Baked Potatoes with "Masala" Sour Cream

I've been making these great multipurpose dips which are really good and can go with carrots and cucumbers, chips, with breadsticks and Lavash so I thought I would change it around a little bit and put some nice spices into the sour cream, pair it with baked potatoes to mix it up a little bit

I don't have a specific recipe and it changes every time as and when my mood fancies it so please bear with me when I don't put specifics in the ingredients list and also put an optional next to some ingredients

Ingredients

4 Large Potatoes washed - wrap these in foil, put your oven on 180 Degres Celcius and stick them in for around 20 minutes or until a fork can be easily pricked into them

Cut them into half and scoop out a bit of the middle portion (not too much) so that you can leave room for the yummy sour cream. Also my recommendation is - don't try and put all the herbs in it gets a bit much. Try spring onion and mint, dill and chives, coriander and mint where you use one or two or maximum three herbs

For the Sour Cream:

200 gm Sour cream

250 gms Yoghurt hung in a muslin cloth for 4 - 6 hours

Chives (dried or fresh)

Dill (dried or fresh)

Spring onions chopped fine

Coriander chopped fine

Mint leaves chopped fine

1 clove of Garlice grated (optional)

Cheese (optional - can also go on top as a garnish) (I like to use cream cheese or even grated cheddar does the trick)

Sweet Corn boiled

Green Chillie paste (1/4 tsp or alternatively 1 green chillie chopped or as per your taste)

Salt, Pepper and Sugar to taste (this should be slightly saltier as it will balance out the Potatoes that have not been salted)

Mix all together except salt and pepper and sugar. Taste and then add the condiments as per individual tastes

Gloop onto the potatoes, grate cheese on top (cheddar), garnish with herbs and paprika powder

San Churros - review

So I was dying to check the new chocolateria around town and really was super excited about going to San Churros. Fortunately it did not disappoint on many levels and I came out one happy customer!

The Atmosphere:

Great Great Great - Love it! from the lovely wooden feel, to the Spanish look and feel, to the live churros counter and the beautiful coffee machine it was all working for me. I love the big screens which could not only show matches and cricket but it had tastefully done beautifully taken pictures selling and promoting their products. I love the chandeliers as well as the colour scheme.

The Service:

Well this I would say was a bone of contention for me. The server forgot us, forgot our order and was roaming around with our order all over the top floor lost until we approached him after he went down and came back for the third time as to whether this would be our order. Otherwise, if you order at the counter, staff is friendly and great.

The Food:

The Churros do not disappoint, the hot and fresh and crispiness accompanied by the melting molten beautiful chocolate sauce are a combination made in heaven. I was super impressed by the quality of chocolate and absolutely loved the hot chocolate here as well. I liked the idea of having a sort of "tasting platter" with all their different kinds of products and have definitely enjoyed trying all the different things on the menu. However, I didn't really love the brownie and the chocolate pretzels had gone soft and I wasn't overtly taken in by the non chocolate items on the menu either.

Overall:

Overall I loved the atmosphere, the presentation and most of all the chocolate!!

Please do go Visit San Churros when you are in the neighbourhood!

Address: Shop No. 11, Silver Pearl, Waterfield Road, Bandra West, Mumbai

Coming soon - How to make your very own Churros at home!

Perfect Sunday Brunch Recipes - Khao Suey

So I'm starting this series with things that you can easily make at home for lazy Sunday brunches and lunches just with the family or when inviting friends over.

Khao Suey seems like a lot of work - what with so many condiments it just seems like a pain to do. But the good news is that you can prepare a lot of these things in advance. The chicken or vegetable stock, the boiled eggs or even the Khao Suey curry itself can be made a day or two in advance.

Why Khao Suey is ideal is because it is like a community activity, you don't have to make anything else along with it, and you can have fun and conversation with this, everyone has to make it themselves so the serving aspect is easier for you. You can cook both rice and noodles so that the more traditional people who don't think meals are complete without rice are also satisfied.

You need a whole bunch of Ingredients for the Khao Suey and I would suggest that for this dish, don't compromise on things, especially the celery as it really lends great flavours to the dish. I've adapted this recipe from my mom's famous Khao Suey she makes for us on weekends with so much love and also from a recipe that I had seen online once the source of which unfortunately I cannot find (:( ). My mom also has an awesome secret recipe for this delicious chilli sauce which I also will share the recipe of. This sauce, if you don't put any water in, stays for around a month in your refrigerator and is great for Chinese dishes as well.

Ingredients: for 8 - 10 people (Who will only have Khao Suey)

1 kg boneless chicken (Babycorn, mushrooms, pak choi and bamboo shoots for Vegetarians - 150 gm of each)

4 onions

10 cloves of garlic

2 inches ginger

1½ tsp turmeric powder

3 tsp red chilli powder

40g besan (gram flour)

½ litre coconut milk

2 tbsp fish sauce (soya sauce for vegetarians)

Salt to taste

2 tbsp oil

For the stock:

½kg chicken bones (vegetarians please skip this ingredient!)

4 stalks celery, chopped

2 carrots, chopped

2 onions, quartered

1 inch ginger

For the accompaniments:

4 boiled rice noodles (or egg noodles) packets. Once you boil them, strain out the water. Take a large wok, put some oil, splutter 8 - 10 curry leaves and 1 teaspoon of Mustard seeds and salt to taste. Add the noodles to this and carefully mix together so as not to break the noodles and keep aside.

You can also have boiled rice with a jeera "tadka" or Jeera Rice along with/instead of the noodles

6 tbsp each of fried garlic slivers, chopped and fried onion, chopped spring onion, chopped celery, coriander, lime wedges, red chilli flakes (can take from your take away pizza leftovers) and chopped hard-boiled egg.

(I use my mother's chilli sauce instead of the chilli flakes here - 6 cloves of garlic, 4 Kashmiri Mirchis, 2 tbsp vinegar and a good dash of salt all whizzed together to make a chutney like consistency)

Method:

For the stock: To make a stock from the chicken bones (just skip the bones if you're vegetarian, put the rest into the water and follow the same method) add them to 1 litre water, with the onion, ginger, celery and carrot. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 1 hour 30 minutes, till the liquid is reduced to half. Take out the chicken bones and keep aside. take the rest of the liquid and whizz it up together to form a thick soup.

For the Khao Suey Curry: Put the onion, ginger and garlic in a food processor to make a paste. Add half the paste to the boneless chicken pieces. Add turmeric and red chilli powder and keep aside for a good hour to marinate. Fry the remaining onion, garlic and ginger paste in a pan until brownish. Add the marinated chicken pieces. Cook until the chicken is fully cooked (around 10 mins)

Add most of the stock and simmer for 30 minutes. Add the coconut milk and let it simmer. Add fish sauce and salt to taste. Mix the besan with the rest of the stock to make a smooth paste. Add it slowly to the curry while stirring continuously so that no lumps are formed. This will thicken the sauce.

Serve the curry in a huge bowl with a large ladle for splashing the sauce all over the noodles. Take similar looking bowl sets and put all the condiments in each bowl so that it looks uniform and attractive and you are ready to start your lazy Sunday brunch!