Pasta with Three-cheese White Sauce

The first pasta dish I tasted was penne tossed with Bechamel  sauce and served with crispy garlic bread. It remains the most simple french sauces that I can make and recommend. The balance always remains to make it not too heavy or too thin or to not add too much cheese. Me, I add a little too much red chili flakes so that the spice buds kick right at the back of your throat. But, it is tasty.
The pasta in white sauce is a simple, easy dish - probably belongs to the eighties - but still hanging around the standard cafes and Italian restaurants in Indian metros and towns. However, on some days, you just want something really unhealthy and the joy of making something continental thus showing off your culinary repertoire. This particular pasta dish is rich and creamy with a slight technicality involved. It is probably better to make it once a month or two but works well for an evening of an extra special family dinner.

The trick to making a good bechamel is to use a whisk and follow the measurement guidelines of 1-tbsp butter to 1 tbsp flour to 1 cup milk. Then, you can experiment around with other flavors to find a one that becomes your signature dish. Sauteing minced garlic and shallots adds a nice flavor. Or you could add a range of herbs to the dish. So, go forth and explore.

Ingredients:
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
2 cups of flour
1 cup macaroni
1/2 cup penne
1 tbsp oregano
2 tbsp red chili flakes
3-4 tbsp cheese
salt
pepper
water for making pasta

Method:
Making pasta:
Put a pot of water to boil. Once the water starts bubbling, add a tbsp of salt and watch the water sizzle. Add the pasta. The macaroni will take around 5 minutes. The penne will take somewhere around 10-11 minutes.
Making bechamel:
As the pasta boils, heat a saucepan. Melt butter and add flour. Whisk rapidly to a smooth roux. Add the milk and whisk till everything dissolves into a smooth consistency. The color will change from white to slightly creamy.
Add oregano, red chili flakes, salt and pepper. This is the tricky part. You need to taste and then adjust the seasonings to your liking. Once, that is done, add the cheese and some of the pasta water. This will give the sauce a smoothness and a depth of flavor.
Drain the pasta and then toss with the sauce. Serve immediately.

Mushroom Masala

The author once hated mushrooms.
 Gasp!
 I know.
[And probably not the best way to begin this post.]
But, once it was true. She ran away from the moment, the woodsy smell entered the house and came up with creative ways to pass the serving to her sibling's plate. Then, of course, she grew up. And things once hated found an affectionate place in her larder. Mushrooms made once such entry. She began small, tried the popular button mushrooms and since then she hasn't looked back. And now, one single line has become a flow-chart of tried and tested recipes, cooking experiments and wishlists.
Mushroom Masala is one of her favorite recipes. It is easy to make and spicy - the kind that dances on the tip of your tongue. And it uses button mushrooms. Believe me, there is very little to not recommend about this particular dish. So, put on your favored dancing music and let the games begin.

Ingredients:
1 packet button mushrooms
2 medium onions sliced
2 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
1 tbsp red chili powder
1 tsp turmeric
1 tbsp coriander powder
1 tbsp cumin powder
1 tbsp yoghurt
1 tbsp garam masala
salt to taste
oil for frying
chopped coriander leaves for garnish

Method:
Heat oil in a pan. Fry the mushrooms in batches.
Remove excess oil. Fry onions till brown. Add ginger-garlic paste. Cook for five minutes
Add the red chili, turmeric, coriander and cumin powder. Cook for two minutes.
Add yoghurt, water and salt and simmer for fifteen minutes till the sauce thickens and the raw smell of spice leaves the curry.
Fold in the mushrooms and garam masala. Simmer for five more minutes.
Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and serve hot.

Minerva

It took me a while to find a place in Hyderabad which serves good dosa and sambar. And for a long time sweet, rasam-like water passing as sambar at certain places was the best this city could do. And then me and my friends went to Minerva Coffee Shop. In its website, the coffee house promises an ambiance of "warm difference". That is certainly true. As you set inside the place, especially when it is pouring outside, the host very courteously gestures you to comfortable seats. The setting is all gold and mahogany with soft lights and scents of coffee and spice tease your senses. As you sit, you are immediately attended to by one liveried man who hands you the menu while another fills your glass. You hear about the Nizami hospitality. In this coffee house you see the proof.

The restaurant offers a selection of food that is varied and vegetarian. But its piece de resistance is its various dosas with white butter and hot filter coffee. We ordered three masala dosas and one plain dosa. Along with that, we ordered four cups of filter coffee. The service is a little slow especially when during rush hours. But once the food is there, you forget all about the wait [Trust me on that].
The masala dosa is crisp with a dollop of white butter pooling on top of it. It is served with a side of tamarind and tomato chutney, coconut chutney and thick spicy sambar. The insides of the dosa is rubbed with spicy podi or powder and filled with generous portion of spicy potato filling. The plain dosa  is artistically arranged in a cone and the white butter is served on the side.
For the next few minutes, there is silence at the table as we heaped chutney and sambar on top of the dosa and started delicately tearing at the offering in front of us.The white butter is so different from the regular one. It is lush and elevates the dish to new levels of deliciousness. The condiments come together to compliment each other. When you finish - as described by my friend - you feel full and light at the same time.
The filter coffee is another matter entirely. Hot, slightly bitter and sweet, it forms the perfect end to the meal. And when you have come in from the cold rains, it is a perfect jolt to the system.

Unpretentious and warm, this place makes you want to come back again and partake of their delicious fare. For me, if you are in the vicinity, take a walk into the place and try the food.
Location: KFC Lane, Himayat Nagar
What to try: Any of the dosas, filter coffee
Rating: 3.8/5

Loveofmylife: Spot#8

My friend Koel's Chicken Curry

Recipe to follow

All-purpose Spicy Fritters

So, five in the morning. Watching Masterchef and the contestants competing in a breakfast challenge. There are all the manner of food that you cannot get at five in the morning. So you curse at the screen and go to sleep. And the next night get the ingredients in hand and make yourself a couple of fritters to go with your Thursday night curry and rice.
This is one of my throw whatever-is-at-hand-ingredients into a plate and fry them up in hot oil. So, carrots got grated, onions got finely chopped and a lot of spices got added in. And the result is delicious, crispy mouthfuls of goodness. You can have this as a side-dish to a spicy curry or wrap them up in flatbreads with sliced onions and mayo for a quick snack or simply have them with spicy chutney as an appetizer. These nuggets are the embodiment of the title of this post.

Ingredients:
2 medium carrots
2 medium potatoes
1 regular packet of frozen peas
1/2 onion
1 chilly
1/4 block of cheddar cheese
2tbsp Red chili powder
2tbsp Coriander powder
2tbsp Garam masala
Salt
4tbsp cornflour
Oil for frying

Method:
Grate the carrots, potatoes and cheese. Mash the peas coarsely. Chop the onion and chilly finely.

Mix all of them together. Add the spice powders, salt, cheese and cornflour. Fold everything with each other well.

Heat oil till slightly bubbling. Make small balls from the mixture. Fry in batches till evenly brown. Don't worry about the color - it is supposed to be a darker shad of brown.

If you like you can sprinkle a little chat masala before serving. Serve immediately.

Egg Roast

For me when I encounter a new recipe, the impulse has to be to research as much as possible on it. I have to know its many adaptations, how my friends like to eat it, what other dishes go with it. One such recipe was Egg roast. My friend and fellow blogger Sulfia introduced me to this recipe. The dish was surprisingly easy to make and incredibly tasty to eat. Forgive the rapture, but a simple dish made well - that is the key. And I cannot contain my excitement when I think of the taste that lingered after the meal. She advised me to have it with rotis which is the best way to eat it. And as I agree with that judgement, I will pass it on.

When I decided to make it, the obvious route was to go to the books. And in times such as this, The Suriani Kitchen is my go to cookbook. Lucid with tried and tested recipes, this book gives you an insight into the culinary tastes of Kerala. I have already adapted the recipe for Thoran in my previous posts - with excellent results. And this again was no exception. You do need to give time for the onions to caramelize and yes you need a lot of oil for this recipe. My friend Sulfia suggests using olive oil. I have done so in this recipe and found the taste to be equally good as one made with regular vegetable oil. All you have do is to throw in a couple of fluffy, soft rotis and Monday night dinner is taken care of.

 Ingredients:
4 hard boiled eggs
6 medium onions sliced
7 curry leaves
2 slitted green chilies
1 tbsp Red chilli powder
1 tsp turmeric
salt to taste
3/4 cup olive oil

Method:
Heat oil. Add the onions and sprinkle a little salt to prevent it from burning. You need to give the onions at least 15 to 20 minutes to caramelize. Add the curry leaves and slitted green chilies. The onions should be a rich golden brown color at this point of time.
Add the spice powders and check for salt. Fold everything in.
Cut the eggs in half and add to the onions. Serve immediately.

The best Street Food

It is funny when you talk of your childhood experiences and the fact that your parents' warning to not eat from street carts. Street food in India has a mixed rep - you know it borders on unhygienic and eat too much you will inevitably succumb to food poisoning. At the same time you cannot help but rave about the various food on offer on your favorite chat street. For me and I imagine most of the Oriyas, the best street food would have to be the dahibara aludum. Oh, where to begin? Mention that name to any former resident of Cuttack and you get this dreamy expression in their eyes and an accompanied groan. Memories would crowd them and they would get down to discussing the merits of the particular dish and end up with fighting over which street serves the best one. The traditionalists would shake their heads and state equivocally that the best dahibara aludum is made by Raghu at CDA street. People would travel as long as two hours to go camp near his cart in order to avail themselves a large order. The others would state that the best comes from Iswar at Chandi Chhak. Still others would go for Naya Sarak. But all of them would agree that it beats panipuri,chat, pav bhaji or rolls to win the race for the best street food around.

But I think I have got ahead of myself. What is this food you may ask? It is pillowy vadas soaked in spicy yoghurt with the consistency of buttermilk. The vendor would get out the bowls made of leaves and throw in around four of those, then spoon gughuni [see Matar curry in my first post] over it. Then, he would add alu dum or very spicy potato curry. Finally, he would add chopped onions, coriander and then sev on top. At some places, there would be grated carrots and mint and tamarind chutney in addition to this. You then stand and proceed to demolish the entire plate. After that, the vendor will ask if you want dahi and ladle a huge spoon of spiced yoghurt and at your request some onion and sev on to it. You gulp it down and then head to the nearest store and buy yourself a huge block of ice-cream because - dear god in heaven - it is deliciously spicy. Go anywhere around the world, have anything from those places - but, once you have had a taste of this delicacy, you will come back for more. And on that mildly cliched note, I shall end this post. Because, trust me, I am on the verge of reducing into a stereotypical adoration. If you are anywhere around Cuttack at any time, go to the streets of CDA or Naya Sarak[you will get directions automatically-Oriyas are very proud of this particular food] and order a full plate of dahibara aludum. And life will be good.