These are the exercise of both my culinary skills and passion for teaching, in the hope of raising the quality of modern European cooking in the Indian home kitchen, whilst championing the small & intimate sit down & served dinner party format that advances interesting dialogue, cultivated debate and enduring friendship … do try your hand at these recipes, for they are easy yet impressive, and above all delicious!
… Served EITHER with Glazed Onions, Sauteed Mushrooms, Port & Brandy Enriched Cream Sauce, OR with Indian Ginger & Cumin Tempered Peas & Mushrooms, ‘Butter Chicken’ Gravy
Once again, I decided to try a little Indo-European partnership, and even if I say so myself, this too works like a dream since each & every Indian home kitchen has their own unique versions of both tempered peas & mushrooms, aka ‘mushroom matar’, and butter chicken…
I do so love this unequivocally delicate, delicious and even somewhat coquettish little dish, which may be served as either an hors d’oeuvre or one of two miniature starters as part of a five course meal, lest your guests feel cheated!
The charming little story behind how, or rather why, I came up with this concoction, pertains to a Japanese tasting menu cooked with surgical precision by a friend at his home, in which his stand out dish was the classic Japanese Chawanmushi, crowned with seaweed & shrimp…
I have to admit that I am especially proud of this one, for it is the product of my desire to bring some texture to a recipe of which the only shortcoming is in fact a lack of texture, and both technique and rice used for a risotto have proven to be a perfect solution, with the added advantage of a wonderful earthiness bestowed upon the flavour profile by the use of stockthis is indeed a real treat!…
Smart and tasty western vegetarian food, which is neither in salad form nor dairy and carbohydrate heavy, is one hell of a challenge, and even if I cannot lay claim to the creation of this dish, which belongs to Martha Stewart, I certainly can be proud of the way in which I have used it, for to serve it in the style of a tagliatelle and combine it with black olive tapenade is quite a delicious achievement, but only while leeks are in season, between October & March…
The origin of this most precious dessert lies in a picture postcard perfect little village in the south west of France, called Clermont, where I was taken on holiday many years ago by a French friend of mine, and it was at the principal bakery of Clermont, renowned for its pies, locally known as ‘Croustades’, for which every day without fail, there is a queue of people extending all the way around the village, that we discovered their meringue…
Once again, this is a dish inspired by one of Chef Prateek Sadhu’s culinary masterpieces, which I had the good fortune of tasting at NAAR on my last visit, and it has given me immense satisfaction to use this de-boning technique for pork ribs for the very first time, and to then be able to trim them down to the perfect proportion of meat and fat…
Well, since I had the nerve to critique one of uber Chef Prateek Sadhu’s culinary creations, I decided to put my money where my mouth is, with reference to his ‘confit style’ duck on a horsegram stuffed parantha, whereby I suggested adding both a touch of sweetness and char to the duck meat, in addition to employing some kind of crisp bread base…
And here we go, round 2 of the Modern European Thali Service but this time a slightly different format to the first, although both are equally efficient depending on the selection of dishes this selection is served in four courses, one at a time, in individual wide surface bowls that are part of the thali set, courtesy Rezon luxury silverware, with the final main course protein served directly onto the leaf…
Now, I am not going pretend to be nonchalant about this one, for I am hyper-excited with the result of my trial, the origin of which is my love of Chef Manish Mehrotra’s Dodha Barfi Tart at the famed Indian Accent restaurant, and this is my way of paying a tribute to both the dessert and its creator.
And yes indeed, this is quite a sensation with respect to the textural transformation of the principal ingredient, made all the more enticing with the addition of what is a Dodha barfi infused butter toffee sauce…