Chef at Large

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 remember these from my childhood - my grandmother used to make these every once in a while, and less frequently, my mother too. Less frequently, because they use a different type of banana called ‘Narenda-parram’ (pronounced quite differently -na-ainda-payyam or whereabouts), which aren’t widely available in North India. Much firmer than the normally available [...]

This curry surfaces on our menu every once in a while and I invariably overeat when this stuff is on the table. It tastes great with rice and good with toasted bread too.
Lightly oil your hands, then peel and chop the bananas anyway you wish. Sprinkle some salt and turmeric powder over then and keep [...]

I found a nice bit of pork at the butchers today. Marbled with fat and just the right size, I thought something a little different was in order.
Loaded it on to the rotisserie in my oven and made a mixture of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, sea salt, black bean paste, chilli oil, garlic and soya [...]

We felt like a slightly ‘heavy’ meal yesterday and this chicken curry fit the bill perfectly. You’ll need minced chicken, potatoes, onions and garlic to begin with along with some stock, powdered aniseed, curry powder, cream, hung curds, sugar and seasoning.
Oh, and about the name - I simply couldn’t come up with a suitable name [...]

You’d never have thought a humble piece of fried dough could have so much popularity, business potential or variations. Mad Over Donuts, who recently opened an outlet in the Great India Place, NOIDA, certainly believe this and going by the popularity of their only outlet in the NCR, it looks like they’ve put their money [...]

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 [...]

Breakfast this morning was an uninspired platter of buttered (low fat) toast with fried eggs, sunny side up. For some reason, Cherie has started disliking fried eggs which used to be her favorite. Interestingly, she couldn’t get enough of mushrooms in the past and now she can’t run far enough from them.
I completely forgot to [...]

We were shopping yesterday and I saw this place that I’d never visited - Nazeems. Thinking I’d pop in for a quick snack, I headed over. Located in a corner of sector 18, NOIDA, Nazeems claims to have been serving the public since Adam. Inside, it has a college canteen kind of decor and the [...]

Mexican Mania is a part of the Spoon Food Court, in the Great India Place, NOIDA. The ambience is what you would expect in any mall food court – loud music, the buzz of people everywhere, the sizzle of food cooking, intermingling aromas of different cuisines et al.
The available menu is rather sparse, and the [...]