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.. 

Faaso's - Restaurant review

There is a new (few months old actually) wrap shop in the thillai ganga nagar. Its actually on the road connecting to the velachery railway station.

This place does have much place except for muruga bhavan and another similar restaurant. So most times this shop is almost filled.

The ambience is good and neat. 6 tables to dine in and also takeaway available.

I have attached the menu. Good variety but bit pricey. Mainly wraps. They also have short eats and rice bowls.

Quality and quantity are very good as well.

Wraps are very neatly packed, good amount of filling, not dry.  The sauce inside was amazing too.

I definitely recommend this place to try out their yummy wraps.

Negatives :

Very slow service – when we ordered we were asked to wait for 5 mins. But we waited for 30 mins to get the food. I was not hungry initially, but later I really got angry for such a long wait. Some ppl even started scolding and they wanted to cancel the order.

They don’t have proper power backup facility. They had some generator or something, but they couldn’t fix it. I couldn’t take pictures of the food, when it arrived because there was only a small light which was running with help of UPS.

I felt it was bit pricey.

Garlic Pickle

My husband is a Garlic lover. He adds garlic in all possible dishes. I do like Garlic, but definitely not as much as him. This pickle which he often makes is the best one I like with garlic. I asked him whether I can include this in my blog with due credits. He granted permission, he usually doesn’t let out the secret of his recipes. The truth is he doesn’t know to explain ;). So I stood beside and asked lot of questions and recorded the recipe. Actually I confused him a lot in between.. Tats a different story.

Now back to the recipe.

This is certainly a versatile recipe. The ratio of Garlic and black channa is purely your choice. Channa mainly adds the volume and adds a different taste to the plain pickle.

Ingredients:

·         Garlic Pods – 1 cup (With or without peeling the skin)

·         Black Channa / Chickpeas / Kondai Kadalai– ½ cup

·         Water – 1.5 cups nearly.

·         Hing / Asofitida – ½ tsp.

·         Chili powder – 1 tbsp  (Make it according to your taste, this is normal)

·         Gingly oil – 3 – 4 tbsp

·         Mustard seeds – 1.5 tsp
·         Lemon juice from a big lemon.

·         Salt to taste

Preparation:

Choose the garlic which has very small pods. Not the big ones. These will be apt for pickles. Separate the garlic pods and rinse in water well.  We peeled the skin, but you can also skip peeling part but wash it well.

A type: No soaking chickpeas

Wash the black chickpeas well. Add water cook it for about 10 minutes in medium flame. The chickpeas should not get cooked very soft. It should only be half cooked.

B type: With Soaking chickpeas

Soak the chickpeas overnight or at least for 5 hours. Discard the water. Rinse the chickpeas well and 1.5 cups of water. The water level should be just with the level of chickpeas.

Method:

Add the chili powder in chickpeas + water mixture. Please adjust the chili powder according to your taste. What I have mentioned here is with normal spice. Also you have to check what type of chili powder you are using, based on that, change the quantity of chili powder.

Add the Garlic pods and salt and mix it well.

Now cook in the pressure cooker in sim flame for 15 mins. You need not wait for any whistle. Just cooking for 15 mins should be enough.

Once the pressure is released, add hing and lemon juice and give it a mix. Keep this aside. If you have peeled the garlic, at this stage the peels will be seen here and there on the surface of the cooked mixture. Just ignore them. You need not take them out.

In a kadai, add gingely oil, once heated add the mustard seeds and let it splutter. Add it along with the oil into the pickle and give a stir.

Once cooled, transfer it to a clean and dry glass bottle.

The pickle holds good for 2 weeks if refrigerated. The shelf life could be more also, but it gets over soon in our house, so I am not very sure how long it can be kept.

Make sure there is enough oil, here oil and salt are the preserves.

Just to show the content.. i removed some of the floating oil. Oil is must for shelf life.