Sungurko Khuttako Achar

This is one of the receipes that Pooja gave me. I have made this one and its AWESOME.

This is the closest I can get to Pooja's home cooking. Oh I must write a post on food that I grew up eating. Not in my house. In Pooja's house. I used to take a detour while going home after school, just to eat in her place...OK. So now the knowledge is public!!

 

Anyway, here is what we need to do; and this one I quote Pooja:

 

"Ingredients:

Sungurko khutta (Pork trotters/feet)- 1 kg

Garlic sliced - 2 tbs

Ginger cut into thin strips - 2 tbs

Onion - 1 medium sliced

Tomatoes - 1 large sliced

Black jeera (OK I had to look up Wikipedia to see the english for this. Here are the English names  fennel flower, nutmeg flower, Roman coriander, blackseed or black caraway and finally black cumin. This is the star of the dish so do not miss this one out. Picture if the thing here.  Oh and btw when you use this to make Aludum..yum yum. I need to put that on this blog too) - 1 1/2 tsf

Green chillies - depends on how hot you want it

Tumeric - 1 tsf

Salt - to taste

Oil - 2 tbs

Method:

Cut pork feet into medium sized pieces. Rinse well. Boil for 3-4 minutes, rinse well and clean the feet thoroughly.

In a thick bottomed saucepan add all the ingredients except the black jeera, 1 tbs oil and the garlic.

Cook in medium heat adding a little water every now and then till cooked.

Once the meat is cooked to your liking, temper the black jeera and garlic in around 1 tbs oil and add to the pork."

 

And thats it! Delicious stuff...and of course if you have black dal and rice to go with this...perfection!!

My Philadelphia Trip- Continental Restaurant and Martini Bar

It has been sometime that I have written in my blog. I wont say I have not eaten good stuff while I am away. Its just that I have been eating decent food..and I have been on a diet. So well, I did not have much to write about. Until now.

So we decided that we need a vacation-at least a Mini-vacation. So we decided to visit Philadelphia over the weekend. We have a good friend there so we thought it would be fun to visit the city as well as him. So we went. Since this is a food blog I am not going to say much about the city. But this much I have to say. Philadelphia has this old city charm which was fascinating to see...especially in America. Words like quaint, pretty, charming, etc floated in my head in every street and every corner in the city. Even Mono got carried away and called some coffee shop 'cute'. It was hilarious. There were some portions in the city which distinctly reminded me of Darjeeling. Maybe it was the Brit connection. Basically we had a lot of fun in the city.

However, what we enjoyed the most there was the food. Day 1 we reached a little late so we just grabbed some beer (by we I mean Mono and Carter, while I sipped on my Diet Coke). And after that we went to have some dinner. We had some pretty good sandwiches. But it was Day 2 when we started our culinary journey in Philly.

We went in for brunch at this place called Continental Restaurant and Martini Bar. This was one of the restaurants that we went to under restaurant.com deals (For more on these kinds of Deals visit Carter's blog here). Anyway, since we were told that the portion sizes were pretty large, we decided to share 2 entrees between the 3 of us. And I am glad we did, because for most parts the orders were pretty large. Anyway, we had french toast with caramelized banana; and omlettes with applewood bacon and cheddar. It was awesome. The french toast caramelized bananas were sooo good.  The french toast was not soggy. One of the best french toasts I have ever had. And somehow they managed to make the bananas have the right amount of sweetness. It was delicious. We wolfed it down. And the omlettes were ...it was light and fluffy and had bits of delicious bacon in it. What can I say...no one really goes wrong with bacon. But this was just...really good.

They had a whole section of dessert, but we ended up not having them because we were quite full by the time we were done. There was also a martini bar in the place, which seemed pretty popular. And then there were plans of coming back later on. Somehow we never managed to...but  then that was only because Philly had SOOO much more to offer.

One thing is for sure. This place. I will be going back to when I go back. Maybe we will get some dessert and martini then.

July 4th with an all American burger

OK...somehow the 4th of July fever caught on and Mono and me decided to go all American with our food today. 

We started the day with pancakes and blueberry syrup, but then decided that nothing screams 4th of July more than Burgers and Beer.

So I made burgers. It was really good. And a lot healthier than what we would eat in restaurants. I took the receipe from food network website and then tweaked it of course. The original receipe can be found here. My version, which was made of chicken and halved went something like this:

Ingredients:

For Red Onion Compote

1/4 cup water

1 cup beer

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 red onions, sliced

Salt and ground black pepper

Bring water, beer, brown sugar, and red onions to a boil after seasoning with salt and pepper then reduce to a simmer. Simmer, stirring occasionally until the mixture thickens and reduces to about 2 cups. Transfer to a bowl and set aside to cool completely.

·        

For Burgers:

1 pound ground chicken

1/4 cup beer

2 tablespoons chicken rub

little shredded 5 cheese mix

Romaine lettuce

4 hamburger rolls, toasted

Mix together the ground chicken, beer and grill seasoning. Shape the chicken into 4 equal portions and flatten each portion. Place 2 tablespoons of cheese in the center of each and wrap the edges around the cheese to form a ball. Flatten each ball into patties. Place on platter and cover. Refrigerate if not cooking immediately.

Set up grill or indoor grill pan for direct cooking over medium-high heat. When ready to start grilling, oil the grate. Place patties on the hot oiled grill and cook 4 to 5 minutes per side for medium. Serve over lettuce on toasted buns topped with red onion compote.

Good results. Pictures do no justice to the burger!!

Online Menu

A short post on something I dont like.

A restaurant putting up their menus online. So I agree that it is useful to have a look at the menu to see how the food is, how much it will cost...etc etc. But for me it takes the charm out of going to a restaurant.

For me dining out is a shared experience. As is all good things in life. You go out..you look at the menu together. Discuss what each item may be...ask for the waiter's opinion. All in a package. Looking at the menu before hand gets you biased. I feel that if I have made up my mind about what I am going to eat beforehand I dont usually listen to the waiter/server. And I feel that ways I miss out on the good stuff.

Sadly. I still look at the menus online.  

Ayiti

So recently I was in Haiti for some work. I want to write about the food there.

Since I was there for a long time I got to taste local food. The staple diet there is rice and beans. And fried everything else..ha ha. OK so I had a lot of fried chicken. They told me that they boiled the chicken to cook it first and then they boiled it. Nothing special about either the rice or chicken...in fact in some places the chicken was quite greasy. However, the water that was left over after boiling the chicken in it...I guess we could call it stock..They made some kind of sauce with it. That was just awesome...specially when paired with rice. And of course, there was the fried as well as boiled plantains. All regular stuff. With lots of fruits for dessert and fresh juice!

This was boiled carrots and potato...with mayonnaise. Highway to heart attack!

Fried chicken and plantains...expressway to heart attack

Rice with beans..simple, staple food

The sauce...Yummmm!!

OK..so on the last day of my stay in Haiti, I went to this restaurant. It was in Petite Reviere de Nippes and I cannot remember the name of the place even to save my life! But this is what happened. I went in with another girl from the clinic for dinner and also because we were meeting this guy...Mike! He said the fish was real good in the place so I ordered fish. In the meantime, I ordered Prestige Beer

Now normally I am not a big fan of beer...but you see I was in Haiti. I was willing to try stuff (except maybe cat...which I was told is a delicacy here). But everyone told me about Prestige, about how it had won 2008 World Beer Cup. So I was like..OK let me try. And I am glad I did. It was light, not bitter...and sort of nutty tasting beer. Very very good. I wanted to get some back for Mono..sadly I had just one carry on. Next time surely! I just found out that they also won 2012 Beer Cup. So ya...truly good beer. And this one comes from a non beer-drinker. OK enough of beer...Next. 

Moonshine. Sugarcane based. 80% alcohol. Illegal in US. Took a shot. ALL of it vanished in my mouth. Got me drunk. Enough said!

And lastly, along with all that alcohol I had this fish. Again, I dont eat fish. But Mike convinced me that it was the best fish he had ever had, and that people swore by the fish. So I was like...OK Sure...and I was happy. Very very happy. It was Rock fish. And it was grilled. Lemony, tangy tasting divinity. It had no sea food smell...Not just the best fish I have ever eaten, but one of the best food I have ever had. I wish however they had not served it with french fries. I wish they had something more local...But who cares? The fish was a meal in itself. I repeat. It was divine. 

So overall I had a good time. Good food, good alcohol, great company (I missed Mono) and the sea. What more could a person want? 

Peruvian Chicken

I have been lazy lately. Either I have not been cooking, or I have been cooking simple stuff. I have not even been eating out...I guess I have officially become a bum!!

However, on Sunday we went out to eat. It was this hole of a place, with an unimaginative name..."Peruvian Chicken". The food however was anything but! It was one of the better cooked chicken in the country.

They serve you either whole chicken, 1/2 chicken, or 1/4 chicken. I took 1/4. It came with a side of rice and salad. Rice was cooked with peas, very bland...it went well with the chicken. The salad was a simple cabbage and carrot salad with dressing which had mint in it! The mint dressing could also be used for chicken. But the chicken...that was so good! It was roasted over charcoal. And the way way it fell off its bones, I am assuming it was roasted for sometime. Maybe even more than 12 hour. Whatever they did to it, the flavors were good...and went right till the insides of the chicken. It had a woody (in a nice way) taste, and the skin was crisp. Yumm, yumm. 

Oh and by the way, I ordered a coconut juice for my drink. It was not intentional but the two went well!

I need to go back to the place again!

Oyster @ Hank's

So, we have moved to Alexandria, VA. There is a place here called King's Street...and what a feast the King has laid out for us!!

OK, enough of theatrics. So in King's Street there is a restaurant called Hank's Oyster Bar. And that is where I had my first oyster. It was oyster with lemon and butter. Mono told me that is how everyone has oysters. Of course I was a little squeamish at first; the thought of raw sea food was not very appetizing. But Mono dared me into trying it out! And I did; and I am glad! It was delicious! A little spongy, and it tasted of the sea. Salty and fresh. And the lemon and butter really added on to the flavor! Would I have oysters again? Hell..yes!

Apart from oysters we had some Calamari (the biggest ones I had ever seen) and some lamb chops (yes in a sea food restaurant). The lamb chops were good...only problem was they got me rare when I asked for well done. But well the chops were good so I let them go! I dont exactly remember what was the side with the lambs...thats sad because I know whatever I had was good.

And dessert? I played it safe. Chocolate mousse. Wasn't out of the world; was quite good actually!

Overall, a good dinner.

I need to go back again!