Recipe - Chicken curry homestyle

Ingredients -

1. Chicken - 500 gms
2. Curd - 100 gms
3. Red chilli powder - 2 tsp (or as per taste)
4. Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
5. Cumin powder - 1 tsp
6. Ginger garlic paste - 2 tsp
7. Salt - 1.5 tsp (or as per salt)
8. Onion - 2 medium
9. Green chilli - 2 medium
10. Chana daal (split chikpea) - 2 tsp
11. Khaskhas (poppy seeds) - 1 tsp
12. Dry coconut - 4 1 inch pieces (optional)
13. Green coriander - 1/2 cup
14. Chicken masala - 2 tsp (or as per taste)
15. Oil - 1 or 2 Tbsp

Method -

1. Wash the chicken pieces well.
2. Mix the curd, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, Cumin powder, Ginger garlic paste and Salt.
3. Marinate the chicken in this mix and keep it in the refridgerator for an hour.

4. Dry roast green chilli, khaskhas, chana daal, (dry coconut) and onions separately. Cut and clean the coriander.

5. Grind the roasted green chilli, khaskhas and chana daal together to make a dry mix.
6. Make a rough paste of the onion and coriander in the grinder.

7. Heat oil in a pan. Put the dry mix in the oil. Let it cook for 2 min on low flame.
8. Put the onion/coriander paste in the pan and let it cook for about 5 min.

9. Put the chicken in the pan and mix well. Let it cook for 2-3 min. Mix well again.

10. Put chicken masala in it and also pour a cup of water.
11. Cover the pan and let it cook till the chicken is tender and cooked.
12. Serve with chapati and raita

Restaurant review - Zikomo, Baner Pune

Location - Baner road, Near Orchid school, Pune.

Ambience - ***
Menu options - ****
Taste - **
Service - ***
Price - **

Overall - **1/2

We went to Zikomo because we wanted to try out a new restaurant and on searching on google, we found this. It had a huge menu which gave us the chance to try out a new dish.

The restaurant was easy to find. It is a multi level restaurant. First level is the bar. As you climb up to the next level for the restaurant, there are three lounge areas which can seat about 8 people each. You can have a good relaxing time there with friends, though it is not that private a place.

Zikomo menu

The service was good. They serve only mineral water. the drinks menu is also limited, though you would get all the usual cocktails and mocktails and some of the usual hard drinks as well. The local wine menu is pretty much a one wine menu and there are no imported wines. They did have JD on the list but didn't have it in stock so had to go with Ballantine which, for any JD lover, is not a good thing.

The food menu is quite good. Lot of options. We didn't go for the Indian menu went for international section instead. Ordered Hungarian Goulash and Fish & Chips after crusty wheat chicken soup. The food came pretty quickly, which was good. The taste wasn't all that great. They serve only Basa fish which, according to me, is not the best tasting fish. The presentation was good, but the taste of Goulash wasn't good. Too much of tomato and black pepper. The lamb was also quite chewy.

All of the dishes are slightly overly priced. Given the taste, definitely not worth the money. But I am still willing to give it one more chance. Just one, and try out Indian food to see how they make it.

Recipe - Amboli

Ingredients (makes about 8)

1. Rice - 150 gms
2. Udad daal - 50 gms
3. Salt - 1 or 2 tsp

Method

1. It's a 24 hour process. So plan ahead.

2. Wash rice and udad daal and then mix and put in a bowl.
3. Put enough water in it to soak it - water level about 1 cm above the mix.
4. Keep it like this for 12 hours.This will soften the rice and daal.
5. Put it in a grinder and grind it to get a medium thick batter. If it is too thick, put some water in it.
6. Put the salt, mix it well and then keep it overnight to ferment. About 12 hours.
7. Once it has fermented, heat a flat pan or tawa. Use a thick tawa.
8. Take the batter in a small flat based bowl or vati. Pour it at the center of the tawa and then using the base of the vati, start spreading it outwards using a circular motion.

9. Flip it over once the bottom side is cooked.Should take about 1 minute to cook depending on the hotness of the tava.
10. Serve with a chutney (tomato chutney or coconut chutney)

Recipe - Tomato Chutney

This chutney goes well with absolutely anything. It has a pretty strong taste that can be enhanced by putting more chilli if you want :)

Ingredients

1. Tomato - 2
2. Curry leaves - 10
3. Green chillies - 2
4. Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
5. Asafoetida (hing) - small pinch
6. Salt - as per taste
7. Oil - 2tsp

Method

1. Chop tomatoes and chillies.
2. Heat oil in a small pan/wok. When hot, put the cumin seeds.
3. When they pop, put the curry leaves
4. After about 10 seconds, put the green chillies. Let it cook on slow flame for about 30 seconds
5. Put hing, and put the tomatoes in. Mix well and put salt. Let it cook till tomatoes are soft.
6. Let it cool down and then grind it in a mixer.

Recipe - Pohe

Ingredients

1. Pohe - (beaten/flattened rice) medium thickness - 100 gms
2. Onion - 1 big
3. Potato - 1 big
4. Green chilli - 2 medium
5. Curry leaves - 10
6. Turmeric - 1 tsp
7. Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
8. Green peas/peanuts - handful - optional
9. Salt - as per taste
10. Fresh coriander - for garnish
11. Grated coconut - for garnish

Method
1. Use a sieve to filter and throw out all the smaller bits of pohe

Soaked Pohe

2. Sprinkle water on the pohe and ensure that all of them are wet(don't over do it). Keep away
3. Peel and chop the potato into smaller pieces of thickness of about 2-3 mm. Any thinner than this, and they will get cooked before the onions get cooked
4. Chop the onion and green chilli

5. Heat a tablespoon of oil in a wok. Put cumin seeds in it followed by green chillies and curry leaves

6. When they are slightly crispy, put in the onions and potatoes together. Mix well and cover. Let them cook on small-medium flame

7. If you want to put green peas or peanuts, this is the time
8. After about 5 min, check if potatoes are cooked. If yes, then put turmeric powder and mix
9. Put the pohe and mix well till all of them are yellow with turmeric
10. Put salt as per taste (around 1 tsp should do it)
11. Cover the wok and cook for 1-2 min
12. Garnish with fresh coriander and grated coconut
13. Serve with a good mango pickle

Tips -

1. Pohe come in three forms usually - thin, medium, thick. For making this dish, the medium or thick version is better as the thin pohe tend to get soggy very quickly while sprinkling water on them
2. Can put some red chilli powder in the dish as well
3. Sprinkle some sugar for garnish if you want. Tastes different

Recipe - Victorian Sponge Cake

This is a basic Victorian cake. I haven't been able to take photos of the intermediate steps coz I had messy hands :). Also, you could convert this cake into a Victorian sandwich, by slicing the cake into two layers and applying strawberry jam between them.

Ingredients

1. Maida (All purpose flour) - 200 gms
2. Sugar - 200 gms
3. Unsalted butter - 200 gms
4. Eggs - 4
5. Baking powder - 1 tsp
6. Baking soda - 1/4th tsp

Method

1. Mix maida, baking powder and baking soda using a thin wired sieve. Pass through the sieve 3-4 times to mix it well
2. Beat butter in a glass bowl till fluffy. It's a lot of effort, but then you do get mechanical egg beaters that make it slightly easy for you.
3. Start adding one egg at a time and continue beating it. The other option is to beat the eggs separately in a blender and mix with the butter and again beat it for sometime.
4. Grind the sugar to a powder in a grinder and add to the egg and butter mix and beat it again. Remember, you have to beat it till it's fluffy. If you overdo it, it will become slightly lumpy.
5. At this point, start pre-heating the oven to 200C
6. Apply butter to thee sides and bottom of the baking pan and dust it with some maida.
7. Now put the maida/baking powder mix in batter and fold it in slowly. DO NOT beat it. Just move a wooden spatula in a clockwise or anti clockwise direction in the bowl to mix it slowly. Do not change direction midway. Fold the mixture in this way slowly so as not to release the air that has already built up inside the batter.
8. Pour the batter in the baking pan upto slightly more than half the height.
9. Keep it in the oven at 200C for 5 min.
10. Change the temperature to 180C and bake it for another 25-30 min.
11. If you pour this batter in the cup cake bowls, the baking time reduces by a few minutes.
12. Once the timer goes off, take out the pan and insert a knife into the cake. If the cake sticks to the knife blade, keep it inside for another few minutes.
13. Once done, take out and put on a reverse wire mesh in order to air it.
14. You can do some icing on it if you want after it has cooled down.

Recipe - Corn Chatpata

Ingredients

1. Corn - 150 gms
2. Onions - 1 medium
3. Garlic - 5-7 cloves
4. Red chilli powder/Chopped Green chillies - To taste
5. Salt - To taste
6. Salted butter - 3 tsp

Method

1. Chop onions and garlic finely. If using green chillies, chop them as well.

2. Heat 2 tsp of butter in a pan and put the chopped garlic (and chillies) in it. After about 10 seconds, put the onions in.

3. When the onions are golden brown, put the corn in. Mix well
4. Put red chillies powder (if not using green chillies) and salt to taste.
5. Cook for a few minutes and put 1 tsp of butter on it. Mix well.
6. Serve :)