Road Trip To Masinagudi

Masinagudi is a very nice place with a backdrop of Nilgiris hills, surrounded by lavish green forest (glad to see so many trees and greenery after a long time, otherwise living in urban concrete forest mostly we see these forests in Discovery/NGC channels only). Google shall be able to provide much more information about history of this hill station, in case if you are getting curious to know more J

We enjoyed the drive till there. For breakfast we had pit stop at Kamat (After Ramnagar). Road condition is good but don’t expect anything like driving on NH7 (Hosur -> Krishnagiri) which is superb. Read More...

Grilled Chicken With Mash Potato And Stirfry Vegetables....

From last couple of weeks my Sunday's are generally getting boring in terms of cooking. It seems that i have reached to the saturation of cooking same food and with same ingredients over and over. Usually i get chicken and cook it with Indian chicken masala and spices.So the flavors are almost same irrespective of how much variation i try in cooking with spices and chicken masala.
Last night i tried a new variation of saute vegetable with minimum oil. It was so yum to eat and my husband also liked it very much. So he asked me to prepare tomorrow's lunch with same saute vegetable and combination of chicken and mash potato. I should thanks to him for giving me a wonderful and new idea for preparing such a yummy dish for this Sunday's lunch.

Ingredient's (To Marinate Chicken )
2 chicken breast
1tsp black pepper seeds
1/2tsp mustard seeds
10 garlic cloves
1/2tsp oregano
1tsp white vinegar
1tbsp lemon juice
3tbsp oil and Salt to taste

Cooking Method

Make a small slit on the chicken breast and set it aside. Mix all the above ingredients in a blender (including 2 1/2tbsp oil and salt) and make a smooth paste. Then apply on the chicken breast and keep it in the fridge for 1hour. Now heat a non stick pan with 1/2tbsp oil, and place the chicken breast and fry to golden brown both the side, with close lid.

Ingredient's (For Mash Potato)

3 boiled potatos
50 gram butter, room temperature
1tsp garlic paste
1/2tbsp dried oregano
3tbsp fresh cream
Salt to taste.

Cooking Method
Mash the boiled potato in a large mixing bowl. Then add the garlic, butter, oregano, fresh cream and salt, mix it well and keep it in the fridge.

Ingredient's (For Stirfry Vegetable)
Half cabbage, 1 large carrot, 5 french beans. (cut in to stripes)
1/2tsp soya sauce, 1/2tsp red chilly sauce
Salt to taste
1/2tsp oil.

Cooking Method
In a wok add oil, when it is hot, add cabbage salt and half of the soya sauce and stirfry in a high flame for 3 to 4 minutes, Then in a same pan add carrot, beans, salt, chilly sauce and left over soya sauce, and stirfry in a high fame for 2 to 3 minutes.

Paneer Bhurji (Paneer Stirfry)

Paneer bhurji is a punjabi vegetable recipe with paneer or cottage cheese crumbled and then cooked with a choice of onions, tomatoes and select masalas. Serve hot with rotis, naans or parathas.  Paneer Bhurjee also makes a great topping for fresh, hot toast!!!

Ingredients:

300 gms fresh paneer (mashed into a crumbly texture)
1 medium onion chopped fine
1 small tomato chopped fine
1 green chilli chopped fine
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp coriander powder
1/4 tsp cumin seeds
2 tbsps oil,  Salt to taste
Chopped fresh coriander to garnish

Cooking Method
Heat the oil in a pan on a medium flame, till hot. Add the cumin seeds and fry till spluttering stops. Add the onions and fry till soft. Now add the green chillies and tomatoes and fry till the tomatoes are pulpy. Add all the powdered spices and mix well. Fry for 2 minutes. Add the paneer. Mix well and cook for 2 more minutes. or till the water get observed. Season with salt. Garnish with the chopped fresh coriander and serve hot with Chapatis or Parathas. 

Mutton & Flat Beans Seeds Curry..

This curry is very near to my heart because in my childhood days this use to be my favourite curry anytime. I use to eat this curry 4 to 5 times in a week and take in my lunch box to school. All my friends use to ask me why your mom don't know to cook any other dish. My mom use to search and get this beans only for me and cook the same curry everyday for me. After a long time i got this flat beans and tried to cook like my mom. It was taste but not that taste like my mom... I still miss all those days terribly.. Anyways here is the recipe of Mutton and flat beans seeds curry :)

Ingredient's
1/2kg mutton, 250gram flatbean seeds, 2 potato's (cut into medium pieces)
1onion, 2tomato's, 4tbsp chopped coriander leafs, 6tbsp coconut paste
1/2tbsp cumin, 2tbsp red chilly powder, 1tbsp turmeric, 1tbsp coriander powder
2tbsp ginger garlic paste
Salt & Oil to taste

Cooking Method
Grind the onion, coriander leafs and cumin to a smooth paste, then grind the tomato's to a smooth paste separately. In a pressure cooker add oil, when it is hot add the onion and coriander paste, fry for 2 minutes, then add all the masala powder, ginger garlic paste and coconut paste, fry for another 2 to 3 minutes, then add the tomato paste and fry till the oil separates, add mutton and salt, mix it well. Close the lid and cook for 2 whistle. Then open the lid and add the flatbean seeds, potato's and a 2 to 3 cup of water and mix it gently and add salt if needed and cook for another 2 whistle(1 in high flame and 1 in low flame).
Serve hot with Plain Rice.

Innovative Film City...

Quick getaway from hectic REAL life to pleasant REEL life!!!

It was a long time pending plan to visit Innovative film city which we could not complete because of one or other reasons. Few of my colleagues have visited this place with family and feedback was quite good, as they really enjoyed the time spent over there.

Friday night, while having dinner with my wife at Kobe Sizzlers @ Garuda Mall, we thought to visit Innovative film city next day morning. We called up some of our friends to check if they can join us and after few minutes we got one couple on board. So Saturday morning was all set for a drive to Innovative film city.

Saturday morning, we decided to meet up near the BEL Circle, Vidyaranyapura and reach the NICE road by 10:15am. As most of the time, plan didn’t work out and with some delay we could finally start from Vidyaranyapura at 11:15am. 

We took the road next to Prestige apartments and reached the NICE road in about 15 minutes. Before i should write my experience of driving on NICE road, i must say it was AWESOME drive. We paid the toll of Rs.55 to enter the NICE road stretch and were told to take the left exit after 17km. In a small drive before we took exit turn, I guess after around 15 minutes, my Ford Figo touched the mark of 110Km/h without my notice. The scenery along on the sides of NICE road is so refreshing. All you could see if big green and open space, it was such a treat to eyes.

After taking exit from NICE road, we continued towards Bidadi, it’s just one straight road then and in no way you can get lost. After around 27km, we could see the big board of Innovative Film City on the left side of the road. From there you can find proper road directions to reach film city. With one small break on the way we reached there by 12:30pm and parked the car in a big open parking ground.

There are 2 kinds of tickets available- Rs.499/- for full day and Rs.299/- from 3pm onwards (Credit cards are accepted). We took the full day combo tickets which included most of the rides and attractions which we could enjoy. For the camera and Handy cam, separate charges (Rs.100/-) are applicable.

We enjoyed our day over there and by the time we left the film city we were fully tired. It was really a much needed break and couldn’t have been better than this. It’s a place which gives you chance to bring out your creativity in photography with all such sets around the film city, so don‘t forget your camera.

Few of the things which we really enjoyed –

Mirror Maze – It was terrific. We got scared after going inside few steps as we could not find any way exit nor entry gate and were totally confused. But don’t worry, somebody will take you out so don’t afraid to be lost inside J

Ripley’s – Must watch. Watch out for one way mirror kept next to tongue rolling girl. From the other side we could not stop our laugh watching people trying to roll their tongues. I bet you could just sit there whole day watching people rolling their tongues and you will not stop laughing.

     

      Wax Museum - Few statues are really worth watching.

 Roller Coaster – Must try. Will keep your heart young.

Haunted Mansion – It was good. Luckily they didn't make it so haunted.
Roller Skates - Fun to try even if you don't know how to skate but just be careful ;)

Beach – After a tiring day, best place to relax and play in wave pool.

Food Court – Good option of foods. McDonald is also there.

After a wonderful day we left from there at 6:45pm and reached back to BEL circle by 8:30pm. You need to be careful while coming back to enter the NICE road as it’s on the right side of the road so need to take U-TURN to enter NICE road....