The Quickie

I don’t know about the rest of the world, but I take life and things around me for granted; my work, people around me, people I really care about, and of course, my cooking. My next planned post after a very efficient Sunday was to be with my pretty pretty, newly found cupcake cases (I had been desperately looking to find nice-looking, good quality and inexpensive cupcake wrappers all over!). However, this was not to be.

George Kneller said, ‘To think creatively, we must be able to look afresh at what we normally take for granted.’

               So, on Ak’s insistence for the quickie ( and I mean the post of course), and because of the beautiful photographs that he took despite my hesitancy to document this, here I am, writing about a very average, very tired and no time, hardly any ingredients available- Sunday dinner.  This was a meal literally, made out of nothing in the fridge. The menu was decided on the basis of 2 key ingredients that were available and then the rest just happened. Each of the recipes, as a matter of fact, has one or two elements missing and hence, has been replaced with something similar and on occasion, even contradictory. Hence, for the convenience of anyone who may want to try any one of the recipes, I have posted the originals.

Disclaimer: If one must try this, it is only at one’s own risk.

Erstwhile Chocolaty Mousse

Now I know that cooking and writing and photographing ain’t that easy and documenting it often enough is even tougher. The K’s and the latest addition to the K family were invited for dinner over the weekend; this was my first hosted meal post-marriage for family and enough food had to be cooked! (A special request was for keema lasagna, which was duly missed for the last year- however, as much as it ‘supposedly’ turned out great, I will save it for another post). The K’s are good eaters; and I mean ‘good Punjabi eaters’J. Food therefore had to be paramount - well technically- my best at least. Therefore, in order to ease my day on Saturday (which already had a million things planned), I decided to organize the dessert on Friday night itself. Through this process, I also figured, that I would only use one of the items on the menu for a post this time.
       

Actually Communicating and Cooking!

So, today’s post is sooner than otherwise planned- actually it was completely unscheduled. Had a very efficient workday, with dedicated communication work, only to end with a naïve round of cooking. Considering it was a long working day, with more to continue later, I thought of keeping dinner rather simple; and just as I was about to begin, Ak decided that it was worth writing about. Out came the camera- and I figured that my artless, vague menu was up for some excitement .

Honey & Almond Cake

A Hard Day’s night; that’s what I am going to call this one.

So, while we watch ‘wake up sid’ for the umpteenth time, here I am, despite being completely exhausted, loving this. Today was a çommuni-cooking day (not in a perfectly cooking manner though). After a bad day with a completely clogged throat, half a day of work and trying to get some god-forsaken ID, I was back home at a ‘so-called’ reasonable time in order to rest. Ak fancied Murgh Malai Tikka for dinner, and so that was tested out; but will be shared another day. The marinade worked but the oven ditched me L, by drying out my richly marinated malai tikkas. I discovered that mom’s tried and tested technique of  making tikkas in the pan on medium heat actually works much better... round 2, therefore, got a better response.  Will crack the oven soon, and re-post this one.

          Feeling extremely disappointed, I wanted more; and therefore, I set out to test my new flowery cake tin. The benefits of marriage are quite brilliant; giving you the permissible luxury to splurge on baking tools :P  (justifying shopping to bring in what’s missing). Its not like I didn’t do it earlier, but, now, I can make it an évent’. After, spending enough time to look for the right recipe with key factor being only ‘2 eggs’ (from what was lying in the fridge), ‘we’ decided to embark on the Honey and Almond Cake- Courtesy Ipad (a baking app!). ilove technology.