Tuesday, March 22, 2011

When the Going Gets Tough, The Not-so-tough Eat Nutella.

On some days, you don't want to cook. Heck, you don't even want to eat. And definitely not go out for a bite. It's alright. From the minimal training in Psychiatry that I've had during the course of my MBBS education, and from Life and Judy Blume books, I know it's alright.

During the nights I was on duty in the Labour Ward and the days before I gave my General Medicine/General Surgery/OB-GYN/Paed exams, all I wanted to do was curl up into a ball with a jar of Nutella and a House Marathon (?ironic) on the TV. That would have been a luxury; it replaced my long-long desire to have the Frozen Hot Chocolate at Serenditipity III at NYC.

And Mum was initially happy we all loved Nutella. She used them as spice containers. So unintentionally kitschy.


But no addiction can truly be kept under control. All the surplus jars take up cupboard space and Mum is already irritated because Nutella is an expensive addition to the Indian grocery bill. It's difficult to deal with tight clothes and an irate mum simultaneously.


So. Treat it well. I'm going to once again acknowledge the number 13 in my blog address, and do 13 ways to have Nutella:

1) Add a tablespoonful to your regular oatmeal (which will have bananas and nuts and raisins, I'm guessing?)

2)Swirl it into cream cheese for an easy cupcake frosting.

3)Add a tablespoonful of Nutella and a tablespoonful of peanut butter to whitebread and grill until the insides are oozy and gooey. Recipe courtesy of my namesake and supremely talented chef-cousin, Rabia machi and Nihad.

4)A teaspoonful of Nutella sandwiched between 2 Marie biscuits and dropped into your kid sister's Scooby Doo Snacks Box will win you Sister of the Year.

5)Slices of banana and a dab of Nutella on top of your crepes/pancakes will make the best Sunday morning brunch of all time. Or a passably fancy dessert. You can serve it to me any time and I'll make you an award.

6)Nutella enveloped between two squares of Puff Pastry/Phyllo dough and baked until the inside is gooey, not scorched.

7)A couple of teaspoons of Nutella, a tea cup of milk, a stick of cinnamon  and a pinch of coffee powder warmed over a stove and whisked until frothy. Hot chocolate in an instant.

8)Instead of making French/Bombay Toast with a plain old piece of bread, try making it with a Nutella sandwich. But only if you can handle it.

9)Acidic fruit like strawberries pair fantastically with Nutella. Dip the strawberry into the Nutella, set it out on wax paper and refrigerate. You can use this to top your cakes or for the culinary-wise-challenged, this could be your go-to Valentine's Day dessert; easiest way to fool a man into thinking you can cook.

Ayire poi solli oru kalyanam etc and all that.

10)If you or your teenaged sister/daughter has a bunch of Mean Girls to impress during a sleepover, do this: Go to Subway, buy half a dozen Double-Chocolate chip cookies. Make pizzas with Nutella as the sauce, Cookies as the base and bits of nuts and strawberries can be the topping. Even if they have Eating Disorders or body issues or whatever, at least they can pose with them for photos to put up on Face book.

If you luck out and have fabulous friends or are metabolically gifted, make them any way.

11)On really, really fancy bread. Croissants, brioche, baguette slices all freshly bought from French Loaf or baked. If it's steaming hot/flaky, OMG.

12)Poke a skewer/knife into a marshmallow. Toast it over your slow fire on gas-ring until the outsides are golden brown (be very careful). Spread Nutella on Britannia's NutriGrain or similar cream crackers (graham crackers as the Americans call it) and place the oozy marshmallow on top for S'mores.

And sometimes, you don't feel like doing any of the above. Go on, drown your sorrows in the bottle. Get those endorphins and enkephalins releasing. My medical advice.


13) Help yourself to a heaping tablespoonful-neat, straight from the bottle. The true connoisseurs'/clinically depressed individuals way to eat Nutella. I've been doing a lot of this lately, but I'm not going to tell you under which category I fall into. 

3 comments:

  1. And I just finished my bottle of nutella and promised myself I won't buy another!

    *Sigh*

    To the grocery shop I go!

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  2. I love this post! I discovered Nutella when I was living in Paris. I started bringing a jar back with me when I flew home to the states for holidays because I couldn't survive a week without my favorite chocolate hazelnut spread. Then I had to bring multiple jars home because my family would eat it all. Thank goodness you can finally find it in all the grocery stores now! I never even thought about saving the jars. They look sooo cute! Must do this with my next jar.

    p.s. they put out coupons for nutella very frequently. I trade with people or buy them off ebay for pennies and it saves a fortune for the super nutella freaks like me ;)

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  3. Spice: Told you I can convert you to the dark side!

    Dee: Thanks so much for the tip on ebay! That'll stop me from being stingy with the Nutella when I'm baking. And yeah, I totally get you, up until a couple of years back, Dad used to pick up Nutella in Europe. I'm glad they finally set shop here in India!

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