Cauliflower potato dry (Aaloo Gobi Dry)

This is a kickass dish, and very simple to cook.

Here is how.

Ingredients:

1. Cauliflower 1
2. Onions 2 medium sized ones
3. Tomatoes 2
4. Potatoes

Spices:
1. Cumin seeds
2. Hing 
3. Garam Masala
4. Haldi
5. Chilli Powder
6. Aamchur or Tamarind
7. Salt to taste


Cook Time: 15-20 minutes
Prep Time: 10 minutes


Procedure:

Part 1: The Cauliflower.

The cauliflower is an ecosystem in itself. It has worms, bits and pieces of different vegetation growing on it. So it becomes imperative to clean it thoroughly.

Cut out the florets from the cauliflower.

Boil water in a pan, with salt. Toss in the florets into them, and make sure it stays there for at least 10 minutes. Once done, take out the water, rinse florets thoroughly and cut out any back/ green parts on the floret. After this, give it another thorough rinse.


Part 2: The rest of the curry

1. Heat oil in a pan with oil and cumin seeds and hing.
2. Once the cumin seeds begin to cackle add the finely chopped onions and fry till translucent.
3. Put the finely chopped tomatoes and cook for 2-3 minutes.
4. Add the potatoes and cauliflower florets. Add some water and let it cook for 5 minutes.
5. Add Haldi (turmeric), Chilly powder, Aamchur or Tamarind water, salt and garam masala with enough water to cover the vegetables.
6. Cook in low flame till all the water evaporates.
7. To garnish you can sprinkle some finely chopped coriander.

Serve with fulkas, parathas, or naan!

Enjoy your meal!

Chinese food cravings

Every once in a while I crave for chinese food.
This is the list of things I feel like having
1. Chicken steamed momos
2. Chicken sweet corn soup
3. Pepper chicken dry
4. Triple Schezwan chicken rice
5. Crispy spicy grilled chicken

And maybe a little bit of american chopsuey.

Well... I would not mind a little bit of shredded lamb with seasame seeds.

I love pork meat as well, but I do not trust an indian chinese outlet to have quality pork so I stay away from pork.

Now that I think of Chinese food, I also feel like having some really good prawns, and maybe a chicken spring roll.

A prawn fried rice with some garlic chicken would totally make my day.

I guess i'll have to wait a while before I can eat all that.

Dinner is going to be some chinese guys... Or so it would seem.

I wonder if gluttony is a sin... I guess in that case I am going to hell. I love food. And I dream about food.

A good Chocolate Sundae

What makes a good chocolate Sundae?

Here is what I found.

1. Freshly made hot chocolate brownies,
2. Three scoops of Vanilla Ice Cream
3. A generous helping of hot bitter chocolate sauce.
4. Nuts.
5. A little less than generous helping of fresh sour cream.

Result.

DEATH by Chocolate.

This is something you will find in any shop by an ice cream chain called Corner House operating out of Bangalore and Mysore.

What or how do you feel when you eat this?

Bliss.

First you taste the hot fresh chocolate brownies. Followed by a cool vanilla ice cream which soothes those sweet spots on your tongue. Then cometh the sour cream which sends a tangy jitter down the sides of your tongue.

And finally the bitter chocolate sauce conquers the middle section of your tongue, and ultimately your mouth.

By the time you open your eyes, all thats there in your mouth are a few pieces of nuts which you will be enjoying along with the bitter sweet aftertaste of chocolate.

* I should really get some ice cream right now*

If you are in Bangalore or Mysore, please do make it a point to visit a Corner House and ask for a DBC with fresh brownies. They do add those cherries, but you can opt not to add it. I do not not like them particularly, but hey, no one is stopping you!

Chainese Item: Chilli Potato

A quick snack the Chilli Potato:

You need:
1. Potatoes
2. Ginger
3. Garlic
4. Onions
5. Tomatoes
6. Green Chilli
7. Red Chilli Powder
8. Soya Sauce
9. Tomato Ketchup
10. Salt
11. Oil
12. Capsicum and/or Spring Onion

Utensils you need:

1. Pressure Cooker
2. Pan
3. Spatula
4. Knife
5. Chopping Board

How to go about it if you are cooking for two people.

1. The Potato (2-3 medium to large sized ones)

• Now take them potatoes, place them inside a pressure cooker. Pour water on them till they are 7/8ths immersed in water.
• Place the whistle on the cooker and leave it on the gas oven till you hear 3 whistles.
• Once you hear the whistle. Take the cooker off, wait for the steam to escape.
• Open the cooker. Take the semi-boiled/ potato peel the skin off of it, cut them in whatever shape takes your fancy.

• Now heat oil in the pan.
• Fry the potatoes till a light shade of brown.

2. The Mix

• In the pan, drain off some of the oil. Because obviously you do not need so much of oil for cooking the mix.
• Add finely chopped onions and fry till golden brown. (you'll need 2 medium sized onions)
• Add the finely chopped ginger and garlic to this and stir for sometime. (3-4 pieces of garlic and ginger about the size of a penny)
• Once done, add the finely chopped tomato. (Half a medium sized tomato)
• Add salt chilli powder and cook till you see the oil float above the tomatoes. (salt as per taste, chilli powder about a heaped teaspoon)
• Add the Soya Sauce (About a teaspoon)
• And tomato ketchup (About 4-5 tablespoons)
• 
  
• Mix everything thoroughly.

3. The finale.

• Add the capsicum. spring onion and fried potatoes.
• Mix everything and stir fry the whole thing for 4-5 minutes.

And voila, you are good to go.

Secret Food Destinations

Kebabs, those delightfully tasty oven cooked pieces of meat which makes any spicy meat lover from the Indian Subcontinent salivate, are some of the most abused and ill made dishes across different geographies.

In my travels around India, I was able to find only a handful of places which serve kebabs as we ought to have them.

Now let me clarify, that I haven't really been to many parts of India, just the metropolitan cities, but here are a few places where you might find something that you like.

The first place I'd like to talk about is Galinas, a small, nondescript shop on Gole Market near Karol Bagh, a place which a haven for all kebab fans. This place is at least about 50 years old. Has been making kebabs having the same taste for all this while. A must have delicacy here is the mutton seekh rolls. Covered in rumali rotis, served with a delicious mint chutney with onions and their special salt, these are kebab rolls to die for. All this at very affordable rates.

The secret to good kebabs I guess is the minced meat that goes into making the kebab, and the marinate which gives it their delicious taste.

When you bite into this kebab, the first thing that hits you is the neutral taste of the maida rumali roti, followed by the awesome taste of the garlic laced kebab, delicately cooked in a tandoor. Mixed with the mint sauce and onions with the unique seasoning salt makes it an experience of a lifetime.

How to knead dough for Indian bread (Chapati/ poorie/ parantha)

My experiments with wheat have now become a big stress reliever.


Everyday, when I come back home from work, I look forward to slapping, punching and kneading the poop out of that flour water oil mix!

Well, I thought I'd share some general tips with you. Especially with them men to whom making chapatis don't occur as naturally as one would think. Trust me, I sort of mastered the craft only recently.

Anyway, straight to the point, how to we knead the flour. Here are the steps:

1. Take a vessel where you will be kneading the dough.
2. Coat the vessel with a couple of teaspoons of oil so that there is a thin film of oil on the vessel.
3. Take the flour, depending on how much you need. I would recommend that you take very little, say about two cup fulls.
4. Make a hole in between the mound of flour, with your finger, make sure the deal looks like a volcano, a dormant one.
5. Pour about a tablespoon of oil into this orifice. Cover with flour and start to poke your finger in and drawing circles. Once all the oil is absorbed by the flour time to put to water.
6. Start small, that is the mantra to a successful dough. Put little quantities of water and mix the flour, till you get just about the right consistency. If you are using the same cup as the one you used to measure the flour, start by adding quarter cups of water.
7. Once you get a dough like consistency, mix well so that you get a fairly soft mix and viola! You have dough required to make chapatis, phulkas, paranthas!

Worked for me, hope it works for you.

If you wish to see pictures please feel to mail into me.

Mysore Foods: Part 1

What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think about Mysore?

Well here are a few options to get you going.

1. If you haven't heard about Mysore, you do a Wiki search. Well I have saved you the effort of typing Mysore on Google. And here is the wiki link.

2. You start thinking palace, gardens, old city, slow city.

3. You think about Infosys, which has the world's largest corporate training facility in this city.

Well I am not going to talk about any of that. I am simply going to talk about food.

What to eat when you are in Mysore.

If you have lived here as long as I have, you probably know of all the good and interesting places. A simple web search will give you the names of some of the more popular restaurants.

My objective here is to give you the names of places, where you would normally not visit if you are a tourist in the city.

In my opinion, these are the places that you absolutely MUST visit if you are an avid foodie and traveller.

1. Hotel RRR : Now this place from the outside looks quite nondescript. Simple restaurant, and something that you can easily miss. However let me tell you, this place is the best place for authentic Hyderabadi biriyani that you can hope to get anywhere in Mysore.

On an average, on weekends, during lunch hours, the waiting time to get into the restaurant is 20 minutes. The place is tightly run with service which is extremely fast. The seating enables about 40 people to eat at one go. No, you can't book a table. Also, if you are not comfortable with eating with complete strangers sitting right next to you, you might find the experience a little uncomfortable. However, if you are a sucker for Biriyani, this would not bother you one bit once the food arrives at your table.

The food is served on Banana Leaves. Traditional south-indian style. What often fascinates me at restaurants are the utterly pointless things at the table. In this case there is dried and salted chillies, spicy, really spicy, mango pickle, salt and pepper. 

Now to the real deal. 

The Biriyani. 

Now the rice is long grained basmati rice, of one of the finest qualities. You can smell the spices as soon as the food arrives on the table. You can smell an assortment of cardamom, cinnamon, bay leaves, cloves, bell pepper and curry leaves.

The rice is dry, but not so much so that you have to add gravy to it.

The secret to a good biriyani as I have often told my friends is the container it is cooked in. Traditional biriyani cooked in earthen pots have a distinct smell of burnt clay, which is missing in biriyani cooked in steel cookware. In this place, the biriyani is cooked in steel vessels.

As you put a morsel of this in your mouth, there is an explosion of flavors. You can taste the slightly sweet caramelized onions, the explosive and spicy chillies, the sublime and tender sourness of the curd which was used to marinate the chicken.

If I had to rate this biriyani out of all biriyanis I have had, its got to get a 3.5 out of 5.

Here is a link to the location of the place on Google Maps

Hi

I love food.

I love eating everything and anything. I love cooking.

I love travelling.

I am going to try to put together my eating experiences here. I will talk about specific places. I will talk about specific recipes that I found interesting.

Hope you enjoy reading this. And hope that these reads inspire you to get out there and eat!