Having lived in Chennai for the first 21 years of my life, I crave for food.. Spicy, tasty food. Then I came to USA and lived in places where Indian food was a rarity. Ofcourse, places like NYC, Silicon Valley (basically the places where there is a huge population of Indians who spend money without thinking) have extra-ordinary Indian hotels. But other places where Indians pinch their purses, not so many. There used to be a couple of Indian restaurants in the cities I lived but after a couple of visits, I realized that I cook better than them #facepalm.
Thus started my journey of cooking. I started making Gobi Manchurian (ofcourse, I needed the help of my friend for this particular dish), samosa, bonda, spring rolls and other food I always crave for at home and eat them as much as I can. Being from a family where these dishes were always bought from outside, this was a huge step for me. I was even so confident that I tried making Murukku (a south Indian delicacy) at home and terribly failed (used the dough to make teeny tiny Seedais though). After I started getting more and more confident, I tried my hand at baking by baking a Garlic Bread. Oh boy, was I mistaken. Having never used a convention oven before, my garlic bread burnt. I was lucky that I had removed the batteries from the smoke alarm before I opened the oven door.
Very soon, I moved to Silicon Valley, a place where you will feel as if you had gone back to India. You will get every single thing you need to eat, literally. From chaat to sweets to special delicacies, you could have it all. I am very fond of Chettinad and northern Kerala cuisine and I found Anjappar and Red Chillies. To feed my Chennai Vegetarian taste buds, I had Madras Cafe and I was in heaven. Whenever I wanted to eat something close to home, I can just go these restaurants and have my fill. I did not have to plan and cook. I was able to get everything I wanted and when I wanted.
But fate was not so kind on me. I had to move to a small town on the coast of Florida where Indians were sparse.. There were indeed a couple of Indian restaurants in town but eating there made a red light glow in our mouth as well as next morning.. I was back to cooking the things I loved. Suddenly a few weeks ago, I started craving for vegetable puffs. Finding a samosa at the Indian stores in my place is a rarity, where am I supposed to go for puffs? Had it been Silicon Valley, I would have gone to one of the Indian Groceries and could stuffed myself with puffs. But I am not there anymore. Hence started my quest to make Puffs.
Having been introduced to baking by my very close friend in Silicon Valley, I found the Puff Pastries in one of the local shops here (after roaming around for 2 hours though) started on the process at 11 PM on a Saturday. After making the filling with carrots, peas, onions, and most importantly potatoes, I started making them by trial and error method (I had thawed the pastries for too long and they were sticking to one another). So my first batch was okay. But the second batch came out excellent, having figured out how to do it in the first batch:
Even though it looks like it is less, I had made more than 60 puffs (way more than what I can eat). Solution..? I took it to work and made my co-workers eat it. They have already fell in love with the dish. In the same way, I made gulab jamuns last week and have made my colleagues fall in love with the beautiful sweet. Yea, cooking and baking these things require a lot of work. But when you see others eating what you cook, that is bliss. Hell yea, I can cook for that. Just to see the smile in their faces when they eat something different and love it.
Thus started my journey of cooking. I started making Gobi Manchurian (ofcourse, I needed the help of my friend for this particular dish), samosa, bonda, spring rolls and other food I always crave for at home and eat them as much as I can. Being from a family where these dishes were always bought from outside, this was a huge step for me. I was even so confident that I tried making Murukku (a south Indian delicacy) at home and terribly failed (used the dough to make teeny tiny Seedais though). After I started getting more and more confident, I tried my hand at baking by baking a Garlic Bread. Oh boy, was I mistaken. Having never used a convention oven before, my garlic bread burnt. I was lucky that I had removed the batteries from the smoke alarm before I opened the oven door.
Very soon, I moved to Silicon Valley, a place where you will feel as if you had gone back to India. You will get every single thing you need to eat, literally. From chaat to sweets to special delicacies, you could have it all. I am very fond of Chettinad and northern Kerala cuisine and I found Anjappar and Red Chillies. To feed my Chennai Vegetarian taste buds, I had Madras Cafe and I was in heaven. Whenever I wanted to eat something close to home, I can just go these restaurants and have my fill. I did not have to plan and cook. I was able to get everything I wanted and when I wanted.
But fate was not so kind on me. I had to move to a small town on the coast of Florida where Indians were sparse.. There were indeed a couple of Indian restaurants in town but eating there made a red light glow in our mouth as well as next morning.. I was back to cooking the things I loved. Suddenly a few weeks ago, I started craving for vegetable puffs. Finding a samosa at the Indian stores in my place is a rarity, where am I supposed to go for puffs? Had it been Silicon Valley, I would have gone to one of the Indian Groceries and could stuffed myself with puffs. But I am not there anymore. Hence started my quest to make Puffs.
Having been introduced to baking by my very close friend in Silicon Valley, I found the Puff Pastries in one of the local shops here (after roaming around for 2 hours though) started on the process at 11 PM on a Saturday. After making the filling with carrots, peas, onions, and most importantly potatoes, I started making them by trial and error method (I had thawed the pastries for too long and they were sticking to one another). So my first batch was okay. But the second batch came out excellent, having figured out how to do it in the first batch:
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