Roasted Vegetables with Potato+Bean Cutlet

Here is a very quick and easy way of preparing a healthy continental snack.
For the roasted vegetables you will need (quantity as per need):

• ·         Button Mushrooms
• ·         Bell Peppers – Yellow, Red, Green
• ·         Baby Corn
• ·         Haricot Vert Beans
• ·         Zucchini
• ·         Olive Oil
• ·         Seasoning: Salt, Pepper, Garlic/Any Italian seasoning

Preparation (Damn simple):

Chop the vegetables in large chunks in any shape you like (use your creativity:-p)

Heat two table spoons of olive oil in a non-stick frying fan on high flame. Wait till the pan is red hot, add the zucchini and shallow fry it on high flame. Keep tossing it at intervals and let the Zucchini develop slight brown patches.  Repeat this for all the vegetables one at a time.

High flame is necessary to avoid the vegetables from releasing moisture and turning soggy.

You may also tilt the pan and let the veggies be in direct contact with the flame from time to time to get that awesome burnt taste.

Just before serving sprinkle it with salt and pepper or any other seasoning you’d like to add. Garlic goes well with it.

For the cutlet you will need (quantity as per need):

• ·         Potatoes
• ·         Beans
• ·         Onions
• ·         1-2 slices of brown bread
• ·         Olive oil

Preparation (Damn simple):

Boil the potatoes, peel the skin and mash it up. Add finely chopped onions, green chilies, salt and spices as per your liking. Slightly dampen the bread and add it to the potatoes (this is to hold the cutlet together). Mix it all up.

Finely chop the beans and stir fry them separately till they are cooked. Add this to the mashed potatoes and mix it all well to make a batter. Take a large spoonful of this batter and round it up into a cutlet by hand. Finally shallow fry these on a non-stick tawa/pan in olive oil on medium heat till they turn brown and slightly crisp in the middle.

Plate it up! Tada … you are done! :-)

Tastes best when served Hott!!!

Happy Cooking! Do share comments on how it turned out.

Spaghetti in the Kitchen

Having enjoyed so many exciting dishes last week (courtesy my mom), this week I wanted to cook up something on my own. The whole while since today morning till evening I was thinking about what to cook. I flipped open a Tarla Dalal book I had purchased sometime ago. Then thinking of delighting Cheenu (she is fond of continental) and myself wanting some change in taste, I decided to try something exciting from the options.

We went through the several options together and zeroed in on ‘Potato Ring with Spaghetti in Tomato Sauce’.

Mostly I followed the recipe but added some of my customization as well. Here is how you cook it up. Serves: 1-2 people

Step1: Boiler Plate!

1. Boil two potatoes and cut into small sized pieces

2.  Boil 200gm of Spagehetti

3. Boil 2/3 cup of Sweet Corn (keep all these aside)

Step2: Choppy Waters!

Meanwhile chop two Onions, two Green Chillies and 6-7 Tomatoes (large pieces)

Step3: Saucy Sautee!

Boil the cut tomato pieces in a quarter cup of water. Once boiled use a sieve to separate out the pulp from the juice. Keep the juice aside.

Fry half of the chopped onions in 1 tb spoon ghee. Add the tomato juice, half spoon red chili powder, 1 tb sugar, some salt and let it boil on medium heat for about 10 mins. Your sauce is done.

Step4: Mixed Bag!

Now in your sauce, add spaghetti and 3 tb spoon of Fresh Cream. Mix it all well.

Step5: Couch Potato!

Fry remaining half of the chopped onions in 1 tb spoon butter. Add the green chilies, boiled cut potatoes, corn, half a cup of boiled spaghetti and half a cup of milk. Add some salt to taste. Mix it all well and keep aside. Your potato mix is done.

Important: the sauce preparation and the potato mix preparation should go in parallel as these two are served together hot. Here’s how:

The Plating: Take a small cup/bowl and fill it with the potato mix. Now turn it upside down on your serving plate and remove the cup/bowl. Surround the mix with the spaghetti in tomato sauce. Grate some Cheese on top.

Tada!!! Your dish is ready to be served.

Have Funn Cooking. Enjoy Madi!

South Indies: Mokka Junna Miriyalu Fry

Location: Bangalore (Indiranagar)

For a change I didn’t feel like cooking, I had had enough of north indian, Italian, burgers and sandwiches. I felt like having something different, something refreshing. I needed a change in taste. And because it was the end of a weekend, I needed something to cheer me up.

We (me and Sakshi) circled around on Indira Nagar 80 feet and 100 feet road thinking and re-thinking. We thought of several options but couldn’t decide where to dine. Then, it struck me. I decided to have my Sunday dinner at South Indies and try out some interesting south Indian options they had to offer.

As we were early, we got the table quickly and the waiter brought the menu. Along with it he got us some chips to munch on.

Their ‘Mokka junna miriyalu fry’ seemed to be especially tempting. This is basically baby corn marinated with crushed pepper , tamarind and besam flour served with three varieties of chutney. I wanted to try it for a looong time. The menu had an enlarged image of this and looking at it made my water. It tasted exactly the way it looked like in the menu … a-mazzing!!!

For the main course, we browsed through the menu and very quickly reached a consensus. We wanted to have their Appam and Kari Kari Stew. This stew is garden fresh vegetables cooked in a coconut milk based gravy, flavored with curry leaves and green chilies. This stew goes well with Appams and had been recommended by many friends.

The waiter came up to us and swiftly took our order on his i-phone.

The service was quick, I’m guessing probably because the order taking was computerized. The waiter takes order and sends it out. It is then automatically displayed on the digital signage along with serial number in the kitchen. The process is simple and quick. Coming back to food …

As soon as we had finished off the baby corn, he served us the stew. For the Appams there is always a live counter. It was delightful to have the freshly cooked steaming appam, served right off the pan. We ate off those in no time. For the repeat order we ordered the Podi Appam. This is appam sprinkled with a spicy masala and tastes even better.

We wanted to keep it light that day and so we stopped at this. But, there are several curry options here and you can accompany these with interesting varieties of dosa, roti, appam or parotta. Please click here for the menu.

I would suggest to all north Indians … Go on … do try if you want to have something beyond the regular.

Italian Khana

Location: Bangalore (Indiranagar)

I had not been for a buffet in a long time. I got the best excuse of going for one when I got up late last Tuesday. It was May Day and we had a holiday.

As it was already 10:30am when I got out of bed, I dint see any point in preparing breakfast. I woke-up my partner in crime (Sakshi) and suggested going for brunch.  As always, I started browsing on my smart phone for some good options. In just a few minutes we narrowed down to Little Italy weekday buffet brunch – one of the best in the city in my opinion. Probably the only place you get 100% vegetarian Italian food.

At the restaurant, we chose to sit outdoors.  As soon as we were seated the waiter arrived and then began a beautiful, splendid journey of Italian epicurean delights with a bit of Mexican tadka. And guys, let me share some of these visually … please don’t hate me for this gastronomical torture … though I love doing this to you all ;-))

Tossed veg. Salad from the Live Counter

Mixed sauce pasts with capsicum, sun dried tomatoes, broccoli and italian herbs

Here comes the wood burn pizza

Just can't stop ...

Here is another one ...

Crepe with fruits and chocolate sauce from the live counter ... yummylicious

Time for dessert

Everything wiped off the plate

Ahh mann ... im soo full ... 

One good thing about the buffet is that they serve you small quantities in a serving. That way you can taste everything and and enjoy the whole course from the starters to the dessert.


And guys let me tell you, the Weekend brunch offers more variety ... its bigger and better!!!

Pappu On The Highway

Location: Delhi-Agra Highway (NH2)

Dhabas are one of the best things about North India highways. Imagine going out with friends in the middle of the night and stopping  for parathe and chai . Or travelling between cities and stopping by for a hearty punjabi meal. Having food in the open at a dhaba during winters adds charm to the whole experience. This is something you cannot do down South.

The highways are dotted with clusters of little dhabas. Some great and some well … meh. Someone not familiar with the dhabas might land up at a very okay-ish kinda place and ruin the experience. So, all you lovely people reading this post, let me enlighten you.

The Delhi-Agra NH-2 was the most frequently travelled by me. It was mostly on the weekends with a bunch of friends. Stopping for food was a must.

The first choice from the plethora of dhabas for us was the Pappu Dhaba located midway between Delhi and Agra. Now you have to understand that there is loads of competition among these joints so there can be variations of pappu dhaba. So, be careful and go to the Asli Pappu Dhaba. That’s the authentic. Be prepared to wait for 10-15 mins for a table and another 15-20 mins for food. You might get lucky someday ;-)

Speciality here are the Parathas! You can order Tandoori or Tawa. And choose between Aloo, Gobhi, Paneer, Mix Veg., Onion, Mooli etc. etc. Huge in size, very rich in taste and soaked in ghee …  it’s how I can best describe them. Add a dollop of butter on top if you may :-p. They go very well with Dal Makhani and Curd. Of course a plateful of Tandoori rotis and Paneer are the people’s choice at any dhaba. And after all the food is eaten and gone, a glass of Chai is something you shouldn’t miss. Check out the menu on the left.

Easy on your pocket and great in taste, dhabas make up for one of the best gastronomical delights in northern India. I simply love them and always always visit one on my trips to UP/Delhi.

Some other great dhabas on NH2 are: Haveli (on way to Chandigarh), Gulshan (Delhi-Agra), Murthal (on way to Chandigarh), Sureya (Delhi-Agra, near Palwal), Akashdeep (Delhi-Agra, near Sikandara)

So HOMP at Pappu ... 

'V' for Veg.

Location: Thailand

If you travel to Thailand and worry about finding vegetarian food ... I have some news for you ...

The place for you is Burger King. The burger is awesome, way better and filling than a McDonald's. Thai McDees do not serve veg food anyway.

Better still they have veg. sides too ... who is a fan of hash browns? They are wonderful and the quantity they served amazed me. Fries again are grreat. I felt better than those of McDees again. Both these crispier and munchier! :-p

Apart from the usual ketchup they also serve another chilli sauce and that adds another refreshing change to the regular. It makes you go 'tchaa'!

They should open outlets in India soon :-/!

And yeah ... Subway serves Veggie Delight. so that's another good option.

They were a great help during my trip to Thailand! :-)

Both joints are dotted all over Bangkok, Pattaya, Phuket so no need of carrying an overload of Mathris and Achar ;-)).

Ek Plate Idli

Location: Malleshwaram, Bangalore

Another one of relatively unknown joints for having the most amazing south indian breakfast is the 'Veena Stores'. Its immensely popular among the residents of that area or people like me who know about it :-). Its  a humble little shop in  Malleshwaram where cooking happens at the back and the front is the sale counter.

It starts serving at around 06:30am in the morning and I would say 6:30-7:00am is the best time to go there unless you are willing to stand in a queue for your breakfast.

The best bet there is the 'ek plate idli' (rice cake). Served piping hot along with mint/pudina flavoured coconut chutney, gives it just the right amount of originality with a difference ;-). And they are the softest idlis I've ever had! :-)

The Vada ( Indian Donut ;-) )  again are Hot, Crisp and fluffy..  you ought to have one of those!

The yellow-ed and ghee-ed (soaked in ghee) Khara Bhaat/Upma again is a grreat bet. Again served piping hot, it becomes a nice complement to the idlis.

They serve tea and filter coffee but nothing amazing here ...

All you early birds ... rise 'n' shine ... visit Veena! :-)