Bombay Foodie

Specially if, like me, you are always clamoring to order Pizza Hut's Kadhai Paneer or one of those tandoori pizza. I used a store bought pizza base for this one, but the topping is really the topic of discussion here. Think of it as a new and improved version of veg jhalfrazee, the mixed vegetable dish that inevitably shows up on any restaurant menu. My pizza topping has mushrooms, babycorn, paneer and spinach but you can really pick any combination of vegetables you like. Cut everything into small pieces, say the size of the pea. So, for my pizza, I diced 4-5 mushrooms. Then sliced 4 babycorns into thin round slices. Took a handful of spinach leaves, rolled them up and cut into thin strips. And yes, cut paneer into little dices. In addition to the vegetables you have picked, you need to finely chop a small onion, tear a handful of basil leaves into little pieces and get yourself a pack of tomato puree. You would also need some dried oregano, although I just used those left...

It was in fact a lot of apples at Brown Paper Bag's Forbidden Fruit Workshop at JW Marriott this afternoon. Now I am generally a self taught kind of cook/baker. But I've been to BPB's workshops in the past and they are generally good fun. Plus tarts and pies have been a source of contention within me - I like the ones I bake but know they are not perfect - so this was just the chance to learn from a pro. Chef Savio Fernandes is the presiding pastry chef at Marriott and he promised to spill some secrets in the three hours we spent baking. We started with the classic shortcrust. That's been my nemesis so far. So I watched the chef like a hawk, and I fully intend to copy his movements and get the consistency of the pastry where he got it the next time I bake tarts. We put the pastry to rest in the fridge and the chef moved to tarte tatin. A French feast of caramized apples over puff pastry, the recipe starts with - horror of horrors - a dry caramel. I've burnt my...

Challi Aboo je.... a loud voice rings out in front of my house in Amritsar. And then this man rolls in with a cart. On top of the cart, a beige box filled with sand. And packed in this sand is that wonder called aboo challi, or roasted corn on the cob. Yet, it's not what you think of when you first hear corn on the cob. Let me explain. Aboo challi is a rare breed. Unlike the charred, grilled corn on the cob, there is no open fire. The cart guy fills the beige wood box with red hot sand and then buries raw corn cobs deep into the hot pit. Several hours later, the corn slowly cooks into a flavor that's quite unlike the boiled or the roasted versions. The sand is still smoldering when the cart rolls into our neighborhood in the afternoon. The cart guy dips his hand in and brings out a perfectly cooked piece, brushes off the sand and then proceeds to brush rock salt and lime juice all over the corn. Alas! aboo challi is a dying breed. My dad tells me that it takes too long...

Now you may not remember because this was such a long time ago, but my book club - This Book Makes Me Cook - actually started with an event that Bhags ran. Read a book, and bring back the story and a recipe is what she said. Eventually, more than half the participants brought in their memories of food read from the pages of Enid Blytons. This month, it's once again back to the memories Enid Blyton put into our young minds way back in school. The book club is reading the Malory Towers. There are six books in the series, chronicling the life of Darrell Rivers, as she goes through six years of education at this Cornish boarding school. We could have read any one of the books. But once I started, I couldn't stop and ended up reading all six. The camaraderie of young girls living together, the bonding over books and games and the various little things that bring excitement to their otherwise dull lives - Malory Towers is something you can enjoy at any age. Now food at Malory To...