Eid Mubarak to all my readers

I wish happiness for you and your family today and always.  ..

Read more at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/65485046.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

I wish Happiness for you and your family on the occasion of Eid-ul-adha. Eid Mubarak!!

I wish happiness for you and your family today and always. E ..

Read more at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/65485046.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

I wish happiness for you and your family today and always.  ..

Read more at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/65485046.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

How to make Coconut Milk rice - Kobbari annam

Coconuts have slowly become a very hot and versatile food commodity, and are being used in everything from our daily cuisine to our beauty regimens. Not too long ago coconuts had a bad reputation as being an artery clogging, cholesterol packed food that contributed to heart disease. Today however, the coconut is making a huge comeback as the new miracle food. Coconuts are highly nutritious, rich in fiber, and packed with essential vitamins and minerals. From culinary creations to magic beauty potions, coconuts pack a good punch. It is very much prevalent in South Indian recipes. Hence I tried to start including this ingredient in my fried rice to make it healthier. There are mainly two type of coconut fried rice – one with coconut milk and the other one is with grated coconut. The one I am presenting today is with coconut milk. BTW, this is a Vegan Recipe which is becoming more popular these days.

Preparation Time: - 25~30 min

Cooking Time: - 30 min

Servings: - 3~4 persons (depends upon whether they are kids or adult)

Ingredients:- 

1. 2 cup Basmati Rice – I used the everyday version i.e. with less aroma and shorter grain
2. 1 cup chopped coconut pieces to make coconut milk – you can use ready-made coconut milk from the stores
3. 1 medium onion chopped
4. 1 ½ tbsp. Ginger paste
5. 1~2 Green Chilli horizontally slit
6. 3 tbsp Ghee (clarified butter)
7. 1 cup chopped carrot, French beans and peas (optional). I did not use the vegetables but you can do it to make this a whole dish
8. Salt as needed
9. Sugar as per taste if you have a sugar teeth like Bengalis do
10. 3~4 tbsp vegetable oil ( I used sunflower oil but you can use any vegetable oil)

Spices

11. 2 Bay leaves
12. 2 inch Cinnamon stick broken into two
13. 4 Green Cardamom pods
14. 1 pieces Anise (optional)
15. 6 cloves
16. ½ tsp cumin seeds (Jeera)
17. 8~10 pieces of Cashew Nuts
18. Few raisins (brown one)
19. Few black pepper corns

Preparation:-

1. Wash the Basmati rice thoroughly and soak it in water for 15 min.
   
2. Chop ginger and onion.
3. Grind the ginger into a smooth paste.
   
4. Scrap the coconut and keep aside 1~2 tbsp of the content. Grind grated coconut with 1 cup water. Blend chopped coconut pieces with 1 cup water.
   
   
   
   
5. Use a strainer to filter and extract the milk and mix with 1 cup water.
   
6. Heat 1 tbsp Ghee in a non-stick kadai/ oak in high flame. Shallow fry the grated coconut till it turns slightly brown. Add cashews and sauté for a minute. You may add a little salt to it – it will enhance the taste. Keep them aside.
7. Heat rest of the oil alongwith 2 tbsp Ghee in a pressure cooker.
8. Lower the burner add all the ingredients under spices section to the heated oil+Ghee.
   
9. Add the chopped onion and sauté till they turn golden brown.
   
10. You may add the veggies now if you want. This is optional.
11. Add the soaked rice.
    
12. Mix well and cook for couple of minutes.
13. Now add the coconut milk with sufficient water and raisins. Also add salt and sugar as par your taste. You can skip sugar altogether if you have any health issue.
    
14. Stir and mix well till the milk is absorbed fully.
    
15. Cover and pressure cook till the rice is done. Ideally it should not take more than a whistle to finish the cooking
16. Switch off the flame and add 1 tbsp Ghee. Mix it well.
17. Sprinkle the cashew nuts and coconut pieces on top of the rice.
18. Garnish with coriander leaves
    

Now your delicious coconut milk rice is ready to serve.

Serve this with raita or any veg or non-veg curry.

As always please feel free to comment, criticize and seek if any help is required. I am all ears.
 

Happy Independence Day to my readers and every Indian in the world

Happy Independence day to every Indian and my readers of this blog.

Zomato Restaurant review - Barbeque Nation Whitefield

 

Barbeque Nation is one of the best BBQ restaurant in Bangalore and so the expectation was high when we decided to celebrate my birthday with a Saturday Lunch Buffet over there. I should say that the expectation was fulfilled.  This is one of the most popular joint in Ascendas Mall (near ITPL) and so getting a seat on Saturdays is almost impossible if you do not book it earlier. The place is little congested but ambience is good. The starters are always the best part of any BBQ buffet and here is no exception. There are plenty of variety of them - I am not going to list them here as you can see for yourself in menu provided by Zomato. But I should mention that the non-veg starters outnumber the veg ones by a large margin. Then that cannot be attributed to the restaurant as in real world veg starters are not many. They have a non-spicy version of almost every one of the starters and that is a plus considering we have two kids with us. Other places my 3 year old daughter cannot eat any starters but here with non-spicy option she could enjoy them. The mock-tail also was good as Mojitos ( my husband's favorite ) are there. They provide mango drinks for kids which is also nice. My hubby is prawn lover and he always enjoys the tandoori prawn anywhere but personally I like all of the Chicken options here. The potato with mayo, paneer tikka and pineapple on skewer are veg option that demand special mention. They have a live counter for chicken lollipop, pani puri and few others. That was good for a pani puri lover like me. The main course is not exceptional, biriyani was not good at all. However Fish Amritsari was worth mentioning. They have an elaborate dessert menu and the live kulfi counter has excellent kulfis fully customizable. Some other reviewers have mentioned that Gulab Jamun being average but I did find them really nice. The live music and the impromptu dance by the waiters were really enjoyable. The review should not finish without mentioning the extremely hospitable stuff - from waiters to the manager and the chef everybody was extremely polite and courteous. The only thing I did not like is the quality of the cake they arranged for my birthday - it was full of cream only. Probably we should not except much from the cake as it was provided free of cost but since the buffet cost is on the higher side they should provide a better cake. Hope this review helps somebody to choose and set the expectation. A overall 4.5 from my end as rating. The breakup would be as follows:-

Food: 4.5/5
Ambience: 3.5/5
Service: 5/5
Value for money: 3/5

Some photos of my family and the food are as follows:-

 

Happy Friendship Day to all my readers

Columbian Fried chicken - Pollo Frito

In general my blog covers Indian recipes and very few continental stuff. But this time it was my hubby’s office potluck and he was randomly selected to bring some non-Indian dish. My husband and son loves fried chicken and I do not dislike that either. So my hubby told me to prepare some out-of-box fried chicken recipe and I come up with this one. The actual Columbian fried chicken or Pollo Frito as they call it in Spanish is prepared with cayenne pepper which is not available in Bangalore. Hence I changed some ingredients and also the way it is prepared. But I can guarantee that the dish remains as delicious as ever. The VP of my husband’s office liked my dish very much and my hubby’s colleagues also give great feedback to him.You can watch the attached video or go through the recipe below.

Preparation Time: - 15 min

Cooking Time: - 35~40 min

Servings: - 4 persons

Ingredients:-

For the Brine

1.      Buttermilk 4 cups

2.      3 tsp salt or to taste

For the Chicken and Breading

1.      1 kg. (approx. 8 pieces) Chicken (I prefer drumsticks but thighs, breast and/or wings will also do)

2.      1 tsp Salt

3.      1½ cups all-purpose Flour

4.      1½ tsp white Sugar

5.      1 ½ tsp Black Pepper

6.      1 medium sized Onion chopped

7.      7~8 cloves of fresh Garlic

8.      2 ½ tsp Red paprika

9.      1 ½ tsp Thyme

10.   2 ½ tsp Red Chilli Powder

11.   A lemon for garnishing

12.   Sufficient oil for frying (I used Sunflower oil but canola, vegetable, or corn will do)

Preparation:-

1. Place the chicken in a large bowl and pour in the buttermilk and salt. Mix to cover each piece of chicken really well. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours. Then, take the chicken out of the fridge and let it rest at room temperature about 30 minutes before frying. Keep the buttermilk.
   
2. Chop the onion and crush the black pepper in a pestle and mortar.
3. Mix them with cloves of garlic, red Chilli powder, sugar, red paprika, salt and thyme.
4. Put the mixture in a blender and blend for a minute.
5. Dip each piece of chicken in the buttermilk you reserved previously and then cover with the spice mixture and then to flour, shake off the extra powder. Repeat this process a second time, dip the chicken once again in the buttermilk and cover it with more spice mixture and flour.
   
6. In a Kadai or deep bottomed frying pan, heat sufficient oil in high heat. Turn the burner to medium and fry the chicken for a total of 15~20 minutes or until the crust is golden brown and the juices run clear.
7. Make sure to turn it over halfway through the cooking process. I had used a smaller frying pan and hence I fried two at a time.
   
8. Then, let it drain for a few minutes over a wire rack with Kitchen Towels underneath before serving.
   
   
   

   

Serve hot with lemon / tomato ketchup as a starter. This goes well with any Indian or continental meal.

As always please feel free to comment, criticize and seek if any help is required. I am all ears.