Goa fried fish safari with Us - IANS

Goa fried fish safari with Us - IANS

   October 17, 2014       prabhakardalvi

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Under clay-tiled roofs, dodging tendrils of smoke in dim light and occasionally holding your breath to avoid breaths reeking of feni, pans laden with coarse flour-coated fried fish sizzle in delight in Goa's taverns.

Near Panaji, Kuttikar Bar lies at the end of a loose-gravel road behind what was once a stone mine. But for sea food aficionados it's a gold mine as far as fresh fish is concerned.

Run by former legislator Krishna Kuttikar, the bar serves some of the best fried fish this side of the river, whether it's filleted Red Snapper, Rock Fish, Bombay Duck or Mussels. But the sweet and sour vinegar-kissed squid rings are the most sought after.

If you ever want to eat the best fried fish in Goa, you gotta do one thing for sure: Head inland away from the sea, away from the fancy beach-belt diners and those beach shacks offering hyped, assembly-line food.

"It's the sweetness of the masala which makes the squids unique here. In most other places it is just hot and spicy," Kuttikar expalined. On most days, getting a seat here can be a problem with the 10 or so tables packed to capacity with binging junior bureaucrats, off-duty policemen, local residents and journalists among others which even includes staffers from the chief minister's office. (Kuttikar Bar and Restaurant. San Pedro, 8 km from Panaji)

Over in Siolim, 25 km north of here, the Amancio Bar overlooks a picturesque river and an abandoned ferry ramp. The only aberration to this otherwise placid environment is the pissed drunk patrons of this bar and others nearby, who perilously walk up to the edge of the concrete ramp to relieve themselves.

Amancio's has a quaint wooden balcony with tables overlooking what was once a busy market place. But once the crusty fish lands on your plate, your attention doesn't get anywhere else.

"The palu (perch) marinated fried with recheado (red chilli paste, spices and vinegar) masala is mouth-watering and priced affordably too," says Ashley do Rosario, who swears by the place. (Amancio Bar, near Siolim, Tar, Bardez)

Sheela Bar, located off the St. Jacinto island along the airport road has grown over the last couple of decades from a shack to a bar and restaurant almost threatening to go the fine dining way.

Unlike most fried fish haunts which use a red chilli marinade before slipping the fish into the pan, Sylvester D'Souza uses a unique green chilli paste.

"This is our trademark. It's what makes us unique. But we have a lot more offer in terms of fish, oysters, crabs and meats," says D'Souza.

His relatively sweet crab is unique too, as against the fiery garam masala spiced variants found in other restaurants. The preparation may not be to everyone's liking, but the crabs are more often than not bursting with flesh and that sweet, fresh flavour. (Sheela Bar and Restaurant: Opp St. Jacinto Island, Cortalim, 25 km from Panaji)

And then there are really rustic taverns like the one run by Madhu Halarnkar right next to a popular medicinal spring in the village of Pomburpa, 15 km from Panaji.

His small operation reflects the quintessential soul of a Goa tavern: Four tables, animated conversation, mingling odours of stale sweat, spilt feni and the fish frying in the kitchen.

Halarnkar offers the more humbling varieties of fish like sole, milk fish and prawns, which are obviously fast-moving amongst his more than modest clients. If you are a diehard regular, he would even allow you to fetch your own fish, which he will cook to your liking.

"Oh. You must have a bath at the spring after your meal. It's healing," Halarnkar often recommends midway through the meal. If you aren't so drunk, why not give it a try?

(Waterfall Bar, near Pomburpa spring, 15 kms from Panaji).

{{ The Guest Post Blogger organization was not involved in the creation of this content. - Dalvi Prabhakar B, Founder & Digital Manager (SEO,SEM,SMO) }}

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Special Food on special occasional for loves ones

Special Food on special occasional for loves ones

   October 17, 2014       prabhakardalvi

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From India Today

The caterer you call on might make that tandoori chicken or chicken razalla pretty well, but your regular guests must be knowing the menu by heart. As busy schedules increasingly keep us away from the kitchen and social obligations make us throw parties too often, it is time to move away from the old menu and show the guests how much of a food connoisseur you are.

To help set the table are a bunch of upcoming home delivery services that offer exclusive cuisines, fresh menus and healthy food. So, the next time you are craving for some dhansak, patrani macchi, Kolhapuri mutton or misal pav, there is no need to look up on Zomato how far a restaurant serving Parsi or Marathi food is. 

Just call Jyoti Watchmaker, whose delivery service Entertain@Home specialises in Gujarati, Marathi and Parsi cuisine. "Gurgaon and south Delhi is fast becoming home to young corporate professionals and couples, who are adventurous with their food and love to socialise, but don't always kitchen. Being increasingly health conscious, neither do they want to eat out at every occasion.

We offer them variety and nutrition in food," the homemakerturned-entrepreneur Jyoti explains. "Several Gujarati and Maharashtrian families have also started calling on us for the traditional weekend lunch, instead of dining out," she adds. Adding a twist to the usual north Indian fare is Megha Tuli's The Leaping Caravan. Another Gurgaon-based home delivery service that also caters to south Delhi, this Caravan journeys down Sher Shah's Grand Trunk Road to bring flavours from Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Punjab, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

If there is one thing Delhiites love as much as partying and good food, it is a great house party with plenty of yummy bites. As house parties get more creative and exciting, with professionally managed bars and kitchens, photo booths and DJs, the only thing lacking is variety in food. 

"As one of the most important trade routes, the road has inspired a great fusion of food and culture. The colourful caravans travelling along this road brought with them influences that helped shape what we today recognise as great food. The recipes we use are all hand-medowns from older generations," Tuli adds. While the Railway Chicken Curry on the menu has been prepared under the guidance of a gentleman who actually worked in the Railway kitchen back in the colonial days, the recipe for Dahi ke kabab is a well-guarded secret from a family in UP.

Tuli, a former hospitality professional, counts several young professionals among her frequent clients, some of whom even order twice a day.

 "When specialised cuisines are just a phone away, many prefer to eat at home," she says. The Sunday brunch may soon be an alien concept, with Nashta, the breakfast delivery chain, now open in Gurgaon. 

With a menu that covers Indian traditional dishes, english and continental cuisines, fresh juices and a whole lot of health and yummy options, few would now be willing to step out of home to get breakfast on a weekend. While these delivery chains function within the space between restaurants and momand-pop delivery outlets, the efforts involved are no less than that of a restaurant.

{{ The Guest Post Blogger organization was not involved in the creation of this content. - Dalvi Prabhakar B, Founder & Digital Manager (SEO,SEM,SMO) }}

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Cook with Own Hand and Enjoy Foods - HUNGER GAMES with Seema Chowdhry

Cook with Own Hand and Enjoy Foods - HUNGER GAMES with Seema Chowdhry

   October 17, 2014       prabhakardalvi

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Cook with Own Hand and Enjoy Foods - HUNGER GAMES with Seema Chowdhry

In the last few years, since my 10-year- daughter and I have been cooking together, she gets to do only the things she likes—choose the recipe, measure the flour, pour the batter in the cupcake moulds. When it comes to the ‘dirty work’ (read that as breaking eggs, cleaning the batter off the whisk rod of the hand mixer), then the little madame is always on a break.

To break this habit of shying away from the real work that cooking involves, I decided to teach her how to make tomato chicken curry dish. I had learnt this dish, Tamatai Murg, about 5 years from Kulsum Begum of Hyderabad, who at the time was a consultant chef with ITC Welcomgroup. I am not sure if the relationship still exists.

Born in the royal household of Salar Jung III, the erstwhile Nawab of Hyderabad, Kulsum Begum draws on her lineage to present the delicate flavours of the Deccan.

This is one of the simplest dishes to make and Kulsum Begum had dug this one of out of her repertoire to convince me that not all Hyderabadi or Deccan cooking was necessarily time consuming and tough. Over the years, of course I have made my own minute changes to the recipe, but some things that I learnt from her still remain a part of my cooking. One that I have taught kiddo to follow—always put salt in the dish after it has been cooked, never while it is on the fire, cooking.

{Seema Chowdhry} My 10-year-old had great fun collecting all the spices—nigella sativa, fenugreek cumin, and mustard seeds—together for this recipe. She spent a good 10 minutes identifying what spice could be nigella sativa and what was fenugreek seeds. Google of course was a big help since she could see the images and then look for them on the spice rack. Even as she learnt about spices she had never used before in her cooking, the big push was yet to come.

She had to dice tomatoes and puree them, peel the ginger and grate it and the hardest of it all, cut boneless chicken breasts into small pieces.

She dealt with the tomatoes with a little murmur, washing her hands after every tomato chopped. When it came to peeling the ginger stub and then grating it, she was not very happy with the smell it left on her hands. But it was the chicken which drew maximum protest. She refused, requested for help, bargained that she should be asked to cut only one piece, negotiated that it would be faster if we all cut chicken, threatened that she would cut one piece so badly that we would not ask her to do the rest...her pleas fell on deaf ears and the only thing I kept telling her was that we would not eat lunch that day unless and until she cooked this chicken recipe, which she loves, from scratch. I was there to help with the fire, but all the chopping, cutting and collecting of ingredients had to be done by her.

The first chicken breast was held between the tip of her forefinger and thumb and plonked on the chopping board. She tried to cut the chicken with one hand using a sawing motion with the knife over the chicken and thought that it would help. But when she realised it would not, she asked for a glove so that she could wear it on the hand that would hold the chicken down while it was being cut it. We don’t have one at home and the request was denied. In all, it took her 23 minutes to cut the first chicken breast and about 6 minutes to do the last one.

Before you think it was unnecessary and cruel to put my 10-year-old through this exercise, let me just say that I was in the kitchen with her all the way and I truly believe that if she wants to learn cooking then she should be involved in all aspects—including chopping, grating, measuring etc. That is the best to learn about the ingredients and cooking.

For the rest of the recipe, she did nothing more than pour in the seeds, puree and chicken in the hot oil in the wok, and once or twice stirred the simmering wok. But for her this chopping, cutting and working with the ingredients was the first step towards actual cooking.

Below is the adapted Kulsum Begum’s Tamatai Murg recipe. For the original, please visit

Tamatai Murg (Tomato chicken)

Ingredients

• 3 pieces chicken boneless chicken
• 4-5 tomatoes (puree in a blender or grate)
• 1tsp fresh ginger, grated
• 1/2tsp coriander powder
• 1/2tsp roasted cumin powder
• 1/2tsp chilli powder
• 1/2tsp fenugreek seeds (methi)
• 1/2tsp nigella sativa seeds (kalonji)
• 1/2tsp cumin seeds
• 1/2tsp mustard seeds
• ½ cup curry leaves
• 4 red chillies
• 3 tbsp vegetable oil
• Salt to taste

Method

              I like to grate the tomatoes for this recipe to avoid using the tomato skin. Oil in heated in a kadhai (wok). I first add whole red chillies and when they start crackling, add the cumin, nigella sativa, fenugreek, mustard seeds. Then I add the grated ginger, and when all the ingredients crackle turns brown, add half of the curry leaves. Then I add the coriander, cumin and chilli powder. Next I add the tomato pulp and cook on high heat. I finally add the chicken pieces and keep stirring till the oil floats on top. Sometimes I add a little water if the chicken looks dry, though Kulsum Begum never does. I finally sprinkle the salt 10 seconds before switching off the flame and mix well.

This weekly series, which appears on Tuesdays, looks at what’s new with food and drink, and how we are interacting with it. - Mint

{{ The Guest Post Blogger organization was not involved in the creation of this content. - Dalvi Prabhakar B, Founder & Digital Manager (SEO,SEM,SMO) }}

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Starter Papdi Pizza for Special occasion with Saneev

Starter Papdi Pizza for Special occasion with Saneev

   October 17, 2014       prabhakardalvi

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{{ The Guest Post Blogger organization was not involved in the creation of this content. - Dalvi Prabhakar B, Founder & Digital Manager (SEO,SEM,SMO) }}

Starter Papdi Pizza for Special occasion with Saneev

INGREDIENTS

• 20 flat crisp puris (maide ki papdi)
• 1 large onion
• ¼ cup pizza sauce
• 2 medium potatoes, boiled and sliced
• ¾ cup grated mozzarella cheese
• 2 medium green capsicums, seeded, sliced horizontally Nylon sev, as required

PREPARATION

• Preheat oven to 180°C.
• Cut the onion into thick roundels and separate the rings.
• Grease a baking tray and arrange the papdis on it.
• Spread the pizza sauce on the papdis. Place the potato slices on some and onion rings on the rest.
• Place grated cheese in small heaps on each papdi and place green capsicum slices on some of them. Sprinkle nylon sev. Put a little pizza sauce on top of some of the pizzas.
• Bake in the preheated oven till the cheese melts.
• Serve hot.

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Quick Jeera Chicken by Chef Sanjeev Kapoor, Taste Eat

Quick Jeera Chicken by Chef Sanjeev Kapoor, Taste Eat

   October 17, 2014       prabhakardalvi

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Jeera Chicken INGREDIENTS

• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds (jeera)
• 1 chicken, cut into 1½ inch pieces on the bone
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 4-5 green chillies, sliced
• 2 medium onions, sliced
• 1 teaspoon red chilli powder
• ½ teaspoon turmeric powder
• Salt to taste
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh coriander
• 1 tablespoon hand torn fresh mint

PREPARATION

• 1Heat oil in a non-stick kadai. Add the cumin seeds and sauté till they begin to change colour. Add green chilies and onions and sauté till golden brown.
• 2Add chicken and stir. Cover and cook on medium heat for ten minutes.
• 3Add red chilli powder, turmeric powder and salt and mix well. Cover again and cook for another ten minutes or till the chicken is completely cooked.
• 4Add lemon juice, chopped coriander and chopped mint and mix.
• 5Serve hot with rotis.

{{ The Guest Post Blogger organization was not involved in the creation of this content. - Dalvi Prabhakar B, Founder & Digital Manager (SEO,SEM,SMO) }}

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How you serve Boneless Goat Curry to Guest

How you serve Boneless Goat Curry to Guest

   October 17, 2014       prabhakardalvi

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ABOUT THE RECIPE - Chef Vikram Vij

The following recipe is based on my memory of long-ago stews. Although Chef have toned down the spiciness a little bit for the North American palate, this is a rich meal and robust of flavour, so be prepared to sweat a little bit.

INGREDIENTS

• STEWED GOAT
• 1/2 cup ghee or butter
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 6 pounds goat meat, bone in, cut into 1 1/2- to 2-inch dice
• MASALA
• 1 1/2 cups cooking oil
• 1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 10 cloves garlic
• 1 3-inch cinnamon stick
• 5 black cardamom pods, lightly pounded
• 1 pound red onion, thinly sliced
• 3 tablespoons chopped garlic (9 medium cloves)
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped ginger
• 3 cups pureed ripe tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon black pepper
• 2 tablespoon ground cumin
• 2 tablespoon garam masala
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon paprika
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cayenne pepper
• 1 cup plain yogurt (as fatty as you can get)
• 1/2 cup frozen blueberries
• 6 cups water

PREPARATION -

STEWED GOAT

• 1For the goat, combine ghee (or butter), salt, goat meat and water in a large pot on medium high heat.
• 2Stir regularly for 10 to 15 minutes or until the meat is browned and begins to release its juices.
• 3Cover and reduce heat to low, then cook for 1 1/4 hours, stirring every 15 minutes. The goat meat and bones will release water and should not stick to the bottom of the pan. If the meat is sticking, add 1/2 to 1 cup more water.
• 4While the meat is stewing, make the masala in a separate pan.
• MASALA
• 1For the masala, heat oil to medium high for 1 minute in a large pot.
• 2Add cumin seeds, cloves, cinnamon and black cardamom, stir and allow cumin seeds to sizzle for 30 seconds; stir in the onion and sauté for 7 to 8 minutes or until crispy brown on the edges.

{{ The Guest Post Blogger organization was not involved in the creation of this content. - Dalvi Prabhakar B, Founder & Digital Manager (SEO,SEM,SMO) }}

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