Roz Ka Khana

You’re correct in the assumption that of the 12 days I spent in India, more than 8 were at restaurants. I visited 4 cities in 12 days, and each one had its own specialty, Hyderabadi Biryani, Bombay pav bhaji and gujarati food. I probably spent the most time eating at home in Chennai. I had to ask my sister in law Meena, to make this dish for me and of course share it on Roz Ka Khana. Its called Ambat (Sour) Bhaaji (vegetable dish). Its made from sour greens like amaranth or puli keerai as we say in Tamil. Can also be made from spinach leaves. The sourness to the dish comes from adding the tamarind.

Ambat Bhaji is a Tanjore Marathi inspired dish and is sort of a hybrid between a sambar (lentil and vegetables soup) and a koottu (vegetables in gravy).

Ingredients:

Spinach – 1 bunch. You may also use amaranth.

Tamarind – lemon sized ball

Turmeric – 1 tsp

Asafetida – a pinch

Toor dal (yellow pigeon peas) – 1 cup boiled and mashed

Methi seeds (fenugreek) – 1  tsp

Dry red chilies – 4-6

Chopped Cilantro – for garnish

Method:

1. Wash and chop the spinach. You can chop the spinach and steam in a heavy bottomed vessel with a little bit of water. This helps retain the green color better. You can also microwave the fresh spinach. Alternatively, you may use frozen spinach.

2. While the spinach cooks, soak the tamarind in a little warm water, and squeeze it to extract tamarind paste. Alteratively, you may use about 1 to 1 1/2 tsp of tamarind paste. Add water to this paste (about 1 cup) and take this tamarind water in the heavy bottom vessel (kadai)

3. Add the spinach, salt and asafetida to the tamarind water. Let this mixture boil till the raw smell of tamarind goes away.

4. Now add the boiled and mashed toor dal. Boil for another 5 to 10 minutes till everything is well blended.

5. Now dry roast the methi seeds and the red chilies, grind to a fine powder. Add this powder to the dal mixture and boil one more time for another 2-3 minutes. Garnish with cilantro leaves and serve hot with white or brown rice.

In the above picture, we mixed the mashed dal with the ground powder and then added the mixture to the tamarind water. You may do this as well, but I think adding the powder at the end and then boiling provides an added taste.

My 2 day trip to Chennai was dotted with some saree shopping, jewelry shopping (the fashion and the junk jewelry kind - not the 24k gold Thangamaligai kind:), of course, some food – the restaurant and home-cooked kinds!

We visited Cream Center in Raja Annamalai Puram on Chamiers Road. This is the same Cream Center that has had its origins in Bombay (I know – I can call Madras, Chennai but I just can’t get myself to call Bombay Mumbai) and this time I had planned to visit newer places in Bombay so I figured I would get my Cream Center fix in Chennai . The menu was exactly the same as I remembered it, but I also knew what I was going there for…..the carrot pickle with the famous Chole Bhatura. This was my favorite restaurant in growing up, during my annual visits to Bombay, and though Cream Center got its name from its famous ice-cream varieties, I loved it only for the carrot pickle!

Only they had now morphed from a Punjabi menu to a Mexican, Italian and rather Continental menu but with a desi flair. I say desi flair as even though the menu had items like Tostadas, Nachos, Sizzlers etc, the “refried beans” were more like mashed rajma unlike the pinto beans that you get here in the US. Nonetheless, I ordered the Chole Bhatura and couldn’t wait to indulge in my favorite pickle. I was quite disappointed, I have to admit. The chole was fine but they had messed up the pickle! Soggy carrots were all I got. They had obviously been sitting in the oil for a while. And the Bhatura looked like it had been sitting in the same oil too..well, you know what I mean. It was as oily as the pickle.

The Dum Biriyani however was a pleasant surprise as I had, by now, dismissed the food as being mediocre. The Sizzler was a hodge podge of pulao meets veggies meets samosa meets fries! Yes, it had a samosa perched on top of the rice concoction and though the description on the menu intrigued me, it didnt taste as good as it sounded.

I think the best part of the dinner was the dessert..or maybe it’s just my sweet tooth that makes me love anything that has sugar and chocolate. The sizzling brownie was a hit with the kids too. Brownie with vanilla ice cream in a sea of bubbling hot chocolate! Yum! That’s all I could say before I burnt my tongue!!

The Verdict - Cream Center Chennai wasn’t half as good as the parent in Chowpatty, Bombay. There are better restaurants in Chennai to spend your money on.