Dal Divas Potluck

There was rice, bread, papad, achaar and then there were dhals..a great variety of dhal from different parts of India. All dhals were carefully cooked with great interest and all tasted good! Rushina Ghildiyal, the main flame behind this event of celebrating Dal Divas, invited us all to her APB Cook studio to showcase our speciality.

How could I miss?…since I was in Mumbai this time, I was keen to attend this one.

Rushina has been promoting Indian cuisine since some time now and there have been series of events organised by her, observing different days like Biryani day, pickle day, bhajiya day, masala day, vadi day, but I have always missed it for some reason or other….

Although I have blogged on it..whenever I could... you could read it

Chutneys my family enjoys around the globe

Celebrating Pulao Biryani day with my family 

Authentic Garam Masala used in Sindhi Cuisine

Dhal Divas too, I would have missed because there was another commitment that got cancelled and luckily I was able to attend.

It was a potluck with all the women showcasing their speciality. Rushina made a list so that there were no repeatition.

I was asked to make green split dhal. Now dhal is a comfort food, not that I eat everyday (no, not when I make Chinese, Italian or continental, not even when I make non-veg) when I eat dhal..its only dhal. A complete meal by itself.

I was asked to share my recipe…so..here it is…I cook with instinct, no measurements, no fixed methods..

I boiled 2cups of green split dhal, adding 1tsp of turmeric powder in a pressure cooker. After 3 whistles, I put off the gas and went for a bath.

Till then dhal had cooled off and it was safe to expose it. Mixed it well, added 2 cups of water and kept it back on the burner. Boiled dhal also tastes good, if I would just add salt and black pepper and eat as salad,it would be nice but I  decided to cook it.

Added 3 chopped tomatoes, 2 inch grated ginger, 5 green chilies and a small bunch of chopped coriander leaves. The phone began to ring.

“What are doing? Are you free today?”

“No, I am making dhal for Dal Divas day”

“I want too”

“Ok ..will send you.”

Went back to the kitchen to mix the dhal. Chopped spring onions and garlic.

Another phone call for another small chat. This one wanted to taste too. I must remember to make bigger quantity next time. (Or not answer the calls when cooking small quantity)

Also must remember to keep my phone away from kitchen.

Kept a tiny deep pan on another burner. Deep fried spring onions in 2tbsp of ghee. Added the burnt spring onions to the dhal.

Added more ghee to the pan and deep fried chopped garlic till it was dark brown. Added this to the dhal mixture.

I must taste to check if it is proper. Added salt to adjust the taste, added mango powder to add sourness, added peri peri sauce for pungent taste and added cardamom powder for flavour.

If I like it, its good enough.

Got dressed and left for the potluckparty. Reached the venue after one hour, a bit delayed because of too much traffic.

I was in for a surprise. Chef Ashish Bagul of BKC Trident was to demonstrate four different dhals from East, West, North and South of India.

There were cholar dhar

Mohini moong dhal fit for royalties

Vala chi amti

Khade maash ki dhal

I am reminded of my NRI friend who had visited India and was amused when she heard series of pressure cooker whistles from different kitchens at lunch time. Dhal is best cooked in pressure cooker and then there is tempering done that is not only for flavours but also for improving the nutrient value of the dish and helping to absorb many hidden nutrients in the vegetables.. Pure ghee is the perfect choice for tempering dhals and different regions of India use different combo of tempering depending upon the climate and the culture of that place.

I am not sure if any other place in the world has such a big variety of dhal preparation like in India. But it’s the tempering that makes Indian dhal so interesting and so aromatic.

The kitchen was filled with strong aroma of food..such lovely fragrance of ghee and spices, that I couldn’t wait to taste.

I wanted to taste all the dhals…24 different dhals. I tasted them all and relished it. All these ladies are great cooks. (You might wonder if I have large appetite to try them all..but I did not eat accompaniments, no rice, rice, no bread, no roti)

Made new friends, learnt new techniques, a great day to celebrate.

DalDivas was fun……. What did you cook on 25^th Jan?..do share the link of your dhal if you did…..

Kitchen Ninja Challenge Part 1- Sweet and Sour Kheema Cakes

Friends make a day trip to Pune and come back with stories of rain. They talk about pregnant clouds that burst apart releasing the cool droplets of water on their face. They have a happy dance, drenched to the core. Such joy shows through their crinkled eyes as they relate the romance of the rain-drenched tales.

Me, in Mumbai, look sadly up at sky, showing my clenched fist. There is not a speck of cloud. The strong sunrays reflect on the bright white wall opposite me, reflecting its glare on me, almost blinding me.

“Please pour, please pour, send some clouds into my town” I plead, I curse, “just for a day if you please, because today is the theme of my recipe on rain, I need some inspirations to churn out a dish.”

But there is no respite.

But still, I walk into my kitchen, to cook up a special meal, with dry rain on my mind, I will pretend it rained tonight. Sweet and sour kheema cake is on my mind. I am going to be creative, global, marry the Thai with Indian cuisine.

Thanks to my ‘Kitchen Ninjas’ a group of food bloggers on online Watsapp, we decide to cook and share unique recipes –to do something extraordinary, we will be in our kitchen each month, playing around with ingredients to mix and match, to create a dish, to challenge ourselves. The challenge for this month is ‘A date with Mumbai Rains’, so even if there is no rain, (no proper influence with mother nature perhaps) we will still go as planned.

My fellow food bloggers in this crime:

 Rum Glazed Sticky Chicken by Elson Sequeira from The Tummy Tale 

Poppadom Crusted Asian Style Baked Tofu by Samina Patel from The Cupcake Confession 

The crispy Masala Carp by Antara Ray from Zouqh

 Spicy Mango Salad by Mohit Chotrani from The Hungry Bawarchi

Chicken Roulade with a Pomegranate Sauce by Shanti Padukone from Riot of flavors

Amrutha Langs from Amrutha's Cookbook

Jahan Bloch from The Toxic Baker

Do visit their blog to steal their recipes and stir a similar pot in your own kitchen to enjoy with your own group of family and friends.

So, here is mine.

Sweet and Sour Kheema Cakes

Ingredients

1 bunch of basil leaves

1 medium size potatoes

1tsp black pepper

3-florets of broccoli

1 egg

1tbsp mustard oil

1 finely chopped onions

1tsp garlic crushed

1tsp ginger crushed

2 green chilies

1 chicken cube

1tbsp Thai curry paste

250gms chicken kheema

1 finely sliced tomatoes

Salt to taste.

Method

Stir fry basil leaves and keep it aside

Boil and mash potatoes, add salt and black pepper and keep it aside

Steam the broccoli

Separate the egg yolks from white. Whisk the egg whites till fluffy and stiff and keep it aside.

In a pan, add 1tbsp of mustard oil. Add finely chopped onions. Add garlic, chilies and ginger. Add chicken cube, add Thai curry paste. Add chicken kheema. Stir fry till cooked. Add tomato sauce and fried basil leaves.

In an oven proof plate, place the greased aluminum 2-inch ring. Inside the ring, put a layer of mashed potatoes, next layer it with cooked kheema, cover it with fluffy egg whites. Keep it for baking for 10 minutes till set.

Serve with tomatoes-and-broccoli salad and a drink of your choice.

New Zealand Cook-Up Contest

Social media is an amazing medium of communication. It brings you closer to people, whom you would never meet personally. Moreover, it brings out the creativity in you.

Last week, Beacon Holidays organized a contest on social network, in association with New Zealand Tourism and Food Bloggers Association, inviting people to write in just 12 words on what they would like to experience in New Zealand cuisine. participants were asked to submit their entries using the tag #TasteNewZealand.

I posted my entry at Beacon Holidays: “I would like to experience ‘tea’ the main meal of the day.

I won the first phase of #TasteNewZealand and was invited to participate in cook-up contest at the beautiful set up at APBCookStudio

I was one of the five participants that won the contest and we were to go to second phase of contest by cooking a dish at the cook studio (owned by Rushina Munshaw Ghildiyal) using any of the three ingredients, lamb mince meat, boneless lamb and/or kiwi.

I was competing with most creative participants who cooked up some of the most amazing dishes

I chose to make Minced-meat pie.

Normally when I make pies, I use the ready-pastry dough that we get at supermarkets. Its easy, you just make the filling, pack it inside pastry dough and bake it.

But here, I took the risk of making the crust from the scratch and baking in the oven, I was not familiar with. The crust refused to bake after the filling and it was a huge flop.

Embarrassing! I lost my chances of winning a free stay of 4nights 3days to Queenstown.

It was Aarti  Basrur who won the handsome prize, holding that expensive envelop in her hand and posing with the hostess.

Aarti's dream of wanting to experience Urban NewZealand cuisine infused with Maori cooking techniques saw the light of the day.

Yes, she was the lucky one, who will enjoy the fruit of success. She was the one who made pomegranate lamb kababs and Kiwi chutney that judges (Rushina Mushaw and Sameer Malkani) were praising profusely; they said there was surprise element at every bite.

I had loved Renita’s Palova and it was so good that I was asking her to pack her bags for the trip. Her melt-in-the-mouth dessert was amazing!

Purabi Neha made Kiwi Lamb Cutlets with Kiwi sauce that were really delicious and her presentation of spreading the Kiwi fruit around the cutlets was a nice visual creation, but there was only one winner of the big prize and she missed it by only one point.

Mohit Choitrani made interesting dishes using Kiwi and meat. He made Sweet Brushetta, Classic Shepard Pie and refreshing Kiwi Smoothie

The atmosphere at the APBCookStudio was very vibrant with audience waiting to taste the dish. It ended with a grand feast cooked by Rushina and her staff

My entry………….that won me a bottle of wine.

 Mince Meat Pie

Mince meat pie is the traditional Kiwana Kiwisine and is still the norm in many homes

Ingredients for the crust

1cup flour

½ cup cold unsalted butter

1/2tsp salt and powder sugar mix

1 egg

Ingredients for filling

1tbsp oil

200gms mince meat

2 medium onions (finely chopped)

1tsp garlic paste

2tbsp tomato sauce

2tbsp cornstarch

1 chicken/meat cube

50gms mushroom

50gms cheese (grated)

1tsp black pepper

chopped black olives for garnishing

Method for crust

1.    Mix flour, salt, sugar, unsalted butter in a bowl

2.    Make a dough using ice cold water if necessary

3.    Wrap it in sling film and refrigerate it for an hour

4.    Remove from fridge and roll it to the size a little large than the tart pan.

5.    Line the tart pan with butter and spread the rolled out dough

6.    Pinch holes in the dough

7.    Bake it for 25minutes, till crusty

8.    Fill it with filling

Method for filling

1.    Fry onions in oil till light brown

2.    Add crushed garlic

3.    Add mince meat

4.    Cook till water dries up

5.    Add tomato sauce, chicken/meat cube, corn starch

6.    Leave it to cool

7.    In another pan sauté chopped mushroom with salt and pepper

8.    Grate cheese

Assembling the pie

1.    In the baked crust lined tart pan, coat the edge with egg.

2.    Add the filling of cooked minced meat

3.    Layer it with sautéed mushrooms

4.    Layer it with grated cheese

5.    Garnish with tomato sauce and black olives

6.    Bake it for 20 minutes at 350 degrees

My special thanks to Tanvi and Rachna who were always willing to help and made thing easy for us.

Lessons that I learnt

Don’t experiment at the cook-up-contest, attempt only those recipes that you specialize in.

Understand the oven, before using it

If things go wrong, try something creative to change the recipe

or else, just accept the fact:

That sometimes things go off tangent, nothing to fret about, it does not reflect on your cooking, its just bad luck.

Then, there’s always next time….

Image courtesy Beacon Holidays