BM Review: Little Home

Finally, a decent joint serving Mal food. For those of you unaware of this terminology, Mal is hort of Mallu, which is another term used to describe people and things from God's own country, the (erstwhile) communist state of Kerala (quite an oxymoron that - communist state being called God's own country).

A couple of Fridays back, I visited Little home in Koramangala, a small joint serving Kerala food, and also the usual 'Chinese' and some north Indian fare. The review can be read here. Although the place is billed as a 'family' joint (in Bangalore parlance, this usually means you can expect to serve Chinese, north Indian, and 'Continental' or 'multi-cuisine'). True to this, the place serves Chinese and north Indian, and the third musketeer is Kerala cuisine. And it was precisely for this that we went over to Little Home.

My guests were AG and TK, techies like me, hailing from God's own country, and big time movie aficionados. Along with the them, VP also joined me, while another friend, formerly with the Bangalore Mirror, ManU, also joined us. This place was going to be a test for VP as he doesn't like food with coconut in it, can't eat stuff cooked in coconut oil (among some of his other notorious allergies).

Of the starters, the squid disappointed - I mean there were hardly any slivers of squid meat in the dish, lost in the middle (muddle) of diced onions and dessicated coconut. The crab roast was good, and so too the seer fish fry (decent enough for the price charged), while the chicken fry felt a little dry although it did taste nice.

Seer fish fry

Crab roast

Chicken Fry

Squid (try spotting it among the diced onions and dessicated coconut)

For the main course, they'd run out of kappa meen curry (fish and tapioca curry), and so we started off with appams and chicken stew, along with Kerala parotas with some Malabar chicken roast. Feeling quite full, the others were on the verge of calling it quits, but I knew no meal (and review) of a 'Mal' joint would be complete if you didn't have a fish curry (kappa or no kappa), and so a bowl of steamed rice along with a seer fish curry was duly polished off, and the fish curry was superb - the right amount of tamarind, just enough coconut and spices, and the fish cooked for the right amount of time. Needless to say, VP didn't even bother looking at the dish - his stomach was already rumbling :)

Malabar chicken roast

Appams and chicken stew

Kerala parota and chicken roast

Steamed rice and seer fish curry

Overall, for a bill of Rs. 1270 for 5 people, I thought it was well worth the meal, given the quantity, the taste, and also the location (this is Koramangala, remember?). I wouldn't recommend the place to people across town, since I'm sure most neighbourhoods, within a 3 KM radius, would have a Mal joint in one form or the other, but if you're in Koramangala and are in the mood for some Mal food, hop right in. Way better than that Malabar place we visited some time back in Jeevan Bhima Nagar.

Food: Decent
$$$: Cheap
Service: Decent
Verdict: Can visit if in Koramangala and if in the mood for some Kerala food.
Extra info: This place is after Umerkot, before the Raheja Residency signal. Parking isn't available on the main road, so try your luck in one of the side roads.

Little Home, #1015, 80 Feet Road, 1^st Block, Koramangala, Bangalore. Phone: 25631504, 32930021

Another pasta sauce...

Another day without mom at home and so more experimenting. There's a chicken breast lying in the fridge, some mushrooms, and a bit of the squid from last night, along with some corriander. Perfect! Start by chopping a bunch of corriander (depending on how much sauce you want), add a chopped tomato and a chopped onion, along with one green chilly and some salt and pepper to taste. I also threw in the last few mushrooms that I had. Run this mixture in the mixie (blender/food processor) and keep the paste aside.

Mince the chicken breasts and season with salt and pepper and add to a bowl along with the squid. Add some apple cider vinegar to this and let it marinate for a few hours in the fridge. After a couple of hours, take the chicken out. Finely chop an onion, and fry the onions in a pan with some oil. Once the onions are caramalised, add the chicken to the pan and cook. Once the chicken is more or less cooked, add the sauce and bring the mixture to a boil and then simmer on a low heat for a while. The below picture was taken just before I added the coriander paste/sauce.

Mix with a bowl of penne and bon apetit.

Pasta and stuffed chicken breast

After Mr P & Mr VP left, which was around lunch time, I had to do something for lunch. I had bought a packet of pasta and some mushrooms the previous evening, which made me wonder why they chose to eat out rather than eat what I could have cooked. Well, their loss! I went and bought some prawn and squid, and a couple of chicken breasts and started my cooking.

After boiling the pasta and setting it aside, I began making the sauce. Chopped three tomatoes, half a chilly, half an onion, about 3-4 mushrooms, and a couple of flakes of garlic, some salt & pepper and tossed the lot into the mixie (blender/food processor). Once the paste was ready, I kept it aside and began to work on the chicken (left) and squid (right). I'm keeping the prawns for the weekend, so they're on ice - I know they say you shouldn't keep prawns for too long in the freezer, but I can't help it this time.

After cutting the squid into rings and seasoning with a little pepper and salt, I chopped the other half of the onion (first half went into the sauce), a few more mushrooms and a couple of flakes of garlic. Oil in pan, and start the frying. Once the onions become golden brown and the mushrooms become tender, add the chicken. I added the chicken and a half teaspoon of butter, coz cooking in butter makes whatever you're cooking soft and tender.


Once the chicken turns form pink to white, add the squid, and you'll notice almost immediately that it starts to curl.

Sauté the mixture around a lil more and then add the sauce.
Simmer the mixture over a low heat for a while and check if the chicken and squid are cooked. Once done, take it off the flame and add it to the cooked pasta. Add some cheese if you like, and tuck away.

I made a vegetarian version of the same, so instead of chicken and squid, I used just mushrooms. Satuéed them in some butter along with some finely chopped onions,

and then added the sauce and left it to simmer for a while before taking it off the burners.

Now for the stuffed chicken breasts. For dinner, I decided to have some stuffed chicken breasts with funny kind of apple sauce. Funny? Well, I just happened to come across a recipe on YouTube but didn't know how it would taste. Tasted pretty good actually.

I had made a sauce/stuffing with mushrooms and a small green chilly (cut them and add some salt and pepper for seasoning and run them through the mixie). Once that was done, I slit the chicken breast and made a pocket in the middle and stuffed it with the mushroom paste. After that, I seasoned the chicken with salt & pepper and applied a little ginger-garlic paste and left the chicken to marinate in the fridge for a few hours.

When I felt hungry, I put around 3 tablespoons of olive oil into a pan and heated it, and when the oil was hot, I added the chicken breast into it, to a nice sizzling sound.

after around 5 minutes on one side, flip it over to cook the other side.

Once the insides are also cooked, flip it over to cook evenly and voila! you're done.

For the sauce, I mixed some soya sauce, apple cider vinegar and some apple juice, and presto! it's done.