It’s weekend and time for me to cook something interesting for my family. This is a dish that I got to have when I visited Goa, my birth place. Beach hut in mobor, this is a little restaurant on  mobor beach that is frequented by foreigners.

My way of making fish steak with veggies on a bed of couscous.

For the fish steak:

Marinate king fish fillet with salt, pepper, lime juice and oil.

Take oil in a pan and shallow fry the fish.

Take the fish of the pan and in the same pan 1tbsp butter, add 1tbsp of flour, roast it for 1 minute.Add water or stock and get it to boil, add extra salt and pepper if required. This will turn to be a thick pepper sauce. Pour it on the Fish.

Steam veggies and saute it on a pan.

For the couscous, boil water 1: 1 1/2 ratio. Pour the boiled water on the couscous with little salt and oil. Take it aside to settle. No further cooking.

Enjoy your meal.

Just when the Monday blues was trying to creep into us on a Sunday evening, we decided to walk out and find something interesting to do and keep the blues away. Rahul the expert and the friend who has grown up in that area agreed to join us.

Our first stop was at links  we relished the famous  murukku sandwich, followed by the corn canapé, Mexican chaska and the corn cheese grilled sandwich. We eyed the special gola but left it for the next time to taste.

Our next stop was mehta vada pav, they were the first one’s to bring vada pav to Chennai. The verdict, truly the best vada pav that I have had in Chennai, just like the Mumbai vada pav. No other place makes it that way.

From purasaiwakkam to kilpauk we stopped by the thathu idly. This place serves the thathu idly soaked in podi and this offcourse is their signature dish.

Just across the street from thathu idly is fusilli reasons and we had every reason to be there, looking at the crowd we decided to walk-in. This place attracts lot of young crowd. Their pastas are cheap and good. 

We still have couple more places to catch up in and around this area. Till then!!!

North Indian food in south India. Chennai has evolved over the years as far as the food culture is concerned.  When I came to chennai 18yrs ago authentic North Indian food was a rare commodity. I had never found a single place that served authentic butter chicken in chennai. Today we have many North Indian restaurants in chennai and off course other parts of Tamil Nadu. But a very few which are really authentic. Was glad to experience one of those today.

Dhaba by ClaridgeS is a place that has been in my list for awhile now since I have read some really raving reviews about the place. To start with the place is very colourful and vibrant. That talks about the energy of the place.

The staff were courteous and were willing to go the extra mile to show us around and answer any of our query. The menu was detailed with good pictures that represent the dish.

This place does not serve soup, so we decided to plunge to the starters and juice. We ordered the Kala khatta that was served in the goli soda bottle and Ganne Ka sa ras, this juice was excellent, it tasted like sugar cane juice, but did not have sugar cane in it. Totally recommended. Thank you for recommending Arun Kumar L.P.

Our starters for the evening was mutton sheekh kebab, one of the best that I have eaten in chennai so far. Murgh malai kebab, was good, but could have been better.

The main course was off course the signature dish Balti meat, the gravy was perfect with the tender succulent meat cooked to perfection. Chef Gorang Anand told us that the meat comes from Jaipur. It was not like any of the meat that I have tasted in chennai before. Chitta butter chicken was the fair brother of butter chicken, I was told Chitta means white. The gravy is prepared with white onions and cashew. I personally liked this twist to the butter chicken. Chef insisted that we try the Dal Dhaba that as very close to the Dal Makhni, but yes it did have its own unique flavour.

The signature bread was Dhabe Di Roti, which has more of bread roti we also ordered the amritsari kulcha and laccha Parantha.

The dessert was the Badam halwa, we were told that the halwa was cooked just with badam soaked over night and there was  no other ingredient that was mixed to make this halwa. It was yummy and absolutely rich and sinful. For the first time in chennai I was offered a metha pan without tutti futti, took me back to my Mumbai days.

Tad bit expensive, but can be a place to visit for a special occasion.

overall an evening with good food and courteous service!!!

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Som Tum- Thai green papaya salad

Ingredients:

1) 1 raw green papaya

2) 2 medium size sour tomatoes

3) 2 tbsp lemon juice

4) 4-5 green chillies as per spice level

5) 4-5 garlic flakes

6) 3tbsp crushed peanuts

7) 2-3 TSP palm sugar

8) salt to taste

9) fish sauce (optional, I did not use it)

10) Dried shrimp paste (optional, I did not use it)

11) 2 TSP  Groundnut oil (optional, I used it)

Method:

Grate the raw papaya into thin long Julienne.

Cut tomatoes in small pieces.

Pound the garlic, green chillies, tomotoes, peanuts, palm sugar and rock salt. Add lemon juice and oil and mix well. If you are using fish sauce and shrimp paste this is the time to add it.

Add the papaya to the salad dressing and mix well.

Garnish with some more peanuts.

Butter Lemon Sauce Fish

The most easiest way of cooking fish.

Ingredients for sauce:

I used 250gms of Mahi Mahi fish fillet

2 tablespoon of unsalted butter

1 tablespoon of lemon juice

3 flakes of garlic (optional, I used it)

1tsp of mixed dry herbs ( optional, I used it)

Salt to taste

Ingredients for marinating the fish fillet:

Salt and pepper to taste

1 tablespoon of olive oil

Method:

Marinate the fish fillet with salt, pepper and oil and keep it aside.

Melt the butter in a small pan, do not over heat it. Add the lime juice to the butter. Add the crushed garlic and herbs (optional, I used it). Salt to taste.

Take a pan  add 2 tablespoon of olive oil and shallow fry the marinated fish (do not over cook)  just 2 mins on each side will cook the fish.

Transfer the fish to a plate and pour the sauce over the fish.

Bread

Ingredients: 

• 2 1/2 cups All-purpose flour
• 1 Cup wheat flour
• 1 cup lukewarm water
• 1 teaspoon active dried yeast
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 3 ½ teaspoons butter

Method:

• Dissolve yeast and sugar in the warm water and let stand five minutes or until it foams. Now add the salt and mix with the flour Knead dough on a floured surface until smooth, add butter and knead for 8-10 minutes.

• Place bread dough in greased bowl, turning to grease top. Cover and let rise until double, 1
• Knock down dough, make 4 equal long bread and place them on a well-greased and dusted cookie pan next to each other. Leave some space in between since it will raise and increase in size.
• Cover with a damp tea towel and let rise until doubled, 45 minutes to an hour.
• Dip a tissue in some milk and lightly run over the rolls or you could also make a egg and milk mixture and run over the bread.
• Bake at 200 C for 20-30 minutes, until the bread is deep golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped with fingers.
• Remove from cookie sheet and let cool.
• Gently rub some butter over the bread rolls.

Tips to follow:

• Yeast must be alive it must show signs of foaming within 5 minutes else throw away and buy new yeast.
• Use Luke warm water else it will kill the yeast.
• Important to add sugar to yeast to activate it.
• Oven must be pre heated before bread goes in.
• Be patient for 1st rise….very important..
• Enjoy your bread making process…

Moringa aka Drumstick is a new discovery for the western world, for us Indians,it has been one historically.

My favourite dish with drumstick is the drumstick soup.

Recipe for Moringa/Drumstick Soup:

Ingredients:

1) 3 drumsticks

2) 5 cloves garlic

3) 1tsp ghee

4) salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Cut the drumsticks to 2 inch pieces

Pressure cook drumsticks, cloves and 2 cups of water for 3 whistles.

Open the cooker when all pressure is released.

Separate the flesh from the drumstick skin.

Blend the drumstick flesh with the cooked garlic and water.

Take 1tsp ghee in a pan, when hot add the drumstick plup, salt and pepper to taste.

Bring to boil. Serve hot. I had mine with my home made Buns.