Chutney Masala - the good, the bad and then the hype...

Twas a cold rainy day in fall, my MIL was visiting and we wanted to eat out. This left us with limited choices by way of cuisine - Indian, Indian and let us try that again, Indian. It is hard to believe that my husband and his sibbling and mother are related when it comes to food. My in laws are not very adventurous. Anyhow, Chutney Masala, was on our list of places to check out and there we landed on this cold, rainy blustery fall weekend.

The first thing that catches your eye is the decor and set up, they have done a good job of preserving character, introducing a touch of old India, while adding warmth and some fairly home bistro touches - they do call themselves a bistro.

As you can see, lovely yellow and green coloring with nice stone walls, the windows do give you a view of the water if you are lucky. The wait staff were very prompt and attentive, engaged the kids well. Now down to the food, the food was a combination of north and south Indian dishes, the restaurant should really stop at the northern side of the country. The palak paneer was just amazing, fluffy not too creamy spinach enveloping well seasoned pieces of paneer cheese, the lamb was succulent and cauliflower and chaat pretty decent.

An interesting touch was a sprouted bean salad with finely shredded lettuce, crisp and flavorful.

The above was where the problem began, the masala dosa rolls were cold and not crisp. The sambhar (lentil soup was pretty mediocre as well). I will however say, it is hard for a chef to do justice to both South and North Indian cusines equally, but this being said you can do a better job.

So the bottom line, I would go back again, but this certainly does not make my top 5 dining experiences for the year.

The details on Chutney Masala

4 Main Street

Irvington, NY 10533

914 591 5500

Foodbuzz- Pepperidge Farm tastemaker challenge.

I made these little tangy, spicy bites of goodness on thanksgiving
thanks mostly to the puff pastry that I recieved from Foodbuzz for the tastemaker's challenge program. The combination of the mango salsa and bits of goat cheese were pure magic when bitten with light and flaky puff pastry.

Mango Salsa and Goat Cheese Crisps

Makes 40 appetizer sized crisps

Ingredients

For the salsa

1 mango
1 small red onion (very finely chopped)
1 teaspoon grated ginger
1-2 green chillies, miced
1 tomato, cut into a dice
1 teaspoon oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon chaat masala
1 lemon
3-4 tablespoons chopped cilantro
2 sheets puff pastry cut, into triangles
1/2 cup crumbled goat cheese


Method of Preparation

1. Peel and chop the mango.
2. Mix in the onion, ginger, green chillies and tomato.
3. Heat the oil and add the cumin seeds and wait for them to sizzle.
4. Mix in the mango mixture and the salt, black pepper, chaat masala and lemon juice and cook for less than a minute.
5. Stir in the cilantro and let this mixture rest at room temperature for at least 30 minutes.
6. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees
7. Arrange the pastry on the baking sheet, cover with 1 teaspoon of the mango salsa and a little goat cheese.
8. Complete all the triangle in this manner.
9. Bake for 10 minutes until the pastry is cooked and the cheese is lightly melted.
10. Enjoy warm...

Mutton Mushroon Stew - Lightly Spiced Lamb Curry

In Indian parlence, mutton reffers to good quality goat meat. Actually way back when - yes I am talking two decades (almost) back, when I was still living in India, lamb was not seen on menus, this has changed.





I see students and other give me a look of horror when I tell them about goat meat, but in reality goat meat is very tasty and a lot leaner than lamb. This being said it is not very easy to find in Westchester. My substitute is using American lamb, which I feel is a little closer in taste to goat meat. No one else in my household eats lamb. Nonetheless, for various reasons including freeing myself of the toxic situation at work, I felt that I owed myself a treat. So I cooked up a quick and satisfying lamb/mutton curry. It was spicy, somewhat robust, laced with mushrooms and potatoes. Just what you would want a wintery day like today. I have spent the entire weekend running around - dance class, grocery, you name it. I deserved something comforting just for myself.


I made some rice- also nicely flavored with fennel, cumin, ginger and nicely filled with spinach leaves to add some nutrition to the meal. Well, here it is, my treat to myself. Ok, Ok, I made some other stuff to go with the rice so that others at home could eat as well, I shall tell you about it later.


There was one other highlight to weekend, we went over to Rajni's (my household helper/kid shuttler) for a small gathering. They live as a 2 family (2 brothers and their own), her mother and father-in-law live with them too. I had always pictured their household as something chaotic, just because that is how our house is on a lot of days, with half the number of inhabitants. I was simply floored by the warmth, peace and homeyness that their house radiated. They were warm open, completely ready to share all that they had to offer.


Mutton (Lamb) Stew with potatoes and mushrooms

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes

Serves 4 people (recipe can very easily be expanded)

Ingredients

1/3 cup oil
2 onions, finely chopped
1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
1-2 sticks cinnamon broken
2-3 pods cardamom
4-6 cloves
2 tablespoons crushed black pepper
1 lbs lamb, trimmed of fat and cut into cubes ( plus some lamb bones)
1 teaspoon turmeric
1.5 teaspoons salt
2-3 tomatoes, cut into small pieces
1 large potato, cut into small pieces
2 cups water
1/3 cup chopped cilantro
1 cup chopped cremini mushrooms
a few dried red chillies

Method of Preparation

1. Heat the oil and add the onions, ginger and saute for 4-5 minutes. The onions should soften, wilt and begin turning lightly golden.
2. Add in the cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, black pepper and lamb.
3. Mix well and add in the salt and turmeric and cook stirring well for a good 10-15 minutes, until the lamb is well browned.
4. Add in the tomatoes and potatoes and the water and bring to a simmer. Cook under pressure for 15 minutes or covered on low heat till the lamb is tender and the gravy is thick. (note, the time here is provided for cooking in a pressure cooker, if you are cooking without one it shall take longer).
5. Cool slightly and remove the cover. Add in the cilantro, mushrooms and the red chillies and cook for another 3-5 minutes and serve.

Ginger and Spinach Pulao -Fragrant Basmati rice cooked with ginger and spinach

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients

1 tablespoon ghee
1 tablespoon oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup basmati rice (soaked for 30 minutes and drained)
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon red chili powder (optional)
1.5 cups water
2 cups finely chopped baby spinach

Method of Preparation

1. Heat the ghee and oil in a pot.
2. Add the onion, cumin and fennel seeds and cook till the seeds begin to sizzle and the onion is soft and transluscent, this should take about 2-3 minutes.
3. Stir in the salt, rice, turmeric and the red chili powder if you are using this.
4. Mix well and fry the rice for about 2 minutes.
5. Gently add in the water, bring to a simmer and cover and cook for 15 minutes.
6. Remove the cover, stir in the spinach and turn off the heat.
7. Leave covered for 5 minutes prior to serving.

Brotherhood Winery - America's Oldest Winery

I am probably as eclectic about my wine pairings as I am about my food. This does not mean I do not end up testing my share of bad wine, but certainly along the way I end up picking up some really nice and unusual varietals.

Brotherhood Winery, yes, in our very own Hudson Valley boasts of being America's Oldest winery. It is quite a fun destination to visit, certainly if you like wine but also if you want to do some offbeat sight-seeing. Late this fall, when my friend was visiting from England, this is one of the destinations that I visited.

Despite all the green, this actually turned out to be quite a cold day!

If you trapeze down the cellar and the wine displays you are led through the various generations that give you a crash course on wine marketing and of course a good sense of how the winery has progressed down the ages. The "Farell era" that was the high tide of the winery, seemed to be quite influential both in marketing the winery in terms of wine parties and well as in terms of some of the more unusual favorites such as the May wine (a pink strawberry wine) and the Holiday wine (a spiced rose) both these wines are high on my list since I do find them rather unusual.

Well, the "new" Brotherhood, is actually owned by someone of a Chillean descent that has expanded the winery to more foreign flavors. It also does have a signature creation called "Marriage" that marries chardonay grapes (25%) with cabernet sav (75%) grapes, producing a unique and very eclectic wine. My friend was happy that she now had an interesting gift to take back home.

Other wines of note, were their Reisling and Honey Wine. Both these wines are really good options with Indian food.

They label their barrels in very clear manner. As you walk through you actually see the entire assembly line, the bottles, how they are filled, dusted and sealed.

The winery has a nice very warm setting and the wine tastings were very generous and descriptive. In fact, just this makes the winery a fun place to visit, if you want to try some good interesting wine and do not want to pay wine bar prices this just might be where you want to go.

The space is really nice and pretty, so a picnic on a nice day would hardly be out of place.

And, as requested by readers, here is the information on the destination,

Brotherhood Winery,

100 Brotherhood Plaza Drive

Washingtonville, NY 10992

845 496 3661

Tastings and Timings

Scallion and CIlantro Pancakes

I had mentioned the journey around the world - A-Z series I had begun a few weeks back, yet another ploy to keep the kids engaged about their food.

Well, I skipped doing anything "real" for B - cooking up some Dal and rice saying that it was Bengali, but from Bangladesh. So C took me to China.

This weekend had a lot going on, Deepta was going to be doing her first public Indian singing performance. Given that I have been teaching her music the stakes are really high here. To make sure that she ensures the tension level and keeps it really strong she woke up on Saturday morning, unable to speak. Yes, she had the mother of colds and sore throats. Well, I had no choice but the roll with the punches. All in all, she did well, when you are six, the world is rather forgiving! It took a little time for her to warm up to the Aalap.

Well, I made some very simple shrimp and mushroom dumplings and made scallion and cilantro pancakes mostly following the recipe from Soma's blog.

I followed her recipe pretty closely, with some small tweaks.

Scallion and Cilantro Pancakes

Makes 6 medium pancakes

Ingredients

1 cup whole wheat flour (atta)

1 cup all purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 cup boiling water

Oil for brushing

Extraflour for rolling

1 cup finely chopped scallions

1/2 cup chopped cilanto

minced green chillies optional

1 teaspoon minced ginger

Salt and pepper
Oil for shallow frying

Method of Preparation

1. Place the flours in a bowl and add in the salt and pepper.

2. Gradually add in the water and mix into a dough.

3. Set aside in the refridgerator for 1/2 and hour.

4. Mix the cilantro, scallions, salt, pepper and green chillies if using.

4. Break into small balls, roll out into thin circles with a little extra flour. (note, I found the dough much easier to manage this way).

5. Place cilantro across the pancake and then roll into a tube, (see pictures, the instructions on Soma's blog are very well illustrated as well).

6. Gently scrunch the tube and then roll into a coil.

7. Flatten and gently roll into a circle.

8. Heat a skillet and place the pancake on the skillet. Add 2-3 tablespoons of oil and lightly brown, turn and repeat on the other side.

9. Continue making all the pancakes in this way, cut into wedges and serve with the dipping sauce below.

Dipping sauce for Pancakes

Makes 1/2 cup

1/3 cup soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon hot sesame oil

1/2 teaspoon minced ginger

2 tablespoons chopped scallions

1 tablespoon vinegar

1 teaspoon sugar

Method of Preparation

1. Mix all the ingredients together and set aside for 15 minutes.

2. Serve and use as needed.

7. Flatten lightly and then

Around the world

Well, the kids have recently been show how to use the globe. Deepta gets it and Aadi sort of, kind of gets it! Well if you make a child a foodie, you have to be prepared, everything will be about food, you shall tell him about a country, he shall try to spell, when he tries to spell it, he shall ask you all about it and when he asks you about it, you shall tell him about the food, and when you tell him about the food he might want to heat it and chances are he shall ask you to cook it - if you make a child a foodie..

Well that was my attempt at the if you give a moose a muffin series, but we have decided to try to do an A-z series of food. It has so far been going well (we are upto "C" but there is always a lag in blogging, so A was Algeria.

I came across this blog - that is called Algerian Creole Cuisine and I made the egg tangine recipe which essentially is a nice baked egg stata - hard to go wrong with eggs, the kids ate the eggplants, this recipe essentially layers one ingredient on top of another and bakes them till done.

Egg tangine - Baked egg casserole

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour (mostly baking)

Serves 8

Ingredients

1 cup chopped tomatoes

1 chopped green pepper

3-4 egg plant slices

1/2 cup olive oil

1 onion, finely chopped

2-3 cloves garlic

1 cup sliced mushrooms

6 eggs

1 cup half and half

Salt to taste

Lots of black pepper

2-3 tablespoons cheese

Cilantro to sprinke

4 slices, sliced baguette

Method of Preparation

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Grease and line a casserole dish.

3. Line the baking dish with tomatoes.

4. Add in the peppers.

5. Cook the eggplant in oil until brown and cover the tomatoes.

6. Cook the garlic and onions and mushrooms until soft.

7. Cover the tomatoes with this mixtures.

8. Beat the eggs and the half and halt with salt, pepper and the cilantro.

9. Cover the layered vegetables with this mixture.

10. Add the bread slices and bake for 1 hour until set.

The kids loved it and it makes a great plan ahead brunch recipe!