pictures - Travels for Taste

Experiments with Food Photography

August 7, 2012 by manjirichitnis Leave a Comment

Inspiration for posting some Splendid recipes from the secret closet of my mind or some hand me downs from my mother , mother in law ,grand mother or a close friend have been waiting to come onto this blog , but I have been lazy , though now it is time , so I have decided to bombard my readers with these rocking recipes that can add some serious fun to your kitchen adventures !

I know that at times it takes a lot to inspire one to get out of a rut and get there , so I take these food pictures from time to time to keep looking at whenever I need a little nudge !

Hope they work their magic on those hidden culinary desires inside you as do so work their magic on me !

P.S: I shall keep adding pics as and when I get to click some yummy images,slurrpp !

Olympics 2012 Hightened Excitement !

August 7, 2012 by manjirichitnis Leave a Comment

Didn’t want this blog post to languish in my drafts folders , I wrote it on the day I saw the Olympic Flame at Ealing Broadway- 24th July 2012 Tuesday ,ALSO wanted to post pcitures of the 2 Olympic events and blog about the excitement surrounding the Games,so had to start somewhere……

I was relatively unaffected by all the BUZZ surrounding the Games,almost immune in a way , but I guess what turned things around almost 360 degrees inside my brain was watching the Olympic Flame along with a large crowd ….

On the 23rd Monday the flame was set to pass by through Wimbledon , I did manage to just catch a glimpse and was rather disappointed as the crowds moved off and I didn’t get any pictures. So with steely determination and a purpose in mind I set off the next day to see the flame near Ealing Broadway .

I set off early, the weather was unusually amazing , the sun was shining brightly ,in fact a bit too bright for me as I spent over 2 hours toasting under the direct heat just to watch the flame pass by .

But if ever there is a shared experience with a bunch of strangers that I shall cherish then it is this … and of course in the next 2 days am off to see some events at 2 different venues , but this particular experience makes me go all quite and i can replay the scenes in my mind over and over again ….

The crowds had just begun to get in and throng the sidewalks leading to a public park close to the Ealing Broadway station, I stood at one such sidewalk , thanking my stars that I had arrived early and had found space to lean against a railing . I had for company a primary school teacher who was very nice and chatty (thank god !)and a rather grumpy looking lady on my right who wasn’t too pleased by my arrival as she had to ”make space ” for me on the railing , sigh, it takes all types to make the world now doesn’t it ?

No sooner had I settled and Ms.Teacher and me were discussing the current political situation , that there was a large influx of crowds , the Sun decided to turn up the heat by several notches and a large group of police men and women started patrolling the streets .

The first sign that the torch bearers were to arrive ! yay !

An old lady then came and I quickly helped her squeeze in next to me (on my right of course 😉 !!!) , she was very , very ,well, very chatty 😉 but very sweet all the same, then came along 2 boys aged 9 and 6 ,extremely fidgety and with their old aunt and decided that Ms.Tecaher and me were perfect people to chat with , so as they enlightened us about how the world appears to them and their opinion about almost anything , we started taking it all in.

Vendors hopeful of selling BG flags, balloons and all other bits and bobs were trying their best to tempt their wares .

At this point I really thought I would faint and was so grateful for The Metro I had picked up earlier at the tube station , it was my cap and was my shield from the Sun and it’s persistent HOT HOT HOT presence.

Loads of cars and buses kept passing by the road making me wonder how the cops would manage the crowds and the other vehicles of the sponsors that were to pass by as they headed towards the public park for the evening celebrations – a mass public party so to speak !

Let me count down the minutes to when the flame actually arrived by way of sharing the pictures I clicked …

It is an event that celebrates human spirit and brings together the world like no other and what better way to make bring closer to the people of GB, than giving us all a chance to be a part of the Games if only as spectators to watch the flame pass us by ….For this chance am ever so grateful and I know this is a memory I shall cherish forever and share with all my loved ones as I have shared with you

Shahi Khichadi

April 9, 2012 by manjirichitnis 9 Comments

I have decided to finally upload some of the recipes which received a lot of comments on my Facebook food album and I ended up sending out the recipe by email to many of contacts. Here is one of the easier and more popular ones . When I was a kid when my mother said ”khaichadi” in response to what’s for dinner ? it usually meant that one of us feverish and needed something gentle on the tummy or one of us was trying to recover from an upset tummy .Of course the taste of the boiled rice and green gram halved and with skin on or the yellow version without skin , is ultimately satisfying a great comfort food when served piping hot with a dollop of ghee and some warm milk ,a good night’s sleep guaranteed !

But my version is spicy ,with a tasty twist and a lot of fun to cook and even more fun to eat .

I adopted this recipe from the way my mother makes khichadi and also from how my pal S of www.jainfoodie.com makes Jain Dal Khichadi . I choose to call it Shahi meaning Regal or Royal here because it is rather a posh version of the humble boiled version. Khichadi meaning an Indian for a slurpalicious RICE and lentil dish cooked like a pulav /pulao/pilau /pilaf.

Ingredients (enough to serve 2 with second and maybe a third helping !)

Rice 1 cup
A Mix of the following in equalish parts in the same cup used to measure the rice – Massor Dal also called Red Lentils-split and skinless, Moong Dal also called Green Gram yellow we will use the spilt skinless variety and the split green moong dal with green skin on , Urid Dal also called Black Gram halved with skin ,some Toor Dal also called pigeon peas – yellow spilt and skinless .
1 large red Onion
1 medium tomato
2-3 Bay leaves
Bits of Cinnamon bark
2 cloves of garlic smashed with skin on
2 green chillies
Jeera / Cumin
Hing / Asafoetida
Salt to taste
Red Chilli Powder
Turmeric Powder
2 small potatoes
Few Curry leaves
Few Cloves
Few black whole peppercorns
18. Oil for sauteing
Some Ghee – maybe 2 spoons – Clarified Butter

Method :

Wash the rice and lentils and place them in a pressure cooker ,add 4 cups (use same cup as the one used to measure the rice and the dals) of water and another to make it a little softer than regular rice ,pressure cook till 4 whistles are done.
Once the steam slowly releases from the cooker , you can open the lid and it will look like the picture below but a bit different in colour because when I made this I was short on red lentils so didn’t add them . Actually even you make this dish with rice and only yellow moong dal it will taste just as good 🙂

While the cooker is cooling down ,chop the potatoes into longish strips and stir fry them in hot oil till they turn brown, add some salt, sprinkled over them just as they get done, these potato fries are our garnishing to add that REAL REGAL or SHAHI touch to the dish . Once done keep them aside and STOP yourself from munching on them before your dish is ready , my husband managed to gobble quite a few ,pretending he was helping me ”stir” the onions while I clicked pictures ..grrrrr

Now Lets prepare the tadka /tarka or the tempering. First slice the onion and the tomato vertically into thinish slices .
Add oil about 2 large tablespoons into a pan and one teaspoon of ghee just for flavour and aroma , when this mix is hot add some hing , then add the jeera and the crushed garlic and the 2 green chillies spilt along the middle lengthwise as it opens them up and allows the pungent seeds to spread through the tempering , one kick ass way to add that hotttt KICK to the dish ,trust me this one is explosive spicy HOTT as it has all the ingredients to help the taste explode in your mouth, saute till the garlic is brown and the garlic’s skin starts to crackle , then add the cloves, the whole black peppercorns , bits of the barks of Cinnamon ,curry leaves, bay leaves and keep stiring this mixture to prevent charring or over heating ,it will look like in the picture below :

Then add the chopped onion, It should look like the picture below:

Then after a while when the onion has begun to turn a lovely pinkish ,brownish colour and looks the picture below it’s time to add the tomato .

Now add the vertically sliced tomato slices , I can assure you that now the potent aroma of all those lovely spices and the onion are stirring up quite an appetite inside you and making you hungrier every passing minute .

I dislike chunky bits of tomato floating in my mouth while I gobble up the khichadi so I jus a flat wooden spatula and gently ensure that the tomatoes are totally mashed in a way that allows the mixture to become one entity, it should look like in the picture below :

Add just a bit of red chilli powder and some turmeric powder to the mixture above and add salt to taste ,Now add the cooked rice and lentil mixture to the above tempered mix of spices ,onions and tomatoes ,mix well stirring well, add salt again enough to flavour the rice and lentil mix .

It’s almost done , just keep this on a low flame for about a minute or two to allow the flavours of the spices to penetrate deep inside the rice and lentils .

The SHAHI KHICHADI is now ready to be garnished! Yay 🙂

WOW now doesn’t that look awesome ? I am quite proud about this creative production from my kitchen , hope you relish it as much as I did errr we did , hubby had to agree 🙂
If you fear that all the spices may be a bit too much for your sensitive palate prepare a quick cooling cucumber and curd accompaniment . Beat 2 spoons of set yogurt or thick flowing yogurt and add tiny square bits of fresh cucumber , season with a bit of salt ,some sugar and some jeera powder to taste .

Enjoy !

England’s largest Vineyard – Denbie’s Wine Estate, Dorking, Surrey

February 29, 2012 by manjirichitnis 8 Comments

It’s was my parent’s first weekend at our flat in London and we wanted them to see someplace really nice. Having visited London many times earlier they had done the usual touristy places and were not too upbeat on going into the crowded central line all the way to Central London. So hubby came up with an awesome idea, to explore Surrey. So after an early breakfast, we made our way by overground rail to Dorking and walked across lovely tree-lined roads to get to Denbies Vineyard.

The air was cool and crips, it was bright, sunny and the sky looked heavenly. Even my mother’s heavily arthritic and painfull knees didn’t see, to mind the trudge upto the main entrance as most other visitors whizzed past in their cars.

My dad was smiling and racing ahead with hubby while mother and me trailed somewhere behind admiring the mountains in the background.

The grapes seemed to tempt us as we walked alng the way ,testing our self control, ummmm,ofcourse we DID not take anyyy! Though I wish we had 😉

The neatly lined,seemingly never ending rows of grape vines balanced on their equally fragile looking support structures seemed to create a horizon of sorts, there are only a handfull of employees who work in the vineyard which is the largest in England and they manage this enterprise beautifully I must say.

I saw this beautiful couple, much in love perched on a ledge cooing away secret nothings into each others ears so to speak, they looked so cute I just had to take a picture, thankfully they obliged.

After a long lovely walk we saw the roadsign telling us that we had reached our destination, an exciting day out was about to begin , I couldn’t help but wonder if we would get any free wine for sampling ,after all , a long walk through a vineyard on a weekend and a very parched throat for company I am sure it wouldn’t hurt to gulp down some free wine .

Unfortunately no free wine or wine tasting was to come our way as we had reached after all the wine tours had been booked for the day, yes ,it is a really popular destination ,it was late summer ,autummn almost actually ,September 2011 it was,so feeling terribly dejected we were about to resign to our fate when we were informed by the smiling receptionist that there was a tour of the vineyard in the jeep that we could do , so I heaved a sigh of relief as I saw the smile back on my mothers face . Ater all I didn’t want to ruin their very first weekend with us.

We still had about an hour on hand before the tour was to begin so we decided to explore our surroundings.On the topmost floor is a rather beautiful restaurant to be explored when you want to loosen your purse strings and splurge .There was a small area where a potrait club was exhibiting some stunning paintings , I managed to get some postcard size prints of the originals and so did my mum.

Some of the artists were really good with themes ramging from countryside scenary to pets and wildlife.

Then we walked back down to an amazing gift shop which was crammed ceiling to floor with the most amazing gift items from post cards and the expected wine bottles to tea sets, cake stands ,home made jellies and preserves and many, many more extreemly tempting products ,I got myself a scented soap…sighhhh !

By then my husband managed to tear me and my mum away from the shop, my dad had started to grow this extreemly serious expression bordering on a mixture of impatience ,slight anger and a sarcastic smirk which seemed to say”baah women and shopping” , I took the hint and scampered out to check on our mode of transport for the tour and this is what I saw 🙂

Whilst we waited for the tour guide cum driver to arrive, I amused myself by taking some more pics , there were some brillant potted flowering plants and some lvelky banter of a large group of women apparently a “HEN PARTY” part of a day long Bachelorette party ,what fun !

Just when the small cowd beginning to get impatient that the lively ,energetic and extreemly well informed guide arrived and ensured we were all seated properly,rattled off some basic safety instructions and we took off on what was to be a tour with breathtakingly spectaluar views and laods of snippets of local history and ofcourse tons of information of how the grapes are grown, the types of grape varities grown, how popular the wine is and history about the owners of the land and the vineyard both past and present . I shall leave these details out as it would be a kill joy for those that want to go do the tour and mostly because since I had been there months ago most of it had been wiped off from the slate in my mind, strange though because even now if I close my eyes and imagine the tour guides voice I can sort of do most of the tours and see the same things as I have photographed in my mind’s ,it’s quite refreshing doing that especially on a dull winter evening . It’s early March and cant really call this Winter but heck it isn’t getting warmer yet is it now ?

This is the first picture I took while in the jeep train as I like to call it .What clear skies I say, beautiful !

And thus here we were a group of strangers on a fine Autummn day about to have a shared experience of delightfull visual impact and create a pleasant memory that will last for a long time to come!

We stopped at a spot high up on the hill we were on and I got the perfect photo opportunity I’d been waiting for …

Further ahead we came to a plateau like area where part of the massive old house inhabited by the original owners used to stand , some tiny portion has been resurected and is still in use , and by tiny I mean massive for us urabn folks living in matchbox houses , this is like 4 bog country houses put together but tiny in contrast to what used to be a grand residence of the yesteryears.

That’s our cheerfull guide holding some images of original plans of the structures back then , there was small quiz and I got a chocolate for getting some answers correct Yipeeeee !!!

Then I just took few snaps before the tour came to an end. Here they are :

After that tour we walked over to a rather quaint Kitchen Garden Centre in the premises.It has the most wonderfull things to add to ones garden and ofcourse a large amount of saplings,wind chimes,garden ornaments,pots and plants and an area selling cold sandwiches for famished souls as well,which can be consumed sitting at one of the wodden tree stump table and stools. It is a delight to stroll around the place and see the colourfull display of flora mixed with artistic and stylish garden ornaments.

By the time we were done with our stroll , it was time to adress the serious hunger pangs we all were having.

Surrey is beautiful there is so much to explore in the county, some off beat places, great places to trek or simply walk and ofcourse a vineyard to visit.

Aren’t the hedgehogs adorable 🙂 ?

Are you thinking of booking yourself in for a wine-tasting? Then you definitely check out my post about my visit to a wine tasting ‘school’ in London here. And if you are going to be in Amsterdam then definitely check out this great wine and cheese tasting experience which my husband and I were invited to and enjoyed thoroughly.

I love planning day trips and outdoor activities apart from our family holidays and trips abroad. If you are looking for travel inspiration do have a look at my other blog posts:

When I was in India, I went eco-camping with my girfriends to a beautiful hill-station called Lonavla, read all about it here:

Eco-camping in Panchgani

Also, if you are looking for some great camping trips when heading out with your family in the U.K do check out this blog post by blogger Collette

Let me know your thoughts in my comments section. It can be anything right from sharing your own experiences at Denbie’s Vineyard or about your travek wishlist. I also want to hear from you about what would you like to read about next on my blog? I love hearing from my readers!

Experiments with Food Photography

Olympics 2012 Hightened Excitement !

Shahi Khichadi

England’s largest Vineyard – Denbie’s Wine Estate, Dorking, Surrey

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