Well, it has been quite sometime since I have written here. With the onset of quick-thought social media postings, the desire to long form anything for me has been restricted to my extensive print writings and published articles in various magazines and newspapers across the world.
You may wonder why I still continue to publish on my blog. A little reminder, I started writing here for several reasons beginning with my very first newspaper column refusing to publish my recipes (they wanted celebrity chefs and people who carried name and fame, well possibly still do) and I needed an outlet to write out my experiments and to share my flavors with the world. I have come a long way since 2006 and many other reasons taken into consideration. My desire to share a slice of my life with several learnings I had picked up in the many years in the business of food, beverages and hospitality entice me to my space now and again.
I felt like documenting something which has been playing on my mind since a long time. These are observations, learnings and catalysts which bring me to where I am today. Many decades from now, hopefully with this link still active I will be able to read or maybe have my next of kin go through my journey and take away something positive from it. It might help, entertain or even motivate (as does my cooking).
A recent event reached my ears a couple of days ago (all thanks to a former colleague who stays in touch once or twice a year – usually during prominent festivals and birthday). The owner of the company was arrested on cases of fraud, disbursements of company funds into offshore accounts, embezzlement – the usual rigmarole which comes with running a business while handling large amounts of money and basically cheating the hell out of every person involved internally or externally. The owner, who has a terribly close knit family and ones who are all borderline psychopaths, had their life turned completely upside down overnight due to an unexpected crackdown by local authorities. They were at a wedding in Chennai (formerly Madras) when this dramatic trail of events unfolded. From frozen assets which included no-access to their enormous mansions, the sealing of the companies (I wonder what the status of my former colleagues would be, I did not probe), to personal effects of the younger members – their careers in jeopardy, public shame within peers and one of the family members landing up in hospital due to a failed suicide attempt.
Looking back at all what had transpired with me and the reasons for my quitting summed up the various stages of being a dedicated employee who consistently asked for meager raises and bonuses and ones which came in piecemeal. These salaries never matched my work and I continued to be part of this circus, maybe due to being in a safe zone at that age or the thought that I needed the experience more than the money. I was just 1% of the commodities they used and there were so many more like me, affected by their way of dealing in business.
I look back and think – had they been a little more clean, slightly more generous and a lot more cautious it would not have cost them an arm and a leg today.
I may be guilty of gloating a bit or having that slight hint of excitement to see the suffering in multifold for all those atrocities coming back at the ones who initiated it in the first place, but It reinstates my strong belief that what goes around comes around.
Time and again as I progress through these various stages of my life and realize how its imperative to keep following your hearts deepest desires, oblivious of the control it may have on your life and in the end you can only grow as a person positively and leave the negativity to be handled by karma. Yes, it comes with its hinderances, mostly physical, more so mental and sometimes financial but the takeaways from learnings and being put through the tests of time is incomparable to the angst the person who has wronged feels the moment destiny bites back.
I am sure many of you out there have looked back at things which may not have gone in your favor (and trust me, in the eyes of the person who is responsible for it, its as jaded as it can get as a human’s most natural state is to think about themselves first and then the rest of the world). Review the past and think what makes you who you are and allow that to lead or stray you from your path.
If you look at success stories around you, you know the people who exude warmth and positivity, the ones who talk less and act more, the ones who make you feel comfortable in their wake and think beyond themselves, the ones who hold self righteousness and virtues of right ethics to high esteem are the ones to watch out for. Taking in the people who surround them and feeding off their vibes – its a give and take in one big circle. These are the people who you finally attract in your life, and it holds true to the opposite where my relationships with people who have wronged me have more than just been distanced from me (sometimes not of my doing). I have not read many self-help books which seek laws of attractions and behold positive manifestation as the crux of ones being, but have skimmed through those pages – somehow leaving them behind with the fact that I am part of this circle and it has helped me in the past and will continue to do so in the future.
As promising as these thoughts look, I will leave you with a recipe from the sea. Inspired by my thoughts and one which I fall back on to comfort and relive expectations. This shrimp curry is a simple execution of coconut infused with a homemade curry powder. I am not sure where to establish the origins from except for the fact that it is a fun takeaway from the usual bottled curry pastes which one falls back on when putting together an Asian inspired curry. The best part – its made from scratch.
The star of this dish is my homestyle curry powder which is versatile enough to be used with coconut as it is with tomatoes or by itself as sprinklings on fusion dishes. It is a take on the Madras Curry Powder but with a twist. I have added one key ingredient which can be avoided should you want to make the curry powder vegetarian – having said that this ingredient boosts the umami content of the curry powder to unimaginable levels leaving you and the people who have it, wondering!
SEAFUSED CURRY
Ingredients
For Sea Infused Curry Powder
Sweet Spices
- 2 x 3” piece Cinnamon
- 1.5 tablsp Anise seed
- 10 pods Black Cardamom (seeds only)
- 8 pcs Star Anise Whole
Hot Spices
- 8 nos Dried Red Chillies
- 1 tablsp Black Mustard Seeds
- 5 tablsp White Peppercorns
- 2 tsp Cloves
Aromatics
- 6 tablsp Coriander Seeds
- 4 tablsp Cumin Seeds
- 1 large Nutmeg Smashed
- 2 tablsp Turmeric Powder
- 2 tablsp Ginger Powder
- 1 tablsp Dried Tuna Flakes (optional)*
- A foil cup, charcoal and coconut oil to smoke the powder.
For the Curry
- 1/2 Kg Medium Size Shrimp (deshelled, tail-on and de-veined)
- 2 tablsp Sea Infused Curry Powder
- 1 tablsp Coconut Oil
- 1 can Coconut Milk
- 1 cup Brown Fried Onions
- 1/2 Lemon (Juiced)
- 4 tablsp Coriander (finely chopped)
- Salt to taste
Method
- For the curry powder, dry roast all the ingredients except the tuna, turmeric and ginger on a low-medium flame in a skillet till fragrant. Once nice and toasty, cool and blend into a smooth powder in a spice blender. Remove and mix in the turmeric, ginger and tuna flakes.
- Place the prepared powder on a plate and place a foil cup in the middle of it. Heat a piece of charcoal till red and place in the foil cup. Drizzle a few drops of coconut oil on to the heated charcoal and seal the plate-curry powder mix with a lid or a cover of some sort. Smoke for about 2-3 minutes.
- Transfer and set aside in an airtight jar for a couple of days to infuse and build on flavor. (one can even blend in the tuna flakes if you like one cohesive mixture).
- For the shrimp curry
- Start by heating the coconut oil on a gentle heat in a cast iron or a curry pot. Add the brown fried onions and let them mingle and soften a bit.
- Add the curry powder and let it cook into the onions and the coconut oil gathers it into a paste of sorts. Add the coconut milk.
- Give this a gentle simmer (do not boil) and pour in the shrimp.
- The shrimp should not take too long to cook, and once they turn pink and delicate shade of cream, add in the lemon juice, coriander and salt.
- Shut off gas, and serve almost immediately with hot red rice or bread.
- Can I be sure that I am at a stage where all things are going as per my wishes, I will never know. But I know with my past experiences I will be in the clear should I not stray, and one day I will look back and see how it unfolded for those people in my life around that time.
Which way will they fall? In a vat full of surprises and happiness … or in the lurking darkness waiting to strike when the time is up?
*Nonchalant Curry Powder Variation
I have not tried this, but if experience was to play guest here the tuna flakes can easily be replaced with about 10-15 gms of dried shiitake mushroom. Use it similarly to how the tuna has been used, just make sure to blend this into the powder. I will try this the next time I make this curry powder and update it here, but meanwhile, feel free to veg this up or leave it out completely.
