The day my baby flew back 9/11

My baby finally flew back safely.. 9/11

Another preceding day began, my mode of excitement for work is never constant as usual yet never less than gratified. I rushed to work knowing little what this day would bring to me. Truly said, expect the unexpected. The day progressed on working through certain new project. I was occupied with setting material up in the kitchen. No thought at all. Just going with the flow.

The day flew by effortlessly. At the end my colleague and I decided to make ourselves a little treat to celebrate the end of the project . We started working on making ourselves a little some thing to satisfy our appetite. Working through the treat process and that's when it happened, my baby flew right back! Over joyed and excited; I jumped smiling ear to ear. I couldn't believe it had happened, I proudly announced it to everyone who entered the room, "Look what the day brought to me!"

After all the staring eyes ,smiling and cheers that my baby spread across the room. I took a moment alone, which held still.. baby and I just gazed at each other. I slowly caressed my hand on the soft golden skin which triggered a certain indescribable spark inside of me. 

Like fat burger with double cheese, like a sip of cold coke with a huge bite of biryani, like cold air creeping in through your blanket in a winter night,like diet coke with stuffed crust pizza, like the new shoe in store, like a bucket of triple chocolate ice cream on a lazy night...Like harry met sally.. Yes! Like harry met sally.. Except this was the ending, I gently picked up the ganache pot that was prepared earlier as part of the "treat" and poured chocolate all over my baby... Lots of it, couldn't care less what anyone thought. I stared at how the ganache dripped from ends of the shoulders. My baby sat there gloriously.

My senses couldn't wait to get hold of every part that held that glazing chocolate. I stepped away a little, while my baby layed there smothered in rich creamy chocolat. I slowly moved towards my colleague, leaned over her to pick up the fork and a knife lying behind her... I nervously approached my baby and gently cut through my baby. Today was the day my baby crepe flipped tossed in the air and right back into the arms of my pan. After several tries, finally, here we are. What an end to my day.

I will forget you not 9/11


Watch out for diy baby in ganache ;)

-A xx

Pure soul comforting food

First, let's look at what each word means...

Pure-True to it's originality, without any extra elements

Soul-  life ,spirit and consciousness

Comfort- At ease, freedom from pain or constraint

Food- Reason why I can't fit into my best pair of jeans anymore. 

Now's when you combine them, they simply mean True to  it's origin, being my guilty pleasure makes my mind and soul at ease away from pain. We all need that soothing meal at delicate times in our lives of heart risks, obesity, diabetes and so on. They just simply mean indulgence without a thought like ecstasy even if its for a few moments. 

Many, who choose to dive into this kind of food coma, have no interest in working hard in the kitchen for the gooey triple layer chocolate fudge(even though it would be wonderous) or have a boring ice cream. What we really need is to cleanse our soul for a little while by preparing something that takes minimal time and tastes just as devilish as the triple layer chocolate fudge cake. The absolute treat to the soul!

It's like entering Narnia just through a closet door, minus the drama. A chance to let go in a new world with minimal prep time. 

Let me bring to you quick Pure soul comforting recipes featuring my summer love! Death by chocolate- Ganache pot with a strawberry surprise and a Supreme Trifle up on my next post!

Weight gaining- ly yours

-A-

I hate it but I can't help falling in love!

We all go through that anxiety, the rush, the hatred yet the love we ozz is beyond what words can ever explain. It's happening again! It's summer, I hate it but every year it brings along this color of love that's almost impossible to neglect. It has come, with the shape and color that beats in all of us.

Welcome Strawberries, our summer love shall now begin...yet again. You don't know how much I missed your ripe , moist, firm yet soft texture. You're truly like love to me, with little imperfection and little differences in each of you.. yet, perfect in so many ways.

The minute I saw you in class, you caught me by surprise... oh how could I have forgotten, it's your time. You're finally here...to make my summer sweeter and lovelier. A whole new experience all over again.Really, when I wasn’t looking for love, it came looking for me.No matter where you come from…you always bring either tartness, sweetness, juiciness or an ultimate experience all in all.

This time around… I’m going to make great memories with you.

Lovingly yours

-A-

Cordon bleu Poppy Agha

Embracing one’s culture and traditions is the corner stone to a successful career in the culinary world - this was the first lesson of our first class at PCI. Chef Amina Agha's (also popularly known as Poppy) new venture to personally train cooking enthusiast had my hair flip-flopping since the news first hit the web. In all my excitement I got my self enrolled for the first day, first class at PCI.

Like a primary kid excited for first day of school after a long summer, I couldn't wait for the night to pass and meet Poppy. Unlike the kid that wishes for the winter break to magically begin right after the second day of school, I could barely hold my excitement for my next class.

I was pleasantly greeted by Poppy as I entered. Expecting a crowd of students I found myself, Poppy and Niha (my only classmate) in a commercially set kitchen by ourselves. Now, that was a well thought decision taken by Poppy with just the two of us to be taught, each of us got just the right amount of attention that we needed. We started of with myths and facts about cooking and learnt a few hyped fancy french words used in the kitchen today, which I then learnt that those fancy words are actually a part of  our general English conversations. We went on to cutting vegetables and their techniques (second day since my class, I'm exactly like Julia child's scene from the movie Julie and Julia...cutting a dozen onions to get it right in my next class) next was the white sauce that was fused up with Cumin seeds (Zeera) and Mustard seeds, which had me in doubts for a moment until it hit my taste buds wanting for more and more. At the end we worked with chicken, ridiculously easy techniques to end up with a crisp brown layer on the evenly cooked chicken stuffed with basics to spice it up, plated with  the delicious basic white sauce that we fused up with just two spices, fine chopped and fried vegetables. We individually set our plates to test our own creativity. Picture of my first plate:

Finally, we sat with our plates and with me starving; I was the first to clean up my dish while we chatted for a while and got to know each other. It was truly a pleasant first experience, not just the delicious meals we cooked or the simple yet important techniques we learnt in our very first class but the comfort that we felt in class with Poppy. This was the highlight of the day. She's not only a great chef but also a lot of fun and comfortable to work with whether you're striving for professionalism or just learning to make appetizing meals for  your family members.

I'll be updating my class experiences with all my wonders, blunders and recipes as I go on.

                                                              -A-

I stand by you Paratha!I do!

Alright, as intensely as I proceed in my quest into the international culinary world and as much as I love a brioche with tea, extra butter or a ciabatta with my favourite seasonal dressing or french toast or fataer or simply some bagel or pretzel or donut...alright, getting carried away. Anyhow, point being when wanting to indulge in a holiday breakfast, as fancied up as my knowledge in just a few of these delicate work of wonders from around the world has become, I can't forget me growing up in Karachi having those lovely traditional Parathas. Yes, Parathas!

Paratha is dough layered and fried on Ghee (clarified butter) or cooking oil. I won't bore you with the wiki info on how they're rolled up or how many gazillion fillings go in them. What I'm really reminiscing is the Ghee paratha rolled into caster sugar. That's how my mom got rid of me! Dipping them into some hot tea was a guilty pleasure and apparently that's how my parents got through my childhood peacefully. I also hear dates and milk were one of my obsessions! Off topic anyhow I guess now I know where the sugar butter serious business comes from. Though I haven't tried the real street paratha in a long time and living in Dubai you do get a lot of Indian parathas to go with chai (Tea) which is a favorite amongst at least 50% of the working class in Dubai and truly they aren't all that bad occasionally since well, they aren't really the weight watcher's highest preference.

Below is the snap I took from my window, early in the morning. It's the view from the window at the back of my house. Left me drooling...

This certain "Parthay wala uncle" who probably wears the same attire everyday of the week, in this not so "hygienic" environment makes these perfectly curling Parathas! These looks absolutely lovely and neat cooked in melted Ghee to crisp gold texture wrapped in a newspaper with some kadak chai. Oh wonderful, desi comfort-squashing up-random food-items-to-truly-comfort you-food! I live by the biggest "foodstreet" in karachi and most of the places use this technique with almost the same ambience for cooking. Incase, you've already been scared by all the diseases and hygiene issues also being hygienically concerned myself; trust me they are worth a shot! The baby who grew up in Pakistan says it out loud. Even if you are living abroad but someone truly desi at heart, you know what I mean. If you're not, just have it once and when you're hooked onto it, it's even better with some good Desi curry or Tikka. If you're my mom, you can go with the "home cooked paratha". This is just a single type but a lovely popular bread in Pakistan that can be apart of your meal at any given time of the day.

-A