This is a continuation and a similar prose to my post- ‘Easter was not subtle- A ray of hope for foodies during LOCKDOWN’ on 10th may. I intend to extend more of the ray of hope to #LocalGuides through my EID venture.
What started out as a usual Sunday turned into wild-fire crazy-cooking in the kitchen. Also Eid was the perfect occasion to fix some delicious treats.
My wife and I had a few planned and unplanned courses. The planned courses obviously had their set path and pre-emptive strikes of preparations which were all set for action. CHICKEN Biriyani was one of them and was decided as the main course. We managed to borrow the AJWA-style recipe from online and threw in the delicious mixture alongside dates pickle, pappadam and salad. But since the evident menu isn’t such an eyebrow-raiser, I won’t go into the nitty-gritties of that.
Moving to some of the spontaneous tricks that we managed to piece together then and there. We went berserk and took hold of every spice, grocery and meat in the hidden corners of our pantry.
All the leftover veggies and meat were stuffed on top of the circular baked dough with a lot of cheese and a random sauce. Beef and chicken minces were strewed on top with more and more cheese. The mixture was then stuffed into the oven. After 20 minutes comes out a hot and steaming PIZZA.
A pack of Vermicelli in the cabinet was a payasam reservation for another day. But another day was too late for us… and with the hinting LIGHBULB blinking in our brains… we got off on an off-beat idea. We didn’t have the right kind of vermicelli, but decided to make do with what we have. The residual cheese from the pizza recipe was brought in. My wife sautéed the vermicelli in butter and layered those and cream cheese in a pan, baked for 20 minutes and… guess what?.. KUNAFA is served- a cherry-topping dessert on the auspice of Eid.
The show wasn’t over yet. We hunted for more leftovers. Bananas on the shelf fell in sight… and they would go bad the next day in any case. So we snatched the fruit, mashed it with some of that jaggery and ghee on the stove… and after 45 minute of fuss and uproar, BANANA HALWA was more than ripe for the picking.
It was too much to take in. Our table wasn’t big enough to accommodate the diverse dishes for our feast. So don’t be hesitant or surprised at the miracles you can work out with whatever groceries you’ve got in the kitchen wardrobes and refrigerator. Just get inventive.