anushka recreated the spaghetti primavera...

Waiting for anushka to share the recipe on the blog... waiting! waiting!! waiting!!!

Appetizing & fulfilling

In our recent trip to Pune, we visited one of our liked restaurants in the city – Polka Dots @ Aundh & Kalyani Nagar.

Since, we were staying close to kalyani nagar, we ventured to that outlet on a relaxed Sunday afternoon. Although, it was 2:30pm, most of the tables were occupied. It’s a classic no-frills restaurant serving world cuisine. They don’t have an AC section and Pune can get really hot in the summers, doesn’t deter people visiting this neighborhood joint.

The menu has continental, south-east asian and Indian cuisine, making it likeable to a variety of people. The overall ambience, food and quick & efficient service are the reasons we try to visit this place, whenever we stay in Pune.

Today, we ordered spaghetti primavera & paneer kathi roll (had tried the chicken kathi last time and it was very good). Being the last day of Shravan (auspicious month), our food was restricted to veg.

We were so absorbed in relishing the meal, that I completely forgot to take pictures and when I realized, there was very little left on the plate.

The spaghetti primavera was classic. Although, traditionally there is a use of lots of veggies like bell peppers, broccoli, peas, olives and sun-dried tomatoes, the primavera served had very little veggies, we have nothing to complain. It was perfectly seasoned and well-flavored

The highlight of the lunch was my little daughter (1 yr 9 mts) devouring on the spaghetti’s. Picking one strand after another was a sight to see (her first shot at Italian food)

My wife’s going to make this in this week and more on that later.

Kathi Kabab is actually a filling inside a paratha (very similar to a Frankie). The Paneer Kathi was brilliant and was served with mint chutney. The chutney actually added that dash of zing to the roll. The crisp paratha from outside gave crunchiness which went very well with the adequate juicy paneer stuffing inside. The mint chutney was a definite winner and the kathi roll wouldn’t have tasted so well, without it.

Pune – a city that still has a heart!!!

Pune has always been very close to me and my wife’s heart. Given a chance, both of us, would love to move to this quaint city (although, much of the quaintness has not left) and enjoy the neighbourhood, which is rich in Marathi literature (arts and drama) and food.

With the city bursting to accommodate people working in the erstwhile auto-manufacturing and now, the massive IT industry, the city has grown in lengths and breadths and is still growing. The once-upon-a-time old-fashioned Maharashtrian city has turned into a contemporary modern mini-metro.

The city is special because of the tons of fond memories we share. This is also true because of the fact that we had started dating (me and anushka) and there was romance and love in the air.

Every chance we get to visit this beautiful city, we make it a point to visit atleast few of the places, we reminisced back then like

·         Pune Coffee house @ Deccan Gymkhana (served great sandwiches and Chinese platter) – the place no longer exists

·         The Bounty Sizzlers @ Kalyani Nagar (great sizzlers)

·         Durga / Darshani @ Paud Road (delicious coffee / great low-cost mini meals) – was close to my college

·         Marzorin @ camp (rolls and sandwiches, a must visit)

·         Road-side stalls @ everywhere serving kanda pohe (flattened rice) / sheera / sabundana khichdi (sago) – these are normally family-owned establishments either in stalls or on tables (which is temporary in nature. They normally get 50 – 60 plates of one item and close shop when all is over, and normally the entire thing is over in less than an hour). These stalls have been serving delectable maharashtrian snacks and is part of the beautiful culture & history. The picture is of delicious 'kande pohe'

Pune is also known as city of two-wheelers and you will see the men in helments and head-covered women riding this two-wheels at any time of the day, so much so, that there was a point  (before explosion), one could only people zooming on two-wheels in the city.

I haven’t got in the art of taking pictures and hence most of the pictures are borrowed. Some pictures I would have liked to capture and post would have been of these road-side stalls & people riding scooters and bikes and mopeds and cycles, as mentioned above. So, next time, expect some pictures

Over to a friend!!!

A friend of mine wanted to share her thoughts and efforts on ‘Paryushan’ and hence has

devised a ‘special Paryushan Menu’, including food related do’s and don’ts for the festival and captures the essence of what to eat in fasting with enough nutritional requirements.

Binal Shah is a full-time mother of a 3 year old, a part-time Information security Consultant

and Trainer and an all-time food and nutrition enthusiast. Cooking, though got introduced in her life as a need, has now become her passion. You can reach her on binalkshah@gmail.com

Over to Binal –

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Today is the second day of Paryushan 2011. Paryushan is the Festival of Forgiveness.

Paryushan is the most important Jain religious observance of the year and the most important and auspicious part of the “Chatur maas” (4 months of monsoon).

During this 8-day period, we Jains avoid use of green vegetables, including lemon and raw

bananas (and certainly root vegetables, which are actually forbidden through the year). Also, most jains also follow “Chauviyaar”, which means no eating after sunsets and breaking fast the next morning only after sunrise (the daily sunrise and sunset timings are as prescribed in standard jain calendars or as we call it – “Panchang”.

Being in a city with crazy work and school schedules, it becomes quite challenging to observe these do’s and dont’s, while ensuring that daily nutrition is not compromised. Besides, there are only certain dishes that can be packed / had in school and office tiffin, which is so much a part of our life!

Hence, here is a “Special Paryushan Menu”, that I have put together, taking into account the food related do's and don'ts, so that we can all follow the Paryushan Sayyam (observance of abstinence) in eating (since most of us do not observe fasts ;-) ) during those days, without compromising either on the paryushan rules or on the nutritional requirements of the entire family.

Please feel free to write to me at binalkshah@gmail.com in case you have any queries or need any specific recipes and I will be glad to revert.

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Contact Binal in case anyone wants any particular menu or any other clarifications. Honestly, I was quite surprised to see some of the regular recipes included – idli’s, dosa’s, chana-daal pulav, paneer burji, shrikhand, dahi wada. But, all of this are made differently and does not contain our regular ingredients.

Recipe 7: Oatmeal choco cookies - final conquered over a sweet!!!

6:30 pm

I am very skeptical as I start making another sweet (cookie). My first dish was a disaster in itself and had given all hopes to even try making another one. Now, since I have set to reinvent myself, wanted to give one more chance. Have decided to publish this, irrespective of the turnout.

8:10pm

As I sit down to write the experience and share the recipe (the second lot is in the oven), immediately after my family members have had tasted a bite, i am impressed with myself - the cookies have turned out to be scrumptious. I am terribly missing Anushka who is my best critic. I will have to wait until Monday to hear Anushka’s views of my hand-made oatmeal choco cookies. I would also want to see if Aarya loves to gobble on her dad's new kitchen creation.

The cookies are yummy. There is good crunch to the cookie. The texture is just superb. Only missing element is the chocolate flavor, which is not at all apparent.

Highly recommended recipe.. Very easy and total preparation of less than an hour.

Makes about 30 cookies of 2” diameter

Ingredients

Butter	75 gms	Amul (3/4th of the pack)
Brown sugar	¾ cup
White sugar	½ cup	Used normal sugar and made a powder in the mixie
All purpose flour (maida)	1 ½ cup
Cooking oats	2 cups	Have used regular quaker oats
Vanilla essence	1 tbpsn
Baking soda	1 tspn
Salt	1 tspn	The lesser the better
Water	½ cup
Milk chocolate	2 bars	I used dairy milk (cadbury’s); suggest to use readymade chocolate chips (not very sweet)

Method

1.    Soften the butter

o    Most sites I have seen has the following ways to soften butter and I have used the 1^st one –

§  Use a grater to grate the butter – this soften its and avoids melting

§  Put the butter in microwave @ the lowest degree, it should soften and not melt

§  Pound the butter cube between baking paper till it softens

o    I thought the easiest and the quickest way would be to grate it. It helped in freeing the butter, without any harms of melting it

2.    Add the powdered white sugar to the butter and whisk

3.    Add the brown sugar to the above mixture and whisk more (let the brown sugar completely dissolve; when you add the brown sugar, there is a sound the whole brown sugar makes while whisking, stop when you hear the sound, which means the brown sugar  has well dissolved)

4.    Add flour to the above mixture and whisk as hard as you can. This is the tough part and the mixture tends to start crumbling

5.    Boil some water and dissolve the baking soda into it

6.    Immediately put this boiled water in the above mixture and whisk more. The water with the mixture gives it a good smooth texture

7.    Add the oats, vanilla essence, salt and chocolate in the mixture and keep whisking (stirring it). (I actually pounded the chocolate bar into small pieces; guess that was not an ideal thing to do – should have used choco chips, instead)

8.    Mix all the ingredients together. It becomes a big rough piece of lump (advisable to taste it now; I added some more powdered sugar and little water)

9.    Leave this mixture in the refrigerator for 30 to 40 minutes

10. After 30 minutes, start making 2” diameter flat rounds and spread on a greased baking plate (grease the baking plate with butter)

11. Bake at 210^o for 15 to 20 minutes (check for your cookies after 15 minutes, the cookies are done once they change their colour to a reddish brown)

12. From the oven, keep it aside for 10 to 15 minutes to rest and cool

13. You are ready to binge now

Note:

·         When I tasted the batter, I though the mixture was a little salty – wait for it to finish the entire process, they just turn out well

·         It makes sense to put choco chips; the chocolate that I use actually melted and the flavor of the chocolate hasn’t come out

 

Recipe 5 & 6: Mezze Platter - Part 3 (pita with veggies and fattoush)

Although, I made both the dishes, it would be great to make only one at a time. Most of the ingredients are similar. Both the dishes don’t require any cooking and hence the preparation time is to just get all the cutting and slicing veggies. Easy to make and very healthy!!!

Ingredients

Pita Breads	12 nos	Got 3 pkts from the market
Iceberg lettuce	1	Almost 200 gms
Cucumber	1	Vertical thin slices
Carrot	1	Vertical thin slices
Red capsicum	1	Vertical thin slices
Yellow capsicum	1	Vertical thin slices
Lemon Juice	1 tbspn
Pepper powder	To taste	Use white pepper powder, if you can
Salt	To taste

Method

I have peculiar style of slicing carrots and cucumbers. Whenever you want vertical slices to put in a salad or sauted veggies, I never use the knife. Instead, I use a peeler and go on peeling carrot / cucumber till the end. This gives very fine slices without much efforts

1.    Peel carrots and cucumbers in the way described above

2.    Thinly cut juliennes of red and yellow capsicum, after taking off those seeds

3.    Dress these slices with lemon juice, pepper powder and salt and leave aside

4.    Cut each pita in two parts and toast them on a pan / tawa (once the pita is cut into two, the individual pitas open to form a pocket)

5.    Spread a liitle humus inside the pita pocket, arrange a nice lettuce leaf and fill it with the veggies

6.    You are ready to gorge (instead of making this, place all of this on the dining table and let people (or guests) make them on their own)

Fattoush

Ingredients

Green capsicum	1	Cut in cubes
Tomatoes	2	Cut in cubes
Cucumber	1	Vertical thin slices
Bread slices	2 or 3	Alternatively, you can use ready-made croutons from market
Iceberg lettuce	10 – 12 leaves	Torn into small pieces
Black olives	5 to 6	You can also use or add green olives
Coriander	Some twigs
Salt	To taste

For the dressing

Olive oil – 3 tpsns

White Vinegar – 1 tbspn

Lemon Juice – 2 tbpsn

Slat – to taste

Black peppercorns – 12 to 15 pods

Coriander

Fresh Mint leaves – 3 to 4 twigs

Method

1.    Heat olive oil in a pan and sauté the bread pieces on medium heat to make croutons. Easier way is to buy them from the market

2.    Mix all the ingredients given in the dressing and whisk it well (I use mortar and pestle for crushing peppercorns, that brings out the flavor and adds crunch)

3.     In a big bowl, tear the lettuce and add the diced veggies and the dressing. Mix well

4.    Add croutons to this mixture and serve

5.    This is a cold salad and can be just had on its own or as a side dish

Note: Add some oregano to add that extra zing in the dish