CAULIFLOWER KHORMA

The vegetarian readers are going to love this recipe!!! I had this Khorma for lunch today and I just couldn't have enough. I had an extra cup of Khorma after finishing the chapathis!!!

Here's the recipe.........

Ingredients:

2" piece Cinnamon
6 Garlic cloves
1/2" piece Ginger
2 Red chillies
1 tbsp Poppy seeds (khus khus)
1 1/2 tbsp Roasted channa dal (pottu kadalai)
1 tsp Fennel seeds (saunf)
1 Big Onion, sliced
1 Tomato, sliced
3 cups Cauliflower florets
1 1/2 cups thick Coconut milk
3 cups thin Coconut milk
1 - 2 tsp Ghee
2" piece Cinnamon
2 sprigs Curry leaves

Grind the Cinnamon, garlic, ginger, red chillies, khus khus, roasted channa dal and fennel seeds into a fine paste. Dissolve this ground paste into the thin coconut milk. Add the sliced onion, tomato and the cauliflower florets to the coconut milk mixture. Pour this mixture into a pan and put it on a medium flame. Once this comes to a boil simmer it for about 15 minutes until the cauliflowers florets are cooked and tender.

Now in a small pan, heat the ghee and add the cinnamon and curry leaves. Pour this into the pan with the cauliflower khorma. Add the thick coconut milk and bring the khorma to a boil and remove from flame. Serve hot with chappathis.

This is a great Khorma and is a good vegetarian gravy to serve with chappathis while entertaining guests. Your guests are sure to love it.

KING'S CLIFF, OOTY

King's Cliff is an old colonial house that has been revamped into a charming little hotel with an old-world ambiance. The old trees along the driveway and well manicured garden add to the charm of the hotel. A leisurely lunch in the glass house or a relaxed evening by one of their fireplaces is an excellent option for a meal out in Ooty. Families with children will thoroughly enjoy this place as there is ample space and good service to go with it.



Earl's Secret, the restaurant at King's Cliff offers a wide range of dishes spanning Indian, continental and Asian cuisines. The During my first few visits to the King's Cliff I was hesitant to experiment with different cuisines and mainly ordered only Indian dishes. The kebabs are excellent especially the ones involving chicken. Rotis were soft and the gravies were mild and tasty (without oil floating on the surface). When I did try the continental dishes, I was not very satisfied and have refrained myself from ordering continental food from then on.



Over many visits to King's Cliff we have come to enjoy and relish a few dishes in particular like the Butter chicken masala, Vegetarian Thai red curry, Chicken Reshmi kebab and the simple Chicken hakka noodles. My son in particular is very fond of the Butter chicken masala and was talking about it even a day before we could visit King's cliff during our last trip to Ooty. I am sure he dreamt about it in sleep that night! And he thoroughly enjoyed it when we did order the dish the next day.

The management at King's Cliff is very friendly and efficient and would be happy to organise a bar-be-que for your family and friends in the evening. Lounging around the fireplace is also a fantastic option in the evenings. Since they do not take reservations for the seats around the fireplace it is better to get there early in the evenings. Over the weekends they have a one-man band playing music mostly from the 60's and 70's which seems to pair well with the setting and mood around the place.

SHINKOWS, OOTY

Anybody who has been to Ooty more than a couple of times will know about Shinkows and its food. And those that were in boarding school in Ooty have fond memories of eating in Shinkows during their outings. Shinkows is an institution in itself.

Although I have never been to China myself I feel its the closest thing you can get to real chinese food in this part of the country. Most of the food thats served in chinese restaurants are desi-chinese. Only the star hotels in big metros seem to serve authentic asian food in their specialised restaurants. A trip to Ooty is never complete for me without a meal in Shinkows.

Shinkows has been around in Ooty for over 30 years or so (may be longer, I am not so sure). Its been run by the same person all these years and most of the people who work there have been around for years. Service can be better and the place definitely has a lot of scope for improvement when it comes to cleanliness. The food there has been consistently good that a lot of people tend to overlook these setbacks. The menu is reasonably simple and straight-forward.

My favourites there are Young Chow Fried noodles, Chicken with pineapple and Chilly Beef. The Young Chow fried noodles is very similar to an American Chopsuey except the sauce on top is very mild (not sweet and sour) and is loaded with vegetables. The chicken with pineapples is again a very mild dish with loads of onions and pineapple in a mild sauce with chicken (which is not deep-fried). Most chicken dishes on the menu are very similar except for chilly chicken. They all come with a mild gravy, loads of onion and the vegetable the dish is named after.

The chilly beef is a deep-fried spicy dish. The other beef dishes are again similar to the chicken dishes, mild gravy with onion and the vegetable the dish is named after. The quality of beef is very good, always soft and cut very thin. The pork dishes are subject to availability and I have never had the chance to try any. Vegetarians will find limited options on the menu and may not be as satisfied as the meat-eaters.

Another aspect what I really like about the restaurant is the little vegetable plot they have in the same premises where they grow a few greens thats consumed in the restaurant itself. Its a really small area but I like the idea that they trying to grow whatever is possible for their own consumption.

STUFFED ZUCCHINI FLOWERS

About 10 years ago, a friend of mine told me about her excitement in finding Zucchini in one of the restaurants in Chennai. And I had no clue what a Zucchini looked like or tasted like. My first experiences with Zucchini were when I lived in the US for 2 years. My neighbour and I used to rent little plots from the university and grow vegetables in it during the summer months. I could hardly get anything out of my plot while my neighbour managed a big harvest of Zucchinis. She was using her Zucchinis in Indian-style subzis and hence I tried to use it the same way in Indian cooking according to her recommendations.

Over the years of watching a zillion shows on food and reading a few books on cooking, I have come across fried Zucchini flowers. They are meant to be a delicacy in Italy and its really hard to come across Zucchini flowers here in India, atleast for me. They looked quite delicate and I assumed that they don't travel well.

I was in Coonoor, Nilgiris, visiting an organic farm yesterday. And I could see Zucchini growing in little shrubs. When I asked my farm guide about Zucchini flowers, he wanted to know whether I wanted the male or the female flowers. I had no clue what he was talking about. The female flowers are the ones that go on to develop into Zucchinis. The male flowers just wither and fall after a while. So my son and I decided to pick only the male flowers and managed to collect about a dozen and bring it home.

Heres the recipe to what I made with the Zucchini flowers:

Ingredients:

8 Zucchini flowers
30 gms Mozarella Cheese
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1/2 cup drinking soda
1/2 tsp oil
and oil to deep fry

Gently open out the petals of the Zucchini flowers and remove the filaments from the inside. Cut the cheese into thin slivers that'll fit into the flowers. Stuff the cheese in to the zucchini flowers and secure the petals around it. Make a batter out of the flour, salt, egg, oil and soda. Immediately dip the zucchini flowers into the batter and drop them into heated oil in a pan. Fry until golden brown and drain on absorbant paper. Serve hot.

And as you can see even my 2-year old couldn't keep his hands off it. The melted cheese, crispy batter and the delicate flower made a wonderful combination. This recipe is a must-try if you can lay your hands on fresh, organic Zucchini flowers.

SYRIAN PORK ROAST

I love pork. I think pork is the best among all meat. Many may not agree with me but there have been times when I have tasted dishes made from pork and I would absolutely forget everything around me and so relish it.

Unfortunately the quality of pork we get in India is very questionable. In fact, in my town, Coimbatore, the only safe place (according to me, of course) is the Agri University. They have a piggery and they feed only proper animal feed to the pigs and I trust that they are vaccinated periodically and is free of parasites, etc. The university culls animals once every 4 months or so and I buy a few kilos at a time and put them away in the freezer for later use.

I found an interesting book on Kerala Syrian food this morning at a local book store and bought it. And I of course had to try out a recipe today itself. I found a recipe for pork roast and it was irresistable. I tweeked the recipe a little bit and made it for dinner. It turned out quite well and I thought I’ll share it with everyone.

Ingredients:

1 kg Pork, preferrably with bits of fat
3 green cardamom
3 cloves
1 no 2” piece cinnamon
1 tsp peppercorns
12 cloves of garlic
2” piece ginger
6 shallots
6 red chillies
3 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp fenugreek seeds
2 tbsp white vinegar
Salt to taste
1/8 + ¼ cup oil
3 big onions, sliced thinly
1 tsp all-purpose flour
1 cup water

Powder the cardamoms, cloves, cinnamon and peppercorns to a fine powder. Also grind the garlic, ginger, red chillies, mustard and fenugreek along with the vinegar into a fine paste. Mix the spice powder, spice paste and salt along with the pork meat and let it marinate for a couple of hours. Heat 1/8 cup of oil in a pressure cooker and sauté the marinated pork for about half hour. Sprinkle some water if necessary. After half hour of sautéing, add 1 cup of water and pressure cook the pork for 15 minutes. Reserve the pork pieces and the gravy separately. Dissolve the flour in about a tbsp of water and mix it with the gravy.

In a pan, heat ¼ cup of oil and sauté the sliced onions until browned and crispy. Now add the pork pieces to the onions and fry for about 5 minutes. Add the gravy to the pan and cook until the gravy thickens and coats the pork well. Remove from flame and drain excess fat from the surface. Serve hot.



I have tried cooking pork with only lean meat (no fat, no skin). But it doesn’t taste quite the same as when you cook pork with all its natural fat. The lean pork ends up dry and less flavourful. Pork gets a lot of its flavour from the fat its cooked in. So what I do these days is mix lean pork with regular pork, say 50 – 50. And I skim the fat from the surface after I finish cooking the dish.

CARROT LOAF

I am a big fan of watching cooking shows on tv. If there is a channel dedicated to only food and cooking, that’s all I would be watching. And that was the case when I lived in the US for a couple of years. Food network is all I used to watch. And they have a good website (www.foodtv.com) with loads of recipes to browse through. Even now I look for recipes on this particular website. If you are looking for ‘Quiche Lorraine’, for example, this website will have at the least 10 recipes for it. There are many celebrity chefs who are part of this network and each one probably has his/her own recipe for ‘Quiche Lorraine’ put up on the website.

I once watched a tv show many years ago when they baked a carrot loaf on it. It appeared reasonably easy to make and it looked delicious. I am constantly looking for vegetarian dishes since I do not have many. This recipe involves eggs and mushrooms so it may not be an option for strict vegetarians.

Ingredients:
900 gms carrots
200 gms button mushrooms
200 gms spinach leaves removed from the stem
5 eggs
100 gms cheese (cheddar/gruyere), grated
¼ tsp grated nutmeg
3 tbsp butter
Salt and pepper to taste

Peel the carrots and cut them into 0.5cm slices. Heat 1 tbsp butter in a pan and sauté the carrot slices in it until the carrots are tender and cooked. Allow it to cool and chop coarsely by hand or in a food processor.

Slice the mushrooms thinly. Heat ½ tbsp of butter in a pan and sauté the mushroom slices in it until cooked and the moisture evaporates. Allow it to cool and chop coarsely. Add the chopped mushrooms to the carrots and mix thoroughly.

Heat 1 tbsp of butter in a pan and sauté the spinach leaves in it until cooked and the moisture evaporates. Allow it to cool and chop coarsely. Break 1 egg into the spinach and mix. Add salt and pepper according to taste.

Beat 4 eggs and the grated cheese together with the freshly grated nutmeg. Add this to the carrot and mushroom mixture along with salt and pepper and mix thoroughly.

Use the remaining butter to butter a loaf pan. Add half the carrot mixture to the loaf pan followed by the spinach and egg mixture. Finally add the remaining carrot mixture on top and even out the surface. Line the top of the loaf with a buttered paper to prevent the loaf from browning too much while baking. Now place the loaf pan in a larger baking dish and pour enough hot water into the baking dish to cover the bottom by about 1 ½ inches. Place the baking dish with the loaf pan into an oven that has been preheated to 180˚C. Bake for about 1 hour and a knife inserted into the middle of the loaf comes out clean. Allow the loaf to cool a little bit and invert it on to a serving plate.

You can use half butter and half oil instead of using only butter to sauté the vegetables. But do not compromise on the quality of cheese. Using a good quality cheese is important since this recipe uses a considerable quantity of cheese and its quality shows in the final taste. Enjoy……..

Food of Love

A great way to say you love and care is to cook a fantastic meal for your loved one(s). Be it a birthday or an anniversary or valentine’s day. You can either just cook his or her favourite dishes and make a meal of it or you can cook a 3 course or 5 course sit-down dinner depending on your resources and time. If you are cooking Indian food, the best way is to put an array of dishes together and present it as a complete dinner. If you decide to go with Asian or continental or some other cuisine then definitely try out a 3 course or a 5 course sit-down dinner.

To make things more exciting pull out your best crockery and cutlery and lay out your table very well. You could also get a lovely centerpiece made out of flowers or candles to add the right mood to the dinner setting. Also if you have a black board or a white board, write out your menu for the evening on it.

To give an example, last year I cooked a 4 course meal for a special occasion and the menu was as follows:

• Prawns with onion and cumin marmalade
• Green salad with red wine vinegrette, blue cheese and walnuts
• Grilled fish with a red pepper romesco sauce
• Dark chocolate mousse

Serve each course as individual servings one after the other. You may have to spend about 5 minutes each for each course, plating up in the kitchen. This wait between courses is definitely worth the end result. Also if you are trying out a chocolate dessert like the mousse for instance, try presenting it in a martini glass or a shot glass. As an alternative to the meat dish as your main course, you could cook pasta or rice with a sauce.

The recipes can be looked up on cookbooks or from the numerous websites on-line. I think it’s a good idea to try out new recipes rather than repeating old recipes. And remember, presentation is of utmost importance. Try to be as creative as possible and use herbs, spices and sauces as garnishes to make each serving a sight to cherish. This blog may have been useful for Valentine ’s Day but it’s never too late. Treat your loved one on his/her birthday or your anniversary to a memorable dinner.