Sigree!!!

So, a very good friend recently got engaged, and off course, as usual we had to celebrate it by going out and spending her money on food and drink!! The destination this time was Sigree! 
I'd been wanting to go there for a long time, ever since I mistakenly stepped into it. I was looking for the hotel area, and got off on the wrong floor, and there was this lovely place! It had a really long bar area, with no bar stools though, and the area inside was lit by these tiny yellow fairy lights!

The Bar Area

The Lights

As soon as we entered, my first thoughts were, "Wow! This is not gonna be cheap!". It was a Wednesday, around 8PM, and there were very few people at the restaurant. All that changes soon though, the place was loud and full by about 9.30 PM! Anyway, we decided to opt for the buffet, thinking it would be quicker and cheaper, along with a few drinks.

As soon as we decided and ordered, the waiters started coming in one by one with all the different starters. The fish and prawns were very good. The chicken dishes were ok, not that great, same with the vegetarian dishes. By the time we were done with the starters, we were stuffed!

The chutneys were ok, but the starters tasted better with when dipped in them. There was this one item with the chutneys, it was sweet, and looked like amala or something. A log debate followed wherein everybody disagreed as to what it was. Some said mango pieces, others (me) stuck to amala. This was finally resolved when the waiter told us that it was actually papaya in some sugar syrup type liquid!

Anyway, since we were so full after having the starters, there was hardly any space left for the main course, at least in my stomach! But just went along with the others to see if anything could tempt me. Well, nothing did, except for the butter-garlic crabs and the various colorful salads,most of which were disappointments. The crab on the other hand was very very tasty! I ended up eating all the crabs, even those taken by the others, that they couldn't finish!!

The drinks were very cheap here compared to other places in Pune, with mocktails being more expensive than hard drinks, also, there was an offer going; Buy two drinks and get the third one free! So Win-Win-Win!!

I had to take a bit of all the different deserts, including the ice-cream, although I only took the vanilla flavor (there was strawberry & chocolate also). The elongated gulab jamuns (cant remember what they're called) were yummy, and so was the gajar ka halwa. The Jalebis were a little too crispy, and there was nothing special about the mousse/mousse cake.

At the end, we were so full, and drowsy! It was a good meal. I would definitely go there again, but not for the buffet, maybe a few starters and drinks!!

*First two images taken from http://tunnn.com/restaurant/689

FND: Gulab Jamun

So, I havent been cooking much for the past few months, cause I got bored of it, and also since I now have a bai coming in daily to cook for me!! So, I dont really spend any time in the kitchen.

However the last weekend, I was alone at home, and was asleep when the bai came, so I missed her, and had to fend for myself! While looking through all the shelves, I found this Gulab Jamun packet. I had bought it ages ago, when I was still in the cooking phase, but had not gotten to it since I thought it required a lot of work!

Anyway, with nothing better to do, I thought I'd give this a try.

Finally!

Kneading the flour took quite a long time, but I didn't really notice it since Devious Maids was going on and that is one interesting show! But the time the show got over, I realised I had been kneading the dough for about 45 minutes!! So after that I quickly rolled the dough into almost evenly sized balls, and heated up the oil to deep fry.

Deep frying

Whenever I used to make these Gulab Jamuns with Ma, I always thought frying them was the most complicated step, what with the hot oil and all. But on my own now, I realized that this was like the easiest step of all. You just carefully put them in boiling hot oil and let them fry. That's it!!

So, after frying till golden brown (the first batch came out a little yellow), I just soaked in the sugar syrup, and got tasty, hot, yummy gulab jamuns! First solo effort, and a success!!

Bon Apetit!

 Also, a Happy Diwali to all! 

 

The times, they are a-flying!!

Ok, so another weekend passes by very quickly, and we're already in the third quarter of 2013! More and more people are moving on: getting engaged, married, having kids, new jobs!

And here I am, working at the same place & same project for more than three years, and at the same seat for just as long!!! Same flat, and same roomie since I moved here.Not much has changed for quite some time now. And I'm happy with that. I'm not a big fan of change. So, all's well that stays well!

***

Watched the movie Despicable Me 2 yesterday.

A very entertaining and fun movie. I cant remember the first movie that well, so can't say which one was better. Enjoyed the minions, and can't wait for the next minion movie, coming out sometime in the future.
Loved the minion songs (I swear & YMCA) and the way they sing in their minion language!
Also, while the credits were rolling, there were some scenes of minions auditioning for the next minion movie, one which had the minions blowing soap bubbles. The 3-D effect for these was so good, the kid in the next seat actually jumped up and put his hands out to burst the bubbles!!!

***

This was followed by lunch at the best Italian place I've been to. Ate till our stomachs ached! 

FND: Vanilla Custard

Ok, so with being sick and bored and all, I decided to stick to making something really easy this weekend. And went with my all-time favorite: Custard.

I had picked up the Pillsbury Golden Vanilla Flavor Custard Powder some time back, and decided to use it this weekend. It made for only three servings, but was good. I didn't have any bananas to go with it, so had to make do with walnuts & almonds.

While it was hot:

The next day:

FND: BlackCherry Jelly

Ok, so for this week's FND, I decided to make something easy; the gas was over, and I was feeling too bored, but mostly cause of the gas! I had this pack lying in my cupboard for ages, so with nothing easier, went for it.

It turned out really well, and I didnt add any sugar or anything. It was very simple and quick to make. Just add cold water, and then some hot water to the mix and freeze for about 4 hours.

I tried to trn the bowl and get it sitting nicely in a plate, but it just wouldnt comply! Anyway, taste wise, it was good. So that was fine.

***

Picture Of The Day: The Irish House it is!

FND: Ras Malai

Ok, so this weekend I decided to make something Indian. While browsing I found this recipe for Ras malai.
It looked easy enough, so I went for it.

I'd made a miscalculation while doing unit conversion (!), ending up with much less Milk powder than was actually required, and so, had to postpone the preparation till Saturday.
So, the next day I went grocery shopping with my roomie, who also needed some stuff. It was a nice walk, and I got the milk powder I needed, but also got some ice-cream, as backup in case this did not turn out well. You can hardly blame me with my track record!

I used 200g of Milk powder and mixed with the egg, but that became too dry, so added some milk to it, and it became ok.

 The condensed milk tin: I tried it plain, and it was so tasty, I took a spoon and had whatever was remaining straight from the tin!

 The final product: It was good, but tasted more like Kalakand! And the colour wasn't the light yellow that it usually is (I didn't add any kesar). But a solid effort nevertheless, if I may say so myself!  :P

P.S.: Yeah, I know you're not supposed to use eggs in making this sweet dish, I've heard it now from about 50000 different people!

Chatpata OFFICE Chaaaat!!! :O

 Ok, so we had a bazaar day at office, where we could set up stalls of different kinds like food and games and stuff. It would be completely run by employees and for employees.

We registered immediately and deliberated over what to sell for around two weeks! Finally after long tiresome discussions, we came to the conclusion that Bhel would be the easiest and tastiest thing to sell.

The day before the actual Bazaar, we had a trial session, where the office pantry was turned into a chaat stall with my manager and some other team members experimenting with various chaat types.

I had a lot of work (and am not the cooking kind, though this kinda got me started on the Friday Night Delights!!), so was unable to contribute anything other than my expert criticism!

Anyway, the next day turned out to be a huge success. Initially things were slow ,but they soon picked up pace and we were actually getting a lot of customers!

Towards the end all our supplies were over, but people were still coming in, some for seconds. Some of them were even ready to eat the samples, but we already had our eye on them (Ok, I had my eye on the sample plates), so they had to be regretfully sent away empty-handed. Some pictures:

Preparation:



The First Plate:

The "Bohni": First earnings of the day. From our very own team-member, who very happily paid up and ran with the plate to catch his bus.

The Stall Poster: A last minute creation. If we'd though about this earlier, we would have got computer print-outs!

The Bhel samples: A brilliant idea from PK, to keep samples that the customers could choose from. Else we would have wasted a lot of time explaining what was what.

All the customers: There was a point when there were so many people at our stall, we were completely overwhelmed, and there was no chance of taking any pictures then.This one is of a quieter time.

 The full money box: Money was actually overflowing from it at one point, this pic was taken after we had counted and kept it in order.

We didn't really make much of a profit, just about 10%, but we did have a lot of fun. Next time we're gonna stick to some game stall, easy money and absolutely no investment!!

FND: Basundi

Ok, so time for the weekly recipe. I've decided to go slow and do something easy. I mean can you blame after last week's disaster!!?
So I couldn't do anything on Friday due to the best match of this year, so saturday morning it was!! At least the best one that I've seen this year. All the best for the Finals Rafa!!!

Anyway, I'd picked up the GITS mix for Basundi when at D.-Marts the other day, so decided to use it today. Now, I'd never ever even heard of this dish, but it looked simple enough, which was what I wanted.

Just heated some milk (I used a packet and a quarter of the 500ml Katraj milk), added the mix, and brought it to a boil. But, I guess I added a little too much milk since it was not very thick, one pack would have been sufficient. I don't know how the real thing actually is, but I think a little thicker would have been better. It tasted yummy though. Added some chopped almonds for garnishing, and voila!

Bon Apetit!

FND: Disaster Friday! (Chocolate Fudge Cake)

Ok, so I've decided I'm going to cook something new every friday after work, a dessert mostly. Something easy and preferably containing chocolate! And this is the first attempt.

So, while looking for an easy no-bake, I found this Chocolate Fudge Cake recipe. It looked really easy to make and really yummy!!

After work, I went to the neighbouring stores and got all the necessary supplies.
After that came the preparation. This recipe required crushed biscuits, which I thought would be easy to do i.e. to crush the biscuits. Alas! It took me the over an hour to crush them all into powder. Now that I think about it, I guess I could have broken them with some heavy object, instead of breaking each biscuit with my hands!
Anyway, after that I peeled and chopped the almonds and broke the chocolate bars into pieces, which was the easiest part of the whole recipe,

After that, I had to mix the chocolate and butter in a utensil. Till this step everything was going well.

The next step involved mixing in the powdered biscuits and almonds. I guess I should have stopped after pouring in only half of the powder, but like a fool I went and poured all of it! This is what it looked like after mixing.

When actually it should have looked like this:

Well, there was nothing I could do at that time since I was out of chocolate, and more importantly butter! Anyway, I kept the mix in the fridge and the next day got the extra butter and chocolate, melted it and and put maybe a quarter of the whole mix into it, It looked very much like the mixture above, although not that dark since I used mostly milk chocolate, with a little bit of dark chocolate.

In the fridge it went for the rest of the night. When I checked the next day it had gotten harder, although there was a fine yellow layer of butter at the top. I guess I used too much butter.

Anyway, I removed the layer and tasted it. All I can say is it didnt taste as bad as it looked! The butter had given it a slightly salty taste, not unlike Reeses Peanut Butter cups! I mean I could have done a lot worse I guess!

This is the last bit that is remaining, and I'm gonna finish it after this post.

I'm gonna try this recipe again, since it still looks really attractive, hopefully with better luck!

Bon Appetit!

Snack Time!!

Ok, so I've been eating a lot these days, like really a LOT! Thought I'd share pics of some of my currnet favourites. Will go on adding as my tastes change.

Apples: Although this is a full one, due to dental issues I cut it into many tiny pieces and eat.

M&Ms:

Gummy Fruits?: Thought I wouldnt like them, cos I dont really like Gummy Bears, but I was pleasantly surprised. Thanks Adi! And for the M&Ms and all the other chocolates and everything! Muah!

Walnuts & Almonds: My latest food craze! I read somewhere that almonds and walnuts are really good for the brain somewhow. Apparently all foods shaped like a body part are good for that body part; like kidney beans would be good for your kidneys. Hence the walnuts!

 

CCD's Dark Passion: Last and the Best!

 

 

 

My mouth's watering now, off to eat!!