Carpe Diem

Foodie Day

Did you know that soaking garlic in water makes it easier to peel off later? I had a discovery time today when I found that out, along with lesser acknowledged fact of what a great cook I can be. 

Today can be safely termed as Kitchen Day for me. The morning started with time perfected recipe of tomato cheese sandwich made from multi-grain bread and fresh tomatoes. The best way in monsoon for a crisp toast is to heat pan and toast the bread lightly before spreading the creamy cheese on it, for me I prefer Amul cheese spread original. It leaves me with choice of flavour of the day and variety of taste I can make. Today I chose the simple and salty, tangy chaat masala flavour. Many a times I find that tomatoes keep slipping out from between the bread slices. This time I found a solution to that. If you spread cheese on both sides of bread followed by a dash of salt and chaat masala it sticks together neatly. Along with that the perfect companion was my mug full of black coffee. It was a start to a perfect day. The wind flowing in from French windows and the wind chime singing along.

It poured today morning. When it rained in Delhi after long dry spell it used to smell of mud. From where I live, when it rains it smells of faeces, defecations, excretions and sewage from all around. Danny Boyle would have his set ready for Slumdog Malad, right over here. The street where I live is literally filled with slums and dogs. Each of these dogs has their area divided and each has its own loyalty to the slum it dwells in. They have a special affinity to the garbage and trash cans so liberally distributed all over the road. The rains bring along with the slush, litters of open garbage on road making travel even more challenging.

Aloo Matar

As luck would have it I myself had to go out today morning to get things from local market. The tomato sandwich setting mood for the day, I craved for more foodie time. I picked up the alteration clothing from local tailor, who by the way did a lousy job, making it even more important to divert myself into foodie time to recuperate. My first stop was at cold storage shop from where I bought chicken, then off to veggie mart. The craving for the day was for spinach chicken and aloo matar with chapatti.

My favourite utensil for cooking anything is the pressure cooker. It amazed my American friends to see the beauty and the simplicity of this utensil. It is so much easier than a frying pan or kadhai. So my first project was to cook aloo matar. With tomato as base I stir fried chopped tomatoes in cooker. Now this time after they were done, I took a small bowl put all spices in it, added water to it and stirred it then added to the tomatoes. Each work package was neatly followed by side by side washing up too, monitoring and controlling time while achieving target. Once the project closure was achieved it was time to unwind after lunch. That is when I discovered soaked garlic peel easy while I was doing that after lunch for chicken preparations. The cooking and pre-prep took all post-afternoon. Before I knew I could hear the colony kids screeching headlong downstairs and running all over the place, marking beginning of evening.

The Basket Lights

The living room French windows were open with breeze passing in as I tapped away on my lappy sitting on the floor and listening to the wind chime. The clothes drying themselves in the wind brought in fragrance of fresh laundry. I got tired of waiting for a sunny day, and decided to wash them despite rain. I got lucky; the rain did not slash itself again later today.  However the sluggish flow of garbage continued in the creek behind as I watched the slum-dogs waking up from their siesta and taking a walk in their arena. It is time from me to switch on my little lights from Bombay Store, or as I like to call them the basket lights in a string and mark the sunset time and welcome twilight.

P.S.: I have marinated the chicken and put it in fridge; tomorrow’s project – spinach chicken.