Quail Eggs FTW

Spotted some Quail eggs in M. K. Retail the other day, and thought I would try it out. Tasty, but did not seem very different to my palate from hen eggs though. Will try some other variations maybe, like this nice one with soft-boiled eggs with Potato galette (recipe). Quail eggs seem to be a common part of South East and East Asian street food, as well as gourmet delicacies in continental cooking like the photo above.

Interestingly shaped sausage

Snail Bratwurst at Cafe Max I had never seen a sausage shaped like this before. From my searches online, it seems that it is a common shape in european sausages. I can see that this shape makes the sausage easier to grill. This happens to be a German Bratwurst which I had at Cafe Max, Indiranagar.

Home made mozzarella

Pioneer woman makes mozzarella! The Pioneer woman blogs about making fresh mozzarella at home. Looks pretty doable!

The Buddha's hand!

Doesn’t this look like an octopus hanging off a tree?

This fruit is called Buddha’s hand and is more formally known as Citrus medica (var. sarcodactylis). I actually found out about this strange looking fruit in this entry of one of my favourite cartoon strips - a Knight’s Life.

Originally, from north east india and China, it is used in Western cooking for it’s lemon like zest.

Home Cooking: Banana Muffins

Nowadays, this is how overripe bananas at our home end up. This is probably one of the easiest fool-proof recipe to make. You can use the same batter for either banana muffins or a banana cake. The tried and tested recipe follows.

Bangalore Restaurants blog's 2011 highlights

One of my favorite and highly recommended Bangalore specific food blogs - Bangalore’s Restaurants, has just published their yearly summary for 2011. For those, like us, who are always looking out for new places to try, the blog post provides some very interesting choices. To begin with, I think I will try out that middle-eastern restaurant at Koramangala! :)

Butter paper (wax paper) vs parchment paper

Now that is why my last attempt to bake Focaccia on butter paper (what wax paper is called around here) was such a disaster. I need to find if parchment paper is found in Indian stores. The main difference between waxed paper and parchment paper is their respective coatings. Parchment paper is coated with silicone to give it a nonstick, heat-resistant surface, whereas waxed paper is coated with a wax such as soybean or paraffin.

Kobe's sizzlers, koramangala

My last experience with Kobe’s at Garuda mall was not good at all. I never visited it again for five years while Sikandar, next to it at the mall has been a regular stop whenever we were at the mall. Tonight, on our weekend eat out dinner, we decided to try out Kobe’s new outlet at koramangala. Was packed by 9pm when we reached. I tried the chicken satellite (photo above) .

Cafe Max, Indiranagar

Cafe Max at Max Mueller bhavan, CMH road, Indiranagar has some really interesting European food. In the picture, Italian chicken escalope in the foreground and chicken salad at the back. Chicken escalope at Cafe Max

Making homemade mayo using a hand blender

I have always dreamt of making mayonnaise at home, but got put off by the almost clinical requirements to make one. Blend yolk, drizzle oil drop-by-drop, let it settle, whisk-and-pause, etc. etc. So I was pleasantly surprised to find this video on youtube which dispensed with all those requirements and make mayo using the most unconventional method possble. He just puts all the ingredients in a certain order in what looks like a small glass and blends to magically create the mayo.