Chef at Large

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 [...]

We had these crunchy, spicy pakodas for lunch yesterday.
While not usually lunch material, they provided a nice change as pakodas are normally snack food in India. One of the most common times they’re made is when it’s raining outside. Most houses will then deep fry this delicious snack and the whole family consumes copious quantities [...]

We were at Swagatas house recently and found her making this for her daughter, niece and nephew.
Swagata is a Bharatanatayam dancer, choreographer, writer and more (see some photos here) a good friend who is also instructing my daughter in the art.
Semolina or suji halwa is quite easy to make and tastes delicious when hot. First [...]

During interactions with many North Indian friends, I find many are interested in trying out fish dishes at home, but they simply aren’t sure how to cook it. Most are quite comfortable with chicken and meat dishes, but with fish they’re like… pardon the pun, a fish out of water.
This dish is easy to cook, [...]

We picked up some fresh prawns from INA market and for some reason, I wanted to cook them in a coconut gravy - so much that I could actually taste and smell them the way I wanted it.We usually pick up fresh, unpeeled prawns from the market, then Cherie and I sit down to the [...]

The pomfret is such a versatile fish - it goes well with most flavors you can throw at it and tastes wonderful even with the simplest of seasonings. I’m going to try different styles of cooking this great fish.
For this version, make a couple of slits in the fish on both sides, rub some sea [...]

Wok and Talk is a part of the Spoon Food Court, in the Great India Place, NOIDA. Just like any other food court, you can take in the many aromas wafting around the place, the hubbub of many people talking at once and the occasional loud crash of a strike at the bowling alley ahead.
The [...]

I found these freshly made noodles in the market yesterday. All you need to cook them is a couple of minutes in salted, boiling water. So, I tried this recipe out, which resulted in a spicy combination of curry, noodles, kebabs and coconut.
First, boil your noodles, chop the kebabs and onions and squeeze out the [...]

Meeting with some long lost friends, their parents, their children and so on, we landed up at Fortune Cookie on Friday night.
It’s a nice place really - the owner is an ex-shippie who has ransacked his house and placed all his collected oriental artifacts in the restaurant. Decorated with an overpowering shade of red, The [...]

I’m not well today - probably the flu. But that doesn’t stop me from cooking. No siree, it doesn’t. So, after making the rice for the ‘How to cook’ series (next post), I was wondering how to use it, besides the obvious curry route.
So… chopped some spring onions and carrots and put them in [...]