Mrs Knife makes the cut...creamy pasta recipe

There's been a lot of interest recently in the pasta Kainaz whipped up for my mom. People wrote in asking for the recipe. I finally got her to pen it down as a comment. I thought that i will paste it as post too.

She likes to call it a 'Non Chef Recipe'. Kainaz often proclaims that she doesn't like cooking. That cooking is a mechanical process for her. That she occasionally enters the kitchen only because I like food. I think the main difference between her and me is that she is more of a recipe cook while I go by my instincts. But the fact remains that I have learnt making pasta from her.

So without further ado let me introduced the self proclaimed 'non chef' Karmakar to the web world. Here's her pasta recipe:

Here it comes - low on calories, high on taste pasta recipe - portion for 3.

What you need

- 1 pack pasta (rather obvious)

-500 gm chicken sausages (spicy ones)

-500 ml SKIMMED milk

- 1 spoon low-fat cheese1 spoon mayo (the more the merrier actually)

- 1 tablespoon chopped garlic

- 4 green chillies, split wide open

-1 spoon butter

- 1 spoon cornflour

-Half-fistful chopped parsley

What you do

Boil the pasta and set it aside. First timers remember to pour cold water on the pasta post boiling. This prevents it from becoming soggy, because that's just yuck!

Chop sausages and saute them in tiny winy bit of butter.Set aside.

Take a fresh pan. Don't argue, just trust me and take a fresh pan.Put the rest of the butter in the pan and let it melt.Add garlic and slit chillies and saute the two. Do not let the garlic burn, because then you're doomed.

Premix the cornflour in the milk and add the mixture to the pan.

Now comes the workout.From now on you have to stir continuously until eternity or until the sauce thickens. Whichever comes first.

Once the sauce thickens, add the sausages that I'm sure you've nibbling on all this while:)

Then comes low-fat cheese and mayo. Stir stir stir.Finally, add the pasta and the chopped parsley. Post this point, you will stir very gently.Once you think all the stuff in the pan has got to know each other well, switch it off.

Serve a portion in a plate, sprinkle freshly crushed pepper and strike a deal with your husband to clean-up after dinner.

Those were the days my friend: Tea Centre, Churchgate, Mumbai

I went to the Tea Centre for the first time recently after the new management took over. Here's what I saw:

• The overall look is the same. It still has this old Calcutta Club look. Very non Bombay.
• The walls have been painted, the cobwebs and peeling paint have gone, the bells on the table are still there but seem newer, the bathrooms have got a makeover and seem less like the Churchgate station loos and there are cheerful posters instead of the earlier Government ministry like pictures of tea gardens
• The range of ice teas have been drastically reduced. Apparently because they 'take more time'. The innovative ice tea cocktails have been replaced by synthetic, sugary, ice teas. A big thumbs down
• A couple of us tries the honey apple butter tea. It was lovely. But I don't think it was as cloudy earlier
• The dishes were quite good though the service was as slow as ever. We were told that continental dishes take more time than Indian dishes. A good thing to remember in the future. But the wait was worth it as Chicken Roller (sic), Thai curry, Shepherd's pie found favour with the foodies at our table
• The scones are still there though they seemed a bit crusty. One of our lunchmates who has grown up in England said that the original scones are fluffier and larger
• A lot of the staff are the same - though the white liveried uniforms have been replaced by a boring black with no turbans

Some of the pluses remain - quaint setting, reasonable prices, a mix of continental and Indian which helps when you are in a large group as we were.

But something was missing for me. Would I recommend it? Yes. Would I rhapsodise about it again? No!

Bambino cooks for Mamma Mia in law

Kainaz is quite proud of her pasta in cream sauce.

She made it for my mom and brother during our second trip to Calcutta six years back. They added tomato and chilly sauce to her pasta. Kainaz had a seizure!

Years later my Mom has introduced pasta as a change of taste in her diet. She often does avant garde things like sauteing the pasta like a Chinese noodles or making them with cucumber.

She's visiting us right now and asked K to make it for her one day. So K went into the kitchen, after ages, armed with Bambino pasta, milk, corn flour, butter, garlic pods, slim cheese, chicken sausages and fresh parsley.

Mom decided to observe her cook so that she could pick up the recipe. For the rest of us, our only hope is that Kainaz reads the post and puts up the recipe here.

The two came out after pasta was ready. How was it?

It was one of the lightest cream sauces that I have had in a while. I could taste the butter and the garlic...neither dominated, both were distinctive and yet blended well together. The fresh parsley was an interesting touch and broke the taste with a sharp, summery bite. The sausages were lovely and, as my Mom said, abundant compared to restaurants. The cheese was in the background but didn't dominate. The little women were happy that it was healthy too - skimmed milk, slim cheese, pat of butter, chicken sausage

The acid test... my mother didn't add any funny sauces to the pasta.

Note: This is not a paid review, but there would be a lot to pay if I didn't write this

From Infantaria with love

I wonder if there could be any better birthday gift for a food blogger than unexpected, free desserts, on his birthday from favourite restaurant.

Well, that’s what happened with us at Infantaria at Baga, Goa this year.

Like most years we headed to Infantaria for quite a few meals this time too. We bumped into our friend AKA Maguire over there. He said that he would introduce us to his boss, the owner of Infanteria, one night.

We had dinner on my birthday at Infantaria. We had a fairly exciting meal there. I thought I had written about everything that was there to write about in Infanteria. I was wrong.

Kainaz and I ordered there Goan sausage chilly fry and fell in love with it. This was one of the best Goan sausage chilly fries that we have had. The pungency was just right. There were little bits of pork fat which tempered the equally tiny, but fiery bites of Goan sausage. One more dish to add to our must have list here.

My brother had the chicken cafreal and liked it. I must confess I am not much of a cafreal person myself as I don’t like green masalas as a concept. The only exceptions are the Italian basil pesto and Thai green curries which I love.

Infantaria is not all about Goan food though. My mom wanted something light and ordered a pomfret in cheese sauce. She loved it. As did everyone else and we kept dipping our fork into her plate.

Coincidentally, Maguire was looking after our table that night. This added to the sense of being with friends which in any case is typical of Infanteaia.

We ordered desserts after dinner – lemon tarts and a chocolate muffin. Maguire got these for us along with a slice chocolate cheese cake. The cheese cake apparently was compliments of the owner, who waved at me from the counter … a la, but not quite, Casablanca.

The chocolate cheese cake was out of the world. It was a baked cheese cake and had a lovely mix of chocolate and sweetness in a seductively soft base. I can still feel the heavenly taste of the cheesecake as I write. One more addition to our must have list for Infantaria.

Kainaz discovered the chocolate chip muffin in this trip. She saw it at the counter and the muffin seemed to speak to her. Kainaz fell in love with it from the first bite. It is best had warm. An array of chocolate chips, slightly moist, in a chocolate muffin base, is her idea of the ultimate trip. She had it quite a few times during this trip after trying it the first time.

My brother ordered the lemon tarts which were fresh from the oven – buttery and gooey. They took me back straight to Kainaz and my first trip to Baga in August, five years back. That’s when we fell in love with Infanteria. It was end August and quite wet and lonely at Baga. We would go to Infantaria everynight and forget the damp weather the moment we stepped in. I remember having the lemon tarts then and rhapsodizing on their freshness even then.

My baby brother wanted to try out new restaurants this time but did admit at the end that Infanteria was definitely the best and the warmest of restaurants that we went to at Goa.

His birthday was a day before mine. I guess age made him wiser. And he also did learn that while crabs are tempting, they need a hell of an effort, like all good things in life.

As for me, I can’t wait to get back to Goa, and to Infantaria.

Note: did I mention that when the cheque came we saw that ALL the desserts, and not just the cheese cake, were free ?!

On a break

We are off to Goa tomorrow for my brother and my birthdays and plan to come back after kilos of good meals on Sunday. This is our first birthday together in ten years. My first birthday with my Mom in ten years.

A very different Goa trip from usual.

Kainaz has supported my annual birthday trip to Goa so far. I wonder where that will stand after this trip.

Keep commenting. Will love to read them once I am back.

As mushy as it gets: Brownie Cottage

I first had brownies with ice creams when I had come to Bombay on work years back. It was love at first bite.

Over the years I experimented with brownies at places such as Leopold (standards have dipped though), Brownie Point (big, budget, brittle), JATC (slightly crumbly but goes well with ice cream).

Then I discovered the really soft, gooey, melt in the mouth ones at Candies, Theobrama and Open Bake.

Another little nugget is Brownie Cottage at Carter Road (beside Amore), Bandra. They have the most amazingly soft brownies starting with the basic ‘Just Brownie’ (Rs 35, 0.8 USD). There are brownies are best enjoyed by taking a bite, by letting it roll lazily on your tongue and then enjoying the magic.

They have a range of exotic sounding brownies based on premium chocolates – Lindt, Belgian waffle, Oreo, Toblerone, Ferrero and so on. These cost ten to forty Rupees more than the basic brownie. I will let you into a secret. There is not much of a difference between the basic brownie and the premium ones. That’s not because the premium ones are not good. Its because the basic one is spectacular too. So it makes more sense to buy two of the basic ones as they are fairly small than one exotic one.

Note: They deliver at home but I wouldn’t depend on it as they deliver only if the order is large and they often claim not to have people.