Italian food = Comfort food

What can one expect to have as consequence when an unemployed youth sits and watches food shows on NDTV Good Times all day, I mean other than the feeling that there's nothing Good about the current Times? Quite obviously it stirs a hunger so profound it's almost religious, and one that leads to kitchen experiments and yet another blog post.

So, Vicky (Ratnani, of course) was making a delectable fish in citrus. (Yes, I like to refer to him on first name basis 'cause he and I are friends. You see, we do hang out quite a bit all day, everyday. I follow him on Twitter too, if that helps.) Watching him prepare that dish with so much fervor combined with tender love got me ravenous. Before I knew it I had driven across to Kailash Colony and was purchasing ingredients.

No, I was not replicating his TV efforts. Yes, I was planning on indulging in some comfort food, and for me Italian food spells comfort. However, I wanted the comfort to be a bit of a challenge this time and so I decided to embark on the not yet explored territory of some good, home made gnocchi. (For those of you who do not know what that is, please Google it :p].

I must add before I proceed that I had originally planned on making myself Gnocchi in Bacon Sauce, but lo! and behold! Star Bazaar stocked only chicken and mutton based products. My only choices were to drive till Khan and buy bacon or settle for Chicken Ham instead. No prizes for guessing I compromised!

Note to the Supermarket in question: Do not worry, Star Bazaar. This is not a libel against you, for you are only catering to your clients' tastes and preferences, but South Delhi, especially, you Mr. oh-so-posh Kailash and neighbours -- you do not partake of bacon or any other piggy products? Royal shame!


I got home in no time and was soon working meticulously towards my virgin attempt at home-made gnocchi. Recipe below:

Ingredients
For the Gnocchi:
Potatoes - 500 to 750 grams
All purpose flour (Maida) - 250 grams (Note: A few 100 grams up will do, but will only make the gnocchi heavier)
Salt - to taste
Extra Virgin Olive Oil - 1 tablespoon
Egg (yolks only) - 2

For the Chicken Ham Sauce:
Butter - 1 tbsp
All Purpose flour - 1 tbsp
Milk (cold) - 1 glass
Cheese - 1 to 2 cubes (grated)
Salt and Pepper - To taste
Chicken Ham - 150 grams (Add or deduct as per personal preference)
Onion - 1/2 chopped length-wise


Method
For the Gnocchi:

• Begin with boiling the potatoes. Peel and mash them once boiled and allow them to cool to room temperature. It would be best to use a potato masher in order to minimize the number of lumps, but in case you don't have one (In my super equipped kitchen -- read barely equipped --  in Delhi, I quite obviously did not have one. Sigh! Home is a blessing!) use a fork followed with clean hands, instead. You shall get the same result.
• Put the mashed potatoes on a lightly dusted work surface and create a well in the center. 
• Now, separate the eggs ( I successfully managed to do the same with no prior experience so separating shall be no task) and pour the yolks into the well. 
• Pour the 1 tablespoon of Olive Oil into the well too. Now mix them gently into the potatoes. 
• Take the all purpose flour in a separate bowl and mix the salt into it. Now add this to the potatoes, gently kneading into a dough that soon enough appears to have a crumbly texture. Make sure you add more flour if the dough is sticky.
• Once the dough is ready, tear off a fistful of the dough and roll into a rope that is approximately 2 cm thick, over your lightly dusted work surface. Now cut into bite sized pieces. You can leave these pieces as they are or give them the traditional concave shape using the back of your fork.
• Repeat process to make desired number of pieces of gnocchi, as the dough is actually more than what can be used in a single go. (You can store the remainder in the freezer and use it well within 2 months) 
• Bring a large saucepan of lightly salted water to a gentle boil. Add the gnocchi and cook for 2 minutes or till they float up to the surface. Your gnocchi is ready!

Method

For the Chicken Ham Sauce:

• Heat the butter in a saucepan till it melts into a lovely, yellow liquid.
• Add the flour to this and cook till golden brown or till you can smell the lovely aroma of the bubbling flour undergoing radiant chemical change.
• Now add the glass of cold milk to this, stirring continuously, making sure the mixture has been smoothly incorporated into the milk.
• Add the salt, pepper and grated cheese to this and bring to a boil. Cook for another 5-7 minutes or till the sauce thickens.
• In a separate non-stick pan heat olive oil and cook the chicken ham and onions in it for at least 7 minutes or till the onions attain a golden hue.
• Add this to the Bechamel Sauce prepared above and cook over medium heat for another 2 minutes.
• The Chicken Ham Sauce is ready.

Now, you can choose to either combine the gnocchi into the sauce or pour the sauce over the gnocchi. (It matters not!) Serve hot and bask in the glory of the compliments you shall receive if you care to share like I did. 

Please do not mock the presentation too much, or that you can barely tell the gnocchi from the ham, but simply discount it given the fact that I had to make do with whatever best available crockery and camera I had at my disposal. So go on, don't judge, simply DIG IN!!!

A Glimpse of Heaven

I have always loved my food, and believe a good meal possesses divine, curative powers that can heal the body, mind and spirit, precisely why there is chicken soup for the soul and also why one is always asked to feed the cold.

I cannot accurately recall when was the first time I felt so passionately about food, but it was probably around the time I was packed off to boarding school. Eating cold fried eggs and surviving on dry, thin rotis made me gain new found respect and love for the proverbial "ma ke haath ka khaana". My mum realized that too and made sure I went back to school from the holidays looking like a turkey before Thanksgiving. It was her way of showering love, and I was not complaining. One tradition in particular made me feel truly loved and pampered - the glimpse of chocolate heaven she'd conjure and have waiting at the breakfast table on the very first morning of my vacations, summer or winter.

When I decided to start my own food blog, I mulled for nearly two days over what would make the ideal first post. I debated between writing a review on my recent visit to a Mexican restaurant and my critique on blueberry cheesecakes found at different outlets across the city. Neither seemed to fit the bill. Meanwhile, I made an unannounced trip home, and when I did not find my Glimpse of Heaven at the breakfast table the following morning, I knew what I had to get cracking at.

And this is how I got baking the very first chocolate cake of my life. Recipe below:

Ingredients
For the chocolate cake:
Ground Sugar - 1 cup
Refined Flour - 1 cup
Baking Powder - 1 tsp
Cocoa Powder - 4 tsps
Refined Oil - 3/4 th cup
Eggs (at room temperature) - 3
Vanilla Essence - A few drops
Milk - 2 tbsps


For the icing:
Unsalted butter - 2 tbsps
Cocoa powder - 3 to 4 (heaped) tbsps
Ground Sugar - 2 tsps
Grated Chocolate - Plenty


Method 
For the cake:

• Begin with pre-heating the oven at 320 degrees or Gas mark 6
• Grease your baking tin with some oil and baseline it with brown paper, greasing the same too
• Break the eggs into a bowl and add a few drops of the vanilla essence to them. Beat this mixture using an electronic blender, making sure you don't overdo the beating as that will ruin the cake. 
• Now add the oil to the sugar, and blend this mixture in a separate bowl
• Add the egg blend to the above mixture, blending simultaneously
• Sift the flour with the Baking and Cocoa powders. (Tip: Always sift twice for cakes)
• Now drizzle this dry mix spoon by spoon into the sugar and egg mix, folding it in. Fold gently, incorporating air all the time. You should be able to see bubbles in the mixture while doing this.
• Add the 2 tablespoons of milk to this and fold it in as well
• Pour this delicious mixture into your tin and bake it for 30 minutes

Within 10 odd minutes the kitchen, and most corners of your home will have the aroma of this lovely cake wafting in. *Drools while writing this and reminiscing*

• Once the cake has risen and is fully baked, place it outside and allow it to cool. Then cut it into two layers, horizontally. 

Method

For Decorating and Finishing:

• Boil 2 tablespoons of sugar and 3 of cocoa in half a glass of water till it forms a syrup. Remove from fire and allow to cool.
• Prick the lower layer of cake with fork and pour the syrup lavishly over it. 
• Prepare the icing for the cake by mixing together the unsalted butter, ground sugar, cocoa powder and grated chocolate.
• Spoon a part of the icing on the inside of the upper layer of cake and spread evenly.
• Place the upper half over the lower half of the cake and then douse the cake with the remaining chocolate syrup. This ensures the cake remains moist even when refrigerated. 
• Now spoon the icing on the top and sides of the cake and spread evenly. 
• Finish with drizzling the cake extravagantly with grated dark chocolate - Lindt in my case (or milk chocolate, if you prefer)
• Chill till required.

Now remove the cake from the fridge and cut yourself a generous slice. Do not wait for anything or anyone, simply DIG IN!!!

Sigh, what utter delight! If there be a heaven on earth, it is here, it is here, it is here...