My summer at Pune

Though summer doesn't exactly mean vacation for me, when I look back, for the last few years, I realise that I land at my parents place consistently during summers (May). This year (like the last), me and my son came down to visit my parents. This time my son was big enough to have started pre-school, and he had his holidays during May. So off we came. And fun we had! Just like all the visits, this also turned out to be a foodie one for me! Mom has a convection oven, and so I usually try my hand at baking and experimenting with the oven.

So there were two attempts at sponge cake, with little variations (added a bit of chocolate syrup and butterscotch essence the second time). The output both the times was pretty decent.

There were two attempts at granola bars too! The first one was super successful. We enjoyed some really yummy snack of granola bars for a few days. (You can find the recipe for the same here- http://savithrispot.blogspot.com/2010/01/homemade-granola-bars.html). Egged on by this success, I tried my hand at it another time. My second attempt at it was a disaster though :D. I mixed the ingredients and spread it on a rack for baking. And .. went off to attend a call (ofcourse after letting my mom know that she needs to turn it off in another 20 mins). But my timing proved wrong, and what we got was a half-blackened and hardened oat cracker :D

Well.. it still tasted good.. why wouldn't it, with a tin of milkmaid in it :P ;) .. But this was how it looked -

It was not just oven, this time. Another attempt was Ragada Patties, which I made on our usual gas range. Found the recipe here - http://www.marriedtoadesi.com/2007/05/radish-potato-and-paneer-tikkas.html Made it minus the radish. And .. drool! :) Has to be had fresh, as paneer is one of its ingredients.

The next attempt was veggie pasta with white sauce and a tangy veggie salad. I made the pasta with bellpeppers (how I love the colors!), corn and zucchini (this is the first time am using this vegetable in my cooking). The white sauce was the simple one with all purpose flour, butter and milk. Added a dash of the mixed italian herbs. Wheat farfalle was the pasta used. Pro - Yummy pasta - Con - The quantity was huge and it was the night's dinner, next morning's breakfast and lunch!!! :D ;) Am sure mom dad are going to stay away from pasta for a long long time ;)

Thanks to sis-in-law for the recipe for the veggie salad. She prepared this awesome dish once for dinner, and we enjoyed it to the core. I wanted to try it out myself. I used diced and slightly boiled beetroots and carrots, diced tofu and onions. I marinated the vegetables with some salt, chilli powder, turmeric, sugar, vinegar and cream for two hours. And voila :) Simple, healthy and refreshing.

And last but not the least, mom made this super capsicum rice the other day. Everything was perfect about it. After all, it was maa ke haath ka bana! And none of my dishes above came anywhere close to it. :) We had the rice with cluster beans made the maharashtrian way - using groundnut and white til powdered. Hmmm... heavenly.

So the foodie and fun Pune trip is almost coming to an end. But we did have a great time, and also managed some outings in between to discover Pali (Mango Huts) and Lavasa. Like the saying goes, all good things must come to an end...