Roasted Garlic Labneh With Red Bell Pepper Walnut Relish

Happy New Year everyone! Hope you are onto to your 'January' healthy eating resolutions! While I can almost never make resolutions, I plan to work out (sorely lazy at it) harder than ever because we do eat moderately well balanced food otherwise. One thing that really helps is to have some dips and relishes in the fridge for times I crave something hearty but not necessarily skinny. Last evening snack was this relish and I realised I had this post in drafts for over a year. 

It was a cool breezy summer evening in Turkey, some four years back when we first had the relish.  Antiochia, the restuarant was busy and buzzing with people, but also had a sort of mystical aura in its setting in the old European district of Beyoğlu. We happened to get talking with our neighbouring table (yes, tables are that close! or at least were that day) a Swiss couple living in Turkey, helped us select items from the menu. It could be their expertise or the chef's perfection but everything tasted beyond delicious. One thing in particular, that won us over mostly because of its cheer simplicity was the red and green bell pepper walnut relish. 

Cumin and Black Pepper Ghee Shortbread

When we came to Kuwait some 7 years ago, we lived in a different, much older building that overlooked a busy and bustling shopping lane.  Most of my days were spend filling up forms and applying for jobs or cooking up storms with food network always playing in background. You could find me, either mimicking Nigella Lawson while stirring my pot of stew, or practising my British accent every time Gordon Ramsay came on. Those were the shaping years of my cooking style and opened up a whole new world of food for me. I cooked 5 meals a day, dessert included.

One such December day, when whole of Kuwait was enveloped in fog, I starred down at the large hoardings of sales and flickering red and blue lights, keeping cozy with warm, dark and hot chocolate mug in my rabbit fur socks (which are now buried deep into suitcases of memories), while Jamie cooked a Christmas feast on television. I snapped out of my trace, eager to cook. It could be his darling lisp or sheer passion for food, that inspired me to cook a Christmasy feast that day.

Harissa Spiced Beans With Eggs

When I started this blog some 4 years back, I couldn't imagine myself eating egg even slightly underdone. I have written a whole post on it, and here we are today, I love to eat my eggs under done specially if they are fried, poached or baked. Except for of course this egg curry which is a staple in my house requiring hard boiled eggs. Another food I have been averse to is refried beans mostly because I always ended up trying them from a can and the awful texture and smell put me off even before trying it. Four years since and to say this refried bean inspired baked egg where the yolks are best kept oozy, is a family favourite just reminds me why I love coming back to blogging.

After reading this post by Heidi of 101cookbooks on maintaining a long term blog, it got me into thinking why I blog. I have been (in internet terms) been blogging and maintaining this blog for a long time despite it being very different from how Heidi does or the scale of it for that matter!

Quinoa and Sweet Potato Salad With Tamarind and Mint Chutney

As soon as I stepped out of the airplane, the humid, sticky air paved through my hair. I wondered if I should have infact had dinner on the plane, it was 2 a.m. and spending time to find any restaurant in this murky weather could be disastrous. To my relief, we sailed through the customs and airport procedures which admittedly is always the case at the Ahmedabad airport, the largest city of the North Western State - Gujarat . But I could hear my stomach growling increasingly and to break to my father who was receiving me, that I hadn't had my dinner, specially so because I was pregnant, would create a very stark reaction from Papa. It wasn't as if I didn't try, I did but I couldn't help feeling like I would throw up, really.

Our hired driver, who was going to drive us for next 6 hours to our home in Udaipur was confident about the hygiene of this particular South Indian restaurant. Talking about the hot crispy paper dosas, and dunking fairy white idlis in spicy broth of lentils called sambar created such sparkle in his eyes, it's the kind of thing only one foodie sees in another. He escorted us to the dingy staircase to the restaurant, the walls on both sides of the staircase filled with posters of Gods, the bollywood actors along side - who of course are no less than God. The spare lighting and the curved staircase created an illusion of a cave, where 'Anita loves Amit' and countless other lovers engraved their love on whatever was remaining of the wall. The driver assured us as Papa ran his handkerchief over his forehead - 'There is air conditioner inside.'

Smashed Thyme Potatoes With Garlic and Lemon Sauce

My small counter space is overcrowded with pots and pans, produce and spices while I make a saucy chicken for dinner. My pyjama top is leached in turmeric, along with stains of ghee.  There are hints of cayenne or perhaps it is spats of tomato juices, and then there is garam masala, sprinkled like scant pepper from a miller. If you looked close enough, you'll also find last week's beetroot and chocolate cake masked by the fragrance of detergents but the red hue filtering through the wash. A few more wears and it might require trashing for most people, I though will hold onto it a little longer.

One could argue, there is apron for a reason, but my occasional bouts of intense cooking are fuelled by carrying those stains, spices and aromas like a badge of reminder of the end result and often times inspire food with 'connected flavours'. Let me explain; they say sniffing coffee clears your nostrils to distinguish between flavours, in which I think spices and the aromas seem to connect flavours. Laces of floral and citrusy mace and headiness of nutmeg, always drive my senses to apple and orange pudding Ammi makes, which in essence has no jaiphal (nutmeg) or javitri (mace). Nor, Ammi would ever approve of such an addition I reckon. 

Baklava Pistachio Sandwich Ice cream

The ice cream peddler in his Ottoman-esque costume of golden vest and red fez, teased the customers with the metal pole he used for stirring the Turkish ice cream. The ice cream was so stretchy, it dangled on the pole without falling off, much to the amusement of passersby. He further taunts by offering the cone and grabbing it back, tossing it in the air, inverting the cone just when you think the order is ready. Occasionally, you are party to the drama by getting a lick off the ice cream. We watched in bewilderment, despite having witnessed it nearly everyday of our 5 day stay in Istanbul. On this day though, we had decided to put our affair with the pistachio ice cream with hazelnut aside and find our way to Karaoke gulluoglu, a baklava parlour. As we navigated through the narrow by lanes for a good hour, it was tough not to pull up a chair and sit in any one of the countless baklava shops in the same area. But we resisted for the promise of having the best baklava with the best kaymak (rich Turkish buffalo clotted cream) in town.

Once we reached, we realised looking around at other tables that baklava here wasn't just a pastry on go or a dessert to have a slice off. It was to be devoured over golden hued warm tea, over conservation that lasted for hours, with friends that schemed of how is the perfect way to go about a relationship. So despite, having stuffed ourselves with the best kind of freshly grilled mackerel sandwich just outside of the shop, we decided to order one of each type of baklava we could lay eyes on.