Where the going gets tough, the tough goes EATING!!!

Just two words can classify dining, the classy and the street food!!! This weekend, I had an interesting mix of both the worlds. And for the record, both turned out to be hell of an experience, in its own way...

Let me start off with the interesting street food. It’s no news to anyone that during Ramzan, every Koran abiding Muslim goes on a day long, harsh fast wherein they don’t even touch water all day. But as the sun sets, they start a night long fiesta which I think is called Iftar. Mohd Ali Road in Mumbai is one of the most favourite spots to get iftari. And why shouldn’t it be, you get everything possible to be made from meat and eggs in a short distance of 1 km stretch. And not to mention, a few special items that you get only during this period of Ramzan. But every dinner here comes with a cost. Don’t get me wrong here, I really don’t mean the monetary one. This has the cheapest food available. But the cost is made even when you have to sail past a crowd of a million in that same 1 km stretch. For the weak hearted, this place is a nightmare. The traffic jam starts at least 2 kms from the road. And once you get there, a maddening crowd will welcome you.

For an incorrigible foodie, this place is a heaven. Each stall you pass has a distinct aroma to itself. You will find everything starting from Haleem to kheeri to a spl kind of egg malpua. Kheeri is a kind of kebab, well marinated and deep fried. Ah! Sounds like any other kebab that you have eaten... Right?? But its secret lies in the ingredients, which are used to make this very spl kebab. The meat used in Kheeri happens to be the Balls of a goat, which by the way tastes yum. Trust me when I say that you just can’t stop yourself from having another one. I don’t know what is more tempting, eating it or the ‘pleasure’ of eating ‘it’.

Moving to another stall, for the first time in my life, I ate Shandil or Meethi Idli as was translated to me. Though it was not something very unique, still I kind of liked the innovation that somebody thought of. These were nothing but sweetened rice cakes, layered with some sweet rice mix and Pista. Priced at Rs 5 a piece, it was quite an amusing thing to have.

After having, a few more kebabs and soups, we decided to go for the kill of the road, The Egg Malpua. Being a bong, I have had many different varieties of malpua, but never ever in my life did I think that you can make yummy Malpuas with egg. Basically it is a sweetened Malpua batter wherein they use egg instead of milk or water. And once the batter is of the right consistency, they pour a generous dollop of the mix onto hot oil and deep fry it. It comes with a packet of sweetened cream and believe me when I say; it’s a sin to have even a bite of it. The crisp malpua can easily be the queen of all malpuas that I have ever had. I have even heard that this delicacy is made only in Mohd Ali Road and that too during the Ramzaan period. Though personally I have no clue how true this fact is, but I can safely agree that yes, it is the perfect way to bid adieu from Mohd Ali Road.

Pasta in White Sauce with a TWIST!!!!!

I always feel that we as a generation are at a very advantageous situation. Our mothers were taught ‘food-making’ directly from the kitchens of their mother or grandmothers, which they duplicated with great precision. And we grew eating that, very religiously made traditional food. But we as a generation, when started off with our families, we brought in the twist. It is still the traditional food as was made by our grandmothers but with a noticeable twist in it. And I don’t hear any one complaining about that! After all experimentation is the essence of life. And what better lab than, our very own kitchen.
I am sure everyone since childhood has relished the traditional pasta in WHITE SAUCE. I personally love making pasta and my husband personally loves eating them. For all who have cooked white sauce, knows that to getting the right consistency is not easy at all. So in my imperfect cooking, I did figure out how to get the perfect white sauce after its completely gone wrong. Trust me and try my tip once. It never fails!!
Ingredients:
Pasta – 1 cup
For white sauce:
Butter – 1 tsp.
Plain flour or maida - 1 tbsp.
Milk – 1 to 1 ½ cup
Salt
Black Pepper powder
Oregano herb
Red chilli flakes
Fresh coriander and mint leaves
One cube of cheese
For the pasta:
Oil- 2 tbsp
Onions – 2 small ones
Ginger-garlic paste – 1 tsp.
Salt
Any tomato based sauce or as I had used, Thai sweet Red chilly sauce.
Green chillies only if one wants to make it a little spicy. It can be avoided in case u can’t manage spicy food.
Vegetables like mushroom, corn, or capsicum, whatever is available with you. Remember capsicum has a strong flavour, so if u want to use it, use it in less quantity. As I didn’t have capsicum at my place, I used corn and mushroom.
Before I start the recipe let me tell u a secret from my kitchen. The mushroom and corn that I had mentioned earlier came from a subzi my cook made the day before. Once u have eaten and relished a kind of vegetable on your plate, never fear from trying out something different from that same vegetable lying in your fridge. And that’s what I did. I washed it clean of all the Indian masalas and used it in the very Italian pasta!!
Method:
Boil 4-5 cups of water in a pan. Then put in the pasta in the boiling water accompanied with salt and a little oil. Now let it cook till the pasta is soft and easily breakable. Once done put it on a strainer and pour cold water on it.
In a wok, heat some butter. After its melted, put in the flour and let it fry in the butter for some time. Now pour in the milk carefully bit by bit so that lumps are not formed. I have always seen that whenever I make white sauce, it becomes lumpy. So for all souls like me with imperfect cooking, u can easily right the mistake by putting the sauce thru a fine strainer. Then with a spoon strain the lumps in the sauce.
Also as I am fond of runny sauce, I like to add a little water along with the milk. Now add some grated cheese and as the sauce comes to the right consistency, lower the heat and add the seasoning- salt, oregano, chilli flakes and black pepper powder. Once the flavours are nicely blended, add some finely chopped fresh coriander and mint leaves, and remove from the heat. At this stage cover the wok properly and keep it like that for some time, so that the flavour seeps in to the sauce.

For the pasta, in a non stick saucepan, heat some oil. Put in the chopped onions and fry it for around 5-7 mins. Remember as the dish is supposed to be white; don’t let the onion change its colour to brown. Put in the ginger garlic paste and fry it for some time. Now add your choice of vegetables in it and let it cook till the vegetables are soft. Add the desired seasoning, put in the pasta and toss it on low heat. Once done, season it with a little sauce and remove from heat.

Now depending on your way to serve, either mix the pasta and the sauce together or serve it separately. Garnish the dish with mint leaves and enjoy my pasta in white sauce WITH A TWIST!!!

The Fruity Rava Cake...

Being a hard core non vegetarian, it becomes a little difficult for us to think out of the box. When it comes to baking a cake, it always has to have eggs in it. But recently I had a guest who was allergic to anything related to eggs. Though I do know the recipe of a cake made with soda water and condensed milk, yet the incorrigible foodie in me wanted to try something way different than the usual. And so I made a Banana Rava Cake. And judging by the compliments I received, I think it definitely deserves a mention. This recipe is from Goa and so has generous amounts of coconut in it.
Ingredients:

Ripe bananas 3 or as I used, 9 of the small bananas

Rava (wheat sooji) 1 cup

Sodium-bi-carb(baking soda)

1/2 tsp or 1 tea spn baking powder

Cardomom powder 1/2 tsp

Coconut milk 2 cups

Sugar 1/2 cup

Cashewnuts 1 tsp

Salt, yes a pinch of this in a sweet dish enhances the taste even better.

Method:Roast rava over low heat in a kadai until aroma wafts from pan. Then soak that rava in coconut milk for 2 hours.In the mean time mash the bananas well and add soda, salt, sugar and cardamom powder to it.

After 2 hrs, mix the rava well with sugar and banana mix. Put in the cashews. Apply a little butter to cake mould and pour in the mixture. You can decorate with cashews on top. As the cake doesnot have anything which will fluff it, the nuts on top will show and look very beautiful once done.

Preheat the oven at 350F for 10mins. Bake for around 35mins at 350 F or until a knife put in center comes out clean. The cake will be a little difficult to bake as the stubborn rava does take a little more time to cook than your usual cake. Remember to check it in the middle. Once done, let it cool. Then take a roll of thread and slice the cake in half. You can spread some strawberry crush or any other fruit crush as u have. It tastes best when served cold.

The Chinese Noodles and its Bar: Noodle Bar

What better way to spend a leisurely Saturday but to go shopping, catch a movie and then settle in for a nice ‘unlimited’ buffet with a glass of the choicest wine!!! This is my dream Saturday and this is what we did last week. And in the search of food, we ended up in Noodle Bar. Few of our closest friends are dead against this Chinese bar. They don’t like the food, the alcohol or the ambiance. But I beg to differ. May be I went with so less of an expectation that nothing could have made it worse!!! All in all, I found the food quite good and conveniently priced (700 INR for a couple).

Noodle Bar hosts a buffet lunch every day from Monday to Sunday. Though I am not very sure of the timing but I went in pretty late, say around 2:30 pm and still a lot more people came in after us. The food as always was divided in starters, main course and dessert. By policy, the starters are served on the table by the waiters and once u settle in; a waiter welcomes you with a batch of freshly steamed momos in hand. I have to confess that the veg momos here, were mind blowing. It was even better than the chicken ones. Apart from the momos, they had chilly paneer (cottage cheese), stir fried vegetables, and chicken in black bean sauce and mutton in Hunao sauce (I am sure I got the spelling wrong!). Though the service was not very impressive, yet once when the hot, fresh out of the wok food landed on the plate, I didn’t care for it so much. The portions were generous and the servers served with a smile.

After the amazing starters, the main course or the soup and salads didn’t look so very tempting. There were separate tables for vegetarian and non- vegetarian food. In the non veg spread, there was every kind of meat available in different sauces. You had a choice between chicken Hakka noodles or veg fried rice. It tasted nice but the starters were nicer!!

In the dessert counter, there was the great Chinese Crispy Fried Noodles with vanilla ice-cream along with mango soufflé, pineapple pastries and cut fruits. Crispy fried noodles were very cold. I wish they could just keep it in a way that it keeps them warm and not hot or cold. The mango soufflé was amazing and pastries weren’t bad either. As a fruit lover, I hate to say this but the cut fruits were completely unnecessary. They looked stale and definitely not appetizing.
As my over all verdict, I say that one should only go to the buffet for the starters. You should just settle in your seat and enjoy unlimited portions of starters with your favourite drink. We ordered for a bottle of Chenin Blanc and trust me when I say; white wine goes great with Chinese food. Try it!!

Photograph Courtesy: mumbai.burrp.com/.../11345396_noodle-bar

CHICKEN CROQUETTES

As promised in my last post, here is a mouth watering recipe of a kind of chicken croquettes. Though I got inspired by the croquettes I ate in Hotel Il Palazzo, yet because of some experimentation, I ended up making a great snack for a cocktail party.

INGREDIENTS:
Chicken Mince – 500 gms
Boiled egg – 1
2 midium onions finely chopped
1 tsp ground ginger
Coriander leaves nicely chopped
Green chilly nicely chopped
1 raw egg
Bread crumbs
Oil for frying
Salt and pepper for taste
Method:
In a big bowl mash the boiled egg properly and mix the chicken mince, onions and ginger together. In this mix, add the coriander and green chillies as per taste. Though I am not too sure of how much coriander one wants, yet try to put in a little more. The smell of coriander with chicken goes very well. And in the absence of any masala (Indian spices), this flavour renders the dish a unique taste. Now add the raw egg in the mix, transforming it into a dry paste. Don’t make it too watery. If it happens then add some bread crumbs in it which will make it thick.
Now oil your palms slightly and shape the mince mix in small balls or flatten it like a kabab. Spread the bread crumbs on a plate and dust the kebabs well with it. Once all the croquettes are dusted and done, put it in the fridge for at least 2 hrs before deep frying in hot oil till it browns from both sides.
This dish is very different from the normal chicken kababs or balls as it has no masala into it. If you happen to have any other suggestions, do write in. After all what is cooking without experimentation. Serve hot with hung curd dip and a nice cocktail (blue lagoon!!!)
Bon Appétit!!!

Il Palazzo @ Panchgani (Part 2)

How can I finish writing about Panchgani and not mention Il Palazzo? If I have to rate my trip to the beautiful valley, then definitely this particular hotel will get the top most rating. It is a bungalow, situated very near market, and yet magically, very quiet. The beautifully manicured gardens and the small swimming pool with a swing beside is a real treat. This is basically a hotel run by a Parsi family in their ancestral home. Though we were not staying in this hotel, we still managed to see the big spacious rooms decorated in the antique style but with every modern amenities required. The bathroom specially has got both the styles integrated beautifully. You will find a big dresser before you get into the bath. Though the bungalow doesn’t promise a good view of the valley, yet for people who plan to spend a quite weekend away from the city, and want to get thoroughly pampered, are most welcome here.




Priced at an economical 3000 Rs per night, it promises to be a great stay. The fare also includes four mouth-wateringly good meals. As they follow the Parsi style of cooking, thus you will find your meals in various courses, served by a waiter who is constantly monitoring your plate. If you want to try the food only, then book for a lunch or dinner in advance. They don’t take in booking for breakfast or snacks. We went for a sumptuous lunch and got the following courses to savour.


The first course included a delicious green pea soup accompanied with fresh bread. The bread was so soft that as you put it in your mouth, it melted away. In the starters, we had some chicken croquet which went very well with the pea soup. Back home, I tried to duplicate the croquets and ended up making a great cocktail snack. Watch out this space for the recipe which is coming soon.


In the main course, we had all possible meat available in Panchgani’s market. There was a Parsi style chicken curry. I assume they call it Sali-boti when it is served with potatoes. There was a nicely spiced sukha mix vegetable. Also with it was Malwani pomfret curry and mutton made in a delicious coconut curry. And along with this, there were chapattis or rice, whatever one wishes for.


Once our main course got over, my husband, an eternal fan of sweets and confectionary couldn’t wait for a moment before sinking his teeth into the delicious Sev pudding with cherry topping. The portions given on the table were huge and one could ask for a repeat of any course as you desire. Priced at a modest 300 INR per person, this was our best meal in Panchgani so far. What else can I say but a complete paisa vasool.


For a full weekend of such gorgeous lay of food, you have to burn a lot of energy. For this I recommend that whenever you go out, try not to take a car along. Walk a lot and freak out in the small swimming pool. Trust me at the end you will not regret.


PS: for book lovers, the hotel has a big collection of all kinds of book. You can easily seat yourself on a shaded swing and freak out with any of those books, as much as you want.

Photograph courtesy: www.goindiaholidays.com/il-palazzo.html, http://www.ilpalazzo.co.in/rooms.php?f=1,

Monsoon maaza @ Panchagani (Part 1)

Maharashtra is famous for its monsoon. Especially in Mumbai, the monsoon is the most awaited season. It is then that we see what BMC was up to for the whole of the last year. And it is then that we see what Mumbai-iets are made of. The colour, the fragrance and the spirit of Mumbai comes in all together in this season. After enjoying the monsoons in Mumbai, we planned to venture into the adjoining locales of the Western Ghats for a weekend break. For majority of Mumbai-ites, Lonavala & Khandala is synonymous with monsoon weekend getaway. However, we thought of venturing a little beyond into a small hamlet, nestled amidst five hills in the Sahyādri mountain ranges, called Panchgani. Krishna River flows through its valleys making the view completely breathtaking. It is not a surprise that the place has inspired Darsheel Safary (of “Tare Zameen Pe” fame) to paint his way out of dyslexia. And as for the topographical description, it is about a five hour drive away from the Mumbai city (approx. 280 kms).



HOTEL RAVINE

When you are staying in a hill station, you definitely have to stay in a place which overlooks the beautiful valley and the river. And thus we chose to stay in the three star, HOTEL RAVINE. The hotel stands near the scenic Sydney Point which gives a beautiful view of the valley. The rooms overlooking the valley have big French windows facing the valley. It has all the other amenities like a LCD TV, AC and a mini fridge (as it is a dry hotel, I recommend you to carry your own booze). But when you come to the food part, the hotel doesn’t provide many options. Your choice is limited in Chicken and paneer and that’s it. The restaurant or the confectionary doesn’t look very promising either. This hotel actually stands out only for its beautiful location and nothing else. I suggest that you should only be staying here while trying other options in the market for food.

MAPRO GARDENS

Panchgani is 18 kms from Mahabaleshwar. This place is famous for strawberries. If you visit the place in and around May, you may be able to pluck strawberries with your hand and eat them fresh out of the garden. But because we went in later, we could only try the preserved ones. You can easily get Mapro items in Mumbai but the fun of going to the factory outlet, would be missed. They have many range of products, be it strawberry iced tea, jam or jelly. I also found a bottle of blue Curacao which can churn out beautiful Blue lagoons (both virgin and not). Apart from buying off the shelf products, Mapro also has a great food stall and ice cream parlour. The one thing I truly loved here was the waffle cones. They were actually making fresh waffle cones, just like pancakes, only a crispier version of that. I m sure if you try those warm cones with fresh strawberries and a little ice cream, you will be transported to a mini food haven.

Though I personally didn’t try but the Mapro food counter is famous for its sandwiches and milk shakes. Whatever said and done, make sure of one thing that you do not forget to try their strawberry ice-cream. It is truly amazing!!!

The Biryani madness simplified...

The last day, we thought of trying on something we have never tried at home ever. Actually after eating it, I can safely say that we had never eaten it before as well (though here one must confess that I have never ever set my foot in Hyderabad before!!!). We tried to conjure up the right ‘Hyderabadi Katchi Mutton Biryani’ in our kitchen. For people who are not very sure of the difference between a katchi biryani and a pakki biryani, let me tell you that a pakki biryani is nothing but steaming already cooked mutton and rice together so that the flavour gets mixed up. On the other hand the katchi biryani is cooked with raw meat and half cooked rice. Needless to mention that yes the later tastes much better but is a little difficult and time taking. But what I need to mention is that the katchi variety is more refreshing and less fattening (not a single drop of ghee!!).

We referred to a site called vahrevah.com to get the recipe. It’s actually a total comedy show with an over animated chef (the recent Bingo guy) who actually cries saying that good food makes him cry (sheesh!!@#$!!). Despite the histrionics, the recipe mentioned and the tips provided in the video is worth watching. You can see the full video on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOvFCGjGp1A

But before you start making the great biryani, let me give you some tips. It is a good idea to actually marinate the meat overnight with a raw papaya or any other tenderiser you use. Before the final marination, try to take out the papaya so that you don’t compromise with the taste. Also add a bit of freshly ground ginger garlic paste in both the kinds of marination. It tastes better with it. When frying onions, don’t deep fry as shown in the video. Shallow fry it and add that oil in the mutton for marination.
Instead of maze (javitri) as the whole spice, I used cinnamon (dalchini). You may try it or use maze if you have. Last but not the least, if you don’t have good saffron, don’t use it. It is ridiculously expensive and the variety you get in normal kirana stores in Mumbai don’t add any flavour to it. Don’t worry about the colour of the biryani because it will take up the meat’s colour

So then, what are you waiting for? Once done, serve it with some chilled white wine and anar dana raita. Bon appétit!!

Restaurant Review- Fusion food China gate, Bandra, Mumbai

Recently on a Friday, my hubby and I decided to celebrate our coming weekend with élan. That’s how we chose to have dinner at a swanky restaurant in Bandra. We are Bengalis and have grown on fish. But the Bengalis prefer to double cook their fish. Though Bengali cuisine is all about fresh water fish (less smelly), yet we fry the fish first and then put it to simmer in mustard glazed curry (mostly, though we have plenty of other variations as well). But the thought of eating raw fish wrapped in a sea weed is not something many bongs can relish, let alone actually eating them. I thought even I belonged to that kind of genre, but for my ever experimentative husband, I did try and liked the sushi very much. We went to China gate in Bandra (opp. KFC).

This restaurant is a sea food buffet heaven. The decor is beautiful. It has a small inbuilt lake- imitation with fishes inside. Children truly loved to gaze around the pool to spot different varieties of fishes inside. The other thing I liked about this restaurant apart from food was that they provided bottled mineral water only. The food was divided in many categories. The spread started with a sushi bar, with veg on one side and non veg on two sides. I was very apprehensive to try them, especially after looking at their raw faces. One can actually see the red meat of the fish. At first I tried the veg sushi and upon insistence from my better half, took only one of the non veg. But lo and behold, it was superb, just the right softness and nothing seemed raw to me. The next time, I was braver in picking up each kind of fish sushi and try them. Trust me when I say, it was awesome. It was even better than steamed momos, which was my favourite south Asian food, till then.

The next counter had a variety of momos and dumplings, tempuras and other south Asian starters. The starters were so good that we straightaway graduated to desserts after that, completely ignoring the main course. The main course had a variety of (Indianised) Chinese food. And after the superb starters the Chinese fried rice was not that welcoming. But the dessert was again a great spread. There were mouthful bites of 6-7 different kinds of pastries, 2-3 differently flavoured cheese cakes, 4 kinds of cookies and cakes each. The spread is unlimited so you may fill in as many plates as you want.

The service and hospitality of the staff was very appreciable. They were courteous and served with a smile. The spread was replenished very efficiently. It was only the prawn tempuras which were evasive.

For people who would like to enjoy a drink with their sushi, there is a fully functional bar there which is not included in the buffet though. The rates are ok and not very expensive. Weekdays are cheaper than the weekend starting from Friday evening. The place is well maintained and the chefs seemed to be imported from Japan itself. All in all a total paisa vasool and should be tried once at least.

Stepping into the revered world of food...

Food, air & water- 3 things vital for existence of Homo sapiens. Without getting into the debate as to who the creator was, let me start off to tell you a story. A story of how food became such a darling while the other two were reduced to be omnipresent step daughters.
Some billions of centuries ago, there were 2 people, Adam the ‘Man’ and Eve the ‘Woman’. The God (Supposedly the creator you see...) agreed to let them use everything whatever he created but for one small thing, an apple orchard (ding-dong, you don’t have to be a genius to know where the story is leading). The rest of the story is history. Eve wanted the forbidden fruit and she had it but couldn’t live happily ever after.
Now you see, the point of the story is that anything that is forbidden (without reasons of course!!! I don’t blame eve at all) is always sweeter. And once when you have already been punished (so called!!#@!! I am glad that I can bear and nurture life) then why don’t we use it to the max. I guess all generations of Eves thereafter took upon this thought and came out with some amazing stuff like apple pies, apple plum cakes and our very own desi apple kheer.
From there on, there was no turning back. In came the trend to mix various ingredients of food in various quantities and conjure up a beautifully made dish.
And this is an earnest effort from my side to pay a very deserving tribute to all those eves who have given us such amazing recipes over the generations, to cherish. I start this blog by inviting foodies from all over the world to come together and share their experiences, recipes and reviews of any damn thing which is even remotely concerned with FOOD.