Top Notch Marketing Strategy

I always wanted to write about this place, a bakery, I visited in Mumbai and it has taken me over an year to do the needful. The address of this bakery is as below - Paris Bakery, 278, Dr.C.H. Street, Our Lady of Dolours Church Lane, Dhobi Talao, Mumbai - 400 002. Phone 2208 6619, 6423 3678 (Time: 9 am to 8 pm with lunch break from 2 to 5 pm, Mon - Sat). I visited this bakery in June 2011 and I must admit, though it is a small outlet with no facilities to sit and dine, the shopkeeper exhibited some of the top notch marketing strategies and impressed me. 

The shopkeeper at the bakery had a smiling face, was willing to answer our questions with just the right details, there were no curt replies like Indane/Bharat Gas agencies and no over mollycoddling like McDonalds and Pizza Hut, some examples that starkly hit my head. Paris bakery is famous for its Butter Khari (many layers of maida, thin and wafery, baked to precision, basically a mini puff sans filling) and when I browsed about Mumbai before my visit, I learnt people traveled far and wide to fetch a stock of their kharis.

At the shop, my husband and I would casually ask the shop keeper, pointing to a bottle of bread sticks - What is this? He would reply - Garlic Sticks, draw few of them out and make us taste them. He would then show more varieties of these garlic sticks, the ones that use less butter, ones with a lavish dose of butter, ones that go well with tea, ones prepared with a liberal dose of cheese. He would not only stop at that but ensure we tasted a small sample of each variety. We were little embarrassed by this shower of affection and decided not to ask any more questions in the fear we would finish quite a substantial portion of his shop in the name of tasting. But he would not relent. 

If we quizzed mutely over the biscuits in trays, he would politely point out the facts behind them all, again provide a small sample of each to taste. This treatment was not only meted out to us given that he figured we came from outside Mumbai but to every customer who visited his shop, regular or irregular or a first timer. There were superbly delicious shrewsberry biscuits, buttery and divine short bread biscuits, nutty and sugary kaju macroons, jam biscuits and fan biscuits. 

We were lucky for two reasons -

1) We visited the shop before they closed for lunch. We went to this bakery on our last day of Mumbai visit to take back some goodies to Bangalore. We would have missed out some excellent tasting baked goodies and such refreshing hospitality had we hit the place a little late in the afternoon. 

2) We reached the bakery at 1 pm and were planning to break for lunch thereafter, but our meal plan was almost taken care of by the shower of affection from the shop keeper. 

We left the shop with a sizable purchase - 3 packets of garlic sticks, 2 packets of cheese sticks, 1 each of shrewsberry and short Bread biscuits, 3 of kaju macroons. The supreme friendliness of the shopkeeper and his excellent marketing strategies of answering our questions patiently, providing us with required information of his bakery's products and more than enough goodies to taste and make a decision, bowled us over completely. Prima facie, it may appear the shop keeper will turn a pauper if he exhausted his supplies in name of providing the right to taste to his customer. But the warmth in his business dealings and the fine quality and taste of his products will sure win anyone's heart. None in my opinion will leave the shop without his/her share of bounty. A customer from Thane, alongside us, was in tears when he came to know that the shop exhausted its morning stock of kharis. He promised to return at 5 pm and get fresh evening stock before he headed back home that day. 

Other products that Paris bakery offers are - butter batasha, cheese batasha, cheese papri, nankhatai, mawa cake, fruit cake, sponge cake, buns, milk toast, melba toast, garlic toast and soya toast. I will always pay a visit to this bakery every time I am in Mumbai.

Some more information:  

We stayed in Goregaon (West) and traveled by the Western Line of Mumbai sub urban railway. We got down at Marine Lines station and from here any one can guide you to Paris Bakery or Lady of Dolours church. 

Paris Bakery is barely 10 minutes walk from the station. On the way to Paris bakery, there is a likelihood that you hit the Parsi Dairy branch in Dhobi Talao. Do not miss out the Malai Khaja and Mawa Khaja sweets here, they are truly out of the world. On all days of our stay in Mumbai, we commuted by the Mumbai western line trains which serve innumerable commuters at an unparalleled frequency. As a tourist, if you resort to road travel, then you will only kill time and all your energy; hissing and sighing in traffic. 

Quick tips: 

Get down at Mahalakshmi station and take a taxi if you wish to visit the Mahalakshmi temple and Haji Ali dargah. 

Get down at Charni Road station if you wish to spend the evening at Girgaum Chowpathy. This beach is a well-kept short strip with many food stalls; definitely much better than heavily polluted, plastic stricken and congested Juhu beach. 

Get down at Marine Lines station if you wish to spend time at Marine Drive, catch a view of the Queens' necklace by sunset time, take a stroll by the Arabian sea on wide and well laid out pavements. 

Get down at Churchgate (terminus of western line trains) to take a tour of all buildings and monuments of British colonial times located in South Mumbai - the Taj hotel, Gateway of India, Victoria Terminus (this is the last station of the central line route), Kala Ghoda circle, Mantralaya, Mumbai police headquaters, Prince of Wales Museum (now known as Chattrapathi Shivaji museum), Art galleries. You can take a taxi to save time but a walk would definitely be more interesting. The roads are wide, pavements well laid out with small road side eateries at intervals; milling around the buildings of British colonial times and gazing at their exemplary architecture would provide many cherishable memories. 

Feasty Yeasty Experiments - 2

No Knead Focaccia Bread 

Another post stating many thanks to Cakes and More blog. I just could not stop playing with yeast and roller pin and flour last weekend. After baking two batches of rolls, I went ahead with confidence and picked up this quick and easy recipe. It is very quick, requires less effort and yields a super tasty flat bread that goes very well with tea. 

As already mentioned in my previous post on no knead rolls, Suma's blogposts offer a direct "put-to-practice" recipes. The link leading to the recipe on her blog is given below -

http://sumarowjee.blogspot.com/2011/05/no-knead-focaccia-super-quick-easy-easy.html 

Not much I altered in the parent recipe, I followed the ingredients as is. Minor modifications are as below- 

• I omitted grated fresh coconut. I didn't have any at home. 
• I used only 1 cup of APF and altered all other ingredients accordingly. 
• I used a 6' round tin for baking the flat bread. 
• I fried the finely chopped green chillies and coriander with hing, salt and sugar in oil, added required quantities of water and coconut milk to this. Then I added yeast upon hitting the right luke warm temperature. Into this, I incorporated the flour. We enjoy spicy stuff at home, therefore I added the chillies directly to the batter and mixed it well. 
• I sprinkled little rosemary, thyme and oregano (mixture) as a final topping before sending the tin into the oven. 
• I baked in my Samsung microwave convection oven at 180'C for 35 minutes. I didn't use the grill option for more browning. I checked for the hollow sound trick, it worked and I stopped at that. 

Nice, tasty flat bread and my weekend went well with fruitful experiments with yeast. My fascination for such yeasty experiments continues ... it is only Tuesday and I am already waiting to get my apron, gloves on and bake more goodies :) 

A big note of thanks to Suma and her blog (http://sumarowjee.blogspot.com/2011/05/no-knead-focaccia-super-quick-easy-easy.html) again for all valuable and truly delectable recipes. Many more thanks to you, I get to score many brownie points with friends and family with these recipes.  

Feasty Yeasty Experiments - 1

No Knead Choco Chip Rolls

Come weekend, my head is full of ideas, to cook something special. There are two worlds in cooking, broadly (in my opinion) - one is the routine, daily world, one full of veggies, pulses and spices that drives daily life. The other is this intriguing world of baking which poses interesting challenges and tempts one to keep on trying and improving. I was vehemently pulled into this second world by following the blog - Cakes and More. This blog is authored by Suma Rowjee, frankly and simply stating, my Baking Guru :) 

I attribute my entry into the world of baking goodies, the sudden drive to procure an oven and a constant enthusiasm to learn many neat tricks to churn out perfect goodies to her blog. There are many elements that make this blog very special for a reader. From the write up that leads to the recipe, measurements of ingredients (which one can blindly trust and follow), many important tips and clear instructions, out-of-the-world pictures of baked goodies, a supreme baker cum chef like presentation of final products - be it Graham crackers tied with a red ribbon, chocolate ganache spilling out of a cup, olive oil in an Arabian Nights style glass bottle :) - the many brilliant aspects of this blog instilled and maintains my passion for baking. 

I was content, for some time, with baking cakes without cream icing/topping. Sponge cakes, marble cakes, mawa cakes and fruit cakes were on my list of well accomplished dishes.  I forayed into the yeasty domain, for the first time, with these choco chip rolls (eggless and no knead). I am glad I performed my first experiments with yeast as baking with this elusive ingredient gives a unique sense of satisfaction, an unparalleled one I must say. Along with this smug happiness, comes a sense of fear. You want to outsmart yourself every time you use yeast and churn out consistently delectable and sponge soft goodies. Getting the temperature right, getting the yeast to bubble and froth is a pure adventure, fit enough to give an adrenaline surge in domestic environment itself. But the pretty outcome of baking with yeast is that the house turns into a sweet heaven with the smell of ambrosia from the oven, spreading all over and bringing lots of cheer and devilish hunger too.

Without further ado, I bring forth the link I referred to, the recipe I followed which helped me make these yummilicious, soft choco chip rolls. 

http://sumarowjee.blogspot.com/2011/11/no-knead-soft-cinnamon-rolls-eggless.html

I followed the ingredients (their measure) for dough as is in the blog. I used Gloripan yeast 1 1/4 teaspoons. For the filling, I used choco chips I bought from IBCA, Bangalore. 

I followed all steps as mentioned in the procedure, no digressions. I divided the dough into two batches - out of one I baked rolls instantly and the other batch, I refrigerated and used to make rolls the next day. I got a total of 12 rolls from this dough and we devored them happily with tea over the weekend. 

Here are few pictures of the photogenic rolls I made -

Big smiles on my face and waiting for the coming weekend to make more of these rolls with different filling and many more experiments with yeast.

Thanks (wholeheartedly) to Suma and her efforts :) 
Cakes and More !! (http://sumarowjee.blogspot.com/) rocks !! 

Weekday Baking : Eggless Mawa Cake

A quick post on baking - I tried out Eggless Mawa Cake yesterday and it came out super delicious. 

I followed the recipe provided in the link below - 

http://saffrontrail.blogspot.com/2007/11/diwali-delicacy-eggless-mava-cake.html 

I did not attempt too many modifications, just took note of below points - 

1) I used only 1/2 cup milk in total. This itself gave me cake batter of the right consistency. I did not require additional 1/4 cup of milk. 

2) I added 7-8 strands (pinch of) of saffron, no additional sugar with it. I added the saffron to the batter without pounding it. 

3) I baked the cake in a round 8' tin at 160'C for 30 minutes. 

The eggless version of this Mawa cake came out very well, nice brown and soft, with delicate taste of saffron, bites interlaced with crunchy cashewnut bits. 

Below are some pictures of the cake taken on my mobile phone - 

Picture of the cake (in true colors) taken using Nikon DSC 

Cake cut - picture taken using Nokia 1.3 MP camera

Thanks to Saffron Trail for providing me such a wonderful recipe. I will surely make this over and over again on many other occasions. Loved the cake completely! 

Wish you all a very HAPPY DIWALI :)

Diwali 2011 (26/10/2011)was spent in Bangalore. Simple celebrations marked the day, I made a flower Rangoli using marigold flowers (both orange and yellow), adorned it with a set of four decorative diyas/lamps. We had pretty noiseless fun with just two box of sparklers. I made a traditional sweet called Okkarai for the festival. This one is my favorite and my mother-in-law prepares it without fail during Diwali. 

Thanks to Saffron Trail for sharing the recipe of Okkarai on blogosphere - http://saffrontrail.blogspot.com/2010/11/recipe-for-diwali-okkarai.html 

I followed the recipe specified in the link mentioned above barring a few modifications specified below which I made after appropriate discussion with my mother-in-law. 

1) Instead of using 1 cup channa dal, I used equal measures of channa dal and moong dal (yellow) - 1/2 cup channa dal + 1/2 cup moong dal were used.

2) I did not make a syrup out of jaggery, the vella paagu as mentioned in the recipe on saffron trail. Instead, I add grated/powdered jaggery (measurement same as specified in the blog) directly to the wok in step 6. I mashed the crumbled dal and powdered jaggery in the wok on low flame and ensured they mixed well. Then I moved directly to step 9 - addition of roasted coconut, fried raisins and cashews and completed the recipe. 

3) I used little less than 1/2 cup (mentioned of Saffron Trail) of grated coconut for the recipe. 

The Okkarai smelt and tasted divine and had a nice, flaky texture. As mentioned in the blog, this recipe requires only 2-3 table spoons oil and 1 spoon ghee in total. I must admit it is quite minimal and with wholesome goodness of steamed dal, jaggery to add to taste, this traditional recipe is a safe bet and has become a huge hit in my list of favorites. 

With one cup dal or measurements as stated in Saffron Trail, much more than adequate quantity for two is prepared. The sweet can be stored for 2-3 days with appropriate refrigeration in an air tight container. 

Thanks to Saffron Trail! 

I did surprise my mother-in-law when I said I was going to prepare Okkarai for Diwali :) 

Okkarai made at home 

Pure Serendipity

I made an incredible discovery when I landed at this blog - http://cuisineindia.wordpress.com/ on cooking. 

The website is a true haven for people interested in cooking vegetarian recipes. 

There are a variety of recipes that suit my interests particularly - lot of dry chutney powders, vegetable curries and wet chutneys, those that provide an insight into many traditional aspects of cooking. The blog is authored by a very senior person - Prathiba Rao who has served her family's gastronomical interests for over 30 years. 

By true serendipity, I landed at this blog and ever since the day of discovery, I have been itching to get back home in the evening post office work and aerobics classes, to try out some recipes from the website. 

I tried two of them from the blog on the same day in a span of two hours in pretty much a parallel computing and execution mode. 

I prepared Corn Usli and Flaxseed/Peanut Laddoo. Please feel free to access the complete recipes with illustrations at - 

1) Corn Usli - http://cuisineindia.wordpress.com/2011/09/04/corn-usli/

2) Peanuts Flax seed Laddoos - http://cuisineindia.wordpress.com/2011/08/29/peanut-flax-seeds-laddoo/

The Corn Usli, I used inside a dosa for filling and this made a superbly yummy combination. 

The Peanuts Flax seed Laddoo, I served as a prasadham for Ganesha idol at home, before his Visarjan (immersion) marking the end of Chathurthi festival. 

I used onion instead of mustard in Corn Usli as mentioned in the link above. I substituted Chat masala with Aamchoor powder in the list of ingredients. 

In making Flaxseed Peanuts Laddoo, I used lesser ghee (marked as optional in the recipe) than mentioned. I must say that I had to put some efforts to roll out the laddoos, they weren't as neat as seen in the source blog. My Philips mixer has got old after several years of use and I had to grind ingredients in batches.

There are the usual recipes of Dosa with Molagai Podi, Coconut Chutney, Tomato Chutney, Pudina/coriander Chutney and Sambar/Kothsu as accompaniments, then there is Masala Dosa with typical Potato masala as stuffing. I add little variations to dosa at home.

Below are pictures of Paneer Bhurji and Dosa roll using it as a filling I made during last weekend -

For Paneer Bhurji (quantity serves as stuffing for about 8-10 dosas) 


You need - 

250 g Paneer 

1 big onion 

1 ripe tomato (medium sized) 

5 green chillies 

Turmeric powder, chilli powder, dhania powder, aamchoor, garam masala and salt 

1 tsp Cumin seeds

Lots of coriander (finely chopped) 

Oil - 2 full tbsps

In a pan, add oil and wait for it to heat. Add cumin seeds, finely chopped green chillies, finely chopped onion and saute well. Add turmeric powder (1/2 tsp), 1 tsp chilli powder and 2 tsp dhania powder. Add finely chopped tomato with its juice into nicely fried onion in the pan. Mix well and add salt to taste. Saute well until the raw smell of tomato goes, the tomato and onion must shrink to make a nice mixture. 

Take 250 grams of cottage cheese (paneer, I usually buy it fresh from Karthik Mithai shop on New Tippasandra Main Road) and crumble it into small pieces using your hands. I personally feel there is no need to grate paneer. Use your both hands well to crumble up the paneer block. 

Mix well all the contents in pan and leave it for 3-4 minutes on less flame. Add 1 tsp of aamchoor powder and 2-3 specks of Garam Masala powder. Garnish with finely chopped coriander leaves, give a final mix and turn off the stove. 

The bhurji can be served with roti and a simple dal. This is a terrific combination for dinner. 

To give a twist to our usual dosa fare, we can use the bhurji  as a filling. Each filled dosa can be rolled over, cut into pieces and served hot with mint coriander chutney. 

Eating paneer occasionally/in moderation (say at least 2-3 times a month) is good and highly essential as it is a dairy product and provides the quintessential proteins, calcium and phosphorus.

In the last one week, there has been lot of learning as far as foodie's sphere is concerned, lots of experiments in the kitchen that turned successful and many more recipes in the "to-do" list. I would like to end with a note of thanks to Prathiba Aunty for the precious information she is sharing on her blog - Indian Food Court. 

Baking with Zest

After procuring a long list of baking essentials from Institue of Baking and Cake Art, Bangalore, I baked an orange marmalade cake during the weekend. 

(courtesy:  http://vegbowl.blogspot.com/2011/05/marmalade-bundt-cake.html)

I used a 6" round cake tin for baking the above cake. The procedure I followed is as prescribed in the above link/blog post with a change in that I did not add two eggs recommended. There were no eggs at home and after finishing the routine household chores marked for the weekend, I had no drive to go out to a shop and fetch them. I am sure I missed that extra fluff the addition of eggs provide me, nevertheless the cake came out nice golden brown and well baked. Water was added to get the cake batter to right consistency in the absence of eggs. Also, I added little extra (25g additionally) butter to the cake batter. 

I preheated the oven to 180'C and baked at this temperature for 35 minutes duration, a knife inserted came out clean as a check. I baked the cake post lunch around 3.30-4.30 pm and I must admit it turned out to be the perfect accompaniment for hot evening tea. 

Note: 

1) I used Kissan Orange Marmalade Jam to make this cake and I would like to point out that it has a strong smell of preservatives and taste of stabilising agents. This affects the taste of the cake mildly and can be noticed upon very keen taste analysis. Therefore, request readers to procure any other brand of orange marmalade jam and try out the cake. 

2) Here's a link to understand what is orange zest and how to acquire it - http://www.ehow.com/video_4790427_make-orange-zest.html . This link helped me lots.

To the set of gadgets in my kitchen, I added a NOVA N62M 250 watts, six speed hand mixer with whipping blades and dough hook attachments purchased from IBCA, Bangalore for Rs 850. This electrical hand mixer reduced my effort largely when folding in ingredients to make the cake batter. 

Below is the picture of a cake piece with a slice of orange on its top - 

I know it is a very very poor image, taken on Nokia 3110C mobile camera. I literally pulled out the last piece of cake to take a picture before the contents on the plate vanished.

The NOVA hand mixer N62M, my small, new baking wonder gadget looks like this  - 

Thanks to Mallika - owner of Veg Bowl blog on cooking for lending me this wonderful and zesty Orange Marmalade Cake recipe. 

Puttu with Kadala Curry - my strong favorite

Preface 

During each summer vacation, when I would return home from college, even before I could unpack my stuff, my mother would ask me what special dishes I would like her to prepare. With twinkling eyes and a refreshing smile, despite being worn out after a long train journey spanning more than 30 hours, I would immediately utter - Puttu and Kadala curry. 

Post marriage, while cooking for my better half, the number of occasions on which I reminisce my mother's cooking has only increased. How would Amma have prepared this dish? What secret ingredient would she have added for that unparalleled magical taste? During school and college days, there just wasn't enough room to make gestures of appreciation or even acknowledgement of her efforts in the kitchen.  But being an avid food lover, the constant urge in me to improvise, experiment and excel in my own kitchen and win accolades from my husband makes me recount all that she has done for me carefully over so many years. 

My mother and I share recipes on phone even now. I pick up the traditional aspects of cooking from her and in turn share with her some information I acquire from the "online" world that would help her cater to my brother's taste buds. My brother belongs to an entirely different generation in that he is 11 years younger than me. So traditional dishes like paruppu urandai sambar, vazhapoo usili, vazhathandu morkozhambu, avial, keerai molagoottal, lemon rasam etc do not figure in his hit list. My mother's penchant to cook new dishes and make a delectable spread for her son made her foray into lesser known domains of North Indian food, desi-chat, Chinese (the Indianised version, of course) and even Italian; I must admit, she turns victorious in all her efforts every time. 

Heading back to my favorite dish - Puttu and Kadala curry, Puttu is a dish from Kerala made of rice flour. Traditionally, it is made by steaming rice flour on a rocket-like apparatus - a pot containing water with a long cylindrical tube attached to its mouth. The cylindrical structure, containing the rice flour to be cooked, is covered with a lid bearing holes that let steam escape. 

Kadala curry is the side dish for Puttu, a gravy consisting of black channa.

On Onam day - Sep 9, 2011, I made Puttu and Kadala Curry along with Palada Pradhaman payasam. The festival did not fetch a holiday from work and I had no time to prepare the complete Sadhya/feast. 

It is my husband's notion that the conventional apparatus used to make Puttu creates a very tightly packed, dense and less moist version of the dish. He quite comically equates eating this version to initiating an exosmosis process in one's body. He never relished eating Puttu and so I refrained from preparing it.

However, my mother broke the myth with an apparatus that looks like Aladdin's magic lamp. This small cup shaped apparatus with a lid contains rice flour (puttu mixture to be steamed). It can be placed on top of a pressure cooker or any steam vent/source. The steam coming from the pressure cooker is used for cooking Puttu. The Aladdin lamp puttu maker consists of a small cup with a handle, a covering lid and a small, flat plate with holes placed inside, at the base of the cup.

Below is a picture that shows the apparatus at work in my kitchen -

Puttu preparation

All we need - Puttu podi, grated coconut, luke warm water with little salt added to it.

Puttu podi or rice flour used to make Puttu is available in most stores in major South Indian cities. In Bangalore, brands like - Double Horse, Nirapara and Manna are available. I prefer Nirapara puttu podi, there are two versions - white rice flour and red rice flour. The latter, prepared from unpolished red rice, is  rich in vitamins and effective in reducing bad LDL cholesterol.

I usually mix equal quantities of white and red rice flour in a flat, big plate. Mean time, I heat a glass of water with 2 tsp of salt added to it till water is lukewarm. This water is carefully sprinkled over the rice flour. ensuring the flour does not get over wet and has no lumps. The puttu podi made moist with salt water is left aside for 10-15 minutes.

Place the mini plate with holes inside the cup apparatus at its bottom first. Add a layer of grated coconut on this plate. Fill the inside of the cup with puttu podi kept aside. Add another layer of grated coconut on top of the rice flour. Close the cup with the lid. Add few glasses of water to an empty pressure cooker and heat it till a prominent stream of steam comes out. The set up is now ready, place the lamp on the pressure cooker, right at the point where one would place whistle while cooking rice/dal.

Leave the set up for 10 minutes. Remove the cup from top of pressure cooker and invert the contents of the cup onto a plate or inside a hot pack. The puttu - end product, if steamed and cooked well, will fall well as a single entity without breaking upon inversion. If the puttu powder is uncooked, then it will crumble apart and break loose.

Repeat the process of filling the cup's contents and ensure that enough water exists in the pressure cooker for adequate steam generation.

The volume of Puttu this puttu maker makes in a single attempt is less, therefore this apparatus may work well for a small family. For a big family, the conventional rocket apparatus would save lots of time as the volume of Puttu it makes in an attempt is much much more. My mother procured this Puttu maker from Chennai, am not sure it is available in Bangalore. 

Kadala Curry

To soak overnight (preferably 8 hrs atleast)

1 cup black channa (black chickpeas)

1/4 cup green gram whole (this helps in adding volume to the gravy)

To begin with, black channa and green grams mixture is cooked under pressure (3-4 whistles).

A pinch of turmeric, salt and little (1/4 tsp) ghee is added to channa before placing it in the pressure cooker. Ghee ensures that the black channa is soft and well-cooked, it leaves a nice aroma as well.

For Gravy

1. 4-5 red chillies (for medium spicy)

2. 3 tbsps full coriander seeds (dhaniya seeds)

3. 2 tsp fenugreek seeds (methi seeds)

4. 2 garlic pods - finely chopped (may add more if you like garlic)

5. 2 thin slices of ginger (even 1 slice would suffice, ginger leaves a prominent taste, so keep it minimal in this gravy)

6. 1 medium sized onion (cut into big chunks)

7. 1 small sized tomato (chopped into big chunks)

8. 4-5 sprigs of coriander

9. 4 full tbsps of grated coconut

Dry roast gravy ingredients 1-3 in a pan. Once the chillies change color and leave an aroma, transfer contents of pan to mixer. Now in very little oil, fry onion chunks with cut garlic and ginger until the raw smell goes. Add a pinch of turmeric and little salt while frying. Once onion is fried well, add in the tomato pieces with their juice and fry well again until the raw smell goes. Add sprigs of coriander. Transfer this into the mixer, allow to cool. Add grated coconut directly to mixer without frying. Add little water and grind well in mixer to get a smooth, well blended paste.

In the wok

All we need- 1 medium sized onion finely chopped, tamarind water, cumin seeds (jeera), oil, salt, chilli powder (if required), garam masala powder, finely chopped coriander for garnish, pressure cooked black channa and green grams, gravy in mixer.

Process 

Add 3 tsp of oil first, add 1 tsp of jeera when the oil is hot. Add finely chopped onion (1-medium sized) into the wok and fry till it turns golden brown. Add salt to taste.

Transfer the cooked black channa/green gram mixture to the wok along with water that was used to boil it (While adding water, take care to ensure that the gravy does not become too watery) Give the contents a good boil.

Transfer the contents of the mixer to the wok. Stir well and check for adjustments in salt and spice.

Take a gooseberry sized ball of tamarind and makes its extract in luke warm water. Add this tamarind extract to the boiling mixture in the wok. Give the contents of the wok another boil.

Add just one pinch (2-3 specks) of garam masala powder. Garnish with finely chopped coriander and turn off the stove. Do not boil for a prolonged interval after adding tamarind extract, this increases the sourness of gravy. Likewise, do not heat excessively after adding garam masala powder, it would lead to loss of aroma/flavor.

Kadala curry is ready to be served with puttu. This gravy can also be served along side Idiyappam and Appam.

Footnote

I have no pictures to upload of the dishes prepared as they disappeared in a jiffy into hungry tummies.

My friends' mother has the receipe for a non-coconut version of kadala curry on her blog with nice pictures, am sure it will help immensely, please refer-
http://lakshmisindiancurry.blogspot.com/2010/08/kadalai-curry-black-chickpeas-curry.html
Please feel free to refer to other recipes on her blog, they are well illustrated and explained carefully that anyone can weave magic in the kitchen.

This is my first attempt in writing down a breakfast/main dish recipe. I work with hand approximations, mere estimations in head and barely use the spoon. So it is quite an ordeal to think back/recollect how much tsp/tbsp of the ingredient I actually added. And when it comes to providing illustrations, I do not stop to click pictures at important junctures while cooking. And even if I do, they are on my unimpressive Nokia 3110C mobile camera. 

I sincerely appreciate the patience and efforts with which my friends' mother (http://lakshmisindiancurry.blogspot.com) and owners of many food blogs I follow, post their recipes, imparting valuable knowledge to many like me. I hope to churn out more recipes with more precise details and lively illustrations in future.

Additions to my Baking Paraphernalia

On Saturday, Sep 10, 2011, I made a visit along with my husband to the Institute of Baking and Cake Art, Bangalore. I wanted to purchase a few items that will help me bake better and more. The institute is well known in Bangalore for providing excellent courses in baking for both novices and experts. Through Suma's blog - Cakes and More, I learnt that the institute sells all essential elements for baking goodies.

I am providing the link to the post on Suma's blog below - http://sumarowjee.blogspot.com/2010/05/institute-of-baking-and-cake-art.html

The institute is tucked near and behind the Richmond Road flyover, on Mission road, in the direction one would take from Richmond Circle to approach KH road/Lalbagh, in the first floor of an old building.

When I first purchased my Microwave/Convection/Grill combi oven, I grabbed an aluminium square cake tin, an aluminium brownie tray, a hand/manual egg beater (coil shaped) and a sieve from a nearby Casio supermarket on New Tippsandra road. Most shops in Bangalore are well stocked with basic supplies like baking powder, cocoa powder, vanilla essence and self raising flour. With a limited inventory to start with, I made vanilla butter sponge cake, dates and fruit cake and chocolate brownies a couple of times, over and over again. All of the above were a thorough hit with my friends at work and my relatives.

I wanted to experiment more now and mature as a baker at home. Suma's blog provides diverse baking recipes with appropriate illustrations and can bring out the budding Nigella in each one of us.

Below is the list I prepared before hitting IBCA stores. It helped me as I did not test the patience of vendors at the store, the customer who went in before me had driven them nuts by guessing indefinitely on what she wanted.

1) Round cake tin - aluminium - 6 inch
2) Round cake tin - aluminium - 8 inch
3) Bundt cake tin - aluminium
4) Muffin moulds (single * 6) made of aluminium
5) Pie mould with removable base in aluminium
6) Bread tin (with lid made of tin) - makes bread 400g
7) Chocolate chips - 100g
8) Chocolate vermicelli - 100g (I bought the chocolate brown colored ones, these are available in many other colors and flavors too)
9) Cream of Tartar - 100g (this is the minimum quantity available)
10) Wheat Gluten 100g (minimum quantity available)
11) Gloripan yeast - 100 g
12) Morde compound dark chocolate (bar)
13) Morde compound milk chocolate (bar)
14) Vanilla super essence
15) Almond essence
16) Cling wrap foil (1 box)
17) Butter paper (5pcs)

Items 16 and 17 can be procured from most shops, I added them to the above list for convenience.
The purchase of all above items listed was made for a total of Rs 1300.

To have an insight into the courses that IBCA offers to a commoner, please refer to - http://www.ibcablr.com/school.html


Baker smart is the online stores of IBCA, Bangalore - http://www.ibcablr.com/bakersmart.html

You may refer to this link to have an idea of what the stores at IBCA sells, but the listing here is not exhaustive. Lots more is on offer at the stores, it is good to visit the place in person if you stay in Bangalore.

Caramel - is the cake store/outlet of IBCA located in Shanti Nagar - http://www.ibcablr.com/cakeorder.html. One can place an order for cake at this site as per ones' requirements.

IBCA can be followed on Facebook, they have a blog - iBake and a issue a publication - Bakery World  that provide vital information related to baking.

I would like to thank Suma (http://sumarowjee.blogspot.com/) heartily for providing me the right direction both in baking lessons and in procurement of baking essentials. Now, the baking mania shall begin!

Weekend Baking - Fruit n Nut Cake

Some time to spare in the weekend and thus comes the scope for experiments in the kitchen.

Below is the recipe I followed for Eggless Fruit n Nut cake. It worked well for me.

One needs little less than 3/4 cup of demerara sugar, 1/4 cup to prepare caramel and rest to be added to the cake flour mixture as is.

Why: Little less than 3/4 cup as we will add 1 mashed ripe long banana (that adds much needed sweetness)

What: Demerara sugar is natural brown sugar that caramelises fast. Gives the rich, brown color to our Fruit n Nut cake. Available in most provision stores in Bangalore under Eagle brand.

How: Heat little less than 1/4 cup of water in a fry pan, add 1/4 cup of demerara sugar to it, stir constantly to prepare a caramel syrup.

Now in a bowl, take 1 and 1/2 cups of All Purpose Flour - add to it 1 tsp Baking powder, 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder, 1/2 tsp dry ginger powder, 1/2 tsp shajeera powder and 1/2 tsp salt.

Sieve the contents together so that they mix thoroughly and evenly.

To this flour mixture, add 1 ripe mashed banana, 1 cup of broken cashew, walnuts, unseeded dates (cut and sliced) and dry, black raisins. All these put together must comprise 1 cup.

Add remaining sugar (little less than 1/2 cup that we are left over with) + 30 g of unsalted butter (melted in a pan) + 1 tsp vanilla essence and pour in the caramel syrup prepared, giving all contents a careful and thorough mix.

Grease the baking tin and dust it with little flour on the inside. Pour in the cake batter.

Preheat the oven to 180'C and bake the contents at 180'C for 40-45 minutes (a toothpick inserted at the end of baking must come out clean)

Once baking is over - turn the tin upside down on a flat plate, let the cake cool down.

Tap gently and remove, the cake is ready for cutting.

From across several websites, it was suggested that the tin with cake batter in it be covered with alumimium foil and then put into the oven for baking. Guess this will ensure uniform and thorough browning of the cake surface.

I baked for about 35 minutes with the foil, removed it and baked again without foil for the remaining time. I had a perfectly baked cake after 45 minutes time.

Have a happy weekend !!

Pics: Taken on Nikon 3110 C Camera

Out of HIBERNATION !!

A brief hiatus of one month is over and I am alive, back to my blog in full vigor.

Away from e-mail, Facebook, blogosphere, summarily to say, the Internet accompanied by minimal mobile communication, my hibernation phase appears to have got over. Re iterating one of the well known dialouges in my head, from one of my Bollywood favorites - Jab we Met - I feel, I missed a train over the last month. However, such significant gaps are necessary and enjoyable in a way and I have caught my train back, finally :)

It is monsoon time in Bangalore but rains are sparse and scanty. A brief shower blessed the  Bangaloreans yesterday evening. We armed ourselves with our umbrellas and set out to explore a new eatery. Personally, it appeared as if life got stuck and moved slowly in May-June 2011 - may be due to  long, summer days or better said, the summer solstice effect.

The pretext of walking down avenues with tree cover (amongst the few that are left currently in Bangalore) and having sumptuous meal in an eatery offered great scope to break from the mundane set up. Over 5 years of stay in Bangalore, we have become regulars at the Konark,a vegetarian restaurant on Residency Road; Adigas, opposite Indiranagar BDA complex and small eateries on Tippsandra Main road. The advertisement on Times of India newspaper dated July7, 2011 pulled us to a new place - Sanjeevanam in Koramangala. Located on the Inner Ring Road, opposite Kendriya Sadan, close to Madiwala junction, this place offers healthy and unique vegetarian delights. The restaurant is run by makers of "Medimix soap" - the Cholayil. We visited the place at 8 pm and there were a variety of dosas, a meal combo, many soups, juices and desserts on the menu.

We binged on a roasted garlic dosa, a ragi keerai (ragi-spinach) adai, vazhapoo (banana flower) cutlets, ela adai (a dessert from Kerala), ginger coffee (that used no coffee beans) and banana-wheat pudding. The offering on the menu is completely different and highly delectable. The ginger coffee knocked out in one shot, the sinus headache and sore throat I nursed carefully for over a week. I bought some ginger coffee mix and palm candy from their stores/outlet, outside the restaurant, as a weapon against future instances of sinusitis and dry cough.

I would suggest that one visits this place to experiment with unique, healthy yet tasty vegetarian dishes. Sanjeevanam will make you believe that when a dish becomes healthy, it actually does not miss out its taste quotient. I picked up a few cues for culinary experimentation from the menu in Sanjeevanam. The meal above cost us Rs 387 inclusive of all taxes. So that sufficiently explains the fiscal outcome of the visit.

Sanjeevanam cannot be made as regular an affair like visits to Shanti Sagar for a singleton in Bangalore but it offers a great and genuinely different experience, a well deserved break from boredom/routine stuff. Much like the Bournville chocolate, a visit to Sanjeevanam points out - "you need to EARN IT" :)

Bocuse d'Or - I

A long weekend and at home in Bangalore, thanks to Good Friday! I came across on TV, a cooking competition/reality show -Top Chef hosted by Padma Lakshmi. From the show, I learnt of a biannual international event - called Bocuse d'Or, based at Lyon, France - considered an equivalent of olympics in culinary skills/art. Though I barely knew the names of recipes and ingredients that appeared in the Top Chef show, I watched it with interest as the format of the show reminded me of my once favorite cooking show on TV - Master Chef India.

I decided to name this post on my blog, related to cooking with this new found word - Bocuse d'Or.
I follow a couple of blogs on cooking ardently and enjoy cooking thoroughly. I added to my kitchen paraphernalia, a Microwave-Convection-Grill combi oven - Samsung CE 104 VD-B this February. In immediate aftermath of the purchase, I carefully investigated the usage of all modes in the oven with a variety of recipes -
Microwave - Veg Pulao
Microwave + Convection - Veg Pizza
Convection - Choco Walnut Brownie (I used the ready mix available in stores from the brand - Fun Foods)
Grill - Pudina Baby Corn
Micorwave + Grill - Tandoori Stuffed Aloo

This long weekend was a joyous one due to heavy, incessant rain. In fact, Bangalore recorded its heaviest rainfall in the month of April this weekend for the first time in 40 years. With rain comes the unquestionable right to binge on some deep fried short eats with hot tea to wash it comfortably down the food pipe.
I made corn vada and pressed them between toasted bread slices, placed few onion rings and gave a dash of Maggi Hot and Sweet Tomato Chilli Sauce to complete the dish.

Thanks to Tamalapaku - a blog on cooking from which I picked up the recipe of Corn Vada.

You may access the recipe of corn vada at - http://tamalapaku.blogspot.com/2010/03/corn-vada-makai-vada-mokkajonna-vada.html

Along with hot tea, I now wished to have some fluffy, baked stuff. The aroma of baking in home would sure complement the smell of fresh earth drenched in rain outside.
So I went out to make a simple, basic baking dish - Butter Sponge Cake and I referred to Suma's blog - Cakes and More for this. I revere her completely for her expertise in baking.
Here's the link to the recipe - http://sumarowjee.blogspot.com/2010/10/butter-sponge.html
The only modification to the above recipe - I reduced the number of egg yolks to 4 (from 6 mentioned on the source blog). The number 6 for egg yolks seemed a bit too boggling for me to handle.

And here's how my cake looked, yummy it was along with hot tea.

Thanks to Harini and Jaya - the authors of Tamalapaku for the corn vada recipe. I have tried the Bread Uthappam and Black Urad dal idli too from their blog. I loved the former a lot and in case of latter, I would still rate our normal idli (not using whole black urad dal) taste wise unparalleled.
Thanks to Suma for the recipe "Butter Sponge Cake" , I have a long way to go in baking lessons and hope to acheive it with her blog :)


   

Pune's CadB, now in B'lore

How would you like a Friday evening stroll down Brigade Road, a sumptuous meal at one of its many food joints and end it with a drink of thick, dusky chocolate shake. Perfect ten!!

This blog post is about the serendipitous discovery of one of the most delectable drinks I have ever had. Friday brings immense respite to me; the fervor with which I wait for it has only surged with time. A stroll down Brigade road and MG road on a Friday without hurry and worry of next day’s chores, watching people unwind from their sphere of flit and flutter, refreshes one immensely. Brightly lit shops doing brisk business, multiple eateries teeming with young crowd, cars and bikes honking to get into Rex Theatre for a night show of the latest release, all this and much more, in this part of the city, pumps a new lease of energy into lackadaisical souls weary from the week's toil. Viswa and I had a meek dinner at Stars and Stripes, a small restaurant, opposite Eva Mall, on Brigade Road last Friday. After the meal, we needed something to rejuvenate our sweet tooth.

A few feet away from this restaurant, after Kanti sweets shop, diagonally opposite to Eva Mall (Brigade Road) and directly opposite to St.Joseph’s college of commerce, existed our new find - the CadB outlet. The shop had alluring pictures of chocolate shakes and everything super-yummily chocolicious. These pictures provided a warm promise of a sweet surprise in store for us.

The menu card bore names like CadB - a thick brown chocolate shake and CadM - a thick white chocolate shake, the major highlights in the outlet. Their exotic variants were walnut topped CadB, Coconut blended CadM, Hazelnut CadB (Ferrero Rocher), Roasted almond CadB, Dry Fruit CadB, all available in both medium and large quantities. The shopkeeper politely explained that these thick, creamy shakes offered a unique taste.

We ordered a CadB (medium) priced at Rs 50. Topped with crushed, rich chocolate flakes, this dark brown beauty enticed us thoroughly with its divine but sinful taste. The shopkeeper was true to his word and the drink was truly one of its kind. In just one attempt, the dark temptation seemed irresistible. We ordered a CadB Hazelnut (medium) priced at Rs 80. An opulent offering of finely ground hazelnuts atop grated chocolate, floating on thick, dark chocolate potion provided a magical experience that enriched our taste buds.

From our conversation with the shopkeeper, we inferred that CadB is a highly popular chain in Pune with 20-30 outlets meeting demands of many who queued up to relish its yummilicious offerings. CadB’s sole outlet in Bangalore is on Brigade Road, the one we visited and is about four months old. The menu also lists 30 flavors of thick shakes and mastanis (thick shakes with lavish topping of ice cream) – mango, butterscotch, roasted almond, custard apple to name a few. There are chocolate sandwich and cheese-corn sandwich for people who to intend to take a quick bite along with a drink. Strategically located opposite a college, the outlet already has its share of loyal customers and is beginning to get popular amongst others.

From my first experience at CadB, I would award it a neat 100. The residents of Pune are definitely gifted to have indulged in CadB for longer than us in Bangalore. While I have earmarked a Friday, about 2-3 months from now, to pamper myself with another CadB, I only wish time flies fast (the way it normally does) to expedite another sinful indulgence.

A plunge into a tall glass filled with thick, creamy chocolate is sheer BLISS !!!

Note -
Contact details of CadB outlet –
Shop #1, St.Patrick’s Complex, Opposite St.Joseph’s Commerce College,
Kanti Sweets lane, Brigade Road, Bangalore
11 am to 11 pm (open on all days)
Ph: 8147543894, 8088810816