Eggplant – Humbleness to Heights

Gather around, folks, as we elevate the humble eggplant / aubergine / brinjal to exalted heights.

Cauliflower, sexy when smashed

Cauliflower puree. How much more frumpy can one get? But tell you what, dressed and dolled up this way, it’s a pretty good substitute for potato mash, and healthier to boot.

BELLA PEPPERS

Here’s some good stuff for the weekend, if you’re fond of eating:

RICE DONE TWO WAYS, TWICE AS NICE

Forget about Masterchef (enter your country here) for a moment.

THE ‘YOU-CAN’T-BEET-THIS’ SALAD

Enough of the butter, bacon and beer. It’s time for another B, a healthier one, to end 2015 with. Without any fanfare, presenting to you…the honest, humble beet!

Now, mine is not so much a formal recipe as a suggestion on pairing, assembling and serving beet with some other healthy stuff to make a salad, which also tastes pretty good. So go ahead and play around with it a bit.

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ANGLING FOR COMPLIMENTS – MY FISH DISH

Righto, here we go! Change into your oldest, dirtiest pair of clothes and get the gear out – tackle, boots, worms… no, I’m only baiting you and you fell for it, didn’t you, hook, line & sinker?!

This is another rather simple preparation – fish in lemon butter sauce with capers and parsley. Made using frozen supermarket fish – I’ve made this using basa, pomfret (butterfish), and Indian saltwater salmon (‘rawas’). I’d suggest boneless fillets of any fish type that has a mild taste.

SOME SPINACH & SOME SPAGHETTI…VOILA!

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So I fancy myself as a ‘food rustler’ ie someone who can rustle up something edible form what’s in the fridge/larder. With a little help from what comes out of bottles & cans. Honestly, I could do more, but moi le masterchef can’t cut & peel & chop – it’s too tiresome!

Oftentimes, my go-to dish is my version of spaghetti and spinach, although I see no reason why another form of pasta cannot be substituted. It’s simple, it’s a quick, one dish meal and most importantly, something which the family all eat without fussing.

Here goes –

FOOD II – Mop up Mushrooms

Another simple one, vegetarian this time, and fun to eat, hot or cold. Not as quick as two minute noodles, but far tastier. And dare I say, healthier. Win-win all round.

Get yourself a couple of packets of regular button mushrooms, nothing fancy-schamcy. Halve/quarter/dice them and keep aside. (Us Indians need to take care to wash them under running water before we cut them, please!)

Now get some garlic. Correction, a serious lot of it. Don’t be scared, it’s good for you, ask any Italian or health site. Peel and chop it, very fine.

MY FIRST FOOD BLOG

Since this is my first ‘how to’, I’m going to keep it real simple. We’re going to do Prawns in Mustard Sauce (OK, for the Americans, it’s Shrimp). And all you need is 5 readymade ingredients. Uh, actually, make that 6.

Ummm, no, 7.

To begin, pick up a half kilo (for the benefit of the Americans in the house, that’s a little over a pound {they just have to be different from the rest of us, don’t they?} and you guys can get some more, with your kind of appetite) of shelled, deveined prawns/shrimp/whatever. Medium sized is fine. That’s the first ingredient. Cut open the pack and pile them onto a dish.

Add a copious amount of Old Bay seasoning. Ingredient No.2

And even more of yellow mustard, your choice of brand. Number 3.

Fourth, crush some coarse, fresh ground pepper, as much as you can bear. And finally, sprinkle some red chilli flakes. That’s 5, for the Americans who might need a calculator. Again, depending on your preferred spice level (see, I’m Indian!).

Mix well. Go on, use your hands. Cover them with shrink wrap and keep them to marinate for a couple of hours. Now, do your own thing and come back to the kitchen 10 minutes before you want to eat.

Take a coated frying pan, turn up the heat and dump the stuff in there. Here’s where the sixth ingredient comes into play. Like our mamas all told us, cooking needs TLC. So be gentle, be nice, be good to the prawns/shrimp.

If you want it sauce-y, put the lid on and turn the heat down. Or, keep the flame on high. Test whether the prawns/shrimp are done. It shouldn’t take more than a few minutes. Transfer to your plate and get yourself a fork. If you’re going to photograph your preparation and Instagram or Pin it, maybe you want to jazz it up with some chopped spring onion greens. But that’s just a garnish, not to be counted, since it’s an optional.

Seventh, (and this is the kicker). Grab an ice cold beer – one last time for the Americans, anything but Bud, because that’s NOT beer – and pop the can open.

Eat and swig alternately. Burp! excuse me, that’s the beer! Burrrpp! Aaaah…