Thailand ~ Teaser!

Hear me ! Hear me ! I am baaaacccccck! :) and I am going to flood you with food!

More updates coming soon! :)

Mocha Mojo at Adyar!

Few weeks back on a really dreary boring Sunday evening my friend T and I decided to break the monotony and madness by dragging ourselves out and meeting up. We chose to meet at Mocha Mojo as I have been there once and  I  found the place very amusing in decor and cuisine :)

First thing you'd notice when you step in is the unusual decor , click here to see more.

We the Chocoholics had to order a cup of Hot Chocolate which was the served with a generous helping of fresh cream ..Super High on calories I know but we could not help it :) 

Our next choice was a crispy bagel served with a side serving of Creamy Cream Cheese- So crispy , so cheesy and Oh soo Yummy - One of my favorites 

I am totally a salad lover - i turn into Bovine when i see green leafy veggies, so I am a bit biased towards salads, but if you try the salad bowl at Mocha Moja you will know what I am talking about :)

For Dessert we chose - Tiramisu - Super Fresh, super delectable !

A boring Sunday evening turned delightful thanks to the the love, laughter and energy my dear friend T shared with me.

Seen above is the picture of the jasmine flowers my mom painstakingly made me wear in my hair :P

Over all I had a great time and yes the pleasant food and service at Mocha Mojo might be one of the main reasons.

Try Mocha Moja at Adyar, a refreshing place, an interesting menu, great food, and amicable service :)

Mutton Briyani for Beginners

Briyani is one of my all time favorites :) in fact my Amma has a tradition of making briyani for breakfast for my birthday ..every birthday :P i know i know it s bit too  much but ahhhh who cares - besides its good to have a heavy breakfast :D and am babbling on and on again :D so coming back to briyani.  I  know it sounds like a complicated dish to prepare especially for a beginner but believe me its a cake walk and the simpler your recipe the better it will taste so I m going to pen down a very basic version ideally suited for newbies, you can master this recipe in no time and when you have done that please feel free to experiment with your recipes, So get ready get set Go!!!

Simple ingredients

Things you will need

Grind the following into a paste:

• 10-15 shallots (small onions) peeled washed
• 1 big bulb of garlic peeled and
• 3 inch piece of ginger

Mutton pressure cooked with chilli powder , salt and tomatoes

Keep the following ready:

• 2 ripe tomatoes cut into quarters
• 1 bunch of mint leaves- washed
• 3-4 green chillies sliced
• 2 cups of Basmathi rice, washed, soaked for 30 minutes and drained
• ½ Kilo Mutton - Pressure cook  with 2cups water and salt, 1 tomato and 3 spoons of Chilli powder for 15 minutes

Briyani in progress

How to make Mutton Briyani

·          Heat a thick kadai and add 4-5 spoons of vegetable oil

·          Add the following spices- 1 stick of cinnamon, few cloves, 2 star anise and sauté

·          Add the shallot- ginger-garlic paste and fry till the oil separates

·          Add the Pudina leaves, green Chillies and tomatoes and fry

·          Add 2 cups of water and bring to a boil

·          Add the mutton with the 2 cups stock

·          Add the Basmathi rice and cover with a heavy lid

Add the rice to the broth & bring to a boil

Your easy to make Mutton Briyani will be ready in less than 20 minutes

Garnish options:  You can use chopped coriander, deep fried onions or fried dry fruits to decorate your briyani :) 

Raita: Take a cup of  thick curd, add few pinches of salt, 1 green chilli and 1 onion chopped finely, 1 cucumber & 1 tomato deseeded and chopped , 1 grated carrot , mix all the ingredients in a bowl,  and refrigerate for 10 minutes before serving with briyani :) 

Prepare a simple raita out of curd, cucumbers, carrots,  tomatoes and onions

Serve hot with raita and  home style chiken curry.

See I told you its a simple recipe, now serve your briyani with raita and gravy and ensoii :) do temme how you liked it!

Once you master this easy recipe you can try complicating thing a bit: ;)

• After soaking and draining the basmathi rice, you can heat a kadai add 1 spoon of butter and fry the rice in it for 2 minutes before adding to the briyani, 
• You can also substitute the water you add in the briyani with coconut milk or broth entirely. 
• If you feel the briyani is too spicy add a few spoons of ghee before you serve. If you feel the rice will get over cooked add 1/2 lemon's juice to the briyani mixture and it cook.

Sampoorna @ Besant Nagar

I've heard a lot about this tiny lil place called MASH located at Besant nagar beach, so after much planning  (unsuccessful planning) :P Botu and I decided to go to MASH for a quick bite after work, however when we reached there and walked up  to the restaurant we saw a sleepy guy with a hammer and some turned down tables and chairs :( apparently they were renovating ..LOL Just perfect timing , oh well that was not a Bummer not even close, cos if u have been to Besi beach u wud know that it is sprawling with eat outs and new restuarents, so we decided to go to this tiny lil place called Sampoorna for some Kappi and Snacks ..

Chicken Panniyaram and Onion Chutney

 Since i came back from Karaikudi I have been craving for Panniyaram so i ordered some hot and spicy chicken panniyaram. 

Aloo Bonda

Botu has  turned veggie so she ordered some Hot and crispy Aloo Bonda :)

 I love what they have done to the walls of Sampoorna, its soo bright and beautiful.

Interesting sink 

My cup of Filter Kappi  :)

Sampoorna is located right next to MASH at Besi beach, do visit it and i assure u'll enjoy the food :)

Sampoorna at Besant Nagar beach



Nice & easy home style chicken curry

A friend of mine asked me a recipe for simple and easy chicken curry .. 2 weeks back so I prepared a nice chicken curry the very next day, clicked pix and decided to post it, however my trusty personal lappy had other plans!! It crashed and refused to get fixed so I went without internet at home i.e. No FB & Blogging for 2 weeks, yes i survived, anyways back to the chicken curry so this is about two weeks late :P bare with me peeps more posts coming soon :)

Home style Chicken curry

Lets start with 1/4 kg of chicken, it serves 2.

Ingredients 

2 big onions finely chopped

2 medium size tomatoes finely chopped

10 cloves garlic and 1 inch ginger crushed

2 spoons yogurt 
5 baby potatoes slit in halves

For seasoning 2-3- cloves, a small cinnamon stick

Ingredients

Marinate the chicken

Wash and drain the chicken pieces, add the following ingredients, marinate and keep aside for 1/2 hour..

• a few pinches of turmeric
• 2 teaspoons of curd
• 1 spoon of garlic and ginger paste
• 2 spoons of chilli powder and 
• 1/2 spoon crushed pepper
• Sprinkle some salt 
• Sqeeze half a lemon

Marinated Chicken

Procedure

• Heat a kadai, add 4-5 spoons of oil, add cinnamon and cloves and fry 
• Add the chopped shallots, curry leaves and fry 
• Add the marinated chicken pieces and baby potatoes and fry for 10 minutes

Chicken Curry in Progress

• Add the tomatoes and reduce flame (Adding tomatoes later allows the colour to be bright red)



Chicken curry in progress

• Add salt and chilli powder and reduce the flame
• Let it cook for another 15 minutes and remove from flame 
• Serve with Idly, Dosa, Rice or Simple and Easy home made Briyani

Chapatti and chicken curry

Mutton Briyani, Chicken Curry and Raita

Ensoi!!!

Paniyaram~O~Paniyaram !

A few days back while planing for a rather official mid morning snack for a group of special people from my favourite town we chose to order a much popular chettinadu snack- Paniyaram and Kara Chutney! I had my apprehension as to whether everyone would enjoy it, whether it would get leftover and wasted but I m happy to say I was so wrong!

On the menu were ~
Karapaniyaram Spicy Panniyaram
Inipupaniyaram Sweet Panniyaram
 Karachutney Spicy chutney

Sweet Panniyaram is mildly sweet due to the jaggery in it . It does not need a side dish or a chutney can be eaten like a snack or with a hot cup of coffee or tea! It tastes best when it is hot.

Kara panniyaram is usually bland and tastes somewhat like a roasted idly and hence you need a nice spicy chutney as a side dish.

Spicy chutney made by grinding onions, tomatoes, red chilies with tamarind seasoned with mustard and curry leaves.

Kara chutney and Kuzhipaniyaram a match made it heaven!

More pics of Karapaniyaramm

Karapaniyaram

Sweet paniyaram

Here is how the vessels looked once we were done!


Ain't it the most beautiful site? :)

All New Amethyst

Amethyst

Ahh i know its been a good 10days since i posted something on my food blog, I have loads of snaps but i haven't been able to sit down and write :) so let us begin where we left ~ AMETHYST! So i finally went to the all new Amethyst last Sunday. Needless to say with a dear girl friend who made my afternoon absolutely delightful!

All new Amethyst @Whites road

Greek Salad

 I ordered a Greek salad made out of fresh olives, crisp lettuce leaves, fresh chopped cucumber, tomatoes and cheese. It was light, nutritious and refreshing.

And for starters we ordered crisp fired chicken lolly pop with a side dipping of mayo - YUM!

And yes a cool glass of fresh lemon flavored iced tea to sip :)

Thin crust chicken pizza

 We were about to explode with just this and yet we ordered dessert :) a friend of mine once said
"Life is short so remember to start with dessert"

Dessert~ Carmel, baked pineapple with roasted almonds- *SIGH* Gimme more  :P

The picture below is not Pandora from AVATAR ~ Its the all new AMETHYST 

My friend was soo inspired by the gardens at Amethyst she wanted to make a parody "Pandora Thandi Varuvya" loosely based on AVATAR & VTV :P