Skin aid kit for beginners

I am not a frequent flyer and I have had precisely two long haul flights. And by long haul I mean really long ones, where you need to have stopovers and cross an ocean before reaching your destination. For the first trip, I didn't have any in flight skin care kit. I was travelling with my cousin and both of us had stuffed our face with chicken rolls before boarding the flight. Once aboard we consumed copious amount of complimentary wine and had middle of the night meeting in front of the toilet with my mom and aunt where we proceeded to make fun of my father who was sleeping with his mouth open. Suffice to say, by the time I reached Down Under, my face had a distinctly puffed look. In my defence, this was a pre youtube era where a long haul skincare vid wasn't de rigour.

My next long haul flight was a totally different ballgame. For starters, I had an extremely painful and angry cyst on my cheek which no amount of concealers could cover. I was also travelling in the peak of winter, from a sub zero temperature to a certainly plus degree one in Miami. And so when push came to shove, a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do. I plugged into the staples, Caroline Hirons, Makeupalley and Ruth Crilly and made my own skin aid kit. The list is as follows:

Emma Hardie Moringa Cleansing Balm decanted into tub with spatula. Hot towel would be kindly provided by the airlines (not ideal, but I refuse to carry a dirty wet towel in my bag). La Roche Posay glycerin based toner, decanted into stopper. My most effective under eye gel by Ole Henriksen, a glycolic based treatment in a travel friendly tube. Indeed Labs Hydraluron, a hyaluronic based serum for maximum moisture retention followed by a travel sized cream (I used the Alpha-H hydrating cream). And finally a bit of Elizabeth Arden eight hour cream for lips, elbows and cuticles. All popped into a clear zip bag to prevent the grope in the bag syndrome. 

And yes, I was a good girl on the flight. No wine, I compensated by having two ice lollies while watching Pitch Perfect, and no my husband wasn't interested in the nail art of the 65 year old twins who were sitting on the aisle seats. Men just don't get it, do they? 

Where to eat - Burger & Lobster London

Going by the number of tweets and instagrams, I can safely say that Burger and Lobster has become a London institution. Concept wise its pretty neat, serve only burgers and lobsters with chips and garlic butter sauce, add a good mix of cocktails/beers/wine, and you will be guaranteed to never find an empty seat in the restaurant. Everything is for £20 (with sides) so price wise its a bargain in London. They don't take table reservation unless its a party of 6 or more so the wait line is huge. My suggestion is that you pop in before the rush hour, around 5-5.30ish in the evening, grab a drink and enjoy your meal in peace. Location wise, B&L have four branches, Soho, Mayfair, Farringdon and the City. I went to the Soho one and here's what I ordered.

I went for the Lobster instead of the burger and it came with chips, salad and garlic butter sauce. You need to get a bit grubby with your hands while eating this so don't be shy. I had a trendy Topshopy set on one side and a YSL and Chanel flag bearer on the other, and trust me, they were all getting down and dirty with their meal. So bib on and attack. 

Just a word of warning, this is not a place for vegetarians unless you are happy with chips and salads. Another thing I really liked about this place was that they never hurried us, even when there was a huge waiting line outside. Burger & Lobster is a lively place where you can catch up with friends or just unwind after a long London day. If you are visiting London or planning to, pop in for a meal. You won't be disappointed.   

Traditional cooking: sambhar

One of my favourite dishes to cook is the Sambhar which is a south Indian lentil dish. I make this on days when I want to have something tangy and comforting while vegetating in front of the telly. This is a pass it down recipe from my mother which I have simplified to a great extent. I am dividing the ingredients into two To make this dish you need:

Basics
Toor or Arhar dal (available in all supermarket stores)
Vegetables of your choice
Cooking oil

Spices/eastern goodies
Asafoetida
Coriander seeds (whole)
Dry chillies (whole)
Fenugreek seeds (whole)
Curry leaves (you can get fresh leaves at most indian stores. In a crux you can use the dried leaves)
Tamarind (I soak just a bit more than a quarter of tamarind in 1/2 cup of water for about 20 minutes. I take out the seeds before using it. If you want to be more fancy then you can strain the liquid and get rid of all the roughage.)

For starters I soak a cup of Toor Dal for a good 2 hours, this softens the lentils and washes away artificial colouring and other impurities. I then wash it once and bung the lot into a pressure cooker. Its of course a known fact that every Indian owns a pressure cooker. Mine is on its last leg, but there's no denying the fact that it halves the cooking time for most Indian dishes. If you don't own a pressure, then just use your normal pan. Now then, back to the recipe. For every cup of dal, I add about 21/2 cups of veggies. You can use whatever vegetables you want, but if you want a bit of exotic going on then I would recommends adding okra (found in larger Tescos/ indian stores), and drumstick (found only in Indian stores).

My favourite vegetable combo for this dish are tomatoes, aubergines, okra, drumstick, onions and carrots. I roughly chop the veggies, add it to the cooker along with 2 cups of water, put the lid on and two whistles later your dal is done.

Now comes the fun part. In a hot pan, roast the coriander seeds, fenugreek seeds and dry chillies for about a minute. Alternatively, you can use the microwave for this. Just be careful with the time otherwise you will end up with burnt instead of aromatic spices. I roughly grind the roasted spices in a mortar and pestle (you can use a dry grinder) and put aside for later. In the same pan, I add about a tablespoon of cooking oil and when the oil heats up I add half a teaspoon of Asafoetida. The Asafoetida does a fizzing thing, don't be alarmed by it, its supposed to happen. I add a generous handful of curry leaves, 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder for colour and sometimes a few fresh chillies to make it extra hot.

I then carefully pour the tarka onto the cooked dal and veggie mix, add the tamarind water (sans the seeds), the roasted spices and salt. Have a taste and if you are happy with it, then its good to go. Sometimes if I find it too tangy, I add a pinch of sugar just to balance it out. Before serving I garnish the dish with some more of my roasted spice mixture.

Best served with a bowl of rice or if are a whiz, then dosa. Happy eating.

Say hello to Lilliy

The next morning we set out to a nearby farm to meet the newest member of our family. Much as we love and play with our baby boy, it was quite clear to us that Captain wanted some canine company. So as good parents, we went to get him one. After months of searching, we had finally come upon a litter of Westie pups in Scotland. Although Westies are common souvenirs in Scotland, its quite difficult to find them in locally. Most of the breeders are located in England so we were very happy when we found a KC registered breeder nearby. It was hard choosing a pup, but finally we did. Welcome to the family Lilly.

  

Quick weekend trip - Dunblane

Room with a view

A few weeks back we decided to cash in on their hotel points and take a trip down South to visit a very important potential family member. Our hotel of choice was the Hilton One tree Lodge in Dunblane. A far as views go, this one was a killer. Situated on a hilltop, this yellow stone building looked majestic. There was a wedding going on but we still found the service to be quite good. I am generally a bit iffy about pet friendly hotels because they have a very suspicious view about your pets. But this one was not so bad. there were enough grounds for Captain to stretch his legs. Of course there was one moment of fraught tension when my husband decided to use the front entrance instead of the rear with Captain in tow. The bride wearing a confection in white was guzzling away on champagne in a corner while a couple of kilted best men were blocking our way into the corridor. Captain tired of waiting decided to give a tiny piss of joy. It was pure reflex action on my part which saved the brides train from smelling of dog pee the whole night. Phew.

Blue for the boy

My baby is a well travelled pup and has a bit of a fetish for campy travelling bags. His tote of choice is the navy blue Panam bag, big enough for his toys, leashes, food bowls and meals; strong enough to withstand the rough and tumble of airport security.

Cuddle sesh with mommy

Captain approved bedding

If you have a pet with you the hotel always gives you rooms on the ground floor so that its easy to take your pets out for walks without disturbing the other guests. This is very effective if your dog has a leaky bladder but Captain takes after his mom. Both of us are not early morning risers and we take solid food only after 10 o'clock in the morning. I mean in a pinch we can be up at crack of dawn, but its not worth doing it unless you need to catch a train/plane right. After exploring the hotel grounds, our family of three settled down for some room service and TV watching. We caught up with The Big Bang and a late night movie, Tokyo Drift to be exact. Was it only me or were there others who grooved to the annoying TD soundtrack in clubs a couple of years back?

Yup, the kids a couch potato all right

Room service was very good, and along with a very tasty burger and choice of glossies, you also get warm chocolate cookies when you check in. Perfect for a night in.

The hotel also has a very good spa and a swimming pool if you feel like taking a quick dip. Other amenities include breakfast buffet (okaish, for me nothing beats the American breakfast buffet in Hilton Orlando), bar and a cozy siting area out front, a hybrid of Scottish/country. Very comfortable though with an amazing view down the grounds. All in all, very enjoyable.

Traditional cooking-Iilsh maasor jhol

I was talking to one of my very dear friend Richa today. Now Richa and I have been friends for about 10 years now and its one of those friendships that you know will see you through this lifetime. So anyways, while I was talking to her I mentioned that nowadays I am quite a decent cook. And that I can cook fish. Coming from me that is a big deal. When Richa and I lived together, we were know for our lack of cooking skills. To be fair, Richa was worse than me. Her only job was to wash and cut the coriander for the salads. And she took her own sweet time doing it. Most of the cooking was done by Izeule (my other flatmate) a formidable one woman cooking-cleaning machine. So its been ten years, but I have finally managed to get down and dirty with my pots and pans in the kitchen.

My most recent culinary dish was to try one of my grandmother's fish recipe, Ilish maasor jhol. My granny is a legendary cook in her part of the world so after a lot of copious note taking over the phone, I recreated the dish and presentation aside, I nailed it. Part of it was due to the fish itself and mustard and Ilish is a heavenly combo like roast and potatoes, lamb and mint, scones and cream, oh I could go on. I find the ilish very like the Salmon, as in they are both anadromous species (born in fresh water, migrates to the sea and returns to fresh waters for spawning). They are both very popular food choices and they are both very tasty. The only difference is that the Ilish is full of tiny bones, so you need to be careful while enjoying it. In the UK you can get frozen Ilish in any decent Bangladeshi food store. I get mine sliced and diced at the store and put the slices in cold water to thaw before the hubby can get to cleaning the gut. And no, I haven't got down to cleaning the fish. its early days yet for this cook.

Before making the jhol, you need to fry the fish. At least that is how we do it in Assam. So once the fish is cooked and cleaned, I mix it in with some turmeric and salt (about a teaspoon each). I put about 2 tablespoon of good quality mustard oil, not the refine/mustard mix which is sold as pure mustard oil in Tesco. Wait till the oil is very hot before adding the fish, otherwise it will break or absorb too much oil.

I fry about 4 to 5 pieces at a time, so it all depends on the size of your pan really. About 2 minutes on both sides makes the fish nice and golden. The trick to frying fish is to do it with your sunnies on and a bottle of Sudocream at hand because chances are that you will get hit with hot oil. I look something like this when I fry these bad boys.

Now for the jhol, I make a yellow mustard seed paste. I soak 3-4 teaspoons of yellow mustard seeds in water for about 20 minutes. I make a rough paste of this on my mortar and pestle. You can also do it in a blender, grinder what have you.

In the oil left in pan (after frying the fish), I add two finely sliced onions, some dry chillis and a teaspoon of dry chilli powder for extra zing. I fry this till the onions soften and then add the mustard paste to the mix. I continue frying and add a little water so that the mixture doesn't get burned. After about ten minutes of frying, the onions and the mustard would emulsify into a golden-red paste (this would take about 7-9 minutes of frying).

I then add a cup of water (about 250 ml) and put the fish back in to the pan. Lower the heat and put the lid on for the fish to cook. The fish gets cooked in about 10 minutes. I then season it as per taste and because I have a heat index of 9/10, I garnish the dish with fresh red chillies and raw mustard oil before serving.

Serving suggestion: Works best with chilled Desperadoes and cooked basmati rice. And yes no forks, unless you want to choke to death on fish bones. Use your hands. Seriously.