Sometimes, Goddess Annapurna smiles on you in the most unexpected ways. Yesterday, I was looking for a quick-fix breakfast dish of eggs and bread (pao). French Toast (that divine marriage of egg and bread) has always occupied a special place in my foodie memory, and in the past I have tried (to not much success) to recreate supreme fluffiness in scrambled eggs by adding pieces of bread in the beaten eggs (theoretically, the bread should have fluffed up with egg...in reality, it became a soggy mess)
But yesterday, the Goddess bestowed her blessing, the idea bulb sparked on in my head and in 5 minutes flat, I had the delicious breakfast dish of my dreams- a fluffy pillowy omelette with crisp golden-brown edges.
Here's how you can make it:
Prep Time: 2 minutes Making Time: 2 minutes
Ingredients:
2 eggs
1 pao (day old, or better still, kept in the fridge so it goes all brittle)
2 small green chillies (adjust to taste)
Few leaves of pudina (mint)
Splash of milk (2 tablespoons, maybe?)
Salt
Oil (butter would be better)
Procedure:
Cut the pao into 1.5-inch cubes.
Lightly whip the eggs with salt, milk, chopped chilies and hand-torn pudina- no need to whisk a lot to get air into the mixture, just enough to mix it all up
Add the oil/butter to a small non-stick pan (7 inches diameter or so) and turn on the gas to low
Add half the bread cubes to the egg mix and turn them over so all sides absorb the egg. Since the bread is dry, this wont take more than 15-20 seconds
Place the bread cubes into the hot pan one by one (make a single layer)
Tumble in the rest of the bread cubes, stir well and empty the bowl into the pan (over the bread already there) and shake it around so that the bread cubes form a single layer and the liquid egg forms a base that binds all the bread together
Cook on low flame till it starts smelling divine and the omelette starts separating from the pan at the edges
Turn the flame to medium, drizzle some extra oil along the edges and let the omelette's edges crisp up
Slide a thin spatula under the fluffy omelette and flip it over
Turn off the gas and let the bottom side cook in the pan's heat
Eat within seconds of cooking for maximum eating pleasure! No ketchup needed.
So my dear dear friend, no, make that soul-sister, Som aka Somu aka V was in town and it was given that we would meet for an evening of food and talk. I always try and find places that will make our limited 'dates' memorable. So it was with surprise and consternation that I realised I had never taken her to Dome, the rooftop lounge at the Intercontinental at Marine Drive. It had to be remedied immediately! So our first stop was the Dome.
We reached at 5:30 pm and got our pick of tables on the terrace. Yay! We enjoyed the glorious sunset show- skies changing from gold to orange to pink to grey as the sun sank into the Arabian sea- over California Maki Rolls, Stir Fried Prawns and Spanish Meatballs. Food was okay-okay, pics were great and conversation was ace! :)
Stop 2: Kebab - E- Delhi, Fort
So while we were nibbling on the sushi, Somu expressed a desire to eat some chicken tikka at a no-frills place like Bade Miya. I whipped out my magic wand aka Zomato and figured that a joint called Kebab-E-Delhi was ranked higher than both Bade Miya and Ayub's AND was located an easy cab ride away in Fort. So we wrapped up our mehfil at Dome and found ourselves at KED. The stall looked like the steel kiosks that sell sugarcane juice (was probably refurbished from one), was well lit and ready to welcome us, the first customers for the evening. The owner of the stall, Mr Kundan Gawde was very forthcoming, taking us through how a chicken baida roti is made, how he came into this business, and how tying up with food delivery apps like Tiny Owl and Zomato helps his business. He gave up a steady job in shipping to start KED with a partner who was already established in the food business. But a couple of months ago, the partner bowed out to start a venture in apparel, and since then Kundan has been running the show. Its heartening to see small-scale entrepreneurs embracing ecommerce with such gusto!
Coming to the chicken, we had asked for Chicken Reshmi Tikka. A couple of minutes on the coal-fired grill and we were given 4 big chunks of juicy, gently spiced chicken with yummy charred edges. Served with green chutney, onion and tangy brown chutney, it was simple and tasty. :)
Stop 3: Country of Origin, Napeansea Road
So while planning this evening, I had asked for recos from friends at work. C-O-O aka Country Of Origin (pronounced as 'Coo' by the enthusiastic recommender) was one of the most enthusiastically recommended places, so Som and I took a cab to Napeansea Road for the sweet conclusion to our evening. COO is a brightly lit, surprisingly large shop that still manages to look cosy. Maybe its the vintage furniture strewn around, or maybe its just the LOADS of yummy desserts all beckoning seductively- cookies, brownies, cakes, eclairs, dessert shots, mousses, and the currently trending dessert jars. There is a dizzying variety of sweet treats, each with its country of origin mentioned alongside its label (get it?) Som and I were pretty stuffed by this time, so we split one dessert- the Chocolate Hazelnut Praline Mousse. Unfortunately COO is a take-away joint and does not offer seating space (despite the multiple vintage chairs and sofas all over the shop)....but the guy manning the counter told us that we could park ourselves on the bench in the tiny front yard of the shop, and even gave us glasses of water on request. Why not just turn the place into a sit-down dessert cafe, is the question I would dearly like to ask the owners!
Coming back to the mousse, it was silky smooth and dense and the hazelnuts strewn over the top were buttery and delicious. Som loved the dessert and while all elements were right, somehow I didn't LOVE it- it just didn't hit the spot. The soft-centred Belgian chocolate muffin (with surprise chunks of dark and white chocolate hidden inside) and lemon square (lemon tart filling baked on atop a crumb base instead of inside a tart shell) which I packed up to take home for les parents were more my kind of dessert! The muffin was softly indulgent while the lemon square had just the right balance of zingy lemony curd and buttery base. Droolicious!
Am planning a similar foodie crawl in Bandra-West for Somu before she flies back home to her nest in the US. Any recommendations? Please leave them as comments!
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