Can't live without Thursday

“Can’t live without” Pasta Thursday

February 21, 2013 by Edlyn

What am I doing right now?
Taking note of the time. It’s 5.51 pm
Why?
There are approximately 7 (is that right?) hours left for Thursday to end and scatter-brain McGee just realized that she forgot her silly “Can’t Live Without” post.
Scatter-brain?
That would be me.

I should give myself a reward for even remembering. I’d like to say I was sailing on Lake Union past Tom Hanks’ house in Sleepless in Seattle (swoon) but I was doing something even more glamorous. I was making running food to feed my quarter-life crisis. I’ll explain later.

As badly as I want to take a nap right now, this can’t-live-without dinner is too perfect not to share. I make it with my eyes closed. I practiced so many other cooler lines to describe its sex appeal (say whaa) but as usual, I forgot to write them down.

Since I’m in the last-minute spirit, let me try remembering:
This pasta sauce is the next Pope.
No.
This pasta sauce can have my hand in marriage.
Weaaaak.
I love this pasta sauce so much, I set it free. In my mouth.
Stop me right now.

I failed, I know. But I also win. After, this Thursday, your socks will never be the same. Because they will have been rocked to the ends of the earth.

Welcome.

Spaghetti in grape tomato sauce

Ingredients

Spaghetti (or any other pasta) serving for 2 cooked according to the instructions
1 whole box grape (or cherry) tomatoes. Mine was a pint (16 oz).
4 cloves garlic
2 tbsp olive oil (add more if you like your sauce to be oilier)
1/2 tsp coarse salt
Some freshly cracked pepper
Dried basil (this is optional)
Parmesan cheese, freshly grated (not optional)

The first time I made this, I messed it up badly. Despite it all, I knew I had something special in the mess I made. Since it’s so easy to put together, I didn’t tear my hair out about trying it again. So I did. Over and over and over again.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a shallow baking tray or dish with aluminium foil and place all the tomatoes you own in it. Smash the garlic cloves with the back of a knife, peel and cut them in half. Don’t worry about cutting it more than this because it’s just going to get blended into a sauce. Place the smashed cloves around the tomatoes. Sprinkle the salt, pepper and olive oil over and marvel at your handiwork.

That’s what I always do.

Make a little cocoon with the foil without covering the tomatoes completely. Do you understand what I’m trying to say? Sometimes I’m confusing. Pop it in the oven for 40 minutes.

If you’ve played all your cards right, and you’ve haven’t passed out from the joyous aromas coming from your kitchen, this is how the tomatoes should look.

I’m so excited that my favourite part is coming up. And calm. But soooooo excited.

Put all of this oven roasted happiness (including the juices that have oozed out) into a blender and press go.

(Favourite part) Look down.

Once it’s all blended into a smooth sauce, pour it over the spaghetti. Allllllllllll of it. Grate parmesan cheese over it and pounce.

Juicy little things doing wonderful deeds for the benefit of mankind, I bow to thee.

You love the drama, admit it.

Trying to stay Goan.

February 20, 2013 by Edlyn

(looks for Red Bull. realises she doesn’t drink Red Bull. hands in the air like you just don’t care)

Either I needed a mighty boost of confidence for writing this recipe or I earned one after trying it myself. I cannot decide the tone I want to go for. My mother might roll her eyes at me as mother’s all do but I won’t be there to see it. I’m a thousand miles away from the land I call home. The sun’s on my side and my family is unmistakably tucking into afternoon leftovers and bread.

I’m the one who should be rolling my eyes or throwing a tantrum at my proximity to a home cooked meal. But hell, I got some skills. I can cook stuff up to. Yes, this is what I usually do. My need for a particular taste is not always in sync with Indian Standard Time. While I prefer my mother snapping a picture of a recipe from that famous blue book (if you’re Goan, you’ll know), I don’t always get my way. Especially if it’s 1.30 am.

The Internet is not always friendly too. If only all the world’s problems could be cured by the #1 most annoying search engine result allrecipes.com. Alas, it sucks. If you don’t know any better, more so.

So I did what I do best. I shut my eyes and imagined everything as it was in my family’s kitchen.

And then, this happened.

Ingredients

30 gms cilantro (or 1 American sized bunch)
50 gms coconut
1/2 small onion
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp ginger, grated
1 green chili, chopped (I used a Serrano pepper)
2 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp cumin powder
1 1/2 tbsp oil (I used peanut oil)
2 tsp mustard seeds
Salt to taste

That’s all we have for today, folks. See ya next week!

Okay since you’re arm-twisting, here’s what I got for you.

Apart from the oil and mustard seeds, place all the ingredients into a blender. Fun, right? Add 2 tbsp of water to the mix and blend. If you watch closely, you’ll notice the contents coming together like a paste. Give it about 1 minute, turn it off, stir and then turn it back on. If yours isn’t yet forming into a paste, add a tbsp more of water (slowly) through the opening on top of the blender while it’s still on. The slower you go with water-addition, the less likely you are to get a watery chutney. Those are the worst! Once you’re done, scoop out the chutney in a bowl. Add salt to taste. If the chutney doesn’t have a slightly sour taste, add a bit more lemon juice.

Heat the oil on a pan and then add mustard seeds to it. I also added a sprinkle of whole cumin seeds because I felt like it. No real reason when flavour is in season. Once they start to pop, quickly take the pan off the flame and pour the mustard-y oil on top of the chutney and stir it around.

This is a pre-stirred around picture.

In Goa, we eat this on sandwiches (one side butter, other side chutney) or as a something on the side with our pulao, which I will be making this week. Hopefully I will have motherly help this time.

Though I’m sure I won’t. I guess I’ll resign myself to after-the-fact-comparisons.

Now eat!

“Can’t live without” Chocolate Thursday

February 14, 2013 by Edlyn

Did you know there’s no appropriate time in the day of the week of the month in a year to eat chocolate? None. I checked. The consensus says it’s now or never. The people have spoken! I’m shaking a little from this powerful information. It’s a mix of excitement and all the sugar I just consumed….

“Can’t live without” Thursday

February 7, 2013 by Edlyn

YES! It’s still Thursday, which means that I can still write this and not be a cheater. Phew. That’s not the image I was going for. I wouldn’t lie to you about important things such as this. I mean you deserve to know that I hate taking showers and always wish they’d invent car washes for humans.

Now I made myself sound like a smelly hobo. I’m not. I still shower. I just don’t like it very much. Social order be damned. It’s perfectly okay to have your own way of doing things. If you want to eat 8 pieces of chocolate, eat, I say. Research shows that people who ate 8 pieces a day were having more sex because it’s basically the same thing. I conducted that research by the way. Conclusion: You can buy happiness.

Freshly baked bread has that same effect on me. I remember the first time the bread man (called a “poder” in Goa) brought some “pao” to the house. You don’t know it what joy is until you spread a dollop of butter on it. Once you do, there’s no turning back.

Bread-making is something I’ve never done before. I always said I would try it but I kept lying to myself. This week was different. I finally moved my butt and did it. I made “Pain de Me” because I am too good for “Pain de Mie”. If you don’t get the joke, forget it. It’s not that funny. I did take two tries to get it right. I was starting from nowhere and a recipe I saw on Give Me Flour. That was alright with me. My kitchen is an extension of who I am. I don’t take myself too seriously and most of the cooking I do is not down to a science. I’m imperfect. My bread would probably be to some. I did it anyway and just those two tries made this experiment the best thing since sliced bread.

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tbsp yeast
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tbsp salt
1 1/3 water
1/2 cup olive oil

Add the sugar and yeast into the water and let it sit for 5 minutes until it gets all frothy and bubbly. Isn’t this part the best?! It’s beautiful, unlike those other yeast-related things that give yeast a bad name.

While the yeast is doing it’s thing, mix the flours, salt and olive oil in a large bowl. You can do this with your hands. Clean clean hands. Five minutes later, when the yeast is raring to go, pour it in the bowl and mix it all up until it forms into a dough. It might be a bit sticky but don’t worry too much about that. Knead it for 5 to 8 minutes on a lightly greased surface. Place the ball of dough back into the bowl, cover it, put it in a dark, enclosed space (like a kitchen cupboard) and let it rise for 45 minutes. I learnt from the recipe that the rising depends on how warm the area is so make sure you pick the best spot.

Grease a bread loaf pan and bring your dough out of hiding. Pat out the risen dough, fold it over and then form it into a long oblong shape to fit the greased pan. Remember the clean clean hands? Use two of those. Sprinkle some flour on the top, cover the pan with plastic wrap and put it back in the earlier space for the second rise. This should also take 45 minutes.

Heat the oven to 375 degrees F and pop the Jesus bread into the oven for 50 minutes to bake.