Christmas Road Trip - Malvan, Sindhudurg

Wishing everybody a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

We were really looking forward to the 3-day break we got for X'mas this time (25-27th) - I guess the hectic work schedules and long hours at office really take a toll on one's mental peace:) So hubby and me decided to go off on a nice road trip, which would be relaxing, pleasant, and fun. Both of us did not want to hit the usual Goa jamboree...so after some net search, we finalized on Malvan - a small coastal fishing town, 80 - 100 km before hitting Goa. And let me tell you - it was simply purrfectt!! Malvan had everything we were looking for - a small quiet tucked-away town with a great white sand beach (Tarkarli beach about 6 kms away), the famous Sindhugurg fort, and great cheap seafood!

Though there are quite a few tourists from Pune and Mumbai this time of the year - most of us were here for a quiet time, and not party-time. I think it was a perfect vacation. Let me describe our three days with some nice pics we took -

25 Dec (Friday) - We left early at 5:00 in the morning, and it was biting cold initially, but we stopped for tea on the highway and prospects were much brighter thereafter! The sunrise was spectacular (p'haps bcause we NEVER rise early enough to watch it!) and the traffic was minimal in the morning. We covered good ground and reached Kolhapur by 10:00 am - including a couple of pitstops for b'fast and pics.

In Kolhapur, we took the Rankala Lake exit from the city and then the Gaganbawra route through the Western Ghats. This is awesome route - once we crossed all the sugarcane fields on the plainlands, and touched the mountains, the riding was smooth, though slow - but we really loved it! The temple on the edge of the mountain looks like some out of the world monastery in Spain:)

From Talere, we entered into NH-17 (Mumbai-Goa highway) and after some more biking - reached Malvan by 2:00 in the afternoon. The place were we had booked (Madhuban Village Resort) is a really nice cozy place with clean room and bathroom, and a sturdy hammock outside in the garden. It was 2-3 minutes walk from the closest YD beach, which is mainly used by fisherfolks. Lunch we had at Geetai restaurant (Chaitanya was bursting at its seams, so we went in here instead). Fish a la Malvani style was delicious, though slightly spicy at Geetai. Evening we strolled on the beach and watched the sun set in the Arabian Sea. Dinner we had big juicy prawns and pompret at Madhuban - cooked by Mrs Sadaye, the owner of the place - it was yummy beyond words.
26th Dec (Saturday) - Started with some lazy b'fast of pohe at Madhuban, and later on we hit the Tarkarli beach. Check out the live starfish we found there - we then put it back in the sea. (Pic of the starfish coming soon!)

Post some scrumptious seafood at Chaitanya's (highly recommended) - the Surmai fry filled the big steel thali, and afternoon siesta, we went to the famous Sindhudurg Fort, which was built by Shivaji. Its only 15 minutes by boat-ride from the Malvan jetty, and again, is a must-do if you are there.

We were back at Malvan by 6:30 - 7:00 in the evening, and for dinner, we went hunting for veg thali (too much of seafood does not really suit us landblubbers:). Watched Rab ne bana de jodi (sic!) on the telly and retired for the night.

27th Dec (Sunday) - After another lazy b'fast at the resort, went to Tarkarli beack and said "goodbye, see you again soon" to the sea, and hit the road again. The traffic was much high now, since many holidayers were returning to Mumbai and Pune, and we reached home at 8:30 in the night.

A few things-to-do at Malvan are still waiting to be done like snorkelling, stay at MTDC boathouse at Tarkarli, dolphin spotting, and crab-eating. Guess , that warrants another visit to Malvan/Tarkarli sometime:)

Bhuna Kaleji

Now this is a typical Punjabi dhaba food, which is very popular in the northern part of India. We both like this spicy chicken liver dish with hot parathe. Recipe is fairly simple:

1. Saute 2 chopped onions with ginger-garlic paste in oil.

2. Add spices like turmeric powder, salt, coriander and jeera powder, and garam masala. When the onion starts leaving oil, add chopped tomatoes and green chillies to the wok.

3. Saute till you get a nice dark coloured spicy masala. Add the wasked and diced liver pieces and toss in the masala. The liver gets done in 4-5 minutes. Serve while hot!

Crispy fried chicken

My hubby is a fan of the Kentucky fried chicken, or the Col Sander's chicken as he likes to correct me:)

Therfore as always, I one day decided to make these at home. Now - Col Sanders crispy fried chicken is one of the best kept secrets, but there are umpteen variations to it on the blogosphere. I read a few here and there, and depending on availability at home, I made my own version of the crispy chicken. It turned out very well...though I will admit not 'exactly' the same as Col Sanders, but then.......who is complaining!! Certainly not me, nor hubby - who has already placed a request for another test run:)

My version of the crispy fried chicken recipe:

1. Prepare a marinade of buttermilk, salt, and pepper, and dunk the chicken drumsticks/wings/breast pieces that you would like to fry. Marinate them for anything between 1 to 24 hours.

2. In a ziplock bag - prepare a good quantity of coating. I added flour/maida, cornmeal, salt, red chilli powder, and dried mixed herbs like rosemary

3. Beat a couple of eggs and keep aside

4. Now is the messy part of the recipe - make sure all the things needed are close to each other. Pick up the chicken piece and shake to remove the excess marinade, dunk it in the egg mixture, then inside the ziplock to coat evenly, then again into the egg mixture and again in the ziplock bag.

5. Take out the piece from the bag and place them on a dripping tray, so that the flour gets some time to settle down and become soggy. Do this precedure with all the marinated chicken pieces and give them some time to settle down.

6. After 5 minutes, deep fry them in a heated wok - place as many as you can at high flame till it gets a nice golden colour on the outsie, then turn down the flame to medium and cover to cook till it gets done, At then end - again turn up the flame to high and drain out the pieces from the oil. This will ensure that the chicken gets cooked, but also retains its crispness.

Do try out this recipe - but take care while deep frying:)

Stuffed Poblano Peppers

I love this dish..because it is hot, spicy, cheesy, goeey, and yummy at the same time! Also - fairly easy to put together for those pasta nights.

We get good quality poblano peppers here in Pune, and while others buy it to make bhajjis and pakodas, I had never once bought it. Then one day I chanced upon some cookery show on TV which was showing tex-mex foods. Thats when I registered that these huge glossy peppers can be used very differently.

The recipe goes like this:

1. First char the skin of the green peppers over a flame (do not overcook - they have to remain crisp and sturdy) and immediately drop them in cold water. Remove their skins and also slit them lengthwise and carefully deseed the peppers. Take extreme care in deseeding these peppers, and also carefully remove the white pith from inside.

2. Parallely, lets prepare the tomato sauce. Blanch 2-3 big juicy red tomatoes and remove their skins and puree them. Heat some olive oil in a wok, add finely chopped onion and garlic and tomato puree to it. Season with chopped fresh green basil leaves (dry ones are also fine) and salt and pepper.

3. Grate some good quality cheddar cheese and stuff them generously in the hollowed out peppers. Press the sides to close the slit, or you can also tie a thread around the pepper. I generally just press the cheese to close the slit.

4. Gently place these stuffed peppers in the bubbling tomato sauce. It should not take more than 2-3 minutes for the cheese to melt. Serve with pasta bowl. The pepper-cheese-tomato-basil combination is highly recommended. These peppers are very hot, but the heat strikes at the end. So be careful while taking the first bite:)

Prawns in lemon butter sauce

Hubby is very fond of lemon-butter sauce - it has all his fave ingredients, butter, lemon juice and loads and loads of garlic:) Earlier we had made rawas fish in this sauce, but this Sunday we tried it out with prawns. It was heaven!! (a la Nigella Lawson:)

I will post Ashrut's recipe for this dish:
1. Thoroughly clean and devein all the jumbo prawns
2. Chop a handful of garlic pods and half an onion, and keep aside, and also squeeze some lemon juice and keep aside
3. Next in a wok, he put a generous lump of butter along with some olive oil (so that the butter does not burn). To this he added the finely chopped onions and garlic and sauted for a while till the garlic aroma fills the kithen
4. Then he added 1 tsp of flour/maida and cooked it in the butter - take care not to burn it
5. Finally he added the prawns and tossed them till they turned pink and firm and quickly added a few mls of water to get the lemon-butter sauce

Spagetti Carbonara

Though its been a while since I last posted any recipe on my blog, and though since joining my new job in September, I hardly get much time to experiment in the kitchen, I did manage to put together a few good and new dishes on Sundays.

Let me describe the spagetti carbonara which I recently made - though I did not click any photographs that day, I am sure to make this dish again and will definitely click some pics then:) I found this simple recipe in a fitness column in our newspaper, which mentioned that the eggs and cheese combination is good to add calories to one's diet and beef up. Since I seem to have lost some weight recently, I quickly set about to put this simple dish together. Its a very basic vegetarian carbonara spagetti recipe, you can make a lot of variations with this.

1. I first boiled the spagetti al dente and after rinsing in cold water, moistened it with olive oil and kept aside
2. Then I sauted some diced aubergine (the big purple eggplants), green zuchchini, and onions in olive oil. Add some salt and pepper to these veggies and check if cooked.
3. Once cooked, I tossed in the spagetti and along with it, 2-3 egg whiles beaten along with grated parmesan cheese.
4. Toss to coat the spagetti with the egg and cheese mixture. Serve hot.

I know the recipe does not sound like much fun, but believe me - the taste was very good - light and non-spicy. If I might also add, very authentic:)

Plateau of Flowers

No...we did not go to Scotland this weekend for our holiday, but only biked down 155 km from Pune to Kaas. This small till-recently a nondescript place near Satara has become famous for its fields of wild flowers of every hue imaginable, which bloom for only a few weeks after monsoons!

You have to go there to experience the beauty of nature at its best - vast patches of white, pink, violet, magenta, green and yellow flowers and grasses shimmering between hardy granite rocks and bubbling streams - and home to hundreds of buzzing bees and butterflies. I am no botanist, and cannot identify the flowers found there, but I sure am a nature lover enough to respect and enjoy nature:)

It was a very nice trip - short and sweet, and the weather was perfect to picnic outside under the mellow sun. Some newspaper reports had mentioned about the irresponsible behaviour of the tourists visiting there - but I was genuinely surprised to see no littering around the plateau, and also hardly anyone was damaging/plucking the flowers. We also went to the Kaas lake and spent a good hour just staring at the placid lake, hoping for its own Nessie to appear:)

Posting a few pictures of hubby and me posing with the flowers:) Will look forward to reading your comments on this soon.

Pasta Salad

This pasta salad makes for a very healthy and snappy meal to fix up, for those lazy weekend brunches:) Plus, it doesn't hurt at all that it tastes great too!

We like using penne rigate for our salad - since it has this definite bite to it when its cooled just right or 'al dente'. Also the ridges help in holding the salad dressing. We like changing the recipe to whats available in our fridge that day, and what we both are in the mood for - cheese type, dressing, veggies, and herbs.

This particular salad was prepared last weekend, using finely chopped onions and cucumber, bite-sized pieces of green capsicum and ripe red tomatoes (use the small tomatilloes if you can find them in the supermarket), and steamed corn. Mix all these with the al-dente pasta (ensure that every ingredient is cold), add chopped cheddar (or crumble in some feta cheese), season it with salt, pepper and dried/fresh herbs, and dress it with your dressing-of-the-day. For this particular salad, we used a blue cheese-mint viniagrette straight out of a bottle:)

If your in the mood to prepare your dressing - simply mix extra-virgin olive oil with freshly squeezed lime juice, and add salt, pepper and mixed herbs. Shake well to prepre an emulsion, and drizzle over the salad. Quick, healthy and very tasty - you have to try this to belive my claims:)

Fish cutlet from Udaipur

This yummy recipe has come all the way from Udaipur, from my MIL's kitchen:) My pa-inlaw is very fond of fish, so this was made especially for him. I will be posting the exact recipe after a detailed discussion with MIL, but I know that she first pre-cooked the fish (frest-water rohu), then mashed it and removed all the bones. This she seasoned with freid onions, green chillies, and spices and salt. Shaped into flattened balls and then grilled on a hot pan with minimal oil, you get these yummy cutlets, for a very tasty and healthy snack/appetiser.

The picture below is of a fried fish dish - also prepared by my ma-in law. I guess these dishes are definitely on the menu when we reach Udaipur next month:)

Paneer Kofta

I am quite fond fo kofte..an Indian preparation of food where small balls of the desired material is deep fried and then eaten along with a rich-creamy gravy. These kofte that you see in the pictures are made out of paneer, or cottage cheese. Generally many cooks prefer to stuff the paneer balls with finely chopped dry fruits like cashews, raisins and almonds - I personally feel that depends on how rich do you want your dish to be. So for me, the stuffing is generally optional.

The kofte are quite simple to prepare, the gravy requires a bit more of preparation:).

Paneer Kofta - Grate 250 g of soft fresh paneer (cottage cheese) along with 1 medium sized boiled potato. Season with salt and pepper/red chilli powder. Shape into elongated balls - use cream if required, and deep fry to get crisp golden kofte balls. If you want - stuff with either grated cheddar cheese, or even chopped dry fruits.

Gravy - Soak 10 odd cashews in water. Meanwhile fry some chopped onions, garlic and ginger in oil and keep aside to cool. Finely grind onion-garlic-ginger to a fine paste, and also the cashew. Next, keep oil in a kadhai, and pop some cumin seeds, cinnamon sticks and green cardamom pods. Add the onion and cashew paste and fry for a little while. Season with salt, red chilli powder or white pepper powder, and garam masala powder. Add water to get a thick rich gravy. Add the paneer balls/kofte and simmer gently. Garnish with fresh gren coriander and serve while hot. I like to have my kofta with buttery naans

Fish Masala Fry

I am a fish lover. But not my hubby:( So it is quite an occasion when I eat fish - either outside in some restautant, or at home. Yesterday - Hubbs insisted that I buy some fish, and make it for myself:) So off I went to a new fish store, to buy some. Though I am personally fond of fresh water fish, they were out of stock, so I instead got a full 'Rawas' or some type of salmon.

Rawas is quite a popular fish here in India - especially with hotel chefs and in South Indian homes. I know that Hubbs likes crispy fried fish more than any other preparation - so I made these masala rawas fry yesterday. They turned out divine! Hubby liked it a lot..and took second helping:) The pictures have not turned out too well..they were taken in a hurry just before we started on them:) Do try this recipe - I am sure any fish will go well with this recipe.

Recipe: Clean and pat dry the fish pieces. Marinate in giner-garlic -green chillies - fresh coriander-lime juice/vinegar juice paste, along with salt. Ensure that the marinade is thick and completely coats the fish pieces. These spices will give the taste to the fishy. Try to keep it in the marinade for atleast 30 minutes. Next prepare a not-too-thick batter of egg, salt, pepper and corn flour, and keep aside 1/2 cup of semolina. Dip all the fish pieces in the batter, and then coat in semolina, and keep aside for 5-10 minutes. Next deep fry the fishy - it does not take long to cook - give or take 2-3 minutes per side.

Chicken Lollipops

Sharing this indo-chinese recipe with you all. It is a very popular appetiser and take-away here in India, and you will find many a non-veg foodies sharing their 'best chk. loppipop' joints with each other:)

Yesterday for dinner, we decided to make a batch at home, especially since we found a nice fresh packet of prepared lollipops at the super market. Generally, one has to ask the local butcher to prepare the lollipops from the chicken wings, or else, do it yourself. The lollipops came out wonderful..soft, succulent inside, and nice and crispy outside! We will be surely making this more often from now on.

How to make: Marinate the lollipops in ginger-garlic paste, a little soy sauce,salt and ground pepper. Keep it marinated as long as you can - I could only manage half an hour. Prepare the batter, using 1/2 cup cornflour, 2 tbsp maida, salt, few drops of red food colour (optional - I did not use it), 1 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp red chilli sauce, 1 egg while, and water. Check the seasoning and add more of sauces and salt if required. We want the batter to be thick enough to coat the chicken evenly, and also it to be spicy:)

Now - it is advisable to pre-cook the lollipos a bit to ensure that the chicken is thoroughly cooked. But if are sure to cook them properly while frying, you are most welcome. I popped them in the microwave for 2 mins, then dunked them in the batter, and deep fried in hot oil. I am sure - the pictures speak for themselves:)

Hot cross buns....

..hot cross buns. One of my favourite nursery rhymes ever:)

A few months back, I bought some dried yeast and used it to bake a small batch of sweet buns. The smell when the buns are in the oven is simply heavenly...and had me and hubby swooning over it:) Reminded of my kiddy days when Mom used to bake buns for us (but she used fresh yeast..the results of which are much much better).

These are the buns I baked..they were soft and sweet and slightly chewy when hot..straight from the oven. But they turned hard when cold:( I think the 'proofing' was not properly done. But..worry not! We simply used to heat them up in the microwave for a few seconds to get the same soft chewy buns again;)

Sabudaana wada/pancakes

This is one of my favourite evening snacks ... goes great with a cup of steaming hot coffee, is super easy to make and hopefully is also healthy. I generally deep fry it (yep - not healthy, but quicker and tastier), but you can also grill it on a hot pan with a drizzle of oil.

Its extremely simple to make - just remember to soak some sabu daana (also called as pearl tapioca) in water for 30 minutes. Boil some potatoes and cool. Then press out all the water that you can manually manage from the pearls, and mix it with mashed potatoes. Also mix finely chopped green chillies, roasted split groundnuts, and salt to taste. Shape into wada/pancakes of your chioce thickness, and either deep fry or grill to get yummy sabu daana wadas:) Enjoythese with tomato ketchup and mint chutney - have these while still piping hot.

Crunchy Prawns

Hmm..dont judge me by the lack of blog posts here. I enjoy trying out new dishes in the kitchen, and so does Ashrut. So while nearly everyday, we try to make something special, or add a something special to an ordinary mundane dish like khichdi - I hardly remember to take pics and post them in this blog.

This dish that I am posting here was prepared some time back after our Vengurla-Goa bike trip in Jan 09. Its inspired by the yummy rawa jumbo prawns which we ate in Vengurla.

The prawns were soo good..crunchy and full of flavour!

How to do it:

I marinated the deveined jumbo prawns in marinade of garlic paste, lemon juice, salt, and pepper powder. For about an hour perhaps. Then dipped each in white-egg batter, followed by rawa/suji. Dust off the excess rawa, and deep fry till golden Drain excess oil and serve with chutney and salad - quick and tasty appetiser.

Pizza with pizzaz!!

We like our pizzas. And somehow the delivered out-of-box pizzas were not hitting the spot, when we decided to make our own. (Thanks to Mum..she used to bake pizzas, complete with the homemade base way back when we were kids, when pizza was not even a popular term). Partly because I am slightly lazy, and partly because nowadays pizza bases are commonly available in the super markets today, I just made the toppings, on an already- baked market pizza base.

These are super easy to assemble, especially if you are not making your own tomato salsa/sauce (depends very much on the time in hand). Ashrut likes the mountain-pile pizzas, as you can make out from the pics - here we have used mozzarella/cheddar cheese, green olives with pimento, buttonmushrooms, onion slices, capsicum & tomato squares. Other times, we have also used bits of chicken sausages. Drizzle with EV olive oil, some oregano mix and chilli flakes, and bake it in a pre-heated oven for 10 odd minutes, or till the cheese melts/starts bubbling.
There - you are done. A perfect snack for those lazy weekend evenings:)
Very soon, will be trying to make my own pizza base - will post that too. The market ones are firstly small in size - not okay for a meal, and secondly, and most importantly, are fluffy like a big bun!!

Our Nighoj Trip

This post is about a small half-day trip to a nearby place called Nighoj village (105 km from Pune) which is famous for its potholes. Well - before you get this all wrong and laugh at me, and invite us to your neighbourhood to see huge craters on the roads, let me tell you that these potholes are special! They have been created due to water action on basalt rocks. Due to this erosion, the river has carved out these huge craters which gives the area the popular name of "Moon land". Posting some pictures from our trip - check them out. It was a nice short trip...200 odd km round trip with a few friends from Ashrut's office.

No - this post has nothing to do with food..except perhaps that I was planning to bake a cake for all of us, which in the end, I did not ;D

Orange Chocolate Cake

I have baked this yummy orange flavoured chocolate cake umpteen number of times, and is amongst my most successful baking creations so far;)

This aprticular pic was taken by Annu sometime last year - so you can imagine how late I am in posting this. The recipe has been modified from Neeta Mehta's cake recipe book - I will post the recipe soon.

Ashrut's birthday cake

Had baked and frosted this chocolate cake for Ashrut's birthday on the 25th Apr.
For the 1st time in my life, I tried my hands in piping :) - though its not gr8, but it served the purpose. Have tried to draw a small red-nosed plane (Ashrut is crazy about plane models and is making a P-51 Mustang right now). I used "Magic candles" and we all (mom n pa-in law, as well as Annu) had fun time cheering him as he tired to blow the candles. Can you make out the small red-jacketed pilot amongst the candle haze?? No - its not edible, but again is a tiny candle:)