"Chat Ki Baat"- Feature Article

After a really long break from blogging due to tests, we're back! Chat has always been an Indian favourite, but today in this post, its not just chat any more, but the BEST chat ever in Bangalore!

  Located in a humble and small premises in Malleshwaram, "Sri Sairam's Juice and Chats" quite easy to miss, but any foodie passing by would definitely stop with a whiff of its gently boiling masala.

A First-time visitor may end up clueless about what to choose with very intriguing items on the menu that you may not understand. For regulars like us, we know most of the items by-heart so do take our word for the must-try items here!

It's almost a tradition that your first Sai Ram Chat should by default be Chips Masala. Its one of the more well-known items on their menu and rightly so. The amazing combination of flavour and texture is simply amazing and quite unique.

Apart from that, you could try out Bowl Masala, Crazy Chat, Hongkong Chat, Kiss Masala, Disco Chat, Puff Masala, Nippat Masala, Bun Nippat and so on. My personal favourite is the Sev DB Puri which tastes absolutely smashing! And yes, all of these are at very affordable prices (nothing exceeding 25 rupees).

Just because it is a chat-dominated place, you cannot count out the Juices which are very refreshing. Cold Coffee is a crowd favourite and the Masala Coke is worth a shot.
After you're done with your food and drink, don't forget to get your free pani to wash down the spices with a nice flavour to keep in you're mouth till you reach home. It actually is the younger brother of pani puri itself and will leave you with fond memories of the place whenever you think about it!

Do pay a visit!

40/3, 15th Cross, MES College Road, Malleshwaram ,Bangalore.
Timings: 10AM to 10PM
Contact:  +919449880933

Your Personal Recipe Book: Recipe 8: Vegetable Hakka Noodles

Since we showed you how to make the Gobi Manchurian Gravy in our previous post, we thought why not tell you how to make the main dish too so that you could prepare a sumptuous meal on a special occasion for yourself and your family!
   The chinese actually eat a much more bland version of chinese food in one region and a more spicy variant in the other, but from what I've heard, non taste better than the chinese we eat right here! Just some food for thought!
  Oh yeah! Noodles! Here's how to make some!

Ingredients Required: (serves 4 people)
Ginger- 1.5 inch piece
Garlic- 7-8 cloves
Oil- 1/4 cup
Noodles- 200 grams
Soy(a) Sauce- 3 tbsps
Vinegar- 2 tbsps
Green chillies- 2
Onions- 2 medium
Carrots- 2 medium
Capsicum- 1 large
Cabbage- 1/3rd of medium sized
Spring Onion- 7-8 sprigs
Salt- to taste
Pepper- to taste
Water- Loads
Beans, Zucchini, Bean sprouts(optional)

Method:

1. Boil up water in a large vessel and add the noodles to it when it begins to boil. Cook the noodles to desired softness. (It would be best if just cooked through)
2. Strain out the noodles and coat it with some oil and soy sauce and leave aside.
3. Heat up the remaining oil in a wok. Add to it chopped up/blitzed ginger, garlic and green chilly (chopped together will do fine)
4. Immediately add to it sliced onions and saute for a minute before adding salt and some pepper.
5. Proceed to add the carrots which are cut into julienne( narrow vertical strips of 2 inch length). Add salt and pepper and saute for 2 minutes more.
6. Next add the capsicum cut similar to the carrots. The aroma is mouth-watering by now! Keep tossing the veggies, add salt and pepper for the capsicum now.
7. Add the cabbage which is chopped along one direction only. Toss the veggies continuously and add salt again. Quickly add the chopped springs of the spring onion and the noodles to the wok now.
8. Keeping the flame high all along, now would be a good time to slow it down a bit and toss everything in the wok gently. Add the vinegar and keep tossing.
9. Serve hot with a pair of chopsticks (coz eating with a fork is way too mainstream)

So hope you enjoyed our chinese specials! Loads more coming up for you so do stay tuned!

Your Personal Recipe Book: Recipe 6: Eggless Moist Chocolate Cake

Hey guys! Today we'll give you a recipe to make a simple but absolutely delicious moist chocolate cake that you can eat at any time of the day without any regrets. It is immensely light, yet moist and melts in your mouth perfectly with the perfect texture that a plain cake can have.

Let's get baking!

What you need:

• All-purpose flour- 1 and a half cups
• Cocoa Powder- 3 tbsps
• Sugar- 1 cup
• Baking Soda- 1 tsp
• Vegetable Oil- 1/4th cup
• Vinegar/Lemon juice- 1 tsp
• Salt- 1/4 tsp
• Vanilla essence- 1/2 tbsp
• Water- 1 cup

Get Baking: (this recipe is so simple, you could do it with your eyes shut)

1. Pass all of the dry ingredients (except sugar) through a sieve placed over a large bowl and mix them well to make sure that you get an even mixture.
2. Take water in another vessel and mix the sugar into it, stirring and warming slightly if necessary, until it is fully dissolved.
3. Pre-heat the oven to 180 deg celsius. Stir in the rest of the ingredients into the vessel containing the water and immediately mix with the dry and fold only until a watery batter is formed.
4. Immediately pour the batter into a greased baking tin and put into the oven for about 35 minutes until a dry knife when inserted into the middle comes out dry.
5. Take out of the oven when done and invert on a wire rack only after 10-15 minutes to prevent crumbling.

 

 

Your cake can be cut into pieces and served as-is or used as a base for an iced birthday cake for a loved one. Indulge in this amazingly awesome cake and post any variations that you come across!

 

Looking forward to hear from you and signing off for tonight,

Your fellow foodie.

Best Street food in Bangalore - Part 1

We thought about making a blog post about the best authentic Bangalore street food places and what better a place than Bangalore's own Food Street, V.V.Puram.

I studied in Jain PU College, V.V.Puram and as you might have guessed, I was a regular there. Name almost any food you want and there's a good chance you might get it there. From the everyday to the exotic.

So here's my write up about Food Street, or in Kannada, Thindi beedhi.

Directions:

It is located near Sajjan Rao circle  in VV Puram. If you are taking a bus or an auto, get down at Sajjan Rao circle, and the food street starts right next to it. If you are driving, you can get the driving directions from google maps:



General Info:

If you're a guy who is picky about what he places in his pie hole, this is probably not the place for you. If you are like me, who eats just about anything, get ready for the best three hours of your culinary life!

What to eat:

1. V B Bakery

Though this exactly fit into the culinary repertoire of Chat street, It is definitely worth a mention for it's amazing plain cake, cream puff and apple cake. My recommendation : Eat your fill in chat street(or more if you're a foodie of course) and then honor the time old tradition of having dessert at the end of your meal. As always, there is parceling also.

Ramu's Ghee Masala Dosa

Mouthwatering-ly aromatic, Sinfully delicious, this slice of heaven born out of pure ghee will be yours for just 30 Rupees. 

Eating time = as fast you can demolish them.

Guilt period = number of dosas consumed * 4 weeks, 5 if you don't exercise.

Idli Mane

Tired of ghee soaked monstrosities at Ramu's Tiffin Center? Hop over to Idli Mane to consume the unholy offsprings of Idli and Dosa - The Paddu.

Good things come in small packages and these are the perfect examples for the statement.

You could also try some of it's extended family for considerably less guilt, such as the Idli, Akki/Ragi rotti.

Unnamed Bajji Stall

Time to take your mouth for a roller coaster ride. Get an explosion of flavor, oil and the chilies before running to douse your mouth with a hose. These atomic bombs of flavor will make your day. Special Recommended is the Bell pepper Bajji with extra veggie fillings and a hint of lime.

North Indian style

Pining for the rustic tastes of the north? Head over to one of the numerous north Indian stalls around. Their amazing curries will take you back to your hometown for a few minutes and the rotis feel like wisps of cloud made out of flour.

Holige

Another must-try stall is the one selling holige (puran poli). Coconut holige is my personal favorite. Even the plain Dal Holige drenched in desi ghee is sumptuous.

Going to chat street is like a pilgrimage to meet the culinary gods for less than 200 bucks. You'll want more and more and before you know it, You are a foodie!
If you are still reading this, What is wrong with you?! Shutdown your computer, grab a couple of buddies and make your tastebuds lose feelings in their knees!

*Images above have been harvested fresh from the unending famland of Google.

Special Edition: Your Personal Recipe Book: Recipe 5: Blueberry Cheesecake

Hello Foodies!
Today we have a recipe to make a very sumptuous dessert contributed by our guest writer. We stumbled upon each other here on blogspot where we love to write about our passion for food and share our simplified recipes for other foodies to try out without spending too much time or resources. Normally one would visit the other blog and move on to other ingredients soon after, but our case panned out differently clearly because our guest writer is from our college- PESIT!
So today, we consider ourselves privileged to play host to the recipe for Blueberry Cheesecake written by our senior from the graduating batch of 2012, PESIT- Anusha Gargi!

Blueberry Cheesecake:

Ingredients

First Layer(Biscuit Layer)

60 Marie Digestive Biscuits

200 ml melted butter

Second Layer(Cheese cake layer)

400g Condensed Milk

2 tsp Vanilla essence

200 gms paneer

2 tbsp Sugar

300ml blueberry crush

3 tbsp gelatin

1 cup cold water

Third Layer

Blueberry crush 

White chocolate shavings for garnishing

Method

1. For the first layer: Grind Marie Digestive biscuits and mix with melted butter and layer it on a spring pan. Refrigerate it for 10 mins.
2. For the cheese cake layer: Grind paneer, condensed milk, sugar, blueberry crush and vanilla essence into a smooth mixture. Usually all fruit crushes contain sugar so add the sugar as required.Mix gelatin with 1 cup of cold water and leave it for 20 mins. Then dissolve this gelatin in some boiling water and add it to the ground mixture. Pour this on top of the biscuit layer. This will be the second layer on the spring pan. Refrigerate  it for 6-8 hrs.
3.  For the top layer- After setting the cake in the fridge for around 6-8 hours, smear a thin layer of blueberry crush and garnish with white chocolate shavings. Serve chilled.

 For more unique recipes of exotic dishes of all types of cuisines, do visit our guest writer's blog: Anu's Cookhouse.

We'd also like to thank her for her contribution to our blog. It is the inspiration and encouragement of such friends that drives the foodie spirit inside us!

Your Recipe Book 4 : Pasta in Red Sauce

Things you'll need:

1. Three tomatoes

2. One medium sized onion

3. Three clover of garlic

4. About a handful of corn Kernels

Preperation:

1. Criss cross the skin of the tomatoes and drop them in enough boiling water to immerse them and boil them for about 10 minutes.

2. Chop the onion and the garlic and saute them in oil till the onions become translucent.

3. Remove the tomatoes from the water and peel off it's skin and proceed to put them into a grinder along with the sauteed onion and grind them till they're the consistency of a sauce.Add salt and water if necessary.

4. add the corn kernels into the water in which the tomatoes were boiled. After it has been partially softened, add the pasta into it and cook it till it's soft and keep aside.

5. take the grinded tomatoes in another vessel and let it boil till it reaches the a color and consistency of a sauce.

6. take the cooked pasta in a sieve and add it into the boiling sauce.

7. boil the mixture for a few minutes, top it off with oregano and chili flakes and serve hot!

Your Personal Recipe Book: Recipe 3: Funky Paneer Frankie

Hello Foodies! Its past dinner time and I can finally think straight with my stomach full. Just the week before the Dasara holidays I was left home alone with the entire kitchen and fridge at my disposal. Of course, without a super-talented multi-tasking Mom who turns into Goddess Durga with 10 hands when it comes to taking care of family and food, I left some stuff a little longer than I intended to.
    But I definitely wouldn't be writing this to insult myself now would I? So here's a simple way to make yourself a sumptuous and nutritious meal out of milk that is close to curdling and leftover dough: a Paneer Frankie!

To make the paneer: Put the milk on the stove and heat it to above room temperature but not quite its boiling temperature. At this point, add 2-3 tablespoons of curd (even if the curd is sour, it will do) and the juice of 1 lime and stir gently a few times. Let it boil and watch the milk perform its magic and split evenly. Once done, pour the entire contents of the vessel through a sieve lined with a thin cloth to collect only the solid particles and wrap the cloth in a bundle. Place this bundle on a hard surface (kitchen counter will do) and place another flat surface on top of it with a weight on top to compress it.
    Then go watch your favourite TV show and when you return, remove the cloth off your "bundle" and applaud yourself!

Now, cut this up into bite size cubes carefully with a knife and keep aside.

Let's get "rolling":
Now you may have some dough left over from your previous chapathi meal. U could either use that or prepare a fresh dough using half quantity of wheat and half of all-purpose flour (maida). Roll out a chapathi and cook it on a tava. (You can learn this just by doing it)
    In a pan quickly put some butter and sliced onion followed by some capsicum rings and toss well. Add some tomato ketchup, chilly sauce and keep tasting it for a flavour of your choice. Add the paneer right at the end and give the mixture a gentle stir.
    Now spread your chapathi on a plate and spread mayonnaise on its surface. If you do not have mayonnaise any cheese will do. Put a bit of the mixture towards one side of the chapathi in a vertical line and fold the chapathi horizontally up till it covers the mixture (this is to make sure nothing will spill out when eating and you have mixture till the bottom of the roll).

 Now roll it along the direction of the mixture quite tightly and place it on the tava for a few seconds to keep it warm and make the cheese melt slightly.
Your Funky Paneer Frankie is now ready to impress!

The aim of this post: Don't waste any food. There are many in need of it. And why waste it when it can become something this awesome! :)