The Doner Kebab/Chicken Shawarma Experiment Turned Lovechild.

How did I survive before Chicken Shawarma finally made it to Chennai?

Incidentally, how did I survive before Sub of The Day existed? Or Subway? I know they've pulled the offer; and it's thoroughly depressing.

Everything comes late to Madras, thanks to honcho-types firmly believing in the penny-pinching cliche of Tamilians. Cliche is not uncalled for, since Mum nearly goes into Kussmaul's breathing when she finds out how much fancy things like Callebaut gelato or a pint of Haagen-Dazs costs; and I always tell her only half of what it actually did.

What I meant by things coming late: KFC, Mocha, Costa, Starbucks and the like. Extremely annoying, except maybe when I have to pour/squeeze/pull/push/shimmy/wriggle into skinny jeans.

Along the way, I've learned to make most of the things these places have to offer. Breaded Chicken (way better than KFC's), Momofuku's Crack Pie (I've no clue about the original, but it'll be interesting to find out) and Magnolia Bakery's Cupcakes (Ditto).
Chicken Shawarma, I learnt to make quite recently. I'm sure you think there is no reason for you to attempt these, when there's a stall within 200 metres of your home.

I'd like to insist (very politely) that you try. You can control the spice mix, the moistness of the chicken, the crispness of the potato wedges, the fluffiness of the pita and instead of a gloopy mayonnaise, you can make your own garlic-scented tahini and yogurt sauce. Instead of a garden variety chicken-and-mayo roll (which at Rs. 50, is still ah-mazing). And it's supremely easy and takes up only one bowl (each).

This is one of the dishes that redeemed my savoury-cooking skills at home. I had to search high and low for the recipes of each of the components, and I am in love with all of them. The chicken part is from a Dubai-based site, so that comes with a Bonafide attestation. I added some garlicky fries, some tahini and shawarma pickles, because I'm a big believer of foodgasms.

I'm also going to try something new. I'll put up all the pictures and basic recipe details first, and a detailed and uninterrupted recipe below. Let me know if you like it!

Start off with the best spices you can find.

Pound the elaichi/cardamom pods, grind the cinnamon sticks, make your garam masala, whatever it takes.

Taste the marinade before the meat goes in and adjust, if necessary!

Marinate the chicken for at least an hour. Cover with cling film or some random lid and pop it into the refrigerator, if you live in a hot place like Madras!

Cook the chicken in all of the marinade over low heat, breaking it up as you go.

For the fries:

Refer to this post. And try parboiling, instead of microwaving... it makes a world of difference.

For the tahini-yogurt sauce:

Make a not pretty (but deelishus) batch of tahini.

Add lemon juice, salt and yogurt, playing by tongue and eye.

Use thick, preferably hung or Greek yogurt, for this sauce. You can make a regular yogurt sauce.

For the pita:

Make wholewheat pitas or buy the fluffiest, grainiest piece of pita bread in your city.

For the shawarma pickles:

Recipe coming soon! I don't give everything away on the first date. You can skip this step and add a couple of more drops of Tabasco, to spice it up.

Assembling these babies:

Get all of you stuff on one table and gather the people around it.

Slick the tahina-sauce on the pita.

Add chunks of cooked chicken.

Add the lettuce, pomegranate seeds, onions, tomatoes, shawama pickles and fries.

Splash on some tabasco, wrap it up and CHARGE!

Doner kebab/Chicken Shawarma Lovechild:

(marinade recipe from Sips and Spoonfuls)Ingredients:

For the chicken shawarma marinade:

500 gms boneless chicken, cut into 1 inch cubes

2 tbsp vegetable oil

½ cup thick yogurt

Juice of 1 lemon

1 tsp ground black pepper

1 tsp cardamom pod powder

1 tsp cinnamon powder

Salt to taste

½ tsp red chilli powder

½ tsp garam masala

3 tsps ginger-garlic paste

For the tahini-yogurt sauce:

1/2 cup white sesame seeds
3 tbsps Extra virgin olive oil
1 cup Greek/hung/full-fat yogurt
2 plump cloves of garlic
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
Salt and pepper, to taste

To serve:

1 batch of Garlicky baked fries
8 wholewheat pita bread (1 batch of this recipe)
1 cup iceberg lettuce, chopped
1 cup onion, chopped
1 cup cucumber, chopped
1 cup tomato, chopped
Pomegranate seeds.
Shawarma pickles.
Chopped coriander and mint leaves-plenty.
Tabasco, as needed.

Method:

For the chicken:

Marinate the chicken pieces in the marinade ingredients for at least an hour.

In a non-stick pan (no need to grease), over medium-low heat, cook the chicken for about 10 minutes. The marinade should have dried and the chicken should be moist and tender. Break up the chicken as it cooks.

Keep aside.

For the tahina sauce:

Roast the sesame seeds over low heat until it turns a pale shade of brown and pops. Take it off the pan in which it is heated, or it will continue to cook in the residual heat and burn.

Once cooled, grind the seeds to paste in a mixie/food processor. Add in the garlic, salt, olive oil, lemon juice and blitz until a nice paste is formed.

Add in the yogurt, and adjust the salt as per taste.

To assemble:

Heat the pita over a non-greased tawa for around 10 seconds on both sides, on medium heat.

Spread the tahina sauce on it.

Add the chicken, fries, pickles, lettuce, onions, tomatoes, pomegranate, herbs, tabasco as per each diner's choice.

Serve immediately.

Store each of the components separately, closed in the refrigerator.

I didn't bother with that, because there was enough left over for one tiny roll.

A midnight-snack-portion roll. As my own personal toast to the amazing Nigella Lawson. Cheers!

Spanish Saffron Orange Cake/The Sunshine Cake.

Since the last post on the blog (technically) wasn't dessert, I'm morally obliged to post one. Stat.

This dessert has neither butter nor chocolate in it. Before you go X-ing any Windows, hear me out. It's pretty darned good, and I have it on self-proclaimed excellent authority.

My love for the Mediterranean/Middle-East has grown exponentially over the years. Even though the closest I've got to either place are childhood trips to Paris and shopping/religious visits to the UAE/Saudi Arabia. The fear of sounding like a person who wants to go to "Swiss" for their honeymoon or whatever, keeps me from raving too much about Marrakesh and Mykonos. Discovery Travel & Living has completely done an Inception on my limited brain-space.

It's not just for the food (food is just 90% of the reason). The language, culture, people, smells and overall beauty beckons. And I'm fairly certain MSF (Doctors-Without-Borders) does not post you there, thanks to the lack of Multi Drug Resistant-TB cases and the like.. So I'll have to put these plans on hold until I turn 50 (average age at which a doctor pays off her med-school loans) or when my HLA-typing matches that of an uraemic millionaire (on a serious note, dodgy organ donations for profit is a cruel, unethical act).

So until the day I get to Greece or Turkey, I'll just cook up things with olive oil and chickpeas and plonk myself in front of a foreign film. "A Separation" was a movie I watched recently (yes, I succumb to Oscar buzz) and absolutely loved.

Between the ages of 12 and 17, I baked nothing but chocolate cake. I didn't even like eating anything other than chocolate cake. Until my aunt requested I make something other than "karuppu kokka cake". I made her an Irish Tea Cake she still remembers and mentions at many (and there are many) family gatherings. Since then, I've gone on to bake with everything from carrots to coconut to pumpkin.

The one I'm putting up today is a healthy, light cake you'd love with your morning cuppa.

Make it and one of the following scenarios will happen to you:-

Your mum would proudly send some over to the neighbours (instead of saying "cake again? Cook 'real' food"). Your aunt will request the recipe, thrice. Your cousins/friends would ask for thirds (especially if it's smothered with enough cream and jello). Your grandmother would reminisce about the good old days and since it's not horribly-unhealthy, you make two halfhearted attempts to remind her of glycemic control and stop. The New Family will call you at midnight and thank you whilst you pretend you just rustled it up in your sleep. It's a winner.

Or you can just drink the orange and saffron-scented batter and live fattily happily ever after. It's the blessed truth.

Spanish Saffron Orange Cake:
(Recipe Source: The Greystone  Bakery Cookbook)

Ingredients:

4 cups all-purpose flour
2 Tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 eggs
1-1/2 cups granulated white sugar
2 cups plain whole milk yogurt
2/3 cup vegetable oil (I used 1/3 olive oil, 1/3 cup vegetable oil)
Juice and zest of 2 oranges
2 teaspoons vanilla extract/essence
5 Tablespoons powdered sugar or honey
a pinch of saffron
1 tsp powdered cardamom (from 6-7 elaichi pods)
1 tbsp hot milk

Method:

Grease and flour a 12-cup bundt pan. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius, 375 degrees F.
If you're using a smaller pan, halve the recipe or bake in two batches.

In a medium sized bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and ground cardamom.

Add half the saffron to it to the milk in a small cup and keep aside, letting the saffron infuse into it.

Horrendously expensive Spanish Saffron. You can use much lesser and get away with it.

In a big bowl, mix together the orange zest and granulated sugar.

Rub it all in, until the sugar is tinted orange and the essential oils of the zest flavour the sugar.

Add the eggs to the bowl with the sugar and beat until the mix is thick and pale yellow.  Add the yogurt, oil, 2 Tablespoon of orange juice, saffron milk and vanilla essence.  Stir well to combine.  Fold in the flour mixture.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake for 45 to 50 minutes (much lesser baking time if you halve the recipe), or until the top is golden brown and a wooden skewer comes out clean when inserted near the center.

Place the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes to cool.  Run a knife around the edges of the cake, separating it from the pan. Turn it out and cool completely.

To make the glaze:

Sorry for the horrid picture. My spatial orientation gets out of whack around hot sugar.

In a heatproof bowl, combine the remaining orange juice, remaining saffron and honey/sugar. Heat over medium until it comes to a boil and then turn the heat to Low/Sim. Once it forms a syrup (around 10 minutes), take it off the heat. Poke holes all over the cake with a toothpick. Pour the warm glaze over the cool cake.

This cake apparently keeps well, when wrapped well, for around 2 days. I can't promise that in Madras (heat) or in my household (gluttony).

If you're giving away the cake to someone, always bake a small portion in a cupcake liner, just so you know it does not taste horrendous. You can use pretty cupcake liners, if you have kickass friends like Anisha L!

Serve the way your heart chooses. Especially if you're like me and can't plate food beautifully.

Sprinkle some more powdered sugar on top, if you like to keep it simple.

 I made a "creme Anglaise" with Foster-Clark's custard powder and added a pinch of saffron and half a cup of blanched and chopped pistachios and almonds to it.

You can elevate it with a few fresh orange segments or raspberry/strawberry flavoured jelly/Jell-O. MMM.

I'm going to call this The Sunshine Cake because the actual name is a little long and snobby (it can get away with the pishposh 'tude, mind you). This might even wipe out all negative connotations Sunshine has, thanks to the Merciless May Madras Heat.

Ramadan Kareem, Part 2/Herbed Grape-and-Cheese Panini.

Ramadan is drawing to a close. I'm going to miss sleeping for long hours, nights spent in prayer and frantic Eid shopping. I'm going to miss dusk spent around the dining table, the sweetness of the first date after long hours of fasting and being given a free pass to laze around work/chores. And being a seasoned foodie, missing out on my daily dose of nombu kanji comes as a big blow.

Amidst the flurry of last-minute activities, it's hard to cook up a decent iftiari. This leads to a lot of deep-fried food being bought and on Day 28, I've long exceeded my grease quota. I can't face another soggy samosa that has been twice-cooked in its own steam in the takeaway foil-box.

To prevent a mini-fight (fight is the wrong word, really, since that leads to an invalid fast) of sorts, I tend to make a lighter dish that everybody says is unnecessary or claims to not want, but gobbles up along with their samosa-vada-cutlet, any way.

This is one of those classic raid-your-fridge sandwiches. Good, crusty, wholegrain bread. A hunk of good cheese. A handful of plump, sweet grapes. You've got yourself a sandwich.

I can't extol the virtues of a panini maker enough. Enough praises have been sung/spoken on this blog, but please, please get one.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to be a little bit of a bread snob and say that you can skip this recipe if all you've got is white Modern/Wonder bread. In that case, I'd toast my white bread and spread jam on it or make french toast. Not this panini. I've completely adapted this from Jamie Oliver's pizza recipe, and you know it's sacrilege to use trans-fat/mass-produced/plastic food in a Jamie Oliver recipe.

Also, the cheese can be anything except sliced pre-packaged American cheese. Feta, good. Cheddar, good. Parmesan, good. Pecorino Romano, great! The salty cheese holds it shape, and contrasts beautifully with the sweetness of the honey, the herbiness of the rosemary, the crustiness of the bread and the grapes were a hot, yummy mess at the end of the grilling. Whew.

Herbed Grape-and-Cheese Panini:

Ingredients:

8 slices whole-grain bread

4 tbsp honey (I used saffron honey)

1 tsp dried rosemary

1/3 cup crumbled Pecorino Romano cheese

24 grapes

Olive oil or butter, for greasing

Method:

Cut the grapes into half. Deseed the grapes and keep them aside.

Take two slices of bread and butter them on one side. I skipped this part. On the unbuttered side, arrange the sliced grapes, cheese. Drizzle with honey, sprinkle with rosemary.

Close the sandwich with the other slice of bread. Pop it into the preheated panini maker until the sides are golden brown. Repeat with the remaining slices of bread.

I used Extra Virgin Olive Oil for greasing, because I wanted a more savoury sandwich. The others however, liked their sandwich, pancakes-style, with a pat of butter and some more honey.

This should ideally be served steaming hot.

And rest assured, I'll be making this in different forms; on a cracker (post-gym food!), as bruschetta and as Pizza (the way Jamie intended it to be).

Get some water boiling for the tea, grill these babies and wrap yourself in a blanket. Nobody can fight/be unhappy with butter and honey and bread in their system. Tested and true.

Gloria Jean's/PalmGrove/Dewberry's: A weekend to remember.

It's been quite a while since I reviewed any restaurants. And when I finally decide to, it's on a Tuesday. This could be because I'm:

a)A sadistic jackass, of the variety that salivates and dreams about the food she'll be imbibing in the weekend, and wants to inflict a similar mode of visual torture on her readers.

b)A lazy cook who has run out of delicious recipes to post.

Would you be believe me if I say I'm neither?

And instead of doing restaurants, I'm going to review dishes that didn't have me thinking what I'd do change it or wishing I hadn't ordered it. Basically, dishes I loved.

1)The BBQ chicken wrap at Dewberry's, on R.K.Salai. Costs 160 rupees. The only qualm I have about it is that the portion wasn't enough. Not oh-my-GOD-it-was-so-freaking-good-I-can't-have-enough enough. More like "give-me-a-real-piece!" enough. Not all of us have a 26" waist to maintain. Not all of us use food as an accesory/prop.

The chicken is spicy, succulent, creamy from the mayo and the wrap is nicely toasted. The fries are above OK, and the coleslaw is borderline OK.

Pretty decent. Give it a go.

However, it's one of the places that are key on ambiance I'm guessing. For a cheapo foodie, it might be a letdown. For a date: double thumbs up! It's completely an Open-Air restaurant which, I know, sounds disastrous in Madras. But. There were plenty of charming fans whizzing around, strategic lighting and no mosquitoes. If your company is good enough, you won't even notice how bland the pesto pasta is.

NOT GOOD. AT ALL.

Don't order it. Pesto should be bursting with the flavour of basil and the creaminess of the pine nuts, even if it's not meant to be spicy. Not a congealed mass of flavourless, gummy, overpriced gluten.

2)The Onion Rava Masala Dosai at Hotel Palmgrove, off Nungambakkam High Road.

Bad photo. Yum-yum-yummy dosai.

Oh my good God. I didn't even know this place existed. And I've lived here all my life.

The potato masala comes on the side. It has chunky bits of carrots, peas and cashewnuts in it. It is so simple, so fabulous. It has a homey-ness to it, a flavour I know I've tasted but can't quite put my finger on. It really is an experience. Go try it.

And if you're in the mood for retro-style drinks, order the grape juice/pineapple juice. Only if you like Kalimark Bovonto or Saravana's Grape Kuchi Ice (Popsicle) though. The old grape juice of lore, mildly cough syrup-ish, but still with chunky grape skin it. And I thought these things were dinosaurs, all extinct. Costs 50 bucks a dosai/drink.

3)The doughnut at Gloria Jean's, Express Avenue.

Gloria Jean's is expensive. Any of their ice-blended coffee drinks will set you back by more than a 100 bucks, assuming you order a Grande instead of Regular (um. Duh).

However, they have the nicest sprinkles. I'm a sucker for those suckers.

And coffee cups holders.

And their doughnuts. Oh, man. I tend to pooh-pooh at the banana bread (Rs 60/slice) and the mini-muffins (50 bucks a piece), because I can whip those up at home. Not doughnuts, though.

And these are killer. At 45 bucks, they're a bloody steal (coming from a penny pincher/careful eater like me, you better believe it). It's huge enough to fill your stomach, adverse effect of which is that you'll feel like a pig after you're done with it. A happy pig though. They heat the doughnut for you, so it's all warm and the chocolate frosting (not glaze, frosting, mind you) melts and makes a delicious mess. Mmm. No. Mmmmm.

 And you can totally sit at Gloria Jean's and eyeball the shoppers/vetti people loitering about EA. Paradoxically making you one of the vetti lot, but how fun it is to run people down when you're with your girls from school.

You'll notice how the last four senteces started with an "And." So grammatically incorrect, so emphatically true.

Quboos/Whole Wheat Pita (Fullstop)

In Tamil, we've got this famous saying. Kal irundha naye kaanam; naye irundha kal-la kaanam.

Which roughly means, "You've got the stone, but the dog has disappeared; the dog is around, but the stone is nowhere to be found."

OK, it isn't all that famous, and my translation is a bit dodgy. The moral of this pointless/cruel and PETA-anger-incuring story is that I made Chicken Gyros, took plenty of photographs, posted them for you to see and didn't tell you how to make the pita bread/Quboos that is SO crucial for the dish.

It's like having peanut butter and no toast, yogurt and no granola, shawarma without pickled chilli and Nutella without a spoon. Depressing situations I wouldn't wish upon any of you.

Don't not try this bread because it's whole-wheat. Breads have to be whole grain, just like cakes/tarts have to be refined flour. That's the natural order of life and to mess around well-established good things is asking for failure.
Pita is kind of ambiguous on the whole flour-thing, sort of like chapatis are. You can use white, white flour and end up with paranthas/yummy pita. Or use grainy atta and end up with regular roti/yummy pita. I use a mixture of both because just wholewheat flour being used would lead to glutinous, heavy dough. And they aren't pita bread if they aren't "soft-fluffy-light!" brand of delicious.

And since my sarcasm in the middle of the recipe is "distracting", I'll do a little captioned collage-montage-flowchart first, and give you an uninterrupted recipe at the end. Deal?

Most hand-mixers come with the dough hook attachment. If you've lost yours or didn't have them to start with, a big spoon and arm power are decent substitutes.

I used Active Dry Yeast and honey from Coorg. Yeast and honey. A combination that has survived centuries and spawned the thing I love so much: Bread.

And when mixed and kept aside for 5 minutes, it gets foamy. If it doesn't, the yeast isn't Active enough, and you have to start over. Bummer. But yay!, if it does.

After the minimum flour has been added and left to bubble up some more.

Don't let the sticky mess deter you. Just add lashings of flour until you can form a dough ball.

Make sure the bowl is oiled/greased. Sticky messes stop being fun after the first five minutes.

The dough has risen. I wish I had an inkling about photography/perspective to show you the difference in the size. But from the indentations I've made with my thumb, you can see that it's poofy and big, right?

It'll be nice if you can divide them into 8 equal balls. If you don't, just tell the person with the smallest pita that Life isn't always fair and neither are you.

See how much maida I've added to the work surface? Little by little, add until it stops sticking to the marbletop/work surface.

Rolling out pita into the size of a small scale. 15 cm, 7 inches, max, I should think.

Ideally, you'd let them rise with kitchen towels over them, but I don't have 8 clean kitchen towels laying around, so I improv'd it with newspaper and covered with more newspaper.

I'm sorry the picture sucks. I can't deal with cameras and red-hot fire at the same time. I don't like 2nd to 3rd degree burns. They hurt like a bitch. Just make sure the baking tray is preheated and HOT, so the pitas start cooking the second they're put on it.

Whole Wheat Pitas:

Ingredients:



2-1/2 tsps Active Dry Yeast

1 Tbsp honey/sugar
1 1/4 cups warm water (around 40 to 50 degree C)

1 1/2 cups All-purpose flour (maida), plus additional for kneading
1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour (Atta)
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp salt

Method:

In a bowl, mix together 1/2 cup warm water, yeast and honey until all the yeast bits are completely dissolved.

Set aside for 5 minutes, you should have foam on the top.

Add 1/4 cup of All-purpose flour and 1/4 cup of Wholewheat flour into the yeast mix, whisk until well combined. Cover the bowl with a plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel and set it aside in the warmest part of your kitchen for 45 minutes. The dough should have doubled in bulk.

Stir in oil, salt, remaining 3/4 cup warm water, and remaining 2 1/2 cups flour mixture until a dough forms.

Transfer the dough onto a marble top or work surface that has been strewn with flour. Keep kneading for 8-10 minutes. I used my dough hook attachment to knead. The dough should be smooth and pliable at the end of it.

Transfer the kneaded dough ball onto a bowl that has been lightly oiled. Cover the bowl with a plastic wrap or a lid or a kitchen towel and let it rise until doubled in size. This should take 1 hour maximum, at Madras.

Punch down the risen dough. Divide into 8 equal balls.

Flatten each ball, roll it out in the manner of a roti with a floured rolling pin. Transfer them to clean surfaces or foil and cover with a clean kitchen towel/newspaper and let them rise for 30 minutes. Make sure the plastic or whatever has been floured, or it may stick.

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees Celcius or 500 degrees Farenheit. If you have a pizza stone, put it in. Or improvise a stone out of a baking tray and foil. They should be preheated as well/

Transfer each pita onto the baking dish. Bake for 2 minutes, until it puffs up like a poori. Turn it over with tongs or a spatula and bake for a minute more.

Cool for a couple of minutes. Serve warm or keep them in a bread basket, well-wrapped.

Recipe Source: adapted from Gourmet Magazine, by Confections of a Foodie Bride.

You can store left-over pitas in an airtight box for 48 hours. Or cut them up like the spokes of a wheel into triangular shapes and make pita chips to eat with hummus.

Think of it this way. Once you make bread, you've crossed off an important point in your 30 Things Before 30 list.