Hello, boys and girls!
Welcome to cooking with Varun. It's always nice to meet friends; even more so when it is largely unexpected and in a whole other country. Not long ago, I received a text from a friend, one I'm particularly fond of, that she was going to be in my neck of the woods for a couple of days at the end of her trip around Turkey. I was utterly delighted, and invited her to stay with me for one of those days, so we could chat and catch up, seeing as it had been 4 years since I had seen her last, and even that meeting had been quite rushed.
We texted back and forth for the next few days and chalked out a plan, and after she arrived in Istanbul after gallivanting the south, met for drinks at a pub by the Bosphorus. We spent the evening drinking beer, eating fries, trading stories, and at some point talking about how the inflation rate in Venezuela was 700%. Once we were done, we agreed on a meeting point for the following day after which she hailed a cab and headed back to her hotel. The next evening, I left the office, picked her (and her bags) up and made her tired legs do the long, arduous trek to my house. After settling her in (basically dumping her stuff in my living room), I did what any young, single, (moderately) attractive young man would do. I unbuttoned my shirt, shrugged it off, and tossed it to the side. Then, clad in my black vest, which was clinging tightly to my still slightly damp skin, I walked over to her, reached out to hold her slightly trembling hand, and led her breathlessly.. into the kitchen, where I proceeded to boil potatoes to make vada pavs. We sipped on beers as I cooked and battled my deadly nemesis, the oil spatter, who managed to get on my arm making it sting and puff up (joke's on him though, because this time I had an ice-cube wielding partner who tackled the situation quite manfully.. or is it womanfully?). Once the vada pavs were done, and the stinging on my arm had subsided (I pretended it had, to not lose face), we set chairs out on the balcony, poured some wine, clinked our glasses, and proceeded to eat. As the daylight slowly faded around us and the noise went down, the moon came out and hung in the night sky like a bright luminescent orb, casting an almost ghostly glow on our faces. The mood on the balcony changed, and in the quiet, we were suddenly more aware of the jazz music playing softly in the kitchen. More aware that the wine we had been drinking was making us less guarded. But mostly it made us realize that I had added way too many chillies in the vada pav, and that the burning in our gut had little to do with attraction and more to do with heartburn. While we waited for the burning to wane, we looked out up at vastness of the sky above, and I proceeded to explain (very smoothly) how parallel universes worked in the DC multiverse. Soon tiredness (and acidity) took over, and we retired for the night, and I slept a most fitful sleep thanks to a combination of the volcano in my chest, and my friend's snoring from across the room.
The next morning, being the excellent host that I am, I cooked up and presented my lovely guest with a plate of Strawberry & Nutella Stuffed French Toast for breakfast, which she graciously accepted, and after trying to and failing to eat it with a knife and fork, resorted to picking it up with her fingers and stuffing it inside her mouth. I think she said she liked it, but it was hard to make out because her mouth was so full. But don't take my (possibly biased) word for it, try it out and see for yourself!
For my Strawberry & Nutella Stuffed French Toast, you will need the following:
| Bread | 6 slices |
| Eggs | 2 |
| Fresh strawberries | 8-10 |
| Milk | splash |
| Nutella | to spread |
| Salt | to taste |
| Powdered sugar | to serve |
| Powdered cinnamon | to serve |
Prep:
- Crack the eggs into a shallow bowl.
- Splash some milk in.
- Add salt to taste.
- Whisk.
- Slice the strawberries.
Method:
- Spread the nutella onto each of the bread slices.
- Place the strawberries on the nutella face of 3 of the slices.
- Pop the remaining slices of bread onto the strawberry covered ones to make 3 sandwiches.
- Turn on the gas.
- Bung a pan on.
- Plop some butter in.
- Pick a sandwich up and dip it in the egg mixture, making sure to cover it uniformly.
- Pop it in the pan.
- Cook on each side for 2-3 minutes. (You'll be able to see when it's done.)
- Transfer it to a plate.
- Repeat for the other sandwiches.
- Turn the gas off.
- Serve with a sprinkling of powdered sugar, and cinnamon. (And a couple of strawberries.)
- Stuff face.
- Bask in the glory of your successfully executed dish.
Tip: Tip the excess egg mixture over the last sandwich in the pan to give it a gorgeous omelettey coating.
And remember, overeating is a myth. A full tummy is a happy tummy!
