BACHELOR'S KITCHEN ( ASIAN AGE )

(1/11/09)GARLIC BREAD
We all love to hang out with our friends and enjoy our favourite food at favourite places. Some like to binge on popular McD' burgers, while few prefer Pizza Hut's delicacies. But well, let's accept it; you can't afford to enjoy such stuff on a daily basis, especially if you are a college fuchcha, and struggling to live on your own as a paying guest. But as they say, where there is a will, there is a way. I am a first year BA student in Delhi University who's new to Delhi and I have no qualms in admitting that I have a crazy fetish for garlic bread.
And so, with some innovative thoughts and a bit of help from my roommate, I have formulated a new recipe of my own, which tastes as good as the original garlic bread from any popular food joint. So far, I have given a taste "my kinda garlic bread" to some of my friends, and everyone just seems to love it. So whether you are one of those garlic bread lovers, or game for experimenting with anything new, here's the recipe of my `brand new' garlic bread.
GARLIC BREAD
INGREDIENTS 4 bread slices 100 gm butter Chopped garlic 2 tbsp oil Black pepper Salt, as per taste Mustard sauce
METHOD Chop full garlic and mix it with 100 grams of butter. Add some tomato ketchup to it and make a paste. Now add a dash of black pepper and salt (as per your taste). Now blend it all till it becomes a fine paste. Now comes the fun part as the next step might sound weird and messy, but you can easily get the trick if you practice it a few times.
So, now apply the paste evenly on the bread slices. You can even cut the bread into funny shapes if you want to add the zing factor. Heat some oil (preferably half a teaspoon) in a non-stick pan, and fry the slices you have prepared.
Now all you need to do is to serve it along with some mustard sauce, and here you are, ready to enjoy the taste of garlic bread, right at your home. And, if you notice this whole thing would not take more than fifteen minutes to prepare.
As told to Garima Shah
(11/10/09)TASTY PARATHAS IN A JIFFY-BACHELOR'S KITCHEN -Ms. Bisht

When you are working as a professional from a very early age, and spend two-third of your time in office, chances are that no matter how successful you are at your workplace, when it comes to the department of cooking, you are really miserable.
And this is what happened with me, a computer professional who's working right from the age of 19. Cooking was a nightmare, especially when I came back from office late in the evening. I used to feel pretty irritated at times to be so dependent when it came to food. So I decided to come up with something easy -- a meal which even a person like me could prepare, and that too without putting much effort.

I learnt this special recipe from my aunt, and the best part about these filling paranthas is that it uses only the leftover stuff from lunch and other meals, thus making it easier for you to prepare, and utilising the ingredients as well.

So if you too are not so good when it comes to cooking, have a look at my recipe and enjoy the sense of achievement of making a meal on your own.
INGREDIENTS Since this is a recipe prepared by making use of leftover stuff from lunch or breakfast, one can be innovative and add various things depending on their preference and options. But the overall basic ingredients are listed here.

1 cup cooked rice 1 bowl cooked dal (preferably mix) 1 chopped onion and tomato 3 green chillies (finely cut) Pickle masala, as per taste 2 cup wheat flour 2 tbsp oil METHOD Mix flour and cooked dal in one bowl properly. Now heat some oil in a nonstick pan, and then add chopped onion till it turns golden brown in colour.

Now add chopped tomato and chillies to pan, and when the whole mixture becomes a rich brown colour paste, add the rice and pickle masala to it and mix thoroughly. Keep it on simmer for around two minutes. Now keep the mixture aside to cool.

Meanwhile, start making small balls of the dough prepared initially, and put the tava on gas. Stuff the balls with the rice mixture prepared and make paranthas of it the usual way.

At the end, serve those yummy and filling paranthas with some chutney and pickle. (As told to Garima Shah)