Restaurant Review Project 19- Salad Boutique

It has been such a long time that I haven’t made an addition to my ongoing Restaurant Review Project. Not that I haven’t been eating out. I have been too lazy to take pictures and write about the food. I have had excellent opportunity to sample some extraordinary food and that is the reason why I had little patience to keep it waiting to take pictures. When there are no pictures to support the gastronomic crime committed, posts cannot be written, simply because a picture is worth a thousand words.

But my reviews have pictures and thousand words! 🙂

Anyways, on a day when I wasn’t extremely ravenous but wanted a nibble, I was reminded of a new place in town called, Salad Boutique. This quaint little place is located in the heart of the posh Block 338, Adliya.  As the name suggests, they specialize in serving Salads as the main course.

Salad Boutique sports a charming, candle lit opulent interior. It has a cream and purple decor with sparkling chandeliers that oozes indulgence and elegance in the same breath.

Upon entering, we were given a warm welcome by a smartly dressed server and were shown our seat. Since it was Ramadan, there weren’t many diners even on a weekend. That was perfect for us since it meant, Mimi could roam around the restaurant being friendly with the staff.

Soon, we were presented the menu and that I suppose is what has the potential to set this restaurant apart. We were handed the Apple iPad that functions as a menu card. This is such a novel idea and it was supremely exciting to peruse through a comprehensive menu. When the initial excitement was over, we made our order to the server. That is where I felt it had a failed a little. Having an iPad and not using it to its full potential is a waste, in my opinion. It is like having a cell phone only to scroll through the contacts and not actually being able to make a call!! It should have been possible to even place an order through the iPad instead of the server taking down notes. Anyhow, we did place our orders and it was surprising to note that they not only had a wide variety of salad, but also sandwiches, burgers, risotto, pastas and all kinds of sides.

We ordered a Falafel Salad – which consisted of Falafel, lettuce, Cucumber, Parsley and Rocca  and served with Tahina Dressing. Not exactly low-calorie food, I was hoping for. But when it arrived it looked like a sumptuous meal that I could eat at the restaurant and then later pack the leftovers back home. It tasted as good as it looked on the plate.

and a refreshing drink called Vanilla Rocca. I would recommend this restaurant for this drink alone. It has the power to change the world! Okay, I may be exaggerating a little bit, but you get the drift.

Some Grilled Chicken  Sandwich – which had a Grilled Chicken Breast, Lettuce, Rocca, Parmesan and Mozzarella Cheese with Special Sauce. This sandwich wasn’t the best chicken sandwich but it was filling with a coleslaw side.

And Grilled Veggies Sandwich – Grilled Zucchini, Eggplant, Green Bell Pepper, and Rocca Leaves, Mixed with Light Mayonnaise-Tahina Sauce. This sandwich was really tasty and I would recommend this even if you are a meat lover. The eggplant and the tahina sauce combination gives this sandwich a meat-y  flavor.

Apparently, all the sandwiches are presented in similar manner so the photographs of the chicken and the vegetable sandwich look the same.

and a bottle of chilled water in a glass bottle designed by Paul Smith which I took home to plant my money plant.

Overall, the dinner was definitely not light as I had assumed it to be, but it was sure sumptuous. The total bill came to 20 BD for 3 adults.

So I am proud to announce that Salad Boutique has been SLICED and the verdict is as follows,

Food – 3/5

Ambiance – 4/5

Service – 3/5

Overall – 3/5

Salad Boutique has other outlets in Kuwait and Jeddah.

 

Weekend Dinner – Veg. Lasagne, Whole Meal Loaf & Tomato – Feta Salad

You must all know Mimi by now. What you may not know about her is, she is a very peculiar toddler. While I know of kids who love to eat out and gorge on fried chips, munchies, chocolates, biscuits, flavoured milk, burgers and cola, my child detests it with all her might. She prefers eating home-made meals. Hot and piping, right off the stove. Going out with her never means a break for me from the kitchen. I have to make her meal, feed her and only then step out. Else I have to carry her dinner of roti & sabji or dosa & sambar and feed her on the go. When I rant about it to my girlfriends, they feel, I am blessed. They narrate to me their struggles of trying to get their children to eat home cooked meals.

After all this while, I realize, I am truly blessed, for various reasons. Mimi’s habits not only ensure that she eats  healthy and fresh meals  but also prompts me to try different cuisines in my kitchen. One such weekend dinner was about experimenting with Italian. Vegetarian only.

I prepped up for some vegetarian lasagna, a crusty loaf and some easy tomato – feta gorgeousness of a salad.

Vegetarian Lasagna : The silly thing about reading recipes is that they make you feel that it is the simplest thing in the world to do. But when you get around doing it with your bare hands, you realize you completely lack co-ordination. It happens to me all the time. Lasagna was tricky to make especially the boiling of the sheets. I wanted it all ‘al-dente’ and micro observed to get it right. But when I was done, peeling them off of each other was a task that took me the maximum amount of time. The vegetable part was easy since it was just about going chop, chop, chop. The white bechamel sauce was something I make  regularly so that did not take any time either. Layering was enjoyable like artwork. Cheese scraping was done by my friend Namit to help me get the dinner on the table before the clock struck mid night. The result was remarkable and worth all the effort. Mimi loved it and had an extra  helping. This is definitely winner of a recipe.

Recipe for Veg. Lasagna

Ingredients

Lasagna sheets  – use as required, I had to use about 24 of them since I had a large tray to fill

Salt to taste

White Sauce* – 1 1/2 cups – 2 cups

Cheddar cheese grated – 1 cup ( more the better)

Oil – 2 tbsp

Butter- 2 tbsp

Garlic crushed – 8 cloves

Onions chopped – 2 medium

Mushrooms  chopped finely – 7-8 nos.

Brinjal / aubergine chopped finely – 1 large

Zucchini chopped – 2 medium

Capsicum chopped – 1 no.

Tomatoes chopped – 4 medium

Dry Basil – 1 tsp

Dry Oregano – 1 tsp

Maggi vegetable stock – 1 small cube

Fresh Parsley chopped  – about a handful or less

Preparation

1. Heat a lot of water in a deep pan. Add enough salt such that the water tastes like sea water. Add lasagna sheets and a little olive oil to the water. Boil it for 10 minutes and take them out. Spread them out carefully without burning your fingers and cover with a damp cloth.

2. In a separate pan, heat oil & butter. Saute the chopped onion till they are translucent and then add crushed garlic. Add the Maggi vegetable stock cube. You will see it dissolving in the oil in sometime.

3. Add all the chopped vegetables except capsicum and tomatoes. Let them cook. Add salt but with care since the Maggi vegetable stock has a lot of salt in it already.

4. Now add the tomatoes and cook for about 2-3 minutes. Once they turn soft add capsicum, dry basil, dry oregano and parsley. Mix well and cook for some more time. Take it off the stove.

5. Preheat the oven to 200C  and butter your baking dish.

6.First lay down a the first layer of the pasta and then the white sauce on top of it. Then put another layer of pasta and a layer of the vegetable mixture. A layer of pasta and then the white sauce. Alternate layers like that and fill up the baking dish.

7. Once the last layer of pasta has been laid, spread grated cheese on top and cover completely. Shove it in the preheated oven for about 20-22 minutes or until the cheese has turned golden. Serve hot.

*Notes – For the white sauce/bechamel sauce,  you need 4 Tbsp of all-purpose flour, 2 cups of hot milk, 2 tbsp of butter, salt to taste and pepper.

To prepare- Take a heavy bottomed pan, put it on the stove and melt the butter first. Add the flour and stir well. Do not let it brown and cook well for about 2 minutes. Add the two cups of hot milk and stir continuously. You will find that the sauce has thickened. Add salt and pepper and let it cook for another 2 minutes. Remove from fire and let it cool. While using if the sauce has thickened too much then you could add a wee bit milk and heat it a bit to loosen it.

Whole Meal Loaf – Sometimes I feel, we demand a level of convenience that is immodest. But when you make bread with your bare hands, kneading and toiling , it presents itself as the most humbling experience. I followed the same recipe as in the post about Nigella Lawson’s bread. Only that I shaped it like a baton and made some deep gashes  atop to give it a rustic feel. The loaf was crusty on the outside and on the inside the crumb was a delight to bite on. I made some garlic infused olive oil which was such a splendid accompaniment along with blobs of butter.

Tomato-Feta Salad – First, this salad is such a stunner to look at. Second it demands nothing out of you except a few firm and sweet tomatoes sliced and arranged on a plate adorned with a few pinches of feta. No seasonings required to perk it up. The feta does what is required of it, that is, give it that tangy-salty twist.

 

 

The dinner goes down as one of the most memorable ones. To be able to put a smile on my family’s and friend’s faces makes it worth my while. Every attempt that I have made that seemed outside my comfort zone has met with mixed results. But it is only practising the craft again and again that has made all the difference.

There is so much more that I yearn to learn through such wonderful dinners.

For the beautiful collage and photographs I have my friend, Namit to thank. While I was busy preparing the dinner, he made use of that time to click some wonderful frames. Thank you so much for your patience.

Apple Cake for my Friend

This has been a long overdue post.  In between, I started writing fiction and I couldn’t stop. For the first time food took a backseat. Not for real, but only on the blog 🙂

This post is about a lovely friend. Her name is Gayathri.

I have written about her on my blog plenty times before. She is somebody whom I can talk to for hours, without bothering whether it is inconvenient for her or not. She is patient  and would offer her two cents after gauging whether it is required or not. I know she understands that sometimes people only want to be heard, to be able to speak their heart out.

Gayathri, she just lets me be.

When she visits me, I do not have to dress up or do not have to bother whether my home is in order. It is that comfort level that I share  with her.

So when she came by a few days ago, I was excited and thrilled to bits. It would mean catching up on everything once again. I say once again, because we are always in touch through chats and over the phone anyways. But we still have so much to talk about.

Gayathri loves her cakes- eating and baking them. She makes the egg-less sorts which are wonderful and so tasty.

I thought of baking one for my special friend. I browsed for something simple and sweet and found a rustic looking apple cake for the occasion.

This apple cake is from Joy of Baking; a blogsite that needs no introduction at all.

Gayathri, her son, my daughter and I had a nice time chatting up and digging into this gorgeous apple cake.

Recipe for Apple Cake

Makes about 9 servings

Ingredients

3/4 cup (75 gms) chopped hazelnuts ( you can use walnuts, pecans)

About 3 large apples

1-2 tablespoons of lemon juice

1 1/2 cup (195 gms) All purpose flour

3/4 cup (150 gms) granulated white sugar

1 1/2 tsp of baking powder

1 tsp of ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

6 tablespoons (85 gms) unsalted butter, melted and cooled at room temp

2 large eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 tablespoon milk

1/3 cup (50 gms) Raisins

Preparation 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) and place rack in the center of the oven.

2. Butter a baking pan and then line with parchment paper or wax paper.

3. Place the nuts (hazelnuts) on a baking sheet and bake for about 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly brown and fragrant. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack and then coarsely chop.

4. Peel, core, and chop the apples into bite-sized pieces. Toss with 1 – 2 tablespoons of lemon juice.

5. In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, ground cinnamon, and salt.

6. Add the melted butter, eggs, vanilla extract, and milk and beat until fully incorporated. Fold in the chopped nuts, raisins, and chopped apples.

7. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake in preheated oven for about 35 – 45 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

8. Serve warm and in my opinion, it tastes great without any of the edible accessories such as cream, glaze or ice cream.

This recipe is a keeper and I am definitely going to make it again and again.

Apple and cinnamon are meant to be together and that is why this cake is such a big winner.

The Come Back – Chapter 5

Ash left her Papa to his own devices and closed the door behind her. She went straight to the kitchen to find Mrs. P steadily stirring something in a cauldron. It had to be her favourite lentil and pea soup. Mrs. P must have known that she was back and would have started right away. Ash tiptoed towards Mrs. P and then in a sudden movement lifted Mrs. P off the ground with her hands. Mrs. P shrieked and then started laughing fitfully. Ash joined her too and turned to face her, after putting her down. Mrs. P with her rounded cheeks, her fair hair tied up in a bun, face more wrinkled than she last saw her was wearing a smart dress with a black fitted belt. She seemed to have become plumper than she last remembered seeing her. Nevertheless, the same old Mrs. P, all elegant and homely at the same time. Mrs. P was assessing Ash pretty much the same way. She observed that Ash had turned a lot paler and thinner. She was even hunching a little like her dad. But her raven black hair was long and shiny. She reminded herself that she had to run a bath for Ash as she looked extremely unkempt and dirty for some reason. She could see some dirt in her finger nails which seemed like they hadn’t been to a manicure salon for months. Mrs. P went to make a mental list of all the things that she needed to do for Ash.

“I smell something delicious in the pot. Isn’t that my favourite soup simmering away?” Ash enquired with a bright smile.

Mrs. P rushed forward to greet her and  kissed her forehead.

“Yes it is my dear! When I heard your voice inside Mr. Reed’s room, I couldn’t believe my ears. I rushed to the door and was in half mind to barge in to see if it was really you. I couldn’t have made a mistake, I was sure. Anna told me that it was indeed you so I wasted no time in putting a pot of your favourite soup on the stove right away.”

“How have you been Mrs. P? Dad has been so sick! Nobody told me. Did you know?”Ash asked sadly. Her voice was almost cracking and she tried her best to swallow the lump in her throat.

Mrs. P led her to the table in the kitchen and pulled out the chair for her. She made Ash sit down and poured some hot chocolate in mug. Mrs. P needed this time to arrange her thoughts. Everything had happened so quickly that there hadn’t been much time to ponder over why something had happened. She then handed over the mug to Ash and wearily sat down in a chair next to her.

If you would like to read the rest of this post, please visit my new blog. This new blog – DazzlersDiary is specifically dedicated to my writing exercise. Sliceofmylyfe will remain an exclusive food related blog from now on. Thank you for reading and sorry for the inconvenience. 🙂