Tiny Apartment, Tiny Treats

If you stand in the doorway of the living room, you can see the entirety of my apartment—all four rooms---without moving! It’s a perfect size for a couple who doesn’t have any stuff like kids, pets, televisions, bicycles, or antiques. We have a place to sit with our respective laptops and a place to perch up in bed with said laptops. There is even a dining room table that serves perfectly as a printer and laptop holder. But this cosy place on a cosy lane in the city centre is not exactly ideal for entertaining. Given that we don’t really have any friends who are close enough to be stuck in the small confines of our abode for a few hours, it’s not a huge conundrum in my day to day existence. However, I do occasionally want to cook for someone other than myself and S.

four people huddled around this coffee table

So one day I decided that I would subject my in-laws to my first attempt at “entertaining” in years. And rather than make a full-on seven course meal and risk failure, I opted for “tapas” which could be quickly consumed and if need be, forgotten and drowned afterwards in one of our many neighbourhood pubs.

I cobbled together an Indian themed tapas menu and hoped for the best as I started my chopping, mixing, kneading, and so on. In the end, I’d say most of it was a success. The menu included tandoori chicken skewers, vegetarian samosas, fried paneer, mango tamarind chutney, mint coriander chutney, and raita.

Tandoori Chicken

• 300g chicken breasts cut into long strips
• Marinade/Paste
• Juice of 2 lemons

• Handful of coriander leaves
• 1TB toasted cumin seeds
• 1TB paprika
• 4-6 red chillis deseeded
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 250g tomato paste
• 2tsp salt, 1 tsp pepper
• Mix in processor/blender and add equal part of yoghurt. Marinate for one hour, thread skewers, cook on broil about 5-7 minutes each side.

Mango Tamarind Chutney

the middle one was definitely the star

• 1 cup tamarind pulp strained
• 2 cups boiling water
• 1 ripe mango cut into small pieces
• 8TB jaggary (or brown sugar)
• 1 tsp salt.  Simmer all of the above for 15 minutes. Add:
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1TB grated ginger
• 1TB vinegar
• 1TB tomato paste
• 6-12 dried red chillies
• Simmer until thick. Cool in the fridge

Raita can be made very easily by just combining yoghurt, cucumber, herbs, and any spices like cumin or ground coriander. There are a gazillion recipes and I’m not sure what I did, to be honest. The same is true of samosa dough. My samosas were very dense and the cooked pastry part just didn’t have that light buttery taste that I wanted. Also, though the filling was good, I wish I had used potato instead of just onions and peas.

My mint coriander chutney was watery and didn’t have the smoothness nor the bite of the stuff you get in the restaurants. The flavour was ok but the consistency was off. Maybe I had too many stems? Or maybe I should have used a blender rather than food processor.

Who knows when I’ll try again or who’s coming to dinner but if given the chance, I shall tweak away (in the culinary—not drug addled—sense).