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