Microwave Tandoori Chicken for Lazies

I know that I haven't written much after the frantic postings a couple of weekends back. Well that's because nothing much happened on the food front. Plus I am down with various ailments. Listening to me will make me seem more like a ninety five year old than a thirty five year old. Anyway here's something which I got out of the archives and made during that eventful weekend

Caveat: This technically isn't tandoori chicken as you make it in a microwave and not in a tandoor (earthen oven from Punjab). The end result will not look as red/ orange as the tandoori chicken of restaurants. That's because we don't use food colours. You will need a microwave with a grilling function. I guess an electric oven would do too

Ingredients:

• 6 chicken pieces. I'd go for drumsticks. Slash the surface so that the masala goes in
• Marinade. Mix together : 2 table spoons of curd + 1 tea spoon each of jeera/ cumin powder, dhania/ coriander powder, red chilly powder, black pepper powder + 1/2 tea spoon garam masala powder + 1 table spoon ketchup for the colour, 1/2 tea spoon sugar
• You could add some paprika powder/ Kashmiri red chilly powder to add a redness to it
• 1 tea spoon salt

Recipe

• Spread marinade on chicken pieces and keep in fridge for 3 - 6 hrs. The longer the better
• Add salt on the chicken when its ready. It will drain out the juices if you add it earlier
• Put the chicken in the microwave. This process takes 25 minutes
• Put it on cook mode for ten minutes
• Take it out carefully, it will be hot, turn the chicken pieces over using a spoon
• Put it on grill mode for ten minutes
• Take it out, turn it over and grill for another five minutes.
• The dish is ready. There will be a lot of juice. You can sprinkle it over the chicken or on a bit of sliced onion, tomato and chilly as a salad. Best had with any form of roti.

So why try this despite the caveats? Consider the following:

• This is completely oil free. I have it from dubious sources in the trade that restaurants part grill the chicken and then FRY it when orders are placed
• You can get better quality chicken than what restaurants serve
• No food colouring
• For men who want to cook - anecdotal evidence suggests that men who can dish out tandoori legs make women go weak in their knees
• And for women who cook - no oil, grill, white meat ... need I say more

Seeking comfort

Do you crave for any food when you are down in the dumps, emotionally or physically?

I am a big advocate of chocolate ice creams and sundaes when one is low. This is my standard response in the rare moments when I am asked to play, ahem, an agony aunt.

There are times when my stomach goes under, not the best of things if you are in the world of food. Unfortunately this happens too often and I have the routine by heart by now. Call Shiv Sagar, ask for a curd rice without onions, chill it a bit and eat.

I think it is slightly tougher when you have got a fever or cold or body ache. I often feel like having a juice but that's apparently a no go. I also like to have something sweet while I still have some taste... or a salty snack. But when it comes to sustenance it is the food which grew up on which one turns to. For me this is usually a Bengali styled hot daal, steamed rice, some potato dish and the odd fish fry.

Do to be fair food is not the first thing which comes to my mind when the thermometer rules my life.

What is your favourite soul food?

Open house

Disclaimer - this is a slightly self indulgent post. No recipes or resturant reviews in this one.


I have had the good fortune to come across some very big hearted hosts over my ten years at Mumbai. I had some lovely times at their houses or clubs and at times at restaurants. They would really make one feel at home and comfortable. Times just flies when you are with them. And the food just keeps coming.

And its not easy to have people over at Mumbai. Houses here are tiny. Schedules are cazy and you spend a better time of your life on the road.Restaurants are expensive and full. Distances are killing. So I really admired and appreciated these people for their hospitality.

I must admit that we couldn't return the favour for ages.

We lived in a couple of tiny apartments after we got married. I would want to call people over but we could rarely fit them in. I did have some of my office colleagues over to our house at times. We were quite cramped as we sat together and watched cricket or football matches over juice and pizza and biriyani. I had a set of very 'good boys' in my team. My other option was to take people Oh Calcutta but you can't really spread out in a restaurant for long.

We rented a larger place at the beginning of this year. Since then I have been trying to catch up on lost times. We have had a few small get togethers with friends here.

These are planned at times and at times impromptu. We initially started by ordering stuff - fish chops, luchi and kosha chicken from our Bengali caterer, dhansak and patrani machhi from Elphinstone club, Chicken cutlets from Snack Shack, Lebanese and Chinese from the local joints - Maroosh and Asianwok, sweets from Sweet Bengal and Brownies from Brownie Cottage.

While food is the easy part as most of ou friends have simialr food preferences and most are non vegetarian. But one does have to figure our booze preferences as we don't have a stocked bar at home. But shops like Judes and Deepaks at Pali, Bandra, have everything and are open late into the night.

Parsi stuff - dhnasak, farcha and patrani machhi from Elphinstone Club

Kheer Kodom from Sweet Bengal

A strong favourite for lunch given the heat this year

But the last time was a real landmark. I hit the kitchen in the best traditions of the Karmakars (my dad often used to cook for hoards of folks in England and Iran) and made Bengali dishes such as kosha mangsho, alu posto, fish curry. I was a bit nervous as I had always cooked for two and hadn't cooked for 5,6 people before. But from what I gather it went off pretty well if I can say so.

Rui kaalia, alu posto, kosha mangsho

Of course none of this would be possible if Kainaz didn't play along and in the process discovered her starter of cheese and grapes.


And if our maid Banoo wasn't there to clean up the dishes without a complain or chop stuff for me when I cook.

While the intent is important, it is important to have a good back up team. And I am quite good at delegation :)

There are lot of things which are nice about our new place - the greenery around us, the big tree outside our drawing room, the spare room, the airiness, the sense of space which I have never had at Mumbai ... but I guess nothing makes for great times like having great friends over.

Orient Express on call ... Asian Wok

There is a new Oriental place called Asianwok at Khar which we order from off late. I would highly recommend them.

I think they have a full restaurant too. This is near Khar Station and from what I understand, they are shifting to the Carter Road food gully soon.

We love their Thai green curry which has a fairly authentic colour unlike the fluorescent green of Thai curries in most local places. The quality of chicken or prawns is very nice. They have a nice range of dishes, different from the usual chicken chilly, Manchurian, Mandarin Schezwan which populate the menu of Indian Chinese restaurants.

In fact they recommended and sent a dish called crispy chicken in basil leaves (in the photo) which was quite nice and different. Basil had a nice minty and sharp flvour which really brought the dish alive. And they gave me leg pieces when I asked them for it. They have soup called coriander ginger soup which Kainaz orders when she wants something light. It is one of her current favourites and she has the chicken version of it. I tried their fish sambal which was nice but nowhere as good as the prawn sambal I had at Boat Quay at Singapore. We have ordered a slightly sweetish chicken side dish once which was pretty good. We have called from there a few times when we had guests and people seemed to like it quite a bit.

I really appreciate the customer service there. One night I felt like a traditional 'chilly chicken' - soya sauce, garlic, green chillies, bell peppers. They didn't have it on their menu. But they made it specially for me when I told them what I had in mind and sent it home.

Most dishes are in the Rs 125 - 175 (2-4 USD) range.

They have some schemes where they send you a cola if your order is over Rs 300 and two brownies if it is above Rs 600.

The phone number is 65221101 and I would stick my neck out and recommend it if you stay at Bandra, Khar.

Candies Calendar Shoot

I took some pictures at Candies the other days. Finally put them up now that we have a broad band at home.

Their range just amazes me. How can one place make great sushi, Thai green curry, Malaysian beef rendang, egg white omelets, Goan sorpatel, Lebanese hummus, sandwiches, Punjabi butter chicken, roast chicken, cold coffee, ice tea, potato chops, patties, quiches, cheese cakes, brownies, lemon tarts and salads at the same time ????

Drool away...

The mushiest brownies in the world

Great starts to great days

The mystery which has plagued all coffee shops ... why does she take her coffee in a takeaway cup and have it in the shop?

Chicken sausage puffs... my Mom dreams of these when she is back in Kolkata

Part of the star cast

Classic roast chicken... so succulent and so subtle

Potato chops... Mamma's munching on them upstairs too

The inspiration behind the blue walls in our kitchen

A less crowded moment at the counter... grit, guts and glory are required to place an order here

A new love of ours

Sasuma's favourite ... macoroni salad filled with tiny cubes of cheese

Lovely lemon tarts to nibble on when I miss Flurys and Cookie Jar

The biggest range of cheese cakes in the universe

A rare person who understand Kainaz's coffee idiosyncracies ... hot, in a takeaway cup, with froth, a straw and Splenda

You can always count on smiling faces here

Rings of pleasure or karmic circles... forgot corny puns and just munch

Say 'jelly slice' and see Kainaz's diet hang ups go out of the window

Petite fours and mini tarts on the house with coffee ... the beginning of a love story

Renaissance paneer - Punjab meets Parma

This is another of my ten minute recipes. I conjured this up in the other day when I needed to rustle up something for a friend who was coming over. He is largely a vegetarian and wanted something light and salad like.

So I made a dish with paneer (famous world over for the Punjabi Mutter Paneer) and Italian herbs. I was quite pleased with the results and it was so easy to prepare.

Ingredients:

• 250 g paneer (Indian cottage cheese), cubed. I bought this fresh from the carts at Pali Market, bandra
• 1 table spoon chopped onion
• 2 table spoon chopped tomato
• 1 table spoon mixed dry herbs/ spices - oregano, chilly flakes, crushed pepper. You might have these at home if you order pizzas and save the herb sachets which come with that
• 1 table spoon cooking oil
• 1/2 a chopped capiscum/ bell pepper - green & red
• 1 table spoon chopped cilantro, dhania
• Optional - fresh chopped basil leaves

Recipe:

• Heat the oil in a non stick pan
• Add the onion and stir till its translucent
• Add the tomato and stir till its a bit soft
• Add the paneer and the spices
• Stir very gently as the paneer might break
• Add the capsicum
• You will know the dish is ready as the surface of the paneer gets braised (looks a bit brown). This will take 3-4 minutes at the most
• Add in the cilantro/ dhnaia or basil leaves (gives it a sharp, fresh flavour) and shut the flame
• The end

You can have this by itself, with rotis or bread rolls

Missing Goa.... Cafe Goa, Bandra

Bandra, the Catholic bastion of Mumbai, didn't have a good Goan joint for long.

Then Simply Goa opened at neighbouring Khar with some fairly good Goan fare which is reasonably priced. (I can't resist saying this, I reviewed it four and a half months before Rashmi Uday Singh did!)

Recently I heard about a place called Cafe Goa, which has opened where Trafalgar Chowk used to be near Mehboob Studio, Bandra.

Kainaz and I went there a few nights back to celebrate a good day.

I liked the ambience when I entered. The white walls with dark wood furniture gave it a classy feel.

We were seated in the inner section. That's where we found out that they were replicating the Goan experience well beyond just the Portugese furniture. It is pretty hot at Goa right now. As it was inside Cafe Goa! They apparently don't switch on the AC till there are customers. And when they do switch it on, the ACs didn't cool. Not what you would expect at a fairly expensive place.

I was quite hot under my collar and hoped that the food would take care of things. Well, like the curate's egg, it was good in parts.

Cafe Goa has an eclectic mix of Goan and continental dishes. I believe that the owners are from a mixed marriage and hence the combination.

We love Goan food and started with a Goan sausage chilly fry. The dish was very nice. Well fried, it had a nice bite and was quite juicy. It didn't have too many pieces of fat though and we missed that. It had fried potatoes in the shape of French Fries. While traditionally potatoes are cubed in Goan sausage fry. Interestingly the dish did not have the sharp, sour taste that Goan Sausage chilly fry has. This would make the sausages at Cafe Goa easier for the uninitiated. But for Goan sausage addicts like me... this wasn't the real Mc Coy. And brown bread with Goan sausages! How affected can one get? At least offer one the choice of regular, white pao.

We followed this with a pork sorpatel. I prefer sorpatel to vindaloo. Kainaz is a vindaloo woman but played along as she was treating me.

Frankly we were quite full when the sorpatel came.

Which was good as the dish was a disaster. Sorpatel is with a mix of pork cuts - regular pork meat, fat, liver, kidney ... a full organ dump. Here they just had pork meat and no other cuts. The meat was chewy and ancient. It didn't leave one with a good feel. And the curry was cloudy, starchy and dense... nothing like the ethereal, sharp curry of a good sorpatel. The dish was as ghastly as the picture below suggests.

You are better off heading to Candies (Rs 100, 2 USD with bread) or to Judes Cold Storage (Rs 60, 1 USD for a frozen sorpatel) the next time you want Sorpatel at Bandra.

I don't remember the prices at Cafe Goa. I think the dishes were close to Rs 200 (4 USD) but I wouldn't bet on it.

I don't see us going back there in a hurry.

I believe that the owners are new to the business and hopefully they will set things right soon.

Do let me know if things change.

No 'no comments' please

I find it difficult to push myself at night to write. Especially after a long day at work, followed by a fifty minute walk and dinner at 1030 or later, writing in precarious positions with no writing table.

That's when one wonders about what keeps bloggers going. Specially when there is no agenda or motive or reward in sight. In fact I read a post today from a prolific blogger I follow who exhorted people who visited her site to comment on what they read instead of 'lurking'.

I could completely empathise with what she said. Nothing gives me more joy than to read comments on my blog. From those who have commented on my posts over time. And the odd new person too.

Today a close friend of mine from my last days at Calcutta came on Google Chat and told me that he reads finely chopped every day. And that he has started going to Candies more often after reading my posts on Candies.

Thanks Tublu, you are the reason I am writing tonight :)

PS: I know that I have not replied to a few recent comments but I hope to do so tonight

Midnight cravings...Amore

It's just past midnight. The time when Kainaz's and my thoughts often turn to forbidden pleasures.

Especially brownies, cheesecakes, truffle cakes and, in summer, ice creams and gelatos.

We used to depend on Baskin Robins when we wanted to call for ice creams. Then we got a flyer with our newspaper saying that Amore, our favourite gelato parlour, had begun home delivery of gelatos.

I remembered the early days of Amore when they were really snooty about their gelatos and would insist that you eat them on the spot at the shop. They said that their gelatos were too delicate to be taken out and had to be eaten fresh. I remember smuggling the gelatos out a couple a times and running to my car as we wanted to have ice creams at home after dinner.

I guess the lure of lucre has led them to sell out and start a home delivery service. How the mighty have fallen! And who's complaining?

Though, to be fair, they send the gelato with a few pices of dry ice so they are serious about keeping their cool.

We have must have called from Amore at least four times in the last fortnight. Kainaz's favourite cookies and cream and a couple of new flavours suggested by them - Swiss Chocolate and Walnut Brownie. Each flavour is a bite of heaven...and twice over as they mix flavours on request. We normally call for the large pack, 250 g. This is the smallest size that they deliver and costs Rs 195 (4 USD).

And I must make a mention of the Waterfield Road branch at Bandra. Their folks are particularly helpful and proactive. They search for your preferred flavour from neighbouring shops in case they have run out of it and suggest very good alternates too. The order reaches one pretty fast. They apparently take orders till 1230 at night.

Oops! It is 1230.

"Honey, pass me the phone"

Rolls that rock and kosh mangshos that shock...Hangla's, Lokhandwala, Andheri

Quite a few of my friends had mentioned a little restaurant called 'Hangla's' at Lokhandwala Mumbai recently.

'Hangla' (hang la) In Bengali means 'greedy'... and not in a very nice way. So this is quite an unusual name to put it mildly. My sources told me that the rolls (parathas with egg and/ or kebab fillings) here are pretty good. Rolls are the flag bearer of Calcutta's street food and are rarely available at Mumbai. Not at most of the Bengali restaurant at least which go in for main dishes and not street food. I had also heard that Hangla's stocks Bengali dishes but no one had much to say about these.

Lokhandwala is not really a part of my stomping ground and I had not been to Hangla's despite hearing about it. An opportunity came up yesterday as we had a workshop at the Fun Republic building at Andheri Link Road. Hangla's is located close by at the beginning of the Lokhandwala circle. You reach there after taking a left from Infinity Mall on the Link Road, when headed towards Kandivli, and then heading straight. Hangla's falls on your right.

I rushed there after the workshop. I ordered an egg roll (Rs 25/ 0.5 USD). This was fantastic and compared with the best rolls in Calcutta. My request for fried onions was heeded to by the affable Mr Amitabha Gupta at the counter. This was nice as I remember that the nutters at the Calcutta Roll Centre, at Bandra, refused to fry the onions in my roll when I last went there.

The roll didn't have any sauces in it. Instead it was flavoured with lime, chopped green chilly and salt. It was quite like the rolls one gets at Lindsay Street at Calcutta. Biting into the piping hot egg roll took me back to my school days when I would have an egg roll every day after school before I went out to play. It was definitely one of the best egg rolls that I have had in my life.

I then packed two mutton rolls (Rs 45/ 1 USD each) and 2 kosha mangsho (Rs 120/ 1.2 each) and 2 parathas for Kainaz and me for dinner.

I saw a couple of huge rats just beside the shop beside a dustbin after I received my parcel. Not a pleasant sight. Friends later joked saying that the street food experience wouldn't be complete without these. Well, all I have to say is that I never associated rats with Calcutta and that I have rarely seen rats camping beside street food stalls at Mumbai. This was an unfortunate first.

Anyway, getting back to the food, the mutton roll was fantastic, even after we reheated it in the micro at night. The mutton stuffing had the pliant softness of the mutton in roll shops such as Karco and Badshah at Lindsay Street, Calcutta. Both Kainaz and I really enjoyed it. The fried onions (as per our request) added a nice sweetness to it. I felt the stuffing was a tad salty but Kainaz didn't think so. Overall, quite heavenly.

See the making of the roll and the end masterpiece in the pictures below.

We then had the kosha mangsho (Bengali dried mutton in spices).

Let me give you Kainaz's take first. She liked it though she felt that it paled in comparison to the mutton rolls that we just had.

I felt that the kosha mangsho sucked. The dish was too oily. Restaurant kosha mangshos can be oily. But this was not oil, it was rocket fuel. Both Kainaz and I woke up at night with itchy throats thanks to the toxic oil.

And the mutton? I have often written about tender cuts of mutton that we have had at Parsi places such as Britannia, Elphinstone and Ripon Club and Bengali places such as Oh Calcutta. The mutton in Hangla's kosh mangsho was the other extreme. It was so tough that it would make any self respecting chewing gum seem as soft as butter. I got to exercise my biceps while trying to break the pieces of mutton.

My sources were right. The rolls rocked. But the other dishes were not quite there. Though I must admit that I didn't try the regular Bengali dishes such as fish curry, mochar ghoto or even biriyani. But I think I will stick to the rolls that they make in front of me after my experience with the unbreakable kosha mangsho and after seeing the frolicking giant rats.

Notes:

• Hangla is apparently open from 1130 AM to 1 AM
• It is a stall and doesn't have any seating as such. It is a stand and eat or take away operation

Treasures from a lost world... Wednesday dhansak at the Ripon Club

The Parsis invented the lentil and meat based dhansak daal well before high protein diets come into fashion.

Of course one can't associate this epicurean, genial race with mundane stuff like dieting. Parsis know how to enjoy life. They soon hit upon the idea of combining caramelised rice with the daal to form their signature dish, dhansaak.

Don't look for dhansak, if you are lucky enough to get invited to a Parsi wedding. Dhansak is a funeral dish and is not had on happy occasions. But there are exceptions. Dhansak and beer is a Sunday afternoon tradition in many Parsi houses. And Sunday is a happy day.

And lest you got fooled by the 'high protein stuff', the done thing to do after eating dhansak is to curl up and nap.

You get dhansak for lunch at a few restaurants such as Britannia, Mocambo and Paradise at South Bombay and Snack Shack (weekends) at Bandra.

But some of the best dhansaks are available at old Parsi clubs such as Elphinstone and Ripon Club.

In fact Ripon Club's dhansak lunch on Wednesday is legendary.

I was lucky enough to be hosted by a member of the club, the very genial and generous, Mr Sorabh Gandhi. Who, when not treating people to lunch, is an avid sailor and a certified mountain guide.

I was floored by the dhansak as it was easily one of the best that I had. The daal was very well flavoured and had just the right amount of saltiness. It was not too heavy and I kept eating till I realised that I ate for two! The mutton in the daal was very tender and had fabulous little pieces of fat in them. Taking a bit of this mutton was like settling down into one of the long, comfortable, Parsi easy chairs which were there at the Club.






The brown rice was quite tasty, cooked just right and came with a couple of tantalising little kebabs. The daal and the rice combined very well and I added a bit of lemon which solemnised the marriage of the two.



We washed this down with the favoured Parsi drink, Raspberry. The favoured dessert of Parsis, a sweet and robust caramel custard, finished the feast.



I had a meeting to attend in the suburbs after this, and true to tradition, napped during the journey.

For those who like their history, Ripon Club was started by rich Parsis in protest against the British clubs in pre independence India. These clubs had an "Indian and dogs not allowed" policy. Ripon Club had a no Englishman allowed (!) policy. And someone with a sense of humour named it after the then British Governor of Bombay.

Mr Gandhi, who told us this story, also said that women were initially not allowed as members. This was apparently because men would come in here in the middle of the day, loosen their collars and unwind to put it politely.

Ripon Street, at Kala Ghoda, has seen its heydays and is a shadow of its past today. It is primarily a lazy lunch place for members. Lovely wooden dining tables and chairs, umbrella stands and creaking fans talk of a time gone by. It is worth a trip just to admire the furniture if nothing else. And you get to go up in an ancient, vintage beauty of a lift which is one of the few lifts in Mumbai which are still operated with a lever.

My advise would be to catch a member like Mr Gandhi and get yourself invited for Wednesday lunch. It is an experience from another era.

And you will get to have one of the best dhansaks in the world.