Freshers - for how long ?

What I thought, would be an answer, turned into a bewilderment . Yes, the second cooking session with the freshers was very hard to comprehend. Contemplating for more than twelve hours, I ended up without any answer.

Is that the, freshers new environment? the new face? or their first step in foraging? I didn't knew what made them so awkward in the second cooking session. If only ,I had know the real reason, a perfect planning would have been carried out before the second cooking session. But, as I mentioned earlier the First cooking session was overwhelming. Sometimes you won't know the structure and shape of deception.

The second menu was quite simple, with requires a little fundamentals, not necessary to be a catering science student. I see the money spent by students on mobile phone top ups and Frankenstein gadgets,I do not understand the hesitation they show on spending ten rupee for a duster cloth. After all its their utensils which they clean before and after cooking.

I ask for two dusters and what the fresher does is, tear one duster into two, Is he the clever or am I the fool. The attitude of the fellows when they arrive ten minutes late for the cooking session without proper kitchen kit, untrimmed hair, and incomplete recipes in their journals is deplorable.

The menu for the day was Stuffed parathas with curd, Chenna Pulao, Dum Aloo, Mutton fry and Gulab Jamun. Out of twenty students hardly four to five knew what the menu was. I am not complaining or Squabbling here, I talk the basic impression the freshers create " A kind of first impression". they simple forget how significant the impression is.

back to the culinary part, after forty five minutes of silence , bloomed an excuse from the first student, which continued with multiple excuse and a bunch of promises for perfection in the next cooking session. With agony in my heart . Me briefing all the recipes and after twenty minutes ,the cooking session started.

With an array of expectation in my mind, I look forward for the next fist day order, which is when the next cooking session for the freshers will be.I end up now with my post ,wondering how long should I call them FRESHERS.

The King and the Queen"

so many days I have crossed Burliyar, a place between Mettupalyam and Coonoor,on no occasion I witnessed, what I saw last week."The Array of Fruits" These fruits are green spiny outside, like a miniature jack fruit.and few with spiny plums and a black hard tomato. I remembered that days afternoon class on Thai cuisine, where Tropical fruits were discussed. Only to witness it in my own place, in between the hills. We people from Nilgiris often stop at Burliyar for a tea break, when we take that route. The same thing happened last week, in my case I stopped for a cup of Coffee.After munching two mirchi pakoras and one aloo vada , my hungry palate turned toward the fruit on the racks.


The first one is Rambutan , small red fruit resembling plums,exept for the red spines outside, The name rambutan is from the Malay word rambutan, which literally means hairy caused by the 'hair' that covers this fruit, and is in general use in Malay, Indonesian and Filipino cuisine, which make it the origin.The outer skin is peeled exposing the milky, fleshy fruit inside which is then eaten. It is sweet, sour and slightly grape like and gummy to the taste.One can keep munching it for hours.


Next to it was the humble , Mangosteen,a tropical evergreen tree believed to have originated in the Sunda Islands and the Moluccas of Indonesia. The rind of the fruit, which is not edible, is a deep reddish purple when ripe. The fragrant edible flesh that surrounds each seed is sweet and tangy, juicy, and somewhat fibrous.with so much of nutrients in it, and with its delicious taste, no wonder in calling it the "Queen of fruits"




Next comes the King of all tropical fruit, The Durian, known for its stinky smell, despite its popularity the raw fruit is forbidden from some establishments such as hotels, subways and airports, including public transportation in Southeast Asia. I knew the reason why its prohibited, the smell is Shit.Exactly the fruit Smells like hell, and taste like Heaven. The segments inside is a rich custard .The flesh can be consumed at various stages of ripeness, and it is used to flavour a wide variety of savoury and sweet edibles in Southeast Asian cuisines. The seeds can also be eaten when cooked, and there are even durian ice creams. Es durian (durian ice cream) is a popular dessert in Indonesia, sold at street side stall in Indonesian cities, especially in Java.Durian fruit contains a high amount of sugar,vitamin C, potassium, and the serotonergic amino acid tryptophan, and is a good source of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. It is recommended as a good source of raw fats by several raw food advocates.With all theses medicinal and nutritive values these fruits are available only during these months from June to October, hurry, a small stop on the way to the Nilgiris at Burliyar, "The King and The Queen" is waiting for you.

From the Freshers

It a day for the freshers and the menu had all Indian in it, starting with roti, a masala dal to accompany ,with aloo methi and tomato chicken , a tint of sweet carrot kheer to finish the course. I precisely said them what not to do and what to do, and not a big surprise , seeing many without a knife and duster cloths. Is that mean, that they hate cleanliness? There is always an excuse. That they are freshers, where they are entering a world which is something new and accustoming takes time.But then ,to me Patience is what all i learned

Not bad , what I witnessed, a perfect start, which I didn't expect with all thirty five in one culinary class. Tough it was a kind of gaming with new ingredients , I couldn't see any one trying an extra mile to go on with the cooking. It was three in a batch, cooking all five dishes . Starting with the dough for roti followed by boiling the dal,everyone mastered their own way. I didn't find any difficulty in shouting the recipe, except the last night drink which kept hanging in my mind.

Jumping over a square shaped roti, and one colorless tomato chicken all other table had a perfect blend of everything , the taste, the texture and the consistency . All together i'll put in a single word "Awesome"

I remembered the last year burnt dal, uncooked roti and curdled carrot kheer, and wondered what is unique with the freshers this year, with three hours of browsing my brain I was left without an answer. With confidant compilation of the second menu, I am sure I'll have the answer in the next cooking session.

HAPPY COOKING!

"House of the Acolhua people" - Kahlúa

Almost a year, its first of July and the year old Kahlua landed in my book shelf. Thanks to dushy, who successfully fished his masters in Swiss , only to end up working in Bangalore, India. I questioned why not Europe? or else where , after a year of studies and thirty odd lacks in to it.The answer was "contacts" he made friend from around the globe, good isn't it. Horse meat eating friend from Greece to eat what not friends from China. Tough he couldn't smuggle a Absinthe for me from Swiss, I am very much happy with the Kahlua which he brought.

Kahlúa a Mexican coffee-flavored liqueur is dense and sweet,almost syrupy, created a nostalgia of having cough syrup during my eighth grade. with the distinct taste of coffee, from which it is made it also contains sugar, corn syrup and vanilla bean.The alcohol content of Kahlúa is 20.0%. But the Kahlúa Especial, the higher grade has an alcohol content of 36% and has a lower viscosity and is less sweet than the regular version.

The kahlua which I had was twenty percent and its really good. The patience died as the time went with kahlua in my hand, the fist sip went neat and the second one with Vodka. Its used for making many cocktails and as toppings for desserts. Kahlúa with Irish Cream and an orange cognac give B52.two parts Kahlua and three parts vodka give Black Russian.Mud slide is vodka, Irish cream and Kahlua. ans when you top it with baileys Irish cream its baby Guiness.

After the drink its the movie part, with san and friends, watching Transformers - part three. With mind full of Cybertronian, Megatron, Shock wave and optimus prime, deep inside my mind Black Russian kept blinking. I know it'll be past midnight to reach home. I do not mind the time when it comes to Alcohol.

HAPPY Kahlua.......

A mighty Sweet Start..

Photo: www.indianfoodforever.com

To be honest, the fist time in years, a Fresher cooking something in the first practical session. As years goes , I see many with more confidence in them. The eagerness and the interest what they show towards culinary is really Good.

Its almost a week and today , Friday the 24th of June, I had a fresher who is very much confident in what he does, the dish he prepared was Mysore Pak, the more interesting part is that the recipe was take from Google and experimented at his home, and the result, Teaching his mother how to make mysore pak.

Mysore pak a sweet dish of Karnataka,is usually served as dessert. It is made of generous amounts of ghee ,sugar and chick pea (besan) flour.Some say Mysore Pak was first created in the kitchens of the Mysore Palace by a palace cook named Kakasura Madappa out of the above ingredients. The cook at the Mysore Palace kitchen simply made a concoction of besan, ghee and sugar. The sweet that was formed delighted every one so much that it became a "Royal Sweet". When asked its name, Madappa obviously didn't have its name, so he simply called it the ‘Mysore Pak’, a delicacy from the Mysore Palace. The king relished the sweet so much that he got Madappa to set up shop outside the palace grounds so that it could be made available to common people

I have seen many who knows to make good mysore pak, but in all , the measurement of ingredients in very, very precise. If something goes wrong , they just keep complaining the measurement , forgetting the real reason behind it. But today , I saw the fresher without a measuring cup when preparing the sweet, might be the reason, that the sweet what he prepared today turned out to be a sweet. As I said earlier, once you know the functions of Ingredients and its role in a particular dish, then everything else is simple. You literally create an understanding between you and the dish, That's what happened today , a mere understanding, between the fresher and the mysore pak. Once it is achieved , how-much ever time you prepare(closing your eyes, jumping up, lying down), the dish will never deceive you. And today, it created an awesome impression on me. and I believe that the impression last forever.

HAPPY SWEET!

MYSOREPAK
Take one cup of besan flour and gently roast in 1 tbsp of ghee. Make a sugar syrup with two cups of sugar and 1/4 cup of water. Add the besan flour little at a time,keep stirring. Add ghee(3 cups), little at a time , the mixture will absorbs it, when you see the fat coming out from the mixture , pour it in a greased plate and cut after chilling.

Tasteless indeed...

I made a awful chicken today, not few will agree, but I do know what I'm up to. The order was for pepper chicken,with a good coat of gravy.So a small twist in the recipe I couldn't stop adding half a coconut. It all happend in a happy mood, tough things are sad and diffrent inside me, when it comes to cooking, I forget the worries till the time the dish is off the flames. Here with the chicken today , I am not blaming the ingredients or the pressure cooker with a fault indicator, or whatever, the dish just turned unappetizing.

Comments or complaints , I take it as complimentary , after all these years of cooking, some how I could manage to judge its texture, and the texture of the chicken today was just raw, however good you say the chicken taste , I know deep inside that its just raw chicken, dressed with wonderful and tasty comments of yours.

A cheap quality ingredients, the water you add, and the heart and soul you put in cooking, soo many things contribute to the taste and texture of the dish, towards the end, if something goes wrong, you'll just know what went wrong, where and when. But when you have everything perfect,The ingredients, equipments, and a happy mind for cooking ,almost everything and again if the dish turned out to be tasteless , like the chicken I made today, just do not get perplexed. It happen's for some unknown reason.

dosa, dhosha, dosay, dosai, dhosai, tosai, thosai, or dvashi

More than a couple of months , the tawa gifted to me was just idle in the kitchen, if only I lit the stove, the tawa gets seasoned. I enter the kitchen just to drink water, thats how things will happen when you are alone at home , filled with lonliness all times , carrying the boredrome with you all times, cooking becomes a big question??

When I have guest, things are quite diffrent, I cook, not for the sake of cooking, but happily. The unexpected visitor (my uncle), who came last week made me to use the tawa, and I cooked dosa.. simple plain dosa

Dosa a staple of South India, has a history of more than two thousand years, the fermented mixture of rice and urad dal batter , has its origin in Udupi, Karnataka says Patrick Lawrence Chapman, English food writer. The Sanskrit classic Manasollasa written in 1051 AD by Western Chalukya king Somesvara III describes Dosai. The first reference to Dosa occurs in the Tamil Sangam Literature, with so many thoeries prevailing, who ever or whatever the place of origin may be , Dosa is one popular and basic dish one could't avoid.

The fermentation process increases Vitamin B abd C, contains no sugar , saturated fatty acids , The CHO rich dosa is loved by many. How ever good the mixture is ,The best depnds on the hand which pours the batter and the Tawa which browns it, and in my case the tawa didn't deceive me. I could call it just perfect. Thanking the person who gifted me the Tawa, I'm going in for variations in dosa next time.

HAPPY EATING!

The Herbal Cuisine

Herbal Cuisine, which combines the proportion of food and medicine is becoming more popular, but its future depends on customers education and regulations to insure safety.

Almost all the cuisine around the world use herbs in one or the other form , and in many parts of the world there are restaurants which just specialize in Herbal cuisine .With growing number of fast food outlets and people conscious towards health makes the Herbal Cuisine more significant and clearly it has a very good scope.

Herbal cuisine around the world has a long history, one explanation of its origin is that, gathering food in the wild, and ancients found that some plants could be prepared as food as wells as being used to cure disease. These special plants with the combine nature of food and medicine are seen as the basis for Herbal Cuisine.
According to historical records, the first profession chef of herbal cuisine appeared in the Chinese emperors Palace over one thousand years ago, with the country’s social development; herbal cuisine has gradually become accessible and popular among ordinary people.

The Chinese use more that five thousand kind of herbs for their medicines and that shows the secret behind their long and healthy life. By 1990’s many big city’s around the world have been hit by a fever for Herbal Cuisine. “Serving Herbal Cuisine” has been adopted as a marketing strategy by many restaurants as well as those in the Five Star Hotels.

The traditional herbal cuisine has for a long time placed excessive emphasis on its curative effects and neglected the culinary pleasure for diners.Under such guidelines herbal cuisine dishes were not appetizing at all and indeed the medicinal taste kept many diners away. But today many restaurants use herbs in the most effective form to produce delicious dishes, keeping in mind the medicinal and nutritive value of the herbs.

In China restaurants specialize in Herbal Cuisine has patented “100 - Herb Banquet” that includes over two hundred dishes, the work in such a way that the best combination of medicine and diet is achieved. But many people just refuse to try a medicinal diet due to their misunderstanding that a medicinal diet is a kind of medicine, but today many great chefs use their skills and innovation to meticulously prepare herbal cuisine where more attention is given to the taste of the food. When one considers herbal cuisine as a complete disease curing medicine, the result is always unhappy. “Herbal cuisine can only play a supportive role in safeguarding health”.

In India today, the art of culinary and the food lovers community has increased dramatically, for example here in coimbatore, South of India. There is a huge and great market for Organic vegetables, there are people who pay double or triple the amount for the organic food. Which shows their concern and importance given to health and diet. In today’s busy world, where less time to dine and where people sticking to work and dine policy, where more are becoming more health conscious .Starting a Herbal cuisine restaurants will have a great scope and good business. That to in Coimbatore, a restaurant specializing in herbal cuisine will attract more customers. – very big market with huge potential.


More on Herbs and some dishes with herbs in the next post

CURRY MASALA - for a good cause

More than a week , A straight cocktail dinner on Saturday night marked the success of “Curry Masala” An Annual Food festival, organized by the PSG Alumni Association, Coimbatore. Unlike the last year, the second food festival had a spread of three cuisines, Andhra, Rajasthan and Kerala, the varieties exceeded fifty with salad bar, a Barbeque of seventy five whole chickens and various street foods.

The work involved is all the same, for all the food fest which we have worked earlier. The fest scheduled on last Sunday of January expected a good crowd and the crowd literally exceeded our expectations. The Dishes what we prepared was full of bliss and it’s really worth the sleepless Saturday night.

We involved students from the first and final year which made a total of sixty, the number sixty sounded more of strength, but when the work started we stammered with the word ‘Strength’. There is more difference between ‘you work’ and ‘making others work’. Tough this is the first time, both the batch of students were exposed to bulk cooking, (for around fifteen hundred pax), many students enjoyed what the did, either peeling an onion, or grating hundreds of coconuts or chatting with girls all times, they loved what they did.

The laal Maas (mutton preparation) from Rajastani cuisine was excellent as were the Varuthracha curry (Kerala preparation) and Bhuna Kukda(Chicken Preparation). The salad was five multiplied by four platters made a good twenty and the welcome drink made from tender coconut, honey and so and so … was awesome, it kept moving on and on , only to check the servers patience and the strength of the person who cuts the tender coconut.

Around the corner .Mr. Student, complained about the BBQ marinate I did, and the complaint turned in to a blasting when he roasted (pre cooked ) the chicken in the oven. The marinade was watery, it’s not coating to the chicken, no flavor, no color, chicken is soggy and the worst of all power going off in between the roasting. With just half cooked twenty five chicken the bla.. bla.. blasting of Mr. Student kept ringing in my head.

This time, I took the chicken to the oven, to pre cook and the result was wonderful, only then I, found out the temperature which Mr. Student cooked the first twenty five was two third of the temperature (too low) which I set in the oven.

All went well with happy faces and full stomach, we parted after midnight, carrying the word Proud in our heart, This Annual food fest is a fund raising event and the fund goes into the free education of the poor and needy students. (It’s worth working for an event like this) And in my sleep these letters kept wandering around “R” “D” “O” “P” “U”. Looking forward with patience for “CURRY MASALA 2012”

Another three days

Photo: www.ruthiecherryfineart.com

Its one year since the food fest and like the last year, the meeting was countless , of course with wonderful results in the end. With another three days for the fest, this post is for those who involved in making this event a success or a flop.

I know things will be great at the end of the day, but when it comes to planning I see more words than action. It all started with a feed back of previous fest, and after number of meetings the previous meetings minutes just kept fading away. With new faces in the meeting hall day after day, the cartridge in my HOD's printer just kept ejecting indent of ingredients to be purchased with lot many revisions.

With so many indent in hand, many got confused and the solution was arrived with anonymous decision, lot many things went unanswered, forty fillets from one kilo of fish, soaking and grinding the raw rice for Ada when you get it ready made and beautifully packed, and the number of pax to which the cooking happens... All unanswered.

Three different cuisines, thirteen different cultural events, thirty varieties of foods and Three hundred students volunteer. What more is needed to make the minds in to deciding the quantity of dishes to be prepared, and the views of all ,make you hard to distinguish an amateur with a professional . after all every one loves eating and no one can say ,I just breath in air , without taking any food for the living.

Ohhh I didn't tell what are all the cuisines, Its Rajastani, Kerala and Andhra. Its great seeing all great peoples spending their valuable time and energy for this event, and I am very much proud to be a part of it.. This is for a good cause, the profit from the event will help providing free education for students. what more is there in life than a free education to the needy... and people,another three days, the post is about how well the fest went...