Dinner gathering at Kumar's Ara Damansara

Last Sunday we had a dinner gathering at Kumar's Ara Damansara, PJ and celebrated the birthdays of our 2 dear friends. I've never been here before but heard good reviews about this South Indian fine dining place.
Finding the place was quite easy, being loacated at Oasis Ara Damansara and near Citta Mall.

There's ample of parking space with a relatively cheap rate around the shop lots. Lots of eateries including fancy restaurants, coffee places, cafes and such with a lovely water feature at the courtyard.
It's a pity I didn't get any shots outdoors but plan to return there soon with the husband to try out the other places ;).

We had a combination of South and North Indian food, paired with a bottle of crisp white wine : Italian Torresella S. Blanc. The spicy food complemented well with the wine, I would say.

Now, to the dishes we ordered :

Fish Tikka

Prawn Masala

Vegetable Korma

Shark fish Puttu

Cheese and Kashmiri Naan

Plain Briyani

Yummy spread of Indian delicacies

All the dishes were served together and service was quick. Portions were okay and tasted good. Our favourite dish of the day was the shark fish puttu. Kashmiri naan was good too and went well with the gravy. It was filled with fruits, nuts and was soft. The fish tikka was juicy and the prawn masala was good too.

Buttermilk Berries Layer Cake

US

Birthday girls

Love this candid shot

For dessert, we had the cake I made and I was glad everyone enjoyed it.

Surprisingly they were playing Tamil songs at the restaurant and not your usual Indian fusion music or Hindi songs. Though the songs added to the authenticity, I would have preferred some new numbers.

Overall a great dinner meet up and we are planning to check out more places in the near future ;).

Valentine's Dinner at Vin's Restaurant & Bar

This year for Valentine's Day we chose to dine at Vin's Restaurant and Bar at Kuala Lumpur after reading good reviews on Trip Advisor. My husband made the reservation and we went there on the 13th Feb. We found the place using Waze but It was a little difficult to find a parking around the area.

The ambience is cool and cozy though a little dark for nice pics (so my shots didn't turn out great *sobs*).
We ordered a bottle of my favourite wine : Moscato ;)

Now to the food we had :
We shared a starter of Vin's Fish Cakes upon the waiter's recommendation, which was yummy. Only problem was that they messed with the order in the beginning and brought us a plate of chicken wings but apologized for the mix up and agreed to bring the fish cakes we ordered when we refused the wings.

Our mains : I had the Baked Scottish Salmon with Honey Lemon Soy and the husband tried the Barbeque Chicken Fillet.

The mains came a little late (probably coz it was a full house that day), tasted fairly well but nothing to shout about.

For dessert, the husband made a special order for me and it came lighted with a candle and all!! A yummy warm chocolate lava cake with vanilla ice cream..my kinda dessert ;)

Overall a pleasant evening with the husband ;)

You can check out their page here : http://www.vins.my/

Tuna Cutlets

I made these yummy treat for dinner yesterday and it was a hit, even my 2 yo ate them. Here's the recipe :

You need :

1 can tuna flakes in water
1 medium red onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 small potatoes, boiled and mashed
1 egg
salt, pepper and dried oregano, according to taste
oil for pan frying

Drain tuna flakes and put in a bowl. Add mashed potatoes, onion, garlic, lightly beaten egg, salt, pepper and oregano. Mix to combine.
Heat oil in a frying pan. Make tuna patties and pan fry till both sides are golden.
Serve warm as snack or with rice.


Sending this to : Anniversary Mela

Dining at Twenty.one Kitchen + Bar

Some long overdue posts coming your way...
Twenty.one Kitchen + Bar is at the most happening place in KL : Bukit Bintang. A lovely restaurant + bar with yummy food and great drinks. I gave a treat to the husband here for his birthday in January and we were glad to be seated within minutes at the only empty table available (we didn't have a reservation). So, I guess it will be best to make a reservation as the place is busy all the time.

We loved, loved, loved the food...my favourite of the day was the pasta..it was a fusion of Italian and Indian with tandoori style chicken and delicious yogurt sauce. It was like a burst of flavours with each mouthful. I wish I could create something like that.

The desserts were superb too. We took lemon meringue tart and a chocolate combo with ice cream and delicate cake. It was soooo good that we were glad we took both desserts and not shared one..lol.

One other lucky thing was we reached just before 8pm and we were able to make the Buy 1 free 1 drinks order. I didn't quite enjoy my apple martini though.

Overall a lovely dinner and we were happily on our way to the Whiskey Bar down the road for more drinks ;).

This is their site : http://www.drbar.asia/

Creamy Chicken Pasta

Hi there. I was craving for some creamy pasta and since I'm not a fan of canned carbonara sauce, I came up with this dish for yesterday's dinner after reading up on options for creamy sauce. It was relatively easy to make though I wish I had more ingredients on hand. The end result was a delicious light yet creamy pasta, packed with flavours. Even my 2 yo enjoyed it.
Do give it a try and you can improvise it with more ingredients which I plan to do next.

I used :

Angel hair pasta, enough for 2 people, cooked al dente. Drain and keep aside.

1 boneless, skinless chicken breast, rubbed with salt, ground pepper and italian herbs.
Leave chicken aside while you prepare other ingredients.

Sauce :
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 red onion, sliced thinly
3/4 cup low sodium chicken stock
1/2 cup thickend cream (I use Paul's)
Italian herbs
Chiili flakes (to taste)
Olive oil for cooking
Salt (if needed. I did not add any salt as the stock had salt in it)

In a non stick pan, heat some olive oil and cook chicken breast till the middle is not pink (do not overcook). Turn off fire, cover the pan and keep aside.

In another pan, heat olive oil, saute onion and garlic till aromatic. Add chilli flakes and dried Italian herbs. Mix well.
Add in chicken stock and bring to a boil.
Meanwhile slice the chicken breast. Add it to the sauce.
Pour in the cream on low fire, mix well. Taste for flavour and add salt if needed.

Now add in the pasta and coat well. Turn off fire. Serve warm with grated parmesan.

* You may add sliced button mushrooms after the onion and garlic.

Easy pasta ready to serve. Enjoy!!!

Eggless Coconut Cake

A yummy, moist cake. Perfect with a cuppa.

Baked this for my on going event : bake-along-challenge-7-coconut
To all fellow bakers/bloggers, do join the challenge.

Ingredients :

1 stick butter (1/2 cup)
3/4 cup castor sugar
1 1/4 cup cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup desiccated coconut
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Method :

Heat oven 170C.
Beat softened butter with sugar in an electric mixer.
In another bowl, mix flour with baking powder and soda.
Add flour mixture to the butter, alternating it with yogurt and milk till all incorporated. Add vanilla. Do not overmix.
Fold in the desiccated coconut
Pour in a prepared and greased 8' pan.
Bake at 170C for 40 minutes or till toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Adding it to my event :

Butter Chicken Masala

Here comes my 200th post. Can't believe I've actually done 200 posts...Super happy ;).

So this weekend I chose to cook a yummy, flavourful butter chicken masala. I did not use any red colouring so if you would like it to look red, you can add in some colour. Even my 2 year old enjoyed it.



Ingredients :

Oil for cooking.

To marinate :

1/2 kg boneless, skinless chicken pieces
1/2 cup yogurt
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp garam masala powder
1 tbsp. ginger garlic paste
salt to taste

Mix above ingredients and leave aside.

For masala,
3 tbsp. unsalted butter
Oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 large onion, chopped
2 tsp ginger garlic paste
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp garam masala powder
bay leaf -2
2 big tomatoes, pureed
1/4 cup cooking cream
1 tbsp. dried fenugreek leaves
salt to taste
water

Method:

Heat a oil in a pan and place the marinated chicken in a single layer and cook . Flip and cook on both sides. Remove and keep aside.

In a wok, heat butter, add cumin seeds and let them sizzle. Add in the chopped onions and cook till slightly browned. Add in ginger garlic paste, bay leaf and sauté for a min.

Add in chilli powder, garam masala powder and salt. Stir well and add in tomate puree. Cover and cook abt 5-8 mins. Add water as required.

Now add in chicken pieces and mix well. Cook on low heat till chicken tender. Add in cream and dried fenugreek leaves. Simmer for a couple of mins and turn off heat.

Serve hot.

Bake Along Challenge # 7 : Coconut

Here's a new Bake Along Challenge.

And the Theme is : Coconut

Yes, the highlight of your bake will be Coconut.

So, do join in and make some yummy treats ;)

Here's some ideas I found on baking with Coconut :

Top 10 Coconut Recipes
Coconut desserts

 The simple rules are :
1. Follow my blog
2. Bake anything using Coconut, it can be either fresh, sweetened, desiccated....your choice.
3.Add your post to the linky tool provided and also post a link of this event in your post.
4. Usage of logo is mandatory.
5. Any number of entries are allowed.
6. Event runs from 23/2/15 till 30/3/15.
7. To those who bake but do not blog, feel free to send in the images of ur baked goods by email to : resh_82@hotmail.com. I will add it to the round-up.

 I will post a round up of the event in the month of April.

Happy Baking ;)