A 'z B'de treat

A few days back it was A's b'day and we went to G.C for lunch. Had a good time there and a relief from the slogging. The ambience of this place is the best part and food can be rated at average to good.








And what did we have--- a full meal with starters (but at the end didn't have any space in the tummy for desserts :( )

For starters it was a "crispy potato , paneer rolls and chicken manchurian"

Behind us was a gulmohar in full blossom , waving in the cool breez and i captured it here..
It was soothing and pleasing cool moist weather.......................I could feel that the monsoon is near !












Main course consisted of garlic naan,punina kulcha , palak paneer , dal makhaani,allo gobi and a hot bowl of veg pulao..
Only thing I was not very happy about was the amount of garlic put in the naan ,as i am not a very big fan of garlic , I had to remove some garlic ....














Then came bottles of chilled sprite to cool down the tongue....(in South India most versions of North indian food are spiced up a little more than the original form) .



Then came the bill :P and "saunf"... Thanks A for the wonderful time.....

Simple vegetable pulao

One of the very easy rice recipes that I love is this. I don't have a proper name for it , might be called a simple veg pulao.

When I am not in a mood of spending a lot of time in the kitchen, this pulao proves to be a saviour.

Here is the quick recipe:






What is needed
----------------
two cups of rice
one potato
one big onion
beans
green peas
carrots
Oil or ghee
cloves
cardamom
cinnamon
sticks
small cube of ginger
garam masala


What to do
------------
1.Heat the pan , add oil and stir fry the chopped vegetables.Soak the rice in water for sometime.
2.In a pan pour some ghee , as it heats add cardamom, cinnamon sticks, cloves and finely chopped ginger.
3.Add chopped onion and fry till translucent.
4.Now add salt garam masala, salt , the fried vegetables and the rice.
5.Fry all the ingredients for 2 mins and remove from heat.
6.Boil three cups of water (use water as per required), and add the fried mixture.
7. cook till rice is done.

add ghee and coriander leaves at the end.

My new favourite -- crispy snack!

Flattened rice had never been my favourite as its now.My friends visited me in March and that was the start of me falling for flattened rice crispy snack.
P's hubby made it here and left a container full of these crispies.I started munching them on weekends with a good cup of tea to accompany.
But now its become a habbit to munch a few spoonfulls every day whenevr I feel that naughty hunger in the tummy.
I think even N likes it.


"Cheera" as its called in bengali is a very popular snack in bengal.As a kid I remember having it with sugar,milk and mashed banana during afternoons.However,in B'lore its now that I started consuming it in this manner.

Now here is how I have it -- with some namkeen and
finely chopped onion

whats needed ??
----------------
500gms of flattened rice
salt to taste
3 tablespoon oil (mustard oil/vegetable oil )
4 green chillies (finely chopped)
some nakeen
1/2 medium size onion.

How to make ??
----------------

1.Heat a tablespoon of oil.
2.add the chopped chiilies, lower the heat and cover the pan (the vapour can be irritating)
keep stirring in between till slightly fried.
3.add the flattened rice and keep stirring.
4.add salt to taste , keep on stirring to avoid the crispies from getting burnt.
5.add the rest oil if required.
6.when the "cheera" becomes slightly golden brown and crisp , remove it from heat .

Now add the nakeen and chopped onions and have it as a light snack..!

Mixed veg (low spice)

Even after being a bong I have never been too passionate about bengali food untill a couple of years back.Its almost since the time I started staying alone in B'lore that I started craving for home made bengali food.In initial days I kept looking for eateries with "bong touch".And now I have started to indulge myself in preparing them myself. Here is a simple mixedveg recipe with the basic bengali phoron the paacnch phoron

Now coming straight to the recipe :

Requirements
---------------
1 Medium size Potato
1 Brinjal
Few stringbeans (barbati)
Few drumsticks
8 small cubes of pumpkin
Some beans
8 cauliflower florets
Any other vegetable of choice can be added
I added few grams of boiled bengal gram also.

Here I would like to mention the use of "bari" .It gives the curry a very hatke taste ...:)
So some fried bari can be added too.

Spices
-------

1 teaspoon paanch phoron
1 teaspoon jeera
Mustard oil / sunflower oil
1 medium size Onion
4 cloves of garlic
4 green chillies
1 big tomato
1 teaspoon turmeric

Lets make it!
--------------
1.Cut all the vegetables into medium or small size cubes and pressure cook (about 2 whistles)
2.Fry the Bari in little oil (do not add lot of oil as the bari tends to soak it all.
3.Heat oil in a pan and as it heats up add paach phoron , jeera and let them splutter.

4.Add garlic , fry it a little and then add the split green chillis

5.Now add sliced onion and fry till translucent.

6.tip in the cubed tomato and cook till tender

7.Add salt and turmeric.

6.Strain the boiled vegetables, preserve the water.

7.Add vegetables and cook for couple of mins ,when its very dry add the bari .

8.now add the water obtained by straining the vegetables.

9.cook till the curry becomes a bit dry .

10.garnish with coriander , a little amount of ghee can be added to get a nice aroma.

Summer Delights!!

One of my favourites ......cut in a fancy way this time.


Thats on last Sunday, i went to N's place loaded with mangoes, coconut water and something special for my new mom.
N is always very fascinated by the way Katrina holds up a beautifully cut mango on Slice poster.So I decided to give it a try , and there it was ..the masterpiece :D ..The fruit was very sweet and juicy ...loved it !!!

And the sculpture tried by N was also wonderful.