Chef at Large

The world over, Indian food is largely perceived as curries. While this isn’t strictly true—considering the large amounts of spices and their quantities and types used—it is really quite inevitable, unless one is aware of the cooking styles in this country.
India is a land of abundant cultures and sub cultures, each having their own unique [...]

Naheed recently went to Jordan for a holiday. On his return he brought me two spices I had only heard of before -Summack (or Summak) and Bahara. I’m not really sure how to describe Summack - it’s red in color and looks like a fine, lustrous chilli powder and bahara is a mixture of spices [...]

I don’t usually do very complex recipes, but this is one of them and I’m very happy to say, it turned out well. Blame it on my partial south Indian heritage, but I do crave coconut flavored dishes every now and then. Since I had some time on my hands, I decided to experiment with [...]

During my stay at Hollingwood Hall, I had a few opportunities to cook for my housemates. The first of these meals comprised of an elaborate pork dish that was stewed in coconut milk and a bunch of spices, simple potatoes flavored with cumin seed, a salad, rice and some wine. I’m quite used to people [...]

I cooked this for dinner yesterday. It’s interesting what innovative dishes you come up with, when you don’t really have a choice of cooking implements or ingredients.
Looking up my inventory, I chopped up some courgettes, spring onions, potatoes, smoked sausage, mushrooms and french beans. Heated some oil, fried a little cumin seed, added some finely [...]

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 [...]

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, [...]

Hello and welcome to another Mothers Day. Its May 11 and time to put in place the things you’ve thought of for your mum, hand over the baubles you’ve purchased or post that card you picked up.
Some of the things I can remember most vividly is the food I’ve grown up with. An army officers [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]