A good cocktail

I am a beer drinker. I do like a decent wine – no, and I mean no, Indian wine is decent. There are a few decent imported wines available in India but they do cost an arm and a leg. No wine, and, I repeat, no wine costing less than Rs 1000 in India is drinkable in quantities greater than 1 glass. I like my beer. I have no problem drinking a cold Kingfisher, nothing fancier. It’s perfectly decent, quality does not change and the taste is inoffensive. Drinks like Bacardi Breezers are absolutely horrid.

A good cocktail however, is quite a pleasure. The problem we have in India is that cocktails in bars are either horribly sweet or are so expensive and/or dilute that you feel cheated. I have not quite figured out why the same Vodka going into a cocktail costs so much more. Two of my favourite cocktails are a Negroni and a Daiquiri.

Sometimes things can get quite dicey. A classic Daiquiri is something that grew out of necessity. The story goes that American engineers working in a mine in Cuba drank gin after work at a bar called Venus in a place called Santiago close to Havana. One day when they ran out of gin which they used to make Planters Punch, the engineer used Cuban rum which was available in abundance with the equally abundantly available sugar and limes and the Daiquiri was born.

Getting a decent Daiquiri is very difficult. Several bars serve Daiquiris with, God help us, Strawberry, Raspberry, Mango and what have you. You also get them `frozen’. Very scary and completely undrinkable unless you are brain damaged or such an alcohol hater that you need to completely disguise the taste. I recently came across a recipe and found that the resultant Daiquiri is simply fantastic. A great balance of flavours – sweet, sour and alcohol, and a drink that is so simple to make at home. Everyone has sugar, lime and ice at home. The only exotic is that you need Gold rum. By Gold I mean the rum should be the same colour as a whiskey i.e. gold, not the dark Old Monk colour and not the white rum colour. You get Bacardi Gold for about Rs 950/- in Mumbai. This is the correct rum. Old Monk has a rum they call Gold but this does not denote the colour [which is dark] but denotes some kind of superior quality.

Get a bottle of Bacardi Gold and make yourself this drink. The economics make so much sense. Rs 950/- for the raw material. This would give you at least 15 drinks. If you have a Daiquiri at a bar you will spend Rs 950 in just 2 drinks. Drink at home, makes most sense, raw material is the same and the skill required is minimal Oh yes, ideally you should have a weighing machine to get things spot on.

For one drink

50 ml/grams Bacardi Gold [about 1 ½ small pegs]

8 ml/grams lime juice [about 1 ½ teaspoons]

8 grams powdered sugar [about 1 ½ teaspoons]

Ice cubes.

Put everything into a cocktail shaker, give it a good shake and pour into a glass. Drink!!! If you don’t have a cocktail shaker use a big clean bottle with a top obviously. If you don’t have a bottle then mix everything in a cooking vessel. If you don’t have that either you are a hopeless looser. You don’t deserve to drink this.

Daiquiri

A Negroni is even simpler. The two problems are (i) you need 2 exotic alcohols [both widely available in India] and (ii) you or members of your family may think you are mad to be drinking something that people say tastes like cough mixture, or worse. Believe me, they are fools. A Negroni is an absolutely top class drink.

For one drink

50 ml/grams Campari

50 ml/grams Martini Rosso

50 ml/grams Gin

A squeeze of lime  

Ice cubes

Basically the three alcohols are in equal quantities. Once again put everything into a cocktail shaker, give it a good shake and pour into a glass. Drink!!! If you don’t have a cocktail shaker use a big clean bottle with a top obviously. If you don’t have a bottle then mix everything in a cooking vessel. If you don’t have that either you are a hopeless looser. Please slit your wrists immediately.

Negroni with Lime Zest

The photos are mine. I made the drinks just to show you.

Hic!

Eat at home.

After a few blogs of Eating Out, I thought it would be nice to show off some of the adventures we have had in the kitchen over the past weeks.

We had bought the new cookbook by Thomas Keller called Ad Hoc At Home. Very good, like all his other books, visually attractive, great recipes and most importantly, very accurate recipes that work. One recipe that leapt out was Sautéed Chicken Breasts with Tarragon. Very simple to make, very tasty and a great introduction to simple `Conti’ food. No fancy equipment required and you can drink the wine left over after making the sauce. It’s a chicken breast flattened, seasoned, sautéed and served with a pan sauce. It would appeal to Indian tastes as the chicken is dusted with a dash of Madras Curry Powder. Unfortunately, getting Tarragon proved very difficult. Both Crawford Market and Pali Market complained that no one buys Tarragon so they do not stock it. Had to make do with some Sage. Made a sautéed potato to go with the chicken. Delicious.

A Quiche is something we both love. A slice of Quiche, slightly warm, studded with crisp salty Lardons, accompanied by a crisp green salad dressed with a tart dressing and a glass of cold white wine is a brilliant lunch. All the food groups are present. The problem with Quiches is that they are more often than not made in a tart tin. This means that the depth of the Quiche is just about 3 cms which results in skimpy filling. The filling is the magic of a Quiche. The Gruyere Cheese, lashings of Kirsch, Nutmeg and Pancetta/Lardons or Bacon all mixed into custard is something magical. Traditionally Quiches are made not in a Tart tin but in 5 cms deep flan ring giving you a much deeper Quiche. This is what we used. The results were dramatically better. We did have a salad and some wine and dinner was done.

The Pancetta left over from the Quiche had to be put to some use. So we thought why not make a classic Salad Lyonnaise. This is a sort of main course salad traditionally made with Dandelion leaves which are complete impossibility in Bombay, a substitute is Frisee, which is not an impossibility but merely a difficulty to get in Mumbai. Unfortunately, the day we wanted them, they were unobtainable, so we used some Romaine. We got a box of Keggs Eggs which we poached. I must say that Keggs eggs are really really good. Yes, they do cost Rs 55 for 6 but the quality and result is excellent. Look for them in Natures Basket, paying Rs 55 for 6 eggs as an experiment is not going to kill you, you will have money left over after that! They are worth every paisa. Don’t use them for omelette's but do scramble, boil, fry or poach them or even use them in a Quiche or Mousse or to make Pasta. The Pancetta was blanched and then fried. The bread toasted with a bit of garlic rubbed on and the salad dressed with simple Vinaigrette. The poached eggs on top oozed delightfully.

The Bon Appetite magazine had a feature on sweets for Christmas. One that caught our eye was a beautiful looking, red hot, Peppermint Meringue. With Bombay in the so called winter, well with less humidity, it would be a good time to make meringues; they would not get sticky and moist. We set about making them. It took a bit of practice for HRH the Queen of Kutch to get the piping done accurately. The results are delicious.

We had a lot of Toulouse Sausage in the deep freeze. I had recently bought a whole lot of unsalted butter, made by Amul for export, at a very good price. So I suggested that we make a Brioche dough. We could make the classic Saucisson Lyonnais en Brioche, which is a sausage wrapped in a Brioche for dinner. The classic dish uses a Lyonnais Sausage which is rather different from a Toulouse made in England, but the dish works just as well. Good results and a decent dinner. 

Mumbai's finest

Many of you may recall the claims of our Police Commissioners, made repeatedly, that the Mumbai Police is the best in the world. Sometimes in a moment of weakness, or perhaps, when being less delusional, the Commissioners claim it is the second best in the world, after the Scotland Yard. The Police department’s motto is quite a mouthful - "Sadrakṣaṇāya Khalanigrahaṇāya" (Sanskrit: "To protect the good and to punish the evil").  

A couple of days ago I was evil, very evil. I had a spot of work at Worli in a building on Dr. Annie Besant Road. So I parked my car on the wide road which is still known as “Prabhadevi New Road”. This is a road leading from Worli Sea Face to Dr. Annie Besant Road, opposite the old Passport Office. I nipped in to get my work done and came out only to find that my car had been clamped by Mumbai’s finest. I had parked in a no parking zone, a most heinous crime. Now starts the fun.

The clamp had some sort of prong, and on that prong was a note asking me to either go to the Police Chowki - which I am happy to tell you has been defined in the Oxford Dictionary as a police station or jail – or make a telephone call to the number noted on the paper. I made the call and the receiver of the call told me he would be there in 10 minutes to remove my clamp. I was quite pleased at hearing this, a 10 minute wait was reasonable, I had committed a crime, the trees under which I had parked provided enough shade and a delightful sea breeze was blowing.

10 minutes passed fast enough and soon a tow truck turned up with a policeman sitting alongside the driver. The policeman looked; I kid you not, like a cross between Rajnikanth in Sivaji and George Clooney, complete with a pair of Ray Bans. Now anyone who expects a policeman to be honest should be carried away by the men in white coats.

I produced my license and was offered a choice by the cop, pay a fine at once or deposit my license with him and go to the Chowki later and pay the fine to get it released. I chose the first option, coughed up Rs 200 – less than USD 4 at today’s exchange rate – and got the clamp released. I, being evil, was punished. I got a receipt for the payment of Rs 200/-. Do have a look at the receipt. It’s a receipt for payment of a towing charge.

Here is my point:

1. I had parked in a no parking zone. Thus, I should have been fined for that. Apparently I have not been fined.

2. My car was never towed. It was clamped. So why did I pay a towing charge?

3. Where has my Rs 200 gone, probably for a new pair of Ray Bans?

4. Is it a bribe, no I have a receipt. Is it an offence, no I don’t have a receipt.

I am sure with the Lok Pal Act in place all this will magically stop. But why should it stop, what is the offence.

I am so confused.

I hope you now know why Mumbai Police are the finest. Amazing motto too. Remember the word "Jugaad"?