Facing the camera....with food ofcourse

When a friend from Nautanki TV asked me if I could do cookery videos for an internet TV channel, I thought "No Way!!!" but told him "Why not??".

One thing led to the other and I started doing short cookery videos on simple recipes that viewers could try out at home, with some health tips thrown in. The first 3 episodes had me learning how to look into the camera and not all over the place and finally I have some guts to share with you the latest video where I have demonstrated how to make Indianised French Toast...readers will remember this was the same post that ran into some controversies :)

Hopefully, this video should be pretty non-controversial (winks) but I welcome the feedback of my dear fellow foodbloggers. I had already mailed the earlier video to some friends and am keeping in mind their valuable pointers.

I must thank my family and friends who have kept me encouraged through out, while i was getting into this unfamiliar territory!

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Poro - the jewelled Parsi Omelette

Parsis love their eggs. Well, that is an understatement. Their Akuris are made with a dozen eggs into a tall frittata stuffed with onions, coriander and chillies that suffices the entire family at breakfast. Poro is an omelette that is as beautiful as the Parsi women. I'd like to christen it the Jewelled Omelette.

24.03.07 Update -
While browsing in the Crossword bookstore this afternoon, I flipped through Katy Dalal's Jamva Chaloji - A Parsi cuisine cook book and she recommends that you have the Poro with chips, buttered bread and sour limes. This is one dish that Parsis make when the whole family is together for breakfast or also for a dinner when they are too lazy or tired to cook anything elaborate. Poro is also made on days when they must abstain from meat or fish.



Poro
Category - Eggs , breakfast
Time taken - Under 30 minutes
Serves 4
Recipe source - Best ever curry cookbook by Manjula Baljekar

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ingredients

2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 clove garlic, crushed
1-2 fresh green chillies, finely chopped
a few sprigs coriander, chopped, plus some more for garnish
1 firm tomato, chopped
1 small boiled potato, cubed
1/4 cup boiled green peas or frozen green peas, thawed
1/4 cup sweet corn, cooked / microwaved
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup grated cheese (optional)
salt and ground black pepper

directions

Heat the vegetable oil in a wok or large pan. Fry the next nine ingredients until well blended but the potato and tomato are firm. Season with salt and ground black pepper.

Turn up the heat and pour the beaten eggs. Reduce heat, cover and cook till the bottom layer is golden. *Turn the omelette and let turn the heat to low. Let this cook for some 5 minutes.

*If you have a grill or broiler, you could turn the omelette to the other side, sprinkle cheese and place under a hot broiler until eggs are set and cheese is melted.

Garnish with chopped coriander and serve it for breakfast in true Parsi tradition. Along with a salad, this would serve good for lunch too.

This is my entry for WBB # 9 - Eggstraordinary breakfast at Live to Eat

Not forgetting about my Friday Food Video for you, its more eggs coming your way.

How to make the perfect Egg Bhurjee - Indian style scrambled eggs brought to you by Alfred Prasad, Head chef at London's Michelin-starred Tamarind restaurant.




If you cannot view the video, click here to see it.

Tags: Eggs, Parsi cuisine, Omelette, breakfast, WBB, Saffron Trail, Recipe, Food, Indian food blog, Healthy eating, Healthy living, Mumbai, India

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How to make a Mojito and New Year's Eve in Goa

Warning -
This is a weekend fun post - or rather a slight diversion from our weekday healthy and weighty matters!

Candolim beach

I'm not a sucker for cocktails. Too much sugar syrup and the weird colours are enough to put me off. But Mojito (pronounced MOHITO) is different from your regular cocktail. We were ushering in 2007 in Goa, the hip and happening Baga and Candolim beaches in North Goa. The last I'd been there was for my office picnic in the summer of 2004 which was to the Ramada resort in South Goa. We had pretty much the whole beach to our crazy bunch, the DJ playing music all night and free booze flowing. All this in an office picnic and more...I used to work one cool ad agency, before you all start imagining about where I used to work - haha!


New Year's Eve in Goa
More about our New year's Eve visit - Candolim is a beach where most of the charters from UK and Scotland land. Pretty much every local speaks English with a Brit accent - because that's the only English they hear and learn and that's what matters to their business.

View from Chiplun enroute to Goa

We drove down from Bombay to Goa. It was almost a 12 hour drive, and we reached there by nightfall on the 29th. The whole of 30th was spent lolling around on the beach chairs and the warm beach waters. The who's who were there trying to chill out and yet be seen! The time we weren't in the water, we were on the beach chairs reading a book, trying to protect ourself from the fury of the sun, while the 'solarically' deprived people were trying to expose every inch of their skin to get that fashionable tan which we Indians are inherently born with. Well, atleast I am!

( On the mention of tan - I always recollect that episode of Seinfeld where Kramer goes off to sleep in a tanning salone and comes home all browned up like a chocolate cookie! )

As much as I'd like to, I can't share with you my beach pics (except for a sneak peek) as those were the days before I had shed off my excesses!

Sky, Water and Earth

Britto's at Baga Beach, Bardez, North Goa

On the 31st afternoon, we landed at Britto's - a restaurant & bar on Baga beach. This is 'the place' everyone is Goa wants to see and be seen at. The place was throbbing with life, style, food and ofcourse mojito ! Landing up there at 2 pm for lunch wasn't a great idea after all, we were some 203 on the waiting list and people inside wanted to hang out for some more (and some more) time. So the best option was to start guzzling on the most popular drink in the house, from the bar counter at the entrance. Boy! They do know how to make their business roll.

This is a beautiful looking drink in a broad pint glass with a bunch of mint leaves stuck in and some wedges of lemon. If you just saw it, you'd think it's flavoured water - the way they serve it in US with a huge slice of lime. But one sip, and you'll realise that it's a different story altogether. If you gulp it down, you'll forget what the story was!!

I hadn't heard of Mojito until that day and got hooked to it instantly. The fresh flavours, the warm sea breeze, the ambience, the ubercool people - plus the drink had that kind of effect on me!

Now, whenever I recreate it at home, I just have to close my eyes and I'm in Goa on New year's Eve. If you are too far away from Goa, trying making a Mojito at home and I promise you'll feel much closer to the sea!

This week's Friday Food Video - How to make a Mojito Cocktail
If you cannot see the video below, click here to view.



More on Mojito here

Technorati tags: Goa, Mojito, Candolim, Baga beach, Britto's

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Friday Food Video - How to make naan bread

A Holi video at the end of this post specially for you to enjoy!

I felt so proud when I saw the Indian naan occupying place of pride in the supermarket shelves in London on my last visit and they were selling like hot cakes, or breads rather. When I bought a pack from the local Sainsburys and tried one piece, it tasted more like regular white bread with just a flatter, oval shape and some coriander sprinkled on the top. I was pretty disappointed.

The perfect naan is a kind of elusive delight.

Top 5 excuses for resorting to store bought naan bread are:

Oh! I don't have a tandoor!
It turns out too rubbery!
It came out like a crisp!
Too time consuming!
It's not meant to be made at home!

Many bloggers have demonstrated their beautiful naan making skills which inspired me to try them at home and boy, they were delicious. Just today, I came across this hugely popular video of making naan bread at home and Friday Food Videos is born.

For those who can't view the video below, click here.



So throw away the excuses and watch this beautiful video. You'll be the naan - queen (or king! ) in no time!

You could try our Egg curry or the Kaala Chana curry (North Indian black chick peas curry) along with the naan breads.

I want to share this soul-stirring video on Holi, do see it till the very end....and tell me what you thought of it!

Technorati tags: naan bread, Indian bread

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