This series gives you the recipes that have survived the test of our doctor cooks.PLAB trains you for the best in life - cooking! More and more girls now prefer to marry solicitors and bank managers over doctors. With this series, your matrimonial CV is complete. Remember, let your biryani do the talking. Hopefully this works if not, atleast you will survive life before PLAB. If these dishes lack in taste, they more than make up in being filling and cheap.

	Masala Baked Beans		Tomato chutney
	Pithala		Simple Potatoes
	Moong Khichdi		Curd & Butter Chicken
	Bread Poha		Alu Palak

1 Onion chopped fine (as fine as your streaming eyes can allow)
Cost 6 p approx
1 Can of baked beans
Cost 17 p appro
1 Moderate sized potato chopped in (size of 6 week fibroid)
Cost 4 p approx
Tarka
Cost 2 p

Total cost per person 14 p + bread

Procedure:

Pre-operative:
Onion are decapitated at both the ends first, and then hemisected with incisions perpendicular to the stumps. The subsequent incisions are gridline, resulting in fine pieces. Remember the surgical principles of treating ovarian tumour, the residual tumour size should always be less than one cm diameter.
Operative Steps:
Oil in the frying pan, and usual tarka (jeera, pinch of turmuric etc).Fry the onion until they become a little brown. If the fire alarm goes off at this time, shut the kitchen door and open the windows. Add the potato pieces now, and let them cook for say 5 minutes Add salt to taste and spice mix (garam masala, 1 teaspoon ful). Pour the baked beans can into the pan and cover with a plate. Potato is the only uncooked element in the pan and your cooking is finished as soon as the potato allows a jab from a fork. Generally in 10 odd minutes, the potatoes are well cooked. Eat with rice or bread or both.

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Complications:
a) Uncooked potato can cause starchy taste in the mouth.

b) If you do not stir/scrape the pan regularly, the bottom layer may burn and stick.

c) as a corollary to above, the landlady may increase your rent or throw you out.

d) Recurrence risk. If you cook well, your friends make you cook every day!

e) Too much of baked beans may make you feel you are in Chicago!

Prognosis:
Excellent. The S5 of this dish is fantastic and most who had this have lived to tell the tale to their wives. This dish is a hit with your English colleagues who are used to eating the baked beans alone with toast, roast potato etc. They find it mind boggling and the dish is known to have got a doctor a job (as a doctor, I mean) when everything else failed.

2 tomatoes
one onion
2 chilles (green)
salt as per your taste
1 tblspoon oil
some mustard seeds( raiy)

Procedure :
Heat oil in a small fry pan*. Put mustard seeds in the oil and some green chilles as per your taste.
Then put chopped onion and let it fry till brown (if char-black, then invite friends for dinner). Then add the chopped tomatoes and add some salt, turmeric powder, sugar and mix properly. Let it on the flame for atleast 5-7 mins. and it is ready for lunch.
(*often you have only one pan available washed. Thankfully small and large are relative terms).

2 small bowls gram flour (besan, available in all Indian shops).
one onion.
Green chillies as per taste
One tomato (optional)*
Corriander leaves
Curry leaves
Salt
Turmeric powder.
Garlic 2-3 pieces.

Procedure:
Take some gram flour in a bowl and add 2 cups of water to the flour. If necessary add some more water. Add salt, turmeric powder and red chilly powder (optional). Heat the pan and put 2 tbl poon of oil. Then add the green chilles, chopped onion, some curry leaves and let the onion fry till light brown colour appears. Then add the mixed gram flour and stir continuously till it gets thick. Then add some more water and let it boil. After some time cover the vessel with a lid and leave it for 5-7 mins. and your pithala is ready. If you want you also add tomato. In the end decorate it with coriander leaves and fry it again with some smashed garlic.

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Potatoes (6 large)
Methi seeds (few grains)
Oil (2 tbsps)
Chilly powder (1 tbsp)
Salt. To taste

Method : Cut potatoes in slices, Heat oil in a thick bottom pan, Drop in a few methi seeds,then a teaspoon ful of chilly powder, and then the potatoes and salt. Mix well. Cover with a lid and cook on slow flame,without any water. Keep stirring on and off till cooked.
Done.

Rice - 2 cups
Moong dal - ½ cup
Curry patta/Rai/Jeera/Hing/Chilly[green]/methiseeds.
Saffron Powder

Method : Mix rice and dal together , wash and keep aside. Then in a pressure pan put oil, and add Curry patta,rai,jeera,hing,methi,green chillies,Fry it. Then add the mixture of rice and dal.Mix well,add water and salt. Cover and let it cook on high flame till it blows 2 whistles.,then switch off the gas,Let it cool down and then open the cooker lid.
Ready to serve...

Chicken 1
Saltless Butter 200 gms
Curd 300 gms {whipped without water}
Green chillies {5 -6}
Salt. to taste/Pepper powder 1 tsp.

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Method : Cut chicken into 4-6 large pieces. Heat Butter in a pan, drop in about 5 green chillies slit in the middle,then add the chicken pieces and fry till the colour of the chicken till it is slightly brownish pink,Then add the beaten curd salt and pepper powder. Mix it all well, Lower the flame. Let it cook on low flame, with a lid . Keep stirring it every little while, till chicken is cooked. Sprinkle with finely chopped coriander and mint leaves for garnishing.

Ingredients:
Bread (preferably stale) cut (it into small pieces
Curry leaves*
Coriander Leaves*
Mustard seeds**
Oil
Onion (chopped)
Tomatos
Green chillies
Salt
Turmeric powder
(* optional. ** totally optional)

Method : Heat a pan, put 1 tablespoon oil. Put mustard seeds, curry leaves, onion, tomotos, green chillies Fry it well, add turmeric powder, salt then put the bread pieces into it and fry a little. Your bread poha is ready.

The above dish is the best example of traditional recycling of food. As the proverb goes (in Mumbai) todays bread is tomorrow bread poha! Since we have all passed the IELTS, could someone confirm that the plural of tomato is as we have used above or different).

Ingredients :
½ packet of spinach (also called palak, balak).
2 medium sized potatos (surgeons, each not more than a moderate bph)
1 medium sized onion.
3-4 green chilles.
3-4 garlic flakes.
1 tbsp oil
salt to taste
¼ tsp tumeric powder

(Green palak is available in either frozen dept or tins or green chillies are easily available in east ham. Garlic comes in pastes, costing not more than 70p per 100 gm. Lasts for a week atleast).

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Method :
Leave the half packet of palak to thaw in a strainer .
Cut the onion into small pieces.
Cut the potatoes in to small pieces making 8 pieces from one potato.
Cut the green chilles very fine
Cut the garlic flakes very fine .

Cooking technique (operative steps) : Take a vessel and put oil. Heat it on a medium fire and when the oil is heated put in the green chilles and garlic. Then add onion and fry it till golden brown in colour. (That is just before the smoke starts coming. Another minute more and the fire alarms start ringing). And add salt to taste and tumeric as well. (add any amount of salt if you are fasting that day and is your turn to cook). Add potatos and cook it up with the cover lid on slow flame for 3-4 mins . Then add the spinach and mix it up nicely and again cover the lid and cook it up on low flame for 10- mins till the palak and alu (also called potato) is thoroughly cooked . Do not add water to it. It will be cooked on slow flame with the steam of the lid covered you can eat it with with rice or bread or the ( chappati if you are feeling extravagant that day. Puffed chappaties are available in the market but gm for gm, are 3 times more expensive than humble bread).

Quotable Quotes:
"the good thing about bad cooking you eat less and save money"
"He who laughs last, laughs best but he who eats last, cleans the frying pan"

1. Spectacles breaking:
I know of atleast 3 doctors who broke their specs within a week of landing in the UK and this within last year! I am not counting a dozen others who have have lenticular dislocations (of the specs) or fallling of the pivot screws. The most common reason of doing so is sitting on them; breaks the specs and hurts the heart more than the bottom. A visit to the specs man makes you wonder if buying one is cheaper than repairing your specs! Typical expense is around Stg 25-50 and new pair can cost almost Stg 80. We thus sincerely advise each and everyone to have another pair of specs handy. Same is true for contact lenses as well. Come prepared.

2. Medical problems:
Just last month someone had a bad attack of asthma. We took him to the GP who gave him a nebuliser and we did not have to worry too much. We had readied friends in newham hospital but it came to nothing. Do bring your usual medications with you and use them religiously. Dont take small coughs etc for granted if you are an asthmatic. Good idea to register with the GP as soon as possible.

Same batch, a young lady had baro-trauma during air travel. Local antibiotics were bought from the dispensary and that cured the problem, but do be careful before boarding your flight. Anti-histamines, de-congestants and perhaps such nose drops will be a good idea.

Probably the most tricky of the lot, unexpected pregnancy. This has been revealed to me on more than 4 occassions in the last 18 months. In all the cases, the couple had flown together to the UK. Abortions are not available on the NHS for tourists, so you cannot go to the GP and ask to be referred for one. Private abortions can cost around Stg 400-500 all inclusive. On one occasion the couple decided to continue with the pregnancy and a few months later we had young Mohammed Abdul Rahim Karachiwala born in the NHS, aptly called "Mark" in the spirit of the european unity.

OC pills are freely available with your GP when you register.

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3. Lost baggage and wrong baggage:

This is reasonably common problem, almost each batch has one such casualty. If you luggage is not there on the flight, dont worry, they take your address and send it to you in 2 days. Whereever you are in UK. However, you may not be so lucky and they could pay for the lost material around Stg 200. So never keep your certificates in the check in luggage and in the hand luggage atleast keep one night dress or what! Hand luggage is ok for around 8 kg so quite a few things can come in easily.

On one occassion our dear friend brought someone elses bag. Now this certainly not a good idea, as you may have to send it back !

4. Hand-baggage stolen/lost:
Twice this year! Typically when you are making a call to someone at the airport. You typically keep the handbag on the shelf or on the phone itself and forget it there itself! On one occassion the lost and found phoned YBES as our papers were in the bag and it was eventually recovered. If thieves get it, then it is gone for ever. If you lose it, do remember to ring and cancel your credit cards immediately as that is a hassle in itself.

5. Passport lost
This comes as a corollary to above. It is a good idea to have a photo-copy of your passport somewhere else and also at your home. For sponsored students, that is not a problem, as we will have a copy of a passport with us in India and that can be retrieved as and when needed. I cant list this as a benefit of sponsorship, but the following episode is true. A few years ago, one of our good students rings me at 11 pm saying that his passport was burnt in a house fire a week before and he realised that the passport was lost in that, only at that point, as he was getting ready for his flight to India the following day! We retrieved a copy of his contract and passport and he took that to the embassy the following day and in time for the flight. So there we go!

If you lose your passport for whatever reasons, you need to make a police complaint and inform the high commission of your country as soon as possible. They will then issue you with a temporary set of papers if there is an emergent need to travel or what.

6. Theft in the lodging place:
Such episodes are remarkably infrequent atleast in our residences and there is no particular reason for it, I guess, we are generally honest people too busy with the exam. On a few occassions, there have been sqaubbles on milk it was in the fridge etc. There cannot be locks and keys to most residences in east ham, as you are there in a "sharing home" type of an arrangement, not a commercial bed and breakfast. This means you live like a commune or like a family. So we best advice you to keep cash to minimum, no one is interested in stealing your certificates!

Sponsored students dont have a problem in this as from December 2002, we have been giving bank accounts to our sponsored students within a week of their landing provided they have informed us earlier and have the necessary paperwork completed in India. From Jan 2003 we will be offering this help to those who are members of the YBCC as well. We need to know the doctor for a while as specified by the bank and if you satisfy that criteria, we will be more than happy to give this help.

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