Ever since GB did its first cooking session, we've been flooded with requests for the recipes. Its taken some time, since various busy queens had to be co-ordinated, but here it us, a multipart affair like all the best banquets.
The report of the event comes from our host Viraf, who we are very grateful to for providing the space, putting up with last minute requests for onions and potatoes, providing alcoholic support for the chefs when needed - and, above all, for agreeing to do it all again, sometime in the next couple of months! Manohar and Sopan provided, literally, the meat and potatoes for the evening, with Manohar's excellent chicken curry and Sopan's quickly made potatoes. Samir filled the stomachs of the vegetarians with his delicious dhal dhokli. And I rounded it off - and probably rounded out some bellies - with oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. OK, no more delay, on to the recipes, except for one short announcement. After doing this event we got several requests from people for more cooking classes. So for those who can't wait for the next cooking classes, we're happy to announce that Samir is willing to do more formal cooking classes. As anyone who's eaten at Dibs and Samir's place knows, Samir is one of those natural cooks who can even cook food he doesn't eat himself like fish - and cook it really well too, from what I remember of his wonderful mustard fish. He'll be willing to customise his classes to whatever people want to learn - veg, chicken, fish, snacks, basic dhal-chawal. These classes are not really from GB, more on Samir's own initiative. He's free to do them on most days, except perhaps Sundays, but he would like a group of around 4-5 people when he does it. There would also be a charge of around Rs400-500 depending on what's being cooked. For more details mail him directly at [EMAIL PROTECTED] GB Gets Cooking Viraf: The Host's report The way to a man's heart is through his stomach. (If you are aiming for places below the belt we suggest you go to some other group because GB really does NOT cater to those cravings) Cooking for singles was the original plan, but when on Sunday morning they realized that there were going to be about 30 "singles" coming to learn how to wield the kadai the guys at GB panicked. Please get three kg onions, three kg. potatoes, three kg rice and tons of other stuff were the orders passed on early in the morning so by the time the whole bunch trooped in late in the afternoon they pretty much thought they were cooking for an army (pretty boys in uniform WOW!!!). Even before the event got underway Samir had half the guys in tears. For a guy with such a sweet disposition he really knew how to break down the resistance of a whole bunch of boys who perhaps for the first time in their life came face to face with uncut onions and a sharp knife. Tears out of the way comic relief followed in the guise of the Rani of Jhansi doing a take off on the typical evil Saas cloned with a Manorama from Seeta & Geeta. Lending sweetness to the whole event was Vikram who claimed he was going to show us how to make chocolate chip cookies. Half the slab of chocolate however never made it from the chopping board to the mixing bowl (Is that why some cuties call themselves chocolate boys?). Disaster struck when he realized that he was unable to bake the cookies in a combo oven so while some of the guys licked the bowl and ate the raw dough Vikram chose instead to lick his wounds and eat my head off for not having a conventional oven. In between all of this Manohar also managed to show guys how to turn a bunch of luscious legs into a food fiesta. Unfortunately the legs he used came from chicks which while they were delicious, only satisfied the craving of the stomach and did nothing for all those foot fetishists who were looking to grab a bite of some other more desirable legs. All of this is however just a lead up to the main issue. A lot of guys have been cribbing that after making them do all the hard work they have got no official recognition. So on behalf of a very grateful GB we would like to thank the whole bunch of volunteer cooks who took time out the other day to help feed a socially neglected minority group. The efforts made by them to lend a hand in this noble cause, while it may never get them a Bharat Ratna, will go down in the annals of GB as an especially PINK lettered day. And now for the recipes... Sopan & Manophar: Chicken Curry and Potatoes Talasani The CHICKEN CURRY This is a simple (generic) chicken curry, as opposed to the East Indian Style Chicken curry which Manohar was planning to make. The Chicken was marinated at home for a couple of hours and brought to Viraf's. For the MARINADE: a - 1 kg chicken cut into medium sized pieces. (It may be simpler to buy only legs or breasts of chicken which can be cut into 2 or 3 pieces at the shop itself. Packs of Godrej Real Good chicken legs are also readily available) b - 1" ginger (adrak) c - 4-5 green chillies (hari mirch) d - 5-6 garlic cloves (lasun) e - ½ tsp turmeric powder (haldi) f - ½ tsp garam masala powder g - handful of fresh coriander leaves (hara dhania - optional) h - about 2 tsp of salt i - 2 tbsp of curds 1. Grind - ginger, green chillies, garlic cloves, turmeric powder, garam masala powder, fresh coriander & salt together. Blend with curds. 2. Marinate chicken for at least half an hour. For the GRAVY: a - 3 medium sized onions - chopped fine b - 3 tomatoes - chopped fine c - 3 tbsp of refined cooking oil - groundnut, sunflower. Not the strong flavoured oils like til or mustard d - whole garam masala - 4 cloves (lavang), 1" cinammon (dalchini), 1/2 tsp powdered cardamon (elaichi) e - half a cup fresh chopped coriander (hara dhania) for garnishing. 1. Heat the oil. 2. Add the garam masalas - cloves, cinammon, cardamon. 3. Fry the chopped onions till it turns golden brown. 4. Once the onion turns brown, add the chicken without the marinade and stir fry till the chicken changes colour. 5. Add the tomatoes and the marinade. (For the tomatoes to cook fast you may want to pre-cook it slightly in the micro.) Cook for a few minutes. 6. Add a glass of water and stir. Cover and cook for 10 to 15 min on medium fire. Check periodically to see if chicken is cooked. (Chicken can be very tricky. Broilers cook very fast and if you aren't watching over it, you'll end up with overcooked chicken shreds and bones.) 7. Garnish with fresh chopped coriander. For the East Indian style curry Manohar roasts rice flour with the whole garam masalas and grinds it into a fine powder, which he then adds to the onion and tomato gravy. Also some tamarind pulp or vinigar goes into it. The process is more complicated ofcourse, and can perhaps be demonstrated another time. Manohar couldn't cook the this dish mainly because Viraf's well-appointed kitchen didn't have a mixie for grinding dry Indian masalas. Viraf specialises in Western health cuisine and proudly showed off his excellent recipe book, which he has himself put together. The POTATO TALASANI- This is a Saraswat dish. I think the word talasani is derived from "talna" which in Marathi and Konkani means to fry. It is a very simple dish to cook, excellent for beginners. The predominant flavour is garlic and red chilly. Here goes. a - 1 Kg Potatoes - chopped into 1 to 1.5 in long fingers. Soak them in a bowl of water. The potatoes are not to be skinned. b - 10 cloves of garlic, crushed with a pestle. And do not remove the skin. c - 2 to 3 tsp of red chilly powder. The dish is meant to be be a bit on the punget side, but it depends on you. d - Salt to taste. 1. Heat about 5 to 6 tbs of oil in a kadai. 2. Add the Garlic (lasun) and stir fry. 3. Once the garlic gets slightly brown (and also releases the garlicy aroma) add the chopped potatoes. Stir fry for a few minutes on a medium flame. 4. Then cover with a lid, with some water on top. This is so that the steam created condenses and the potatoes get cooked. Or else they are likely to burn. Now it is on low flame for about 7 to 10 min. 5. Once the potatoes are about three-fourths cooked, add the chilly powder and salt and stir well. If you feel the potatoes are too dry you might want to add a tsp or so of oil. Cover the kadai again but stir it periodically till the potatoes get golden. I must admit, the talasani I cooked at the meet, got a bit overcooked. This dish needs a generous amount of oil but when I saw the shocked looks on the faces of the participants, especially the chubby ones, I had to restrain myself. So the potatoes got cooked mainly in the steam and didn't get the partially fried taste and look. Samir: Dal-Dhokli MAKING THE DAL: Mix one cup each Tuver dal, Moong dal, Masur dal and soak for 90 minutes Add 8 cups of water and cook in pressure cooker until you hear three whistles Chop one onion, one tomato, one-quarter ginger, three green chilis Fry onion, add curry patta, one spoon dry garam masala, and a pinch each of taj, lavin, black pepper, ajwain Add ginger, green chili and tomato to the frying pan Add one spoon of haldi powder, dhania powder, chilli powder to the frying mixture Add the boiled dal mix Add two cups of water (more if you want the dal to be thin) and boil MAKING THE DHOKLI: Take one cup atta Add a pinch of salt, one spoon ajwain, red chilli powder, haldi powder, dhania powder, one spoon cookling oil. Add water and knead the dough and flatten into rotis. Cut into squares and add to boiling dal. Boil for 20 minutes. Add a small quantity of groundnuts (or lots if you really love peanuts) Garnish with dhaniya patta (corriander leaves) and serve. Vikram: Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies The oats in this recipe are meant to convince yourself that these cookies are really healthy. Of course, they are nothing of the kind - I mean, healthy chocolate chip cookies sort of defeats the purpose. But the oats give the cookies a nice chewy texture. These cookies are good fresh baked hot and soft, better when cooled and crisp and in fact just the raw batter itself is pretty damn good. Sometimes its almost a problem getting the cookies into the oven, what with the temptations of raw cookie dough and chunks of bitter chocolate. I started this by telling everyone that baking is really easier than other forms of cooking. Most good cooking is requires skill, intuition, that mysterious quality that in Tamil is called 'kai mannam', the flavour of the hand. Baking is chemistry. Get the right recipe, put ingredients together with more or less precision and stick to the rules and you will have a good result. And with cookies, even if you're less precise, its hard to really screw up unless you burn them in the oven. Baking does need gadgets, particularly an oven and an electric whisk, while not essential, does take care of a lot of boring mixing and beating work. Both ovens and whisks are easily and cheaply available in India, so consider investing in them. But one warning: try and resist the temptation to buy a microwave-cum- oven. Despite Viraf trying to convince me his microwave could do almost as much as any oven, I wasn't convinced. Maybe I was just unused to his combo unit (and with all ovens you ahve to take time to get used to their quirks), but I didn't feel the results were that good (though certainly edible - well, they could hardly not be given the amount of chocolate that went into them!) Here goes with the Indredient list: - 1 cup butter (more or less eight ounces or 250 grammes). Ideally use white, unsalted butter which you can get from any decent dairy. If you are using salted butter, don't add much salt in the rest of the recipe. - 3/4 cup light brown sugar (six ounces... oh damn, just do the conversions yourself please, taking one cup = 8 oz = 250 gms, or just buy a cheap plastic measuring cup). This is Demerara sugar, sold in all shops, though if you know someone who owns a sugar plant, try and get real brown sugar. - 3/4 cup granulated sugar - buy the fine kind, I think its called confectioner's sugar (but NOT icing sugar). - 3 eggs - 2 in the original recipe, but Indian eggs are small so I always add one more. - 1 teaspoon vanilla essence - 1 and half cups plain flour (maida). If its been around for a while, sieve it first. - 1 teaspoon baking (eating) soda - 1 teaspoon salt (but only a pinch if the butter was salted) - 2 cups rolled oats (also called porridge oats, make sure they aren't salted. Several brands like Baggrys). - Chocolate chips - as many as you like. OK, that's not precise. What I do is get a couple of slabs of dark (but sweetened) cooking chocolate, Morde is a good brand name in Bombay, and cut it into as many chunks as you want to put in the batter and you can resist eating on the spot. Do NOT use the locally made chocolate chops that some shops sell, they feel like they are made of plastic. Imported chips like Hershey's are fine, but very expensive. Buying local cooking chocolate and chopping it is fun and cheaper. Instructions: In a large bowl, put the butter and beat it with your electric whisk until its of a creamy consistency. Now add both sugars and the eggs and then the vanilla essence. Beat all together well. In a separate bowl mix together the maida, soda and salt. The ideal way to do this is, of course, by sifting them together. Now add it to the butter-egg mixture and beat it again until its all together now. Now stir in the oats and the chocolate chunks. Your batter is ready. Taste it. Try not to eat too much of it. Spread a thin coat of butter over a baking tray large enough to go in our oven. You can buy them from Crawford Market, though Tefal does very nice non-stick ones (but still put a little butter). Put large scoops of batter at decent intervals (they wil spread a bit) Put the tray in hot oven that should already be hot (switch on when you start cooking). Leave them now for 10-12 minutes as they spread a bit. When the edges start to look a crisp golden-brown they are done. They will still be a bit soft in the centre, which is fine. Leave them cool on the tray if you want them crisper, or take them off with a flat rubber spatula and cool them on a wire tray. Try not to eat them all at one go! Group Site: http://www.gaybombay.info ========================== This message was posted to the gay_bombay Yahoo! Group. Responses to messages (by clicking "Reply") will also be posted on the eGroup and sent to all members. 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