10th May 2010 - Dinner - Cabbage Kofta and Sautéd Vegetables

What?

Last year, when I set about making kofta and ended up with the disaster that I decided to call Cabbage Fry for lack of a better name (http://was-ich-gekocht-habe.blogspot.com/2005/06/4th-june-2009-dinner-cabbage-fry.html), I had vowed to redeem what I had lost that day (last sentence in the same entry).

I then made some simple tomato gravy for the kofta and Jeera Rice to go with it. A ready-to-make packet of Daal Makhani was also prepared to complement the whole thing.

Along with this, as a side dish, I decided to sauté a few vegetables (Thanks Anasuya for the tip). Taking my usual pea-carrot-green beans-lima beans-corn mix, I sautéd it in garlic butter and added some salt, pepper and lemon juice as seasoning. No other spice was added, and it tasted pretty good, mainly because the veg. mix we get here is very tasty inherently, and with pepper and lemon, it just can't go wrong :)

How did it look?

A posteriori

• The kofta turned out considerably better than last year. I made sure I did not repeat the mistakes that had proved to be its nemesis. The cabbage was finely chopped They got fried well, the cabbage inside was cooked and tasted pretty decent with the gravy.
• The sauté stuff reminded me of the sweetcorn I almost always have at DMart. We have decided to have it for every meal, apart from whatever else we are making

9th May 2010 - Breakfast - Bread Roll

What?

On weekends, I can devote more time to cooking and get an opportunity to make more elaborate stuff. On the menu today morning was Bread Roll. For those not aware of this dish, it is basically boiled, mashed potatoes (with salt, chilly, the works) filled in bread and fried.

This brings us to the number two item on the list of things that Indians almost never do in a Microwave oven: Boiling potatoes.

Traditionally, a pressure cooker is used for this purpose (or sometimes the good old pateli), but boiled potatoes turn out very well using a µWave. You do not need any extra water (yes!). The water content of the potatoes is good enough. Just cut them into halves, make a few holes using a fork, put them together and wrap them in a plastic oven wrap, and voilà, leaving your cooker free for other pursuits.

How did it look?

A posteriori

• While serving them, some chopped onions on the top, some ketchup, some Thousand Island Dressing and some coriander.
• Ramu was very apprehensive of the whole affair, mostly because he had had a bad experience with this dish in his hostel mess. Earnest request to all humankind: Please, please and pretty please, do not judge food items based on how your mess made them! That's so not cool! Just imagine a whole crop of Marathi kids harbouring murderous sentiments against the very concept of Raajma, Gatte ki Sabji and Daal-Baati, just because they have only ever eaten it in their hostel mess! I don't know if I was able to redeem this dish for him, but I do hope he found it better than what he had in the mess.
• We have this kitchen chimney thing which has given me the courage to actually make fried stuff, because the fumes from the hot oil are very annoying otherwise. Plus, the darned smoke alarms which have probably not been introduced to the concept of taDka/phoDni (whichever language floats your boat)
• This thing ends up absorbing a lot of oil, I guess it helps to keep the bread rolls wrapped in tissue and squeeze them a bit, so that all the excess oil is absorbed.

8th May 2010 - Dinner - Masala Papad

What?

Well, it was part of the dinner (an appetizer, if you please), but not the whole dinner :D

I want to try newer stuff this time, even if it is something simple. As such, there is nothing much to Masala Papad, but it was something I hadn't done before, so there you go...

Papad tops my list of items that Indians almost never make using a microwave oven, whereas they should. Microwave it for half a minute, turn in over and run it for another half a minute, and you have a perfect papad without all the chik-chik and jhik-jhik that the stove business has. Plus, it doesn't char and is uniformly cooked.

How did it look?

7th May 2010 - Breakfast - Instant noodles with mixed vegetables

What?

I had never ever imagined I would put anything Maggi-related on this blog. The words Maggi and Tea deserve to be in the same sentence as the word "cooking" only if it's a joke. Also, I used to think as a kid that Maggi was one thing no one could possibly screw up, but that was before I had the travesty that they sell at Shack. One would think that an official Nestlé joint could be expected to do justice to their product, but that's a different story...

When we were left without bread yesterday, and wanted to whip something up quickly, our attention went to the packet of Maggi we had from back home. I was feeling pretty guilty making Maggi for "Breakfast", a meal that is supposed to be more nutritious than 85 grams of refined wheat flour.

So, as redemption, I tried to make the version of Maggi that all mothers are shown making in those countless advertisements that are shown on TeeVee. I had got a huge pack of mixed vegetables - corn, peas, beans, carrots - very amazing and all plump and sweet, so I decided to sauté these veggies in some oil and added some turmeric and chilly to make up for the additional mass. After doing this, I put in all the maggi and enough water, and just boiled it to the pic happy state you see here.

How did it look?

A posteriori

• The vegetable mix we get here is so awesome and tasty that it really makes everything good.
• Next time, I will try to dunk in some cheese too, as a tribute to our Hostel canteen's Cheese Maggi!

5th May 2010 - Dinner - Cabbage and Potatoes

What?

It was routine stuff, so it is here pretty much just for the heck of it. Difference being, this time's Aloo-Patta gobhi was much more to my satisfaction than any I have previously made.

How did it look?

A posteriori

I always missed Dhaniya in Europe, and I love it here now, since it really makes stuff much better, and is amazing for garnishing.

Apart from that, this was pretty routine stuff, so not much to write.

4th May 2010 - Dinner - Corn, Beans, Peas Mixed Veg

What?

Yay, so we went for grocery shopping yesterday, and boy, is food expensive here! I mean, food in Europe was pretty cheap compared to the monstrosity that prices here are. Anyhow, we did get an assortment of stuff, from beans to frozen peas and potatoes and spring onions, and we also got our dishes and knives and stuff today, so we decided to kick off with a vegetable mix that had beans, corn and peas, and chapaati of course.

Sangram and Ramanath were very enthusiastic with the chapaatis and handled that affair pretty well, right from kneading the dough to turning out the finished product.

How did it look?

A posteriori

• The best thing was that I got Cilantro (Coriander) here, and that goes miles in making the dish look great and taste nice. This was something I totally missed in Germany.
• The gravy was the yoghurt gravy that I had tried a few times last year. (Ref: Potatoes in Sunshine Gravy and Paat Vadi), and it turned out fine, but I would have wanted it slightly more spicy.
• The gravy was pretty thin, I guess I went overboard with the amount of yoghurt, must rectify that the next time.
• A bit of garlic spread at the end gave a good flavour and great aroma.

Season 2!

Hi there, and, wow, it feels awesomely nostalgic!

Exactly one year ago, on 4th May 2009, I started 'Was ich gekocht habe', and I doubt there is any better day to start Season 2 of my cooking adventures.

It's another year, it's another continent. Although the location has shifted from Karlsruhe, Germany to London, Ontario, Canada, the philosophy behind this blog stays the same.

There would still be stuff I make and the ways in which I think it can be improved, and there will still not be any recipes, because the purpose of this blog is not to teach cooking (I am hardly qualified for that).

Many dishes will obviously repeat, so I will refrain from posting everything I make, especially if it is mundane and repetitive, but if there's anything special/different, it will be up.

Last year, the blog (and in turn, I) got amazing encouragement (barring a few statistically insignificant pathological cases), and I hope you will continue to read and comment.

Ciao, then, and I will see you soon!