Egg-nostic

My first post in over 2 years and I'm embarking on my rebirth with my discoveries and adventures with eggs. Seems almost symbolic!

I know what everyone says about eggs being the most healthy and cheapest source of protein available out there. True, all that..but I always make my adventures with it regardless of how good it is for me. And the reason for this is my love hate relationship with eggs. There are phases when I absolutely need to feed my creative (or morning) hunger with them, and there are times when I am inexplicably nauseated by the smell of them and want to avoid them at all costs. Both these phases last almost 2 months each, and I am currently in my sunny phase (pun intended).

I usually like a quick morning experiment in my kitchen, particularly on days when I know I need a heavy breakfast to face a tough day at work (which has been happening oh-so-often now). On Thursday last week, I woke up with a craving for maggi noodles. Quick reality check, and I compromised my cravings for some noodles in any form. I did a quick scan of my kitchen with depleting supplies and found a jar of red pasta sauce and a box of some spaghetti leaning against a kitchen wall. I boiled the spaghetti in salt water, stir fried the pasta sauce in less than a tablespoon of oil and quickly tossed them both up. And then, magic....so here's what I did. I spotted one egg sitting desolate in my egg crate, so I scooped it up, skilfully cracked it into my pan on the pasta and didn't touch the pan again with a ladle till I turned the gas off. I just seasoned the yolk with some salt and pepper, covered the frying pan, turned the heat to low and waited for fate to take its course. When I turned off the heat and unvovered the pan, I saw a deliciously steamed egg waiting on my bed of pasta. I don't know what to call it and was rather impressed with my ability to whip up something so exotic in the matter of a few minutes, but it tasted delicious and left me feeling so satisfied!

I've often experimented with omlettes (from stuffing them with tomato concass and cheeses to the classic mushroom and spinach variety) and cannot make a fool-proof cake with an egg or two. But what I tried a few months ago gave me the satifaction to call myself a been-there-done-that with eggs (barring the frittatas, which I still haven't had the motivation to try as I don't have a good example to follow). I had been reading about poaching eggs (we indians call the sunny-side-up an egg poach which is so wrong!) and knew I never had the courage to pull it off or bear with another 2-month hiatus from eggs thanks to the kitchen sink smelling of egg goo after failed attempts. But there's always Jamie Oliver to the rescue! I tried his egg-poaching trick of lining a cup with cling film and cracking an egg into it, infusing it with herbs and tying the cling film together. This packet goes into stirred boiling water for a few seconds, post which you scoop it up, untie the film and voila! You have your creamy dreamy poached egg that tastes like a million bucks on a fresh toast. Yumm!!

There's also the pick me up breakfast I like to try which I read about in my recent purchase, "A sense for spice" by Tara Deshpande Tannebaum (I'll tell you more about that on another post). She suggests reheating leftover rice the next day with some whole spices and topping it with a fried and buttery egg. This is a quick fix for me on days that start with long (and often frustrating) work calls. So simple, but such a good way to use leftovers. I would improvise sometimes by topping the egg with chopped spring onions and a dash of oyster sauce (not the mushroom oyster sauce...please!). That's a Kylie Kwong twist that I like to add on sodium-craving days.

Phew...that was one long post that feels like an outburst after this long long break. Took me a while to recollect how i loved blogging. And i didn't even touch upon my favourite mayo recipe yet!

More coming soon :)

Do let me know what you think of this post!

Love!

The Pilot Post

So here is how it began…

My earliest memories of food date back to a childhood where my mom would spread sheets of newspaper on our carpeted floor and sit on them, to fold little pastries into triangular moulds and fill them with a mildly-spicy potato-peas curry. It would be mushy in texture and the smell would be inviting. I’d sit on our sofa and gaze at her intermittently while playing with my toys (the other times, I’d be busy with my kitchen toy-set). She’d fry these little filled pouches in hot oil and I’d be shifting on my feet in a waltzing motion so she’d pick one out and blow them cool, and I could immediately stuff my mouth with one of them.

My awareness of food was always at the highest. I would remember not people and events and occasions to celebrate, but the memory of the food at these gatherings would always be fresh. I do distinctly remember, though,  the first time I tasted sea food and relating it to characters I’d seen in my favourite movie, The Little Mermaid. Whether the rest of the creatures could be eaten or not, I didn’t have the heart to ask, for  Ariel and Sebastian held dear to me, as did the rest of the school of fish.

I would often watch my mother cooking for long hours, never looking like she was toiling, in the kitchen. This, I’d try to replicate in my own mini kitchen my father bought me, where I’d be busy days on end banging utensils and spoons against each other and filling our little house with enough cacophony. I’d produce something at the end which I’d make my father eat, and he’d always smile with appreciation at the pretend-delicacies, which were in fact empty plastic bowls. He’d maintained his encouragement through the years, more so during the first few times I was allowed to touch the knife and real vegetables. I would realize only much later of his plight, when he would be asked to taste a “special dressing” with his salad, which I would prepare by soaking chopped chilies in water!

My cooking has come a long way since (thankfully) and my zeal and attachment to food has only been growing by the day. Especially with my goddess Nigella Lawson, Kylie Kwong, Sanjeev Kapoor and more recently Gordon Ramsay my main course on TV, my world is more accentuated with their exclamations as I try my hand at some delightful new dish. Not to undermine of course, a dash of creativity here and  a sprinkle of traditional cooking methods there. 

My 9 to 5 (or should I say 9 to 9) job does give me satisfaction, but what really sticks a smile to my face which rarely wipes off till I go to sleep, is the adventures in my kitchen and the thinking I put into whipping something up which more often than not, is received with much enthusiasm at home. What I call home these days is a modest apartment in Bangalore I share with three other friends, all of whom, much to my luck, are foodies who’re very willing guinea pigs to my adventures and experiments with food.

For whatever you are about to read on this blog, I owe a tiny bit to them, my parents and of course, technologyJ