Apple Pie Recipe

Ingredients
2 green apples
1 cup all purpose flour
60 gm Amul butter frozen and cut into cubes
1/2 cup caster sugar
3tsp ground cinnamon
1tsp lime juice
Pinch of salt
Chilled water

Method
1. Sieve the all purpose flour and add a pinch of salt.
2. Make a crumble mixture by mixing butter cubes with the flour mixture.

The flour and butter mixture 

3. Add chilled water as required to make a dough.
4. Allow the dough to rest for 5 minutes.
5. Divide the dough into 2 halves . Roll one half of the dough into a circle.
6. Pre heat the oven at 180 degree C.
7. Grease the baking dish by adding a little butter.
8. Cover the baking dish with the dough and blind bake for 15 minutes at 180 degree C.

Dough rolled in the baking dish

Blind baking the dough 

9. Peel and slice the apples. Mix sugar, cinnamon powder and lime juice.

10. Now roll the other half of the dough into a circular shape.
11. Place the sliced apples mixture in the baking dish. Cover the apple mixture with rolled dough.
12. Create some openings in the pie for the steam to release out.

Pie ready to gain in the oven

13. Put the apple pie back in the oven at 180 degree C for 15 mins or until the upper crust is brown.
14. Enjoy the hot apple pie.

Apple Pie 

Tip - Use green apples  as they are firm and give a nice tangy taste.

If you don't want to make pie you can also make apple crumble. Put the apple mixture in the baking dish and cover the flour crumble mixture over the apples and bake in the oven . 

Hummus with falafels

There is a new chain Falafel's in Pune. They have 3 shops in Pune. All of them situated in malls - Phoenix Market City, Inorbit Mall, Amnora Town Center. I tries the outlet at Phoenix Market City.

 I tried the hummus with falafels. The platter consisted of  huge bowl of hummus, 5 - 6 falafels, 2 pita breads cut into quarters and pickled vegetables. The complete platter was sufficient for 1 person and the total cost was INR 199.

The pita bread was made from wheat flour and was light and fresh.The falafels were crisp and were made from peas. They were served on a huge spread of humus drizzled with lemon juice ,olive oil and paprika. The pickled vegetables (cabbage, carrots ) were crisp and had a nice tangy taste of vinegar.

It was nice to try different cuisine and flavors. Planning to  again next weekend :)

You can try falafels and the hummus at home as well.

Check the recipe for falafels  on
http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/falafels-2770

Check the recipe of hummus on http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/peanut-butter-hummus. Though the hummus i tried did not contain peanut butter.

Khas khas badam ka halwa

Ingredients
1/2 cup khas khas soaked overnight
15 almonds soaked overnight
12 tbsp ghee
12 tbsp sugar
12 tbsp milk

Method
1. Peel the soaked almonds.
2. Make a smooth paste of the khas khas and almonds.
3. Heat ghee in a non stick pan and add the khas khas and almond paste to it .
4. Keep stirring the paste until it turns brown
5. If ghee is less and the paste( khas khas and almond) sticks to the bottom of the pan add more ghee.
6. Now add the sugar and mix well.
7. To this mixture now add milk.
8. Cover the pan with the lid and allow it to simmer .
9. The halwa is done when ghee starts appearing on top.
10 enjoy the khas khas badam ka halwa :)

The color of the halwa before youa dd sugar and milk 

Khas khas and badam ka halwa ready :)

Tip - Use non stick pan to make the halwa . The khas khas and almond paste will not stick to the bottom of the pan .

Quesadilla - my take

Tried making quesadilla my version for breakfast.

The recipe is also posted on http://cooks.ndtv.com/recipe/show/quick-quesadilla-296212

 Ingredients
2 chappatis/roti(leftover)
Finely chopped onion
Finely chopped tomato
Finely chopped capsicum
Sliced olives
1 Britania cheese single
Butter for frying
Salt
Red chilli
Oregano
Red chilli sauce

Method
1. Mix all Onion, tomato, capsicum , olives.
2. Add salt,red chilli, red chilli sauce as per taste
3. Heat a pan and some butter
4. Place one roti on the pan
5. Add the filling and the chesse single.
6. Place the roti over the filling and press slightly
7. Add more butter and flip the roti tocookfrom other side
8. Cook until the chapatis are little crisp and thecheese melts

Tips
You can add mozerella cheese also
To the stuffing you can add capers,jalapeno

Quesadilla

Quesadilla with the filling 

McEgg Burger

Across various regions, egg preparations ( boiled egg , egg bhurji, half fry) along with bread or pav is common street food. Taking cue from the trend it seems, the new McEgg Burger has been  introduced at INR 25.

I tried the same and it is just awesome.

The  McEgg Burger consists of small bun with steamed egg and finely chopped onion. The bun size is smaller than the regular Mc Veggie burger. 

Its light, low cal and perfect portion for an evening snack.

Do check out the McEgg Burger 

4fingerscrispychicken

After a long illness of stomach problems thought of venturing out again and try new eating joints. This time thought of having some non vegetarian food. My destination was was 4fingers crispy chicken at the Terminal T3 of Delhi Airport. The eating joint is located at three places all over the world - India, Indonesia and Jakarta.

There was no rush at the eating joint but I still took the courage and ordered spicy crispy fingers (3 chicken strips for INR 125). After a wait of 10 minutes I got my order. First bite into the chicken and it was awful. I had ordered spicy chicken but there were no spices rather a dash of honey. I didn’t like the sweet taste of honey in my chicken. Moreover the outer covering was very very chewy and it was separating from the chicken strips. It was tasting awful and could not have more than two bites of the chicken strips. Wasted my money on this new experiment

The Chowk, Metropolitan Mall,Gurgaon

Yesterday it was my friend’s birthday and he wanted to take his family out on dinner. He lives in a joint family with his wife, parents and his elder brother’s family (wife and a kid). Considering the traffic congestion these days, he did not want to travel to Delhi and wanted to go to a nearby place in Gurgaon

He was thinking of going to barbeque nation but then I asked him not to go as they are all vegetarian’s and barbeque nation is more a delight for non vegetarian people. Then asked him to try out zambar in Ambience Mall but he wanted some place that serves north Indian food and he did not want too much damage on his pocket. Considering his constraints I asked him to visit The Chowk located on top floor in metropolitan mall. The ambience of the place is very calm and soothing with soft music which varies from latest to old bollywood songs or ghazals. The seating is quite comfortable with long L shaped benches with red cushions. In contrast to the chairs, benches give you ample space to sit and are quite comfortable. After a long day at work and driving through the traffic you do not mind sitting comfortably to enjoy good food. The place is usually frequented by families and small groups for corporate parties. 

The food served is fabulous and a portion of a dish is sufficient for 2 people.

Check out the dahi ke kebab (Hung yogurt kabab stuffed with fig, green chilies and ginger) it is fabulous appetizer.

Dominos Double burst Pizza

You must have heard about the new Double Burst Pizza introduced by
Domino's. I thought let me just check this new pizza and share my
experience with you .With the onset of the winter season and the mad
traffic rush I thought it would be wise to enjoy the pizza at home. I
ordered the medium Farmhouse pizza with the new pizza base "Double
Burst". I was eagerly waiting for the pizza with the double layers of
cheese oozing out of it. Exactly after half an hour the door bell rang
and the pizza was right there.

In the winter season expectation of a hot pizza is like straight from
the oven, but to my disappointment the pizza was not that hot and the
cheesy spread was not that liquid so that you can lick and enjoy the
whole cheese mess while eating the pizza because that’s the fun part of
a cheese filled pizza. This new pizza base has 2 layers of cheese. One
is the cheese spread as was in cheese burst pizza and the other is
liquid cheese layer same color as that of the jalapeno cheese dip. The
liquid cheese has a slight tangy taste to it and it seems that the
jalapeno dip is the liquid cheese that Domino's refer to.

Overall my experience of the new double burst pizza was not awesome. It
was like just another pizza with too much of cheese so you feel stuffed
in 3 ~4 pieces. The pizza base had a layer of cheese spread and very
less of liquid cheese in the center. Due to the less quantity you cannot
actually differentiate the taste of the two cheese layers.

This pizza needs to be eaten at the outlet itself. By the time it
reaches home its cold and then you cannot enjoy the cheese in the pizza.
A word of caution for people on diet plans stay away from it

http://www.dominos.co.in/