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Bonds of Joy, Twin Power & French Toast

My Slice of Life column for the May 2nd weekend from Mail Today by India Today. 

 

Mom's French Toast

 

This is one of several western dishes that my mother made for us kids. Instead of drowning our French Toast in syrup, she would sprinkle coarse demerara sugar on the bread, so as it cooked on the grill, the sugar caramelized and pooled creating a sticky, sweet and crunchy built in coating that we found addictive. I use vanilla paste in this recipe as I feel it provides a gentler, richer vanilla flavor than vanilla extract. For an extra special touch, pulse some sugar cubes with lemon zest in your food processor and sprinkle over the French Toast before serving.

 

Raquel & Jenn's Strawberry Cake

This recipe comes my way from Raquel Pelzel, one of my closest friends and co-author of my books American Masala and Masala Farm. She got the recipe from Jenn Segal of Once Upon A Chef. 

 

It is an easy cake to make and a fun one to have one hand. Forgiving in its ease of baking and how it stays. While Jenn uses the batter to make muffins, I have used a strawberry red Emile Henry deep pie dish to make it into a cake. 

 

Enjoy!

Pooris - Fluffy Puffy Bread

 

A poori is a most beautiful edible treat to behold. In the kitchen as it is made and fried, and as it arrives on the table, to be consumed. Puffy and light, crisp outside and chewy in its bite, it is a miraculous invention and one that always pleases. 

We grew up eating pooris on tyauhaars (religious festivals) and at special dinners where a "fancy meal" was being served. Channas (chickpeas), rase waale aloo (potatoes), khatta meetha kaddu (sweet and sour pumpkin) and halwa (semolina pudding) are some of the dishes I associate with the making of pooris. 

They are delicious. Easy to make. Its all about practice, practice and practice when it comes to the making of pooris. 

 

Faith, hope, courage & love

My column for 25th January from Mail Today by India Today.

Twenty Twenty - Facile discernment and the beginning of a new decade and year

2020 couldn’t begin on a better note for us. We find ourselves safely at home in New Delhi. Surrounded by loved ones. Pooches at our side. Living in a new home, built on land where the home of my birth existed before. Finding ourselves comfortable in the city that I left at 19, when I went to school in Manhattan. The city to which I came back yearly when going back home to family. A city that is as old as history and as richly diverse and full of opportunities as the best in the world. New Delhi is the capital of India, it is a cultural hub, and it is now home to my new baby, The House of Celeste, my restaurant in Gurgaon. 

The Oberoi, Mumbai, An Affirmation Of Heart Felt Hospitality In Red

Life affirming, heart warming, and sensuality arousing color, that is red, is everywhere to be found literally and metaphorically at The Oberoi Mumbai. 

From the modern design sensibilities, to the heart felt welcome, to the red of the sofa and runner on the table, that the welcome amenity had at the desk in my spacious, sea-view room.

Toshi Yoroizuka - A dessert bar with elegance and style

Toshi Yoroizuka worked in Belgium we were told, and cooked for royalty and commoners alike. It was there that he polished his talents as a pastry chef, and came back to Japan, to open two very popular and busy eponymously named pastry bars. In the gorgonzola cheese cake above, you see Y (for Yoroizuka) as the crown-jewel to his creation. Why is pastry so much better in Japan, than so many cities and towns in the US? We are so much closer to Europe. What do we not get? Or do we do not care for quality?