Cupid to the rescue!!!!

Feb 14!!! (A hypothetical tragedy) ---As your sitting in your office,typing away that mail of utmost significance,it hits you like a thunderbolt that you’ve completely forgotten, not jus to get the gift, or the flowers,or make a reservation at the fancy restaurant, which at that precise moment would have been more than over booked!!!!

 Lucky  for you(!!), we have three simple ways to salvage this ‘Cant  get worse than this’ worst case scenario!!So scroll on and wiggle into your action pants!

 The best of romantic venues can  be even at the comfort of your house!!!

 With xmas lights and few photographs and memorabilia you can create your own memory wall!

 Places you’ve been this year,stories and voyages shared ..…the options are limitless and all you need is Christmas lights,washi tape/cellophane tape and lots of well printed pictures.

 

King Prawn and Squid Pasta with sautéed spinach

 Now this is definitely one of the easiest, and yummiest recipes I’ve come across!!I owe it to Mr Jamie Oliver  for sharing this one!

Tweaked this recipe and it’s a definite win-win

 Spaghetti

 4 cloves of garlic

 2 tsp crushed red chilli

 4tsb Extra Virgin Olive Oil

 300 gms King Prawns and Squid

 400ml tomato puree(I’ve made it using baby plum tomato)

 Juice of one lime

 3 tbs White vine

 A bit of fresh parsley

 Crushed Pepper( to  taste)

 Salt

 Parmesan cheese

 200 gms spinach

 2 knobs of butter

  

 Heat the olive oil in a pan and add the crushed garlic and chilli. Roast till the garlic is golden brown. Add the prawns and the squid and the white wine. Let this simmer for a bit. Add a  bit of crushed pepper for seasoning, and some lime juice. Stir in the tomato puree and allow the mix to simmer on low heat. Season with salt and pepper(I like my pasta spicy ,so added extra pepper).
 Cook the spaghetti  in some boiling water according to the instructions. Toss the pasta with the sauce made, and add the chopped parsley.

 For the sautéed spinach, heat  some butter in a pan ,add a clove of garlic, and then the pasta, sauté it for 2-3 mins till the spinach is just cooked. Season with some salt and pepper.
 Plate the pasta and sprinkle some parmesan cheese.Enjoy!

Orange Panacotta

 When  time is a critical parameter Panacotta is definitely a saviour.

 With little ingredients and  minimalistic cooking time,pana cotta is an all time delight!

 15oml double cream

 300 ml Whole milk

 2 gelatine leaves

 1 vanilla pod

 75 gms sugar

 2 Large oranges-zest and juice

 

 For the Orange Reduction

 Juice of two oranges

 2 cloves

 A bit of cinnamon

 2 tbs of sugar

 Separate the zest of two oranges and pop them into the oven until it becomes dry. Make they don’t get  burned.

I left it in the oven for 10 min at 200deg cel.

 Soak the two gelatine leaves in some cold water ,until the leaves become soft.

 In a pan, heat the double cream along with sugar and the zest of orange and the vanilla pod split length wise. Stir the mixture continuously on low flame.

 Add  milk to this mixture ,stirring continuously. Care should be taken to ensure that the milk doesn’t boil.The milk should be just warm.If it tends to become too hot make sure remove it  from the flame and put it back once it cools down.
Squeeze out excess water from the  soaked gelatine leaves and add it to the milk ,stirring continuously till the gelatine is completely dissolved.

 Pour the mix into ramekins/bowls  and put it in the fridge for 2 hours.

For the orange reduction, pour the juice into a pan  along with some sugar.

Add the cloves and cinnamon, and simmer the liquid on the flame until  its reduced to a fine syrup.

The pana cotta should ideally wobble when you take it out of the fridge,put the bowl upside down on the plate and serve it with the orange reduction and some berries if available.

 Enjoy!!!
 

Single Love!!

 

I am a weeper. A romantic excuse of a person, waiting for the first chance to be whisked away into a land of love for the corny. Yet, corny doesn’t quite sum it up. I am a believer of the most-Shakespearean avatar of love. I have met people who have loved and lost and loved again, cheated and even eloped in love; without failing to notice that there is one single thread that lies through all their stories;  all their love has given them a reason to live, and to keep living, whether in sickness or in health, trauma or in harmony. The manifestation of this kind of love is all over the place. Right from Tristan and Isolde, to Romeo and Juliet, to my neighbor next door, stories of adventure, loss and people going the extra mile have constantly overwhelmed me, whether in fact, or in fiction. Experience has made me a believer, and I have grown to understand the lengths and depths that people dare to wander to satisfy this justification for a purpose. 

Okay, so today is one of those cry till I dry days. I admit it. The philosophy has been stated. The thought process triggered. Which brings me to think, How far would you go in the name of platonic love? The kind which may have the label of a friend, a teacher, or a relative, the kind that you love but still don’t answer calls from, the kind that you take for granted. Where you would’ve sacrificed your life for your ‘lover’, you’d think before giving t up for this old buddy wouldn’t you. Well, welcome to my world, for today, as of now, it’s the only kind of love I know. Would I go the extra mile? Should I?

Well I’m not gonna answer. But I can muster a comment, a rather elaborate one now that I come to think of it. Last weekend, my friend from school had come down for his yearly visit to his hometown, from the other part of the globe. He called me over as he was short on time to come visit. Tickets were on a low, but I was free so I thought what the hell and packed my backpack away. 

What met me on the other side of my twelve hour journey was 2 hour chit-chat at a regular coffee shop. Predictably, nothing had changed since the last time we met. It reminded me of how wrong it is to put a worth-it tag on any place or friend visited, new or old. Meetings like these help you stay rooted, grounded, reminding you of how now is good and how some things never change. We spoke a lot, of  crap at his end and mine, of break-ups and make-ups, of legal stuff and of the not-so-legal stuff. By the end of two hours we had resorted to name calling and gossiping. We fought in between, giggled like teenagers, and even laughed our eyes dry as I ran into a stranger’s car under the assumption that it was his. The evening was the best that I had had in a long time. And as for the coffee we drank. Disgusting.

To contemplate on platonic love any further? Why bother?

 Let me have this moment.

 Peace.

Image credit:http://fourwallsonly.com/photography-love-music/photography-love-music/