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Luxury of a loaf With the mushrooming of cafes, bakeries and confectioneries in the city, the customer is certainly spoilt for choice. For one, the product is far superior in quality, it is mostly healthy and, the rest is packaged so invitingly, I’d buy it anyways. Be that as it may, we finally have available a doughnut, light and airy enough to be dunked in a steaming mug of black coffee. What’s more, it is spongy enough to soak in the hot liquid without leaving traces akin to an oil spill in the mug. Also, the variety of breads is mind boggling. No longer do you have to make do with the customary milk or caramelised brown bread, nor the special sandwich loaf from the neighbourhood bakery. No longer do you juggle the garlic baguette and the cheesy one for your ‘continental‘ evenings; you can now experiment with loaves garnished with olives and oregano. As for the ingredients, ‘you have a choice of breads prepared with atta, bran, soya, whole wheat, wholemeal, wholegrain; multi-grain, seeded… the list is endless. As a result, the once lowly sandwich, has suddenly acquired a certain air about itself. Given that it is essentially made up of leftovers disguised as exotica, it is quite the fashionable option to be caught eating with your cappuccino. Toasted, grilled or otherwise; hot or cold; open or layered, the fillings are as many (oftentimes as desi) as the toppings being offered by pizza companies. Depending on where you are eating, these carb-laden delights are served with good, bad or sour coleslaw. Potato crisps, tomato ketchup and mustard (or is it?) make up the rear end, unfailingly. Even as I fall victim to this food fashion, I am reminded of the ones my cousins, siblings and I created during our midnight feasts many summer vacations ago. Since this activity required utmost stealth, we could not rummage through the larder and had to make the most of easily available ammunition. Invariably, that comprised tough bread curling at the edges left out for feeding birds the following day! The fillings consisted of unbelievable (sometimes unidentifiable) material. Still, they were our mainstay when hunger pangs struck the instant the domestic help retired for the night. I’m not so sure how my insides would react to a banana, cheese and walnut sandwich today, or, apple and ginger on a layer of cream and sugar. [...]

A Consommé & The Minestrone. Come monsoons and a bowl of soup is one thing, other than piping cuppa tea, one can never say no to. In India soups have come a long way: from the doctor advising you to have soup to recuperate and mom putting all the bountiful ingredients, chosen with care, in a pot boiled for hours to the lamb knuckle soup that keeps you warm in winters.  Nowadays, while some people prefer soup as a starter to meals, others, especially on a diet, take soups as a whole nourishing meal with no calories at all. Here are a few of my favourite soups. Clear soup: the most famous and the basic of soups, clear soup has its origin in the delicate French cookery and is very nutritious and nourishing. Very delicately flavoured, it is called Consommé. It can be served with different kinds of garnishes and hence gets its different names. A consommé should be crystal clear. The clarity comes from the albumen of the egg white and the coagulation of the meat and clearing quality of the egg shell. Basic recipe of a consommé: 200 gm minced lamb 1 litre stock or water (cold) 1 bay leaf,  1 clove 3-4 pepper corn 100gm mixed vegetables, finely chopped (onion, carrots, turnips, coriander left over, and ginger trimmings) 1 egg white with the egg shell crushed into it, Salt and white pepper powder to taste Method: Thoroughly mix all the ingredients together in cold water (or stock) in a thick bottom pan. Place on boil on high heat and bring to boil stirring only once. As soon as it comes to boil stir slightly once and reduce heat to gentle. Cook for an hour on very low heat without stirring. Strain carefully using a muslin cloth in a clean pot. Serve in a warm soup tureen after correcting seasoning. The next soup I am going to talk about is the world-famous soup form Italy called Minestrone. This is tomato based garlic flavoured soup with pasta and vegetables and cheese. Minestrone Ingredients: 300gm mixed vegetable (onion, carrots, turnips, cabbage) cut in small dices 50gm Butter 25gm French beans cut diagonally into diamond shape, 1 litre Stock, with 1 clove of crushed garlic, salt, 1 clove, 1 bay leaf, 3 peppers corns. Pinch of nutmeg , 25gm Peas, 200gm Tomatoes (de-skinned, de-seeded and finely chopped), 25gm Spaghetti or any [...]