I love getting emails from readers asking for menu ideas when hosting an Indian-themed party. Here’s one I received from Jen a couple of days ago:

Dear Meena,

I’m hosting our monthly book club and my selection is Interpreter of Maladies - a series of short stories that I absolutely love.  We try to coordinate our meeting’s food with our book’s subject - usually just appetizers & dessert, but occasionally a full meal.

I’d love to make some great Indian dishes for our group to sample - and to have as much as possible prepared in advance so I don’t miss out on the fun.  Even some spiced nuts or snacks would be great. Any ideas?

Many, many thanks,

Jen

Seeing that my very own Cook’s Book Club is well on it’s way, I thought that Jen’s request couldn’t have come at a better time. I love putting casual buffet menus together where guests can just sit and chat while nibbling on some delicious food. For a book club meet, it’s always best to serve food that can be easily picked up with one hand and eaten while you use the other hand to navigate through your favourite passages and pages in the book. Here is what I think would go well at this particular meeting. Most of the items can be prepared up to a few days in advanced, stored in the freezer or fridge till D-day, and kept warm in the oven till it’s ready to serve. I hope you and your friends will enjoy this menu as much as the the party Jen! Happy hosting!

• Potato Parcels - prepare the parcels in advance and freeze them without frying. When ready to serve, either fry them up or simply bake in a 375 degree oven for 20-25 minutes till golden. For a slightly simpler, less effortless version, use large puff pastry sheets. They puff up like tiny pillows when done and look and taste marvellous!
• Tandoori Chicken Pops - Let the chicken marinate in the fridge overnight, and when ready to serve, simply grill in an oven instead of frying.
• Corn Chaat (recipe included) - Quick and simple to prepare, and delicious to the very last morsel! For an added flair, serve in mini tortilla cups.
• Shakkarpare - A perfect sweet treat that can be made many days in advance and stores well in an air-tight jar.
• Masala Chai - The perfect ending to a fun evening.

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Let me tell you all a little story. Once upon a time, there was a pretty little girl who absolutely loved peas. She loved them so much that she would even unquestioningly eat steamed broccoli if it was served with a side of peas. Okay, that might be a bit of an exaggeration. Nothing, not even serving them with deliciously sweet peas would make her eat broccoli, least of all if it was steamed! She would simply devour all the luscious peas and probably slip the broccoli chunks under her seat when no one was watching. Yes, that’s undoubtedly what she would do. But nonetheless, let’s get back to the story shall we?

So yes, this girl loved her peas. She begged her Mom to add them into anything and everything they could possibly be added to. And if it weren’t for her two evil green pea loathing siblings, her Mom might have even given in to some of her hideously bizzare ideas. But then, like every fairy tale, good things started to happen to her. She grew up, moved out of home away from the evil siblings (okay, they’re not all that evil, but they do bug her some all of the time!), and began to cook for herself. Like the ugly frog who turned into a handsome prince on the very first kiss, her peas lusciously flavoured her food. They graced every dish they were added into and touched it with their sweetness.

On days like today, when the clouds darken the sky, and drops of rain fall helplessly on the ground, all she can think of cooking for dinner is a one pot comforting meal comprising of rice, mushrooms, and oh yes, most definitely, peas. The meal was a breeze to make, and the girl and her peas continue to live happily ever after, much to the chagrin of Hubby Dear. If only there was a law forbidding one to hate peas!

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At any given time, my pantry shelves are decked with at least 5 different kinds of lentils, 3 different kinds of beans, 5 kinds of pasta, noodles and rice, and a basket full of spice mixes and sauces. Having such an elaborate pantry enables me to throw dinner on the table at the drop of hat when I’m in no position to shop for fresh supplies. I recently talked about my love for menu planning, and I honestly believe that having a well-stocked pantry (which, in this case, I refer to my kitchen cupboards, fridge and freezer) makes the task a whole lot simpler and hence, possible to follow through.

Many people I know start out with making extravagant menu plans for their weeknight dinners, only to find themselves unable to keep up with it after the second day. The trick is to plan your weeknight meals in such a way, that you remove the stress out of making the meal entirely. And if that means I’m serving soup made out of pre-prepared ingredients, then so be it!

Although I would love to cook my daily meals, from scratch from the freshest produce available, I would only be kidding myself if I believed it could ever be possible. After a long day of work, the last thing on my mind is the need to spend gruelling hours chopping, dicing, slicing, pureeing and mashing ingredients for my dinner. Instead, I try and make use of my pantry items to complete my meal. However, I always try and ensure that I have at least one fresh vegetable on the table, even if it is a mere salad. But some times, as we all know, life decides to take its toll and even a simple bowl of sliced cucumbers seem highly unlikely.

A few days ago, I found myself scurrying from my office (even if it just a mere 10 feet away from my kitchen!) all starved and ready to shove the first thing edible I could lay my hands on. I’d had a long day, and yet the work was far from done. I only had just enough time to fix something quick and shove it in me before I would have to get back to my laptop. This soup is what kept me sane and gave me the extra boost of energy I needed. It was simple, quick and delicious, served with crusty warm garlic bread. All thanks to a well stocked pantry!

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It had come to my notice a few days ago that I was spending a lot more time cooking than actually eating. This is not to say that I have been burdening myself with tedious and slow-cooking meals. In fact, it was quite the contrary. While my meals have been loaded with quick and simple salads, soups and the occasional sandwich, it seemed strange to me that I was eating in less than half the time I took to prepare the meal at hand.

I have recently begun to have lunch at my desk, if only to try and get as much work done as I possibly could cram into my day. With my food sitting on my right and my laptop on the left, it’s almost impossible for me to sit back and actually take a moment to even look at my plate, let alone enjoy it. And this, my dear friends has been bugging me since the time I started doing it.

There are piles of emails flagged for responses, a ton of article ideas bookmarked for research, a growing tower of books (which I now use as a side table to hold my morning cup of coffee) for review, and the odd request or two for help with a menu plan, that are all screaming for my undivided attention. Well, what can I say but that it’s hard trying to balance your work and hobby at the same time. Even harder when they both are interlinked, like in my case. That was until I found Rachael Ray.

I was first introduced to the great RR a few years ago with her show 30-Minute Meals. Like many, I thought she was too perky to be sane. I thought it was crazy of her to bang pots and pans to flatten meat, and create acronyms like EVOO and GB (which I must add is a wonderful trick I learnt from her!). But what I did admire was her penchant to get real creative in the kitchen and make everyday food seem exotic and exciting.

A few days ago, as I got ready to take my lunch into my home office, I had the sudden urge to stop and see what was on TV. A quick scan and I found myself taking a seat with The Rachael Ray Show. She was just as I remembered her: quirky, overly excited and bubbly. But even then, I found myself grinning at her silly jokes. She passed around the ’snack of the day’ to her audience as I took the first bite of my lunch. By the end of the episode, I had polished my plate, relishing every bite and enjoying what I ate. I tried doing the same the next day. And the day after. And the day after that.

It’s been more than a week since, and my lunches, though take hardly any time to cook, seem to take a whole hour to be eaten. And not to mention, enjoyed. All thanks to the Queen of Quick!

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You know how there is always this ONE recipe that no matter how hard you try to replicate, you never seem to be able to hit it just right? Somehow, the taste of when you first devoured the dish still lingers on your palate, and even after a dozen of your experimented versions later, you still know that it’s not quite as close to the original. Well for me, I have one too many of those!

There’s the PERFECT Mee Goreng served by the street hawker down the lane from my Grandma’s house in Malaysia, the spicy Chole garnished with fresh chopped onions and served with giant-sized crisp Bhaturas in Delhi and the most amazingly luscious melt-in-your-mouth Tiramisu served at a corner cafe by the Colosseum in Rome, to name just a few! But of all of them, the ONE recipe that has me searching non-stop for a close flavour duplicate would definitely have to be of Dal Makhani from a little nondescript restaurant in Kuwait.

Growing up, I remember eating off the restaurant’s classic menu once too often. They were especially known for their fantastic and lip-smacking combination of Chicken Tikka, Dal Makhani and Puris. But for me, a die-hard Chicken Tikka devotee, it was always their Dal Makhani that did the deed. It’s thick, warm and creamy texture was everything I craved for anytime of the year.

Ever since I moved away from home, I have always been on a search for a Dal Makhani that would come close to my childhood indulgence. But alas, none came even near an inch to tasting anything like it. I went high and low, to some of the most fabulous Indian restaurants as well as the local take-out favourites, but none of them could win me over. I had almost given up ordering the dreaded dish until one day my Mom decided to come to my rescue. She played and she toiled a few recipes, added this and subtracted that from the ingredients, and simplified the method to suit her needs, and Voila! What can I say? Now whenever I crave some lip-smacking comfort food, all I do is enter my kitchen. It’s a perfect go-to recipe this time of year, and I need I add, an absolute hit at my Diwali bash last weekend!

This is my contribution to Meeta’s Monthly Mingle - Traditional Feasts. A perfect pick when you want to give you menu that special facelift!

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Me and Hubby Dear are what some might call munchers. You know, the kinds that could live on finger foods alone. Yes, now that I think back a little, we most certainly are one of those kinds.

The first time we went out, ever, we unsuccesfully tried to share a plate of french fries. I say we tried, because truly, I was was the one trying my best to get my fork into the plate while Hubby Dear conviniently walked at a much faster pace covering it with his arms. (Walking, since unlike the tradional way of going out to dinner for a first date, we chose to spend a day at the CNE.) Yes, the guy does like his fries, sometimes, I believe, even more than his pretty little wife. We spent the rest of the day bouncing between samosas, popcorn and fiery wings.

When we’re not having friends over, our Friday nights usually turn out the same each week - a bunch of movies enjoyed over a platter of assorted mini treats. As much as our choice of movies may differ, the only variable constant to our evening would be the finger food. Constant, because they mostly always find themselves to be potato-based. And variable, because they almost never taste the same.

I love experimenting with different flavours, and what better way to try a new flavour than to toss it over a bowl of plain boiled and mashed potatoes. From chat masala to chipotle-lime, the list of flavourings is endless, and the combinations one can come up with is overwhelming. We made this a couple of weeks ago. We, because while I fried, Hubby Dear ate, much to the dismay of his burning tongue. The things men do for food, or should I say, potatoes!

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Every once in a while I like to take a vacation. Correction: I need a vacation. But a busy schedule make it an almost impossible desire. Instead, I take time to “zone out.” I take these mini-holidays on any particular day and when I think I most deserve it. I leave everything behind and pretend I’m on an adventure. Anything to spice up my routine lifestyle.I wear my favourite pair of comfortable pants, put on my comfy walking shoes, and armed with a camera and a few bare necessities, I set out on an exploration.

The streets by my home are lined with vintage stores filled with pretty little things. There’s a cafe on the corner of the street that serves the best chocolate éclair I’ve ever had. As I walk down that road, filled with the hustle and bustle of people walking their dogs and moms dragging their kids from the ice-cream shop, it gives me a sense of vacationing. You know, the feeling you get when you experience a place for the first time. It’s curious how enriching it can be just to take in all the sights and sounds and see things from a new perspective. It helps me. It helps me forget deadlines, and to-do lists. It helps to open up my mind to new avenues of thinking. Some I never even knew were embedded somewhere in my head.

I walk the extra mile to a nearby lake. I turn towards my favourite bench overlooking the horizon and I enjoy my éclair. My camera captures things that I see along the way and want to keep imprinted on my mind. These also become inspiration for the rest of the week; sometimes even the month! What is most exhilarating, is the feeling of being free. It gives me a chance to see things around me in a new light.

With food, I often feel the same way too. Sometimes, you just want something different. It doesn’t have to be exotic or even back-breakingly elegant. Just different enough to take your palate on a holiday. I try and keep atleast one day of the week where I try out something different. I create or recreate a recipe from my fancy. Sometimes, it’s the ingredients that are new to me, and most times, the flavours that follow along. This dish is one such feat. With an open mind to create vegetable dishes that I would enjoy and always come back to, I decided to play around with a bunch of fresh Bok Choy I picked up a few days ago. It resulted in what has now become one of my favourite comfort dishes. Yes, it really is that good that I promise you won’t even know that NO oil was use in its creation.

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It’s been a gruelling past few weeks, what with the weather beckoning for a camping trip, a few outdoor BBQs, and not to mention a long lazy soak in the sun. Add to that a bunch of deadlines and tons of pending emails to take care of, and you’ll have me absconding from the face of this blog!

As much as I’ve away from posting anything on this site, I did however manage to rescue a few souls from the brink of disaster. Yes, thank you, and you’re most welcome. I’ll be looking out for my much deserved cheque in the mail! (Well, what can I say, I had to give it one last try!)

Here is an email I received a few weeks ago that got me thinking, testing and dreaming recipes. Until last night, when I finally saw the table clearly laid out in mind waiting for hungry mouths to dig in, I was seeing ginger, garlic and onions everywhere! I tell you people, the things I do for the love of cooking!

Dear Meena,

I have a co-worker from India who is Jain. I’d like to invite him and his wife to dinner one of these days. Now the problem is I have no idea how to make anything without onion, ginger, potato etc! They are very strict about their food. Help! I want to serve at least three entrees and rice and/or roti. Can you give me suggestions and/or recipes?

- Confused Cook

Dear Confused Cook,

Truth be told, I’ve never attempted to cook Jain food, much less ever had a chance to eat it. So the scary thought of creating a menu for you without any ginger, garlic and onions, without which my kitchen would seem barren and in need of a desperate makeover, turned me into a mad woman that surprised even sweet little Hubby Dear. Ever little thing I cooked and ate over the past few days was scrutinized in hopes of finding a way to recreate it without the bare essentials of my cooking. But as they say, prespiration gives way to perfection (I can swear I heard that somewhere!), and I’m happy to note that your very first Jain dinner party will soon take shape.

- Meena

The menu I designed for this dinner includes the classic favourites like Pulao, Dal, and Rotis. The vegetable dishes I’ve picked for this menu are either traditionally cooked without onions and garlic, or can easily be made without them, without comprimising much on flavour.

• Dal: Cook your choice of Dal in the normal way, omitting the addition of onions, ginger and garlic. Garnish with fresh coriander leaves.
• Kadhi-Pakodi: This wonderful dish, prepared from yoghurt and gram flour is a personal favourite of mine. While in most cases onions are used in the end as a tempering with dried chillies, it can easily be avoided to accomodate a Jain diet. Bring a mixture of 2 tbsp gram flour, I cup yoghurt and 2 cups water to a boil, stirring occasionally to avoid forming lumps. Season with salt, turmeric and chili powder. Add in pakodas made with vegetables of choice, and stir in a tempering of cumin seeds, dried red chillies and a pinch of dried fenugreek leaves for added flavour.
• Paneer Tak-a-tak: recipe follows
• Dahi Bhindi: Follow the recipe avoiding the addition of onions and ginger powder.
• Fried Baingan
• Peas Pulao: Again, omit the addition of onions.
• Plain Rotis and/or Puris

Add in a Raita, salad and Papad, and there you have it CC, a wonderful, Jain accomodated hearty meal! For dessert I suggest the usual favourites, kheer, gulab jamun or halwa.

Do you have any trouble planning a menu or fixing a meal? I’m only a few lines away…

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Since I’ve been buried in deadlines the past week, writing and researching for some of my upcoming freelance assignments, I had the priveledge of spending many long hours at the bookstore amidst some of the best collections of cookbooks. Don’t you just love it when you can grab your favourite cup of coffee, and comfortably settle yourself on a cozy plush leather chair in the cookbook section of a huge store? Yea, me too, and that’s just why I plan of spending many more days there. I figure even if I don’t actually get any work done, I could at least read about food to my heart’s content.While on the topic of simplifying Indian food, something I was working to write on, I decided to go on a little hunt and see what I could find. Shockingly, the results were appalling! I picked up a few books, most that looked very promising, and began skimming through some of the most popular recipes, that the authors, no doubt tried their best to recreate as quick and simple as possible. While many made good sense to me, I was horrified by what a few others instructed. So, as I sat myself and began taking notes, I decided to make my own list of do’s/dont’s, more on the dont’s actually, of what NOT to do when making an Indian dish.

Here is what I came up with:

1. In no case, and I mean NO case, should you add ketchup while making curry. If you’re short of time for chopping tomatoes, run them through a food processor to puree. If that’s still not an option, then please, at least use canned tomato paste. But DO NOT use ketchup! That just won’t work. I can only begin to imagine the taste it would give to your so-called curry!
2. Whatever people may like to think, curry powder is not really a solution to making a quick curry. Infact, until and unless it’s a blend from a given Indian locale, like say, Madras curry powder, or Malabar curry powder, then it probably won’t and can’t even taste anything close to the Chicken Curry you ravished for dinner at the nearby Indian restaurant. The pale yellow curry powder found on the shelves of many grocery stores hardly taste anything like the real deal. For a quick solution, make sure you have the 5 most basic spices at hand - red chilli powder, coriander powder, turmeric, garam masala and cumin powder. When you have less time to spare, just add about half a teaspoon of each of them, adjusting the chilli powder to your taste of course, before stirring in the yoghurt. I promise you, you won’t regret it.
3. No matter what happens, DO NOT add flour to thicken your gravy. Stir in some yoghurt, or better still, a tablespoon or two of cashew/almond paste/powder. The results will be delicious, without being lumpy and looking a mess.

I really do hope this helps in bringing people a step closer to understanding the basic of Indian cooking. I will try and touch upon similar subjects through my Indian 101 series, and can only hope that Indian food will be percieved as something that one can easily whip up on a normal week night.

On that note, I leave you with this quick recipe, something I whipped up for dinner last night after the long ride home in the rain. For a pea lover like, it’s a wonderful treat. And even better is how simple it turns out.

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When it comes to entertaining, I prefer to have my invitations sent out well in advance. While that buys me much time to plan a menu and work out the finer details of the evening, it also gives me enough of time to prepare for those expected to attend. And by that I don’t certainly mean that I spend a good chunk of the coming days rehearsing a jig for them. No, nothing like that, I prefer my guests to entertain themselves without having me burst into a spell of break dance. What I do mean, however, is that it gives me ample time to clear up the house.Since I’m someone who could easily let the pile of dirty laundry grow till we literally (literally, like Hubby Dear waking me up a few mornings ago at the shock of not having any clean shirts left to wear to work. Thank goodness for a semi-casual work environment where a golf t-shirt is seen as no reason to question!) run out of clean clothes, or let the vacuum cleaner sit snugly in the corner gathering dust, or let the endless magazines I subscribe to grow into an unbelieveable pile, much like the leaning tower of Piza, er I mean, paper.

Yea, so I guess you’re kinda getting where I’m hinting at. I hate to admit it, but as much as I would prefer otherwise, I hate to have last minute guests. Even worse are those who think it’s so much fun to drop me a surprise visit. I always wonder if they’re the ones surprised by how much clutter one can accumulate with just a weeks subricption of magazines and newspapers. But don’t get horrified. It’s not as bad are you imagine it. I DO NOT live amidst bits of paper scattered throughout the house (I swear Mom, I clean, there are really not that many papers lying around!), neither do I have to wade my way through the different rooms by tripping over things.

For the most part, my floors are carpetted and clear. The main problem lies in, or rather on, my table-tops. With all my writing assigments, I find myself constantly rummaging through books and magazines for both, research and inspiration. My coffee table, and part of my dining table are filled with my current favourites and articles that I want to keep close at hand. Then comes the endless cookbooks I love to collect, which get shoved from one room to another as I read them, due to lack of book shelf space. (Yes, I’ve actually added a book shelf to my birthday list for Hubby Dear. What? Don’t tell me you don’t have a list!) And finally, my notebooks. I can’t even begin to count to the number of notebooks, pads and pieces of paper I’ve scribbled on since I started this blog. It’s rare, if ever, I finish one notebook before I start a new one. The reason for me having so many of them is that part way through, I always seem to misplace one, start a new one, misplace that, start another one, only to find the first one in some remote corner of my study! So yea, it’s not that I dislike having people over, it’s just that I prefer to have the time to clean up a bit so as not to drive them away!

Anyways, coming back to why I started all this rambing in the first place. The first time I had Hubby Dear over at my place for dinner, I had to admit it, but he was one of those, “I’m in the neighbourhood and I think it’ll be awesome if I drop by for some dinner cooked by you!“. We had just started seeing each other a few months ago. He was in town on some work, and thought that instead of meeting up somewhere, it would be great if I could cook him up a meal. Now, mind you, this was a time where I didn’t feel much at home in the kitchen. I was used to cooking, yes, but had never cooked for anyone. Other than my Dad and best friends, and truth be told, I didn’t really care what they thought of my newly acquired talent. But Hubby Dear, now this was BIG! This guy actually wanted me to cook for him, and that meant he had no idea what he was getting into.

Due to the last minute bombshell that fell on me, I had no choice but to say yes, and curse myself later. There was no time to shop, whatever I was going to make had to come from what I already had in my kitchen. Being a student, with almost empty pockets at the time, didn’t allow me to have an overstocked pantry. All I found, that I actually thought I could use, was a can of chickpeas. Perfect! Chickpeas is one of the simplest and quickest things to cook. And seasoned with the perfect spice blend, they were undoubtedly delicious as well. With limited time left before he rang the door bell, I started to get to work. As I quickly chopped and stirred, much calm and collected than I was a few minutes ago, I went into my spice rack to pick out my most trusted ally, the Chana Masala powder. And lo and behold, like all tests of fate that take place around the same time, I was out of it! Today, that would not be any cause for panic, but a few years ago when I had not yet experienced much of my culinary capabilities, I was in for a disaster. But he was on his way, and I no choice but to improvise.

Three years later, we’ve just celebrated our second wedding anniversary a week ago. So you could say the dinner didn’t turn too bad. And wonder of wonders, he still loves my Chana Masala!

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