Grapevine - Restaurant at HSR Layour, Bangalore

Went to Grapevine once. Tushar suggested that we do a get together there with some office colleagues. Now, this place being in HSR layout makes it very accessible.

The first thing which catches the eye is amazing ambiance. Very nicely done up this place is. Simple set-up, very informal and warm. Small yellow lights all around.

Food also is quite good. Mostly Mediterranean cuisine. Different Types of hummus - all quite good.

Interesting things -

- They serve wine
- Have books lying around you can read
- Have board games one can play
- Have Rubik's cube - 3x3 :)

And most important -
- They make the BEST Cheesecake. See for yourself..

Highly Recommended...

1 Misal, 12 Pav

I was reading and watching some You Tube videos about Misal Pav recently. I was surprised to find out that this item is more than 150 years old.

Where did it start is not clear but most folks think Nashik is the origin. In older days, folks used to make "bhakri", a form of bread made of Jawar/Bajra and used to take misal, which used to provide a good source of protein as it was made of moong dal "usal". For taste, they started putting sev, mixture, onion, lemon etc to that. Some misal also has potato as source of carb.

Pav was not originally associated with misal. Misal in itself was almost a complete meal but folks wanted something with it, so it bhakri they made was not sufficient, then they started adding pav to it.

In Nashik, one can take unlimited tari with misal and so, the idea was to keep taking tari, and keep eating pav with that, thats where the "1 misal, 12 pav" came to being.

Another important consideration with misal is that it has to be "zanzanat", means after eating it, people should start perspiring because of spiciness. There is of course taste of the "usal" in there somewhere, but the typically misal is heavily spiked with mirch, spice. One can round off the taste with yogurt and lemon. That helps for a few not so bold ones.

Misal par has overtime become a staple food for folks in Maharashtra. Other than Nashik, misal pav is available and famous in Nagpur, Kolhapur, Mumbai/Thane and Pune also.

So, whether you are the bold one or not so bold one, go and eat misal-pav as it is a healthy, hearty food.

Enjoy !!!

Eating philosophy...

This weekend I was observing that when I eat a big lunch or a nice breakfast, I feel like I should rest, relax, lie down...

Whereas when I eat less and keep myself a bit hungry,  I am more alert. Dont feel lazy, ready to do stuff.

So I was thinking of this newer philosophy of having a big breakfast, big lunch and small dinner... how does it work really????

I need to be alert in the morning and noon for stuff to do. At night, I need to wind down, so that i can slow down and sleep. Then why do people prescribe an ulta routine in food. Isn't it weird?

I think it is. And so I am changing the philosophy of my eating. Have a small breakfast, small lunch so that I am not full and hence more alert. May be have something at 4 pm if I am hungry and then have a big dinner 2 hours before sleeping. That will help winding down.

And life will be good. That's what I am following now on... because thats what makes sense.

Dal makhani

Today, we made dal makhani. Oh.. it came so well. The receipe is quite simple actually.

Take a cup of brown urad dal and one fourth cup of rajma. Let them soak overnight. In the morning,  they will become around twice the volume. Put that in a cooker and let it whistle 8 times.

Now, take 4 tomatoes,  4-5 garlic cloves, some adrak and 2-3 chillies. Make a puree in mixie by adding some water. The mixture should not be very thick. Let it be flowy. This will add volume to the dal. You can also add an onion to the mix.

Now, take makhan (of course) in a deep pan and let it heat. Add jira. Then add the puree. Let the puree come to a boil. Add haldi, garam masala. Then lower the gas and cover it with a lid. Let it simmer for around 5 mins.

Once dal is boiled in the cooker, mash it in water already present. Don't throw the water. There should be some water in the dal. More than some.

Add this to the kadhai. And let it boil. Add salt to taste. Now is the great part.

Once this is done, cover the pan. Put the gas on sim and let this simmer for around 45 mins. Every 5-10 mins. Open the lid and stir to ensure the dal is not stuck to the bottom of the pan.

In 45 mins.  The dal will cook and all flavours will be mixed nicely.

Add half a cup of milk and stir it again.  Once it boil once again.... you are done.

Eat with roti, nan or rice. Its fantastic :)

Dusssara - Today is special

Why???

Because I cooked all tthree meals today. Nice kuskara in morning, dum aloo pubjabi and jira fried rice in afternoon and light and nice jira ke tadka wali khichadi :-)

Dum aloo punjabi - receipe

Made this. Came very well. Simple way -

Ingrediants -
1. Baby potatos
2. Garlic - 2 cloves
3. Tomatos - 2
4. Onion - 2 medium size
5. Chillies - 2-3
6. Garam masala, salt, haldi, amchoor powder, jira
7. Ginger - small piece
8. 2 cups of dahi


Method -
1. Peel off potatoes, dont boil them.
2. Put holes in aloo with fork.
3. Put oil in frying pan and fry the potatoes till they are pink-brown.
4. Whisk the dahi and keep aside
5. Put tomato, onion, green chillies, garlic and ginger in mixie and make into a coarse/fine paste.
6. Put some oil in frying pan and put some jira in it.
7. Now put the paste in pan and let it be for around 10 mins till its nicely fried
8. Then, put haldi, dhania powder, amchoor powder and let it fry for 5 mins.
9. Move the pan away from gas so that it can cool a bit. Keep it away from flame for around a minute, and then put dahi
10. Put it back on flame for 2 mins and then add aloo.
11. Add a spoon of garam masala and salt to taste
12. Let it simmer for around 5 mins.
13. Add water, milk if gravy is too thick.
14. Add coriender, cut green chilly and garlic to garnish.

Enjoy :)

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Punjabi Chole

This is the second time in last 5 days I made Chole. Last time it was fantastic - almost the best chole I ever ate. But this time, I made it for 25 kids for Arjun's school khana turn.

Its a very different ballgame making for 25 people vs for 4 people. I feel really good about it :-)

Will post the receipe in next blog.

Pizza Hut Powai

I remember the first time I ate in Pizza Hut Powai. It was some Jan-Feb time just after our marriage, more than 6 yrs back. Nitya and I really liked it then. We used to live in Andheri E then.

Its been a long time since I visited Pizza Hut Powai. Today after a long time, we went to Pizza Hut to eat. I still liked it quite a bit. They have launched these new range of pizzas and pastas. The masala lemonade is outstanding.

Somehow though, if you wanna order pizza home, dominos still has the upper hand but i think Pizza Hut is a great eating out experience.

So, if I wanna order Pizza - I will still go for Dominos but if I have to go and eat, Pizza Hut it is.

The chronicles of a hyperactive brain

Its back, idiotic viral. Am ok with fever and weakness and everything related to that. I can handle it.

But the hyperactive brain becomes too much to handle. Can't sleep peacefully. Am going to be soo drowsy for the next 3-4 days. Now heres the catch, I cant sleep cos my brain does not stop, and if I dont sleep, how will I get better.

You know what, maybe eating panipuri will help. Njoy ;-)

Highway on the plate

Watching Highway on the plate. They went to Sonkachch while approaching Indore (am assuming from Bhopal as Sonkachch is mid point between the two cities).

I was surprised that they went to Pappu ka dhaba and had dal, paneer and roti there. I hope next time you will do better research guys, the punjabi meal portain of Pappu ka dhaba is non-existant - no one goes there. They should have gone to the other half of this place where they serve amazing bhaanp ka poha (poha cooked on steam) and mawa-bati (a form of gulab jamun).

Not impressred really with the show - they need better research team on what to eat where.

Dal-bafle and churme ke laddo

I love Dal-bafle. Whats that? Valid quesiton. Typically a lot of people in cosmo-westenised world have now heard about dal-bati which the marwaries have popularised. I thing the marwaries are more enterprising than the malwa-ries. Malwa-ries - are the natives of malwa - the place where I come from in MP.

Malwa is the land of cotton - black soil, warm temperature and warm people. Cotton trading started in Ujjain some 200 years back. Almost the same time when three GERMAN BROTHERS started trading cotton in mid western US and then moved to NY. More about them and the company they formed later. Anyways, so the idea is, that people of Malwa didnt get ahead much in trading.

However, the NOT-enterprising nature of malwa-ries is limited to cotton trading only. In terms of food, you cant even begin to compare Malwa people with anyone else in the world. We are ahead by miles. I have travelled around the country and some part of the world and I dont think any food cuisine comes even closer to the Malwa food richness and variety. (people from other regions, pls don’t take offense, take this as an emotional comment).

So, coming back to Dal bafle (pronounced as baaf-lay). How do you prepare it? Its a very long winding process. A mixture of 5 pulses is a good dal for this. Urad, Masoor, Toor, Moong and Chana dals. Mix them in equal quantity and prepare dal - the way you prepare with onion and garlic.

For bafle -

- Take mota aata (you should ideally not add any rawa if you dont have mota aata, the taste does not come out very well).
- Add salt + ghee (as mohun - binding agent)
- Then add water and knead it hard - make cakes (bafle) almost the size 4 cm by 4cm. Professional cooks make much bigger cakes. Almost 4-4-4 cm or 64-70 cu cm.
- Now boil water so that all the bafle can be put it in. Put haldi in the water. Once water starts boiling, add the bafle to the water and let them be in water till they start floating in water.
- Now, allow them to float for 2-3 mins, take them out and put them on a cotton cloth to dry. Rub and dry the bafle properly.
- While the bafle is still in water, get cowdung cakes (kande in Hindi) and ignite them. Once its ignited well, start putting the dried bafle on kande. Its important that the bafle are dry before being put on kande, otherwise it gets sticky
- Allow the bafle to bake properly, it will become all blackish because of ash from kande. Take the baked bafle and clean the ash completely.
- Break it in two or four pieces and put them in the pot of ghee so that the ghee starts soaking in.
- The Bafle are ready to be served once they are soaked in ghee.

For Churme ke laddo -

- Take mota aata, ghee, milk and water and knead it.
- While you are kneading it, make sure the cow-dung cakes (kande are ignited)
- Make the aata mixture from above and make round laddos out of it.
- Put them on kande and let it bake for some time.
- Keep turning to bake them from all sides. The laddo start cracking once baked.
- Once they are baked, take them out and clean the ash.
- Break the laddo into smaller pieces and finely ground them in a mixie till it becomes coarse powder.
- Now, add ghee and sugar and mix - make them in laddo.
- Churme ke laddo are ready to be served :-)

You cant eat dal bafle, laddo in buffet format. Sit down with a dona - pattal, thats plates made of dry leaves. Take bafle with dal, kadhi, aloo- gobhi ki subji with churme ke laddo, green chutney + pickle with a dash of lemon will add to the taste. Hmmm...

People have started adding dry fruits, mawa to dal bafle and also to ladoo. It depends it you want to do that. You can easily use oven to cook this at home instead of kande.

Note - Make sure not to drink any water post eating this for at least 2 hours otherwise the bafle (which are full of ghee) expand in stomach. Dont wear belt + wrinkle free cotton trousers - kurta- payajama is better :-). And NEVER and I mean NEVER have dal-bafle for dinner.

The current record for eating most dal bafle + laddo is two and half bafle and 12 laddo in one sitting in the year 1996. The record is in name of yours sincerely. Want to break it anyone...

Happy eating!!!

Leonardo da Vinci and Adarsh Kachori Bhandar

Say if Leonardo da Vinci comes to you and describes in great detail how he created the masterpiece "The last supper". What are the chances that you will be able to draw it the way it is? Not the most difficult question to answer.. the chances are Zilch, Zero, 0. Why? Because, its an art, you cant really draw it based on a description.

Similarly, if Adarsh Kachori Bhandar, New Market, Bhopal reveals his recipe of how he makes perrrrrr...fect Kachories, chances are that you wont be able to make it like that.

I love Kachori. I like Samosas too, but Kachori is really very close to my heart. Making perfect kachories is an art. A real art. There are so many namkeen vendors in the world who make them, but a very few can make what I call perfect Kachories.

The interesting part here is that all the vendors who make them (or rather create them) think that they make good kachories and they keep making them over and over without getting "continuous improvement" in process. Thats the reason why you can distinctly figure out the name of the shop based on the taste of the kachories they make. Thats not exactly the case with Samosas ( sort of a cousin of kachori ). Nearly all vendors can make samosas which almost taste the same. The only difference is the size - some make them larger than the others.

And because everyone thinks their kachories are good, there has been no evolution in kachori making since centuries. There have been some variants though - like Aloo ki Kachori, Bhutte (corn) ki kachori etc. But all these variants basically have the same problem.

So, what is actually a perfect Kachori? Well, there are a few characteristics of a perfect kachori -

- It should not a residual oil
- It should taste good, but even after eating, it should not cause any acidity or the feeling of residual oil within the system.
- When you press it, it should break rather than getting pressed - that shows how khasta is the kachori.

Typically, a lot of kachories you would come across do not satisfy all these criteria. They might taste ok but its the after-effects of eating the kachori makes a difference between good and not-so-good kachories.

Personally, the only shop which sells great kachories is - Adarsh Kachori Bhandar in Bhopal. My love for kachori however takes me to various places tasting various kachories which are mostly not great and so I have acidity post eating those - but I will not stop trying various kachories just because I might get acidity. I will continue. I feel the government should put some funds to make sure that there are courses offered on the art of kachori making, so that tomorrow, we can have people with qualification M.A. - Kachori making and Adarsh Kachori bhandar will surely get a Padma Bhushan :) and that day I will publish my non-fiction novel - "Zen and the art of Kachori making" :-)

Food glorious food...

I just love food. Eating mostly, not cooking as much. Have had various types of foods and liked them. I was thinking for a long time what I miss or what I liked a lot at various times in life.

Will start publishing food items which are just amazing according to me.

Watchout for this space.