Deja Vu

Last week was a great one after a really long time , professionally as well as personally. I was traveling to Delhi for work and of course had decided to spend the weekend there, so there was lots of handwork followed by lots of alcohol and friends. OK i would like to reiterate my point WE ARE NOT ALCOHOLICS, but then friends and alcohol is a combination you don't get too often.

Professionally too it turned out to be a week of achievements , primarily because one of my clients who everyone considered was going to default for over a year of payment , ended up paying the entire amount and my boss who was convinced that they were going to 'latkao' me , now owes me a dinner. Cant be lunch you see, i don't drink during work hours.:-)

There was a lot of work for sure to be done and back to back meetings but come Saturday and it was party time. Shailja and Manas , my ever so endearing friends and hosts once again were welcoming all our friends to come over to their place and hand with us. They have been married some months now and are still in the process of home building and were missing the key ingredient to it, a Sofa in the living space. So come Saturday morning once Manas headed out for some work Jazz (hate bosses who keep useless leadership meetings on a Saturday) , Shailja and me set out to buy a 3 seater for the living room , what we ended up coming back with was a full set of Sofa and believe you me it was very smart. Manas was left with no option but to smile and say very nice , the brat did like it though. Food of course was left to me to cater to and i didn't want to be cooking when everyone was over so thought will fix them some Chicken Thai red curry and Steam rice for dinner for the drinking bit was over.

Here is what i did .

• Chicken 2 full (these guys are good eaters) ; small pieces , as your butcher to make it like chilli chicken pieces and he will.
• 4 Good stalks of lemon Grass
• A bunch of kafir lime leaves
• a big piece of galangal ( Alternative : ginger)
• Red chillies for taste and color
• Fish Sauce as per tolerance of your guests.
• Few pealed garlic say 7 or 8
• A bunch of Basil leaves.
• Coconut milk. 3 cups ( i always taste and judge)

Take all the ingredients except the chicken and mix in a blender or Mortar and Pestle. Mix this paste to the chicken. (No need to leave aside for a while . You can cook right away). Take a pan add some oil to it and to the oil add a couple of Kafir lime leaves , once the leaves are completely crisp remove it from the oil (this gives the oil a lemony zing and a good smell). Add the chicken and cover and cook till almost done. You can check the seasoning in between, of course add some salt, and you can add Kashmiri red Chilli for the red color and slight bitterness,(i add green chillies while blending for the spice). Once the chicken is almost done , add the coconut milk and let it simmer for a few minutes. Garnish with lime leaves / Basil and serve immediately.

You can also add vegetables to the chicken. I had sauteed Zucchini , Eggplant, mushrooms and Baby corn and added to the same. People loved the vegetables along with the chicken.

The food was polished off with almost nothing left for me to eat , and hey i was a guest there ! Anyways, its always a pleasure to watch people enjoy the food you have put your heart into. A lovely trip, an eye opener as well to an extent and i have my reasons for it but ya ..... It felt Surreal even like i said a deja vu.

*Recipe courtesy TLC

Been out for a while again but this time it wasn't laziness.... Genuinely busy and travelling.

Since i last wrote i have cooked a few times , even ate out so i guess i shall first talk about all the travels and the food, post which the recipes shall follow.

Lets start with the last weekend of march, I get a call from Prashant asking me if i would like to go to Nasik where a friend is posted as a Major in the army's flying unit and undergoing training there. It was an opportunity i couldn't let go , after all the Sula Vineyard is there and a loving friend to follow ;-). Wine and friendship called and we set out on the morning of Saturday 31st march. Its an easy 5 hour drive but we left early to avoid traffic. Bunty chose to drive and i was only too happy to let him do so, and a beautiful drive it is.

Thank you to the Maharashtra government for the lovely road all the way to Nasik, its a drivers delight, and the scenic beauty is worth a look. We reached Major saab's place by 11 am and walked straight to the refrigerator that was stocked up with beer. The cold room after driving in the summer heat and a chilled beer did the trick . The mood was set for the 2 days the we were to be there.

Anurag finally arrived from his training at around 1:30 ... and we had lunch. it was pretty decent to say the least, oh and i should not forget to mention the Gin and lime cordial i had. Was yum. Post lunch and after lazing around for as long as forever we finally decided to hit Sula. It was good 30 minutes drive but was worth it. it was evening so the sunset look pretty of course because of the laziness we missed the last batch for the Sula tour and the wine tasting so we decided to do our own bit of tasting.

We started off with Rose Zinfandel , followed it up with some sparkling Brut and finally ended with the Latte, there dessert wine that i am particularly fond of since being introduced to it by a really special friend. The food served there was very average and basic, we stuck to our meats and asked for a cold cut platter which was about average, though i must say the condiment that they served it with was delicious. We had now had our appetizers and were ready for the main course of some serious drinking, oh!!!! Comm'on , its not like we are alcoholics .... borderline may be ;-), but what do you expect when three really close friends meet. They will drink and talk crap. so that's what we did, by the time the evening was over we were one and a half bottles of scotch down and extremely happy. Food was whatever was available at the restaurant, not that we cared much, but i must say boiled egg seasoned with salt and pepper , is an outstanding combo with alcohol.

Sunday was chilled out day , we just lazed in the room all day doing absolutely nothing. Major saab of course had his bouts of studying, which he would every now and then whenever he could and we let him. And imagine when he did join the Army we thought lucky bastard no more studies all he has to do is shoot bullets. Today he studies more that we may have put together to reach where we are. Way to go Singh Saab. We left in the evening with fond memories of Nasik and decided that if Anurag was to be posted there eventually we would do this more often.