the hunt for the perfect cupcake. And the cookies were hard to cut so they weren’t nearly as neat as the ones on SmittenKitchen. But I felt good (though a little sugared up to be honest) by the end of that day. It was a day well spent. I made my first dainty little cupcake with pretty frosting. This is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time but lack of time and equipment have gotten in the way. And I made those amazing cookies that turned out exactly as tasty as Deb promised BUT since we halved the recipe there were far too few and they are all gone now. They were good cookies and will be fondly remembered.

But oh… by the end of the day the smell of cocoa had taken up residence on me and in my nostrils and I couldn’t look another cookie in the face. After just one cupcake, I started to feel a chocolate OD coming on. I suspect that might have been the result of the non stop licking…I mean cleaning up!! involved in the cupcake frosting process.

Still…not a bad way to spend a weekend

Mummy’s Chocolate Frosting

125 g Butter

1 ½ cups Icing Sugar

2 Tbs Cocoa, sifted

2 Tbs Milk

Combine Icing sugar and cocoa. With all ingredients at room temperature, beat the butter until creamy white. Gradually add about half the combined icing sugar and cocoa mixture. Add the milk as you continue to beat. Then gradually beat in the remaining icing sugar and cocoa mixture.

The ready frosting will be smooth and easy to spread.

*All images courtesy Getty Images