Ekan dabbles with cooking - Sweet Lassi
Ahem! This is funny, I know. But here onwards you'll find this regular but very irregular column in my blog. I think the name has it all - 'Ekan dabbles with cooking'.
Ye! "Dabbles with cooking". And that's 'coz I have no more than a passing fancy for cooking. To say that I'm "no good at it" would be an exaggeration. I'm bad, really bad at it!!!
Having said that, I do get into the kitchen and try my luck at cooking once in a blue moon day. The result? God's grace, I've still not been sued of setting ablaze a kitchen!
The best dish I've made so far is the Egg-Noodles and (hi!) I'm an expert in that! Anyone who has had the misadventure of sharing my culinary skills has agreed to that! In fact, when I was living with room mates (12 of us) in Bangalore, it was almost a routine to have Egg-Noodles prepared by Master Chef Ekan and Chicken Curry made by a less popular but my assistant Chef Sadique Ali for dinners on Saturdays. Every one of them would buy their packet of noodles and eggs and I put them all together to prepare this heavenly, exotic Egg-Noodles which the poor souls used to sit around and gobble up with that 'ok-ok' tasting Chicken Curry (OMG! How I long to have that chicken curry! I've never tasted such delicious chicken dish ever before or after! Bless the female who is going to marry him! There were times when I wished we were gays so that I'd get a life time supply of that chicken curry!!).
Ok! Ok! I'll talk about how to prepare that Egg Noodles in a later edition. As this is the first in this 'post-of-a kind' one, I'll talk about a much simpler thing to make so that you can all keep up with my extra ordinary cooking skills. Ever heard of Sweet Lassi? Ah! And that's the thing that I'm going to teach you to make.
What do you need?
Hm! Let me see... Yoghurt or curd, sugar, crushed cardamom, mint leaves and crushed cashews or peanuts (do not fry these nuts and have oil dripping from it). Hm... I think that'll do...
How to prepare?
Step 1:
Now, if you have curd, all your troubles are saved. Just put the amount of sugar you want in the curd, churn it well in a bowl using a spoon. If you can't find a spoon around, you can even use a knife, the handle of your dish scrubber or anything that's solid and serves the purpose (I'll leave it to your imagination and creativity. But my word of caution is that you better clean the object thoroughly before you immerse it in the bowl of curd!). Do not use your hands to do this 'coz it'd take more time!
Better even, you can use your mixer. Put the above said contents in a mixer and switch the mixer on. Count 1, 2, 3 and 4. Note that, you need to clearly pronounce the syllables of these numbers like v-o-n (1), tw-uu (2), thr-ee (3) and (do not forget to say "and") fo-or (4). Now, switch the mixer off.
If you're using yoghurt, add a little water to it and make it a bit more aqueous. Once this is done, follow the same procedure as said before.
Step 2:
Actually, there is no 'step 2' to this. Your Sweet Lassi is ready! You can serve this is a beer mug, or any tall glass.
Top this exquisite drink with mint leaves, crushed cardamom and crushed cashew nuts or pea-nuts or any one of these. You can also add a little flavoured essence like strawberry, green apple, raspberry or anything of your choice. But remember that this is a light drink best suited for your sunny afternoons and better don't add too many things to it and make it heavy on your stomach. And please avoid any citrous fruits or essence like lemon or orange 'coz it'd spoil the whole thing.
You can also add a pinch of salt 'coz a combination of sweet and salt is really good for your stomach. And one of my faithful readers who came on-line just as soon as I published this post said 'black salt' would taste great with this. You can try it if you want.
The Master Chef, he-self, would prefer to have his Sweet Lassi with just the mint leaves and a pinch of salt in it.
That's it. The Great Indian Lassi is right on your table!
Now, write back to me your experiences of serving Sweet Lassi to your kids, neighbours and friends @ masterchefekan@ymail.com (This is not my personal mail id. This is an official mail id of Master Chef Ekan)
I'd publish your feed backs as "Testimonials from those who have tried this and lived to tell the tale" at the bottom of this post (you'll find that the column is already there 'coz I do expect you to respond) and let the world know how good a Chef that Ekan is.
Testimonials from those who have tried this and lived to tell the tale:
