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Puri with vodka-pani!
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A desi version of Bloody Mary and a game that takes your guests to a new high... Food diva Karen Anand served up some really exotic recipes
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Gareema took the class through mixing, blending, and shaking. -- Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy
TUTORING ANYONE on hitting a high is an insult, almost as close to teaching someone how to talk. Both come naturally these days, don't they? The gift of the gab and glass. But sharing doesn't hurt, huh? And when it comes to splitting with secret recipes, overlook the insult bit of it!
Bid Bloody Mary goodbye after a night of hic hic hooray. 'Coz desi uttara, Tamarind Mary, has made a red-carpet entry. Whipping up a recipe that's an uttara (hangover cure) is not so sinful. Especially when, on the bleary morning after, you can't read the word Tabasco or spell Worcestershire on the Bloody Mary recipe you downloaded.
Food diva Karen Anand, at her cocktails and mocktails class in the city recently, parted with her Tamarind Mary recipe. So get in to your kitchen and try this out:
Blend a litre of tomato juice with 150 ml. of tamarind juice, a lime wedge, ice, roasted jeera powder, and a quarter bottle of flavoured vodka (bung in three to four green chillies into a bottle of vodka and leave for a month).
Or else, just cut two green chillies lengthwise and drop them in the glass after you've poured out the blended mix. Serve it in a salt-rimmed cocktail glass.
Refreshing taste
Karen Anand -- Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy
Aaah! Souls soothed by the heavenly refreshing taste, the odd pack of "learners" (read alcohol enthusiasts), sat with a gimme-more gaze. As the glasses moved around across the seven tables for the tasting at the Jolly Nabob's, the wish to share a drink began to shrink. So did a bit of the sensibilities.
Every time bargirl Gareema or Karen sounded light-headed, voices piped up: "Is it all that liquor?" The audience comprised a group of friends from an MNC, young dudes, wannabe bartenders, people on Karen's mailing list, homemakers, home entertainers, and avowed liquor lovers.
They were all game to learn making exotic Flambé Café Serpentina ("Yes, yes, make us some more."), Spiced Banana Daiquiri ("Isn't that a bit too much like slush?"), Lemon and Kiwi Pie ("Oh no, don't teach us anything that doesn't have liquor and,) "eeks, it reeks of a health drink." Virgin Colada ("What's the fun of a colada if it's virgin?"), Caipirinha ("What was that again?"), Peru Pyala ("Desi but hmm... " A sip later, "Actually yum!") Filthy Martini ("Finally, we're getting there!").
One real enthu lady at the first table picked a call on the cell to say she was in an "important meeting" and put it down to catch up on the recipes.
Jello and gusto
So when Gareema suggested a game to go with the booze and demonstrated her nifty moves on the Jello, there was much gusto in the room. Gareema, who's shaken, stirred, slung, experimented, and layered drinks over the last 12 years at Delhi's Taj hotels, TGIF, Geoffrey's and Imperial, is quite comfy behind the bar. (She's also done the bar menu at Geoffrey's here.) Of course, it's a different matter that the game was not played because the jelly decided not to set.
Here's how you con your friends into taking their high a little higher at your wild party with a little game. If they're still not too drunk, they might be quite adept at knocking back a few Jello Shots, or breaking your new shot glasses, or simply end up with lots of squashed jelly on their party dress!
But gear up for this a little earlier. Open a pack of any flavoured jelly into a bowl and pour a cup of boiling water into it. Stir to dissolve and let it cool to room temperature. Now add a cup of vodka, gin or tequila (ahem! not all three) and stir well. Pour it into little moulds or a pan and freeze till medium firm. Serve it in shot glasses.
Get your pals to tie their hands behind their back and then pick the shot glass with their mouth and knock back the jello-shot. No chewing the gooey jelly. Just slam dunk!
Spike the evening
A simple way to spike the evening, says Gareema, is trying out her Vodka Pani Puri (Soak amchur and tamarind separately in a little water for an hour and sieve pulp. Wash mint leaves and coarsely grind. Blend with cumin, shahi jeera, cloves, ginger, green chillies, black salt, black pepper powder in cold water. Add salt, ice, vodka and refrigerate. Make a small hole in the puri, dip it in the pani.)
It was actually the starter for the evening, which set our throats on fire. "Fill a bowl full of the pani and pile up a mound of puris for your guests to dip and eat from. They won't know what hit them," was Gareema's tantalising suggestion.
Karen, who was in the city for a demonstration of Italian cuisine sponsored by Veneta Cucine, and Gareema, partner at Bacchus, took the class through much mixing, blending, shaking, noisy ice-crushing, talking and cheering and, of course, yummy tasting! The audience too was just right. Some wanted to know where they could get fruit liqueurs real cheap ("Goa," responded Karen instantly), others wanted to bestow on class their opinion that feni stinks.
Tips on caramelising sugar, making large quantities of sugar syrup without boiling, on how to rim glasses and not break them, how to flame alcohol and sweet lime spirals wound up the class that was beginning to feel the effect of the more than bellyful of liquor that had been downed.
BHUMIKA K.
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