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Friday, March 22, 2013

Restaurant Review: Breeezy Breeze


Last evening, the husband left office early and called as an after thought enquiring if I wanted to catch the sunset. I, of course, jumped at the offer and was out the door, showered and ready, in the next ten minutes (thus setting a lifetime record!).

We headed to Powai's new al fresco lounge, Breeze and boy, does it live up to it's name! Commanding breathtaking views of the Hiranandani Gardens area, with Powai Lake straight ahead and Chandivali on the left, the pub is at an unparalleled vantage point. The thing that strikes you first is, no points for guessing, the breeze! It's so strong, gusty and refreshing that it can actually get cold there on certain nights. What a welcome welcome change from the mugginess eight floors below!

Tables overlooking the Hiranandani skyline

We ordered for Funghi Pizza which was an absolute delight! The crust was thin with just the right kind of crunch and the cheese was in no way overwhelming the wonderfully succulent mushrooms. The Zucchini Fritters however were slightly disappointing as the squash had not really picked up the flavours and was slightly pasty. 

Zucchini Fritters

The lounge offers strictly vegetarian fare so we tried to order mushroom based starters. To our utter disappointment, the menu offered only Funghi pizza and Mushroom Bruschetta. On checking with the staff, we were told that Goat Cheese Mushrooms could be especially prepared for us (though not on the menu). I completely adore stuffed mushrooms but I have to admit the mushrooms were a let down. The batter was too thick and the mushroom and cheese got lost in it some where.

Goat Cheese Mushrooms

While the husband ordered Tuborg, I had a couple of cocktails which were quite nice. Not too syrupy sweet while adequately strong. I recommend the Cosmopolitan and Bay Breeze. I'm not a fan of pineapples in my drink but Bay Breeze was a beautifully balanced drink with just a suggestion of the prickly fruit. It's a perfect accompaniment to the drama in the sky with day descending into night and the sight of lights coming up in the buildings around.

Sex on the Beach

The music was also interesting and picked up tempo as the evening wore on. All in all, it was a great experience largely due to the view, the music, the company and the hair flapping, clothes flapping breeeeze! The management can definitely work a lot more on the food and can do with adding some more dishes which include mushrooms! 

I would categorize Breeze as a 'date' place and not so much a 'party' place as the ambience is more conducive for an intimate conversation with a loved one or a bunch of close friends. 


Address: Breeze, NC Foods, 8th Floor, A Wing, Supreme Business Park, Hiranandani Gardens, Powai, Mumbai
Price: Approximately Rs. 2,600 including alcohol, mains and starters
My Rating: 3.5/5 (largely for the ambience and view)
Husband's Rating: 3/5 

Monday, March 18, 2013

Weekend fun!

These past ten days, we have been trying to do something different and fun every day. Something different also includes baby-sitting an adorable eight year old (major fun!) and cooking new things for long lost cousins and my sister's friends.


The cooking this week included two frozen 'starters' to beat the Mumbai heat, dips and nachos, sangria, chili meatballs, bruschetta, good old rajma chawal and chicken and frozen oranges (one of my childhood favourites). My sweet tooth took precedence for a change and who can say no to anything cold anyway?

The afternoon stretched on to night and night to day.. And day brought vada pav and cold coffee in it's wake.

This is the reason why I love lunch plans - anything is possible after a good, long, leisurely Saturday lunch.


Lemon popsticks

Tomato and basil bruschetta

Drunken grapes.. White wine sangria

Chilli meatballs

Strawberry and beer sorbet

Guacamole dip, sour cream dip, hummus, nachos, veg sticks, lavash

Frozen oranges

 
Orange ice cream in orange cup

Vada pav!!!

With all the leftovers, we didn't need to cook either mains or starters on Sunday night as well. The husband and I enjoyed great food at no extra effort as we sipped wine and enjoyed Tees Maar Khan for the nth time! 

Lazy Sunday evenings are the best way to bring in mad Monday mornings! :)


Friday, March 15, 2013

Recipe: Flan again.. and again!!



Flan. Flan. Flan. I love you flan. Flannity, flan. flan.

As is probably evident to many by now, I am a major fan of flan. Like I could have it every day, day after day and still ask for more. Friends who have visited Parsee restaurants with me in Mumbai know that my meal shall end with flan, flan, flan. :)


So a couple of months back when I found out that it's the husband's favourite-est dessert too, I decided to try my hand at the humble yet delicious caramel custard. I got the recipe for the best flan in the world, my mother's recipe, and decided to MAKE it.

This is an incredible dessert for those last minute dinner plans as it can be made with ingredients lying around in any average household.

On popular demand, the recipe has been reproduced below with a few tweaks.

Portions: Serves four
Cooking time: 60 minutes
Time to set: At least two hours

Ingredients:
2 eggs
2 glasses regular milk (full cream milk for a creamier texture but that packs in a lot of calories)
Sugar to taste
Water
1 tsp vanilla essence

Tip: Milk should be in proportion to number of eggs, two glass milk for two eggs etc.

Directions:
For custard:
Bring the milk to a boil and add sugar. Stir. The sugar should melt in the hot milk.
Thicken the milk on a low flame till almost half
Take off the flame and cool
Take eggs in a bowl, add vanilla essence
Beat eggs well, for about 2-3 minutes
Add eggs to the cooled milk
Mix well.

For caramel:
Take 4-5 tablespoons of sugar and mix with little water
Put the water and sugar mixture in a heavy, flat bottomed vessel on medium flame
Keep stirring with short breaks till the sugar dissolves in the water
*Once it starts bubbling and turns dark brown in colour, take it off the flame
Swirl it around the vessel to cover the sides, if using the same vessel to set the flan OR transfer to another cook-friendly vessel and swirl.
Do this quickly as caramel cools very fast.
Cool completely.

Combining:
Once cooled, pour the mixture into the vessel with the caramel.
Pour some water in a large vessel, like a kadhai and place the container with the mixture inside it.
Close both tightly and place on low flame.
Steam for 35-40 minutes.
Make sure the water from the larger vessel does not enter the flan container, especially once it starts boiling.
#Take off the flame and cool.
Once cooled completely, cover and keep in fridge.
Un mould right before serving.


Enjoy! :D

And, DO send me pictures once made and let me know how it turns out. :)

Notes:
*Caramel can be a little tricky as it tends to burn very fast. Keep a watchful eye on it once the sugar starts changing colour.
#Insert a knife into the custard to check if cooked properly. The knife should come out clean if ready to be taken off heat.


Thursday, March 14, 2013

Spaghetti flirtations

After having superb spaghetti with meatball sauce and caramel custard at a friend's place last week, I was so inspired to make this colourful dish that I promptly went and got the ingredients the very next day.

Food for me is definitely about the taste, flavour, texture etc but it's also about the riot of colours, the slowly changing colours of cooking pasta or of slowly cooking chicken. Once I got the spaghetti, all I had to do was start experimenting. First up of course was the spaghetti and meatballs sauce (recipe here). After a recent debacle with this version of pasta, I was exercising extra caution to make sure it turned was cooked al dente. 








Taking heart from the successful spaghetti meatball sauce, I decided to get a litte adventurous and clubbed the starch with spinach and mushrooms.


And then made my version of the famous spaghetti aglio olio.



All in all, the husband and I had an interesting array of snacks with drinks last night, in keeping with our decision to enjoy every evening for the next week or so!


Rating on spaghetti versions -

Husband's rating: 4.5/5
My rating: A modest 4.8/5!

;)

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Destination: Health!


So, the husband and I have decided to start eating healthy as of few days ago. Also on the health track are nightly walks spent exploring the Hiranandani region, running errands, grocery shopping and spending time together. Makes me wonder why our best conversations happen while we're out on our perambulations!

Coming back to the healthy eating bit, we have started (I have resumed) having small meals every two hours. So much to the surprise of the husband, he took the following to office yesterday -
  1. Sprout salad (for mid morning snack)
  2. Idli-sambhar for lunch
  3. Carrots and cucumbers for 3pm 
  4. An orange for 5pm 
  5. Yogurt for 7pm 

And he came home complaining of eating all day.. AND, feeling hunger pangs every two hours! Mission well on way to being accomplished I say!

To top this, our day starts with almonds, walnuts and dates along with a combination of lime juice-hot water-honey and a fruit. Breakfast consists of 1 slice whole wheat toast and 2 egg whites.


Dinner last night was a healthy mushroom-broccoli soup with sautéed mushrooms and whole wheat pasta!



Learning - not to use maida (even one tablespoon for 3 cups water, 1 1/2 cup milk) in a soup if you want it to be truly healthy and nourishing. The cook has been duly instructed to avoid adding maida/ cornflour to any soups/ stews going forward! 

And as for a refreshing drink at the end of a long day, a pitcher full of iced green tea does the trick and gets you going for the next 5km walk!



With all this food and drink and other benfits, I must admit the journey seems to make the destination worth reaching!

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Pancake day

Opened my eyes to bright, sunny Sunday morning. It was one of those days where you wanted to head to the kitchen and make something beautiful and vibrant. Not so much to eat it but to marvel at the colours and feast on it with the eyes. The sort of Sunday which makes you fall in love with cooking for someone you love.

Homemade pancakes to me make for the perfect holiday breakfast - easy to make, delicious to taste and allows for leisurely eating. And oh, did I mention, it's one of the things that is so open to interpretation and experimentation!

These Sunday pancakes were made with flour (maida), sugar, milk, hint of salt, dash of butter, whiff of baking powder and spoonfuls of honey. Topped with yogurt, fresh strawberries and grapes, and rounded off with honey for those with a sweet tooth.

Heaven!





Orange flavoured sauteed mushrooms


"Let's experiment with oranges and mushrooms."

What's the worst that can happen, I asked myself. Fortunately I am the biggest fan of my own cooking and I know I can happily consume even the worst of my cooking.

So here goes... One of my first experiments with contrasting flavours based on the premise that if grapes and chicken can taste great together, why not mushrooms and oranges. Helped along with some Italian herbs of course! Wonder what the husband (my favourite critic) has to say about these flavours coming together..


OK, so husband gave Orange-Mushroom the thumbs up but added that the mushroom flavour needs to slightly bolder. I personally feel that a dash of Parmesan and few sprigs of mint will give it just the 'kick' that it deserves.

Orange Mushroom Recipe:

Ingredients
Mushrooms, washed and quartered
1/4 cup unsweetened orange juice (I used Real Active orange juice)
Four slices of orange, peeled and deseeded
Salt to taste
Black pepper coarsely ground
Ginger garlic powder
Parsley flakes
Dried oregano 
Red chilli flakes
1 tsp olive oil to grease the pan

Method
Pour the olive oil and heat the pan
Add the mushrooms and cook still tender, stirring occasionally
Add salt to make the mushrooms sweat
Add red chilli flakes, pepper, parsley
Stir and cook till the water starts bubbling
Add orange juice and mix well
Add orange slices and cover with lid
Allow the mushrooms to cook in the orange juice and soak in the flavours
Let cook for 2 minutes with lid covered
Turn off gas
Serve warm with parsley and oregano seasoning

Optional:  
Top with parmesan cheese and finely chopped mint leaves


Enjoy!

Rating by husband: 4/5
My rating: 3.5/5

Do let me know if you enjoyed 'orange mushroom' and have any other suggestions or improvements! :)

Whattay Sunday!


Sunday.

The best day of the week by far. And what better if it turns out to be an excellent Sunday?

After partying at Janta and Hawaiian Shack till wee hours of the morning, we headed back home only to dance for a couple of hours more to Guetta and Avicii. Predictably, we woke up in time for brunch which consisted mainly of unlimited refills of homemade sangria, tzatziki with vegetable sticks and other crunchy munchies. All this to a whole array of Akshay Kumar movies. Whattay Sunday indeed!







The evening saw us hunger and willing to experiment so the husband and I decided to make our own sandwich instead of the easy option of ordering in from Subway. Considering neither of us seemed to have a clue as to what we were doing, we let our taste buds guide us and came up with something quite simple yet interesting!

The minced chicken, mushroom, bell pepper, soya sauce, oregano, parsley, mustard, onion, salt and pepper sandwich filling left nothing to be desired and we went to bed plenty pleased with ourselves!


This just prompts me to believe that a couple who cooks together, stays together!


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