Chow Chow Bhath Recipe (Kharabhath and Kesari)

Chow Chow in southindian dialect means combination or mixture. Spicy and flavorful upma or kharabath paired and served with a sweet kesari is referred as chow chow bhath in Karnataka and Bangalore. 

One can find this chow chow bhath sold at darshinis / Sagar style hotels (quick serving eatery) across bangalore. My favorite places to order this dish in bangalore are Brahmins cafe, By 2 Coffee, CTR or Shri Sagar, Veena Stores, Vidyarthi Bhavan, Uphar Dharshini, Anand Bhavan (A2B) and Shanthi Sagar. 

This breakfast combo is a comfort food for many early morning travelers, office goers and college students. Every Bengalurean based family has a tradition to prepare this combo atleast once in a week or for Sunday brunch.

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Pic: Chow Chow Bhath tasted at vidyarthi bhavan on my Basavangudi breakfast trail series.

Ingredients for Upma:

2 Coffee Tumblers or 1 Cup Measure Measure Semolina (Upma Rawa)

2 Medium Size Onions

2 Medium Size Tomatoes 

4 to 5 Green Chilies (Depending on heat level)

3 Sprigs Curry Leaves

5 Sprigs Coriander Leaves 

1/4 Tsp Asafoetida

1 Tsp Mustard Seeds

1 Tsp Split Black Gram Dhal

Salt, Oil and Ghee as required.

Lime Juice and Coriander for garnish...

Ingredients for Pineapple Kesari:

1 Cup Sooji/ Semolina

2 Cups Sugar

250 Grams Fresh Pineapple Slices

1/4 Cup Oil

8 Tbsp Ghee

1 Tbsp Cardamom Powder

1/4 Tsp Pineapple Flavor

5 Drops Yellow Food Color

A Pinch of Salt...

Method to prepare kharabath:

Heat a wok on medium flame allow to reach temperature. once wok or pan reaches temperature place on low flame, add the measured semolina, stir constantly until the semolina starts to get aromatic and turn light pink in color.

For beginners best practice is to dry roast semolina in small batches. If the semolina is dry roasted well lumps will not form easily in the upma. We can allow the semolina to cool in room temperature and store in a airtight container until use.

Bring 8 cups of water to rapid boil, we will divide this warm water and use for both recipes.

Heat the same pan or wok on medium flame add 4 tbsp oil allow to reach until smoking point. Place on low to medium flame add the mustard and split black gram dhal, allow the mustard to splutter and dhal to turn brown in color. 

Once the mustard stops spluttering, add finely chopped onion, tomatoes, asafoetida, slit chillies, curry leaves, and finely chopped coriander fry all the ingredients until onions turn transparent.

To cook the onions faster add 1 tsp salt and fry until the onions and tomatoes have softened and cooked well.

For every 1 cup measure semolina add 2 cup measure warm water. Add the dry roasted rawa or semolina to the onion masala and fry for a minute. Add 2 tbsp ghee and warm water stir constantly and making sure there are no lumps. Check for salt and add if needed, cover and cook the upma on medium flame.

Once the semolina has observed  majority of the moisture remove from flame and reserve in a hot pack.

Method to prepare Kesari Baath:
Heat a wok with one tbsp ghee, add 1 cup semolina, constantly keep stirring and roast until semolina turns light pink in color remove from flame reserve on a plate  until use. Boil 3 cups water reserve.

Heat a fry pan on low flame with 2 tbsp ghee. Once the ghee melts and reaches temperature add dried fruits cashews and raisins fry on medium flame.

Fry the dry fruits till light golden reserve on a plate. Using the same pan heat another 2tbsp oil or ghee add the cubed pineapple and 2tbsp of sugar fry until the sugar caramalizes and coats the pineapple the fruit should not burn at the same time it should have semi cooked reserve on a plate.

Heat a wok with 4 tbsp ghee and oil allow to reach temperature. Add the fried semolina to the ghee and oil fry for a minute. Add warm water stir well and cook the semolina until water is absorbed.

Add sugar and stir until sugar melts. Add fried and reserved dried fruits, semi cooked pineapple, cardamom powder, yellow food color stir, pinch of salt and combine all ingredients.

Cover and cook the kesari until semolina has observed majority of moisture. Once the ghee surfaces to the sides kesari it is done remove from flame.

We use a small cup to mould the upma and kesari and serve both the dishes together along with Chutney and enjoy eating it as hot as possible 😊

My Parents Tasted New Menu @Mainland China, Orion Mall-Bengaluru

Excitement filled the air, when i told my parents were invited for a tasting session at Mainland China. As a family this is our first group review on the new menu tasting. Mainland China is very famous pan-asian eatery which has multiple branches; we visited the branch located at Orion mall.

Ambience: Very inviting and grand entrance with live size terracotta soldiers greeting the customers, the air filled with aromas of stir fries and curries is surely a warm, inviting and homely atmosphere. 

One can choose semi open seating or indoor dining, which is convenient to access the buffet, but if you opt the ala-carte menu the outdoor seating is best during summer, which overlooks a large fountain. The decor is vibrant, comfy chairs and well stocked bar to keep one occupied for hours. New menu offers soups, appetizers, dimsums, mains and followed by an extensive drink menu.

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Here's what we tasted...

Orange Mojito (Mocktail)

Fresh squeezed orange juice spiked with mint, ginger and sprite...

Kimchi, Pickled Cucumbers and Sauces made inhouse for dimsums. There are sauces that can be purchased which is also placed on display.

We enjoyed the kimchi, spring onion and basil sauce for dimsums...

Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Clear Soup

aromas of mint, star-anise, ginger and spring onion with chewy noodles and springy chicken was so comforting...

Crispy Lotus Root 

Crispy lotus roots were tossed with curry leaves, crushed black pepper and a sticky chilly soy. This dish has a very distinct southern fusion element which we loved.

Crispy Corn Cubes 

Lightly coated with cornflakes was crunchy and literally melted every bite the spring onion chilly soy sauce was perfect condiment...

Dynamic Prawns in Silken Tangy Mayo

Showstopper dish presented at our table. People dining there literally turned to catch a glimpse of the dramatic presentation. The prawns were soft and not chewy, which was lightly batter coated and fried, crispy skin has absorbed majority of the chilly mayo, prefect appetizer for chilled beer....

Crispy Chicken with Smoked Chilly and Peppers 

Tender morsels of chicken are coated with a light batter and fried. the crispy chicken is wok tossed with crushed black peppers, ginger, garlic, smoked chilies and sweet bell peppers. Nice presentation and very aromatic. This dish was served as an appetizer, but its a must have accompaniment for fried rice or  noodles. 

Up next were dimsums...

Spiced Tofu Dimsums with Mountain Chillies
The tofu filling was mildly spiced and very soft. Wrapper had perfect texture...chewy and soft, best part was flavors from plantain leaf...

Thai Style Chicken Dumplings 

Soft mince chicken with lemongrass and kaffir lime.

Thai Style Vegetable Dumplings 

Both the chicken and vegetable dimsums had the same flavor but tasted different. Veggie dimsums were crunchy tasted fresh, whereas the chicken was soft but had very strong flavors from kaffir lime. 

Prawn Siu-mai with Lemongrass

I felt the outer skin could have been slightly soft but the prawn filling was superb.

Main Course...

Japanese Buckwheat Noodles 

Soft yet chewy buck wheat noodles were wok tossed with vegetables, loads of garlic and garnished with chilly oil...

Sichuan Chicken Hot Pot

Tender morsels of chicken combined and cooked with shitake mushrooms, shallots and black bean sauce was a perfect accompaniment with edamame fried rice...

Exotic Vegetables in Black Pepper Sauce

Crunchy veggies were perfectly prepared it could have been slighly spicy but tasted really well with fried rice and noodles...

Vegetable and Edamame Fried Rice

Every grain in this fried rice was separated, that's how I like it. Fried rice on its own tasted good but must pair the rice with chilly sauce from the condiments, kimchi and pickled cucumbers. I had three servings of rice with condiments, chicken and vegetable curries it was excellent.

We finished our lunch with lovely desserts...

Surprise Chocolate Dome 

A cascading chocolate dome decorated with caramel popcorn and centered with a large scoop of vanilla icecream, fudge brownie, honey noodles and chocolate...the surprise was unravelled once the hot chocolate was poured on top to reveal the hidden dessert.

Such a lovely dessert. The hot chocolate with fudge brownie and honey noodles was amazing...

We ended our lunch with mango custard. Packed with fresh flavors the mango custard was set to perfection, topped with fresh chopped mango and served on fresh mango puree with a hint of mint flavor from the mint garnish was light and really awesome😍

Overall experience...staff were super courteous and very friendly. my parents enjoyed the lunch it was all new experience for them. We enjoyed all the dishes.

I would like to visit them again for buffet someday the spread looks lovely. After shopping or movie at the mall one can surely expect a hearty meal at mainland china the new menu is promising and offers variety of dishes.

Our picks from the menu was chicken soup with noodles, thai vegetable dim sum, crispy lotus roots with black pepper and curry leaves, tofu dim sum, kimchi, smoked chilly chicken with peppers, buckwheat noodles and szechuan chicken hot pot with shitake mushrooms. 

All beverages are fresh it did not taste stale after a long time I got to taste good quality drinks here and beer was chilled which is really refreshing on a humid day. Meal for a couple would cost 1500/- to 2000/- if your in a group try all the dishes from the new menu it would cost between 3500/- to 4000/- ++ 

Chinese Chicken Biryani Recipe

I have tasted so many Biryani variations in the past and was always inspired to recreate a fusion biryani with chinese flavors. My formula to recreate this recipe is from different regions of china, malaysia and singapore. 

I watched so many videos on fried rice, hainanese chicken rice, schezwan fried rice and mughlai biryani, I've tried my best to sort the ingredients and create the ultimate biryani recipe. I'm yet to perfect this recipe but the thought process and recipe creation is original, I've not copied anyones recipe in the making. 

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First Step Washing the Chicken:
1 kilo 250 grams Chicken with Skin
1/4 Cup Salt
1/4 Cup White Vinegar 

Rub the chicken with salt and vinegar allow the chicken to marinate in this rub for 15 minutes. Vinegar and salt helps the chicken to tenderize and cure this is like a brine mixture.

Wash the chicken thoroughly in running water drain excess water using a colander...Reserve.

Second Step Preparing Chicken Stock:
Prepped chicken
1/2 Bunch Spring Onions
1 Large Onion (Peel, wash and chop in large pieces)
2 Inch Ginger(Wash, peel and chop into large slices)
1 Whole Garlic (Peel and wash)
10 Whole Green Chillies (Slit in middle)
10 Sprigs Coriander use the stem and roots (Wash and reserve)
1 Maggi Bullion Cube (Optional)
1 Inch Cinnamon
2 Star anise 
5 Cloves
1 Bayleaf
Salt 
5 Cups Water

Use a pressure cooker, place on medium flame, add water bring to rapid boil.

Add the whole spices, bullion stock cubes, salt, spring onions, onion, garlic, ginger, green chilies, coriander, and chicken to the boiling water cover and cook until chicken is cooked 90%.

Drain the chicken from the stock and reserve separately.
Drain the stock and masala.

We will grind all the ingredients used in the sock for the biryani masala base and stock to cook the rice.

Third Step Frying the Onions and Chicken:
1/2 Cup Peanut or Sunflower Oil
3 Large Sliced Onions
Cooked Chicken.

Peel, Wash and slice the onion as thin as possible separate the strands and reserve.

Heat the oil on medium flame till it starts to smoke.

Fry the onions on low to medium flame till light brown in color.
Drain the onions and reserve on a tissue paper.

Deep fry the chicken in same oil the chicken will absorb the onion flavor fry till light brown in color drain from excess oil...Reserve.

Oil might tend to get dark in color do not discard as we will use the flavored oil in biryani.

Fourth Step Preparing Biryani Gravy and Rice:
1 Large Onion Finely Chopped
1/4 Bunch Spring Onions Finely Chopped
1 Inch Ginger Finely Chopped
1 Whole Garlic Finely Chopped
2 Carrots Finely Chopped (Optional)
1/4 Cup Peas (Optional)
5 Coffee Tumbler Meassure Basmati Rice Or Use 600 Grams Rice.
Drained and Reserved Stock and Masala
2 Tbsp Vinegar
2 Sachets Schezwan Fried Rice Masala
100 Grams Vanaspati (Please dont use ghee)
1 Tsp Ajinomoto
1 Tsp White Pepper Powder
1 Tbsp Soya Sauce
1 Tbsp Kitchen King Masala or Garam Masala
1 Tsp Fennel Seeds
1 Strand Mace
4 Pods Cardamom
4 Cloves
2 Inch Cinnamon Sticks
1 Bayleaf

Wash the basmati rice thrice and soak in water for 10 minutes.
For every 1 tumbler rice I used 1 1/2 tumbler liquid. Majority was the chicken stock and 1 cup water.

Drain and add the rice to the pressure cooker along with stock and water. Add 1 Tbsp vanaspati and salt as per taste cover and place a whistle, cook for 2 to 3 whistles or until rice is cooked.

Grind the stock masala into fine paste used left over stock to grind.

Heat a wok with 3Tbsp vanaspati and 3 tbsp of fried onion oil. 
Start frying the finely chopped ginger and garlic along with whole spices allow all the ingrdients to turn light pink in color.

Add finely chopped onion and spring onion fry the onion till pink in color.

Fry the garam masala, 1 Packet of schezwan masala and soya sauce for a minute.

Add the ground masala paste to the onion masala...fry till raw flavor reduces.

Add 1 cup of left over stock  along with chopped carrots and peas cover and cook the masala for 10 minutes.

Transfer the fried chicken and coat with masala and cook until tender.


Add 1 tbsp vinegar and 1/4 tsp Ajinomoto and toss the chicken once and remove the masala from flame.

Fifth Step Assemble the Biryani:
10 Sprigs Coriander (Finely Chopped)
10 Sprigs Mint leaves (Finely Chopped)
1/2 Pack Schezwan Fried Rice Masala
1/4 Tsp Ajinomoto
Fried Onions
1 Tbsp White Pepper
Fried Oil
Vanaspati
Fried Onions
1/4 Bunch Spring Onions (Finely Chopped)
Cooked Rice
Chicken Masala Gravy
Yellow food Color
vinegar

Combine fried onions, coriander, mint, schezwan fried rice masala powder, white pepper, spring onions, 1/4 tsp ajinomoto and salt. This mixture will be layered in the rice.

Fluff the rice for easy layering. Use a fork to fluff the rice, every grain should be separated. Make sure there are no lumpy rice pockets.

Use a heavy bottom cooker or pot to dum cook the biryani.
Start Layering...Add 1 tbsp of the fried oil for the base this will create a crispy rice layer.

First Layer rice...then the chicken gravy alond with chicken piece...Spread 1/4 amount fried onion mixture spread even layer.

Follow the same steps and layer the rice and gravy the same way...Final layer should be rice and fried onion mixture.

Sprinkle vinegar, food color on top alond with 1 tbsp vansapati and fried oil cover and place on low to medium flame for 10 to 15 minutes.

We can also use a oven to bake this biryani at 450 for 15 minutes. make sure to use a foil pan or oven proof dish for baking.

Once the rice has cooked on dum for 15 minutes gently mix and serve hot...the crunchy rice in the bottom is always my favorite part in the biryani 😉

Mango Dhal Recipe (Manga Paruppu Kadayal)

A simple mango dhal served with steam cooked rice is so satisfying. This dish is so easy to prepare it hardly took 20 minutes from start to finish. 

We use totapuri mango in many southindian dishes, for this recipe I have used a raw totapuri mango. Semi ripe and ripe mangoes are used in savory dishes.

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Totapuri Mango

Ingredients:
150 Grams = 1 Small Coffee Tumbler Split Pigeon Peas, Toor Dhal
100 Grams Totapuri Mango
1/4 Tsp Asafoetida
1/4 Tsp Turmeric Powder
1 Tsp Castor Oil
1 Tsp Split Black Gram Dhal
1 Tsp Mustard Seeds
1 Tsp Cumin Seeds
1 Medium Onion 
3 Green Chilies 
5 Pearls Garlic 
3 Sprigs Curry Leaves 
3 Dried Red Chilies
Salt as per taste
3 Tbsp Oil
Few Sprigs Coriander and (lime juice optional) for garnish...

Prep Up:
Wash the toor dhal thrice and soak in water for 10 minutes.
Peel, wash and finely chop onions, garlic and chilies.
Wash the mango, pat dry and chop into large pieces.

Method:
In a pressure pan add the soaked dhal along with 1 1/2 cups water, turmeric powder and castor oil cover, place a whistle and cook for 3 whistles or until the dhal has cooked.

Boil 1 cup water and add the chopped mango, cover and cook until the mango is mushy in the center.

Heat a wok with 3 tbsp oil allow the oil to reach temperature, place the flame on medium.

Add mustard seeds, split black gram and cumin seeds allow to splutter.

Once the mustard stops spluttering add asafoetida, chilies, onions, garlic, curry leaves, and dried red chilies to the tempered oil fry for a minute.

Add salt as per taste and splash of water cook the onion till it turn light pink in color.

Scoop the cooked mango mash using a spoon, discard the peel.

Add the scooped mango to the onion masala stir and fry for a minute.

Add the cooked dhal to the onion and mango masala stir and bring to boil. Dilute the dhal as per preference, I added 1 cup water and also adjusted the salt as per taste.

Once the dhal reaches rolling boil its done, remove from flame garnish with coriander and serve hot with rice or roti...Enjoy 😊