THE RECIPE LARDER

Beer Battered Onion Rings

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First and foremost let me be fiercely profuse in my apologies for just disappearing. I spent 3 weeks running around Europe having a mad time. First two weeks with my girlfriends in Ireland, and then with the husband and another couple in Germany. It was a sabbatical of enormous proportions.

The super special girls' trip.

The super special girls’ trip.

Our farm in Mahabaleshwar is well on its way to being planted. The rains were particularly vicious this year. We lost many trees and shrubs. But well, that’s the ebb and flow of life, and we are looking forward to some organic, homegrown fruits and vegetables.

I had my best friend over in Mahabaleshwar, and we kindled up the wood-fired oven and made ourselves some pizza. I make the dough using fresh yeast. When it is nice and plumply risen, I roll out small rounds and give it an initial dance into the fire. Once it’s mildly pre-cooked, I add the pizza sauce, cheese and toppings and send it for another jig. As a result, I get thin – and I mean ultra thin pizzas, with a crunchy crisp bite.

Nishi and me.

Nishi and me.

This time around, the wood was still wet from the rains. The fire would not catch, the hearth would not heat and the pizzas would just not pre-cook. After a few exasperated tries (the dough was rising, and would have spoilt) I picked up the rolled out pizza dough and flipped it straight into the flames.

I heard a collective gasp from my helpers. One started dancing on his feet, saying “ It will burn, it will burn”. I just grinned and took a tong and flipped it over to let it cook the other side. All this took just a few seconds. And out came the most fantastic precooked pizza. It had blown up like a pita bread, but the results were sooooo good. Crunchy, with oozing melting cheese which stuck to our palates and teeth.

beer battered onion rings

beer battered onion rings

What I am trying to say here is cooking is an art – agreed, but it is also instinct. When I give cooking classes, I always tell my students, don’t think too much. If you want to substitute an ingredient with another do it. If you want to increase the heat do it. There is no right or wrong in cooking. Some person somewhere must have had jam with goat’s cheese and then started the trend of serving preserves with cheese. To my taste buds – nothing tastes better!

beer battered onion rings with a sprinkling of chaat masala

beer battered onion rings with a sprinkling of chaat masala

Enjoy the beer battered onion rings. These are my favourite fried snack, and my kids love them.

Darned easy to make. Just a little planning, as the onions have to marinate at least for two hours before they can be fried.

I make a quick fix, cheat sauce with these onion rings. They taste way better than, some store-bought sauce (though mine is a mix of store bought sauces :P) The fried ring, with the tart hot sauce gives it an amazing balance. Of course, you can substitute it with any other sauce of your choice. But do give my recipe a fair chance too.

beer battered onion rings and a chilled beer

beer battered onion rings and a chilled beer

Baking powder is a crucial ingredient in this recipe, so don’t try to substitute or do away with it. It is what gives the onion rings the crisp and crunchy texture when mixed with a beer in the batter.

My friend and me feasted on them, in Mahabaleshwar. Hope you like them too – PS: they go really well with chilled beer!!!

 

Beer Battered Onion Rings
Print Recipe
My favourite snack, darned easy to make. It will be an instant hit amongst your friends.
Servings Prep Time
4 people 15 minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
15 minutes 2 hours
Servings Prep Time
4 people 15 minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
15 minutes 2 hours
Beer Battered Onion Rings
Print Recipe
My favourite snack, darned easy to make. It will be an instant hit amongst your friends.
Servings Prep Time
4 people 15 minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
15 minutes 2 hours
Servings Prep Time
4 people 15 minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
15 minutes 2 hours
Ingredients
For the onion rings
For the batter
other stuff
Quick Cheat Sauce
Servings: people
Instructions
To make the marinade
  1. Mix all the ingredients of the marinade in a vessel.
  2. Pull out all the rings of onions from the diced rounds. Each onion should be separated. The ring should be whole, without any cuts.
  3. Submerge the rings into the beer marinade and refrigerate for minimum 2 hours, and a maximum of 4 hours.
To make the batter
  1. Add all ingredients of the batter in a bowl
  2. The batter should be thick and should fall with a plop when dropped from a spoon.
  3. Give the batter a good mix with a whisk. It should have no lumps.
  4. Make this batter just before you need to fry the onion rings.
For frying the rings
  1. Pour oil into the non stick and heat well on slow to medium flame. It should not start smoking. If it does, let it cool down before popping in the onion rings.
  2. Wipe each ring, using a kitchen towel or a good quality paper napkin. Each ring should be completely dry.
  3. Dip one ring at a time, into the batter. Give it a quick flick to take off extra batter.
  4. Drop the ring into the hot oil.
  5. Work quickly and put in as many onions as you can, till the pan fills up.
  6. After appx 30 seconds (or when the batter looks well fried) turn the rings, using the tong, so that the other side can fry.
  7. Pick out the fried rings with the tong and place on a paper napkin to drain off excess oil. You can press it down slightly (not too hard) with another towel to drain off more oil.
  8. Sprinkle some chaat masala and serve hot, with the cheat sauce.
For the sauce
  1. Add all ingredients together and mix well.
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Italian Tomato Sauce

By 2 Comments

 

italian tomato sauce

Apologies about the link —- this is the corrected version.

———————————————————————————————————————

I am super super excited about this recipe. It’s complicated (a little bit!) but it looked so brilliant. I saw a version of this on a cooking channel and I got up from my chair, headed to my bar, collected the vodka, (yup! It has Vodka!!) and all the ingredients and started making it, changing a little bit of the recipe here and there.

After 15 minutes into cooking, the fragrance wafting from the kitchen to the rest of the house drew many of the family members and a few neighbours into our kitchen. I tell you I am on my knees, worshipping this sauce.

It’s a thick sauce. Really thick. It’s not to be had on its own (but you might finish a lot of it while tasting it – I warn you!). You will have to mix it with some stock water, hell even mixing it in the water used to cook pasta lends it an amazing flavour.

Use it as a pizza base, as a base for Bruschetta, in a salad! Just make it, creative ideas will flow in.

I don’t want you to read all these descriptions and explanations. What I want you to do is get hold of all the ingredients and start making it. Let the family members walk in with appreciative sniffs and exclamations. Keep them waiting, and then hit them with a pasta made from this recipe. Lie back and bask in the glory!

PS: There is one very important thing that you have to follow, that’s – the instructions. There will be times while making the recipe you might think I am joking or that I have lost my mind. Have faith. I am very serious when I say what I say, and I am very sane and going to wait for your comments after you have made this recipe. You can advocate my sanity.

Without more blah blah – here is the recipe for Italian Tomato Sauce.

PS _AGAIN__and here is the link to the video —–

A shout out to my school friends who always have my back — hey there girls 🙂

Thanks to Brinda – for helping me with this video.

 

Italian Tomato Sauce
Print Recipe
An amazing base sauce. Let your imagination flow and get creative.
Prep Time
15 minutes
Cook Time
30 minutes
Prep Time
15 minutes
Cook Time
30 minutes
Italian Tomato Sauce
Print Recipe
An amazing base sauce. Let your imagination flow and get creative.
Prep Time
15 minutes
Cook Time
30 minutes
Prep Time
15 minutes
Cook Time
30 minutes
Ingredients
Servings:
Instructions
  1. Heat a heavy bottomed non stick pan. Add olive oil and butter. Olive oil should completely cover the bottom of the pan. Let the butter melt
  2. Add garlic and saute till it's a bit brown. Take out the garlic and keep it aside.
  3. Add 1 1/2 tubes of tomato paste to the hot oil/ butter mix. DO NOT STIR. I kid you not - DO NOT STIR!! Just see to it that the paste is completely submerged in the oil.
  4. Cover and cook for 10 minutes in med/ high flame.
  5. Add Brown sugar, salt and pepper. Once the bubbles subside, add the diced onions and cherry tomatoes.
  6. Now you can stir and mix. You might see a little blackened sauce when you mix. Don't worry, its normal. Ofcourse the entire bottom shouldnt be burnt. This means your pan wasn't thick enough at the bottom.
  7. Cook covered till tomatoes get squishy and cooked.
  8. Add the left over 1/2 tube of tomato paste.
  9. Add lemon zest and cayenne pepper and mix.
  10. Add the pre cooked garlic.
  11. Mix
  12. Add the vodka and mix.
  13. Cook covered for 5 minutes. Then add the basil. Cook again for 2 minutes.
  14. Add the red wine vinegar and taste!!! Voila-- you are done.
Recipe Notes

Dilute with pasta water or stock and add to pasta.

Liberally coat a salad.

Layer your pizza.

Use in baked dishes.

Use for base of crostini or bruschetta.

 

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Mango Salsa

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mango salsa

mango salsa

Mom’s house has this huge mango tree. It’s not ours. It belongs to the next compound, but every single leaf and mango grow into our side. Those poor dudes watered the tree and looked after it, but we reap all the benefits.

As kids, we would make this huge stick, one tied to the other to make it as long as possible. On the edge, a blade was jammed in and using a sawing motion many a raw mangoes have been cut and taken down. Of course, we had to do it as unobtrusively and slyly as possible. But even then the gardener would hear his beloved tree rustle and run after us with a stick. He was not allowed to cross over to our side, so obviously we dangled our stolen goods under his nose and felt thoroughly pleased with ourselves. This was summer holiday time and a very seriously planned agenda in our schedules.

We would then proceed to cut open the raw mango (we never washed it!) and spread salt and chilly and lick it for hours. Then spread some more salt and chilly and bite into the tart fruit. Our palate would go pop, and eyes would tingle, but the taste is embedded somewhere deep in my soul. Now when I eat a raw mango, I am transported back to that spot under the tree, where I either helped to hold that huge stick and saw off the mango bunches, or I stood under the falling mango, to try and grab it so that it did fall and get damaged.

As I grew up, the love for raw mango became a love for mangoes. I still love raw mangoes, but I cannot go at it with wild abandon like I used to.

 

mango salsa

mango salsa

mango salsa with nachos

mango salsa with nachos

I saw my friend Rekha, (the one who has to lead me to this wonderful thing called food!) make a mango salsa. She whips up the most delicious of dishes, with the most absurd of combinations. When I first saw her make the mango salsa, I was stunned. I mean, she was adding olive oil and herbs and spices to a fruit. A fruit which is so revered in India, for its taste and limited availability? Weren’t fruits supposed to be eaten as is???

mango salsa

mango salsa

Very reluctantly I tasted the mango salsa and immediately landed myself under the tree, where we caught falling mangoes. I tweaked the recipe, but I cannot call it mine. It still belongs to Rekha – my mentor.

The sweet and mildly sour, and extremely wholesome flavour of the fruit will pop open your eyes. You might then pick up the spoon and wolf it down! That’s what my friend does, whenever I make it.

mango salsa

Serve it with nachos, or chips.

Its not an Indian recipe.The closest is Mexican Fusion.

I love it with my all time favourite – Whisky.

mango salsa nachos

 

Mango Salsa
Print Recipe
Quick and easy to make. A sure fire hit in a party.
Servings Prep Time
4 people 15 minutes
Servings Prep Time
4 people 15 minutes
Mango Salsa
Print Recipe
Quick and easy to make. A sure fire hit in a party.
Servings Prep Time
4 people 15 minutes
Servings Prep Time
4 people 15 minutes
Ingredients
Servings: people
Instructions
  1. Peel and chop the mango. Cut the fruit into small squares. Don't cut so small that the fruit gets mashed up while mixing.
  2. Chop the onions into thin rounds. Chop some of the green as well. So basically it should be more that 3/4th whites and rest the greens, finely chopped.
  3. Add the onions to the mango.
  4. To the olive oil, mix all the other ingredients,( except the spring onions) and mix.
  5. Add the olive oil mixture to the mango and onions, and very gently toss it all together.
  6. Voila - its ready! Simple?? Serve Chilled!
Recipe Notes

Serve with nachos, chips, on a salted biscuit, with toast, toss it with croutons and serve as a salad!

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