La Tapenade Mediterranean Café @Bengaluru International Airport KIAB

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La Tapenade....The name a very french dish prepared with olives, the spread is smeared on crostinis. La Tapenade Mediterranean Café features a range of flavors from the Mediterranean using locally sourced ingredients, as well as sauces and dishes made daily in-house.

The cafe is tucked inside a bustling Bengaluru international terminal at KIAB. The restaurant reminds me of a cruise ship sailing in a blue Mediterranean sea. The casual and comfortable seating offers fresh mezze platters, pizzas, sandwiches few dishes are pre-made just grab on the go.

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Food: Lebanese, Mediterranean, Italian, Baked goodies and more... We started our tasting session with a refreshing peach iced tea, followed by a very large mezze platter, which consisted of peta bread, hummus, turkish salad falafel and babaganoush. The flavors and taste were fab and very stomach friendly.

After and elaborate starter, I sampled some freshly baked focaccia and bread sticks with a ginger based dipping sauce, a very unique taste perfect for a hungry traveler, who just wants a snack portion with some tea.

From the grills, we got to sample chicken skewers, baharat chicken roast, harissa prawns and crispy basa with polenta, and dipping sauces. Just the grills with some pita bread is sufficient for a family of 3. The portions size is huge served with dipping sauces and veggies on side.

We also sampled pizzas and pasta. Flavorful thin crust pizzas, with simple toppings of mushrooms, olives and chicken were yum. Cheesy alfredo and a chunky arrabbiata pasta were served with a crusty garlic herbed bread. I loved the flavor a taste of the arrabbiatta pasta.

For Desserts, we had blue berry cheese cake, tiramisu and lime granita. I polished of the tiramisu and cheese cake it was so good freshly prepared. 

What I liked was the healthy menu, reasonably priced with a good selection of freshly beaked and sourced produce. Portion size is good to fill up 2 to 3 people. Order in small portions if your a single traveler. Service is good neatly maintained space.

Peach Iced Tea

Mezze Platter

Hummus

Babaganoush

Turkish Salad with Feta

Falafel

Focaccia

Grill Roasted Baharat Chicken

Chicken Skewers

Grill Platter: Prawns, Basa and Chicken

Harissa

Cheesy alfredo and Chunky arrabbiata pasta 

Chunky Arrabbiata Pasta 

Chef Murali Murthy

Mushroom, Olives and bell pepper Pizza

Grilled Chicken Pizza

Tiramisu

Blue Berry Cheese Cake

Lime Granita

Custard Powder Halwa

Custard powder halwa is a classic recipe. My granny and mom always used to make variations in this recipe sometimes they would add green color and pista flavor or pineapple flavor and chunks of tinned pineapple its totally your choice you can create any flavor halwa with just custard powder. 

I changed a few things here and there instead of ghee I used coconut oil since that is my current favorite flavor and used cardamom essence instead of powder i did not like specks of cardamom peeking through in a transparent halwa. Custard powder is eggless this recipe is an excellent life saver if your organizing parties and have to create instant desserts for guests.

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Ingredients:

1 Cup Custard Powder

2 Cups Sugar

10 Cashews Chopped + 1 Tbsp Melon Seeds

(We can also add chopped almonds and pista)

6 Tbsp Coconut oil

3 Drops Cardamom Flavor

2 Cups Water

I've given tea cup measure for all the ingredients. Use cake tin or any Tupperware or cheese container to set the halwa...

Method:

• Heat a wok on medium flame. Add coconut oil once the coconut oil foams a bit add the chopped cashews and melon seeds fry till the cashews turn light pink in color.
• Once the cashews turn light pink in color add sugar and custard powder mix all the ingredients till well combined.
• Fry the custard powder and sugar on very low flame for a minute.

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• Add water to the mixture and stir to form a smooth batter.
• Add the cardamom flavor and keep stirring.
• On low flame keep stirring the mixture making sure the sugar melts thoroughly.
• Once the custard mixture turns lumpy and forms halwa consistency place the flame on high and stir till the halwa turns transparent. 
• The halwa will turn glossy in 10 minutes at that point transfer into a container in which you want the halwa to set allow to cool and cut into desired pieces...Serve...Enjoy. 

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MOU TAVERNA EVERY SATURDAY @Azure Taj Vivanta Yeswanthpuram Bengaluru

Azure by Taj Vivanta hosted us for their newly launched Mediterranean buffet MOU TAVERNA(A Family Feast). The Grand buffet every Saturday will feature a mix of mouth-watering delicacies from europe and middle east. Apart from a wonderful spread there is a range of products on display which is hand-picked and sold from gourmet cheese to carpets fresh organic veggies, and lot more.

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Anteroom

Large cocktail lounge allows for the perfect setting to enjoy one of the many cocktails from an extensive drinks menu, which have been created with the cultural richness of the Mediterranean in mind. 

Ambiance: Lounge which creates the ideal setting to unwind and socialize with friends. The Decor with different shades of blue and turquoise bright and centrally air conditioned space. 

Dinning Area

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Executive Chef Uddipan Chakravarthy

Gourmet Cheese and Veggies 

Soup and Bread Station

We started with few beers and enjoyed the clear vegetable soup and breads. What I would've loved is some butter served with hot breads. 

Dips and Pickles

The cold cuts, dips and appetizers is something that I indulged a lot and was left with no space for the mains. From the dips the hummus, babaganoush and roasted pumpkin dip was superb. From the salads I loved the turnip and feta salad, braised pear and goat cheese salad. My picks from appetizers were caprese with zaatar and crab roll fresh flavors and awesome taste.

Cold Cuts

Bite Size Appetizers 

Crab Rolls

Spiced Beet Roll

Cocktail Prawns

Exotic Pickled Fruit

Liver Pate on toast

Salads and Hummus

My Plate

Cheese Cigars and Falafel 

Crunchy Prawns

Pepperoni Pizza

Seekhs on Butter Naan

Grilled Chicken and Prawns in Harrisa Paste 

Creamy Chicken

Grilled Pork Sausages, Chicken and Lamb

Chicken Shawarma

The live counters is another feature on this buffet. We enjoyed watching chefs create grilled pizzas, chicken and seekhs...the aromas from the live counters was amazing. 

What I enjoyed from the live counters were prawn fitters, seekhs, shawarma, grilled pizza were too good totally appreciate the efforts of chefs. 

Buffet Table

Veg Delicacies 

Roasted Pepper Savory Muffins
Spiced Artichoke with Sun dried tomato Croquettes
Vegetable stuffed in spinach crepes
Mushroom risotto
Basbousa
Grilled vegetable briami
Avri meshwi

We tasted small portions from the mains the mushroom risotto was creamy perfectly done. Muffins and spinach crepes were innovative very good presentation...What I liked in the veg selection was the basbousa sweet and savory tasted really good with grilled chicken.

Non-Veg Delicacies 

Lamb Scallop-Pian

Char Grilled Chicken

Jambalaya

Tenderloin

Savory Chicken Muffin

Seared Himalayan Trout

Roasted Pork belly

The himalayan trout, jambalaya and chicken muffin was good. I would've liked few dishes like lamb and chicken to be bit spicy..Jambalaya was a let down dish it was dry and not moist..

My Plate

Dessert Table

Dessert Spread was amazing we loved the coffee mousse cake,  chocolate teapot, raspberry mousse and pannacotta. The word is “huge.” Come hungry, plan to share. Overall our experience was very good worth every penny for sure will recommend Azure for your next family dine out.

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www.vivantabytaj.com/yeshwantpur

Vivanta by Taj, 2275 Tumkur Road, 

Yeshwantpur, Bangalore

080 49652596

 

Keema Bharay Baingan (Eggplant Stuffed With Lamb Mince)

I wanted to prepare something new was experimenting on few dishes and finally some how combined keema and brinjal the curry was tasty we liked it with rumali roti. Next time I'm going to try the same recipe with chicken and also a coconut curry base.

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Ingredients:

For meat stuffing

300 Grams Eggplant/Brinjal

250 Grams Lamb Mince or Chicken Mince

3 to 4 Chilies 

1 Tsp Chilly powder, 1/4 Tsp Turmeric powder, 1/4 Tsp Coriander powder, 1 Tsp Desiccated Coconut, 1/4 Tsp Black Pepper corns, 1 Tsp Garam Masala

1/2 Onion roughly chopped

2 Sprigs Mint and Coriander Leaves

For Curry

1 Onion Paste

1 Tomato Pureed 

1 Tbsp Ginger and Garlic Paste

1 Tbsp Chilly Powder, 1/4 Tsp Turmeric powder, 1 Tsp Coriander powder, 1 Tbsp Garam Masala

Oil and ghee as required

Salt as per taste

Lime juice mint and coriander leaves for garnish.

Method:

• If you get a fine mince then avoid this step. Add meat to a mixerjar grind to create a fine mince reserve in a mixing bowl.
• In the same mixer jar add the spices, coriander, mint, chilies, ginger and garlic grind to form a paste add the paste to the mince mix well and allow to marinate for 15 minutes.
• Clean the brinjal scrape the thrones from steam cut the steam half way cut the brinjal into segments once the brinjal is chopped add to water this will avoid discoloration.
• Once the mince has marinated for half hour add salt and mix since there is onion in the mince it may tend to release a lot of moisture and will be tough for us to fill the keema inside the brinjal.

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• Stuff the mince inside the brinjal.
• Add 2 Tsp oil in a wok place it on medium flame. Gently place the stuffed brinjal to the wok cover and cook for 10 minutes on low flame do not add water to the vegetable the mince has enough moisture it will cook the brinjal.
• After 10 minutes gently turn the brinjal and cook it till well done. Remove from flame.
• Place another wok on medium flame add 2 tbsp oil or ghee once the wok is hot add the onion paste and ginger and garlic paste fry till raw flavor has gone and the onion should turn light pink in color.
• Add tomato and dry spices fry a bit add water and salt stir and cover cook the gravy till oil separates.
• Once the oil separated add the brinjal gently spoon the gravy on the brinjal cover and cook the brinjal for a minute garnish with lime juice, mint and coriander serve hot...Enjoy...:)

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