Roasted Beetroot and Haloumi Salad – A warm salad for chilly days

The chill is beginning to set in Bangalore and as days get cooler, I find myself hating any task that involves leaving the comforts of a blanket. The problem is that, in Bangalore, indoors become pretty chilly while the outdoors stay bearable and yet its not cold enough for any form of heating (atleast not for the husband). So, my clothes get more mismatched than those of a scarecrow, PJs, with hoodie and a kashmri shawl, socks and fur slip ons and my plans to get a headstart on the new year’s resolution a few months in advance, derail.

Eating healthy during the fall/winter is challenging, you crave some deep fried snack with hot chai or a warm brownie on a cold night but, should be eating a cold cucumber salad. 

I saw a picture of roasted beets on some blog a few days back, and one evening when I craved a snack and had neither a brownie nor a cold cucumber, I heated my oven and savored this amazingly simple salad.

3 small sized beetroots

2 medium sized red/white onions

1 large red bell pepper

About 30-40 gms of haloumi cheese

5-6 large mint leaves

Olive oil

Salt

Pepper

Preheat the oven to about 200⁰C. Set it on roast setting (uniform heat on all sides)

Wash and dry the beets, bell pepper and mint leaves

Lightly coat the beetroots with olive oil and tightly cover with aluminium foil. Each beetroot must be individually covered.

Place the onion (unpeeled), beetroot and bell pepper on the wire rack inside the oven

Let the veggies roast for about 15 mins or so. The bell pepper will need turning around 2-3 times and the beets and onions once.

Check the done-ness by sliding a thin knife through the beets and onion, there should be no resistance. The skin of the bell pepper would have shriveled and there would be a few ‘burnt’ patches on the surface.

Remove the veggies from oven and allow them to cool

Next peel them one by one and chop the heads off.

Cut the peppers in strips, beetroot in rough cubes or thick slices and the onions as long slicess

Chop the haloumi in to cubes

In a salad bowl mix in all veggies and cheese, add mint , drizzle some olive oil and finish off with salt and pepper

Serve at room temperature

A very short 'Food Trip'

Hear of an eatery named Food Trip and you think of a global menu, a vibrant décor and at least something that you've never seen or tasted before. So with moderate expectations of a ’cool’ new joint in Koramangala , the husband and I stepped into food trip (where the semi decent Leb Mex was previously located). I glanced at the interiors and kind of got what the owners were trying to do, giving out this cute global vibe and a clean minimalistic not kitschy way. The color scheme was white with red and yellow thrown in. The walls were plastered with icons of a Mexican hat, the Golden Gate bridge, leaning tower of Pisa, a kathakali dancer and so on.  

We took a look at the menu and I thought it was missing a few pages, but once I glanced carefully I realized that that was it. So the concept, if you would like to call it that, is you pick a main protein/carb from a ridiculously short menu of 6, 3 vegetarian and 3 non vegetarian and choose to have it served as a burgerwich  (apparently a square bun) or a roll or a rice bowl . They also had a selection of fries and some other deep fried starters. And if you thought you are short of filling your daily calorie intake with one meal, they had some shakes to make up for the deficit. 

So the 6 options that you could choose are pretty uninspired and randomly named – Netaji’s Tandoori Paneer, Bitter Sweet Bangkok Dreams, Ninja Fried Chicken and Empire State Spicy Chicken. This is 2014 and even the colonel has gone grilled and most options seem to be directed towards deriving value from the deep fryer investment. 

My husband is the most indecisive meal-chooser at a restaurant that I know, he mulls over the menu even at a Shiv Sagar and here he was mulling yet again, but for the opposite reason, there was nothing to choose from!

We finally chose, Punjabi Lion Tikka Rice Bowl and Empire State’s Spicy Chicken Roll with Exotic Carribean  Fries. 

We looked around the ambiance whilst waiting for our meal and realized that the management was fairly weak, for example there was an open half door that exposed the not so aesthetic kitchen, the music was super random hindi stuff from the 90s, the front desk was empty for half the time, the wait staff was courteous but not particularly well trained.

Finally, the food arrived, the rice bowl was ok, very desi flavors but nothing unexpected. The roll was again fine nothing to complain in terms of taste but nothing to go gaga over either. There were no special sauces no unexpected twist. The portion sizes were modest but for the cost they were justified. The best part of the meal was probably the fries, the flavor was just right.

The rice bowl

The roll

The fries

We were kind of hungry at the end of the meal but the menu just had nothing that we could order so we quickly left after paying the bill and walked towards the numerous smaller joint in the same row thinking, "we wanted to like you but ....."

Overall verdict: Only if you are really hungry, in the area or both

Food Trip

487, J.T Plaza, Jyothi Nivas College Road, Koramangala 5th Block, Opposite Krishna Temple, Koramangala,Bangalore

The 100 foot journey

Food movies, movies on food, eating, cooking have a magical capability of bringing out the warm fuzzy in us, couple it with a side of romance and you have a 100 odd minutes well spent. 

The 100 foot journey does precisely that, albeit, in a slightly clichéd way. So, we have the Mumbai based Kadam family - Mama, Juhi Chawla (in a sweet cameo), Papa, Om Puri, the 'star son' Hassan, Manish Dayal (dishy!), who is blessed with haath mein jadoo when it comes to cooking and another 2 sets of brothers and sisters who complete the family. Driven by communal riots, death of the mother, political asylum and a dislike for the UK, in that order, leads the family to wander across Europe, only to have a (expected) vehicle failure in a quaint French town of Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val. Since cooking is what they do best, the family decides to start inhabiting the town and open an Indian restaurant across the street, about 100 feet away, from an uber sophisticated Michelin star holding one run by the haughty Madam Mallory (Helen Mirren). They also meet the warm and affable Margarit who is a sous chef under Ms Mallory. 

The rest of the story follows a slightly predictable path, sprinkled with the right dose of humor and romance. Hassan’s culinary genius spanning Indian curries, classic French sauces, contemporary French as well as modern molecular gastronomy is the crux of the film. 

What was good?

Heartwarming story: The characters and situations are warm with a lining of humor. The romance between Papa and Madam Mallory was better conceived than the one between Hassan and Margarit, although the two made a great couple. The mother- son scenes were a little forced but, added to the story well.

Acting: The acting was pretty top notch by most of the cast, Manish Dayal is perfect as the innocent faced genius who has an unending passion for food. Om Puri and Hellen Mirren are fab. The rest of the cast excel in their limited roles.

Food, food, food: The love, passion, hard work that all the main characters have towards food, oozes out in multiple scenes. Hassan and Madam Mallory obviously are the top of the lot, with their passion to create magic and win the coveted Michelin stars. Margarit’s jealousy and the head chef’s defiance and for that matter Papa Kadam’s arrogance were all a result of their love for food.

Indian food is the best ‘not’: I liked the fact that at no point there was a dramatic declaration that only Indian food can solve all problems. The story showed the Indian restaurant coexisting with the French one and not a dramatic turn of events where the clientele upon one taste of a curry turn their backs on French food.. Hassan’s signature style was also shown to be one  blending contemporary French with a hint of Indian. 

What could be better.

The ‘clichéd-ness’: From the sea urchin seller prophesizing about Hassan, the spice box (which seem to be unlimited to have survived of years usage at a restaurant), to Madam Mallory’s turn of heart for Hassan, to the scene around  home cooked food in a swanky Parisian setting. But, if you could ignore these minor irritants and focus on the beauty passion and chemistry the movie really works.

The last 20 mins or so: Too slow, too much, too rushed, the last 20 mins or so could do with better screenplay and direction.

Overall, the 100 foot journey is a lovely, heart warming story that should be savored like a perfect omelet on a lazy morning.

A comeback, with Mutton Tahari

I feel like mouthing an aging bollywood actress, "comeback? What comeback? I ‘ve been here all along." But the facts are clear, the ‘latest post’ is dated April 2013, and an embarrassingly poor frequency of posts, this is definitely a hiatus.

The apologies
Dear Blog,
You've been in my thoughts for months and probably years, thought of you when I traveled to a fascinating place, ate a memorable meal, cooked a half decent dish. In the pictures I’ve clicked, in the notes I made, in the thoughts in my head, the experiences I’ve had, lie a lot of unfinished stories, some written and some unwritten. You, my blog, hold a special place in my heart to say the least, but like many a well-placed intention, this one failed to translate into a well-run, well updated place. Sorry.
Love (really)
Wajiha

The promises
I don’t promise to not go missing in action once again or lose steam to pen (in this case type) my thoughts, but what I do promise is to keep the passion for all things food up and running, no matter what, because that’s what brings me back to this place again and again. I also hope to include travel and, for the lack of a better word, lifestyle content onto this blog. So here’s to the person from Poland who probably uses a linux OS to browse my blog (courtesy blogger stats), I love you and I will try not to disappoint you.

The proof
Writing a comeback post on a food blog with no recipe is like saying, “I’ll be back soon”, only to disappear from the back door.
So here goes my recipe for Tahari, a hyderabadi dish that ranks way high up in my list of comfort food. It’s like biryani but not as grand, it’s like pulao but way wholesome. The bonus is that it is a one pot dish that can be eaten with just a side of yogurt raita. I’ve eaten quite a few versions of tahari, but this one is my favorite, it’s a well balanced flavor that is relatively lighter, provided you don’t binge on multiple servings!



Ingredients
French beans (deveined and cut into 1 inch pieces) – 8-10
Potatoes (cubed) - 3
Carrots (peeled, cored and cut into 1 inch pieces) – 3
Peas (shelled) -1/2 cup
Methi leaves (big leaf, whole without stems) - 1
Tomatoes (medium sized, finely chopped) - 7-8
Limes (juiced) - 1
Coriander leaves (finely chopped) – ½ cup
Mint leaves- (finely chopped) -1/3 cup
Green chillies (slit) -10
Onions (medium, sliced) – 5
Ginger garlic paste -4 tablespoons
Yogurt – 400 gms
Mutton (with our without bone)- 1 kg
Redchilli Powder -4 teaspoons
Turmeric- ½ teaspoon
Cloves – 3-4
Cinnamon – 1-2 medium sized
Cardamom – 3-4
Shahzeera (thin variety) -1 teaspoon
Garam masala powder -1 teaspoon
Salt -2 tablespoons
Rice (Basmati or plain) -7 cups
Oil – about 6 tablespoons
Hot water - as required

Preparation

• Wash, clean and cut all veggies and set aside separately. Preheat oven to 200⁰C. The more traditional method calls for deep frying the vegies but I prefer baking them, both taste pretty much the same. If you feel that the potatoes are slightly tough, a short boil should help.
• In a pressure cooker pour oil and fry the onions till golden brown, take care as to not turn them dark or crispy. After about 5-7 mins, add ginger garlic paste and continue frying.
• Meanwhile, place the potatoes in one baking tray and carrots and beans in another, drizzle some oil and bake the former for 15 mins and latter 10 mins.
• Back to the onions, add a dash of water if needed to fry them further, there should be no smell of raw onions persisting. Next add the following at 5-10 minute intervals, tomatoes; red chilli powder, salt, garam masala powder; yoghurt; meat. Place the whistle of the cooker and cook for about 5 mins on high followed by 10 mins on medium heat. The tomatoes and yoghurt should provide enough liquid for the meat to cook but if you feel appropriate you may add a little hot water before fastening the whistle.
• Wash and soak the rice for 30 mins, while the meat cooks
• Open the cooker, check for the ‘doneness’ of the meat, it should be almost done but not falling apart. Add the baked veggies, methi leaves, coriander, mint, lime juice and continue cooking. Add the whole garam masala- cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, shahzeera. By this time the meat veggies mixture should be in the form of a thick spicy gravy with the oil floating on the top.
• Add about 2 cups of boiling water to the mixture, plus a teaspoon of salt, you can transfer the mixture into a larger cooking vessel if you want. Add the rice and cook for 5 mins uncovered followed by 10-15 mins covered. Additional water may be needed for the rice to completely cook.
• I’ve seen people serve a tablespoon or so of hot liquid ghee over their plate of tahari, personally, I cannot bring myself to literally add extra calories to a dish, but if you don’t mind it I guess it will taste pretty delish. Otherwise just raitha should be perfect.

Cheesecake done light

Cheesecake used to be my fave dessert during the times that I was not a dessert fan at all ( a separate post perhaps on that). I love fruits and I love cheese so a strawberry cheesecake eaten for the first time, where else but in New York was heavenly. The super creamy texture of the cake along with the tartness of the berry topping is some thing to die for.

This was the first time I was baking a  cheesecake and was sure that I couldn't go in for a whole full blown 9 inch dish full of calorie laden goodness, hence this lighter version adapted from Donna hays lemon cheese cake.

Ingredients

• 1 cup (150g) plain (all-purpose) flour
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ cup (55g) caster (superfine) sugar
• 80g cold butter, chopped
• 2 egg yolks
• Softened butter, for greasing

  Mascarpone topping

• 2 cups (500g) mascarpone
• ⅓ cup (75g) caster (superfine) sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon plain (all-purpose) flour
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• Blue berry topping as per preference

  Preheat oven to 160ºC (320ºF). Place the flour, baking powder, sugar,and butter in the bowl of a food processor and process until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. With the motor running, add the egg yolks and process until well combined. Press into the base of a 9 in round cake tin lightly greased with butter and bake for 20–25 minutes or until light golden and firm to the touch.
  To make the mascarpone topping, place the mascarpone, sugar, egg, flour, and vanilla in the bowl of a food processor and process until just smooth. Spoon onto the base and bake for 30–35 minutes or until the edges are golden and the middle is just set. Refrigerate for 3 hours or until set. Slice and serve with blueberry topping.

Product review - Bliss gourmet bread

I love sandwiches and my husband even more. My lunchweek has atleast one sandwich day much to the surprise of some of my colleagues who think that sandwiches can only be snacks and not a meal. My ideal sandwich would be one with fresh veggies and cold cut meat on a hearty submarine bread with a hint of cheese
But finding a good sandwich bread/ submarine/ baguette in india is pretty hard so I resort to grilled sandwiches on whole wheat toast.

On a recent trip to the supermarket I saw these elaborately packed delicious looking breads neatly stacked calling out to be picked up. Conjuring up images of a delectable bruchetta for dinner or a hearty sandwich for lunch, I picked up the garlic bread which claimed to be hand made, organic and preservative free, hoping for atleast a half decent loaf.

Boy was I disappointed, I wish they had paid attention to the taste and texture as much as they did to the packaging. The bread was dense and heavy, with the garlic flavour just limited to the crust. I had it with soup and it was just about palatable. I made the mistake of making a sandwich out of the remaining bread only to repent later.

Bliss is a local foods brand which is known for it's chocolates and has forayed into gourmet breads and baked goodies. Most bangaloreans may have seen the bliss lounge in UB city. I personally do not find their chocolates to be anything extraordinary. Bliss seems like a confused brand that does not know where it stands as its product clearly lacks the the fine taste required to be a gourmet food, yet with it's stylish packaging it aims to be just that.

I'm definitely not picking up any of these anytime in the future. Till I find a better bread or learn to bake my own its the local 'daily bread' or 'modern bread' for me.

Linguini in pesto with srimp

There is something about Italian cuisine that makes seemingly simple dishes taste better than an elaborate dish that would have taken hours to put together. The simple and fresh ingredients blended with amazing herbs and the best cheeses to give a flavor that's hard to not like. I've seen the purists of spicy food lap up Italian fare like second nature.

While in Milan I saw that Italians are fiercely proud of their cuisine, it was impossible to find any other cuisine in the central dumo da piazza area other than italian. The soft raviolis, creamy risottos, delectable pastas and of course authentic pizzas.

At home every once we find ourselves craving for the simplicity of italian fare and thanks to the availability of  fresh ingredients its no longer laborious to attempt a new flavor once in a while.

Pesto is one of the relatively lesser common pasta sauce with marinara, arrabiata and alfredo being well known. Its deceptively simple to make given the flavor it has. Linguini is a lesser known cousin of spaghetti with only exception being square edges as opposed to round. This dish is best served with parmesan cheese although any other sharp hard cheese should work well too.


Home made pesto-
1 cup fresh basil leaves
1 table spoons pine nuts
1/2 cup olive oil



200 gm linguini
200 gm shrimp/big prawns

4 table spoons parmesan cheese
Freshly crushed pepper
Salt
Oregano
Red chilli flakes

1. Boil linguini as per the package instructions. As soon as its done drain and wash with clod water and set aside in a colander

2. Blend all ingredients under 'home made pesto' and set aside

3. Heat a small pan to high temperature, drizzle a few drops of olive oil. Saute the prawns, on both sides till they tun pink. If they let out water, drain it and continue cooking the prawns.

3. In a big flat pan, add about 1 teaspoon of olive oil. Add the pesto followed by the linguini, also add any of the shrimp water.

4. Toss is well with a pair of pasta tongs  or two spoons. Add salt, oregano.redchilli flakes

5. Add the prawns and toss till mixed well in the seasoning

6. Move to serving plate, add crushed black pepper and grate some parmesan

7. Have it with a side of bread


Note : Italian ingredients were sourced from Godrej Nature's Basket in Bangalore

Hotel style coconut chutney

Bangalore's very own version of fast food are it’s multiple darshini hotels that are located with as much frequency as probably ATM machines. Usually suffixed with a sagar these eateries have patrons thronging the place all 7 days be it a quick breakfast before work or a filling lunch. We love hopping down for a weekend brunch and walloping down idlys, dosas or upma, sometimes we are hungry enough to finish the 2 foot long paper masala dosa. The worthy accompanist to these goodies is the humble coconut chutney, which is essentially a cold paste of coconut chillies and spices that perfectly offsets the piping hot entrees. The chutney however is diluted with water in order to make the economics work , an insider’s tip is to always ask for ‘Ghatt’ or solid chutney in order to receive a more condensed version.
South Indian ‘tiffins’ as these dishes are commonly called are a staple in any Bangalore home, they are easy to make, light and not messy, what’s not to love. But I always found my chutney falling short in the taste factor; I craved to have the same concoction at home as I had had in the darshinis. And then came the blogosphere to the rescue. I found this great recipe on Sailu’s food.
Ingredients
Chutney
1 cup fresh coconut, grated
¼ cup Phutane (toasted gram nuts)
2 green chillies
1 small onion, chopped
½ inch ginger
A few sprigs of coriander
Juice of a lime
2 table spoons tamarind extract

Tempering /baghar
1 table spoon oil
1 tsp rye (mustard seeds)
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp urad dal
3-4 dry redchillies

In the small attachment of a grinder add all the ingredients under chutney and grind to a paste, add water only if required. I like my chutney slightly coarse. Remove the chutney into a serving dish.

In a round metal spoon (used for dals) or a tempering vessel add oil and warm it over open flame, and the ingredients in the following order – urad dal, rye, cumin, dry red chillies. Fry for a min and add to the chutney.

Paper Masala Dosa

Khagina- hyderabadi style scrambled eggs

Just like making dal every region in India (and Pakistan) has a unique way of making scrambled eggs. The goan akhuri or the north Indian bhurji are but minor variants of breaking a few eggs into a fried medley of onions and your favorite spices.
And thus, there is also a hyderabadi style of scrambling eggs. The focus here is to fry onions and ginger garlic ad done for a salan or curry and cooking eggs in it. I like this simple version with not too many additions, but you may add green chillies or coriander to enhance the taste.

3 medium sized onions sliced
1 1/2 table spoons ginger garlic paste
4 eggs
2 teaspoons red chilli powder
Salt to taste
5 table spoons oil

Slice the onions lengthwise and separate the slices with your hand.

Heat oil in a wide flat cooking vessel.

Add the sliced onions and fry for 3 mins. Sprinkle salt and fry for another 5 mins. Keep stirring as you fry.

Next add the chilli and turmeric.

Add a dash of water and fry for 2 mins. Then add the ginger garlic paste.

It should take 5-7 mins and about 2 more rounds of water splash and frying for the onions to be done. The raw smell should be gone and the onions must be brownish in color and soft but not mushy in texture.

Spread the onions on the base of the vessel and break the eggs into it. Do not beat, blend or stir the eggs in any way for the first 5-7 mins.

When the yolk seems to be cooked to about 70 %, gently break the egg bits. Unlike scrambled eggs the eggs here need to be more or less intact in big pieces and the yolk and white separate.

Enjoy with roti for a weekend breakfast.