Mint / Pudina Coconut Chutney Recipe

I bought a mint plant the other day and its growing like a wild bush in its small pot. To use up some of the fresh and insanely flavourful leaves, I made a mint coconut chutney to go with wheat dosas. 

Yes, they are over-exposed, but too lazy to edit much :D

Its incredibly simple and takes all of 10 mins to whip up. That's my kind of dinner, any day night!

Mint / Pudina Coconut Chutney
Serves 2

Ingredients:
1 cup fresh grated coconut (not desiccated)
1/2 cup loosely packed fresh mint leaves
2 shallots
A tiny piece of ginger
A tiny piece of tamarind
2 green chillies (adjust to taste)
Salt to taste

To make chutney - grind all ingredients with very little water. Serve immediately with dosa, or even rice. This goes really well with the slightly dense and bland wheat dosa.

All pictures in this post taken in the home made light box for food photography.

Happy Valentine's Day

Yes, I am a little early with my valentine salutations, but today my three sons and I entered some pieces in a food art competition held at our local public art gallery. If you follow me on Facebook you already know that my concept was to make Sweetheart candies out of cake and emblazon them with vegan slogans. The idea was to juxtapose the familiar colours and shapes of the candies with the more shocking realities of eating animals, and I figured since it was being displayed at an art gallery I could get away with it. I guess the concept worked because I took home first prize! I tried out this recipe for the cake: it was durable (and therefore perfect for this project) but chewy. A little more oil needed, perhaps, or just more liquid in general. I used this buttercream fondant recipe for the icing: it worked perfectly but did not taste very good. Perhaps a 50:50 margarine to vegetable shortening mix is needed.

Son #1 made these mini cupcakes (chocolate from VCTOTW), decorated to look like a box of chocolates.

Son #2 made this "cup"cake. I baked the batter right in the cup with the spoon and all, and he added the topping and chocolate shavings.

Son #3 decorated this little heart cake. Too cute!
So have some fun with your food this Valentine's Day. I don't suggest giving your sweetie a cake with E. coli stamped into it . . . unless that is his or her thing.

Sweet Obsession Restaurant, Gurgaon

Sweet Obsession

DLF Shopping Mall, Shop #b 143,
Arjonda Marg, Near New Delhi Public School,
Gurgaon, Delhi – 122001
Phone : 0124-4061615
Average Price : Rs. 500 (per person - yes they are not cheap!)

This is one of my favourite restaurants in Gurgaon/Delhi. Not that I have lived there long or been to many restaurants around there but back in the day when I used to shuttle a lot between Hyderabad and Gurgaon for work, I invariably went here for a meal during each trip. Suhel has always given me company and this time it was double the fun because we had our spouses other halves partners ermmm you-get-the-picture, along.

Their menu is extremely vegetarian-friendly. In fact, most of the items have one chicken variation and a few vegetarian variations. Amazing for folks like TH who find maximum one or two options in a Singaporean menu.

Macho Nachos to start off the meal. Yummy nachos with some shredded vegetables, olives, and lots of cheese. Served with sour cream and tomato salsa.

Veni's grilled chicken with mustard sauce, mashed potatoes and stir fried vegetables. I didn't try this because I was way too full after my main course. The sauce did look delicious though.

Suhel's Chicken Chimichanga. Didn't try this either but he seemed quite happy with his order. TH ordered Vegetable Chimichanga so it looked exactly same from the outside. I will spare you the picture.

My Chicken Fajita that comes with flavoured rice, mashed red beans, assorted vegetables and warm tortilla. It was delicious and really a lot of food for one person. I'd suggest buying this to share so that you can also try some of their gorgeous desserts.

For dessert, some chocolate fudge cake with chocolate sauce and creamy vanilla ice cream. They make their own ice cream and this is the same fudge cake used in their famous Death by Chocolate so its divine. We ordered this because we really didn't have enough room to even share a Death by Chocolate among the four of us.

I had some pictures from an old trip so I am posting those here. We didn't order any of those this time, actually. The quality won't be great because it was taken using my first camera, a Nikon L10.

Now, when a dessert parlour says death my chocolate, they mean a dish with loads of chocolate, chocolate ice cream, pastry, sauce and the works, right. But when Sweet Obsessions says Death by Chocolate, they mean Death.by.Chocolate. It comes in a bowl made of chocolate, with vanilla ice cream and chocolate fudge inside. The fudge is warm and has a heavenly contrast to the cold ice-cream. I did die and go to heaven!

I remember the chocolate truffle pastry tasting delicious too! 

Some other dishes we tried the first few times:

Vegetable Lasagne

Chicken Quesedilla

The food is pretty amazing and the ingredients are very fresh. They had a nice informal ambience initially but have since done some redecorating. Still, the food is the same so it doesn't matter. Definitely drop by if you have some time to kill in Gurgaon and have some space in your stomach.