Panfusine

Whenever the craving strikes for deep fried food, I always try and maximize by trying out new ingredients to fry up, and whatever is sitting in my pantry/ fridge is fair game. This time around it was Fava beans freshly shucked from the pod, mixed with a chickpea batter infused generously with fresh thyme, and fried up.

As you know, Pav bhaji can never be made in small quantities. I have a 5 qt cast iron braising pan exclusively for the dish and the vegetable still overflows while cooking, because I don't think Le Creuset makes a larger braiser. But it seldom goes waste at home. the leftovers are scooped up with toast the next day or eaten straight up cold as is. (All ye who love day old cold pizza, you know what I mean!) These were the leftovers from making a  calabaza squash Pav bhaji . The puff pastry is store bought from Wegmans, just prep the pastry as per the package directions and spoon the warmed up pav bhaji into the cups prior to serving. Top with bits of pickled onion and cilantro. Street food never looked so chic!

Anyone from Mumbai (the city formerly known as Bombay), with a passion for its incomparable street food will relate to the following scenario. Standing in front of a vendors cart waiting for a fresh batch of Batata vadas (garlicky potatoes enrobed in a spiced chickpea flour batter) to be fished out of a huge wok of hot oil, there is an aroma that quietly stamps itself into your memory. Rustic, yeasty and downright comforting. The stacks of  country rolls piled up 2 feet high, in the corner. These are the native 'Ladi Pav', a Portuguese contribution to this vibrant culinary scenario. The Pav is everything that the snooty slice of white bread is not -  tough, chewy, with a tang that is halfway to sourdough. Its usually partially sliced,  soaked in melted butter when served up with Pav bhaji or Usal. Alternatively, dusted liberally with garlic chutney with a golden orb of batata vada stuffed in between. Lets not beat around the bush, the Pav has always been looke...

 I'm actually breaking into song as I write this up. Albeit in my head, Frank Sinatra is crooning his timeless classic.. My Way.. Jan 1st 2012, Siri Pulipaka , the author of cookingwithsiri.com was just winding up her own daily blog ( of everyday events) and was encouraging others to experiment with similar projects. On a pure whim, I got myself a blogger page, with nary a thought about how I was to complete 366 dishes. It was never my intention to add recipes for classic day to day fare, just links  if a particular dish was made using a recipe from other sites. But, just as a new mother forgets everything about the intensity of her labor pain after seeing her infants face, I cannot recall anything hard or negative about this annual project. In fact, the support I received from everyone of you simply increased my motivation to kick back any lethargy and support every dish I could with recipes. The effort has paid off in terms of a repository of recipes that I...

I can never thank providence enough for givin me the common sense to prepare myself for the much touted Frankenstorm Sandy. Plenty of flashlights, spare batteries in bulk, Water, a back up sump pump for the basement, Firewood, the list could go on.. Nothing, NOTHING could have prepared me for the terrifying experience of living through those six hours.  It sounded like a  full payload Boeing 747 was taking off for a transatlantic flight right in the backyard. Sure enough, the lights went out, and we were left  hunkering down in total darkness with a diabolical, howling wind screeching through the house. And yet, it stopped almost as suddenly as it started around midnight, almost as if the trees had no more strength to even flutter a leaf. All that could be heard was a proverbial sound of silence, equally eerie. The next morning, the most visible evidence of the storm were the felled and leaning trees and the side of the house spattered with shreds of torn leaves h...

Whats it about having a whale of a time with friends & Family?. It makes it so hard to get back to food.  While I wait for my local farm to open up their fresh vegetable stand (June 23rd), Its back to trying small dishes, amuse bouches as Le Francais call them.

Image credit: www.monicabhide.com There are very few moods that match the depth of emptiness that follows a jubilant high.One invariably needs a high to match the previous one & then some more.. (Isn't that what an addiction begins with?). Rather than try & match the highs of the last month, (a Cooking Channel taping session opposite Kelsey Nixon , A walking tour through the hallowed kitchens at Food Network Studios ,  a milestone post..), I'd like to take a moment to pause & ask myself.. What now? Do I do a George Bush & declare 'Success'? Not a Chance!! This seemed to be the perfect opportunity to sit down and read through author Monica Bhide's latest work, an e-book 'In Conversation with exceptional women'. This compilation is an inspirational labor of love, a heart to heart conversation with 57 exceptionally talented women, each of whom have succeeded in their respective fields by their sheer grit, hard work & determination. A...

(This was a recipe made last year for Hanukkah, It just never saw the light of day on the blog, just on the Facebook 'Panfusine' page) I'll be the first to admit that Hanukkah was one of the most recent religious festivals that I came to know about, In that respect, I'm as gentile as it gets. but the connotation of a festival related to lights & the celebration of faith & devotion in the Almighty & the mere fact that it falls around Diwali was enough to raise a curiosity in wanting to learn more about the traditions surrounding Hanukkah. For those of you with a similar interest, I refer you to the wikipedia article on the festival ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanukkah ) Even for a gentile like me, hearing the word 'Hanukkah' first brings to mind a plate of warm potato latkes served with sour cream. There are variations a plenty & my version is probably just one in hundreds. Since I do not usually incorporate eggs in my r...

The flip side of festive days such as thanksgiving is this terrible sense of withdrawal symptoms that invariably strikes after the festivities are over.. Once the cleaning is done, the nice plates are put away and the last wine cork is located in the far corners of the kitchen counter & tossed out, a feeling of 'now what do I do?' sets in and no dish that the head conjures is ever good enough to beat. and no recipe that has been tried, tested & waiting to be posted seems to fit the bill ( Take home message: Its not worth making & banking good recipes way  too ahead of time ) When that happens I regress back to comfort foods that I know I'll regret stuffing my face with.. This time around it was deep fried 'Bhajia',  and a large mug of Masala Chai... at 10.00 am in the morning (doing this ought to rank with hitting the booze at 9.00 am, in terms of socio-culinary blasphemy), but it was delicious while it lasted. Weight watchers just got relegated to ...