>A rites of passage long delayed. Oly Pub, Park Street, Kolkata

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Quite a few eyebrows were raised when I recently tweeted about my plans to visit Oly Pub at Kolkata’s Park Street for the first time in my life.

Folks couldn’t believe that I had grown up at Kolkata and yet never been to Oly Pub. For Oly Pub was the favoured place for school and college kids of Kolkata to shed their Bacchanalian virginity. Oly Pub was the watering hole even for the more experienced as it was cheap and that too in a city which redefined ‘inexpensive’.  Plus I remember that Oly Pub, along with Blue Fox, was rated highly for its steaks in the 90s. Time hasn’t been kind on Blue Fox and this grand dame of Park Street now sports the Golden Arch.

But, yes, I had never been to Oly Pub in school or at college or during my post grad days. Yes, I admit to being a ‘bhalo chhele’ or good boy then. Well, not entirely a science club nerd but no, I hadn’t been to Oly Pub. I did try to go there last year with a college batch mate. Turned out she was the only woman around there that night and we beat a hasty retreat.

But I was not giving in. The thirties were running out and this was a rites of passage long due. So I began rustling up an expedition party. A Facebook friend and food aficionado who assured me that Oly Pub was quite woman friendly too. His wife, an Oly Pub, regular joined us. As did my classmate who had accompanied me in my last attempt. We were reunited sometime back through FB. Adding to our posse was a chef, raconteur, archaeologist, a Parsi married to a Bong, a Finely Chopped Facebook page friend from Mumbai. We had never met there but turned out that we were both at Kolkata at the same time. And his wife was a Oly Pub fan too. Add a recent twitter contact from Kolkata, an Oly Pub regular, who joined us as we met for the first time and later discovered that we shared the same lane at Kolkata. Closing the ranks was my blogger friend who had moved to Kolkata from Mumbai sometime back and had never been to Oly Pub. Whom I managed to convince to join us after shedding her inhibitions about going to a grimy place, with strangers and being the only non Bong among Bengalis. Add to this the blog reader who recognised me and came up to me at the Park Street Metro to say hi, and you have got the plot of  an evening put together by‘The Social Network’. And, unlike the film, in Oly Pub, we had a winner.

We entered Oly Pub and trooped up the stairs. The ground floor was for men only apparently. We went up to a two sectioned area lit by bright tube lights. Much brighter than earlier said my kid brother wisely when he saw the photo. He obviously was no Oly novice. Oly ‘Pub’ screamed ‘bar’ all over. It was a drinking place and made no bones about it.

My first impression of Oly Pub was an all pervasive smell of pee. It slowly subsided thankfully and I saw that we were sitting close to the ‘Ladies Toilet’. Where, intriguingly, a number of men were headed. This puzzle was solved later in the evening as we figured out that behind the door was a passage to smoke in and the promised little girl’s room came after that.

Ladies Toilet?

The view from the smoking passage

A riddle solved

 

Talking of ‘ladies’, there were quite a few mixed gender tables upstairs that Saturday at Oly Pub and one table with just two or three members of the fairer sex.

Not a male bastion… Jaggo who accompanied me in my last attempt, Ash and Oly Pub lover Monishita show the way

Sukanto, a tweep who shoots

Kaniska & Manishita, The couple who made this trip happen

 

Kurush,Chef, raconteur, archaeologist,  Parsi married to a Bong, a friend from Mumbai whom I met for the first time that evening at Kolkata

Oly Pub, as I said, is a drinking place though none in our group were big drinkers that night. You had waiters assigned to individual tables and no one else would serve you. The service, when you caught your man’s eye and when he was free, was competent. Drinks were poured out of bottles brought to your table and into peg measures. What was in those bottles was anyone’s guess. As a wise man once told me, ‘go for the basic denominator in places you are not sure off’. I wanted a good old Old Monk but had to settle with Mc Dowell’s. There was beer, fresh lime soda and the odd vodka on the table. A request for orange juice was met with orange squash. In a peg measure. Lady you don’t make Screw Drivers at Oly Pub!

Two non Bongs are witness to a Bengali rites of passage completed and documented

But it was the food at Oly Pub that really stood out. The quality and taste and sheer wizardry of the food was so unexpected. There is a Bengali idiom which goes ‘gobore poddo phul’ or a lotus blooming in a heap of dung.  With no disrespect to Oly

From the unlimited dalmoot which came with the drinks on the house. The potato fries which reminded you of chubby babies whose rosy cheeks people couldn’t stop pinching…crisp, soft with a mischievous dash of pepper. The fish fries which were recommended online by the Bengali wife who  our Parsi friend had left behind at Mumbai. The fish fries were served with the special house Kasundi or the thick local spicy mustard dip. 

Unlimited dalmoot. i was heckled by our table for taking this snap. Food snob I was dubbed

cherubic fries

Kasundi served with fish fingers

The steaks were everything that the newspapers of the 90s had promised. We tried the pepper steak and the mixed grill. They didn’t ask whether you wanted it medium, rare or well done. They got it for you ‘just right’. Very soulful and poetic meat served in a sea of boiled peas.

And then there was more meat. Cocktail sausages. Spicy sausages. A sort of British Raj meets the natives dish. Very respectable pork studded with fat peppered with a near garam masalaish flavour. You just couldn’t get enough of these.

Pepper steak

Mixed grill

Garam masala sausages

We finished off our order with the highly recommended chicken a la kiev. Never has been a dish so out of place in its surroundings. For, the chicken a la kiev at Oly Pub, belonged to the world of fine dining. Or even to the world of style and haute couture. Immaculately shaped. ‘The trick is to eat it while it is hot’ I was urged as I clicked away. I took a knife and fork and did the honours. One firm cut and I realised that the dish was hollow inside and out oozed a stream of butter across the batter coated chicken into omnipresent boiled green peas. The chicken a la kiev at Oly Pub blended in as well into its surrounding as a court dancer of Shirazuddaulah, the last Nawab of Bengal, would blend into a country liquour bar meant for masons and farmers. This was haute cuisine… even if slightly art deco. A warm buttery end to an evening of boisterous conversations, simple hardworking alcohol, smoky passages and spectacular food… all of which came to Rs 250 (5 USD) per head for a group of seven.

Unveiling the chicken a la kiev at Oly Pub

I can still taste it…epiphany

The Finely Chopped Knights Table at Kolkata

On the way down we spoke to the manager and found out the Oly Pub was opened in 1947. The year of India’s independence. Ironic given the number of students who came here to seek their freedom. We found out that Oly Pub was started by a Parsi family and till this day was run by a Parsi lady named Mrs Z S Tangdi. A discovery so unexpected in the middle of Calcutta that both Mumbaikars,  the Parsi gentleman married to a Bengali and the Bengali married to a Parsi girl, were stumped.

I guess there stories are all around you at Oly Pub. All you have to do is ask.

Note: The last order at Oly Pub is taken at 11 PM

Digging up the Oly Pub story

paans outside Oly Pub

Park Street J’etaime

>The Seventh Day: JATC turns into EATC

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I got a bit emotional the other day when I saw that JATC had shut down. I poured my heart out at this post.

A week later the great but elusive @anaggh, ‘the ghost who tweets’, tweeted me about a food tasting as I headed to the gym. @musingsman was arranging it Didn’t take much to change my mind and I was off to what was once JATC. Turned out that it was opening as ‘Eat Around The Corner’. Cashing in on the old fan list though the name doesn’t really flow IMHO.

It was a secret tasting that evening. All hush hush. No photographs allowed. Mr Sanjay Narang was there and it was good to meet him. It was great talking to the the head Chef ,Chetan, a well travelled man who knew his food. I was relieved to see some of the old staff around. The look of the restaurant had changed to a more classy black and white theme. Gone were the chirpy sea blue and whites. The quirky posters were gone. Then I was shown that a few reproductions had remained for us loyalists. I was assured that waffles would be served too. And after a few attempts they managed to recreate the chocolate milk shake K so loved.

I caught up with some prominent tweeps @berges, @B50 and @Netra but soon left them and chatted with Chetan as he hand crafted a gouda, ham and honey mustard multi grain melt which would have sent my pa in law cartwheeling in joy. The breads are baked in house apparently. I tried the pepporoni pizza which had a nice mouth feel despite being out at the counter for a while. A moussaka which I liked for a change… some enchanting hummus and I am quite finicky about it. My first taste of guacamole and later a tantalising strawberry cheesecake. From what I understand, EATC builds on the JATC concept of soups, salads, entrees, pizzas, desserts, coffees and teas… but gets more sublime, aesthetic AND expensive.

We were supposed to keep quiet about this but then the formal preview happened today. Bunkin Banu had done her disappearing act so I swung by at EATC on the way back.

Quite a few tweeps were there. @gulpanag  @musingsman @ashwinmushran @nikster007 @shiladitya @girishmallya @dharmeshG @Berges @yashesh @elusion @gulpanag @Finelychopped @musingsman @ashwinmushran @nikster007 @shiladitya @girishmallya @dharmeshG @Berges @yashesh @elusion @TusharG   I ended up piling up meats beside Mahatma Gandhi’s Grandson who seemed to be doing the same. Found out that you don’t turn into a prince if a former Miss India shakes your hand.

K joined me after that and made a beeline for the ice cream counter after some salads. We sat where our old table used to be. Or so we thought.  The layout has been changed after all. The ‘John’ is gone and there are two swank loos now. Those who have more than a decade of history at JATC, like we do, would know what this means.

The fresh highlights for me were the rather sharp chorizzo and the curried rice which as Chef Chetan explained was made with coconut milk, beans and Indian curry powder. The latter’s apparently used in the Caribbean too. The dish didn’t evoke much faith visually but looks were pleasantly deceptive here. The Jamaican stew was too Indian curry like for me though. The Illy cappuccino was quite robust. Rs 127 according to the menu board.

We wanted to go to EATC for breakfast on my birthday. Hadn’t opened then. Is opening in a couple of days now and we will head their waffles soon. Hope they keep to the standards of the tastings when they get down to business.

Disclaimer: This was not an anonymous review. Was carrying my BB and not the camera on the day when it was not ‘in camera’!

The strawberry cheesecake won over my heart

Good to see some familiar faces

The coffee was pretty good

Berges who is on a mission to make the world a quieter place

Was impressed by how fresh the pizzas tasted despite being out at the counter

Chef Chetan justifiably thumping his chest after a job well done

The chorizo was nice and sharp

I think this is roughly where K and I used to normally sit

>Blood, sweat and olive oil. Chorizo & feta aglio olio recipe

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In case you thought Italian food is always difficult to make, it is not. If you thought that pasta has to be heavy and cheesy, it does not. If you thought that you would rather stick to Chinese, then try this Italian dish for a transition towards the West.

Spaghetti aglio olio or spaghetti in olive oil is one of the simplest dishes to rustle up. Helps if you don’t chop your own finger as I did. OK, ‘chop’, is too a strong word but I did shed a lot of blood when I cut my finger while using a cleaver to finely chop chorizo. It took a while before I could find K’s make up removal pads which were the only cotton at home. In the process I learnt that turmeric can help stop the flow of blood. Not before the bedroom floor turned red. And then my friend Ranjit, @qtfan on twitter, patched me up though it was past 11. He offered to  come down but I drove to his place feeling like Bachchan in Agneepath or Don, driving with my bloodied palms, for 2 minutes (I love the drama). A tetanus jab followed, I had cut meat before with the same knife and us Bongs are hypochondriacs. Dressed and I was back. He dressed my finger the next day too, marinated with anti-biotic, I attacked the chorizo again. Feeling proud of my cooking scar. Now I can look Bourdain in the eye when I meet him. He had an entire chapter in ‘Kitchen Confidential’ on the violence in kitchens.

Day 1 after Ranjit patched it

Day 3, difficult to type without using a finger

The chorizo was a set of three fancy sausages that Soma, a junior at college and blog reader brought and sent to me all the way from the US, when she came to Calcutta recently. I couldn’t wait for K to come to open them. The meal took a day to cook with some bloodshed in between but it was all worth it. Some of us might find pastas, especially aglio olios, ‘bland’ for our Indian palates. That’s when strong meats such as chorizos and strong cheeses such as feta, which I used, help. I also used the Mediterranean spices of sumac and lemon powder, which Gia gave me, to flavour the dish. So, as you see, a number of my friends were a part of the making of this dish. 

 

Here’s the recipe for chorizo & feta aglio olio (my version, not authentic Italian Mama approved):

1.       Boil spaghetti and keep aside. Start with 100 g if it is for one person
2.       Heat 4,5 tablespoons of olive oil in a pan. This is the base of the dish. You can even add some extra virgin over it once the dish is ready
3.       Add a tablespoon of finely chopped garlic
4.       Once the garlic turns yellowish, add a tablespoon of finely chopped tomato
5.       Stir. Once the tomatoes go soft, add about 3 tablespoons of chopped chorizo or any strong flavoured meat. Wash off any human blood which could Have smeared on if you were careless while chopping. This is not a fundamental step
6.       Once it cooks (1 minute) add the spaghetti, sprinkle salt and gently toss the spaghetti with a ladle  so that the sauce (meat and garlic seasoned oil) wraps around the spahghetti
7.       Add a few bits of feta or any strong cheese
8.       Season with sumac and lemon powder or ideally chilli flakes which is more authentic
9.       Photograph and eat.

Simple, right? Was incredibly well flavoured for a dish so delicate.

>A great come-back… Indigo Deli, Palladium

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A quick note on Indigo Deli at Palladium.

I had been there earlier. I had written about my inconsistent experiences during my visits to Indigo Deli. Some dishes thrilled. Others under-awed. And the chairs gave you a bad back.

Well, we went there a few nights back after watching ‘Dhobi Ghat’. An Indian film that tried hard to match up with the best of world cinema. Too hard perhaps.

Well, there was no flaw at our dinner at Indigo Deli this time. The food was uniformly brilliant. The chairs were the same but the exquisiteness of the food washed away all pain.

We ordered barbecued pork spare ribs. Extremely luscious meat in a sauce with a point of view. The sauce had a nice coarse texture and the shreds of red chili added an exciting touch. It had just the right amount of sweetness and tart to tantalise without being mushy. Each bite was followed by a nod of approval from us. It cost a bit more than Rs 400 (8 USD) but could have fed both of us. 

The sweetish corn bread which came with this was not too impressive. A uniquely disquieting combination of sweet and smoke.

The spaghetti in pesto that we ordered made up for the bread. We asked for mushrooms on top as chicken didn’t seem that interesting. And extra pine nuts. The pesto was refreshing and without cream as I had specified. The parmesan was understated and was a perfect foil to the zest of basil. The sauce could have been a tad stiffer and less liquidy in my opinion. We still loved it though. Including K who doesn’t like spaghetti. This, at Rs 400, was a bit too expensive if you ask me. But we had ordered off the menu and this was billed as ‘guest’s special’.

K’s dessert choice of baked chocolate brownie cheesecake couldn’t be faulted. It was dessert heaven. Warm, sensuous, seductive and with ice cream a bit too raunchy for public display.

We ate well. Definitely ‘worth repeating’ as my Mom in law would say.

>A fantastic birthday treat at the best buffet in town… Brunch at Olive, Bandra

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The best buffet at in town: Brunch at Olive

I had earlier written about being underwhelmed by Olive at Bandra. I found the prices to be too steep and the service uninformed for those prices.

I have also often said that I am against buffets in principle. I am against binge eating. I would rather savour individual dishes. Plus most buffet servings look like horse bucket food – congealed, unappetising and stale.

I eat my words today.

The Christmas brunch at Olive, Bandra, was out of the world. The best that I have come across in a long time. It was very expensive. 2000 Rs (40 USD) plus tax on Christmas and 1500 on Sundays. Madhumita treated us to it on her birthday. Felt bad about the erosion to her net worth. But what a spread. Mind blowing. A bon vivant moment if there ever was one.

A tremendous selection of Mediterranean food. Heaven if you dig this light and elegant cuisine the way I do. Fresh, visually appealing despite being a buffet. Constantly replenished. Jon, the customer service manager, who has come from Greece, said that the main difference between the food in the Mediterranean and at Olive was in the produce. The feta and the olives were more robust there.

The buffet included alcohol which was a bit of a waste for our table though a couple of us did taste the mulled wine folks in the UK were tweeting about. Warm with spices infused in them. There was a moderately good pizza with very nice cheese but the crust could have been less crisp. The macarons not a patch on those of Le 15.

Mezzes which were very sophisticated in taste. An indulgent, de-stressing and rejuvenating massage for your palate. Smoked salmon. Fresh mussels. Scallops and calamari fritters. Leg of ham with a crackling layer of fat. Enough to make you groan in sheer sensuous ecstasy. Olive with pickled red chillies which exploded in your mouth…the memories lasting long after like a passionate affair of the heart. A tantalising cous cous salad, so rare to get. Potato in chorizo. Poached pears. The rare pesto mix to satisfy my very picky pesto standards. The perfect creme brule. Dark chocolate brownies which streamed down your soul.

The way you would expect heaven to look when your time on earth was up.

At times reciting the menu says it all. And I had just eaten half of what was on offer. What more can one add? The spread at Olive made me finally understand the point of rap. Yo!

I didn’t have my camera but I took my friend’s Sony Cyber Shot. Similar to mine. Clicked tons of pictures. Couple of the staff got into the spirit of things. Returned to the table to find myself bang into the middle of some very girly talk. I scampered off to take more pictures.

Happy birthday once again Madhumita. Many happy returns of the day and here’s to many more lovely meals. And I still can’t fathom why you were scared about whether I would approve of the lunch. Am I that intimidating?

You can check this album on the Finely Chopped Facebook Page for these and more photos

Birthday girl Madhumita

Antipasti

Mulled wine

Fire in the belly

I ate my words

This pizza looks more sensuous than it tasted

Finally a cous cous salad that I like

Aubergine – delectable

Potato in chorrizo

Poached peach

smoked salmon

For the love of fat

A rare perfect pesto

Untouched

Heaven

What’s Christmas without turkey? I went for piggy though

He helped me shoot the food

It’s her camera at work. Followed this witha lesson on MS photo editor at home

“You are all my children”

A lot of the photos are thanks to their intense conversation

PS: Blogger needs a faster way of uploading pictures

>Cafe Mangii Revisited and vetted

>People whom I trust reminded me of Cafe Mangii when I attempted a list of my favourite restaurants sometime back.

I’d been to Mangii once before. Quite liked it. Went back again recently after a failed attempt to go to the recently open and heavily crowded Sancho’s. Here’s a quick sum up of what I found.

I had a sangria which seemed pretty good to me. Didn’t have a benchmark though. The pizzas sucked. We ordered pepperoni one and a goat cheese one. Bases of both were too crisp. Wood fire oven be damned. Prego, at Westin, beats Mangii hollow when it comes to wood fired oven pizzas.

The main courses, however, were stellar. Rack of lamb…very juicy, sauce bringing the meat to the forefront. I ordered a spaghetti aglio olio with squids, out of the menu. Wonderfully tossed, very well seasoned, the squids so fresh that a bit more olive oil and they would have started swimming on the plate. Restaurant pastas rarely satisfy me. This one delighted me. Had a bite from a three cheese pasta from across the table. Yes, this place is a winner. Barring the pizzas.

The place was a bit dark for non flash photography. The Jyotika of Follow My Recipe helped as she fired her bazooka of a camera and lit up my shots.

Sangria to set the Knife rolling

Disastrous pizzas

Lamb with loads of character

A very well tossed spaghetti aglio olio with squids

Jyotika lighting up the food for my shots

Three cheese pasta…harmony in food

>Beyond chicken soup for the sore throat …. chicken mince in ketchup & cheese

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I made this dish last night for K. Thought it’s worth sharing given its the season of sore throats.

It was fairly late and we were a dish short for dinner. I didn’t want to order in. Remembered that there was a pack of chicken mince in the freezer. Thawed it in the micro. The rest of the dish took about ten minutes. Here’s the recipe:

• Heat a couple of tablespoons of oil in a nonstick saucepan
• Once the onions turn translucent, add the chicken mince (250 g)
• Then add 2 tablespoons of ketchup, which gives the dish a sweetish taste, and same salt
• Keep patting the meat with a ladle and toss it so that it cooks quickly
• Once the meat is cooed (turns white from pink) add 2 slices of slim cheese and let this melt. This will add a nice creamish texture which soothes a sore and petulant throat
• I topped it with some finely chopped bell peppers/ capsicum and the dish was done

Tasted pretty good. As my lunch mate at Fort MumbaiCentral’s  dad apparently says, ‘cheese …ketchup … it has to taste good’. Well it worked for K too and I kept a bit aside for a breakfast filler.

>The most beautiful mortar & pestle this side of Chiang Mai… penne pesto in sausages, rude cheese at Godrej Nature’s Basket, Bandra

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Sometime back I bought a mortar and pestle. A petite, shiny marble one. Inspired by the Jamie Olivers of the world, I tried to make a pesto in the mortar and pestle. Later tossed prawns in some white squishy stuff and flattened basil leaves. Gia, our guest that night, sportingly praised the dish and then pointed out that I needed a bigger mortar and pestle, that I should have smashed the garlic, pine nuts and cheese one by one, that I should have removed the stalks from the basil leaves and then crushed the pesto mix.

I heard her. Next time I used the mixer grinder to make a perfect pesto.

Then I went to a cooking school at Chiang Mai, Thailand. Inspired I followed that with a trip to the local market. I lugged home the most beautiful and sensuous mortar and pestle West of Chiang Mai.

Yesterday I made a pesto mix that was much closer to what was required.

I remembered Gia’s wise words. I took a teaspoon of pine nuts and hammered into them in the new mortar. They became powderish. Then I added a tablespoon of peeled garlic. Bang bang bang. A proper paste. To this I added about 50 g of Parmesan. More pounding. A proper paste again.

Talking of Parmesan, what was with the girl at the cheese counter of Godrej Nature’s Basket, Bandra, yesterday? She guarded the cheese as if she wanted to eat it all herself. When we wanted to taste some she reluctantly parted with a sliver for one and for another said we could not taste another as there was very little. So only if we were buying it. We did buy a Gouda but frankly I was put off by the attitude of this Sour Puss as well as the long strand of hair in the cheese display. I went to Sante at Pali Naka and bought my Parmesan which was one fourth the price of that at Godrej Nature’s Basket. I must say that the guy at the meat counter at GNB was nicer and we picked up some ham and Thai sauces and ice tea too. But seriously, they need to put a less possessive person in charge of the cheese counter.

Well coming back to the pesto I took two handfuls of basil, leaves, removed the stalks as Gia said, and added them to the mix in the mortar. Wham bam bang bang and soon I had a good mix. I added a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and pounded again. A jet of oil flew out with the first bash. I had to do it far more delicately after that and blended it all together with a spoon. I was quite happy with the end result. It was ‘the beginning of a beautiful friendship’.

Here’s the recipe for the sausage penne in pesto that I made:

• Heat olive oil in a pan
• Add 200 g of sausages chopped into rings. Stir till they brown
• Add 20 g of pre-boiled penne
• Stir
• Add in pesto, salt, gently stir, add a bit more olive oil so that it doesn’t become too dry
• Top with some Parmesan shavings and your dish is ready

This dish becomes very easy if you buy a bottle of pesto from the market. Costs about Rs 150 – 200 (4 – 5 USD)

>A good comeback … pollo pesto or pan seared chicken wrapped in pesto

>Sour Note: I bought Parmesan from Sante at Pali Naka, Bandra, this time as well as the last time when I made pesto. Both times they gave the wax across two edges when they cut the cheese. That’s about 20 percent of very expensive cheese discarded. All I will say is that this never happened before the management change. Milinda where are you?

Sometime back I wrote about how I had slogged to make a pesto mix. The Pesto challenge at Master Chef Australia and earlier memories of Jamie Oliver making pesto on TV made me slip deeper and deeper into a bed of hubris. It seemed easy and I was ‘The Knife’ after all. Reading comments on the blog can really bloat one’s head. We bought a pestle and a mortar. I ground and I ground. Huffed and Puffed. Sat down. Flexed my muscles and ground and ground again. Forty five minutes later after a near slip disc, cardiac arrest and nervous breakdown  I looked down at a few shredded leaves of basil, some battered but not out garlic and flattened cheese.

I had learnt my lesson. This time I took out the food processor. I was back to lazy cooking. So here’s how I made pan seared chicken tossed in pesto.

Pesto mix: Three bunches or a bowl-full of basil leaves, 2 tablespoons of peeled garlic, a tablespoon of pine buts and about 50 g of parmesan and two tablespoons of olive oil into a mixer grinder. A few switches of the button and you will get your pesto.

Recipe:

• Heat some pine nuts in olive oil in a non stick pan
• Then add and fry 500 g of cubed boneless chicken leg pieces. Wait for the chicken to turn from pink to white. Meghna Agro (26413712) at Pali Nakra, Bandra, will give you leg pieces of boneless chicken without batting an eyelid
• Once done, add the pesto mix, slather it over the chicken. Switch off the gas. Finito. About ten to fifteen minutes of cooking time

I served this as a main course along with fusilli in a creamy bacon sauce. You can also serve this as a starter. Or make a sandwich with it as I did for breakfast today.

With wisdom came the food processor

The fragrance of fresh pesto wafting through the house is as heady as it gets

Can’t stop gloating about this

Pollo pesto

And its passionate companion, bacon pasta

This post has both the prawns in pesto and pasta in bacon cream sauce recipes

>Four recipes & a gourmet…. Mediterranean Sausage salad, Snappy sausages, Prawns in pesto, Penne in bacon & fungi cream

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Note: don’t give up. Keep scrolling down. There are four recipes. The last was liked the most

Seems like Master Chef Australia has taken the world of Indian food lovers by storm. The drama, the comperes, the recipes, the camera-work and the food shots have won over many hearts. I am not an avid follower of it but do often dip into the episodes. I like the food photography and the liveliness … but at times the format of a reality show comes in the way. The melodrama gets too much to handle. Some of the recent episodes seemed as if they were straight out of an Ekta Kapoor serials with Madras Cuts and stuff. Having said that, I do watch Master Chef episode for half an hour or so if its on TV when I am around.

One of the concepts of Master Chef is that of Pressure Tests where contestants are given a challenge to avoid elimination. I went through something similar couple of weeks back when I cooked with people around me. Something that normally unsettles me. I cooked three dishes – pork Haka noodles, egg plant balchow and Calcutta Style chili chicken. No calamities. Two meals in a row.

Then I had another Pressure Test this Saturday. Almost like a celebrity chef challenge. Gia had come over. Gia the ‘Baking Goddess’. Gia who created magic with pork and beef when she called us over for dinner. And finished her spell with a wicked mousse. Gia who knows quite a bit about the culinary world. Gia who has a strong point of view on food and has very high standards. I had invited Gia over for dinner. Don’t be taken in by her big smile. For once, I was nervous.

I asked Gia whether she would like Continental or Chinese. She opted for the former. My final bill of fare:

• An on the spot sausage and feta salad
• A sausage & capsicum starter
• Lime & chilli prawns in a rather coarse home made pesto mix
• Penne in bacon and fungi cream

Gia’s verdict at the end, “better than the cabbage soup at home”. 

Which, let me tell you, counts for lot 🙂 Yeah, I am being mean. She was actually quite sweet about it.

Here are the recipes. All self conceptualised. All cooked after Gia arrived. Most ingredients shopped for in the evening at Jude Cold Storage, Sante & Lalu’s Vegetable Shop at Pali Market, Bandra.

Ice hot Mediterranean Sausage Salad

This was not part of my original plan. Thought of it once I picked up the French creamy feta at Sante 
It’s a pity that Milinda who introduced me to this Feta is no longer a part of the management of Sante. I miss her and her hummus and brownie cheesecakes

•  Fry a tablespoon of finely chopped red bell peppers, some pine nuts, basil leaves, a few chopped mushrooms (I used oyster mushrooms) and 200 g of sliced pork sausages in olive oil. Add a bit of Tabasco sauce. Don’t fry for more than thirty seconds. You want to retain the freshness
• Put the mix in a bowl and chill it in the deep fridge for 5 min.
• Liberally add chunks of feta (the salt will come from it) to the cooled mix. I used a creamy French feta. The feta would have melted if I added it to the mix straight off the pan
• Dish number one is ready

 

Snappy sausages

• Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a pan
• Add two tablespoons of finely chopped tomatoes and stir
• Add 200 g of finely chopped pork sausages (cut into rings). Stir
• Add a few chopped bird’s eye chilies, a touch of tomato sauce to counter the chillies and stir
• Add two slices of regular slim cheese to it. Let the cheese melt into the sausage
• Your starter is ready before the first drink is over

Chili and lime prawns tossed in a very coarse pesto

This dish taught me a lesson in life. “Don’t believe everything showed on TV”. I have made pesto in the food processor before based on Jamie Oliver’s recipe. It worked out to be pretty good.


This time I decided to make the pesto in a pestle and mortar the way Jamie does and the way the folks did on a Master Chef Pressure Test recently. We finally bought a glistening white marble mortar that evening. I found out the making pesto requires super strong biceps and triceps, a strong back and a hellofa a lot of patience.

Finally ended up with some softened basil rather than a real ground pesto. The dish turned out to be prawns in cracked basil rather than in pesto. It smelt like pesto and Gia was nice enough to praise the coarse texture. She said that we should have bought a mortar with a rough surface.

 

• Pesto mix: a handful of basil, two tablespoons of olive oil, a teaspoon of finely chopped garlic, a teaspoon of toasted pine nuts (you get pine nuts easily at grocery stores at Pali Market) and 50 g or Parmesan. Be smart and mix it in a food processor

Cook

• Heat some olive oil in a pan
• Saute some bird’s eye chilies or chopped green chilies in it and thrown in some pine nuts
• Add about 400 g prawns (I used Cambay’s frozen medium prawns). 
• Squeeze juice of half a lemon, add salt and toss for 3-5 min while the prawn changes colour. You don’t want the prawns to overcook
• We served this with pasta but would go well with nice dinner bread. Gia has promised to bake me some… I don’t know when.
• Gia praised the juiciness of the prawns

Penne in bacon and fungi cream sauce

This was Gia’s favourite that night. She later told me that the pasta pictures on the blog would tempt her the most. I am so glad that I could make a pasta for her. I normally use olive oil in pasta. This time I pulled all stops and used butter. Did I say that I was nervous 🙂

• Heat butter in a non stick pan
• Add a teaspoon of chopped garlic and a few bits of bacon fat when the butter melts. This way you get the flavour and fragrance of bacon and garlic in your sauce
• Once this sizzles, add 200 g of chopped backless (no rinds this way) bacon. Toss for a bit. You don’t want the bacon to become too crisp
• Add 2 – 3 slices of slim cheese. Let this melt into the bacon. Don’t bother with fancy cheeses. The taste gets lost in the taste of the meat and garlic
• Add 1.5 cups of milk with a tablespoon of corn flour dissolved in it. Add salt. 1.5 teaspoons with all that cheese would be good
• Bring the mix to a boil and let it simmer till the sauce thickens.
• Add 200 g of pre boiled pasta (I use Bambino’s penne or Spirelli which is cheap and satisfactory). Boil some chopped mushrooms with this. I used oyster mushrooms this time
• Stir a bit and add some sliced red bell pepper and sliced green chillies (Mrs Knife’s touch and as she keeps repeating I learnt how to make pasta from her)
• Add some crushed black pepper and oregano if you have any from pizza boxes
• Cover with a lid and let it cook for 3 to 4 minutes
• Have it straight off the pan. Reheated pasta is like a remixed Kishore Kumar song

In case you are wondering, I didn’t get eliminated at the end 🙂

OK, now I must let Gia give say her version so here goes 🙂

Kalyan, you are mad!You’ve made me sound like some food police monster! Come on, look at my goofy smile, how can I be scary ;-)All those things you say about me are just a figment of your imagination. I am no big expert on food, in fact I’m not even a passionate foodie like you. Yes, I do love good food and what you and K served me that night was fabulous! Not to mention the wonderful company, as always.And I didn’t say it was better than the cabbage soup at home… I said, “This sure beats the cabbage soup dinners I have been having at home the last few nights.” It was actually an understatement! It beat any dinner I have had in a long time.. honest!Everything was delicious – the salad was cool and fresh and I loved the pine nuts in it, the sausages were plump and juicy, and the prawns tasted amazingly fresh inspite of being frozen and I loved the pesto that you could actually bite into. But of course, I gave my heart to the pasta. It was perfect! The kind of pasta I often dream about having and actually crave for. The bacon, the chopped garlic, the creamy sauce (butter is always better!), the firm yet juicy bits of red bell peppers and that perfectly cooked pasta! The taste and memory lingers on… You have to make it again and again and again!!!Next time I’ll be there with a loaf of bread, some cake, and hopefully the perfect mortar and pestle for you :-)- Gia
6 October 2010 16:21