Aag,,,,,A letter to start!

Dear Monsieur Auguste,

I still do not understand how things work in cooking, I know I am green in cooking, just five to seven years of cooking, But do I really know, what a five to seven year old chef should know??? the question really hangs low in my mind, scared it may touch the soil anytime.

The love for cooking never ceased in me Mr.Auguste , I just enjoy every part of
cooking, Its more of a life partner to me, Never a moment I have frowned to cook
something.But many times its all complaints and complaints.... Mr. Auguste, in India we some how tackle the complaints, like how you tackle the football in France.

The most serious question I want to ask is , How you trained so many people in the art of cooking? once my colleague asked me for a carrot and fresh green recipe and I showed him a demonstration of few dishes with carrots,and I was not at all happy with the final dish, You know what Mr. Auguste, My colleague prepared the same dish which I thought him and got a job as Sous chef in a leading hotel in India. Does these kind of things happened to you????

Some time I get a call from, some unknown number to find out that he is, so an so ( my student of so and so batch)who work as a chef in So and so hotel, Ahhh the happiness in it , is really GREAT, Mr.Auguste

The Reason I post this is , A parent of my student, Mr. Murali, called me yesterday (Its actually , I who called him)and said, that her daughter(my student)had prepared carrot hulwa and they really enjoyed the taste of it, you Know Mr. Auguste , how happy I was, that little girl student of mine, cooking carrot hulwa, who is very very green to cooking.. ahhh its great Mr. Auguste,

I know practice makes one perfect, but Mr. Auguste , just practice is enough??? thats my question???I know its easy to ask questions but I have many worse questions to come in , will ask you in my next post. ohhhh Monsieur I forget to tell you something, carrot Hulwa is a sweet from Indian cuisine, Its delicious and not simple as your entrements and sorbets....

Your French cuisine may be haute, but there is more than haute to our Indian cuisine , Until my next post happy resting Mr. Auguste

HaVe A NiCe DaY......

Monnaco Topping

The toughest part is to judge something without any specific rules and regulation, and when you are sad, then the things just won’t work out. But when it comes to cooking the saddest part always diminishes. I do not think any wonder will happen justifying the sad part of me. I believe things will become alright with time, “hope” is what life is all about.
Coming back to the judging part it’s a culinary competition, and the theme is “Flame free cooking” still I do not understand the concept, because of the specification which was not framed and I do not know on what basis to judge. Though I have to

What more to expect than sandwiches , cold drinks and salads, with fruits and vegetables , a few of them had sakes fried gram and soaked pressed rice sweetened with sugar and jaggery etcetera etcetera……hardly any presentation except one which was arranged in an appetizing manner… Really…

Together it was Twenty teams with Two in a team.. the hardest part is some table had just a single dish and some had variety of dishes.. Ahhhh… to call it mean??? I looked for everything in a dish, a table with just plain sandwich and fresh fruits in skewers looked Awesome,,,,,, The name “Have a nice day” I believe Food is first eaten with eyes then with nose at last with mouth……. A price for sure but not confirmed … not to forget the nineteen participants remaining…

Let me finish it Quick, the first goes to a team with monnaco toppings – the description monnaco biscuits with savory and sweet toppings… prepared by a team of Two Boys, the second goes to “Have a Nice day” and the third a cold Coffee where thye bitterness of the coffee lingers in your mouth for a long long time…. You will just Love it…

I forget to tell you something its just Three prices, but I requested for another three more making it to a number of Five…. And long before…… Didn’t I tell you that Boys are really good in culinary………….

yours sincerely bibinca

Its seven years before, I and my friend V were on a visit to Goa for an Educational fair, Ahh those wonderful ten days , Whatever we do, wherever we go the day always we ended up in food. The laziness made us to have chocolates and apple fizz for breakfast, So that, there is no need to wash your hands??
I still remember V saying that the real taste of the food depends on the hand which it prepares it. Yes I do agree, but the germs and etc from your hand really gives a good flavor to food, is what something which was added later by Mr.V.
A friend of ours who was very much settled there, with a massage parlor and a foreign lady took us to a sea side dinner. The first day dinner was chicken cafreal, with pav bun, never will I forget those pints and pints of complimentary beers. There after our days starts very late. say, at nine – nine thirty and laziness lingers till the lunch and the fenni gets in. I do agree that the fenni smells strong, but I hate finding fault with alcohol.
The hunt for search of new and authentic food continued for the remaining days, we didn’t eat what we tasted before, and every time we settled with something new. Pork sorpotel, galinah Xacuti , Prawn Balcho , plates and plates of mollusks, and the spicy frog leg with Good Goan songs on the shore..
There were days spent just with food and drink, and drink and food. I still didn’t knew what makes you sober and sober when you keep drinking all the time and litres of alcohol, is it the sea and its waves or the French fries and scallops. Its after seven years and the Seven liters of alcohol on a single evening and the whole night in the beach, with pillows made from sand , Everything is clear very clear in front of my eyes today.
For next day lunch we had some home made pulao and, and goan style fish curry, a small cup full of mollusks as accompaniment, and a cup of tempered kokum water to aid digestion. I bet you , just the rice and fish curry will make you to forget you hometown, and feel like staying in goa forever.
The best part is always the dessert, for this one the fuels is coconut shell, unlike the gentle flames below the pan, the eagerness to consume those delicious layered cake kept raising and raising. Mrs. Meline dsouza who prepared the Goan layered cake Bibinka, added a dash of fenni along with the batter. The batter is then cooked in a pan layer by layer, once the sixteen layer is finished(that much is the number of layers the traditional Bibinka has) the first few layers turn black, with good amount of ghee to compliment the smoky flavor, Bibinka is always the best. Is that the only sweet?? Dodoll , and……… soo soo many,
Whenever you get a chance to dine goan food, forget not that the alcohol accompanies all the dishes in goa. And know what???? “Old goans never die, they just stumbles and stagger away”.

HAPPY EATING!

Yell, Dwell, Hell nothing like Sorpotel!

When its GOAN cuisine I am FAMISHED

One of the questions I keep asking the students is that how many in the class are vegetarians? And I see many raised hands, Sometimes the Question is like this. How many in the class are vegetarians who eat meat? Again I see some raised hands. Nothing wrong? But I do believe the religious part of it.Not long before I had a pure vegan student, who once said, Sir ,I just hate meat, and products with addition of eggs, and she added, only when I am at home and when my parents are around, otherwise everything taste like chicken. My bro once tried to pull his stomach out , coz of the rice which he ate was cooked by using chicken stock,
One of the most common meat used by humans during the olden times were pork, there were so many reasons for it, and the varieties of product made from pork , sausages, salamis, forcemeats, in brief I put it all together in a single word Chacutiere(pork butchery) . we study of all these and relate continental cuisine to it, and we forget our own Indian pork dishes, there are so many, the best and the best, And all the credit goes to Goa .
There are endless dishes with pork in india, but many of them are from goa, the fact we have to agree. Pork Balcho, Pork Baffado, Pork Assado, spicy Pork sausage, Pastelo, Pickled Pork, Pork Vindaloo and the King of all Pork Sorpotel. Many in goa claim that their Sorpotel is best, the nice thing about sorpotel is that it can be prepared at least four to five days in advance of the special day. It is warmed up once a day till the day it is served with ‘sanna’ a steamed rice muffin.
The say a festival dining table is incomplete without the famous sorpotel and bibinka. And same like the bibinka a dash of coconut fenni is added in the sorpotel recipe. Here is a goan song dedicated to Sorpotel

For the hotch potch known as Haggis
Let the Scotsman yearn or yell
For the taste of Yorkshire pudding
Let the English family dwell

For the fame Tandoori chicken
That Punjabi praise like hell
But for us who hail from Goa
There’s nothing like Sorpotel!

From the bigwigs in colaba
To the small fry in Cavel
From the growing tribes in Bandra
To the remnants in Parel

From the lovely girls in Glaxo
To the boys in Burmah Shell
There’s no Goan whose mouth won’t water
When you talk of Sorpotel

And Oh! For Christmas dinner
Don’t you think it will be swell
If by some freak of fortune
Or by some magic spell

We could, as they have in Goa
A bottle of the cajel
And toddy leavened sannas
To go with Sorpotel!



Recipe:
Parboil the meat for twenty minutes and mince it fine, grind together 12 redchillies, 12 peppercorns, 1 tsp cumin.ginger, garlic, 8 cloves and 2 piece of cinnamon with 3/4cup of vinegar, Light brown the meat in oil to brown color, add the ground spices and stir for ten minutes add little more vinegar, the stock, chopped onions and green chillies add salt for taste and cook till the oil floats on top and the gravy is thick. Forget not to stir. And taste , if you are not happy with the taste. YOU HAVE PROBABLY FORGOTTEN THE MOST IMPORTANT INGREDIENT “ LARGE QUANTITY OF LOVE’


More of Bibinka and Fenni in my nex blog

The Birthday Cake

The Amateur, the professional, the fresher…..The difficulty in remembering two hundred and fifty grams of Flour, Butter, Sugar and ten eggs, with an addition of fifty grams of cashew and raisins mixed together. Indeed very hard to remember for Mr.Sapan (matlab Dream) a fresher or an amateur in cooking. The list of ingredients were written in a small piece of paper, folded and carefully placed in Mr. Dream’s pocket, the reason it’s his birthday the day after and he wants to prepare his birthday cake. Ah! What a birthday to remember…

Sirji, you do the purchasing and I’ll pay for it, is what Mr. Dream said, my reply of NO is to make him to learn a little bit of purchasing, Mr. Dreams excitement lingered around a few seconds after his exit. The purchase ended the same day after three to four phone calls from him the same evening.(clarification of indent!!!)
It’s he who prepares and I just help him, the creaming of butter with sugar, the long time beating of eggs, sieving of flour and baking powder together with an addition of cocoa powder everything went well. He sounded more like a professional in baking, and it sounds like he completely didn’t knew the functions of Ingredients, and most importantly one should know that a wrong measurement will turn a pro into amateur in baking. I am sure that he learned how to mix, though we didn’t measure the ingredients and I could literally see a finished baked cake in his eyes.
Looking at him , I stopped asking him the functions of ingredients and the reason for mixing, sieving and creaming, after twenty plus and another thirty minutes at Two hundred and twenty degree Celsius, my calculation of equal amount of flour , butter and sugar didn’t deceive me. The cake was perfect with awesome flavor and color, for the taste I have to wait till the midnight. Just a look in his eyes, I could say how the cake taste. The real reason behind this simple yet a beautiful cake is, not just the ingredients and the oven, along with a dash of Mr. Dream’s Love and passion, which made it all wonderful. I shouldn’t have used the word Amateur Isn’t it?
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ……
Everyone is green in culinary, we learn something new every day. HAPPY COOKING!

Long Time... but still

The love for cooking have never reduced a bit, there are so many reasons to justify . I do not want to go in detail. I am very much proud to say that I teach cooking. Once a granny asked me, why are you learning to cook? What is there to learn? Those unanswered questions…… and there were many, adding to that, the words my mom says, that culinary is for those who gets an average in their twelfth standard. Yes I do agree that, I myself an average, but cooking does not come like that to anyone. Because I see it and feel it .For the past six years , I have witnessed many. A culinary student working with front office and a student who want to join MBA and work in multinational company, ending up as CDP in a star hotel. Ironic isn’t it? But again it’s hard to accept. The reason, culinary skills are hard to judge in a student in the three years of study.
The ones who are dying patients to sauté onions in the first year, the same ones who are tired to chop a tomato in the second year, blooms like an executive chef after their six months training… in the final year they think that cooking is all what they see and cook in their hotel for those six months. Many forget that cooking is like an open book, without an end and the real passion should come within. I often tell many students to visualize when they learn a recipe, it helps understanding the recipe up to seventy percent, but, there are dishes which deceive your visualized one.
To finish with, there are so many dishes around you, and certain secret recipes are very hard to decipher, whatever it may be, cooking is all what you do, involve yourself and love every second of it, the result is delicious and delicious, knowing the functions of ingredients is very important, and forget not to try something new all the times. Agree that there are lot to learn from the mistakes. So worry not, HAPPY COOKING!

Try this out.
Take 100 gms of butter or Margarine , sugar, and refined flour. Cream butter and sugar to a smooth and fluffy consistency, add 2 beaten eggs , mix well, add refined flour sieved with ½ teaspoon baking powder. Add ½ tsp vanilla essence and 100 gms of chopped dryfruits. Pour it in a greased mould and double boil for one hour or bake at 120*C for 20 minutes.

Punishment

Punishment, will it help?

This is the last term and I want the final years to use the maximum of culinary, but how many understand the real meaning of USE?. I am not calling it useless, may be I one of the reasons for it.Because all knows the students and the class is directly propotional to the teacher who handles it, and have you heard that there is no use crying over spilt milk?

Checking the students for grooming before the culinary session is just not a daily routine. It is in such a way that they really understand the purpose behind it. Is there anything wrong in a daily shave, proper kitchen kits, clean uniforms ? I do not find any, but why there is always a lack?

Too many questions, Punishments a good way for the solution, yes, punishments in diffrent form will help and this one went like this. I cook and everyone just observe(not eat) , its like a demonstration, rather than an usual practical culinay session. In the end its I who eat, and everyone??

The menu for the day was, Foccaccia, Cannelloni, Roast Chicken, three hours is more than enough for preaping all three dishes and to EAT. Starting with Foccaccia everything went well, in the end, a word of Promise from all students(to come in proper groomin) from next cooking session made me to share the bread.

At last my punishment had a purpose.Only I wish everyone comes perfect from the next culinary session, but somewhere around the corner of my mind a new form of punishment bliks.

sorry for the break

Things we do not expect, when it comes... there is always a need for break. I'm alright now, wish i start blogging now without a break... I just wish and do not expect. hope everything will go well, above all Ipray the almighty.

Hand of taste.

The only thing which linger in my mind after Diwali is the Ladoos .It happened all of a sudden, the planning and organizing a Diwali fest in our school, the interior decorations to do, the dishes to prepare. Yes, everything happened all of a sudden.We decided upon Badusha, samosas and Ladoos, of all three , words stammered when the word Ladoo was uttered, even the fingers trembled when we wrote Ladoo on the menu card. All this left us to have a food trial for Ladoo. I would rather call it a Ladoo trial.

Chef B, is very much confidant and revealed the secret recipe for Ladoo, its color and consistency.His excessive confidence words gave self assurance to everyone present in the kitchen, the result of the food trial - Excess sweet, poor color, and uneven size. Food trial is an experiment , perhaps there is always a chance to learn from the mistakes.

On the day of our school Diwali fest, the process went like this for preparing Ladoos. Bengal gram flour batter, deep fried into tiny boondis with a perforated spoon, the fried boondis went directly into warm sugar syrup, after twenty minutes the soaked boondis were spread out on a tray for shaping(Round shape). Unlike the food trial , the Ladoos turned out perfect, but I sensed some stammering when we uttered the word perfect.

A day after , its Ladoo again at Amaravishi place, the deep fried gram flour batter resulted in soft boondis , then the marriage between the boondies and the sugar syrup began by pounding it with a ladle, which lasted for twenty minutes, not to forget the fried nuts , the shaped ladoos were beyond perfect. There was a balance in everything, now you know the reason why only ladoos linger in my mind after the festival of lights.

I'm not comparing the three Ladoos, its picking the best among all. In future if I come accross any other ladoo, the Ladoo at Amaravishi's place remains the best. I do not want to research the reasons behind it, because I beleive something called Hand of taste in cooking, and it exists in great quantity at Amaravishi's kitchen.

Pancake, pancake & poppyseeds

Whats the name?
The customs of our community in nilgiris are myriad, and the food’s and our eating habits is also the same, there are many who visit our village just to Eat, Eat and Eat. More importance is given to quantity and no wonder many guest get tired, tasting the cup of tea in all our houses. Many from nilgiris know that our community is notable for its hospitality.

I still remember my early years in my village. Those raw plums we pluck, those huts we built with ferns, of all those early memories, and my favorite pancake and the pancake fest are just in front of my eyes. Those pancakes we prepare for the dead ones and cows, the name of the fest is Sakalathy. Star, moon, sun, snake and many things were depicted in front of our houses with ashes from the kitchen, in the center of the front yard a large brass plate with rice; udhaka (badagas gravy) and pancake were presented for the cow, which visit every house to taste, a sign of good luck.

After the cow, it’s the ghost’s turn; it is believed that the dead one’s from each family will eat the pancakes which we throw in to the green bush, and all the little boys join together with handful of pancakes walking towards the south side of village, where it is surrounded with GREEN trees and bushes. As soon as you reach the green, think of your dead grand parents and throw the pancakes in to the wild, I do not know what happens to the pancakes, because we are not suppose to turn back and look at our pancakes.

Today I hardly see any kids with pancakes and I do not see any green trees and bushes, the south parts of our village is crowded with buildings, buildings and buildings. Those were the years gone and it creates a nostalgia in me. The year was 1990 and the name of the village is MANJITHA


Note: the humble pancake contains, refined flour, salt, water, and cooking soda, the batter is then cooked on a griddle, both thin and thick versions are there, for thick pancakes along with abovementioned ingredients sugar, grated coconuts are added. Coconut milk with sugar and poppy seeds accompanies our badagas pancake.