A trip in 2011 ... Finally !!!

Yes.. we managed to hit the road for a trip in 2011. We had to wait till June to make a trip!! Ridiculous.  My Blog was supposed to be "Travel with some Food Along", but it was turning out to be the other way round "Food with a wee bit of travel". That was very irritating.

But then .. its fine.. Atleast we did it.  I can say that cause we have 2 more in the pipeline. Howzzat !! :) Looks like the traveller in us has woken up.

So last Sunday we went for a day trip our of Bangalore. It took us to Lepakshi.  We left home at 9:30am stopped for breakfast at "Dose Mane" opposite Jain college. Oh what a collection of dosa's they have. We ordered for the Dosa platter and it was worth it. They have over 100 varietes of dosa and its worth a visit if you love dosas. After a heavy breakfast we stopped again to get the speaker wiring fixed of our car. Finally we left JC road by 11:30am. Lepakshi is about 125kms from Bangalore. Its on NH7 towards Hyderabad. Need to take a diversion from NH7 as soon as you cross Kodikonda checkpost and drive another 16kms to reach the place. The highway is really nice and the 16km stretch is pretty decent too.

We reached the checkpost by 1:30. We had lunch at the AP tourism restaurant at the checkpost and headed towards Lepakshi.

Lepakshi is Temple built during the Vijaynagar Empire and its architecture is worth a visit. The main temple is dedicated to Veerbhadra but it also has the famous Linga guarded by the 7 hooded Cobra and the monolith Nandi.

The first sight is of the Nandhi. Well maintained place for a small town like that. After a few pics we went to the main temple. 

The temple has a whole lot of pillar each with its own unique feature and pattern. On one side of the main temple is a small little cave supposedly where one of the Rishi's is supposed to have meditated. Could not get to take a video there as camera's are barred inside the main temple.  :(

A few pic of the temple entrance and the various statues around the place. The ceilings too have a lot of paintings though most of them are wiped out.

Here are a few pics of the architecture of the temple pillars. 

Behind the temple is the Linga with its 7 hooded cobra and the Ganesh idol. There are long archways with a row of pillars. There is also a open air mandapam. Its mainly a set of pillars  placed at a distance from each other on a raised platform. For me it looked more like some unfinished work. But that place is beautiful. Here are the pics of the mandapam.

Finally after hanging around for 2 hrs we were back on the road again. Took a short break  on having  a flat tire on the highway and then back to Bangalore by 7pm.

Aaahhh a road trip after long.. What Bliss :)

Mango shake

Okay....This  is a easy peasy thingie... a no brain dish... but tastes great. I know its such a common thing most of them make.. but then I could not resist  putting it up here.... its looking so mangolicious !! :D

And just for the record... the recipe for this is :

2 ripe mangoes

half cup milk

sugar to taste

Chop the mangoes. Put all ingredients in a blender and blend to form a nice smoothie. You could also leave a few small bits in it.. just for that mango bite in between.

Phirni - Traditional Indian Custurd

Phirni is a traditional Indian dessert made in north India. Its a simple sweet dish made of rice, milk and sugar. Easy to make and tastes best both hot and chilled.

Traditionally its made by soaking rice for a couple of hours and grinding it to a smooth paste and then cooking it with milk and sugar. Cardamom powder is used to give it a distinct flavor.

But trust me I have no patience to do that. So I took the shorter route and made a little bit of  modification to suit a lazy girl like me :)  I used rice flour instead of whole rice and to give it a twist I used vanilla essence instead of cardamom powder.And trust me on this too, it tastes great this way as well.

Herez my version:

U will need :

2 cups milk

1/4 cup sugar (increase if u like more of sweet)

3 to 4 tbspn of rice flour  (adjust the quantity as per the consistency of the phirni you need)

1 tspn of vanilla essence.

Dry fruits for garnishing (almonds, cashew, pistas etc)

To make it :

Boil milk and add sugar n boil till sugar is dissolved. Take a little of the milk in a cup and mix the rice flour and vanilla essence in it to make a smooth paste. Add the paste slowly into the milk and stir continuously. Mix well and allow it to cook. Let the mixture simmer until its done. Ensure u stir it often to avoid it from sticking to the bottom and burning. Add the dry fruits roasted in ghee and serve warm or chilled.

Note :  Its a custard like dish so the consistency can be make pourable or thick like halwa. I like mine a little on the thicker side so I added an extra spoon of rice flour and let it cook longer so that it thickened better.U could even add condensed milk to give it some thickness.