When an Indian meat dish got a middle eastern facelift..

Like always, when I feel a bit bored, my favorite place to visit for an instant mood upliftment is Whole Foods Store, just around the corner from where we stay.

On this particular trip, I had picked up some extra lean turkey keema or ground meat. Extra lean means there is hardly any fat in it which sometimes can make it a bit dry, but i still prefer it over the fatty variety. Plan was to make my usual chapli kebab. But once home, thought of trying something impromptu and fun..

Like most of my cooking ventures, this too became a complete experiment, will take it as I go kinda thing.

Wanted to make the bengali style keema.
Started with finely chopping 2 large onions for 450 gms of keema
2 large tomatoes
and cubed 2 large potatoes.

Heated mustard oil, and added two bay leaves and freshly ground cinnamon,, cloves, cardamom and pepper. Tossed this around for a bit. Quantity here, is strictly based on how much intensity one desires of their garam masala. I like mine strong in cinnamon. So please feel free to experiment at this stage with your own comfort level.

Added the chopped onion and fried till soft, added two teaspoon each of ginger and garlic paste.

Added turmeric and chilli powder and allowed all of this to mix well and aromas to drift in.

Next added the tomato. Mixed them well and covered to make the masala cook itself well.

Once oil started separating, added the potatoes and keema along with salt and a bit of sugar and mixed this with the masala.

No need to add water as it releases enough to cook the meat and potatoes and form a nice semi dry masala.

Covered and let it cook over medium to low heat, till meat and potato was soft and cooked.

If there is excess liquid, allow it to evaporate. The keema masala shouldn't be dry but neither should it have runny fluid. Added chopped coriander leaves and let it all come together. Turned off the heat and set it aside.

Next, came the accompaniment...the carb dish. Instead of having it with roti or rice, chose to go the Middle eastern way of couscous.

Made couscous as per instructions on packet. Added a bit of garlic salt and toasted pine nuts and cranberries. Voila...its ready..:))

Now, I love styling my food maybe a tad more than I like cooking them..

So this had to be presented somewhat stylishly.

Took out a ramekin..first layered it with meat and pressed it down well with the flat head of a wooden spoon, then added spoonfuls of the couscous, pressed it down, then flipped it over on a serving dish, giving it a neat look.

Topped this with some store bought garlic couscous...and there we were in our own little heaven.

Bon Apetit!!!!

Poached Cod and Brown rice pilaf

Living close to Whole foods store has been such a blessing. I feel like a kid in a candy store when I am there. Yes, it does hurt the wallet a bit but the fresh produce, organic meat and seafood makes it so worth it.

I picked up a chunk of Alaskan Cod in this particular visit with the plans of flash frying it usual herbs and spices.

But on returning home,one look inside the refrigerator, I changed my mind. We are going Asian fusion today baby...

To start off, took out my big pot..filled it half way with water, added dark soy, brown sugar,lemon peel, scallions,sliced green chili, ginger, garlic..smashed up and a bruised stalk of lemon grass..To this broth, I dropped the fillet of Cod and set it up on the back burner on slow fire for the fish to poach.

Its to be noted, that I am not a nit picky cook. I just go with the flow and rarely follow any specific recipes or measure my ingredients. Its all pretty by trial and error or by eyeballing. So if you are looking for me holding your hand and spoon feeding you recipes that you can blindly follow, you are looking at the wrong blog.

For me cooking is a spiritual experience, something I turn to when I am stressed, sad, angry, happy..in other words, it helps me through every emotion. And I feel, like really really feel my food,  My kitchen space is my temple. I cannot and will not turn it into a mechanized thing. So, most recipes you find here will be more in a story telling format than a regimented recipe style. I however, will always explain steps and ingredients very well.

So, now that's out of the way, so let's see what I did next.

Fish is poaching away, so I pull out my forever go-to packet of frozen veggie mix from, Whole foods again...its an all in one mix for pilafs ...there is chopped beans and carrots, corns, peas and fava beans. This is a MUST HAVE in my freezer.

Out came some brown rice, chopped up some scallions, garlic and green chillies. Yea, I love my food spicy..

In a pan, I sauteed the garlic, scallions and chillies in olive oil, then added a cup full of my mixed veggies, cooked this for a bit, then added the rice and added double the quantity of chicken stock, covered and allowed it to slow cook itself.

The fish by now is done. Did the knife test, piercing it through the center. When it goes through clean, without any resistance, know that the fish is cooked.

Used a broad flat based wooden spoon to gently remove the fillet, allowing all the liquid to drip off and placed it on a serving dish. Strained out the intense, boldly flavored stock and put it back on medium to high flame to reduce and thicken it. For added zing, poured a couple of spoon of rice wine vinegar, a drop of sesame oil and some honey..to get that sweet n sour balance. It thickened out in no time.Drizzled this on top of the fish fillet.

Rice is done, spooned it out and served it on a fish platter..hahaha. Toasted some sesame seed and scattered over the fish and rice.

Voila, we are in Asian tonight. Some Sake would probably been perfect with this meal...but then the jury is still out on that beverage here.

Bon Apetit!!!

A carnivore goes creatively vegetarian for the day..;)

Anyone who knows me and my eating habits, know this well, that I love non vegetarian food. Vegetables can be a side but very rarely the whole meal, unless of course I am doing just a salad for lunch or dinner, in which case I stick to plant proteins.

Anyways, yesterday I had every intention of making some chicken curry and rice. But a bunch if chores came up and then running to yoga, I completely forgot to take the chicken out for thawing. By the time I am back from yoga, I am famished and thawing and cooking then was clearly ruled out. What to do? What to do? Should we just have a big salad for dinner or go out to my new favorite Thai place?

I scolded myself..stop it! You just came back from a rigorous work out. Don't ruin it by having restaurant food. So, there I stood in front of the refrigerator to check what else could be made quickly.

Took out the asparagus, the half used green and orange bell peppers and half of an onion. But how could this possibly be the whole meal. Remembered that I had a big block of paneer that I had picked up from the Indian store and forgotten about it.

Took it out and cut two thick slabs off the main block. Plan was to marinate and throw it on the grill pan to make paneer steaks..:)

In a bowl took the paneer, rubbed it with olive oil, ginger garlic paste, a blob of Worcestershire sauce, dried thyme and basil, red chili flakes and salt. Massaged the paneer nicely with this mix and put it in the refrigerator for taking out at the end for grilling.

Had a couple of sweet potatoes, peeled then mad boiled them to medium softness.

Then in a large skillet , poured some oil and flash fried the sweet potatoes with cinnamon , garlic salt and nutmeg powder. When the turned crisp on the sides, took them off the heat.

In the oven, I already had thrown the asparagus, peppers, onion and smashed up garlic along with sale, pepper, chili flakes and olive oil to roast.

Opened up the box of couscous, added a few chopped almonds and cranberries. I love to add chia in just about everything these days. So added a tablespoon of  chia seeds in a bowl along with the couscous and nuts. Poured enough boiling water into the bowl to get absorbed well but not be too soggy or dry.

Lastly took out the marinated paneer steaks and fried them in a grill pan.

Plated all this neatly and voila a great, visually pleasing and tasty vegetarian meal ready.

Hubby loved it and so do I.

Let me know what you think?

Life is a beach...a day at Santa Monica beach.

Who doesn't like to be by the seaside and if you are a water sign, the allure of water, the immensity of the ocean, is an enigma, is a call one can rarely resist.

Needless, to say when you are in LA and love the water as much as I do, a must-do is a visit to the Santa Monica pier and the adjacent beach. There are several beaches along the pacific coast like the Marina Del Rey, Playa del Rey, Venice boardwalk and Santa Monica beach. Further down south there are plenty more and if you went northwest you would hit Malibu, one of the popular rich and famous haunt.

We decided to spend a leisurely afternoon at Santa Monica. Water was very cold, as expected in January. So going in was ruled out. But walking the coastline seemed pretty doable. We walked along the water, barefoot on the sand , enjoying the natural exfoliation pedicure...:)

Sudhi, without telling me was mapping our walk through an app on his phone. After we had walked, what seemed like quite a distance, we turned around to realize that the pier was almost invisible. Sudhi switched on his phone and said we had walked 2.6 miles from where we started. WOW!!! It was so enjoyable, that we didn't even feel it.

As it was almost 1pm, we were starting to feel hungry and decided to walk back. Another 2.6 miles to the pier. The walk back was faster as we picked up the pace as hunger pangs were setting in.

The pier is a fun place for kids, with  an amusement park with several fun rides, games and fun food. I personally prefer pier 39 in San Francisco a whole lot more than this pier.

We walked around soaking in the sights, sounds and colors of the place. There were many freelance music performers, who had set up in different corners of the pier and was belting out one melody after another. There were artists waiting to paint your portrait for a price, artificial tattoo artists enticing kids and teenagers alike.

Food options too were many. There was a seafood and a Mexican restaurant but we. Hose to go for the more casual boardwalk food of fries, corn dogs and waffles with fruits and ice cream, all washed down with fresh fruit juice.

There are plenty of clean washrooms and changing rooms, rental umbrellas for the beach and a spacious parking spot, which charges $8 for the day.

It's a must visit for families with kids or even couples. Nice, relaxing and enjoyable day by the Pacific. I am guessing, summer will see the beach really packed.  Some pics from Santa Monica pier below..

A leisurely Saturday in Hollywood and Beverly Hills

We recently moved to Milwaukee USA when the husband got a promotion and took up a new role. Having lived in Mumbai for the last 7 years, one really gets used to not having a winter. Milwaukee, on the contrary experiences an extremely long and bitter winter with temperatures often dipping to 20 Celsius below 0.Given that, our first choice for a quick getaway was to some place sunny and warm.

We headed off to the west to Los Angeles. A really long flight with a stopover in Minneapolis later, we finally arrived at LAX. Our second trip to Southern California, but after 13 years.

Since we had done the usual touristy stuff last time, decided to take it easy on this. So immediately ruled out the theme parks and stuck to a relaxed driving around city  and to focusing on exploring more of the culinary delight LA has to offer. It's an extremely cosmopolitan city and has a varied range of cuisines on offer.

We rented a car from National and booked a hotel in Beverly Hills, the Crowne plaza for its locational advantage and proximity to Rodeo Drive and all the excellent restaurants and cafés in the neighborhood.

Day 1:

 We decided to have a leisurely breakfast at the hotel buffet. Having filled our tummy well, we drove out to visit the famous Hollywood sign. To get there early in in the morning meant less crowd and great morning picture opportunities. We drove up to the vista point from where the view of the valley is gorgeous and the sign is spectacular. We got a sunny and clear day so the Hollywood sign almost looked touchable. Below are some pics from the fabulous  morning.

Dinner at Spago Beverly Hills..

Owned by celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck, this restaurant is a Hollywood favorite. And also ours...:) We first ate here in 2002 when, such an expensive meal was a big deal for our wallet. We had celebrated our second anniversary with an extravagant dinner treat at Spago. So here we were, 13 years later for our 15th..:) Providence huh?

Anyways, we reached Spago in Beverly Hills, just a couple of blocks from the famous Rodeo drive. Perfect ambience, mellow lighting and seated were the rich and famous of Hollywood.

The maître de seated us and offered us an amuse Bouche of mushroom cappuccino. Delicate and
flavorful, set the mood for the rest of the evening. We had some nice cocktails made with lemongrass, jalapeño and cilantro with tequila and lemonade. Very refreshing it was.

We then went ahead to look at the extensive menu, very creative combinations and innovative ideas on a plate as can be expected from someone of the calibre of Mr. Puck.

Me the seafood lover just had to have the lobster bisque which was topped with black truffles and a scallop. Perfect balance and mildly flavored with exquisite saffron. Hubby decided to skip on the first coarse and save his appetite for the main.

We also had a basket of interesting breads along with garlic herb butter to have with the soup.

For main course, hubby ordered for a roast chicken with a porcini jus  topped with shaved black
truffle slices and garlic mashed potato and a side of cauliflower sautéed with pine nuts . I chose to go with my favorite New York strip steak which I had cooked to medium doneness. The nicely sliced beef was topped with a sweet and savory balsamic reduction and roasted root veggies on the side.

At this point, the biggest highlight of the evening happened and left me so very happy and excited. The man himself walked out of the kitchen to main dining area and greeted each of the guests walking up to everyones table. Now, I have been a huge fan of Wolfgang Puck for the last fifteen years and he has been the biggest inspiration for my interest in gourmet cooking and world cuisine. It was one of the happiest moment of my life to have met and spoken to the great culinary genius.

After the sweet encounter, we ended the evening on a sweet note by sharing a yummy dessert...dark chocolate mousse with grapefruit gelato and citrus jelly. It was the perfect tangy, sweet ending to a wonderful evening. We drove back feeling completely satiated and happy..:) and yes, this time the
check was not as hard on the wallet...:)

Some pics from the fabulous dinner at Spago and one with Chef Puck.

What a fabulous Saturday it was...

Rest of the trip, coming up in the next post...Happy Trails..:)