Snails at St Tropez Bistro, Century Village, Dubai

Anyone tried snails?

Chicken and Palak Curry Recipe

Here is to my best friend - my recipe for Chicken and Palak curry!

Step I

Stir fry a few cloves (5-6), peppercons (5-6), cinamon stick (half inch), dried bay leaf (1-2), methi/fenugreek seeds (half tsp), dhaniya/coriander seeds (half tsp), kashmiri chilli (1-2), onions (2-3 small or 2 medium - sliced), tomato (1 - chopped) and salt (as per taste).

Step II

Blend the above fried spices with a little water to make a paste. I added 2 tsps of yoghurt as well (which is optional).

Step III

Now fry the paste in a little oil and add 1 tsp of chilli powder, half tsp of haldi/turmeric powder and half tsp of jeera/cumin powder. Fry for a minute and add the chicken pieces. Now add chopped palak/spinach. (you can also blend the palak with the spices in Step II but i prefer not to). Add around a cup water and let it all come to a nice boil.

Enjoy with hot rotis!

Note - This curry serves around 3-4 people. If you wish to make more just double the quantity of the ingredients mentioned in Step I.

Anyone needs a drink?

This is a page from a menu at our local shawarma joint -

Wild Ginger - Deira City Centre, Dubai

Hey folks! Wild Ginger offers unlimited sushi on Sunday evenings! Head out there to satisfy your sushi cravings. The variety is not much. Below is a pic of what you get and then basically you can keep asking the hostess to refill your plate!

Personally, one round was more than enough for me small tummy. This unlimited platter costs AED 79 per person and "no sharing allowed" :( 

Lip Gloss - Bath and Body Works

Here is to all my girly girlfriends.

Check out this yummy minty lip gloss from Bath and Body Works.

Originally AED 35 but I got it on sale - 2 for AED 35.

Chicken Curry Recipe

Last evening I tried out a chicken curry recipe which my aunt had given me when I got married. I tweaked it a bit.

1 medium chicken  (800 to 900 gms)
3 medium onions roughly sliced
1 medium onion finely sliced
1 tablespoon whole jeera
6 black pepper corns

5 cloves

1 two inch cinnamon stick
2 clove garlic
2 teaspoons chilli powder (or as per taste)
half teaspoon haldi powder
Small lball of tamarind (marble size) soaked in water
salt to taste
oil/ghee for seasoning

Method:

Clean and cut the chicken into medium pieces.

Roast the 3 roughly sliced onions in a frying pan with 1 teaspoon oil till the onions become pinkish and keep aside in a blender.  Dry roast the jeera (cumin), pepper corns, cinnamon and cloves and 1 clove of garlic. Then put the dry roasted spices and tamarind in the blender along with the onions, which were kept earlier, and a little water and grind to a fine paste (“masala”).  Take 3 tablespoons of oil/ghee in a saucepan and fry the finely sliced onion till golden brown.  Add the cut and washed chicken pieces and fry for a couple of minutes.  Add the ground masala and fry another two minutes.  Add water if necessary (depending on the gravy required). Lastly add some salt (I usually add around 1 small teaspoon). Boil a few roughly chopped potatoes separately (I boiled them in some left over ground masala so it adds a little flavour to the potatoes. Alternatively you can also boil them in a little chilli powder, haldi (turmeric) powder and a pinch of salt). Lastly, add the boiled potatoes to the cooked chicken curry.  Eat with pulao or rotis.  Bon Apetit!!!!!

Black Canyon (Dubai Festival City)

A few days ago my hubby and I celebrated our 6 month anniversary. To celebrate, we thought of catching a movie and dinner. Spiderman was on at 8.30 at Dubai Festival City so we decided to have dinner at the Black Canyon Restaurant before the movie.

Black Canyon serves basically Thai food. Here are my ratings on food, ambience etc…

Food ***** (We absolutely loved all the dishes we ordered)

Service ***** (The servers were very helpful in choosing the right dishes and ensured we were comfortable at all times)

Ambience *** (I didn’t find the place too clean)

Price *** (I think the food was worth its price as it was quite yummy but it wasn’t that cheap)

For starters we ordered a Tom Yum soup which we shared. For AED 15 they threw in some seafood (fish/squid) which otherwise came with just prawns and mushrooms. The good part was that the mushrooms were not the tinned ones which I really dislike.

For the maincourse we had a voucher from Gulf News which was buy one and get one free. My hubby ordered a salmon dish and I ordered stir-fried seafood and a plate of rice. What disappointed me was that none of the seafood had mussels in them L

For drinks we ordered a lemon mint frappe which was quite refreshing and a small bottle of water. Overall we paid approximately AED 170 (keeping in mind we got one maincourse free).

We didn’t order any dessert as Spiderman was waiting!

Anyone catch the new Spiderman? I thought Toby Maguire did some better acting.