Next was to make puff pastry dough and experience the feeling of total gratification. Now i gathered all the ingredients and set out to make a wonderful pastry dough but... but.. i realised it needs much more patience than i have ever shown in my life.
Moreover, the temperature in my kitchen and timing of the rolling out of the dough in between lamination was the trick...and yes everything is based on  practice.
I would suggest that one does it in small portions and often so that you get the knack of it...and  also not feel the pinch of the 'waste' as you might call it but it is not so ... you can use wisely all of the bad dough too.
I messed up with the puff pastry dough. The timings, the measurement, in and out of the fridge process all of it should be done in a very disciplined way or else you'll end up not successful.

In the picture you can see, for that matter even hufriz m'am said that the dough was over proven and I should check the temperature of the oven again ...

I am planning to post now everyday, I have lost a lot of time and space unnecessarily.
Well, I attended..yet .another class of baking!!
I think i was ready to learn this time...the teacher being Hufriz M'am, at Mudhu aunty's place on a saturday.
On my way i thought to myself this is yet another class and everything is a waste .. as i am not going to be successful in making any of the items i was supposed to learn on that day.
Well, the class did not disappoint me s we had some awesome practicals   and also i opted to volunteer in mixing the dough twice.
That action gave me some bit of confidence and i put my heart into it.

the result was this you see in the picture.
I named it as my First baked 'sun kissed' loaf bread.
The tasters at the class and M'am, Madhu aunty all of them said that the taste was great and the texture too.
But somewhere my dis satisfaction that the bread is not so light in weight was put to rest by Hufriz M'am ..she said "please do not compare it with what you get in the market because the commercial bread makers do use a lot of other chemicals to make it last longer and also that it should be light and moist."

The catch is of course making the dough properly but also the temperature of the oven one is using. I have a 'Faber' gas cooking range. I bought it from Vijay sales and I hate them with all my might as they FAIL in after sales service and every other way of serving a customer. I hate them. They still have not solved my problem of the oven not lighting in one go... i have to sit in front of the stove and press the oven button for like 10 minutes and hold it there so that it doesnt go off!!

Curd based Chicken curry

On my visit to the famous bachelor's pad.. I mean to visit JD at Nelson's house...its fun to carry food. Before anything else, let me tell you that JD is this absolutely lovable, adorable person...a fine musician ..a bass guitar player with 'Blue Frog'. An absolute genius...I met through Shekhar :)...has scored a beautiful music album with his buddy's Lima and Lindsay. You got to hear it!! Called Bliss Logic ...its ROCKING, well thats the most apt word to describe it....chk out myspace/bliss logic. This time...it was to introduce Mohnish on some music tips for his first movie at NYFA.

Now wondering what to cook for JD...led me to make a curd (yogurt) based boneless chicken curry.
To add a tad bit of interest to the curry, I roasted the onion slices and the boneless chicken!

Ingredients: Boneless roasted chicken shredded pieces, roasted onions slices, chilly powder, coriander powder, pepper corns, fresh coriander leaves and curd.

Method: Roast the boneless chicken and keep it aside. grind the roasted onions slices, chilly powder, coriander powder, pepper corns together. Heat a little oil in a heavy based pan, add the ground masala to it along with fresh coriander leaves and saute well till you can smell the aroma of the masala. Beat the curd and pour it into the pan ...let it boil...add chicken and salt to taste.
I leave you the option of adding some cream to it.

Its yummy... try it plz... then post your valuable comments.

I'll post pictures of the food in some days...he he... let me buy my SX 10...!!

CAVIAR MANGO....from Canada.

Vaibhav Suryavanshi sent me this lovely recipe from Canada....

recipe for mango caviar

CAVIAR MANGO
250G MANGO PUREE
250ML MANGO WATER
1.8G SODIUM ALGINATE
1.3G SODIUM CITRATE

method to make it

Make mango water by infusing mango peels in water. Strain and reserve. Dissolve sodium citrate in this water; incorporate alginate into mango puree with a hand blender. Mix two liquids, strain and reserve. At this point mixture is ready to drop into calcium chloride bath.

this is most famous served with my duo of mango
mango lassi and mango terrine served with mango caviar

Thankyou Vaibhav!! :)

My awesome Gas Tandoor......

I am blessed with people who love food. So everyday evening is very interesting. It my nature that I do not follow any recipe as the cooking comes from my heart. My son Mohnish says, thats the beauty of my cooking'.

Everybody loves grilled food but usually here in India the tandoor stuff is colourful. I do not recommend food colours. So in preparing a chicken tandoori, I devised my own masala usually called afghani..i suppose..white in colour. This mixure of spices brings out the flavours of the chicken, the marinade softens the meat that it simply melts in your mouth.

Today on the menu is tandoori chicken legs. I will share my recipe with you, please try it and give me your comments. I do not prepare any food to be very pungent to taste. So, if need be please add green chilli paste to the masala according to your taste.

Recipe for the marinade:
Thick curd, full cream, ginger-garlic paste, lime juice, black/white pepper powder, coriander powder, cumin powder, salt, oil.

Method: Mix all ingredients very well. Make incisions on the chicken legs and rub the masala mixture. keep aside for 3-4 hours. Heat the tandoor, oil the grill plate and place the chicken legs. Cook for 35 to 40 minutes. (time may differ in the type of grill used)

Serve with raw onions or salad.

Do try this out and post your comments.