Kob Khun Ka 2014

Aromatic lemon grass, coconut milk, palm sugar, kaffir lime leaves, various colours and spices- Thai cuisine consists of all this and much more. From the time I have tasted Thai food, especially Green Thai curry, I have loved it and the authentic Thai cuisine has been the highlight of my two trips to Thailand so far (more than shopping!). So when I had time on my hands and a great recipe to go as well, I gathered the ingredients and set out to cook this gorgeously divine and tasty dish. I was a little apprehensive with respect to how it would turn out since it has never been cooked back at home, but even in such situations, applying the thumb rules of
# reading the recipe again and again,
# using fresh ingredients as far as possible, and
# tasting and tweaking the recipe as per what suits your palate as you go almost always gets you good results.

After all, no recipe is carved in stone. With all this in mind I set out to prepare my first ever Green Thai curry with Chicken and Mushrooms. 

Here’s my version of the recipe.

Green Thai Curry with Chicken and Mushrooms

Serves 3-4 persons

For The Curry:

Green Curry Paste- 1 cup
Coconut Milk – 2 cups
Oil- 1 tbsp
Mushrooms- 100-150 gms thickly sliced
Chicken (boneless)- 150 gms  cut into small pieces

(Note: You can choose the veggies/ meat that you want to throw in. Popular and most used options include bell peppers, broccoli, baby corn, mushroom, cottage cheese or paneer, chicken and prawns.)
Sugar- a pinch
Salt- to taste

For The Green Curry Paste (makes 1 Cup):

Lemon Grass- 2 tbsp finely chopped
Coriander- 1 cup chopped
Onions- ¼  cup roughly chopped
Garlic- 1 tbsp roughly chopped

Green Chilies- 8-10 roughly chopped
Coriander  or  Dhaniya Powder- 1 tbsp
Cumin Seeds or Jeera Powder- 2 tbsp
Black Peppercorns- ½  tsp freshly ground

Ginger- 25 mm (1") piece
Salt- to taste

Sugar- to taste
Lemon Juice- 1 tsp
Lemon Rind- ¼ tsp, grated

Method 

• Start off by combining all the green curry paste ingredients with approximately ½ cup water and blend in a mixer. You should be able to form a fine green curry paste with thick gravy like consistency. Keep this aside.
• Heat the oil in a wok or a broad non-stick pan.
• Add the green curry paste and sauté on a medium flame to release the fragrance- for about 30 seconds to 1 minute.
• Add mushrooms, mix well and sauté on a medium flame for 1 minute. Then add the coconut milk.
  
• Add the chicken pieces, stirring to incorporate and let the curry sauce come to a boil.
• As the curry comes to a boil reduce the flame to medium low for a nice simmer. Turn the heat down and cover the pan to let the chicken pieces cook. 
• Once the chicken is cooked check the taste and add salt and sugar accordingly. Note that this curry should be a balance of salty, spicy, sweet and sour flavours. If too spicy, you could add some more coconut milk or adjust the sugar.
• Mix well and cook on a medium flame for 1 more minute.
• Voila! Serve hot with steamed rice.

Easy peasy right? Try it and surprise someone :) .  I can't wait to make it for the family back in Dehradun.

With this we come to the last post of 2014. Let's bid this year a great farewell and resolve to cook more, have even better foodie experiences and try new things in the coming 2015. Kob Khun Ka or Thainkyeww 2014. You have been extremely kind to me and have been full of joy rides. 2014 is special also because it is the year in which I finally started blogging and Daiquiri Diaries was born. Here's hoping that 2015 is even better. I wish all you foodies a fabulous and fantastic 2015!

Let's get #Social

Long overdue review of one of the newer places in SOBO- Colaba Social is situated right opposite the Starbucks at Colaba. A friend of mine insisted that I make this place jump the queue in my list of places to eat at in Bombay and I am so glad that I listened to her. This is one place that is sure to give a lot of cafes and restaurants in south Bombay a run for their money. Why you ask? Well ……. go on reading.

True, from the outside it doesn’t look like much, which is the case with a lot of places in Bombay, owing to the cramped up places and lack of good infrastructure. However, ‘do not judge a book by its cover’ is a phrase that truly goes well for this place. Once you enter, you see that this place has been done up quite well and is in fact rather interesting. There’s an upside-down fan which you will see on the ceiling near about the entrance. Since it was moving I couldn’t really capture an image. The relaxed seating, with soft lights, is arranged on the ground as well as the first floor. The bar has empty alcohol bottles hanging from the ceiling and one I saw read “pahua” ( yes the chiknichameli “pahua” *chuckles*).  Further on, you shall see a swing which has been positioned at one of the tables as a substitute for a chair. Unfortunately, that table was occupied and I couldn’t experience sitting on the swing, but then there’s always a next time!

\When I had called up the place on a Sunday to book a table for three for lunch, I was informed that they do not accept reservations which made me skeptical, however, luckily on reaching the restaurant we were ushered in and seated without waiting. The first thing you’ll notice on your table is this unique napkin-menu bucket sorta thing. I don’t know what you call it and I haven’t even seen it anywhere else but it looked pretty interesting. Also their menus are not the usual cardboard book-type but instead are “newspaper menus”- orange for food and blue for drinks- and what variety in there! For a place like this to offer from burgers to biryani to Thai food to a great breakfast selection, especially at the listed prices, is commendable!

Elvis Presley French Toast (Rs. 150)

We were exceptionally fascinated by the name “Elvis Presley French Toast” (Rs. 150) and since we hadn’t breakfasted, we started off with this. Honestly, I was expecting two limp slices of bread coated and fried in a sweetened egg batter with some sliced bananas on the side. However, what was actually served to us was beyond my then imagination. Social does justice to the name and serves the French Toast, coated with oodles of peanut butter and chocolate, on an old record disk (innovative right?). Sweet and gooey with peanut butter… I was all smiles and found the “Elvis Presley French Toast” superb, delicious, scrumptious and a must must try for all the peanut butter lovers out there.. And mind you, it’s heavy so only if you are 150% sure that you won’t want to eat anything else, order this all by yourself. Since we were anyway quite confused after looking at their menu we decided to split this dish amongst the three of us in order to have space in our tummies to try the other goodies.

For drinks we ordered a Trip on the Drip (Rs. 280), a South Pacific Rim (Rs. 280) and a pint of Kingfisher Ultra (Rs. 140). Trip on the Drip is Vodka +Peach Schnapps + Orange & Cranberry Juice. A great cocktail; request them to make it a tad less sweet and you will be slurping on this one with joy. The amazing thing however was that this came in an actual drip pouch! South Pacific Rim is White Rum + Dark Rum+ Pineapple + Orange Juice and Grenadine. I did not like this as much and would give it a miss the next time I go there. I felt it had a very medicinal-cough-syrupish taste. And the chilled beer… well that’s always refreshing. I ended up ordering a Trip on the Drip after trying to finish my South Pacific Rim and my friends stuck to beer after their first round.

(L) South Pacific Rim (R) Trip on the Drip (Rs. 280 each)

Habi-B-Q Lamb Bao (Rs. 240)

For the snacky adventure, we decided to go ahead with a portion of the Habi-B-Q Lamb Bao (Rs. 240). This dish has lamb patty with Arabic flavours and is served with feta and hummus. The Bao was soft and warm and the succulent lamb patty was delicious and palatable. Hummus was a good add on.

Further, for our mains (and mind you we unknowingly over ordered considering we had already washed down the Elvis Presley French Toast and the Habi-B-Q Lamb Bao) we decided to call for the Thai Thali (with chicken)( Rs. 250+ Rs. 60 for the chicken), the OTT Dawg (Rs. 310) and the Jus-C Lucy Burger (Rs. 380).

In the Thai Thali we were served rice, green Thai curry, raw papaya salad, Goan prawns pickle and fryums! Yes these fryums are what we used to eat at birthday parties when we were kids. The Thai curry was appetizing, balanced flavor of coconut milk, lemon grass and not too spicy. The Goan prawns pickle was a great add on to this and the fryums, well, those were the fun eats. Truth be told, with the varied menu that they offer, I expected just about an average dish but was blown away with the flavours in this one.

Thai Thali (Rs. 250+60 for the chicken)

OTT Dawg (Rs. 310)

The OTT Dawg- a bacon wrapped dog, Mexican lamb chilli, cheese and fries- was definitely ‘over-the-top’. The bread was soft and warm and the sausage full of juices. There was a whole layer of cheese on it (*alert cheese lovers*). The sauce was a tad sweet for my taste and this OTT Dawg would be the perfect ‘Dawg’ if there could be a little more spice in it. However, it was huge and filling.

The Jus-C Lucy Burger comes with a knife stuck in it- I was impressed with the presentation. It also made a great picture! The menu describes this as a “double whammy of tenderloin patties with molted cheese center and Jus, Cajun Fries”. The tenderloin patty was well done; not dry at all. It had a very comfort-food-have-another-bite feel to it. And even though I was stuffed, when I dug into this I was smiling with the sheer taste of it in my mouth.

Jus-C Lucy Burger (Rs. 380)

We all were literally full up to our necks and I needed to take a stroll to realize that I actually could move after eating so much. We walked out extremely satisfied customers and I know this place will be a regular haunt for me.

Will I go there again? Yes, as I was so happy with what I ate this time I am really looking forward to trying the rest of their menu slowly and steadily. The chefs there really know what’s going on in the kitchen. The prices are great and the ambience, well, you’d love it. It’s a nice get-away for after work drinks and tid-bits as well. The service is decent, the staff is jolly and they made sure that we had an excellent experience. With all this our cheque was just about a little over 3k split amongst the 3 of us- Total VFM place.

Where is it? 24, Ground Floor, Glen Rose Building, BK BomanBehram Marg, Apollo Bunder, Colaba, Mumbai  Call 022 22828484