Going bananas: the easiest ever banana bread recipe for the amateur baker

If you, like me, don't particularly relish bananas but buy them anyway because you have been conditioned to consider them as one of those things that taste bad but must be eaten because of the fount of health benefits they offer, you must be familiar with the inevitability of most of them turning into overripe brown mush before you finally get around to eating them. Now, no one—no matter how die-hard a fan you are of the fruit—likes a squishy banana, and disposing one off purely on account of its squashiness is nothing short of sacrilege (Yes, I'm a bit anal about wasting food. I'm the kind of person who eats the same thing for 3 days consecutively). Fortunately, there are many awesome ways—read desserts—to put squishy bananas to use, and none easier and more delicious than the banana bread (except for the banana raspberry frozen yogurt I ate at The Big Chill in Delhi a decade or so ago). 

So, here's presenting my first and very humble attempt at baking something: the delightfully scrumptious banana bread! Now it may seem like a complicated dish considering it takes something despicable like banana and converts in into an amazing dessert you can't have enough of, but, truth be told, this is something you can make with minimal effort and you probably don't even need to make a trip to the market. 

Serves: 3-4

Preparation time: 60 minutes
Cooking time: 45-60 minutes

Ingredients:
2 cups maida/flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 eggs, beaten
3 overripe bananas
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter
2 tbsp walnuts, crushed
2-3 pinches of ground cinnamon

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 165°C for 60 minutes.
• Meanwhile, melt the butter slightly and add it to a big mixing bowl along with the sugar. Mix the two well.
• To this, add the bananas and mash them till they become almost completely pulpy. Now add the beaten eggs.
• In a separate bowl, mix the flour and baking soda.
• Add this to the banana/egg/sugar mixture and mix till it acquires a thick paste-like consistency.
• Add the crushed walnuts and cinnamon.
• Now take a loaf tin and grease it lightly from all sides. (I used a round cake tin since I don't have a loaf tin yet and it worked just as well; though I recommend a loaf tin so that it looks like bread and not cake!)
• Transfer the batter into the tin and spread it evenly.
• Put the tin in the oven, setting it to 150-160°C for 60 minutes, and let it bake. Check the progress occasionally to ensure that the bread isn't getting burnt. After about 40-45 minutes, stick a knife in the bread to check how much it has baked. Once the knife comes out dry without any gooey residue, you know that your bread is ready.

Note: The baking time also depends upon the oven. Mine is an old 16-litre one.

Suggested serving: Cut 2 slices, slather on some (or a lot of) Nutella on both. If you really want to go bananas, slip in some chopped banana slices between the two and you have your very own decadent banana-Nutella sandwich!
PS: Since I'm not a big fan of bananas, I don't have the guts to try this, but if you do, let me know how it was :)

Monsoon recipe: Mushroom and leek soup

Since I became a vegetarian, I have developed this ardent affection for mushroom. It's distinct woody aroma and flavour has the same effect on me as butter chicken used to have during my non-veg eating days. The best part about mushroom is the versatility with which it adapts itself to such a wide variety of cuisine and preparations: make an Indian gravy out of it or a pulao, a Chinese main course or fried rice, a pie, pasta or just a sandwich and, one of my favourites, a soup. A bowl of creamy mushroom soup is not only healthy and absolutely delicious but is also filling enough to be a meal in itself, especially if, like me, you like your meals small and filling.

I have a tried and tested cream of mushroom soup recipe that I often make, but this time I decided to mix things up a little by throwing in some leek. Not only did it really transform the soup by infusing it with new flavours, it also countered some of that creamy richness of mushroom and milk combined. This time I also swapped regular milk for coconut milk and I must admit I was quite happy with the results. Try it out and see for yourself.

Serves: 2

Cooking time: 45 minutes approx

Ingredients:
5-6 medium-sized mushrooms, chopped
half a leek
1-2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1/2 cup coconut milk
2 cups vegetable broth
1/2 tbsp oil
1 tsp butter
salt and pepper to taste

Method:

• Heat oil and butter in a pan and add the garlic. Saute till it turns golden brown.
• Now add the leek and allow it to cook while stirring occasionally, till it starts turning white.
• Once the leek is cooked, add the mushrooms and mix well.
• Now turn the flame low and allow the mushroom and leek to cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• Once the veggies are cooked, take them off the flame and let them cool for a while.
• Now run the mixture through a blender till it reaches a fine consistency.
• Transfer this mixture back into the pan and add the broth. Mix well and allow it to come to boil on a medium flame. Remember to stir the soup occasionally so that it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan.
• Once the soup starts to boil, add the coconut milk and mix well.
• Simmer the soup on a low flame for about 10 minutes or till it has reached the desired consistency.
• Season with salt and pepper.
• Add a dollop of butter if you aren't too health-conscious!

Monsoon recipe: Low fat pumpkin soup

I have always found the monsoon to be extremely mood-uplifting and inspiring. It makes me want to take long walks, go on random train rides, eat fried foods from all the stalls I encounter, sing, even cook. It's a different matter that I spend most of it sitting by the window, mindlessly gazing outside, because in the battle between procrastination and motivation, the former always wins. However, having noticed of late that I waste too much time letting procrastination get the better of me (and finding a lot of expensive ingredients in my refrigerator that need to be cooked post haste), I decided to get off my behind and indulge in some monsoon cooking ...

The first in the series (I hope the rainspiration sustains for this to be an actual series) is the hearty and delicious pumpkin soup. I recently had the opportunity to try some and was absolutely blown away by its delicate flavour and rich texture. So when I found a stray slice of pumpkin hanging around in my vegetable basket, I decided to put it to use and make my own version of the dish. I was pleasantly surprised that it took hardly any time to make (I assumed pumpkin takes ages to cook considering chopping it was nothing short of a workout) and that it tasted more or less the same as the one I had at the restaurant. The best part, however, was that I managed to make it without any cream. With just a teaspoon of oil and a little bit of milk, the soup is healthy, flavourful and wholesome: just the way soups should be ...

Request you to acknowledge my humble attempt at garnishing to make the soup look good

Serves: 1

Cooking time: 45 minutes approx

Ingredients:

250g pumpkin, peeled and roughly chopped

1/2 an onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

1 tsp oil

1.5 cup vegetable broth (I made my own broth by adding an onion, a carrot, half a leek and a pinch of salt to a deep-bottomed pan filled with water, bringing it to a boil and then simmering it for about half an hour.)

1/2 cup milk

Method:

• Heat the oil in a kadhai or pan and add the chopped onions and garlic. Saute till the onions become translucent.
• Now add the chopped pumpkin and mix well.
• Add 2 tbsp of the vegetable broth. Mix well, cover the pan and turn the flame to medium. Stir occasionally.
• Let the pumpkin cook till you're able to mash it with a spoon. If you think it's too dry, stir in some more broth. Now add the salt and pepper.
• Once cooked, allow the pumpkin to cool down and then put it in a blender, bringing it to a smooth consistency.
• Now put the mixture back in the pan along with the rest of the broth. On a medium flame, stir the pumpkin paste till it mixes in well with the broth.
• Once the mixture starts to boil, add the milk and stir well.
• Turn down the flame and allow the soup to cook, stirring occasionally, till it comes to your desired consistency.
• Serve hot!

Rock Garden Chandigarh: the stuff of childhood fantasies

Back in my childhood when my hometown Chandigarh used to be a quiet, laid-back city offering little by way of entertainment (except for leisurely strolls by Sukhna Lake or in one of its innumerable gardens or in the Sector 17 market complex), Rock Garden used to be the object of every local's pride and affection. As a kid especially, you couldn't help but be extremely fond of this oddity, considering the recurring appearances it made in your life—during every other school picnic, whenever a relative or friend was visiting the family and on weekends when you pressurized your folks to take you out but they were too lazy to drive up to Kasauli or Morni.

An assembly of amoebic rocks greets you as soon as you enter the garden

Without a doubt there was something about this place, something eerie, exciting and mysterious about its narrow winding cave-like trails, surreal human sculptures and fantasy creatures made from broken tiles, crockery, sanitaryware, pottery, furniture, bricks, stones, pipes and everything else you can imagine. It was like getting lost in a house of freaks, a local Narnia if I may slightly exaggerate.

The Whitewalkers

Two kids on a see-saw? In a tub? Conjoint twins? 

Kids who once visited Rock Garden on a school picnic but got left behind

Like most places, however, the fascinating charm of Rock Garden gradually began to wear off. Part of this lost charm has to do with the maintenance of the place, which seems to have deteriorated a little more every time I visit, especially since its creator Nek Chand passed away a couple of years ago. And a lot of the lost charm has to do with the people who visit Rock Garden: walking around with selfie sticks sticking out in front of them like they're expecting to detect some hidden treasure, contributing to the garden's ornamentation with excessive litter and making proclamations of eternal love and lust on every wall and sculpture.

Disgruntled old resident of Rock Garden

However, as any Chandigarhian would tell you, your visit to the city is incomplete without visiting the Rock Garden. So last month, when I found myself in Chandigarh along with a friend of mine due to some last-minute change of plans, I absolutely had to and did drag her off to experience the fading enigma of the place. To alleviate her anticipated disappointment, I first took her for lunch to Pal Dhaba, an iconic Chandigarh establishment that dishes out the best butter chicken in the world; not the sweet, unnervingly bright orange one you get at most places but just the right balance of creamy and spicy, with a layer of butter so thick, you can't even see the actual dish! Fortunately, it hit the spot, as did the saag chicken, the rich dal makhani and the crisp butter garlic naan and the coma-inducing feast made taking a stroll in the Rock Garden the need of the hour.

Rock Garden FTW!

As I write this, I think about the history of the garden and it reminds me a bit of the movie Tamasha, a story about a man's continual search for the fantasy world that he created from stories he heard in his childhood. Like Ranbir Kapoor in the movie, our protagonist, creator Nek Chand, too dreamt of creating the world of his childhood—the years spent in a village that became part of Pakistan after Partition—in the heart of the meticulously planned Chandigarh which at the time was a prototype of sorts for Nehru's vision of a modern urban India, designed by French architect Le Corbusier.

A village scene depicted at the Rock Garden with figures made from clay, broken crockery and what not

So everyday after work, Nek Chand, a government employee, cycled to a clandestine forest gorge near Sukhna Lake to create his rural Utopia, painstakingly molding and blending industrial and household waste to create turbaned men, ghagra-choli-clad women, waterfalls, wells, huts, animals like elephants, cows, dogs and what could only have been the bunny from Donnie Darko and lot more.

Happy stoned canines

Freakishly skinny elephants

Bearwolves

... some more ...

... and finally, my favourite, the peacockasaurus

His mini fantasy village initially covered an area of 12 sqm and, as most things illegal, remained hidden from the public and administrative eyes for almost 18 years. Once detected, the garden got embroiled in several legal battles, facing innumerable demolition threats.

Oops! Busted!

With public support and the creator's perseverance, however, the garden survived and how! Not only was it in the clear legally but the Chandigarh administration also made Nek Chand the sub-divisional engineer of the garden, assigning him 50 laborers to complete his work. The result is a 40-acre space that also includes an amphitheatre, an aquarium and—my favourite—an area dedicated to at least 50 towering swings.

Guess who's still having the last laugh?

Happy high on a swing

Strolling about the garden on my bazillionth visit, it suddenly strikes me how this place is an antithesis of the city that houses it. While Chandigarh is among the country's most well-planned cities with block-like sectors neatly stacked in a numerical order, the Rock Garden can at best be described as random. While one instant you will find yourself marvelling at an aesthetically-planned village scene, on the next turn you'll find yourself face-to-face with an oddly shaped solitary stone.

... Like this guy here, who I think is meant to be a prehistoric man head ...

Or this bunch right here, which I'm assuming is meant to add textural depth and versatility to the garden. 

Some structures, however, are beyond the power of human interpretation ...

Such as these fake concrete trees with convoluted over-the-surface roots

Or whatever this is supposed to be

Or these guys for that matter

Even then, you can't dismiss how in some aspects to do with typical Indian rural life, the Rock Garden gets it spot on.

For instance, these menfolk who set out to work but instead spent the day lounging around, getting drunk and then acting silly by placing their empty cups on their heads ...

... and then returned home to face the wrath of their pupil-less wives

All said and done, one can't deny that the Rock Garden, in spite of its oddities, lack of maintenance and unruly visitors, strikes a rather pretty picture.

Thanks to things like this lovely waterfall

And these neat as hell sculptures of village women made from broken glass bangles (finally, someone in this village has pupils!)

So, would I recommend people visiting Chandigarh to visit the Rock Garden? Absolutely. In case you plan to visit me while I'm in the city, there is no chance of you escaping this customary tour, as all my friends who have so far been to Chandigarh with me would tell you. As for others, visit not because you've run out of things to do in the city but because, maintenance and annoying tourists aside, the Rock Garden is definitely an artistic masterpiece; in a surreal, oddball kinda way, no doubt, but a masterpiece nonetheless. Also, did I mention those swings?

This is the end, beautiful friend