Mother’s day was swamped with cake orders. Stayed up till wee hours organizing all the deliveries and making sure we were sending the right cakes to right mothers.
My big hit for the day was chocolate Torta. Everyone just loved it.
With all this I still managed to go to a party on Saturday night too and lost my earring while dancing -the highlight! Okay enough of junky updates…let’s get to the food bit.

I cooked quick/simple basic pasta salad on the eve of Mother’s day and rest of the meal mom made her self (basic daal roti sabji meal).
Think I will cook her a grand meal one of these days.

Farfalle with fresh mozzarella and cherry tomatoes.

Ingredients/Amounts

Farfalle 500gms
Spring onions 2 ea.
Cherry tomatoes, cut into halves 200gms
Oregano chopped 1 tablespoon
Fresh basil chopped 1 tablespoon
Fresh mozzarella 100 Gms
Olive oil 1/4 cup
Lemon juice, fresh 1 teaspoon
Fresh chopped chilli 1 teaspoon
Garlic, crushed 1 clove
Fresh basil to roll mozzarella

Method:

1. Boil the pasta in a large saucepan of quickly boiling salted water until al dente.
2. Drain, rinse under cold water and drain again. Allow to cool and transfer to a large salad bowl.
3. Spruce the spring onions and finely chop. Add to the pasta with the tomato halves, fresh mozzarella, oregano and basil.
4. To put together the dressing, mix the oil, chilli, garlic, lemon juice and salt and pepper, to taste in a bowl.
5. Pour the dressing over the top of the salad. Toss well.
6. For a pretty arrangement add the salad in a small glass. Wrap the mozzarella with a big basil leaf and sandwich it between cherry tomatoes halves on a satay stick.

Had our usual mother daughter natter, made decorations for my cakes for the next day in my kitchen and had our pasta with the satay stick! Mom happy me happy!

Belated Happy Mother’s Day!

A couple of days back I met two of my very dear friends- Ruchi and Karan for dinner. We were supposed to meet in khan market. On my way to khan I detour to go check out the New Aman Hotel. I took Ruchi along with me and focus was to go through the menu, check the desserts and see what they are serving.

Aman hotel does live up to its name. It is quite peaceful there. Almost like a meditation area where every tickle of the water you could hear. The staff members were gracious and fervent. Something that made me reflect back to my days at Four Season Hotel. I mean mull over for a moment …the service does change your experience. From the valet to the manager everyone had a smile and humble way to greet – absolutely positive. (You get that only in one country from what I have seen. Everyone in Thailand smiles) .
Aman Hotel-has a Spanish tapas bar, I loved it at the first sight saw a whole bunch of gorgeous looking Spanish men sitting having a chinwag. All we heard was “si si”. (Si= yeah in Spanish).
My best memory of tapas is when my NOW-brother in law had come to meet me and I decided to go to a tapas bar with him or the time I did “bar hopping” with friends in San Diego. Good times and fond memories.

Anyhow I was explaining Ruchi the concept of tapas where I was telling her that it’s a combinations of whole bunch of appetizers be it meat or vegetarian accompanied with lots of wine or sangria. I like the idea of tapas a lot, who so ever came up with it- I am assuming it’s some Spaniard, since it’s a part of Spanish cuisine. The way it’s designed the concept it in reality egg’s on chat because people are not so dogged upon eating the total meal that is set before them.You get the best of both worlds-good chat + good food.So next time you want to go for a rendezvous you know what cuisine to pick!

Harissa is a traditional accompaniment with Spanish tapas though it’s very Tunisian and also is served with Moroccan food. That reminds me I will cook some couscous with harissa and share the recipe with you all. Harissa is counterpart of Sambal.
My mom loves it when I make, she loves to smear her multigrain bread with it. While I like to marinate my Paneer in it.
Make a lot of it and store it in a bottle if you love the chillies though make sure to cover with olive oil so the surface doesn’t dry up!

Chillies, red, fresh 500gms
Dried habenero pepper 1 ea.
Sundried tomatoes 100-200 Gms
Garlic, crushed in salt 1 ea.
Turmeric 1 tsp.
Coriander 1/4 tsp.
Cumin 1/4 tsp.
Caraway 1/4 tsp.
Lemon juice 1/4 tsp.
Olive oil for consistency and flavour t.t.
Water for consistency

Method

1. Seed and stem the fresh chillies.
2. Toast and hydrate the dried chillies, seed and stem them.
3. Add everything to the blender and blend smooth if looking for a paste consistency else use a chopper.
4. Adjust with lemon juice, olive oil, and water.

The dinner was lovely at Amici – highlight was the pizzas but the dessert was absolutely sad!

With the heat sometimes cooking, eating all seem like a dreary job. Weather is searing, eating out can be not as much fun with the scorching heat and I am in no mood to take chances with the way the tummy bug is going on. So I’m taking it easy. Confined indoor as much as possible and cook something appetizing and light. I had to go to INA to get some ingredients for my work. I must tell you that place is “cloud nine “for somebody who is hunting for ingredients though there are times I hope it was a bit cleaner.

My sabji vala bhiya (vegetable vendor) had a lot of interesting produce come in. Endives, Brussels sprouts, radicchio. He was keen I tried these organic baby carrots from Bangalore. I picked up 2 bunches and some asparagus.

Asparagus is a big part of Chinese and British meal. I have tried white asparagus in US but in Delhi I find it infrequently. And it is very luxurious.

Did you know leaves of asparagus plant are needle like?

Got home and made this:

Ingredients:

2 bunch baby carrots cut off stems and peel
10-12 asparagus
1 small shallot, thinly sliced (red onion if you can’t find shallots)
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

Trim off sturdy ends from asparagus and cut into 2 inch pieces at a diagonal. Blanch carrots and asparagus in salted boiling water for 2 minutes or till done. Do away with water and drain. In a large sauté pan, heat olive oil and add in shallots and garlic and sauté for 30 seconds or until garlic is fragrant. Add the blanched carrots and asparagus and sauté for 2 more minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve hot.

Serve it with Honey mustard dressing or Spicy Mustard Dip.

Simple and Delicious!