White Sauce Pasta with Brocolli

The recipe below is one of those quick-to-make pasta recipe. The complete process including boiling the pasta, making the sauce and mixing both together takes approximately 30 minutes.

Ingredients:

all purpose flour

1 tbsp butter

1-11/2 cup milk

fettuccine pasta

olive oil

thyme

oregano

salt and pepper to taste

Procedure:

• Boil water in a large vessel, add the pasta and a little bit of olive oil and salt to it. Keep the lid open and let it boil for about 8-10 minutes or until the pasta looks like shown below.

• Simultaneously start making the white sauce on low heat. Now one thing that has to be kept in mind while making it is that all of it is a continuous process. If it is over-cooked, the sauce will suddenly change colour and will become brown.
• Put the butter and the flour in the pan and stir it constantly. Boil the milk in the microwave and keep ready to pour in the pan.Once it changes colour or when it becomes yellow-ish, add the milk while stirring constantly. If the sauce is a little lumpy or thick, add little hot water to it.

• To the sauce, add salt and pepper to taste. Season it with a little bit of thyme and oregano.

• Put the boiled pasta in a sieve and run it through cold water so that the pasta doesn't stick to each other.

• Add the pasta to the sauce and mix it together gently. 

• In a separate pan boil small pieces of broccoli until slightly cooked.

• Mix the broccoli with the pasta. 
• I added 2 types of cheeses- cheddar and mozzarella. So add the cheese/s and heat it a little bit it is ready to serve !

The Final Dish :

Hope you enjoy it !

Barbeque Nation

During my short visit to Pune in India last week, I went out for dinner with relatives. We decided to go to Barbeque Nation in the Deccan area. I had heard of this restaurant from different people quite a few times and was quite excited to try it.

This restaurant is an exclusive vegetarian and non vegetarian restaurant with the International concept of a live grill. A grill is embedded on each table and the customers have a choice of their personal grill for their starters.

The starters include a variety of vegetarian and non-vegetarian that they continue serving until their flag is brought down.

For drinks, I ordered a cocktail that looked something like this- 

Once their flag is brought down, they stop serving the starters and the customers can begin with the main course buffet. After having a stomach full of starters, even trying the dishes from the buffet was quite impossible. But people with a large appetite would enjoy it thoroughly. Even after all this, I couldn't resist and I tried a few salads. 

After all of us were done with our main course, we just sat back for a while to let all the food go down and create some place in our stomachs for the desserts. There was a huge variety of desserts from just fruit, jelly, custard, chocolate brownies, ice-cream, Indian sweets like gulab jamun, phirni/ firni etc.

This is gulab jamun

Our dessert plates looked something like this-

The interiors of the restaurant looked something like this-

Barbeque Nation, though quite high in the price range, it was a good experience :) They have branches all over India.

If you want to visit their website: http://www.barbeque-nation.com/

Enjoy !

Something Not So Sweet : Mashed Potatoes

Considering the name of this blog is 'Splashes Of Sugar', this post is not that sugary. This is going to be about  how to make Mashed Potatoes.

Mashed Potato is one of the best things that man could have EVER created. It is something that goes with every meal you eat, be it breakfast, brunch, lunch or dinner.

Mashed potato is quite easy to make but requires the correct consistency and texture. These are the main physical components of mashed potatoes. The consistency of mashed potatoes shouldn't be too thin nor should it be too thick and lumpy. It should have a creamy texture which dissolves once in your mouth.


Ingredients:

-2 potatoes
-butter
-milk
-salt and pepper to taste

Preparation :

• The potatoes are generally boiled and then peeled. 

• They are then mashed with a masher( shown in the picture) or for finer texture, use a grater.

• Add a little butter and a small amount of milk to the mashed potato. The potatoes are mixed well and heated in the microwave for about 1 minute. 

• Add a little salt and pepper to taste. Mix and serve it with a little butter on the top.

The Final Product:

Enjoy !

Cinnabon- World Famous Cinnamon Roll

Cinnabon is a branch of American baked goods whose signature item is the Cinnamon roll. They operate in over 30 countries, one of them being the United Arab Emirates.

There are a variety of products that they offer including the Classic Cinnabon, Minibites or Cinnabites, Minibons, Chocobons, CinnabonStix, CinnaPretzel, Caramel Pecanbon, Pecanbon bites, various beverages like MochaLatta Chill, Chillata, Lemonade, Lemonatta, Raspberry Lemonade etc. They also sell CinnaPacks that are super convenient to take home.

And so I did. I took home a pack of 5 minibons when I visited one of their branch tonight.

As I was walking towards the metro station I crossed their bakery. I could smell the aroma of the cinnamon rolls that were being baked and were kept in the counter. I couldn't resit and ended up by taking a few with me.

If you want to try making your own cinnabons, check out the following recipe: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/clone-of-a-cinnabon/
I am surely going to try it soon !

Enjoy !

Yas Waterworld and Radisson Blu for the weekend

My family and I needed a vacation, even though for just the weekend, but we did. And so we decided to go to Yas Waterworld in Yas Island, Abu Dhabi.

Friday morning around 8 o' clock we left for Abu Dhabi. The weather was pleasant with just the right amount of sunlight and wind. We reached Yas Island at around 9:30 am and checked into Radisson Blu, left our luggage and then headed to Yas Waterworld- a water park on the Yas Island.

The water park had an Arabic theme with the infrastructure and the shops like the old souq areas. The shops sold souvenirs of Yas Island and of the water park. The picture below will show you what I'm trying to say-

There was a small fountain in the centre of the area (in this picture is covered by people :p) which was surrounded by shops, lockers and changing rooms (male, female and family). 

The souq area

The infrastructure/ Arab design of the building

I think the time we reached the water park was like the perfect timing. It wasn't too crowded and wasn't too dull and lonely.We relaxed for a bit on the beach chairs and then went into the water.

Then we headed to the various rides (for which I couldn't take my camera along, obviously). There are a variety of rides, of which some are quite freaky! Different play areas were made for the small children, where they could play in water if they did not want to go for the rides.

After spending a long 5-6 hours in the water park, we got dressed, had some food and went to our hotel to rest for a while. 

My brother and I shared a room. As soon as we reached our rooms in the hotel we lay on the bed and slept for a while listening to songs. 

The interiors of the hotel were nice and our rooms were spacious!

Later that night we went to Ikea for dinner (because that was the closest place where we could get food and roam around for a bit), returned to our hotel and had a good night's sleep.

The next morning started early as we had to leave in time to reach Dubai. We got dressed and had a filling Continental breakfast with eggs, potatoes, sausages, bread, croissants, waffles and pancakes with chocolate and apple syrup, a variety of fruits and juices to choose from.

We left for Dubai at around 10-10:30 and reached in the next hour or so. The wind was crazy that morning and very sandy. In the addition to sandy winds, there was also thunderstorm and rains later in the day. 

All in all it was a weekend well spent. A fast-paced and tiring, yet much needed, fun weekend. 

Enjoy !