Fathers and Daughters: Potatoes

“ Dekha Ek Khwaab To Yeh Silsile Hue

Door Tak Nigahon Mein Hain Gul Khile Hue Yeh Gila Hai Aapki Nigahon Se Phool Bhi Ho Darmiyaan To Faasle Hue ”

" a little tiffin box of alu bhujia"

Chandni looked at her watch and then picked up the book that lay beside her. She opened it to page twenty three, like she had already done a hundred times since yesterday afternoon, when she had purchased it at the airport after seeing off Anand, her husband of twenty nine years. A drop of sweat fell off her eyebrows onto the open page. Chandni wished the book signing was in the evening so she didn’t have to venture out in the midday Delhi summer heat. Even through the tinted glass of her air-conditioned car, the sun was beating down on her and the salmon silk saree she had foolishly chosen to wear was now sticking to her clammy legs.

She cast a furtive glance at the little canvas bag beside her, inside which she knew lay a small tiffin box of alu bhujia, a potato dish that years back Amit used to cook for her when she would visit his bachelor pad near North campus. Then she was his, his to love, his to write about. He used to call her his muse, his dream, his veneration. But that was when they were young, footloose and fancy-free. Even after all these years, when she cut potatoes, she felt a stirring in her heart, in that part of her heart which she had stopped the day she had watched Amit pull out Anand from a burning plane.

"thodi si haldi, thodi si mirchi"

That morning, when she was cutting potatoes to boil for her breakfast, her heart stung again. Before long, she poured oil in the frying pan. Then she remembered reading in the papers sometime back that Amit suffered from some stomach ailment and could no longer eat spicy or fried food. She quickly took the skillet off the stove and tilted it over the sink to let the oil drain, keeping just a little in the pan. Amit loved food hot enough to make his tongue curl in shock and his nostrils flare in distress. The first time he had cooked alu bhujia for her, she had ran around his house, hands up in the air, tongue sticking out, ranting and panting. Amit rather bemused had calmly stood in a corner; arms folded at his chest and watched her. Finally when she had calmed down a bit, he had offered her a glass of water and some salt. A few days later, he had shown her his new poem based on her histrionics and they both had had a good laugh.

Chandni stared at the rows of neatly labeled jars in her spice cabinet, her sparse eyebrows lowered furrowing her forehead further, her right index finger drumming her chin, searching to add flavor to the potatoes that were smoking on the stove. As she was about to pull out the jar of fenugreek, Amit’s words rang in her ears. The one time she had tried to add tomatoes to his bhujia, he had vehemently refused, explaining “Chandni, beauty lies in simplicity; thodi si haldi, thodi si mirchi.” (some turmeric, some chili)

The car came to an abrupt stop lurching Chandni forward. Steadying herself against the back of the passenger seat she glared at the driver, meaning to give him a piece of her mind. She would have to talk to Anand about this new driver; he was too reckless.

“Madam, aapka phone kab se baj raha hai.”(Madam your phone is ringing for a while)

Oh yes, indeed her phone was ringing. Scrambling through her purse, she found it before the call could get disconnected. Shikha, her daughter hollered from the other end, “Mummy where are you? I have been calling for so long." Without giving Chandni a chance to reply, Shikha continued, "Can you please pick up Diya from day care? They called to say she has a slight fever. Sameer is in Noida and I have an important meeting. I’ll get out of here as soon as the meeting’s done.”

Stifling another sigh, Chandni instructed the driver to go to her granddaughter’s daycare instead of the bookstore. She made a mental note to buy green chilies on the way home. Now that Amit would not be eating the alu bhujia, she planned to serve it with puris, when Shikha would come famished from work to pick up Diya and her daughter liked food that was hot enough to make her tongue curl in shock and her nostrils flare in distress.

This is my food fiction for "Of Chalks and Chopsticks" hosted by Aquadaze this month.

Alu Bhujia

Ingredients:

Potatoes – 2 medium-large, cubed

Cumin seeds – 1 tsp

Turmeric – ½ tsp

Red Chili powder – 1 ½ tbsp ( if you don’t like your food very hot reduce to ¾ tbsp)

Salt – 1tsp

Oil – 4tbsp (alt. use 1tbsp of oil and a non-stick skillet)

Method:

• Heat oil in a skillet. Add cumin seeds to the hot oil.
• When the seeds sputter, add potatoes and sauté for two minutes on high heat.
• Reduce heat to medium-high and add salt, turmeric powder and chili powder.
• Stir to coat potatoes with spices. Cook till potatoes are browned and done.
• Remove from heat and serve with rice or Indian breads along with daal.

Serves-4

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Sunday morning and Idly

When my sister reached that stage in her education, where parents outdo each other in finding a private tutor, who refuses to come home to teach and lives miles away from your house, my parents outscored all their peers and found her a biology teacher a good ten kilometers away. That may not sound much if you didn’t live in Kolkata in the early nineties. Of course the tutor could fit her only in the 7am Sunday class! Some further unsuccessful tutor hunting later, my parents resigned to their collective fate, so every Sunday morning for two years, my sister was escorted by my parents to dissect frogs, rats and whatever else MBBS aspirants are supposed to do.

Why both parents accompanied her was as much a mystery to the accompanied as her little sister and old grandmother, though they all suspected with varying degrees of hurt that it was to escape them. Since they left home early and weren’t back long after breakfast, Mamai, my grandmother and I avenged the betrayal by refusing home cooked breakfast and sending the cook instead to fetch hot idlis and vadas from the local South Indian eatery. All this was done behind my parents’ back since Mamai was a heart patient and I was looking for Secret Sevenish adventure in my nine year old life. Sitting cross legged on her bed, watching Shammi Kapoor and Asha Parekh shake their ample booties on Rangoli, we would enjoy the feast from an assortment of banana leaf bundles laid out in front of us. Since then, no Sunday has been as exciting or beautiful until few weeks back N decided to give them some competition.

Idly and Kaaram podi

After a hectic week at work I spent a greater part of Saturday being pampered at a Spa with no inkling of all that N was soaking and fermenting in our kitchen. Sunday morning I woke up to a breakfast of piping hot homemade buttery soft idlis served with ghee, fried green plantain, salsa and freshly squeezed orange juice. I devoured and N has been reaping his reward since.

We never make idlis at home though I have an idly maker because N abhors them. We make uttapams or dosas instead. Since I wanted to share N’s culinary skills on this blog, after much coaxing he gave in and shared the recipe, which in fact came right off Indira’s Mahanandi. His advice – “follow the instructions to the tee!”

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Chicken 56

In my first year of college, I used to live in a vegetarian hostel which was a huge dietary shock for moi, who was raised primarily on fish and meat. Following my animal craving dormies, every evening I dutifully stood in queue with my little stainless steel tiffin box for a ladle of red and crispy Chicken 65 at the roadside cart eatery with foul mouthed auto drivers and stinky lechers high on country liquor. Every elbow and groping attempt was worth that ten rupees worth garlicky, extremely doubtful poultry spicy enough to make my nose run and eyes water. Of course for that money, I mostly got rice flour, curry leaves and red food color that bled onto my fingers and wouldn’t go after repeated hand washings.

Then I used to think my love for Chicken 65 was solely based on the unavailability of the bird on my student budget until I had the dish at Nandini’s for much more. As I bit into my first piece of chicken, crunchy on the outside, juicy inside I reached my first food O.

It didn’t take me long after moving to the US, to realize I cooked better Indian food than the grease dripping chole and chewy Tandoori chicken most restaurants served in the name of authentic desi khaana and when they managed to dish out good stuff all the villages belles and Hindu gods on the walls made me rather nervous to eat. In all my trials and tribulations, Chicken 65 had completely abandoned me and vice versa in what I saw as an ego tussle. Finally yesterday afternoon, overcome by motherland nostalgia I succumbed and scoured the net for her recipe.

Unfortunately most recipes called for food color and some kind of home ground South Indian masala, neither of which I had in hand. All I had was Kaaram podi and that had to do. Then when it came to actual cooking, my oil stinginess took over and the chicken started sticking to the pan despite constant stirring. Reluctantly I had to add water and cover cook. This resulted in a fantastic chicken curry but not Chicken 65. Since I no longer eat Chicken, I halfheartedly judged my creation based on N’s facial expressions – he sniffed, then bit, held back tears and finally grinned like a Cheshire cat. I took a bow. Here’s Chicken 65 56 for you.

Chicken 65 56

Ingredients:

Chicken – 1lb (pref. with bone)

Garlic – 5tbsp minced

Red chili powder – 1tbsp

Turmeric powder– 1/4 tbsp

Salt – to taste

Soya sauce – 1tsp

Corn flour – 1tbsp

Kaaram podi – 1tbsp

Mustard seeds – 1tsp

Green chilies – 6 finely chopped

Curry leaves – 3 sprigs

Oil – 1tbsp

Water – 1/2 cup or as needed

Peanuts – 2 tbsp crushed (optional)

Method:

• Marinate chicken with garlic, red chili powder, turmeric powder, salt, soya sauce, corn flour and kaaram podi for half hour.
• Heat oil in a heavy bottom pan and add mustard seeds, green chilies and curry leaves.
• Once the spices sputter add the marinated chicken pieces and sauté for 2-3minutes on medium heat.
• When the chicken starts sticking to the pan, add water and cover cook for 15minutes or until chicken is done. The gravy shouldn’t be runny but just enough to coat the chicken pieces.
• Garnish with crushed peanuts. Serve with noodles or any Indian bread.

Serves – 2/3

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Modaks - Sweet and Savory

When you are a sweetaholic and you can’t eat dairy, life becomes bleaker than you’d ever known. There’s only a certain amount of bananas, dates and sweetened granola you can eat before you give in and gobble down your first soya tart and your palate is ruined forever. Even after brushing your teeth until you have no enamel left, finishing your year’s supply of Listerine and as last resort gurgling with neem juice, you’ll be unable to get rid of the greasy, putrid aftertaste. What shall you do then – sulk in a corner and contemplate whether the lone savior of your taste buds, a tiny piece of dark chocolate is worth the hives you’ll break into a hour after it valiantly fights off that nasty tang which has seized your mouth.

Yes my friend, that’s what I was doing when suddenly my usually underperforming memory stepped it up and images of Modaks flashed across my eyes. I had tasted them years back when Smitha aunty, my parents’ Maharashtrian neighbor had sent them after Ganesh Chaturthi. I couldn’t remember much except that they tasted of coconut. Some googling later I finally found my diary free sugar fix – coconut and jaggery dumplings at Aayi’s.

However, there was a tiny problem – there was no jaggery at home and I wasn’t sure of my dumpling cover rolling skills. Genius overtook; sugar substituted gur and the packet of dumpling skins came out of the refrigerator. I didn’t want to fry them so I steamed the dumplings like some internet recipes had suggested. Of course in my euphoria, I had forgotten the salt and spices in the processed dumpling skins but that only made the Modaks more interesting – an explosion of savory and sweet in the mouth. After polishing off a plate of these sinful dumplings, I had a preposterous desire to hug the Thackerays and shout “Jai Maharashtra!” I am also sending these sweet and savory Modaks to One Hot Stove.

Modaks – Sweet and Savory

Ingredients:

Filling:

Grated coconut – 3/4 cup

Sugar – 1/3 cup

Sesame seeds – 1 tsp, toasted and roughly crushed

Rice flour – 1tbsp

Raisins – 1/3 cup

Cashew nuts – 1/3 cup coarsely crushed

Cardamom powder – 1tsp

Rose water – 1/2 tsp

Dumpling skin - 20

Water

Method:

• Mix grated coconut and sugar in a microwave safe bowl and heat covered for 3 minutes on high or until the sugar melts and forms a homogenous mixture with coconut.
• Add the other ingredients for filling and mix well. Let the mixture cool to room temperature.
• Prepare your steamer. Since I don’t have a steamer I had to make one by placing a lightly greased sieve over a large pot filled to 1/8 capacity with water. While the water comes to a rolling boil fill the dumplings.
• Place a dumpling skin flat on a clean surface and wet all around the edge.
• Place 1 heaped tbsp of the filling in the centre and gather the edges to completely cover the filling. Seal the dumpling with a light twist.
• Repeat for other dumplings.
• Dip the dumplings in water and place on the greased sieve after water in the pot comes to a rolling boil. Cover the pot and let the dumplings steam on medium heat for 15 minutes. Remove the lid carefully avoiding steam burn and check for doneness. The dumpling skin should be glistening and translucent.
• If done remove pot from heat.
• Gently remove the modaks from the sieve and allow them cool to room temperature before serving.

Serves – 4

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Maacher Jhol - Everyday Fish Curry!

It’s a well established fact on this blog that my sister hates fish or rather hated; she has miraculously developed a taste for it after child birth. It’s also been established that my mother is an amazing convincer – that woman has some serious story telling talent. Every afternoon, I would listen to the outlandish stories Ma would tell Didi to make her eat fish and rice, Bongs’ staple food. However they may have started, every conversation ended with Didi’s frustrated shriek, “Everyday fish curry!”

The fish that we were fed most days of the week was cooked in light gravy with seasonal vegetables like eggplants and potatoes in summer and cauliflower and green peas in winter. If anyone in the family or had loosies she’s add green plantain. Ma still cooks this fish curry almost every day with a wide variety of fish though Rohu, an Indian carp is her preferred one. Here since in the Indian grocery store freezers, I usually find Rohu that has been frozen for at least a year; I usually make it with fresh Tilapia or Pomfret.

Maacher Jhol

Ingredients:

Fish(Rohu/Tilapia/Pomfret/Surma/Chara pona or baby Rohu) – 1lb either cut in steaks or fillets (chara pona is cooked whole)

Potatoes – 1large or two medium cut in wedges

Cauliflower – 1/2 medium cut into large florets

Green peas – 1/2 cup shelled

Tomatoes – 1 cup chopped

Ginger paste – 1tbsp

Cumin seeds – 1tsp

Asafetida – 1 large pinch

Whole red chili - 2

Green chili – 3-4 slit (or according to taste)

Cumin powder – 1tbsp

Coriander powder – ½ tbsp

Red chili powder – 1 tbsp

Turmeric powder – 1 tbsp to marinate fish + ¼ tbsp for curry

Cilantro – ½ bunch chopped

Salt

Oil – mustard oil would be the best but Canola/ Vegetable oil will do (Don’t use olive oil since the fish has to be fried and olive oil burns very easily)

Method:

• Thaw fish pieces and pat dry with paper towel. Rub fish steaks/fillets with turmeric powder, salt and very little oil.
• Shallow fry cauliflower and potatoes separately. Alternately, bake the vegetables with little oil to al dente. (I however steam cauliflower florets until tender and use boiled potatoes; Ma faints) Keep aside.
• Deep fry the fish pieces in a heavy bottom pan in smoking hot oil. You have to fry them in a good amount of oil which you’ll have to throw away later but if you try to fry them in less oil the pieces will stick stubbornly to the pan. I use a small pan and fry a single fillet or two steaks at a time to waste less oil. Keep aside.

• Make a paste with the ginger paste, cumin powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder and red chili powder.
• Heat 1tbsp of oil in another heavy bottom pan. When the oil is ready add asafetida, cumin seeds and whole red chilis. Let the spices brown then add the spices and ginger paste. Sauté the masala for three minutes adding little water at a time whenever the masala starts sticking to the pan.
• Add chopped tomatoes and sauté until the tomatoes turn mushy and oil starts seeping around the edges of the gravy.
• Add the green peas and water and salt. Let the gravy come to a boil. Reduce heat and cook covered on medium heat until peas are tender.
• Add potatoes, cauliflower and fish pieces and allow the gravy to come to a rolling boil. Turn off heat and garnish with chopped cilantro.

• Enjoy with steamed rice.

Serves - 4

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Technical Glitch and Repost

Sincere apologies to all subscribers of Cuisine Virtuelle. Due to a technical glitch associated with template change, I had to delete all my old posts and repost them. Your inbox must have been spammed today with old recipes. I have sorted it now and there will be no more repeat posts. Thank you for your patience and support.

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Rava Badam Laddoos

It's sacrilegious for a Bengali to confess that she likes another sweetmeat more than rasogola, pantua and the likes but I do. I used to stay in a primarily Kannadiga hostel during my first year in Bangalore. Of course, the cook there tried her best to put me off Kanada food for life and she did quite well till Diwali. Most of the in-state girls went home for the festival and came back with jars and steel dabbas of home made sweetmeats and desserts to share with friends in the true Diwali spirit. Note I say most!

A couple of days, after Diwali my neighbor who had been visiting her parents in north Karnataka knocked my door hard uncharacteristically early in the morning. Groggy, concerned and angry all at the same time, I opened the door only to have something shoved into my mouth. Jaggery, coconut, dal and ghee exploded in my mouth. Voila, so happened my quick induction to the legion of Kannada sweet lovers!

If you haven't guessed yet, she had fed me a piece of obbattu. Over the years, I have relished much green payasa, huggi ,Dharwad pedas and kajayas.

Couple of Diwalis back, stuck in rural Indiana, I was craving for Kannada sweets. Well aware of my shortcomings and in the absence of recipes, I went about recreating from my remembrance of taste, Rava Laddoos and Besan Burfi. Why I picked them? I figured they would be the easiest and I wasn't wrong! They turned out exactly like a friend's mother and the batch of 20 was soon finished by N and I. However, me being me, was not satisfied with just recreating; I had to add my own. So the next time I made Rava Badam Laddoos and Besan Pista Burfis which have since been established as N and my Diwali tradition.

Rava Badam Laddoos

Ingredients:

1 cup fine wheat sooji/rava

3/4 cup fine sugar or 1 cup crystal sugar

3 cloves

3 tsp raisins

1/2 tsp cardamom powder

3/4 cup water

2 tbsp ghee for frying + 1/2 cup for badam coat

Few strands of saffron (optional)

1/2 cup almond slivers

Method:

For Laddoo -

• Slightly crush cloves.
• Heat ghee in a heavy bottom pan and add cloves and raisins. Fry for 20 seconds or till the cloves and raisins don't puff. Take care not to burn them.
• Add sooji and keep frying over medium heat. Cook till sooji turns red and emits a delicious aroma. Transfer the fried sooji onto a dish.
• In another pan heat water,sugar and saffron(if using) to a rolling boil.Remove from heat.
• Mix sooji and cardamom powder into the sugar syrup. The mixture will be very watery at this stage. Cover and let stand for 30 minutes. The sooji should have absorbed the syrup by then and reached a dry halwa like consistency.
• Apply some ghee on your palms and make balls out of the mixture.

For Badam Coat-

• Dry roast the almond slivers and coarse grind them to crumbs.
• Add the almond crumbs to 1/2 cup of ghee and mix well into a slightly runny paste.
• Dip the laddoos in the paste and allow them to cool on a dish. The ladoos should have a thin layer of badam paste. Wipe off excess paste.
• Once cooled, store in air tight jars. They stay good for a fortnight that is if they last that long.

Makes 16-18 laddoos.

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Chingri Maacher Malai Curry - Coconut Shrimp Curry

At four, when all other kids wanted to be doctors, I wanted to grow up to fry and eat fish in my parents' kitchen. Yes my first ambition was to be a fish fryer! Many dreams and aspirations have since come and gone but none as dear as the first. Of course with age my ambition has been trimmed to fish eater. The exhilarating anticipation I experience standing in my parents' kitchen as ma puts a turmeric-stained hilsa steak in hissing mustard oil is tantamount to a virgin's before the first time.

I loved my fish and rice and my parents grateful to have at least one kid who inherited the true bengali love heartily indulged my piscine appetite. So much so, that during season the pricey hilsa was a staple at my parents’. During the months when hilsa was unavailable or supposedly didn't taste as well, we ate koi, tangra, pabda and the likes. Another fish, which though not a fish, that often found itself on our dinner table was the prawn; its distinction being the only marine life my sister obliged to consume.

According to family lore, as a child I supposedly couldn't distinguish between prawns and roaches. Though I don't want to believe that hackneyed tale, I can sense the rationale. I often watched the domestic help kill live prawns in our kitchen by holding them under boiling water. In the process, some crustaceans frequently escaped her and went crawling and fluttering their antennae all around.

When I met N, I was aghast at his lack of knowledge of fish and seafood. That man only ate rohu, an Indian carp! Realizing that most freshwater fish would be too bony for him, I first introduced him to pomfret and then to shrimp, keeping my fingers crossed all the while. After he had enjoyed his first shrimp fried rice, I cooked chingri maacher malai curry, the reluctant Bengali delicacy for him and with that, I won him over, across murky waters to the side of fish lovers.

The first time I made malai curry, ma instructed me over phone on how to devein prawns, milk a coconut and cook the crustacean. Due to inevitable miscommunication, I cooked the curry little different from her, which I actually liked more. Of course, I have never told her that! I always used bagda chingri (tiger prawns) like ma but after moving to the States, I never found them at the stores. I suspect even if I do, I won't be able to afford them. Hence like many Indian recipes, I substituted - this time with shrimp. However, here I find canned coconut milk, so that kind of evens out the absence of tiger prawns.

Ma cooks them with the heads on. She sincerely believes eating crustacean brains increases the abilities of the eater's own! Myths aside, if you are brave enough go ahead and suck the brain off a prawn - you just might enjoy the gooey, salty cerebral fluid as much as I did. N however, is squeamish around animal heads, so I buy decapitated ones.

Chingri Maacher Malai Curry

Ingredients:

Fresh shrimp/ prawn - 1/2 lb (if using non-decapitated prawns use 3/4 lb)

Coconut Milk - 8 fl. oz or 1/2 can (not the thickened or sweetened kind)

Onion paste - 2 tbsp

Garlic - 1 large clove coarsely chopped and crushed

Ginger - 1 tsp

Slit Green Chillies - 4

Bay Leaves - 3 small

Red Chilli Powder - 1 tsp or to taste

Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp for marinade and 1/4 tsp for curry

Salt - to taste

Water - 1/2 cup plus more if required

Ground Masala:

Green Cardamom - 2

Cloves - 3

Cinnamon - 2 small sticks

Dried red chillies - 3 large

Black Peppercorns - 10

Mustard Oil - 2tbps (I use canola)

Method:

Prepping the shrimps/prawns - Wash the shrimp. Remove the hard shell; be careful not to remove the tail or the head(if using) . Check if the shrimp has been deveined, if not slit the back a little and remove the black thread. Marinate the shrimp in salt and turmeric powder for half hour.

Prepping the ground masala - While the shrimp marinates dry roast the whole spices and grind to a coarse powder. N eats particularly hot food and I, being the vegetarian heeds to his taste when cooking non vegetarian food. If you like curry mild, omit the dried red chillies and peppercorns like ma.

Cooking -

• Heat 2tbsp of oil in a heavy bottom skillet. Put the marinated shrimp to the hot oil and let them fry till they turn reddish. Remove from oil. Be careful not to fry the shrimp crisp as fish.
• Add the crushed garlic to the same oil and fry till golden brown and remove.
• To this same oil add bayleaves. After 10 seconds, add the ground masala. (Ma doesn't roast and grind the whole garam masala but I don't like chewing on whole cloves and cardamom while enjoying my curry.)
• When the garam masala starts giving off their aroma, add the onion paste and fry till golden brown.
• Add ginger paste and chillies and fry for another 30 seconds.
• Now add the coconut milk and 1/2 cup of water.
• Immediately add red chili powder, turmeric and salt.
• Bring the curry to a boil. Add the fried shrimp. You can add more water now if you curry has already become very thick.
• Let it simmer for another 5 minutes or till the curry reaches a creamy consistency.
• Remove from heat and enjoy with steamed white rice. Though I usually eat brown rice, I have never tried malai curry with it.

Serves - 2

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Pumpkin Pie

Baba always cringes when I say Holi is my favorite festival. First I have the gall to pick Holi over Durga poojo and then I don't even give into small mercies by calling the festival of colors Dol, like Bengalis aught to. A daughter completely lost to the cow belt. I wonder what he'll say on knowing that even Holi is gradually losing out to Halloween, in all its gory and sweetness. Slightly transgressing, but I think I was Irish in a previous birth. My third favorite festival is St. Patrick's Day. Do I really need to explain why?

I am sure if I lived in a Halloween celebrating country as a kid, it'd be undoubtedly my favorite festival. No Santa or Krishna can beat dressing up, messing mom's kitchen in the name of pumpkin carving and stuffing one's face with candies and chocolates!

Though not a holiday itself, Halloween also marks the beginning of the holiday season, okay at least for me. The winter coats and gloves come out as do the tins of cocoa and my various baking sheets and pans. It may sound strange to many but I hardly use the oven in summer, may be a couple of times to broil some tandoori chicken but no cookies, cakes or muffins are made in my kitchen when it's hundred outside.

Every Halloween, I bake pumpkin pie to declare loud and clear the opening of the baking season in the Suman-Ray household. Bless the smell of hot butter, cinnamon and smoked paprika (yes!) that infuses every fiber of our house and thereby inspires its residents to giddy levels of food lust. We like our pumpkin pie filled with the warm spices of fall, topped with a generous dollop of whipped cream. For Halloween, I also top it with some peanut butter haystacks, to add some spookiness to an otherwise bliss-inducing humble pie.

Since I warm up my baking skills every fall with this pie, I use every culinary shortcut possible while making one. In simpler words, I use ready made Graham's cracker crust and canned mashed pumpkins. I can hear the tongues going tsk tsk. I promise I'll show you how to make a pie crust before Thanksgiving. To be honest, one fall crunched for time, I gave into sloth and used canned pumpkin pie mix. Lesson learnt in consequence: sloth is evil even when I am dressed as the Devil herself!

Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients:

Cream cheese, softened - 8 ounce

Canned mashed pumpkin - 1 can

Sugar - 3/4 cup

Salt - 1/4 tsp

Eggs - For filling :1 plus 2 yolks, for crust : 1

Half-and-half- 1 cup

Butter, softened - 1/4 cup

Vanilla extract - 1 tsp

Ground cinnamon - 1 tsp

Ginger powder - 1/2 tsp

Ground nutmeg - 1/2 tsp

Ground cloves - 1/4 tsp

Chili flakes - 1 tsp

9" pie crust - 1 ( I use Graham's, you may use your favorite)

Whipped cream for topping

Method:

Prepping the crust:

• Heat the oven to 350F.
• Lightly beat an egg with a tablespoon of cold water and brush the sides and bottom of the crust with the egg wash.
• Bake the crust in the oven for 3 minutes until the egg wash is dry. (Graham's pre-baked crust comes with instructions for baking the crust with egg wash for 5 minutes but I have noticed that browns the crust a bit too much.)
• Cool on a wire rack.

Preparing the filling:

• In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese with a spoon or hand mixer for 2 minutes.
• Add the pumpkin and beat until combined.
• Add the sugar and salt, and beat until combined.
• Slightly beat the egg and yolks together and add to the pumpkin mix with half-and-half, softened butter. Beat until combined.
• Finally, add vanilla and all the spices. Beat until all the ingredients are well mixed.
• Be careful not to over beat. The filling shouldn't be fluffy like cake batter. If there's more air the pie will rise like a cake and then collapse, living you with what N calls a crater pie (a pit in the center). Also pay special attention to use a dry bowl and dry mixing spoon, excess moisture will cause the filling to leave the sides of the crust.

Baking:

• Preheat oven to 350F.
• Pour the filling into the cooled pie crust and start baking.
• After the first 30 minutes, take the pie out of the oven and cover the crust with another layer of aluminium foil to prevent the crust from burning. Be careful not to touch the filling along the rim with the foil as it may cause the filling to leave the sides of the crust.
• Return pie to oven and bake for another 20 minutes or until the sides are set but the center is still just a little jiggly.
• Switch off the oven and leave the pie in it for another 10mins.
• Take the pie out and place on a wire rack and cool to room temperature.
• Cut into slices and top each piece with a generous amount of whipped cream.

Serves - 8

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