On India’s Independence Day
Hello lovelies! I know it’s been a really long time since I posted here. I have no excuses, but all I can say is that I’ve been upto a lot of craziness. For one example, see this video of a Bollywood flash mob I participated in :D. (I’m the girl in the sunglasses who falls shortly into the video… wann wannn…)
I will not be posting about food today, but I have a personal little bit to share about today, which is India’s 67th Independence day.
It’s strange how I feel on India’s Independence day today. As a kid, it was the prospect of hot jalebis and a longer morning prayer at school with the national anthem and a flag hoisting ceremony. Then we got to go home! In college, it didn’t mean anything at all. The daily routine of classes, long Mumbai commutes, the frustrations of the city and the general ignorance toward how the country was changing, didn’t make the day significant at all. When I started working, media opinion every Aug 15th reminded me how much progress the country had really made. And how much it hadn’t. NDTV journos waxed lyrical about the corruption, the lack of basic amenities for a significant chunk of the population, and the religious tensions. I absorbed it, understood it, but didn’t know how to react or what to do with that information.
Now, as an immigrant in the US, the patriotism weakly sparks back on August 15. Being in an environment where I have adapted to the local culture and ways of going about my life, including even the way I talk, it’s the one day I get to thump my chest and proudly feel “Indian”. It’s the day I celebrate my identity and my roots. Indian is who I am and always will be no matter how much I adapt to the country I’m in.
But I also think about the violence and rampant disrespect against women in India. I think about the politician that reportedly played a role in killing thousands of innocent civilians in Gujarat, rallying to make it to Prime Minister. I read about the economic growth. The infrastructure boom. The innovations in technology and automobiles. And all the leaps we’ve made in being a world leader in consulting and offshore technology services.
Sitting here, India is like a dream to me. It feels like this comforting, loving place I can go to and feel ‘myself’. I feel like I know her, and then I don’t know her at all. But I know it’s a place that is the only place I can call home. Day to day, as I go through my struggles and joys of dealing with life, work and relationships in a foreign country, I forget where I’m from. Sometimes, it feels, I’m just another outsider trying to adjust to life here. Today is a reminder to me of who I really am and what I stand for. I wouldn’t call it patriotism. It’s a yearning for home that is very hard to describe.
Weekend dinner – Baked “stuffing” chicken
Baked “stuffing” chicken served with creamed corn and baked potatoes
Recently one evening when I showed up as usual, unannounced, at my sister’s place, I proceeded to raid her awesome pantry on arrival, only to be stopped by the interesting assortment of ingredients she had out on the kitchen counter. A meal was in the process of being prepared. Some 60 minutes later, what my sister had on the table was the most delicious, comforting meal one could ask for in this Wintry Spring a.k.a. Winter Part II here in Minneapolis a.k.a Siberia.
All I could think of when I ate dinner was YUM. If you have friends coming over this weekend and want to make them an easy, comforting meal, serve this up. The meal pictured above consists of baked chicken and creamed corn, served with a side of baked, crispy potatoes.
I will be sharing the recipe for the baked “stuffing” chicken in this post. It’ll go really well served with a simple salad and a nice cocktail.
Baked “stuffing” chicken (Recipe adapted from Campbell soup)
Ingredients: (Serves 4)
- 4 boneless skinless Chicken breasts, washed, dried and cut in 3-4 pieces each
- 2 cans of low-sodium cream of mushroom soup + 2% or Skim milk, or equivalent quantity of Bechamel sauce
- Pepperidge Farms herb seasoned stuffing – 3 cups
- Finely Chopped vegetables – Celery (4-5 stalks), Green pepper (1/2), Red pepper (1/2), Leeks (1/2 of 1 stalk)
- Finely chopped Garlic – 3-4 cloves (Increase if you love Garlic like moi!)
- 1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf Parsley + some for garnishing
- 2 cups low-sodium Chicken stock
- Butter – Two 1-inch pieces
- 2 tbsp Olive oil
- Large cooking pan and large baking pan (at least 9″ x 11″)
Method:
- Prepare the veggies: In a large pan, heat Olive oil and lightly cook all the vegetables and chopped garlic. After they get soft, add the stuffing. Mix well and then add the chicken stock. Turn off the heat and keep aside. The stock will get absorbed in the stuffing. Taste, and add salt only if needed.
- Prepare the sauce: Prepare Bechamel / white sauce per your own recipe or you can use my recipe here. Alternatively, you can use condensed Cream of Mushroom soup
- Remove contents of both cans of soup in a bowl. Dilute with 1/2 cup of skim or 2% milk. Mix well. Taste and season with salt and pepper if needed.
- Prep a large baking pan with cooking spray. Place the stuffing mixture at the bottom, and place the raw chicken pieces on top. Then pour over the sauce and spread evenly. Add a splash of chicken stock on the top, place the 2 cubes of chicken, cover with foil, and bake in a 375F oven for 15 minutes
- After 15 minutes, remove the foil, and cook for another 10 minutes. Check if the chicken is done, and serve!
Flourless Chocolate Espresso Cake
Fate has an interesting way to make people meet. And an interesting way to get you to do the things you swore you never would again. Like baking. After these two disastrous attempts at baking, I thought I should sign off of all baking altogether. Baking banana bread, which is the simplest most idiot-proof thing any bad baker (like yours truly) can put together, is the closest I felt I could get to being successful at the craft.
But little did I know that this evil little thing called fate would get me all over again. Fate played me once after I swore I would’t study in an academic setting EVER again when I wrote my last MBA exam in India; I ended up pursuing one more Masters degree in the US. Ha.
And it happened again when I met someone at work, who is now also a good friend. A few months ago, I was introduced to someone who happens to be the talented blogger behind Healthy Life Happy Cook. Amanda’s blog is filled with yummy, healthy recipes, many of which I have to try myself. Much to my chagrin, when I was assigned dessert for Thanksgiving dinner last year, Amanda suggested I make this flourless espresso chocolate cake that she adapted from the blog Eating for England. Needless to say, I expressed my concerns about baking to her and she promised me this recipe was as idiot proof as it needed to be for a bad baker like me.
And she was so right – she gave me some great tips and suggestions, that helped me make this simple, luscious, dense, fudge-ey cake that was such a surprise when I bit into it. The cake was gone in a few minutes and my friends’ kids lapped it up with some Cool Whip. I used all dark chocolate chips as I love the slightly bitter taste of dark chocolate. Amanda’s recipe calls for half dark and half milk chocolate. Here’s the recipe! (from Amanda’s blog)
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 3/4 cup good quality chocolate – you can use all milk chocolate but Amanda recommends 1/2 milk and 1/2 dark chocolate
- 1.5 tablespoon espresso powder (I used Nescafe instant coffee)
- 1/2 cup double dutch dark cocoa (unsweetened cocoa powder would be fine too)
- 3 large eggs
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
Method:
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Trace the bottom of an 8-inch round cake pan on a piece of parchment paper. Cut out a circle. Spray the cake tin with cooking spray and place the parchment paper at the bottom. The spray will help the paper stick to the tin
- Melt chocolate and butter in a bowl. I did this over a pan of boiling water because I have a messed up microwave, but you can do this easily in a microwave, in 30 second intervals. Mix the melted goodness together
- Mix in sugar, and add the eggs. Then add all the dry ingredients – cocoa, salt, and instant coffee powder / espresso powder. Mix well.
- Pour in the pan and bake for 30 minutes. Mine was done in about 25 minutes so check at around the 20 minute mark. A toothpick inserted through should come out clean
- Let the cake cool in the pan for about 10 minutes. Then gently invert it onto a plate, dust with powdered sugar and serve! It tasted the best when it was a little warm. I served it with Cool Whip at Thanksgiving, but you could also do vanilla ice-cream. Can’t wait to make this again!
One Life to Eat 