odzer's blog

We have yet another round of cold and flu circulating in the air. It is natural that people fall prey to that in the changing season. Anyway I have had a mild cold this week as well and I needed to eat something that was hot, steamy and definitely nourishing. So one evening I cooked myself my version of mutton stew. Now I must admit usually I am not a very big fan of mutton because this is one meat that actually smells to me.  However sometimes strange urges must take precedence over old inhibitions. Of course in the spirit of tradition I did not brown the stew but at the same time I had some ingredients missing as well. Even so the stew came out quite well. I like my stew a bit peppery. I love what black pepper can do to it. Even though I own some pepper mills I am just too lazy to grind and I can sometimes just reach out for the powdered black pepper. I also added some potatoes for good measure and for the stew to make a complete meal by itself of course.

Anyway another way I cheated with the stew was that I pressure cooked the meat instead of cooking it for the usual 2 hours. It did not really take anything away from the dish I feel and it did leave quite a lot of nice stock to begin the stew with. So unless you are a diehard purist I suggest you use the modern convenienices. As for adding beer to the stew I did not do so on this occassion but a good stout usually comes in handy.

On Tuesday some of my friends came over for lunch. The good part was that I was not supposed to cook for them. One of the guys who has spent some years in France was kind enough to do the cooking. So even though we were hot due to the terrible weather we did manage to cook a meal for around 5 people. I do admit I sort of tried to help but in the end the guy did most of the work. I like the idea of cooking with friends. In fact I and another friend had gone up to this guy’s apartment to prepare a meal on the day prior to the ‘party’ at my place.

He made a gratin and a pasta salad for lunch. I made a Jug full of iced tea to go along with the meal. Interestingly he chose to do the gratin with some cream and cheese. The main ingredient of the casserole was sliced potatoes. All of us enjoyed our lunch and had a lot of fun. We played a game of pictionary afterward.

This afternoon I made Ratatouille for lunch. I had a large Zucchini lying in my fridge and I decided to take advantage of it. I loved the way it came out. Although cooking in such hot weather is a bit of a trouble. The texture of the eggplant is really appealing to me in this dish. I have a lot of it left over and I am going to buy some nice French bread and have it cold with that soon. I added green bell peppers, fresh tomato, parsley and basil to this particular dish although thyme or rosemary could have given it a nice touch as well. If I still some of it left over I am planning to eat it with scrambled eggs for breakfast. As far as this dish from Provence goes it is versatile and easy to do. The vegetables are easier than eating a very meaty dish in the middle of the hot Indian afternoon.

 

I like Chocolate, it is one of the few things that actually calm me down mood wise. I am especially partial to Chocolate Cake especially with Walnuts. However Walnuts have become very expensive due to a TV swami making claims that they are good for your heart. Which they might as well be but why did he have to tell it to all and sundry! Any way so today I was very hungry when I came home after my evening grocery shopping and I had a rather early dinner around 6:45 pm (I usually eat dinner in Summers around 7:45 pm) so I needed a snack with my last cup of tea. I baked this Chocolate cake for that very purpose. It came out quite nice I must say though I could have done with a bit less flour but since the weather is warm now, very moist cakes tend to go bad without refrigeration soon and I do not like to refrigerate my cakes. Not bad at all!