Loaf-ing around!

Marriage does strange things to women. It suddenly makes you feel that you should get into the kitchen and awaken the culinary queen in you. The disastrous results are too many to enumerate but even twenty-four plus years down the wedded route, the first meat loaf attempt makes one cringe. In the kitchen, of the stone-wood cottage in Darjeeling, with one entire row of windows overlooking the verdant Peshok Hills, with the cook and two home guards watching curiously, I tried to make  my first meat-loaf. What is it all about - just putting together mince, eggs, some bread crumbs, diced onions, seasonings tra-la-la-la! Feeling smug and so up there, one put the loaf tin into the over, adjusted the temperature and timing, flung off the apron and impatiently awaited the accolade, orchestra in the background et al. It was a horror story all the way - first the electricity played truant, one moment the voltage would zoom up as if in a frenzied hurry to streak like lightning across the sky, next it would be dead as dodo, no heart beat, no pulse, simply lifeless. The devilish dance of the electric supply continued the whole day. It infected me too, one moment I would switch off the oven, next switch it on and adjust the timing again. What came out was a hard lump, charred at some ends, sickly pale at others. I promised  myself that I would never ever, make a meat loaf again, ever. But as they say, never say never!

Over the years, the meat loaf has become a perennial during the winter months in my kitchen. Don't ask why not during the other months. Have to analyse that. Though everybody's preference is pork mince, chicken loaf too turns out quite tasty. Simple, easy to make, keeps for some days and versatile, it can be the main dish with sauce, salads and garlic bread or dinner rolls. It can go in as sandwich fillers (especially for school tiffin boxes), cut into squares it can be served with drinks, crumble it and it makes a great pie filling. Or like the little girl in the old Horlicks ad who chirped, I eat it by itself (or eat it just like that) one can eat it just like that.

For the one I made the other day I took:

Chicken mince, 300g ( I prefer the breast meat)

Egg,1, slightly  beaten

Breadcrumbs, 50g

Onion, 1 medium, minced finely

Star anise (allspice) 1, ground finely

Salt, to taste

Parsley, 1 tablespoon, chopped

Eggs, 2, full boiled

1 loaf tin ( I refuse to discard my old beaten, worn out, aluminium tin)

Heat the oven to 160 C 

Put the chicken in a glass bowl, mix in the breadcrumbs, onion, allspice powder, salt, parsley and mix in gently but thoroughly. Put in the slightly beaten egg and mix well.

Grease the loaf tin. I use butter paper simply because I refuse to discard my old  beaten......

Put half the mix in and pat it into place. If the tin is big, no issues, just fill half, 2/3 rd whatever. (see below)

  Take the full boiled and shelled eggs, lay them in the middle. 

  

Place the boiled eggs in the centre

Then cover them with the rest of the mix. Pat them into a loaf shape.

Cover with the rest of the mix and shape it into a loaf

Bake for about 45 minutes. Let it cool in the oven.Slice and binge!

This is how it looks! 

The Goodness of Gurh

Winter might not be everybody's favourite season of the year, but I love it. I look forward to it and from September itself I start counting the days. It's that time of the year when, bundled under layers of clothes, you can binge shamelessly while proclaiming that once the cold peters off, you will diet and exercise. That of course is another story best left alone. If there is one thing that completes my love for the cold months it is nolen gurh from West Bengal. This  fragrant and delicately sweet date palm jaggery is addictive, awesome and worth all the impatience. In the villages of Bengal  where the date palms grow, small incisions are made in the tree and earthen pots are hung below the incisions. The sap collected in the pots are poured into huge iron cauldrons placed over fire (routinely wood fired earthen chulas) and slowly churned until the required consistency is reached. The nolen gurh is then poured into clay pots and is ready for the market. It is literally manna from heaven and forget the sweet dishes prepared from it, the gurh itself is so yummy that it takes all will power to resist finishing the whole block!

The delicious Nolen Gurh

My introduction to nolen gurh was accidental, more like serendipity. Years ago while on an assignment, I had to pass through Saktigarh (near Burdwan), everyone in the office had ordered me not to return without dozens of its most famous sweetmeant, ledi keni or langcha! Clearly named after Lady Canning, it is what can be called a cylindrical gulab jamun, but much, much more lighter and tastier. Then I was a nolen gurh ignoramus, but someone at a small wall-less, plastic sheet roofed sweet shop deep into the countryside told me to opt for the gurh variety and I did not knowing what I was letting myself into.  As a precaution, I picked up several earthen pots of sugar ledi keni too. The drive back to Kolkata was long, boring and with the night setting in outside there was nothing much to look out for.So one pot got opened, yes the gurh one and I discovered nirvana! Only the sugar ones got to the office! Since then my affair with nolen gurh has remained steadfast, never mind the distance now. Bengal may be far away but the onset of nolen gurh season means I ensure, come whatever, that my supplies of the delicacy continues.

After the ledi keni, it was the nolen gurh sandesh, melt-in-the-mouth affairs. From sandesh, it was nolen gurh rosogollas. (At wedding banquets, I first check out the dessert sections and if it is winter and if there is nolen gur rosogollas, then its plain feasting and more feasting) Then we got our first block of the gurh itself, a rather humble looking affair that held within an amazing sweetness, almost fragile. It is not a sweetness that screams from the rooftops, but is subtle, mellow and irresistible. Naturally,all sweet preparations in the house meant replacing sugar with nolen gurh.

If you don't live in Bengal, check out the Bengali pockets in your city/towns and the market there, some store or the other is bound to have the golden goodness. In Delhi, it is the market (No1) in Chittaranjan Park. I leave the sandesh and the rosogollas to the experts, for me its kheer time in the kitchen. Over time I have found that the humble peeler is the best way to get the gurh ready for the kheer. Run the peeler over the gurh, as you would while peeling any vegetable and what you get is thin layers of crumbly gurh

 

I have also learnt that unless you are very sure of the quality of the gurh, it would be wise not to mix in the entire amount of gurh and milk. The best option would be take a few tablespoons of warm milk in a glass bowl and add in a bit of the grated gur. Stir thoroughly and put it back in a saucepan on low flame, if the mixture bubbles merrily and there is no curdling or falling apart, then that's the green signal to go ahead. Making kheer is no rocket science. I put the milk to boil, put in a pod or two or even three of green cardamon (depending on the amount to be made) then add the washed and thoroughly drained rice,  stirring gently all the while. If you can lay your hands on then there is nothing like gobind bhog rice, the tiny grained aromatic rice, also from Burdwan in West Bengal. I mix the gurh with some warm milk separately and then slowly pour it into kheer pot. As the gurh seeps into the milk, the aroma that wafts around is intoxicating. Next its slivers of almonds and cashew nuts, but strictly no raisins (unlike the other regular kheers). I don't want sweetness of any other way coming in the way of nolen gurh.  Don't go by the picture below, just dig in!

    

 

The Chicken takes the Flour!

In how many ways can one eat a chicken? Let me count the ways.......

There is one way which outright beats every other way - The Atta Chicken, a whole marinated bird encased in a flour ball and roasted in a tandoor. And it comes all the way from Kotkapura (Faridkot District, Punjab), about 125 km or so from Ludhiana and about 9+hours drive from Delhi.

 

So what makes people go all ra ra over this blackened misshaped oblong-ish football looking ball of wholewheat flour that houses a chicken? Chicken story you can say.

Lets start at the beginning. A couple of years ago, some friends dropped two Atta chicken balls. Microwave it for 10-12 minutes or put it in the over for about 15 minutes or so was the instruction. Ok fine, will do so was my skeptical response. In my mind the idea of a chicken encased in a dough case was not something I looked forward to. The family loved it, I didn't even try. It was a smallish chicken, the marinade didn't look inviting either (more on a dull, pale brownish side) and the nuts seemed an odd addition to me. So gave it the ho humph treatment!

There was however, no respite from the Atta chicken invasion in this household, it seemed to turn up with regular impunity. In fact, once a vehicle was dispatched all the way from Delhi to ferry as many as could be procured and parceled out to family and friends. The myth around it continued to grow.

The shop it is said is but a hole in the wall affair and is about 40 years old. The story goes that the founder Kanwarjit Singh Sethi's father served as an officer in the army somewhere in the North Frontier region including Afghanistan in pre-partition days.. The secret recipe is therefore an Afghan heritage. Today Kanwarjit and his son run the show. The family not only refuses to part with the recipe, but adamantly refuses to expand too. The desi chickens are said to be marinated over night, each chicken is then wrapped in a cheesecloth and covered with a half inch or more of  atta dough and then cooked in a blazing hot tandoor. The resultant affair is a charred ball of atta.

Atta Chicken as it looks

 

Microwave or oven heat the Atta chicken, remove the shell and it's like a magic box opening.....chicken melting off the bone and strewn with almonds. And this time- maybe the freezing cold weather, close friends and the vodka-tonic combination worked- I dived in too. Luscious, delicious and so very light, simply finger-licking. 

Come dig in!

As it happens with all secret recipes, much of the evening was devoted to figuring out the marinade ingredients. Following much discussions and suggestions, some quite hilarious, and difference of opinions, we surmised that the marinade would be a mash of curd/cream, a tad of cumin powder, almond/pistachio(and probably charmagaz/melon seed) paste, salt, some red chili powder or white pepper powder. The marinade was rubbed both all over the chicken and inside too and lots of almonds (probably the raw kind) was stuffed in.

This is a guessed recipe waiting to be tried out.

For those fortunate enough to be able to source the Atta chicken, the suggestions is hit the outlet in the first half of the day, by late afternoon we are told everything is sold out! The price is not too heavy either- Rs 350 or so a piece. The outlet is at Pheruman Chowk, Jaito Road, Kotkapura, Faridkot, Punjab. Call +91-9888020962 and +91-9888022962 or 01635-224062.