Dinner with Friends

If someone asks me how I got about to cook, it was purely for the love of entertaining. I look forward to good company and it’s a delight to be able to counter it with some good food. Yes, good food, sometimes, is just a call away to neighborhood food establishment or a caterer, but the real joy of entertaining is in cooking a meal in your very own kitchen, bringing out the bottle of wine, laying out a delicious spread and making the most of the meal that follows, of course, amidst some excellent company.

Entertaining at home is a tradition which my forefathers kept burning. Complete aficionados of good living, games of bridge and fine whiskeys were a weekend factor for my grandfather and his father. The ladies of the house would ensure that the house-cooks learnt different delicacies (mostly Indian) and churn out lip-smacking dishes for the invitees or guests. Evenings of revelry and fancy sit-downs were a regular feature. My father continued this trend in a different way, we always had people over nearly every weekend, fine food was always on the agenda and I got around to being fascinated with this whole process since a very young age. A well stocked bar and my experiments in the kitchen were well appreciated in the Merchant Home and till date I strive to make it a little better than the previous one.

I usually do not follow cook books when I am experimenting or learning a new dish. I believe that every cook has his own style and it shows in his dishes regardless of who has written or read. No dish can be made the same way by two people even if it contains the same ingredients and if the same methods are incorporated. I usually rely on taste, (of course, basic knowledge of ingredients is a must), feel, look and a little research with the help of the chef in question or when I read about a new dish or method of cooking. Internationally, many magazines help a home based cooking enthusiast to be inspired and bring the latest cooking trends on the table. I was extremely excited to discover that BBC Good Food Magazine was launching in India on 21st October – a perfect day, as worldwide – it is renowned as Good Food Day.

I realize that Good Food Day falling on a Saturday as a pleasant coincidence was a perfect excuse to make some of my best dishes and of course try out something new. I took this as an opportunity to include some of my close friends who are ever ready to swing by home and indulge in the spread I had created. These people are in a league of their own leading interesting lives, love good food but find that they would rather leave the cooking part of it to me or the very many good food establishments in the city. I find it extremely fruitful to try out my kitchen shenanigans on them as that’s the real feedback I expect from friends who are brutally honest and have no hesitation in telling what is – as is.

So, I set about preparing a menu which revolved around the dish of the day. I had decided that I would bake simple Italian Herbed bread from scratch. I was all the more ecstatic as I would get the use the new state-of-the-art oven which I had just procured. Thus a start from Italian Herbed Bread as the first thing on the menu branched out to a full fledged Italian meal. I would let the pictures speak for themselves as I put up some food porn of sorts on the dishes I had made that day, some original some inspired.

No Italian meal (or should I say any meal nowadays) is be complete without excellent wine. Since the flavors I had selected for my meal were rich and strong a mild wine was out of question. I thought I would experiment with something a lot more local. We have some really good vineyards producing wine for the Indian palate and I had come across a relatively new vineyard called York Winery. I had my sights on the Chenin Blanc and the Rose which would go perfectly with my menu and I was not wrong. The Chenin Blanc was an excellent citrusy and dry finish to it, it had notes of tropical fruits and was perfect when chilled to a good 10C, the Rose on the other hand was my favourite as it contained the fruitiness of the most tantalizing fruits – strawberries and raspberries, a lovely finish characterizing the Zinfandel variety of grapes. This wine was served towards the end of our meal and carried on right till dessert. I think my next visit to Nasik would definitely include York Winery on my itinerary as also another meal with their reds which I believe include their Estate Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon and the Estate Reserve Shiraz.

Next time you think of having a get together just pick up a bottle of your favorite wine (or mine for the matter), bake the bread of which the recipe I have provided here and make any day a Good Food Day.

Herbed Garlic Italian Bread

Ingredients

• 3 Cups Plain Flour
• 2 tsp Dried Yeast (Fleischmann’s®)
• ¼ cup Olive Oil
• 5 cloves Garlic
• 2 tsp Fresh Thyme Leaves
• ½ tsp Pepper Powder
• Salt to taste
• 1 cup Water
• 2 tablsp Sugar

Drop a tablsp of Sugar in 1 cup of warm water and sprinkle dried yeast on it, stir softly till yeast has dissolved. Cover and keep aside, undisturbed for about 10 minutes or till the mixture has turned foamy.

Crush the garlic, balance 1 tablsp of sugar and thyme with a perforated pestle or muddler. You will get a nice coarse and slightly wet lump of herb mix.

Sieve the plain flour and keep aside 1 cup. In the balance 2 cups, add the olive oil, salt and the crushed herb mix, rub the mixture in to resemble bread crumbs and pour the foamy yeast onto the flour mix. Now with gentle hands, knead the dough lightly, working in the air as well as squishing the dough against the kneading bowl to release the gluten and incorporate the yeast. Bind well adding the balance 1 cup of flour at one minute intervals till you get a nice kneaded, springy ball of dough. Note: you might need to add about a few tablespoons of water towards the end to get slightly wet dough.

Toss some olive oil and wipe the bowl clean with the dough ball, cover with a muslin cloth and leave to rise in a warm corner of your kitchen. In about and hour you will see the dough has risen to double its size.

Punch the risen dough down with your fists. Divide the dough into 6 equal parts and shape into large cutlet sized shapes, ensuring no cracks remain on surface. Smear with some olive oil, place on your baking tray layered with a baking sheet or foil. Make same shaped dough cutlets and place them on baking tray leaving a bit of space between each. Leave uncovered in the warm area to rise and double up for another hour.

Preheat oven to 180C with the lower heating plate on.

Smear the tops of the dough lightly with melted butter (ideally with a brush), ensure you do not pierce or punch out the plump risen dough.

Place the baking tray on the middle level of your oven and bake for 15 minutes.

At about 12 minutes you may turn on the top heating plate to evenly brown the tops of the bread. Remove and let cool on a wire rack.

To serve: pop the bread for a couple of minutes in a warm pre-heated oven, the bread should get a little warm and then it’s ready to be sliced up.

Nonchalant Gourmand’s Tip: on the lower rack, place a small baking tray while preheating. When you pop in the bread on the middle rack, throw in a couple of ice cubes on the lower rack baking tray. Bake as usual to get lovely, soft and moist bread – the steam from the sizzling ice cubes adds to the final texture.

Savor with lashings of garlic butter or thin slices of cheese & a chilled Chenin Blanc.