Drops of joy

No bake cheesecake

2012-01-12T11:30:00.003+05:30

I love cheesecakes. I can't remember from when, but I always have. From the day of yore, where there was no internet, I'd sit for hours looking a cookery books with recipes of cheese cake and long to make it. But for this ingredient called 'cream cheese'. Unfortunately, cream cheese in India comes with scary prices & even scarier expiry dates. So cheesecaking was limited to friends and relatives arriving from anywhere out of the country.

An unforgettable experience was having that one giant slice of Juniors cheesecake after watching a show at Broadway. This humongous slice of creamy cheesecake - just YUM!

A few months ago, my college friend Aysha shared this wonderful recipe, which has been modified slightly to suit ones taste. Here goes a cheesecake recipe with well, no cream cheese!

Ingredients:

Crust

2 packs of digestive biscuit

25 gms of butter (you can add more if you want a crunchier harder crust)

1. Crush biscuits in the mixie, add butter to the crumbs and mix till it all come together.

2. Line a springform tin (or any tin with a loose base) with foil and pack the crumb mixture into it.

Filling

Yogurt made from 1 lt milk (full/regular - both work well)

Paneer made from 1 lt milk (full/regular - both work well)

200 ml cream

3/4 cup powdered sugar (can be increased to 1 it you like it sweeter)

1.5 tbsp gelatin

1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Hang the yogurt in a muslin cloth till all the water has drained out - usually around 3 to 4 hours

2. Dissolve gelatin in warm water and keep aside

2. Blend together the hung yogurt and cream till smooth

3. Keep adding little bits of paneer till to achieve a smooth texture
4. Add gelatin and vanilla to the above mixture

5. Pour over prepared crust and refrigerate.

You have a choice of toppings, since strawberries are in season you can made a coulis by blitzing about 100 gms of the berries with a little sugar added (depending on how sweet the fruit is). With such gorgeous fruit how can one not use it.

I have also made it earlier with blueberry spread by St. Dalfour. But nothing like using fresh fruit.

All new..

2012-01-11T12:39:00.005+05:30

The first of the series, I hope to update this regularly, provided there are new products arriving in the market.

I honestly do not why I haven’t blogged on this topic before, honestly, because I am such a sucker for new product launches. Earlier it extended to everything new that I saw in the market, face creams and washes, shampoos, lotions – you name it! Now that I’ve turned 30, I have decided to stick to one accessible brand, in this case Himalaya Herbals. Although I did just get off the L’Occitane website, after having spent a packet. Lets get back to food.

Here are ones that have caught my eye, so far. Appears, there is a lot of stress on “healthy snacking”.

Maggi Noodletz: The package design is rather cluttered and garish - at first one couldn’t really figure what it was. Maggi has seen so many variations in the recent years, first Atta Noodles then Multigrain. So when one saw this, one wasn’t sure if it was another ‘healthier’ variant or something new. On further scrutiny one sees the “Ready to Eat Noodle Bits” in the south west corner of the package. They are also very quick in adding NO ADDED MSG! ‘Crunchy noodles in a pack’ is how they describe it. Priced at Rs. 15 a pack.

Taste wise – its rather like regular masala Maggi crushed into tiny shards with the tastemaker premixed. Called Swinging Masala, also available was a Rockin Chicken variant. I’ve eaten regular Masala Maggi uncooked so this tasted pretty much the same. Except, they did live up to the crunchy experience. They are tapping a segment which has only hosted a Wai Wai and Top Ramen Mug Noodles so far. So if you find it hard to spare 2 minutes (do minit) all you need to do is open and eat!

Lay’s Baked Chips: I liked the package design, very clean, simple and straightforward. The ‘Baked’ in bold red letters screams out loud. How can one not pick one up?! There is so much guilt attached to snacking these days – guilt created. I mean if you really wanted to snack healthy why not a gajar (carrot) or kheera (cucumber) salad! This product tries to fit into this ‘healthy snacking’ segment by stating 50% less fat than fried chips. In 3 variants, Regular Salted, Herb Cream & Onion and Tomato – I bought the first two. Priced at Rs. 30 for a pack of 67 gms.

Made out of potato flakes (47%) and wheat flour (maida/flour, duh?! – also they don’t mention how much) they taste almost identical to Lay’s Stax or Pringles except they are ridged (I really wish they weren’t). Had tasted this product about three years ago in the US, liked those better mainly because they weren’t ridged. So basically we have your regular Lay’s flavours with the texture of Stax/Pringles and the claim of being baked. A funny thing, Lay’s always goes out and out to state No Transfats – here there is no mention of this – all it mentions is Fat 15.4 per 100 gms. Food for thought?

Mother Dairy Mishti Dahi: I must say they have done a really good job of bringing the yummy mishti doi to the masses. Ofcourse, nothing can replace the wet earthen pot holding the doi bought from Ganguram great grandson on Ho - Chi - Minh Sarani (yes yes, it’s a sweet shop in Kolkata and the actual name of a road). But when you’re sitting in a concrete jungle I guess one has to do with a plastic cup. Priced at Rs. 10 for a 90 gm pack, they also have a 400 gm SKU. The taste is perfect, almost store bought – once again, yes, one does miss the earthen pot.

Change is imminent..

2011-12-22T12:36:00.006+05:30

..and I love it. The change that I am talking about is a move, a move from Mumbai to Gurgaon. 400050 to 122002.

Do I miss Mumbai? Yes, at times, yes. And what is it that I really really miss?

First and foremost, Arife, which stocked all my baking goodies
The warm weather
HyperCITY
Patel/Society Store
Café Madras/Mysore (Sagar doesn’t really match)
American Express and all the other little bakeries dotting the city
Roaming around Linking Road
And the warm weather, once again

Having said that, it isn’t that I don’t like Gurgaon, although it is rather early, the list might get a little longer with time, hopefully.

Centrally located house giving me Day 1 access to all the sales. Since I am on a break, I have all the time to shop J
Spar Hypermarket and Le Marche are not bad
The Metro (which I am yet to use) – MG Road station is right at my gate. Connectivity all over is just brilliant.
Looking forward to INA Market and Flanders Dairy which promises.

But the Gurgaon list is yet to grow, so…

This post was just a list to remind me of my favorites, I have also been busy baking lemon tarts, berry muffins & whole wheat bread for Little. More posts on that will follow..

Berry muffins

2011-12-19T19:21:00.005+05:30

In my last post I cribbed about missing Hypercity – I still do – like hell. But like I also pointed out, we’ve found a close equivalent in Spar Hypermarket. Located in the MGF Metropolis, its right opposite our place (Metro stop: MG Road). Spar is a joint venture between the Dubai based Landmark Group (which also owns Lifestyle) and SPAR International (of Dutch origin).

Coming back to Spar, its well, quite your regular supermarket with all the regular stuff. Some imported stuff, though I think Le Marche would be a better option if you were looking for purely imported stuff.

Went through the chips, soft drinks routine then finally arrived at the frozen foods section. To my utter joy I discovered they stored frozen berries, which went by the name The Connoisseurs. Blueberries, raspberries, blackberries and strawberries all available. Pricing is a little steep at 150 for a 200 gm pack. The husband loves blueberry muffins, the ones you get at coffee shops are totally fraudulent – muffins with half a teaspoon of blueberry jam. Such a pity, but we used to buy a ready mix to make them almost every week. Hence, I jumped when I saw them.

Made them through the whole of last week – they were just lovely – threw in some strawberries I had as well – very moist and stayed almost a week. Here goes.

Adapted from: Joy of Baking

325 grams all-purpose flour

150 grams sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

Zest of one orange and juice (used a kinnow, which is in season)

1 egg, lightly beaten

240 ml yogurt, whisked

120 ml oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

About 350 gms frozen berries (I used blue & strawberries)

Method

· Preheat oven to 190 degrees C

· Position rack in center of oven. Line with paper liners

· In a large measuring cup or bowl whisk together the egg, yogurt, oil, and vanilla extract

· In another large bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt

· Gently fold in the berries. With a rubber spatula fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir only until the ingredients are combined

· Add orange zest and juice

· Fill each muffin cup almost full with batter

· Place in the oven and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean, about20 - 25 minutes

· Transfer to a wire rack and let cool for about 5 - 10 minutes before removing from pan

· Enjoy!

If you want to order the same (in Gurgaon), please do not hesitate to email me on shenoy.sneha@gmail.com!

Mug cake!

2011-09-29T12:01:00.005+05:30

Yeah, you heard it right! Not mud, and why call a cake a mud cake, I've always wondered? This is a Mug cake. What is a mug cake? A cake made in a mug! Simple. Its ideal to make when a chocolate craving strikes - for all it takes is 5 minutes!

'Any desert?' is a question frequently posed by the husband. Every time I've said a 'no' I feel I have let him down, terrible. Which made me look for the solution.

Chocolate always works, this mug cake is just the answer! Yummy, just like a rich fudgy chocolate cake. All you need are the a few basic ingredients and a basic microwave. Voila!

Here's the recipe (adapted from Not Quite Nigella)

Ingredients:

Dry:

4tbsp flour

5 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp cocoa

1 tbsp baking powder

Pinch salt, if using unsalted butter

Wet:

1egg

3 tbsp milk

3 tbsp butter ( you can your regular cooking oil)

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

1. First & foremost, please make sure you have 2 mugs (or bowls, which is what I ended up using) which are microwave safe & are able to hold around 250ml of liquid. Else the cake might spill over while cooking.

2. Halve the dry ingredients, add into mugs and mix well.

3. Halve wet ingredients and add into mix. As for the egg, whisk it first, then halve and add.

4. Mix well, ensuring no lumps of flour are left in the mug

5. Microwave for 2-3 minutes (depending on how powerful your microwave is) on medium heat.

It should be cooked, but still a bit gooey too. Also, when you wait for it cool, it continues cooking. So make sure you don't overcook.

Thats it! Enjoy!

You can also add chocolate chips, chopped nuts or serve it with a scoop of icecream!

Baking and Craft

2011-09-13T22:49:00.012+05:30

Two of my favorite pastimes, the former having proven far more 'expensive' (at the expense of me putting on oodles of weight) I turned to the latter.

I decided to give quilling, a go.

First a bit on the former pastime. For the hubby's birthday, here is all that I baked.

Birthday macarons:

Birthday cake: Black forest

That was in June - some other baking also happened in between - Viennese Sables (not my cuppa chai - hence no post), many a brownie & cookie & cupcake & muffin, lots of waffles (technically not baking, but oh what the hell) and so on.

So that was that.

My pursuit for a suitable crafting hobby ended in zeroing on quilling. What is quilling - basically strips of colored paper are rolled and shaped and then further glued together to make pretty much anything you want.

Here's what I made - ok I don't own one of those SLRs which click the breath taking pics, so these have been taken with my phone - it gives one a rough idea.

Night folks!

Picture post

2011-05-29T23:31:00.006+05:30

The strawberry season came, it went. Beautiful, ain't they?

Here are some strawberry custard tarts.

That was desert, for dinner there was stuffed mushrooms (parsley & mozzarella cheese) and spinach & goat's cheese pizza.

Thoroughly enjoyed our meal!

Fruits with a heart of stone

2011-05-29T22:04:00.007+05:30

Many reasons why I love summer

Mangoes
Peaches
Cherries
Apricots
Litchis
Time to celebrate Little's birthday!

The fruits have hit the market in a big way, and the crop seems to be pretty good too. Juicy peaches and the darkest of cherries. Litchis with their juice running down your hands! Simply gorgeous.

Went by a fruit seller today, and he had the loveliest looking fruit. Bought a whole box of cherries, some peaches and litchis. Alas, with the cherries, the bottom-most layer was the not so great fruit. A risk one takes with buying a whole box. Quickly, quickly - the bottom-most layer had to be turned into something more palatable. Hence the crumble (British) or crisp (American).

Pitting cherries is easy, but time-taking - slice an 'X' into both ends then squeeze! The seed just pops out. Bored? Want to try another method? Cut around the seed and voila! there you have it! Else I believe there is a supposedly a gadget called a 'pitter'! Self explanatory I think.

Bottom-most layer was pitted and turned into a glass dish. About a cup and a half of cherries. I added a cup of sliced peaches for good measure. I used a combination of oats (about a cup) & butter (about 3 tbsp) for the topping, omitting the flour altogether - trying to keep the dish as healthy as possible. Added a bit of brown sugar to the fruit as well as topping.

The flavor of the peaches dominated the dish, cherries added a nice tartness.

I did manage to take a picture..until

Along came a Little fella! Who insisted on biting into a peach (he has 4 teeth which need to be used you see) and then wanted a taste of the crumble!

Having said and done all of this, I'd much rather eat peaches & cherries - however, this is a great way to use up fruit which is not all that eat worthy.

Cheesecake wonders

2011-05-25T11:24:00.005+05:30

Cheesecake is something I've always wanted to make, never got around to, as I refused to buy the oh so expensive Philly cream cheese available here in Mumbai. Come April, I had three boxes of cream cheese in the refrigerator (thanks to T), come May, there were only two :-( The Mumbai weather to blame, the third which I had opened to use as a spread succumbed to fungus :-(

On a brighter note, this is what the others were turned into: An Oreo cookie cheesecake & Brownie cheesecake! Both adapted from The Purple Foodie.

Ya ya, so they seem a bit frugal - but what was I to do! Just two 200 gm. boxes of the good stuff.

The brownie cheesecake doesn't have a recipe as such - it was made with the main purpose of using up a batch of burnt brownies. Biscuit base, followed by ground brownies and then a layer of baked cheesecake. Heaven!

The Oreo cheesecake goes as follows:

Ingredients

28 Oreo cookies, powdered (I didn't have as many so I used a combination of Oreo & Digestive biscuits - worked very well
3 tbsp butter
200 gms. cream cheese
70g sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
90 gms. cream
A few Oreo cookies, chopped up for embellishment

Method

Line an 8 inch pan with foil, both base and the sides.
Mix together the powdered oreo cookies and melted butter and press it into the pan. Make sure it is tightly packed in.
Whisk the cream cheese and sugar in the bowl until smooth. Add the vanilla extract, followed by the egg, and the cream, mix until it is smooth. Stir in the chopped Oreo cookies and pour it over the crust in the cake pan. Top with a few more Oreo cookies and bake in a preheated oven at 160°C in a water bath for 35-45 minutes. The cheesecake won't set completely, will be a bit gooey.
Once cooled, refrigerate the cake for at least 3-4 hours before slicing up.

What is a water bath you ask? Use a larger pan containing boiling water and place the smaller cheesecake baking pan in it. One of the best ways to bake a cheesecake. The science behind it - the water bath will never get hotter than 100C , whatever the temperature of the oven maybe. Essentially this means the cheesecake bakes uniformly, therefore making sure it doesn't sink or crack.

The Oreo cheesecake was T's lunch for 2 days in a row!

Coming up next Viennese chocolate sables - thanks to M!

I'm back..I'm back..

2010-10-06T15:21:00.006+05:30

After a rather long hiatus..was busy with a bun in the oven, 'Little' turns 5 months this Friday!

Speaking of ovens, the tray from mine seems to have mysteriously disappeared. I have called Morphy Richards asking for a replacement, but that IS going to take a while. That leaves me with using my innovation with the stove top.

Started with Dulce de Leche (doolsay day laychay). Simpler to make than pronounce. Take a can of condensed milk, stick it in the pressure cooker for 45 mins and lo you have this very yummy yummy desert ready. Eat it with stewed pineapple, sandwiched between biscuits or just as is.

Decided to make a chocolate-dulce de leche ice cream, with all the extra milk - almost a litre - lying at home. Its freezing away right now, recipe will follow soon.

Toodles for now!

Chocolate-drizzled praline cookies

2009-01-15T22:18:00.011+05:30

“A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand”

The husband and I love 'Crossword' bookstore. We always tend to chance upon some great bargains. One such was 'The Little Guide to Cookies'!

This book contains over 60 recipes, all absolutely fabulous and all at Rs. 125! The best part of the book is that is gives detailed illustrations and techniques (written & pictorially depicted) on how to put these cookies together. The book is divided into 7 sections: drop, bar, cutout, sliced, shaped & molded, pressed and special cookies with ingredients (or atleast close substitutes!) that can be found in stores.

Look at the some of the fabulous stuff one can find in this book!

I decided to start with the very first recipe, Chocolate-drizzled praline cookies. The recipe starts with this note, "Be careful not to over bake these pecan-laden (here walnut) treats: they are best when nice and chewy. Begin to check for doneness after about 5 minutes.

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

125 gms butter, softened
220 gms brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla extract
185 gms flour
125 gms toasted pecan or walnuts (which is what I used)
90 gms semi sweet chocolate chips (this was only for the chocolate-drizzle, I added about 2 tbsp into the batter)
1 tsp shortening (I had none)

Method:

1. In a medium bowl beat the butter with an electric beater on medium or high speed for 30 sec
2. Add the brown sugar and baking powder beat till combined
3. Beat in egg and vanilla
4. Stir in flour with a spatula or wooden spoon
5. Drop dough with a rounded spoon 2 inches apart and bake in a preheated oven for 8-10 mins.
6. Remove cookies and cool.
7. In a plastic piping bag, add the chips and shortening, and melt over warm water.
8. Snip off a small corner and pipe over cookies.

Now, I'm not used to the luxuries of using chocolate chips for the purpose of melting, simply for the purpose of convenience! Oh no! I chop up the chocolate into bite sized morsels and melt away. Chips are strictly for decoration! Its sacrilege to melt them, especially when not so freely available! So when I saw chips in the list of ingredients I naturally assumed they were for the batter and happily started adding tbsp after another - until I read what the method bit of the recipe said. Regular dark chocolate was used for the drizzle.

Also, I halved the recipe.

Give us today our daily bread

2008-12-29T23:06:00.003+05:30

I loooove the smell of freshly baked bread! Home-baked bread disappears faster than one can spell b-r...Continuing all the wonderful times of my baking classes, decided to make a cannelloni (which by the way my help at home has learnt to perrfection!) with garlic and cheese bread was made for dinner.

The yeast is still at home in abundance, so much so that naans (also perfected by my help!) are now becoming part of daily fare!

To add a bit on break-making, important to follow. The process of letting the dough rise is known as proving. During the whole proving of the dough the yeast are multiplying, feeding on the sugar that is present. Carbon dioxide is produced, and this fills up the tiny gas pockets generated during the kneading of the dough

Once the dough has doubled in size it is important to knock the dough, this is similar to kneading. The dough is punched after which it is kneaded gently for a short time. The aim is to remove any air pockets which have might formed in the dough, create an even texture in the bread and redistribute the yeast, allowing fermentation to continue. The dough can then be proved a second time.

Here's the recipe!

Ingredients:
Flour - 250 gms
Yeast - 15 gms (1 tbsp - fresh yeast)
Warm milk - 50 ml
Sugar - 10 gms (2 tsp)
Butter - 15 gms
Salt - 5 gms
Water - as required
Cheese - 75 gms (8-0)
Garlic - 10 flakes

Method:

Disperse yeast along with sugar in a little warm milk and keep aside for 2-3 mins

Sieve flour into a marble top (preferably) and make a well in the centre

Pour yeast mixture , add water as required to make a soft dough (do not knead)

Mix butter and salt and ix it into the the a smooth dough

Cover the dough with a wet cloth (e.g. muslin) and leave till it rises to almost double in size ('proving')

Take the dough and knead it on the marlble top again - add in chopped garlic and half the cheese

Shape into loaf and place on well greased baking tray and prove again till it doubles in size

Once done brush with egg wash (I use a milk walk which is 50 ml with 1 tsbp of sugar)

Sprinkle with remaining cheese and bake in oven at 200 degrees celcius

When done sprinkle with melted butter!

The cheese and garlic can be replaced with almost any filling you wish, mushrooms, olives, herbs, paneer etc.

All ready to be served for dinner!

Flat, baked, square or ...

2008-12-23T15:49:00.014+05:30

..sliced from a type of dense, rich chocolate cake.Brownies come in a variety of forms. They are either fudgy or cakey, depending on their density, and they may include nuts, frosting, cream cheese, chocolate chips, or other ingredients. A variation that is made with brown sugar and no chocolate is called a blondie.

Thats the Wikipedia definition for a brownie.

Been on a brownie marathon baking marathon today, so much so that I have yet to start my packing, when its 10:41 PM and there's a flight at 8 AM tomorrow to saddi dilli! (Blogging a bit later would be a good idea, right now!)

With X'mas celebrated by the family (in-laws), there's always an exchange of gifts, and you guessed it, this year I intend giving all brownies.

Took the day off today to bake!! Haha!! With ingredients such as nougat & chocolate chips not available at regular stores, a trip to Arife La Moulde (opp. Shoppers stop, Bandra (W)) was mandatory. A visit to such shops is always leaves me confused; I end up buying a lot of junk as well. Like the last time I ended up with coloured decorative sprinkles, and this time it was ginger bread man (& woman) cookie cutters.

Fudgy chocolate chip brownies (makes about 16)

Ingredients:

Buttter - 100 gms
Chocolate - 100 gms
Eggs - 3
Castor sugar - 300 gms
Flour - 150 gms
Chocolate chips - 75 gms

Method:
- Preheat oven to 180° celcius
- Grease and line a 9” square tin
- Melt butter and chocolate together, personally I prefer using the microwave over the double boiler, but remember turn down the power of the microwave to about 60% if the wattage is over 1000.
- Whisk eggs and castor sugar
- Add chocolate mixture
- Add in flour and chocolate chips
- Pour into tin and bake for 35-40 minutes

Ideally, one is supposed to bake brownies only 90%, eggophobic me refuses to comply with any such instruction (it’s a miracle I manage to bake anything with 3 eggs – but omelets I love!)

Blonde brownies (makes about 32)

Ingredients:

Flour – 500 gms
Baking powder – 2 ½ tsp
Butter – 150 gms
Brown sugar – 500 gms
Eggs – 3
Chocolate chips – 125 gms
Walnuts – 200 gms
Nougat chips – 50 gms

Method:
- Preheat oven to 180° celcius
- Grease and line a square tin
- Mix the chips and walnuts
- Sift baking powder, flour and add ¾ the above mixture
- Cream butter with brown sugar, add in eggs
- Add in the flour mixture, at this point you might need to mix it all with your hands as it forms a dense dough like texture
- Press into the tin and bake for 25-30 minutes

Have a look - I’ve yet to pack the them; well first I start with mine own then pack the brownies!

Merry Xmas!

What next

2008-12-22T23:31:00.005+05:30

Lazy, lazy, lazy, SO lazy - here's a gist of all that I've been busy baking and making, posts of which will follow soon..

Garlic and cheese bread
Baked cheese cake
Sticky toffee and date pudding

Here's a lovely pic of Worli (near Haji Ali) from our car, we were headed to Swati in Mahalaxmi for snacks. We were stuck at this exact same spot for about 45 mins!

The King of Tortes

2008-12-10T10:00:00.013+05:30

I've been admiring Passionate about baking's Chocolate walnut torte ever since it was posted in early November. Yummee only!

Finally made it yesterday, the results in my opinion were fairly disastrous. To start with, the walnuts refused to get ground finely. I was worried they'd get oily and bitter (like almonds) if I over did them in the food processor. Next, I had to turn to my husband's expertise (he excels in meringue making and baking in general) for the egg beating - the whites refused to form peaks even after 15 mins. My patience gave way after those 15 mins and I found myself mixing (instead of folding) all the ingredients and baking them.

The end result was quite a surprise, it was definitely not a good looking torte, but very tasty, especially when chilled.

Ingredients:

Butter - 2 tbsps, chilled
Walnuts - 1 1/2 cups
Eggs - 4
Granulated sugar - 1/4 cup

Vanilla essence - 1 1/2 tsp
Powdered sugar - 1/4 cup
Dark chocolate - 100 grams, melted and cooled
Instant coffee powder - 3 tsps
Hot water - 2 tbsps

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 C.
One is supposed to use a spring form pan, I don't own one, so just used a regular 9 inch circular pan lined with butter paper.
Run walnuts in the food processor with 1 tbsp of sugar till ground. Drop in 2 tbsps of chilled butter & pulse till it all comes together (this did not happen :-( when I made it)
Press nuts evenly onto bottom and sides of the pan.
Separate the egg, putting the whites into a large bowl - ensure not a single drop of yellow gets into the white.
Beat the yolks with an electric mixer on high speed about 5 minutes or until thick and and the colour lightens to a lemony yellow
Gradually beat in 1/4 cup of the granulated sugar & the essence.
Beat in melted chocolate with a spatula.
Dissolve instant coffee powder in hot water, stir into chocolate mixture.
Wash and dry beaters of mixer (very important - I was in too much of a hurry, which might have been the reason for the flat egg whites.
In a large bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form.
Gradually add the remaining 1/4 cup of powdered sugar, beat until stiff peaks form. (Tip from the husband: sugar helps in the formation of stiff peaks, hence proportion is very important) .
Pour chocolate mixture over the egg whites; gently fold in (I mixed away in agony).
Spread evenly in spring form pan.
Bake for 20-25 minutes of until set.
Cool in pan on wire rack for 15 minutes.

To serve, sift powdered sugar over the torte - I made a star shaped pattern on the cake oops torte.

My share of the yummy torte.

Bagel Shop - Part II

2008-12-08T20:56:00.010+05:30

I've been itching to make bagels ever since a visit to the Bagel shop. Multiple attempts to make bread with the dry yeast one gets in shops were met with complete failure. Until I attended these baking classes ,where not only did I find lots of confidence, but a whole lot of fresh yeast, to be precise half a kilo! So there's been whole wheat bread, garlic and cheese bread, bread rolls etc. etc. And then I thought, why not bagels!

Anyways, without getting into the intricacies of the ingredients (which I'll probably describe in another blog) the process of making the bagel was a whole lot of fun. Like described earlier, bagels are cooked in boiling water before baking. I read up a whole lot of recipes, taking bits from here and there. Some recipes spoke about using caramelised water for boiling the bagels - I thought it better to cut out the sugar and added a a bit of baking powder instead in attempt to make the bagels fluffy. Some others mentioned proving the dough overnight, which is what I did - it made the bagels chewier.

The end result

Chomp! Chomp! Chomp! The bagels were just yummy.

This what they looked like, fresh from the oven, had one for breakfast.

On a chocolatey note, went for a chocolate making class this weekend!! The class was just lovely, found it hard to believe some of the stuff, just look! We even got our own individual decorative bags, which we filled with the chocolate we made to take back home!

Broken hearted

2008-12-06T22:07:00.001+05:30

Pineapple season is supposedly from July to September. In Mumbai however I've seen it available almost through out the year. We've suddenly rediscovered it yumminess and have been buying it almost everyday. I love the way the fruit vendors deftly peel and chop fruit, resulting in packet full of starry discs. Did you know pineapple is a good source of vitamin A and B and fairly rich in vitamin C and minerals like calcium, magnesium, potassium and iron?

Of late there's been a lot of chocolate baking at home, be it cookies, brownies, cupcakes - ALL chocolate! We love chocolate, but at the same time change was most welcome.

Another of Nigella Lawson's recipes. The only ingredient I omitted was candied cherries. Add if you have access to them, will definitely add colour to the cake.

Pineapple upside down cake

Ingredients
2 tablespoons sugar
6 slices pineapple (fresh or from the can - I used fresh, but ofcourse!)
3 tablespoons pineapple juice (Tropicana)
100g flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon soda bicarbonate
100g soft butter
100g caster sugar
2 eggs
butter for greasing

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 200°C. Butter a tin

2. Sprinkle the 2 tablespoons of sugar on top of the buttered base, and then arrange the pineapple slices to fill up the base
3. Mix flour, baking powder, soda bicarb, butter, caster sugar and eggs

4. Pour in the 3 tablespoons of pineapple juice to thin it a little
5. Pour this mixture carefully over the pineapple; it will only just cover it, so spread it out gently
6. Bake for 30 minutes, then ease a knife around the edge of the tin, place a plate on top and, with move, turn it upside-down

It turned out just lovely, light and fluffy, super moist, with a subtle flavour of the pineapple, with a juicy slice of pineapple to top it off. It looked so so tempting, a piece was cut off even before I could take a picture, and as I write this blog most of it has been eaten by the husband and just the husband alone!

Fresh bread anyone

2008-11-30T19:14:00.001+05:30

Recently visited a bread baking class! 'Proved' to be LOTS of fun, lo and behold this is what we baked!

The works!

Chelsea buns!

Fresh loaf of bread - lovely!

Healthy soup sticks!

Assorted shapes - bread rolls

Too chocolatey chocolate chip cookies

2008-11-30T17:39:00.001+05:30

Now HOW is that possible, HOW can there be any such thing as too much chocolate! Nigella Lawson fans will find it hard to comprehend! So here's the modified recipe (with good reason for modification).

Well it was one of Nigella's shows that I got is recipe from. Forcing the husband to watch it, I haughtily proclaimed I had ALL the ingredients for the cookies Nigella has just made, inadvertently throwing myself a challenge which the 'enthusiasticly supporting' (to quote him) husband swiftly extended. That was when I realised, I was short of butter and the chips! Hence all ingredients here represent quantities I had at home. For all those who wish to follow Nigella's footsteps, visit her spanking new website which has recipe.

Total comfort food.

Totally chocolate, chocolate chip cookies
Ingredients:
125 gms dark chocolate

105 gms unsalted butter (used regular Amul)
125 gms sugar (75 gms brown sugar/50 gms regular sugar)
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 cold egg

150 plain flour
30 gms cocoa
1 tsp baking soda

300 gms chocolate chips

Method:
- Preheat oven to 170 degrees
- Melt chocolate (I find it easier using the microwave, takes only about 30 sec; my last double boiler episode resulted in a disaster with the chocolate all falling into the water :-(
- Sift flour, cocoa and soda
- Cream butter and sugars, when fluffy add melted chocolate, then vanilla essence, finally the cold egg
- Add sifted ingredients & finally the chips
- Bake for 15 mins

I think they came out just fine, albeit overly chocolatey! The next time, I intend cutting down the amount of chips by a third. There was also an element of disaster this time, I used silicon baking sheets for the first time; luckily baked only 4 cookies, ALL of which burnt! Am sticking to my regular wire rack with foil method henceforth.

Milk (that was all I had at home) and cookies

Bagels & salads..

2008-09-11T18:19:00.000+05:30

The innumerable visits to the reviews on Burrp & the countless attempts at actually locating the place, today (another day in my life) finally resulted in moments of joy.

After reading the review for Gloria Jean, I was most curious to step in. Call it serendipity or just my strong desire to visit the Bagel Shop, I bump into this friend in Bandra (I was on my way to GJ mind you!) who goes “hey lets go to the bagel shop, its AWESOME!”

For the benefit of those who have been attempting to locate this place & haven’t quite managed there are two ways of approaching it. Either take the turn where Basilico, Papa Pancho, Mia Cucina (all those who haven’t – please do go – amazing!) etc. are, then a right, and then a left (the road slopes upwards) and then a left again. If you take the right one reach the Fab India on Pali Hill. The alternate is to take the turn where the Police Commissioner’s office is on Carter Road – drive slowly for two reasons, the pathetic road; two, lest you miss the Bagel Shop! Once there - the place has a lovely Goan feel to it, despite being in a congested by lane of Bandra. But I can’t help say that the overall feel is a bit cramped.

All bakers & bread makers will probably want to shoot me for saying this, but I think a pretty good job has been done at glorifying regular bread in various shapes and sizes, fancy names, but with pretty much the same taste. One such example would be the bagel. However, I did read that a bagel is the only bread that is boiled before being baked resulting in a crisp crust & light spongy interior.

With this review restricted to the vegetarian assortment on the menu, the only comment I can make on the non-veg selection would be - given the way my friend was chomping on the sausage bagel, am pretty sure it was amazing. The bagel by itself was anything but spongy, but crisp it was (& a tad greasy).

I had the herbed cream cheese bagel with sun dried tomatoes. The cream cheese just oozes out of the bagel, spilling it on clothes, floor, table, basically all over. It’s also available without the herb, with herbs it varies from pepper, mixed herbs etc. There was also a garlic bagel & one with oven roasted veggies. In the sweet varieties there’s honey & banana, nutella, jam (strawberry, raspberry, blueberry). There were the more exotic varieties with goat’s cheese, however didn’t think it worth spending something like 200 bucks on a bagel. Had the lemon ginger tea – quite nice. Don’t add sugar.

Overall a 3 star experience – I thought it was a tad expensive. The total bill of Rs. 442 consisted of:
1 Non-veg bagel
1 Herbed cream cheese bagel
2 lemon ginger teas
1 blueberry jam bagel

Also, the way the jam was served separately from the bagel, was something I didn't quite appreciate.

If you thought the bagel meant a quick bite then this is not place to swing by. Take a leisurely 2-3 hours (atleast) and given the service turn around time, this is the minimum amount of time one would spend!

Not so Italian job…

2008-09-11T18:18:00.001+05:30

My review if written more than two years ago would have placed it fairly high in a list of must visit Italian eateries in Mumbai – after my visit today, it’s been knocked off that list.

For starters (pun intended) the choice is just okay. The bruschetta has gotten progressively soggier by the day, although I would still like to maintain that it is quite tasty. Lots of extra virgin olive oil though. The dips that accompany the grizzini are very flavorful, worth a try. The soups hardly deserve a mention, and hence I won’t.

There is a fair bit of choice for vegetarians, although it only covers the stereotyped definition of Italian food pizza & pasta. No polenta, linguini, gnocchi etc.

If a place is named such that people can judge the specialty of the place, it should have gone by the name of Pizza Kitchen. Then again, if you are one who likes the Dominos variety of pizza with the thick base, then you should stick to the not so good pasta. Confused eh? I don’t think so; the waiters would beat anyone on that front. Most of them are clueless on what the dishes contain & the others try your patience in their attempts to explain what the dishes are.

The spaghetti aglio olio was far too oily even though the name of the dish translates to spaghetti with oil & garlic. Order any pasta with a tomato based sauce, and they all taste the same except with the variation of the type of pasta used. The pasta alla Siciliana is also just okay.

I’ve always loved their tiramisu, which I will maintain continues to be pretty good, the pretty bad part if is that the quantity has been reduced by half. Boo hoo!

Looking back maybe I’ve given a scathing review, but my opinion I think stems from the fact that this place has gradually deteriorated over the two years I’ve visited them.

Overall, an okay okay experience.

American Express Bakery - Small pleasures

2008-09-11T18:17:00.000+05:30

Theobroma, is the only bakery/patisserie I had heard of before moving to Mumbai. My love for it could run into pages, but I’m not going to dwell on that here. My first two wonderful (in retrospect) years in Mumbai were spent in the posh area of Bandra West.

Once walking on Hill Road, which doesn’t posses any posh-ness that one would associate with Bandra, I came across a modest looking place called ‘American Express’ Bakery. At first, was a little wary of entering this place as there is a laundry right door bearing the same name! The bakery is open in the evening and shuts at 8:30. Never been able to figure out if they are open mornings as well.

An ideal place for the health conscious, they have a wide range of breads & biscuits in the whole wheat variety. The USP of this place I would say is some fairly fancy stuff at very affordable rates.

A limited variety of tea-time cakes & pies are available. The Hungarian Coffee Cake is definitely worth savoring; very moist with just the right taste of coffee. The quiches are well-made with a fair choice for non-vegetarians as well (I’m veg. so can’t comment). The wraps are tasty, but usually soggy, hence avoidable.

The basil & sun-dried tomatoes loaf is worth a savor, and makes a good accompaniment with a salad. Or just heat in the oven and have it as is! The garlic bread with a whole wheat base, shaped like a loaf of French bread (du pain) with a lovely soft garlicky centre.

The blueberry cheesecake has a lovely fresh taste to it. Although, I’ve never tried the chocolate based delights, as that’s reserved for Theobroma (darn! I was not to mention the name) they all look delectable.

Owned by Goans, it’s a fun place to visit during Easter, X’Mas etc. Easter eggs, hot cross buns, marzipans, christmas cake, guava jelly, the list is endless.

On being asked why they called themselves Amercian Express, I was told it was because they catered to American ships that visited Bombay, and the service they rendered was speedy or express. The baking is done at Byculla, and the owner proudly added we’re a fine example of communal harmony; we’ve got Hindus, Muslims, Christians working under the same roof since we’ve been in operation (that’s nearly a century) and have had no problem till date. It helps if the owner is around; she's always glad to suggest something new, which once may miss.

Best of the South in Central Mumbai

2008-09-11T17:44:00.001+05:30

Café Madras is a tricky destination if you don’t know your way around Kings Circle, Sion. Everytime we end up doing atleast 2 chakkars before we zero in on its location. This time around, I found a landmark – an eatery which has its name on a bright blue neon board with Reliance Communication written on it is where one takes the left.

Waiting before you get a table seems to be an accepted norm here. The young man at the door smiles sweetly & confirms that we should be seated in the next twenty minutes, which you so want to believe. Breakfast is easier to catch I guess, with less of a wait, depending on when you arrive.

Etched on the stone walls at the entrance are the words, Café Madras, open since 1940. Timings: 7am – 2:30 pm, 4pm – 11pm. It also says the establishment is shut on Mondays.

Fifty minutes later, out of which about forty eight were spent with my sister & I staring at the young man, came our table. Thoughts on ambience etc. etc. should all be discarded before you enter. The staff is extremely friendly, including the gentleman at the door. I liked the fact that they recommend stuff, rather than routinely take one’s order down.

Move over all you Udipi-style restaurants. The food is out of the world, and since I was brought up in Chennai, you can definitely take my word for it. This is probably the only place in Mumbai which serves authentic mulagapodi (commonly referred to as gun powder by most North Indians). We had a Raagi Rava Dosa, which makes it a tad healthier than the regular version made out of maida. The servings are not big, but enough to fill a normal appetite as most of the items are made with ghee.

We skipped desert, but ended the meal with lovely filter coffee, excessively sweet, but heavenly. Aaah!

The bill for four of us was Rs. 255/- and the following was what we had:

· 1 plate upma
· 1 plate rasam vada
· 3 rava dosas (one of them ragi)
· 2 ghee dosas
· 1 ginger lemon cooler & soft drink
· 2 filter coffees.

Only drawbacks:
· You guessed it, the waaaaait…
· The parking, our vehicle was at the other end of the world. If in a group, its best that atleast one gets off to get their name on the list, while the rest look for parking.

Overall the experience, as a true Chennai’ite would say, voray soopera!

Gee-wiz-dumb!

2008-08-20T09:53:00.000+05:30

Time flies like an arrow and fruit flies like a banana. In my wisdomless days it took me a while to comprehend, and then…it was all hahahaha!! And now in all my wisdom..no longer funny. (GEE)

(Another of Groucho Marx’s to add to the hahas:
“Q: What do you get when you cross an insomniac, an agnostic, and a dyslexic?A: Someone who stays up all night wondering if there is a Dog.”
Hahahaha!! )

Speaking of wisdom, have wisdom teeth graced any of you? Trivia: the absence of wisdom teeth is referred to as hypodontia. Generally they are referred to as wisdom teeth because they appear in one’s mid twenties or so. Now, I was destined to be wise too, but my dentist uncle was most eager to snatch all my wisdom away claiming my teeth were ‘impacted’. At 23, I was sans 2 wisdom teeth. It was not until my late 20s (OMG!) that the tooth fairy decided to bestow upon me some more wisdom. It’s been six months and there are still little bits of wisdom sprouting out in some corner of my poor gum. (WIZ)

Sadly, not so wise were some dumb flies who managed to find their way into my home. To describe my bedroom, two cupboards (with mirrors) face the large sliding windows that adorn the opposite wall. With the windows open, the reflection of the view is obviously what you see in the mirror. Now there were these two flies, somewhat bored with their current surroundings – who decided to explore. (DUMB)

Adventurous maybe, harebrained (or flybrained) they definitely were –repeatedly flying into the reflection, banging into the mirror every 10 seconds, in an attempt to fly out of the room! In the process, one of them eventually killed itself..I wonder why but I laughed out loud, albeit I did feel sorry for the dead fly. Wonder if there is someone huge being out there watching us all tiny creatures as well...

Speaking of great big people, the head of our business the other day was in the mood to distribute gyaan. One to talk and talk and talk, he goes on about how one should see the picture, from 30,000 feet and blah. At the end of the discussion, on coming out of the cabin, a colleague goes “haan haan pehle tees hazaar feet ka view dikhake, phir vahan se ek bada dhakka”

Conversations other than those from 30,000 feet in Mumbai over the months of June, July, August and maybe September even usually have one common topic. The rains, or this year the lack of them. In a way it unites all of Mumbaikars, especially after the debacle in 2005.

Year 2008 seems to have reversed the above situation. According to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) “the six lakes from which Mumbai gets its supply of water could sustain the city’s need for another 100 days at the most”. What alarmed was this statement – “Mumbai uses 3,350 million litres of water daily”
(Source: DNA)

To end this, I read somewhere that Sonu Sood (who? pseud?) requested a rain-sequence in an upcoming film to be shot with mineral water and not the normal water usually used. Why? Because, he found his hair completely ruined when ‘normal’ water is used.

Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake……

2008-08-19T15:22:00.000+05:30

…………………………baker's man.
Bake me a cake as fast as you can.
Pat it and roll it and mark it with "B"
And put it in the oven for Baby and me.

Finally bought myself a muffin tray with 250 of those cute paper cups. This is what became of all the batter that went into the tray, nice ne c’est pas?

Its called Devil’s Food Cupcakes. Am not sure of the authenticity of this, but I read some where that until the first half of the 19th century chocolate was not used as an ingredient in cakes!!
(Aren’t I glad was born in 1980)

Now, why is it called devil’s food cake? Perhaps the enormous quantities of cocoa & dark chocolate that go into making it. Also, baking soda used as one of the ingredients is supposed to cause reddening of the cocoa powder when baked (didn’t detect a faintest trace of this though).
Also, contrasts with the Angel cake which is light, white & fluffy – which translates to lots of egg & egg whites (blech).

Anyways, here’s the recipe for those who might want to try it out, makes about 9 cupcakes.

Ingredients:

Butter – ½ cup melted
· Cocoa – ¾ cup
· Dark chocolate - 50 gms chopped into bits (about 9-10 tbsp chopped)
· Eggs – 1
· Sugar - 3/4 cup (can use a bit of cinnamon flavored sugar as well)
· Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
· Flour - 3/4 cup
· Baking powder - 3/4 tsp
· Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
· Salt - 1/2 tsp (no need to use if using Amul butter, preferably use the new variety with reduced salt)
· Butter milk - 1/2 cup (mix equal amounts of water & yoghurt)

Method
Mix melted butter with sugar
Add the buttermilk – mix
Whisk in beaten egg with vanilla
Sift cocoa, flour, baking powder and soda
Add one spoon at a time to the liquid mixture
Line muffin tray with paper cups, spoon 1 tbsp of batter, add about 1 tsp of chopped up dark chocolate bits, follow up with another 1 tbsp of batter
Bake at 175 degrees celcius for about 20 mins
Enjoy!

Old is gold

2008-04-16T23:07:00.000+05:30

A really really old post, am not going to get into why I didn't post it, so here goes.

Life and its uneventfulness

Its been a while since I visited the world of blogging, infact had to pop into Z’s blog to get the hyperlink to mine. God only knows what prompted me to get a name as complicated as aspoonf.. whatever..

And then came the topic..and nothing in particular came to mind. Now how uneventful could my life me that it was impossible to manage leave alone a couple of paragraphs, but a couple of lines.

Hence I have come to the conclusion that I’ll generally put together this and that, observations, happenings (not necessarily in life)..and for the lack of any other word this and that.

· I finally met a person who shares her birth-date with me. Well she isn’t born in the same year, but isn’t this one of those not so common coincidences. Amongst famous people I know of there are Matthew Perry (more famously known as Chandler Bing of F.R.I.E.N.D.S fame) & Bill Clinton.
· Went to this rather intriguing place called “Blue Frog”. Now now, I know the name may conjure up a thousand images, but the place is worth a visit, even if just once. The only negative is the seating area in the club consists of these “pods” which consist of a sunken seating area. Although the prices are fairly cha-ching-$$, and the menu fairly obscure, it’s the live music from around the world & country (I guess) that makes all the cha-chinging to the last penny/paisa. A month-wise calendar is put up for one’s convenience, check it out on http://bluefrog.co.in/cms/home.html
· Our Co. has started this system of car pooling. I have some rather enthu & polite co-passengers, who are very enthu about getting their car. So net net, I have stopped driving all together. The last time I filled a full tank of petrol was 12th February, and there’s still another quarter tank left to go.
· Chocohotopots – the deadliest of desserts I’ve ever made. All fans of Nigella Lawson would’ve definitely seen this. Mmmmmm..and those who have not & would love to dig into this baked to a crisp on top but sink into a gooey choccolatey calorific beneath, let me know, will share it with you.
· Well, what can I say; life is no longer uneventful after all. Have moved out of Bandra, into Santa Cruz. Its a bigger house and we pay less rent! And it also effectively ends my dormant status as far as the car pool is concerned :-(

Roof is falling

2008-01-30T12:34:00.000+05:30

Imagine your phone rings on a regular weekday, around 6 in the evening. You look at the screen and thanks to something called CLIP (Caller Line Identity Presentation) I knew its my neighbour. Now, I’d called my neighbour, Aunty T earlier in the day to ask her to pass on a message to my help at home, and well assumed this call would be some clarification on our dinner (that was my message).

I put on my most cheerful voice, answer the phone and the conversation goes something like this:

Me: Hi Aunty T (from hereon referred to as AT)
AT: Snehaaaa ( her was quivering..I assumed it was age..she must be atleast 90) … there’s been a huge mishap...in your house
(Me Thinking: Oh no! Maybe Tripps (my help) had made peeli dal instead of kaali)
Me Speaking now: Yes Aunty, what happened? Has Tripps not turned up? Or is she asking for something..
AT: No Snehaaaa…your roof has collapsed!!

The rest of the conversation is all a haze, mainly because it happened about 1.25 years ago and I have now forgotten.

Going back to the roof. My immediate thoughts were not of horror or dismay or consternation (and just incase you’re wondering, no I did not use the thesaurus). My brain just pictured the damn thing. A gaping hole in our roof (given that we live on the top most floor). Allowing the starts & moonlight (and god knows what else) to flood our living room, where the roof had collapsed.

I zoomed the fastest our car could zoom (the Alto starts trembling once you hit the 60 kmph mark).

Well what troubled me more was that T & I were to leave for Chennai (where my parents live) the next day. Whatta pain! The thought that this trip might get cancelled troubled me all the way to Bandra.

And thanks to Cool & his cooler N76, I am saved the task of describing the condition of the roof & living room.

Our house that evening became a mini tourist attraction in Bandra(W) with more than half the building visiting to see the fiasco. Most of them appeared more shocked than T and me, some egging us on to sue the Society/Land lord etc. etc.

Anyway,..our trip happened, the roof got repaired (thanks to the landlords daughter partly moving to our house in our absence) and finally cracks have started reappearing.

They say "Alls well that ends well" – well, we are waiting & watching.

Flights of Fantasy

2008-01-25T18:38:00.000+05:30

For all those from the ICSE Board, no am not referring to the poetry book which formed part of our English curriculum. This is an effort to recap all the bizarre incidents that I can recall at airports/ on aircrafts.

- Your name being called out in an aircraft full of passengers, with the steward announcing – “Will the woman carrying this bottle of alchohol please identify herself”

- The Captain announcing “We are having some problem landing, there is a dog on the runway – our ground staff is working at its level best at chasing it”

- Flight not taking off due to a “tachnical wather problem” (refer earlier blog)

- The seat indicated on my boarding card being allotted to 3 other people. I completed the journey sitting on one of those collapsible seats on which the airhostesses sit. (They have a name, which I am unable to recollect)

- On landing in Heathrow, in the city of my dreams, the first sentence I hear on entering the airport.” In saare gore logo ko danda maar kar line mein khade karvana hai (I apologise for my Hindi here)

An old granny flying for the first time insisted on opening the window saying “khidki kholni hai” (and I am not making this up)

Ok I can't think of anymore, and I guess have overblogged. So adios for now.

First Impressions

2008-01-23T12:15:00.000+05:30

This write-up saw its beginning on a train to Rome..the first time I saw an Italian fight – and by that I don’t mean a single Italian – but an bunch of them fighting – amusing it certainly was. There were the both of us watching them bemusedly!

Italy, France – I’ve always thought of traveling to – somehow never thought it would materalise – even after sitting on the KLM flight – even after landing in Schipol Airport in Amsterdam. The whole experience has such a surreal feel to it. One always visualizes something and now all of it was right in front – some different – some quite the same.

We have decided to take a long yearly holiday (to clarify long is defined as around two weeks). Europe we picked to start with. Too broad, so the search was narrowed down to Italy, France, Holland, Germany & Austria. Too many countries to fit in our ‘long vacation’, so we knock off the last two places and juggled around the first three!

We landed in Amsterdam at around 10 AM on 1 June 2007. The series of events prior to all this were not a very encouraging start to a vacation. Our flight was to take off at 12:50 AM – which meant we’d have to leave home around 9:30 PM. I was home at 8, at 8:30 there was no sign of Tarun. Finally, at 9 he walks in drenched! Guess what ! as fate would have it we were to witness the first monsoon of 2007! Mumbai’s way of bidding adieu – a very messy one at that!

Well with the rains, taxis and autorickshaws alike are choosy about where they’re headed. The International Airport was clearly off limits – except for one lone chappie – God bless him – although he added a disclaimer to the journey – “Meri gaadi mein wiper nahin hai – bahut dheere chalaoonga” Well, did we have a choice?!
Looked like Mumbai’s farewell party was to last the entire journey to the airport.

Wet bags, wet jeans, not the best way to land up at an immigration counter. Anyways we got over the usual formalities etc etc – we’d web checked in therefore swooped to the luggage counter. Point to note here, we are thoroughly pampered lot – all our automated counters are manned!

Anyways at this point the passports & visas came out. Our visa commenced on 1 June 2007 – and here we were standing at the counter at 11 PM on 31 May..immigration here we come was very far away. To say the least, CS Airport has nothing of amusement value, and the little there is, is on part with European rates. I guess they’re doing the least they can to prepare us for the days to come.

We the Cinderellas finally arrived at the immigration counter and crossed over! Yay yay! Our holiday had started! Announcement “ The KLM flight to Amsterdam has been delayed – please remain seated until further notice! What!! All we had to keep ourselves busy were a bunch of lousy duty free shops and a highly overpriced handicrafts shop – which even foreigners were looking at in the most peculiar manner.

Speaking of peculiar, listen to this bit! Our ground steward was a cheerful sardar who insisted on making 2 sentences of conversations with all around. With our turn coming up, we asked him the obvious, about the flight delay. With a fairly dumbfounded blank look he starts with..”Sir, there is a tachnical (to be read technical) problehh…the knitting of eyebrows & the stern expressions he was countered with made him immediately change his statement to “ there is a tachnical wather problem sir – and we are working on rectifying it” !!!!!! Luckily, KLM had thrown open the entire food court, much akin to a food court helping us divert our attention to more important things – free food!

Well apparently, about our flight, it’d been diverted to Ahmedabad as it ran out of fuel - so it spent three hours there refueling, then another 2 hours hovering over amchi Mumbai and then finally landed. Aaaaah..4 AM finally saw the announcement..which I can’t quite remember but it said something about the flight taking off..Finally..

T is very good with the words..hence asked him for his thoughts on our trip to Europe, here goes.

It was like an oasis in the desert ~

It was like an egg before boiling ~

I take your leave here, requesting you to ponder on the second statement..

Filmi Chakkar

2007-10-02T17:44:00.000+05:30

I was out on the streets of Bandra yet again, attending to one of my usual domestic chores, to be precise buying sambhar powder. Although I also ended up buying an exfoliating face-wash as it promised to make all my blackheads vanish.

Coming back to the point, the minute I stepped out of the building I could smell the excitement in the air. People scurrying all over place, madly running from one end of the road to the other, mindless of the autos, dogs, and the odd car. People standing on tip-toes, necks craned looking out at some distant window or car, the car in this case most likely a monster SUV.

I have been living in Mumbai for the past 18 months and have learnt to interpret what perhaps could be the cause of this excitement.

The above frenzy I described is usually associated with a Bollywood celebrity and when you’re in Bandra its usually somebody pretty well-known. Turns out, in the words of my liftman Bimlesh, it was Asariyah & Abeesekh! I have not idea what they were doing here, maybe a movie shoot, opening a new hair saloon or perhaps visiting the parents (Ash’s) whatever it was, they definitely responsible for a lot of Sunday snoozes being disturbed.

The point I’d like to make here is although I’m party to all this excitement, rarely have I gotten to see these stars. Weeks ago, I’d been to Band Stand for a walk, again the same excitement, this time outside a CCD. Ask around and they say Salman Khan & Katrina Kaif. I too join the crowd, crane my neck, stare in the direction in which most heads seem to staring (there will also be a few who look elsewhere, not be distracted by them) and yet I see no one bearing any kind of resemblance to either.

To end on a positive note, I have been fortunate enough to see some star – although after typing the sentence I don’t see why I need to use the word fortunate. Ok, I’ve seen John Abraham eating a granola bar, in a monster SUV, with a Bipasha preening and posing in the back-seat. Saif Ali Khan looking very haggard. Kareen Kapoor looking very anxious. Seen lots more P3 personalities, Kyunki Saas Bhi Bahu Thee types – all not worth mentioning. Whoever they maybe, they make it a point to sit in the front seat, with the driver. I guess they like the world to see them, and yes they are in the show business after all.

2007-09-30T11:56:00.000+05:30

All this enthusiasm about creating a blog, so many thoughts..Now that there is a blog both the thoughts & enthusiasm seem to have vanished..
I'll be back! I'll be back..