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| Puri bhaaji #kayteecooks |
‘Bhaiya kaun sa tel main puri talna hain?’ (which oil should I fry the puris in bro?)
‘Saadi.’ (Vegetable oil)
‘Khatam ho gaya. Sarso ke tel main karoon?’ (It’s over, should I fry it in mustard oil?)
There was a pensive look on her face.
I made my best Utpal Dutt ‘Eeeeesh’ face and stormed into the hall and exclaimed, ‘have we ordered vegetable oil?’
Our quartermaster, K, shook her head by the fraction of an inch. She later told me she was on a video zoom call with a client/.
‘Olive oil se karoon?’ (Should I use olive oil)
I frowned at the thought of an entire bottle of expensive extra virgin olive oil going into frying puris and this was a tiny bottle unlike the drum of EVOO that my friend and head of gastronomy tourism of the Catalan Government, Mr Casanova (sic), had used to fry jamon and quesa croquettes at his house in Barcelona when he had invited me home for lunch on a Sunday many moons back.
‘Pakanewala olive oil,‘ she persisted and took out a bottle.
‘Aah. Woh Canola hain. Saadi tel. Usko istimal karo.’ (That’s Canola. Use that.)
‘Main socha the yeh olive oil hain.’ (I thought that it was olive oil).
Her confusion was understandable. It was by Borges, which makes both now and was originally into olive oils here. The logo must have confused her. A lesson for design and advertising folks?
And so I sat down for a delectable breakfast of Maharashtrian style puri and sukhi batata chi bhaaji.
She had showed me the size of the puris she planned to roll out earlier and asked ‘kitna? (how many).
‘Do’ and seeing her frown I said ‘teen’. She said, I thought four at least. Three is what I had initially told her.
“Transfats is your enemy,” said my doctor friend and diabetologist recently after she saw my medical reports. “Stick to fried stuff once a week at the most and limit the number you have. You had 3 samosas yesterday. Try to have only one the next time”
I knew that I was safe to an extent given that my doctor is food obsessed, tells me about the delicious chocolate cakes and mutton chops that orders in. Being half Maharashtrian and an evangelist for anything Maharashtrian, I am sure she would turn a blind eye if I told her, ‘its puri bhaaji, but amchi.’
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| Agent Nimki with Q |
I could feel the world calm down and the birds sing as I finished breakfast and little Nimki went to K for some cuddles in between her work calls.
Earlier in the day, I woke up to Baby Loaf gently saying ‘eeow’ (good morning). He had got up on the bed and waited patiently by me till I woke up and patted him. Nimki saw us and jumped up, did a nose boop with Loaf and then began sparring. Loaf got up disgusted and settled by my feet while his younger brother (I need to do a DNA test to confirm this) usurped his spot by my side. I then got up and fed them before getting into the flurry of the day. This is how I have started my day for the past couple of days.
‘We should have kept the small kadai. That’s deeper and better for puris. I could not make them puff up in the new one.’
Cooking is about creativity and about taking pride in what one cooks, as Pritha Sen had said in our recent #foodocracyforher chat.
‘That’s ok and the last one had puffed up and it was lovely overall.’
‘Yes, and you guys do not have much deep fried stuff in any case.’
‘And you did praise the dosa pan,’ I said. This was our attempt at buying utensils online. Honestly, going to the local market would work better for me.
And that’s how our new morning cook, Kalpana Tai (the mysterious #kayteecooks from my Instagram feed), made a puri bhaaji breakfast for me on what Instagram later told me is #worldvegetarianday. In fact, this would qualify as vegan too!!!
Chalo, for once my breakfast was trendy!
PS: What’s more, Priyanka Agarwal tells me its #internationalcoffeeday too.
At this rate I can still harbour hopes of becoming an influencer with a million followers. Once I finish my post breakfast nap.
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| Puri batata che bhaaji with esprosso. #finelychoppedbreakfasts #worldvegetarianday |
