Street Food: Nagarathpet, Bangalore

Like hungry hawks in search of prey, a bunch of us swooped down to one of Bangalore’s oldest, lesser known street food addas. Nagarathpet, Chickpete, Avenue road, the city’s busy business district that’s choc-a-block with shops and shoppers during the day turns into a street food haven by night. The area around Raja Market, near Chowdeshwari Temple Street is pure delight for idli and dosa lovers in particular as you get some of the best ones here. 

The bustling crowds that serenade the food-carts/stalls are proof of the pudding. We stuffed ourselves with piping hot, super soft spongy idlis with coconut green chutney and red chilli gram chutney. Next we moved on to the dosas. The speciality of the dosas here is the pudi (powder – similar to chutney pudi) that is smeared generously on the inside of the dosa along with huge lashings of ghee. Deep brown crispiness on the outside and fluffy white softness with a smattering of pudi inside is what we all feasted on. It is interesting to note the variations in the dosas – pudi plain dosa, pudi masala (with potato palya), and pudi chitra anna (lemon rice).

Apart from this, there are lots of vendors making hot jalebis, badam milk and basundi. We were so stuffed with the idli and dosa that we skipped the sweets and other treats. Next time for sure! A word of caution: This area is not the cleanest, turn a blind eye to the surrounding and concentrate on the FOOD :P!   

Cinnamon Rolls

Fluffy, chewy & soft, bursting with buttery sugar-cinnamon filling - Cinnamon rolls for Sunday evening; My house smelled heavenly with the baking aromas of fresh bread and cinnamon. I was keeping my fingers crossed, hoping they'd taste as good. Well, my family has polished of most of it, so I guess its decent! 

This is how I made it.

For the dough:
Maida/All purpose flour - 3 1/2 cups
Vanilla Essence - few drops
Milk -1/4 cup
Sugar -5 tsp
Salt -1 tsp
Butter -5 tsp(softened)
Active dry yeast - 1 tbs
Olive Oil - 1 tbs

For the filling:
Cinnamon Powder
Melted butter 
Granulated Sugar 

For the frosting:
4 tbs melted butter
5 tbs icing sugar
1/2 cup warm milk

Ready the yeast mixture by dissolving the dry yeast in lukewarm water until dissolved and frothy. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the milk, sugar, salt vanilla essence and yeast mixture. Add the flour little at a time and knead to form a pliable dough. Add the olive oil and knead further (knead for about 20 minutes). Cover the dough with a damp cloth and set aside for a few hours or until the dough doubles in size.

Preheat the oven.

On a floured and dusted surface, roll out the dough into a rectangular shape with a rolling pin.  Coat the dough with butter and spread the cinnamon and sugar generously. Tightly roll up the spread dough and cut into even pieces. Place in a greased baking tin and bake for about 30 minutes or till golden brown.

For the frosting, whisk together all the ingredients to form a smooth syrup. Drizzle over the rolls before serving.

Sussegado - Goan Food Fest, Hyatt, Bangalore : Restaurant Review

I readily agreed to review the Goan Food Fest along with a friend last week at the Hyatt, Bangalore for two reasons; Vegetarian Goan food is a challenge, and I wanted an afternoon of suseg – meaning relaxation in Portuguese.

The outdoor terrace seating facing a water body, palm trees, a beach shack-like grill and catchy Goan/Konkan music created the perfect setting on a cloudy/windy Bangalore day.

Chef Edrige Vaz from Park Hyatt, Goa was at the helm of the Goan spread. There was a dinner buffet with a variety of seafood and an a la carte menu for lunch. For us, a special three course menu was served by the Chef.

For vegetarian starters, there was home style crisp vegetable cutlet, a cheesy croquet and mushrooms in spicy peri peri masala. The cutlet and croquet were decent – nothing Goan though. The mushrooms however, were delightfully spicy and cooked right.

Moving on, for the main course we were served two varieties of rice and curries. Regular white rice and the boiled Goan rice. The yellow pumpkin curry was slightly sweet, with a tempering of mustard seeds, curry leaves and onions in thin coconut milk gravy garnished with a generous helping of fresh grated coconut – relished the wholesome and delicate flavour along with Gaon rice. The mixed vegetables in red curry – Tarkarachem Hoomand, had an over dose of masala and was rather pungent.

The dessert platter included three types; Bebinca - the traditional layered pudding, Dodol – a halwa kind of sweet made of rice flour, black jaggery and coconut milk that I enjoyed and a payasam/kheer made of sago and channa daal. The kheer could have cooked a little more and a scoop of vanilla ice cream with the bebinca would have completed the dessert.

Summing it up, it was a decent experience for vegetarian costal cuisine, although the menu was limited. 

Verdict: 3.8/5

Vanilla Sponge with Caramel and Peanut Butter Frosting

Peanut butter craving & two birthdays in the family called for a home-made cake! If you like peanut butter, you will love this topping. The creamy smooth texture of peanut butter and gooey stickiness of caramel make a fantastic combination on a bed of moist vanilla sponge cake.  

I had a jar of Kirkland soft caramel toffees sitting in my shelf for long time. On impulse, I decided to combine it with peanut butter and yay! It was a hit!

For the cake:

Ingredients

1 cup sugar ( Indian granulated white sugar or brown sugar)

1 cup melted unsalted butter

3 eggs

1 and 1/2 cup all purpose flour (maida)

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla essence or extract

1/4 cup hot milk

Method

Pre Heat oven to 350 degree fahrenheit / 180 degree centigrade. Beat the butter and sugar till fluffy. Add in the eggs one at a time with vanilla extract and whisk untill well combined. Add the flour, baking powder and soda and hot milk and beat again for a few minutes. Pour this batter into a greased baking tin and bake for about 30 minutes or till a tooth pick inserted comes out dry.

For the frosting:

4 tbs peanut butter

3/4 cup caramel (I melted caramel toffees in the microwave)

1/2 cup icing sugar

4 tbs butter

Combine all the ingredients and whisk until light and smooth. I dint make it too think as I wanted it to drip over the sides.

Once the cake is completely cool, over turn on a flat surface. Pour the frosting from the middle of the cake and lightly spread with a spatula. Allow it to drip over the sides.

Akki Rotti

Akki rotti (rice flour pancakes) is a traditional South Indian snack. It is largely made as breakfast or an evening snack. In Karnataka, there are many varieties of akki rottis specific to the region/district. The one below is what I have grown up on at home. It is hand patted, crisp on the outside, and soft inside. The best part of these rottis is that they can be made absolutely thin and crisp or soft and fluffy - it all depends on how it is patted and spread on the tawa/girdle.

Ingredients:
Rice Flour: 2 cups
Finely chopped onions: 2
Cumin/jeera seeds: 1/4 cup
Chopped green chilies: 8 or as per taste
Chopped fresh coriander: 1/2 cup
Grated fresh coconut: 1/4 cup
Fresh curds/yogurt: 1/4 cup
Water: 1/4 cup
Salt to taste

Oil/Ghee for frying

In a mixing bowl, combine the above ingredients except oil/ghee to form a soft pliable dough. The consistency should be firm, soft and should be able to form a ball. Make sure the dough is not hard/dry as that can make brittle rottis. Keep aside for 10 minutes.

Grease a tawa generously with oil using your fingers. (Note: do not pre-heat the tawa as it is essential to grease the tawa with hand and also to hand-pat the dough)

With your greased palm, take a small ball of the dough and pat onto the greased the tawa to form a rotti/roti of desired thickness. With your index finger, make a small hole in the center of the rotti and fill it with oil. Cook on medium flame till golden brown. Flip the rotti to lightly cook the underside.

To quickly make the next rotti, flip and hold the underside/bottom of the hot tawa with the help of tongs/kitchen gloves under running water in the kitchen sink ( it will cool down the tawa immediately) and you can proceed with patting the next rotti.

Serve hot with chutney, tokku or pickle. You can also drizzle some ghee/butter for added flavor.

Note: You can store the dough and use it for up to two days by refrigerating.

Mango Mania: Mango Cheesecake

Ever since my last post on mango gojju, not a day has passed without eating mango in some form or the other. And when mango and cheese is combined, it is a killer combo. Layers of fresh ripe mango pulp, cheese and cottage cheese on a bed of crushed biscuits is just what the family needed as a sinful sweet indulgence on a hot Sunday afternoon.

Ingredients:

Cheese spread - 1 tub (I used Amul creamy cheese)Cream - 100 gms (I used Amul)

Cottage Cheese - 250gms (I used Amul paneer)

Sugar - Half a cup 

Mango puree from 4 ripe mangoes

Gelatin - 1 tbsp (I used Lion vegetarian gelatin)

Hot Water - 1/4 cup

Digestive biscuits - 2 packets (I used Marie biscuit)

Unsalted butter, melted - 75 gm 

Method:

Crush the biscuits in a food processor to form a coarse powder. Add the melted butter and mix well. Press into a spring form pan or a loose bottom dish, or individual glasses. Refrigerate till rest of the cheesecake is ready. 

Blend the mango pulp with sugar and set aside. Add gelatin to hot water till completely dissolved. Add this to the mango puree and stir well. 

Blend together the cheese spread, cottage cheese and cream. To this cheese mixture, add half the mango pulp and beat till well incorporated. 

Pour the mango-cheese mixture over the biscuit layer as a second layer and refrigerate for a about 2 hours. As a third layer, pour the mango pulp gently over the mango-cheese ensuring the layers do not get mixed. Refrigerate for at least 8 hours or overnight.

Mango Mania : Maavin Gojju

It’s that time of the year! And my favorite - the KING of fruits is in plenty. Luckily for me, my family is crazy about mangoes so we've been hogging polly/totapuri cut mangoes with salt and chili powder, poori -aam rus, just good old ripe mangoes, Alphonso jam and today the irresistible mango/maavin gojju. 

Maavin gojju is a popular dish in most Kannada homes. It is spicy, tangy and rich in flavor  For this you need the small round variety of ripe mangoes – pairi if possible. Grind together dry roasted urad dal, dry red chilies, dry coconut, jaggery and some tamarind juice. Cook this on low flame and dunk the peeled mangoes in whole. Bring to a boil and finish it with a tadka of mustard seeds, curry leaves and hing/asafoetida.

What I love best is the versatility of this gojju – you can have it with steamed rice, chapatti/poori, akki rotti, or as an accompaniment with rasam rice or curd rice, or you can even just slurp up just the gojju in all it’s splendor.

Bite into the gojju covered mango for a beautiful blend of flavors - sweet and pulpy mango with spices and the tangy after taste.