RIP Chef Jacob

This is very disheartening, one of my favorite chefs and TV hosts Chef Jacob passed away last week due to cardiac arrest. A talented chef and avid food historian, he holds a world record for doing the longest barbeque, making 485 different types of Indian kababs in 24 hours.

Chef Jacob

My mom and I used to love watching his cookery show "Aaha Enna Rusi" every Saturday, you can find him cooking some amazing authentic food in the most unusual locations, once he was seated on top of cliff and another time in the middle of water fall, on top of a tree, and most usually in the middle of a field. Besides exploring the terrain and doing some out door cooking, he used to keep the audience engaged with his sense of humor.

In the second half of the show, he had about half dozen kids who he used to teach how to cook by giving them each their own counter and ingredients and demonstrating with a simple a step by step procedure. I loved this part of the show the most.

I pray God gives strength to his grieving family and friends, he will be fondly missed by thousands of his fans and food lovers.

RIP Chef Jacob,  I highly doubt if South India will ever get a food historian and an amazing chef half as good as you.

Post Script:  I have been on a hiatus for about few months now, moving to a new country, going back to Grad school, breaking my leg (literally) and limping around on crutches for about 2 months, I never got the opportunity to post anything but this news moved me so much I just had share my thoughts. 

Images Courtesy
Crimson Chakra http://www.crimsonchakra.in/page/crimson-chakra---chef-jacob

Maavadu ~ Baby Mangoes

The summers in Chennai are characterized by heat waves, torrid weather, scorching heat, summer showers and will leave you dehydrated and dry to your bone; but every cloud has a silver lining, so does our Chennai summer! 

 

Chennai summers also bring with it the blessings of mangoes and melons :) I am crazy about green mangoes, I just cannot get enough of it :) and as for melons lets just say its my staple diet - dessert for breakfast, lunch, dinner and midnight snack until the very last melon sells out in Chennai!

So I in this post I am going to share an extremely easy to prepare recipe to help you preserve a slice a summer that you can relish through the rest of the year.

Maavadu (Baby mangoes in salt and spicy brine) 

Ingredients

1. 1kilo of baby green mangoes 
2. 100gram of mustard seed powder (dry roast the mustard and grind)
3. 10-15 dry red chilies ground to coarse powder 
4. Rock salt and table salt (according to you taste)
5. 200ml of oil (sunflower oil or sesame oil)

Procedure

1. Dry roast the mustard seeds and grind to a coarse powder
2. Dry roast and grind the red chillies and keep aside
3. Wash and dry the baby mangoes 
4. Take a think urn/ pot with a heavy lid add all the ingredient and mix gently
5. Every day gently shake the content of the pickle jar
6. Keep in a cool dry place and allow it to ferment for upto 3-4 weeks 

Baby Mangoes, washed, cleaned and left out to dry for a day

Mustard powder - coarsely ground after dry roasting 

Coarsely ground red chilly powder

A thick pickle jar with all the ingredients - mangoes, salt, mustard powder, chillies and oil 

In about 3-4 weeks the Mavadu will look like this :) 

 As you can see the mangoes would have let out all the juices in the brine solution making the liquid flavored well and the taste of the baby mangoes remains intact!

Its perfect side dish for curd rice, Sambhar, Dhal or just about anything!

Fresh Waffles and Maple syrup at Mocha Mojo

Mocha Mojo at Adyar clearly serves the best Waffles and Maple syrup in all of Chennai...well as far as I know! Remember I earlier blogged about a rainy day on the roof top, well this is how it ended- with warm Waffles served with sweet smelling and absolutely delicious maple syrup!  Need I say more! Well yes --> TRY IT! :)

~Please pardon my BB camera photos~

:)

One rainy day at The Green Park

Few months ago, one really rainy day, my friends and I decided to hang out and this place was their choice - why because it had a nice roof garden (Please remember that it was a rainy day) :P! So as we drove through the city, all the roads were flooded and the traffic would not ease out ! After a loooong drive we arrived, we realized that the Sunday buffet was on full swing; but my weight watcher friends refused to step in :( and wanted to only order ala-card, it was way too late go else where hence we decided to just sit and wait around until the Buffet was over and one of the restaurants opened up.  So here is what we did at the roof garden at 'The Green Park' besides eating :)

I just love to watch the rain :)

 Looks like the plants had a shower :D

 Yeah we had way too much time to while away! :)

So pleasant ! :) The rainy season is clearly my favorite time of the year ! Btw now its torrid summer in Chennai! This picture was taken months ago! :) I dint post'em cos it was... well i thought it was gloomy cell phone photos!

Green Park - Chennai 

So finally coming to the food! We ordered some fish fingers as starters, it came with fries, a cheese dip and a small portion of salad. 

I preferred the next starter  - Masala Shrimp :) it was fresh shrimp marinated in Garam masala and sauteed to tenderness. YUM!

We also ordered some Chicken Briyani and Raita which we shared, it was not very different from the regular Briyani you would get else were and the portions were quite filling.

So this is how you remember a rainy day in November with fine food, great company and all the details in sweet summer of June, while sitting at home looking up at the skies waiting for a drop, just a drop of water .. Rain ! *Sigh*

~Fin~

Papa John's Pizza at Chennai

A fellow foodie friend of mine read some amazing reviews of  'Papa John's Pizza' so we decided to visit their branch in nungambakkam for a quick bite after work hours. So here are some photographs from our visit. I generally do not complain much when it comes to food, I relish everything I eat .. I love Italian food but I have to admit that  the only thing I really enjoyed here was the salad! I dint enjoy my meal as I usually do and my dear friend kept telling me that the pizza sauce tasted like vatha kozhambu :D 

A simple veggie salad which saved the day :)

We ordered some chicken nuggets as a starter. 

When the chicken nuggets failed to satisfy our taste buds, we gave good old potato wedges a shot! But it came to us semi-burnt and super-chalky. 

Our garden pizza :) I can't help but admit that the pizza sauce did really taste like 'vatha kozhambu'!

Interesting 'wordle' decor inside the premises. AHEM!

So here is a note on the door/entrance! :D 

I promise my next post will be good! 

On Pain

‎"A pearl is a beautiful thing that is produced by an injured life. It is the tear [that results] from the injury of the oyster. The treasure of our being in this world is also produced by an injured life. If we had not been wounded, if we had not been injured, then we will not produce the pearl."~ Stephan Hoeller

In Love at Bangkok!

I had the opportunity to travel to Bangkok, Thailand in December 2011, I visited only a few places in the city, one of my favorite places was this beautiful restaurant called In Love located on the banks of Chaophraya River near Rama 4 Bridge. Its absolutely splendid :) Perfect spot if you are like moi.  I had no idea such a place existed, but my friend L took me there, we were further joined by her family and friends who were so warm and kind. The only regret i have is that i did not have my digital camera with me :( however I 'have uploaded this video from Youtube  :) also i have clicked some really-blurry cell phone pictures with no flash! <closes her eyes with her palms> 

I dint have my digital camera with me through the trip, all i have to share are these dinky, blurry, blackberry camera pictures :( I am absolutely certain it won't do justice to the food or the place, but here goes ..

Magnificent view of the Rama 4 Bridge - it was spectacular!

It was a perfect spot to spend an evening with friends and family.

Thai -style veggie soup , it was served in a vessel which was placed over flame to keep the soup warm through the meal- the soup was YUM!

Thai green curry with fish balls, egg plant and fresh salad

Deep fried fresh water fish with egg plant salad, fresh peanut sauce and fresh cut vegetables.

Delicious deep fried fresh water fish served with spicy chilli and garlic sauce and fresh vegetables - SUPER YUM!

We devoured everything :)

A super yummy dinner, fantastic location and great company :) on the whole fantastic evening. 

Tea Time Thai style :)

Tea Time at Thailand is quite interesting :) In India tea and coffee is usually served along with spicy snacks and  savories so I found it very different (in pleasant way) to know that tea and coffee at Thailand was served along with fresh cut seasonal fruits and some very interesting snacks. 

 ~Fin~