Thai Green Curry

Other than being critical about, other people's food, I love to cook. I thought I could post one of my favorite recipes for some friends who were curious.

Thai Green curry

Ingredients:

Poached Chicken 1lb(I feel it stay more tender when added this way towards the end) you can use it raw and cook with the curry which is normally recommended

 Mix of cleaned veggies cut uniformly according to cooking time(broccoli, sugar snap peas, zucchini, thai eggplants that look like peas(in the picture, but totally avoid),  button mushrooms, colored peppers etc.
3 Tbsp Thai curry paste

Paneer (it is fattier than tofu and tasted so much better in this curry)

5/6 Kafir lime leaves

4 Fresh Basil leaves

2 Tbsp Fish sauce

2 Tbsp Jaggery or sugar

2 cans of coconut milk (good amount)

2 Tbsp peanut oil

Salt to taste

Procedure:

Start with oil 2tbs(peanut oil recommended) but does not matter at all. Lightly fry the curry paste in it. Add ½ can coconut milk and kind of fry it along with the curry paste. Stir fry the chicken in it and let it cook with minimal water, kafir lime leaves and salt. When it is half cooked add your veggies, so that everything cooks at the same time. When all is cooked, add basil leaves, fish sauce, jaggery (trust me a good amount is required 2 tbsp, but add little at a time), and the rest of the coconut milk (or more depending on how much u like it, I love coconut milk).  Now the main trick, taste and adjust the seasoning. Proportion of sugar, salt/fish sauce is critical. I normally have to taste it 8 times before I rest my spoon. And last but not the least you cud squeeze a lemon. 

Enjoy with steamed rice!

Yoko's sizzlers, Dhole Patil Road Pune - Restaurant Review
Taste: ***** |Abbience: **** |Service: **** |Value For Money: *****|

Yoko being my all time favorite restaurant, for my all time favorite food, I am not sure, I can write an objective review. But, I still try. Growing up in Mumbai, Yoko's sizzlers Santacruz was out favorite joint in college days. On all days that we could afford to, we would be in Yoko's.

I will obviously start with the positives. I always, literally always, take the sizzling chicken in asparagus sauce.  I am a sucker for their sauce. The chicken is always cooked right, brown on the outside and tender and juicy in the middle. My husband swears by mutton in pepper sauce. They have a large selection of sauces and meats, and have something for everybody. If you are looking for anything other than sizzlers, you are in the wrong place. But, if you are a fan of this food and have a good appetite, you will not be disappointed.


Yoko's serves food in humongous portions. Their sizzlers start at Rs.260 to Rs. 350, depending on whether you take vegetarian, chicken, mutton or fish. The meat/paneer portion is almost enough to serve 2 people. There is a generous serving of fries and mixed steamed veggies(to relieve you of the guilt) with ample quantity of their signature sauces. I always order extra sauce on the side and they willingly oblige. 

The ambiance is good, with rustic decor. There is a short wait for the food and hence, you do not get a change to notice the ambiance. Service is quick and waiters are unpretentious. I think it is about time for my next visit.

Marrakesh, Kalyani Nagar Pune, India - Restaurant Review

Taste: ***** | Ambiance: ** |Service: *** |Value For Money: *****|

  

Marrakesh is my recent favorite. For starters, I am a sucker for Middle Eastern Food and juicy meats. Marrakesh always gets these right. We start with Paya soup. I have been accused of choosing restaurants based on whether they serve Paya soup or not. But, here it is great. Pungent, you may say, with a liberal sprinkling of pepper. It opens you sinuses and gives you a peek into how flavorful the rest of your meal will be. I normally follow this with Hummus. Even though it is my favorite starter, I am known to dislike quite some Hummuses. This one is just right. Creamy, full of flavor, served with highly buttered pitas. I think they use home made butter, which adds its own charm. The main dish for us, is always Raan. Raan is a whole leg of lamb, marinated , slow roasted in its own juices for at least 8 hrs. I am not sure if they follow this regimen, but what I know is that the end product is out of this world. It is freshly cooked, juicy, always perfectly seasoned,  slathered with their signature butter, de-boned and served in bite size pieces. This dish is just under INR 500 and so worth the price. It suffices as the main course to 3 average eaters. I have tried their Palak Paneer and Naans. Good but nothing out of this world. The decor is basic and non-pretentious. All in all, a great experience every time we visit.

Bounty (sizzlers and more), Kalyani Nagar Pune - Restaurant Review
Taste: *** |Abbience: * |Service: **** |Value For Money: **|

This is my first blog about a restaurant. Today I ate a meal at Bounty and realised that, I owed it to mankind to make Pune'ites aware of the blunder that Bounty is. I am sorry to start the review on such a negative note, but the emotion is strong and fresh. It is like paying exorbitantly high to eat at a road-side joint. I can not completely blame them, because it was a lapse of judgement on my side. As I set foot in there, I did think it was dingy, loud and full of smoke and flies. There was no pretense. I should have known  :(

We went upstairs and seated ourselves in a 7 feet ceiling place with hardly any room to walk. It was smoky, stuffy and loud, thanks to poor ventilation and bad acoustics. Well I ordered, Steak Satellite and my husband ordered, Chicken in Black pepper sauce. Kids would just share from ours. It was the french fries we ordered that opened our eyes. They were served quickly and seemed sprinkled with some masala, which pleased us. To our dismay it was not masala, it was only the burnt bits from over used oil. We did not recognise it at first, since we had not seen this recently even in the street fried wadas(potato fritters). We ate some left some, thanks to the liberal layer of oil at the bottom. I like even my unhealthy choices to seem healthy. Can you blame me for that !

By now we have moved downstairs looking for a breath of fresh air. Some time was spent playing hide and seek with the flies. And there comes our main dish. The sight and sound of it was exhilarating, only this time the flies attacked us with a vengeance. We started all the fans and guarded our food with our life. But you can never out wit the flies. That is when I developed a new sense of respect for Indian food. It is eaten with one hand only. The other one is for shooing away the flies. But how do you do this while eating steak! My daughter kept insisting that we leave. I care too much for food to leave it in the middle and go. They stepped outside for an ice-cream, while I battled the flies, knife in one hand and fork in the other. Finally, I was done....

Through all this I almost, only almost forgot to notice that the steak was done decently for Indian standards. Medium the way I like it. Sauce was good too. My husband's Chicken was a 6/10 for me. The Black pepper sauce was on the sweeter side. Not what I would expect from a Black pepper sauce. This place has the food, more or less in place and so it banks heavily on the customer's lack of regard for ambience.