Bombay Foodie

This month, Tried and Tasted features Raaga , one of my favorite bloggers. With a freewheeling style pretty much like mine, Raaga blogs about whatever she fancies, be it an Indian curry, a casserole or a cake. Since the event requires that you create a recipe of your choice out of the month's chosen blog, I had a great time going through Raaga's archives and shortlisting some 5-6 recipes. Then I had my spectacular daring bakers disaster. I don't know what happened - no one else seemed to have any trouble with the recipe - but mine wasn't meant to be. So in need of comfort food, I turned to Raaga's mushroom and capsicum pizza . Raaga says this is the pizza they would eat before Pizza Hut and Dominos came to rule the world. The pizza your mom would make for dinner in fact, complete with an Indian style masala. I made the yeasted base, then once it had risen, topped it with mushroom and capsicum "masala". A layer of grated mozarella on top, then baked at...

Did you come here looking for Orange Tian. Like every month, I planned on doing the daring bakers challenge in time, but ended up postponing it to the last minute. So it's reveal date, and my orange tian is still a work-in-progress. Which means it's time for another lazy dinner. Trust me, for all the hype, sushi is the easiest thing to put together. Buy some pre-toasted nori sheets. Cook sushi rice as per package directions. Spread the rice in a plate and for each cup of cooked rice, pour over a tbsp of rice vinegar, mixed with a tsp of sugar and a pinch of salt, then warmed to mix everything. Spread this rice on the nori sheet, then heap your choice of fillings on one corner. I picked avocade and corn, and spread them in layers over the rice (which is the picture you see above). Then I thought it will be too bland and poured half a tbsp of soy sauce over the veggies. Rolled it all up, the steam from the warm rice sealing the nori sheet, and then cut it into five pieces. So...

India has a strange strawberry season. They red berries come into the market end of January, just when winter has started to ebb into spring. And by mid-March, even before summer sets in, they are all gone. I have been doing a lot of strawberry eating past few weeks but I wanted to keep this cheesecake, a recipe I spotted in a magazine a few months back, for last. Then, for a week, there were no strawberries to be seen and I thought I'd waited too long. That I'd have to wait another year to make this one. But then, this one last box made a miraculous appearance and here it is - the grand finale of strawberry season. The magazine I picked the recipe from had a full scale 9" springform pan in mind. But I have it here adapted to my mini 3" tart tin. You start with the biscuit base. Break 4 digestive biscuits into 3-4 pieces each. Drop in a plastic bag and use your rolling pin to turn them into crumbs. Heat 30 grams butter in a microwave until just melted and pour on ...

That's one big to-do off my agenda. I've wanted to bake the crusty, caraway studded New York style rye bread for some time now. And what a great bread it turned out to be. I wish I had bookmarked the link when I printed out the recipe, but I just have this printout and no one to give credit to. Well, I can pass on the recipe at least so you can try this at home. Heat a cup of water until it's a little hotter than lukewarm. Add a tsp of instant yeast and a tsp of caraway seeds. If you don't like caraway, or not in a mood to eat them today, add a tsp of carom seeds instead like I did. Add 1/2 cup rye flour, 1 3/4 cup plain flour and a tsp of salt. Mix well until the flours are blended with the water but do not knead. Let rise for 2 hours (or until doubled). At this stage, you can either bake the bread or leave the dough in the fridge for upto 2 weeks. This is the very wet dough, so when you want to bake the bread, cut out the size you want and pretend to shape it into...

Do you get excited when shelling beans are in season. Dried beans and legumes of all kinds are a staple for me, but there is something extra special about fresh borlotti beans that make an appearance for a few weeks each year. So when I got some shelling beans, I decided to make this simple salad rather than drown them in curry the way my cook wished to. It's just boiled beans, steamed corn, chopped black olives, chopped scallions and a few mint leaves. I mixed all of these in a bowl, then made a simple vinaigrette. In a mixing bowl, add a tbsp of your best olive oil and a tbsp of white wine vinegar. Add enough salt and freshly crushed pepper to season your salad, then whisk everything until blended. Pour this over the salad, mix and let it chill in the fridge for a few hours for the flavors to mingle.

There are tourists and there are wanderers. And then there are people who make another country their own. Like Frances Mayes did when, after years of spending summers in Italy as a tourist, she bought an abandoned villa in Tuscany. Under the Tuscan Sun, our book club's read for February, is her funny account of a tourist who decided to stay and discover the country's little quibbles. The contractors, the workers who come to repair the villa, the first olives and the struggle to get them crushed into a golden olive oil - Frances Mayes adaptation to her adopted country is slow, her American surprise at how things work very real. Mayes' writing is a genre of her own, only surpassed by a similar account of Provence by Peter Mayles. If it's Tuscany, can food be far behind. Accounts of food shopped from local markets and accumulated from Mayes' own gardens flow through the book. Then she very thoughtfully provides two sections of recipes - one for summer and tomatoes and...

Given how recipes languish in my bookmarks folder for years, this jam made a remarkable journey to actual recipe in less than two weeks. When Shaheen made this gorgeous jam a few days back, I knew I just had to hurry up and get this done. Partly because we are nearing the end of the strawberry season here, but mainly because this was simply way too good looking. And easy too. Wash and hull a cup and a half of strawberries, then halve them. Mix with 1/4 cup sugar in a heavy bottomed pan. You might need more sugar here, as my strawberries were super sweet. Bring the fruit to a boil on a low heat. Add one small apple, peeled and diced finely. Let the jam boil until it reaches 220F on a candy thermometer. This takes around 20-25 minutes and you would need to keep stirring every once in a while, skimming the foam that collects on top. Let it cool, then put it in the fridge. Since we aren't canning it, eat within a week. Or, if you are like me, you'd steal spoonfuls of warm ...

I am so tired. This month's daring bakers challenge was truly one of the most challenging dishes I've ever made. Hosted by two lovely friends, Deeba and Aparna , the challenge was to make Tiramisu from scratch. Which means (and this is a hold your breath moment), you make your own mascarpone, your own ladyfingers, zabaglione and pastry cream. Both zabaglione and pastry cream require that dangerous act of cooking egg yolks into something custardy, but with risk of ending up with scrambled eggs. This one was truly way out of my league. Aparna had warned me that this will take 2-3 days so I finally got myself to start one night two days ago. The first step was making mascarpone. I've made paneer countless times so it wasn't hard. You heat the cream, then add lemon juice, let the whole thing curdle a bit and let it drain overnight. And you get such creamy cheese, I will never buy mascarpone again. Next morning, I made three components of the dish (which is when it got ...

Like thousands of people, I eagerly look forward to Wednesdays when The New York Times publishes it's dining section. With it's witty reviews, NY Times has been the undoing of many a fledging new joint. And look at the trends it's pioneered. Jim Lahey's no knead bread started in the this dining section before becoming a worldwide rage. A couple of weeks back, the dining section talked about another new trend in New York. That of putting cream or bechamel sauce on a pizza in addition to, or instead of the cheese. Now tell me a bread baker who would resist this idea, specially when followed by a great recipe for mushroom cream pizza . NY Times tells you to start with a pizza base of your choice, as long as it's thin crust. I started with this base from the pioneer woman, but made it part whole wheat. So you mix 3/4 cup whole wheat flour and an equal quantity of plain flour with 1/3 tsp salt. Warm 1/2 cup water, add 1/3 tsp dry yeast and let it bloom for 10-15 min...

I just discovered the best way to eat strawberries. And it doesn't even involve any cream. Hull and slice strawberries. For each cup of fruit, sprinkle a tsp of caster sugar. Add 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (mine has seeds mixed in) and a tbsp of balsamic vinegar. Mix, then pop in the fridge for around an hour. You might want to make sure you are alone before you take the strawberries out to eat. For starters, you don't want to share this. But more importantly, you will be left with a small quantity of vanilla and balsamic syrup once the strawberries are over. You don't want to let go of this one; not even a drop. Maybe the phrase lick the bowl clean comes to mind!