I am a
bookworm and a food fanatic. For me, it’s (almost) like Joey from
F.R.I.E.N.D.S. He couldn’t decide between giving up food or coitus (ah The Big
Bang Theory!), I can’t decide between books and food!
And when it
comes to deciding menus for what I want to cook, I have a beautiful analogy – for me
it’s like choosing a book to read. Firstly what I will read or cook depends on
my mood, “What book will go with my mood? Do I feel like a light chick lit, a
classic Victorian novel, some poetry, a thriller?” Similarly, the menu will be
highly dependent on what my taste buds crave, “sweet (very rarely), spicy,
salty, sour…”.
Then will
be the exploration stage. I will open my cupboard where all my books are kept,
take some out, read their jackets (if I haven’t read them already) or remember
its stories –when had I last read it, how did that book make me feel, what had
I loved about it… if I remember a section I particularly like, I will quick go
to it and read it again and take the book if it hits the right chord. Similarly
for cooking, I will go through the ingredients I have, remember the times I
have cooked the recipe, what innovations have I done with it, what had worked,
and I will pick the ingredients accordingly and set them out for me to cook.
Then comes
the lost in reading/ cooking and eating stage… a fairly self explanatory
process.
Today’s
recipe that got me: Chilli Garlic Fries
These ingredients
should make fries enough for two people (or if you are like me then just one!)
3-4 large
potatoes for the fries
Peanut Oil
for frying
2-3
tablespoons olive oil
3-4 garlic
cloves finely chopped
1 spring
onion greens finely sliced
2-3 green
chillies finely sliced
1-2 tbsp
soy sauce
Salt to
taste (Soy sauce already is quite salty, so you can skip this if you do not
like too much salt)
Pepper to
taste
Heat the
peanut oil to prepare it for frying, Wash and cut the potatoes to make fries. I
prefer keeping the fries a little thicker for this recipe. Fry and remove the
potatoes on a tissue paper for the excess oil to get soaked.
In a
separate pan, heat the olive oil. Fry the garlic and the chillies. Add the spring
onion greens (you can save a few of the greens slices for garnishing) and the
soy sauce. Toss the fries in immediately. Add a little salt and pepper to
taste.
Voila! A
very simple recipe of French fries with a chilly- garlicy twist! (Will put up pictures soon!)
