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. 

Zaatar Halloumi and Olives Sandwich with Cherry Tomatoes

I have missed blogging! A lot of good things been happening around here. Good work opportunities and a food photography and styling workshop with Nourish of Qout Market  last week - all just feels surreal and I'm immensely grateful. 

It's not to say we haven't been cooking in fact my repertoire of cooking under 45 minutes has certainly increased many folds. So I thought perhaps, this is a good recipe to start start off this week.  Halloumi zaatar sandwich has saved me through many quick five minutes lunches before our  meetings during corporate years and now continues to be a fall back munch when I'm drowning in work. It is not even a recipe really, but if you haven't tried the combination, you are in for a treat. The salty halloumi, pungent zaatar and bitter olives contrast beautifully with sweet and juicy cherry tomatoes. This is also good time to bring out that fancy schmancy extra virgin olive oil as fruity flavours of the oil really shine through.  

Green Chutney, Avocado, Tomatoes and Fried Egg Open Sandwich

During my days of living in India, my sister in law and I had a customary late afternoon walk. The sun would calm down, the streets started to buzz again with horns and hawkers after the sleepy high heat afternoon hours. People from all walks of life, blue collar to white could be seen taking a break or snatching a bite of this and that on the street. The unsaid truth about our walks was, we never returned home without filling ourselves with some kind of street food. It was the real purpose of 'the walk'. Careful of never talking about it at home of course, my mother in law just as my mother would never approve of us eating on the streets.

Photo Shoot For Nutri Juice

A while back I photographed for Nutri Juice, which is a smoothie and juice parlour that makes smoothies on order with all natural ingredients and no sugar or additives! I didn't really think I was into smoothies until I worked for them. May be it was because I was adding way too many things in name of nutrient into my jar and/or adding the wrong ingredients. What I learned was, keeping it simple was the way to go for a smoothie.

Okra and Onion Stir Fry

I might have mentioned it before, my mother got married very young and had me when she was barely 18. It meant, I have remotest memories of her 20s but 30s is clear as yesterday.

I remember her favourite cobalt blue salwar kameez, the duppata falling perfectly on her slender shoulders, the chiffon sleeves loosely wrapped unto the elbow. Her skin, always complimented as porcelain like, was exactly that but I often marvelled at her rosy lips, one she would intensify with a rosy pink lipstick, the only colour she ever wore. Her gold kissed brown hair tied into a simple pony gave more reasons to focus on her face. A beautiful young woman, who only cooked good food, made sure we had a freshly made juices after school, evening snack before dinner and fruits as after dinner dessert.

Tadka Dal - Everyday Indian Lentil Soup

India and dal are synonymous to each other. One can't be in India if they haven't had some version of dal, whichever part of the country they may be in. It's not like we talk lengths about it or how it should be made. For most cooks can blindly make dal, a little bit of this and that lentil, a few spices from the masala dabba (a spice box used by Indians to keep day to day spices), a trusty pressure cooker and a pot full of dal is always simmering away.

As much as dal is a necessity, so are the condiments served with it. Achar (pickle, usually lemon or mango), kachumbar (an onion salad) and if it wasn't enough some papadam (wafer-thin lentil crisps) to crunch on are always stationed close to a bowl of dal. While roti is fine, fragrant white grain rice is the lustrous companion one craves. Slurping through the dal coated rice is truly what composes comfort food for most Indians. In my family, it is a twice a week affair, but many vegetarians will tell you that they have some form of dal everyday along side a vegetable preparation. 

Restaurant Photo Shoot - GIA

I recently did a photo shoot for a local deli/cafe called GIA and unlike others it is all about wholesome, rustic and home style food. I'm in love with their quinoa salads and have whole new love for quinoa now then ever.

Clearly then, the guidelines for the shoot were real, unpretentious and realistic food with no restaurant like styling which was very refreshing to see. Here are some of the photos from the shoot.