My friend's a chef...

So, here's my contribution to this masterpiece of a blog.
My friend Siu Kee is a master chef. I prompted him to start writing a blog for young student cooks who do not have the time/patience/skill to perfect what somik calls the zen of cooking (/seasoning!).

He calls is First Time Food Philosophy. It has a cute namesake: easiestgunk.

The Art of Cooking - I

Over the last few years, I've discovered many ways of cooking food that is nutritious, healthy and fast (or easy) to cook.

But please remember "faster, easier, better, choose any two". You can't have your cake and eat it too.

The First Principle of cooking:

"Cook in a pressure cooker wherever possible."

Here's why.

1. It cooks faster.
2. Retains aroma.
3. The food is more nutritious (usually) than its counterpart cooked in open utensils.

The Tao of Pressure Cooking:
1. When trying to cook food, let it heat up till the boiling point without the whistle on the vent. Put the whistle on the vent when the steam just starts to escape. (This creates an environment inside of water vapor, instead of air, and it cooks faster coz water vapor has a greater specific heat)
2. Most food items don't require 3-4 whistles. Heat only upto the point that the whistle might blow up. Switch it off, and let it cool down on its own. The steam trapped inside would cook the food over the next 10-12 minutes.

The Zen of seasoning:
1. Do not prepare seasoning after boiling lentils, and add to it. Do it at the time of boiling. Fry ingredients like jeera, chopped onions and diced tomatoes in the pressure cooker, then add the bulk of lentils, water and bring to boil. Add the spices, stir well, and close the lid.

In the "conventional" cooking, they boil lentils separately, and then add seasoning to it later. They create the seasoning by heating together ingredients like oil, jeera (cumin seeds), chopped onion, some spices and then add this to the boiled lentils later. They love the aroma this generates. However, the aroma in spices comes from "essential oils", which vaporize at relatively lower temperatures. When you expose them to an open environment and heat them, you have effectively vaporized the oils before adding the seasoning to the lentils. The place for the aroma is the food, not the kitchen.

I am going to put in more of my news, views, opinions and prejudices at http colon slash slash arbitrarymusings dot blogspot dot com.

Broccoli Alu Sabzi

Mama's boy eats broccoli. Or someone's boy..

So its raining broccoli and you are sick of eating it raw in Salad bars. Deep down in your heart, you believe the broccoli deserves better treatment. Welcome to my world!

Ingredients:
Two broccoli clusters)
4 red potatoes (or regular potatoes)
3 Cloves (lavang)
1/2 Cinnamon stick
2 dry cardamoms (elaichi)
2 bay leaves (tej patta)
A sprinkling of cumin seeds (jeera)
Mustard seeds (sarson)
sprinkling of Asafoetida (heeng)
1 Finely chopped onion
1 finely chopped tomato
2 dried chillis (optional)

Tools:
Pressure cooker
Large cooking pot

Chop two large broccoli clusters (after washing it thoroughly, you bachelor!) and chop it up into bite-sized pieces. Throw the bottom of the stalk away (take care only to throw the hardest portions away). Chop potatoes with their skin. If you are coming from India, then you might probably be used to the nawabi(royal) practice of removing the skin, and with it, all its nutrients. Its time to grow up and get nutritious. You will develop a taste for unskinned potatoes very quickly.

Drop the broccoli and potatoes into the pressure cooker. And water thats twice the quantity of the broccoli and potatoes. Add 2 teaspoons of salt. Close the pressure cooker and let one whistle go by. Wait for 10 minutes and let off the remaining steam. Open the lid.

Heat 2 teaspoons of oil in the cooking pot. Drop into the mustard and cumin seeds. As these start crackling, throw in the cloves, cinnamon stick, cardamom and asafoetida (sprinkling only). Also add the bay leaves and if possible, dry chillis. The Japanese have taught us to enjoy every step of the process. Smell and be enraptured by your very own creation of fresh garam masala!

Now, add the onions and a little bit of tumeric (1/4 teaspoon only). Fry till the onion is golden brown. Add the tomatoes. Cook till the consistency is that of a paste (not all the way though). Add the boiled vegetables from the cooker, a bit at a time, and stir, so the masala gets into the vegetables. Make sure water doesn't enter just yet. Once all the vegetables have soaked in the masalas, add the water used to boil them - for this is rich in nutrients now. This becomes the curry.

Add salt to taste. Which means, first taste and figure out how much salt to add. Add one teaspoon at a time, mix and taste. Test-Driven cooking. Or taste-driven cooking. Suit yourself, techie bachelor!

The secret to the final delivery of the product is to lower the heat and let the dish integrate itself. Its hard to explain this one - you have to try to let it lose a little bit of heat. The taste just gets better (maybe your tongue doesn't get burned as much).

Do write to me if you've tried this. It shows you a whole different character of Broccoli.

Breakfast Dip

So you say you don't have time for breakfast. Five minutes and you've got to be out of the house. You are angry that you have to rush. You wish someone would make breakfast for you. Wake up. This is a bad dream. You do have some great options.

Bread 101
If you are an Indian from India, you will probably be eating "refined" milk bread. That tends to be the worst bread you can eat - don't tell anyone here you eat this (colleagues once laughed at me). The word "refined" is an euphemism that really informs you that all the good stuff has been removed from the bread so you get a great taste. The bread to have is usually whole wheat - which still has the minerals from the unrefined ingredients. The best, IMHO, is the multi-grain variety (I usually stock 12-grain).

Pop the bread (multigrain variety) into the toaster.

Dip 101
The best accompaniment to your toasted bread is not peanut butter! It is important for us to eat live food and what better way to start your day than with an all-natural yogurt tomato dip.

Ingredients
1 cup Yogurt (non-fat variety, if you care)
1 washed tomato (preferably organic) (tomatoes don't come washed - you gotta do it yourself and while you're at it, chop it into four pieces)
3 Cloves
2 green cardamoms
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/4 teaspoon Chilli powder

Put all the ingredients into your blender. Remember to peel open the cardamoms and use whats inside. Blend away and you have your dip! Pour gently over your toast and start your day with a tasty, organic, live breakfast.

Troubleshooting
I burned my toast
Wait! Don't throw it away! Take it to the sink and using the other end of an aluminum spoon, scrape the carbon black off. It will then be good to eat.

I put too much salt
Add more yogurt and blend again. If you've put in a cup of salt then its easier to throw the whole thing and start again.