 |
| Care package of Hakka noodles and some holiday homework for Baby Loaf & little Nimki’s best friend |
It is not advised to post the same copy twice on the internet. Brings down the google rankings they say. I decided to break that rule in this post. There is a reason for that. I am posting an extract from my blog post from yesterday, which was on a Gujarati home chef from Mumbai, and then adding to that. This is the story of how I grew my blog page views by 50 per cent during the lockdown. I feel that this deserves a post of its own. Hopefully, it might help someone. Or cheer me up when I need motivation.
You might remember my occasionally writing about how the blog readership numbers seem to be stagnant for ages. That the medium seemed to be almost dead.
I had accepted this as a fact of life. Yet, I did not want to give up on the blog and initiated a number of measures to refresh it. Things that came intuitively to me. Let us see what they were and what followed.
1. Increased frequency of posting
I started posting more regularly in the blog thanks to the lockdown. I was home and had all the time in the world. I even started sharing extracts from my Instagram posts on the blog, as I share there more regularly. In the process, my blog became my daily journal as it was when I had first started it almost 13 years back on 7th October, 2007.
It has been at the centre of everything I do since then and I owe so much to my blog. I was not planning to give up on it!
2. Recipes once again
I shared more recipes than I did normally as I was cooking more after long thanks to the lockdown with no house help being there in the initial months because of social distancing. People seem to look for recipe content more than anything when it comes to food. Or so food book publishers seem to believe. Well if recipes are what they want, then I would give them that!
I shared my simple Instagram story based YouTube recipe videos on the blog along with copy based recipe posts.
Readers wrote in saying they found this useful. They wrote in on Instagram of course. Hardly anyone writes comments on blogs now!
3. Creating theme based content series
I posted my #FoodocracyIndia podcast Youtube videos on the blog. A series where I speak about unsung and yet popular eateries across the country.
I spoke about my #foodocracyforher series and occasionally wrote blog posts based on what I learnt in them. This is an Instagram live chat series where I talk to women entrepreneurs in the food industry about their stories.
Then I started #foodocracykitchen. A series dedicated to the food stories of the people of the various communities that make up Mumbai. I wrote these exclusively on the blog.
I had earlier discussed these ideas with publishing houses, TV channels and websites too. They were not enthused. Having my own blog meant that this did not matter. I had a story to tell and a place to tell. Nothing could stop me.
These are content projects that one could call ‘lockdown babies’ of mine. They all added freshness to the blog and gave me an ‘edit plan’ through this long siege. Even though I was working from home and by myself.
4. Expanding the blog to parts beyond just food
I added two new sections to my blog posts. These had nothing to do with food.
One is called ‘from the #houseofcats ‘where I show what our cats were up to on that day. I ignored the odd negative comment about my cat posts that had come on social media as I knew that were many many more who looked forward to seeing Baby Loaf and little Nimki compared to those sour pusses. That these stories added colour and warmth to their lives at a time when life seems so bleak. Just as it did to ours.
The other section was the ‘playlist from the #finelychoppedkitchen’. Here I upload YouTube videos of songs I’d get Alexa to play in the kitchen while I cooked. After all there is nothing like music to uplift soul.
5. Fresh packaging for fresh content
Most recently I changed the viewing format back to the dynamic blogger format. This had helped in the past. Might this time too.
6. Focusing on self improvement rather than comparisons with others
I made it a point to not get affected by the noise around me. The developments in the content world. The work out there that was getting shared and spoken about. It is not easy, as someone who works alone, to match trend chasing publishing sites with large teams and people writing for them. Or with unofficial cliques and cabals that promoted each other. I needed to recognise this and accept this and move on.
I tried to continuously focus on self improvement rather than compare myself with others. There would be times when one would be struck by what they call the ‘imposter syndrome.’ Words of reassurance from K or words that came out of the blue from readers fuelled one.
7. Reflecting on the purpose behind the blog. What is it that I am trying to say through it.
It is not easy to keep oneself motivated while working on something that does not overtly pay you. That is where purpose plays a role. That’s what kept me going. Sticking to what I believed in. Sticking to what came naturally to me. What excited me. Where my heart lay.
Creating a positive space that would refresh and rejuvenate those who interacted with it.
Supporting small businesses, unsung eateries, our local vendors (fish, meat, fruit, grocer and even paneer wala), home chefs, women entrepreneurs. Folks who did not have PR agencies of big marketing bucks and who would often fall under the radar of the big publications.
I celebrated everyday home cooked food. Regional food. Comfort food. Happy food. Even leftovers!
This meant that I was not starved of content, even though restaurants were shut as was travel, and I have been home, literally, for more than 6 months.
And then what happened?
I checked the blog stats casually last evening. I looked at the month end figures. Then rubbed my eyes. I did a double take. Then checked again. Then I did the math using the calci on the phone.
The monthly page views of the blog at the end of the month was an unprecedented 49 per cent over the previous month. (September 2020 end over August 2020 end)
I do not know if it is a fluke. I have worked hard after all. I have been writing consistently here. I guess that counted.
Maybe I was not shouting into an empty space, as I thought I was. Maybe you were reading what I wrote. Maybe there was some point to being a long copy man in a world of short attention spans.
Maybe one should learnt to have faith and not doubt ourselves.
Thank you everyone, this truly means the world to me.
PS I hope you appreciate the click bait listicle like heading!
And now…’From the #FinelyChoppedRecipeCorner’
I am starting a new section called #FinelyChoppedRecipeCorner where I will copy and paste recipes of dishes mentioned in a post which I might have shared in the blog in the past. Making it easy for you to access. Hope it helps.
 |
| Fresh espresso, two day old torka dal and finely chopped onions, one day old roti and paneer bhurjee #finelychoppedbreakfasts #loveyourleftovers |
Today’s breakfast is a an example of everything that I have written in this post about rejuvenating my blog during the lockdown by sharing stories of everyday food.
Paneer bhurjee cooked by our cook Banu yesterday. Part of a care package that we sent to our dear friends and neighbours who are quarantined with a covid infection at home. A dish I had first had and fallen in love with when I had it at Crystal, the humble Punjabi vegetarian eatery in south Mumbai. A dish that I would often make at home after that and now Banu makes too, in her own way. With excellent fresh paneer that we had called in from Lalu’s at Pali Market. I reheated the remaining green moong dal tarka that Banu had made the day before with the recipe and spices that I gave her. Leftovers from the care package we had made the day before. A dish, I had fallen in love with when I first had it from the pavement roti shops of Kolkata and which I taught myself to make, and now Banu to make. I also reheated the rotis she had made yesterday on the saucepan, after I sequentially heated the bhurjee and torka in it Used the finely chopped onions that Shital Kakad had sent with her pav bhaji the day before. Played a couple of Dire Straits numbers to pump up things. That’s as good a #loveyourleftovers #finelychoppedbreakfasts as it gets.
I plated my breakfast as a thali as the menu seemed like a simulated dhaba breakfast to me. I even poured out my espresso in a cutting chai glass to go with the mood!
I later got to know from my friend Kaniska’s post that it is #internationalcoffeeday and through India Food Network’s tweet that it is #worldvegetarianday. Which meant that my breakfast (vegetarian and with coffee) was very current, even without my knowing what was the trend of the day!
It’s another matter that I planned to have mangshor jhol (mutton curry) and machhed mudo diye dal (dal with fish head) for our other meals, but then that’s me!
 |
| Macched mudo diya daal |
K and I were super excited about lunch as this was the first machhed mudo diye daal that we had in seven months. We managed it thanks to having recently bought our first kaatla since the lockdown. Poonam’s fish has been on point as always.
My mother’s macched mudo diye daal was one of the dishes from her kitchen that I missed a lot when I moved into Mumbai two decades back. Then one day I spotted someone selling rohu at the Pali Market. A boy called Munna from whom we bought fish for many years till he shut shop. I bought rohu and the head too and came home that day and made machhed mudo diye dal and for the first time, Mumbai felt like home.
I have seen fellow Bengalis express anguish when I put up pictures of my Bengali meals with basmati rice in it. ‘How can you have basamati with Bengali food,’ is the common refrain. Well, the answer is simple…because I like it and because I live in Mumbai where I don’t have access to rice varietals common in Bengal. It is not worth your losing sleep over.
They should be happy seeing the picture of the short grained rice on my plate today. Before they get too excited, I must add that it is not the much loved Gobindo Bhog rice of Bengal. It is a local Maharashtrian varietal called ambe mohor. I buy it from Vijay Stores in Bandra’s Pali Market. I find it to be a nice #eatlocal substitute for Gobindo Bhog.
 |
| Egg Hakka Noodles |
While Banu made the dal and rice today, I cooked a dish myself before we sat for lunch. What we call Hakka noodles in Kolkata. Again a dish that I sorely missed from my mother’s kitchen after I left Kolkata and the number one comfort dish in my kitchen today. I made this as a part of the comfort package that we sent for Baby Loaf and little Nimki’s best friend along with some reading material for her. It was for a collegian and I played some Bryan Adam numbers on Alexa from my college days while I cooked.
Recipes now
Torka dal recipe. Original post.
How I made torka dal:
‘I put the pressure cooker on the hob. Heated a teaspoon of ghee, then added 1/2 teaspoon of whole cumin and kasoori methi (critical to the flavour). Then added 1 finely chopped onion, a teaspoon of ginger and garlic paste, then finely chopped tomatoes. Stirring at each step till each new ingredient cooked. Then I added 1/2 a teaspoon each of turmeric, red chilli, cumin and garam masala powder. Then 250 g of pre-soaked green moon and 500 ml of water. My session was about to start and the water had begun to boil. 4 whistles, lower the flame and then 30 min before you turn off the gas.’
Kolkata Hakka noodles recipe. Original post.
- Heat vegetable oil in a wok
- Add finely chopped ginger and garlic
- Add the protein. Chicken (boiled which is what my mother prefers or raw as I often do), bacon/ ham/ chopped sausages, prawns or just egg
- Add soya sauce
- Add chopped vegetables (you can skip the animal protein if you want to make a veg one)
- Add boiled noodles with the water strained out. You can boil some onion bulbs with the noodles too and add it. Add salt, pepper (white is nicer). Sauces: whatever is at home. I use chilli sauce, Thai chilli paste, black bean chilli oil in varying proportions. You can add a dash of honey too. Stir.
- Add a pre-scrambled egg
- Add a squeeze of lime at the end. You can add some toasted sesame seeds too. Do not forget to keep some finely chopped green chillies in soya sauce to add to it just as my mom does.
Fish head dal recipe.
Here’s how I make machher mudo diye daal (daal with fish head). Original post.
Step 1
- Smear the fish head with a bit of salt, turmeric and chilly powder, fry and set aside
Step 2
- Take a cup of moong daal and roast it on a pressure pan till it turns brownish
- Add twice the amount of water to it, a tea spoon of turmeric and salt and pressure cook it – 4 whistles and fifteen minutes on simmer
Step 3
- Heat a teaspoon of oil in a saucepan, add some paanch phoran (a Bengali 5 spice mix)
- Once the p p splutters add two slit green chillies and bay leaves
- Once these change colour add the fried fish head from stage 1
- Stir a bit and add the boiled daal from stage 2
- Add half a tea spoon each of turmeric, chilli powder and jeera (cumin) and bit of sugar
- Let it begin to boil and bubble
- Reduce the flame, cover with a lid and reduce the flame. Let it slow cook for ten minutes as you want the flavour of the fish head to infuse into the daal
- Add some whole garam masala at the end if its a rui head. Skip this for the ilish though as that’s more delicate and is best left au naturelle (pardon my French)
I could not find any post where I have shared my paneer bhurjee recipe but here’s the one that I wrote on Crystal and its paneer bhurjee
If you are a home chef and want to know how to grow your blog then I have a workshop on this for you on the 16th of October on bookaworkshop.in. Here’s the registration link if you are interested.
From the #HouseOfCats
 |
| Baby Loaf and little Nimki at the start of my physio session. Excited about our macched mudo diye dal lunch coming up |
 |
| Little Nimki gives his editorial point of view while I subbed this story |
From the #FinelyChoppedKitchen playlist
Dire Straits: Walk of life
Dire Straits: Sultans of Swing
Byran Adams: Heaven
