 |
|
STAR FOOD
WITH those lovely long legs, a streamlined figure, it's difficult to imagine Bipasha Basu as a foodie who grew up on a rich Bengali diet! Even today, her favourite food is the sinful oil-rich biryani! " I grew up in Kolkata on the most delicious cuisine. Any meal, lunch or dinner, was incomplete without fish. I enjoyed it in any form—fried, curried, grilled. I simply relished the chingri (prawn) macher malai curry and the Hyderabadi biryani my mom cooked. This was a regular weekly treat. I'm crazy about biryani, and in whichever part of the world I am, if there's biryani on the table I forget everything else. Looking back, I grew up eating quite a bit of fatty foods. Not surprisingly, I was quite a chubby child and a chubby teenager. So there was no urge to enter the world of showbiz. In fact, my foray into
modelling was incidental. I was having lunch at the Park Hotel in
Kolkata with some college friends when one of the organisers of the Ford
Modelling Contest saw me and asked me if I'd be interested in
participating in the contest. I was! That was four years ago. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
During those days, there was no discipline where my diet was concerned. Discipline set in when I signed Ajnabee over two years ago. I realised the need to control my diet if films were my goal. Now I prefer to get my own dabba from home if I am shooting in Mumbai. I avoid eating the unit food, which is rather oily. I never have breakfast. I can't eat early in the mornings. My lunch is light—salads, a vegetable, and chappatis. I am not at all fussy where vegetables are concerned. I like baingan ka bhartha, cauliflower, bhindi, etc. I never have snacks between meals. So dinner means a hearty meal. I am really hungry by then and can eat a lot. I like a spread of dal, subzi, rice, chappatis, a non-vegetarian dish (generally fish or chicken), salad. Since I relish very spicy food, I like Manglorean curries, coastal food from Kerala or Andhra and Thai cuisine. Though a career in films was not intentional, I now find it very enjoyable and satisfying . My goal is to make a name for myself in this field. And for that I'll have to stick to a regular routine of eating. Fortunately, my weight has remained in check. Probably because I don't have a sweet tooth, I don't like sweets at all, no chocolates, nothing. I'm not a fruit person either. I don't like oranges or sweet lime. Whenever I eat fruits, I land up eating the fatty variety like mangoes and chikoos! I'm quite fond of cooking…whenever I get the time, that is. But half the time, mum's on the phone from Kolkata, telling me the ingredients or explaining the method! I'll share my recipe for yummy biryani. Bipasha's biryani (4 servings)Ingredients: Basmati rice 3 cups Onions 2 Ginger 2" piece Coriander leaves 1 cup Salt to taste Garam masala 2tsp Lamb or mutton ½ kg Garlic 10 cloves Green chillies 6-7 Tomatoes 2 Oil 2-3 tbsp Method: Clean and boil rice till half done, keep aside. Cook the lamb with garam masala and salt till three-fourths done. Make a paste of onion, garlic, ginger, green chillies. Heat the oil and fry the masala paste till it starts browning. Add the tomatoes and the lamb and roast till the oil separates. Now rub the bottom of the container with butter. Spread a layer of rice and one layer of meat alternately. Cover the container with a
lid and seal the sides with atta. Keep on a warm tava for
10-15 minutes. Serve hot with raita. —INFS |
 |
 |
