Le Maharajah Indian Restaurant, Paris, Review

I have been recently on a holiday trip to paris, the city of Love. I had a great time being there. My only concern throughout the journey was if by chance i would get an Indian Restaurant near close to any Sight seeing area, and to my luck i found Maharajah very close to Notre Dame Cathedral.

The ambiance is good. You will find all carved dining chairs and lots of Mughal arts on wall as well as glasses. The Hospitality of the Hotel Manager Siddharatha is quite over whelming. Not to miss mentioning the punjabi Chef who creates magic in his creations.

The Food was great.
We ordered a vegetable soup with chicken as starter. The soup was extremely delicious and was an excellent appetizer.
Then in the main course we ordered Rogan ghost , Nan and masala kulcha. The ghost or the mutton curry was Fantastic, it had correct blend of spices and its texture was awesome . 1 plate of curry was okay for two people.
Masala kulcha was stuffed with potato masala . It was soft and the masala stuffed inside was mouth watering. Although Butter nan was ok.
We also ordered cocktail in drink. I liked it too.

Atlast, since it was extremely cold outside we ordered Masala chai, which was good too. You can ask them to adjust the amount of milk you want in your tea and they would happily serve you back.

Although the food was extremely delicious the price was okay can't say over expensive but then yes it was expensive. We paid 39 euro's altogether for this but i found it really really worth it.

http://www.maharajah.fr/#!/

On a scale of 10 I would rate this as
Ambience: 8
Cost: 7
Taste: 10

Notre Dame Cathedral 6 Parvis Notre-Dame Place Jean-Paul II, 75004 Paris, France

	1. Head southwest on Pl. du Parvis Notre-Dame/Parvis Notre-Dame - place Jean-Paul-II toward Promenade Maurice Carême
		59 m
	2. Continue onto Pont au Double
		54 m
	3. Continue onto Rue Lagrange
		87 m
	4. Continue onto Rue du Fouarre
		37 m
	5. Continue onto Rue Dante
		140 m
	6. Turn left onto Bd Saint-Germain Destination will be on the left
		100 m

72 Boulevard Saint-Germain 75005 Paris, France

Potato curry in Almond & Poppy seed Gravy

Potatoes are life saviors at time when you are  utterly hungry and have no time to hop in grocery to buy any other vegies or food. In the above video you can find a very easy yet filling and tasty Potato curry.
The special gravy that is made with Poppy seed and Almond adds to the flavor of Potato.

Serves- 4
Preparation - 15 mins
Cooking time-15- 20 mins

Ingredients:

• Potatoes boiled- 5 medium in size
• Onion- 1 finely chopped
• Green chillies- as per taste
• curry leaves- 10
• Paanch foren or Cumin seed-1 Tsp
• Tomato- 1 large , diced
• Spices
• Turmeric powder- 1 tsp
• Coriander powder- 1 Tbsp
• Curry Powder- 1 Tsp
• Pepper Powder- 1 Tsp
• Paprika powder- 1 Tsp
• Oil for cooking
• Salt as per taste
• Almond and poppy seed paste.(Equal amount of almond and poppy seed grind them in a mixer or food processor by adding little water into a fine paste)
  

Method of preparation:

• Heat 2 Tbsp of oil in a pan, once the oil is Hot, Add the paanchforen(which is mixture of several seeds) or simply the cumin seed. Once the cumin seed starts crackling add the chillies and onion. saute them for 1 minute.
• Add the tomatoes and fry for 1 minute. 
• By the time tomatoes gets fried we will prepare the spice paste by adding water to the mentioned spices. 
• Add this spice paste and fry until oil separates from the it. Separation of oil from tomato or masala(Spices) is the indication that masala is done now.
• Add the potato and salt as per taste,toss them well so that they get a coast of the spices. 
• Now Add 1/2 cup of water and let it simmer for 1 to 2 minute in medium heat. 
• Let me tell you that at this point your curry is almost ready ,if you do not wish to add the Almond and poppy seed paste you can simply serve the potato curry like this as well.
• However addition of this paste furthur enhance the taste of the curry and also helps in adding weight to the gravy which is very gud when we are having this curry with any bread.
• After adding the almond and poppy seed paste we will futhur simmer the curry in low heat for minute or two . Adjust the salt and then your Potato curry is absolutely ready to serve.

You can Serve it hot with any kind of bread or Rice .

Happy cooking :-)

By- Sushmita Pandit

Click here for another potato curry.

http://wahsushkitchen.blogspot.de/2013/01/aloo-sarson-postapotato-mustard-curry.html

Garlic Chicken baked

This is an amazing garlic chicken recipe. The dish always came out with bright colors and mouth watering taste. Its an awesome style of baking chicken specially when you have not much time to cook and also when you want to use minimal spices and ingredients in your food. There's more to this, yes we get baked potatoes and onions free with the chicken all cooked in masaledar juices of chicken, onion, garlic, butter and few spices. So lets get started

• Serves- 4
• Preparation time- 10 minutes
• cooking time- 20-25 minutes

Ingredients:

• Chicken - Whole (800-900 gms skin intact) or  4 leg pieces with thigh(skin intact)
• Butter- 100 gms
• Ginger Garlic Paste- 2 Tbsp
• Salt as per taste
• lemon- 1
• Rosemary and other herbs of your choice
• Pepper- freshly grounded
• Cuury powder or curry paste- 1 Tsp
• Potatoes- 4, sliced into quarters
• Onion- 2 large size, sliced thickly

Method of Preparation:

• Clean the chicken and pat dry with towel
• In a bowl take the butter(soft not melted), add the ginger garlic paste, pepper, salt,Lime juice, rosemary and other herbs. Mix together and come up with a paste like consistency.
• Rub this butter paste every where in the chicken. Place the paste inside the skin of the chicken, this will help chicken to absorb the flavors of spices and will keep it moist.
• Preheat the oven at 200 degree Celsius or 400 degree Fahrenheit.
• Grease the baking tray with butter
• Cover the base of the tray with onion slices and potato wedges, season with salt and pepper
• Now place the chicken over the onion and potatoes.
• Cook it for 10 mins, take out and grease it with the juices that are released in the bottom of the tray.
• Cook for another 10 minutes, check by poking a fork inside the skin near the leg, if it goes in easily and juices come out of chicken, it means your chicken is ready .
• Let the chicken sit for 10 mins before you serve it. 

Your chicken is ready to be served, Enjoy !!!!!!

Happy cooking.

By- sushmita pandit 

Wanna know how tomake kabab: http://wahsushkitchen.blogspot.in/2011/09/chicken-kabab.html

Puri or Poori

Puriyan kachodiyan aur mithayan, ye sirf pakwan hi nahi balki un choti choti khusiyoun k sajhedar hain jo zindagi ko aur bhi Khubsurat aur mazedar banate hain.
Ya you heard it right, these are just not simple mere food, but these are the food that brings smile and sense of joy on one's face, because i strongly believe that life is all about how we celebrate it. That is why India is a land of celebration. Holi is approaching fast, and i have some dishes for the menu already being planned in my head, and ofcourse puri is one of the item.

Lets get started:

Ingredients:

• Whole purpose flour or atta- 2 cups
• Water for kneading the flour
• ghee or butter- 1 Tbsp
• Salt- pinch of
• Sahi zeera- 1 Tsp
• Carom seed or ajwain- 1 Tsp
• Oil for frying

(Atta orwhole wheat flour which is use for making chapati's are easily avalable in Indian store.

The most famous brand are ashirwad aata or pillsbury atta.

)

Preparation:
Step 1.
Bring together atta, ghee,carom seed, salt and shahi zeera.
With the help of water knead the dough.
The dough shouldnt be too soft or too tight.

Step 2. 

Make logs out of the dough

and then cut 1/2 inches of balls out of it.

step 3.

Take drops of oil on the surface where you are going to flatten the balls into puri

With the help of a rolling pin roll the balls into neither too thick nor too thin puri's, otherwise the puri's wont puff.

step 4.

Heat oil in a pan for deep frying puri, keep the heat in medium

Place the puri's in the hot oil and allow it to puff, once it puffs flip onto otherside, wait until you get a golden crust on both sides. Carefully take out the puri on a kitchen towel , which will absorb the excess of oil from puri's.  Repeat the process until you get desired amount of puri. Leftover kneaded dough can be well refrigerated for 2 days in an air tight container.

It goes really well with currys and kheer(Pudding) too. So enjoy your meal with puri.

Happy cooking :-)

By-Sushmita Pandit

Mango Lassi

Waiting for Summer, No worries its almost approaching. You might have several plans to quench your thirst. Well, i had planned for having Mango Lassi , since summer is the season of fresh ripen mango, it would be an amazing Beverage to overcome high temperature. In India summer is the time when the Mango trees are all cladded with mouth watering mangoes. So people have found out several ways to Kill heat using Mangoes. they simply BBQ the raw mango and then make a hot drink with it which to ,much of our surprise keeps the body hydrated and cool. In my next post i will share with you the raw mango drink.
Well Mango lassi is quite easy in preparation and it also helps in digestion. Here's my Recipe of Mango Lassi. Hope u like it.

Serves: 4
Preparation Time :10-15 Minutes

Ingredients:

• Mango Pulp- 500 gram
• Yogurt/Curd- 500 gram
• Sugar- As per taste
• Milk(cold)- 200ml
• Dry fruits- For garnishing

Preparation:

• Bring together Milk and yogurt into a jar, Blend it with a blender, or if you don't have a blender you can churn it into a mixer grinder, or in a food processor .
• Once Milk and yogurt are churned well, add the mango pulp and churn again until you achieve a consistent liquid(Lassi).
• At this point of time , taste the Lassi, if you want it to be more sweet add sugar as per required and churn again until sugar gets dissolve in the Lassi.
• Your lassi is almost done, you can refrigerate it if you want it to be cold.
• Once done pour the lassi in a glass.
• Garnish the lassi with some dry fruits and enjoy!!!!

Your Mango Lassi is now ready to be served, Serve it cold...Enjoy

and happy cooking :-)

By -Sushmita pandit

Chicken noodle soup, The Classic style

The snow c laded land , constant low temperature ,Kind of relaxed mood and old sad song in the background,  What do you prefer to have in this situation. I definitely enjoy hot chicken noodle soup , that do make your senses and belly happy while helping you to carry on your classic way of celebrating cold.

No doubt, Its chicken soup for the soul. I say so  because its simple, no complication. Its just chicken , noodles and veggies cooked in a clear soup. Enjoy your cold wintry days with this recipe.

Preparation time :10 mins

Cooking time: 45 mins

Serves- 4    

The classic chicken Noodle soup

Ingredients:

• Chicken - 500 gms, boiled and chopped, or the leftovers will also do.
• Carrots- 4 chopped
• Onion- 1 chopped
• celery- 4 sticks chopped
• Egg Noodles- 400 gms
• Pepper- freshly crushed
• Salt as per taste
• Oil for cooking
• Vegetable bullion
• Chicken stock - 700 Ml

Preparation:

• If you do not have boiled chicken , boil it by adding the chicken in 1Ltr of water. Add salt while boiling. Strain the chicken stock and reserve it once chicken gets cooked. Let the chicken cool of , then chop it.
• Heat oil in a soup pot.
• Add in the onion , celery, carrot. Saute until they are soft , add salt to this.
• Add  the chicken stock or vegetable stock, boil. Add the vegetable bullion or any other bullion cube of your choice.
• Add the egg noodles once the vegetable stock is hot . Cook Noodle until it is la dent...cooked.
• Add in the chopped chicken pieces, season with pepper and simmer for 2 minutes. 

Your chicken Noodle soup is ready to be served, serve it hot.  Enjoy Winter :-)

By-Sushmita Pandit

Shrikhand Delight, The 2 Minute Recipe

Shrikhand delight, a delicacy of Maharastra(India) is an eye soothing and mouth watering Dish. This sweet dish is prepared by incorporating so many dry fruits. Its my husband's favorite dessert. The recipe that am demonstrating here is a very simple one. You can always customize this recipe the way you wish.

Preparation- 5 minutes

Serves- 2

Shrikhand

Ingredients:

                                    

• Hung Curd/ Strained yogurt- 250 gms . The one i used is the Ready made hung curd called as speise quark (Readily available in Germany).

• Cardamom- 1 Tsp, Crushed
• Sugar- 2 Tbsp
• Saffron strings- 1/2 Tsp
• Water- 1 Tbsp 
• Cashewnuts - 8 nuts, chopped.

Preparation:

• Hung curd or strained yogurt are easily available in the market these days. In case you wish to prepare it at home, you can simply strain the curd over a muslin curd, and leave it overnight to thicken under refrigeration .
• To the hung curd, add the sugar , crushed Cardamom and give it a gentle blend with a spoon.

• Now add the saffron string to the water, and you can gently crush this in a mortar.

• Add the crushed saffron along with the water to the curd. Mix well .

• For garnishing you can add cashew nuts to this or any dry fruit of your choice.

The Shrikhand delight is ready to be served, serve it cold or mild cold, it tastes awesome anyways.

Enjoy and keep cooking :)

By- Sushmita Pandit

Tortellini Salad

There are times when i have little patience to cook a dish that takes a long time. That's when i look for easy to cook, healthy and filling meals.

Today i just opened my cupboard and found a packet of tortellini. That's when i decided of making a quick tortellini salad. Being a tortellini fan i would use it here and there every now and then.

I would also like to share my experience from the time i included salad in my daily diet, i have been benefited a lot health wise . Here's sharing you the healthy recipe, Hope you like it.

Preparation- 10 minutes

Cooking - 8 minutes.

Serves- 4

Tortellini Pasta Salad

Ingredients:

• Carrot- 4 , large in size , Washed peeled and chopped.
• Tomato- 4, Medium in size, cut into cubes.
• Lettuce leaves- Washed , Dried with kitchen towel, and gently tore with hand into small chunks.
• Corn - 1/2 cup boiled and salted.
• Lime juice- 2 Tbsp
• Tofu- 100 gms, cut into cubes
• Tortellini Pasta- 250 gms.
• Pepper cons- Freshly crushed
• Salt as per taste.
• Butter- 1 Tbsp.
• Olive oil

Preparation:

• Boil 1 liters of water, by adding salt to it. Once the water gets boiled, add the tortellini to it and cook it for 8 minutes. After 8 minutes turn off the heat and drain the water. Transfer the tortellini in a large bowl. Add 1 tbsp of butter to it and simply toss it.
• In the same bowl bring together all the other ingredients, mix well by adding lime juice and olive oil.
• Season with salt and pepper.

Your quick and healthy tortellini salad is now ready to be served.

if you want to eat them cold you can cover it and refrigerate it . This way tortellini absorbs all the flavors of lime and pepper and make our salad more mouth watering.

Enjoy and Happy cooking.

By-Sushmita Pandit.

Gobi-Matar-Aloo Ki Sabzi

when you want a quick spicy sabzi in just no time, nothing can be more relishing than Gobi matar aloo ki sabzi . In India during winter Gobi or the cauliflower is widely used in making several varieties of dishes, Namely Sabzi's(vegetable currys) , Parotha's(stuffed flattened breads), Achar(Pickle) and also Bhajiya's(dumplings). My dad would always buy this bio cauliflowers fresh from the local farmers .My mummy would prepare this mouth watering tasty subzi every now and then it was always perfect with rice or chapati. I thought it would be really helpful for the beginners to post this Sabzi recipe, Enjoy.

Preparation- 15 mins
Cooking time- 20 mins
Serves- 4

Ingredients:

• Cauliflower florets- 5 to 8 medium size, cut into halves
• Potato- 2 medium size(boiled)
• Chilly- 1 or 2
• Onion- 1 medium ,sliced
• Paanch foren- 1 tsp (Right click, select new tab)
• Cinnamon stick 
• Oil for cooking
• Masala's (Turmeric powder- 1 tsp, cumin powder- 1 tbsp, coriander powder- 2 tbsp, pepper powder-1 tsp)
• Tomato- 1 chopped
• Peas- 1/2 cup
• Fresh coriander leaves
• Salt as per taste.

Preparation:  

• Heat 2 Tbsp oil in a kadai
• Add the cinnamon stick to flavour the oil.
• Add the panch foren and green chilly, let them crackle .
• Add the onion and saute until onions are soft.
• Add the florets, and season with salt. Cover the kadai and wait for 1/2 min.
• Stir well and prepare the masala paste.
• Mix all the masala powder and add the tomato to it. Adjust the consistency of the paste by adding water.
• While florets are still tender , add the masala paste and fry until the oil separetes from the masala.
• At this point add the boiled potatoes and salt seasoning the potatoes.
• Add the peas too.
• Add 300 ml of water and let the subzi simmer for 3-4 minutes in low heat.
• Garnish with freshly chopped coriander leaves.

Your Gobi-matar-aloo ki sabzi is ready to be served. Serve it hot with rice, nan ,chapati or bread.

Enjoy and happy cooking. :)

  

Vegetable Manchurian

Vegetable Manchurian is one of my favorite dish. This Chinese dish has come a long way to the streets of India is one of the highly famous and most liked fast food in India.

I remember having it every now and then in my college canteen during my college days. Its basically vegetables mixed and then fried into balls which are later cooked in the sauce.

Preparation time- 30 mins

Cooking time - 30 mins

serves- 4

Ingredients:

• Vegetables (2 carrot- grated, 5 florets of cauliflower- half boiled and mashed, 2 florets of Broccoli- half boiled and mashed, 1 Cabbage- small in size , grated  )
• Green Chilies- 2
• Ginger-1 Tbsp, Minced
• Garlic- 1 Tbsp, Minced
• Salt as per taste
• Cooked rice- 1 Tbsp(Optional)
• Corn flour- 4 Tbsp
• All purpose flour- 5 Tbsp
• Soy sauce.
• Oil- for frying

Ingredients for sauce:

• Oil- 2 Tbsp
• Onion- 2 medium size, chopped
• Ginger and garlic- 2Tbsp, minced
• Bell pepper- 1, chopped into cubes
• Soy sauce
• Tomato Sauce
• Chilli sauce
• Salt as per taste
• Oyster Sauce
• Water- 200 ml
• Corn flour-2 TSP
• Pepper- 1 Tbsp, crushed

Preparation:

• Mix all the vegetable in a bowl, add salt, ginger garlic, chilly, corn flour and, soy sauce . Start adding all purpose flour to make a moist dough like consistency of the mixture.
• Prepare balls out of this mixture.
• Deep fry the balls in the oil, until golden brown in colour.

Sauce Preparation

• Heat oil in a wok.
• Add onions and saute until they are soft
• Add garlic and ginger saute until you can sense the aroma of ginger and garlic.
• Add the bell pepper and salt, fry until they are just tender
• Bring together all the sauces and add little water to prepare a fine solution of sauce
• Add this solution to the wok.
• Bring it to boil
• Prepare a solution by adding 2 Tbsp of corn flour in 120 ml of water.
• Add this to the wok. Just after adding this the gravy will thicken. You can adjust the consistency of gravy by adding little more water.
• Turn off the heat.

Your Vegetable Manchurian is ready to be served. serve it hot with Basmati rice.

Garnish this dish with freshly chopped Coriander leaves.

Thank you for reading my recipe. Happy cooking.