It's Eid and (I know it's grosse but) it's Mutton time!

So guys it's Eid and I do have a special dish that is made with Mutton in celebration of this wonderful festival and is a typically Bohri Muslim dish that we make and so I'd love to share it with you. Also, please note that this is a celebration and festival dish so you CANNOT count the calories for this one.

Ingredients

1kg mutton

Oil for frying

2 medium sized potatoes cut in quarters

2 large onions – sliced and fried crispy brown (or 4 - 5 small ones) this is called birista

1 ¼ heaped teaspoon of ginger garlic paste

¾ tsp green chillies paste

1 tsp fenugreek (methi) seeds

1 tsp cumin (jeera)

2 - 3 Tej patta or Bay leaf

2 Elaichi or Cardamom pods broken roughly by hand

4 lavang or cloves

4 miris or whole pepper seeds

1-2 small sticks of cinnamon (dalchini)

¼ tsp Turmeric powder

1 tsp Corriander powder

1 tsp cumin powder

1 tsp red chili powder

Salt to taste

2 tomatoes chopped finely

100g Cashews ground to a fine paste

150g Yoghurt

2 hard boiled eggs (optional) for decoration

Fresh coriander and mint leaves chopped for garnish

Method

Wash cut and clean the mutton pieces and marinate in Ginger, Garlic and chili paste for a few hours (preferably overnight)

Heat oil in the lower half of a large pressure cooker and keep on high flame

Cut onions in half and slice.

Fry the onions until they are brown and crispy, drain oil and remove onto sheets of tissue to cool.

Next make quarters of the potatoes and fry in the same oil until golden brown (around 3 - 5 minutes)

Remove and keep aside for later

Take out oil in excess of 1/2 a cup and put on high flame to heat

Add fenugreek seeds seeds, jeera, Bay leaf, cardamom pods, cloves, whole peppers and cinnamon to the oil and saute quickly over the high flame for around 1 minute

Add turmeric powder, cumin and corriander powder, red chili powder and salt

Add the Mutton to this aromatic hot and spicy mixture and let it saute for a bit until it changes colour.

Cut 2- 3 tomatoes finely and add to this mixture

Add just enough hot water to cover the mutton and put in a pressure cooker to cook. let the flame be high for the first whistle and then put it on a low flame. remove lid after the third whistle to check if the meat has been cooked. This can be done by checking the softness and colour of the meat and when done transfer all ingredients to a large vessel for the rest of the cooking process.

please do not yet put the pressure cooker to wash as it comes in use slightly later.

Put on a slow flame and allow the mutton to simmer whilst you prepare the next procedure

In the same pressure cooker add a teaspoon of oil and heat and saute the cashewnut paste until the oil separates and add to the mutton gravy

In a mixie put the birista and the yoghurt and whizz until a smooth paste is formed

Add this to the mutton and stir continuously.

never completely cover and keep the mutton dish when it is boiling with the yogurt as there are chances that it might curdle.

There finally you're dish is done. It isn't as hard as it looks on the recipe and besides, most Indian households have all the above ingredients and spices mostly so all you need to do is prepare all the ingredients in advance and then it's just a matter of putting them in one after the other.

Just garnish it with chopped mint and coriander leaves and the hard boiled eggs quartered lengthwise and serve!

This dish is ideally eaten with Naan. In Bandra you can get naans at Hersh Bakery.

Enjoy!

The New Golden Dragon and New Wasabi

Peace and blessings to all those who had their lives taken away fro them on this ill-fated day. We hope that we will always remember the sacrifice that was given by so many to save lives when the terrorists attacked. My heart goes out to all those who have lost loved ones today and I do hope that we can strive to work towards a better future.

On the same note, the Golden Dragon is open as of last night and in solidarity it was fully booked for lunch last night as well as this lunch. Wasabi however is scheduled to open on the 2nd of December or so. Apparently no such good news yet from either Tiffin or Kandahar but I will keep you posted.

The new décor is looking really bright and open and gives a luxurious feeling with gold and cream with a touch of brown being the theme. You can actually see into the whole restaurant as there are lovely large glass panels with gold work on them so you should really go and check it out.

I will keep you posted on more updates...

One of my favourite blogs

Hey guys this is just a shout out to you to let you know that a very dear friend called Marianna Farag has a fabulous amazing Blog called swirl and scramble. Do check it out especially since she does her own photography for all the food items - I love it!

Her latest blog about Apple muffins are such a treat!

do check her out on : http://swirlandscramble.blogspot.com/

Recipe - Guilt Free Sticky Toffee Pudding

Guys this recipe is dedicated to my sister Sarah who loves this dessert. Now we can have it without feeling so very guilty about it! I got this recipe from the femina which has some other interesting recipes as well of fruits and desserts. Do let me know if you want more recipes such as this one!

Prep Time: 30 Minutes

Cooking time 0 1 hour

Serves - Four

Ingredients -

175 g Pitted Dates

175ml water

150 ml Maple Syrup plus more to serve

1 tbsp vanilla extract

2 eggs, separated

85 g self-raising flour

8 pcs whole Walnuts or Pecan Nuts to garnish

4 scoops vanilla ice cream (to serve with) alternatively you could use yoghurt

You will also need - 4, 200ml cupcake moulds, A deep over proof dish, butter to grease moulds, Foil Paper & a toothpick

Method

Heat Over to 180 Degree C

Put the dates and 175ml water in a pan doe 5 minutes

Take off the heat and add 120ml maple syrup and vanilla extract and blend in a food processor till smooth

Transfer to a bowl

Mix in egg yolks and then the flour

In another bowl, whisk egg whites till stiff

Fold into the date mix carefully

Put the remaining syrup into greased moulds and add the date mixture to this.

Cover tightly with a foil and stand in an overproof dish

Pour in hot water to come halfway to the mould's sides

Cook for an hour until a skewer put into the centre comes out clean

Uncover, run a knife around the edges and invert onto plates.

Drizzle over some maple syrup and place the Pecan nuts/walnuts on top of the pudding

serve with the scoop of vanilla Ice cream or alternatively you could serve it with a dollop of sweetened Yoghut!

Parsley

So this is a request from a friend for more details on how we can use parsley which led me to know more and understand this.

WH foods (www.WHfoods.com) is a super website to go on when researching about foods. they have the whole lowdown on Parsley and it's health benefits too!

In fact, according to WH foods, Parsley is the most popular garnish herb but i think that's a very biased viewpoint as they have underestimated the role of CORRIANDER in Indian cooking!!!

Tips for Preparing Parsley:

Fresh parsley should be washed right before using since it is highly fragile. The best way to clean it is just like you would spinach. Place it in a bowl of cold water and swish it around with your hands. This will allow any sand or dirt to dislodge. Remove the leaves from the water, empty the bowl, refill it with clean water and repeat this process until no dirt remains in the water.

Since it has a stronger flavor than the curly variety, Italian flat leaf parsley holds up better to cooking and therefore is usually the type preferred for hot dishes. It should be added towards the end of the cooking process so that it can best retain its taste, color and nutritional value.

If you are making a light colored sauce, use the stems from this variety as opposed to the leaves, so the sauce will take on the flavor of parsley but will not be imparted with its green color.

A Few Quick Serving Ideas:

Add parsley to pesto sauce to add more texture to its green color.

Combine chopped parsley, garlic and lemon zest, and use it as a rub for chicken, lamb and beef.

Chopped parsley can be sprinkled on a host of different recipes, including salads, vegetable sautés and grilled fish.

My favourite thing to do for parsley is to make a tabouleh with it withfresh mint. Other easy recipes with Parsley are mentioned below.

Woodside Inn - Restaurant Review

Well I do have a lot of mixed feelings about Woodside Inn actually. I don't know really whether I really like it or not. There is nothing worse than bad service and incompetent waiters to really put you off a meal. Anyhow, so I actually was a regular at Woodside before this disaster happened and I haven't been back ever since. Sarah (my sister) seems to think that it is still a perfectly great place but I still have problems with forgiveness for Woodside!

Ok, so let's start with the (trying to be) unbiased review and then I will let you be the better judge

Food and Beverages

The food I would say is decent value for money and they do have some star dishes like their goat cheese bruschetta and their four cheese pizza. Also, their rawas is excellent and used to be a favourite of mine. However, their choice of dishes is minimal, their burger was below expectations and their sandwiches were dismal to say the least. I wouldn't rate their salads very highly either and are quite boring in terms of innovation and taste and one gets the feeling that they have just put ingredients that sound exciting together without thinking about whether they go together or not.

Their drinks though are well priced and pretty good. they make a mean mohito and are affordable for an after work drink or a relaxed evening before going out partying. In terms of wines, most of their wines are out of stock and the list is minimal but you do get the basics if that's what you want. This place comes alive on most Friday evenings and is a great hangout for a good homely meal and well priced drinks.

Overall food rating -3/10

Overall Beverage rating- 6/10

Service & Ambiance

I would have to say that the service varies. They have good and bad days. I highly recommend Dion who is very friendly and efficient. Other than that I have experienced some real numb skulls at Woodside who don't know the s of service! The ambience is warm, friendly and cozy. It makes one feel like you're coming to an quaint little house with funky pictures of Mumbai with its nice colours and wooden look (it is after all "wood" side inn haha)

Overall service - 1/10

Overall Atmosphere - 6/10

The Verdict

Overall I would recommend it for drinks and snacks after work and a pre party watering hole. Other than that, if you want to have a leisurely lunch (the guys don't really understand the concept of BRING IT QUICK/FAST/RIGHT AWAY) have it at your own risk.

Overall Rating - 4/10

Contact Details

www.woodsideinn.in

Wodehouse Road
Opposite Regal Cinema,
Colaba,
Mumbai - 400039
Tel: 91-22-22875752
woodsideinn@gmail.com

The Incident

So this is what happened at Woodside. So we wre sitting down and haivng our wonderful Rawas lunch when I ate a vegetable which they have cooked but was completely bitter and had gone bad. I threw it out at once and told the server about the problem. The server looked at me and takes the plate without an apology. The best part comes now - The server comes back and tells me that his chef has said that the dish is perfectly fine!! So I asked him whether he had thought that I was lying to try and get a free meal. The dude just stares at me, walks off and returns with the bill with the dish of course billed fully though we had not even eaten half the dish!! So I am never to return to Woodside, due to bad service recovery and really dumb waiters. Plus, I got bored of only having the rawas and having no other dishes to order.

Fun (Wine Review)

Champagne -

Why I have chosen to write about champagne this week is because sparkling wines that originate from the region in France of Champagne are the only ones that have the “right” to be called champagne. All others can only be termed as sparkling wines.

One of the main elements of champagne is the yeast that is used in it that will make the bubbles. When you first get the champagne in your hand, you must smell it to see the fineness and quality of its yeast to determine how good the champagne is. Champagnes are made from 3 grapes and surprisingly, two grapes of the three are red grapes (Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier) and one is white (Chardonnay).

The History of champagne goes as such: a monk named Dom Pérignon was making wine for his colleagues when, unbeknownst to him, he failed to complete the fermentation before bottling and corking the wine. During the cold winter months the fermentation remained dormant, but when spring arrived the contents of the sealed bottles began to warm and fermentation resumed producing carbon dioxide that was trapped in the bottle. Later that spring Dom noticed that bottles of wine in the cellar were exploding, so he opened one that was intact and drank, declaring "Come quickly! I'm drinking stars!" Thus, Champagne was born and named after the region where it was discovered.

The French love to have a small and light drink before starting their meals called an aperitif. Here are two very popular champagne aperitifs that you could use

Bellini

1 parts Peach Schnapps

3 parts Champagne (or Sparkling wine)

Combine in champagne flutes, serve.

Kir Royale

- Cassis (1-2 tablespoons or 15-30 ml) (sweet blackcurrant flavored liqueur)

- Champagne (about 6 ounces or 150 ml)

- Flute or Champagne Glass

· Pour the Cassis into the wine glass

· Add the Champagne

· Serve

F3 Fun Food Fact

The French Exess and it's significance in Wedding Cakes -

Now i'm going to take you all back to Ancient Rome to the origins of the Wedding Cake and how a French Chef played a pivotal role in how our wedding cakes look today!

In Ancient Rome, when a couple was getting married, they would bake a cake made of wheat or barley and break it over the bride's head as a symbol of her fertility. soon it became a tradition to pile up several small cakes, one on top of the other, as high as they could, and the bride and groom would kiss over the tower and try not to knock it down. If they were successful, it meant a lifetime of prosperity.

In the 1660s, during the reign of King Charles II, a French chef was visiting London and observed the cake piling ceremony. Appalled at the haphazard manner in which the British stacked baked goods, often to have them tumble, he conceived the idea of transforming the mountain of bland biscuits into an iced, multi-tiered cake sensation.

British papers of the day are supposed to have deplored the French excess, but before the close of the century, British bakers were offering the very same magnificent creations and from there started the beginning of the wedding cake we see today!!!

Food - The Zodiac Grill

Interestingly enough, French cuisine, though world famous doesn’t have too many takers in Bombay. People always think of French cuisine as very complicated and frou frou. However, I think (and know) the contrary. French cuisine to me is all about the ingredients and the quality of ingredients. If you take a nice piece of stake, for instance – what differentiates a steak from THE STEAK? It’s the quality of ingredients! What makes a baguette so special? It is more based on the quality of ingredients and the method of cooking once again! I think you get the idea... that more than heavy sauces and fanciful preparations actually French food is quite wholesome and wonderful to prepare. This week I had to pick one of our finest restaurants in India the Zodiac Grill for this week’s French restaurant review as it is the most iconic French restaurant in the country today.

Food & Beverages

Well I must say that if you are a true lover of sea food (for the non vegetarians of course) this is the perfect spot for you. I’ve been there more than once, had the tasting menu as well as ordered a la carte and to be honest I wasn’t bowled over. The presentation and look of the food was delightful so was the cutlery, crockery and glassware and some of the dishes did taste good, but my expectations were much higher for this calibre of haute cuisine than what was delivered. The amuse bouche (a bite sized starter) at the beginning of the meal is always innovative and delectable.

Food Rating - 9/10

Beverages rating - 10/10

Service

The Service is impeccable as expected. The servers are really professional, courteous and friendly yet not overbearing! Also, I must add that the first time I went to Zodiac Grill, one of the dishes was served on a chipped plate… and that is definitely not acceptable!! However, the next time I dined there I noticed that they have changed their crockery and as seen above it looks fabulous!

Service Rating - 9/10

Ambience

I did really enjoy the intimate seating on the sides but I absolutely abhor the round seating in the middle. If there are two tables seated next to each other it’s too close for comfort for me for a fine dining setting. Otherwise I love the ceiling, the pianist and the overall plush French settings.

Ambience rating - 6/10

Final Verdict: Overall, a must go if you need to impress someone when on a date or a business meeting. The intimate surroundings provide room for great conversation and could have many a business deal inked here. The food is more a conversation piece itself than a wholesome comfortable meal but I do think it is done creatively keeping both taste and presentation in mind.

French Cuisine

Hello and Welcome once again to F Factor. I hope that you did like the first mailer and that I get lots of good and positive feedback from you with regards to things that would interest you and any thoughts or ideas are more than welcome!

My mum has given me the brilliant suggestion of using themes for my mailers and so in dedication to her, this week’s mood, theme and flavour is France! (not only is it one of my favourite countries and cuisines, the most important factor in choosing France was that it starts with the letter F! haha)

Oreo Cheesecake Recipe

18 Oreos, crushed in blender
1/4 cup melted butter
24 oz cream cheese, softened
1 (14 oz) can condensed sweet milk
3 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla

Mix Oreos and butter and press in a greased 9 inch spring-form pan.

In a large bowl, cream remaining ingredients until well blended. Pour into spring-form pan.

Break up 8 Oreos and drop on top of the batter. Bake 45-60 minutes at 300 degrees F. Don't over-bake your cheesecakes or they will crack on top.


Cool to room temperature and chill in refrigerator before removing pan.
source:pastrywiz.com

Recipe of the week: Linguine with cherry tomatoes and Goat’s Cheese

Prep Time: 10 mins
Serves: 2
Ingredients:
200g Linguine Pasta (can use fettucine, spaghetti or penne)
250g Cherry tomatoes halved
50g green olives
1tbsp capers rinsed
20g basil roughly chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
50g Soft Goat’s cheese
1 tbsp olive oil
Method
cook the Pasta in boiling salted water (the Italians say this water should be as salty as the sea!) till al dente
tip the tomatoes, capers and basil in a bowl and season with salt and pepper
tip the pasta into the bowl, add the olive oil and toss to combine
Add the goat’s cheese in blobs toss once and serve.

F3 Fun Food Fact

Wine and Cheese – the Truth Revealed

Well this is a little known fact but wine and cheese do NOT actually go well together! According to US Research, nothing can kill the flavours of a good wine more effectively than a platter of mature cheese. The worst match for red wines is a blue cheese such as Stilton, Roquefort or Gorgonzola. This is because both have strong and contradicting tastes that cancel each other out. The protein in the cheese coats the palette of the mouth and dulls the taste of the wine.

However, we do have some good news here. The following is a rough guide for good wine and cheese pairings if one must have a wine and cheese event or evening –

Cheese	Matching Wines
Boursin	Gewürztraminer
Camembert	Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc
Cheddar	Chardonnay, Champagne
Chèvre (Goat's Cheese)	Champagne, Gewürztraminer
Edam	Riesling
Emmenthal	Beaujolais (over here the subtle sweetness of the cheese is matched very well with the fruity red wine tones
Mozzarella	Beaujolais, Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc
Gruyere	Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc
Parmesan	Chardonnay
Blue Cheese	Port Wine, Sauternes

My Suggestion – Get a few bottles of chardonnay when having friends over on a wine and cheese evening as it’s a light sunny and cheerful wine and will compliment your cheese beautifully! J

Food– Wich Latte

Since it was my first mailer I thought I would start with family and wanted to start with the fun and friendly Wich Latte as my first restaurant review (don’t mind the F’s; it is F Factor after all!!!). This spunky Yellow and Blue café has made its mark on the young hip Mumbai crowd by its fresh breads unique sandwiches, Scrumptious Bagels and interesting witch mural depicting the restaurant’s witch all over Mumbai.

Food & Beverages

I’ll start with the beverages - having Tang is a great and refreshing choice which I do feel gives a different and homely atmosphere to the place. When it comes to the food I would have to say that it really is a delicious meal every time. The menu has enough variety to feed the not-so-hungry and the calorie conscious as well as give us some of the much needed comfort foods. I personally recommend the Mexican Bagel, Chicken Panini, Viva Chelsea or make the sandwich of your choice without forgetting the curly fries which is an absolute must when you’re at Wich Latte. The Hot Dog with Cheese and Onions makes my mouth water at the thought of it and if you are a non vegetarian it is a must try snack! Their desserts are well thought out in terms of portion size and offering besides being delicious. The baked cheesecakes are to die for and the tiramisu is another very popular option.

Service

The service is casual and homely and one would enjoy the feeling of being cared for at Wich Latte but in a more casual and friendly way. The service is quick and the place is great to catch up with friends over a coffee, dessert or a full meal as well

Ambience

I’ll reiterate the fun, casual and homely atmosphere which is only enhanced by the self service cashier counter, open kitchen, cosy seating, funky colours and popular music in the background. A must see and must go to when in the area. They also do take aways for all those Nariman Point and Colaba office goers.

All in all Wich Latte is ideal for a wholesome, unique and delicious meal.

Food, Fun and Fine Dining, By Fatima!

Greetings my fellow foodies! Thank you for joining me on this never ending food trail and I’m so excited to be starting this with you. I have always had this thirst for knowledge about all things edible and I hope that I do pass on some useful gyaan to you guys along with learning things myself.