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METHOD Boil green peas in salted water till soft, drain, mash lightly and set aside. Grind ginger and garlic to a fine paste. Heat oil in a pan and add three fourth quantity of onions. Sauté till light brown. Add green chillies and ginger-garlic paste. Stir-fry for half a minute. Add half the quantity of tomatoes and cook on medium heat for three to four minutes, stirring continuously or till oil separates from the masala. Add capsicum, mashed peas, cauliflower, potatoes and one and half cups of water. Bring it to a boil and simmer for ten minutes, pressing with back of the spoon a few times, till all the vegetables are completely mashed. Add Pavbhaji Masala, salt and remaining tomatoes. Cook on medium heat for two minutes, stirring continuously. Heat half of the butter in a thick-bottomed pan or a tawa. Slice pav horizontally into two and pan fry in butter for half a minute, pressing two or three times or till pav is crisp and light brown. Garnish the bhaji with chopped coriander leaves, remaining butter and serve hot with pav accompanied with remaining chopped onion and lemon wedges.  Enjoy !!! |
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Indian Pav Bhaji -- Just try it !!
Enjoy Missal Pav !!!
Preparation Time: 30 min
Cooking Time: 30 min
100 gms safed vatana (dried white peas)
1/2 tsp turmeric powder (haldi)
salt to taste
1 1/2 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds ( rai / sarson)
1 tbsp ginger (adrak) paste
1 tsp garlic (lehsun) paste
1/2 tsp green chilli paste
2 tbsp tamarind (imli) pulp
1/2 tsp garam masala
1/4 cup coriander (dhania) leaves
1/4 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp chaat masala
1 tbsp lemon juice
Accompaniments2 cups mixed farsan
3/4 cup chopped onions
2 green chillies, chopped
2 tbsp coriander (dhania) leaves
1 cup curds (dahi), beaten
Method
- Pressure cook peas with very little water, salt & turmeric.
- Heat the oil and put mustard seeds.
- Add ginger, garlic and green chili paste.
- Fry for a min. add cooked peas and tamarind juice.
- Cook uncovered on a low flame for 2 min.
- Add garam masala and coriander leaves
- Mix well and remove from heat.
- At the time of serving sprinkle the mixture of gathia, papri, peanut, dal, potato chips etc.
- Add onion, green chillies and coriander leaves.
- Sprinkle yellow chilli powder, chat masala and squeeze lemon juice all over the cooked peas.
- Finally, top with a little curd and serve immediately so that mixture does not turn soggy.
Enjoy !!!
Vada Pav --- Traditional Indian Hamburger
Vada Pav is known as the Indian hamburger or Big Mc or
Big Bob!!!!
Serving size - 4
6-8 medium sized boiled potatoes
2 cups gram flour (besan)
oil for frying
salt
pav ( A kind of bun) - If pavs are not available, you can use any other bun. Choose the ones which do not taste sweet.
Masala1 small piece ginger,
4-5 flakes garlic,
4-5 (or more) green chilies,
1/2 cup coriander leaves (chopped),
For tempering
1 tea spoon turmeric powder,
curry leaves,
1 teaspoon mustard seeds,
2 teaspoon oil
Method:
1. Grind ginger, garlic and green chilies together into a paste.
2. Peel and smash potatoes with a potato masher (or simply use hands). Do not smash completely. Let some small chunks remain.
3. Add ginger, garlic and green chili paste, coriander leaves, and salt to the potatoes.
4. Then take 2 teaspoons oil in a kadai. Add mustard seeds. When they splutter, add turmeric powder and curry leaves.
Pour this tempering on the mashed potatoes and mix gently.
5. Make small balls of mashed potato mixture. (You can flatten the balls if you like)
6. Add some salt, turmeric powder and chili powder to the gram flour. Add water gradually and keep mixing with a sppon or wire whisk. Remove lumps if any. The batter should not be too watery or too thick. If lifted by a spatula, it should flow in a ribbon like consistency.
7. Heat some oil in a pan. To check if oil is properly heated, drop some batter in the oil. If the batter immediately turns soild and float on the surface of the oil, the oil is ready. Also make sure that the oil is not too hot. Otherwise, the vadas become dark from the outside before they are actually done from the inside.
8. Now dip each ball in the batter, letting the excess batter drip off and slowly add to the hot oil. Do not overcrowd the pan, else the temperature of the oil reduces which in turn slows down the frying process. Like this, deep fry all the vadas until golden. Remove on a paper towel and drain. Batata Vadas are ready.
9. For Vada Pav, split Pav keeping the base intact & spread garlic chutney or green chutney on the inner surfaces of it. Place the vada in it. Serve hot.
Tip: Instead of adding whole curry leaves, you can grind them along with the ginger- garlic paste to bring out their flavor.
Variation: Substitute 1 tsp udad dal (split black gram) for mustard seeds in the tempering.
Enjoy !!!
Are you ever tried Indian Jalebi !
Jalebi is a hot favourite on any special occasion be it a birthday, wedding or festival. Jalebis though mostly eaten by themselves, can also be soaked in warm milk.
Ingredients:
- 2 cups self raising flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 cup yogurt
- Vegetable/canola/sunflower cooking oil for deep frying
- 1 cup sugar
- Few strands saffron
- 1/4 tsp cardamom powder
- 2 drops orange food colour
- 2 tbsps rose water
Preparation:
- Mix the flour, baking powder and yogurt into a batter and keep aside for 24 hours to ferment.
- Pour batter into a ketchup dispensing bottle.
- To make sugar syrup: Melt the sugar with the rose water and boil to get a one thread consistency. To check for one thread consistency, carefully dip the tip of your index finger into the syrup, touch your finger and thumb together and genly tease apart. If one thread is formed between your finger and thumb the syrup is done.
- Turn off fire, add the saffron strands and cardamom and stir well.
- Heat the oil in a deep wok-like dish. To test for the right temperature, drop a small amount of batter into the oil. If it sizzles and rises to the top of the oil, the oil is hot enough. Keep the flame on medium at all times to ensure all round cooking of the jalebis.
- Now hold the ketchup dispenser over the hot oil and squeeze the batter into the oil into a wiggly, randomly coiled circle. Squeeze out several at a time.
- Fry till light golden and then remove and put directly into the sugar syrup.
- Allow to soak for 2-3 minutes and then remove.
- Serve warm.
Enjoy !!!!!!!!!
Restaurant
A restaurant prepares and serves food, drink and dessert to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in appearance and offerings, including a wide variety of the main chef's cuisines and service models.
While inns and taverns were known from antiquity, these were establishments aimed at travelers, and in general locals would rarely eat there. Modern restaurants are dedicated to the serving of food, where specific dishes are ordered by guests and are prepared to their request. The modern restaurant originated in 18th century France, although precursors can be traced back to Roman times.
A restaurant owner is called a restaurateur both words derive from the French verb restaurer, meaning "to restore". Professional artisans of cooking are called chefs, while preparation staff and line cooks prepare food items in a more systematic and less artistic fashion.
History
In Ancient Rome, thermopolia (singular thermopolium) were small restaurant-bars which offered food and drinks to the customer. A typical thermopolium had L-shaped counters into which large storage vessels were sunk, which would contain either hot or cold food. They are linked to the absence of kitchens in many dwellings and the ease with which people could purchase prepared foods. Besides, eating out was also considered an important aspect of socialising.
In Pompeii, 158 thermopolia with a service counter have been identified across the whole town area. They were concentrated along the main axes of the town and the public spaces where they were frequented by the locals.
Food catering establishments which may be described as restaurants were known since the 11th century in Kaifeng, China's northern capital during the first half of the Song Dynasty (960–1279). With a population of over 1,000,000 people, a culture of hospitality and a paper currency, Kaifeng was ripe for the development of restaurants. Probably growing out of the tea houses and taverns that catered to travellers, Kaifeng's restaurants blossomed into an industry catering to locals as well as people from other regions of China. Stephen H. West argues that there is a direct correlation between the growth of the restaurant businesses and institutions of theatrical stage drama, gambling and prostitution which served the burgeoning merchant middle class during the Song Dynasty.
Restaurants catered to different styles of cuisine, price brackets, and religious requirements. Even within a single restaurant much choice was available, and people ordered the entree they wanted from written menus. An account from 1275 writes of Hangzhou, the capital city for the last half of the dynasty:
"The people of Hangzhou
The restaurants in Hangzhou also catered to many northern Chinese who had fled south from Kaifeng during the Jurchen invasion of the 1120s, while it is also known that many restaurants were run by families formerly from Kaifeng.
Types of restaurants
Restaurants range from unpretentious lunching or dining places catering to people working nearby, with simple food served in simple settings at low prices, to expensive establishments serving refined food and wines in a formal setting. In the former case, customers usually wear casualclothing. In the latter case, depending on culture and local traditions, customers might wear semi-casual, semi-formal, or even in rare cases formal wear.
Typically, customers sit at tables, their orders are taken by a waiter, who brings the food when it is ready, and the customers pay the bill before leaving. In finer restaurants there will be a host or hostess or even a maître d'hôtel to welcome customers and to seat them. Other staff waiting on customers include busboys and sommeliers.
Restaurants often specialize in certain types of food or present a certain unifying, and often entertaining, theme. For example, there are seafood restaurants, vegetarian restaurants or ethnicrestaurants. Generally speaking, restaurants selling food characteristic of the local culture are simply called restaurants, while restaurants selling food of foreign cultural origin are called accordingly,
Restaurant regulations
Depending on local customs and the establishment, restaurants may or may not serve alcohol. Restaurants are often prohibited from sellingalcohol without a meal by alcohol sale laws; such sale is considered to be activity for bars, which are meant to have more severe restrictions. Some restaurants are licensed to serve alcohol ("fully licensed"), and/or permit customers to "bring your own" alcohol (BYO /BYOB) In some places restaurant licenses may restrict service to beer, or wine and beer.
Restaurant guides
Restaurant guides review restaurants, often ranking them or providing information for consumer decisions (type of food, handicap accessibility, facilities, etc.). In 12th century Hangzhou (mentioned above as the location of the first restaurant), signs could often be found posted in the city square listing the restaurants in the area and local customer's opinions of the quality of their food. This was an occasion for bribery and even violence. One of the most famous contemporary guides, in Western Europe, is the Michelin series of guides which accord from 1 to 3stars to restaurants they perceive to be of high culinary merit. Restaurants with stars in the Michelin guide are formal, expensive establishments; in general the more stars awarded, the higher the prices. The main competitor to the Michelin guide in Europe is the guidebook series published by Gault Millau. Unlike the Michelin guide which takes the restaurant décor and service into consideration with its rating, Gault Millau only judges the quality of the food. Its ratings are on a scale of 1 to 20, with 20 being the highest.
In the United States, the Forbes Travel Guide (previously the Mobil travel guides) and the AAA rate restaurants on a similar 1 to 5 star (Forbes) or diamond (AAA) scale. Three, four, and five star/diamond ratings are roughly equivalent to the Michelin one, two, and three star ratings while one and two star ratings typically indicate more casual places to eat. In 2005, Michelin released a New York City guide, its first for the United States. The popularZagat Survey compiles individuals' comments about restaurants but does not pass an "official" critical assessment. In the United States Gault Millau is published as the Gayot guide, after founder Andre Gayot. Its restaurant ratings use the same 20 point system, and are all published online.
The Good Food Guide, published by the Fairfax Newspaper Group in Australia, is the Australian guide listing the best places to eat. Chefs Hats are awarded for outstanding restaurants and range from one hat through three hats. The Good Food Guide also incorporates guides to bars, cafes and providers. The Good Restaurant Guide is another Australian restaurant guide that has reviews on the restaurants as experienced by the public and provides information on locations and contact details. Any member of the public can submit a review.
Nearly all major American newspapers employ food critics and publish online dining guides for the cities they serve. A few papers maintain a reputation for thorough and thoughtful review of restaurants to the standard of the good published guides, but others provide more of a listings service.
More recently Internet sites have started up that publish both food critic reviews and popular reviews by the general public. Their major competition comes from bloggers, particularly publishers of food blogs, also called foodies. These writers and publishers represent the common dining aficionado rather than the gourmet, and thus do not provide "official" reviews, but nonetheless are capable of garnering large, loyal followings.
Economics
United States
As of 2006, there are approximately 215,000 full-service restaurants in the United States, accounting for $298 billion, and approximately 250,000 limited-service (fast food) restaurants, accounting for $260 billion.One study of new restaurants in Cleveland, Ohio found that 1 in 4 changed ownership or went out of business after one year, and 6 out of 10 did so after three years. (Not all changes in ownership are indicative of financial failure.)[8] The three-year failure rate for franchises was nearly the same.
Canada
There are 86,915 commercial foodservice units in Canada, or 26.4 units per 10,000 Canadians. By segment, there are:
§ 38,797 full-service restaurants
§ 34,629 limited-service restaurants
§ 741 contract and social caterers
§ 6,749 drinking places
Fully 63% of restaurants in Canada are independent brands. Chain restaurants account for the remaining 37%, and many of these are locally owned and operated franchises.
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