Ep 29: April 2019: The Slanted Door by Charles Phan

Looks like Vietnamese and middle-Eastern have become our favourite cuisines over the past few years.

I’m recovering from a bout of neuritis - I was hospitalized in November and December and was on a strong cocktail of neuroprotective drugs, antibiotics and steroids soon after. I’ve been off medication the past couple of months on the doctor’s advice and letting my nerves and their protective sheathing heal naturally. 90% of my journey to recovery was easy. The last 20% is slower than ever.

But the good thing is I can cook one-pot meals on weekdays and properly on weekends. Cooking means foregoing yoga, but who’s complaining! Hehe. This past weekend, we called Akshay over. He was supposed to cook, but he ended up with a nasty backache, so we asked him to get stuff for cocktails instead. But I'm not drinking until I get normal and Hyderabad is so hot, we/they stuck to beers.

Anyhoo, Suraj had trouble rolling his bo la lot (with mutton instead of beef because bmkj, cuu la lot, yes?)

There were super-sized chicken turnovers because I still have super-shaky hands. There was Vietnamese sausage made with chicken instead of pork because I limit the amount of red meat I eat. Blame the neuritis. We fashioned it into bani mi, with panini because the baguette from the nearby bakery was no good.

We ended the evening with a super yummy tres leches chocolate cake, with Vietnamese cold coffee ice cream. The cake was so light and moist, I'm tempted to try it in fruity flavours.

I used a recipe from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz for the ice cream but The Slanted Door is amazing! Besides the facts that I got the book at 50% off and I’m a Charles Phan fan (Phan fan, am I the only one giggling?), the book has recipes for bun rieus, seafood curries and Vietnamese salads. The dessert section is a little disappointing, in that it has more American desserts than Vietnamese ones, but given that I love baking and reading cookbooks in equal measure, I’m sure I can come up with something my guests will appreciate.