A Pasta Post

Many things inspire me. But very feebly! I mean, I always stop to admire sunsets and full moons and all things pretty, but I don’t usually do anything about it. Not that there is much you can do about a sunset anyway..but that’s beside the point. I take a photo and put it in my archives for use later on. “Later on” seldom arrives. But I ALWAYS take the photo.

Recently, I was very highly inspired by a few extremely pretty looking tomatoes. I couldn’t stop admiring them at the store, much to my co-shopper’s annoyance! I proceeded to buy a few, bring them home and then went crazy taking photos. I am sure the tomatoes were a little taken aback in the beginning but by the end even they looked exasperated. I could almost hear one of them asking me to “get a life” and I was very sad to see one roll down and fall on the floor out of frustration (We don’t discuss boring things like gravity on this blog).

At this critical moment, my aforementioned co-shopper came into the room and asked that all important question – “what should we do about dinner”. We debated the point for a while, to qualify as responsible East Indians and decided on Pasta. Red sauce pasta. I refuse to call it Arabiata because I don’t think it’s got anything to do with Arabia!

It usually takes a maximum of 30 minutes to make pasta, 15 out of which is spent day dreaming. It is easy and simple and almost always comes out nice. I am sure you already know the recipe, but I have pictures and so I will give it to you again.. and call it MY version ;-)

Since it is red sauce pasta and we can’t put blood in it, we use tomatoes. If you are nice, you will blanch the tomatoes and take the peels off and puree them. I couldn’t take the emotional pressure of killing the pretty tomatoes, step by step like this, so I just put them in the blender, peel and seeds intact. Roughage is good for digestion!!

Now I like lots of veggies in MY pasta, so I chopped beans, carrots, green, red and yellow bell peppers and mushrooms. I also add babycorn, sweet corn and even baked beans sometimes. I like to blanch the beans and carrots (and babycorn if I am adding it), fry the mushrooms with a little oil and I leave the capsicums raw.

In a little olive oil or butter, fry chopped onions till they are translucent, add a little chopped garlic and then add the tomato puree. Add salt, pepper and oregano. I always add a little ketchup to it, makes it more…interesting, shall we say? Let the sauce bubble away for a while and then add the blanched vegetables. I add the fried mushrooms and the capsicums last. Add the boiled pasta, mix well, grate some cheese on top and that’s your pasta done! Oh sorry, MY version of the pasta done!!

Now, you can try it, take pictures of the pasta, and post the same on your blog and call it your version!!

My Mum's recipe- for life..and also Pudina Biriyani!!

“Mummyyyyy, tell me how to make biriyani please. You know the recipe?”

“Of course! First you take 60 bucks from your pocket money, then start your bike, go to Cooks, pay up and you shall have your biriyani!!” (Cooks is a small restaurant in Bhubaneswar, and if you are the owner, please pay or at least thank me for this free publicity).

That’s my mum for you. Her philosophy in life was simple- Why bother?! She used the theory of comparative advantage very well. They can make it better than us, why should we take the pains!

Don’t get me wrong, she was a fantastic cook. She always made awesome stuff. You couldn’t disagree with that. She made sure we all agreed, in her “subtle” ways. First she would put the dish on the table saying, “I’ve made fantastic alu gobi today”. And then she would ask us, “Isnt it good?”!!!

Her interest in the culinary art increased considerably over the years. She made killer “podopitha”, amazing alu chops and awesome chutneys. But her speciality has to be the Pudina Biriyani. She had mastered the recipe which is more a pulao then a biriyani. (I don’t know what the difference is, I just wanted to sound intelligent. You could ask my friend, the weekend epicurean, but I doubt even she would know!) Every time anyone came home, she made the pudina biriyani. I suggested once that we ask the guests what they would like to have. She was scandalized and said what if they ask for something complicated which we won’t know how to make! But the truth is, the biriyani came out perfect every single time and we all loved it.

I made the mistake of asking her for the recipe. Now, if you had the privilege of knowing her, you would understand that she did not believe in giving out exact measurements. So the recipe that follows shall be vague and you shall just have to adjust.

·    Grind together pudina (mint leaves), dhaniya (coriander leaves), onion, garlic and ginger. How much of each? “Haven’t you learnt yet to not ask?” my mother must be screaming from up above! I usually find pudina should be double the amount of dhaniya.

·    Put Dhaniya powder, jeera powder, red chilli powder haldi and salt in the paste. Mix chicken in it and cook it in the pressure cooker for one seeti (I am really bad at giving out recipes.. it’s genetic, what can I do?). Now if you are making a veg version, then don’t put the chicken. Okay, you knew that? How nice!!

·    Heat refined oil, in a thick bottomed vessel. Put curry leaves, dry red chillies and chopped onion and fry. Add washed and dried rice. Mum always used the regular rice since the aroma comes from pudina. Fry the rice for a while. Add the chicken mixture to this. And add water (twice the amount of rice). Cover and cook.

·    Once the water dries, take it off heat. Mum used to put the vessel on a heated pan, and let the rice get cooked in steam.

She usually made a raita with grated cucumber to have with the biriyani and the combination was awesome. I have tried this recipe and though it comes out nice, it never is like hers. Obviously, look at the way she gave me the recipe!

There are so many things I could tell you about her. The way she could endlessly watch planes taking off or landing, the way she tortured my friends, threatening them with the “ruk ruk ruk” dance or the fact that she always wanted to wear Margaret Thatcher type clothes! She was childlike, always smiling, never complaining. She was simple but really very special. I know this blog space wasn’t meant to have personal messages, but for mummy, I will make an exception.

There was a lot to learn from you mummy- your zeal for life, your ability to forgive and forget and smile at all times. I hope I have got at least a few of your good qualities. And if I ever, ever made you sad or upset, please do forgive me for it. I miss you....  I trust you still forget the punch lines of all your jokes...!