Saffron Trail

healthy vegetarian cooking

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  • It's not often that I make such a pretty looking dessert - chocolate tarts filled with chocolate ganache and a crumble of nutty cookies embedded into the silky ganache.
  • I'm more of a teacakes, muffins, brownies and cookie baker. Have always thought tarts and such fancy things to be next level for me. But trying them nevertheless for my ever enthusiastic kid and his friends :) the finishing needs to be better and will come with practice but as of now I'm going to be satisfied with the taste 😋 . Chocolate tarts, the smaller ones have cookie crumble in them, both have a sprinkle of pink salt on the top . Need some freshly brewed coffee in the kitchen to match with the aroma of these beauties :)
  • Much awaited rains-- happiness!!
  • My husband has eaten here a couple of times with his friends, each time telling me that we must do a dinner here together. On our weekend trip, our friends had reserved for dinner at Royal Vega at ITC Grand Chola and I was eager to try out the food here which is 100% vegetarian from all around India, steeped in Ayurvedic principles of cooking and eating. . Two of us had the Seasonal thali - Ritu Khasa featuring Vasant Ritu and two went with the Ranjit khasa (all year menu) I had the basil chili cocktail :) Some of the seasonal dishes featured from the North were Kali mirch paneer, raw jackfruit kofta, moong Dal with kulfa, Rye flour parathas, kairi kheer and a special chooran powder to be had through the meal to help appreciate the flavours better. . I did taste some of the items from the Ranjit khasa menu . A couple of dishes across the menu felt over salted to me, which they were happy to rectify/ replace. . A one of a kind experience in a beautifully laid out luxurious settings, with attentive service -a lovely choice for a special occasion, more so if you are vegetarian. #saffrontrail
  • Was in Chennai over the weekend to attend a friend's wedding. Chennai- peak summers - outdoor (albeit beautiful) location of Dakshina Chitra meant it had to be a cotton or linen saree. . Wore this airy and light grey linen saree from @ekdori (that I had bought for Diwali ) with an offwhite crop top from @westsidestores. Hair tied into a messy bun because no sane person can leave their hair open here :) swipe to see more pics and see the Diwali edition of the saree in my stories. . The silver neckpiece and earrings bought from @whimsypixy
  • Saturday breakfast done right 😍 . An unexpectedly perfect breakfast enroute to Chennai just before Kolar. This place is called Vegetarea run by the Empire group of restaurants. Masala Dosa, Idli, Vada everything was spot on, so was the Sambar (not sweet at all) and chutneys. Fast and attentive service. And oh yeah, clean wash rooms too.
  • How many emojis can you identify in these sun dried bitter gourd chips? 😁😆🤪😳😱 TELL ME IN THE COMMENTS😁
  • My son has picked out a bunch of recipes that he wants to make with me, from @poojadhingra's Can't Believe It's Eggless book and this was one of them. . We made the dough for the crust last evening and put it in the fridge to chill. Rolled it out and baked the tart shells before he left for school this morning and went after the ganache filling as soon as he came back from school today. . I had a bit of trouble removing the shell from the mould as it did not have a removable base. I left the shells in the fridge and then did a quick heating over the flame and they came out ok. We baked two 4" tarts from half the recipe and used the rest of the dough to bake some shortbread cookies. . One of the shells ended up with a bit of a broken edge. We added some coffee liquor to the ganache as I didn't have any instant coffee on hand. We also added some almond and vanilla extract to the ganache at my son's insistence. We sprinkled some pink salt into the ganache and on the surface of the tart. . All in all, a stunning dessert and given that I've never baked a chocolate tart before, I'm quite happy at how this turned out. Happy that my son now knows how a chocolate tart is made 😘 . Can't wait to unleash this on chocolate loving friends at my next dinner party 😃

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