Five Quick Vegetarian Dips and Spreads

To Make Hung Curd

Take a cup full of yogurt in a fine mesh sieve or a muslin cloth and hang it and remove the excess moisture. Allow it to hang for two hours to overnight.

Dip 1

Hung Curd ½ cup

Processed Cheese, grated (Cheddar) ½ cup

Red Chilli Flakes 1 teaspoon

Chopped Coriander Leaves, chopped 1 teaspoon

Method:

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Whisk them together, mix well. Serve chilled.

Dip 2

Hung Curd ½ cup

Lemon Juice 1 teaspoon

Lemon Rind , grated ½ teaspoon

Scallion/ spring onion, chopped 2 tablespoons

Method:

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Whisk them together, mix well. Serve chilled.

Dip 3

Hung Curd ½ cup

Garlic, minced 1 tablespoon

Sesame Paste 1 tablespoon

Cream 1 tablespoon

Method:

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Whisk them together, mix well. Serve chilled.

Dip 4

Hung Curd ½ cup

Mint leaves, chopped 2 teaspoons

Green Chilli, chopped 1 teaspoon

Ginger, minced 1 teaspoon

Coriander Leaves, chopped 2 teaspoon

Lemon juice 1 teaspoon

Method:

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Whisk them together, mix well. Serve chilled.

Dip 5

Hung Curd ¼ cup

Cream ¼ cup

Mustard Paste 1 tablespoon

Tomato Sauce 1 tablespoon (you can use chilli sauce)

Red Chilli, chopped ½ teaspoon

Vinegar 1 teaspoon

Sugar 1 teaspoon

Method:

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Whisk them together, mix well. Serve chilled.

Eat them with cut up salad, tortilla chips and potato fingers.

What Not To Eat at Dara’s; A Surprising Revelation

Name : Dara’s Dhaba

Location: Ghodbunder Road, 2km from Dahisar Checkpost

Contact: 022- 28456119/ 32970818

Time of Visit: 6^th September, 2011 [Dinner]

A dimly lit dhaba in the suburbs of the city with knitted cots, bolsters and the slight hustle bustle of the vehicles passing by, Dara’s ambience is a breath of fresh air from the claustrophobia of the city. The family seated on the next table won’t be able to hear your private conversation. So, drive to the suburbs, unwind on a weekend over a couple of beers and try out the variety of Panjabi delicacies Dara’s has to offer.

Mine and I were seated comfortably under the cloudy September sky, sipping beer. Could it be anything other than Tandoori Chicken, to make that evening perfect? That orange-red fleshy, robust tangdi of tandoori chicken, wherever you see it, hear about it, smell it, it seduces you till you give in. So, I was ready to surrender myself to the song of that evening, fulfilling with the open space, the pleasant monsoon breeze, the peace and someone to share it with. Although I am usually pretty stingy when it comes to sharing beers and chicken tangdis, who wouldn’t be?

Anyway, after a wait the tandoori chicken was served at our table. I obviously grabbed on to the tangdi and dug my teeth into it like a hungry animal, I couldn’t wait any longer. If you believe that no one can go wrong with tandoori chicken, break that bubble because you are highly mistaken. Dara’s can and they did, unexpectedly so. Dara’s Dhaba, a dhaba, go wrong with tandoori chicken? I know, it sounds really absurd and hard to believe. But believe me I couldn’t believe my tongue either. I have been to this place before. I have tried out their awesome dal makhani and butter chicken, craving to visit again for weeks. But this tandoori chicken was clearly a let down.

Dara’s tandoori chicken had a strong smell and lingering after taste of mustard oil that evening. Unlike many others my taste buds are not mustard oil intolerant, I love it, and I use it in many of my recipes. Nearly all recipes of Punjabi tandoori chicken include mustard oil. I use mustard oil in my version of tandoori chicken as well, but the trick is that the oil is heated to smoking point before adding it to the chicken. The problem with this tandoori chicken was that the oil was probably not heated properly before addition. I could distinctly get the scent of mustard oil in my chicken. The after taste made the flavour of the tandoori chicken unpleasant and I did not care for the rest. The chicken was cooked well and the inside flesh was flavourful but the uncooked mustard oil smell made the dish disappointing.

Dara’s did manage to make up for a lovely evening, in spite of a disappointing start. The service was prompt and flawless. Their staff members were courteous and polite. For main course we tried their paneer khurchan with rumali rotis and some cheese naan. The khurchan, was a yummy orangish, dhaba-style thick paneer gravy. The rumali rotis were, funnily enough, crispy, but I liked it. Who cares about the fine technicalities of a rumal, when you are chilling at a suburban dhaba? As for the cheese naan, need I even mention? It was coated in butter, finger-licking awesome.

The rabdi, well, what can I say, it made my day, evening and the coming week. I was reluctant about eating it at first. I was too full. When I saw that little clay bowl with the rabdi flavoured with saffron and garnished with mixed nuts, my heart melted and my mouth salivated. There were mixed feelings, temptation, greed, ah, forget about it, I’m going in. You know how it is with rabdi, you can’t really stop eating it once you have already begun. Gluttony is my sin. So, Dara’s Dhaba,

Good Food + Very Good Service+ Very good Ambience+ Very Good Value for money = Very Good

Rating= 8 on Ten

What Do you Think When You Think Pizza?

Name: California Pizza Kitchen

Location: First Floor, High Street Phoenix

Contact: 022 - 65558888

Date of Visit: 6^th September, 2011 [Lunch hour]

What do you think when you think Pizza? No, seriously, give it a minute and imagine it. Can you taste the cheese, the tomato sauce, the basil and the oregano on top? Don’t you love that stringy cheese? Well, my pizza at California Pizza Kitchen was not that sort of pizza, so throw that montage out of the window.  It is a Pizza kitchen, so let us talk about the pizza they serve, first. Don’t get me wrong the pizza was alright, but it is probably not the Pizza you just imagined. The bread was just out of the oven, it smelled and tasted fresh and good. The tomato sauce was bright, yet subtle so as to not over power the other flavours on the pizza; so was the cheese, not to strong to overpower the other flavours. The flavours on this Pizza were married very well and not one of them dominated the others. Except the herbs, the fresh beautiful herbs, you could smell those fresh herbs, it was beautiful and it is what will win your heart in this place. To prevent myself from being seduced by cheese or pepperoni, I ordered a subtle 'New' vegetarian pizza. The New! (as mentioned on the menu card), Eggplant Pizza.

You might say, Eggplant, really? I know what you mean, it is not really the topmost item on my list of favourites, yet, I do believe that some chefs can magically transform an ingredient into something amazing. Have you tried the eggplant in a well made ratatouille? You will never make that funny face when you hear ‘eggplant’ again. Anyway, before I get totally carried away about the awesomeness of ratatouille, not the movie, although that wasn’t half bad as well! Let us talk about the eggplant pizza. Well, I don’t think the chef had a magic wand back there because the eggplant did not taste like something out of this world, it tasted, mundane. I would be okay with the eggplant if it wasn’t the main ingredient on my Pizza and all I could taste was eggplant, eggplant and eggplant everywhere.

 The freshness of the ingredients, the smell of the herbs, the olive oil, the bread, that is what you tend to appreciate in the California Pizza Kitchen Pizza. That is good, because it is what makes this Pizza special and different from other Pizzas. Look at this as a Dining place rather than a Pizza place and you will love it. We are Indians, as a community we tend to often appreciate stronger flavours. This place brings out a different face of the pizza from the one we often grab on weekends over a movie and chilled beer. The cheese is right there, but it doesn’t take away from the other ingredients. The funny part is, when you think California Pizza, you think American Pizza, often overloaded with cheese but this Pizza is more like the Pizza I ate in Italy, simple, subtle, fresh and delicious. So, eat with a wide mind and open mouth, oh sorry, that was the other way. Try it out with a wide mouth and an open mind and I am sure that you will love it.

The other dish on the table was Spaghetti with spinach and tomato. It did not look very saucy, but bright and again, fresh. My friend and former colleague from a food channel, Suman who I was catching up with over lunch had ordered this dish. Suman aka Superman was off food for many months. She had doubts about being able to finish that spaghetti. To tell you the truth, I was looking forward to finishing her spaghetti myself. I thought she will be done in a couple of morsels. She ate the entire dish, she ate it all, did not leave out a single morsel. I smiled and said, ‘I bet that spaghetti was really good’. ‘Yes’, she said, ‘I am going to click a picture to show my friends I finished it!’ Fortunately, my Pizza was pretty big, so I was full.

Let me be honest with you, I was so full that I did not even look at the dessert. For dessert, if you look, you eat. Then again, the list of desserts had a variety of choices and looked, well, enticing! I won’t comment on them because I did not eat them. It is no surprise, that Suman, although is a sweet tooth, was too full to have dessert as well. It was a pleasant afternoon, with good food and great conversation, which involved a little bickering about old colleagues, indeed, no girly afternoon, is complete without that. So, all in all,

Good Food + Good Value For Money + Good Ambience + Good Service = California Pizza Kitchen

Rating = 7.5 on Ten 

Indulge in Lord Ganesha’s Favourite; Modak

Ganesh Chaturthi is incomplete without Modaks and Puran Polis. I recently read about chocolate modaks, mava modaks and maida with sesame modaks. These are the contemporary versions of the modak. I like to go for the real modak, the traditional Maharashtrian style modak. I learnt how to make the original modak which Lord Ganesha loves. With the rice flour and coconut flavour, that blends like a marriage made in heaven. The warm modak with lots of ghee, mmmmmmmmm!

Modak

For the Dough

Rice Flour (Chaval Ka atta) 4 cups

Water (Paani) 4 cups

Unsalted, clarified butter (Ghee) 1 teaspoon

Salt a pinch

For the Filling

Fresh Grated Coconut (Gari) 4 cups

Jaggery (Gud), grated 2 cups

Mixed Dried Fruits and Nutes (Meva) Almonds, raisins, cashew and walnuts ½ cup

Nutmeg (Jaiphal) ¼ teaspoon

Poppy Seeds (KhusKhus), roasted 1 teaspoon

Green Cardamom (Elaichi) 4 pods, crushed

Modak Mould

Method:

For the Dough

In a deep pan, boil four cups of water. Add a pinch of salt and ghee in the water. Add in the rice flour little by little, whisk vigorously. Do not allow any lumps to form in the mixture. Add in the entire rice flour in the boiling water and keep whisking the mixture until it is smooth. It becomes a thick dough-like mixture. Cover it up with a lid for fifteen to twenty minutes. This will make the dough smooth.

Keep the dough aside.

For the filling

In a pan, add in the grated coconut and cook on medium heat. Add in the grated jaggery and mix well. Blend both the ingredients together. Keep stirring and blending them together.

Cook them together until they turn into a golden coloured mixture. Mix well.

Now, chop the mixed dry fruits roughly and add them into the coconut and jaggery mixture.

Crush and add the roasted poppy seeds, nutmeg and green cardamom in the mixture.

Mix all the ingredients and blend them together with each other.

To Make the Modak with the Modak Mould

First, take a bowl full of water with a tablespoon of vegetable oil mixed in it. Apply this water and oil mixture properly on the inside of the modak mould.

Apply this water oil mixture on your hands. Take a lemon size portion from the dough mixture and round it up in your palm.

Put this portion of dough inside the modak mould.

Make a cavity in the centre of the dough with your thumb. Press the dough evenly with your fingers, on the sides of the modak mould, making a large cavity in the center.

Add a tablespoon of the mixture in the cavity and fill up the cavity completely.

Take another small piece of the dough and seal the modak from the bottom, making it flat and even on the base.

Open the mould and remove the modak. Finish the entire dough and the filling, making even size modaks.

To Make the Modak Without the Mould

Apply a mixture of water and oil on your palms. Take a lemon size portion of the dough.

Round it up and flatten it between your palms.

Roll it out on a flat surface into a circle, half the size of your hand.

Make little folds in four or five places around the edges of the circle.

Place a tablespoon full of the filling in the centre of the circle.

Bring the ends together in the centre and press gently.

The Modak should be pointed on the top. Make Modaks with the entire dough and filling mixture in a similar fashion.

To Cook the Modaks

Dip them in a bowl of water, and then place them over a banana leaf in a steamer. (Use a double boiler with a strainer if steamer is unavailable).

Steam the Modaks for eight to ten minutes.

Serve them warm with a teaspoon full of ghee (unsalted, clarified).

Chilli Chicken Desi Style

Chilli Chicken – Serves 4

Ingredients

Chicken, boneless, cut into strips or chunks 1 ½ cups

Soy Sauce 1 +1 tablespoon

Cornstarch 1+1 tablespoon

Sesame Oil 2 tablespoon (use vegetable oil)

Garlic 6 to 8 cloves, minced

Ginger 1 inch, mined

Green Chilli 2 to 4, slit lengthwise

Spring Onion Bulbs 6 to 8 cut lengthwise

Chicken Stock 1 ½ cup

Salt to taste

For Garnish:

Spring Onion Greens few stalks cut lengthwise (keep them in chilled water until use)

Method:

In a bowl, mix soy sauce and cornstarch. Add in the chicken pieces and coat them in the mixture. Keep them aside.

In a wok or a large kadhai, heat 1 tablespoon oil. Once the oil is very hot, add in the chicken pieces and stir-fry for 2 to 3 minutes on high heat, until cooked. Keep them aside.

Wipe the wok and add in the remaining oil. Once the oil is hot, add in the ginger, garlic, green chilli and spring onion bulbs, stir-fry on high heat for one minute.

Mix the remaining soy sauce and cornstarch.

Add in the chicken and stir. Add in the chicken stock and the soy sauce and cornstarch mixture and stir. Bring the sauce to a boil. Add salt.

Turn off the heat. Add in the spring onion greens on top. Serve hot with fried rice.

Stir Fried Vegetables in Szechwan Sauce

Stir Fried Vegetables in Szechwan Sauce Serves 4

Ingredients

Tofu, cut into triangles 8 pieces (substitute Paneer in Tofu in unavailable)

Soy Sauce 2 teaspoons

Cornstarch 1+1 tablespoon

Button Mushrooms, halved 10 pieces

Sesame Oil 2 tablespoon (use vegetable oil)

Garlic 3 cloves, minced

Ginger ½ inch, minced

French Beans, cut into ½ inch pieces ½ cup

Red Bell Pepper, cut into triangles 10 pieces

Spring Onion White part 8 pieces, cut lengthwise

Szechwan Sauce ½ cup (For recipe of Szechwan Sauce Cooking the ChaiNusssss... Desi Rasta Chinese)
See.http://foodietryingstein.blogspot.com/2011/09/cooking-chainusssss-desi-rasta-chinese.html 

Vegetable Stock (or  ginger, spring onion water) 1 ½ cup

Salt to taste

Method:

In a bowl, place the tofu. Coat it with a mixture of soy sauce and 1 tablespoon cornstarch.

In a large wok or a kadhai, heat a tablespoon of oil. When the oil is very hot, add in the tofu, toss and fry it on high heat for one minute. Keep it aside.

Use the same wok, heat the remaining oil. When the oil is very hot, add in the mushrooms, stir- fry for two minutes on high heat. Keep them aside.

Wipe the wok. Heat oil in the wok, when it is very hot; add in the French beans cook on high heat for one minute. Add red bell pepper, cook on high heat for one minute. Add in the mushrooms and spring onion white, ginger, garlic, stir and cook on high heat.

Add in the Szechwan sauce and stir. Keep the wok on high heat, add in the vegetable stock. Mix the remaining cornstarch with one tablespoon water and add it to the wok. Stir and bring the sauce to a boil.

Add in the cooked tofu, stir and add salt if required. Turn off the heat.

Serve hot with fried rice.

Desi Szechwan Fried Rice

Desi Szechwan Fried Rice ( Indian-Style Chinese Fried Rice) Serves 4

Ingredients

White Rice 1 ½ cup, washed

Vegetable Oil 2 tablespoons

Garlic 5 cloves, minced

Ginger ½ inch, minced

Spring Onion Bulbs (White part), minced ½ cup

French Beans, finely chopped ½ cup

Carrot, finely chopped ½ cup

Green Peas, shelled ½ cup (optional)

Cabbage, finely chopped ½ cup

Salt to taste

Szechwan Sauce 4 tablespoons (For Recipe See Cooking the ChaiNusssss... Desi Rasta Chinese)

See. http://foodietryingstein.blogspot.com/2011/09/cooking-chainusssss-desi-rasta-chinese.html

For Garnish:

Spring Onion Greens, chopped 1 cup (Keep them aside in chilled water until used)

Method:

Wash and soak the rice for twenty minutes. In a pan, mix equal quantity of rice and water (that is 1 ½ cup). Add a pinch of salt and vinegar.

Boil the rice and cook it until it absorbs all the water. Keep it covered with a lid for five minutes.

Now, spread the rice out on a large plate lined with absorbent paper towel and allow it to dry out.

Place the place full of rice in the freezer for thirty minutes, while you finish the preparation for the fried rice.

In a large wok or a kadhai, add oil. Keep the wok on high heat. The oil should be very hot, add the garlic, ginger and mix. Add in the onion, allow it to turn translucent.

Add in the beans and the carrot cook it on high heat for a minute. Add in the peas and cabbage, mix them in, and keep the wok on high heat. Add in salt. Then add in the cooked rice. Mix well until every grain of the rice is at a high temperature.

Add in four tablespoons of Szechwan sauce (prepare Szechwan sauce as mentioned above).

Mix in the sauce with the fried rice. Turn off the heat.

Garnish with chopped spring onion greens and mix well.

Serve with a side dish.