Dry Rubbed, Honey Glazed, Slow Baked Chicken - A Thanksgiving Recipe

Most people cook a Turkey for Thanksgiving. But not everyone likes or eats turkey. So I made a dry rubbed, honey glazed, slow baked, chicken with crispy garlic bread and potato all in one dish.

Dry Rub Recipe - Make anytime and store
Ingredients
Salt - 1/3 cup
Jaggery - 4 - 1"x1/2"x1/2" pieces
Chilli powder - 7 tablespoons
Ground Pepper - 2 tablespoons
Allspice powder - 1 teaspoon
Garlic powder - 2 teaspoons
Ginger powder - 1 teaspoon
Cumin powder - 4 teaspoons
Onion powder - 2 tablespoons
Mustard powder - 2 teaspoons

Preparation
Mix and grind all dry rub ingredients into a coarse powder in a mortar or dry grinder. Store in a container until needed.


Marinading the Chicken - 12 hours
Keep the skin of the chicken intact and use a knife to separate the skin from the meat. Cut deep slits on the meat(not the skin). Sprinkle dry rub powder generously over the meat and massage into it the meat and slits. Rub the spice mix inside the chicken as well. Cover the meat by pulling the skin back over the meat. Sprinkle dry rub over the skin, as well. Place in a tray. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 12 hours.

Slow Baking the Chicken - 10 hours
Ingredients
Chicken, whole, with skin - 1
Bread - 8 slices
Potato, medium - 3 or 4
Fingerling potatoes(tiny) - 20
Garlic - 2 teaspoons
Onion powder - 1 tablespoons
Fresh Ground pepper - 3 teaspoons
Salt - 2 teaspoons
Chicken Stock - 1 cup
Lemon Juice - 1 tablespoon
Honey - 3 tablespoons
Vegetable Oil - 1 tablespoon

Preparation - 10 minutes
In a bowl mix garlic, onion powder, pepper, salt.
In a ceramic or glass baking tray, rub vegetable oil on the bottom. Layer with quarter inch slices of potatoes. Sprinkle the garlic/onion spice mix from the bowl over the sliced potatoes. Layer the sliced bread. Sprinkle some more of the garlic/onion spice mix from the bowl on top of the bread. Place the marinated chicken on top of the bread. Put the fingerling potatoes into the bowl, close and shake. Drizzle the vegetable oil into the bowl. Close and shake to coat evenly. Spread the fingerling potatoes around the chicken and put a couple inside it as well. Drizzle the liquid remaining in the bowl over the bread and potatoes.
Cover lightly with aluminium wrapper and a put a few knife slits into the wrapper.

Baking - 10 hours
Bake on the middle rack(not too close to the heat) at 200 degrees for 10 hours.  Increase temperature to 220 degrees for the last 2 hour and remove the foil. Mix the honey and lemon juice in a bowl and keep brushing the whole chicken every 1/2 hour. Add the chicken stock little by little into the sliced potatoes/bread to prevent them from drying too early.
When done at the end of 10 hours, the chicken skin, sliced potatoes, and bread should all be browned and crispy. The bread should not bet wet.

Serving
Let the bird rest for 10 minutes before carving. Serve a slice of the crusted potatoes and bread along with the fingerlings. Goes well with a bottle of medium bodied red wine.

Can be done with leg quarter of chicken as well for a smaller gathering.

Bongoo - My first rap song

He's a tease, my cheese,
My breath, my breeze,
The bee's knees, I love to squeeze,
My life's lease, across the 7 seas,
A hug, a kiss, and my spirit free's

He giggles, he squiggles,
When I hold him, he wiggles, he wriggles
Garbage cart, garbage cart, he niggles,
One gummy bear, no two, he tries and higgles,
What is this, what is that, everyday gets smarter, and riddles.

He's my workout, my mahout,
With whom I play out, till its lights out,
The reason, I don't washout, punch out, or feel like a copout,
The one I go to, when I burnout,
No doubt, the one I can't do without.

Every day I wandered, I sat on an pondered,
The meaning of life? I wept and wondered,
Searched far and wide and beyond the yonder,
Everyday and every night, I grow fonder,
I can tell you for sure, nothing in life grander.

Fly back, on a whim,  from Timbuktu,
Coz, I'll miss the way, he goes, Peekaboo,
Its black magic, its kung fu, no, jijutsu,
A smile, your defenseless, he subdues you,
My daily rendezvous with, the chatty, the naughty, the sidu bongoo.

In search of a meaning for the words "I Love You"

Why do you feel all warm and fuzzy when a 2 year old says "I Vuv You". Incase you did'nt already get it, thats baby talk for "I Love You"

People say "I Love You" all the time.  Do they really mean "I love the way I feel when I am around you"?

A mother says "I Love You" to her kids. A child says "I Love You"  to the father. Friends, cousins, soul mates and lovers say it to each other. Ironically, so do stalkers, desperados and the crazies who won't let go.

But what do they really mean.  What do you really mean when you say "I love you" to someone and why do you say it. Why does it evoke such craving for more. Why do some even go nuts in its pursuit.

For, such a meaning must convey such varied emotions, apply to all ages, a range of relationships and be applicable to states of mind as different as day and night.

The search for a universal meaning for those 3 words together eluded me for while.

The definition of the word 'love', according to the dictionary, an intense feeling of deep affection, a person or thing that one loves, to feel a deep romantic sexual attachment. But none of it explained all.

And then I pondered the why and the how I feel when I say that to someone or when someone else says that to me. Why do people crave it. Even get obsessed and addicted to it. It made more sense.

It seems to make sense for all the times and places when people say those words. People want to feel good about themselves, have a good self image. And if people feel that way when they are with someone, it only makes sense that they want more of that feeling.

So now I think, when someone says those three words "I Love You", what they are really saying is "I love how I feel when I am with you".

Quite a few people pointed out or argued that this was a very selfish perspective. And that love is selfless, giving, unquestioning and boundless in nature and more.

I just wanted to clarify that I don't disagree with these characterizations of what love is and what it is capable of.  I have no doubt they are all these and possibly more. When you wonder about something like love, the answer you get also depends on the question you ask.  I was merely trying to ask the why?

Like a child, I kept asking myself, why? why? why? at every answer or reason I came up with, and this process kept returning to the self, the how or why the self felt the way it did.  Returning to ones own heart.

This may sound clinical and unromantic at first, to look at it from this perspective. It doesn't change the fact that the person that is the object of one's affection is the one that makes you feel and want to be a better person, a better mother, a father or a friend. It doesn't take away from it the fact, there are some innate or hard earned qualities about that person that makes you feel that way. That the way you feel may even be the emotional price you pay for those qualities.

But its undeniable that the why, eventually kept me coming back to one conclusion. That when we say "I love you" one really means "I love who I am and how I feel when I am around you"

Tandoori Chicken Sandwich with Grilled Onions, Chipotle Chilli and Avacoda

Ingredients

• Sliced White Sandwich Bread
• Leftover Tandoori Chicken (Refer to Tandoori Chicken Recipe)
• 1 Chipotle Chilli
• 1 large red onion
• 1 avacado
• 1 Tomato
• A few Olives or Tepanade
• 1/2 teaspoon chilli flakes
• Dijon Mustard
• Mayonaise
• Pesto Sauce
• Chipotle Cheddar slices

Steps

1. Shred the left over Tandoori Chicken into small pieces
2. Slice the red onions and Chipotle Chilli into thin long slices and saute in olive oil for 4-5 minutes until the onions translucent and chilli slices are soft. Keep aside
3. Spread Dijon mustard whipped with chilli flakes on half the bread slices
4. Spread Pesto Sauce on the other bread slices.
5. Squirt a couple of strips of mayonaise on all the slices
6. Layer the shreded chicken, sauted onions/chilli, a couple of thin slices of tomato, a couple of sliced olives or tepanade, a couple of thin slices of avocado, and top it with just a few bits of the chipotle Cheddar slices
7. Close the sandwich the remaining bread slices and grill in a sandwich maker. If you don't have one you can grill it on a pan sprayed  with olive oil and placing a HOT and heavy cast iron pan on top of the sandwich  until both sides get toasted.
8. Slice and serve

Fried CatFish on bed of Cabbage, seasoned with Coconut and Poppy seeds

Ingredients

• 2 teaspoons of Poppy Seeds
• 2 teaspoons of Fennel
• 2 teaspoons of Jeera
• 1 1/2 tablespoon of Pepper corns
• 10 Curry leaves
• 1/3 can of coconut milk
• 1/3 can of water
• 1 medium sized Onion, chopped
• 1 teaspoon of Garlic Paste
• 2 medium sized tomatoes, chopped
• 6 pieces of Cat fish, each about 2 inch squares
• 1 quarter of medium sized Cabbage, chopped fine

Steps

1. Grind the Poppy seeds, Pepper Corns, Jeera and Fennel seeds in dry grinder
2. Heat the oil in a Tawa
3. Put the Curry leaves in the hot oil for 30 seconds
4. Add the ground powder from step 1 and fry for another minutes
5. Add garlic and fry
6. Add chopped onions an fry till the onions turn brown
7. Add the tomatos and fry till the tomatos well
8. Add coconut milk and equal amount of water and cook till the added water is gone
9. Remove some of the sauce into a bowl, enough to batter the pieces of fish with
10. Reduce the the gravy a bit further into a thick sauce
11. Add the finely chopped cabbage and fry for 1 minute
12. Take of the heat and transfer into a square serving plate
13. Batter the pieces of fish in the gravy saved for battering in step 9
14. Shallow fry in hot vegetable oil about 3 minutes each side
15. Lay the fried fish on on the bed of cooked Cabbage  

Poached Cat Fish in a Coconut Poppy seed gravy

Ingredients

• 6 pieces of Cat fish, each about 2 inch squares
• 2 teaspoons of Poppy Seeds
• 2 teaspoons of Fennel
• 2 teaspoons of Jeera
• 1 1/2 tablespoon of Pepper corns
• 10 Curry leaves
• 1/3 can of coconut milk
• 1/3 can of water
• 1 medium sized Onion, chopped
• 1 teaspoon of Garlic Paste
• 2 medium sized tomatoes, chopped

Steps

1. Grind the Poppy seeds, Pepper Corns, Jeera and Fennel seeds in dry grinder
2. Heat the oil in a Tawa
3. Put the Curry leaves in the hot oil for 30 seconds
4. Add the ground powder from step 1 and fry for another minutes
5. Add garlic and fry
6. Add chopped onions an fry till the onions turn brown
7. Add the tomatos and fry till the tomatos well
8. Add coconut milk and equal amount of water and cook till the added water is gone
9. Lay the pieces of Cat fish in the gravy, scoop an dour some of the gravy on top of the pieces of fish. After a couple of minutes and turn the fishes and cook for another couple of minutes
10. Get of the heat and transfer to a serving bowl

Persian Saffron Rice - A 24 hour process

Ingredients

• 1 cup Basmati rice
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• pleanty of salt
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
• 3-4 pieces of saffron
• potato or uncooked chapathi or cooked naan, or yogurt  for "taadig"

Steps

1. Wash the Basmati Rice 5-6 times in water until the run off is clear
2. Soak the rice in salted water for a whole day, about 22 hours. The water must be very salty. Say like tablespoon on salt for every 2 cups of water that you use for soaking.
3. Drain the water out of the soaking rice
4. Bring to boil the drained salty water and add extra water to make sure there 3 cups of water boiling for every cup of rice
5. Add the rice to boiling water and cook for 10-15 minutes(depending on the rice) until the rice is cooked but not mushy. The rice should still have a bit of bite to it and not fully cooked.
6. When done dump the rice into a strainer to strain out the water.
7. Take 2 spoons of the boiling water and mix well with the sugar and saffron and keep aside
8. In a non-stick cooking pot, heat on high and drop the butter and the oil. 
9. When hot add 1/2 cup of water and stir well till the oil and water mix
10. Then poor the liquid out to a bowl, leaving a little bit of it in the bot
11. Layer the bottom of the pot with items for taadig. i.e. slices of potato, uncooked chapathi or a couple of spoons of yogurt mixed with couple of spoons of rice.
12. Then put the rice back into the pot on top of the taadig layer in a mound. 
13. Put some vertical holes into the mound for the rice to breath
14. Pour the water/oil mixture around the rice
15. Pour the saffron water on the rice.
16. Cover the pot with lid wrapped with towel
17. Turn the heat on Medium-High for 5 minutes
18. Then to Medium-Low and cook for 1 hour
19. Remove from heat and immediately immerse the pot in cold water to stop the cooking
20. Scoop out the rice in the bowl
21. Then cover the pot with a plate and invert pot to get the taadig out of the pot
22. "Taadig" is the crusted layer at the bottom and is considered a delicacy by itself