Banana Step Soup

Banana Stem / Plantain stem are very good during summer, as it has so much of water content. Usually we make Kootu / Poriyal. This time, our sweet neighboring mami who has banana tree at her home garden, gave few big pieces of Banana stems. We made poriyal and kootu, but still we had a big piece left out. So I made this soup. All of them enjoyed it home.

This is easier to prepare because we need not remove the fiber from that, which is a big task with banana stem usually.

Serves : 4

Ingredients:

·         Banana / Plantain step -  1 hand span length

·         Curry leaves – 1 fistful

·         Garlic– 3 to 4 pods

·         Jeera powder – 1 tsp

·         Butter milk – 1 cup ( or you can mix a tbsp. of curd in a cup of water)

·         Turmeric Powder – ½ tsp

·         Water – 3 cups and more

·         Salt to taste.

·         Pepper as preferred

Method:

Remove the outer layer of the banana stem, till you reach the strong middle portion.Cut them into circles. You need not remove the fibers from it while cutting, as we will strain them later. This doesn't take much time.

Add a cup of butter milk and turmeric powder and pressure cook it for 3 whistles.

Once it is cooled down.  Grind it smooth along with garlic and curry leaves. Don’t discard the water which was used for cooking. We will use it for the soup.

Drain the pulp. You should actually squeeze the pulp well to get more juice from it. Now discard the pulp.

Add 3 cups of water to the strained juice, take it in a deep vessel. Also add the water which was used for cooking. Heat the mixture and bring it to boil.

Add Jeera powder, salt and pepper. Let it boil for 5 mins.

Serve hot.

Note:

Banana stem itself has no taste, here  I added garlic and curry leaves for the flavor. You can do variations based on ur taste. Options are endless.

Sowcarpet Food walk

Sowcarpet is a mini North India in Chennai. It’s the busiest place in Chennai. And very famous for street food too.

I will share my street food walk experience with u all.

Before getting into the food.. here are some tips

·         Sundays most of the shops are closed. Only few eateries are open on Sunday evenings. But you can see a calm sowcarpet only on Sunday evenings.

·         If you are planning to go by bus, get down in paris corner and take a walk from there. If going  by train, get down in central and take an auto.

·         Never imagine the car parking in that place, that too on weekdays.. Bus or train would be the easiest option. If u still wanna go by car, then Saturday is the best option. You can park the car near high court and walk from there.

·         Don’t get over fascinated and eat everything from single stall. You have lot of places to try. Keep some place in stomach to try various things.

·         This place is also the best for buying  dry fruits, nuts, chocolates and baking goods.

Coming back to the main topic,

Sowcarpet has variety of sandwich shops, Juice shops, North Indian Chaats, Sweets, everything. Everything is fresh, tasty and cheap.

Cheese Murukku Sandwich. Veggies sandwiched between 2 small murukkus and loaded with  grated cheese and sev. Eating this need to have lil practise. There will be 9 small portions. You have to carefully take out a portion without collapsing the setup and put it in ur mouth. The crunchiness of murukku, the spicy chutney, juicy veggies, salty cheese will take you to another world. I cant wait to try this at home. Next weekend for sure.

Vada Pav. I felt the Pav size should be bigger. Taste was ok. But I still vote the ones which we get in Mumbai.

Everything was so spicy in this shop, so went for a fresh sugar cane juice in the next shop. He adds lil jaljeera powder to that juice, that gives a nice kick. 10 bucks. Pocket friendly.  Happy Happy.

Next is Jilebi. Freshly made and hot hot jilebis. Indian sweets tastes best when hot. Jilebi should be had hot. Because it will be still crisp and the jeera will ooze out while you eat. That’s how you should eat it. I like that guy's mustache, he is cute ;). 

Seena bai Tiffin centre. Amidst of the North indian food, this is such a crowded south Indian tiffin centre Its famous for its ghee podi oothappam and mini idlis. Taste is yumm.

I wanted to have lassi. Then we searched for a Bombay lassi man. A tall guy selling taller glasses of Kesar Lassi. Don’t get over enthusiastic and get a full glass. You cannot finish it. The tall glass will easily hold 500 ml lassi. So go for half cup. That’s 75 bucks. That itself was tooooo filling for me. But still i vote for the bombay lassi shop in trichy. Thats the best i ever had.

For a finishing touch, bought some sweet beedas. I bought few parcel too. The best pan beeda you will get in Chennai is here.

When I opened the parcel at home, it was bit of soggy, so I made paan shots and ice creams and refrigerated.

Paan Shot and Paan Ice cream

Last weekend I and my hubby roamed around in sowcarpet happily. I literally ate and ate whatever I saw. This is the best street food place in Chennai.

More about the food walk will come in next post.

As a finishing touch, we bought some Sweet beedas / Meetha Paan.  I bought few parcel too. The best pan beeda you will get in Chennai is here.

When I opened the parcel at home, it was bit of soggy, so I made paan shots and ice creams and refrigerated.

Paan shot:

Paan shots are paan flavored milk shake. These should be served as shots, unlike milkshakes in tall glasses. These are strong too. You can also add some booze to this and make it a Paan cocktail. Mine is a non-alcoholic version.

Try these paan shots after a heavy meal. When you invite guests for lunch, add these Paan shots or ice cream in the menu as a finishing touch.

I used a shortcut of making Paan shot by using sweet beeda. I will also try to make it from scratch and post some time in future.

Ingredients:

·         Meetha Paan – 1

·         Vanilla Ice cream – 2 scoops

·         Milk 1 cup

·         Ice cubes – 4-5

Method:

Grind the meetha paan with the help of a mixer. Or chopping is also fine. If you want a smooth version, grind well and drain the pulp. 

Add the ground Paan, ice cream, milk, ice cubes in a blender. Blend well and Serve chilled in shot glasses.

Paan Ice cream:

Ingredients:

·         Meetha Paan – 1

·         Vanilla Ice cream – 4 scoops

Method:

Grind the meetha paan with the help of a mixer. Add ice cream and blend in a blender and freeze it for few hours. Server it immediately after taking from freezer.

Note:

If the Meetha paan is very strong, you can adjust the quantity of the ice cream according to your taste.

Khakhra Pizza

Thin crust pizzas are my fav. But I don’t get ‘thin crust’ readymade base in stores here. Making crust at home is long time pending task for me. So thought of a short cut. Khakhra is definitely a healthy whole wheat thinnest crust. So added some toppings as per my taste.. added some cheese. Here my awesome healthy pizza is ready.

Below ingredients makes 7 pizzas approximately.

Ingredients:

·         Khakhra – Mine is store bought. You can make at home too.

·         Onion – 2 (Big size) – Finely chopped

·         Tomato – 2 (Biz Size) – Finely chopped

·         Sweet corn – cooked corn kernels from 1 big corn cob

·         Green chilies – 2 – finely chopped

·         Coriander – a fistful – finely chopped

·         Cheese slices -  7  (U can use pizza cheese. I had only cheese slices, also I feel really lazy to grate cheese.)

·         Salt, Pepper, Italian seasoning as per taste

Method:

Finely chop the onion, tomato, chilies, coriander.

Steam the corn cob in pressure cooker and remove the kernels.

Mix all the chopped veggies and corn kernels in a bowl.

Add salt, pepper and seasoning.

Take a Khakhra,  spread these veggies in the top. Roughly tear the cheese slices and put it above the veggies.

Microwave the Khakhra for a minute. You can add some more seasoning on the top and serve.

Note:

·         Do it in batches according to your oven size. Do not place it one above the other during microwave.

·         You can change the veggies according to your choice.

·         I am a lazy bug, so used the cheese slices. Please use mozzarella for better result.

·         I dint use the pizza sauce here since the khakra is very thin, and it becomes soggy

Hot chocolate

My family loves hot chocolate. When I learnt how to make it, I made it regularly. After a while the craze was gone. I bought a big box of Cadbury cocoa powder, I kept thinking to make this one. Finally made it today.

I made this as a trial as I usually use chocolate chips for making hot chocolate. It was just the same as choco chips version.

Ingredients:

·         Milk - 2 cups (Full cream preferable)

·         Cocoa Powder – 1 tbsp

·         Sugar - 1 tbsp (U can increase based on ur taste)

·         Butter – 1 tsp

·         Corn flour – 1 tsp

Method:

Melt the butter in a sauce pan. Just melting should be fine.

Switch off the stove and add cocoa powder and sugar and mix well without any lumps.

Switch on the stove and add the milk and simmer it for 5 mins with occasional stirring.

Now add the corn flour. Mix it well without any lumps. This is just to make hot chocolate thicker. You can skip this if you don’t have stock. Boil the mixture for 5 mins. Hot chocolate is ready :).

Serve it hot with whipped cream or marshmallows like me or plain.

The marshmallows melts in the hot chocolate and its yumm…

My cocoa powder has vanilla in it. If you prefer you can add a drop of vanilla too.

Absolute Barbeque - Restaurant Review

Absolute Barbeque, T- Nagar, Chennai

Visit Date : 18-02-2015

It was an absolute pleasure to be part of Chennai food guide showcase happened in Absolute barbeque for the Mexican Food festival.

First time to AB, with lot of expectations. I would say my expectations were almost met. Because vegetarians have always problems with these barbeque places as only NV people have more option than us. But I would say they have tried to justify at most for vegetarians too.

But when you go with a NV group, you may definitely feel that they have more varieties for Non Vegetarians.

Added to my first time experience, there was a Mexican food festival going on there. The ambiance is good, all waiters wearing cow boy dress and big hats and we enjoyed a flash mob too. The entire crowd enjoyed the ‘Mukkala Mukkabula’ Performance so much.  I wouldn't say the food was all Mexican too, but here and there .. yes.

I would definitely say a few words about the service.. My god.. they pamper you so much. Whatever customization you say.. they bring according to your taste. Very friends waiters. They are the main reason for AB's success

Ambiance : 4/5
Service     : 5/5
Taste        : 4/5
Value for Money : 4/5
Will i go back ? : Yes, Yes, Yes.

And now let the pics speak..

Stuffed Mushrooms.. Awsm

I never knew pineapple was so beautiful.

This crispy corn amazing..

These tiny scooped watermelons, with a right amount of spice coated.. Its spicy hot outside, juicy and sweet inside... my god.. this is the best. I ate about 30 pieces of it.

Wish grill is one such master mind of AB. They do have different options for Veg lovers. Some of the specials were Bamboo, green and black olives, jalapenos. You choose the toppings they mix it with rice or noodles with the sauces that you mention. This is such amazing. 

Since it is a mexican theme.. they did have Quesadillas 

I asked for a spicy version.. they specially made a version too.

Churros was perfect. Crisp out soft inside.. along with chocolate sauce. Loved it.

The Dance..

Coming to Dessert option..

What i like about AB's dessert is.. variety. I tasted every item. I like how they serve it in right portions, so its not at all messy and no wastage too.

Pan ice cream is the highlight.

They actually soften the ice cream in a cold stone and mix it with the flavor of your choice. I had Pan ice cream. Delicious. 

I will come back AB..