Amazing Fusion Indian Food

On a friend's suggestion we visited this amazing fusion restaurant last week. This restraint actually gives a new dimension to Indian fusion food. This restaurant is Avatar's at Sausalito, CA. My friend's suggestion was based on a TV show "Zaika India Ka". It's a small and a well known restaurant so it's always good to book a table before you plan to go there. The restaurant opens at 5:00p.m. and it was all full by 5:05pm

I was surprised to see the short (only 2 pages) menu and most of the things did not make any sense to me. Seeing our confused faces restaurant's owner came and asked us if we are visiting his restaurant for the first time. When I nodded to yes he took menu from us and said "Please leave your order on me now. If you don't like what I bring on your table you will not pay for that food." Seeing his confidence we immediately agreed and started to wait for the surprise.

So this is what he brings to us :

Rice with grilled vegetables. Awesome grilled and flavorful vegetables but little dry for my palette.

The second thing was ravioli with vegetables, gravy and trust me when I say that gravy was better than any Indian gravy you have ever tasted. This ravioli had something leafy green stuffed inside so we guessed it must be spinach. There was no flavor of spinach though as it was mixed with some cheese. It's easy to surpass flavor of spinach when mixed with anything else. I was surprised when, I got to know that it was fenugreek and not spinach. Fenugreek without any flavour of fenugreek ??? By that time I was sure that the chef must be a food genius :)

Next thing was enchiladas. Now it was a mystery to figure out what is filled in this enchiladas. When I was eating this I thought may be something new but it tasted like awesome parantha with some flavorful punjabi gravy but this time again I was not able to figure out what is filled inside. Later I am told that it's arbi :O The brown sauce on the top was made up with imli. The best enchilada I ever had so we had to ask him to bring one more.
These enchiladas was available in their non veg versions as well.

Last thing which was served only available dessert in that restaurant. When I was checking out their menu I was thinking why just one dessert but after tasting I got to know why only one dessert :) because after tasting this no one would even think of ordering any other dessert. It was in layers served with mango and rose syrup. I loved it too but only the layer at the bottom which was made with some chocolate was not so impressive for me as I am not a big fan of chocolate.

A must try restaurant and I am desperately waiting to go there again. This time I know what to order there :)

Refreshing Jaljeera / Mint Lassi/ Buttermilk

Life has been very busy in last couple of months. We moved from Bangalore to San Jose, California. With all this shifting and new job I could not find time to write any new post. Here I am back in action again :)

Yesterday, while shopping veggies I saw fresh mint and I could not stop myself from buying it. I was avoiding to buy mint from quite sometime now because I feel very tired to make that mint chutney with my busy job and 2.5 years old daughter. Those inviting mint leaves made me forget my busy schedule.

Anyways, after reaching home I decided not to make that mint chutney again. If not chutney, then what? Here comes the idea of making quick jaljeera.


Ingredients :

1 bunch of mint leaves (Some coriander leaves optional)
1 tea spoon roasted cumin seeds (you can easily roast cumin seeds on tawa or any pan)
1 inch ginger
1 tea spoon salt
1 tea spoon black salt
1-2 green chilli
1 liter water
1 Lemon


Method :

Grind everything coarsely and mix water into it. Seev it and serve chilled. Jaljeera made with jaljeera powder available in market is not even close to this jaljeera made with fresh mint leaves.

You can even mix this jaljeera with buttermilk. Just give it a try and I am sure you will love that new version of refreshing buttermilk.

Nachos with Red Beans and Sour Cream Dip

Recently I attended Sanjeev Kapoor's cooking Event in Vivanta Bangalore. Before he came two chefs from Vivanta shared this recipe which is a great snack and easy to make too. The taste is very mild and yummy. I bought some 3-4 packets of Nachos sometime back and unfortunately never used them. So I thought this is the right way to utilize them ;) Because of the mild taste of this red beans dip Aashna loved it too.

Serves 3-4

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoon garlic paste (preferably fresh home made)
1 cup soaked and boiled rajma
1 onion
2 tomatoes
100 grams cream
1 teaspoon vinegar
50 grams mozzarella cheese grated
salt to taste
1/2 teaspoon red chilli powder
1 big packet of nachos
Some fresh green coriander

Method :

To make sour cream add vinegar and pinch of salt to cream and beat it to make whipped cream.

To make salsa chop onion and one tomato. Puree second tomato. Mix them in a bowl. Add green coriander, salt to taste and red chilli powder. Let it rest for 30 minutes.

Take a pan heat oil in it. Add garlic paste and cook for a minute. Add rajma and cook for 3-4 minutes and keep mashing it. Add little salt (please do not add salt in case you added salt.

In a plate place rajma and put salsa and sour cream on it. Put grated cheese on top and put it in oven for a minute so that cheese will melt. Serve hot with Nachos.

Try this recipe and let me know your reviews.

Gajar Ka Halwa

Not a new name for any of you but I made it after a long time today so thought of sharing this recipe with you all. Many people call it as gajrela as well. My mom used to make it in winters and we all specially my dad is a big fan of gajar ka halwa. So I thought of making it for Aashna. May be she will remember this halwa and her mom after 20-30 years from now ;)

Tip : Please do not make it in a pressure cooker. Gajar halwa cooked in a pan without any lid and on sim flame gives the real taste of it :)

Ingredients :

1. 750 grams carrots grated
2. 2 tablespoon ghee
3. 200 grams khoya grated
4. 1 liter milk
5. 4 table spoon sugar
6. 3-4 green cardamom crushed
7. 100 grams mixed dry fruits (almonds, cashew, pistachios etc.) chopped

Method :

• Take a nonstick pan and heat ghee in it. 

• Add carrots to it and cooking them. Cook them on low flame for about 30 minutes and keep stirring it every two minutes. 

• Add sugar, green cardamons and milk to it and let it boil till its dried up.

• Add half of the khoya and mix well. Switch off the flame and add half of the dry fruits. Many people add dry fruits during cooking but I like dry fruits not to loose their crunch so I add them at the end.

• Put halwa in a bowl and garnish with leftover khoya and dry fruits.

Try this recipe and let me know your reviews :)

Vegetable Khichdi

I am sure there are many people who consider khichdi to be food for sick people only but a few are like me as well ;) I just love khichdi anyday to replace my main course. Today, I found a small brinjal, peas, half cauliflower (tastes really good in khichdi) in my fridge so thought of making this veggie khichdi and sharing this recipe with you all.

You can add many other vegetables also like carrot, beans etc.

So here we go :

Ingredients :

1. 2 tablespoon ghee (you can use refined oil also but khichdi tastes great with ghee)
2. 1 cup masoor daal
3. 1 cup rice
4. 2 teaspoon cumin seeds
5. 1/2 cauliflower cut into small pieces
6. 1 cup peace
7. 1 small brinjal cut into small pices
8. 1 onion sliced
9. 2 medium tomatoes
10. salt to taste (It takes enough of salt)
11. 1 teaspoon red chilli powder
12. 1 teaspoon turmeric

Method :

• In a pressure cooker heat ghee and cumin seeds. Let it splutter.

• Add onions and cook till they are translucent.

• Add tomatoes, cauliflower, peas, brinjal, salt, turmeric and red chilli powder and mix. 

• Add rice and daal with 5 cups of water and cover pressure cooker with its lid.

• Wait for 4 whistles and turn off the flame and let it cook in its steam and dont't open cooker for another 10 minutes.
• Serve hot with butter, ghee, raita, papad, pickle whatever you like :)

Try this recipe ad let me know your reviews :)

Aaloo paneer bhurji

I am not sure if this paneer bhurji is my mom's invention or others also make it :P but I have never seen any other friend making it. So thought of sharing this recipe with you all. This is also a good option if you have less paneer and more people to eat it :)

Let's start...

Ingredients :

1. 200 gms paneer
2. 2 medium potatoes cut into small pieces
3. 2 tablespoon refined oil
4. 1 large onion chopped
5. 2 medium tomatoes chopped
6. 1 green chilli chopped
7. fresh green coriander chopped
8. salt to taste
9. 1/2 teaspoon red chilli powder
10. 1/2 teaspoon garam masala
11. 1/2 teaspoon turmeric

Method :

• Heat oil in a pan. Add onions and cook till they are translucent.

• Add tomatoes, salt, red chilli powder and turmeric. Cook for 2-3 minutes.

• Add potatoes, mix well and cover the lid. Cook till potatoes are completely cooked. Keep stirring in between. If it starts sticking at the bottom you can sprinkle some water as well.

• Once potatoes are cooked, add mashed paneer and garam masala to potatoes. I dont prefer to cook a lot after adding paneer. So once its mixed well and heated remove it from heat.

• Add green coriander, garam masala and serve hot with chapati.

Try this recipe and let me know your reviews :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNXlEAKQ48s&feature=em-upload_owner

Yummy kulfi from leftover sweets

Whenever I go to Delhi to my mum's place, for one reason or the other I end up getting so many sweets that I have to bring to Bangalore. I am not a big fan of sweets so is Rakesh. I figured out what to do with these sweets now :D Rakesh loves kulfi and kulfi made with this leftover mithai is always awesome.

So this time I got a big box of Haldiram's peda. There are a few things that you will have to see before making kulfi with leftover mithai that can change ingredients for this kulfi. First and very important point to note here is the leftover sweet has to be made from khoya and dry fruits only for instance khoya burfi, kaju burfi, pista burfi, peda etc. Mostly all kinds of burfi can be used.

Ingredients :

1. 1/2 kg any khoya mithai.
2. 2 table spoon of pista (you can use almonds or cashews as well or if there is enough dry fruits in your sweets you can skip it)
3. 2 green cardamom
4. few strings of saffron (you can skip this also if there is kesar in your sweets)
5. 1 liter milk

Method :

• Soak saffron in two tablespoon of milk.
• Take a heavy bottom pan and add milk to it. Bring it to a boil.
• Crush green cardamoms and add them to milk. Reduce milk till it's half of the original quantity.
• Mash all the sweets and put it into milk. Keep stirring because there are more chances that it will start sticking on the bottom because of sweets.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Boil it for another 7-10 minutes on low flame.

• Switch off heat and add chopped pistachios. We add them after switching off heat so that they will remain crunchy.

• Let it cool down on room temperature. After that we fill this mixture into kulfi molds and refrigerate.

Try this recipe and share your reviews :)