Chef at Large

Visakhapatnam was an oft repeated name when India was a socialist backyard and Indians were die-hard followers of Soviet propaganda. That small town was smaller than it is now and was a favourite among school children as mentioning it in social studies exams meant easy marks as the great V was a shipyard. Well, now [...]

Bhimnag’s sweet shop is 240 years old as of today. It became really famous when the courageous Ashutosh Mukherjee who was a fearless academician and educator in Bengal admitted Subhash Chandra Bose in Scottish Church College after Netaji was rusticated from his own college having hit his teacher on the head. Well, Netaji had little [...]

The weather is quite muggy these days and I’ve been fondly remembering the time I was in Laos. The other day, I suddenly wanted to drink the tea I bought from Vang Vieng. I’m a hard core tea drinker and have a tendency to collect tea from the places I visit be it Dharamkot, Vancouver [...]

D had a bicycle to deliver in Dunstable and as we know a good Italian eaterie there, I was looking forward to supper. It is more of a café than a restaurant, having only eight tables. It is decorated with pictures of Italian celebrities, Dean Martin, Sophia Loren etc. and the tables are [...]

I’m running into trouble with the recently installed ‘buy fresh cook fresh’ policy. We simply aren’t consistent with vegetable purchases, so there are times when there isn’t anything in the house to cook with. Like yesterday, when all I could find was a slab of pork in the freezer. Next step is going to be [...]

Cooking all three meals every day isn’t proving to be as much of a load as I thought it would be. After reaching home around 7:00pm with fresh vegetables and breads, dinner is ready in the next 1 hour. The next morning, breakfast is usually served around 7:30am with sandwiches for lunch ready by 8:15am. [...]

I’ve been meaning to change the way we eat for quite a while, but for some reason or the other, didn’t really get around to it. But now, things are going to change and thats that. I’m tired of being overweight. Hence the new health regime at home now.
The kitchen is now off limits to [...]

As with most of her cooking, this soup is hearty, nutritious, healthy and filling.
No fat people in Zainab’s house - everyone here is fit and healthy, in stark contrast to my portly self. Definitely the cooking!
This soup is no exception. Filling and nutritious, it uses onions, tomatoes, leeks, carrots and green cabbage for the body. [...]

If its one thing Zainab doesn’t like saving time on, it’s her sauces. This sauce was simmered for 3 hours before it was pronounced fit for human consumption.
This sauce used Vine tomatoes as the base, which impart a nicer flavor than the usual variety. Also include was plenty of garlic, some carrots, celery and a [...]

Another one of Zainab’s recipes (as are nearly all my posts in the last 3 weeks), this pizza combines the flavor of red onions and tomatoes.
Red onions are stronger than the normal white or yellow onions that we usually use and have a slightly different flavor as well. I don’t know why they’re called ‘red’ [...]