50 Shades of Weird!

Weird is the new brilliant.

I’m reading the very weird “Fifty Shades of Grey”. If you don’t know what that is and haven’t heard of it yet, you have either been living under a rock or have just landed from some other planet. Or, well... you are just weird!

Ok, confession time. This much-hyped, totally overrated, erotic romance full of “kinky f***ery” and BDSM elements? Well, I’m on the last part of the trilogy :l 

Fine, go ahead - Judge me. I don’t particularly like it, but I’m still reading it. I mean I even know how it will end. And there is really no plot except all the heavy duty sex. And yet, I’m reading this weird set of books. Sometimes I really feel I read books compulsively. If I have it, I must read it. Even if it’s boring or bad. I don’t think I have ever left a book halfway. Oh wait! I have. ‘My Name is Red’ by Orhan Pamuk. But I’m hoping to finish it one day soon. Maybe after Fifty Shades. If I can go through 3 books of Grey, then I can definitely go back to Red!

So... in continuing with the weird theme, I made a weird jam. Firstly, I find Cape Gooseberries (Rasbhari in Hindi) a weird fruit. They have a strange flavour that has to grow on you I guess. I never can have more than 2 or 3 of these small berries in one go, because after that my mouth puckers up and the sweet-sour-pungent taste becomes too much. But every other year I get tempted to buy them because they look so cute! Anyway, I would have done good to just stick to a basic jam recipe... but then I went ahead and added a another really weird element :/ And it became a totally weird jam! It’s not bad actually, but it is a bit.....weird. So I would advise you to skip the “Weird” part and keep it simple.

INGREDIENTS:

Cape Gooseberries – 250 gms

Sugar – ½ cup

Cinnamon – 1 inch stick

Thums Up – ¼^th cup (I told you added a weird element!)

Remove the papery calyx of each berry, wash, pat dry, and slice each berry into half. Now in a wide bottomed pan, splash in a little water, drop in all the berries, cover and simmer on slow heat. After about 3min, once the berries are a little soft, add the sugar and cinnamon stick. Cover and cook on medium heat. Keep stirring to prevent the jam from burning or sticking to the bottom of the pan.

And this is where I lost my marbles and took out some leftover Thums Up from the fridge and poured it into the jam! Ermm... Just one of those days. Leap before you think kinda mood...

So I would request you not to add any more weird ingredients like cola drinks and just keep it straight. Straight is good, trust me. Even though some people would like you to believe weird is the new brilliant. Trust me, it’s not. Read “Fifty Shades of Grey” and you will know what I’m talking about!

Getting back to the jam, bring it to a boil and cook for a further 5-10min. Check on the consistency by spooning out a little jam and checking if its thick enough on cooling. It should be chunky with just a little water/juice remaining. Switch off the flame, cool and store in sterilised, air-tight glass jars.

The way I like it:

My jam tastes pretty strongly of Thums Up. Huh. Go figure. Still, it tastes good with parathas and with toast. Of course my favourite way of eating toast is by slathering it with Garlic Mayonnaise and Jam. Any jam. So the Thums Up taste gets masked by the mayo I think. It tastes great! Weird, I know :)

Sending this jam off to Sizzling Tastebuds' event - Pickles and Preserves fest.