Mumbai Food Bloggers Potluck Treat

It was a potluck party with a difference. All the food bloggers were invited by Rushina at her APB cook studio

I got interested to go for this meet-up chiefly because it had been quite some time since I had interacted with other food bloggers.

Also I was curious to see the newly opened APB CookStudio that I was following since many days on FB with series of cooking events conducted at regular intervals.

And this get together was to meet Alan D’mello and Aditya of Street Smart Organization.

Reaching this place was quite frustrating, especially since I was going for the first time and I had to find my way through traffic jam, with no clear cut landmarks.  The Google maps were of no help. After many U-turns and wrong turns, I finally reached the venue passing through the dirt path into a small lane behind the main road at Chandivili.

Once I reached the ABP Cook Studio, I was transported into a new world, surrounded by pantries containing exotic sauces, several cook stations placed side by side, ovens, fridges, and the shelves containing cook-books and kitchen accessories, the mouth-watering aroma of food hung in the air.

One by one, we tasted the dishes as were presented by the food bloggers, a five course meal, starting with soup, snacks, drinks, main dishes and followed by desserts.

Towards the end of the session, Alan D’Mello and Aditya spoke about Street Smart, a non-profit organization for supporting the street children. The restaurants that are partnered with this cause places a card with al logo of sweet smart at the dining table, that  indicates  a small percentage of the food bill is siphoned out to support children and elderly to lead a better life. This is very successful venture in London and has improved the lives of the street children; it is recently introduced in the metropolitan cities of India and hoping to spread awareness of this cause amongst diners and hoteliers.

It was a wonderful evening, I was happy to share my Mirchi Bhajiya (Chili Fritters) soaked in imli (tamarind) sauce and it gave me immense pleasure when friends took extra helpings and relished it. This is a typical Sindhi cuisine, served as a snack.

Chili Fritters in Tamarind Sauce.

Ingredient:

200gms tamarind

4tbsp sugar

1tbsp cumin powder

1tbsp red chili powder

2tbsp chopped coriander leaves.

200gms gram flour

1 pinch Soda bicarbonate

200gms large green chilies

1tbsp Mango powder

Method

Step One

Make the tamarind sauce by soaking tamarind for one hour. Squeeze out the pulp, add sugar, salt, cumin seeds powder, red chili powder and coriander leaves. Keep it aside

Step two

Make the gram flour batter by adding water to gram flour, just enough to make it a pouring consistency, add salt, soda bicarbonate and red chili powder. Keep it aside

Step three

Slit and boil the chilies, remove the seeds.

Step four

Stuff the chilies with mango powder, salt and red chilies

Step five

Dip the marinated chilies in the gram flour batter (step 2) and deep fry the fritters.

Step six

Transfer the fried chili fritters into the tamarind water (step one), soak it for 2 minutes

Step seven

Arrange it in the serving dish and Serve it cold.

Cooking for a Cause

During this Joy Giving week, Rushina Munshaw Ghildiyal decided to celebrate the festival of giving in a different way and I was the benefactor (I chose to be), receiving the tips of her culinary skills through her cooking demonstration at Courtyard Marrriott’s Chinese restaurant ‘Red Sun’  that included some of the dishes which she has created herself by trial and error method and had been successful.

 This was the charity demonstration, proceeds of which would actually benefit the people affected by leprosy living in Baratapuram colony at Chennai.

We were a small group of about 20 members watching closely as she created four dishes in just two hours.

She started her session with cooking demonstration on ‘Tamarind Prawn’, A very simple dish and yet so tasty.

In a bowl she made the combination of sweet/sour/salty sauce by mixing lemongrass, fish sauce, brown sugar and tamarind till dissolved.

In a wok, she fried garlic till golden brown and added lemon grass, Thai chilies, till crisp, then in went the sweet/sour mixture solution to simmer till it was slightly reduced. The sweet aroma of lemon grass was stronger in the room but our attention was fixed on the aromatic fumes emerging from the pans. She added kaffir lime leaves and finally the prawns, stir-fried just for a minute on each side in the sauce and the dish was ready to eat. I shared this recipe with my cousin, who promptly cooked for her hubby earning a brownie point.

The other dishes that she cooked were Asian coleslaw, White sesame curry and Anise and Orange Chicken Puloa.

The cooking demonstration was followed by delicious lunch and the hotel had designed an edible miniature Marriott Home donation box where we could dare to care by helping those who needed our assistance.

Tummy was protesting and we all headed towards the dining room for yummicious lunch

Lovely afternoon where we ate, thought and talked about food.

Rushina is a food blogger who is passionate about her cooking. I met her the first time at Nature Basket, where I am a frequent shopper. And later I attended her workshop at Kala Ghoda Festival, and then there have been many other events where I do bump into her but she is a warm person and is always willing to share her culinary tips.

I have met her several times now and I hope to become good friends in future since we share a common interest and that is:
To cook for the people we love.