Slurpy Tips

Butter and garlic makes a classic combinations in our daily meals like toasted garlic bread is a common accomplice with soups and stews. This combo got recently rediscovered with the popularity of Mediterranean cuisine and experimentations in my kitchen. I think once you eat a dish couple of times you'll realize that their is a recurring pattern how you must mix these ingredients while preparing it.I remember enjoying grilled fish in butter and garlic at a shack on my visit to Goa. The overwhelming flavor of smoked garlic in butter is very hard to forget.

Mashed potatoes when mixed with melted butter, crushed garlic & rosemary is an all time favorite. Typically in an Indian meal, butter and garlic forms an important ingredient but not necessarily in combination. Indian dishes are primarily curry based so the cooking methods and the mix of ingredients differs.

Take a cube of butter, crushed or chopped garlic, freshly milled pepper & salt, add this to chicken, fish, tofu or vegetables of your choice and you can grill, fry, saute, bake, chill, roast, toss, beat, cut and fold or involve any other fancy cooking method. The result will be most satisfying with negligible chance of things going wrong.

Try this; put a layer of cooked fusselli in a baking dish greased with butter, add boiled boneless chicken pieces, add some chopped garlic, top it with blanched spinach, mashed potatoes & white sauce. Sprinkle salt in the layers with oregano & pepper, finally top it with a dash of chilly vinegar and bake for 15-20 mins you'll have lip smacking dish in no time.

Me thinks even if you try saute our very own bitter gourd or 'karela' with butter and garlic it will be have a soul stirring smell you cant escape.Ofcouse you cant try adding it to carrot halwa or fondue!
Unless you have bet on it. :P