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 [...]

This is a sandwich made of leftovers.
There are so many things we can do with leftovers, rather than let them sit in the fridge nurturing new varieties of mould. Take this lovely sandwich for instance. Leftover chicken kebabs were mashed and mixed with some sliced onions and stuffed between two slices of pita bread. The [...]

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, [...]

Going by Toni’s recipe of a few days back, I thought of trying it at home. Problem was, I couldn’t find lamb or fresh rosemary. So, decided to follow procedure and change the ingredients. Here’s what finally hapenned:

Find a pan large enough to hold leg
Fill water, place on heat and add bay leaf, turmeric, salt, [...]

I found these lovely, smooth skinned and firm potatoes at the vegetable market yesterday and thought up this recipe just to use them! I also found some onion stalks with the buds on. If you haven’t seen these, they look like spring onion stalks, only they’re thicker, firmer, totally hollow and quite long, with a [...]

There’s this practice in India that can be a bit funny at times. We have very elaborate dishes and then we have normal dishes, as with most cultures. When people don’t want to go through the trouble of making the elaborate dishes, they’ll make an everyday staple… and add nuts, or raisins or other dried [...]

My mother had always been very fond of cooking. My father on the other hand loved to eat good food and was a voracious eater. (Very early in life I learnt that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.) As for me, I intensely disliked food and the dining table was a [...]