Another hiatus...another revival

I am back. Yet again. Tired and beaten by the system. To the same conclusion. Good cooks do not exist in this city or I really have the worst luck when it comes to getting cooks!

So now I am maid-less and cook-less but determined to keep going - however long it takes :)

So back to our task at hand for today - dinner! I decided to make some of Tarla Dalal's recipes - Coconut pulao, Achari Paneer, Brussel Sprout saute with a simple Dal fry.

Here are the links to the recipes:
http://www.tarladalal.com/Coconut-Pulao-1746r
http://www.tarladalal.com/Achari-Paneer-1736r

Brussel sprouts saute, achari paneer and dal fry with coconut pulao

One another note had the chance to eat Thai food at the newly opened Radisson Blu - Secret Basil. The food was good. But my favorite Thai in Hyderabad still stays Isda Thai. I still have to sample the food from Mekong and Thai Pavillion...

Good night folks!

Small pellets of goodness....

The heat is too much to bear... I don't think I can cook today....Maybe I will order out today....

These were some of the thoughts that ran through my head today(well through out the day!!) And then better sense prevailed and at the spur of the moment thought up of this "biryani" dish made with soy granules. I had the small granules that look like bb gun pellets!!(Yes, the bb gun has been on my mind for quite some time now... pigeons causing havoc.. but that's another story!)

So the recipe itself took some 20 mins to cook and an additional 10 mins to prep and I have a nutritious dinner that tastes yumm!

Soy biryani with paneer masala

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Soy Biryani


1 cup of soy granules (soaked in hot water for a half hour then squeezed)
2 onions chopped
2 tomatoes chopped
2 capsicums chopped
1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
2 cups of curd (beaten well)
2 green chillies slit lengthwise
1 tsp of garam masala
1 tsp of kitchen king masala
1/2 tsp of turmeric pd
1 tsp of red chilli pd
1/2 tsp of kasuri methi
1 tsp of cumin seeds
Salt to taste
2 cups cooked rice


Heat oil in a pan and add the cumin seeds to splutter. Add the onions and fry till they turn golden brown (add a little salt to prevent them from burning easily). Add ginger garlic paste and fry for a minute. then add the tomatoes, green chillies and the masala powders and 1/2 a cup of water and cover and cook till the oil starts separating from the mixture. Then add the capsicum and fry for 2 minutes. Lower the flame and then add the curd stirring constantly. Cover and cook for 2 minutes till well mixed. Then add the cooked rice and mix well. Garnish with coriander leaves.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

See y'all tomorrow!

Fondant...More like fon'dont'!!

Hiya people, It has been reaaaally looong since I wrote anything here. So long that I almost forgot my login credentials to get in to my account!!! Well, better late than never I say! So here I am.. And the occasion is my mom's 60th birthday!! Yes! the big six oh!
So I decided to put my baking skills to use and to bake her a cake. That's not too difficult you say? I agree. But the real test is the decorating of the cake. I have been looking at all these posh websites online that do cake decorating for a living and got inspired to decorate my cake with Fondant. For the novice it is just like icing but more doughy. It is a mixture of icing sugar and water and some stability agent added to make it like a dough that you can roll out and cover your cake or mould to decorate it.
So once my mind was made up I started asking around for advice on where to get ready made fondant - of course, that would be the first step - if you got the ready to roll out dough then all you need to do is well, roll it out!! But that is easier said than done here in Hyderabad (not sure about the other cities). So next alternative - make your own fondant. So yours faithfully went and got the required ingredients and looked online at a recipe to make fondant and presto fondant was made.
No not that easily - I had to go through lots of trials and tribulations which included my hand being eaten up alive by the "fondantasaurus"!! I am not kidding, at one point I thought I would have to get some reinforcements just to retrieve my hand from the mound of gooey sticky mess that I had made!

The dormant 'fondantasaurus"!

The finished product resembled the one that I saw online, so I packed it and put it in the refrigerator to chill. Here is the finished homemade fondant.

The finished fondant. Yay!

That was in the afternoon. It is nearly 11 in the night and my cake is baking in the oven. I made a basic sponge cake. I just colored it red. I figured I would keep the fondant covering white and would make some small decorative flowers on the top with the wishes written in som color so why not give the inside some color - and so red it is.

The red sponge cake cooking away

Now it is nearly 1 in the morning and I just finished the cake. Believe me rolling out fondant is not as easy as it is made out to be. It is called the adult play-doh but it is all "doh!" "doh!" (Simpsons fans would understand my reference here..) and no play :(
Here is my mom's cake.

I will make it up to her by taking her for lunch at a nice restaurant. *wink*

Time to hit the sack now. See you all tomorrow.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fondant Recipe (http://lifestyle.iloveindia.com/lounge/how-to-make-fondant-icing-7749.html)
Basic sponge cake recipe (http://cooking4allseasons.blogspot.in/2011/05/how-to-make-basic-sponge-cake-recipe.html)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Since I had some additional time in the morning of my mom's bday, I made some last minute additions to the cake. I think it looks much better now... what do you think?

The final version!

The 'eaten' cake!

Like I promised earlier, I took her to a nice restaurant to make up for the err.. cake :) I picked the De Thaali restaurant of Ohris in Begumpet. Went there after I read the review in Hindu and have to say, the review did full justice to it. The food was lip smacking good. It was a combination of Gujarati and Rajasthani cuisine and we loved it! It is buffet but they serve you at the table, the ambience was great. All very nice and bright white. A good variety of dishes and did I say lip smacking good?! And not to mention very easy on the pocket as well!! I give it a thumbs up!

Milestone week!

Last week was a milestone week of sorts. Lots of new things happening...
The biggest one was my son starting school!! Yes, time has flown and my little one has also flown the coop (well, not really!). It was received with mixed but similar reactions on both our ends. His was mostly abandonment and apprehension at facing the new school and routine. Mine was surprisingly abandonment (yes, for some reason I felt this acute sense of separation the day before he started school :( as well) and apprehension as well for him and myself for having to adjust to the new routine.
But I am happy to say we have both survived the first week with some minor scars (which will only make us stronger) and we are trudging along bravely in to the second week.....

As my son says - "Mama, your baby has become a big boy now!"

The other big thing happening at my place is the harvest of my kitchen garden (well actually just one plant!). And my flowering plants are actually flowering!! Yaayy!! They too survived the week!! Here are some pics to prove it!

Periwinkle (dark pink)

Petunia (White)

Hibiscus (Single whorl, Pink)

Petunia (Pink)

Periwinkle (light pink)

Coriander will be ready for picking in another couple of days

Methi (Fenugreek) all ready!

I made some Aloo methi yesterday with the methi from my own garden :)) Feeling mighty proud and accomplished!!

I will do a catch up post (yet again!) on some of the recipes that I tried last week.... soon... But for now it is Sayonara.

Leftovers Leftovers

I was just about to start cooking when the spouse called to say he is not coming home for dinner; he had to attend a wedding. So I ditched all plans of cooking! Had yesterday's chole and had made some chickpea paranthas for my son's lunch. So had leftovers from there as well. So just had that for dinner. Tomorrow will cook something new I promise! :)

On another note - I have taken up gardening!!! Well, it is really pot gardening; no not the smoking kind!!! Disadvantages of apartment living, or should I say advantages - not too sure if the garden would survive my "green" thumb!!!
So to start off I have some petunias and hibiscus and aloe vera for one of my balconies and for the kitchen have started off with some methi and coriander. The fenugreek (methi) is doing great! Same cannot be said of the coriander - something has sprouted in that pot but it looks like a mutant species! So it remains to be seen what actually will grow there. But the ambitious plan is to grow basil/tulsi, mint and chillies along with the fenugreek and coriander. Time will tell how much of it actually happens...

Okay then! See you all tomorrow with a new recipe.

Haveli Ka 'Khana Khazana'!

On Sunday visited the N grill (https://www.facebook.com/pages/N-Grill/111901618836414) for the first time with gal pals. Was skeptical initially since the reviews online for the restaurant were not too promising. But the experience proved to be a satisfying one. I am not too sure if it was the company or the food or a combo of both :) But I had a great time!

I had stuffed so much at the restaurant that felt the need to practice some restrain with my evening meal. Decided to order a light meal from a nearby restaurant called Haveli (http://www.zomato.com/hyderabad/restaurants/city/begumpet/haveli-90368/menu). Came across this website - Zomato.com recently while searching for restaurants and it is a great website - with reviews and menu. Makes ordering out so easy! Wanted to get the sizzler but they did not have it so instead ordered the Veg Combo Appetizer plate, Egg Biryani and Veg Jaipuri. The meal was decent. Out of the appetizers only the hara bhara kabab deserves a mention. The other two in the plate was sauteed cauliflower (cannot be called tandoori gobhi!) and the Subji Sheekh kabab was nothing but chick pea flour skewered (it was tough and lacked flavor). The Egg biryani and the Veg Jaipuri were good.

Tandoori Gobhi, Sabji Sheekh Kabab, Veg Jaipui, Hara Bhara Kabab and Egg Biryani from Haveli

Today I made Punjabi Chole to go with rotis. And I was done. I think I need to start a food journal and note down exactly what and how much I am eating. I have been eating a lot and not exercising and all that is not doing so well on my tummy and my overall weight :( 

Rotis and Punjabi chole

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Punjabi Chole
2 cups of chick peas soaked in water with a tea bag for 8 hrs and then pressure cooked in the same water till soft
2 large onions + 6 cloves of garlic + 3 dry red chillies (soaked in hot water for half hr) ground to a paste
3 tomatoes ground to a paste
1 tsp pomegranate seed powder (optional)
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp kitchen king masala or Chole masala pd
1 tsp garam masala pd
Salt to taste


Heat oil in a pan and add cumin seeds to splutter. Then add the onion paste and fry till nice and brown. Then add the tomato paste and fry till the tomatoes are well cooked. Then add the spice powders and fry for a minute more. Now add the cooked chickpeas and a half cup of water. Cover and simmer for about 10 minutes. Garnish with fried onions and chopped coriander if you like.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

See you later folks!

I feel the weekend approaching......

Come Friday, I feel like I used to feel when I went to work. A feeling of euphoria that the weekend is approaching and that I can have two days of bliss. Same with cooking. Come weekend - no cooking. Yaay!

Menu for today - Mooli Paranthas and quick and easy egg curry.

Mooli Parantha and Easy Egg Curry

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Quick and Easy Egg Curry 

2 medium onions roughly chopped

3 large toamtoes roughly chopped

3 green chillis slit

5-6 cloves of garlic

1/2 inch piece of ginger

4 peppercorns

Boil all the above in a little water till they are cooked. Grind to a smooth paste and reserve.

Break open 4 eggs and beat them together with a salt, chilli powder, a tsp of cumin seeds, 1/2 tsp of kasuri methi and cook them in the microwave (use a dish so that they are like 2 inches thick when cooked) till they are set. Cool and cut them into cubes.

Heat a pan with a little oil and add some mustard seeds and cumin seeds. After they have spluttered add the ground paste and add salt, chilli pd, and kitchen king masala to taste. Add about half a cup of water or to your desired consistency. Simmer for a few minutes. Now add the egg cubes and cover and cook for another minute or two. That's it!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Watched the movie The next 3 days starring Russel Crowe and Elizabeth Banks. Loved it! It is about a husband whose wife is taken into custody on murder charges and he decides to get her out of the prison. Every minute is action and emotion packed. The emotion between the husband and wife, wife and child, the father and child, of the father and his father - every bit is movingly portrayed without compromising on the action front. Lovely. Do watch it.

Had been itching to make dhoklas for a long while. Even got a whole box of Eno to make them. Just did not get the chance until today. Made dhoklas for snack today. Take a look at the pic and decide for yourself. My verdict - lip smacking!!  Would have been super with some chutney to go along with it, but just made do with Maggi hot and sweet. Followed the recipe from a fellow blogger at - http://food-n-more.blogspot.com/2006/09/fastest-dhokla-ever.html

Dhokla

Okay then folks - Sayonara time. See you all tomorrow!