Karavalli at the Gateway- One of my favourites in Bangalore

Karavalli came highly recommended- especially by Mr. Fox. Since work got me to the Gateway, I decided to give it a try.  I usually don't like eating at the hotel restaurant I am staying at unless I have to but I was more than pleasantly surprised.

Well first of all the Karavalli is set in a charming Mangalore type house garden with a little pond. Its what Mr. Fox calls an urban oasis. Secondly, the service is outstanding, the staff is well informed and explain the cuisine beautifully. As a matter of fact I requested Mr. Vinod serve us each time I went there because of his knowledge of the cuisine and his wonderful demeanor. Third- in the past few months I made several trips to Bangalore and made sure I had at least one meal there. And let me tell you each time the food was flavourful and surpassed expectation. It is a hard thing to uphold quality, I have noticed in the hospitality business.

So what did I eat? Below is a visual poetry of my meals at Karavalli. Each time I tried to order something different. Let me tell you about my indulgences- fish wrapped in banana leaves, their chicken and lamb curries, banana flower vegetables, pineapple stew, beef fry, lamb legs (to die for), Kerala parotha, appams. Each meal started with a glass of hot rasam and bowl of fried papads. The flavours are a mix of all coastal cuisines- Goan, Mangalorean, Kerala. I love coconut curries and these made my heart sing.

I can easily say that the Karavalli is one of my favourite places to eat in Bangalore.

Enchanting outdoor seating

Lunch with the lovely Maddie

Always a great host- Vinoth

The Urban Oasis

With the Chef and Vinoth

A cold beer - the best accompaniment

Eating traditionally on banana leaves

Fried fish. 

Fish wrapped in banana leaf

Juicy!

Fried fish all gone

Rasam in a lovely cup

Beef fry- spicy and succulent

Pineapple stew and vegetable pepper stew

Payasam (ooh check out my nail polish)

Paan to cleanse your palatte

Just the kind of place that takes you away from all your worries.

Thank you for the brilliant meal.
I leave you with this song that went so well with this meal.

Delish Fish: Part of the hi- protein, avoid carbs diet.

This was a long break from blogging. Well mostly because there is so much else going on. For starters, my sis Ms. Cultured Purl is in town.  I've joined this Kickboxing class in Bandra that is kicking my butt into shape and then I'm on a diet. So suddenly I find myself with a lack of appetite and wanting to survive making through the holidays without a bite of dessert. Was I successful- of course I was. It took every nerve in my body to do so. But part of it I could not stand to write about food especially look at food photos and food descriptions. That's the end of my career as an indulgent food blogger. Oooh! And  I've also had other fun distractions. (big grin on my face). 

Anyways part of this diet is not to touch carbohydrates after 4pm. So dinner has to be some form of a salad and protein. My sis has been encouraging me to eat more fish which means cooking fish in my mom's all vegetarian kitchen. Grill, bake, curry it.

Today I decided to make a little more indulgent version of my normally baked fish. I made my own version of a Doi Ilish which I had in Calcutta over Diwali. I really enjoyed the mustard, chilies and yogurt sauce with the lovely Hilsa fish- a staple in a Bengali household. I cheated though- I bought a dark Surmai from my fish wali who cut it in cubes instead of the typical cross sections. Oh well. I also did my own take on the marinade and some of the masala. Oh well! I never really follow recipes or traditions. 

So here it is- my own Delish fish.

Ingredients:

500 gms surmai skinned, deboned and cubed

Marinade:

Soya sauce

Papa's magic masala

green chilies

The Sauce:

Mustard seeds

Green chilies 3-5 long sliced

2 tbsp of minced ginger

2tbsp of minced garlic

6-8 Curry leaves

Handful of fresh coriander leaves

2 onions sliced

1 full spoon coriander powder

1/2 teaspoon red chili powder

1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder

1/4 teaspoon mango powder

salt to taste

Yogurt mixed with equal part of milk thoroughly stirred. 

So this is really easy:

1. Marinade the fish for 30 min with soya sauce, papa's masala and some green chilies. 

2. In a flat pan, pour a little oil and spread evenly on the base and place the fish pieces evenly on the pan. Cook till it turns opaque and white and flip over. Dont over cook the fish or it will become chewy. Place all the pieces of fish on a plate. 

3. In the same pan start the sauce. Throw in the mustard seeds, green chilies, coriander leaves, curry leaves, garlic and ginger. Stir till you can smell the curry leaves releasing their amazing flavour. 

4. Add the onions and saute. 

5. Add all the dry masala and let the onions cook. 

6. Last slowly stir in the yogurt milk mixture on to the onions. Mix the sauce thoroughly, let it simmer on low for a bit. 

7. Next carefully place the pieces of fish in the sauce. The fish is delicate and can fall apart easily so it is necessary to work on this slowly. Just smell the sauce, take in the headiness of the flavours. 

8. Gently toss the fish in the sauce so that it is evenly coated.

Turn off the heat.

9. The fish is ready to eat with some rice. 

Ofcourse I did not eat any rice. I just had the fish and what a delish fish it turned out to be. It was spicy with a bite of mustard. The fish was very soft and melted in your mouth. And as always Papa's magic masala always adds that little kick that takes any dish over the top.

How is this hi protein low carbs going for me. Well initially I felt really weak and tired but now with the working out I feel super energetic. It is yet to be seen if I will revert back to blogging with a gusto. Till then do enjoy these photos.

Janu and I have been taking some goofy pics of ourselves. We definitely look similar. What do you think? (we are not twins- I am 6 years older than her) Im going to miss her immensely when she leaves for Salt Lake City. By the way she said the fish was really authentic. 

Also a Happy New Year. For more exciting adventures this year. For new friends who become like the dearest of old friends and for old friends who have been such a great support system. 
Love always. 

Dream of the Fisherman's wife

Anand of the Spotted Dick and Eviscerating the Squid fame put together a meal for Sangeeta and me that would make the fisherman's wife cry out in ecstasy. He cooked us squid two ways, made fantastic white russians that had us drunk and merry and followed it by these delicious lemon tarts.


So after we were done cleaning and eviscerating the squids, Anand made this delightful appetizer- a crunchy garlic chili squid with a side of cool, creamy dill tatziki sauce.


For the Tatziki Sauce (recipe courtsey Anand):


2 cups of curd
2 large madras cucumbers
zest of one lemon
3 pinches of red chilli powder
2 cloves garlic
3 shallots
A handful of dill
2 teaspoons honey
3-4 tablespoons olive oil


1. Pour the curd/yoghurt into a muslin cloth (I used a hanky) and suspend it over a bowl in the fridge overnight. Ideally, it should be tied with string to keep the ball of yoghurt well squeezed and compressed in the fabric.

The Labneh- or hung curd

2. Peel and grate the cucumbers (seeds and all) onto a paper towel (not tissue) or any absorbent material over a tray. The idea is that all the liquid from the cucumber solution gets drained this way. I used a colander for this. Let it sit for an hour or two. Roll the paper with the grated cucumber in it and squeeze any remaining liquid out.

3. Spoon the strained yoghurt (or labneh, as it is also known) into a mixing bowl. Chop the dill finely with a sharp knife (without crushing or pulverising it) and mix into the bowl. Grate the garlic and shallots into the mix, with the lemon zest and red chilli powder.

4. Add the grated cucumber and stir well. Add the honey and stir it in, finally adding around three tablespoons of olive oil to smooth the mixture up. Transfer into a serving bowl and drizzle olive oil on the surface of the tzatziki before serving.


For the Crunchy, Chili garlic squid strips:
Ingredients:
One Squid mantle scored and cut in strips
5-6 cloves of finely chopped garlic (the more the merrier)
A cup of milk
Flour
Chili flakes (dried red chilies chopped up)
Oil
Salt 
Lemon

1. Cut the squid mantle down the center and lay it flat on the cutting board.

2. Lay the sheet of mantle flat and start to score the mantle in diagonal equally distanced markings. Be careful not to cut through the mantle.

3. Finely chop the garlic and dried red chilies.

4. Dip the strips of squid in the milk and then the flour

5. On a high heat, stir in the garlic and the chili flakes in the oil. Add the squid strips one at a time laying them flat.

6. Cook the squid till it is an opaque white and no longer translucent much like fish or chicken.
Cook the squid for 1-2 minutes on each side.

7. Plate the squid and pour the remaining garlic and chilies on the squid. And serve with the delicious tatziki sauce.


Next for the Malabar Squid Curry:

Ingredients:

1-2 Mantles of squid 

The tentacles
1 large onion
1 large tomato
1-2 green chillies (again, as per spice threshold) cut into three pieces and slit along its length
1 teaspoon tamarind paste
1½ teaspoons of ginger garlic paste
100 ml coconut milk
2 tablespoons cooking oil (olive or sunflower)Masala:
2 teaspoons coriander powder
1 teaspoon cumin powder
½ teaspoon turmeric powder
½ teaspoon red chilli powder

1. Chop the mantle in rings.

2. Chop the onions, green chilies and the tomatoes. Grate the ginger and garlic to make a chunky paste.

3. Sauté the onions and chillies in oil, till tender and translucent. Add the masala powders and cook till the aroma of the spices fill the kitchen (taking care not to burn it).

4. Add the tomatoes and stir till cooked. Dissolve the tamarind paste in half a cup of boiling hot water and stir it into the onions and tomatoes.

Sangeeta helping out

5. Let it simmer till it thickens a bit. Add the coconut milk and stir. Let this simmer for ten minutes and add the squid rings. The squid cook for exactly 2 minutes. Serve with rice.

The main reason we were over at Anand's place for dinner was to finish the Baileys which had been gifted to him by Sangeeta a year back. It was close to expiry and had to be finished. So Anand made us some delicious White Russians
1 part baileys
1 part vodka
1.5 parts milk
poured over ice
So Yummy!

And Cheers! To many such delectable adventures...

Another thing that we experimented that night was Bombay Duck and Prawn Kurkure that we found at the grocery store. While I am sure the Fisherman's wife would be delighted by these snacks all three of has had to pass after one bite. Experiment fail. The taste was very strong and pungent and smelled very fishy.

And finally for the little surprise that evening, Anand made us lemon Pies. I did not get a chance to photograph the steps but Anand was kind enough to share the recipe. The crust was soft and biscuity and the filling was creamy and very tangy and not overly sweet. I am a big fan and with each bite I squinted my eyes in delight.

Ingredients
8 juicy lemons (should give you one cup of lemon juice)
½ cup sugar (or as per taste)
2 eggs
2 yolks (in addition to the eggs above)
175gms butter
For the crust
165gms digestive biscuits
¼ th cup fine powdered sugar
90gms butter

Crush the digestive biscuits or grind them down to grainy crumbs, not to a powder. Mix in the sugar evenly. Heat the (90gms) butter till it liquifies (preferably in a double boiler, I used a mug in a vessel of boiling water). Mix this in with the sugar-biscuit crumb mix, evenly, but letting it be lumpy, not smooth. Line the pie mould with this, evenly.

In a large vessel, pour in the lemon juice and sugar. Add the eggs and egg yolk and transfer onto a vessel with water simmering. Boil the water first and bring it to simmer before placing the vessel on it. Using a whisk or electric mixer, whisk the mix for 10 minutes if using a metal vessel, 12-13 minutes for glass. The consistency should be smooth and bubbly at the end of the whisking. Take it off the boiler and drop in 175gms of butter, preferably cut into pieces so it dissolves quickly. Whisk continuously till the mixture is even and there is no liquid at the bottom.

Pour into the mould and chill.

There will be excess, so make extra moulds with the crust lining and keep ready.

So that was delicious. We ate our food with our hands and licked the plates and the bowls clean. 


Thanks Anand for this exciting dinner and for teaching me to eviscerate squid. 
And for anyone interested- Anand is very much an eligible bachelor.

Oh and email me in reference to the title of this blog post.