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Business News/ Mint-lounge / Features/  Unexpected guests, unexpected benefits
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Unexpected guests, unexpected benefits

How to master the impromptu dinner and use it to make you fitter and faster

Use black pomfret for the chipotle and kokum fish curry. Photo: Samar HalarnkarPremium
Use black pomfret for the chipotle and kokum fish curry. Photo: Samar Halarnkar

The warning came on Sunday evening. As we settled in for a lounge-and-gossip session at my parents’ home, our four-year-old happily amusing herself in a red tub that she drags out into the centre of the living room, the wife gazed at her phone and said an old boss wanted to drop in.

Tonight.

Tonight? Shall we go out, she asked tentatively, knowing fully well that I am, at the best of times, unwilling to brave Bengaluru’s holiday traffic. Moreover, I am a confessed homebody, happy to open the doors to our balcony, let the cool breeze in, hear it rustle through the great rain trees and enjoy the joy of home.

Unexpected guests? They don’t faze me. When I was single, I often had 10-15 friends drop by, assured that there would be food and drink.

This is a Halarnkar tradition—keeping an open house and open kitchen. When my brother and I were children, my mother understood that we might drag in others, so food was always made in excess.

Sometimes, even that wasn’t enough.

My father would sometimes come home for lunch and find that two kilograms of tandoori chicken or roast mutton had been polished off by the teenage cricketers playing under the great banyan tree outside. I am sure he grumbled as he presumably settled for assorted vegetables, but the principle of feeding everyone was important. Even today, my father insists there must be enough food to cater to last-minute demands.

My wife used to be—and still is, although she understands it better—disturbed by the Halarnkar penchant for mounds of food and the ceaseless anticipation of unknown guests. So, although she did not want to admit it, she was hoping I would say about the former boss’ visit: “No problem darling, we’ll whip up something."

That is exactly what I said.

Really, if your fridge is reasonably stocked, putting together an impromptu dinner takes no more than an hour or two, less if you keep it simple. The former boss was due at 9pm, so I had a clear 2 hours to cobble something together. We hastened home around 6.30pm, fed the daughter, sang her to sleep, and at 7pm, peered into the fridge.

There was a packet of fish, purloined from my mother’s larder. There were some sundry vegetables. A cucumber or two. Some dal made that morning. The rice cooker would handle the rice. We were good to go.

To infuse some element of surprise into the ingredients available, I checked my stock of rarely used exotics, all presents from friends and family who mistakenly believe I like chillies and spices from distant shores. Regular readers will know of my affinity for buying ingredients within a half-a-kilometre distance of home, my only mobile condiment being kokum, the souring agent so beloved of Konkan people.

I found two unopened gifts, a bottle of za’atar—a Middle-Eastern spice blend that often includes sesame, sumac and dried thyme—and a packet of chipotle, a smoky flavoured chilli from New Mexico.

The results of my slap-and-dash dinner menu are below, but the larger point is that unexpected guests provide many unexpected benefits.

One of the big benefits of routinely working in your kitchen is that you learn to think fast and become fitter.

Cooking is often hard for many people because they don’t do it enough. If you do, it becomes second nature, and you learn to think your way through quick menus and fast cooking. You evolve short cuts and find byways. What was once a mountain to climb becomes a walk in the park.

Speaking of park, I had already finished my morning run and walk and was preparing for a languorous evening when I realized that would no longer be. Cooking is physical exertion, folks; you must bend, stand up, bend, stand up, stay on your feet and generally keep moving. It is good, supplemental exercise.

If I do my daily run and walk, I sleep well enough, falling asleep within 5 minutes of touching head to pillow, although I usually endure a half-hour bout of sleeplessness early in the morning. If I walk, run and cook (and clean up), I fall asleep within a minute of head on the pillow, and I am out for the entire night, waking up feeling wonderfully worn out, refreshed—and ready for the next guest.

Za’atar-flavoured mint-cucumber salad

Serves 2

Ingredients

1 medium cucumber

2 medium tomatoes, deseeded

2 tsp mint, chopped

1 tsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp za’atar (2 if you like)

Salt to taste

Method

Make small dices of the cucumber and tomatoes. Add the mint and toss with olive oil, za’atar and salt. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and serve.

Roasted red pepper, carrot and potato

Serves 2-3

Ingredients

1 large red pepper, cut lengthwise into K-inch thick slices

1 large carrot, cut into K-inch thick roundels

1 onion, quartered

1 potato, peeled and cut into wedges

1 star anise, broken into smaller pieces

7-8 cloves of garlic

1 sprig sage

1 tsp chipotle powder (if you don’t have it, use red chilli powder)

1 tbsp soya sauce

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp sea salt (or use normal salt, to taste)

Method

Mix all the ingredients—except sage—in an oven-proof dish. Grill uncovered for 40 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius, mixing occasionally. Cover with foil and bake for another 20 minutes at 220 degrees Celsius. Remove foil, add sage, toss and roast for another 5 minutes.

Chipotle and ‘kokum’ fish curry

Serves 2-3

Ingredients

Kkg fish (we used black pomfret, small pieces), marinated in N tsp of turmeric

1 onion, chopped

1 tomato, chopped

3-4 peppercorns, roughly pounded

2-3 tsp chipotle powder (depending on your spice-intake level)

K tsp cumin seeds

2 tsp sesame seeds

7-8 cloves of garlic, crushed

1-2 tsp of olive oil

6-7 pieces of kokum, soaked in just enough water to cover them

Salt, to taste

Method

In a wok, gently heat the oil and splutter the sesame, cracked pepper and cumin seeds. Add garlic and lightly brown. Add onions and fry till translucent. Add chipotle powder and stir-fry for 30 seconds. Add tomatoes and mix well. Add a little water if needed. Take off pan and allow ingredients to cool. Adding water, reduce to a medium sauce in a blender.

Heat the same wok and add the sauce. Add kokum with its water, and salt. Add more water if you need a thinner consistency. When the curry starts to bubble, reduce heat to low and slip in the fish. Cover and cook until done. Do not stir with a spoon. Gently shake the wok if you want the fish and curry to mix well.

This is a column on easy, inventive cooking from a male perspective. Samar Halarnkar also writes the fortnightly science column Frontier Mail for Mint and is the author of the book The Married Man’s Guide To Creative Cooking And Other Dubious Adventures.

Read Samar’s previous Lounge columns

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Published: 24 Jan 2015, 12:10 AM IST
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