Bacon wrapped chicken in burnt mango mustard sauce

Bacon wrapped chicken in burnt mango mustard sauce 

To be fair the reason why I am able to at all post this recipe includes a lot of people. Sometimes all you need is a bit of contribution even indirectly to make a difference. Let me confess that I have or rather had never been a fan of fusion cooking and so when I had read about some new restaurant called 'Bohemian' which amalgamates continental and Bengali flavours I was hardly interested and then my dear uncle introduced me to their dishes on a sunny winter day. This was way back in 2009 when I was still a college lass. Ah the first taste of his dishes and I was bowled over. It was unique and delicious.

I have ordered a good number of times from this delightful place and then cut to 2014 there was some discussion about bacon and using it in Indian cuisine at the forum Ranna-Bati and I had mentioned about Chef Joy's bacon wrapped chicken in aam kasundi reduction. For a week I had what is called Bacon wrapped chicken cravings and I was about to order the dish when I was intrigued with the idea of tryign my hands on the dish. I mean sure there was no recipe to be followed but then again the dish has all the information required in the name itself. Ah so at first I was scared because I was afraid it wouldn't be exactly like Chef Joy's and then I thought ah well it will be my very own recipe. Since I seldom create recipes of my own except the marination for grilled chicken or salads  this one is special indeed and I must sound like a pompous ass and declare that it tasted wonderful. Tangy sweet fiery it was a dream dish on a hot summer's day.

So this is what you need for 2 people :-

2 breasts of chicken
4 bacon rashers with full fat

For the marination of the chicken

2 tsp ginger  fennel paste ( I used about an inch of ginger and 1/2 tsp fennel seeds which were dry roasted and ground and 1 green chili  )
1 tsp chili powder (the hotter the better)
Salt as per taste
1/4th tsp turmeric powder
1/4th tsp clarified butter 'ghee'

For the mango mustard sauce

1 large raw green mango
1/2 tsp whole peppercorn
Rock salt as per taste
Sugar as per taste
3 tbsp yellow mustard
2 tsp mustard oil
2 green chili
A fat pinch of Panch phoron (Bengali five spice made with Cumin, fennel, Nigella seeds, Whole fenugreek seeds and either black mustard seeds or radhuni)
1.5 cups water

Start by making cubes of the breast (they need not have perfect shapes) and then marinate with the ginger fennel paste , salt, chili powder , turmeric and the clarified butter and let it marinate for 2 hours.

The bacon wrapped chicken post being baked

Now carefully spread out the bacon and wrap a bit of chicken in the four bacon rashers and then preheat oven to 200C and bake for 20 minutes to 30 minutes turning them mid-way on a tray . Now start with the mango by roasting it on the gas stove till the skin gets completelt charred and then wait till its cool enough to handle, peel of skin and get the soft flesh and make a paste with sugar, rock salt and whole peppercorn. Make mustard paste with the green chili  and strain (this straining helps ensure that there is no bitter taste from the mustard). Once the bacon wrapped chicken is baked take it out. There will be a lot of fat ,we shall use this indeed.

So heat 2 tsp mustard oil  and add the Five spice and when they splutter add the mustard paste and then add 1 tbsp raw mango paste which you have earlier made and add the water and bring to a boil and add the bacon fat and the bacon wrapped chicken and once it comes to a boil simmer and after 5 minutes take out the bacon wrapped chicken and reduce it to a thick stage.

I took about 13 minutes. Do this reduction on low heat and then add the bacon wrapped chicken and bring to boil and simmer for another 2 minutes and serve with hot steaming basmati rice , some fried dried lentil cones known as bodi if you ahve some and a leafy green vegetable.

Papaya Sorbet

Papaya Sorbet 

Summers for me remains incomplete without some delicious fruit sorbet. I mean ice-creams are obviously great except that you feel guilty because you have this crazy fear that you might soon resemble the round scoops and then again personally speaking all that cream and sweetness makes me thirsty for some reason. For me summers are essentially the perfect time for tangy fruity treats and so since mangoes , though abundantly available in the market still needs a few more days for the best variety to be available as per my fruit seller I present Papaya sorbet. Its nutritious tangy and delicious

Recipe courtesy: Martha Stewart with adjustment of amount of  ingredients

What you need :-

700gm of papaya peeled de-seeded and chopped
Juice from two lemons which give you around 2 tbsp juice
2 tbsp sugar
4 tbsp water
1.5 tsp honey
Lemon juice for serving (optional)

What you basically do is make a syrup with 2 tbsp sugar and 4 tbsp water and then blend the papaya , honey, syrup , once the syrup has cooled down and then freeze it. After 1 hour use a fork to break the ice crystals and do this thrice with a gap of an hour in-between each forking and then freeze for 5 hours to 6 hours. When serving dip your ice-cream scooper in warm water and make lovely fresh fruity balls to be enjoyed. if its too hot use a squeeze of lemon juice on top to make it extra refreshing.

This is part of the event Beat the Heat

Parmesan poached fish

Parmesan poached fish 

If you really are passionate about culinary topics you tend to pick up little tips here and there and from everywhere. It was on a lazy afternoon when I was watching TLC that I came across this fabulously simple Spanish dish for fish. Now TLC usually doesn't repeat the recipes in writing so I quickly noted down that all that one needed was a slab of fish which was poached in milk with fresh Parsley. Cut to May and it was on a happy Summer's morning when Calcutta had cooled down a teeny weeny bit from 40 C to 30 C after a 2 minute shower the previous night I was ready to stock my refrigerator in the morning. I have been wanting to have fish for the longest time and so I marched to the market and bought a nice bhetki out of which my fisherman sliced and made thick fillets. I immediately knew what I wanted courtesy TLC's Spanish fish recipe, sicne my fresh parsley had wrinkled up in this terrible heat I decided I would make my own dish. Back at home after a bit of cleaning of the home I was pretty hungry and so I wanted lunch. Well here is a recipe which takes 15 minutes and yields a fantastic dish indeed

Serves 1

100gm fish
230ml of milk (I used skimmed milk)
3 tbsp  Parmesan which has been freshly grated
1/2 tsp Freshly ground black pepper
2 cloves of garlic thinly sliced
1/2 an onion thinly sliced
1.5 large potato
Salt as per taste
1 tsp finely chopped cilantro

I will tell you what I did. So I popped the two large potatoes in the micorwave at 900W for 12 minutes and while it cooked I brought 230ml of milk to a boil and added some salt , the freshly curshed pepper and simply added my fish along with thinly sliced onions and thinly sliced garlic , poached it for 4 minutes on each side and then I took out the fish and switched off the gas stove. I peeled my potatoes and then sliced it in thin circular pieces, some crumbled but that's how it should have been in my mind. The idea was to have potatoes which weren't perfectly sliced but with a crumbly yet some whole circular pieces. I switched on the gas stove with the pan of milk and added the potatoes and brought it to a boil and simmered for 50 seconds and then drained it and put it on a plate and added the fish on top while the milk kept on simmering . I used 1.5 potatoes and reserved the rest since I knew I wouldn't be able to finish the entire bit. Now I added the grated Parmesan and Cilantro  to the simmering milk and whisked well to create a smooth thick sauce and topped my fish dish with the sauce and garnished with some cilantro. It was cheesy yet light and perfect for the summers yet it filled the stomach.

Rose Parfait

Rose Parfait 

The truth is that, once you have had the superior variety of a dish its hard to go back to the other varieties even if you have grown up with the second non perfect variant. It started when I had put a spoonful of the glorious Movenpick ice-cream in my mouth. Smooth, silky decadent I was in 9th heaven if there is such a place and then I noticed that it had a little red symbol beside some flavours. I went back home and gathered as much information as possible about ice-creams over the internet and was surprised to know that eggs are a staple ingredient of most European ice-creams.

Ever since that time I  have made the most decadent of silky ice-creams thanks to the rich texture provided by this one simple ingredient but then again my grandmother is allergic to eggs which is sad, so she misses out on most desserts I make and I honestly feel bad. So when I bought a litre of double cream. I decided that I would use half of it for a decadent chocolate flavoured silky indulgence with eggs and a rose flavoured variant without eggs.

You see rose is something which has fascinated me from my childhood. My grandmother's huge roses in our garden which has been there for over 40 years has this sweet aroma which cheers me up instantly and then again there is something about this beautiful flower. And not only does it aesthetically please me but the flavouring in food makes me happy and so when I tasted this amazing rose flavoured ice-cream at Taj Bengal I was intrigued , fascinated and wanted to try my hands on it.

To be fair most Persian recipes , for those who do not know this delicacy that we all enjoy actually originated in Persia and there it is known as Bastani and most of the Iranian recipes have the full richness of eggs, so I basically developed this recipe but I have to admit that it did have ice-crystals even though I whippe dit every 1 hour for 6 hours while it was being frozen but then again on these days when the weather becomes unbearable it sure does taste deligthful and with my cosuin brother helping himself to a second scoop and declaring the flavoru to be 'perfect' I have to say I am calling it my rose parfait, the French invented this word which in the culinary sense means frozen .

What you need for 7 to 8 scoops

500ml whole milk
500ml double dairy cream
15gm of dried rose
Sugar as per taste ( I needed a total of 5 tbsp)
2 tsp rosewater
2 tbsp rose syrup
2 tbsp corn-flour
3 green cardamom

Start by making your rose syrup. Simply use the edible petals from 2 roses and steep it in 1 cup of boiled water covered for 5 minutes. Now bring this water to a boil with a little more than half the amount of sugar and when thickened add a drop of lemon or two so that crystals do not form. Dry roast your dried rose and then grind it smooth.

Now begin with the parfait by first taking 4 tbsp milk and makign a smooth paste with the cornflour and leaving it aside and then thickening the milk with the ground dried rose .Mid-way while reducing the milk add the sugar and seeds from 3 green cardamom and then add the cornflour paste. Reduce to 1/3rd of the original amount . Strain it well.

Once the milk has been reduced let it cool down completely and in the meantime whip the double cream to soft peaks. Be careful when using double cream , I use a non electrical whisk and even I have over whipped double cream at times where it becomes watery to the stage of making butter. Whip the reduced milk and add the rose water and rose syrup and then  fold in the cream and freeze in an air-tight container. Whip it after 1 hour when its half frozen and do this 6 times every hour and then let it get frozen for 4 hours or better overnight. Enjoy this frozen treat