Last evening, a friend and I decided to catch up at Yoga House, a small cute Yoga place cum restaurant opposite St Andrews church, in Bandra. Yoga House is a chilled out and informal place, half outdoor and half indoor. You're expected to take out your shoes/slippers before getting in. The whole place is simple but tastefully done and conducive to relaxing.  Yoga House has three areas - the yoga room, where classes are held, a shop that sells a lot of yoga related props and materials besides books and a lot of other natural products.
The food menu comprises of an all vegetarian, healthy foods and juices.
Since we went in the evening, much before dinner time, we decided to order the clear vegetable soup and tartini, cheese snack. The soup was nice with many vegetable - capsicum, broccoli  carrots etc, served in a brass bowl and plate, along with two toasts of ten grained bread. The tartini was four pieces of ten grained bread grilled with mozzarella cheese and topped with fresh chopped tomato. It was a light and tasty snack. we enjoyed our experience at Yoga House.
So if you are in a mood to chill out for a while and have some healthy food/snack you must try this place!

Sharing below the recipe for a favorite sindhi holiday lunch dish.

Tomato Curry

Ingredients

1. 8 medium sized tomatoes
2. 1 medium sized potato
3. 6 -8 ladyfingers
4. 2 small brinjals
5. 2 drumsticks
6. 8 - 10 cluster beans (guar)
7. 1 carrot
8. 3 green chillis
9. 1 and a half inch of ginger
10. 8 - 10 curry leaves
11. 1 tsp. methi seeds
12. half tsp. jeera
13. half tsp. mustard seeds
14. quater tsp. tumeric powder
15. 3 tbps basan/ gram flower
16. few coriander leaves
17. salt to taste
18. 4 tbps. oil

Procedure

Boil the tomatoes in 3 cups of water in a pressure cooker for 5 mins, after the whistle. Allow to cool. Blend tomatoes in a blender and keep aside.Heat oil in a thick bottom pan. When hot, put methi seeds followed by mustard seeds and then jeera seeds.
Allow to splutter. Lower flame and add ginger, green chillis and curry leaves. Mix well.
Now add the basan and keep turning till it becomes golden brown and gives out a nice aroma. 
Now add the blended tomatoes and mix well. Add tumeric and put 3 cups of boiling water. Now add all the chopped vegetables and salt to taste. Bring to the boil. Lower flame and partially cover the pan and let the curry cook for 10 - 15 mins, after which pierce one piece of each vegetable with a knife to check if done. If all vegetables are cooked, turn of the flame and add chopped coriander leaves and serve hot in an attractive glass dish with steamed white rice. Goes well with aalu tikki too.

With the temperature rising, its good to keep the stomach light with more of salads, juices and other cooling food. You can mix up an interesting tossed green salad to accompany a meal or even as a mid - morning or evening snack.

Tossed Green Salad

Ingredients -

1. 1 small iceberg lettuce (layers taken out and broken intotwo)
2. 10 - 15 spinach leaves (cut off stems and break into two
3. 2 spring onions (peeled and cut into fine rings)
4. 1 small capsicum (cut into fine vertical strips)
5. 1 small bowl of american corn 
6. 8 - 10 baby tomatoes
7. A small bowl of sprouts (optional)
8. A small bowl of grapes (optional)
9. 4 - 5 dry figs (chopped into pieces)
10. 1 - 2 tablespoons of crisp peanuts
11. 1 tablespoon grated cheese (optional)

For Dressing -

1. 4 tablespoons olive oil
2. Juice of one lemon or 2 tablespoons of red vinegar
3. 1 teaspoon sugar
4. 1 pinch of salt

Procedure -

Toss up all the vegetables and fruit in a large bowl. Mix the ingredients for the dressing in a smaller bowl well and add to the salad. Mix well so that the dressing is evenly covers all the vegetables.

Arrange in an attractive glass bowl and decorate with grated cheese and baby tomatoes.

Summer is here!! Its time to cool down with chilled beverages and ice creams. There is nothing like some home made Kulfi to complete a chilled out weekend meal. 

So why not try making Kulfi this weekend?

KULFI

Ingredients

1. 1 litre full cream milk
2. 1 tin Milkmaid condensed milk
3. 10 - 15 cardamoms (peeled and ground)
4. 10 - 15 almonds (cut very fine vertically)
5. 10 - 15 pistachios (cut very fine vertically)
6. 1 heaped teaspoon custard powder

Procedure

Heat milk in a thick bottom pan and bring to the boil. Lower flame, add ground cardamoms and allow to simmer for about 10 - 15 mins. Open the Milkmaid condensed milk tin and add contents to the boiling milk. Simmer for 2 - 3 mins.

Mix the custard powder with 1/3 cup of cold milk and add to the thickened milk. Stir and cook for a minute or two. Turn of flame and add the chopped Almonds & Pistachios and mix well. Allow to cool.

When cool fill in Kulfi molds. close the lids and put them in the deep freezer. Should be set in 4 - 5 hours.
To serve, remove the lid of each kulfi with a knife, loosen the sides and turn it over on a plate. Cut into slices and serve.

Having always had a lot of Parsi friends and having been exposed to their food, when Jumjoji recently opened as an authentic Parsi cuisine restaurant in Bandra, a friend and I decided to have our Sunday lunch there.

Jumjoji is a small restaurant with a few tables, not ostentatious and located in a lane parallel to Lilavati hospital. The menu is limited but named interestingly after various aunts of the owner. We settled for "Aunty Dhanu's Cheese & Veg fingers" as starters. They were really good and served with a sweet and sour sauce. We also ordered the traditional Parsi Raspberry drink. For the main course, being vegetarian, I ordered the "Veg shtew" and my friend ordered "Patra ni Machi" ,both named after some aunt. The Shtew though tasty was a dry dish, while i expected it to be with gravy. My friend enjoyed the fish and we rounded off the meal with "Lagan nu Custard"

All in all, a fairly satisfying meal. If you have a craving for Parsi food you could step into Jumjoji.