Restauranteur Moshe Shek remembers the first dish he mastered
Restauranteur Moshe Shek remembers the first dish he mastered. It was a 'sambusak', the Iraqi first-cousin of the samosa, which came outfitted with a baked crust and a salty cheese filling.
Moshe's mother lost her mother's recipe, so one day, her college-going son and she decided to try their hand at a batch. "We got the filling, khara paneer, from a place in Dongri and made it with that. My mother was a great cook, but she couldn't bake. She needed my hand," remembers Moshe.
The sambusaks turned out beautiful, he says. The cheese wasn't runny, the crusts weren't soggy and mother and son made such a huge batch that neighbours and friends gushed about them for days.
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Gayathri Chandrasekaran puts the finishing touches to her lemon rasam PIC/shadab khan |
Anyone can cook. The tricky thing is to make a dish so splendidly that everyone who spoons it into their mouths, goes into raptures. How does it matter what dish it is? A friend is always asked to "bring a dessert" to a potluck dinner, be it orange flan, a chocolate biscuit pudding or a cake and ice-cream concoction.
Another, a family friend, makes DVTDF Dahi Vadas To Die For. My mother-in-law whisks together a Barbie-pink confection frozen jelly and vanilla ice-cream, beaten into the perfect dreaminess.
My mom makes fragrant mutton biryani that lingers in my friends' memories. Another pal can't cook a decent fried egg, but brews the best mug of coffee we've slugged down.
"My chocolate mousse is the charm," says media consultant Indrani Ray. "It's a mix of multiple recipes I fished from the Net, then I made it my own." The mousse made its debut three years ago at a party; the guests polished it off. Over the years, it changed face. Acquired a biscuit base, became creamier.
"I realised it was a classic without the frills. A shot glass of Kahlua or Baileys liqueur makes it richer," divulges Indrani.
Freelance writer Gayathri Chandrasekaran's garlicky rasam came from a memory of watching her mother make it and became a hit at gatherings, either mixed with rice or slurped down as soup.
She widened her rasam repertoire to include her mother-in-law's signature, an Iyengar traditional tangy lemon one that her husband adores. "I'd like to master my friend Jaya's fish curry or dry chicken," she admits.
Moshe has since moved on to mastering several dishes, but says his signature penne, with a creamy sauce garnished with sweet potato straws or salli, has been a winner since 2001. The chef adds that if you haven'tu00a0 found your food calling yet, then try mastering apple crumble.
"It's very easy and doesn't require serious baking. Even a toaster oven will do. You can't go wrong with it." His apple crumble does the rest of the talking.
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