Going back in time…

I took a trip down memory lane today!

When I was 7 and in primary school we made Jewish potato latkes for Hanukkah and today I thought of making them.

😊I went straight back in my mind to the classroom with all my friends and my teacher trying something new that tantalised my taste buds😊

Potato latkes recipe

Ingredients

3 large red potatoes, peeled & grated

1 small onion grated

1 large egg

Salt to season

Olive oil

Method

Place the grated potato and onion into a colander and squeeze out excess liquid

Mix the egg and salt in a bowl and stir in the potato and onion mix

Heat a tablespoon of oil in a small frying pan and press the mix into the pan on a low heat

Wait 2 to 3 minutes and carefully flip the latke over

Cook on both sides until golden brown

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Sagar Vegetarian Restaurant

A few days ago I went to review Sagar Restaurant, which specialises in Pure South Indian vegetarian cuisine. The menu allows you to explore other regional veg dishes especially infamous chaats from Mumbai!

My initial impression was that it was lovely.  The decor was simple, clean yet striking, a quiet and calming space, very zen like to be able to eat in peace and comfort. Traditional music was floating in the air which definitely added to the ambiece of the restaurant. 

The staff were extremely attentive, helpful and knew their dishes well. I fancied the Idli Sambhar, my mum who had accompanied me, was recommended to have the Medu Vada. 

These starters were truly incredible.
The idli were like soft clouds that just melted away on my tongue. The silky texture of onion in the sambhar and its consistency was spot on!

The medu vada, simple  crispy battered fried doughnuts, not greasy but cooked to perfection, was stunning when dipped into the coconut chutney and drenched in the tasty sambhar!

I was also pleasantly surprised having ordered an orange juice that I received a freshly squeezed sweet and tangy oj.

For my mains the Traditional Udapi thali was getting prepared and the chilli & onion Uttapam for my mum.

The thali is one of their best sellers and I can totally understand why and I agree! Presented well and all the individual dishes were named and shown to me by Shridhara the manager. 

I found all the elements of the thali complimented each other.  A mixture of curries, dry and saucy. Two types of dal to go with the heaped mountain of rice. The over generous puri/flatbread binded each portion together.

My favourite in particular had to be the dry cabbage bhaji. A soft, salty, crunchy dry curry. Extremely tasty and so very moreish! The creamy yogurt based coconut curry was amazing too!

“Rasam…ummmm!” Was how my mum described the thin almost transparent soup.  It was to her liking due to the chilli factor. It hit the back of your throat with a warming sensation!  I just loved how she reacted.

My siro, a sweet semolina pudding had started to disappear mysteriously.  Yes you guessed right, my mother couldn’t help herself.  She said she never eats siro unless it’s homemade but the look of Sagar’s siro tempted her.  I too loved it. Sweetly balanced, the cashews were toasted and cardamom notes stayed on my palette ~ Divine!!

Overall I can’t rate this restaurant enough.  I have to admit so far it is THE BEST SOUTH INDIAN restaurant I have been to and I have been to a few!

There’s no surprise that there are two more branches of Sagar in Central London.

If you fancy traditional South Indian food, good service and great prices, Sagar is the place to go!

I would sincerely like to thank Shridhara and Jay Kumar for awesome service and the management for having us over for the review

Please feel free to visit their website http://sagarveg.co.uk/ and try this yummy restaurant for yourselves 
Until next time, much love D x

If you would like me to review your vegetarian restaurant dishes in the UK, please feel free to message me on dhmakani@gmail.com

A Spicy Chipotle Tomato Sauce

The perfect sauce for your gnocchi. Smoked Chipotle chilli flakes with fleshy tomatoes crushed with garlic salt and pepper and a little bit of rape seed oil. Which in turn gives you a wonderful aromatic spicy and yet tantalizing sauce for any pasta dish!
All you do is blitz all the ingredients and gently cook through to fuse all the flavours.

INGREDIENTS 

1 tin crushed/whole tomatoes

1 medium white onion

2 garlic cloves

1 tbsp rapeseed oil 

2 pinches chipotle dried flakes

1 tsp garlic salt

Ground black pepper to taste

Dried Oregano to taste 

Salt to taste 

METHOD 

Blend the tomatoes, onion and garlic cloves together

Heat the oil in a medium saucepan. Sprinkle in the chipotle flakes, pepper, dried oregano  and garlic salt as the oil heats up

Keeping on a slow heat, pour the tomato blended mix. Season with salt, stir and cover the saucepan

Cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally 

Serve with gnocci or your favourite pasta

Enjoy!

The Carrot, An Orange Delight

The carrot…not one of my vegetables of choice but now is, as both my boys love them as does our pet house rabbit Alfie!

I’m just about getting myself to eating them raw, like them in a fruit & veg juice mix and now I have made them a little tangy to add them as a side dish to any Indian meal

INGREDIENTS

3 medium carrots, peeled and sliced into thin rounds
½ tbsp sunflower oil
1 tsp cumin powder
½ tsp black mustard seeds
Salt to taste
Fresh lime juice to taste

METHOD

In a medium saucepan, heat the oil and mustard seeds. As soon as the seeds start to pop, gently add in the carrots

Sprinkle with the cumin powder, mix well so that all the carrots are coated. Cover and reduce the heat. Cook for 5 to 7 minutes til slightly soft

Season with salt and fresh lime juice, cover and cook until the carrot is a little more tender.

Serve with your favourite Indian meal

Worded Wednesday

We have just hit the magic 11k number in our group “Sharing Food With Shivaay Delights”

If you are on Facebook, please feel free to join us on our food journey, where we share our love of vegetarian food on an international scale.

Come post your foodie blog posts!  Hope to see you all there…

Much love, D x

https://www.facebook.com/groups/sharingfoodwithshivaaydelights/

Ice cream Bhapa Doi

Aahaaram is one of my absolute favourite food blogs. My wonderful friend Aruna is the talented chef behind this vegetarian marvel. I was extremely ecstatic when she offered to do a guest post for me. I look up to her as a senior food writer and sister. She inspires me with every one of her recipes and I am always learning from her.

Thanks Aruna for Aahaaram…We love you!

Over to my dear friend Aruna Panangipally for a sweet ice cold delight…

It my greatest pleasure that I am able to do this super simple yet super delicious guest post for Dimple. Dimple was one of my earliest blogging friends and one with a 1000-watt smile that can light up the whole world. I love Dimple’s recipes because they are infused with same joie de vivre, and are so simple yet so flavourful. 

Dimple always had nothing but kind and encouraging words for me. When I asked her to do a guest post for me, she agreed readily and came up with this delicious Sweet Corn and Spinach Curry‏ and I have only just got around to doing this post for her.

Of the choices I gave her, Dimple chose Bhapa Doi, a dessert that looks deceptively plain but is chockablock of tastes. This Bengali dessert is nothing but Sweet Steamed Yogurt that is oh-so-creamy and just the right kind of sweet; not overpowering yet has a lovely lingering after taste. 

What I love best is the fact that it gets done super fast (though one has to wait for it to chill, sigh!) and is simply super delicious.

Truth be told, I am loathe to share Bhapa Doi with anyone. 🙂

So without much ado, here you go:

Serves: 4 (If you want to share :-))
Cooking Time: 30 Mins
Chilling Time: 4 hours
Ingredients
Sweetened Condensed Milk – 400 gms
Thick Yogurt – 250 ml
Milk – 250 ml
Method
Blend together the condensed milk, yogurt, and milk.
Pour into a steel vessel.
Cover well with a foil or a heavy lid. Anything that will prevent water from entering the vessel.
Steam in a pressure cooker without the weight for 15 minutes. 
Let the cooker cool completely to room temperature.
Chill the Bhapa Doi for 3 to 4 hours.
Enjoy!

Peppered Cassava

My Dad adores cassava and they both go back a long way. He grew up on this nutritious food in Africa and also prepared it for us here. My brothers and I fell in love with it too. Such a versatile vegetable that has a distinctive flavour and texture yet takes on spices and other accompanying ingredients so well.

So here you have one of my Dad’s amazing cassava recipes…I thoroughly hope you enjoy it as much as we do. Thanks for sharing Dad…Much love, D x

INGREDIENTS

1 packet frozen cassava, steamed until tender (pieces)
1 level tsp ground black pepper
1 tbsp sunflower oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
Boiling water
Salt to taste
Fresh coriander to garnish

METHOD

Heat the oil and cumin seeds in a large saucepan on a medium heat. Once the seeds start to sizzle, carefully add the cassava into the saucepan

Mix well so that all the cassava is covered in the oil and seeds

Pour over boiling water, ensuring that the cassava is just about covered with water

Sprinkle in the pepper and salt. Reduce to a low heat and cover. Cook for 15 to 25 minutes until the cassava has become even softer and the whole dish looks creamy

Garnish with fresh coriander and get your serving bowls ready. Tastes superb with some natural yoghurt

Loving My New Cards…

I finally got round to designing my name cards. From being an optician to writing about food…What a career change! But I would have it no other way! I am really loving exploring and cooking all types of vegetarian food. I can’t wait to get into my kitchen and start cooking some more.

Hope you are all well friends. Do please come join me on Facebook and Twitter for lots more foodie interaction!

Have a beautiful day friends..Much love, D x

Simple Bombay Potato Curry

It is easy to forget that one of the main reasons I started this food blog was to and is still to record lots of recipes, that I have learnt, that I have developed. This particular dry potato curry is a speciality of my Mum and Dad’s. It is one that I grew up on, with moong lentil daal and rice plus fluffy chapatis.

Today I am treating my family to this ultra healthy meal and deliciousness!…I couldn’t let you all, my friends here on Shivaay Delights miss out either. The potato curry has the simplest of ingredients and results in an extremely tasty soft velvety melt in your mouth potato treat. Do give it a whirl and let me know how you like it.

Have a Wonderful Wednesday, much love, D x

INGREDIENTS

4 medium red potatoes, peeled and cubed 2cm pieces
2 tbsp sunflower oil
½ tsp mustard seeds
½ tsp cumin seeds
A pinch of asafoetida
1 tsp salt or to taste
¾ tsp turmeric
2 tsp coriander & cumin powder
Fresh coriander to garnish

METHOD

Heat the oil on a medium heat along with the asafoetida, cumin and mustard seeds.  Once the seeds start to pop add the potatoes. 

Sprinkle all the seasoning and spices, toss the potatoes so that all is covered in the oil and spices

Reduce the heat to low, cover and cook the curry for 10 minutes, check mix again and cook for another 10 minutes.  Keep an eye on it and when the potatoes are tender when sliced your curry is done.  Garnish with some fresh coriander and serve with naan bread

I Am Soooo Eggcited!!!!

My Sunday buy at the local supermarket allowed me to come across this very funky egg timer.  Determining the type of boiled egg you would like to devour with some buttered toast.

All I have to do is put this gadget in the pan with the boiling water and eggs and wait for the orange colour to change to white.  Giving me soft..medium or hard boiled eggs!!

I seriously can’t wait to use it.  You’ve probably guessed I’m going to be having comforting soft/medium eggs for lunch!!!…Ummmmmm…

See you soon for a chickpea chapati recipe I made last week. Have a relaxing Sunday. Much love, D x