Hummus & Pita Bread

Made simple Hummus - soaked Chickpeas overnight and grinding it with Olive oil, lemon, roasted sesame seeds and lemon juice.  Got Pita bread from a local grocery store.

Highway Foodie - Delhi - Haridwar trip

Had a great time eating our way on the Delhi -> Haridwar roadtrip when we had gone for recruitment to IIT Roorkee for recruitment. Tasty food indeed !

Missi Roti, Jeera Aloo, Cashew Curry and Dal Fry at Raju Shikanji on the Delhi Meerut Highway

Poori + Aloo at Haridwar Hotel (Can't recollect the name of the hotel) - Wonderful flavor

Meal at Namasthe Cafe at Haldirams on the Delhi Haridwar highway.

Carrot Rice and Red Paneer Masala

Cashew Tofu Spaghetti

Ingredients

1. Spaghetti - 200 gms
2. Red Capsicum - 200 gms
3. Tofu - 100 gms
4. Cashew - 50 gms
5. Tomato Puree - 200 ml
6. Ginger - 1 inch
7. Chili Flakes - 1 tsp
8. Pasta Spice Mix - 1 tbsp
9. Olive Oil - 1 tbsp
10. Salt to Taste

Method

1. Cut red capsicum into thin stripes
2. Cut the tofu into small 1 cm cubes
3. Put cashews and ginger in a blender and make a thick paste. Add some milk to help you grid it well if necessary.
4. Take a large pan, heat some olive oil in the pan and throw in a little pasta spice mix and chili flakes.
5. To the hot oil mixture add the tomato puree and bring it to a boil, add salt to taste
6. Add Cashew ginger paste and mix well, to this mixture add the capsicum and tofu.
7. Add chili flakes and let it simmer on low flame for about 15 mins. Continue to add water if you feel your sauce is getting too thick.
8. Your sauce is ready !
9. Now prepare your spaghetti pasta as per the instruction on the box.
10. Toss the sauce and spaghetti and give it a good mix.

Your Cashew Tofu Spagetti is now ready !

Preparations for Ganesh Chaturthi

(Clockwise) Rave Unde (white), Om pudi, Kharapole (greenish), 7 Cups Burfi, Chakli

Tropical Fruits - Water Apple & Carambola at Mysore (Karrighatta Hills)

Star Fruit or Carambola (top) : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carambola

Water Apple or Paneer Fruit (bottom) : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syzygium_samarangense

Scemendi Spiraili Pepper Pasta

Made this for our office Potluck where each one of us got something really interesting and tasty.

Ingredients:
For the White Sauce:
1) Milk - 1 cup (150 ml)
2) Corn Flour - 1 tsp (if you don't want to use too much cheese)
3) White Cream - 100 ml / gms
4) White pepper powder - 1 tsp
5) Oregano dry - 1 tsp
6) Basil dry - 1 tsp
7) Olive Oil or Butter - 1 tbsp
8) Red & Yellow Capsicum (Bell Peppers) - 1 each cut lengthwise
9) Broccoli - 1/2 head cut into small florets
10) Processed Cheese - 100 gms
11) Black olives (optional)

Method: 
1) Saute capsicum & broccoli in molten butter or olive oil in a sauce pan, add half of salt & pepper powder
2) To this mixture add cream and bring to boil.
3) Add Milk and Corn flour mixture to enable thickening - keep stirring
4) Add Oregano, remaining pepper, butter and salt.
5) Mix until the sauce thickens and take it off the heat.

For the Pasta ...

6) Boil pasta with salt and lot of water as per the instructions on the packet. Drain the water and keep aside.
7) Add the pasta of your choice to the mixture and mix well on low flame for a minute.
8) Add grated cheese along with olives as a garnish
9) Serve hot !

Food @ Emirates Lounge in Dubai

At Emirates Business Lounge at Dubai - loved the salad and some middle-eastern food

Japanese Nuts in the bowl with Salad containing -> Feta Cheese (white), Seasoned Olives, Red cabbage, Lettuce, Cherry tomatoes (red & yellow), Asparagus. avacado and arabic pickles.

Rice & Sabzi with Arab Bread (wrapped in cover) with Hummus + sunflower seed bread with olive oil.

Pongal for Shankaranthi 2014

The all famous Sweet Pongal getting prepared for Shankranthi Festivities. 3 liters of milk getting reduced to 500 ml over 3 hours with little roasted Rice and Green Gram with 500 gms sugar and roasted dry fruits for garnishing. Prepared in a bronze pot as about post pooje.

Pratheetha's 1st year birthday treat !

Celebrated my daughters 1 yr b'day at Kailash Parbat, Hyderabad - the food was awesome and so was the cake !

 Corn Cheese Balls & Hara-bara Kababs ! 

Eggless printed photo cake for Pratheetha !

Dal Bhati in a Jiffy !

My first attempt at the most authentic Rajasthani dish - Dal Bhati and Choorma (of course I did not attempt the Choorma this time). The Dal Bhati for breakfast was simply amazing. I chose the healthy route, avoiding excessive use of Ghee which  otherwise is the case with authentic Dal Bhati.

For the Dal:

• Toor Dal - 100 grams
• Moong Dal - 50 grams
• Urad Dal - 50 grams
• Channa Dal - 50 grams
• Coriender Leaves - 1 bunch finely chopped
• Tomatoes - 2 chopped
• Garam Masala powder - 1 tsp
• Cumin powder - 1 tsp
• Red Chilli Powder - 1 tsp
• Jeera - 1 tsp
• Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp
• Green Chillies - 2 finely chopped
• Ginger - 1/2 inch, finely grated
• Pulao Pattha (Bay Leaves) - 1 or 2
• Dalchini (Cinnamon) - 1-2 sticks (1/2 inch)
• Salt to taste
• Oil for tadka

For Bhati

• Whole Wheat flour (Chappati Flour) - 200 grams
• Besan flour - 50 grams (people add Rava instead of Besan, you can opt for that too)
• Hung curd (or normal thick yogurt will do) - 1 tbsp
• Milk - 1 tbsp
• Ghee - 1 tbsp
• Carom Seeds (Ajwain) - 1 tsp
• Sugar - a pinch
• Salt to taste
• Water for the dough
• Cooking Oil - 1 tsp

Preparation (time 40 mins)

Dal

1) Soak the Dals for about 20 mins and then pressure cook it for 3 whilstles and keep aside (you can also boil it a wok with water, but time consuming)

2) Take a kadai (wok) add Oil and then add Cumin (Jeera) till it splutters, add green chilles, ginger, Dalchini, Bay leaves, Turmeric powder and Red chilli powder and saute for 2 mins. Add tomatoes and garam masala and saute for another 2-3 mins on low flame.

3) Add cooked dal and mix well and bring to boil, add salt to taste and then sprinkle with chopped Coriender. Your dal is ready !

Bhati 1) Take Wheat and Besan flour in a bowl and add 1tsp of Ghee and oil, salt, sugar, ajwain and mix, now add Curd and mix well and slowly add milk until you get a consistency 'much thicker' than the Chappati dough. Knead for 5 mins and let it rest for 20 mins. (people add baking powder, but I generally don't use it at all)

2) Make small balls from the dough and dimple it in the middle. Keep the balls aside.

3) In a big vessel, big water to boil. Immerse the bhati balls you just made into the boiling water. Let the water keep boiling until the bhati's start rising to the top.

4) Strain all the water and keep the Bhati's aside.

5) If you have a oven, preheat to 180C and bake for 20 mins. If you have a microwave with the grill option, chose that and place the Bhati's on a plate and then grill for 20 mins until its fully done (it should get fully toasted form the outside and get cooked from the inside).

Your Bhati is now ready!!

Crack open the Bhati's, add a dash of Ghee and then serve with Dal ! Your Dal Bhati is now ready !

Ganesha Chaturthi 2013 lunch spread

Image from Top (Left to Right)

1) Salt
2) Sweet Kosambri (Made from Grated coconut, sugar, fried channa dal)
3) Kosambri (Salad of lentils, lemon, grated coconut)
4) Gorikai (Cluster Beans) palya
5) Bendekai (Bhindi) Palya
6) Towe
7) Palidya (Kadhi)
8) Steamed Modhaka
9) Kobbri Chitranna
10) Rice
11) Akki-Kadale-Bele paysa

Aaloo Samosa at home

Made some aaloo samosa's at home. Could not get the authentic 'Mithaiwala' taste - probably because did not use onions and garlic; but tasted very good otherwise - recipe to be posted shortly !

Make this was a little challenging, but had to learn it the hard way and used semi-circles to make cones

Maa ki Dal (Dal Makhni)

Attempted making Dal Makhni ... (also called Maa Ki Dal)

Served with Pulao and Curd

Stuffed Bhindi and Pulao

Stuffed Bhindi and Pulao

Served here with Pulao and curds.

Bikanervala Special Thali @ Home

Bikanervala takeaway Thali is one of the best vegetarian take away I have ever eaten. We have always been used to the usual pizza / subway stuff, but this Thali is something extraordinary. They have a Jain version without the Onions and Garlic thrown in. Got it home for me and my wife y'day. It saved us from the trouble of taking our Son and our little girl (6 months old) to the hotel and end up taking care of the little ones instead of eating !

The Thali had the following:

1) Raitha - 1 cup
2) Paratha - 2 triangle parathas (was a little oily)
3) Rolled Roasted papad - 1 nos.
4) Pickle packet.
5) Paneer Butter Masala
6) Dal Makhni
7) Carrot Peas Sabzi (Tasted like Veg Jaipuri)
8) Fried rice (Peas and Panner)
9) Cucumber Salad
10) Shahi Gulab Jamoon

It was a delightful experience and served fresh. It survived well the 40 mins journey back home.

Spicing up the usual idly with Carrot and Sapsige Leaves

It was time to spice up the usual and dull Idly the unusual way with interesting additions. All we did was added some grated Carrots, Salt and some Garam Masala to the idly batter. Similarly made Green idly using Sapsige soppu (Soa-Kura it Telugu and Sada Kuppi in Tamil) - they both came out awesome. Adding a cashew on top made it look great. Served it with Chutney pudi and Sugar.

Cool Dahi Puri on a hot summer day !

Simple Dahi puri right here at home. Actually my Dad from Mysore sent some Panipoori's which we can fry right here at home just like any other fryums. It definitely is a sure shot way to ensure quality oil is used at home.

Its rather simple activity:

Ingredients
Puris - Fried & ready : about 20 nos.
Dahi (Curd / Yogurt) : 300 grams (ideally chilled)
Boiled Potato: 200 grams (mixed with a little salt)
Tomatoes, Finely chopped: 100 grams
Coriander, Finely chopped: A bunch
Nylon Sev (Fine Sev readily available from Halirams or the likes) - 200 grams
Garam Masala 1 tsp
Chaat Masala 2 tsp
Amchur Powder 1 tsp (Dried Mango power - Everest is the brand I trust)
Red Chilly Powder 1/2 tsp
Sugar - 3 tsp 
Salt to Taste

Preparation (5 mins if Puris are ready, else 15 mins)
- Fry the puris and keep them on a kitchen tissue until they cool down (You get ready made puris in most grocery shops, but really not sure on the quality of oil used therein)
- Beat Dahi with Sugar for about 10 mins (add a little water if the dahi is not with pouring consistency)
- Break the Puris on the top and keep on the plate you want to serve
- Put a small quantity of Boiled potato and finely chopped tomatoes in each puri.
- Add a pinch of Garam Masala, Chaat Masala, Amchur Powder, Red Chilly Powder (careful here!) and salt into each puri.
- Sprinkle gracious amounts of chopped Coriander on each puri
- Now take the cold Dahi and fill each puri until it overflows
- Sprinkle Sev all over
- Sprinkle some Chilly powder and Amchur powder along with some Coriander.

Note: You can add some sweet chutney if you have it ready - makes it great.

Server immediately !

You can just cannot eat enough !

Mango Milkshake with Anjeer (Dry figs) Icecream and Chocolate Syrup

Fantastic combination of Mango milkshake  (made out of Banganapalli Mango), good scoop of Anjeer Ice Cream and Dash of Hersleys Choco syrup - the combination tasted great ! Calorie bomb you can avoid during the season of Mangoes and esp Summers !!

Extra Large Badami Mango Variety from Andhra Pradesh

Extra large Badami Mango available in Andhra Pradesh region. This is an offshoot of the Banganapalli variety - depends on your luck really - each fruit is different. One was divine, the rest were just ok.