How To Make Mayonnaise at Home and How to Correct Curdled Mayonnaise?

Mayonnaise


Ingredients

Egg (Yolk) 1 no.

Mustard Paste 1 teaspoon

Lemon, juice (You can use vinegar) 1 teaspoon

Salt to taste

Pepper Powder to taste

Vegetable Oil 120ml or ½ cup

Method:

Make mayonnaise in a cool, dry place.

In a clean, dry wide bowl add in the egg yolk, mustard paste, lemon juice, salt, pepper and whisk them.

Begin add in the oil, one teaspoon at a time and whish thoroughly.

Add in the oil teaspoon by teaspoon and whisk constantly.

Do not add the oil all together, this will curdle the mixture.

If the mayonnaise curdles, you can correct it following any of these methods:

1. Take a new, clean and fresh bowl, make fresh mayonnaise and add in the curdled mayonnaise to it little by little, whisk it in to correct the mayonnaise.
2. If the mayonnaise has just begun to curdle, then you can add in some more lemon juice and whisk to correct it.

To prevent the mayo from curdling make sure that the vessel is clean and the temperature of the vessel or the surrounding area is not high.

How To Make Lump-Free White Sauce? A Smart Trick.

Let me tell you a little secret they told me in catering school. Don't you hate it when you get a lumpy white sauce? It completely ruins the dish. Find the trick to do it right.

White Sauce

Ingredients

Milk 10 parts or 150ml/ 2/3^rd cup

Bay Leaf 1 no.

Peppercorn 4

Cloves 2

Garlic 1 clove

Thyme (fresh) 1 sprig Optional

Butter 1 part or 15g/ 1 tablespoon

Refined Flour 1 part or 15g/ 1 tablespoon

Method:

Heat the milk in a pan with bay leaf, peppercorn, cloves, garlic and thyme.

Allow the milk to cook on medium heat for five minutes.

Let it stand on the side to cool. Then preferably chill the milk.

To make the white sauce

In a pan, melt butter.

Once the butter melts add in the flour and whisk thoroughly.

Allow the mixture to cook for two minutes on low heat until it looks fluffy and off-white.

Don’t let it brown.

Strain out the spices from the milk.

THE TRICK to a Lump-Free White Sauce:

This mixture and the milk should be extreme opposite temperature when you add it in.

If the mixture is hot, the milk should be chilled.

If the mixture has cooled off, the milk should be hot.

Then add in the milk little by little to the mixture, whisking thoroughly.

Keep the pan on medium heat, this gives you more time to whisk and avoid lumps as you add the milk little by little.

It is very unlikely to form lumps in the white sauce, if you follow the rules.

If you want to be double sure or you still have a few lumps. You strain the sauce and get the smooth texture.

For that extra sheen, add in a little butter in the white sauce for that X factor.

You can store white sauce in the refrigerator for three to four days.

Cooking Without Rules and Restrictions; Imagination Momos

This is a dish out of my whims. Isn’t it fun sometimes, to follow your imagination rather than cooking with rules and restrictions? I didn’t want to follow a particular cuisine, neither did I have a recipe in mind, but I was craving something yummy, something like may be pasta or momos, or shawarma. I was confused for an hour and all I knew was that I have some chicken leftover and a lot of tomatoes. Twisting and turning, playing between ingredients and dishes, I finally came up with these Imagination Momos. They do not follow the exact momo recipe, but I worked with what I had in mind and it turned out, well, spicy and yummy! I feel like a street vendor today, imagination wise, this is surely not fine dining stuff, but definitely something you will enjoy!

Ingredients

For the Stuffing

Chicken 1 large breast piece (You can use roasted chicken leftovers)

Cocktail Sausages, Pork 6

Black Pepper, freshly ground ½ teaspoon

Coriander Leaves a handful

Salt to taste

For the Dough

Refined Flour 1 cup

Egg 1

Salt a pinch

For the Sauce

Onion, peeled 1 small

Red Pepper, with the seeds removed 1 small

Garlic, peeled 6 cloves

Ginger, peeled 1 inch

Tomatoes 3, medium

Sesame Oil 1 tablespoon (You can use olive oil, vegetable oil in its place)

Method:

For the Stuffing

In a deep pan, fill in inch deep water. Add in the chicken breast and cook for five minutes on medium heat until the chicken is completely cooked. When you cut it in the thick part, it should be white inside, not pink. Remove the chicken and keep it aside.

Refill 1 cup water in the pan along with the leftover cooking liquor from the chicken. Add in the cocktail sausages and boil them for five to seven minutes. Save the cooking liquor, keep it aside.

In a grinder, add in the cooked chicken and the boiled pork sausages with black pepper, coriander leaves and some salt if necessary. Taste the cocktail sausages for salt, if they have some salt, do not add more salt to the mixture. You may cut chicken and the sausages into smaller pieces for easy grinding. Mince the mixture, the flavours should blend together. Let the mixture be coarse, for the meat texture to entertain your palate.

NOTE: Lime Oil is a fantastic addition to this mixture. On this occasion lime oil was unavailable to me, but you can add it in if you have it.

To Make the Dough

On a flat surface, take the refined flour and salt. Make a well in the centre and add one egg in it.

Mix in the egg with the dough with the help of your fingers. Bring the flour together and make a dough.

Knead the dough well. Cover it and keep it aside.

Do not prepare the dough before hand, the egg tends to dry out and makes the dough hard if rested out in the open.

To Make the Sauce

Make a cross incision at the base of the tomatoes, remove the eye and pop them in boiling water until there skins come out. Remove the skins, grind them into a fresh puree and keep them aside. OR USE CANNED PUREE, 200ml should be enough.

In a grinder, add in the peeled onion, the red pepper, garlic, ginger and a pinch of salt. Grind this mixture into a fine paste.

In a pan, heat oil and add in this mixture. Stir and cook on medium heat for three to four minutes. Add in the tomato puree and cook the mixture on medium heat for five to seven minutes, until it becomes a thick paste. Keep it aside.

To Make Imagination Momos

Divide the Dough into 24 equal pieces. Divide the stuffing into 24 equal portions.

Roll out each piece of the dough into a thin circle. It should be about 2 inches in diameter or half the size of your hand.

Place the stuffing in the centre of the dough. Fold the sides of the dough into the centre until all the sides are sealed together. Press it firmly together. Make twenty four pieces.

Heat the cooking liquor saved from the chicken and pork in a pan. Make batches and cook each batch in the simmering liquid for three to four minutes. Make sure there enough space in the pan for cooking each batch. The pieces tend to swell up and increase in size when cooked.

Remove the cooked pieces and keep them aside. Squeeze some lime juice on top of the imagination momos if you haven’t added lime oil in the stuffing.

These can be served alongside with the red sauce we made earlier or mixed up with the sauce and then served warm.

To Make a Soup with the Leftovers

Take some leftover stuffing and sauté it in a pan, add in some of the red sauce and stir. Now, add in one cup water along with the leftover cooking liquor. Mix a tablespoon of corn starch in two tablespoons of water and this in to the soup. Bring it to a boil and turn off the heat. Squeeze some lemon juice in it and add chopped coriander leaves on top. Serve hot.

Spicing It Up! Ghar Ka Khana

I love ‘ghar ka khana’ (Homemade Indian food). Don’t get me wrong I ‘graze’ around the city all day. From vada pao to Chinese food, I love eating out. But at the end of the day you want to come back to Mom’s home cooked meals. Well, since mom’s not around I am just going to ape one of her home cooked recipes. The spicy Aloo baingan recipe; since she uses her experience and not measurements in her recipes, I had to go with my measuring spoons and the odds to re-create Mom’s Aloo Baingan.

Aloo Baingan- Serves 4

Ingredients

Vegetable Oil (Tel) 1tablespoon

Fenugreek Seeds (Methi) ½ tspn

Fennel Seeds (Saunf) ½ tspn

Onion Seeds (Kalonji) ½ tspn

Green Chilli (Hari Mirch) 2, chopped

Potato (Aloo) 2, medium, quartered, keep them in water

Eggplant (Baingan) 4, small, quartered, keep them in water

Turmeric (Haldi) ½ tspn

Red Chill Powder (Lal Mirch powder) ½ tspn

Coriander Powder (Dhaniya powder) 1 tspn

Tomatoes (Tamatar) 1, large, chopped

Salt (Namak) to taste

Garam Masala Powder 1 teaspoon

 Method:

Heat oil in a pan then add in fenugreek seeds, fennel seeds and onion seeds to the pan. Allow them to crackle and turn a shade a darker.

Add in the green chilli, drain out the excess water and add in potatoes and stir. Allow the potatoes to cook on medium heat for two minutes.

Drain out the water and add in the eggplant to the pan. Stir. Add in turmeric, red chilli powder and coriander powder. Stir, put on a lid and cook on low flame for five minutes.

Add in the chopped tomato, stir, add salt and cook for five minutes on medium heat until the tomatoes are completely cooked.

Add in garam masala powder, stir and cook for two minutes on medium heat.

Turn off the heat and serve hot with rotis. See recipe in How to Make Rotis?

Ten Minute Recipe; Simple Sooji Halwa

Do you also have those crazy sweet cravings? My sister has been craving Halwa-Poori (a homemade Indian sweet eaten with fried Indian bread) with lots of ghee for three days now. She has been working really hard these last couple of days, and has barely eaten anything. I was a little worried about her and I also wanted to reward her for the hard work. So, when she stepped out last evening I decided to satisfy her sweet craving. Making poori too much work, I was too lazy to make the dough, then roll out those pooris and fry them. I skipped the poori and just made some halwa for her. Halwa, simply because it was really easy to make, you will see! If you are interested in putting in some extra effort for someone special you can find the recipe in How to Make Pooris?

Sooji Halwa- serves 4

Ingredients

Unsalted, clarified butter (Ghee) ½ cup

Semolina (Sooji) 1 cup

Salt a pinch

Water, warm 2 cups

Sugar Cheeni) 1 cup

Garnish

Almonds, Cashew and Raisins (Badam, Kaju, Kishmish), chopped ½ cup

Silver Varq optional

Method:

Heat the unsalted, clarified butter (ghee) in a pan. Add in the semolina and stir.

Allow the semolina to turn golden brown, keep stirring. Cook on medium heat.

Make sure that the temperature of the pan is not too high so as to burn the semolina. Add a pinch of salt to enhance the flavour.

Keep stirring and allow the semolina to brown evenly.

Meanwhile, warm two cups of water in a separate pan and add this water to the semolina, stir constantly.

Allow the semolina to absorb the water completely, it swells up and becomes fluffy.

Once the water is completely absorbed, add in the sugar and mix well.

Allow the halwa to cook on low heat for two minutes and then turn off the heat.

Garnish this simple sooji halwa with the chopped mixed nuts and dried fruit. Decorate with silver varq if available.

Have You Tried The Best Chhole Bhature in Pune City?

Name: Chatpattazz

Location: In front of Food Bazaar Baner, Next To Cantabil

Contact:

Time of Visit: 12^th September, 2011 [Lunch]

Ambience

This is a tiny little place in Baner. It is a small shop converted to a food joint, with a couple of plastic tables and chairs placed in front of the small joint. With a humble setting, this place boasts delicious food.

Value For Money

I wish there was a word better than excellent in terms of value for money for Chatpattazz. It is delicious, dilli-style Panjabi chhole and two bhaturas for forty rupees as on date and Bedmi poori and Potato sabjee for thirty rupees as on date. Need I say more, it is a heavy, filling and a delicious meal at a reasonable price.

I have eaten dilli-style chhole bhature in fancy Punjabi restaurants in the city before, it costs me three times more than the dilli-style chhole bhature in chatpattazz.

Menu

The menu is limited. There are only three items on the menu. Chhole Bhature, Bedmi poori and aloo sabji and palak rice with chhole which the chatpattazz owner raves about.

Food

The dilli-style chhole in chatpattazz is delicious with a capital D. It is spicy, a little tangy and yummy. It makes you want to lick the every little bit of that last morsel off your fingers. It is delicious. The bhature on the other hand, are flavoured with coriander greens and garlic mixture. The bhature are soft but are average is size and texture. The onion and pickled green chilli served as accompaniment compliment the chhole wonderfully.

The Bedmi poori is a large, grainy and crisp poori. The aloo sabji is delicious, it has a peculiar unique taste like no other aloo sabji, also very dilli-style in flavour. I loved the chhole but I liked the aloo sabji better, only because it is such a simple dish and yet such a pleasant surprise in terms of taste.

The Palak rice was highly recommended by chatpattaz, it is served with chhole. I tried out the palak rice, I did not like it. It tasted average. I did have high expectations after the recommendation and after having tasted the chhole bhature and aloo-bedmi poori. The palak rice was disappointing.

Service

The staff members are very humble, polite and courteous. The service is quick and apt for a place located centrally close to many offices in Baner area.

That Thing About This Place

Really delicious dilli-style food, like no other Panjabi place in Pune, none of the chhole bhature I have tasted in this city can match up to Chatpattazz spicy Chhole Bhature. The menu items are few, but delicious. Available at very low prices, the office goers in this area can have a delicious and cheap meal everyday.

Ambience: 6.5/10 Average

Value for Money: 10/10 Excellent

Menu: 7/10 Good

Food: 9/10 Excellent

Service: 8.5/10 Very good

That Thing About This Place: 9/10 Excellent

Average Ambience + Excellent Value For Money + Good Menu + Excellent Food + Very Good Service + Excellent That Thing About This Place = Excellent

Rating= 8 on Ten

Five Reasons That Will Bring You Back To Salt ‘n’ Pepper

Name: Salt ‘n’ Pepper

Contact:

Location: Close to Infinity Mall, Andheri West

Time of Visit: 13th September, 2011 [Lunch]

Ambience

The setting of this place is brown and basic. It is hard to have a conversation when the music is so loud. The managers of Salt ‘n’ Pepper have to realise that this place is a restaurant where people come in to have a decent conversation, not a night club where you should need to raise your voice to be heard.

Value For Money

Value for money in Salt ‘n’ Pepper considering its location is very good. The dishes are reasonably priced, the quality of food and quantity served is good.  It has good food, good ambience at a reasonable price.

Menu

The menu offers a selection of oriental and Indian dishes. The menu has a wide range of Thai, Chinese and other oriental dishes. Salt ‘n’ pepper oriental dishes are more sort after than the Indian dishes.

Food

The Indian preparation, tandoori mushrooms in salt ‘n’ pepper were good. This place serves better oriental food than Indian. There egg fried rice and Thai red curry were both delicious. I have tried couple of other oriental dishes in Salt ‘n’ Pepper, the Thai as well as Chinese preparations here are particularly good.

Service

The staff members are courteous and prompt in serving the guests. The service is quick, it has never taken them over ten minutes to serve an oriental preparation at the table.

That thing About This Place

Reasonably priced, good food, good quantity, the service is quick. It is easily accessible and located close various offices in this area.

Ambience: 7/10 Good

Value For Money: 9/10 Excellent

Menu: 8/10 Very good

Food: 8.5/10 Very Good

Service: 8.5/10 Very Good

That Thing About this Place: 9/10 Excellent

Good Ambience + Excellent value for Money+ Very Good Menu+ Very Good Food + Very Good Service+ Excellent That Thing About This place= Very good

Rating: 8 on Ten