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Canvas Food Review

People have given me mixed reviews about Canvas so I thought that I'd go and check it out for myself to know what it was all about.

Now I don't want to be a bore and give you exact details about every single dish that we ordered with a full assessment so I'm going to keep it short and simple.

Basic Verdict: I'd probably go there again to have a dinner with friends before a night of partying. I'd prefer to book a 10:30 table and then hang out at Canvas, depending of whether they have a good DJ or not. I would not really go for an intimate dinner.

Let's Start with the food: We had Pesto paneer (which sounded strange) and teriyaki chicken both of which were really yummy so full points for that. The rest of the dishes ordered included sea bass, chicken, tenderloin all of which were above average but nothing that popped out as being absolutely exceptional.

The Beverages: I was quite surprised that the cocktails that they made were not upto the mark. So I’d say, stick to the basics and you’ll be safe.

The Service: we have mixed signals from the servers. We had one server who absolutely didn’t understand what we were trying to say, and then just as all hope was dying we had another server taking over who was pretty brilliant. He was a bit too pushy with his suggestions but that sometimes comes with the turf.

The Atmosphere: Here’s where I really was intrigued. I’ve seen this kind of concept in Paris and New York where you can have a really high end restaurant which converts into a nightclub after a certain point. They tried to give it a balanced look of opulence and chic but somehow didn’t exactly get it bang on. I do love the atmosphere when the lights go out and the huge frames that are hanging from the ceiling come to life with the DJ spinning it out.

So I guess it’s up to you to take your call on whether to get to Canvas or not, if you do and have an opinion, tell me how it was!! J

Mushrooms Manchurian

This totally could be one of the quickest and easiest recipe that you will ever make in your life.

It's tasty, simple and really impressive as a side dish when cooking Chinese or even a nice veg accompaniment when having your regular meal

Non vegetarians can use boneless chicken if you wish, but honestly I really prefer this recipe with mushrooms.

Ingredients

400gm mushrooms (400 gm boneless chicken)

500ml stock - veg or chicken (you could make this with the ready made cubes)

1 tbsp ginger garlic paste

1/2 tsp green chilly paste

1 tbsp oil

1/2 bunch coriander chopped

2 tbsp cornflour

2 tbsp soy sauce

Method

1) Clean and cut mushrooms into halves or quarters depending on their size

2) Take out 1/2 cup of stock and mix the cornflour into it and keep aside

3) Take oil in a pan, saute the ginger garlic paste, add the green chilly paste and saute for a minute

4) Add the stock and soy sauce and mix together and bring to a boil

5) Add the cornflour mix and thicken the gravy

6) Add the mushrooms/ Chicken and let it cook fully (for mushrooms it takes like 5 minutes and they will shrink and lose water a lot)

7) Check whether the salt is ok and if not add some salt to this now and switch off the flame

8) add all the chopped coriander and give it a stir and serve hot

Tastes Delish!!!

Easiest Caramel Custard

Hello everyone! This post is especially for Lavu and Arjun who really wanted to know the recipe and secret behind this delicious caramel custard.

This recipe is from Rummana Mami and is absolutely delicious! Thanks Mami! :)

So the ingredients are really basic but the important part in this is that you have to have a steel bowl at home with a flat base which will be a decent size, a pressure cooker that is pretty large in which this bowl will fit and a steel ring to put at the bottom of the pressure cooker which will hold the custard bowl in place. You will also need a cover that fits both into the pressure cooker and on top of the bowl and a weight that will hold it all in place.

you will need (for around 8 - 10 people) normally around four 300 ml bowls get filled with the custard

1 litre milk (I prefer getting a nice full fat milk D'lecta is great for this)

6 eggs

1 can condensed milk

2 tablespoons for each bowl for the caramel on top (if you absolutely love the caramel on top put one more tbsp but nothing more)

keep around 1/2 cup milk aside, add all the rest of the ingredients, pour the milk into the empty condensed milk container to take out all the excess rich goodness of the condensed milk and pour that also into the mixture. Whizz it all up either with a hand blender or a whisk and you're done!

Now comes the hard part -well it's not really difficult but definitely harder than just mixing ingredients up in a bowl!!

If your bowls can be put on the gas directly, add the 2 tbsp of sugar into each of the bowls and put it on a medium flame to let it melt and caramelize until it becomes golden brown. Alternatively, caramelize like 5 or 6 tbsp sugar in a saucepan and pour into the bowls.

Wait for a minute or two for the sugar to cool and for it to get slightly hard and gently pour the custard mixture into the bowls

Pour water enough to cover the ring that has been placed in your pressure cooker so that the water is always touching the bottom of the custard bowl.

Slowly lower the custard bowl onto the ring into the pressure cooker

Put the lid onto it and put the weight on top of it to set it in place.

Close the pressure cooker and cook the custard for 20 minutes or 3 whistles on a medium to low flame.

You're absolutely ready to go, you can overturn this custard on a beautiful plate and serve.

This is truly an absolutel treat to have for one and all and once you have the right sized bowls and equipment it's really easy.

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