Questions for the Resident Chef (Ahem, me)

Refinery29 is one of the sites on my oft-visited list. It is a fashion/lifestyle website that features trends, street style, interviews, beauty DIY tutorials, nifty recipes… all that is hip and happening. It so happened that I was trawling the website last night and I chanced on a slideshow featuring an interview of six top chefs from San Francisco. The questions looked interesting and I thought – hey, I am the chef in my home AND I would like to answer these questions too! So here we go. Aparna, Parita, Ganga, Tea – consider yourself tagged!

What are the three fave things in your fridge right now?
Freshly ground almond butter (from Harry’s Farmers Market), Earth Balance soy-free spread, Mom’s Chai Masala.

What’s the one thing you always have on hand?
Fresh ginger, it goes into almost everything I cook.

What’s one thing you’d never have?
Soda/pop. Been years since I have had an aerated drink.

If you had an unlimited supply of anything, what would that be?
Organic dried fruit and nuts! For a long while now, they have been serving as breakfast. I soak a couple of dried dates, apricots, figs and 10-12 almonds and some walnuts overnight in water. Drain the water in the morning, peel the almonds, eat.

What’s your go-to market and what do you get there?
I adore Sandy Springs Farmers Market but they are only open 7-8 months in the year. The other times, I make a round of Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Dekalb Farmers Market and my local Indian store. I enjoy shopping for groceries, I totally do.

What ingredient are you currently loving?
Can I mention a couple? Jowar and Bajri flour. Both are forms of millet flour, available at the Indian store, inexpensive, gluten-free and healthy. Plus you can cook up a host of healthy goodies with them!

What’s your favorite thing to whip up at home?
Cashew Sesame Spice curry. I make it with all manner of root/hardy vegetables namely beets, sweet potatoes, cauliflower, carrots, radish, etc. The original recipe uses peanuts but I prefer cashews or almonds. An easy recipe that tastes better with time, this one is a keeper.

Roasted Spice Mix

Any songs you like cooking to?
Indian classical (Pt. Bhimsen Joshi’s melodies are often heard in the kitchen), South Indian film music, Indian-Western classical music fusion.

What are the best items to have on hand for a quick and easy dinner?
Rice noodles, toasted sesame oil, carrots, Bragg’s liquid aminos, zucchini, tofu… Noodle Soup!

Rice Noodle Soup with Vegetables and Tofu

What are your favorite kind of leftovers?
Cashew Sesame Spice Curry, Chhole, Biryani, Chili.

Fill in the blank: If I’m cooking to impress, I make….
Haven’t ever cooked to impress (who’d I impress, duh) but if I had to, I’d make Peppermint Olive Oil Brownies. Or Maria Speck‘s Date-Apricot-Anise Muffins.

What’s your condiment of choice?
So many… Toasted sesame oil, dried ginger, Garam Masala, etc.

What’s the strangest thing in your fridge at the moment?
Dry yeast. It is probably six years old. I got it for my mother-in-law who wanted to make jalebis. She made a batch but we didn’t use up the yeast entirely. So it remains in the fridge, to this day.

When a midnight snack attack strikes, what’s the plan?
Bajri Khakra, perhaps? Frankly, midnight is no time to eat anything, so I’d stave off the snack attack as best as I could.