Taj Kuteeram

              One of my friends told me about Nrityagram, "The Dance village" basically a dance school.It was very interesting to know about such a place in Banglore city. So I decided to visit that place last Sunday.It is around 55 km from Hosur Road. I just checked their website for details.Click here for website:www.nrityagram.org

              I have a couple of friends who share my interests in travel. So we all sat together discussed about the place, available routes and time to start. From the website we took contact details on a safe side. On Sunday we started around around 8.30 am and reached Heseraghatta around 10.30 am. On our way we ate watermelon and jackruit which were sold on road.










             
               When we reached the place we saw Taj kuteeram resort which is exactly opposite to nrityagram. To our surprise, Nrityagram was closed. We asked security people at Taj Kuteeram about Nrityagram. We understood that Nrityagram was closed because of summer vacations.

               With lots of dissappointment we were about to start to Bangalore. But I just asked security people whats inside Taj Kuteeram, They said its a resort with spa and restaurant. We decided to go in and relax for sometime as we were tired of journey. Resort had a restaurant which gave an ancient feel.

              We explored all around the resort. There were double rooms and suits in the resort.There were spas outside suits.

           
               We had coffee and juice in restaurant.The view was really awesome from restaurant with a clean pond (with some rocks decorating it)

                                       
We found a mysterious tower in the middle of the resort...

               We enjoyed ample time in the resort and started back to Bangalore. On our way we stopped at a small mushrooms shop and had hot mushroom soup. We reached Hyderabad House in Koramangala around  2 pm and had spicy delicious Chicken Dum Biryani. This was the weekend getaway to  Heseraghatta....!

This is what I call Half cooking...!!

              I cooked mushroom curry in my friend's room a week before. We planned a small get-together where my friends brought rice, chapathis, daal and some cool drinks. I just had an idea of cooking some curry. I bought a ready mix curry called "Mappas Gravy".

               
             I tried cooking this chicken curry by replacing chicken with mushrooms. So I bought butter, green chillies, tomatoes, Onion and  Mushrooms. I used a rice cooker to cook this curry. My friends helped me in chopping all the vegetables. I heated the butter and fried chopped green chillies,onions and tomatoes.It was like a feast to my senses (both colour and smell)

After frying for few minutes, I added chopped mushroom.

 
                 I left this undisturbed by closing the lid for 10 minutes. Now added the ready made gravy and sufficient water. I let it to boil and waited till the oil separated....Delicious "Mushroom Mappas Curry" was ready.

                 I served it with chapathis and rice. Only half the actual recipe was cooked because of the availability of ready made gravy.So I only called this is "Half cooked" delicious mushroom curry.

              We spent a great time last weekend with delicious food, interesting gossips, Music and I learnt to make a "half cooked" mushroom curry....!! Its a great time to spend with a small and close group of friends.

Kodagu District, Karnataka

             Kodagu is a district of Karnataka in southern India. It is often called by the anglicised name of Coorg. It occupies about 4,100 km² in the Western Ghats of southwestern Karnataka.It is located 250 km away from Bangalore and 120 km away from Mysore. Coorg is also known as "Scotland of India" because of its coffee estates and misty mountains.

           I visited this place with my family last week. We started at 11 pm in Bangalore and reached Madikere (head quarters of Coorg District) at 6 am in the morning. We had reserved Yedamakky Cottage at Hegela village,Virajpet (40 km from Madikere) for our stay for 2 days. We reached Virajpet, had breakfast and took a bus(Coorg Union) to Hegela village. Some of the pictures in  Homestay are..

This cottage was surrounded by coffee plantation and pepper plantations

           By the time we got ready, it was afternoon. So we decided to visit Dubare Elephant camp which is located at 31 km distance from Virajpet. Here we went to fresh water rafting and saw Elephant feeding and training.

Elephant training camp at Dubare

              We spent our time here till evening. We started at 5.30 pm and reached our cottage around 7 pm. We had dinner, spend some time at campfire and slept early.The next day we decided to explore the cottage and coffee estates around. We woke up around 8.30 am in the morning. We cooked Maggi for breakfast in the living room.

We then moved around the cottage and clicked some pics

Stages of a coffee bean...!!!!

We spotted a cute kitten....!!

              We then drove to Virajpet for sightseeing.We saw St. Anns Church,Clock Tower and Perumbadi lake.

              We then started to Bangalore and stopped in Mysore for dinner.We reached the city by 10 pm in the night. The trip was great.We were not able to see all the places because of season and distance from Virajpet. It is not safe to be outside after 6 pm in these places.My overall experience was great and learnt many things about flora and fauna here...!!

Baby corn Capsicum curry...

             I tried this curry recently when I was feeling bored at home.I modified the procedure given in microwave recipe book with my imagination. It is a milk based curry.It tastes a bit sweet,creamy and spicy.
Things needed are:

Capsicums                            2 No.s

Baby corn                             200 gm

Onions                                  2 No.s

Chopped garlic                      2 tsp

Milk                                      1 cup

Cashew nuts                            few

Peanuts                                  2 tbsp

Tomato puree                         1 cup

Ginger garlic paste                  1 tbsp

Dhaniya (Coriander seeds)      1 tsp

Turmeric                                 1/2 tsp

Red chilly powder                   2 tsp

Salt

Oil                                          4-6 tbsp

Eggs (optional)

Procedure:

I will explain the procedure with pictures rather than writing each and every step.Cut the vegetables into pieces.

               

First cook the baby corn in a rice cooker for 2 whistles. Then take a pan, heat the oil and fry onions,garlic and capsicum first.Saute till onions turn golden brown.

Now add boiled baby corn, salt, Ginger garlic paste and turmeric.Mix well and close the pan with the lid for 5 minutes.

                   

Now add tomato puree, dhaniya powder, red chilly powder and mix well. While this gets cooked, Grind cashewnuts and peanuts with milk. Add this mixture to the curry in the pan.

Let this boil for sometime with stirring in between. Oil separates and gravy becomes thick and creamy.

                          

This curry can be garnished with coriander.To make it rich, I used egg scramble to decorate it. It enhanced the taste.

This curry can be served with hot rice or chapathis. I served this curry to my family with rice.They all liked it very much...!!