Monday, November 22, 2010

The Onion has spoken.....

As the sun submerge under the ocean and the day wears it night gown. It's time for me to unwind. Unwind the tangles of my chaotic mind. Each tangle constituted of a thousand questions. Each question coloured in different shades of doubt.As the night completely settles. I sit silently pondering over the questions of basic existence. Something on the lines of:what to cook for dinner?. This is a very pertinent question(mind you). My entire day (and sometimes) nights are occupied in thinking and planning about food.

Food seem to be the sole reason of my existence. The thought of a sumptuous platter is enough to bring deep harmony to my entire being. As it is very rightly said " there is no love more sincere than love of food". At least it rings the truth in my case. My love for food is unconditional (anything will do when I am hungry). And I know it will last forever.

I must specify here that my love for food is not restricted to my palate. I love cooking food. I've been deeply amazed by the alchemy of cooking since I was very young.It is this love of cooking that has motivated me to buy so many books on cookery. And have found an exclusive corner of my library for themselves. I am addicted to all kind of cooking shows on TV. The square ones as well the curvy ones.

Cooking is extremely therapeutic: I am almost tempted to say; it is a unique form of meditation (at least in my case). The slow repetitive moves in clock wise direction or sometimes more frantic zig - zag kind, somehow align all the five senses along with the mind to focus on its sole purpose to create a delicious meal.

It is this love that motivated me to start this a blog. To share my deep, bright and sometimes ridiculously sweet thoughts on cooking..........

2 comments:

  1. Hello dearest Uma,

    A tomato a day keeps the doctor away lol

    It took me a couple of days to find you but finally my soul directed me to click on your name with your comment on my blog :)

    This is a great way to start exchanging recipes I guess. I should have known lol because you asked me that recipe you saw of food on a picture I sent you :)

    Love to exchange and I have one I started with when I just got married and it conquered my husband's stomach lol

    I have to remember the ingredients and write them down but I already can tell you the name:

    In Dutch "Televisieschotel"
    In English: "Television dish"

    Will work it out and be back to you within short :)

    Love from Mieke

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  2. Dear Uma,

    Here in Holland they say that a husband's love goes through his stomach lol

    Here is the magic honeymoon recipe:

    TELEVISION DISH - A COLD SALAD DISH

    When you want a quiet evening, alone or with your husband, watching televison,
    or, when you are having guests,
    or, when you just want a complete meal at dinner time

    this recipe is always a good one to prepare a day before the intention you have set.

    INGREDIENTS for two persons:
    (you can always increase by two and by two more, if necessary)

    - Four large potatoes that you can cut in two halves after having peeled them, so you have 8 pieces
    - 200 grams of chicken breast and one chicken stock cube
    - two eggs
    - some salt
    - three pans

    For the sweet-sour sauce:
    - two table spoons of vinegar
    - four or five table-spoons of olive oil
    - garlic powder, salt, pepper
    - one or two tea-spoons of sugar
    - optional: one onion pulverized or cut into small pieces
    - a little bowl to make the sauce in

    For the decoration:
    - one cabbage lettace
    - two tomatoes
    - one green paprika
    - two mandarins
    - one apple
    (- perhaps some grapes or any fruit and even raw vegetable of the season will do,
    you can diversify greatly with the decoration!)

    - a few table-spoons with a salad sauce
    - some parsley


    PREPARATION:

    -Peel the potatoes, cut them into halves and cook them in a pan for about 15 minutes, with a little bit of salt added to the water.
    - Cook the two eggs for about 10 minutes with some water in a separate pan.
    - Cook the chicken breast with a chicken stock cube and half a litre water in a separate pan for about 10 to 15 minutes
    - Pour off the water of all three items.
    - Mash the potatoes, preferably not with a mixer but with a pestle or fork to keep the mixture a bit rough.
    - let all three items cool off

    - mix the ingredients of the sauce together and taste it, it has to taste sweet-sour. Just experiment, sometimes a bit more olive oil is necessary depending on the vinegar. Sometimes a bit more sugar may be necessary. The onion makes the taste even more profound.
    - when the potatoe-mix has cooled off, pour the sauce over it and stir it gently. Taste the mix to ensure the sweet-sour flavour is to your liking.
    - cut the chicken breast into small pieces and mix it with the potatoe-mix, just stir it gently with a spoon or a fork in the potatoe-mix

    - wash the cabbage lettace and divide it into big slices and dip them dry with some kitchen paper.
    - take a large plate and cover the border with the slices of the cabbage lettace.
    - cover the slices with tomato slices, mandarin slices, paprika pieces, apple slices, etc. etc. you can use a variety of seasonal fruit and raw vegetables. Make a colourful border :)

    - put the potatoe-chicken-mix in the middle of it all and divide it in such a way that it covers the rest of the plate. Peel the eggs and make slices of them; then pour some salad sauce over the mix and place cold egg slices on top of it. Sprinkle some parsley over it and your television dish is ready.

    If you want, you can keep this dish, covered with household or aluminium foil, in the refrigerator till the next day.


    This is a very nice cold dish that let's your creativity run wild.
    I use the sweet-sour sauce as a basic ingredient in every salad I make.
    It just tastes delicious in its simple form, but you can add to it whatever you like.

    Enjoy a tasty meal!

    Love from Mieke

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